Buying Groceries at the Gas Station

On the corner of 1300 South and 1100 East in Salt Lake City, you’ll find a quaint building that was once a gas station in the 1920s, but now houses Liberty Heights Fresh. When you buy your groceries at the once-gas station, you won’t be getting the typical gas station fare of fat, sugar and salt. Instead, you’ll find fresh local produce, locally-made honey, jam, pasta, breads and cheeses and tons of great imported food. I spoke to the owner and CEO (Chief Eating Officer), Steven Rosenberg, who shared with me his passion for good food and told me about the importance of buying local.

Just the Good Stuff

You’ll find a huge variety of tasty, decadent food at Liberty Heights Fresh. Every product found in the shop has gone through an extensive vetting process—Steven travels the world looking for fabulous food to import to the shop, and local food is held to the same standards. Steven told me that there are just a few very basic rules for the food he buys for Liberty Heights Fresh:

• The food has to make you smile when you eat it.
• It has to be made with basic ingredients that would be easily recognized by your great-grandparents.
• No junk—no synthesized corn or soy. Just real food ingredients.
• Good food should be made with 3-5 ingredients.

Steven said, “It’s very important that people buy food that’s going to make them happy and healthy; not sick and tired. We strive to sell that kind of food and we honor all kinds of eaters. So whether you’re a vegan, a vegetarian, an omnivore, a raw food eater, we will support and provide food that will fit your diet and we’re very  respectful of an individual’s choice of what they eat. The most important thing is that food makes you well and that it makes you smile.”

The Foodies at Liberty Heights Fresh

The staff at Liberty Heights Fresh knows their stuff. They can tell you where every product came from, what’s in it, what to pair with it and how to prepare it. They can recommend something special. Planning a dinner party and have no idea what to serve? Find out what’s new or in season. You can also get recipes for seasonal treats. Try asking the bag boy at your big grocery store where those apples originated and if they were sprayed with pesticide, let alone ask for a baking tip…. you’ll most likely get a blank stare.

Local Products Introduce Variety

Steven buys produce and other products locally whenever possible. He considers “local” to be products that can be purchased and transported from their original location to his store between breakfast and lunch. Local products vary depending on the season and availability. Currently, Liberty Heights Fresh offers a locally-made apple cider. Steven told me why it’s special, “Our apple cider is not made from Red Delicious apples. It’s made with Cortland, McIntosh, Jonathan,Yellow Delicious and an old heirloom variety called Winter Banana. The cider is made by the Zollinger family up in Logan and it’s absolutely delicious. It’s much different than what you’d buy in a supermarket. I go up there every week or two to get it.”

Why Buy Local?

I asked Steven why it’s important to buy local. He said, “Buying local means you’re supporting producers. And you’re also supporting your community. Locally owned businesses are far more generous in the local non-profit community; supporting the arts, supporting museums and supporting culture, than companies that come here and may sell their goods in a retail establishment, but in comparison give very little back to the local community.”

Steven also maintains that people should expect more from their small, local shops than they do from the big box store retailers. In addition to getting better food and better customer service, Steven said, “you should expect more from them and they should deliver more. You might be paying a little bit more for something—I don’t have the buying power of a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe’s. I’m one store. But what I do is give back to this community.”

The list of charities that Liberty Heights Foods contributes to every year is lengthy and includes everything from local youth sports to shelters for the homeless. Steven told me that the shop donates tens of thousands of dollars and food every year because he believes in supporting the community that supports his store.

Why Shop at Liberty Heights Fresh?

Well, once you walk in the store, you’ll fall in love. If the baskets of gorgeous, fresh produce doesn’t seduce you, the fresh breads behind the counter will. Ask one of the friendly staff to make you a sandwich made from all the wonderful breads, cheeses and meats on hand—if the weather is accommodating, you can eat your lunch at the picnic table. Bite into a variety of an apple that you can’t find in the large chain grocery store. Discover a new olive oil. Taste a sample of locally-crafted jam that has only two ingredients: fruit and sugar. Re-discover what real food tastes like. Those are just a few of my reasons for shopping at Liberty Heights Fresh.

Steven gave a few more reasons, “We like to get to know our customers and establish a relation that’s built on trust. When we’re dead and gone the only thing we leave behind is our reputation, so it’s important to leave a good one.”

I also asked him why he goes to such great lengths to choose the food he offers at the shop. He replied, “It’s really, really encouraging and invigorating to know that somebody got something from our shop they couldn’t get anywhere else. And it made them, and their family extremely happy. And that’s why I do what I do at Liberty Heights Fresh.”

Success Stories: Liberty Heights Fresh

Best. Cupcake. Ever. I just returned from a wonderful meeting with Allison Regan, owner of Sweet Cake Bake Shop and I’ve polished off the gluten-free German chocolate cake cupcake I brought home. To be honest, I don’t really know much about baking. I do know that cupcakes normally contain wheat flour, and that the heavenly cupcake I just enjoyed didn’t have a lick of wheat in it. But do I care? Let me just say it again: Best. Cupcake. Ever. 

I met with Allison because I wanted to highlight her adorable shop in our Small Business Success Stories series. From her energetic, bubbly, passionate personality, I never would have guessed that Allison had faced some serious, debilitating health issues before becoming the successful business owner she is today.  Most small businesses start with a “lightbulb moment”—a sudden inspiration that usually comes when someone wants something that she can’t find or that doesn’t exist. Allison’s lightbulb moment would come from after seven years of searching for answer to health problems.

Diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2002, she was told to “never eat wheat again.” Ever. Imagine not being able to eat anything with wheat in it… the ingredient is found in a huge percentage of the food we enjoy. And wheat? Is the main ingredient in cake. Cookies. Bread. Cupcakes. Brownies. All the yummy stuff.

