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.
John Edson
BPK&Z:
763.546.6211
je****@**kz.com
www.bpkz.com
Andrea French
Icon Services Corp.:
651.695.8778
a.******@***********on.com
www.industry-icon.com
Joe Keeley
College Nannies & Tutors:
952.476.0267
jo*@************es.com
www.collegenannies.com
Mary Leonard
Chocolat Céleste:
651.644.3823
ma**@*************te.com
www.chocolatceleste.com
Sonia St. Charles
Davenport Group:
651.765.0279
www.davenportgroup.com
To communicate, five finalists
take different routes
SOCIAL NETWORKING is seen in some quarters as a way for high school students to keep in touch when they graduate and leave for college. But the technology has applications for businesses as a communications tool as well. Many of the finalists for Best Practices in Communications & Marketing have found
Web-based tools and other strategies for communications that have dramatically improved performance.
Alliance spurs referrals
Blanski Peter Kronlage & Zoch (BPK&Z) has grown from being a tax and audit-based accounting practice into a business advisory firm that can provide a wide range of expertise to its clients.
When the company decided it needed to seek a higher rate of return on this extra level of service, it developed the Capstone Alliance, a collaboration between the company and smaller CPA firms.
BPK&Z, Golden Valley, invited several smaller firms that sometimes risk losing business because of certain missing areas of expertise, says John Edson, managing marketing partner.
“We invited 100 firms, about 25 showed up,” he says of the first meeting.
“Thirteen joined and since then, two additional firms have signed up.”
The network meets quarterly. Everyone pays a $250 fee that is returned to them if they refer business to BPK&Z.
Those companies often don’t have specialists in some areas that the larger BPK&Z does. They attend continuing education sessions for reduced prices. One payoff for BPK&Z has been increased business from referrals more than $236,000 in new business has come its way since establishing the alliance, Edson says. BPK&Z will also do the same for partner firms.
“We’re giving them an opportunity to hear from people they might not otherwise hear from,” Edson says. “We have not lost any members except through a merger with our firm so it has been very successful.”
Political moves
Before starting her confectionary business Mary Leonard wasn’t sitting around making bonbons. She was a senior marketing manager at MCI, hooking up government agencies with telecom services.
She did, however, combine aspects of both roles this fall when her company, Chocolat Céleste, created bonbons bearing Republican logos and hired a political consultant to place those products in media kits at the Republican National Convention.
As the convention approached this fall in St. Paul, the company tookits product to the then-unemployed communications director for the MikeCiresi campaign, who happened to be a regular customer. The duo workedto create a media kit sent to the national press. Everyone at theconvention received a box of Republican chocolates, stamped with anelephant.
This wasn’t the 7-year-old company’s first foray into the politicalarena. The company sits in a St. Paul location between the campaignheadquarters for both Al Franken and Norm Coleman, vying for a U.S.Senate seat. Chocolat Céleste had created an Almond Al product (theonly one Leonard eats every day) that was featured on Air AmericaRadio, Franken’s former radio network, leading to the company’s biggestInternet day ever.
The moves also play off of Leonard’s past life, which includesserving as an appointed employee in the Perpich administration andhaving a former husband who ran for office.
“I do things that I think are a reflection of me and things I thinkare fun because that’s how I am able to create buzz and really enjoywhat I am doing,” she says. “I was senior marketing manager forgovernment at MCI so I had a lot of interaction with the House andSenate in Minnesota. My lawyer was Amy Klobuchar in that job and ourPR person was Cyndi Brucato,” now a U.S. senator and a TV news anchor,respectively, “so I am kind of entrenched in that world. I do this as areflection of what I do.”
The buzz the political season had on Chocolat Céleste was dramatic.The company was featured in the New York Times and made an appearanceon MSNBC. She also has run an advertisement on YouTube called the SweetSolution and has used social networking sites LinkedIn and Facebook toadvertise.
The company’s profile is not limited to politics, however. “We can put any image on chocolate,” Leonard says.
Sharing best practices
When College Nannies & Tutors Franchising started out communicationwas easy. But as the company expanded with locations on both coasts andthe Midwest it became harder to keep independent business owners on thesame page as the main office.
