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.
Picture Mark McGowan, owner of McGowan Development, alone in his SUV in the Lake Harriet Bandshell parking lot on a cold December day last year. Between appointments, and staring at the Minneapolis landmark, he realized it needed a paint job to forestall much more expensive repairs.
Fast forward to September 19, with more than 15,000 people jamming the bandshell grounds, doing yoga together, going to a church service, listening to free concerts. McGowan, with local musician and concert presenter Mick Sterling, were throwing a huge party to celebrate the successful restoration of the bandshell, completed with corporate donations and volunteer labor.
The story, the subject of this month’s Back Page interview, got me thinking about one of the small-business owner’s biggest problems: combating loneliness, banishing isolation, and developing a sense of community.
People who work for a big company can’t believe that’s a problem, enmeshed as they probably are in staff meeting after executive retreat after board get-together.
I remember being perplexed when Jennifer Zick told me why she folded her one-person marketing consulting firm in order to join a company, Reside, as a manager. “It was too lonely, owning my own business,” she said. At the time I was working in a large publishing company, and didn’t get it: How could business be lonely, when there’s so many people around, with so many problems?
Now I understand the feeling evoked by that parking-lot moment described by Mark McGowan: business owners wrestle with major decisions essentially alone, and the actions they take will affect their employees, their customers, and the survival of their business. Those times can make the most intrepid entrepreneur wish for a corporate parent to blame or at least to advise.
In McGowan's case, he now has to face down controversy over the project by himself. By mid-October, he was fighting with Park Board members over event proceeds, contemplating a lawsuit, and worrying that the three-year deal he had struck with business partners was in jeopardy.
As his story unfolds, let’s pause to consider the counterpoint to that parking-lot moment: the celebration of community that McGowan and Sterling created. Sterling noted that all the musicians donated their performances, as did the sound companies and related technicians.
“I’m sure there were naysayers, and there should have been naysayers, because who would believe in an idea this fantastic?” Sterling says. “I’m a firm believer that everyone wants to be part of something positive. The vibe here was remarkable.”
It’s possible to break the isolation. It’s possible to reach out to others and build a community, whether with board members or advisers or employees or peers. The gesture doesn’t have to be as grand as McGowan’s and Sterling’s, nor does the contrast have to be as stark as empty parking lot to blowout party.
One business owner I know decided he was sending too much e-mail, so he moved his office to a location with free parking so clients would come visit him more often.
Another owner who attended an Upsize event last spring said he enjoyed getting away from his office for once and mingling with peers. “I really have to get out more,” he said. We couldn’t agree more.
— Beth Ewen
editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
