Featured Business: Cornerstone SCUBA/Cornerstone Cheesecakes
Founder: Jeff Parnell

Local businessman Jeff Parnell is a man of diverse interests and talents. His retail establishment, which includes a SCUBA store on one side, a cheesecake and gift shop on the other and an indoor pool in the back, sells diving and other outdoor equipment, a delicious variety of cheesecakes, pieces of art, ironwork and other gift items. Parnell also pursues music, writing, caving and traveling.

After studying music (trumpet and keyboards are his instruments) at Dillard University in New Orleans, he had the opportunity to travel with an R&B band throughout Central America. Here he “got a taste of adventure travel,” which would plant the seed for his outdoor supply business later in life.

Murfreesboro Pulse: What was your first job?
I was a paperboy at age 12 for The Eufaula Tribune in Alabama. It was a bike route; every time it rained, mom and dad would have to carry me around and do half of the work.

Later in high school (in Bogalusa, La.), a friend of mine and I shared the 3–12 p.m. shift Monday through Friday at a local radio station, WIKC 1490. My dad was a preacher, and he recorded the devotional for the mornings. The station had a country music format, but during the day, me and my buddy turned into a Top 40 format. It became successful enough, they actually hired some professional programming directors.

MP: Why did you open your business?
JP: After circumstances brought me to Murfreesboro, I started to get into caving. As far as adventure goes in Tennessee, it’s caving. We have more caves than any other state. People from all over the world come to see our caves in the TAG (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia) area.

My business was known as Adventure Technologies for about 20 years. I began by producing a mail order catalog. (This was initially funded by a $500 cash advance on a credit card to purchase product.)

There were three main outdoor supply mail order companies, and we became the fourth, growing to gross around $250,000 a year selling caving and climbing equipment.

I started warehousing at home, then at the building where 3 Brothers Deli is now. The brick and mortar store on the Square opened in 1990. It had diving and caving supplies, outdoor and backpacking stuff.

Over the years, a lot of things changed and evolved in the outdoor business. Back in the ’80s, a town the size of Murfreesboro didn’t have a place to buy a climing helmet or a high-end backpack. As the industry has changed, most towns like us now do have a place to get that sort of thing, though it may be tied into a bike shop or a ski shop. Also, now you can go into many of the big box stores and get a decent sleeping bag.

As the changes were happening, we were looking at what was driving our sales, and SCUBA was a big part of it. SCUBA had gone from being a weekend warrior, high-adventure sport, to a family sport, marketed to women and kids, the age of the participants has dropped to 10. It’s now a family sport and good for college credit. (Really, I got diving certified to go cave diving.)

The last time I looked at the statistics, about 15 percent of SCUBA stores have a pool onsite. Those stores sell about 80 percent of the equipment. For 15 years I was one of those stores without a pool. The concept behind the new building (located on Robert Rose Drive) stemmed from wanting to have a pool.

While we were building the new building, in 2004, I was trying to find businesses I thought would do well here. A friend of mine had the idea for cheesecakes, but had not yet implemented it in a profitable way.

The Cornerstone name came from the Cheesecake idea. But I liked the idea of having the name Cornerstone on everything, since it was a new beginning. (Just months after moving into the new building, the partner on the cheesecake end left the business; but Parnell says even though he somewhat unexpectedly inherited a cheesecake business, he now enjoys making the cakes and playing around in the kitchen developing new flavors—Triamisu, lemon icebox, caramel, blueberry and more.)

MP: What businesses/people were an inspiration for you?
JP: Dr. Randy Ricketts (a Murfreesboro veterinarian Parnell worked for for three years) was very supportive of me working for him while still cultivating my own business; I also worked at Office Furniture Warehouse with a guy name Scott Lawson, who now owns Business Furniture Warehouse in Nashville; Pat Boutin with Remodeling Services Unlimited is my partner on the real estate end and was always real supportive. Going to trade shows gave me a lot of ideas.

MP: What’s your favorite part about your job?
JP: My son was born 1993. Having the business down there on the square allowed me to never have to put him in day care. I got to experience all of the diaper changing and see him grow up. I had him all the time; he was around the shop throwing catalogs in the floor or napping or watching TV in the back. I had a daughter four years later.

MP: What is your least favorite or the most difficult aspect of running the business?
JP: Taxes. It seems every time you turn around you have to pay employment taxes or property taxes.

Dealing with government on all levels. (An example) Diversification has helped me over the years; one thing we brought on board was iron (yard ornaments and such).

I asked Jospeh Aydelott face to face; I had verbal confirmation that there would be no problem keeping it outside. I had the sidewalk expanded outside.

I had it outside for four years before I got a letter from the city saying having the inventory outside was out of compliance.

I had to submit another site plan for review, which cost a lot to have the site plan done, and then pay $350 to have it reviewed.

It was denied; I had to reapply and pay the fee again.

It took a year and several thousand dollars to get that iron put back up. It had become 20 percent of our business, and to have it pulled out from under me was hard.

MP: What advice do you have for people starting a small business?
JP: If someone is serious about starting a business, I would advise them to treat it as a relationship. You have to be completely devoted to it to make it work. Live it, breathe it or either have the money to fund it where you don’t have to worry about making a profit. If you’re not dedicated to it, it won’t perform.

Whatever you think it will be, it won’t be.

MP: Who are some of your top customers?
The demographic is across the spectrum; we have people from all walks of life, farmers, doctors, lawyers. SCUBA full certification is $500, so for the most part, that’s affordable for the average person.

A large number of people I trained in the late ’80s are still diving today. It’s a relationship industry, when you travel with people and they leave their finances and lives in your hands; it creates a lot of bonds.

MP: How are you getting the word out about your business?
JP: I’m starting to do more social media, Facebook.
It can be hard to go out and get new business when there’s stuff sitting here to be done.

For more information on Cornerstone, visit cccakes.com, call 907-3450 or drop by the shop at 211 Robert Rose Blvd.