Custer Enterprises thanks customer service for success

Like most children of entrepreneurs, Cheryl Custer-Branz’s introduction to the family business was in a capacity she calls “cheap labor.”

“When we were in junior high, my twin brother and I swept the floors at the Spokane County Fairgrounds,” she recounted cheerfully. “But my official title was head bathroom cleaner.”

Now Custer-Branz and her husband, Clint Branz, own the family business – Jim Custer Enterprises – and the Fair & Expo Center provides maintenance crews for their events, including next weekend’s 37th Annual Spring Antique & Collectors Sale.

Custer-Branz discussed the business’s evolution during a recent interview.

S-R: How old were you when your parents started Jim Custer Enterprises?

Custer-Branz: I was 7. My dad was selling advertising at Cousin (KZUN-AM) Radio, which sponsored occasional flea markets. When the station decided not to do them anymore, my dad took the concept to a different level, because people expressed a need for an antique sale, not a flea market.

S-R: How did it turn into a career for your parents?

Custer-Branz: My dad had left Cousin for a sales job with Norlift (forklift company), and his new boss, (company founder) Dick Jarvis, said, “Jim, I think you should go full time with the shows.” But he left the door open for my dad to go back to Norlift if it didn’t work out.

S-R: Did the business take off?

Custer-Branz: It was a slow process, because the fairgrounds were a much smaller facility back then. And when you rented the building, they just gave you a set of keys. There was no janitorial service, and no concessions. My parents rented a Pepsi wagon and sold hot dogs and little sandwiches.

S-R: Little sandwiches?

Custer-Branz: Egg salad – they’re still my favorite. After an event was over, if my parents hadn’t sold all the little sandwiches, they’d bring them home and I’d take them to school for lunch.

S-R: When you were a teenager, did you see this as having career potential?

Custer-Branz: It never occurred to me. I wanted to be a singer-songwriter.

S-R: What changed your plans?

Custer-Branz: Clint and I had known each other since eighth grade, and we reconnected after college. We were working in Northern California, but knew we weren’t going to stay there. We moved back to Spokane in 1994, and Clint was managing the Chapter Eleven restaurant in the Valley. Meanwhile, my parents’ business was in transition, because there was talk that the fairgrounds were going to expand. All of a sudden, their shows had the potential to become much larger, so they invited me to come work with them. Gradually they stepped back, and in 2001 Clint and I took over the operation.

S-R: What about your twin brother?

Custer-Branz: He lives in Alaska and has a successful career in the tourism industry.

S-R: What did your parents teach you about the business?

Custer-Branz: They always emphasized customer service. My parents met while skating in the Ice Capades. They were show people who transitioned from one type of show to another.

S-R: What distinguishes Custer Enterprises from other event sponsors?

Custer-Branz: We don’t just focus on one thing. We put on the Home & Yard Show and deal with business people. We put on the Arts & Crafts Shows and deal with creative types. And we do the Antique & Collectors Sales and deal with the biggest variety of people you can imagine.

S-R: What do you like most about your job?

Custer-Branz: Working with people.

S-R: What do you like least?

Custer-Branz: Working with people (laugh). And weather. We can control almost everything except the weather. Last year we had a blizzard during the (February) Home & Yard Show, and figured that would never happen again. And then it happened again this year.

S-R: What’s the best idea you’ve introduced?

Custer-Branz: We had a lot of requests to offer an appraisal area where people could bring in their items and find out what they were worth, like on public TV’s “Antiques Roadshow.” But we knew the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture already did that, and we didn’t want to step on any toes. So we invited them to hold that fundraising event within our event, and this is the third year we’ll do that. It’s $7 to have something appraised, and all proceeds go the museum.

S-R: What’s changed over the years?

Custer-Branz: Our hours. My parents were open Saturday night until 10 p.m., and we close at 7 now. People don’t come out Saturday evening. It’s more of a family night.

S-R: Has the antique market changed?

Custer-Branz: When my parents started the antique sale 37 years ago, they had dealers in their 40s. And now the older dealers are aging out of the event, and we don’t have a younger generation taking their place. Young people aren’t so much into collecting. The antiques sale is the smallest event we do.

S-R: Being among the first to see what dealers bring, have you picked up some treasures?

Custer-Branz: We don’t collect antiques, but my favorite purchase – I paid 25 cents – is a 1902 diary kept by a man who was attending business school in Spokane. The handwriting is exquisite and it’s fun to read what he was doing 110 years ago. For instance, he lost a day’s wages when the horse pulling his wagon reared up and came down on the back of someone’s bicycle, popping the tire, and he had to pay to have it fixed.

S-R: How many people work for you?

Custer-Branz: Clint and I do all the prep work, and we have a core group of six that help us during the shows.

S-R: Any favorite client reactions?

Custer-Branz: We’re on the floor all weekend, and exhibitors often say how rare it is to meet the people who put on an event. That’s hard for us to fathom.

S-R: Any common misconceptions?

Custer-Branz: A lot of people think we do the gun shows. We don’t.

S-R: Are there any events you’d like to add?

Custer-Branz: A lot are already covered – golf, travel, RVs – and the market can only handle one of each.

S-R: How do you relax?

Custer-Branz: I still love to sing. I perform around the region and have a couple of CDs out. (See www.cherylbranz.com.)

S-R: What are you most proud of?

Custer-Branz: I’m really proud to carry on my parents’ business – to answer the phone every day and being able to say Jim Custer Enterprises. Clint and I don’t have kids, and we joke that we don’t have an exit plan. But for now, we’re happy doing what we do.