Northern Lights - Issue 34 - January 2025
NOT TO BE OVERLOOKED
VENTURE NORTH: Lifting People and Businesses that Need Help the Most
by AMY LANE
In the year and a half it’s been open, Chris and Vanessa Woodley’s Scutes and Scales store has seen sales steadily increase, drawing customers from miles around to its selection of reptiles and amphibians and all that’s needed for their care.
Not bad for a hobby-turned-business that the Woodleys started in their basement, with limited means.
Like so many entrepreneurs helped by Venture North Funding & Development, the Woodleys have passion and drive but at a critical juncture, they needed money to move forward. Enter Venture North, which seeks to lift up communities and small businesses that need help the most.
Helping Entrepreneurs Where Little Help Exists
A nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution or CDFI, Venture North can bring low-cost loans and no-cost consulting to those underserved by traditional banks or lacking capital to grow, with a priority to small businesses in rural or low-income communities or owned by low-income individuals.
“We are here to help; we have the resources to help,” said Venture North President Laura Galbraith. “We finance inventory, furniture, fixtures and equipment. We have helped with land acquisition and we have helped with some unique situations. And we have refinanced very high-interest debt.
“We are able to help finance entrepreneurs that were not able to get capital elsewhere, at low interest rates and flexible terms.”
From a Basement to Foot Traffic and Employees
The Woodleys, avid reptile keepers for years, started off breeding reptiles and then rodents and insects – a basement pursuit that grew into foot traffic and sales and a realization of the Cadillac-area market they could serve.
“When we started to grow and realized how much of a need there is in the area, we started talking about doing an actual store,” Chris Woodley said. But, he said, the amount of inventory it would take, and equipment expenses, added up to “a lot more than what we had cash available for.”
Loan offers from traditional banks bore interest rates that “were really ridiculous,” he said, and as the Woodleys looked around, a friend recommended Venture North. A Venture North loan, for initial inventory and operating costs, provided capital “to get off the ground and get started” and transition from basement operation to storefront.
Vanessa and Chris Woodley, owners of Scutes and Scales, and just a couple of the scaled variety of pets - a veiled chameleon and a bearded dragon - they’ve sold at their store in downtown Cadillac.
“The other thing that it helped with was to really organize ideas around what this looked like, because we had to do a business plan,” Chris Woodley said. “It helped us plan where we wanted to go with it.”
Scutes and Scales opened in July 2023 and sells reptiles, amphibians and their food, as well as supplies such as habitats, terrariums, lighting and live and artificial plants. The husband-and-wife team are managing some 100-200 reptiles and frogs and they also breed tortoises, ball pythons, crested geckos and bearded dragons.
The two ran the store alone when it opened but they now have three part-time employees and an independent contractor. Vanessa is there daily, open till close, while Chris comes to the store or works off-site on inventory orders and other duties when he’s finished at his full-time Baker College teaching job, as science director in Baker’s Cadillac and Muskegon locations.
From a Hobby to 5 Days a Week and Counting Mealworms by the Thousands
Scutes and Scales is a time-consuming business and that’s a challenge, Chris Woodley said. They take care of hundreds of animals and attend to their habitats and unique nutritional needs, not to mention minutia like bulk bug orders – like 1,000 to 2,000 mealworms – that need to be counted upon arrival and split up into smaller containers.
Woodley said customers regularly come from 45-50 minutes away and each month, sales top those of the year-ago level. It’s been unexpected success.
“When we first opened the store, we thought it was going to be kind of a hobby, and just open on the weekends,” Chris Woodley said. “I think it was probably a month and we realized we needed to be open way more. Right now we’re open five days out of the week.”
And they’re not done growing. The business has expanded into additional space to accommodate animal breeding as well as tables and chairs – a place where customers can see animals and breeding projects but also rent the area for birthdays and special events. Woodley said he would also like to hold workshops and classes in the learning center space, as well as host small groups for reptile encounter presentations and interaction – something they’ve done in trips to two local schools. “I think in the future we’re hoping more of the schools will come to us,” he said.
The interior of Scutes and Scales - pets and supplies abound!
Stimulating Success with Funding and Marketing and Accounting Help
Woodley said members of Venture North’s team have helped the duo with marketing ideas and accounting, and he credits the initial loan as being a catalyst to the business’ success.
“I don’t think we would have been able to start the store without it. Having the financing really allowed us to open the physical location,” Woodley said. “I don’t think we could have grown like we have, out of our basement.”
Woodley said his Baker College job provided income that helped support him and Vanessa and their two young sons and they tried to “invest everything that we got from the store back into it, which helped us grow as well.” It’s one of many scenarios Venture North sees with entrepreneurs, Galbraith said.
“There may be a spouse that is supplementing the business in the first few years because they have a job and the income…we do help a lot of entrepreneurs in that situation. The spouse is able to provide income to the family, pay their personal obligations as the business is starting, and may contribute to the business,” she said.
