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.
Dr. Gary Smith drew knowing laughs when he offered this truth about operating a small business: Survival mode is easier than growth mode, because when your company is merely surviving the answer to everything is no.
Can we buy this piece of equipment? No. Hire new employees? No. Get more office space? No. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist — or a physicist, which Smith is — to come up with that answer.
Smith’s company, Innovatech Labs, is one of three winners of this year’s Upsize Growth Challenge. The stories of how all three winners are working to meet their growth goals are covered in this issue.
Figuring out which questions deserve a yes — that’s where Upsize comes in. We work to include as much information as we can about business owners’ affirmatives, especially how they came to those decisions.
The “yeses” are plentiful this month. Doug Arndt, formerly a commercial contractor, took his wife’s advice and started offering his garage remodeling services to residential customers. That was after years of saying no whenever they asked. The result: a franchised business that he hopes will hit $10 million in revenue systemwide this year.
Patricia May, president of Precision Language Services, made the decision about a year ago to obtain national certification as a woman-owned business. She went through a rigorous credential-checking program administered via Metropolitan State University. The result: a contact at a large corporation, who had previously been indifferent to May’s soft sales pitches, suddenly expressed strong interest and referred May to one of the company’s purchasers.
Chuck Welle figured the boom in individuals selling goods on eBay should apply to corporate customers as well. He started The Auction Stor last year. It serves both retail and wholesale customers, but Welle expects the latter to make up 80 percent of his business. Welle says he’s not sure why he repeatedly says yes to businesses whose markets don’t exist yet. I suspect he enjoys the possibilities.
The Retrofit Cos. Inc., another winner of this year’s Upsize Growth Challenge, was on a satisfying growth track until 2003, when one founder left, the other took over as president, and restructuring began. Now Steve Kath and Eric Kyllo are poised to say yes to the next wave of growth: a national expansion via the selling of franchises. Kyllo says the company chose that route to expansion, rather than opening corporate-owned offices, because of experience. Retrofit had operated three offices and jobs scattered across the country, and found they were wearing out their crews.
Yes, no is easier to say than yes, but it doesn’t lead to anything interesting in business. Let’s keep learning from all these business owners about how they choose their positive moves.
— Beth Ewen
Editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
