This is an introduction to a story about our family business. In 2010 I decided to take my notes and my Father's letters and start this project. At the time, the Business was on very shaky ground when most rental Businesses were thriving. The current management is my two sisters and a nephew. None of them understand the Business's history or how to operate Business. Without the knowledge contained in this story, they can't save it. They ignored my help and blamed everyone else for the declining business state.
My involvement started when I was 7. We moved
to a house behind the Business, and the store with its equipment was my playground.
By then, I was producing revenue in the mower shop; by 14, I was on the
payroll. As the oldest of four siblings, I grew up knowing the Business would
be passed on to me. College was never an option for me, and when I graduated
High School, I had a salary and a 50-hour week. At 67, the branch I bought from
my Father in 1995 is still strong. I was raised to do this, and there was
nothing else I ever wanted to do.
I did not write about how to grow a successful
business. There are plenty of good business books in the Library on that
topic. It is an interesting story that follows a very successful business
my Father never planned on starting. I started in the Business when I was 7. I
spent my life in the Business until purchasing a branch store from my Father in
1995.
This is a History of the Leiser Family
Business. My Father's Business started in 1948 and entered its 6th decade
in 2008 without its Founder. In my Father's estate planning, my Father provided
my mother with a steady income that would allow her to afford a comfortable life.
He set up a foundation to take care of his hunting trophies and restored a
one-room School House he owned. My Father enrolled his Farm in a farmland
preservation program and was very generous to his favorite charities. As his
health failed, everything seemed to be in order; however, a Business succession
plan was never found.
Why?
My best answer is that my Father never
expected the Business to survive after his involvement ended. Some of his
letters in the last years of his life would allude to this. To the best
of my ability, I will draw the Map that will take my Father's Business from
Dawn until Dusk. The Map that I drew will show it was not all smooth
sailing.
There will be potholes and dead ends along the
road to any successful business, and my Father's Business is no
exception.
This story of the Business would start with my
Father collecting bricks for the foundation long before the agreed-to 1948
starting date. During World War II, my Father was training to be a
fighter pilot in the Army Air Corps. When the war ended, my Father pursued
his love of flying. Using the GI Bill to attend Spartan School of Aeronautics,
my Father would complete a course in Airport management. He would return
home to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, searching for a job.
Immediately after The war, few jobs were available in the Bethlehem area. Local industries were still retooling from War production while trying to absorb the thousands of newly discharged soldiers. My Father would take on some part-time jobs. He would work for my Grandfather. My Grandfather was the head gardener at the estate of a Bethlehem Steel executive. My Father worked nights as a bartender and operated a handyman service during the day. My Grandfather was a nurseryman by trade; this background would set a direction for the handyman business.
My Father purchased a used Rototiller and a surplus Jeep; he offered a custom tilling service. In other words, if you wanted a garden dug, you would hire my Father to dig it with his tilling machine. My Father would also cut lawns and purchase a chainsaw to cut trees. With the chain saw, he had an opportunity to sell chain saws to farmers and contractors in the area. My Father would spend the winter traveling the roads of the Lehigh Valley, demonstrating the chainsaw to farmers. He had an innovative product; unfortunately, as hard as he worked, my Father would sell only a few chainsaws in those early years. Most farmers could not justify the amount of labor saved compared to the cost of the saw. The farmers were amazed by the speed but would confess to my Father that they had all winter to cut wood with a hand saw.
The power chain saw was developed in the early 1900's it was a heavy, expensive machine. Even the lightest chainsaw needed two strong men to operate. Wartime advancements in aluminum castings would make the chain saw lighter, cheaper, and more portable. The first brand we sold was Mall; over the years, we have sold and rented most major brands of chain saws.
The postwar chainsaw was an innovative product; however, it was not a product that the Business could be built around. My Father never intended to open a retail store, so the chain saw was just a product that would enhance his handyman business.
My Father still envisioned finding a career in aviation; however, with no aviation jobs available, he would pursue his lifelong love of aviation as a hobby. My Father was active in the Civil Air Patrol and the founding of the local Pilots Club. He would be involved in flying all his life; however, aviation would always remain a hobby as he grew his Business.
Another business opportunity that would present itself to my Father was home building. One of my Father's friends convinced him to buy a large Army surplus Glider. These kits were cheap and were purchased to reclaim the lumber used in the wooden crates and the wood recovered from the glider. My Father would salvage enough lumber to build a house. A few years later, he would marry and build a second and third house on land he purchased from his Father. These three houses still stand in the rear of my Grandfather's property at 3301 Linden St in Bethlehem.
My Father would touch other business opportunities; however, once the new building was erected, the Handyman Business would be discontinued.
