Northern Lights - Issue 27 - December 2023
WEATHERING THE STORM: Small Businesses Bounce Back from Pandemic
by AMY LANE
Post-COVID, Pleasant Valley Resort remains “the place” for travelers enjoying picturesque Arcadia.
When the state shuttered businesses in the COVID-19 pandemic, Shannon and Tom Westgate, like so many business owners, faced a world of unknowns.
“When the pandemic hit, everybody was in a space of, we have absolutely no idea what the future is going to look like. It was scary,” said Shannon Westgate, who with husband Tom own Pleasant Valley Resort in Manistee County’s Arcadia, bordering Lake Michigan.
New decisions were coming constantly from the state and the fluidity in early 2020 left no assurance as to when the resort – which only operates May through October – might be able to open.
“We worried about losing an entire year of revenue. An entire season,” Westgate said.
When the resort, with its six motel guest rooms and four cottages, finally did open in mid-June, it had lost six weeks of the season and was grappling with how to comply with pandemic protocols, including contactless check-in.
The initial solution: Telling guests on arrival day that their room or cottage was ready and the door was unlocked, with the key left on an inside table. It wasn’t ideal, and Shannon Westgate said she had concerns about long-term security implications.
From Worry to Keyless Entry
“If we could put keypad locks on the doors, we could eliminate the need for keys and increase security,” she said. A $5,000 grant from Venture North Funding & Development’s Regional Resiliency Program, helped with just that.
Installation of a keyless entry system solved the challenge, and more: It became a permanent operational change that guests appreciate and it freed up Shannon and Tom’s daily schedule and improved their workflow, helping to shape how the resort runs.
Among Venture North clients and Venture North itself, organizations have moved forward over the last few years to become what they are today. Laura Galbraith, Venture North president, said she never would have thought that a pandemic would shape or change the way Venture North, a federally certified Community Development Financial Institution, operates. But it did.
Leading up to COVID, Galbraith said, “we were at a normal state,” with about 50 small-business clients repaying Venture North loans and herself and portfolio manager Sara Christensen as the organization’s two full-time employees, supplemented by a contract credit analyst.
From Fueling Measured Growth to Responding to Desperate Needs
“It was during COVID that everything started to change,” Galbraith said. Throughout Venture North’s 10-county region, urgent needs were erupting among small businesses that were struggling to survive, and Venture North launched the Regional Resiliency Program to provide grants of up to $5,000. But in identifying and getting the money to those in need, Venture North needed help at the local level.
“We realized that we really didn’t have strong relationships in some…counties, and it was because of COVID that we started developing those relationships,” Galbraith said. “We really needed to reach out to all of the chambers, economic development organizations, nonprofits that served small businesses, to make sure we could get strong (grant) applications in all 10 counties.
“We decided to create separate grant review teams for all 10 counties. We started understanding that we needed people that lived in those communities, as part of our team.”
Internally, Venture North also needed to change. “As were our customers, we were pivoting,” Galbraith said, trying to find grant funding to keep up with demand and to add capacity, through economic development professionals from around the region that came on board and remain today as part of the Venture North team: business development managers and coaches Steve Brower of Manistee County, Betsy Evans of Benzie County, and Annie Olds of Kalkaska County.
“We were seeking team members outside of Traverse City,” Galbraith said. “We truly recognized the importance of hiring local professionals that were already engaged in their respective communities.”
It all made Venture North a stronger and better organization, more responsive to small business needs. And that’s evidenced in Venture North’s growth over the past two years, in activity and geographic reach, Galbraith said.
“The amount of loan capital that we’ve deployed has increased steadily; I think we’re going to end the year over $1.5 million (in 2023),” she said. “Our number of hours consulting businesses has increased every year as well. And the geography, the counties that we’re providing these services, we’re starting to see more and more activity in Antrim County, Wexford County, and hoping next year to have a lot more activity in Manistee County.”
At Pleasant Valley Resort, which the Westgates bought in 2012, Venture North’s grant toward costs associated with the keyless entry system helped with a “big expense for a business our size,” Shannon Westgate said. “And the fact that it was made available to us, just at the right time, was really, really helpful. We were thrilled when we found out it was awarded.”
The keyless entry locks are controlled by the resort’s WiFi, with the guest’s last four digits of their phone number serving as a keycode that is activated in preparation for their arrival and entered by the guest on the lock’s keypad. No more in-person check-in procedure and time spent by the Westgates sitting at a desk waiting for a guest to arrive, and no more lost keys. It was a “total game-changer for our business,” Shannon Westgate said.
Each year the Westgates strive to improve the resort, this year focusing on outdoor furniture and bathroom upgrades.
“People love it, it’s just something that’s very easy for them. It’s contactless; it’s convenient for them because they don’t need to check in at a certain time,” she said. “The keyless entry has changed the demand on our time and our workflow. And for a small business that’s run by two people, it has made it a lot simpler.
Each year, the Westgates look at ways they can improve the resort; they are heading into the 2024 season with plans to replace some outdoor furniture and upgrade bathrooms. “We just continue to look at what are the things that we can do to make the property comfortable, accommodating and attractive to our travelers,” Shannon Westgate said.
“We need to be good stewards of this property. We’ve only had it for 11 of the 70 years it’s been in operation. We want it to be here forever.”
