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Appletree Press

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It’s that corner office with a view everyone purportedly wants. Linda Hachfeld has it. She’s convinced having a daily dose of natural sunshine and being able to gaze out onto trees and blue sky when looking up from her computer screen is good for her.

“This is such a nurturing, healthy environment,” says Hachfeld, a business owner, author and publisher. “I see birds, squirrels, deer and an occasional turkey. I’m a country girl at heart and nature is one of my powerful motivators.”

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Wayne Kahler – Runner-Up – 2008 Business Person Of The Year

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Wayne Kahler, founder of Kahler Automation in Fairmont, credits his father with his success. His father, Roy, taught him to “take care of the customer and everything else will be taken care of.”

“I claim my father’s statement,” Kahler says. “If I don’t think a customer is getting what they want, I’m asking questions. A business consultant said I’ve given out too many resources in satisfying customers and have not made as much profit as I could have made. We didn’t retain his services—and we’ve grown and grown.” That growth resulted in a February 2007 move to a 21,000-square foot building in Fairmont’s industrial park.

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Clint Brown – Runner-Up – 2008 Business Person Of The Year

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Fresh from verdant Hawaii, blue crab Baltimore, oil-rich Oklahoma City, and with the possibility of visiting other potential construction projects in Denmark, 34-year-old Clint Brown of Industrial Construction Services (ICS) of St. James barely has time to change his socks before leaving home for yet another construction job elsewhere on the planet. He has become quite the frequent flyer the last thirteen years. Though able to spend only 100 days a year at home and having to work literally every Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, July Fourth, Labor Day and Memorial Day ad infinitum, Brown nonetheless enjoys his frenetic life and lifestyle.

In just the last few years, the pace has quickened considerably, in great measure because of anthrax and avian flu fears.

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Linder Enterprises

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Jody Linder thought for sure it would take off. He’d designed his full-sized helicopter from a magazine picture of one whizzing and whirring—mind-boggling, considering he was but a 15-year-old farm boy dreamer with his head lost in the clouds.

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Dr. Linda Nussbaumer

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Overlooking Loon Lake from the three-season sun porch of her rural Lake Crystal home, Dr. Linda Nussbaumer gestures toward the dock and points out that the lawn leading down to it is not weed free. It’s obvious the grass has been mowed, making the weeds less noticeable, but Nussbaumer says there’s a good reason for their presence.

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Juba’s Super Valu

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Some people say Juba’s Super Valu is the last of a dying breed, like a Triceratops or a Tyrannosaurus rex before their untimely demise. Juba’s is a fiercely independent, friendly small-town grocery outlet, now butting heads against a gargantuan new Wal-Mart and several aggressive grocery chains.

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Professional Cleaning Services

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Five years after founding Professional Cleaning Services, president Sherry Johnson still works from an office in her Le Sueur home. She not only appreciated being able to start up in February 2002 without going into debt, she also likes having less overhead cost than a storefront would require. Her real payoff, though, is, “being able to do invoices and paychecks in my jammies,” she says.

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Bolton & Menk

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Many business executives dream of retiring early at fifty-five, perhaps of tapping Titleist balls over neatly trimmed Bermuda grass in south Florida, paddling the soothing surf and tickling toes in warm white sand near Naples, or bouncing happy grandchildren on their knees.

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