Beth Ewen:
bewen@upsizemag.com
dev.divistack.com
by Beth Ewen
“IT’S FANTASTIC,” says Nic Thomley, CEO of Pinnacle Services, about his company’s new building in northeast Minneapolis. “We have a dog, we have swings, we have a foam pit.”
I pause, not sure I heard correctly. A foam pit? I ask.
“I cut skylights in the roof, so we have 8-foot by 8-foot openings. The pit is a giant box filled with 6-inch by 6-inch by 6-inch foam cubes. You can literally do a 14-foot drop into the foam,” Thomley says. He insisted he be the first at his office to try it, given the safety concerns.
“It’s kind of fun. It’s like a freefall,” he says. “The hardest part is getting out.”
I pounce, because here is the perfect anecdote from the dozen or so business owners I’ve been talking to in late July, asking how their companies are faring in this recession.
Is that a metaphor for how business is these days? I ask, shamelessly leading my source down the path I wish him to go. He laughs and says he hadn’t thought about it; he just wanted something fun at the office for his mostly 20-something employees.
But he does turn philosophical when asked for advice for business owners. “How many recessions have there been?” over time. “22? 24? We’ve come out of all of them. Entrepreneurs are going to bring us out of this recession,” he says.
I believe he’s right, and I’m even more convinced after reporting this month’s cover story, about how Minnesota’s small-business owners are taking action to survive the downturn and in many cases come out stronger than ever when it’s done.
You have to believe in these business owners, who aren’t pocketing ridiculous bonuses or staging lavish company retreats. They’re employing 30 or 40 or 50 or more people, they’re devoted to the well-being of those employees and their families, and they’re serious in their intent to do whatever it takes to sustain their businesses.
Yes, they’re having to make cuts and freeze pay and sometimes do layoffs, but it hurts, and they avoid it if they possibly can, and they will make it right when times are better. They’re careful and they’re prudent, and they save for the future.
“It’s always good to be sitting on, not a ridiculous amount of money, but a nice nest egg,” says Steve McFarland, CEO of Orbit Systems, who was able to acquire a company this spring, Voyageur I.T., and work on internal improvements when business slowed down. “If you haven’t squirreled money away, you can’t do the right thing for your business.”
There it is, the quote I was looking for, the one that explains the philosophy of so many entrepreneurs and confirms why Thomley is right, that entrepreneurs will lead us out of this recession: Do the right thing for your business. The owners quoted in this issue are showing the way.
