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Contents
THE MAGAZINE FOR GROWING BUSINESSES IN SOUTHERN MINNESOTA
Staff & Contributors Publisher: Concept & Design Incorporated
COVER STORY
Editor: Grace Webb
Dynamic Duo
Art Director/Staff Photographer: Kris Kathmann
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This father-daughter duo combines their love for their business with their love for their community at one of New Ulm’s largest companies.
Interim Advertising Manager: Becky Wagner
Profiles
Production: Becky Wagner
Wine Country
Contributing Photographer: Art Sidner Contributing Writers: Carlienne Frisch
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Wine lovers Kent and Jane Schwickert redefine the Midwest wine scene with their award-winning winery.
Dirty Job
Circulation: Grace Webb Printing: Corporate Graphics, N. Mankato
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Cover Photo: Kris Kathmann
Circulation
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8,800 for July/August 2015 Published bimonthly
Chad Lyons, owner of TFE Enterprises in Truman, isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and get dirty as he and his one employee create a million pounds of feed supplement every year.
Correspondence
Workforce SPECIAL SERIES
Send press releases and other correspondence: c/o Editor, Connect Business Magazine P.O. Box 452, Nicollet, MN 56074
Part I – A Troubling Shortage of Workers
E-mail: editor@connectbiz.com (please place press releases in email body)
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Web: www.connectbiz.com
A continuing series on workforce issues in Southern Minnesota.
Phone: 507.232.3463 Fax: 507.232.3373
Columns
Editor’s Letter Grace Notes
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ADVERTISING Call: (507) 232-3463
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About Connect
Business Trends
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Locally owned Connect Business Magazine has ‘connected’ southern Minnesota businesses since 1994 through features, interviews, news and advertising.
Bulletin Board
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Hot Startz!
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Press Releases
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In Every Issue
Connect Business Magazine is a publication of Concept & Design Incorporated, a graphic design firm offering print design, web design, illustration and photography. conceptanddesign.com
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Mailing: Midwest Mailing, Mankato
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JULY/AUGUST 2015
Copyright 2015. Printed in U.S.A.
Case in point. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts replaced approximately 8,300 halogen bulbs with LEDs. Their up-front costs were offset by Xcel Energy rebates. Results: Xcel Energy rebates covered 45% of total project cost. 1.7 gigawatt hours of annual estimated energy savings. Enough to power 220 homes. Payback term: Less than one year. Estimated maintenance hours saved by not changing bulbs: 2,000 in the first five years.
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When the Minneapolis Institute of Arts was looking to upgrade their lighting, Xcel Energy helped them implement a new generation of LED lights by providing rebates to offset up-front costs. Not only do the LEDs use much less energy than their old halogen lighting, but they help preserve the art and make it look better. Whatever your specific business or facility needs might be, Xcel Energy is here to help you find solutions to help you save energy, save money, and look good doing it. Contact an energy efficiency specialist today at 855-839-8862, or visit ResponsibleByNature.com/business.
ResponsibleByNature.com Š 2015 Xcel Energy Inc.
EDITOR’S LETTER
The Necessity Of A Niche When it comes to running a successful business, you’ve got to find your niche. Sometimes, it’s creating a product that’s superior to those produced by your competitors. Sometimes, it’s by delivering that product more quickly and accurately. Sometimes, it’s by finding a hole in the market that needs filling. Our July issue of Connect Business Magazine features three businesses that found their niche in unique and unexpected ways. First, there’s our cover story, featuring father-daughter team Tom Berg and Colleen Skillings, who run Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories in New Ulm. While most testing labs focus on one area, MVTL offers a wide variety of services in a variety of fields, from soil fertility to animal food quality. Our second feature stars Kent and Jane Schwickert, owners of Chankaska Creek Ranch and Winery in Kasota. They recognized area wine lovers’ need for a place to gather and now, less than a decade later, they’ve already become the second-biggest winery in Minnesota. Finally, there’s Chad Lyons, owner of TFE Enterprises in Truman. Lyons is part of a two-man band that creates a million pounds of supplement pig feed every year—using scraps of cheese that no one else wants. It all goes to show the value of finding your niche. We hope you enjoy this issue’s selections. An veritas, an nihil, Grace Webb
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By Grace Webb Photo by Kris Kathmann
This father-daughter duo combines their love for their business with their love for their community at one of New Ulm’s largest companies. Tom Berg and his daughter Colleen Skillings have a lot in common. They share the same hometown: New Ulm, Minnesota. They share the same interests: swimming, skiing, cooking and traveling. They share the same commitment to their community, which is evident from the myriad of ways they volunteer in their free time. Even their career paths are similar. They both didn’t imagine building a life in New Ulm. In fact, both of them first ended up in the Twin Cities right out of college, building successful careers in their chosen fields (chemistry for Berg, accounting for Skillings). But somehow, both of them found their way back to their hometown. Now, they’re both running Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories (MVTL), a multi-million dollar testing company that’s one of New Ulm’s largest employers. Berg is the company’s owner and CEO, while Skillings serves as CFO and is in line to take over once Berg retires.
MVTL has been around for more than 60 years and has locations in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa, attracting customers from across the Midwest and beyond. The New Ulm location alone employs more than 170 workers. One of the secrets to the company’s long-lasting success is its farreaching scope—a rarity among area testing labs. While other labs focus on only one area of testing, MVTL has four: agricultural science, food science, energy technology and environmental testing. As Berg explained, whenever the folks at the company saw a need, they added something to fill it. In fact, that’s how Skillings ended up at MVTL— the company had a need for a talented accountant fifteen years ago, and Berg turned to his daughter. While the father-daughter duo might be doing different things within their company, they both approach their work with the same commitment to quality, accuracy and customer service. And it’s safe to say they both love their jobs. It’s funny how things work out. continued >
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Why don’t you two tell me a little about yourselves? You go first, Tom. Tom: I was born in New Ulm in 1939. I have two sisters, both younger. My mother was primarily a homemaker, which was pretty typical at that time. My dad’s employment always centered around accounting. When I was very small, we lived in St. Paul, where my dad was from, but then my dad got drafted into the Army during in the middle of World War II (in 1943). We came to New Ulm to live with our grandmother until my dad returned. I’m not totally sure why my parents decided to live in New Ulm once Dad came back. What about your teenage years? Did you have any jobs? Tom: In the summers, I always worked as a lifeguard at the pool. Swimming is a big deal for me; I still try to swim three miles a week. I also spent some time working at the local Sears outlet store. I went through the Catholic school system and graduated from Cathedral High School in 1957.
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You spent most of your childhood in New Ulm, but you attended college in Texas. What pushed you to that decision? Tom: A New Ulm family had a son who went to St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Then he got another guy to go there, and another… I was about the fourth guy in line to go. I went there, sight unseen. I just based it on what these guys were saying. I also received a nice scholarship, which sealed my decision. But I really did like it. And I liked Texas. What did you study? Tom: I started out as a physics major. When I started college, the Space Age was really just starting to heat up. It seemed like physics was a good place to be. But I found out that I really wasn’t as good of a mathematician as I thought I was going to be, and I decided, “I’m not sure I really want to do this.” By then, I’d taken some chemistry, which I really enjoyed, so I switched my major to chemistry, and that’s what I graduated in. If you liked Texas, why did you come back to Minnesota? Tom: Frankly, I never expected to wind up with a professional career here. But then I met this girl (wife Kathleen)… I came home for the summer every year, and we met at a dance. I’d gone to high school with her, but I was three years ahead of her so we didn’t really know each other. But I asked her to dance, and one thing led to another. When I graduated, I came back to New Ulm and we got married. That was in 1961. We’ll be married 54 years this fall.
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What did you do once you’d graduated and moved back to Minnesota? Tom: I wasn’t sure exactly how things were going to play out. I went to the Twin Cities to find work and got a job at the Gillette Corporation. After Colleen was born, I decided that I needed a better job. One day, I was talking to a headhunter, and he said, “You know, I’ve got a job that would really be perfect for you, but it’s in a small town.
Tom Berg and Colleen Skillings | New Ulm
Would you consider a small town?” I said, “Maybe, depending on where it is. Where is it?” And he said, “Well, it’s in New Ulm.” So then we were best friends. The job was at a company called Supersweet Feeds (which no longer exists). They had a research farm and quality control lab in Courtland. I supervised the laboratory for almost five years. During that time, I got to know the men who had started MVTL, Richard Novak and Henry Nupson. They were both microbiologists, and they needed some chemistry expertise from time to time. So I would do a little consulting here and there with them. It got to be more and more, and finally they said, “Well, why don’t you just come and join us?” So I did. In 1967, I became a permanent employee. And I’ve never left. Now you’re the sole owner of the company. Tom: Novak and Nupson wanted to retire in the early 1980s, so another man and I bought them out. We ran the company as a partnership until the beginning of 2000, and then I bought out that partner because he wanted to retire, too. When he retired, Colleen agreed to join me. She’s a CPA, and I needed her expertise. Fifteen years later, here we are. Are you planning for Colleen to take over once you retire? Tom: I hope so. There are a couple of other people involved, too.
Dynamic Duo
Scout’s Honor Tom Berg has a history with scouting. He joined the Boy Scouts when he was eight, following several friends who had joined the Cub Scouts. Throughout the years, he participated in the organization’s summer camps and even had the chance to attend a National Jamboree in California when he was 14. He eventually worked his way up to the rank of Eagle Scout—a distinction that fewer than two percent of Boy Scouts achieve. Now, he’s a member of the Boy Scouts of America, Twin Valley Council board. “I got a lot out of scouting,” he said. “That’s where I learned to cook. If you can cook on a fire in the woods, you can cook on a stove. In the Scouts, you learn a lot about leadership and sharing, about being fair and being honest. I’m a real proponent of scouting.”
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Dynamic Duo
To put it quite frankly, I really feel strongly that I would like to see the ownership remain local. I’ve had lots of opportunities to sell the business to larger organizations and investment groups. Apparently we’re very attractive to some of those businesses. I’m not interested in that. I’d like to see it in the hands of Colleen and a couple of other people: Mike Grob and Jerry Balbach. The four of us are the operating executive team for this company.
Dynamic Duo
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For Colleen Skillings, giving back to her community has always been important—and it’s obvious from the impressive number of community organizations she’s involved in. Here are a few places where she’s currently serving: board member of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF), board member of New Ulm Telecom, treasurer and board member of the New Ulm Rotary, board member of Oak Hills Living Center, president and board member of Sunset Apartments, member of the American Council of Independent Laboratories, member of the Minnesota Society of CPAs. She has also acted as past chairperson and board member of MBW, Inc., past board member and treasurer of the New Ulm Council of the Arts, and past board member of the New Ulm Chamber of Commerce. As Skillings explains, “I feel strongly about giving back to the community as well as the business community. The reasoning is multifaceted. First, my parents instilled a strong sense of using my talents for the betterment of the community around me. Also, I receive back from my experiences more than I give. Finally, it’s important to me that our employees and fellow community members have a viable and healthy community that provides a high quality of life. So I do what I can to help make that happen.”
Tom Berg and Colleen Skillings | New Ulm
Why is it important for you to keep the business local? Tom: I’m from here. This community has been very good to me. I’m also fifth generation New Ulm, and Colleen is sixth generation New Ulm. We’ve got a lot of family history here. And I would very much like to see that continue. Colleen: MVTL has been in New Ulm for almost 65 years. We have many long-term employees who’ve chosen to work with us and committed to living in New Ulm or the surrounding area. I feel it’s important to maintain our commitment back to them. Our dedicated employees are the backbone of the company, and they contribute greatly to our success. We wouldn’t be where we are without them. Speaking of employees, businesses across Minnesota are feeling a workforce crunch as they try to find new workers. Have you felt this pinch, too? Tom: We have to work at attracting people just as everyone else does now. Times are changing. It’s getting harder to find people, especially people with the skills we need. But we’re finding them. Colleen: I believe we offer something that a lot of our other competitors don’t: a unique quality of life in a great, small community. New Ulm, for its size, really offers a wide variety of options for professions as well as quality options for recreation, restaurants, shopping, etc. Also, as an employer, MVTL offers flexibility to our
employees when the job allows. While we are a larger company, we try hard to maintain a family atmosphere. These are some of the things that are attractive for potential employees as well as retaining employees. Give me a run-down of your business in layman’s terms. Tom: We have four business units: the environmental unit, which is primarily water, waste water, hazardous waste, and soil testing; the agriculture group, which is soil fertility and feed testing; the food science group, which is chemical and biological testing; and the energy technology group in Bismarck that performs coal and oil testing. Sometimes it’s a challenge to manage it, since some of the technologies are pretty diverse and different. But we like it that way. Which sector is the largest? Colleen: I’d say our food science work and our environmental testing. Those are the two biggest. Tom: The food science and environmental services are yearround. There’s been a lot of growth in our food business during the last couple of years. On the other hand, soil testing is a very seasonal thing. It’s all the way up or it’s all the way down. The fuels business goes somewhat year-round, but it slows down in the wintertime, too.