According to Wikipedia, “gluten gives elasticity to dough, helping it rise and keep its shape and often gives the final product a chewy texture.” So it sounds pretty important if you like to bake delicious goodies. And it’s easy to see why Allison would be so upset after finding out that she can never eat wheat again (I’d be obsessing about chocolate cake, too!) Allison had always enjoyed cooking and baking. And she wasn’t going to give up all the stuff she loved just because it made her sick. But it did make her sick (really, really sick). So she had to find another way— a way to have all the stuff she craved without having the wheat.

There are many gluten-free baking mixes on the market (and gluten-free baked goods at some grocery stores). So Allison tried them. And over several years she was able to find a few that weren’t too horrible. But she was left feeling… unsatisfied. And dreaming of the chocolate cake she used to bake—moist, chocolatey, light and flavorful.

Allison’s lightbulb moment came while she was dreaming of that cake. She decided that the baking mixes on the market were never going to satisfy her. So, she would develop her own! Literally hundreds of tries later, she had two mixes: Master Mix and Master Lite Mix. With these two mixes, dozens of delicious recipes would be created and Sweet Cake Bake Shop would be born.

In the beginning, Allison was simply milling and selling her baking mixes to other people who had to avoid wheat but wanted to convert their favorite recipes. Then she started taking requests for baked goods and baking them in her home kitchen. But eventually, the endeavor out-grew her home and Allison decided to open the first Sweet Cake Bake Shop in Kaysville, Utah in 2009.

“We were Utah’s first retail gluten-free bakery,” Allison told me, “It was scary at first because I didn’t know if we had a market. And I don’t do a lot of advertising about gluten free. I don’t want to limit my market.” But word got out that there were yummy new cupcakes in town. “The more people found out about it, it just kind of snowballed.” But Allison hasn’t forgotten about the many people who suffer from Celiac Disease, who inspired her to start the business. “The bakery isn’t marketed as solely gluten-free, and part of that is because I don’t want to make my customers with Celiac Disease to feel like they’re singled out. Children especially have a hard time with this diagnosis. I want them to feel like they can come in and get a treat and have it seem normal. I love having kids in the shop.”

Allison’s passion is creating delicious recipes. She listens to her customers and tries to cater to their wants and needs. She said, “I want to make people happy. Especially when it’s something that they’ve been told ‘No’ and they want to have the things they remember. I want them to leave satisfied and happy and content.” This sometimes leads to challenges—customers were asking for cinnamon rolls, so Allison finally decided to tackle the recipe. Three years later, she’d perfected the perfect cinnamon roll. That’s dedication to customer service!

One key to Allison’s success is that she let her business grow slowly. She wanted to avoid taking out loans to finance a business during a time of recession. The fiscally-conservative approach worked; three years after opening the Kaysville store, Sweet Cake Bake Shop opened a second shop in Salt Lake City earlier this year. The business is a family affair; her husband does most of the accounting and her children get in and help with baking.

Allison said, “My favorite thing is talking to customers. They come in and tell me their stories. I’m so grateful and thankful for this business. It’s fulfilled me in so many ways.”

The store takes special orders. Customers can call 24 hours in advance and the shop will have their treats ready the next day.

Sweet Cake Bake Shop also ships out of state from its website: www.sweetcakebakeshop.com .

So here’s all you need to know: if you have celiac disease and miss decadent treats like cupcakes, cookies, brownies and bread that doesn’t taste like sawdust, Sweet Cake Bake Shop is your place. But if you aren’t concerned about gluten and you can pretty much eat any cupcake you’d like… Sweet Cake Bake Shop is still your place. Because the cupcakes? Are amazing.

Success Stories: Sweet Cake Bake Shop

Founded in 1977, Vintage Oak is a great place for Salt Lake City residents to find quality traditional, mission-style and rustic wood furniture, along with a great selection of leather sofas, love seats, sectionals and chairs. And the best part? Much of the inventory at Vintage Oak is crafted locally in Utah. President and CEO, Jim Blanda, met with me to share his success story and to talk about buying and selling locally.

Loyal Employees… and Customers

Vintage Oak is truly a small business; the company has only 10 employees. But the  staff is fiercely loyal— most have been at the store for more than 10 years, and the sales staff have all worked for Vintage Oak for more than 20 years. How does Mr. Blanda keep high-quality employees? He said, “We treat our employees like family, and we’re different in that our pay is more stable. Instead of paying commission only, we offer a regular wage and an additional small commission.” With such a stable workforce, customers are able to form relationships with sales staff.

Vintage Oak’s customers are loyal, too; repeat business and word-of-mouth are the mainstays of the business.

Low-Pressure Sales Technique

Another feature that customers enjoy at Vintage Oak is the low-pressure customer service. Jim says, “Customers will find that while our staff is always ready and willing to help, we don’t hound them or shadow them around the store. The fact that our sales people aren’t paid by commission only means that they don’t have to be aggressive in order to make a living. As a result, the overall atmosphere and shopping experience is that much better for the customer.”

Locally Crafted Furniture

About 60% of the furniture sold at Vintage Oak is made in Utah by local craftsmen. From the beginning, the store has focused on buying inventory locally. Mr. Blanda formed relationships with local furniture makers early on and has maintained those relationships carefully and feels that it’s important to buy locally as much as possible.

“The notion of Buy Local is compounded when you’re buying local products from a local merchant. There are very few locally-owned furniture businesses in Utah; most of them have been either sold or come in from out of state. So most of the dollars that people spend on furniture leaves the state immediately. I like the fact that, when my customers buy furniture that we’ve purchased from local craftsmen, more of that money stays here in the community.”

Buy Local Marketing

Vintage Oak is registered with Buy Local First Utah, a non-profit organization that supports local businesses and helps companies promote awareness for the importance of buying locally. In addition to the sign on the front door, the store features tags on all locally-crafted furniture.

Mr. Blanda told me, “I think there’s a lot of people in the state that want to support local  products so we just try to point out which items are actually made here. Salespeople mention it to customers. That’s one of the main things that differentiate us from other stores here.  We want to make people aware of that.”