“Our role as the franchisor is to share best practices and help bethat business builder for franchisees,” says Joe Keeley, president andCEO of the Wayzata-based firm. “We have to figure out how to sharethose best practices. We found the best way to do that was to empowerfranchisees to help each other.”
So the company began utilizing technology and the Internet,launching CNet, the College Nannies & Tutors Network, as a placewhere all franchise owners and team members can go to participate inforums, blogs, and photo and document sharing.
“We tend to be further and further away from that kitchen table,”Keeley says, about his growing company. “It can get pretty lonely outthere.”
The site promotes peer-to-peer learning and creates a collegial atmosphere through the sharing of family photos.
The company took into consideration “my people, my voice, and mypajamas,” Keeley says. “My people” is the collection of differentinterest groups that have popped up. “My voice” is the ability of thefranchisor and the franchisee to discuss best practices. “My pajamas”has to do with the ability for anyone to access the site at any time,he explains.
“It’s created a 24-hour network where franchisees and their teammembers can jump on and be heard and get answers to their questions,”Keeley says.
Piggybacking on partners
Sonia St. Charles and Paul Clifford started Davenport Group just after9/11/2001 and the tech bubble burst. Despite the difficult environmentin which to start a data storage provider and consulting firm, the duogot off to a good start focusing on slow, sustained growth.
In 2006, they developed a strategic plan leveraging the growth of akey business partner, Compellent Technologies, and used the strategy toaccelerate the company’s growth from about $1.4 million in 2005 to $3.2million in 2007 with $6 million expected in 2008.
Davenport Group used the Web to market itself as an expert in allthings Compellent, the local and much larger company whose productsDavenport sells.
“We were a virtual unknown,” says Sonia St.Charles, CEO and co-founder. “We needed to stand out. We wanted to beseen as the go-to place.”
The social marketing tool is used to educate and inform current andpotential clients in need of information about data storagecapabilities. The Web site contains educational videos and unmoderateddiscussion groups, and Davenport drives traffic through targeted mediarelations and social networking. The site uses an authentic voice asopposed to “marketing-speak,” St. Charles says.
The strategy paid off. Web site traffic has grown by about 75percent in six months and page views doubled. Its statistics exceedsimilarly sized sites in Google Analytics benchmarking, she says.Visitors stay on the site for more than four minutes compared with a29-second average, the company says.
Furthermore, participation in blogs allows for links back to thesite and articles have been written about Davenport that have furtheredthe company’s reputation.
“We are viewed as Compellent experts around the country,” she says.
Celebrity buzz
WhenSt. Paul-based Icon Services Corp. started offering security protectionfor executives and superstars, CEO and founder Elijah Shaw knew thefirm would have a hard time getting noticed against larger,well-financed competitors such as Securitas Security Services USA Inc.,Vance Security USA and American Security Programs Inc.
It’s also a challenge standing out when security guards aren’t always top of mind among event planners.
“Our challenge in marketing is that our industry is kind of the lastthing people think of. When you do event planning everybody has tobudget for taking care of the people but the last thing you budget foris security,” says Andrea French, Icon’s office manager.
But the company and its founder do have a compelling story to tell.So Shaw, who was raised on the streets of inner-city Chicago and hasworked as a film director and nightclub bouncer, hired a publicrelations firm.
“The one thing we did that really packed a punch was hiring a marketing firm to tell our company’s story,” French says.
The company has garnered coverage in Portfolio, Inc., and BlackEnterprise magazines and has also provided services for the 2008Republican National Convention. Among its spokespeople are celebrityclientele including supermodel Naomi Campbell and comedian Chris Rock.
“When in doubt hire a professional,” French says.
Cannabis-based products have been increasingly available in Minnesota over the last six years. The opportunities in that space became even more prominent last year when the state legislature voted to become the 23rd state to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana for Minnesotans over 21.
When Super Bowl LII was played at U.S. Bank Stadium in February 2018, Alex Tittle didn’t play a down on the field, but he had more than three-years of impact on the experience.
Unemployment in Minnesota sits below 3 percent. Labor market participation is high. Airport traffic counts across the country are approaching and even surpassing pre-pandemic levels, so consumers are still spending money. Consumer confidence, reportedly spurred by the strong labor market, also seems at least cautiously on the rise.
