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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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Informer
by Andrew Tellijohn
February 2007

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Franchising


Barbara Hensley starts
franchise sales for
Hope Chest concept

“I knew I wanted to raise a lot of money for breast cancer. I wanted to raise $10 million a year. That means 50 stores,” says Barbara Hensley, founder of Hope Chest for Breast Cancer.

It’s a retail store that sells high-end donated goods, and in turn donates a percentage of the revenue to a foundation dedicated to funding breast cancer research. Donations come in separately to the foundation as well.

With the original store in Orono and a second store in St. Paul this summer to prove that her concept is replicable, she will roll out in 2007 an effort to sell franchises. She’s registered in Minnesota and so can do business in 39 states. She’s also licensed in Maryland, because there’s an interested party there.

“I’ve just started working my way through St. Louis,” she says, reached in late December. “Until we get a couple under our belt, you don’t know. It could really, really go crazy.”

She does know the type of person she’s looking for to purchase a franchise: “When we’re out looking at the entrepreneurs, they’re going to get passionate about being a social entrepreneur,” Hensley says. Hensley’s mother and a sister died of breast cancer.

“This is my baby. I am managing the selling process myself right now,” Hensley says, referring to the selling of franchises. Her husband, Jay, took over management of the two local stores. A year ago Korie Morgan, her niece, took over running the foundation.

Barbara Hensley, Hope Chest for Breast Cancer: 952.471.8700, ext. 13; bhensley@hopechest.us; www.hopechest.us

Events

Beth Ewen

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Class in session

Snap Fitness operator fights City Hall for two years, and wins

Ben Cowan now has two Snap Fitness operations open in St. Paul, with plans for one or two more perhaps in six months. He thought he'd be up and running there in 2006.

Onsite testing lab improves fortunes for Swat Solutions

About five years ago, the owner of Swat Solutions decided to invest in an onsite lab, in Plymouth, to perform quality assurance testing of software for customers. Today that decision is paying off, says John Fox, vice president of professional services.