Thinking big

DOUG HUSEBY has more than 15 startups under his belt, and at age 65 he’s hard at work rolling out his most ambitious project yet.

Best-known as the founder and CEO of Becker Furniture World, Huseby painstakingly grew the store from 500 square feet to 300,000 square feet and current sales of more than $45 million. He started out with no-name brands, competed with giant furniture businesses and invented new ways to grow.

In 2006 ? faced with the housing slowdown and rising gas prices ? Huseby had to figure out how to differentiate his store from other big-box furniture stores and justify driving to the shop in Becker.&nbsp

Huseby took a risk and invested millions of dollars to expand his store into a ?home center,? offering everything for the home under one roof, including paint, siding, lighting, home electronics and appliances. His gamble paid off: First-quarter 2008 sales were up 19 percent. He?s now in talks to expand the concept into the Twin Cities and perhaps nationally.

Huseby?s latest passion is health and wellness and he launched several wellness companies, including Common Sense Wellness. He wants to change the corporate health system by systemizing health care into ?wellness care,? using medical doctors, homeopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists and new technology.&nbsp

As with furniture, he?s going against the grain and offering it all under one roof. He installed a small wellness center at Becker Furniture to help employees combat colds and flu, diagnose body imbalances and help with back pain. By using his protocol, he says he saved $100,000 in health care costs in one year.&nbsp

Huseby opened the Common Sense Wellness nonprofit center in Wayzata to continue testing his procedures and launched Common Sense Health Products to create nutritional and healthy-living products. Huseby?s mission is to get health care/wellness initiatives into other companies. Challenges exist, including raising capital, hiring the right people and legal issues. Huseby, however, says every startup has ?muck.?

?Right now, I just say, ?Bring it on,? ? he says. ?Just give every damn problem, and I?ll solve it.?

Doug Huseby?s entrepreneurial spirit dates back to age 7, while growing up in Duluth. While other kids picked onions and lettuce and bunched them for farmers, he tilled his own garden, grew his own vegetables, hired a neighbor boy to work for him and sold his produce to supermarkets.

?I didn?t like working for someone else ? even back then,? Huseby says with a smile.

Huseby credits his father as his mentor. ?He could sell anything and he taught me selling techniques,? Huseby says.

Armed with shrewd selling skills, Huseby launched multiple startups?&nbsp involving real estate, nonprofits,&nbsp furniture and his newestendeavor, health and wellness.

?The way I look at it is everybody has a gift and a passion,? Huseby says. ?If you can match those two, now you?re excited.?

For each venture, he starts with a vision, but admits there?s always muck.

?You start out with an idea. Then you do a pilot and hitroadblocks and have to go in and figure out how to correct it,? he says.

For example, when Huseby launched Becker Furniture in 1978, hefocused on wholesale distribution, light manufacturing and limitedretail sales in Becker, 40 miles northwest of the Twin Cities.&nbsp

?I was a good salesman, but I didn?t have the tools,? he says.?I had 500 square feet with six trailers backed in with a bunch offurniture that wasn?t even name-brand. I had to figure everything out.You make mistakes but try to go to the next level. And in a newbusiness, you can?t pay big wages and your infrastructure is very weak,so you start out with a lot of adversity.?

Huseby says he had no money and limited skills when he launchedBecker Furniture. ?It was on a shoestring, but I knew how to sell, sowe were selling some product, but the manufacturing part isunbelievably hard,? he says.&nbsp

?We?d have a million problems ? the raw materials wouldn?t showup, the workers wouldn?t show up, the workers wouldn?t get theirproduction out, you?d have quality problems.?

Huseby recalls shipping a of desks to Texas. ?They used thewrong glue, and they all fell apart. They shipped them back and I lostthousands of dollars ? My wife would say, ?You?re better in marketing,sales and finance and here you are manufacturing,? but somehow I had toget it out of my system.?

Once he concentrated on retail sales, things improved. ?Peoplecame to Becker to see what we were doing. We had 500 square feet andtrailers, and I?d have a flashlight and show people bedroom sets. Mycompetition had 50,000-square-foot stores with brand names.&nbsp

?But I started doing an addition every year. I would add spaceand take on more products. It took many years of losing money and tonsof problems, but as long as you believe in something, you can?t giveup.?

One of Huseby?s biggest problems was he kept running out ofspace, but he had to expand slowly, becahe financed the business withpersonal money.

