Northern Lights - Issue 26 - November 2023
Sweaters, Chocolates, Massages and Reptiles: Venture North Clients Have Something for Everyone this Holiday Season!
by AMY LANE
Chocolate-covered cheer. A couples massage. Cold-weather wear and locally made hand-stamped jewelry. A terrarium complete with a young reptile, waiting to become a pet.
These are among holiday offerings in store from small-business clients of Venture North Funding & Development – entrepreneurs both seasoned and new, sharing anticipation and optimism about the coming season.
A veiled chameleon perches in its terrarium at Scutes and Scales in Cadillac, a new business owned by Vanessa and Chris Woodley, below.
Amphibians and Reptiles Atop Santa’s List!
Take Chris and Vanessa Woodley, who are capping a whirlwind year in which they opened Cadillac’s Scutes and Scales, a store specializing in the care and breeding of reptiles and amphibians and feedstock rodents and insects.
Avid reptile keepers for years – for Chris, dating back to his first turtle when he was nine – the two turned their passion for the animals into a business that has been bustling since they launched earlier this year, aided by a Venture North loan.
The Venture North funding, for initial inventory and operating costs, “helped us really make the transition from doing things in our basement to actually having a storefront,” Chris Woodley said.
The store had its grand opening July 1 and sells reptiles, amphibians and their food, as well as supplies such as habitats, terrariums, lighting and live and artificial terrarium plants. The husband-and-wife team are managing some 100-200 reptiles and frogs, and they also breed tortoises and ball pythons.
The duo have brought in new animals since opening and, Vanessa Woodley added, “there’s so much more we could expand into as well, like aquatics.” It’s been continued growth that’s filled their store.
“We’ve basically filled up our little space, and would someday like to grow into a bigger space,” said Chris Woodley, who also teaches full-time at Baker College as science director at Baker’s Cadillac and Muskegon locations.
For the holidays, one feature is “grab-and-go” terrariums, complete with young animals and fully equipped to provide for their special care needs. It’s important that that people are well-prepared to take care of the animal they take home, Chris Woodley said.
Other options include gift certificates and animal-themed prints and cups from local artists, as well as reptile and amphibian-themed stuffed animals. Their live versions, if gifted, need commitment and knowledgeable care, Chris Woodley said. “It can be a great gift, but I think it needs to be a carefully planned gift.”
He said the duo are hoping to have “a really good holiday season,” meeting more people and serving new customers. “We really enjoy working with animals and see people find new pets to take home.”
Rejuvenation and Peace for All (including equestrians!)
For Beverley Fryer, owner of Elemental Compass in Traverse City, the holidays close out what she said has been a “great year” at her therapeutic massage business. After starting off on her own three years ago and in 2022 moving into a new space, assisted by a Venture North loan that helped with renovations and furnishings, Fryer this year launched a website and opened a second, temporary location at the Traverse City Horse Shows, giving chair and table massages to equestrians and their families.
Being a vendor four days a week at the horse show’s June-September run “got us great exposure and was a tremendous opportunity,” Fryer said, and it’s led to new opportunity in 2024. For the months of January, February and March, some of her massage therapists will be set up at the Wellington International Winter Equestrian Festival in southeast Florida, offering the convenience of on-site massage that can help equestrians relax and compete better, as well as “work through some old injuries and get on top of their game,” Fryer said.
Beverley Fryer, right, would love to see more people give gifts of massage, something that has the potential to make people feel happy and cared for.
“Generally, every single one of them will admit…that their horses get more massages than they do. But they know it’s important,” she said.
One of the massage therapists will come from Fryer’s Traverse City location, where she currently has four therapists including herself with full schedules. She hopes to hire another therapist in the New Year.
For the holidays, Elemental Compass is offering massage package specials – buy twelve and get a thirteenth free – as well as gift certificates. Self-care products like soothing balms, soaps, candles and pain-relief creams are available onsite and products are being added to the business website, and Fryer will bring massage to holiday parties and workplaces – a service she said has been popular.
Fryer said her business has “grown a lot in one year” and she’s excited to see what the holidays bring. Continued success and helping people to be their best, is on her wish list.
“I want everybody to be happy, and to be cared for,” Fryer said. And massage, she said, “is a wonderful gift to give. You’re giving somebody the gift of wellness, and self-care. It’s a very special thing; there are a lot of benefits to it.”
A Charming Space for the Holidays – Go Cadillac!
At Charming North in Cadillac, it’ll be the fifth holiday season for husband-and-wife Ted and Ashley Clark, who co-own the home décor, furnishings and clothing store. Early November will find them decorating the store and having their Christmas open house, with sales and refreshments. They’ll also run sales for post-Thanksgiving’s Nov. 24 Black Friday and Nov. 25 Small Business Saturday. Last year, Small Business Saturday turned out to be the top sales day since the store opened, with not only record sales but record traffic, Ashley Clark said.
