Life isn't always a smooth ride for Aaron Shemper, but, fortunately for him, he knows how to fly through the rough spots.
His "second job" is more stressful than most people's first jobs -- he helps his wife, Courtney, manage Poplar Plaza Cleaners in Memphis, TN.
Only five years ago, the couple was shocked to learn that Courtney's father, Gerald Dortch, passed away, leaving the business he had run for 17 years without a helmsman.
Courtney had worked in the family plant since high school and Aaron had always supplemented his income by working at the store periodically. When Courtney and Aaron inherited the reins of the business abruptly in 1996, it was a trial by fire.
Aaron knew that his father-in-law had worked extremely hard to make the business successful and he wasn't about to let that change.
"The shopping center in which he opened the store was financially in decline," Aaron explained. "People told him he was nuts for going in there. We have records all the way back to that first week and it's just phenomenal to see what he did. It's really a true testament to his ability as a businessman."
Though Aaron keeps extremely busy with his other career -- delivering overnight packages as a DC9 Pilot for Airborne Express -- but it is important to him to make sure that the tradition lives on. "It's a personal challenge to myself that I don't want to say that I ruined my father-in-law's legacy," Aaron said.
Born in Hattiesburg, MS, in 1964, Aaron grew up in a family that had a diverse professional background. "My family's business, as far as my dad's side, has been in the scrap metal business since 1905," he said. "My mother, after many of years in the banking business, got into retail and she's one of Saks Fifth Avenue's top salespersons, not only in Atlanta's Saks Fifth Avenue, but also in the nation. She's really a go-getter. I think that's where I get a lot of my day in/day out energy and drive for success."
Aaron's parents separated when he was young and he divided his time between Atlanta and Hattiesburg. In high school, he worked a union job at a grocery store, before he went off to the University of Alabama and paid for his many expenses by bartending.
For his first two years of college, Aaron made "mediocre grades" at Alabama's School of Business. However, his life dramatically changed during one summer break. "I took my first flying lesson on a summer vacation with my fraternity brothers and I absolutely fell in love with flying," Aaron said.
He tried to describe his thrill for flight: "More than anything else, it's just the speed and power. I think it just kind of goes to the nature of any boy -- and, obviously, women, too -- but it's just the thrill of accomplishing something that requires concentration."
That winter, Aaron transferred to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL, which was widely regarded as the "Harvard of the sky." His grades systematically improved, and he graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Science; however he still wanted to accrue more flight time.
Pilots seeking to gain experience have limited choices. Aaron did not have 20/20 uncorrected vision, so flying for the military wasn't an option. Instead, he began to teach flying at a club on the Air Force base.
A year-and-a-half later, he got hired to fly for Northwest Airlines in Memphis, TN, where he flew to smaller towns and cities out of Memphis and Nashville. Around that time, he met Courtney.
After Northwest Airlines, he worked as a co-pilot for passenger flights at American Eagle before he settled in with Airborne Express, where he has worked for seven years as a cargo pilot.
On a typical day, Aaron flies between 20,000 - 28,000 pounds of payload, which is essentially overnight express documents and packages. Time is always a factor. "The urgency of our flights is a little bit more so than flying passengers because if we break down mechanically, there may be anywhere between 2,000 to 5,000 customers who will be inconvenienced by the flight," Aaron pointed out. "Whereas, if a DC9 breaks down for Northwest Airlines, they may have to accommodate 80 passengers and put them on different airlines. Our express overnight business is pretty challenging."
Though he has flown for a total of 17 years now, Aaron has not lost his enthusiasm for flying.
"There are always challenges, day in and day out. There is no such thing as a perfect flight," he said. "So, it's the challenge of doing everything perfectly and the finesse. It's an aerial ballet that requires a lot of things to go just right. I think it's that pursuit of perfection that keeps bringing you back every day."
Part of the reason a flight can never be perfect is that weather conditions are often tumultuous and unpredictable. "Flying night flights, you deal with more low visibility and fog," Aaron emphasized. "We're arriving at all of our destinations around six to eight o'clock in the morning. That's the coldest time of day and that's when ground fog steps up."
In the future, Aaron will likely be able to pick a less strenuous schedule, but, for now, he is considered a junior captain. Instead of getting a fixed week of flight schedules, he must be ready at a moment's notice 17 days out of the month.
When he isn't on "duty time" for Airborne Express, Aaron works side by side with Courtney and their plant's 19 employees. It's a completely different world. "As an airline captain, it's kind of a real sterile type of work environment. It's real procedure-oriented," he explained. "Whereas working with employees and customers, it can be very emotional, especially working with employees."
Despite all of the daily stress that comes from running a drycleaning business, Aaron is still able to focus on flying rather easily because his wife is there to guide the business.