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Dynamic Duo
I understand you offer internships to students during the summer months. Colleen: About ten years ago, the influx of work during the summer months grew beyond our capacity. We began to hire college students to help. We identified college students rather than high school students because employees need to be 18 to work in the lab under OSHA rules. The benefits are twofold: we need the help, and working with us is a way for students to determine if the sciences would be something they would want to pursue for a career. If they came back as a permanent fulltime employee, that would be the ultimate benefit. At times, students do join us after graduation, and, even if it’s one or two kids, I think that’s a success. Typically, we have about 30 student workers at a time, working in a variety of areas, from sample preparation to a little more technical science tasks, as well as office work. On occasion, a student will receive credit for their work with us, but regardless, the knowledge gained during their employment can be helpful for their studies and beyond. We also help with science fair projects with our local schools. We can offer technical assistance as well as a place for students to test their theories. We hope this assistance will encourage them to continue in the sciences.
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Where’s your primary customer base? Colleen: Most of our work revolves around the Midwest, although we do have a few food customers who are national and international. Due to logistic reasons, the majority of our business is generated in the Midwest. For instance, environmental samples have specific requirements regarding holding times, which would prohibit services beyond the Midwest. You have facilities in New Ulm, Bismarck and Iowa. How did you choose where to expand? Tom: We’ve been in Iowa for a long time. Soil testing is traditionally one of our fairly large activities, so we got started in Iowa performing soil tests a long time ago. Over the years, we’ve changed our business model there, even though the market itself
Tom Berg and Colleen Skillings | New Ulm
hasn’t really changed that much. We used to have a laboratory facility there, but now we prepare soil samples in our Iowa facility and bring them to New Ulm for analysis. It’s only three hours from here, so it’s not that big a deal to bring samples here. Now, Bismarck’s a little different. We’ve been in Bismarck since the late 1970s. We originally went up there with a view toward doing testing with the coal mining and electrical generating businesses. Most of that is either environmental work or fuels work. We’re starting to perform testing for the oil patch industries, too. North Dakota is the second largest oil producing state in the country now, next to Texas. Colleen: We grew out of the original building in Bismarck, and the business potential keeps growing. Because of this, about four years ago, we built a new laboratory there for anticipated growth. Have you considered setting up more facilities beyond the Midwest so that you could work with more customers? Colleen: No. Managing multiple locations is a challenge, and I’d prefer to do it here. Tom: There’s plenty of opportunity here in the Midwest. We’ll think about that someday maybe, but right now, just managing what we have is the goal. We have had a fair amount of growth in the last couple of years, the last three years particularly. This year is running significantly ahead of the last couple of years, and I’m expecting it to be our best year by far. The best sales technique you’ve got is giving good quality service, and everything that good quality means: timely, accurate, reasonably priced… If we see an opportunity, though, we’ll consider it. But you have recently expanded at your New Ulm location. Colleen: Yes, we added on to our corporate building about a year and a half ago. We needed more space, particularly in our microbiology lab, and reconfigured several areas to allow for more microbiology lab space. We’re still in need of more space, and we’re in the planning stage to expand again. We’re not quite sure precisely when it will happen. Laboratory space takes
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“We’re very unusual in that we run all of these technologies simultaneously. Hardly anybody does things like that. We’re rare. It kind of goes back to the two men who started the company. They believed very strongly in diversity, and they had a big influence on me.”–Tom Berg longer to plan because of the specific science infrastructure that’s required.
when we provide a good service, that’s accurate and timely, people know about it.
You say you’ve had record growth lately. Why do you think that is? Tom: We’ve got smart people who work hard. Colleen: We have a great sales team to feed work to the rest of the team. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of a great team. We’re fortunate to have a great group of people working with us. And Tom’s right: it’s all about giving a good product, which is data. With that, we help people make and save money. And so,
Do you have much competition in your line of work? Tom: The competition is fragmented. We have a couple of environmental labs up in the Twin Cities area that compete with us in the environmental realm, and we’ve got one agriculture laboratory in Iowa, one in Nebraska, and one in North Dakota that compete pretty hard with us. Colleen: There are food laboratories in the metro area that compete with us too, but they’re not as diverse as we are.
Tom: We’re very unusual in that we run all of these technologies simultaneously. Hardly anybody does things like that. We’re rare. It kind of goes back to the two men who started the company. They believed very strongly in diversity, and they had a big influence on me. Is it challenging to offer so many services, when many businesses in your line of work focus on just one type of testing? Colleen: We have it down so that it’s business as usual. The diversity started a long time ago, so it’s nothing new. That’s one
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Tom Berg and Colleen Skillings | New Ulm
reason why Tom came on board, in that the founders realized they wanted to offer more services, primarily in agriculture. There were many little dairies in the surrounding communities when the company started, and the company’s founders realized there was a need for other agriculture services. As time went on and regulations started to occur, the business grew. When new needs develop, we respond. Tom: It is a challenge, but it’s something we’ve grown into, and we just accept it. A lot of the work that’s required in our four main sectors is similar, so we organize our work by inorganic chemistry, analytical
chemistry, organic chemistry, microbiology, etc. In the inorganic chemistry lab, we may be doing environmental work, food science-related analysis and agriculturerelated analysis all at once. The skill sets that are required to do that are very similar. That’s how we deal with that. What other challenges are you facing in your industry right now? Tom: Over the years, our clients’ speed requirements have grown a lot shorter, across all the technologies and locations we operate in. People need their information much faster. For example, for soil testing,
we used to take a week to get the data back. Now, the turnaround time is 48 hours or less. Laboratory automation and computers make it possible. Also, price pressure is something that we deal with all the time. In some of the areas we work in, the price pressure is greater than others. We have competitors, and they’re looking for any advantage they can get, just like we are. MVTL has been around for more than 60 years. How has the business changed during that time? Tom: One of the fundamental changes
“There were many little dairies in the surrounding communities when the company started, and the company’s founders realized there was a need for other agriculture services. As time went on and regulations started to occur, the business grew. When new needs develop, we respond.”–Colleen Skillings
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was how we’ve switched from a labor-intensive business to a capital-intensive business. We used to be very labor intensive, but that’s kind of been reversed over the years. We’re constantly buying and replacing equipment and computers, and that takes a lot of capital. We have very large investments in instrumentation and computerization. Those are things that we didn’t have years ago. Most of the work was done in the old classic chemistry and microbiology techniques that were very labor intensive. Those techniques are all gone now. It’s all done with instrumentation and computers. The bottom line of all that is, these technological advances require a continuous change and continuous investment. We still employ a lot of people, but we could not do what we do without technology. Another thing is how we’re employing four or five times as many people as we had years ago. We do a breakfast for new hires
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Getting to know you:
Tom Berg
Education: Cathedral High School in New Ulm (1957), Bachelor of Science in chemistry from St. Edward’s University (1961) Favorite subject: Any of the sciences Family: Wife Kathleen, daughters Colleen and Kirsten, son Eric, two grandchildren Hobbies: Swimming, skiing, reading, cooking, sailing, traveling, flying Organizations: American Council of Independent Laboratories, chairman of the New Ulm Airport Commission, board member of the Boy Scouts of America, Twin Valley Council.
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If you weren’t doing this: “I’d probably be retired by now! One of the reasons I keep working is because I’m having so much fun. I just don’t want to quit. There’s a lot of things that I’d like to do, and a lot of goals I’d like to achieve yet. I’ve got to start thinking about retirement, just as a practical matter. But I’m not going to do it in the next six months or something like that.”
Tom Berg and Colleen Skillings | New Ulm
every once in a while, and the last one had 16 people. There’s some turnover, of course. We’ve got people coming and going all the time. Our workforce tends to be fairly young, although we’ve got a core of older employees in middle and top management. We’re a first job for a lot of young people right out of school. I’m proud of that. I heard you’re a pilot, Tom. Tom: I learned to fly a long time ago, and we still have an airplane. It all started when one day, back in 1968, we were sitting around talking about all the things we wanted to do and all the places we wanted to go. Dick Novak, who was somewhat of a visionary, said, “You know, it would really be nice if one of us knew how to fly. We could go places and do things that we just can’t do now.” There were several other people in the conversation, and they said, “No way.” But I said, “Well, gee, that sounds like an interesting thing to do.” I rarely pass up opportunities. He told me that if I took the time and effort to learn how to fly, he’d pay for my lessons. And I said, “You’re on.” That was in the morning. That afternoon, I went out and took my first flying lesson. So I learned how to fly. After that, we started doing more things, because we could fly. We spent more time in Iowa. And that’s also how Bismarck came to be. We were doing some work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Bismarck, and I was up there to talk about the project. I was alone in this restaurant at a hotel, and a bunch of men came in. I figured out they were coal miners and electrical generating people. They were talking about all the things that were going to happen in
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Education: New Ulm High School (1980), Bachelor of Arts in accounting from the College of St. Benedict (1984) Favorite subjects: Math and accounting Family: husband Bob, sons Teddy and Michael Hobbies: Golfing, knitting, skiing, cooking, tennis, pottery, traveling, and watching her sons’ sporting activities If you weren’t doing this: “I’d probably still be working as a CPA.”
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North Dakota. And I thought, “Holy cow, this is a big deal.” So I came back and told Mr. Novak that we might want to think about doing something in North Dakota, and he said, “Why don’t you spend some time up there and check it out?” Bismarck’s only a few hours away with an airplane. So I spent a lot of time in Bismarck, and we finally learned, “There’s a lot of work up there.” So we eventually built a facility up there, wore that out, built a new one, and that’s what we’re in now. North Dakota in general, and Bismarck in particular, are very business friendly. Let’s hear your background, Colleen. As a kid, did you want to work at Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories? Colleen (quickly): No. I was on a different career path. My interests didn’t include the sciences, so I never expected to work in the laboratory business. But things change. The three things I said when I was younger was: I’d never marry anyone from New Ulm, I’d never move back to New Ulm and I’d never work with my dad. Now I’ve done all three. Never say never.
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What were you interested in, instead? Colleen: In high school, I loved math and accounting. I also played tennis and sang in Menagerie, a young people’s singing group, as well as my high school’s concert choir and the Payne Street Singers. Our family grew up swimming, because of Tom’s involvement in swimming. We probably spent, in the summer, the whole day at the pool. We would go for lessons in the morning, come home for lunch, we’d have swim team practice and afternoon swim. To the end of the day, we’d go to family hour swim and then go home. Eventually, I started working as a lifeguard at Flandrau State Park and also at the indoor pool, which opened in 1978. Once you graduated high school, where did you go? Colleen: I attended the College of St. Benedict to study accounting. My first job out of college was at the Minnesota Legislative Auditor’s office, where I spent the next five years. That’s actually where I met my husband, Bob. We had gone to the same high school but he was two years
Tom Berg and Colleen Skillings | New Ulm
older, so we didn’t really know each other. While I was auditing at the Department of Revenue, he was working at the Lt. Governor’s office. When I first saw him in the hall and said hi, he couldn’t remember my name! But later he asked me out on a date. After a few years of dating, we were married in 1987.
rely on and trust those individuals to provide the scientific guidance. Plus, with my dad being a chemist, there is already great scientific leadership in the company. I did my best to use my knowledge and experience in conjunction with the rest of the team to help the company grow and move forward.