?Eventually, Becker got bigger each year, and the parts Icouldn?t do ? like operations and accounting ? I put a team together,but that?s a learning process,? he says. ?You?re not real good at thatat first. An entrepreneur is probably a bad manager, becayou?re socreative on your vision, and then you don?t have time to get into thedetails. You learn to let go and delegate.?

He also says the lower you are on your startup, the more muckyou have. ?The entrepreneur has to be shoveling muck all day and takeon all of the hard stuff and just get it out of the way,? he says. ?Itcan be terrible stuff. You got financial problems, you got peopleproblems, you got technology problems. It can seem like everything?sagainst you. But you have to be positive and get back up to what yourvision is.?

Huseby faced a big obstacle in 2006 when the housing slump hit.Many stores? furniture sales were flat, and gas prices were increasing.Huseby recognized that in order to keep thriving, he had to offer morethan other big-box furniture stores.

Becker had to become a destinationstore and he expanded into new categories such as pools and spas,cabinetry, lighting, paint, fireplaces and kitchen appliances. Hewanted to become a ?home center? offering everything under one roof.&nbsp

?We changed our whole concept,? he says. ?With people havinghard times with their budgets, they?re not going to drive 40 miles togo shop just for furniture ? A homebuilder once told me that if youcould have everything in one building, you?d have a home run. So weredefined how we do business and now can justify driving to Beckerinstead of 10 locations in the metro.?

The store grew to 300,000 square feet and Becker Furniturepartnered with operators in home electronics, appliances, flooring,building supplies and other categories, which are operated by localretailers or distributors. The expansion opened in July 2007 andincludes a $1 million furnished ?Idea House.?

Huseby admits that expanding was risky, but it would have beeneven riskier to have done nothing. His strategy caught the attention ofthe furniture industry.
Ray Allegrezza, editor in chief of Furniture Today magazine, invitedHuseby to a national Leadership Conference last November to participateon a panel called ?Hometown Heroes.?

?We found his all-under-one-roof concept very innovative for thisindustry,? Allegrezza says. ?I?ve seen no one else in furniture dothis, and the types of departments he?s expanded into ? fireplaces,swimming pools and landscaping ? are awesome.?&nbsp

Allegrezza says that before the expansion, there was nothing todistinguish Becker Furniture from other big boxes. ?But this caused alot of companies and the overall industry to take notice and say, ?Holymackerel!? ?

Now Huseby wants to spin off home centers nationally. His goalis to be $100 million per store, and he?s talking with potentialinvestors.

?That?s my entrepreneurial vision, but then you?ll always getpeople who?ll tell you it won?t work,? he says. ?They say we?re in arecession. Becawe?re so tired of hearing that, we joke around and saywe?ve decided not to participate in the recession.

?In first-quarter, our sales were up 19 percent, and everybodyelse?s were down. When times are tough, you have to be creative,tighten your belt and adapt.? Becker Furniture employs 200 to 250people. Huseby expects 2008 sales to be $45 million to $55 million.

Another unconventional move for Huseby is taking a unique approach tohealth care for his employees. This dates back to 1986 ? the same yearhis mother, who had arterial sclerosis, underwent surgery.

?It didn?t go well and she was in intensive care for 13 days,? hesays. ?She had a tube down her throat and was choking.&nbsp I watched allthese people in the hospital. I was 43 and hadn?t been thinking aboutdeath or health, and I was doing everything wrong ? eating wrong,drinking too much coffee ? I started thinking that I didn?t want to endup like the people in the hospital, so I started taking action on ourfamily?s health and doing corporate wellness at Becker.?

Huseby up a kitchen at Becker and hired a cook to squeeze freshfruit and vegetable juices. He later opened a small caf? with healthyfoods and beverages. He encouraged employees to take exercise breaks.He put in water coolers with filtered water and air purifiers.&nbsp

This led to a corporate wellness program that includes anon-site clinic where doctors, chiropractors and acupuncturistsoccasionally practice. He offers smoking-cessation programs, wellnessseminars and free health screenings. Healthy eating, exercise, cleanair and water, vitamins, minerals and other natural remedies are keycomponents to Huseby?s system.

?We did common-sense stuff,? he says. ?Then all of a sudden, myinsurance guy comes to me in 2002 and says our insurance costs weregoing down, when everyone else?s were going up.? By 2007 ? through hiscorporate wellness approach ? Huseby saved more than $100,000 inclaims. He says his health-care costs were cut between 10 percent and40 percent per year over a five-year period.

