THE DAY RENT-A-CENTER LET HIM GO was a bad day for Joe Fischer. A rent-to-own veteran of almost 20 years, Fischer had been part of the company’s acquisition of Rainbow Rentals two years earlier and had been working since-successfully, he thought-as a Rent-A-Center district manager in his home state of Ohio. So in 2006, when he was informed that the company no longer required his service, Fischer was at a loss. * “I didn’t know what to do with myself,” he recalls. “I considered some other businesses and franchises, but rent-to-own is what I know how to do, so it just made sense that I keep on doing it. The day I got let go was sort of my best worst day. At the time, it seemed like my worst day, but now I can see it was one of my best days, because it forced me to do something I might not have considered doing otherwise, and it’s been really rewarding.” That turning point for Fischer was opening up his own RTO business, Eagle Rental Purchase. Today, Fischer has nine stores in eastern Ohio, 45 or so dedicated associates, two partners and a son currently working as an assistant store manager, who may just be up for taking over the family business someday. But for the time being, Joe Fischer is happy exactly where he is-and thankful for his best worst day.
Joe Fischer’s middle-class youth in Toledo was, by his own account, rather unremarkable. But read between the lines of his story and you can glimpse some of the qualities still evident in him today as a successful businessman. In his youth, he was athletic, playing softball and basketball, even into college (committed to excellence, a bit competitive). He got a job at the age of 13 (a go-getter with a great work ethic) at a local bike shop, where he worked his way up from hauling garbage to helping manage a store by the time he was 21 (responsible, trustworthy, not afraid to get into the nitty-gritty). Meanwhile, Fischer earned his associate business management degree at the University of Toledo (smart, too, with a brain for business).
Following graduation, Fischer went to work at the Toledo Jeep automobile factory; his father was a supervisor with Jeep for more than three decades, so he helped his son get hired. “It didn’t take long for me to learn I didn’t want to work in a factory for the rest of my life,” Joe notes. “I didn’t like the climate, the grime and the sweat… Luckily, within about six months, the plant had some layoffs, and since I was one of the last ones in, I was one of the first ones out.”
Fischer wasn’t out of work for long. A family friend set up an interview for Fischer with Crown Leasing’s Larry Hendricks and the two hit it off immediately. It was 1987, and Fischer’s rent-to-own expedition had launched, but its leader was leaving.
“Larry hired me one day, then walked in the next day and said, ‘Everything I told you is true, but I am leaving to go open up this business in Detroit,'” Fischer remembers. ‘”I would love to take you with me,’ he said, ‘but why don’t you get your feet wet and see whether you like the business, and we’ll talk down the road.’ So that’s just what we did; we kept in contact and six months later, I moved up to Detroit to work for him, opening stores for Rainbow Rentals.”
Fischer began with Rainbow as an account manager, but moved quickly into management. He helped grow the business in Detroit, then premiered the company in Pittsburgh and grew the market there. Eventually, Fischer became one of Rain bow’s first regional managers, then was promoted to regional vice president, overseeing the company’s manager trainee program, van purchasing and leasing, and insurance.
That’s where he was as the tide turned and Rainbow sold to Rent-A-Center in 2004. Fischer hung on for a couple of years as the district manager of about 40 Rent-A-Center stores, but then his “best worst day” happened.
“Getting Eagle up and running was the hardest part,” Fischer confides. “It took me about six months to put a business plan together and put the financing in order with the bank. But I had a whole lot of people I knew through Rainbow who were happy to help, answering my questions about what to do and how to do it. And my wife, Sharon, who had been staying at home raising our kids, immediately returned to work as a juvenile-probation officer. She has always supported me, and without that, I couldn’t have done it. It wasn’t an easy process, but once the doors opened, I was back home. I knew what I was doing and everything got better.”
Two years later, things got better still for Fischer as he welcomed two new partners-and old Rainbow running buddies-to Eagle Rental Purchase. Wayland Russell, a Rainbow Rentals co-founder and industry legend, serves as a financial partner and continuing mentor, while Randy Lewis, another Rent-A-Center refugee, joined Fischer as a true operational partner.