Secrets to Success

When asked about the secret to his success, Mr. Blanda said, “The best way to stay in business is to keep your expenses low.” While the recession has been tough on the furniture business over the last five years, Vintage Oak is still going strong.

I asked him what advice he would give to new business owners. He said, “It’s easy to over-extend yourself. Before we moved into this building, we had three locations and a remote warehouse. But we found it difficult to staff the locations properly and offer enough inventory at each. We decided that people would drive farther in order to find quality, local furniture, so we consolidated into this 35,000 square foot store.”

The move was a good one. People travel from all over the Salt Lake Valley (and even from out of state) in order to shop for the quality furniture found at Vintage Oak.

Success Stories: Vintage Oak

I recently visited Beehive Cheese, a small company that creates artisan cheese in Uintah, Utah, about 30 minutes North of Salt Lake City. I spoke to Katie Johnson, marketing director for the company, and Pat Ford, one of the owners about how Beehive Cheese got its start.

Pat Ford and his brother-in-law, Tim Welsh were tired of the everyday grind of their stressful jobs in real estate and software, so they started talking about owning their own business. After considering a few other ideas, they settled on the crazy notion of creating artisan cheeses, something that hadn’t yet been done in Utah.

Pat and Tim went where anyone who wants to learn about making cheese goes: Utah State University Western Dairy Center. They took a two-week course and spoke to the cheese experts in Logan about their idea. Initially, they were discouraged. There were already several major cheese makers in the Cache valley. Why would Utah need another? But this cheese would be different. Instead of the typical cheddar, monterey jack and mozzarella, Beehive Cheese would produce artisan cheeses with a rubbed rind; something different and new. The folks at Utah State starting warming to the idea and taught Pat and Tim everything they could about making a quality product.

Beehive Cheese opened in 2005 with the cheese that would serve as the base for most other varieties: Promontory. Then they set out to make some distinctly different, unique cheeses.

One day the two owners were kicking around some ideas for new cheeses. They had some 4 oz bags of coffee sitting around and Tim got the idea to add it to the cheese. Pat said, “We did some experiments. One of them was coffee and lavender. Tim put the soothing effects of lavender and combined with the edgy effects of the coffee. It was just a fun, crazy little experiment.” The new variety, “Barely Buzzed” was born. It was an instant hit, garnering a first place ribbon at the American Cheese Society Competition in 2007. And again in 2008. And yet again in 2009 and 2011.

Jamie Forrest, food reviewer and cheese aficionado on the website, Serious Eats, had this to say about Beehive Cheese’s Barely Buzzed: “As I bit down through the cheese, the bitter nuttiness of the espresso and the caramel sweetness of the cheddar-style cheese made me realize this is a match made in some really quirky and hip corner of heaven.” The success of “Barely Buzzed” put Beehive Cheese on the map, and the buyers for Whole Foods and Central Market noticed. Beehive Cheese is now distributed throughout the country and has gone on to win 17 major awards.

Other award-winning cheeses include Apple Walnut Smoked, Big John’s Cajun, SeaHive and Full Moon. Two new cheese are slated for introduction in the next year: Ipanema, a cocoa bean and butter-rubbed rind cheese, will be released for exclusive sale during the Christmas holiday at Whole Foods. And BeeChive, with a distinctive bright-green rind, will be released for St. Patrick’s Day in 2013.

Beehive Cheese is a family affair: of the 15 employees, 8 are family. Tim’s and Pat’s kids work at the creamery during the summer and school breaks, and Pat’s wife ran the shipping department for the company for several years. Family provided loans for the startup of the company and Pat told me that his mom has always been a great source of support and a big influence on the success of the business.

Employees that aren’t technically family might as well be: turnover is rare and everyone in the company meets to discuss new ideas for cheeses, and to taste and judge prospective new products.

I asked Pat about the difficulties of the early days at Beehive Cheese. “We worked seven days a week in the beginning. We participated in five farmer’s markets every week. We would make cheese from 4:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night. Tim would stay until midnight and do the books. We both worked our butts off . . . but it paid off.”

Pat gave me two pieces of advice to pass on to people who are thinking about opening their own businesses. The first piece of advice was financial. He said, “Have twice as much money in the bank as you think you’ll need. You’re always growing.”

The second piece of advice was about customer service. Pat said, “We always err on the side of the customer. Even if we lose money, it’s just one little box of cheese, it’s not going to ruin us.” Connecting with customers continues to be important for Beehive Cheese. The company sells its cheese at farmer’s markets in Utah and also supports community events. Beehive Cheese is a sponsor of the Red Butte Garden’s Summer Concert Series, and they show up occasionally to hand out free samples to concert-goers as they wait in line.

The company is very involved in supporting local arts and music events and the owners are still heavily involved in the business’ day-to-day operations. Katie told me, “Pat and Tim answer the phones. We don’t have some automated phone system. The owners talk directly to customers. People love that they’re so accessible.”

Thanks to Pat Ford and Katie Johnson for sharing their knowledge (and love of great cheese!) with me. You can visit Beehive Cheese at www.beehivecheese.com (under construction) or on Facebook.

Success Stories: Beehive Cheese

Betsy Burton opened The King’s English Bookstore in 1977, with a business partner and just a few thousand dollars in start-up money. Now, more than 30 years later, the bookshop is a vibrant, vital part of the Salt Lake City community. I sat down with Betsy a few weeks ago to ask her about running an independent bookshop during this time of big bookstore chains.

What was your biggest challenge during the first few months?

Like most small business owners who start because they have a passion for whatever it is they’re doing, they think that passion will carry them. They think they don’t really need to know that much about business – the passion will do the trick. My learning curve was in the business department. I knew how to balance a checkbook and add and subtract. I knew about debt but I didn’t really understand about capitalization, so we started out really severely under-capitalized and that impacted us for a long time because we stubbornly didn’t want to borrow money.

