Northern Lights - Issue 17 - January 2023
SMALL VENTURE NORTH GRANTS SPELL GROWTH FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
by AMY LANE
Fresh Coast Market in Traverse City
When Dave and Jen Sears purchased a Traverse City market in 2017, they set about major changes, transitioning it into a specialty foods store with hundreds of Michigan products, a new coffee shop, dessert and deli case, and renovated café.
But there was a problem: Customers who hadn’t been in the Fieldstone Market in years, didn’t know how it had changed. A new name and rebranding – to Fresh Coast Market – was in order.
“Our customers didn’t realize that we had changed the inside of the business,” Dave Sears said. “Once we did the name change, we saw sales skyrocket almost instantly.”
Helping with that name change was a mini grant from Venture North Funding & Development, toward attorney fees associated with the new name and trademark. It’s the type of assistance that Venture North can offer to small businesses throughout northwest Michigan – mini grants of up to $2,500 to address needs, overcome gaps, and grow.
Fresh Coast Market: Instrumental Help!
Businesses applying for mini grants might be new to Venture North, a federally certified Community Development Financial Institution serving a 10-county region, or they might have a previous relationship, as did Sears. He and his wife had received a $70,000 loan from Venture North that helped them purchase the store – gap financing that was crucial in closing the deal and that has been fully repaid.
Those early years following the store’s purchase led to the $1,000 mini grant toward legal assistance, as well as a $1,500 mini grant for accounting services.
“Having those mini grants was very instrumental for the financial health of our business,” Sears said. “The loan helped us get across the starting line, and the mini grants helped us turn the corner to financial success.”
Proud owner Dave Sears stands outside Fresh Coast Market on North Long Lake Road in Traverse City
The store, which employs 60, has grown to more than 200 Michigan brands with a focus on local companies, food purveyors and farms, including more than a dozen local farmers added during the 2022 growing season. Grocery products are more than quadruple what the store sold when Sears acquired it and in 2022 the market brought in a new line of gourmet desserts and doubled its selection of Boar’s Head Brand meats and cheeses, in the wake of receiving Boar’s Head’s Market of Distinction national award in 2021.
That year also saw the launch of a mobile app, generating 8 percent of total store sales in 2021 and producing some 100 orders daily.
Sears said expansion could be a possibility in the future. And he’s grateful to Venture North’s role in helping his business thrive.
“I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend small businesses consider Venture North to help with any financial needs that they have,” he said, adding that the relationship goes beyond money -- to advice, wisdom and camaraderie.
“They’re more than just a financial group. I can’t recommend them high enough,” Sears said. “Bottom line, Venture North has been there for us when we needed them.”
Venture North’s mini grants can help with a wide array of business needs. Common uses include bookkeeping support, legal work, and marketing -- such as social media campaigns, website revamp and search engine optimization improvements. Other uses include real estate appraisals and business valuations, and funding for services and support to help a business procure other grants.
Venture North: It’s More than Money
“There are times the mini grants are leveraging more than capital,” said Venture North President Laura Galbraith. For example, she said a business might need an energy assessment to apply for federal energy-related grant funding or utility company financing.
“Other times the mini grants are hiring professionals to ensure safeguards are in place,” Galbraith said, like an attorney to prepare or review legal contracts or to create liability waivers for business operations such as child care or fitness services.
Mini grants can also help prospective loan clients prepare for a loan, paying a CPA or bookkeeper to compile financial statements and cash flow projections, review tax returns and perform other services.
Grants are tiered: Up to $2,500 if the business has been or is a Venture North loan client; up to $1,000 if the business is a loan applicant or former grant or technical assistance client; and up to $500 if help is needed to solve gaps or address issues holding the business back, no prior Venture North relationship needed.
To apply, businesses can fill out a simple online form asking for contact information, description of products and services, and what assistance is needed and why, Galbraith said.
“Within 24 hours, we then schedule a 30-minute interview to learn more about the needs and the history of the business. This initial interview may identify other consulting needs or referrals the business may need,” she said. For example, a business might connect with a free Venture North coach to create a marketing plan, then use a mini grant to implement the plan. Venture North pays mini grants directly to the professional provider after work is finished.
Galbraith added that Venture North is always looking to boost its roster of those that can provide such help – service providers that can take on new clients and perhaps offer pro bono or discounted rates. “We are always seeking providers that cater services to small business,” she said.
“They can help you in all aspects of your business. If you have professionals behind you, it gives…a little more comfort that you are doing it the right way.”
