In today's rapidly changing world, executives are finding it harder and harder to balance the time required for business success with finding the time to pursue their own dreams. But, some executives are refusing to accept the conventional wisdom that you can't have a successful professional and personal life without sacrificing one for the other. Tony Niese, vice president of Nelson Manufacturing Company, has found his perfect work-life balance in Ohio.
Niese believes Ohio has provided him with the opportunity to grow his career, while having the time to raise his young family and volunteer in the community.
“I have the gift of time to both raise my kids the way they deserve and give my business what it needs,” he said. “In Ohio, there’s no delay in getting what I want. It’s the perfect balance of work and life.”
For Nelson Manufacturing, a manufacturer of high-tech hydraulic trailers, Ohio is the ideal location to meet its production needs. They are located within easy distance of suppliers for raw materials in northeast Ohio and hydraulics companies in northern Indiana to make their trailers move. Ohio is within a day’s drive of 60 percent of the U.S. population and 50 percent of the Canadian population.
Niese takes pride working with employees with a tough work ethic and built-in manufacturing smarts as he himself grew up in Ohio and worked his way up the Nelson Manufacturing career ladder. His father also used to be the plant manager.
With a young family to watch over, Niese is able to balance his time at work and home. He ran his parish’s summer festival last year, a time-honored and cherished family outing for the entire community.
“Ohio is Americana at its finest,” he said. “I get the satisfaction of doing work that makes a difference – I get to see my family at night and even make a difference in the community.”
Ohio offers a work-life balance for executives, their employees and their families available nowhere else. Watch this video.
After leaving the University of Findlay in the mid 80's, Mike Mallett found business success in Washington D.C. But when he and his wife, Anne, started a family, they knew where they wanted to be: back in Ohio, where right-sized cities offer all the amenities of a metropolis at a simpler, relaxed pace.
In Ohio's fertile business environment, Mike founded Corporate Research International (CRI), now one of America's foremost 'Mystery Shopper' Research firms with clients that include many of the world's leading retailers, restaurants and petroleum companies. In Ohio, Mike has found the intelligent, affordable workforce he needs, and Ohio's "At Will" employment laws help him choose the best. Low overhead and CRI's ability to develop technology well ahead of the competition has helped place CRI on INC. magazine's list of fastest growing companies two years running.
In a setting one client describes as a Norman Rockwell painting, Mike can manage this $10 million company and still make the 4-minute trip to pick up his kids for soccer. Or drive an hour to their Lake Erie beach house to ski and fish and enjoy a summer sunset on the beach. Mike can't imagine working or living anywhere else.
Read more success stories of executives who have found both professional and personal success by leveraging Ohio's assets for business and family life.
The easiest part of starting a small business is, well, starting a small business. Keeping it going -- and growing -- takes dedication, planning, evaluation and consistency. A little help from an investor or business mentor doesn't hurt either. hiVelocity, an online e-zine telling the story of Ohio's new economy, takes a look at how three such companies have fared.
Commuter Advertising - Nearly a year ago, Commuter Advertising co-founder Katie Hill and her partner (and husband) Russell Gottesman won the top prize at the 2010 University of Dayton Business Plan Competition. The pair had moved to Dayton from Chicago after getting their first advertising contract with the Dayton Regional Transit Authority.
Venturepax.com - Last year, Danny Stull had just launched Venturepax.com, a website that relies on user-generated content to identify, photograph and write about outdoor activities for families in the Cincinnati area where he lives. The site has social networking elements including user profiles, a comment feature and place "check-ins" similar to foursquare.
Indigo Imp Brewery - A year and a half ago, Matt Chappel and his and wife Kathy were a few months into their new venture The Indigo Imp Brewery, a small batch microbrewery in Cleveland. Matt, a longtime home brewer turned his passion into a full time business after fashioning his own brew house system using generic dairy farm equipment.
Ohio is the ideal location choice for start-up opportunities due to its ability to deliver on the ideal location criteria for an entrepreneur-friendly environment: ready access to venture capital, knowledge and labor, supply chains and markets. Read more about what entrepreneurs can find in Ohio.
Read more from hiVelocity about how these three companies have fared in Ohio's supportive business climate.
In 1947, when Nelson Manufacturing’s founders searched for the prime location to make trailers, they spread out a map and found the central point of northwest Ohio. Nelson set up shop in Ohio to meet its production needs. They are located within easy distance of suppliers for raw materials in northeast Ohio and hydraulics companies in northern Indiana to make their trailers move. Within a day’s drive of 60 percent of the U.S. population, the company has continued to thrive thanks to its prime location and under the leadership of partial owner and Vice President Tony Niese.
And Nelson Manufacturing is supported by AEP Ohio, its preferred energy partner. AEP Ohio has a stake in the state’s economic vitality, providing competitive and reliable electricity to thousands of businesses committed to Ohio as the prime location to grow and prosper.
Tony grew up in Ohio and first started his work at Nelson in a hybrid sales and engineering position. The company commitment has special meaning for him because his father used to be the plant manager. These days, Tony oversees the company’s production of high-tech trailers for heavy hauling of materials for the construction, aerospace, nuclear and other energy industries. He takes pride in working with employees with a tough work ethic and built-in manufacturing smarts. “Our mechanics have two-year degrees for welding and hydraulics, plus the vocational schools for high school students really prepare kids to get things done in the new economy,” said Tony.
With a young family to watch over, Tony is able to balance his time at work and home. He ran his parish’s summer festival last year -- a time-honored and cherished family outing for the entire community. “This is Americana at its finest,” said Tony. “I get the satisfaction of doing work that makes a difference, I can see my family at night and even make a difference in the community.”
After leaving the University of Findlay in the mid 80's, Mike Mallett found business success in Washington D.C. But when he and his wife, Anne, started a family, they knew where they wanted to be: back in Ohio, where right-sized cities offer all the amenities of a metropolis at a simpler, relaxed pace.
In Ohio's fertile business environment, Mike founded Corporate Research International (CRI), now one of America's foremost 'Mystery Shopper' Research firms with clients that include many of the world's leading retailers, restaurants and petroleum companies. In Ohio, Mike has found the intelligent, affordable workforce he needs, and Ohio's "At Will" employment laws help him choose the best. Low overhead and CRI's ability to develop technology well ahead of the competition has helped place CRI on INC. magazine's list of fastest growing companies two years running.
In a setting one client describes as a Norman Rockwell painting, Mike can manage this multi-million dollar company and still make the 4-minute trip to pick up his kids for soccer. Or drive an hour to their Lake Erie beach house to ski and fish and enjoy a summer sunset on the beach. Mike can't imagine working or living anywhere else.
After leaving the University of Findlay in the mid 80's, Mike Mallett found business success in Washington D.C. But when he and his wife, Anne, started a family, they knew where they wanted to be: back in Ohio, where right-sized cities offer all the amenities of a metropolis at a simpler, relaxed pace.
After leaving the University of Findlay in the mid 80's, Mike Mallett found business success in Washington D.C. But when he and his wife, Anne, started a family, they knew where they wanted to be: back in Ohio, where right-sized cities offer all the amenities of a metropolis at a simpler, relaxed pace.