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.
Claudia Gutierrez, owner,Many restaurants struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic and Claudia Gutierrez says it was a tough year for her too.
But Hamburguesas El Gordo, and its massive hamburgers with a Mexican twist, have comfortably made it through well bigger than when it all started.
Gutierrez first started making the burgers out of her kitchen on Fridays for family and friends. The gatherings got so big they outgrew her house.
She opened her first brick-and-mortar in St. Paul in 2015. A second opened in Minneapolis in late 2016, but she had to close the St. Paul location the next year. Because of her large customer base there, she began immediately looking for another space and opened in 2018.
“Everything was going perfectly,” she says. “Then the pandemic happened.”
Early on, Gutierrez cut staff and hours. But after the second month of COVID-19, takeout orders went through the roof, allowing her to hire back everyone she had laid off and more.
“We couldn’t keep up,” she says.
In the last half-year, she’s opened up two more locations in St. Paul. “Opening in the middle of the pandemic I was very scared,” she says. “I actually wasn’t planning on it, but the owner of the building [on the corner of Victoria St. and Selby Ave. in St. Paul] was a customer of mine. … He offered me a very good deal. So, we went for it.”
So, it’s been hard, but well worth it. “It was a struggle every day,” she says. “But it was a good result.”
Right now, it’s a dream, but Gutierrez hopes one day to open a couple more locations in cities like Edina or Woodbury. Overall, it’s been worth the risk she took leaving a comfortable, steady job she’d held for 12 years at a staffing agency.
“I loved my job,” she says. “I did not want to regret not taking that opportunity. If it didn’t work, I could go back and find another job or maybe go back to my old job. But if I didn’t take the chance, I would regret it and be sad about it.”
Contact: Claudia Gutierrez owns Hamburguesas El Gordo:
www.gordoburgers.com
When fires set during civil unrest following the death of George Floyd destroyed Bolé Ethiopian Cuisine last May, Solomon Hailie and Rekik Abaineh briefly considered not reopening. The cyclical nature of restaurants and the COVID-19 pandemic were wearing on them and they thought it might be time to try something else.
But when neighbors and friends started reaching out on Facebook and asking if there was a Gofundme or other ways to help, they quickly changed their minds, Hailie says.
“In the restaurant business you always have a short plan,” he says. “Now, really our mind is set and we are trying to make a difference in this business.”
When business consultant Lelna Desta quickly set up a Gofundme page, more than 3,800 people contributed more than $154,000 to help get the family back up and operating.
“People did that for us,” he says. “A lot of people we know went through the same thing at the same time. Asking for people to do that was not our immediate action.”
But when demand showed itself, Desta took on the project and in a short time, the company raised more than $100,000, says Hailie.
Buoyed by the support, the family and its team hunkered down to figure out how to get back to business. The family’s resolve paid off in March when Bolé reopened in a new location near the Como Zoo.
“The area we are in right now is just a prayer coming to life,” Hailie says. “We’re excited we found this place.”
The new location is more a neighborhood than a main street commercial district. So, it’s more of a destination with a different atmosphere. A drive through component in the old location won’t make sense in the neighborhood spot so the family is working on a grab-and-go vegan component for those seeking quick meals. Meantime, sit-down business is booming at levels beyond the kitchen’s design.
“It’s just beyond our expectations,” he says.
Contact: Solomon Hailie is co-owner of Bolé Ethiopian Cuisine: 651.330.2492; ma*****@******le.com;
www.boleethiopiancuisine.com.
Elias Usso and Mawerdi Hamid, owners,Independent pharmacies are rare these days, with insurance reimbursements for prescriptions decreasing and corporate chains able to provide products more cheaply. Elias Usso knew he faced that challenge when he opened Seward Pharmacy in July 2019.
He did not know that less than a year later he would combat both a global pandemic and civil unrest in his neighborhood brought on by the murder of George Floyd. During the unrest in May, his pharmacy was destroyed.
And after reopening in September 2020, it was actually broken into again, though the damages weren’t as bad.
Usso is grateful for assistance from neighbors and nonprofit organizations that contributed grants that have actually allowed him to increase the workspace area for up to six or eight people, instead of just two. Other improvements to shelving, over-the-counter space and product in his store helped, as well.
The improvements came in part through receiving a grant of $165,000 from UnitedHealth Group via the nonprofit Heart of America. He also singled out the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers and African Economic Development Solutions for their assistance.
“These are the forces that helped us get on our feet and continue running our business,” he says. “We would not have been able to recover if it wasn’t for our neighbors.”
Usso hopes to put them to good use as he continues building and rebuilding a business he convinced his wife would work because he believes in old school service, particularly for less educated and more vulnerable patients who need some extra attention.
Usso believes in “gearing toward personalized care and a visit to a patient’s home,” especially right away after they transfer their prescription to Seward.
“That is the idea we opened the business on,” he says. “We wanted to bring back that American pharmacy, that mom-and-pop pharmacy, like back in the days that people would meet their neighbors at the pharmacy.”
Contact: Elias Usso is co-owner of Seward Pharmacy:
se************@***il.com; www.sewardpharmacy.com.
Cannabis-based products have been increasingly available in Minnesota over the last six years. The opportunities in that space became even more prominent last year when the state legislature voted to become the 23rd state to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana for Minnesotans over 21.
When Super Bowl LII was played at U.S. Bank Stadium in February 2018, Alex Tittle didn’t play a down on the field, but he had more than three-years of impact on the experience.
Unemployment in Minnesota sits below 3 percent. Labor market participation is high. Airport traffic counts across the country are approaching and even surpassing pre-pandemic levels, so consumers are still spending money. Consumer confidence, reportedly spurred by the strong labor market, also seems at least cautiously on the rise.
