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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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Focus
by Andrew Tellijohn
May 2006

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Upsize Growth Challenge: Starting gate


Starting gate

by Beth Ewen   Line Drive Sports, Lino Lakes, wants to expand into new areas of sports training — adding basketball, weight training and hockey to its foundation of baseball and softball. To do so, President Tom Imdieke knows he’ll need to clean up his finances and take care of debt.

Midwest EAP Solutions, St. Cloud, is an employee assistance program whose founder wants to step back from the business in 2010. Douglas Adamek, CEO, has charged his management team with reaching a major financial goal first: to increase revenue by 20 percent each year for the next five years. Along the way, they want to show him they’re ready to take more responsibility.

Spray Control Systems, Blooming Prairie, makes plastic accessories for trucks and is growing at a fast rate — so fast that President Craig Kruckeberg feels that he’s losing control. He wants to make smart decisions about adding warehouse and office space, purchasing equipment, and possibly making acquisitions.

The three companies are the winners of this year’s Upsize Growth Challenge. Their entries were selected by judges for the complexity of the growth goal, the quality of work already completed to meet it, and its relevance to the readers of Upsize magazine.

Judges made selections in February and represented Upsize magazine and the contest’s six sponsors, plus two from the Twin Cities business community: Anne Rodenberg, WomenVenture, arodenberg@womenventure.org; and Mike Ryan, Small Business Development Center, University of St. Thomas, mpryan@stthomas.edu.

Winners receive the opportunity to participate in two workshops with experts, who share advice to help them reach their growth goals. Coverage follows of the first workshop, held in March at presenting sponsor Clientek’s Minneapolis offices. The second workshop, to convene in May, will be covered in the August issue.

Winners will share their stories, and the audience will vote for the overall champion, at the Upsize Growth Challenge Seminar & Celebration, June 13, 7:30-10 a.m., at the Metropolitan Ballroom in Golden Valley. Visit dev.divistack.com to register.

About the experts
Experts at the first workshop represented each of the six sponsoring companies. Kirk Hoaglund, Craig Vosper and Nathan Johnston, technology experts, Clientek: 612.379.1440; kirk.hoaglund@clientek.com; www.clientek.com. Mary Korthour, telecom expert, Eschelon Telecom Inc. in Minneapolis: 612.436.6093; mjkorthour@eschelon.com; www.eschelon.comElin Raymond, marketing expert, The Sage Group in Minneapolis: 612.321.9897;  eraymond@sagegrp.com; www.sagegrp.comDuane Thompson, accounting and operations expert, EideBailly in Bloomington: 952.918.3508;  dthompson@eidebailly.com; www.eidebailly.comMichele Vaillancourt, legal expert, Winthrop & Weinstine in Minneapolis: 612.604.6681; mvaillancourt@winthrop.comRick Wall, finance expert, Highland Bank: 952.858.4753;  rick.wall@highlandbanks.com; www.highlandbanks.com

Events

Beth Ewen

Focus Articles

Make it happen

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.

Not so bad

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.

Chatting with ChatGPT

The use of artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, can be confusing or even scary to some. But users swear by it. We decided to go to the source itself. Upsize Editor Andy Tellijohn spent a few minutes chatting with ChatGPT about its experiences working with small business owners. Here’s what it had to say.