THE ESSENTIALS
Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories, Inc. Address: 1126 N Front Street New Ulm, Minnesota Telephone: 507-354-8517 Web: www.mvtl.com
Why did you choose to come back to New Ulm? Colleen: I liked my job at the Legislative Auditor’s Office, but it didn’t offer a lot of growth. State employees tend to stay at their jobs a long time, so there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to move and grow. Also, my husband and I wanted to start a family, and we just couldn’t see ourselves raising children in the metro area. He grew up most of his life in New Ulm, and so New Ulm was a natural thought. He moved before I did, and he lived with my parents for a few months. Now he knows why I do the things that I do. At that point, I began working at a local CPA firm, where I stayed for 10 years. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with that firm. They provided me the opportunity to grow in my field, exposing me to a wide variety of skills and businesses. I will be forever grateful for their contribution to my growth as a businessperson. What made you decide to take your dad up on his offer? Colleen: I really liked working at the CPA firm, as well as working with my clients. But tax season takes a toll. My dad approached me about the prospect of working with him, and I didn’t even have to think about it. Where else would I have the opportunity to have hands-on experience, learn new skills and eventually run the business? This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to work with my dad and create value for the business. You said you hadn’t wanted to work in a lab when you were a kid. Was it difficult to make that transition? Colleen: Not really. Business is business. When a business has a good team of people who are knowledgeable in their areas of expertise, particularly the scientific area that I’m not familiar with, it’s easy. We
What’s it like, working with your dad? Colleen: It’s good. Tom listens to people. He always says, “I may say no now, but it may not be no forever.” He respects all the people he works with. He’s forward thinking and very open to new technologies and services in order for the company to grow. He strongly believes that the company should keep changing with the changing market, which makes life interesting and fun. We make it work. When I was working in the CPA firm, I worked with family businesses. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t. And I think if you have an understanding and a respect for
one another, along with open communication, it works well. What about you, Tom? What’s it like working with your daughter? Tom: It’s fine. I really needed her skills. I had this gut feeling that somebody with a background like Colleen’s would help us go a long way. And it did. And it continues to. Comment on this story at connectbiz.com
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5 YearS Ago
July/August 2010 Jennifer Pfeffer, executive director of Pathstone Living in Mankato, was the main feature in this issue. Profiled companies included Heartland Embroidery in Blue Earth and Windings Inc. in New Ulm. Great quote from Pfeffer on the importance of diversity and listening to customers: “People who didn’t diversify have been the ones struggling. We want this to be a consumer-driven industry. The consumer of 20 years ago is different from the consumer of today, and people today want something different than what you and I are going to want 20 years from now.” 10 YEARS AGO
July/August 2005 Our cover story was Jean Fitterer Lance, vice president of the cardiovascular division of Boston Scientific. Profiled companies were it takes two, a greeting card business in Le Sueur, and the River Ridge Gun Club in New Ulm. One good quote from Lance: “You can be just as effective at work by being nice. You don’t have to be unpleasant to get the job done. I can also be determined and competitive, but I try to keep an eye on what’s really important in every situation.” 15 YEARS AGO
July/August 2000 Our cover story featured Paul Wilke, general manager of Mankato’s River Hills Mall. Profiled companies were the Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation of America, headquartered in St. Peter, and Big Gain, headquartered in LeHillier. 20 YEARS AGO
July/August 1995 This issue didn’t feature a cover person— that didn’t begin until 1996—but instead focused on how area professionals were utilizing international marketing for an everincreasing global market. Profiled companies included DM Stamps & Specialties and the Butler House Bed and Breakfast, both in Mankato. 22
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BUSINESS TRENDS
ECONOMY
While the “Great Recession” may officially be over, millions of Americans are still facing economic struggles, according to the 2015 Assets and Opportunity Scorecard put out by the Corporation for Enterprise Development. This annual scorecard is a data-based assessment of the financial security and economic circumstances of American households, with data from the U.S Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Mortgage Bankers Association. Data for the 2015 assessment included informa-
tion from 2012 up to 2014. Across the nation, the average household income has stayed at roughly $49,800 for three years in a row, while the share of lowwage occupation jobs has risen from 21 percent in 2012 to 25 percent in 2013. Nearly half (44 percent) of U.S. households lack a basic financial safety net, defined as enough savings to cover three months’ worth of expenses. In addition, the national homeowner rate fell to 63.5 percent in 2013, a 20-year low. (Minnesota has a 71.6 percent homeownership rate.) When it comes to Minnesota, the state was ranked considerably better than the national average in most areas. Only 11 percent of Minnesotans are struggling with poverty, compared to a U.S. average of 14.7 percent, and the average net worth for a family is $124,500—almost double the national average of $70,400. When it came to credit card debt, Minnesotans carried about the same amount as residents from other states: $9,280 on average. Minnesota’s unemployment rate of 3.7 percent is lower than the national average of 6.5 percent, and only 22.2 percent of Minnesota workers are in low-wage jobs. Minnesota families also take home about $2,000 more annually than the national average.
When it comes to education, Minnesota is far and away above the national average. More than 92 percent of adult Minnesotans have their high school degree, compared to 86.6 percent of American adults nationwide. In addition, more than 33 percent of adult Minnesotans have bachelor’s degrees, compared to 29.6 percent of American adults across the country. However, the average college graduate debt for Minnesotans is nearly $30,900, compared to the national average of $28,400. One area where Minnesota ranked more poorly than average was gaps in homeownership rates between Caucasian Americans and minority groups; in fact, Minnesota was among the top 10 for this gap, with nearly twice as many white residents owning homes than minority residents. However, the rate was evenly split between genders.
JULY/AUGUST 2015
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BUSINESS TRENDS
TRANSPORTATION
According to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the U.S. is short 30,000 truck drivers —and it’s only going to get worse. The driver turnover rate at large truckload companies has been consistently 90 percent or higher since 2012, according to the Journal of Commerce, rising to 96 percent at the end of 2014. This turnover rate measures how many truck drivers must by replaced by a carrier every year to maintain a constant driver pool, with a 100 percent turnover rate indicating that the trucking company must replace the equivalent of its entire fleet of drivers. It comes as no surprise, then, that 90 percent of carriers said they couldn’t find enough drivers who met Department of Transportation criteria, according to Business Insider. Business Insider also reported that trucking employment has bounced back nearly to its
“I try to stay on top of it, but some days it seems like it’s an uphill battle.” –Rick Behne pre-recession peak, with trucking operators expanding their payroll by 46,000 jobs last year—nearly double the jobs added in 2013. Some of this growth stems from new hours-of-service regulations added in 2013, which reduce the length of time drivers can be on the road. Because of this, trucking operators need to add more trucks and drivers to haul the same amount of freight. As trucking operators struggle to fill their slots, they’ve started upping truckers’ wages. While the average salary for an entry-level trucker was $34,000 in 2013, according to the Houston Chronicle, now they’re making closer to $40,000 right out of the gate. Trucking companies are also putting more focus on retention efforts to keep experienced drivers on the road. Some factors cited regarding this shortage include more regulations, low pay, difficult hours and low interest in the profession among younger generations. Rick Behne, of trucking company Behne Incorporated in Fairmont, said the lack of truck drivers has been a problem within his company for several years. “It’s just getting worse and worse,” he said. “It’s mainly because you have a lot
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less people getting into that kind of career, while the people who have done it forever are retiring now.” He said he has been advertising his available positions, but the best way he’s found new employees is through word of mouth from current drivers. In addition, he also offers training to people who have their commercial driver’s license and want to start working. This training can last anywhere from three to six months, depending on how much experience the student has coming in. “I try to stay on top of it, but some days it seems like it’s an uphill battle,” he said. The ATA estimates that the driver shortage will increase to 239,000 by 2022, and says the industry needs to attract 100,000 new drivers on average every year over the next decade. This lack of truckers could affect far more than just trucking companies. Nearly 70 percent of all the freight tonnage moved in the U.S. goes by truck, according to the ATA, adding up to about 9.2 billion tons of freight every year. That requires about three million heavy-duty trucks and more than three million drivers, along with 37 billion gallons of diesel fuel.
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VOLUNTEERING
Nonprofits are struggling with a long-term downward trend in volunteer rates, according to the Fedgazette. Volunteers are an important part of nonprofit organizations, with labor worth about $163 billion in 2013, according to an Urban Institute Report. That’s a labor equivalent of about five million full-time workers. That same institute used self-reported data from 2007 to 2013 to track volunteer rates and median hours, using the data to conclude that there had been a significant drop. In 2013, Minnesotan volunteers put in about 40 hours a year (or 171.3 million hours all together), according to the Corporation for National and Community Service—a decrease of about one hour compared to 2012 and five hours from the
are losing their elderly volunteers, and many are having difficulties replacing them. Another trend is how more people are volunteering through their work, often for one specific event instead of a longterm commitment. A 2014 survey by MAVA showed that 55 percent of nonprofits were seeing increased interest in short-term volunteering opportunities. In the same way, the trend has shifted from volunteers taking on any task to potential volunteers wanting to use specific skills they have. While these skills can be beneficial for nonprofits, it leaves these organizations struggling to fill in volunteer slots for basic tasks that have always been done.
most recent peak in 2010, when volunteers put in closer to 45 hours a year. On the bright side, Minnesotans are still volunteering more than the national average; 35 percent of Minnesota residents volunteer their time, compared to 25 percent of people nationally. (In fact, these numbers rank Minnesota third out of the 50 states.) In addition, Minnesota residents donate eight more volunteer hours than the national average. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the main volunteer activities for Minnesotans include fundraising (25.2 percent) and general labor (21.6 percent), with religious and educational organizations being the most popular places to volunteer (36.3 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively). More people volunteered more hours during the recession (perhaps due to extra free time after job losses), and nonprofits still heavily rely on these free hours. Now, however, the demographics have shifted. According to the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration, the most volunteer inquiries come from students and interns hoping to boost their job resumes. In fact, a 2014 MAVA survey showed that 45 percent of volunteer programs in Minnesota reported receiving more inquiries from this group, the highest of any category. On the flip side, nonprofit organizations
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Wine lovers Kent and Jane Schwickert redefine the Midwest wine scene with their award-winning winery. By Carlienne A. Frisch Photo by Kris Kathmann
When one thinks of wine, a few locations come to mind: France with its champagnes, Italy with its Sangiovese, California with its Cabernet Sauvignon. In other words, one does not usually think of Minnesota. Yet, hidden in an unassuming southeast corner of a state better known for hot dishes and lutefisk, the Chankaska Creek Ranch and Winery has started making quite a name of itself in the world of wine. Founded on 25 acres of land just outside of Kasota in 2008, Chankaska has already grown to be the second largest winery in the state, surpassed only by the Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls, and this year it was named Minnesota’s best winery by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The vision for Chankaska Creek Ranch and Winery began for Kent and Jane Schwickert, the winery’s majority owners, during their visits to 100 wineries in the United States and Europe. The couple brings varied experience to an enterprise that requires constant attention. Kent Schwickert grew up in his family’s business, a plumbing, roofing, electrical, furnace, air conditioning and heating company in Mankato, while Jane Schwickert has a customer service and nursing background. The couple blends their individual skills and experiences together to form a partnership that’s almost as strong and sweet as the wine their ranch produces. continued >
Wine Country
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Kent Schwickert’s work ethic began developing when he was four years old, emptying trash cans and putting price tags on paint cans. Attention to detail came with counting nails, which he believes may have been a task assigned to keep him occupied rather than for inventory purposes. As a teenager, he made deliveries to customers and worked in the company’s sheet metal shop in addition to working various jobs at Mt. Kato, Mankato’s ski slope. He also spent one summer during college honing his sales skills by promoting Emery Worldwide Freight Services from office door to office door. “Emery gave us training and a blue blazer,” he recalled. “I did all right.” He attended Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis, where he studied building blueprint reading, and the University of Minnesota, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance in 1982. Schwickert describes his “real job” as being the senior vice president and national sales director for Tecta America Corp., which was formed by Schwickert’s commercial contracting company, Schwickerts, and nine other companies in 2000. He spends about two-thirds of his time traveling on corporate business. So what did he experience during his visits to wineries that accounts for wanting to plant grapes, manufacture wine and open a winery in his limited free time? “I have grown to have a passion for collecting wine,” he said. “I had a vision of having a vineyard and a winery, so we put together a group of investors. Jane and I and two of my brothers have a majority investment. I solicited nine other investors who own nearly half the shares.” Jane Schwickert, also a native Mankatoan, added, “We’ve always made a good team, but this is the first time we’ve worked together professionally and spoken the same language.” The Schwickerts purchased 25 contiguous acres from five landowners in 2008. The property includes a farmhouse built more than 150 years ago. Recently remodeled, it is now the home of wine maker Mike Drash. The Schwickerts chose to keep the name that appears on the original homestead
Chankaska Creek Ranch and Winery | Kasota
Wine Country
Turning Grapes Into Wine Mike Drash, Chankaska’s vice president of winemaking since February 2014, was attracted to making wine for several reasons. The first was economic. “I was unemployable,” he said. “I had degrees in anthropology and sociology, with a minor in theatre media. In college I liked wine, so when I was 23, I packed up everything in a car, with a couple of dogs.” Drash drove from Tennessee to the California winemaking areas of Napa and Sonoma. There he knocked on the door of a winery and told the winemaker that he’d just driven across the country to look for a job. He was hired to learn winemaking. Although Drash admits that making wine is “a lot of hard work,” he appreciates the agricultural aspect, saying, “On my mom’s side, there are six generations of cotton farmers in Mississippi. There’s also the science side to winemaking and the romance of having a glass of wine with dinner.” Over time, Drash developed a reputation for making excellent vintages. He served as the treasurer of the Napa Valley Farm Bureau Board and eventually owned his own sustainable viticulture winery. With more than two decades of winemaking experience, along with his industry contacts, he now makes wine not only from Chankaska’s fruit but also from grapes that he imports from California and Washington vineyards. He controls the entire process, even choosing the day grapes are picked. Drash’s assistant, Josie Boyle, analyzes the chemistry of the wines, as well as assisting Drash in filtering, cleaning, maintaining a good barrel program and blending. She previously worked in wineries in New Zealand and Michigan, where she achieved the rank of cellar master. The winemakers are using their experience in Chankaska’s latest enterprise--making whiskey, gin and brandy. “Being from Tennessee, I have a fascination with making whiskey,” Drash said. “It’s a lot like winemaking. The still was imported from Germany, and the company provided training.” The latest beverages go into the same cellar as the wine, under the parking lot.
