Riegler Blacktop

Children of Successful Entrepreneurs: When To Fly & When To Nest

How does the head of a family-owned company know whether the company they’ve nurtured and a child or grandchild are a good match? What are some guidelines for making sure the progeny of entrepreneurs find their own wings and how they should eventually join the company, if that’s what they decide to do.

Riegler Blacktop

How the Rieglers Paved the Way for Third Generation Ownership

For almost seven decades, the Riegler family has been paving services across the tri-state. The company started as a farmer’s side gig – paving his neighbors driveway. Today, his grandchildren run the company whose trucks and signs you seem to see everywhere when the weather is right for paving driveways, parking lots and roadways. Riegler Blacktop employs about 200 local people and owns its own asphalt plant. Learn how they have beat the “third generation” curse and why there’s nothing like working with family.

PayOptions

Ryan McCullough has been running his own business for more than a decade, but he still remembers what it was like to work for someone else. Learn how his years as an employee paid dividends once he was at the helm. Ryan McCullough built a successful career in sales but couldn’t shake the sense that the best product he had to sell was himself. Finally, he took the leap, leveraging his experience with payroll systems to launch his own company. PayOptions celebrated its 12th anniversary in 2023. Today, the company provides pay roll solutions to companies in 38 states, and Ryan has proven that betting on himself was a good risk.

Advisors Unplugged:

Stephen Mann, CPA - Part II

Our conversation with Stephen Mann of Blue & Co. continues. He shares what not to expect from your CPA, including legal advice as well as his tips for building a successful career as an entrepreneur or advisor to entrepreneurs.

Advisors Unplugged:

Stephen Mann, CPA - Part I

Entrepreneurs need access to capital, but they also need expert advice on managing cashflow and taxes. That’s where accountants come in. Stephen Mann of Blue & Co. is a CPA, accredited in business valuation and Director-In-Charge of the Cincinnati Office. He has worked with leaders of small to mid-sized businesses for decades, helping them to understand the numbers and ratios that indicate the health of their businesses.

We’re introducing a series within the podcast called Advisors Unplugged. In this episode, Stephen tells us how small business leaders should choose an accountant along with some changes in the tax code entrepreneurs should know about.

PA Technologies -  Part II

Gene Harbstreit returns to discuss how he ended up as an entrepreneur rather than an employee. Find out what he has learned so far on his journey, building a business from scratch and growing it.

PA Technologies -  Part I

Gene Harbstreit often finds himself explaining what his company does to people outside of his industry. His customers have no trouble understanding PA Technologies’ value proposition.

Process Automation Systems are a niche but crucial part of a successful, modern manufacturing process. Gene Harbstreit and his partners are succeeding by consolidating a fragmented collection of design, engineering and manufacturing skills under one roof, and driving efficiency and innovation their global customers appreciate.

PA Technologies continues to expand its local headquarters and a client list that includes some of the biggest names in consumer goods and food manufacturing. Learn how someone who didn’t know what he wanted to do when he left high school ended up an engineer and successful entrepreneur.

Mella Window and Carpet Cleaning

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BJ David comes clean on the benefits he has enjoyed since striking out on his own as well as some of the stresses he manages when everyone else has gone home for the day.

BJ David’s first job out of college was with a family business -- Gold Star Chili. A decade later, he decided to leverage what he learned running fast-food restaurants to start his own business. Start up costs were less than $200.00 and BJ was the only employee. Today, Mella Window and Carpet Cleaning employs a team of 20. Listen to his reflections about what he gained by launching his own company as well as the extra stress he manages.

Steve Osborne - Part II

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Steve Osborne returns for more advice and cautionary tales for entrepreneurs. He’s a serial entrepreneur himself and shares how he survived the low points in his long business career.

Think you’re a born entrepreneur? You may be right. Steve Osborne believes some key traits for success are handed down through the genes while others can just rub off on a child who has watched her parents ride the highs and lows of running a small business. In the second of this two-part interview, learn from a valued mentor for entrepreneurs throughout greater Cincinnati. Steve Osborne serves it up straight.

Steve Osborne - Part I

Steve Osborne is a serial entrepreneur and mentor to small business owners across the region. Prepare yourself for the hard truths about working for yourself.

Many local small business leaders – especially in northern Cincinnati – credit a cup of coffee with Steve Osborne for waking them up to some harsh realities about running a small business or energizing them at a low point. In this first two-part interview, you’ll learn enough about the highs and lows of running a business for half a dozen coffee meetings. Find out why some people are compelled to start businesses, why your partner in life is important to your long-term success and the tips Steve wishes he knew the first time he tried to turn an inspiration into a business. Rob Braun conducts the interview with his friend and fellow entrepreneur. 

Carabello Coffee

Justin Carabello believes a good cup of coffee can make your day. His coffee endeavors are also making life better for kids in another part of the world.

Justin Carabello was teaching school and loving his life when a mission trip to Nicaragua took his life in a new direction. He and his wife saw an opportunity to build a business around a personal passion – coffee – while giving some of the most impoverished children in the world hope for a better future. Customers at his popular coffee shop in Newport generally have no idea the congenial owners ran a wholesale coffee business from their garage for years while teaching full-time. And most of the customers enjoying a Carabello brew after dinner at some of greater Cincinnati’s finest fine dining establishments have never heard the story of how their current warehouse and retail site almost fell through. Today, Rob Braun asks about those stories and more in an unfiltered conversation with the founder of Carabello Coffee.

Jolly Plumbing

Brady Jolly has the last laugh on anyone who doubts a second-generation owner can take a successful business to the next level.

Jolly Plumbing, in business for more than 40 years, was a household name in greater Cincinnati when Brady Jolly bought the company from his father. At age 25, he had a vision for how to protect the legacy his father had built while driving growth through untapped potential. Communicating that vision proved to be one of earliest tests of his leadership.

In the inaugural episode of How You Make It, Small Business Conversations with Rob Braun, we’re talking to Brady Jolly about what he learned growing up in the family business, what he learned about leadership once he became owner, and how he succeeded even with others doubted him.