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Nick and Joleen Reynolds entered the enterprise world when they were around their mid-20s. Joleen’s father, Jerry Anderson, opened Seabeck Pizza in 1989 at the Seabeck Marina, and two years later expanded to Belfair.
The couple actually met at the Belfair store, where Nick has worked while in high school. Not long after tying the knot, Joleen bought the Belfair store from her father.
That was about seven years ago, and today Seabeck Pizza has three other locations (Bremerton, Port Orchard and Poulsbo) and a new store to open soon in Wauna on the Key Peninsula. While Anderson still owns the original location, Nick and Joleen own the rest.
“We want to work hard now and retire early,” Nick Reynolds said, adding that they try to reinvest as much of their money as they can.
Nick took a pay cut and a financial risk when he decided to join his wife to manage Seabeck Pizza after the initial purchase. He’d been with a car dealership for three years and had worked his way up to management. His move to self-employment “was scary,” he said, yet it paid off — sales at the pizzeria went up, and soon they found themselves adding more locations.
The couple are hands-on with the business, working in the stores, serving customers, doing the bookkeeping. Nick does a lot of the equipment maintenance and repairs, and likes to work at each store at least once every week.
“Every day is different; it’s a challenge every day,” he said. “In 15 seconds my phone can ring, and my whole day can change.”
Reynolds acknowledges many people don’t believe them when they say they own the small chain — he’s 27 and she’s 28. But being young has many advantages, he believes. And yes, they do get asked a lot “how they can spend so much time together and still get along.”
They “always look for opportunities for new stores.” Recently the couple, who live near Gig Harbor with their two young children, snatched a different sort of opportunity: They bought Brix 25&Mac251;, a fine-dining restaurant in downtown Gig Harbor. Reynolds said he has considered owning a nice restaurant, but wasn’t planning to do it for a few years. “This opportunity was presented, and I just did it,” he said.
Unlike their involvement with Seabeck Pizza, they keep much more hands-off at Brix, where they have hired a manager. Reynolds hopes some day to hire a manager and bookkeeper for the pizzeria as well. He said he’s “trying to retire” but probably won’t soon.
In the meantime, he and Joleen try to keep some balance in their life outside of the long work hours. Joleen home schools the children, spending extra time on taking them to activities like guitar lessons. Nick coaches children’s baseball and soccer, which his youngest son plays. And every year, they try to get away for a while with the family, going on a camping trip or to the ocean. |