Wine Country
papers—Chankaska Creek Ranch—adding “winery” to bring attention to their specialty. (The name Chankaska, which originally may have been spelled Shanaska, means “enclosed by forest” in the Dakota language.) The Schwickerts planted nine acres of grapes in 2009, now expanded to 13 acres. A year later, they began construction on the 11,000-square-foot winery and tasting room. The first harvest came in 2011. Only three years later, the winery produced 21,000 gallons (about 9,000 cases) of wine. Making Chankaska wines known to potential customers posed little challenge for the Schwickerts, who knew how to set the stage for their young business. They worked with Red Door Creative in Mankato to design bottle labels and posters, and they had plenty of time to work on promoting their product before it hit the shelves. “When you start a winery, you have three years before you begin distributing wine,” Kent Schwickert said. “I’m very market driven and idea driven for promotion. I’ve been a networker all my life. My initial goal was to have a profitable winery within five or six years. That’s still coming. Grape plants can’t produce grapes for three years, and won’t produce to their full capability until after five years. The investors and the bank have been very supportive. To please all wine drinkers, we offer a variety of red and white wines, as well as a rosé. What I’d really like to see is for our brand to be known nationally, and I think we’re getting there. We do not yet have the production level to go through a distributor, but over the past two
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Wine Country
Food, Wine and Revelry The Schwickerts both prefer dry wines. Kent’s choice is Reserve Marquette, which differs from Marquette. As he explains, “Reserve Marquette has better quality grapes.” Other differences include Brix (a scale for measuring sugar content), acidity and pH. Jane prefers Sauvignon Blanc, a wine that complements grilled fish, chicken, goat cheese, white pizza, smoked salmon, shellfish, bouillabaisse, green salads and vegetables. Off-dry white wines, such as Petite Colline and Creekside White, are tasty companions to creambased pastas, triple cream cheese (such as St. Andre, Brie and Camembert), composed fruitand-nut salads and chicken with fruit sauces. Sweet white and rose wines, including Riesling
Chankaska Creek Ranch and Winery | Kasota
We do not yet have the production level to go through a distributor, but over the past two years we’ve acquired 125 liquor stores outside of Minnesota as our customers. We also are becoming known through our Wine Circle Select customers, to whom we ship directly.” —Kent Schwickert years we’ve acquired 125 liquor stores outside of Minnesota as our customers. We also are becoming known through our Wine Circle Select customers, to whom we ship directly.” The Wine Circle Select is a group of wine lovers who pay no membership fee but commit to accepting four shipments of wine for at least one year. Members experience the full range of Chankaska wines, including those made from California and Washington grape varieties. They receive one case of wine every three months, as well as complimentary tastings, events passes, discounts on additional wine and other perks. “We have more than 1,500 members in the Wine Circle, which is unusual for a winery of our size and age,” Jane Schwickert said. “We recently hired a concierge to give attention to the Wine Circle. The members are our most loyal customers.” As the general manager of Chankaska Creek Ranch and Winery, Jane Schwickert manages four distinct teams of employees. There’s the tasting room manager and 15 employees, the three people who
make outside sales to restaurants and liquor stores, the grounds and vineyard manager and crew, and the events and marketing team. Schwickert uses skill sets she developed in previous jobs--leadership, proficiency in quality improvement and knowledge of the community. She has established an online training program for employees who work in customer relations, and she provides an opportunity for them to learn about winemaking from Drash. Before she helped her husband open their winery, Schwickert worked as a Shopko cashier and in sales at an office supply store. She went on to receive a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Minnesota State University Mankato, working first as a bedside nurse and then in operating rooms and recovery rooms. Eventually, she became an infection control specialist, writing for a website on infectious disease control. “That was my dream job,” she said. “It ended after the dot-com fall, so I became a stay-at-home mom with our two children— another dream job.” The couple’s children are both interested in the vineyard. Ian,
and Kasota Rose, set off the flavors of Indian, Vietnamese and Thai selections, soft cheeses, and fruit crepes, salads and tarts. Marquette and other fruity, light-bodied red wines are a good accompaniment to grilled appetizers, tomato-based pastas and pizzas, BBQ ribs, chops and the meat platter Charcuterie. For steaks, prime rib, chops, lamb and game meats, the Schwickerts recommend a dry barrelaged red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel and Reserve Marquette. The winery’s tasting room offers wood-fired pizzas, antipasto and featured desserts, including cheesecake and chocolate selections. There is a $7 wine tasting fee. Wine can also be purchased by the glass or by the bottle. “Our main customers in the winery tasting room are women, ages 45 to 60, which is typical nationally,” Jane Schwickert said. Her husband added, “But we have it all, men and women, ages 21 to 80.” For larger gatherings, Chankaska offers six venues. Weddings are the most popular event; the winery
also hosts receptions, birthday parties, corporate functions and other events. The Barrel Room can accommodate a party of 50 to 75 people, while up to 100 guests can gather on the Tasting Patio. On the right bank of the creek, the aptly named Creekside features a 40x80 tent with cathedral windows, flooring and an additional lawn. It offers seating for about 200 guests. Across the bridge, in Chankaska Forest, there’s theatre-style seating for 250 guests or dining space for 200. More athletic guests can play bocce ball or croquet on Chankaska Court. And for guests seeking a private view of the Minnesota River Valley, there’s the hilltop Chankaska Field. Chankaska also opens its doors to non-profits. Educare, a foundation created by business people as an opportunity to provide grants and funds to school, held a May fundraiser at the winery. Chankaska provided the space, a wine tasting and a VIP wine tasting for large donors. The venues are managed by Karen BorresenBerg, the event and marketing coordinator. She can be reached at events@chankaskawines.com or by phone at (507) 931-0089. JULY/AUGUST 2015
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Wine Country
Wine Country
Pouring Out The Facts Jay Weir
Mike Donohoe
The James R. Weir Insurance Agency has merged with Arthur J. Gallagher, one of the worlds largest insurance brokers. We both share the same philosophical commitment that puts our clients first and now we can offer our clients a greater level of specialized insurance and risk management insurance expertise. The merger represents the coming together of two well known companies to better enhance our client relationships.
What would you change about your winery? Kent: I’d make this building bigger, have a bigger tasting room. Jane: And more storage room. Business philosophy? Kent: I learned a long time ago that I want to have all of the information before I make a decision, which may not be necessarily what I want to do. Jane: We are a family here, a team. We have a lot of fun. Favorite school classes: Kent: Math. I like to solve problems. Jane: Reading, writing, science. What would you like to have studied? Both: Enology Hobbies? Jane: Knitting and reading. Both: Travel Proudest accomplishment? Kent: Growing Schwickerts with my brother, Kim, from a medium-size company to a large one. Jane: Kent’s tenacity with the winery, that it’s happening. Most valued possession? Kent: The winery. It is me. Jane: My wedding ring.
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Phone: 507-387-3433 208 N Broad Street | Mankato, MN 56001 3600 American Blvd. West, Suite 500 Bloomington, MN 55431 32
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What words describe you? Kent: Hard-working, tough, fair, rational. Jane: Processor, perfectionist, caring. If not this business, what would you be doing? Jane: I’d love to write a book about our first few years of experience here.
Chankaska Creek Ranch and Winery | Kasota
“We’ve traveled for the past 25 years, since we’ve been married, but we’ve gone abroad more in the past eight years, mainly to France. We’re thinking of going to Scotland to see whiskey being made because now we have a distilled spirits license—we’re the only winery in Minnesota to have one.” —Jane Schwickert a college sophomore studying business and marketing, works in the tasting rooms during school vacations. Greta, a high school junior, took a day off from school six years ago to plant one of the first grape vines. “Greta is a leader, interested in being in charge,” Jane Schwickert said. “She’ll follow in her dad’s footsteps.” Jane Schwickert’s current dream job involves more travel abroad, as she explains, “We’ve traveled for the past 25 years, since we’ve been married, but we’ve gone abroad more in the past eight years, mainly to France. We’re thinking of going to Scotland to see whiskey being made because now we have a distilled spirits license—we’re the only
winery in Minnesota to have one. We’ve begun making whiskey, gin and brandy, and may possibly have bitters for sale next year.” As with wine, there are regulations to meet when it comes to making whiskey. “For gin making, you take the grain and add citrus or flowers for the formulation of the ‘basket,’” Kent Schwickert said. “The basket of fruit, flowers and fragrances must be approved by the Tobacco and Trade Bureau.” There also are state regulations to follow. Minnesota has a three-tiered system. A business can do only one of three things: manufacture alcoholic beverages, distribute them to wholesalers, or sell directly to the public in bars and liquor stores. There is, however, an exception. As a result of the University of Minnesota’s successful research in developing cold-climate hybrid grapes, the Minnesota legislature passed a statute that permits a farm winery such as Chankaska to sell up to 75,000 gallons annually to restaurants and liquor stores, as well as at its own location. The statute was written, Kent Schwickert said, “because Minnesota has never been considered a wine-producing state–and now we are.” Chankaska’s wines have drawn favorable attention to Minnesota’s wine industry, winning the winery several awards. This year, at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition in upstate New York, the winery’s Sauvignon Blanc received a gold award, the highest in the nation. North Forest, a Valnot Krem (Norwegian for Walnut Crème), won top honors at Finger Lakes and in a
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Wine Country
Riverside, California competition. “So we’re making good wine,” Kent Schwickert said. “That’s our first priority. I have to like it. We have a great team working here--new products, new visions, new plans. I want to produce a great product and to strive to give the customer as much satisfaction as possible.”
THE ESSENTIALS
Chankaska Creek Ranch and Winery Phone: 507-931-0089 Address: 1179 E Pearl Street Kasota, Minnesota Web: www.chankaskawines.com
Carlienne A. Frisch writes from Mankato.
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Uncorking America’s Heartland Jamieson Lindquist, the 20-year-old manager of the grounds and the vineyard, had his moment in the spotlight in May, when the crew of Wine Diamonds Film arrived at Chankaska to shoot footage of Lindquist and the grapes he nurtures. The tale of Lindquist’s “babysitting” the grapes on chilly late-April nights Jamieson Lindquist is part of the independent documentary “Wine Diamonds: Uncorking America’s Heartland.” (“Wine diamonds” is a slang term used by wine aficionados to describe the tartaric acid that accumulates on the underside of corks and sometimes is found in the sludgy sediment at the bottom of a wine bottle.) “It was about 30 degrees those nights,” Lindquist said. “I was out with smudge pots to provide heat and a fan to remove cold air. I stayed in the vineyard from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. to make sure the pots didn’t run out of fuel. If the grapes freeze, we lose all of our crops, so we have to protect them.” Lindquist’s commitment to grapes began when he was eight years old. He worked in his parents’ Lonsdale vineyard, helping to plant vines, put in grow tubes, build a trellis system and train vines. Six years later, he was recruited by another vineyard owner to prune and maintain vines, eventually managing 3,900 vines. Lindquist is studying business agricultural production at South Central College in North Mankato, and is also enrolled in the online Viticulture Enology Science and Technology Alliance.
