Letter From the Editor

Kam Talebi’s Crave restaurants are sleek and stylish, with beautiful people lining the sushi bar or basking in the sun on plush couches outdoors. When he opens a new Crave, he throws a big party and makes a splash in whichever new development he has targeted for growth, which always features big-name luxury retailers flanking Crave on either side.

“Of all the ideas I’ve heard here today, I think mine is the best,” said the long-ago boss after a mandatory day-long retreat involving all managers. With one sentence he killed the enthusiasm generated by hours of brainstorming, and torpedoed his chances of motivating his team to start something fresh.

“It’s fantastic,” says Nic Thomley, CEO of Pinnacle Services, about his company’s new building in northeast Minneapolis. “We have a dog, we have swings, we have a foam pit.”

Is the recession making us slap-happy, so sick of bad economic news that we’re getting the giggles?

Never has my green plastic purse looked so tacky than during an interview and tour with Jen Guarino. Her company, J.W. Hulme Co. in St. Paul, makes gorgeous, timeless handbags and luggage out of hefty, aromatic leather.

Just when the economic news was getting too glum to bear, I started in early January calling dozens of local small-business owners, to prepare stories for this print edition and our March edition of Upsize Online.

Here are three lessons I learned at the Upsize Business Builder Awards & Seminar in October.

Those two words are always the first out of my mouth whenever I talk to local business owners. Now I?m proud to say it?s our turn to roll out something new.

?I do not watch the news nor read the grim headlines. My personal news ?boycott? has worked well for these past 28 years, through up and down cycles.?

At my 20th high school reunion several years ago, they called me ?Tree,? that charming nickname from the class of 1980.

At the reception my husband was way more popular than I, just as back in high school Jody and Becky and Polly were.