If it were possible to capture Lissia Laehn’s youthful energy and multi-tasking efficiency in a container, she probably would have the product available in her shop. It would be just one more service provided to her customers. Laehn (pronounced Lane) is the owner of the multi-faceted business Heartland Embroidery.
Our present-day world seems to have more change than a Vegas casino. President Obama and Rep. Pelosi press for paradigm-shifting change, Eyjafjallakökull coughs up clouds of it, Detroit’s mayor agonizes over change, nuclear Ahmadinejad desires more, Osama bin Laden fights for it, globalization causes it, Wall Street experiences chaos in it, and Apple enables it.
Dean Karau is a man of the land. He lives in the farmhouse where he grew up and he cash crops the family’s rural St. James acreage. That, in itself, doesn’t set him apart from other Minnesota farm kids who grow up to take over the family farm. It’s what he does when he’s away from home that gives the story a twist. For three months each summer, he cuts a swath across parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota, harvesting grain from about 7,000 acres.
Fairmont: Renew Skin & Laser Center – “I’m from Michigan, and we moved here in 1990, when (my husband) Cory and I moved here for his orthopedic practice,” said 49-year-old Rene Welchlin in a telephone interview.
Mankato: Jessica Barnett Chiropractic & Acupuncture Clinic – “I was born and raised in Mankato, and went to Loyola High School,” said 29-year-old Jessica Barnett in a Connect Business Magazine telephone interview.
Le Sueur: The Friendly Confines Cheese Shoppe – Kirk Litynski grew up in St. Peter as a classmate of Jon Davis, part of the Davis family owning Davisco Foods International. This last August, Davis hired his long-time friend to launch and manage The Friendly Confines Cheese Shoppe at 719 North Main
54-year-old Buscher nurtures and cherishes businesses. In fact, a person could call him a “business connoisseur.” He searches the world over for just the right companies to pluck from the vine—a weighty 28 at last count, including several that have pressed out new industries and been positioned for exponential growth.
The proposed sale had caused electrical engineer and project manager Mike Behsmann a great deal of discomfort. His employer, Mankato-based pet food and feed behemoth Hubbard Milling, had been only days away from being sold in 1991 when the mega-million dollar deal evaporated almost overnight.
It looked like Chris Vorwerk was reeling from a Caribbean voodoo curse in 2000-01. She had started United Commercial Upholstery in her New Ulm garage at 409 North Broadway on a shoestring budget. During her first year in business, an ex-convict crow-barred his brawn inside to sneakily steal her expensive sewing machines and colorful upholstery fabric.
Although an electrician by trade, Brian Grey is a storyteller by temperament. Seated in a St. Peter restaurant to avoid interruption by employees, he fueled himself with more than a pot of decaf coffee as he related anecdotes about his life and his business.
He was on the precipice. It was December 2004. The antagonistic managers of his ten bus companies had just attempted a bloodless coup d’etat. Their set of demands included having Floyd Palmer relinquish control over the day-to-day management of the school bus company he had owned and managed since 1974.