GRACE NOTES
The people of Fairmont have an idea about how to make their city a better place. Actually, the people of Fairmont have several ideas. Actually, the people of Fairmont have 1,686 ideas—and they’re still coming. All those ideas are part of “Project 1590,” a citywide project that has brought together everyone from city officials to local businesses to regular citizens. It started last year as a grassroots effort to enhance the city by inviting public participation through a voting process. Anyone could suggest any idea—from bringing in a Kohl’s to expanding bike trails to creating a youth center. I talked with Steve Hawkins, one of the board members for the project. He explained that the idea started from a different grassroots effort in Fairmont, called Focus on Fairmont, which had banded together to work on community projects like rental ordinances and city beautification. As the group successfully organized projects, Fairmont residents began asking it to consider other ideas, like a community center. While Hawkins thought his group was too small to pull off such a big project, he was inspired by a recent initiative in Austin, Minnesota, where a group called Vision 2020 had started canvassing the community to ask what residents wanted to see in their city. After the ideas were collected, group members narrowed them down and voted on the best project to move forward. “I thought, ‘That’s what we need to do here,’” Hawkins said. “‘Let’s see what Fairmont really wants.’” So they did, setting up Project 1590 in July 2014 and organizing a group of board members to lead it on its way. While their initiative borrowed a lot from Austin’s, the Fairmont folks gave it their own twist: they’d encourage community involvement every step of the way, from suggesting ideas to whittling 36
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them down to the ten finalists, which were unveiled during a “Big Reveal” party in May. Now that the finalists have been chosen, it’s up to Fairmont residents, businesses and city departments to make them into reality. Each idea has its own steering committee to see the idea become a reality. And as for the other hundreds of ideas, the Project 1590 folks aren’t kicking them to the curb, either. There’s an eleventh committee set up just to support other community groups that might want to take on a favorite idea of theirs that didn’t make the final cut. According to Hawkins, it’s going to be an ongoing effort. “They’re all great ideas, and they’d all be a huge benefit to our community,” he said. “We don’t want them to stop. If somebody’s passionate about something, we don’t want to hold them back.” I attended the “Big Reveal” Party and was impressed with just how much community buy-in the project’s steering committee was able to muster up. The place was packed, and the party really was a party: food, Grace A. Webb music, disco lights. It Editor wasn’t a stodgy meeting to discuss possible solutions to problems; it was a celebration and a community coming-together. It’s extremely impressive how much the folks behind Project 1590 have been able to do within the last year. If you assume every idea came from a unique individual, that means more than 15 percent of Fairmont’s entire population suggested something. If you assume the votes came from votingaged residents, the percent jumps up to about 20 percent—a fifth of adult residents. Just think of all the grassroots efforts that start with grand visions for change but quietly fade away without support. That’s definitely not the case here. In fact, the level of participation is probably the most impressive part of the whole project. Every part of Fairmont participated in some way. The city donated funds, local businesses donated funds, even individual residents donated funds. Dozens of people put in hundreds of volunteer hours. And now, as the selected projects move forward,
individuals are pledging their time to help make them a success. Hawkins said the idea to have the community vote on ideas throughout the whole process is why the initiative was such a success. “If we let the people vote, then we’re already getting buy-in,” he explained. “If they have a say, it’ll be much easier to convince the community that we do want these things, because they voted for it. They’re deciding, not City Hall, not the school district. It was the citizens.” I for one think this project is a fantastic idea. Instead of relying on a city to change itself, residents took ownership and worked to change the situation themselves. Anyone can do this. It started among a group of people who wanted to make a change— which means any city can be the site of another “Project 1590.” For another thing, it’s simple enough to succeed. That’s not to say it didn’t take a lot of work, because it did. But the concept is wonderfully simple: Invite people to share their own ideas and then vote on them. It’s one thing if a city board asks residents whether they want a new park; it’s a different situation entirely when residents have the chance to offer their own suggestions. People are more invested when they’re a bigger part of the process. Finally, it builds a strong bridge between businesses and the local community. When the project was just starting, local businesses offered their support by hosting meetings and partnering for fundraisers. They’ll become more involved as the projects progress. This sets a precedent—people can trust local businesses to work with them toward common goals. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved. I think this is such a great idea, other cities should be jumping on the bandwagon with their own efforts. Just think of what Mankato or New Ulm or St. Peter could come up if they tuned into their residents’ opinions on ways to make their community better. It would work for smaller cities, like Gaylord and Winnebago, too. That’s the beauty of the whole thing: it just requires a community to whole-heartedly come together and commit to making itself a better place. Let’s get going, southern Minnesota!
BULLETIN BOARD
Local Chamber & Economic Development News
Any chamber of commerce, convention and visitors bureau, or economic development organization in our reading area—large or small, from Amboy to Winnebago—can post on our free bulletin board. For details, email editor@connectbiz.com.
Gaylord Amy Newsom, Gaylord EDA To assist businesses with cash flow needs due to the Highway 5/19/22 reconstruction project, the Gaylord EDA is offering a construction mitigation micro-loan program. Businesses must have been in operation at the beginning of the project. Loans up to $5,000 are available at zero percent interest, repaid at $100 per month, one year after the construction project ends. Funds can be used to pay for mortgage payments, utility bills or other business expenses approved by the loan committee. For more information please contact Amy Newsom at 507-237-2338 or anewsom@exploregaylord.org.
Gaylord Amy Newsom, Gaylord Chamber Music on Main will be every other Wednesday during July and August. It will include free live music, a farmer’s market, arts and crafts sellers, flea market sellers and food vendors. Children’s activities begin at 4 p.m. and the live music runs from 5-7 p.m. Don’t forget to drop off your loyalty card for a chance to win Gaylord Green! The fun begins July 8 with artist Duke Zecco. To be part
of the farmer's market, contact Amy Newsom at 507-237-2338 or anewsom@exploregaylord.org
Lake Crystal Julie Reed, Lake Crystal Chamber The Lake Crystal Area Chamber Golf Tournament is August 5 at the Madelia Golf Club. This annual event, for golfers of all levels, always fills quickly, so contact the Chamber office to secure your foursome. The Rec Center will be hosting the Fall Fest 5K Color Run on September 19. Registration is available online. The July Chamber “Business After Hours” will be hosted by The Lakes Sports Bar and Grill on July 16. This event will be held at Robinson Park.
Le Sueur Julie Boyland, Le Sueur Chamber The Business owners of South Main Street once again will have Market Fest on Thursday evenings from 6-8 p.m. This is a free community celebration in downtown South Main Street with food, crafts, cars, motorcycles, entertainment and much more. The event runs from June 18 until August 13. Last year it was a big success!
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BULLETIN BOARD
Sleepy Eye
Region Nine
Trista Barka, Sleepy Eye Area Chamber
Nicole Griensewic Mickelson, Region Nine Dev Commission
Sleepy Eye will celebrate its sixth annual Party in the Park on July 23. The event is modeled after National Night Out, a way to bring communities together to promote safety within our community, get to know community organizations and enjoy a family friendly night out with food, fun, and music. Buttered Corn Days will be in August with our free buttered sweet corn on August 21 and our parade on August 22. Go to www.sleepyeyechamber.com for more details.
Are you or someone you love living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia? The Get the Facts Education Series will help you understand the disease and provide you with resources. Classes are the fourth Thursday from July–August from 6:30-8 p.m. at Old Main Village, 301 South 5th Street, Mankato. The series is part of Region Nine Development Commission’s larger effort through grant funding to create a Mankato/North Mankato dementiafriendly community. For more information contact Danielle Walchuk at danielle@rndc.org or 507.389.8863.
Madelia Karla Grev, Madelia Area Chamber Madelia Park Days will be July 9-12. Events include a Blues Festival, Art & More Fair, a chainsaw artist, parade, fireworks, 5K walk/run, kids’ carnival and lots of live entertainment, among other events. For a full lineup, visit www.visitmadelia.com, or call 888-941-7283.
Mankato Jonathan Zierdt, Greater Mankato Growth Alive After 5, sponsored by Schell’s Brewery, returns to Greater Mankato this August on Thursdays from 5 – 8 p.m. in Jackson Park.
Gather with your co-workers, friends and family to enjoy live music, food and beverages in the relaxed outdoor setting of City Center Mankato. The free summer concert series kicks off on August 13. For more information, including a full list of dates and band lineup, visit citycentermankato.com.
Mankato Julie Nelson, SBDC In addition to business consulting and access to capital, the SBDC offers a variety of education and training to expand small business know-how with practical applications. Offerings in the coming months
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Local Chamber & Economic Development News
bounce house, food and root beer floats. There will be appearances by the Nicollet Fire Department, Gold Cross and Nicollet County Sheriff. Come and meet your neighbors and enjoy the activities.
Waseca Kim Foels, Waseca Area Chamber
Participants of the inaugural year of the chamber’s LEADERSHIP Greater Waseca program have now completed and graduated from the program. It is a program designed to teach candidates about Waseca resources, values, strengths, weaknesses, and challenges, and a learning experience geared toward providing an in-depth look at education, economic development, government, healthcare, public safety, quality of life, agriculture, and culture and diversity. LEADERSHIP Greater Waseca program is pleased to have partnered with Riverland Community College for this endeavor.
include: an Email Marketing series, Minnesota Sales & Use Tax, Encore Entrepreneurship, and our premier financial course, Profit Mastery: Creating Value and Building Wealth. Check our training calendar and register any time at myminnesotabusiness.com by clicking on Training & Events.
Nicollet Alesia Slater, Nicollet Chamber Nicollet’s Night Out will be held at Elm Street Park on August 4. This will be the fifth year and will include a visit from the Mayo Health Clinic helicopter, fireworks at dusk, kids’ games, kids’ activities, a
New Ulm Sarah Warmka, New Ulm CVB A new “Car Hop & Shop” event is planned for downtown New Ulm from 5-8 p.m. on July 9, August 6 and September 10. The purpose of this event is to promote local businesses by bringing people out to socialize, shop and have fun in our historic downtown! The CVB/Chamber has created a new tourism email newsletter sent monthly during the travel season. Sign up at newulm.com. Applications for 2015-2016 Network New Ulm Leadership Program will be accepted through July 31.
Sleepy Eye Kurk Kramer, Sleepy Eye EDA Sleepy Eye was one of the 37 Minnesota communities that were awarded $17.6 million by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) to help pay for building rehabilitation and infrastructure projects. Sleepy Eye received $684,080 to be used for multi-family rental housing rehabilitation and commercial building rehabilitation. DEED awarded the funding under its Small Cities Development Program, which provides financial support for housing, public infrastructure and commercial rehabilitation projects in cities and counties statewide.
Waseca Colleen Carlson, Discover Waseca Plan a Shark Mania Birthday party or evening swims on Summer Fun Nights from 6:30-9 p.m. at the Waseca Water Park. Farmamerica is hosting Farm Camp for kids on August 10-11, Fall Fair dates are September 12-13 and Haunted Corn Maze weekends in October. Spend Sundays at Farmamerica 12-4 p.m. for walking tours. Check out www.DiscoverWaseca.com for more information and share your “Wow” moments by liking us on Facebook.
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Chad Lyons, owner of TFE Enterprises in Truman, isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and get dirty.
By Grace Webb Photo by Kris Kathmann
In 1999, 23-year-old Chad Lyons thought he had his life all planned out. The Fairmont native was married with a young son, was working as a manager at a hog farm in Truman and was also serving in the Minnesota National Guard. He planned on going the full 20 years so he could earn a complete retirement package from the military. But one night he woke up and he couldn’t breathe. It was because of a heart condition that had plagued him his whole life. When he was a young kid, his doctor had told him he had a heart murmur, but it had seemed to disappear as he grew. However, he said he’d still always had heart problems, which would cause blurry vision and make him winded far sooner than a soldier in the prime of his life should have been. While his Guard buddies were easily lugging backpacks up hills, Lyons could barely run two miles. As the difficulty in breathing through the night became more and more frequent, Lyons went St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester for help. There, doctors discovered he had a hole in his heart that was leaking blood. To save his life, they scheduled an intensive surgery that would involve cutting him open, removing his heart, fixing it and replacing it inside him. As the date of his surgery drew closer, Lyons struggled to control his fear. “I didn’t know what to think,” he recalls. “I didn’t know if I was going to wake up again.” Finally, the fateful November date arrived, and Lyons went back to St. Mary’s. The 10-hour surgery was grueling, but he emerged from the operating table alive and well. But his fight was far from over. continued > JULY/AUGUST 2015
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Dirty Job
He stayed at St. Mary’s for a week before he was even able to go home, and it took him another month and a half just to be able to sit up straight. But perhaps worse than the physical exhaustion of recovery was the uncertainty that came with it. He wasn’t able to pass his latest physical fitness test, which meant he couldn’t stay in the military. And even his job at the hog farm was too physically demanding. Suddenly, Lyons’ perfectly planned life had completely fallen through. But Lyons has always been resiliently resourceful and an exhaustively hard worker. Once he had recovered sufficiently, he plunged back into the job scene—and somehow found his way into a position at TFE Enterprises in Truman in 2003. Now, 13 years later, he’s the owner of a business that creates a million pounds of feed supplement a year and sells to customers across the world. Lyons’ life is a testament to how life doesn’t always work out like you planned it—sometimes, it’s even better. Lyons was born in Fairmont in 1972 and raised by a single mother until she remarried when he was 12. Then the two of them moved to Truman to live with his stepfather on a hobby farm. There, Lyons would help butcher chickens and collect eggs. “We probably butchered 25-35 chickens a day,” he said. “It’d take us all day, and we were definitely tired when we got done with it.” In addition to his chores on the farm, Lyons started working for neighboring farmers, taking his first job milking cows when he
He was a quick learner and a hard worker, and his bosses quickly recognized he had a knack for leadership: when he was only 16, he led farm crews made up of men twice his age. was 14. He also worked for hog farmers and crop farmers, working long enough hours to earn a few thousand dollars every summer. He was a quick learner and a hard worker, and his bosses quickly recognized he had a knack for leadership: when he was only 16, he led farm crews made up of men twice his age. “I was 16 years old, and I was in charge of people who were 20 years older than I was,” he remembers. “I was their boss. It was definitely awkward, but most of the people were pretty good about listening to me. I learned a lot of responsibility thanks to those jobs.” This work ethic came in handy as Lyons grew older and started experiencing difficulties with his stepfather, who eventually demanded that Lyons start paying $150 a month for rent when he turned 16. “I grew up a lot [very quickly],” Lyons said. “Finally, I had enough.
