Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Manny Gonzalez had a successful sandwich operation in the Mercado Central Cooperative in Minneapolis for two years. But his expanding catering business demanded a bigger kitchen, and the Mercado closed early.
He looked in downtown Minneapolis for a second location but found the rent to be too high. He went to St. Paul but didn’t like what he saw.
Then he found a vacant building at 2700 Lake St. South in Minneapolis. After consultation with Mike Temali, executive director of the Neighborhood Development Center Inc. in St. Paul, Gonzalez last fall opened Manny’s Tortas, fueled by loans from American Bank and through NDC. The move helped Gonzalez and his wife, Victoria, to garner the NDC’s neighborhood small business owner of the year award in April.
Manny’s Tortas is open until 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and has an outdoor seating area. Boldly colored quotes on the walls say “what’s on your mind” in English and Spanish.
“I wanted something different,” Gonzalez says. “People keep asking me, well, what’s on my mind, and I tried to explain to them. So I thought that’s a good quote to put on the wall, what’s on your mind? It’s like a piece of conversation.”
Business has been slower at the second location because people don’t know it’s there yet. Revenue at the first location topped half a million last year. But he says the expansion was worth the risk. “This business is really hard. You really have to live it every day. You have to be here and you have to work,” Gonzalez says.
Manuel Gonzalez, Manny’s Tortas: 612.728.1778. Mike Temali, Neighborhood Development Center: 651.291.2480; www.windndc.org
