Rising Stars: Meet Mark Tillman of fruit cove

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Tillman.

Hi Mark, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My Wife Alisa and myself decided when our son Lucas was 13 we had to do something to help him gain life and job skills as he was autistic and didn’t have many friends and just kept to himself. He had to grow and going thru this stage of his life we thought it very important. We both worked in corporate america but just thru faith and hard work we obtained a thrift store that was going out of business. Lucas worked there learning everything from organization to the cash register. Once other familys with autistic and special needs kids asked if their kids could work there as well. We ended up with 12 kids we were paying before we found out we could be vendors for Florida and get reimbursed for our efforts. Now after 8 years we have done more than 200 On the Jobs trainings for developmental delayed individuals.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This business is not an easy one. My wife and I work 7 days a week for 7 years straight. We have had some days off but no family vacations in 7 years unless they were local. Helping these kids is our enjoyment in life. We plan on closing in the next couple years or finding another owner with our passion.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Besides taking care of the everyday operations and paperwork I work with these autistic individuals training them to learn different job skills. Helping them maintain focus and letting them grow to be able to one day keep jobs on their own is the goal.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Just work of mouth and social media. It takes a village to help these individuals do networking is key. I am not very good at social media so the next owner will have to be:)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://spectrumthriftstore.org