Cover Story

Dan Miller is building Mulberrys Garment Care, a toxin-free dry cleaning business, not only to be the type of place where he wanted to bring his clothes when he was wearing suits for management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. He also believes he can transform the industry in the same way that Starbucks transformed the cup of coffee – especially if he can attract venture capital to invest in new technology. This student of business said he learned hard lessons when he decided to strike out on his own.

Kyle Kottke sounds older than his 33 years when he talks about how he grows his business. He likes things simple. He carries debt only on trucks/trailers. He won’t invest in a new building because the return on investment stinks. He won’t use future cash flow to pay for things today. But the company’s results make him seem like a young hotshot: with his two brothers, he has managed to double the size of his family-owned trucking company in five years, and he is actively working on plans to do it again.

When Lisa Bollin, CEO and director of design at Cowgirl Tuff Co. in Cokato, set out to launch a line of women’s jeans, she bought and ripped apart jeans from 12 different brands to measure the widely varying fits, then made her own size chart rather than using the retailing standard. The result, she says, is jeans that fit women of every size.

She also targeted the customers she describes as herself: barrel racers, horse fanatics and other “cowgirls” who couldn’t find jeans that fit from traditional Western-clothing retailers, never mind high-fashion jeans with rhinestones on the pockets.

Her company posted revenue of $3.02 million in 2008, the first year Cowgirl Tuff sold jeans in addition to its original line of screen-printed tops, $4.79 million in 2009, and $7.8 million in 2010. Her authenticity, retailing savvy and devotion to profitable growth make her the Upsize Business Builder of the Year.

I See Me! Inc. is one of two winners of this year’s Upsize Growth Challenge, and CEO and President Maia Haag has been working with experts and her team to reach an ambitious goal: doubling revenue to $10 million in five years. With company co-founder and husband Allan Haag, she described to Upsize what will mean the most if they get there: twice as many children will get their books’ message about self-esteem.

When Upsize began preparing articles about how to buy or sell a company, we sought business owners who had recently done either or both. Two interviews stood out, which we present here: Buyer Warren Stock stayed on as president for an uncomfortable time, then decided last year to buy Central Roofing Co. from the same corporate parent that now wanted to shed assets. Seller Steve McFarland, who built technology consulting firm Orbit Systems from scratch with two partners, diligently kept in touch with industry contacts who expressed interest in buying him out along the way, and circled back to new owner MindShift Technologies when his partners wanted out but he planned to stay in the game with less financial risk.

Most troubled companies think the problem is sales, says Rick Lowenberg, meaning that they need more of them. But usually the problem is too many sales at a too-low margin. He developed these and other basic tenets of business success as a turnaround expert at more than a hundred companies, most notably Minnesota Elevator Inc. where he still serves as president. Now he is focusing his acumen on Highland Electric, an electrical service contractor in which he bought a 50 percent stake and became an owner for the first time in 2008. Any owner can apply his ideas-including a dictum to write just a handful of simple goals for only one year at a time-to shoring up their own enterprises.

Dave Dahl has been forecasting the weather for St. Paul-based Hubbard Broadcasting for more than 30 years. Four years ago he decided to bring a personalized forecasting tool straight to customers via the Internet, and co-founded a company with his son, Andy Dahl, to sell the tool to media outlets around the country.

Tom and Suzy Boerboom both have had long careers in the health care business, he as an executive with various long-term care providers, a role that he continues today as CEO of Mission Health, and she as a registered nurse and customer service expert.

They bought, operated and successfully sold a Curves franchise several years ago, the health club for women with outlets around the world. That experience, plus several years of ruminating on the needs of fellow baby boomers, led them to create in 2009 their new venture: Welcyon, a health club for people age 50 and over.

“I’m looking at a cornfield right now. I can look out both windows and see cornfields,” says Jeff Taxdahl, president of Thread Logic Inc., when reached by phone. The nine-year-old, $1.2-million company sells apparel with embroidered logos to businesses nationwide from rented space in Scott County, near Jordan.

Earth Wizards Inc. is one of two winners of this year’s Upsize Growth Challenge, and founder Stacy Anderson’s tactics to build her $3-million company are detailed in the story that follows this interview. Upsize Editor Beth Ewen sat down with Anderson in October to learn more about her all-consuming passion: the quality of water and what her company is doing to improve it. Along the way Anderson revealed vast technical knowledge, a Zen-like business philosophy, and a surprising hankering for the sweet smell of blacktop.