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TFE Enterprises | Truman
When he wanted rent, that’s when I left.” At first, Lyons went to live with a friend, and then he moved in with a relative. But when he was a senior in high school, he decided to join the Army National Guard. He enlisted in 1990 and served for nine years. “I mostly joined because I was thinking of [college] and how the military would pay for it,” he said. “I did what they call a splitoption enlistment, where I trained in the summer and still went to high school in the fall. Then I graduated in 1991 and finished my Advanced Individual Training.” Even though the country was still in the throes of the first Persian Gulf War when he enlisted, Lyons was never deployed, instead spending his service time in bases in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Since he was in the National Guard, he only trained for one weekend a month and two weeks every summer, giving him time to work in the private sector when he wasn’t on duty. He first worked for a canning company in Fairmont for about a year and a half, before moving to St. James right after graduation and working at Swift Eckrich, which produced lunchmeats. Around the same time, Lyons met his wife, whom he married in 1995. The two of them moved to Willmar, Minnesota, where they both attended Ridgewater College. “I started out by studying carpentry, but I decided I didn’t like that,” Lyons said. “I didn’t want to be outside in the cold all winter. So I switched to insurance adjusting.” But Lyons soon learned that his new study choice had its own set of challenges, since there was already an abundance of adjusters in
Dirty Job
Matt Benton Matt Benton is Lyons’ only employee, and he was actually around before Lyons came to TFE. Benton, 36, was born on a farm outside of Truman and graduated from Truman High School in 1997. He started working at TFE Enterprises while he was a junior in high school, and he’s been with the business for 20 years now. Along the way, he also picked up a second job at the Holiday Inn in Fairmont after he graduated from high school, and he worked there for 17 years. But now he’s spending all his time with Lyons. “It’s my first and last job,” he said with a laugh. While he said it can be difficult with just the two of them when business gets really busy, “all in all, it’s pretty good.” When he’s not working, Benton enjoys fishing and being outdoors.
southern Minnesota. If he wanted to find a job within his field, he’d need to move south—but his wife had just had their first son, Colby, and Lyons didn’t want to move away from them. Instead, he moved his family to Truman, where he found a job working on a hog farm owned by Chuck Patche. For the next five years, Lyons worked as the manager for the 350-hog farrow-to-finish operation. He worked grueling hours—often from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.—and did everything from helping sows give birth to castrating the new piglets. Lyons said it’s rare now for hog farms to be farrow-to-finish. Instead, farmers often break up the process and only focus on one end: the births or the deaths. But he enjoyed working at a place that dealt with the whole lifecycle. “If I worked at a place that only focused on one thing, I’d get bored,” he said. “Here, I had to change jobs and do a little of everything.” While he was working at the farm, he still split his time with his military duties, and he said he planned to stay in the Guard until he was able to retire at the 20-year mark. However, when he was 23, his life-threatening heart condition overturned his plans. After his surgery, he was honorably discharged in 1999. Despite not being able to retire from the National Guard, Lyons said he still learned from his time in the military—especially about what not to do while running his own business. “I learned how to take a lot of direction,” he explained. “If you’re low in the ranks, you just take orders and do what they tell you. And that’s the part I hated about it. You had no opinion, no suggestions. But I like to think and do things. So when I came to run TFE Enterprises, I’d ask, ‘Hey, what do you think about this? Do you have any good ideas?’ I wanted to let my employees offer their input, because if they did, they would care about the business more and do a better job.” Lyons’ surgery also impacted his private sector career. He had to quit his job at the hog farm because the work was too strenuous while he was recovering. Instead, he took a job at Countryside Cashway in Fairmont, working for five years as an indoor salesperson. “It wasn’t really that hard to make the switch, because I went to school for insurance adjusting,” he said. “That was more about home insurance, so when I went to Cashway, I knew how to estimate a house. I could know how many shingles someone needed for his roof, stuff like that. It kind of just flowed. I went from hogs, to studying insurance adjusting, back to hogs and then being the salesperson at Cashway, before finally ending up making pig supplement feed at TFE. Hogs are natural for me.” As to whether he enjoyed his time at the hog farm more or his time as a salesperson more, Lyons wasn’t sure. “Every job has its different pluses and minuses,” he said. “Dealing with people and customers can be tough. They get mad at you. With the hogs, you didn’t have to be with people. You were all by yourself. But then you had a lot of time to think and be bored. At Cashway, you got to talk with all the different customers. Out on the hog farm, you talked to the hogs.” Lyons would have stayed longer at Cashway but, around 2002, his employer cut his health insurance benefits. By this point, Lyons had three sons, so it was too expensive to pay for the costs out of pocket when he was only making $8.50 an hour. So he started looking around for another job. JULY/AUGUST 2015
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Dirty Job
Fortunately, Lyons had become close to one of his Cashway customers, who eventually asked him if he’d be interested in managing a facility in Truman—TFE Enterprises. At the time, it was owned by WFS, a farmer-owned cooperative that sold livestock feed and other agriculturerelated goods. “I interviewed for it and was hired a day later,” Lyons said. Lyons was hired as TFE’s new manager, taking over for former manager Dave Kahler. He was responsible for a team of four employees. “Dave trained me in for a week, and then he was gone,” Lyons said. “That was kind of nerve-wracking. I looked around and thought, ‘You’re gone? It’s all mine?’ It was a lot to take in at first. But Matt Benton, one of the employees (and the only one still working at TFE) worked with me a lot, and I asked a lot of questions from the other employees. So I learned bits and pieces from them and put it all together.” The main task of the facility is creating a feed supplement for young piglets, which aren’t ready for full pig feed yet. Lyon purchases 150,000 pounds of scrap cheese every month from area vendors such as Kraft in New Ulm, as well as other businesses as far as Iowa and beyond. The cheese is unfit for human consumption but perfectly fine for pigs. “How [the business] started was, there was all this scrap cheese and nobody knew what to do with it,” Lyons said, explaining that TFE Enterprises was one of the first (if not the first) to turn leftover cheese into high-protein feed supplement. While there are some other facilities that now offer similar products, Lyons said his customers prefer his feed because he uses soy flour, whereas other producers often use whey. Between the soy flour and the cheese (along with some milk and healthy additives he adds in), Lyons’ supplement is made up of 41 percent protein and 27 percent fat, a healthy dose for growing pigs. Farmers use the supplement for about 2-3 weeks before switching their pigs to more standard feed. Lyons worked as TFE’s manager for about 10 years before he bought the business. During that time, the company had to let go of three of its employees because of a downturn in business, with only Benton
TFE Enterprises | Truman
For Lyons, the choice wasn’t hard. He knew TFE’s potential, and he also was excited about the prospect of being able to run the business with the freedom that comes from being the owner. staying on. It was also sold to former WFS CFO Bill Day, who had bought it only after Lyons promised to stay on as manager. But as Day began wanting to spend more time with his family, he offered to sell it to Lyons. For Lyons, the choice wasn’t hard. He knew TFE’s potential, and he also was excited about the prospect of being able to run the business with the freedom that comes from being the owner. So he purchased it in 2014. So far, he said, business has been “pretty good.” He sells his mixture to customers across the U.S. (including WFS) and the
world, with one of his biggest customers being South Korea, which orders up to 84,000 pounds of supplement a month. Overall, Lyons produces more than a million pounds of feed supplement a year. That’s especially impressive considering he only has one employee. “We can do it,” he said. “You make a batch and it takes an hour for it to go through the system, so during that hour, we’re doing garbage, cleaning, bagging the end product. It’s a process. Matt [Benton] and I are just in sync. I know what he’s doing and he knows what I’m doing. We don’t
even have to talk; we just do it. Every day, we’re always talking. ‘We should try this. Let’s see how this works.’ We have a lot of breakdowns here, because cheese is hard on stuff. So Matt will suggest something, and I’ll think, ‘That’s a good idea.’ So we’ll try it. He tries to make my life easier, and I try to make his life easier, so it works pretty well.” In fact, Lyons said working with Benton is the best part of the job. “We’re like family,” he said. “It’s a job, but it’s not to us. We sweat, and we’re cold… but it’s still not like, ‘Oh my gosh, I hate going to work.’”
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Together let’s start planning for your family’s future. Judy Ringler Mountain, LUTCF, CLTC Agent New York Life Insurance Company 931 Madison Ave Ste 1 Mankato, MN 56001 (507) 387-4262 jrmountain@ft.newyorklife.com www.jrmountain.nyagents.com Registered Representatives offering investments through NYLIFE Securities LLC (Member FINRA/ SIPC), A Licensed Insurance Agency.
The supplement-making process itself is fairly simple. Lyons and Benton put their cheese and soy flour into a mixer before baking the mixture in an oven at 350 degrees. From there, it drops onto a cooler conveyer and heads to the grinder, where it’s ground into a powder before it’s finally bagged and shipped to customers. Lyons said business has been busier in previous years when he worked with China, which ordered so much product that he had to nearly double the amount of supplement he was producing. However, that could cause its own problems, since an increase in product meant Lyons needed to increase his orders for cheese—and that could drive up prices. Not only that, but sometimes he just couldn’t make find enough cheese to produce enough supplement for China’s orders, which meant he had to choose which customers got to buy from him. “If you don’t have enough cheese, you have to pick who you’re going to give it to,” he said. “If farmers put your supplement in their feed ingredients, they need that to constantly come in. Without cheese, you might lose customers. So I take care of my long-term customers first, like WFS, Land O’Lakes, Hubbard Feeds, Korea… and if I have any leftover, then China can have it. You kind of have to play the market and keep your good customers that are stable happy, first.” While Lyons isn’t currently producing any supplement for China, he said he’d be willing to work with them again if they approach him. But right now, his main goal for the future is to form new relationships with local farmers. “That’s how I’d like to expand more, to get more local,” he said. “Some local big farmers make their own feed, so they could buy my cheese and put it into their own formulas. But no matter what, I just want to stay open and doing what we’re doing.”
Life Insurance. Retirement. Investments. Comment on this story at connectbiz.com SMRU1614160(Exp.08/07/2016) © 2015 New York Life Insurance Company, 51 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010
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HOT STARTZ!
