Thinking small

In the three decades since he worked part-time in a shoe store as a high school and college student, Russ Schultz has done just fine for himself.

His Reno-based Shultz Financial Group manages some $150 million on a fee-only basis for wealthy individuals and families, and Schultz fills free hours here and there with good-sized real estate development projects in California and Nevada.

So what's he doing as the eager owner of a small store in The Summit Sierra?

"Everybody thinks I'm nuts, but I enjoy retail," says the 52-year-old of his new store, Gesture. "I like retail because it's people-driven."

The store's approximately 2,000 square feet of sales floor focuses on three areas jewelry, hand-crafted kaleidoscopes and artistic handbags along with other one-of-a-kind home accessories and gifts.

Since its opening a couple of months ago, shopper traffic has been strong and sales have been fair, says Schultz, who owns Gesture along with Holly Evers.

Evers has been working with Schultz for seven years, first joining him at the financial management firm.

For Schultz, the shop nestled next to a big Orvis store represents years of someday-I'll-retire daydreaming that increasingly became realistic planning.

With his wife, Vicki, Schultz had kicked around the idea of opening a small shop in retirement. It would give the couple something to do, and trips to buy merchandise would give a focus to their retirement travels.

The dreaming began to solidify into planning when Susan Ayarbe joined Schultz Financial Group as president and took over hands-on management from Schultz.

"That was great," he says, "for about three months."

With more time on his hands, he got serious about planning the store. Early on, he recognized that only The Summit Sierra could deliver the customer demographic he wanted.

Convincing Bayer Properties, owner of The Summit, to lease space to a start-up, locally owned gift shop was another matter. Gesture is one of 11 locally owned stores in the 72-store center.

It took multiple meetings with executives of Bayer Properties, and Schultz is convinced that a top-quality business plan for the store played a key role in nailing down the lease.

Bayer executives agree that careful planning was important.

"Gesture is so different from our other stores," says Larry Hunt, property manager of the center. "They've done a wonderful job differentiating themselves from a typical gift shop."

The store, Evers and Schultz say, works on the same core beliefs as Schultz Financial Group relentless focus on the customer, innovation and service.

They're not advertising Gesture heavily in traditional media, for instance, but instead rely on promotional events with nonprofits that attract the same demographic that is expected to shop at the store.

A special sale for members of a nonprofit, for instance, might involve donation of 50 percent of the store's gross proceeds to the charity.

Gesture currently employs 10, seven of them part-time, and is gearing up an e-commerce arm to extend its reach. It's also building a business-gifts business.

The store's concept appears to lend itself to multiple locations, but Schultz says he's in no hurry to open additional stores before he has enough experience with the Reno location to feel confident about success elsewhere.