We recently connected with Tony Maisano and have shared our conversation below.

Tony, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I graduated high school in 1993 and never attended college. I excelled in 2 things in high school, Radio & Television class and Graphics (printing) class. I learned quickly after high school that the real world radio and television business wasn’t very “fruitful”, lol, you’d work a 8 hour shift and they’d pay you $20. Switching gears I became a press operator in the printing business and starting making $25 per HOUR doing that, so of course being an 19 year old kid making $1000 a week in 1995 was VERY attractive. Very soon after in 1997 I purchased my own printing company, and that’s how it all started. I built my company offering great service and quality to the metro Detroit music community of which I was a part of. Often a community left ignored by the corporate world. Treating people who usually get the cold should from the “suit & tie” community really proved to be the secret of my success. Proving the old adage “Never Judge A Book By It’s Cover”, because you just might make a healthy business and career by doing so. 10 Years later, I became the owner of a live venue/bar in downtown Detroit, turning it around from a losing endeavor to a profitable business within 6 months. We were very successful for 10 years making the sale of it very easy. This enabled me to parlay the profit from the sale into creating a deli. I’m finding myself craving a no nonsense lunch spot. When the store next to my print shop became available I opened a Deli. Taking a cue from Larry David’s Latte Larry’s, I create a place where I make sandwiches I like in a city full of restaurants. I figured “at least I’ll get a good lunch everyday”, well that seemed to be what everyone else wanted as well. Filling a void, we became voted a #1 deli in the first year we were open. The success of that deli turned into opening a guitar store, your traditional Buy Sell Trade shop. We have grown that store over 70% from the first year we opened. So basically, as my wife say’s, “you’ve turned every one of your hobbies into businesses” and she is right.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a person who took a great interest in Graphic arts and Music production to go on to do both of those things professionally.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The recession in 2006/2007 was great “straighten the ship” moment. Nobody had any money or credit and it felt like it came out of nowhere. At the print shop I had to let everyone go. The only thing that salvaged my business was the fact I knew how to do everything in the print shop. So there I was answering phones, doing the design work, running all of the machines to produce the print products. I worked from 9am to 1 am everyday for nearly a year. So my advice to anyone opening a store is, know how to do everything in your business, EVERYTHING, because you never know when the rug will get pulled from under you. Also, SAVE MONEY, money makes everything work, and having cash on hand is more important than a fancy car, clothes of lifestyle. Case in point, when the pandemic hit, of course I was worried but I knew I had cash reserves, which proved to be a lifesaver. Know that life WILL NOT be fun, you will work harder and be more frustrated from your business than anything else you will ever do. Remember you don’t go to fun everyday, you go to work everyday. Some folks think you open those doors and you’ve hit the lottery. They couldn’t be more wrong.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I learned never to trust anyone in business. Even a person you might consider a confidant will eventually create conflict. The lesson was not to get too close to anyone you have to do business with.

Contact Info:

• Website: rocketonestop.com – oakhousedeli.com – guitarhifi.com
• Instagram: rocket printing – guitarhifi -oakhouse deli
• Facebook: rocket printing – guitarhifi -oakhouse deli

Image Credits
Anna Thomas