Very New or Re-formed Businesses or Professionals New To Our Reading Area
FAIRMONT
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For Nikki Bremer, her job is all about helping people. The new business owner was born in Fairmont but graduated from Spirit Lake High School in Iowa in 1989 before attending North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City. However, in 1990, she married her high school sweetheart, Calvin, and the two of them settled in Minnesota. “I was happy to be back,” she said. “I always thought it was kind of cool to end up back in the same area where my parents grew up.” They had their son, Weston, in 1991, and their daughter, Paige, in 1993. Bremer juggled her time between raising her family, farming with her husband and working in the customer service industry. She worked for Farm Bureau Financial Services and then at Sweet Financial Services before taking a job at the Mayo Clinic in Fairmont. Still, she felt like something was missing. “I loved the people I worked with, and I loved helping them, but I just knew it wasn’t what I needed to be doing,” she explained. Encouraged by several friends and family members, Bremer started researching how to start her own business, and one idea stood out to her the most: reflexology, an alternative medicine that utilizes pressure on the feet and hands to relieve pain and rectify physical conditions. She had a first-hand knowledge of this type of practice thanks to her experience with alternative healing methods. Growing up, she had struggled with arthritis,
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eventually abandoning the litany of pills she was prescribed to try essential oils instead. When those helped ease her pain, she looked at other alternative healing methods and discovered reflexology. “I just fell in love with it,” she said. “I got into [the business] because I knew I could use it to help people.” Bremer has taken several classes and is working towards her certification, which is offered through the International Institute of Reflexology. She opened her studio in November and said she has been “pleasantly surprised” with the amount of business she’s received so far. Her customers come from all backgrounds and age groups, from babies to the elderly. A typical session lasts about an hour and 15 minutes. “I have people thank me all the time, saying it’s made all the difference,” she said. Essential elements reflexology and Natural Healing, LLC Address: 1130 Spruce Street Telephone: 507-236-6382 Web: www.4reflex.com Email: nikki@4reflex.com
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HOT STARTZ!
Very New or Re-formed Businesses or Professionals New To Our Reading Area
Saint Peter Laundry Co. After 17 years in the sales industry, Megan Kaduce decided she’d had enough of the long drives and late nights. Instead, she and her husband, Larry, decided to start their own business in St. Peter. “We started researching franchises, and the laundry business kept popping up as one of the top industries,” Larry Kaduce explained. “The more we researched it, the more we realized that St. Peter really needed this service.” It was quite a switch for the Kaduces, who had both spent most of their careers in sales. Megan grew up near Delavan and studied agriculture at the University of Minnesota. After she graduated in 1987, she sold animal health products. Larry grew up south of Mankato and attended South Central College, graduating in 1978 with a degree in sales and marketing. Afterwards, he started working as a broker at the Remax locations in Mankato and St. Peter. The couple got married and moved to St. Peter in 2006. The Kaduces began construction on their laundry facility in July 2014, with Larry designing the initial plans. Work was done by September of that year, with the ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 9. The Kaduces’ laundromat has 23 washers of four different sizes, with their largest able to wash 80 pounds of laundry in one setting. They also have 18 dryers. A wash cycle lasts 26 minutes, and a dry cycle lasts 34 minutes. The facility is open 24 hours every day, and the Kaduces offer a wash-dry-fold business where customers can drop off
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laundry at any time to have it done for them. There is also dry cleaning available. “It was really surprising for us to realize how many of our customers have washers and dryers at home,” Larry said. “First thought we’d cater to renters without access to laundry. But as we got into it, we realized people just really love the convenience. They can do a whole week’s laundry in an hour.” Megan added, “Even people who have a perfectly good kitchen at home still like to go out to eat. And we feel that way here.” Saint Peter Laundry Co. Address: 209 W Mulberry Street Telephone: 507-933-0770 Web: www.saintpeterlaundry.com Facebook Page: Saint Peter Laundry Co.
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Mankato
Mankato Coffeehouse While Darla Manke just opened her new coffee shop in downtown Mankato in February, she’s actually a coffee pro by now. Manke, owner of the Mankato Coffeehouse, is from Waseca originally, graduating from Waseca High School and continuing on to MSU-Mankato, where she studied parks and recreation along with business administration. After graduation, she and her husband moved to Princeton, where at first she stayed home to raise her four children. As they grew older, she started taking office jobs in the area, but everything changed when she heard her company was shutting down. She considered going back to school to earn her master’s degree, but then a local coffee shop, the Coffee Corner, went up for sale. And that got her thinking. After crunching some numbers, she thought she could make the business profitable, so she bought the shop in 2003. “It wasn’t that I knew a lot about coffee at the time,” she said. “I thought I knew a lot about business until I jumped in and found out how much I didn’t know. I learned. I worked 50-60 hours a week. When you work that hard, it eventually pays off.” Manke sold the Coffee Corner in 2007 but continued to run another company she owned, Manke’s Business Services, which offers payroll and accounting services. While Manke enjoyed the business side of things, she missed the personal
interactions with her customers. “I missed the people part of the business,” she said. She kept her eye out for another coffee shop opportunity and eventually found it in Mankato, opening the Mankato Coffeehouse in February. She has seven employees and says business is picking up as the word gets out—especially about her signature drink, the Mudslide. “We keep getting busier and busier,” she said. Manke added that she hopes to add more events at the shop as time goes on, as well as becoming more involved in events throughout the community. Mankato Coffeehouse Address: 251 Bunting Lane Telephone: 507-388-6514 Facebook Page: Mankato Coffeehouse
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To be considered for one of three spots in the September Hot Startz!, email the editor at editor@connectbiz.com. Businesses considered must have started—or changed greatly in form—within one year of our publishing date. Professionals chosen must be new to our reading area.
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Blue Earth From the Chamber: Blue Earth Giant Days will be July 11 and 12. The parade will be on July 11, starting at the Wilson Football Field at 3 p.m.; the Faribault County Fair will run from July 21-25 at the fairgrounds in Blue Earth.
Fairmont From the Chamber: Nikki Bremer of Essential Elements Reflexology & Natural Health is the newest chamber member. The Ambassador Committee of the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce is offering a $1,000 scholarship to a Martin County student in a Business related field entering their junior or senior post secondary year in a four year college or their final year in a technical college. Scholarship applications may be picked up at the chamber office or filled out online at the Chamber website, www.fairmontchamber. org. Applications are due at the chamber office by July 15. The Martin County Pork Producers and the Agri-Business and Ambassador Committees of the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce have joined together to host the 23rd Annual Minnesota State Pork Masters Golf outing on July 27 at the Interlaken Golf Club. To register, call Curt at the chamber office at 507-235-5547. Thrivent Asset Management was recently honored with a prestigious Lipper Fund Award for Best Mixed-Assets Small Fund Family. This is Thrivent Asset Management’s sixth Lipper award since 2008. Thrivent also recently hired Carol Fuhrman as its office professional. Wayne Kahler, president and CEO of Kahler Automation, is retiring after 25 years with the business. His son, Logan Kahler, will assume CEO duties, while his daughter, Chantill Kahler Royer, will become CFO. Kahler Automation is celebrating its 25th anniversary on July 6 at its location at 808 Timerlake Road. The 18th Annual Blue Ribbon Pork Cook
Off will be in the Martin County Arena at the Fairgrounds from 5-7 p.m. on August 19. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased by calling at Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce at 507-235-5547.
Gaylord The Gaylord Area Chamber of Commerce welcomes new members Classy Budget, a new business in town, and State Farm agent Mark Lundstrom. Gaylord’s 2015 “Music on Main” Summer Series will feature events on July 8, July 22, August 5, August 19, September 9, September 23 and October 7. The series takes place from 5-7 p.m. at the corner of 5th and Main Avenue and includes children’s activities, a flea market, farmers’ market, food vendors and craft vendors. From the City of Gaylord: The City Council has approved a new medical school with the hope of enrolling 600 students in classes related to careers in the medical field.
Lake Crystal From the Chamber: New members include Thrivent Financial, Peterson Insurance Agency and Jones Pioneer Seeds. Kris Visher of MinnStar Bank was recently promoted to Customer Service Representative.
Le Sueur From the Le Sueur Chamber: New members include 4 Point O School Services, Inc., McGrath Electrical Services, Amber Seaver-ReMax and Wixson Bookkeeping & Tax Service. From the Chamber: The second annual Market Fest will run every Thursday night from 6-8 p.m. until August 13 and features food and craft vendors, bands, classic car owners and community groups; the Le Sueur Farmers Market will run every Saturday morning in the east edge of the
parking lot at the corner of Bridge Street and 2nd Avenue; the City of Le Sueur will host its Giant Celebration Kick-Off on July 9 starting at 5:30 p.m. in the pedestrian walkway behind the mall. The event includes a visit from Miss Le Sueur and well as appearances by the 2015 queen candidates; Le Sueur Crazy Dayze will run from July 10-11, with sales and promotions from local businesses; the city’s Giant Celebration will run July 31-August 2 at Legion Park. The celebration includes a parade, live entertainment, beer garden, games, crafts and food vendors; the 42nd Annual Pioneer Power Show will run from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on August 28-30 at 34605 265th Avenue. This year’s Threshing Show includes “Deere Thru the Ages,” an exhibit on John Deere tractors and equipment.
Madelia The Madelia Community Hospital Foundation will be hosting a “Scrub Run/ Walk” 5K on July 11, with the race starting at Madelia Town Hall at 9 a.m. Runners are encouraged to dress in scrubs. Cost is $25 per runner in advance or $30 on race day, with proceeds going to purchase automated electric defibrillators for the Madelia Police Department. From the Chamber: Madelia’s Park Days celebration will run from July 9-12. The celebration includes a parade, golf tournaments, a moonlight swim, kids’ carnival, fireworks and live entertainment.
Mankato From Greater Mankato Growth: INdiGO Organic, LLC is GMG’s newest member; Mankato will host the 2015 Governor’s Pheasant Opener on October 9 and 10, and numerous sponsorship opportunities are available for businesses. For more information on the Governor’s Pheasant Opener sponsorship opportunities, email Anna Thill at athill@visitmankatomn.com. Marco, Inc. was recently named a 2015 MSPmentor 501 Top Managed Services Company. It was also named one of the 27 honorees for the 2015 Progress Minnesota Award by Finance & Commerce. In addition, Marco was recently selected by BEI
Services and ENX Magazine as an Office Technology Service Excellence Award recipient. Thirty-nine Marco technicians were also recognized for their outstanding service. This honor is given to dealerships that have proven to meet or exceed national performance standards in areas relating to customer satisfaction. Jeff Gau, CEO of Marco, was honored as a finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 in the Upper Midwest. The Mankato Sertoma Club recently named Dr. Steven Anderson as its Volunteer of the Year. From Heintz Toyota: Laurie Danberry recently received the 2014 Silver Level Sales Society Award for the seventh year from Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc. In addition, Jacki Standon received the 2014 Comptroller’s Award for Excellence. The Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation recently approved seven grants worth $127,909 to support early childhood and economic development programs in southern Minnesota. In addition, SMIF’s AmeriCorps LEAP (Learning Early Achieves Potential) Initiative was selected to receive continued funding to host 20 FTE AmeriCorps positions focused on school readiness in the nationally competitive 3-year grant round. SMIF’s program is one of 13 in ServeMinnesota’s portfolio of programs. The Mankato Marathon is looking for bold stories and offering a free lifetime race bib for the winner. Race participants can submit their stories by August 28. For more information visit www.mankatomarathon. com/get-inspired. Condux Tesmec recently hired James Curtis as its new Technical Service Manager.
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Eide Bailly recently named Ben Ellingson partner-in-chief of its Mankato office. In addition, Brenda Leibfried was accepted into the firm’s partnership. Linda Lynch Koerselman, the partner in charge of the Mankato office of Eide Bailly LLP, recently received the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She has also been named a “Super CPA” by Twin Cities Monthly and a “Top Woman in Finance” from Finance and Commerce magazine. The Mankato Clinic Foundation recently donated $3,500 to the YWCA Mankato to be used for the integration of the Girls Inc. Mind + Body curriculum. Overall, the Mankato Clinic Foundation approved $23,200 in grants to 10 local organizations. AmericInn Hotel & Conference Center recently welcomed Shannon Garcia to its management team as Guest Services Manager. Habitat for Humanity of South Central Minnesota recently received a donation from AgStar for $5,000 for the ReStore Expansion project. Weichert Realtors recently hired Taylor Gorder as a real estate agent. The Region Nine Development Commission is hosting an educational series, Get The Facts, to teach residents about Alzheimer’s. Free classes will be held from 6:30-8 p.m. on July 23 and August 27 at Old Main Village. For more information, contact Debbie Richman at drichman@alz. org or 952.857.0551. Lidstrom Commercial Realtors has moved to a new location, at 100 Warren Street, Suite 708 in Mankato. Jay Abdo, senior partner for Abdo, Eick & Meyers LLP, was recently presented with a Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Minnesota State Mankato. Blethen Gage & Krause has moved to 100 Warren Street, Suite 400 in Mankato. The Mankato Symphony was recently inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame. The symphony is also celebrating its 65th anniversary this year. The Greater Mankato Community Tennis Association recently appointed Nathan A. Meehling as its executive director. Crete Carrier was recently awarded a new dedicated fleet based out of Mankato. The trucking company is looking to fill
nearly 110 office, shop and driver positions. For more information, visit www. cretecarrier.com. Profinium, Inc., headquartered in Truman, recently opened a new location, Profinium Place in Mankato. Minnesota Soybean recently hired Dr. David Pazdernik as Director of Research. The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota was recently named one of the 2015 Community Innovation Grant recipients by the Bush Foundation. The $50,000 grant will fund the design and hosting of a series of interactive “Play Dates,” meant to strengthen ties to underserved families in the community. Freedom Home Care recently promoted caregiver Michelle Heichel to Caregiver Supervisor. Thrivent Financial was recently named to Fortune magazine’s FORTUNE 500 list for the 21st consecutive year. The ranking is based on Thrivent’s 2014 revenue of $8.5 billion. Thrivent was also classified as the sixth-largest mutual life/health insurance organization in the United States.
