Carver Financial Services’ success, growth recognized

Owner: Humble beginnings, dedicated staff have made it successful

Carver Financial Services has come a long way since it was founded in 1990.

And in that time owner Randy Carver has experienced much, overcoming health issues and a variety of injuries.

Now, his firm, based in Mentor at 7473 Center Street, is experiencing rapid growth and expansion, testaments the 54-year-old Carver attributes to several practical maxims.

“You have to have a vision of what you want, work doggedly and have a team of professional individuals as dedicated as you are,” he said. “Success, in that context, I like to say, is simple, just not easy. It takes knowledge, discipline and persistence. The team is very important because there are only 1,440 minutes in a day, so I don’t care if you work all of them yourself, there’s a limit for what you can do.

“I founded this company with a really simple vision — to make people’s lives better, our clients, first, and also the people that work here. We’ve been growing like crazy. We’ve added five positions in the last three years, about a 30 percent increase (in size). We had 13 on our staff in 2012, now we have 21 and are looking to hire two more before the end of the year. Our challenge is finding people committed to giving clients an amazing experience.”

Carver Financial Services is licensed in all 50 states and manages just over $1.4 billion for clients all over the world, and custodies its assets through Raymond James Financial.

In terms of assets, the company has received national recognition, most recently from “Forbes” and “Barron’s.”

Now, plans are approved for a 6,000-square-foot building expansion, beginning in April or May 2019, with an expanded reception area, and new conference rooms and offices.

The expansion, Carver said, is part of the firm’s continuing commitment

to provide its clients, team and community with a comfortable state-of-theart building.

This comes after Carver lived in Section 8 housing in college, began knocking on doors to build a business at the end of 1986, battled cancer, survived a heart attack and a single-engine plane crash, and suffered a shattered right leg and broken left femur.

As the company’s grown, Carver Financial has also coordinated food drives, raising over 200,000 meals in Lake County. In 2013, the “Carver Cares” program was initiated with the aim to bring attention to local nonprofits.

“There are hundreds of small nonprofits doing great work and nobody knows they are there, so the idea was to bring attention to them at our events,” Carver said.

“Before every event, we introduce a local nonprofit. Anything people donate within 30 days, I match it up to $4,000. We’ve had a wide range of ‘Carver Cares’ partners.”