The wooden propeller had no real significance to my Father's flying. My Father purchased it after it was salvaged from a wrecked airplane. My Father hollowed out the center and mounted a clock in the center. When his first standalone store opened at 2960 Linden Street in 1955, the propeller clock was hung above the front door. In 1970 it was moved to the new 3608 Linden Street store. It was always a conversation piece. When the Business was evicted from the 3608 location, I found the propeller in a back office. The propeller now hangs inside the front door of my store.
First decade… 1948 - 1958
My Father acquired a Toro dealership in 1948. I doubt he knew he had found a product to grow a business. Power lawnmowers were not new; Toro introduced a consumer-sized powered Lawn Mower in the 1930s. With the post-war building, the boom came an expansion of the suburb yards that were too large for push mowers. A power lawnmower in 1950 was still an expensive item. A walk-behind power mower could cost a homeowner 2 to 3 weeks' salary. With the population moving to the Suburbs, the demand for power lawnmowers increased. The power lawnmower moved from a luxury item to a necessity.It was never made clear how my Father and Toro got together; however, with virtually no investment, my Father would be given exclusive rights to sell Toro lawn equipment in the two counties that comprised the Lehigh Valley. This was postwar retailing, where business relationships were consummated with a handshake rather than a contract. My Father would go on to slice up his territory by wholesaling Toro products to other retailers within his territory.
The lawnmower necessitated a change in my Fathers handyman business. The lawnmower was not an item he could sell out of the back of his Jeep. The lawnmower would need a showroom. My Father installed some large windows in my Grandfather's garage, and Donald W Leiser Sales and Service was born. As the lawnmower business grew, the handyman business would be phased out. Toro lawnmowers would be the single product that would support my Fathers new business.
Location is always critical, and establishing the Business in the center of
Northampton county would give my Father's business access to a robust middle
class. The Lehigh Valley was the home of Mack Truck, Bethlehem Steel, and
Ingersoll Rand. This would help grow a middle and upper-middle-class community
with disposable income. The flat land between downtown Bethlehem and my
Grandfather's house was ready for suburban development.
Even with the retail store opening, this would not set my Father on a lifelong
career path. My Parents had a season-long campsite at Promised Land State
Park. When the State of Pennsylvania started leasing sites, my Father would
lease a site and build a cabin. During construction, Dad would watch the
neighbor struggle in his cabin-building project. In helping the neighbor
with his cabin, my Father would notice the neighbor's lack of building skills.
This would give him the idea of building cabin shells. He would install the
foundation, erect the floor, walls, and roof, and the owner would finish off
the inside. While this would be a mostly weekend and off-season business Dad
would find customers for his building services.
My Father had only completed a few of these shells when back-to-back hurricanes
spawned flooding that would devastate the Pocono Mountains in 1955. The
flooding would kill hundreds of people; wash out most bridges. Dad would
fly my mother and me up to the cabin site he was working on to check on it. The
floods had picked up the enter lumber pile and pushed it against the foundation
without losing a single board. He would finish that cabin; however, the
demand for cabins in the Poconos had died.
Another product that would be a stepping stone in the growth and diversity of
the Business would be the backhoe. Today the backhoe loader is now found on
every construction and landscaping project. However, before World War II, the
backhoe loader as we know it did not exist. Digging a basement or digging a
trench was accomplished by hand or with a "Steam Shovel." The
prewar power shovels needed to be hauled to a construction site in pieces and
assembled before use. Moving a power shovel from one job to another could take
days.
My Father would start by buying a Shawnee or Pippin backhoe kit. Then mounting
the loader kit on the customer's tractor. Now a digger could be driven to a job
site and then moved to the next job. This would lead to Dad acquiring a tractor
dealership to supply tractors for the backhoe kits. The tractor
dealership we would acquire was International Harvester Industrial Tractors.
With International Harvester industrial equipment Dad had a full line of
construction equipment, from garden tractors to bulldozers.
The tractors and construction equipment necessitated a move out of my
Grandfather's garage. In 1955 Dad purchased 3 acres at the intersection
of Linden St and Macada Rd in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and moved the business ½
mile South of my Grandfather's garage. The building was built mainly for the lawn
equipment business. However, the showroom floor was reinforced enough to hold
the weight of a bulldozer.
As the Business's first decade ended, it was still evolving; however, it seemed
to be on a solid foundation. From a starting point of a chain saw in the
back of a Jeep. The decade ended with a 44 x 48' building, and the Business was
successful.
My Father hadn't yet hired a full-time employee, as extra help was needed; my
Mother, my Grandfather, or Dad's friends would provide it. Every Friday,
Mom would drive a truck to Philadelphia with a check to purchase replacements
for the mowers sold during the week. Dad would schedule deliveries and
service calls for evenings so he could operate the store during the day.
This was honestly a Mom and Pop.
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