Many people in the business community, whether through manufacturing, local government, economic development initiatives, agriculture, or a number of other areas, came out to the University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca to hear about growing businesses on Friday, May 17.
The workshop was hosted by GreenSeam, an organization created in 2016 with the mission of creating a world class food and agriculture center in Minnesota. This was the second workshop hosted by the organization, with the first one taking place a few weeks ago in St. James.
GreenSeam
Waseca’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) is an investor in GreenSeam, the organization’s first community investor. The EDA became an investor in 2018.
“I’m really proud that the Waseca EDA was the first community to sign on as a supporter of GreenSeam,” said Waseca Area Chamber of Commerce Director Ann Fitch at the ‘Growing in the GreenSeam” workshop Friday. “I think that has been extremely beneficial to our community, because their influence, their educational opportunities, and their advocacy has served Waseca very well in the past six years.”
Waseca gets business opportunity leads from GreenSeam, and the organization strives to make sure the city is informed with what’s going on in the food and agriculture business world.
Help from community
The goal of the workshop was to help business people in the Waseca community gain some insight on how to grow their business and share resources that will allow them to do that. The workshop consisted of presentations by Neil Linscheid of the University of Minnesota Extension and Dr. Jeff Stamp of the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences.
The presentations were followed by a panel of local business owners moderated by Stamp.
Linsheid and Stamp talked about entrepreneurs and what it takes for them to succeed. Linsheid noted that job creation in a community like Waseca is good for all of its members.
“Having a diverse economy is an important aspect of stability and sustainability for our communities,” said Linsheid.
Linsheid also brought up how even though finance is a key factor in the success of a business, other factors like innovation, regional stability, and a sense of community are also important.
“All of these other aspects of what’s available in your community and region are also important and matter to the success of entrepreneurs,” said Linsheid.
Linsheid asked the audience at the workshop how they think Waseca is doing, in terms of money flow and access to capital. Philip Bulfer, of greener World Solutions in Waseca, noted that it was hard for the business starting out, as it couldn’t get the necessary funds needed to properly grow.
It wasn’t until the business actually started that banks in the area started to loan money.
“They took note of what we did,” Bulfer said. “They saw what we were doing and trusted us.”
It can be hard for businesses to get off the ground right away, and Linsheid noted that companies have to take risks in order to grow.
Waseca’s Economic Development Manager Tina Wilson pointed out that the city’s EDA has a small loan fund that helps local businesses get funding. If there’s difficulty through the bank, the EDA works with both the local banks and the business that needs help with funding.
“Over the last 12 months, we have been able to help four businesses,” said Wilson. “We don’t have a lot of money, but we can help.”
Wilson is a member of the EDA and is also on GreenSeam’s board of business attraction and creation. She been an integral factor in the partnership between Waseca’s EDA and GreenSeam.
Stamp brought up finance as well in his presentation and how there are other factors in a successful business than having a steady cash flow.
How to grow
“Most of the reasons businesses fail is not because of the lack of cash flow,” said Stamp at the workshop. “It is the thing that ends up choking them, but it’s because they don’t understand the product that they’re offering. You have to have a good offering and then the cash flow begins to come in.”
Stamp has worked at the University of Minnesota since 2018. He worked as the director of new product development at Frito Lay before that and was the creator of the baked Lay’s potato chip.
He used his story of creating the new product in his presentation to motivate business owners on how to innovate. While Frito lay was skeptical at first of the baked chip idea, it became a hit since it appealed to an audience that the company was not appealing to.
The company gained a new audience from the product and solved a problem by reaching out to people who wanted to eat healthier.
“You’re not just starting a business as an entrepreneur, you’re actually solving a problem and you’re really there to create value and make better entrepreneur decisions,” said Stamp.
When it comes to Waseca, business owners who attended the workshop agreed that in order for new businesses to be more successful and to attract them, the city and the community has to do a better job of awareness.
Stacey Schroeder, who sits on Waseca’s City Council and works as a hairstylist, thinks that it is hard for people to access information about aspects of the community. It’s hard to keep track of everything when they are not in one place, but Linsheid stated that the problem of awareness is in a lot of communities and not just in Waseca.
Panel discussion
Schroeder was on the panel moderated by Stamp, along with Richard Berry of Berry Pallets and Tim Wenzel of Winegar Inc. They each talked about how they started with their business and the opportunities they had along the way.
After a career in banking, Wenzel decided to become the owner of Winegar.
“I fell into it, because it was a chance to run my own business, be my own boss, and do something that I thought I could figure out and handle and serve the need for people that could be sustainable,” Wenzel said.
Wenzel noted that the biggest challenge Winegar is facing being located in south central Minnesota is being able to compete with foreign competition price-wise since the company has a lot of international customers.
For Schroeder, her biggest challenge is finding out how to offer something of value and make it so she still brings in customers.
“It’s about scalability and how I can offer something of value as well when they come to me with their budget,” said Schroeder.
Stamp agreed with Schroeder and stated that selling is the most important skill an entrepreneur can have.
“Students will ask me what’s the most important skill I have to be an entrepreneur,” Stamp said. ‘they think it’s marketing, or they think it’s product development, they think it’s finance, but it’s literally selling.”
Stamp asked the panel what kinds of businesses they would like to see in Waseca. Schroeder and Berry both said housing. berry noted that housing will make Waseca grow and attract more businesses to come into the city.
“I see all around us in places in Owatonna and Mankato apartment buildings going up everywhere,” Berry said. “That brings in workers. We do not have those apartments, that would be one thing I would change.”
To close out the discussion Stamp asked the panel what advice they would give to people who aspire to open a business in Waseca. Schroeder said that they need to be able to make connections and get their name out there.
“Make those connections and collaborations, don’t be afraid to reach out,” she said. “You don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know who you don’t know.”
As GreenSeam continues to work with the Waseca EDA on business development, talent development, and branding and promotion in the area, Wilson noted that the organization and the EDA are planning on doing another workshop sometime in the future and have Dr. Jeff Stamp back to present and moderate a panel discussion.
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