“It was such a cool feeling; the store was fuller than it’s ever been,” she said. And even though this year she’s seen the effects of inflation and other factors eating into people’s purchases and Charming North sales, she’s feeling positive about the holiday season. “I’m hoping that despite cutting back throughout the rest of the year, people will still go out and do their holiday shopping,” she said.
And Charming North will be ready. Gift options include locally- or Michigan-made products like one-of-a-kind artwork, leather handbags, and hand-stamped jewelry, as well as classic gifts like women’s Pendleton pajama sets, men’s tweed gloves and a broad selection of Stormy Kromer hats for men, women and children.
“It’s kind of a unique store. People that come through will comment on the store, (that) we have a little bit of something for everyone,” Ashley Clark said. “We’ve stocked up for the holiday season. We put in big orders with anticipation that this will be a good season.”
Clark said Charming North’s quality items and personalized customer service – including with men’s formalwear and dresswear such as dress shirts, pants, or a tie – set it apart from retailers online and elsewhere. And supporting Main Street businesses is important, she said.
“Main Street, these are the people in your community…helping to organize community events, investing in, and putting time in, to make Cadillac a better place, a more desirable place. The nicer your downtown is and the more you support your small businesses, the nicer the city and the community that we all live in,” Ashley Clark said. “You’re going to love the place you live more, if you get downtown and enjoy it.
“Cadillac is such a beautiful place that really has that small town, Christmas-movie-worthy charm, and we are just so thankful to call it home for ourselves and for Charming North. We love getting to be tourists in our own town.”
“…the more you support your small businesses, the nicer the city and the community that we all live in,” Ashley Clark said. “You’re going to love the place you live more, if you get downtown and enjoy it.”
Ted and Ashley Clark in front of their store, Charming North, in downtown Cadillac.
Epic Chocolates, Cheeses and More – for Home or Anywhere!
The holidays are a mouthwatering, busiest time of the year for another local business, Great Lakes Chocolate & Dessert Co. Co-owners David and Shana Sicotte, who started their venture to make “bean to bar” craft chocolate in 2019 and in 2021 opened a shop in Traverse City, have a bevy of baked goods and chocolate treats that they’re rolling out for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Think local Honeycrisp apple, cherry, pumpkin and other pies, cakes and tortes, cheesecakes like bourbon caramel and peppermint bark, croissants, danish, scones, French-style cinnamon rolls, and cookies, all available to be ordered ahead.
In-store, new this year are local cheeses and crackers that can be paired with a variety of Great Lakes’ handmade chocolates to create “an epic cheeseboard,” Shana Sicotte said. There’s also locally made jewelry, soaps, cards and candles that Great Lakes stocks, as well as gift boxes popular with individual givers and businesses. “We do a lot of business gifting, we have gift boxes that we make up and can send to all of their clients, anywhere in the U.S. We can do handwritten notes in every box if they want us to,” Sicotte said.
The boxes, available also for pick-up, can be individually built or selected from pre-made varieties like a “chocolate-covered cheer” box featuring chocolate-covered local dried cherries, chocolate-covered cherry pecan turtles, truffles and bon bons.
A beautiful gift basket from Great Lakes Chocolate & Dessert Co. all ready for giving!
Other gift ideas: Holiday peppermint bark and hot cocoa bombs -- chocolate-covered spheres encasing Great Lakes’ cocoa, ready to be dropped in a mug of hot milk and melt into chocolate goodness.
In-store and online gift cards are also available, and Sicotte said she’s launching a loyalty program with the holiday season, awarding customer purchase points that can be redeemed for rewards.
On her wish list: A machine that rapidly melts and tempers chocolate and dispenses it like a chocolate waterfall -- automation already used for Great Lakes’ dark chocolates and needed to expand the milk chocolate line. The machine isn’t cheap, some $30,000, Sicotte said. And on the horizon are even bigger needs for the growing business, which produces all its chocolate at the retail store and desserts and baked goods at another rented space.
“We have been growing on a steady curve here,” she said. “Our hope is to keep the income flowing enough to someday be in one building with production and retail.” That would enable Great Lakes to house more classes, events that pair chocolate with other products, and educational tours for young students, among benefits. “Getting into one building instead of the two, that’s the biggest thing for us,” Sicotte said.
For now, though, she’s focused on the holidays, and spreading the gift of chocolate.
“I think it brings back a good memory for everyone,” Sicotte said. “They think back to a holiday moment where they’re enjoying a favorite candy, or someone special gave them a gift. So for them, it’s a heart-warming memory.”
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.
