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.
contact
Beth Ewen,
eidtor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
by Beth Ewen
THOSE TWO WORDS are always the first out of my mouth whenever I talk to local business owners. Now I?m proud to say it?s our turn to roll out something new.
We?ll launch in November Upsize Online, our first digital edition and we believe the first of its kind in local business publishing. The topic will be managing rapid growth, and we?ll feature advice and lessons learned from business owners and experts who help them with the challenge. 
Everybody expects smart business-building advice, attractively presented, from Upsize. But Upsize Online will let us directly connect readers with many more resources than we?re able to include in the print edition. 
We?ll take full advantage of the interactivity afforded by the Web. Readers will be able to click on links to podcasts, vodcasts, articles and more resources on the topic. They?ll be able to click to the sites of advertisers who offer expert help.
And they?ll be able to participate in the online chat we plan to host on the subject, to get their particular questions answered.
We see it as one more entry, and arguably the most exciting one yet, in our growing library of resources to help business owners build bigger and more profitable companies. 
I love launching new content, and at Upsize I?ve come to know my business partners? personalities and style. I like to do it now, make it the best it can be, put it out there and make the next one better based on reader feedback. It?s my reporter?s background, where the motto is ?the best you can make it in the time that you have.? 
Wes Bergstrom and Jonathan Hankin prefer a more contemplative approach, striving for the best product in an ideal world, and insisting on firm steps and careful deliberation along the way. 
I think the contrasting approaches make for good results, along with many conversations among the three of us that can after seven years be In the early days, they just thought I was reckless and I thought they were slow!) 
We plan four editions of Upsize Online in 2009, one each quarter, and six print editions of Upsize magazine. 
We?re excited about our new gambit, as are the people we?ve talked to about it so far, and we invite local business owners and experts to get involved. If you have a digital version of an article or podcast or any resource for companies about managing growth, send me the link by Oct. 15, be***@*******ag.com, and I?ll review it for possible inclusion. If you want to sponsor our online chat or advertise in the issue, contact Wes Bergstrom, wb********@*******ag.com, about special premier issue packages.
I hope you enjoy Upsize Online, and of course that you keep using the print editions just as you have since we started in October 2002. (If you haven?t done so already, please check out our other products as well, such as Upsize How-to Audio, a series of podcasts with expert business-building advice, Upsize e-tools, our electronic newsletter, or a live event, like the upcoming Upsize Business Builder Awards & Seminar. Visit dev.divistack.comto check out them all.) 
As always, we?ll keep working to make each edition better, whether we print it, record it, e-mail it, stage it or post it.
