Sharon Carroll was in exactly the right place when her family – and the family business – needed her.
In 2014, Carroll’s mom, Geny Holtz – treasurer for H.J. Holtz & Son and wife of second-generation owner Richard Holtz, Sr. – suffered a fall and was abruptly unable to work. Carroll, who had been filling in at the office while the receptionist was away, was called up for service.
“[Mom] was here one day and gone the next,” Carroll says. “We didn’t know if she was coming back. Rick [Holtz, Carroll’s brother] asked me to do the job in the interim. He showed me how as we went.”
Ten years later, Carroll is now the company’s financial manager, overseeing all accounts payable, billing, and payroll for roughly six dozen employees. “This probably should be a two-person job, but the structure is because of the way it all evolved,” Carroll says. “I always have a deadline I’m trying to meet, but it has gotten easier with our new software system that allows people to pay online, which means fewer trips to the bank. I never thought I’d say paperless was better, but it’s so easy… click, click, click.”
While Carroll had grown up watching her grandfather, Herman J. Holtz, and her father run the business, she married in 1985 and moved away with her husband, who was in the Air Force. They lived “in a million different places,” she says – California, Louisiana, southeastern Virginia, England, North Dakota, Germany, and then Alaska. Carroll had a degree from VCU in finance, but wasn’t able to work in her field through the moves and raising of children.
When she and her husband returned to Richmond in 2014, their children didn’t need the same level of attention, and Carroll went to work in the Holtz front office, where her brother, nine years her junior, was in charge. Her sister Carol Hudson was already there, having started at the company in the spring of 2014.
“I missed so much [of the business’ growth] because I wasn’t here for 30 years,” she says. “When I left, Rick was a kid. I come back, and I’m working for him. It was weird at first, but it’s settled down.
“Originally, Carol was going to take over the financial duties, but it wasn’t the best fit,” Carroll adds. “She was a people person; she did much better with customers. I enjoy working with numbers.”
Carroll says there’s no firm agreement not to discuss company matters at family gatherings, but she tries to keep business discussions in the office. She acknowledges that having a working relationship with her brother has its curiosities.
“When is he your brother; when is he your boss?” she muses. “I used to drive him everywhere – to baseball practice or to the store to buy baseball cards. But we manage. He’s more of a risk-taker, and I’m more conservative [in business practices]. He knows I’m that way.”
Congratulations, Sharon Carroll!