Venture North has also helped entrepreneurs that are “moonlighting…doing their job during the day and doing their new business in the evening and on weekends,” Galbraith said. She said entrepreneurs often face limited economic means to start or run their business and have financial challenges like few assets, credit card or student loan debt, and inability to get a loan from a traditional bank.
“I don’t think we would have been able to start the store without it. Having the financing really allowed us to open the physical location,” Woodley said. “I don’t think we could have grown like we have.”
What Does “Underserved” Mean?
With Venture North focusing at least 60 percent of its lending on two elements -- low-income areas as defined by census tracts or low-income households -- there can be many areas and business owners in Venture North’s 10-county region that can be priorities for assistance.
For example, county household low-income levels in Venture North’s region range at the low end from $44,600 to $51,100. “It’s very possible that we would run into quite a few entrepreneurs that made less than $51,100 a year,” Galbraith said.
And the census tract areas can be portions of communities not readily apparent, like Charlevoix’s core business district or downtown Cadillac, where one side of the main street is considered low income but the other side is not due to two census tracts in the downtown area.
Within the Venture North target areas, there might be minimal access to business support services like a CPA firm or attorneys, economic development organizations or chambers of commerce, and financial institutions, Galbraith said.
Venture North can help with free coaching and consulting, from bookkeeping to business planning and financial projections to managing operations. Loans, for a variety of business purposes, are designed to be easy to access, with flexible repayment terms and low interest rates.
“The other thing that we’ve been able to do lately, is free marketing for a lot of the businesses we work with,” Galbraith said, featuring clients in e-newsletters, social media and Northern Lights. “That’s kind of an intangible benefit we offer, that is at no cost.”
She said Venture North wants to work with entrepreneurs, to see them succeed. “We want businesses and leaders in rural communities to know…we are here to help, and we have the resources to help.”
Translating a Love of Nature into a Prosperous Business
For Jennie Zoll, owner of MJ Design Co. in Mancelona, Venture North’s assistance came as her business of hand-crafted designs was just a few months old. She and husband Mike started the MJ Design in May 2023 after months of using a digital cutting machine to make gifts for people, and as the business grew they found the need for laser equipment that could take MJ Design to the next level, cutting and engraving wood, leather and other mediums and expanding the items MJ Design could offer.
With limited funds, Zoll connected with Venture North after learning of the CDFI at Mancelona Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Tapping into a loan process that she said was quick and provided financing at “a fraction of what we could get as a personal loan from our bank,” Zoll got a loan for a laser machine that has changed the trajectory of her business.
“The things that we sell the most of, come out of the laser machine,” from big items like signs to small, like earrings, Zoll said. “That laser machine has completely changed our business. It was so huge for us to get that (loan).”
Jennie Zoll, co-owner of MJ Design Co., with her laser machine.
Reflecting Mike and Jennie’s love for nature, MJ Design incorporates “all of our beautiful Michigan natural resources” in the designs the duo creates, Jennie Zoll said. Jewelry, ornaments, signs, drinkware, apparel, home décor and sports fashion items are among the few hundred offerings sold on MJ Design’s website, and Zoll can also customize items on the website as well as design new, based on customer needs or ideas.
She said starting up a business with no business background “was a lot of self-learning,” and she and Mike also didn’t want to incur large amounts of debt. “We were trying to go slow and just do what we could when we had the funds for it,” Zoll said.
It’s been a challenge to get “our name out there when we don’t have an actual store location to direct people to,” she said, but MJ Design exhibits at craft shows and has been building a social media presence. Zoll redesigned the business website with help from one Venture North team member, and another has helped her with accounting software.
“They’ve provided me with some trainings and resources. It’s been great to have that extra free help, just to set me up a little more in the business world,” Zoll said. “And they’ll reach out from time to time to see how’s it going, do you need anything. They’ve been really supportive in wanting us to succeed, which is so wonderful.”
Pics: some recent examples from MJ Design Co. Visit their website to see the latest: www.mjdesignco.com
An Entrepreneurial Balancing Act
It’s a balancing act. Both Zoll and her husband, an accomplished welder who helps with ideas and assembling MJ Design items, have other jobs: Jennie as director of finance and administration for Huron Pines, a northern Michigan conservation organization based in Gaylord, and Mike as heavy equipment mechanic at M&M Excavating, also in Gaylord. It makes for days that end well into the evening and additional MJ Design work on the weekends.
“There’s never a moment of down time,” Jennie Zoll said. “I really like to be busy, so this is right up my alley.”
She’s exceeded her sales goals and said that while she and Mike put their own money into the business, particularly in its first year, “now we’re at the point where we’re able to sustain it more with just the revenue that comes in.”
Not to be Overlooked
The help and guidance provided by Venture North, she said, is important.
“They really seem to focus on those rural areas where there’s not a lot of resources, and helping small businesses succeed. Sometimes small towns can get overlooked,” Zoll said. “I think Venture North is a great organization, and they’ve been a key to the success of our business.”
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.
