Interview With Kitchen Tune-Up Tunies - Eddie Harrison & Joyce Kolb
Marty Ceranec, long-time Kitchen Tune-Up franchise owner, kindly contributes to our national newsletter and our blog. He calls these an “Interview with a Tunie, By a Tunie.”
For this interview, we travel much further south. Eddie Harrison and Joyce Kolb have a Sears Hometown Store in Green Valley, Arizona, which is south of Tucson.
Q. How has it been integrating the new business with your existing Sears Hometown Store?
A. We have a lot of walk-in businesses and my associates are trained to tell customers about Kitchen Tune-Up. Once we are in a home, we can show our clients all that we offer, including our Sears Hometown Store services or Kitchen Tune-Up services. One customer came in looking for a refrigerator, but when we arrived at his house, we found out the fridge would not fit. Before you know it, we sold some new cabinetry, some wood care, and he replaced all of his appliances. The two businesses are very complementary to one another.
Q. What did you think of your first National Reunion in Las Vegas?
A. We were still kind of new at that point, so we just kind of took it all in, We’re really looking forward to Myrtle Beach because now we’ll have a better understanding of what people are talking about.
Q. Now that you are entering your second year, what would you tell owners just starting up?
A. Figure out time management, which was one of our toughest issues this year. I realized we had two different businesses, and I had to flat-out designate time for Kitchen Tune-Up. Now I have a better feel for how much time to set aside for ordering, project managing, moving materials, etc.
Q. What could you tell us about yourselves that would really surprise us?
A. Joyce and I are huge NASCAR fans, and we plan most of our family reunions around races. After Myrtle Beach this year, we’ll be heading down to Daytona where we’ll spend a week with a dozen or more friends and family.