North Mankato Cristen Cox, department chair for the Allied Health Division at South Central College, recently received a Presidents’ Award from Minnesota Campus Compact. Cox was nominated for the award because of her partnership with the Mayo Clinic Health System (MCHS) Occupational Medicine Department. Computer Technology Solutions was recently named one of the select few Watchguard Gold Partners in the nation. Todd Tanhoff, Tim Ray and Mark Reedstrom have been certified by Watchguard as Certified Sales Professionals, and Aaron Hartwell and Xac Dinsmore have been certified by Watchguard Technical Professionals.
New Ulm Sewing Seeds Quilt Company was recently chosen as one of 10 featured shops across the country for the spring/ summer 2015 issue of Quilt Sampler
magazine, published by Better Homes and Gardens. From Gislason & Hunter, LLP: New Ulm attorneys Dustan Cross, Michael Dove and Dan Gislason were recently named to the Super Lawyers list, while New Ulm attorneys Matt Berger and Peter Hemberger, as well as Mankato attorneys Cory Genelin and Andrew Tatge, were named to the Rising Star list. From the Chamber: The Bavarian Blast 5K/10K Run/Walk will be on July 18, starting at the New Ulm Civic Center at 9 a.m.; New Ulm’s Crazy Days will run from July 17-18. Crazy Days ads are due to the New Ulm Journal by July 7.
Nicollet From the Chamber: Community volunteers will be going door-to-door from Sept. 7-21 during the annual Nicollet Fund Drive. All donations go to local chapters of the chosen charities.
St. James From the Chamber: Abby Carlson is a new personal trainer at Anytime Fitness; Super 8 remodeled the lobby, meeting room and breakfast area; Los Potras opened an outdoor dining patio; physicians Joe Hamm, Lindy Eatwell, Hesed Mugaisi and Jennifer Langbehn, Mayo Clinic Health System, finished in the top 10 percent nationally in patient satisfaction for effective communication in 2013. Century 21 has a new office at 116 Armstrong Blvd, and new agent Sherri Bicknase. Stray Cat Coffee House is now serving Mayo Clinic Health System.
Sleepy Eye From the Chamber: new members include Brent Mielke, Alissa Fischer and Northern Sun-Kissed Unique Gifts. From the Chamber: Buttered Corn Days will be on August 21-22. The annual parade will start at 3 p.m. on August 22; the Sleepy Eye citywide garage sales will
also run August 21-22. The Sleepy Eye Senior Living Campus has been named the 2015 Business of the Year. The 2015 Sleepy Eye Music in the Park will be on July 14 from 6:30-8 p.m. at Allison Park. Donations go to Holiday Lights in Motion. There will be a job fair featuring more than 60 employers and community-based organizations on July 21 at the Windom Community Center. Sleepy Eye’s Party in the Park will run from 5-8 p.m. on July 23 at Allison Park. It will include games, activities, a pie stand, music, food and more. Sleepy Eye’s Crazy Days will run July 23 and 24.
Springfield From the Chamber: Springfield Floral is the newest chamber member; the Chamber received $2,500 from the Pieschel Foundation for Christmas decorations; the Chamber will host its annual golf tournament on July 27. For more information, call Dillon Schultz at 507-920-6685. The Springfield Area Food Shelf recently received $3,010 from Mayo Clinic Health System, as well as $913 from the Boy Scouts Drive and $5,000 from the Pieschel Foundation.
as partner into Eide Bailly, LLP. Waseca resident Dr. Sam Baidoo recently received the Animal Sciences Graduate Club’s Outstanding Faculty award through the University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center. The Waseca Area Foundation has funded grants of more than $80,000 for recent projects. Waseca Junior and Senior High School has been named one of 64 schools recognized nationally as a school of character.
Wells From the Chamber: Kernel Days 2015 will be August 14-15. The parade will start at 5 p.m. on August 15. From the Chamber: The Wells Area Farmers Market will run on Wednesdays from 4-6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. until the end of October. Vendors can rent a stall for $5 or pay $30 for the whole season.
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Waseca From the Chamber: Waseca was recently ranked as the 15th best place to raise a family in Minnesota, according to Niche. com; new chamber members include Magic Wash & Storage, MET-Motivation Education & Training, Inc., and American Taphouse Grill and Bar; the Waseca County Free Fair will be from July 15-19 at the Waseca County Fairgrounds. Schmidt Hoehn Law and Rose Oil, LLC recently received the city’s Roots Award for being in business more than 30 years. HyVee, Birds Eye Foods, Kubat CPA and Motivation Education & Training, Inc. recently received the city’s Progress Award. Brenda Leibfried was recently accepted
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Workforce Series
Part I
A Troubling Shortage of Workers When it comes to America’s emerging workforce, it’s not looking good. Even as the unemployment rate dwindles to less than 6 percent, businesses Grace A. Webb across the country Editor are still struggling to find enough workers. The term of the year is the “skills gap,” which plagues employers trying to hire people with advanced skills—especially in science, technology, education or math. According to a recent poll conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business, 81 percent of employers looking to hire new workers say they can’t find the right people. The 2011 Skills Gap Report put out by the Manufacturing Institute echoes these concerns, stating that 67 percent of participating manufacturers reported a moderate to severe shortage of available, qualified workers. Unfortunately, that trend extends to the state of Minnesota, too. Across the state, business owners and city leaders have voiced a concern about the lack of available workers to hire. Not only that, but Minnesota is actually losing workers at an alarming rate, according to the Star Tribune. The recent article reported that the state 54
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has lost residents every year since 2002. While about 101,000 people move here every year from a different state, another 113,000 people leave. About a third of people who leave Minnesota move to its border states: Wisconsin (16 percent), North Dakota (12 percent) and Iowa (6 percent). Despite the large numbers of people leaving the state, Minnesota’s overall population continues to rise because of how popular it is with immigrants. As of 2014, the state was home to more than 350,000 immigrants, with about 24,000 immigrants arriving every year (19 percent of the total number of people moving to Minnesota), reports the Minnesota State Demographic Center. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the foreign-born share of Minnesota’s population was about 7.3 percent in 2011. The most popular countries of origin included Mexico (at 16.6 percent), India (at 7.6 percent) and Vietnam (at 4.4 percent), according to the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. Minnesota’s percent of foreign-born residents is lower than the national average of about 13 percent, but it’s growing faster; Minnesota’s rate has tripled since 1990, while the nation’s rate has only doubled, according to Minnesota Compass. Minnesota has been successful in tempting young adults into its universities, drawing about 21,000 young adult students every year. However, after graduation, more than
29,000 leave. In fact, young adults aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to leave Minnesota, with about 9,300 changing states ever year, according to the Minnesota State Demographic Center—making up two-thirds of Minnesota’s total annual domestic net loss. These young adults are often recruited to areas such as Seattle, Detroit and Cleveland, which are some of the most popular cities for millennials to settle down. Other groups showing significant losses are those from the ages of 35-39 (about 1,500 lost every year) and 60-69 (about 2,200 lost every year). This loss of potential young workers is especially troubling as large swaths of Baby Boomers retire. It’s estimated that, over the next 15 years, more Minnesotans will retire than the past six decades combined. To make matters worse, the state’s labor force is only estimated to gain about 8,000 workers annually, according to the Demographic Center, whereas in the 1990s, it gained about 40,000 workers. The combination of these factors could lead to the greatest labor shortage since the end of World War II—climbing to a shortage of at least 100,000 workers by 2020. Minnesota is also predicted to see its death rate overtake its birth rate around the same time, which will be the first time that's happened in the state’s history, the Star Tribune reports.
A continuing series on Workforce Issues in Southern Minnesota
When it comes to the southern Minnesota region, several communities mirror this population loss—but others are thriving. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Mankato-North Mankato Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is the fastest growing larger city in the state outside of the Twin Cities metro area. This area, made up of all of Blue Earth and Nicollet counties, increased .78 percent (or about 760 people) from July 1, 2013 to July 1, 2014, according to the Mankato Free Press. This growth outstripped the rates from Rochester, Duluth and St. Cloud, and was higher than the MSA’s 2012-2013 population increase. The Free Press reported that about half of the population increase came from births outnumbering deaths, while international migration added another 107 people. Other local communities, such as New Ulm, have seen a decrease in population. However, whether populations are growing or shrinking, local business owners across southern Minnesota are expressing the same concern over a growing worker shortage. In fact, the lack of available workers and the difficulty of attracting those workers to rural areas were two of the top problems discussed in a workforce forum hosted by the Region Nine Development Commission in May. “We’re desperate for workers,” said Elaine Spain, of Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging. One of the most popular reasons these attendees thought workers weren’t applying to their jobs was because people tend to be more attracted to big city positions, which often offer larger paychecks. (Of course, those pay checks don’t stretch as far if the city’s cost of living is high.) Several forum attendees mentioned their struggle of even getting the word out that there were positions available in their cities, since people automatically looked for jobs in the metro area and didn’t realize there were other possible locations to search. At the same time, Region Nine’s Nicole Griensewic Mickelson said it may be more important to stop focusing on the “brain drain” (local college students moving away after graduation) and turn our attention to “brain gain.” She defined this as letting college grads move away for a few years to get some experience but then attracting
Mickelson said it may be more important to stop focusing on the “brain drain” and turn our attention to “brain gain.” She defined this as letting college grads move away for a few years to get some experience but then attracting them back to their hometowns later on. them back to their hometowns later on. To do that, rural areas and small cities need incentives, such as strong networks (maybe alumni networks), high-speed broadband Internet and affordable housing, which bleeds into an entirely different problem. Attendees also mentioned the need for a strong transportation system, so that workers could commute to their jobs. As of right now, some southern Minnesota areas, such as Mankato, have bus systems, but most don’t. And there aren’t many systems set up to bus passengers between cities, which can be a problem when someone lives in Le Sueur but works in Mankato. Experts from the South Central Workforce Council added several other reasons for Minnesota’s worker shortage: the low unemployment rate statewide, the rise in young entrepreneurs, and a lack of workforce training. Randy Long, business service specialist for the South Central Workforce Council, noted that Minnesota’s unemployment rate is currently at 3.7 percent—a good deal lower than the national average of 5.4 percent. When it comes to southern Minnesota, the rate’s a point lower, at 3.6 percent. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) contributes the region’s low unemployment to the diversity of its economy and the presence of the Mankato-North Mankato Metropolitan Statistical Area. While this is great for workers, it means employers have a smaller pool of potential employees to draw from, since most of them are already engaged in a job. At the height of the recession, there were almost 10 job seekers for every job opening in the region, according to DEED; now there are only 1.6 job seekers. Adding to this difficulty, the state’s labor force participation rate is only around 70.7 percent, DEED reports,
and it has been declining for the past 10 years. So, while more people are finding jobs proportionally, fewer positions are being filled overall, leaving gaps that employers struggle to fill. “Right now, our supply and demand don’t match up in this community,” Long said. Perhaps feeding into this lower labor force participation rate is the fact that more young people are forging their own paths instead of navigating to traditional careers. Brent Pearson, Resource Development Planner for Region Nine, explained that Minnesota is seeing an increase in entrepreneurship, possibly as a result of the high unemployment rates during the recession at the beginning of the millennium. While the state benefits from these new initiatives, more people starting their own businesses mean fewer people working for other businesses—once again leaving employers looking for employees. Of the people who are still actively looking for jobs, a great many of them are lacking in skills that employers need—whether those skills are specific to the job or just “soft skills” such as arriving to work on time, according to Long. When it comes to Minnesota industries, the need for workers is felt in every sector. However, some have been hit harder by the workforce shortage than others. According to DEED, the following industries are facing the greatest shortages: farming, fishing and forestry (19 percent vacancy rate); food preparation and service (9.9 percent); transportation/trucking (7.9 percent); and healthcare practitioners (6.5 percent). The top in-demand occupations include personal care aids, nursing assistants, stock clerks and delivery services drivers. Part II of this series will explore regional efforts to attract young people into technical careers.
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