Following is an article excerpted from the SBA Website:
Couple open Skyway confection store with advice from volunteer counselors
MINNEAPOLIS – Amy and Darrell Hauge are celebrating their first anniversary as owners of Amy’s Classic Confections, a retail store specializing in unique candy baskets that can be custom made for special occasions. Located in the Minneapolis skyway at Sixth and Marquette, the business offers a variety of items that will be the delight of any candy lover, and make great gifts for employees, co-workers, teachers, birthdays or to say congratulations or thank you.
Browsing the store is a trip to temptation. Tastefully displayed is a broad assortment of ready-to-go gift baskets with themes such as Chocolate Lover, Midday Munchies, Off to School Survival Kit, Minnesota Madness, and Tower of Treats. Or, Amy will help you custom design your own theme for that special someone or special occasion. There are baskets for the coffee lover and for those on sugar-free diets. Local delivery is offered, which can be a lifesaver for anyone needing a last-minute gift that will be appreciated. Nationwide shipping is also available.
No stranger to entrepreneurship, Amy and her brothers had operated retail candy and florists shops back in her native Ohio. She came to Minnesota when she married Darrell. The couple started Amy’s Classic Confections as a home-based business and sold their gift baskets mostly through craft shows, home shows, and temporary kiosks at various mall locations around the Twin Cities. The business was successful, but Amy harbored the dream of having a retail store in a prime location.
A friend suggested that she contact SCORE, a volunteer business counseling group that provides confidential small business counseling at no charge. SCORE members Loren Herbst and Bill Wise were assigned the case Herbst spent 35 years with Norwest Bank serving as a commercial banking vice president. Wise was senior vice president for Norwest Bank in Faribault and most recently spent 11 years with First National Bank of Chaska. Both men are now retired and have a wealth of business knowledge and experience based on their many years of providing financing to entrepreneurs of every stripe. The two SCORE counselors did a thorough evaluation of the Hauge’s plan and met with them to discuss the issues they would face moving from a home-based business to a retail location. Amy said, “Loren and Bill were very straightforward with us and provided guidance on all aspects of opening a retail store from obtaining financing to lease negotiations. The information and advice we were given helped us find the right location and secure a fair and equitable lease. It also helped us obtain an SBA guaranteed loan through TCF Bank.” The loan officer at TCF Bank told the Hauges that they had the most complete and wellwritten business plan he had seen in a long time. Amy said, “We could not have done that without SCORE’s help.” SCORE, Counselors to America’s Small Business, is a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration and has more than 11,000 volunteer members serving in chapters nationwide. In Minnesota, there are 400 members. The Minneapolis Chapter, of which Herbst and Wise are members, is the nation’s oldest having gotten its start in 1964. Back in the mid-sixties when the SBA folks in Washington, D.C., heard about a group of volunteer business owners and executives in Minneapolis who were working one-on-one with fledgling entrepreneurs, they thought it was such a great idea they established a national program. They also took the #1 designation for the D.C. Chapter leaving Minneapolis to go down in the records as SCORE Chapter #2.
George Saumweber, SBA’s public information officer for the Minnesota Office said, “In spite of being designated the #2 chapter, we know that SCORE got its start right here in Minneapolis. And what is really important is the thousands of entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs who received sage business counseling over the years to help make their small business dreams a reality.” Amy Hauge agrees, “We are very thankful for the all the help we received from Loren and Bill. We owe much of our success to the wisdom and experience these two gentlemen shared with us.”
High-tech materials and high-profile skiers have sped the growth of Keka Design, a home-based company that makes protective gear for downhill racers. By TODD NELSON, Special to the Star Tribune
Ted and Mary Dale have seen their business go downhill for years -- and, at least in this case, that's been great for their small start-up. That's because the Dales, owners of Keka Design Inc. in Minneapolis, design and manufacture handmade shinguards and forearm shields for Alpine ski racers, who can crash through gates at 90 miles an hour or more.
Theirs is a classic example of building a better mousetrap and using a home-based business to produce and sell it to everyone from local skiers to members of the U.S. Ski Team to other customers around the world.
Avid skiers themselves, the Dales tired of having plastic shinguards break as they struck the slalom gates racers must pass through in completing a downhill run. Skiers used to go around the gates, but now go over them hard enough to break boot buckles or skis, so some kind of protection is essential. Ted Dale's solution combined his love of tinkering with his understanding of high-tech materials such as Kevlar and carbon fiber. Now a research and development engineer at St. Jude Medical, he had spent 13 years before that in aircraft design and manufacturing. Working in his south Minneapolis garage, where he also had built bicycles and motorcycles, he created his first set of lightweight yet highly durable shinguards by early 2002.
