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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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by Andrew Tellijohn
May 2004

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Seekers


Seekers

The three winners of this year’s Upsize Growth Challenge came to the first workshop seeking advice from our panel of experts. They ended up sharing an impressive amount of wisdom themselves.

Consider the idea that sales growth inevitably slows — one of those business truisms that sounds logical on paper but feels bad in real life.

“To grow a business from zero to a couple of million in hindsight was easier than maintaining consistent growth after this,” says Jim Borofka, co-owner of P.M. Bedroom Gallery.

“We didn’t eat a bunch. We had a crappy old delivery truck” in the beginning, Borofka says. He and his business partner have two stores and are building a third. “Then we decide to grow and we bit off way more than we could chew. Sometimes I think we need to open four to five stores to make two grow.

“We’re working hard like we used to. It’s just not as successful as we used to be.”

Or consider the difficulty in entering new markets, even if they’re related to the original.

“We understand why an airport would want to buy one of these systems,” says Lynn Richardson, president of GateKeeper Systems Inc., who spent 18 years in management at the Metropolitan Airports Commission before starting his company.

GateKeeper makes software that controls vehicle access at airports. Richardson recognizes that related places such as parking lots might want the technology too, but it’s not a snap to enter a new field.

“At the end of 2004 we will have about 45 percent of the top 10 airports in the world,” Richardson says. “We have a dominant position in a small market.”

Finally, consider the classic progression of entrepreneurs, from hands-on worker to overall executive.

“I was down on my hands and knees under the booths scraping other people’s droppings out of the corners,” says David Miller, owner of Floorworx Distribution Services, which refinishes hardwood floors for commercial customers.

The mundane work didn’t kill his dream of ownership. “I figure, why have a loaf of bread when I can have a grocery store?” he says.

After losing his largest customer and nearly his business, he’s now trying to move off the floor, and to secure a licensing deal for a promising new technology. “I told myself to make a difference, I’m trying to control that supply chain,” he says.

The three have different businesses, in different industries, and they grow them using different styles and tactics. But they share common ground.

They seek help from others. They share their hits and misses freely, in the hope that others can learn. They bring to life the issues that vex every business owner. They wrestle with their companies every day.

They inspire this reader, and I’m betting many others, to do the same. Read all about them on page 42.

— Beth Ewen
Editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
bewen@upsizemag.com