onymous with success and style, no one
can deny Gerber’s management team is an
all-star lineup. As to his belief that a woman
consistently is the “better man for the job,”
Gerber offers several reasons.
“The girls that work for us see this as a
real job. For many of the men that work for
us, it’s more of a temporary gig until they
find something in the corporate world. I
think most of the women find [this busi-ness] to be a great career choice,” he says.
“They have the freedom to take off when
they need to do so. It’s wild seeing some
of them that have been with us for 10
years now, supporting families.”
What’s more, Gerber offers, women are
well suited to running a nightlife establishment. “They learn this business quickly,”
he explains. “In both customer and
employee interactions, they are capable of
handling situations more delicately while
still getting the point across without being
intimidating. To me, that’s the right way
of communicating. In overall personality, a
female just has a way about her of being
delicate while still being strong.”
One such woman in the Gerber organization is Niccole Trzaska. After nearly six
years with Gerber, she now is both manager and mixologist for Stone Rose in New
York City. Trzaska has opened countless
other properties for the group, assisting
with training and drink menu design and
making television appearances. Her résumé
speaks for itself, but it’s even more exceptional considering Trzaska is only 29.
The secret to her rapid rise? She points
to the example set by other successful
women in the Gerber Group and her out-side-the-box thinking.
“I see a lot of loyal women in my company,” Trzaska says. “Being a girl, I feel
like I can approach anyone, walk into every
situation with an open mind. Plus, going
out of the box is easier because I am young
and it’s not considered risky to go out of
the box.”
Gerber also finds effective use of today’s
technology generally comes easier to those
who are younger. Effective use of text
messaging, e-mail blasts, web sites and
other forms of Internet marketing are not
acquired job skills as much as they are skills
these up-and-coming women execs already
possess when joining a team.
“The social networking aspect, that’s
a whole different world for someone my
age,” admits Gerber. “When you log
on, you see your employees active on
MySpace and Facebook. They put up
pages and actively communicate through
those pages. We are finally taking advantage of that world, thanks to our younger
employees. I’m glad we have them in the
company because I wouldn’t have known
how to handle it.”
Management Style Makeover
These new owner/operators also bring a
fresh approach to managing their staffs,
one that can help this industry continue to
evolve into a less “rough” one and perhaps
be more appealing to the demanding Gen
Y-ers now coming into the workforce.
“They have a completely different view
and perspective when it comes to business,” Burton says of the young women
he has encountered in nightlife operations.
“The old ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ style
of management does not exist [for them].
They covet input from their staff and are
much more flexible than their male counterparts of old.”
This flexible philosophy is in full force
at Bailey’s Café in Saratoga Springs, N. Y.
There, owner Stephanie Richardson, 36,
caters to a mixed demographic, ages 20
to 40, with live entertainment and food-and-beverage offerings seven nights a
week. Additionally, Richardson heads up
Peabody’s Sports Bar & Grille. The 4,000-
square-foot bar and restaurant, remodeled this summer, targets sports fans but
caters to families and patrons of all ages.
Richardson decorated each of the rooms
into themed rooms for various sports, and
a nine-hole mini golf course will be a highlight of the back patio upon its completion
this fall.
“I have my master’s [degree] in education and a B.A. in psychology,” Richardson says. “I think of being a boss and
an owner like [having] a classroom, but
instead of students I have employees. I
am a 100-percent hands-on owner. My
employees work with me, not for me, and
as a woman and a mom, I look at my kids
and think about what type of employer I
