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.
Upsize Growth Challenge: Workshop one
Three CEOs deploy different strategies
to meet single goal: success
by Beth Ewen, Neil Orman and Elizabeth Martin To win the Upsize Growth Challenge, the owners of three different companies wrote compellingly about the many tactics and strategies they’ve concocted to meet their goals.
One truth applies to all three winners: They have ambitious dreams for their companies and they actively pursue resources and information to help them get there.
As winners of the 2004 Upsize Growth Challenge, presented by Fredrikson & Byron, they gleaned advice from nine experts in finance, law, technology, telecom, marketing, accounting, operations and other subjects in a three-hour workshop in March. We report on the workshop, which applies to all kinds of growing companies, in the pages that follow. The winners are:
• Floorworx Distribution Services, Rosemount, a commercial floor-coating service owned by David Miller, which recovered from near collapse last year with a new national client and the potential for exclusive rights to a time-saving technology.
• GateKeeper Systems Inc., Apple Valley, which makes software to control vehicle access at airports and is headed by Lynn Richardson. He wants to apply the systems to related industries as interest in security explodes.
• P.M. Bedroom Gallery, Blaine, a bedroom furniture retailer owned by Jim Borofka and Maynard Huth, which sells from two stores, soon to be three, and fights low-priced imports with high-quality, regionally made products.
The Upsize Growth Challenge is a contest created by Upsize magazine to connect three winning small companies with hands-on advice to help them grow. Selected from dozens of entries by a panel of judges, the three winners will participate in a second workshop in May, and present their cases along with the experts’ best tips for all growing companies in a breakfast event June 16. (See announcement page 27.)
To enter next year’s contest, watch for nomination information in the December issue of Upsize magazine.
Presenting sponsor is Fredrikson & Byron law firm in Minneapolis; and sponsors are technology consulting firm Clientek in Minneapolis, business banker Crown Bank in Edina, accounting and consulting firm EideBailly of Bloomington, and telecommunications firm Eschelon Telecom Inc. of Minneapolis.
Upsize magazine thanks the sponsors’ experts who dedicated themselves to helping the winners meet their growth challenges.
— Beth Ewen
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.