Since Aaron is an employee with Airborne, he can better appreciate the needs of his employees. Poplar Plaza Cleaner's staff has been with the company for an average of nine years.
"The ultimate key is to give them the tools necessary to do their job well and just let them do their job," he said. "I have good managers in place. I have good incentives for employees to show up and do all of their work and do the best that they can do."
Although two demanding jobs occupy plenty of his time, Aaron keeps active in the Tennessee Fabricare Association. In fact, he was elected to the board of directors in April.
He also strictly devotes his weekends to his two-and-a-half-year-old son, Jared.
Lucky for Aaron, his "laid back" personality gives him the ability to juggle all of his various responsibilities. Courtney often jokes that if her husband was "any more laid back, he'd be asleep."
Despite Aaron's calm demeanor, it seems that he was pushing himself too hard until about 18 months ago when his doctor informed him that if he didn't change his life-style and diet, he could wind up dead by the age of forty.
Not needing to be told twice, Aaron enrolled in an exercise program that includes weightlifting, eating healthier and now has more energy than ever. "It's amazing how much exercise relieves the stress of the day," he noted.
Aviation will always be his first passion, but Aaron has learned to appreciate the challenges of drycleaning more and more. "I enjoy the interaction with our employees. I love the mechanical side of drycleaning... the machinery aspect," he said.
Of course, it also provides a steady contrast from flying. "Aviation, they usually say, comes pretty much from the artistic side of the brain," he pointed out. "Obviously, running a business comes from the other part of the brain, so it's a challenge.
"The difference between the drycleaning business and flying, generally speaking, is that there's a procedure and a manual for every situation that occurs in aviation. We go to what is called a quick reference handbook," he said. "But, when you're dealing with a customer service issue in the drycleaning business, there's no such book. Every customer's different. Their backgrounds are different. Their emotional states are different. You have to just use common sense and deal with them the way you'd like to be treated."
Recently, Aaron recommended to IFI that they start a series called "I Learned About Drycleaning From That" where member cleaners can post their customer service or production blunders so that other cleaners can avoid making the same mistakes. "A lot of things that may be common sense, well, they may not be obvious to all of the drycleaners out there," he said.
In fact, Aaron is a strong advocate for education and learning as much as you can from your peers because it leads to success. "It's amazing the amount of consultants that are on the Fabricare Forum who are giving free information day in and day out," he said. "Stan Caplan, Don Desrosiers, Marcia Todd, Hal Horning... the list is endless and here I am, an aviation guy, learning drycleaning with a fire hose method -- my mouth wide open -- and here's all of this information. There's really no reason for anybody to fail today with all of the information that is available to them."
GreenEarth Cleaning has appointed Clifford A. McAuliffe as national sales manager.
McAuliffe has extensive experience in drycleaning and managing professional sales staffs, coming to GreenEarth from Aqueous Recovery Resources where he was national sales manager. Previously he was with the Dow Chemical Co. for 20 years.
He will be responsible for GreenEarth's sales strategy within the United States and Canada.
McAuliffe graduated with honors from the University of California-Davis with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and received a Masters of Business Administration from Central Michigan University. He resides in Bay Point, CA.
Best Cleaners in Middletown CT, recently awarded four managers under its incentive program. The winners, who are pictured, received "half your salary" checks, were Carmen Coleman of Glastonbury; Robin Boutot of Canton; Francine Boudean of Berline; and Joy Johnson of Unionville. The company offers an incentive program for managers who increase the number of pieces drycleaned by 20 percent over the base year of 1997.
The Laidlaw Corp. of Scottsdale, AZ, has completed an agreement with the principals of Shanghai-Wells Hanger Co., a manufacturer of wire garment hangers located in Shanghai, China.
Laidlaw's investment with the Wells Group will assist in increasing production capabilities of the Shanghai plant with the products to be marketed and distributed through a new Wells-Laidlaw joint venture company that will be headquartered in Hong Kong. Products from the plant will also be marketed by both Laidlaw and Wells Manufacturing (USA) in North America.
In addition to making hangers, Laidlaw also manufactures chemicals and paper packaging products for the drycleaning, laundry and uniform rental industries, operating out of four plants in the United States, two in Canada and one in Mexico.
The Wells Groups, a maker of chemical coatings, wire garment hangers and glassware, owns and operates seven facilities in China with offices in Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
A goal of the venture is to put both Wells and Laidlaw into the global drycleaning and textile arena by offering a complete line of related products.
Rynex Holdings Ltd. has announced new interactive features for its web site at www.rynex.com
The Rynex Savings Calculator lets a drycleaner input actual solvent, detergent and hazardous wastes costs and learn the potential savings that could result by switching to Rynex. The calculator can also compute a savings comparison to other alternative solvents.