Not borrowing had a good and a bad side, though. The bad side was that we were undercapitalized which meant that we grew slowly but the good side was that we grew organically so we never really got in debt. We added as we could afford to add and that’s a good thing. But I think I could have struck a balance. I could have had a little bit of capital behind me.

You and your business partner were both single moms. How were you able to blend work and family back then?

The passion carried us along in the beginning. We took turns so that one of us would be home with the kids and one would be at the shop. I’d take all the books in their boxes home at night, unpack them and do the invoices at night after Mandy went to bed, and then bring them back in the morning. It was a struggle for awhile.

Later, after I had remarried, I had Nicky. My son has an intractable seizure condition and brain damage. He varies between ages four and twelve socially and cognitively. When Nick was diagnosed Mandy was thirteen and going through all the teenaged girl stuff. My partner at that time, Barbara, was invaluable. I had to be able to come and go. I could never do this alone.

When you first got started, did you ever think you’d hang out with the likes of John Irving and Isabelle Allende?

Oh, it was just thrilling. The first time I met Isabelle, she was so gracious, up-beat and vivacious. Over the years, as more and more people come, you get to know more authors. Some of the most unforgettable experiences I’ve had are just to get to know authors. When Richard Russo was here, he didn’t really want to do anything fancy after the reading. He just wanted to go hang out with the booksellers and have a beer. He was just a real guy.

Most authors are so nice, kind. They appreciate booksellers because they really do understand that we’re the ones that find the good books and start them going. And they’re very thoughtful people. So it’s been one of the great pleasures of my careers – meeting and getting to know authors.

Do you think there are special challenges being a female business owner?

No. It’s the one thing you can do that makes you entirely free of all of that. Males don’t get preference. Booksellers tend to sort out as people who don’t think that way, so I avoided all of that. I started my business in the 70’s when the environment was more hostile to women, but if you start your own business, you control your environment and you don’t have to worry about it.

How do you find good employees?

Some are grad students, but a lot of our people are a decade older than that. We hire a lot of mothers who want to work part time. We’re always looking for real readers, passionate readers, but also customer service is our big deal here. You can’t have somebody that’s a literary reader and is snobbish about it. You have to have people who are very accepting and very friendly.

How have the big box stores and Internet booksellers affected your business?

Periodically over the years, it’s been a struggle. When the chains came in the 90’s that was horrible. There was a time then when we weren’t sure we would make it. But if I have one quality I think it’s persistence.

Now with Amazon, we don’t know where the business is going, because they’re getting so many perks from everywhere at some point you just can’t compete. They’re devaluing books to the point that people won’t pay for hardcovers anymore.

The King’s English sells eBooks on our website. A lot of our customers use eReaders on trips. But they still read both – eBooks and print books. We want to be able to service our customers. We are much better at guiding customers to books than Amazon.

If people see you as the center of community, that’s great for business, among other things. I think people are proud to shop here for more than just friendship or love of books; I think people value community. So I think we’re on the map in a whole new way.

The neighborhood is really supportive. We do three story hours a week. People wheel their kids in. We do lots of readings. People come here and shop from ID, WY and MT. They’ll come in and buy three boxes of books to get them through a season.

Independent booksellers from all over work closely with each other. It’s a really warm and inclusive industry. Another independent shop will get an author that you really can’t crack into, and they’ll say to that author, “Oh you really need to go to this store.” We all help each other. We’re all underpaid and impassioned.

How else are you involved in the community?

I’m the co-founder of Local First, which takes on issues that have to do with protecting small businesses. We help businesses brand themselves as local, and we have 3,000 members so we have a very strong brand.

Local First is the other thing I’ve done in my life that I feel has made a profound difference. We’re changing the way people look at the world they live in. The word, “local” has taken on more and more resonance. I feel like it’s really important. We don’t want to be a world full of corporations. We want a community. And that’s really what Local First is about.

When I ask other business owners how they knew when they were successful, they often give me dollar amount – once they hit x-amount of profits, then they knew. For you, I suspect that’s a different thing. So, what is success for you?

As long as you can make a little money, enough to get by comfortably and as long as you can pay health insurance for your employees so we can all live with dignity, that’s success.

What we’re doing here is such a community service, being able to guide people to books that they need at a certain time in their lives, being able to match one book they’ve absolutely found to be transforming to another one that they’ll love just as much, those kinds of things you can’t put a dollar amount on those. Being a community gathering place and bringing in authors from all over the world, those are things that give to this community. The older I get, the more important community is to me. I think it’s why we’re all here. So that’s what pays me.

Thanks so much to Betsy Burton for spending time with me. If you get a chance, stop by The King’s English on 1511 S. 1500 E. in Salt Lake City, Utah. You can also visit the shop’s website at: kingsenglish.com.

To learn more about Betsy and the history of The King’s English, read her book, “The King’s English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller.”

Success Stories: The King’s English Bookstore

As a continuation of our Success Stories series, I recently had the privilege of sitting down with Brad and Monnica Manuel, co-founders of Operation61, a non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of human trafficking to talk about their organization and their thoughts on building a successful non-profit.

When did you first become aware of human trafficking?

Monnica: We had heard little pieces here and there. One trigger was the movie, “Taken,” which made us start asking more questions, doing more research. We originally had the mindset that it was a third world country issue. There are 27 million slaves worldwide (that includes sex slaves and labor slaves). Then we began to break it down to what’s happening here domestically. Somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 children are sexually exploited in the United States every year. We wondered if it was happening in Utah. We found out that there are organizations that are assisting victims right here in our own backyard.

Brad: We realized how domestic, local and personal this problem is. We didn’t fully understand that until we started looking into it. This is a youth problem. The average age for a boy seeing porn online for the first time is eleven. The average age of a prostitute in the United States is thirteen.

What does your name mean?

Monnica: Our name comes from the scripture Isaiah 61:1, which says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” That scripture was written in 700 B.C. More than 700 years later, when Jesus came out of the wilderness, he quoted the scripture and said that it stated his life’s purpose.