Huseby””””””””s wellness program grew into a pilotavailable to the general public called the Common Sense Wellness centerin Wayzata, where he?s been testing and proving his techniques. Hisclinic offers high-tech disc decompression technology to work withpeople with back pain. He offers health screenings that can detectwhether people are at risk for&nbsp osteoporosis or vascular disease.Common Sense Wellness works with doctors, chiropractors, massagetherapists, physical therapists and other alternative health providers.

Huseby has launched Common Sense Health Products, which creates nutritional and healthy-living products.

?We?ve been doing this for years and our studies show thatpeople are getting better and health care costs are down,? he says.?The No. 1 cost of health care is going to the doctor forprescriptions. We have technology to find out what?s going on, and withhomeopathic and specialty products we can balance the body. The No. 2cost is back surgery, which runs $50,000 to $100,000. My back protocolcosts on average $1,900. We?ve eliminated back pain and the need forprescriptions for over 200 people.?

Huseby?s plan is to roll out Ultimate Wellness Centersnationally that offer everything under one roof for health andwellness, including MDs, homeopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists,physical therapists, massage therapists, health screenings, back painmediation, thermography, laser dentistry, and healthy foods andproducts.

?I do everything with common sense,? Huseby says. ?Everybodyelse that?s doing corporate wellness looks at it through their tools.An MD does surgery and drugs ? that?s his toolbox. A chiropractor doesmanual adjustments and therapy. Acupuncturists needles. They?re alldoing their piece of the puzzle, and they?ve never been able to worktogether ? until now.?

Jeff Mitchell, vice president of investments at Exit PankoninRealty, says what makes Huseby stand out is his ?phenomenal vision?both at Becker and now with his wellness clinics. ?He?s also anabsolute fighter. Doug is going to make it he does whatever it takes.?Mitchell is Huseby?s real estate agent helping locate wellness clinicsites.

Mitchell says Huseby wants people to be proactive with theirhealth, and he?s ?going against the grain and against a big healthsystem. He has proven his wellness protocol works at Becker,? Mitchellsays. ?He can say, ?I?ve done this and it equals X?. That?s huge. Theproof is in the pudding.?

Huseby hopes to raise $50 million to $100 million to expand hisconcept ?right,? but says he could do it with $10 million. He says hehas a major investment-banking firm bringing in potential investors.Huseby already invested several million dollars of personal money,becahe says it?s such a big puzzle and each piece had to be researchedand proven.

?My back program took five years to prove out and my cold andflu program took eight years. It?s a very complex vision. You have tohave a huge passion and take a lot of setbacks.?

Next he needs to hire the right people and train them. Dr.Richard Hansen, D.M.D., says that?s one of Huseby?s strengths. Hansenis director of the Center for Advanced Dentistry in Fullerton,California, and a research consultant for Huseby.

?I?ve watched him interact with people and he can bring out thebest in them,? Hansen says. ?He has a unique ability to recognize thathe?s not the best at doing all jobs, but he can seek out, hire anddevelop people in key positions. Doug is a really big-picture guy andselects good people, who help him orchestrate the whole thing.?

Hansen also says Huseby will not let anything hold him back.?Nothing is impossible for Doug,? he says. ?He has no obstacles ? Doughas made a lot of money and could easily retire and live the good life.But he wants to leave something good behind. He has a burning passionfor health and wellness. It?s not about making money.?

Of course, with any new concept, there are skeptics.&nbsp

?I?m doing things with health that even big institutions can?tdo,? Huseby says. ?I?m dealing with legal issues and policies and theparadigm thinking of everyone. I?m saying the world is round and manyare thinking it?s square. But I?ve been able to get an MD to work witha chiropractor to work with a naturopath. My pilot is working.? He?sworking with attorneys to ensure that all practitioners stay withintheir standard of practice.

Huseby will offer clients a menu of services, products andtechnologies matching the company?s needs. For example, he?s workingwith a construction company that sends him one or two employees a monthwith back issues.

He wants to open three big wellness centers, six smallerclinics and have mobile units going out to clients. He can also doscreenings over the Internet.

Huseby says initiatives to prevent illness and promote healthsignificantly impact a company?s bottom line. ?Basically, for every $1you spend on corporate wellness, you get $10 back,? he says. ?Insurancecosts keep rising and are the only thing companies can?t control ontheir balance sheets, and I can.?