Also new is an automated shopping cart that lets cleaners visit the Rynex "virtual store" and purchase Rynex solvent, spotting agents and equipment.
John Vassiliades will be leaving full-time employment as executive director of the Coin Laundry Association's insurance program Nov. 1, the association announced. He has worked for CLA both as an employee and a volunteer for 17 years.
Brian Wallace, CLA's executive director, will oversee the insurance program after Vassiliades' departure, working with the program's executive coordinator, Ruby Burch, and staff.
"After nine years as a volunteer and eight years on the CLA staff, I feel that my work here is done and the association, and its insurance program, couldn't be in better shape than it is today," Vassiliades said. "I will continue to work in the industry that I love and plan to remain an active friend and proponent of CLA and the work they do for the industry."
Over the past 30 years in the industry, he has been involved as a multi-store owner, equipment distributor, laundry business broker, manufacturer's representative and consultant. He served as chairman of the Clean Show Executive Committee for the 1999 show in Orlando.
He was first elected to serve on the CLA board in 1985 and served as its chairman in 1990 and 1991.
He became CLA's executive director in 1993, a post he held until Wallace took over in 1999. He has concentrated on the insurance program since then.
Said Wallace: "Along with hundreds of CLA members, I have learned more about the coin laundry industry from John Vassiliades than any other single person."
Dennis Schmitt of Lindeman's Cleaning in Green Bay, WI, was honored by the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce for "extraordinary achievement in overcoming adversity." The Special Accomplishment Award was presented at the Chamber's Small Business Recognition Luncheon attended by about 700 people in June. Schmitt overcame a severe illness and, with the help of family and employees, was able to keep Lindeman's Cleaning in business. He has been in the drycleaning business for 27 years and currently serves as president of the Wisconsin Fabricare Institute.
John W. Corum II, (right) a sales representative for Fuller Supply Co. Inc. in Concord, NC, was awarded a certificate of completion by R. R. Streets & Co. Inc. He is the first participant in the Carolina region to complete the Street's Fabricare Education Correspondence program. Wes Spindler, (left) a Street's representative, presented the certificate to Corum.
Union Drycleaning Products USA hosted a sales and technical seminar for distributors at its North American headquarters in Hapeville, GA. The two-day event focused on the company's new line of 800 Series drycleaning systems for perc, hydrocarbon and GreenEarth solvents.
More than 26 owners, sales and technical personnel from Union distributors throughout the country attended sessions conducted by Jim Carroll, Union's national sales manager; Tom Sheridan, Union's midwest and western sales manager, and Vic Williams, Union's technical manager.
GreenEarth Cleaning Systems' Jim Barry made a presentation to Union distributors on using his company's GreenEarth solvent in Union's new Sixth Generation Approved HL- and HP-800 machines. Also taking part in the presentations were Union field technicians Chris Hightower and Tom Dancisak, as well as Union vice president Jack Burnett. Attending as special guests from Union's factory in Bologna, Italy, were Edo Bassi, Norberto Rappini and Gabriele Cuppini.
Distributors attending included: Charles Persons and Steve Mosley from Boak Equipment, Montgomery, AL; John G. and Robert P. Carozza from M&R Machinery, Malden, MA; Robert Heizinger from Cleaners Equipment Co., Kansas City, KS; Raymond Fusco, Sr. from RAF Equipment Co., Passaic, NJ; Evangelo and Dino Georghiou from Evangelos Drycleaning and Laundry Equipment, Bronx, NY; Bob Erickson, Bob Allgood, Billy Kincaid and Mike Hayes from Consolidated Laundry, Raleigh, NC; Joven Lactaoen, Joven's Sales and Service, Los Angeles, CA; Chip Fletcher and Mike Bright from Virginia Drycleaning Equipment, Richmond, VA; Sal Patel, Sanjay Patel, Ben Prema and Surendra Kumar from Gulf States Laundry Machinery, Alpharetta, GA; Young C. Lee from Western Multitex Co., Anaheim, CA; Dee Downie from Martin Franchises, Cincinnati, OH; Stan Mounts from Mounts Machinery, Washington, PA; Don Terrell from General Equipment Co., Memphis, TN; Joe Chevy from A.M. Chevy Equipment Co., Pompano Beach, FL; Jim Griep from USA Clean, Buffalo, NY, along with Bob Guyer and Richard Schattauer from USA Clean, Pittsburgh, PA.
Union Drycleaning Products USA periodically conducts factory-sponsored seminars to help distributors provide customers with technical and service support. For more information, contact Union Drycleaning Products USA, 10 Southwoods Parkway, Suite 100, Hapeville, GA, 30354; phone: (404) 361-7775; fax: (404) 361-2454; or e-mail: unionusa@mindspring.com.
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