Letter From the Editor

?The company?s controllable. It?s not running us, we?re running it,? says Tom Meacham, owner of Landmark Creations, which makes huge inflatables for sports teams and high-profile events.
Meacham is in an enviable position, as owners know who have tried to wrestle their company onto a manageable growth path.

The three winners of this year?s Upsize Growth Challenge came to the first workshop seeking advice from our panel of experts. They ended up sharing an impressive amount of wisdom themselves.

Consider the idea that sales growth inevitably slows ? one of those business truisms that sounds logical on paper but feels bad in real life.

?The way we succeed in work and in life is the same. It?s principally about knowing your purpose, and keeping your promises around that.? So says Lois Quam, who became an unexpected source of wisdom for small-business owners who push themselves around the clock.

I say unexpected because Quam is not a small-business owner. She is CEO of Ovations, a $6.5-billion division of UnitedHealth Group in Minnetonka. Her husband, Matt Entenza, is the DFL leader in the state House. They have three young sons. It?s as close to a 24/7 lifestyle as anyone?s likely to experience.

Suppose you had a party to celebrate your company?s failures, and 400 people came. That?s what David Kristal did several months after he exhorted employees at the Embers restaurant chain to try new ideas.

Running a small business is like preparing for holiday get-togethers. The end goal remains the same year after year: foster better relationships, or grow your circle of close contacts, or just remain standing when it?s all over. But everything else changes.

Do you have a dream for your company? Do you want to expand to other cities? Move to bigger headquarters? Hire more employees? Launch a new product? Start doing business overseas? Beef up your e-commerce offerings? Pump up your sales growth rate? Raise money?

Upsize is launching a new contest designed to help three local business owners make that dream come true. It?s called the Upsize Growth Challenge, presented by Fredrikson & Byron.

The first Upsize B.Y.O.S. party was a success. That stands for bring your own spatula.

Readers may recall the editor?s note in our first issue, October 2002, in which I cited an escape from silly meetings as one benefit to starting a small business. My whipping boy was the spatula meeting at my old job, where department heads talked about who would bring utensils to the company picnic, and other heady topics.

Jim Graves looks at me, his cell phone glued to his ear. ?I?m on hold,? he says, indicating that I should go on with my questions.

We?re sitting at a table in Cosmos, the restaurant in his brand-new hotel, Le Meridien, in downtown Minneapolis. This place is the bomb. They even have real linen towels, rolled up and placed in tiny wooden cubicles, in the bathroom.

I?ve been interviewing him for about seven minutes for this issue?s Back Page article. So far someone has asked for my drink order four times (just water), brought a bread basket, asked for our lunch order (we?re not eating,) and presented with a flourish two folders about Le Meridien, as if they were plates of foie gras.

Meanwhile Graves, the president and CEO of Graves Hospitality, which owns Le Meridien, has taken two phone calls, apologizing all the way. ?Have you heard of John Kerry?? he asks me. Yes, I?ve heard of the Democratic hopeful for president. ?I?m on a steering committee supporting him, and he?s in town earlier than planned.?

If you rode a Segway to work today ? you know, those big-wheeled, motorized carts that you stand on, looking faintly embarrassed as your clothes billow about and you jostle for space with the SUVs ? then you?re an early adopter of technology.
If you?ve got a box of PDAs, or personal digital assistants, that you?ve tried and discarded until finding just the right one, you too are likely a technophile. You?re unlikely to be overwhelmed by the vast number of technological choices available.

As a set-up to our conversation featured in this month?s Back Page, I congratulated Fred Wall. He?s the chairman of The Wall Cos. in Minneapolis, a commercial real estate developer whose latest projects include the Stone Arch Apartments and the Minneapolis Innovation Center. He?s also chairman of Highland Banks, with seven Minnesota branches and $320 million in assets.