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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
Children are not the only ones whose eyes light up at the sight of a shiny new train. At MRS Hobby Shop in Sandy and Salt Lake City, customers old and young find childlike delight in the convoy of model trains on display.
In addition to the store's wide selection of trains, MRS Hobby Shop also stocks a variety of other hobby-related items such as airplanes, boats, engines, rockets, cars and even structural building materials. This year's hot item is a radio-controlled micro helicopter, while model railroads are always top sellers.
Doug Clements, who owns MRS Hobby Shop, tells me he first started selling model trains during his junior high and high school years. By the time he reached his senior year, Doug only needed to take one class to fulfill his graduation requirements, so he arranged to take the class in the morning and was on work release in the afternoon. During that time Doug and his father formed a partnership to set up a business, which became MRS Hobby Shop.
Prior to forming their partnership, Doug and his father were both frustrated as they searched for train components that none of the shops they frequented offered the option to special order items. Their business model was designed so if they didn't have something a customer was looking for, they were happy to special order it. This strategy has worked well as the business has expanded from its original 800-square-foot store to its current 4,000-square-foot facility. Two years ago, Doug also bought out a hobby shop in Salt Lake City and added it to the MRS Hobby Shop family.
Over the years, Doug says he developed different business strategies for expansion. His most recent innovation was creating a control mechanism to operate the company, which has considerably smoothed employee training and management. In the next 10 years, he hopes to expand both within and outside the state.
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
