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Giving Back Opens Doors

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We have interviewed thousands of business owners on this show over the past 20 years and a common trait among many of them is their desire to give back to their communities.  It’s good for the heart and soul and it’s good for business.  And our next guest is one more example.  Over the past 18 years, his company has donated over three and a half million dollars to preservation efforts in Charleston, SC and that has helped open the door to his latest business opportunity: the first commercial tours of one of the city’s most significant cemeteries.

Mike Switzer interviews John LaVerne, owner of Bulldog Tours in Charleston, SC.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.