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The Kreimer’s Bier Haus is a cozy German restaurant in Cleves, Ohio. Opened in 1981 by Ralph Kreimer, the Bier Haus was originally more of a lunch location, but now it is known for their large portioned dinners and River Bar nightlife.

Kreimer opened the restaurant as a way to support his family. As he came from a long line of entrepreneurs, his decision to own his own business suited him. His wife, Janice, invented many of the German recipes still used at the Bier Haus today and was very involved in helping her husband run the business.

Janice and Ralph have five children named: Pam, Mike, Mark, Elizabeth and Tim Kreimer who all helped their parents run a successful business. It is Mark Kreimer who eventually took over the business from his father in 1996. He explains what it was like to grow up in a household of a small business owner.

“I didn't get to see my dad much because he was working all the time, and at a younger age I didn't understand this.I now appreciate he worked all the time to give our family what we needed, and I gained respect for him,” Mark said.

Mark grew up knowing the sacrifices his dad had to make in order to make the business successful, and with that understanding he decided to take it over from his father. Prior to this decision Mark worked for corporations which ended up not suiting him, much like his family's history of entrepreneurship.

“I did it because I didn't like working for big corporations, I wanted to be more in control of my future. I started working at the Bier Haus as an employee, then my dad gained confidence that I could manage it myself. I still worked for him until I built the business up enough to have the money to buy it from him,” Mark said.

Since taking it over, Mark has made many changes to the business to incorporate the needs of customers in our ever changing world. These changes have been a slow progress, and have taken Mark many hard years of work to accomplish. Mark explains some of the larger changes he has made for the overall success of the business.

“The first thing I did was build up a dinner crowd, because he mainly did business during lunch. I did that by increasing the service level and quality of food. The next thing I did was make the restaurant less submissible to the weather, because at the time it was mainly viewed as an outdoor restaurant. I made it less seasonal. After that, I started diversifying by having inside dining, outdoor dining, a banquet hall, catering, and the outdoor river bar with live music and entertainment. I also made private dining rooms in the indoor dining room for 10 to 15 people. I did all of these tasks in small increments as I had the money, I never took out loans from the bank for these improvements,” Mark said.

It is through putting in the grueling hours of hard work in general and in making these improvements that Mark has come to know how hard it is to be successful in the restaurant industry. The restaurant industry is one of the most brutal industries in the United States with only a twenty percent success rate. However, Mark has used this fact to push him to be successful and is extremely aware of his hardest battle: all of the uncertain variables he must monitor.

“There are many different variables coming at you at once that are all uncertain. For example: a piece of equipment can break down, servers can call off, and weather can completely shut down a night. All of these variables are my sole responsibility to fix immediately if they go wrong, it isn't like an office job where higher up people can take care of it. The sole responsibility belongs to me. It is like trying to solve a quadratic equation with many different variables, almost trying to predict what will happen to keep your customers happy,” Mark said.

It is through these challenges that Mark found a silver lining by using the restaurant for the common good. If you have ever spoken to Mark about owning the restaurant he often states that the restaurant is not his, but it is God’s restaurant. He uses his faith and his love for helping others to help his employees be the best people they can be. Mark is extremely humble when talking about the good deeds he has done, and believes God’s restaurant has done them and not him alone.

“We try to empower our employees to be better. I have taught many of my cooks to do carpentry work and masonry work to give them life skills that they can use when they move on from working at the restaurant. The restaurant has bought cars for employees to get back and forth to work, helped employees get over addictions, helped employees get stable housing, and a new start in life. Overall, I try to teach my employees life skills to make them better people, and I truly care about what happens in their lives,” Mark said.

Owning a small business calls for an extreme amount of hard work and dedication, but Mark has used his business to help others and create meaningful relationships that will last a lifetime.