We thought, it doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. You just ask, “What does your life represent?” If that scripture was Jesus’s purpose, it could be ours, too. We started thinking about ways to live according to Isaiah 61:1.

Brad: Once we realized how prevalent and local the issue of sex trafficking is we thought the timing was perfect. The main message of the scripture was freedom. Sex trafficking is the epitome of bondage – individuals being bought and sold as a product. Many victims don’t even know what freedom is like.

Is your organization part of a church?

Brad: When we first came to Utah, Monnica had just graduated from bible school in Southern California. We wanted to found a church, which we did. In the beginning, Operation61 was under that church’s 501(c)(3).

Monnica: Eventually we realized that we wanted the organization to be more inclusive and involve all of the community. We wanted to serve everyone, without strings attached. Though we’re faith-based, we feel that everyone can be involved with Operation61. Regardless of your background or faith, everybody as a human can get behind our mission.

How did you get the organization started?

Brad: At first, we had no idea what we were doing. Monnica is a runner, and we’d seen other people doing charity races. So we thought, “Let’s do a charity race and go from there.”

You start with an idea. Then you start developing some advocates around you. Some people that want to get onboard with what you’re doing. In our small community we immediately had quite a few people that said, “Let’s get behind this and create something.” We identified a couple of organizations that we could get behind – one local and one international. We began to try to raise some awareness.

In December of 2008 we had the opportunity to meet some needs of local victims that had been trafficked. They were getting assistance from a local partner. Two days before Christmas we learned that they were in need of clothes, food, and other essentials. We were made aware of the issue and just reacted to it. We were able to provide clothing, personal hygiene items and some gift cards. At the same time, we were planning our first race.

Monnica: We got the plan started. We got real clear about what our mission was. Then we knew our objective. We didn’t yet know what shape that would take, but we knew it would evolve. We articulated our plan into a mission that people could see and understand easily.

What is your mission?

Monica: Our mission is three parts: Reach, Rescue and Restore.

Reach involves education and going to the root of the problem. Letting people know that the problem exists, that it’s very widespread, and that they have a personal impact on sex trafficking.

Rescue involves the actual extraction from bondage – providing girls with a safe place to come when they leave the situation.

Restore is what happens next. How do you keep the girls from going back? You have to give them something to go to.

Looking back, what would you do differently in the beginning?

Brad: What we didn’t do is narrow it down and evaluate our core competencies. We tried to do everything. It’s like a business. As soon as you start developing, you better put some structure and business principles around it. You need to lay it out with a plan.

We finally sat down and said, “Let’s figure out who is in our group what talents do we have; let’s not try to do something that isn’t us. If it’s not something we’re not good at, let’s find someone who is and support them.”

Monica: We asked, “Where can we have the most impact?” It sounds simple, but we didn’t distill it down like that in the first couple years.

How did Operation61 grow and develop?

Brad: We looked at our group and at our core competencies. Many of us have business experience and we have a lot of creativity on our staff. And most of us are parents.

We’re not a victim services organization. We partner with other organizations that are better set up for counseling and working with victims. Our support partners are the  primary recipients of our financial support. For instance, “Generate Hope” in San Francisco has a 17 bed safe house. It has proven programs for victims of sex trafficking and is one of only two homes of its kind in the U.S. They also do outreach programs to help victims become aware of options to leave sex trafficking situations.

Monnica: So other organizations have the facilities set up for the “Rescue” and “Restore” parts of our mission. We help them financially, but aren’t set up for the actual labor involved there. We thought, “How are we best equipped to help with this issue?” And we realized that we can focus on the “Reach” part of the mission through education. We are parents. We would hate for any of this to happen to our children. We would hate for our sons to be consumers in the industry.

Brad: The sex trafficking business has a cycle: Demand, Manufacture, Marketing, Distribution, and Consumption. And it’s all about supply and demand. So how can we affect the demand?

We relaunched our website on May 12th with all new content after working on it for seven months. Our focus is to provide educational tools to combat the issue at the root. We want to educate parents on how to help their children avoid being part of the business cycle of sex trafficking. We want to affect change at the root, at the demand side of things.

Monnica: The new launch is our attempt to create awareness from a different perspective. To provide tools to parents. To open the eyes of parents to the reality that kids are having conversations through Facebook, Twitter, etc. all the time.

As a parent, you have to guide kids, lead them through life. If that means you have to be on Facebook, Twitter, whatever, to follow and guide them, then you’d better do it. Kids are learning how to communicate in a totally different way than parents ever knew how.

Brad: When we hand kids all this new technology, we expect and trust that they’ll teach us how it works. We have no idea what they’re doing. It’s important to explain things to kids; they don’t understand some of the consequences of technology. You have to walk the pathway out for them mentally. Let them understand. We know as parents what can happen with this much information, we’d better prepare our children.

So we created documents, downloadable PDFs on the website, to help parents. We have a document that lists warning signs for boys and girls and why they’re warning signs. We have a “House Rules” document. It contains rules that parents can implement in regards to handling technology. For instance, what they should/shouldn’t communicate online. Some rules may seem strict, but do you really want your child downstairs in his bedroom at night, having a conversation online with a stranger?

What do you want people to know about human trafficking?

Brad: People can get on our website: Operation61.org. They can explore the business wheel that gives more information about each part of the sex trafficking business cycle: Demand, Manufacture, Marketing, Distribution, Consumption. Then they can click the “Take Action” button and resolve to join the fight to end the demand that makes child sex trafficking possible. They can subscribe to our newsletter and also get involved by volunteering with Operation61. There is a “Contact Us” form on the site.

Monnica: I think the most important thing for people to know is: This impacts you in some way. Find out how and do something about it.

What advice would you give to people in the beginning stages of starting an organization?