Preserving and building upon a business legacy is important at another Manistee County family owned business, Andy’s Tackle Box in Brethren. First started in 1959 with a location in southeast Michigan’s Melvindale and then opening in Brethren in 1994, Andy’s Tackle Box has been a mainstay for anglers in the Manistee area.
“We’ve been here for a long time,” said Billy Parks, whose great-grandfather opened the Melvindale shop. Parks is taking over the Brethren store from his father, who has run that location since it opened.
It’s a store that operates March into November and stocks “literally everything you can think of that you may need for fishing,” including live bait, fishing poles and tackle, fillet knives, lifejackets and other boating supplies, sunglasses and sunblock, as well as rain gear, hats, shirts and sweatshirts and gloves, and even camping supplies, Parks said. “We’ve been expanding every year a little bit here and there.”
From a Closed Dam to Preparing for a Robust Fishery
But when the pandemic shut down the store and a nearby dam popular for salmon or steelhead fishing, “that hurt, especially when you are in season,” he said. A Regional Resiliency Program grant from Venture North, Parks said, helped the business survive, pay bills and meet other expenses.
“It kept us in business, honestly,” he said. “It helped a tremendous amount. So we were able to stay afloat, and make it through that.”
Parks said when the store did reopen, it took quite a while for business levels to recover but the challenges brought by the pandemic “didn’t dampen our spirits.” And the store has remained on an upward road.
This last year brought a new outdoor storage area for boats and trailers and there are also four large cargo shipping containers that are available for enclosed rental storage space. The store has been adding more stock for those who fish on Lake Michigan, expanding its market beyond river fishing enthusiasts, and next year Parks wants to install ice-making machines to offer ice to customers.
“We’re always trying to bring in something new or keep it updated; basically find new ways to bring in new revenue streams,” he said.
Andy’s Tackle Box seeks to cater to anglers of all needs and abilities, including those enjoying Lake Michigan!
At Crystal Lake Alpaca Farm & Boutique in Benzie County’s Frankfort, Kristin and Stephan Nelson are new full owners of the business, but long-vested in its operations. Stephan has been around the alpaca farm – started by parents Chris and Dave Nelson -- since his mid-teens, while Kristin worked in the boutique during college. The now-husband and wife share a passion for the animals and the farm, and both were on the scene and part owners with Stephan’s parents when COVID hit, bringing a late seasonal opening and business impacts that continued for months.
“We usually open mid-May; we weren’t able to open until June,” Kristin Nelson said. “And when we did open, people were scared to come out, socialize and do things. It did help that we had an animal park, an outside option…but people were still cautious.”
And while sales dropped, expenses and obligations to employees and the alpacas and others in the animal park, continued. The Nelsons applied to Venture North’s Regional Resiliency Program and received a grant toward pressing needs, like employee wages and mortgage and electricity bills. “It did help,” Kristin Nelson said.
“I think [the pandemic] made us step back and kind of pay attention more to what people wanted,” Nelson said. “Maybe they wanted more interaction with the animals, to be outside more, that helped us reassess what we offered.”
Kristin Nelson, Crystal Lake Alpaca Farm & Boutique
The Nelson family (and company) at their farm in Frankfort.
From Covering the Bills to a Family Acquisition
She said during the pandemic, the farm started offering more things to do outside, expanding its animal park. Additions include children’s games and park equipment, and next summer, a sandbox. “Every year we are trying to do more outside,” Nelson said. “We want to have something for everyone when they come to our farm.”
The pandemic, she said, had an influence on where the farm is today. “I think it made us step back and kind of pay attention more to what people wanted,” Nelson said. “Maybe they wanted more interaction with the animals, to be outside more, that helped us reassess what we offered.”
In the park where people can feed, pet and take selfies with the gentle alpacas, the animals’ numbers have grown from three to 10, with more alpacas possible next year, she said. “We realized people wanted to touch, and have a connection with these animals. I think during the pandemic people were looking for that connection…you couldn’t connect with a person, but you could go and connect with an animal. And I think that really touched people’s hearts.”
Kristin and Stephan purchased the 22-year-old business from his parents in January and the two oversee the operations of the farm and some 60 alpacas, a llama and donkeys; two onsite boutiques with alpaca products, including some that patrons might see being knitted by employees using newly purchased knitting machines; and an additional retail spot in Traverse City.
Looking into the future, the duo would like to expand the animal park to house more alpacas they can offer to visitors – a sizable investment entailing more pasture space, fencing, shelters, electricity and water. And long-term, Kristin said she and Stephan would like even greater numbers of alpacas in the picture, supplying enough fiber to make large products like blankets.
“Our biggest plan is kind of keep doing what we’re doing, expand the animal park, expand our alpacas. We also have a two-year-old and a four-year-old (child), so we can only bite off so much,” she said. “We just hope to keep providing Benzie County and northern Michigan one of the best alpaca farms possible, where you can buy alpaca products or just come and hang out with the animals.”
Alpaca penguins? Just one (extremely soft) example of items sold in the Crystal Lake Alpaca Boutique.
Amy Lane is a veteran Michigan business reporter whose background includes work with Crain Communications Inc., Crain’s Detroit Business and serving as Capitol correspondent for nearly 25 years. Now a freelance reporter and journalist, Lane’s work has appeared in many publications including Traverse City Business News.