Amy Langer, co-founder of SALO, a financial staffing firm inMinneapolis, agrees that health insurance costs are out of control, andher firm has been implementing wellness efforts.

?Insurance costs are absolutely crazy they continue to go upyear over year. A lot of companies are looking at how to get their armsaround it,? Langer says. ?Corporate America is a culture of long hoursand not a lot of emphasis on health and well-being. We looked at how wecould create a culture where people worked hard, but also had fun andwhere we could incorporate wellness. One thing we did was replace theoffice candy dish with fresh fruit.?

Also, SALO underwent a study with Mayo Clinic, which studiedthe benefits of simultaneously walking and working. SALO installed 16walking workstations, which basically are desks mounted over treadmillsthat allow employees to hold meetings, send e-mails, check invoices ?all while burning calories.

?Employers need to think more creatively about employees?health, as expensive health care continues to be an issue forbusinesses,? Langer says. ?You also need to look at the side benefits,including more focused and energetic employees.?
Langer is intrigued by Huseby?s concept.&nbsp

?Whatever we can do as employers to help the general well-beingof our employees is awesome,? she says. ?We would consider something ofa wellness clinic. Our approach is we like to be on the cutting edgeand innovative, but we wouldn?t want to be too ?out there? withalternative medicine. It it?s reasonable, we?d look at it.?

Bernie Mackell, president of Mactavish Benefits Inc.,understands Huseby?s concept. He?s an insurance broker putting some ofHuseby?s services into health plans.

?My job is to contain or lower health care costs for companies,and I need to engage every possible way of getting that done,? Mackellsays. ?We want to empower consumers to make the best choices for thebest care. We will continue to traditional care, but I believe the big,bureaucratic legislative systems and the prescription companies are soinfluential that they don?t allow consumers to have options on howtheir care is determined. A way for Doug to really prosper is foremployers and their employees to have alternative care options that areas clear and easy as traditional care.

?There?s a lot of gloom and doom in health care,? Mackell adds,?but there are people like Doug who have truly dedicated their careersto turn the system around.?

David Durenberger, chair of the National Institute of HealthPolicy at the University of St. Thomas and former U.S. senator, doesn?tknow Huseby personally, but is aware of what he?s doing with health.&nbsp

?When I chaired the Minnesota Citizens Forum on Health CareCosts, we talked to people throughout the state about how to reducehealth care costs. People kept pointing us to Becker Furniture,?Durenberger says.

He says Huseby has a simple but logical concept: Hold healthcare costs down by keeping people healthy and working with people whoincrease costs. ?Not many people have been willing to do that.? hesays. ?It looks like folks like Doug Huseby are.?

Corporate wellness initiatives, Durenberger says, are the leastexpensive means to reduce a company?s health care costs and enhanceproductivity of employees.
?Doug was ahead of his time,? he adds. ?He?s been doing things that heknows are right for his employees. Now he?d like to spread the gospel.?

Huseby’s biggest obstacles include getting all of the infrastructurein place to deal with multiple clients, hiring and training people, andgetting professional management.

?One doctor wanted $300,000 a year base. How can I hire himwhen the clinic doesn?t even take in that much?? he asks. ?So I have tothem as consultants until we?re ready. So when the Ultimate Center isfinanced, I can put those key people in place and pay them. Also, Ihave one group with 168 companies that wants to start learning what Ido, so I have to start getting the infrastructure to do that, Wayzata is the only working clinic right now.?

He says there are so many pieces to the puzzle. ?I?m attacking1,000 pieces and trying to be good at 1,000 pieces,? he says. ?Iinvented products that are personal care and cleaning that nochemicals. That?s a big job. I?m working to eliminate back surgery andback pain … Everyone else focuses on one piece.&nbsp

?My big problem is there are so many pieces to perfect. Peoplesaid why didn?t you just concentrate on one thing? Then what if in myfurniture business, I just concentrated on dining room sets. If Ididn?t have everything in there, I couldn?t get people in there.?

Huseby says he probably should be retired, but he?s having too much fun working.

?If you?re retired, you can either play shuffle board or playcards or you can play business,? he says. ?The worst way to punish mewould be to say, ?If you don?t reach this goal, you have to go out andplay 18 holes of golf,? and then I?d work my butt off.?