Brad: Figure out where you can start foundationally. Identify core competencies, get good at them and then build on that. It has to be a comprehensive approach. Be aware of other partners. Work together in collaboration instead of trying to tackle the same issues others are tackling.

Success Stories: Operation61

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Rick Cochran, President and CEO of MMIC (Mobile Medical International Corporation). Mr. Cochran was named the 2011 Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Association. He has also received many other awards for his contributions to business and community and in 1999 was inducted into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

Every small business owner has struggles and worries that keep him up at night. Some businesses succeed; some fail. I asked Mr. Cochran if he would share with us some of the basic principles that he believed attributed to his success and helped shape him and his company into what they are today.

Cultivate Relationships and Build Trust

Mr. Cochran spent several years working in the healthcare industry prior to founding MMIC. During his work with one company, he met with vendors in order to convince them to let the company carry their product lines. During that time he learned that his reputation and character were the most important factors in gaining trust amongst those with whom he wanted to do business. He cultivated relationships that paid off—every supplier he contacted signed up.

Later, Mr. Cochran founded a healthcare consulting company that provided ambulatory surgical centers (precursors to the products developed by MMIC) to physicians and facilities around the country. He worked closely with private physicians to gain their trust and form a strong reputation. Those contacts and the relationships he built during that time would later prove to be indispensable.

When MMIC was in the planning stages it quickly became clear that capital was needed. Mr. Cochran sent a letter to 70 physicians with whom he had worked in the past. This is not generally considered an effective strategy – advertising agencies tell clients to typically expect somewhere between a one-half percent and three percent response to such letters. Mr. Cochran received a 50% response – 35 physicians responded positively. This success was due in part to the individual trust level that Mr. Cochran had previously formed with those people.

Solve a Problem for Success

While working in the healthcare arena, Mr. Cochran often spoke with physicians, some of whom worked in small rural communities and other locations where patient volume was low. The physicians often brought up a dilemma they faced: they really needed surgical facilities, but simply didn’t have the case volume to justify the enormous investment that such equipment would cost.

People often wish they could start their own business, but they have no idea what that business should be. Mr. Cochran told me, “When you hear of a specific problem more than a couple times, find a solution and you’ve got a business.”

The problem was clear: physicians needed low-cost surgical facilities. Mr. Cochran had an idea for a mobile surgery unit (MSU) that would solve that problem. He founded MMIC in 1994. Since that time, the company has found many other markets with similar problems and it now offers two product lines. The first is a commercial line that serves rural communities, hospitals who need temporary solutions during renovation, communities who are engaging in disaster preparedness and others in the private sector. The second product line provides both U.S. and international military units with shelter solutions for a variety of purposes.

Balance Work and Family

New business owners often work 60-70 hour weeks, especially during the first few years. When you’ve quit your stable job and invested money into a new enterprise, it’s terrifying to think about what will happen if the business fails. Many owners respond to this stress by working obsessively to the detriment of all other aspects of their lives. But ignoring your family deprives you of one of the things you need the most: love and support.

Mr. Cochran told me that making the transition from a stable salary to self-employed was scary, but that the support he received from his family was invaluable. He remarked on the importance of balance, “You have to keep a balance between work and your family. You need support from the home front in order to be able to grow a successful company, but it’s also important to stay involved with your spouse and children. Those relationships matter most.”

Take Creative Approaches

Mr. Cochran has managed to draw some of the most talented people in the field to work for MMIC. The executive and sales teams at the company are comprised of accomplished, experienced people. Board members include former Secretary of the Veterans Administration, R. James Nicholson, and Paul K. Carlton, former Surgeon General of the U.S. Air Force. Both of these respected, knowledgeable men work closely with MMIC in strategic business development. Mr. Cochran was able to draw successful people to MMIC by using creative approaches, “It’s not just about the money. You have to put a package together that inspires and excites people to work with you.”

At one point, the company experienced a shortage of available cash and it became difficult to pay employees. For awhile, employees worked without pay. How did MMIC avoid losing talented people during this time? The company took care of its people and treated them like family. And MMIC came up with a creative solution to a big problem: employees who were willing to see the company through a rough patch received bonus pay and stock in addition to past wages.

Have Passion for Your Business

I asked Mr. Cochran what advice he would give to someone who is contemplating opening a small business. He said, “I’ve watched a lot of businesses come and go. People have a neat idea, so they start a business. But one year later it’s gone. They don’t realize the enormity of the challenges they’ll face. You can’t do this half-hearted – you have to be all in.” This kind of passion and dedication has made Rick Cochran a successful small businessman.

You can learn more about MMIC by visiting the company website: http://www.mmicglobal.com/

Small Business Success Stories: Mobile Medical

Each year, the U.S. Small Business Administration honors entrepreneurs from all over the country. One exceptional individual is chosen from each state to receive an award and special recognition during Small Business Week in Washington, DC. In 2011, Andrew Caprio, owner of Monet Medical, was chosen as the Utah Small Business Person of the Year. I met with Mr. Caprio last week to talk with him about his business success. He shared his story with me, and told me about the three rules he set for himself early on.

In 1997, Mr. Caprio attended a “How to Start Your Own Business” workshop at the local SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) office. He was working for a company in the medical equipment industry, but figured that opening his own business might be a good “Plan B.” After he completed the SCORE workshop, he began to draw up a business plan and think about the logistics of starting his own company.

In 2000, Mr. Caprio’s employer filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As part of the restructuring of the company, his department was closed. He quickly garnered several attractive offers from other companies, but wondered if his layoff was actually a blessing; it might provide the perfect opportunity for him to pursue his own business.

The decision was difficult. Every prospective small business owner faces this dilemma in the beginning – take a stable job with a guaranteed salary, or take the risk of starting a company that might provide opportunities and personal growth that can never come from working for someone else. It’s not a decision that can be made lightly.

When faced with life-altering decisions, Andrew Caprio relies on the strength of his religious beliefs to help guide him. He prayed and reflected on the matter until he was able to come to a decision that felt right. Equipped with his education and experience in the medical equipment industry and 10 months of severance pay, he set up Monet Medical in his basement on September 7, 2000.