‘Tm the president, Randy’s the vice president-or vice versa, depending on the day,” Fischer chuckles. “We both come from the operations side of the business, so we stay extremely active in daily operations. We don’t have middle management, so we’re out visiting and working in the stores regularly. We roll up our sleeves and dig into the day-to-day of our business.”
Their lack of middle management is one concept, among many, Fischer and Lewis have adopted from their experience at Rainbow Rentals. While some elements of the rent-to-own industry have necessarily evolved due to changing times and technology, for Eagle’s leaders, the Rainbow connection remains strong.
“The four founders of Rainbow-Wayland, Larry, Mike Viveiros and Jason Alford-those guys were real role models and mentors,” Fischer effuses. “When I walked in, I knew next to nothing about this industry. I was 23 years old and I didn’t know what I was getting into. I was a hard worker and I enjoyed it, but as far as learning the business, Larry and my first store manager, Tom Opial, really taught me everything I know about the ins and outs of RTO.
“What was wonderful was, they let us run the business,” he continues. “They didn’t micromanage or smother us; they let us manage and it allowed us to grow. We had almost no turnover. People have asked me why I didn’t leave Rainbow to launch my own company back then and the answer is, because I didn’t have to. They treated us so well, we never thought about going anywhere else.”
Today, Fischer and Lewis aspire to the same great treatment for their own employees and seem to be succeeding; most have been with Eagle since its 2007 inception. “We work hard to ensure that our associates feel appreciated,” Fischer says. “We compensate them properly, we pay 75 percent of their benefits, we try to give everyone an extra day off here or there and we try to make sure they have a balance between home and work. We take care of our associates so that they will take care of our customers.”
Another “perk” Fischer has helped his associates benefit from is APRO’s Education Foundation scholarship program. Over the past few years, four children of Eagle Rental Purchase associates- including Fischer’s oldest daughter, Kendra-have been awarded college scholarships through APRO’s Education Foundation. (See page 14 for more on APRO’s Education Foundation scholarship program.)
“Being a company owner doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got money coming out your ears,” Fischer attests. “We invest a lot back into the business and continuing to grow the company takes a lot of resources. So the APRO scholarship program is a terrific benefit. It has helped kids who are working two or three jobs while trying to attend classes. One of our recipients was thinking about dropping out of college; the scholarship money helped her stay in school. Every nickel makes a difference as these kids are trying to get their education. They’re the lifeline to the next generation- whether they stay in rent-to-own or go on to something else.”
Kendra Fischer will go on to something else; she graduates from Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University next spring with a degree in early education and plans to move to Nashville to join Teach for America, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational opportunities for students in low-income communities. Her older brother, Chad, is staying in rent-to-own for the foreseeable future; he helps manage Eagle Rental Purchase’s Calcutta, Ohio, store. Meanwhile, Joe and Sharon Fischer, now wed 27 years, still spend a fair amount of time in support of their athletic youngest daughter. A high school soccer star and graduating senior, Bailey Fischer hopes to go to John Carroll University in Cleveland next fall.
While Joe Fischer is clearly pleased with the possibility that his progeny might continue what he has begun at Eagle Rental Purchase, he’s perfectly content to remain right where he is right at this moment: captaining his company toward a regional reign of 30 stores-his own little pot of gold, somewhere after the Rainbow.
“I just like this business,” Fischer affirms. “I like the fast pace, the lifelong friendships and the rewards you reap by helping others. Rent-to-own fits into a special niche in the economy and how things work. There’s a whole group of people out there who depend on us to be open and take care of them.
“It’s all about helping others get what they want,” he continues. “Especially people less fortunate than yourself. It’s a good thing to do, it’s the right thing to do, and whether it’s your workers, your vendors or your customers, if you help others get what they want, then you’re going to get what you want, too.”
Kristen Card is a freelance business writer based in Austin, Texas.
