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.
Growing a company is a calling for many people. Nick Smaby, president of Choice Wood Products, found his calling after years of searching.
He was a writer who didn’t write much for a while, then toyed with the idea of his own book store, he tells Burl Gilyard in this month’s cover story. A detour into carpentry eventually led him to Choice Wood, a home remodeling company that initially had little success. The bad times made it easy for Smaby to buy a stake — partners were looking for the equity infusion when cash came up short.
Then in 1989 Smaby got a new partner with a sharp eye for finances. The two revamped the company completely and started again. This time they and other new partners have built it into a $16 million home-building and remodeling concern with multiple business lines and clients among the Twin Cities’ toniest.
Other people featured in this issue have felt the call. Alan Carlson, for one, was a 31-year veteran of Merchant & Gould, the venerable patent law firm in Minneapolis. He could have tried a few more big cases and retired in glory. Instead he left, took three partners with him, and started his own firm to do intellectual property litigation.
The move didn’t endear him to his Merchant & Gould compatriots. They wish him well, they say, but they aren’t ecstatic that he took a bunch of talent a few blocks away. Carlson himself couldn’t sound happier.
“I’ve got a spring in my step and I love what I’m doing here,” he says.
Lynn Pederson Sontag, for another, just bought Menttium Corp. from its founder, Gayle Holmes, and is working to rebuild after a year or so of job and program cuts.
Holmes is a visionary entrepreneur who started Menttium to help develop mid-level executive women professionally. Now she’s thinking about new ways to fulfill that mission, Sontag says, while Sontag and Menttium’s co-owner Kim Vappie think of new ways to build their business.
“I think it’s wonderful” to own a company, Vappie says. It’s the first time for her. “For those people who are thinking about this, it’s certainly challenging but it’s also a great learning experience. It’s fun to come to work every day.”
Any business owner can draw inspiration from people like Sontag and Vappie and Carlson and Smaby, all featured in these pages. In this issue of Upsize Minnesota, they can also get down to the grubby business of finding financing.
Last October Upsize reported extensively about how companies can get a bank loan. This month we write about how they can tap a number of lesser known yet potentially lucrative sources of cash, especially mezzanine financing, strategic partners, community and government funds, vendors and more.
Business owners are telling us they have to “dig in the dirt” for financing these days, and cobble together a number of sources of cash. In the good old days, they might have gotten enough funding from one venture capital firm, or one angel investor, or one traditional banker. We intend this issue to show the pros and cons of various financing sources, straight from the people getting and giving the money.
Following their calling, or digging in the dirt: I think the two story lines perfectly demonstrate the range shown by most entrepreneurs. Only those business owners willing to get dirty end up with the means to fuel their dreams.
— Beth Ewen
Editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
