3 minute read
Entrepreneur: Gary Shetler
Gary Shetler
Owner, Door Renew
WHAT THEY DO:
Door restoration
WEBSITE:
doorrenew.com/batonrouge NEXT GOALS:
Increase sales and public relations
PRIMING
After completing his undergraduate degree, New York native Gary Shetler moved to Louisiana to work as a chemist at a St. Francisville paper mill. He eventually left the Capital Region to become a dentist and open his own practice in Georgia, where he worked for a decade, before becoming an endodontist and moving back to Louisiana to be closer to his wife’s family. He worked as an endodontist until retiring in 2006. Feeling energized, he would later begin a new career as a franchise broker, ultimately representing some 300 franchises. “On a whim, I decided to find a franchise to fit my own circumstances.”
BACK TO BUSINESS
At age 74, Shetler put a sign on Perkins Road in December 2018 advertising door restoration services and he launched a Door Renew franchise in Baton Rouge the following month. “I picked Door Renew because they have an extremely welldeveloped franchise system—and it fit my lifestyle at the time.” Since launching the business, Shetler has fine-tuned his restoration procedures to cut his project turnaround time from two weeks to one week or less. While he previously had to have a half-dozen doors in his shop at a time at various stages of the restoration process to maintain his bottom line, he now focuses on one to two doors at a time. “Focusing on one door from start to finish gives me greater control over the project.”
TOP COAT
About a year into operation, Shetler moved his business out of his garage into a shop roughly 2 miles from his home and hired an employee. “It doesn’t feel like work. It’s like my hobby. I spent years just playing golf and fishing without any real purpose, and that’s why I do what I do. I found a purpose.” In the future, Shetler aims to grow his business to have a three-month backlog of work, and to also eventually take a step back from restoring the doors himself to just doing sales and public relations work for the business. “I have found acceptance in this community that I didn’t think was possible. I meet and personally talk to every individual I work for.” —By Holly Duchmann • Photography by Collin Richie
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