The history of the Ault Corporation, as told by Dottie herself in 'interview' format.

The humble beginnings: How did you hook up with Paul?Who was there first etc?

March1976, Paul wanted to sell IV store....my office while doing bookkeeping for him was behind the store. (I had always wanted to try a business and Joe agreed to mortgage (2nd) our house for $15,000 to buy IV store.) We had to finance the 2nd and give a note to Paul for the inventory. We consulted Paul's CPA/Lawyer and he advised us NOT to do it. Paul was in serious financial trouble and needed to sell so we took a chance. We were the proud owners (with Randi & JoJo) as of May 1, 1976 we owned IV and went into debt further. The store had (1) IBM copier(the kind that takes roll paper. (1) manual cash register, (1) IBM typewriter, hand paper cutter and that was about it. No carpet on floor, just bare concrete with holes in it. The walls were PURPLE and the ceiling was BLACK. The bathrooms were full of papers etc. and we had to use bathroom at service station. The first thing Joe & I did was charge on our VISA (1) new ceiling light in store, then emptied bathrooms and fixed them for use. That August we charged on our VISA a carpet for the store and Joe put in planters out front and I planted ferns and flowers.

Could you give us a time line of sorts...years of stores opened/bought and/or closed? Also, how did the two names come into being?

Santa Maria happened in 1978...at the railroad tracks on Broadway by the Beauty Shop. Joe really thought it would make a go. Then Lubbock. I had our family friend find Lubbock location etc. for Paul but he decided not to have a because it was a Tech College. So I took that location instead of a raise. We were going to name it Kinko's...but could not get credit under Kinko's with the vendors cause they had too many debts...so we named it Joe's. We bought the Niftee Corp stock etc. a couple of years ago.

How/why did the separation from Paul's company occur?

We were never "a part of Paul's", we were The Ault Corporation. I worked for Paul for 5 1/2 years beginning Feb. 1, 1975 when he had (5) stores and when I left, it had built up to 85 stores in 27 states and I sat up nights with a programmer writing the sales programs etc. and worked days doing the books on all the stores. Joe & I worked week-ends and evenings in IV and on problems with our business.

What major technological breakthroughs have you witnessed during your time owning the company?

The copy machines were the major breakthroughs. I always dreamed of getting just ONE Xerox 9500.....Lee Ann said we would have more than one and she was right.

The standout in copying to me during all those years...was one January LeeAnn and her helpers put over a million copies in three weeks on (2) Xerox 8200s and not one single minute of overtime. It was unbelievable.

Do you have any amusing anecdotes to share?

The funniest thing to me was overhearing a clerk in Denton store tell another that the trash cans must be REALLY clean cause DOTTIE has a thing about trash cans. Also never have a customer complain to Dottie about our work cause she will THROW the customer out. Linda and Lee Ann can tell you about the Xerox tech in St. Louis. I broke the counter climbing over it trying to get ahold of him when he was rude to LeeAnn and Linda.

Any special people you wish to acknowledge for special contributions to your business or the learning processes?

All the people are SO VERY SPECIAL but some took time to really care about Joe & I working so hard. LeeAnn, of course, has carried much more of a load than she should have on the job. Everyone was always willing to go that extra mile even when I threw a fit. It was like have all those household to keep up and just knowing someone would get hurt kinda took some of the fun out of it. Linda in St. Louis had the worse and most loyal customers at the same time. One lady wanted copies on her paper QUICK and Linda had a job running so the lady got so mad that she kicked the glass door (hugh front door) off its hinges. Linda had her arrested and I talked to the while she was in handcuffs in the store over the phone. I asked her why she did not just go to the other copy store close by....she said "Lady, your store makes the best copy around and I like your folks" (Needless to say, we did not have her arrested.) She paid for all the repairs and still keeps in contact after moving to Ark. The Santa Maria store after Sandy took over was such a pleasure....I was not afraid of any calls from there. Only got good reports. Same thing in IV with LeeAnn and then Amber. Lubbock ran smoothly with Cindy. We "Imported" trouble for her from El Paso but after that it was smooth sailing. Denton & Arlington an smoothly from time to time but had alot of people problems and Linda's St Louis store did too. It was an experience for all of us.Yes, we played musical chairs alot with those of you who helped so very much. You need clones....guess it will happen someday.

If there is one sentence (or word) that would sum up your entire experience owning your business, what would it be?

Gratifying.

What goals did you feel the most sense of accomplishment by acheiving?

We managed to have health insurance coverage most of the years for our fulltime people, we gave Christmas bonuses EVERY YEAR, we paid everyone by the hour and overtime. We always wanted to get everyone on a two week cruise...just close stores and everyone go...didn't make that goal.

Any final parting thought you wish to share?

Joe & I are sorry that we did not have nerve enough to try business earlier in life because we enjoyed the people so much. We appreciated all the help and learned so much and we do thank everyone.