Monet Medical, Inc. purchases surplus moveable medical equipment (everything from portable defibrillators to hospital beds) from facilities all over the country. The equipment is then reconditioned both biomedically and cosmetically. The company slogan is “Monet Medical… Where Reconditioning is an Art” (The company gets its name from the impressionist painter Claude Monet). Mr. Caprio believes that each piece of equipment that comes through his business should be reconditioned with great care before it goes on to its next home. Equipment goes through a stringent reconditioning process that includes biomedical testing and calibration, paint, detailing, quality assurance and three separate inspections.

During the first year, the company reconditioned 771 pieces of medical equipment. After 14 months of operating out of Mr. Caprio’s basement, Monet Medical leased its first small space in a strip mall. Business steadily increased and after nine years in business, the company was able to buy the building that is Monet Medical’s home today. In 2010, the company reconditioned 4,868 pieces of medical equipment that will be used in hospitals, clinics, physician’s offices and other medical facilities across the country.

Recently, Monet Medical added several new manufacturers to its product line, opened two new offices and entered some new markets: home healthcare, medical colleges and universities, and medical equipment planning/consulting. In addition, the growing company plans to welcome six new employees in the next few months.

From the start, Andrew Caprio set three rules for his business:

1. Pay the bills.
2. Never lose a sale because you can’t afford it.
3. Never sell company stock.

This careful attention to finances has helped Monet Medical survive and even thrive during a recession.

I asked Mr. Caprio what he considered his biggest challenge as a small business owner. He told me, “It’s important to realize that some decisions are bigger than you. Some of them are the kind of make-or-break decisions that have enormous impact on your business. While it can sometimes be advantageous to be conservative, if you’re too risk averse you could miss out on an opportunity that will really benefit your company.”

From humble beginnings as a small company operating in a basement, to winning the 2011 Utah Small Business Person of the Year award, Andrew Caprio has proven opening his own business was the right decision.

Small Business Success Stories: Monet Medical

How important are first impressions? Everyone from your mom to your professors in business school told you that they’ll make or break you. If you’re getting ready to open the doors of your brand new business and introduce yourself to the public, you should be thinking about the first impression you’ll make. It’s difficult to offer perfect service during the first days of your fledgling business. But customers will give you a break that first week, right? Surely they’ll understand that you have new employees and that you’re still figuring out how to run your business. It will all work out – even if they have to wait a little longer for service or stand there while you try to figure out how to operate your cash register. Right? Um… nope.

Sadly, Joe customer doesn’t have warm, fuzzy feelings in his heart for your earnest (and failing) attempts at becoming a paragon of retail perfection. He just wants to buy a widget and be on his way. You opened yesterday? That’s nice. Now fork over the widget, ring it up and put it in a bag. Oh, and do it with a smile on your face. Or he won’t be back.

I know, it sounds harsh. But it’s reality and as a new business owner you’d better be living in the real world. Opening week is crucial to your success; you absolutely must do it right. Here are some reasons to delay your big grand opening event:

1. Your Employees Aren’t Thoroughly Trained

Your employees are the ambassadors of your business. Customers will expect them to know where product can be located and be able to extol the many features of the product. Customers want to be able to complete their transactions quickly and be on their way, so employees should be thoroughly trained on how to use the cash register.

I took my family to an amusement park during spring break. It had opened for the season just two days before we visited, so most of the employees were new. When we stopped for snacks, only two people were in line at the snack kiosk, so we figured we’d be able to grab some goodies fast. After ten minutes, the guy at the front still hadn’t received his order; the clerk was holding his $5 bill in her hand and frantically punching buttons on the register, which kept making a beeping noise. Apparently, the customer had tried to add an item onto his order after she had pushed the “Total” button. The cash register was having none of it. The guy finally told her, “Never mind. Don’t worry about the extra soda.” But it was too late. The register was hopelessly screwed up.

In the meantime, the line had backed up to about 10 people, all of whom were starting to get irritated. The customer at the front of the line requested that his order be cancelled, and the clerk gave him his money back. But the register couldn’t complete any transactions until a manager showed up. After another five minutes, everyone gave up, griping and complaining as they walked away, sans sugar and caffeine.

2. Your Signage is Insufficient

Customers can’t find your business unless you have plenty of signage to point the way; especially when your store is brand new. Make sure you have several signs placed right next to the road, pointing the way to your shop. A large banner on the exterior of the building will call attention to your business, too. Without some noticeable signage, it can be particularly difficult to find a new business—you won’t show up on GPS mapping programs for a few months, so your customers will need to know your exact address to find you. And if your shop is tucked away from the main street, it will still be hard to locate it in time to turn into the parking lot. Make it easy for customers to find you.

3.Your Store Isn’t Fully Stocked

You won’t make a very good first impression if customers show up to find your shelves half empty. If you don’t have anything to sell, it’s a given that your customers won’t be buying. Make sure that your product will arrive well before opening day, and get it stocked on the shelves before you open the door. You’d think this would be common knowledge, but I’ve visited several new stores that are unprepared.

At one store, the grand opening had been well-advertised and there were several coupons on the flyer that encouraged customers to stop in during the first four hours of business. A line at the door testified that the marketing campaign had been successful. Unfortunately, the product had arrived late. When the doors opened, employees were frantically trying to put product on the shelves and were telling customers, “Hang on a minute… I know we have that… Let me just look through this stack of boxes.” Needless to say, customers quickly became frustrated and many left without buying anything.

4. You Haven’t Figured Out Best Practices Yet

It can take awhile to figure out how best to run your business. But some general policies and procedures should be in place well before you open your doors. Set regular hours right from the beginning—having special Grand Opening hours will only confuse your customers when they try to return later. Make sure that all employees are aware of your policies regarding returns, price matching and rain checks.

