How entrepreneurs create hot spots
How entrepreneurs create hot spots.
‘Are you crazy?’
That was his wife”s withering assessment of the spot he had chosen to open his first store, Jamie Wilke recalls, and she probably had every reason to question her husband”s sanity. Oconomowoc was a faded resort village in central Wisconsin. Many of the stores in its shabby downtown sported ‘Going Out of Business’ signs. That”s where Wilke was determined to open a furniture store. Understandably, his wife was worried. Was there a single soul eager to buy his wares in Oconomowoc? Would he go broke?
Hardly. Wilke”s store, Jamie Wilke Interiors, opened fall 2000, and from the start the place was jammed with customers. Oconomowoc lies in the heart of the state”s Lake District, and as it turned out, lakefront development was booming. The region”s newcomers - young urbanites and wealthy retirees - were eager to outfit their second homes with his edgy, sophisticated pieces.
