POINT PLEASANT - From a young age, John Stoll, owner of Baron’s Bagels in Point Pleasant, was not averse to hard work.

As a teenager, he put together real estate signs for houses that were on the market.

“Back in the day, they used to have these wooden signs,” Stoll said. “I would connect the vertical post to the horizontal post and stick them in the ground. I owned three or four hundred of them and I really enjoyed doing it. I was 17 or 18 years old at the time and it kept me busy.

“A lot of work went into making the signs and turning out a good finished product,” Stoll said. “I had to build them by notching them out and bolting them together. I also had to paint them certain colors, depending on the real estate company I was working for at the time. Each company had their own color and I would paint one color of orange and one of yellow. It was a daily operation and I would have to travel a lot to get everything in place.”

After doing that job for three years, Stoll started looking for a bigger payoff. At 19 he found a job working for Tally's, a Chrysler/Dodge car dealership in Point Pleasant.

“I started in the body shop sanding cars and doing basic stuff that kids do in that environment,” Stoll said. “From there, I went across the street and worked in the parts and services department. I felt like a glorified gofer at that time because I wasn’t doing anything special, but it was paying my bills and I was content with that for the time being.

“At one point, I left the job and took a year off,” Stoll said. “I eventually came back and started, this time, as a car salesman. I worked my way up to sales manager and then, general manager. I enjoyed it and it was a challenge. Some of it was natural, but there were also things that I had to learn inside and out, in order to do a good, through job. I did that for 27 years.”

'I really needed to get myself back in gear'

But Chrysler eventually consolidated smaller dealerships and Stoll was left out of the job and looking for work.

“I was looking for another job, but not by choice,” Stoll said. “I took year and a half off to get myself together and recharge my batteries, so to speak. I was actually having a pretty good time hanging out and playing a lot of golf. My wife was instrumental in me getting back to work and encouraged me to find something that would fit my skill set.

“At that point, I had a family, so I really needed to get myself back in gear,” Stoll said. “Where I come from, you work no matter what and put your best foot forward. Once I got back into the fray, I started looking at different businesses, including a liquor store, some car washes, a bread route and even a FedEx route. I didn’t have the money for some of it and many of those other businesses didn’t really suit me.”

That's when Stoll heard about Baron’s Bagels in Point Pleasant.

“My neighbor told me that the owner of Baron’s Bagels was looking to get out of the business and sell it,” Stoll said. “That idea laid dormant for a month because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and I wanted to contemplate it some more. I got to the point where I figured I would give it a shot and so I pursued it wholeheartedly.

“I went and talked to the owner,” Stoll said. “He got good vibes from me and thought I was qualified to take on the workload. He knew I was looking to take the bagel shop and make it work in his absence. After agreeing on a purchase price, I walked into the shop and stood there for about three weeks, learning the business. Slowly, but steadily, I got to know the ins and outs of the business and, after 12 years, the rest is history.”

Taking over and growing

After taking over Baron’s Bagels in 2010 with his wife Jane, Stoll's initial effort was at keeping up the pace and getting everything situated, so that he was comfortable with running the business his way.

“Even though the business was set up pretty well already, I made some minor changes here and there just because I had some ideas of my own that I wanted to put in place to just improve the quality of the business," Still said. "I didn’t have to do a lot to change the way the business functioned, but I made some changes that I thought were necessary.

“Since, taking over the business, I have had some great, loyal people that work for me,” Stoll said. “Many of our employees have been with us for a great deal of time and that is a testament to how loyal they are to the establishment as a whole. They are all devoted and it’s been a positive run so far. My employees are very reliable and they care very much about establishing their dedication to keeping everything running consistently.”

Of course, none of it works without good bagels.

“We get a lot of positive feedback about our bagels,” Stoll said. “We have won awards through different publications and they praise our store and everything we have to offer. We have been very fortunate to put out some of the best bagels around and we plan to keep doing so. We try to go above and beyond with the service we offer and we are proud of everything we have accomplished.

“We have 26 different flavors of bagels,” Stoll said. “Some of more popular bagels include plain, poppy, sesame, onion, salt, egg, everything, wheat, just to name a few. We also have French toast, seasonal pumpkin, spinach, cheddar and jalapeno. The list goes on and on.”

Stoll opened a second store in 2014 in Brick because he had so much success with his first store.

“We’ve done so well with our first location that we figured we could open up a second one and be just as successful," he said. "It was been a great ride with both locations and we could ask for a better business.”

Stoll hopes that his two daughters will take the reins and run the business after he is gone.

“I have two awesome daughters,” Stoll said. “Only time will tell because it’s a very tough business. Getting the right help this time around is hard as well because there are so many people that do not want to work. I have no doubt they will be successful, but we will play it by ear for the time being.”

Baron's Bagels

Owner: John Stoll

Locations: 3003 Route 88, Point Pleasant, and 1743 Route 88, Brick

Phone: 732-892-5556 (Point Pleasant); 732-840-1111 (Brick)

Website: www.facebook.com/BaronsBagelsPoint

Hours: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: How Baron's Bagels owner grew his business in Point Pleasant and Brick