Music producer and environmental innovator Mike Martin started r.Cup with the idea of partnering with cities to reduce trash and reuse the cups attendees use when attending sports, concerts and other events. The company has wash hubs active via partnerships in Denver, Seattle and Los Angeles with San Francisco beginning operations this month. Headquartered in Minnesota, he hopes to begin operations here this year too. “We work with them about where it would be beneficial for the city to build a wash hub,” Martin says. The company has gone from four employees to almost 40 in a year’s time and w ..read more

Storm Creek develops high quality, eco-friendly apparel for people to wear outdoors. It’s a socially conscious company that donates significantly — to the tune of more than $1 million in 2022 — to organizations ranging from the American Cancer Society to Secondhand Hounds. It’s built a following among its customers and owner Teresa Fudenberg taps that regularly when it comes to hiring. “We have a warehouse sale every year and thousands of people come to that,” she says. “And so, we’ll let people know at the cashier’s [stand] that we’re recruiting. They interact with our staff. And, so, people ..read more

When a business owner is planning their exit strategy, they should seek to minimize risk and maximize net proceeds from the sale. Seller financing can be a powerful tool in this regard. Seller financing drives higher prices Business buyers are also looking to reduce risk. And the fact is, an all-cash deal has more risk than a deal where the seller finances a portion of the transaction. The mere existence of seller financing shows a buyer that the seller has confidence in the future. The seller still has skin in the game. If there are post-closing issues, the buyer is confident the seller will ..read more

When most small business owners think about advertising, they focus on what they want to say. But in a crowded and chaotic media environment where the average American is now bombarded with 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day, the “where” can be even more important than the “what.” This fact should be a huge consideration as you allocate your 2023 marketing dollars. Gartner found that the average 2022 marketing budget comprised 9.5 percent of total corporate revenues, up nearly 50 percent from 2021. If you want to get maximum bang for those additional marketing bucks, then smarter, more strategic media ..read more

A career in business reporting turns up many unusual ideas, but in 30 years I’ve never seen anything like Fortitude Ranch.  On a visit last summer to its central Wisconsin location, which I had to swear to keep secret, I found the ultimate in pandemic-era concepts: a members-only survival community equipped to ride out any type of disaster and long-term loss of law and order. “Prepare for the worst but enjoy the present,” is their motto.  “I’ve been a prepper for a long time but figured out a decade ago I’m not going to survive on my own,” said Drew Miller, CEO and founder of Fortitu ..read more

Dorothy Bridges retired from her last job at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in 2018 after four decades in banking and financial services. She was serving on a few boards, most notably those of U.S. Bancorp and the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA), while pondering whether there were jobs out there that might lure her back into the workforce. When MEDA’s previous CEO, Alfredo Martel, moved on to another role, Bridges found her answer. The former Franklin National Bank of Minneapolis president and CEO took the job and has spent the last couple months meeting with stak ..read more

As the daughter of a family business owner, the former director of the Family Business Center at the University of St. Thomas and the founder of Family Business Minnesota and The Sage Pages, Sara Stern has seen her share of conflict amid family business.  Stern, who also owns a local EOS Worldwide franchise, has set a goal of helping 60,000 family businesses be healthier by the time she’s 60. One step was penning her recently released book, “Married to the Family Business: A Handbook for Spouses of Family Business Owners.” It puts some of her findings down in writing for families to use a ..read more

It’s been 22 years since Tim Blanski and Lisa Catton sold what had been their dream house in St. Paul, left their busy jobs and re-settled in Spring Grove, nearly three hours to the southeast and not far from both the Wisconsin and Iowa borders. They went in search of a simpler life and found what they were looking for on a historic hobby farm there where they started The Granary Woodshops. “Like a lot of people, we wrestled with more, more, more, faster, faster, faster at work and at home, for that matter,” says Blanski, who makes elegant, rustic furniture pieces out of recycled wood. “We jus ..read more

When Dipesh Patel acquired Postmatic two years ago, he was looking to rapidly expand the manufacturer of equipment for mailing, packaging and semiconductor industries that also does contract work for original equipment manufacturers.  In the last three months, Postmatic has acquired another company and purchased real estate aimed at eliminating the cost of rent and facilitating the company’s ability to take on larger builds.  So, Patel is familiar with what it takes to get financing, both in good times and bad. During these recent transactions, he worked with the same banker who firs ..read more

Past due receivables can cause significant stress among business owners.  Emotions can reach a boiling point when, instead of a much-anticipated check, you receive a “Notice of Bankruptcy Case.” What does this mean and what can you do to protect yourself? What does it mean that your customer declared bankruptcy? From a practical perspective, a bankruptcy filing means three things:  Your customer is experiencing financial distress that impairs its ability to pay off debts  You need to immediately stop all collection activities You need to appropriately participate in the bankrup ..read more