The Secret of My Success: Louis Vaccaro, The Curtain Shop

Do not be fooled by the name. carries home décor items like draperies, curtains, panels and tablecloths, which can be made-to-order, but also carries other home-decorating merchandise upstairs.

Starting as a stock boy at The Curtain Shop 25 years ago, 40-year-old Louis Vaccaro eventually gained a spot as a co-owner with Robert Kaessinger, who has been running the shop since 1976. Vaccaro has two kids and a wife, who all live in New Rochelle.

The journey from stock boy to co-owner proved trying, but he has a wonderful story to tell as a result, which has left him full of wonderful advice.

Why did you choose this as your business?

I chose this as my business because it is an exciting store to be in. We meet people who either just got a new place to live in or they are redoing their place that they are living in. So people are generally happy. There is usually a good reason why they are here and it is fun. They come in; they have a need; we take care of that need and people are happy.

When a person is changing the place they live in or refining it into their home, it feels good and there seems to be nothing that compares with one’s sense of ownership or one’s sense of “their place.” And we are usually the last on the list because they have painted; they have done work; they have bought furniture and now they are covering the windows. It is a feel-good type of a thing.

How did you get started in your business?

I got started as the person taking out the garbage and cutting up boxes. Just intuitively I started helping people as I was on the way to that garbage can and before you know it they said, “Hey, come in…help.” And then I was working with people, and I assumed my aggressive managerial approach before I was even the manager. And then I guess everybody just threw up their hands and said I guess we’ll just listen to what he says. (He laughed.)

What was your toughest challenge to overcome?

I guess the toughest challenge was going from stock boy to boss and still having the same staff on. Bob started the store in ’76 and he had some dynamic, wonderful people working for him, and they worked well into their 70s and 80s. So these people who saw me growing up as the stock boy all of a sudden were working for me. So sort of explaining to people “Hey, this is what we are going to do today!” and they are thinking “No we’re not! What do you know? You just got out of college.” That was a tough hill to climb. But we worked our way through it. We had good times and bad times doing that, but in the end it all worked out.

What's the thing you like most about your business?

The way we are able to provide personalized service to people. In a world that I feel has lost a lot of the essence of what a store is, I think people get used to going into a place and no one is going to help you find anything and nobody really cares.

But here, we try to walk you the whole way through. We’ll get what you need. We’ll carry it out to your car. Typically we know your name and you’re going to know our name. And we are big on building relationships.

It’s great that some of these relationships span a grandmother, a mother and then a grandchild—all shopping here! It happens quite often.

What's the thing you dislike the most about your business?

I dislike the hours.

Nowadays people expect you to be open 18 hours a day, seven days a week and we are not. We close on Sundays, except for around Christmas time.

And it hurts when people say, “Hey I was here on Sunday and I wanted to buy things and you weren’t here.” And I feel really bad because I feel the responsibility to serve everyone. So it is tough.

We have a Web site so even when I go home I am working on the website. I work seven days a week.

What makes you different from your competition?

The biggest thing that makes us different is our staff. The people we have here are friendly, they are knowledgeable, and they care. They understand if they don’t make the customer happy enough times, then we don’t have customers, we don’t have jobs. And they take a lot of pride in what they do.

You can ask anyone who shops here—it is the personalized service that really makes the biggest difference. We have great prices. We work really hard to have the latest fashions and the newest things but quite frankly a lot of people could have great prices and the newest things but the people who work for you are really what makes the difference. And we are lucky that we have that.

What suggestions would you have for someone who wants to go into business today?

I think that if someone is thinking about having their own business they should be aware you really have to dedicate your entire life to what you are doing. You really have to love what you are doing and you want to surround yourself with people who share that concept.

In college I probably would have taken more psychology courses. I was focused on management, but management is a lot less about what you find in a book and more about understanding people. So I wish I had a more varied mix of studies.

What is the secret to your success?

My business partner, Bob. He is an old-school, down-to-earth retailer. He has been doing this most of his life. And he has great control over what we do. He is precise with the moves we make. And he typically has had a great ability to see how things are going to turn out. He has kept us out of some disasters. The only thing we haven’t been able to avoid is the lousy economy, but we’re still here. I think that says a lot for, not only for our store, but our customers and what we are doing.