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.
“While I thought initially that this would be of short, successful duration,
it’s obviously turned out to be more successful than any vision I had.”
-Dick Schulze, Best Buy Co. Inc.
FOR BIGGEST UNDERSTATEMENT from a Back Page subject in 2006 and so far in 2007, the award goes to Dick Schulze.
The chairman of Best Buy Co. Inc. in Richfield, quoted above and featured in this space in November 2006, has built much more than a company of short, successful duration.
His best advice for entrepreneurs is worth heeding, given his 40-year journey building the largest consumer electronics retailer in the world.
“If it’s successful and it’s working really well, be concerned about it, because the lackadaisical things that follow will break your back,” Schulze said.
Schulze and nine more local business owners shared their stories as Back Page subjects since February 2006. As always since the column began in October 2002, they were asked three questions.
Which is more important, talent or experience? is question No. 1. Seven said talent, two said experience, and one gave his own answer: desire.
That last response was from Horst Rechelbacher another well-known local entrepreneur who started Aveda Corp., the hair products empire, sold it to Estee Lauder, and now is launching Intelligent Nutrients.
The unorthodox answer was just one of many he gave during an interview that ricocheted from drowning polar bears to corporate dynasties. It’s in the April 2007 issue.
Representing the majority who favor talent was Bill White, who founded Law & Politics magazine and the SuperLawyers ranking of best attorneys.
“Talent,” White said, “because if you don’t have talent you can have all the experience and just keep doing the same boring stuff over and over.”
But Sue Jeffers, owner of Stub & Herb’s restaurant and bar in Minneapolis, is one of two who chose experience. “It’s too easy to waste talent,” she said.
Jeffers opposed the smoking ban in Hennepin County, and ran for governor, competing for the Republican nomination with Tim Pawlenty. She lost both battles.
“Which is more important, money or ideas?” is question No. 2, asked of all Back Page subjects. Only two of the 10 said money, while the other eight favored ideas.
Lee Jones, former CEO of Inlet Medical Inc., who took the company over in 1997 when it was essentially bankrupt and sold it to CooperSurgical last year, thinks money is more important.
“Without the money you can’t do anything with the ideas,” she said.
Horst, too, favored money, although he said both are needed.
The rest chose ideas, including Bill White again: A pile of cash can just be set on fire and lost. I think cash is a problem sometimes. The best decisions are made when you’re hungry.
Pam Krank, owner of The Credit Department in St. Paul, favors ideas, too. ?I don?t think money is more important than anything. That’s low on my list.
Her view is despite, or perhaps because of, her company’s troubled times, when she lost a major contract and spent more than a year battling back. She said in May 2006 that the hard times put everything in perspective for her.
Ken Koch, Business Resource Management, chose ideas, too, but with a qualifier: Knowing good ideas from bad makes the difference, really. He shut down a second business, a wine distributorship, last year because its future looked grim.
What’s one thing they should’ve told you about being an entrepreneur? is question No. 3, asked of all Back Page subjects, and once again it yielded a rich trove of business wisdom.
Ken Koch told a sad truth: That it can be very lonely. Most everyone around you will be against you in one way or another.
Bill White was positive: ?How much fun it is, so I could have started earlier.
Pam Krank was a bit apologetic: “Never stop marketing and selling every day of your life. They told me, but I didn’t listen.”
Kate Knutson, a veterinarian who co-owns Pet Crossing in Bloomington, talked about the challenges of working with a partner to build a business.
Because she was also in the throes of building the beautiful facility, she had practical thoughts about heating, ventilation and air conditioning: “Your HVAC system will never work, no matter how much money you spend on it,” Knutson said.
Horst was philosophical, not surprisingly: “Be a student. Never pretend to be a master, and pay attention all the time.”
Lee Jones was surprised that one thing hadn?t changed when she left the giant Medtronic Inc. to join Inlet Medical: There’s still politics involved. I thought leaving a large corporation, I’d leave politics behind, she said.
“The politics you have in the corporate community is replaced by the politics in the venture community. There still are people you have to be nice to, and it’s much less defined.”
Steve Bloom, CEO of Pragmatek Consulting Group in Minneapolis, described the growth that so many entrepreneurs have to go through, as they become a true CEO of a growing enterprise:
“At some point you will need to be a manager, Bloom says. Starting a business, you just charge and you’ll hit the wall one day and have to be a manager. And no one ever told me that.”
Sona Mehring, who left the information technology consulting profession to start CaringBridge, a nonprofit that helps people in medical crises start Web pages, shared a truth with which most business owners agree: “That you’re never done. You’re always thinking like an entrepreneur.”
For telling truths that speak to all owners of growing companies, the award goes to these 10 Back Page subjects.
The use of fractional executives — those hired by companies on contract to work a fraction of the hours at less cost than full-time hires — has been on the rise for years. That accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. John Arms, co-founder of Voyageur U, helped establish the organization to help educate free agents on what it takes to make it as a fractional executive. He’s now put that knowledge into print, recently releasing the book “Consult Your Way to a Full-Time Job.” Arms joined Upsize Minnesota Editor Andrew Tellijohn to talk about how the book can help potential fractional executives carve their new paths.
Branding expert Kate DiLeo wrote a book about how branding agencies need to do less storytelling and more listening to better meet their clients’ needs.
