Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
If you think your business is tough, consider the state of the printing industry.
Ideal Printers Inc. in St. Paul, whose president is Lana Siewert-Olson and the subject of this month’s cover story, experienced the same economic slump as everyone else in the past few years. But it also felt specific pain:
• Average profits are 1.7 percent of sales, and profit leaders make 1.9 percent. “It’s a pennies game,” says one industry observer.
• Technology changes, especially the Internet, mean abundant alternatives to printed materials. One day a printer can have a $20,000-a-month customer; the next day that customer can switch to the Web.
Siewert-Olson took over the company from her father two years ago, when times couldn’t have been worse. She doesn’t think of herself as a risk-taker, writes Upsize’s regular contributor Liz Wolf, but she has acted decisively.
She spearheaded the development of a new facility in St. Paul, and invested in more efficient equipment. She beefed up the sales staff and hammered home the message to never be complacent about customers. She froze salaries but kept layoffs to a bare minimum when other printers excised dozens or closed altogether.
Ideal Printers is on the way to a $9 million year, she estimates, a 5 percent sales increase from last year. The growth proves the value of bold action when uncertain times might instead cause paralysis.
Other stories in this issue underscore the point:
• Steve Ritz, who trained professional and college athletes before opening Fitness First in Chaska, works to create a high-quality health and fitness operation in an industry that he calls “polluted” by undertrained people and overhyped regimens. It’s not easy to follow the high road, which also tends to come with lower volume, but he’s seeing steady growth.
“You have to be very, very determined,” he says, to resist following the lead of the mass marketers. “That’s the challenge, for me to grow without polluting ourselves, just for the almighty dollar.”
• Debbie Fors this spring pulled up to the Dairy Queen outlet that she and her husband operate in Minneapolis and saw disaster: smoke belching, windows hastily boarded up after an overnight fire. She had followed good advice and was well insured. Five months after the fire, following day after 16-hour day, she was able to re-open the business.
• Don Wilkins started Alexandria Pro-Fab Co. Inc. in 1976 with one tangible asset: a $2,000 welding machine. He focused each day on getting another customer, then one more. Today, Matt Krumrie reports, he runs a 70-employee company with a $2-million payroll, $7 million in equipment and a 43,000-square-foot facility.
These business owners, with different companies and methods, offer one lesson: Take action. Move forward. Boldly go.
— Beth Ewen
Editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