— Dana Winowiecki, In It To Win It
In It To Win It: Vital Help for Personal Training and Meal Consultation
As a working mom, Dana understands the importance of - and challenges around - busy parents prioritizing healthy habits.
For Dana Winowiecki, mini grants and other assistance from Venture North is helping her turn her passion for fitness, health and nutrition into a new small business.
The Leelanau County native, for years a personal trainer and meal consultant in other states and Michigan, this last summer launched In It To Win It, a Traverse City-based business offering virtual and in-person personal training. While the business is starting out small – Winowiecki has an additional, full-time job as a surgical assistant and clinical manager in a local dermatologist’s office while she’s growing In It To Win It – she hopes to expand from individual training into group fitness and meal preparation and is looking for a space to accommodate all three.
“My passion is helping people and cooking,” said Winowiecki, a certified personal trainer. “My biggest thing is I want to inspire people and motivate them and help them succeed in all aspects of health and fitness.”
A $500 mini grant from Venture North, joined by $500 from a related source, went toward an attorney who helped Winowiecki select the correct corporate structure for her business, confirm her chosen name, prepare articles of incorporation and develop a client agreement that, among other things, covers liability.
It was vital help, she said. “I don’t know how to start a business. I don’t know any of that stuff,” Winowiecki said. “I think it was very important. It helped ease my mind.”
She said Galbraith also talked with her and provided a host of information and Johanna Madden Gross, Venture North’s contract graphics and social media specialist, helped design her business logo.
“Venture North has helped so much,” Winowiecki said. “They can help you in all aspects of your business. If you have professionals behind you, it gives…a little more comfort that you are doing it the right way.”
Peace Love and Little Donuts: Getting Financial House in Order
The fun and colorful storefront of Peace Love & Little Donuts in Traverse City
At Peace Love and Little Donuts in Traverse City, a grant from Venture North’s COVID-relief Regional Resiliency Program introduced the miniature-doughnut shop’s Kristina Schnepf to Venture North, and it wasn’t long that additional help followed.
Schnepf, who with husband John owns the franchise shop that took them from corporate careers to “something that was more customer-focused and fun,” had gotten to a point in the business where her use of QuickBooks accounting software “wasn’t running as smoothly” as she wanted.
QuickBooks had been set up for accounting and payroll when the business opened in 2016, and it was time for a fresh look at processes with an eye toward improvement, Schnepf said.
A $1,000 mini grant from Venture North brought needed help: Ten hours of bookkeeping support from a QuickBooks professional and services from Schnepf’s CPA to provide related accounting adjustments.
“The support from Venture North was very valuable,” Schnepf said. “As a small business owner, you have to do everything – you have to do the accounting, you have to do the marketing, you have to do the inventory, all of it. Not everybody is good at everything. For certain things it’s great to have some additional support.
“It was super-helpful to re-group and reassess the accounting so that we could move forward in a more productive way.”
And that’s a benefit, in a business that she loves. Schnepf and her husband first came upon Peace Love and Little Donuts -- a Pittsburgh-founded enterprise that has franchise locations around the country -- when they lived in Canton, Ohio, and were looking at doing something “more lighthearted than some of the work we were doing in our corporate roles,” she said.
“There was a shop near us…that we liked going to, and really loved the owner of that particular shop. When we were looking at options and opportunities for getting into something new, it was kind of an obvious choice.”
Think mini cake doughnuts with some 70 “groovy, far out and funkadelic” toppings – from candy bars, cookies and cereal to fruit, sprinkles and drizzles – treats that draw “a good mix of supportive local customers with a healthy dose of tourists,” first-time and repeat, Schnepf said. Customers are greeted and learn about the concept from “an amazing staff,” she said, which ranges from four people to 20 depending on the season.
“What I think the customers like the most is our fabulous staff and the experience that they have in our shop,” Schnepf said. “It’s very interactive and experiential. We love making people smile and giving a fun element in their day.”
Schnepf said that running a business, monetary priorities often are employees or business expansion, not service needs like bookkeeping. But the Venture North mini grant focused on a “pain point that was causing me time and trouble” and led to “enhanced productivity and smoother operations of our processes,” she said.
“Those areas of concern, pain points in your business and your operations, there’s people out there to help with that. There are experts that can simply provide support to create long-term improvements in your business. Whether it be time you spend on accounting, improvements in how you do your marketing, all of those things, you don’t have to do it alone.”
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.