4 Reasons to Delay Your Grand Opening

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking to Mitch Monson, co-founder of The Toaster Oven, a small chain of sandwich shops in San Francisco and Berkeley, California, for our small business success stories series. He gave me some insights about how the company got started, what they do and how they have become one of our small business success stories!

The Planning Stage

In 2004, Mitch and his friend Cameron Wilkinson were both working in the corporate world and becoming financially successful in their careers, but they wanted more. Mitch told me, “A lot of entrepreneurs have a desire to be creative. They have the personality type where they want to have their own thing or they don’t necessarily fit into the corporate mold. From our college days, we had always talked about starting our own business.” He and Cameron found a silent partner, Todd Lloyd, who contributed some of the up-front capital. The introduction of a third partner, “forced us, from the beginning, to be really serious about the business plan, think about the business objectives and treat it like a big business, instead of just two college buddies cobbling together what we thought was best,” Mitch said. He attributes part of Toaster Oven’s success to the intensive planning that was done prior to opening the first shop. From start to finish, the planning phase took an entire year.

An Important Mentor 

Successful business owners often speak of mentors that changed their thinking and gave them valuable insights. Mitch credits a mentor from his pre-college days: former President of Oracle North America, Gary Kennedy. Gary taught Mitch that successful entrepreneurs do one of two things: they either invent something totally new, or they find a way to make the “mutually exclusive” co-exist.

The Cornerstone of The Toaster Oven

Mitch and Cameron weren’t planning on becoming inventors, so they recognized that they needed to find a business where they could differentiate themselves from competitors in order to be successful. Mitch noted, “When we’d talked about different concepts, I was always of the opinion that we needed to have a business that could make mutually exclusive things mutually agreeable.” Mitch, who was living back East at the time, noticed several eatery concepts that hadn’t yet made it to the western half of the U.S. He and Cameron decided something similar might work in San Francisco.

Overall, sandwich businesses seemed to have some mutually exclusive characteristics. Some offered fast service and low prices, but the product was typically low quality, served in a fast-food environment (with plastic booths, for instance). There were other eateries that offered high quality and a nice atmosphere, but at high prices and with slower service. Mitch and Cameron wanted The Toaster Oven to challenge the notion that patrons would have to shell out a lot of money and spend the majority of their lunch hour in order to enjoy a quality meal.

Changing The Game

To be successful, The Toaster Oven needed to make four components, which don’t normally co-exist, mutually agreeable: quality, speed, ambiance and price.

The menu at The Toaster Oven focuses on hot sandwiches typical of a sandwich shop: ham, turkey, tuna, meatball, etc. But there are some differences that give them an artisan flair. The shop orders only high-quality meats and cheeses and slices them on-site daily. The addition of a giardiniera pepper mix adds a unique flavor. And the bread (a major component of sandwiches, after all) is specially prepared. Mitch explained the process: “Normally at a cheap sandwich shop the bread is fully baked. When you re-heat it, it comes out burned on the edges. We can get a consistent, artisan-type taste by simply using par-baked bread that bakes up beautifully when we put it through our pizza ovens, at the moment it’s ordered.”

Getting customers through the line quickly took care of two of the components–speed and price. In the sandwich business, there is a small 2 1/2 to 3 hour window per day to make money. Mitch wondered, “How am I going to have the competitive advantage of being able to serve more people during those 2 1/2 hours than the competition?” The answer was in the layout of the sandwich line, which allows The Toaster Oven to ring through up to four customers every minute–much faster than the competition (other sandwich chains normally average one or two customers per minute). By putting customers through the line quickly and selling more sandwiches than competitors, The Toaster Oven can offer their product at a low price–right around $5 per sandwich.

Ambiance was the other important feature to distinguish The Toaster Oven from the low-price, cheap-quality competition. Each shop has some main design tenets: distressed millwork, warm colors, antiqued metals and a wall featuring vintage toasters. Soft lighting and familiar classic-rock tunes add to the inviting, comfortable atmosphere.

Marketing

I asked Mitch about the marketing strategy for The Toaster Oven. “We don’t do coupons. We don’t do a reward program. When a new store opens, we usually have a grand opening with a special like, ‘buy a sandwich, get a free drink.’ After that, our business lives and dies by customer experience and word of mouth. We place a lot more focus on our employees’ attitudes and trying to foster an atmosphere of abundance and hospitality for our customers than we do on typical coupon marketing.”

Signage

In addition to word-of-mouth, The Toaster Oven utilizes signage to attract business. Since they are located in areas where there is mainly foot traffic, an A-frame sign placed on the sidewalk is highly visible. Keeping consistent with their branding, the signage maintains an informal tone. One design includes a product picture, the store logo and the words, “5 dollars can taste good. Let us show you how.”

Mistakes

Every small business owner makes a few mistakes and the owners of The Toaster Oven were no exception. Their business model relied on a heavy foot-traffic location where business people walked to lunch, which worked well for locations on busy San Francisco streets. They tried to open a fourth location in a suburban area and it failed. Mitch explained their mistake, “We took a step away from our main business model. We tried to push our concept to an environment where the population was retail driven instead of business driven.”

Then they made another typical mistake, “We tried to convince ourselves that we needed to spend more money. We spent more on marketing and diversified product offerings. We basically threw good money after bad. After eight months we shut it down.” Luckily, the other locations were doing well and they were able to harvest the equipment and open another San Francisco location, so not all was lost.

Success

The first Toaster Oven opened in 2005 in the financial district of San Francisco. The owners hoped that they could reach profitability within the first year–they reached that goal during their third month. Seven years later, The Toaster Oven boasts five locations, 48 employees and sales of $2.75 million per year.

Advice

When asked what advice he would give to potential new small business owners, Mitch told me, “Serve your customers well and find your competitive advantage. Ask yourself: What are you going to make mutually agreeable in your industry that’s normally mutually exclusive?”

Small Business Success Stories: The Toaster Oven