More than a summer job

By Christa Desrets

Published: July 28, 2008

Brad Carner is undertaking the ultimate crash course in college-prep.

The 18-year-old, who graduated from Jefferson Forest High School last month, is managing his own business.

“We figured it would be a good idea for me to get my toes wet,” said Carner, who next month will enter Old Dominion College as a business management major.

So this summer and the next two summers, with help from his parents, Carner is leasing Sportsman Marina at Smith Mountain Lake.

“We (thought) it would be good experience for Brad, that it would be a fun summertime thing for him to do,” said his mother, Allison Carner.

She and her husband, Troy Carner, got him started by investing in two pontoon boats, two jet skis, two sailboats, wakeboards, kneeboards and towables to rent out, and plenty of other in-store merchandise.

“Me and my dad, we sat down and budgeted conservatively earlier this year,” said Brad Carner, who grew up sailing regularly around the lake. “And we think we’ll be able to make a little bit this year, and then by next year we should be doing well. We’re definitely going to survive.”

He opened the roughly 400-square-foot store and 63 feet of dock space in mid-April, when the lake was still mostly quiet at that location along the Roanoke River, near where it intersects with Craddock Creek.

Inside, the store is loaded with fishing gear, drinks, snacks, batteries, boat cleaning products, life vests, cigarettes, sunscreen and other items.

By Memorial Day weekend, “we were at full blast,” Carner said.

“We were swamped that whole weekend. I don’t know if we were prepared. But it has calmed down since then, probably because we’ve gotten into the flow of things, and we know what we’re doing.”

Carner starts each week by writing up a schedule based around his seven employees’ availability.

He looks at scheduled reservations for the week, and makes any needed preparations.

During the week, he places orders with the gas supplier, handles any less-than-satisfied customers and tries to keep everything running smoothly.

“The biggest change is dealing with unhappy customers, which we don’t get a lot of, but you’re always going to have people that you have to deal with,” he said.

Like the time someone double-booked a rental, and he had to turn one of the customers away.

Or the many times that customers have flipped, damaged or even nearly sunk, their rented jet skis.

“We’ve had more ropes sucked up in jet skis than anything,” he said. “I’ve had jobs, but nothing of this magnitude, not running a place. It gets a little hectic.”

He finishes off each week by calculating payroll.

Carner also has implemented a couple of new ideas at the marina, such as a shaved ice stand with 25 flavors. His friend suggested that, and on busy days they sell about 75 cups of the sweet treat.

Sailboats and pontoons also are a first for the location, said Lyle Chapman, who owns the building and the next-door Sportsman Restaurant and R-11 Tiki Bar.

“They’ve inventoried the place a little bit more, they’ve offered something that’s different,” he said. “They’ve done well there.”

In previous years, Chapman’s mother ran the marina. This is the first year that he has leased it out, he said.

“I was worried about taking care of the place and having the same hospitality that we have,” he said, but Carner alleviated those concerns.

Carner hopes to continue innovating at the marina. Next summer, he plans to offer chartered sailboats.

His mother said their investment has been well worth the life lessons for their son.

“There was no worry about letting him do this,” she said. “We knew he would do a good job.”