Cover Story
Bold breadmaker
Bread-making has been around for centuries, yet Lynn Gordon keeps coming up with innovations for her French Meadow Bakery in south Minneapolis.
Gordon, regarded as a pioneer in the organic food industry, was baking organic and yeast-free breads long before most people even knew anything about natural foods. Now after 21 years in business, French Meadow is the longest-standing certified organic bakery in the country.
Sometimes, being a pioneer brings pain. A legal case, for example, once nearly banned one of her most popular breads ? hemp bread. Most recently, she had a labeling dispute with the Federal Drug Administration, which she estimates will end up costing the business $1 million to $2 million in lost sales and expenses.
?Will I recover? Yes. But I will never forget the pain. The integrity of French Meadow was questioned,? Gordon says.
But over the long haul, Gordon?s innovations are the reason for her company?s existence. Continue reading →
Letter From the Editor
Cycles
Stories about people building companies may be inspirational, but what if your business is dying?
That was the message from a reader that brought me up short last month. He had read my column called ?sooty,? which urged business owners to find what they are uniquely good at and outsource the rest, lest they end up frustrated by banging away at the tasks they hate.
What if you?ve invested in expensive equipment, but it?s become outdated and impossible to sell? What if your industry has changed so much, you were left behind? Continue reading →
Back Page
How Pam Krank is recovering from a near-fatal blow to her company
Pam Krank started The Credit Department Inc. in West St. Paul, which manages credit and collections for client companies, in 1993. In 1999 she landed the deal that would make the company: a multimillion-dollar contract that caused her to double space, add debt and attract investors. That contract almost led to the company?s demise.
Continue reading →
Focus
Upsize Growth Challenge: Starting gate
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 warehoand office space, purchasing equipment, and possibly making acquisitions. Continue reading →
Upsize Growth Challenge: Line Drive Sports
Tom Imdieke enjoys watching customers improve their baseball swings with his coaching. But what he?d really like to see is fewer strikeouts from his batting cage and sports instruction company, Line Drive Sports Corp. Continue reading →
Upsize Growth Challenge: Midwest EAp Solutions
Since its founding in 1981, St. Cloud-based Midwest EAP Solutions Inc. has been owned by CEO Doug Adamek, who holds a Ph.D. and is a Certified Employee Assistance Professional. The company grew from a single employee in 1983 to 20 employees and $2 million in revenue. Continue reading →
Upsize Growth Challenge: Spray Control Systems
Craig Kruckeberg unfolds a plain white sheet of paper that he always carries and passes it around the table.
The first line is the sales figure achieved in 2004 at the company founded by his father: Spray Control Systems Inc. in Blooming Prairie. The company makes plastic truck accessories and goes by the nickname ?the Minimizer,? becaits original product was a plastic fender system to minimize spray from big rigs on the highway. Continue reading →
Tech buyer's guide: Why buy?
Why buy? First, answer that question, buyers and sellers agree by Beth Ewen Upsize: Technology is expensive. What are some general approaches that you as small-business owners take when you think about making those purchases? Sheila Ronning, Sharp UpSwing: I would figure out how many applications we can use it for. The Web sites […] Continue reading →
Tech buyer's guide: Shopping list
Dr. Daniel Carlson spent a few years looking into buying an existing dental practice or at least becoming a partner. When no opportunities arose, he started planning to open his own.
Birchwood Dental in Eagan is about eight months old and business is going well. That early success, Carlson says, is largely attributable to a heavy ? and at times scary ? investment in technology when he was starting up the company.
?Take the painful hit,? he says. ?You?re going to spend a lot up front, but in the long run it?s going to pay off.? Continue reading →
Business Builders
Personal finance
Many small-business owners are so busy building their businesses that they neglect their personal financial affairs, missing out on opportunities while overlooking long-term wealth management planning.
Savvy business owners should take the time to address both their professional and personal finances, which can intersect in a variety of ways. Continue reading →
Employee benefits
Joe feels like an idiot.
He moved his pregnant wife and young son across the state for a job that he thought had comparable salary and health-care benefits. He realized, too late, that he had inverted the employer/employee contributions on health care, and now takes home a much smaller paycheck.
Continue reading →
Examine Web site to find stockpile of useful facts
Hidden behind your Web site is an incredible stockpile of useful information. There are bits of data just waiting for your examination that will let you make important decisions about the site. Continue reading →
