BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL
entrepreneui
His love of skiing has turned into big
business for Steve Kopitz.
and eight Web sites, prefers to call it
a "great winter," one of his best ever
despite the depressed economy.
Kopitz, 51, of Bloomfield Hills, has
turned a lifelong love affair with outdoor
sports and a particularly wicked passion
for skiing into an $18-million-a-year busi-
ness (for 2008). And his Internet com-
merce on a variety of winter and water
sports equipment and clothes, mainly at
www.Skis.com , is dominating his store
trade.
"I've been skiing since the age of 6,
and I always dreamed of owning a ski
shop," Kopitz said. "Others dreamed of
being rich and famous. I just wanted to
run a ski shop. But it took the recollec-
tion of something my father once said,
plus the advice of a former business
associate to make the final decision."
Kopitz got the skiing bug from his par-
ents, Barbara and the late Martin Kopitz,
who took him and his two brothers on
several skiing vacations each year. He
found himself on the slopes of Boyne
Mountain in northern Michigan many
times as a youngster.
The Business Spur
A graduate of the Roeper School
in Bloomfield Hills, he attended the
University of Michigan for a year "before I
realized college wasn't the place for me."
Kopitz then became a bartender, a
disco disc jockey, restaurant and bar
manager, real estate salesman, a gold
and silver salesman, and even repaired
and sold old suburban homes.
His best job was eight years as a
financial planner for a national corpora-
tion, rising to vice president and district
manager in its Troy office, where he met
Sloping Upward
Snowflakes translate to sales
when you sell ski equipment.
I Bill Carro ll
Special to the Jewish News
S
ki shop entrepreneur Steve Kopitz considers himself to be a "snow farmer"
— reaping the harvest of heavy snowfalls. He looks upon each snowflake
his future wife, Kathy.
"But I got restless and I didn't want to
get trapped by those 'golden handcuffs'
of corporate life, where a good salary,
stock options and other benefits make
you stay for life," he said. "So I left on
good terms and spent three months
checking literally 500 franchises of all
kinds of businesses to decide what to get
into — things like printing, tutoring, saddle
sales. You name it, I checked it out.
"The skiing idea was rekindled when I
remembered my father telling us when I
was a teenager: 'If I had all the money I
spent buying the family ski equipment, I
could retire.' And when I was pondering
as "a penny from the sky."
A lot of pennies have been accumulating for Kopitz this winter, due to
Michigan's record snowfalls, accompanied by bitter cold. While most people are
all of these business choices, a friend
continually using the phrase "terrible winter," Kopitz, who owns eight retail stores
SLOPING UPWARD on page A28
advised: 'Choose fun'!"
March 12 2009
A27