2-minute meeting

Minnesota Entrepreneurshosts series: ‘Ouch! Mybusiness is growing’

pr*******@**************rs.org; www.mn-entrepreneurs.org

Mackenzie figures not being dead isgood reason to party

“They’re dead and you’re not. Got a better reason to party?”

So read the invite for the first Dead Presidents Party, thrown by Mackenzie Marketing in late February. Also featured were 37 portraits of same. The invitation continued:

“A hugely non-partisan Presidents Day event dedicated to showing off our redesigned offices and uniting a divided nation. Come eat American food, drink American drink, and honor 37 men who’ll never again make a wrong decision that could ruin your life.”

Andrew Mackenzie, president and CEO, says the party was an excuse to show off their new space, which has undergone a complete redesign by 20 Below Studio in Minneapolis. “The retrofit was an entirely different idea. We wanted to take out all the walls that push you into your offices, and create collaborative spaces.”

The result is “cluster areas” in the hallways. “Our walls are now whiteboards,” he says. “We wanted to show it off. Plus, once Valentine’s Day is over winter is just plain bleak.  It’s a time when it’s fairly morose.”

He credits Tim Naylor, creative director, for coming up with the idea. “He holds a Ph.D. in history. He’s a fabulous historian,” Mackenzie says.

“It sounds mean and irreverent at first, and we had one client who really got bent” over the dead presidents idea, Mackenzie says. But they also had more than 200 positive responses from people who thought the idea was fun.

It’s not meant to disrespect presidents, Mackenzie says, but rather to honor them. They are, after all, dead.

Try to make it to: The Dead Presidents Party is slated to be even bigger next year, when Mackenzie also celebrates its 10th anniversary: Andrew Mackenzie, Mackenzie Marketing: 763.417.7300;  an****@****************ng.com; www.mackenziemarketing.com

Former banker brings Ladies Who Launchto Twin Cities area

Once a banker at M&I, then briefly a professor at St. John’s and St. Ben’s, Margrette Newhouse is now the regional director of a new business incubator for women.

It’s called Ladies Who Launch, started in 2005 on the East and West coasts. Newhouse started the local chapter last October.

So far nine women have gone through the initial incubator session, which is followed up by a meeting every six weeks to check progress

. “The incubator is very intensive on the front end, and then you can plug in and plug out,” she says. It takes eight hours, unfolding over four days, and costs $300. The ongoing sessions then cost $400 for the year. Access to national resources via the Web site is included.

“The nine women I’ve worked with so far, they’ve gone well beyond what they originally thought,” Newhouse says.

 Newhouse says Ladies Who Launch continues a common thread in her career. “It is very fun. A lot of my whole makeup is to be able to help uncover opportunity, and then plugging people into resources,” she says.

Try to make it to: Margrette Newhouse, Ladies Who Launch: 612.209.7629;  mn*******@*************ch.com; www.ladieswholaunch.com

First Franchise Spectacularshowcases wide variety of outlets, including offbeat

The idea was to showcase her business’s services and also as many different franchise businesses as possible, Carolyn Herfurth says.

So she hosted the first Franchise Spectacular in February, a kind of trade show at which more than 35 exhibitors showed attendees that franchise opportunities go well beyond Maaco and Fantastic Sam’s.

Herfurth operates The Entrepreneur’s Source, a franchised operation itself that helps people identify and purchase the best franchise for them.

“I’ve got four other colleagues here in the Twin Cities. We thought it would be a good way to collaborate and let people know about us,” Herfurth says.

Emerging franchises, as she calls them, cover everything from dry cleaning to furniture restoration. Does she recommend going with the well-known or the newer franchises? “I don’t really approach it that way. I advise to focus on the business model” that the buyer wants. “Then we try to narrow it down.”

They plan to host a show again early next year, even though the first was a lot of work. “We were inventing the wheel on so many things,” Herfurth says.

“I liken doing a show to going on a huge drinking binge. You wake up the next morning and say never again, and then two weeks later you’ll see me at Bunny’s,” she says with a laugh.

Try to make it to: Carolyn Herfurth, The Entrepreneur’s Source, plans another Franchise Spectacular in January or February: 952.920.0084;  ca*****@***********ch.com; www.theesource.com/CHerfurth