Entrepreneurs At Heart

Bob Jersey, The Chicago Corporation, circa 1980

Bob Jersey, CEO, Gar Wood Securities –

When Dennis Gerecke and I set out to create Gar Wood Securities, our goal was to create a home that would provide the support and solutions independent brokers needed to be successful. Our experience working for decades in the correspondent and prime brokerage clearing businesses gave us a keen understanding of what works, and what doesn’t, for small independent brokers. As entrepreneurs, we also understood the importance of being independent, yet able to leverage the balance sheet and technology provided by well-capitalized clearing brokers.

My approach to business has always been about more than just finding solutions. It's about actively seeking and seizing opportunities, a mindset that has defined my entrepreneurial journey.

While working at The Chicago Corporation in the 1980s, I saw an opportunity to provide the firm with coffee service, and soft drink and snack vending machines. To start the business, I charged $3,000 on my credit card to lease machines and the initial inventory.  In the first year, I would take the cash from the machine nightly, and my wife would deposit it the next day to finance inventory purchases. It was a quick lesson in managing cash flow, inventory, bookkeeping and tax reporting. We had three employees and soon expanded to service another breakroom and two more brokerage firms.

I also created Bristol Boat Works in the 1980s, a boat-washing and detailing business servicing Chicago’s harbors, with exclusivity at River City marina just south of the Chicago Board of Trade. The company had six employees and expanded into designing, creating and applying vinyl graphics and names on boats.

Both businesses were sold in 1995 when I moved to San Francisco to work for Montgomery Securities.

These experiences gave me invaluable insights into the intricacies of running and exiting businesses. This knowledge and blind confidence in my abilities were instrumental in my decision to launch Gar Wood in 2003 with Dennis Gerecke.

And I think that entrepreneurial experience along with combined knowledge in the clearing business has made Gar Wood the successful firm it is today. 

Pat Blackburn, a friend and old boss would always say, “What doesn’t kill you, will make you stronger.” How true.