Letter From the Editor

To-do Here’s a good way to evaluate the progress of your company: see which how-to articles in this annual special edition make it onto your to-do list. For the fourth year, we’ve included articles contributed by local experts on a wide variety of topics....

Dr. Gary Smith drew knowing laughs when he offered this truth about operating a small business: Survival mode is easier than growth mode, becawhen 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.

This month, Upsize begins an exciting new project: a search for the best ways to build a small business, with a big party in October to recognize smart business growth and the people who make it happen.

We?re launching the Upsize Business Builder Awards & Seminar, presented by accounting firm Wipfli. Every Minnesota-based business with under 100 employees can take part, so no excuses: This is your chance to get recognition for your company?s brilliant moves.

Would you join a company that raised nearly $70 million while it was posting only $800,000 in annual revenue?

Would you accept the job of chief financial officer after it had burned through all that cash except for $6 million?

Would you believe a turnaround was possible if it was losing $2 1/2 million a quarter?

Lorie Line, of Lorie Line Music of Wayzata, remembers the day the CEO of Musicland called.

She had borrowed $2,500 from her husband, traveled to California to produce her own album of piano music, and convinced a few small distributors to start selling it after big retailers turned her down. Buoyed by her first royalty check of $350, she had just quit her $40-a-day job playing the piano in Dayton?s department stores.

?The Mall of America was under construction? in the early 1990s, she said, ?and one day the CEO of Musicland visited the store and said, ?What?s the best-selling item?? and the employees said, ?We don?t have her. Everyone wants Lorie Line.?

Calling all small-business owners who would like to win expert help to build their companies: You can now enter the Upsize Growth Challenge 2005, presented by Fredrikson & Byron, our unique contest that selects three winning presidents and matches them with experts to help them grow.

Picture Mark McGowan, owner of McGowan Development, alone in his SUV in the Lake Harriet Bandshell parking lot on a cold December day last year. Between appointments, and staring at the Minneapolis landmark, he realized it needed a paint job to forestall much more expensive repairs.

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.

Since he opened the glamorous Pagoda spa in Minneapolis last December, co-owner Tom Schmidt had been flying high.
He told Upsize in an interview published in May about his vision for the spa, which cost nearly $4 million to build and open. It was the third leg of his growing business along with Urban Retreat and Schmidty?s.
By June The Pagoda was closed, and Schmidt and partner Jeff Lillemoe were neck-deep in attorneys. They were sued by John Johannson, who owns the building where The Pagoda was housed and who has a 30 percent ownership stake in the company.

A visitor to Upsize?s new offices noted the beautiful surroundings, attractive furniture, lush views and mostly empty space, then remarked: ?You must have big plans for the future of Upsize!?
Don?t we all have big plans for the future of our businesses? Can?t we envision the day when legions of employees fruitfully drive the global enterprises that our companies have become? Can?t we see them filling up our offices and asking for more, more, more space?