By Christopher Holland • The Current Contributing Writer
Jennifer Everett, a 27-year-old Lehighton native, is planting her roots back in Carbon County after living abroad and across the country.
A new and exciting business endeavor of Everett, Valley Royale is Carbon County’s newest hot spot, operating as a tennis club that offers membership services and more.
Everett attended Drexel University in Philadelphia and earned a bachelor’s degree in International Studies: International Business and Economics. After she graduated Drexel, she moved to China to teach English where she got involved with the startup ecosystem, including working on her own travel itinerary company.
After spending nearly a year in China, Everett relocated to Chile to continue working for and learning from startups.
Then, four years later she decided to move back to the United States and found herself in San Francisco, where she worked for some of the most notable companies in the world: IBM, Google, and where she still works, Uber.
But after some time in California, she decided it was time to come back to her roots and settle back in Carbon County. And with her move back home came a whole new adventure, Valley Royale.
Everett recently participated in a Q&A with The Current. This is her story about herself and the new tennis club.
The Current: What made you get into the business/industry and how long have you been doing it? Did you have prior experience before branching out on your own? If so, in what positions and where?
Jennifer Everett: I grew up playing tennis at the Maple Tree Inn and went on to play on Lehighton’s co-ed tennis team. When I visited home last July that was the first time that I had heard about it being closed and for sale. Once I learned that the Lehighton tennis team had to practice on Palmerton high school’s courts and play all away matches, I was heartbroken for the students. I immediately got to work on a business plan to see if I could open the courts back up for the Lehighton tennis team. Soon after, I spoke with the township to ensure I could reopen the property as a tennis club and spoke to school staff about having the tennis team play on the courts again as they had for over 20 years.
By mid-November, I closed on the property and flew home from San Francisco for good on Christmas Eve. Ever since then, I’ve been focused on renovating the first floor of the home, pro shop, and starting to landscape the property – in addition to starting my first business while continuing to work for Uber!
Even though I watched my dad run his own dental practice all my life, it wasn’t until I moved to China in 2015 that I found the start-up community and really got inspired by the people that built their ideas. While I started doing freelance work for them such as writing, marketing, and user research, I also started working on a travel itinerary app with another American woman. A year later, we decided to part ways, but the thrill of creating something of value to others always stuck with me and I knew I was going to create something else eventually.
The Current: If you didn’t have prior experience in the business/industry, what did you do leading up to opening your store?
Everett: Even though I worked for big companies like IBM, Google, and Uber after my start-up stint, I have always made sure to develop my entrepreneurial skills with books, workshops, and events. Since I was living in San Francisco for the past four years, it was easy to learn from the community around me.
For the tennis club in particular, as soon as I put my offer in, I spoke with the township, the school, the USTA, and previous club members to learn about what the Club should become. My dad helped me with the business plan, I developed the branding and name myself, a friend designed the logo, and Norb Lienhard is helping me with the tennis program.
The Current: What are the main services provided by the store? What events do you host?
Everett: My goal with the Valley Royale is to build a community space for people to play tennis, relax, and bond. We currently offer round robins, social hours, camps, day clinics, and private lessons taught by Norb Lienhard, the Jim Thorpe tennis coach of the girls and boys team. Pickleball nights and USTA tournaments are in the works as well!
The tennis club property includes the tennis courts, spectator viewing, two lounges (one is for coworking), dining room, kitchen, pro shop, and garden. These areas are available for private events. We’ve already held our first date night on the courts and have reservations for office parties and family dinners.
I also partner with small local businesses for events. So far we’ve had Pancho’s Mexican food truck and on July 4th, Native Yoga will host yoga on the courts. We also have a fun DIY workshop coming up in August.
The Current: Where does most of your clientele come from?
Everett: We have members across Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Palmerton, and even Easton!
The Current: Were there any challenges that you encountered while going through the process of getting proper permits, licensures, etc. to open your business? If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?
Everett: There certainly were unexpected challenges, but something magical that happened was when I was waiting to hear from the Mahoning zoning officer about if I could re-open the property as a tennis club – they sent me the original letter from Charles Diehl who requested to build the tennis courts back in 1977! It was amazing to read it because I felt that my vision for the property was mirrored by his original intentions as well. I plan to display the letter somewhere in the Club!
The Current: Where are the sources from where your products come from? Are they locally sourced?
Everett: I am currently looking at wholesale distributors to stock our pro shop, which we hope to stock with racquets, balls, accessories, snacks, and beverages.
The Current: How many employees do you have? Do you expect to bring more people on staff in the future?
Everett: I currently have two employees: a tennis instructor, Norb Lienhard and a Valley Royale assistant, Daniel Teets. As we offer more services, we could potentially bring more people on, but not at this time.
The Current: What are the business hours? How would you describe the atmosphere at the business?
Everett: I’m an early riser so I open the doors at 7:00 a.m. for people that want to get their tennis session in early. I close at sunset, by 9:00 p.m. I live and work here throughout the day so while I want it to be a comfortable and relaxed environment, I want this to be a place where things grow – people, community, relationships, goals.
The Current: What’s the most exciting element of owning your business?
Everett: My favorite part of re-opening the tennis club has been meeting all the people in the area that have memories here. It’s been really special to hear their stories and watch their faces as they see the improvements that I’ve made so far.
The Current: Is there anything specific that you’d like to mention about your business?
Everett: I am so excited to be back in my hometown and to give back to the place that gave me my roots to even have the foundation to do this in the first place. I truly want to become a supportive part of the community and hope to inspire students to travel, explore, learn and understand the impact that they can then make on our area from having those experiences.
The Current: What does the future look like for your business? Do you have any special events coming up?
Everett: At this time, I am focusing on developing our tennis program to attract new and younger members. I began playing tennis when I was 10 years old and I am hopeful to help other kids find a safe sport to play during this time. We are holding a Junior camp July 20 to 22 and pro tennis instructor, Bill Neal will be teaching. We even have racquets on hand for kids that may not have a racquet yet.
The Current: How can people learn more about your business and how to get involved?
Everett: We have two websites: valleyroyale.com for general information and valleyroyaletennis.com for booking tennis programs, in addition to our Facebook and Instagram pages.
The Current: Do you own any other businesses?
Everett: I run an online support community for women called the Break-up Committee where we help women understand, process, and grow from their breakups.
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