Skiers take notice When Minnesota native Kristina Koznick, then a U.S. Ski Team member and World Cup skier, asked him to fix her shinguards, he offered to make her a new pair from his design. Demand for the newfangled gear spread rapidly after that. "She got interested, and it just completely grew a whole other set of legs from there," Ted Dale said of Koznick. "It was just a machine and it just kind of kept going." Said Mary Dale: "One person saw her guards, then another person saw theirs. All word-of-mouth. We're not advertising." The only promotion they've done has been giving shinguards to a few high-profile skiers. The exposure touched off an avalanche of interest among world-class athletes and downhill enthusiasts. Mary and Ted realized they had a business on their hands and made it official when they incorporated in 2003. They chose the name Keka because that's Ted's Hawaiian name. His father was in the military and Ted lived there until his early teens, when his family moved to Minnesota. "In some of the different translations, it means 'move over,'" Ted Dale said. "It was kind of a fun thing, like, 'Move over, a new product's coming through.'" Mary Dale quit her office job in 2003, as she was expecting the couple's first child. "I've been going ever since," she said. "I didn't have a maternity leave." Mary handles administrative duties, website development and shipping and packaging. She also cuts huge rolls of Kevlar fabric into varying sizes for small, medium and large guards. When Ted gets home from work, they catch up on how their days went and then head to the garage to lay up "a batch of guards," as they put it. In the summers, they hire a few young skiers to help so they can increase production to three batches a day. Because customers live and race in events around the world, orders can come in at almost any hour. Late-night gear pickups by local skiers aren't out of the question. Besides selling directly through their website, the Dales also have their guards in specialty catalogs and in one local shop, Pierce Skate and Ski in Bloomington. "Keka is the choice for durability and performance," shop owner Bart Pierce said. "Carbon fiber dissipates the shock much better than plastic. They hold up much better." That performance comes at a higher price than plastic, Pierce said, selling in his shop for $160 to $200 a pair. Plastic shinguards range from $99 to $140 a pair. A major manufacturer's new shinguard, comparable to Keka's, retails for up to $350. Sales on the rise Keka's sales rose sharply last year to $27,000 from $20,000 in 2006, Mary Dale said. A new customer stands to increase Keka's business this year. Spyder Active Sports, a worldwide distributor of ski apparel, asked Keka to build private-label shinguards for its World Cup skiers and high-end customers, Ted Dale said. Spyder is still working on its order, and Ted and Mary Dale are figuring out how they will pay for the materials they'll need to fill it. So far they've only invested their own money in the company and have reinvested profits. They have avoided debt but realize that might have to change. "Our company isn't big enough yet to float that," Ted Dale said. "That's a lot of money to come up with just to build the product." They have talked about getting bigger. The next step would be to expand the product line, possibly with a ski pole guard or back guard, Ted Dale said. That would give them a complete package of protective gear, and might make the company attractive to a potential buyer. "Then we could move on to the next thing," he said. "Or if it's something that we grow into a business that's running on its own, then we could sit back at home and not have to do a lot. That would be the ultimate." "And we could go skiing," Mary Dale said. "We would have the time to go skiing."
The expert says: Tony Norris, a volunteer business consultant with the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), met with the Dales a few years ago as they were starting Keka Design. As they try to take the business to the next level, Norris recommended going through formal steps to get financing, including developing a business plan and talking to banks. "Every business has to have credit or they won't grow," Norris said. "And they'd better have a business plan." Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Woodbury. His e-mail address is todd_nelson@mac.com
Minneapolis, MN – Julie Ann Segal lives her philosophy. “I believe that each person has the capacity to create a living or working environment that reflects their spirit and enhances health and wellbeing,” she says. Segal has built a successful business on her passion for design. She combines interior design and Feng Shui to help her clients achieve harmonious inviting spaces that are an expression of their own style. Her company, Metropolitan Interiors, is based in a charming Victorian home on Loring Park in Minneapolis. The space not only works in a practical sense, but also is used as a showcase of products and crafts that highlight artists, cabinet builders, furniture manufacturers, and building materials. The house brims with an inviting array of colors and textures, as well as Segal’s positive energy. Segal has been working as a professional designer for 20 years. In 2003, she became a State certified Feng Shui practitioner. Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese practice of placing objects with intention, into a space or environment to create harmony and balance within one’s life. “Feng Shui enables me to combine my strong interior design skills with my spiritual side to help my clients create not only a beautiful interior, but fulfill their highest goals and ambitions,” Segal said. She started Metropolitan Interiors in 1992. In 2005, Segal was ready to move to the new space on Loring Park. She contacted the Minneapolis chapter of SCORE (Counselors to America’s Small Business) for advice. The counselors at SCORE helped her plan her office move, complete a business plan, and answer accounting questions. As a resource partner with the SBA, SCORE provides information vital to small business success. This includes counseling on financing options, business planning, marketing strategies, product development and more. Individual members and counseling teams with diverse business knowledge and experience provide one-on-one, confidential counseling at no cost to the business owner. Metropolitan Interiors doubled its sales from 2005 to 2006. Segal intends to double her sales again in 2007. With solid design skills and ability to create positive energy flow, Segal is on course to make this dream a reality. Metropolitan Interiors 233 West 15th Street Minneapolis, MN 55403 (952) 920-2827 ###
