Welcome to In Business.

I'm Ken Buer.

Thank you for joining us.

We're in Canal Park, which anyone will tell you is ground zero for tourism in Duth.

The canal is right over there.

The biggest asset we have, Lake Superior, is right over there.

And this is tourism in Duth.

But it wasn't always like this.

We're at the corner of Canal Park Drive and Morris Street.

Back in the 1880s and 1890s, there was no tourism here at all.

This was a gritty working part of town.

The tenderloin, in fact.

And before all that, it was called Fintown.

This was a large Finnish population lived around here.

In fact, they had their own school, their own church, and of course, several saunas because they were Finnish.

This was called Fintown.

But it wasn't a very nice place to live.

Before this was Canal Park Drive, it was St.

Croy Avenue.

And before it was St.

Croy Avenue, the Fins referred to it as Ratakatu, which is Finnish for rat street.

That's what this area was known for.

dirty, ratty, and an industrial hub.

And you look at it now, hotels, restaurants, places that people come to to enjoy what Duth has to offer for tourism.

Transformational.

That's what happened.

In summer, this parking lot would be full of cars.

People from all over the country, even around the world, enjoying what Duth has to offer as the hub of tourism in Canal Park.

You know what?

This used to be a junkyard.

piled high at least two stories of all kinds of junk.

When I remember, every time you drove by here, one part of the junkyard would be on fire.

Always.

Always a different one, but always on fire.

That parking lot wasn't the only junkyard in Canal Park.

There was another one right here, right on the shore of Lake Superior.

Old junked automobiles sometimes stacked two, three, four high.

In fact, it was so close to the water that on calm days, there was an oil sheen over the surface.

But that all changed.

John Fido was mayor with highway substitution funds.

He said something very important.

Duth has always faced the wrong direction.

We need to look at the lake.

And the lakewalk, one of duth's most popular tourist attractions, was built during that period.

It was transformational.

Another thing that was transformational was a business.

A business that was new to Canal Park and was one of those that transformed this area.

And that's what we're talking about tonight on in business.

New businesses that have opened in Duth Superior and the surrounding area in the last couple of months.

New businesses that also like their owners hope to be transformational because business can be that leader.

That's why we're talking about it tonight.

We'll visit some of those businesses, talk to some of those entrepreneurs.

In the meantime, sit back, relax, and join us for In Business.

Welcome to In Business.

I'm Ken Buler.

This week, we're introducing you to a group of new and newer businesses that opened in the new year or just in time for the holidays.

Many are small businesses started by local entrepreneurs.

We asked them why they decided to take the leap into business ownership.

Their answers range from turning a hobby into a career, continuing a family tradition, or simply wanting to be their own boss.

Our instudio guest is Mike Hill.

He's a business consultant with the Small Business Development Center in Superior and works with new business owners and people thinking about starting out on their own.

But first, let's meet some of the new businesses and the entrepreneurs behind them.

We started our show here in Canal Park, an area that's gone from trash to treasure for two reasons.

One is the building of the lakewalk and embracing the lake.

The other was a transformational business that became successful, changed the entire area by embracing tourism.

And it's still that way today.

And we meet some of the new entrepreneurs that are hoping to also do well here in Canal Park.

And that's why we introduce you to Aaron Gorman.

Aaron has started a new duth business called the Golf Cooperative.

And it's really kind of owned by its members.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, we're a member-owned uh indoor golf facility down here at Canel Park.

Uh you know, a lot of people thought we were crazy to start a business that wasn't focused on making money off of our members and providing value to them, and so we're kind of flipping the script on its head right here in Canelo Park.

What made you want to start something new and exciting like this?

Yeah.

Uh no, it's a good question.

I I've never actually wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Um I've worked in uh with startups for quite some time in my career but uh you know really I just saw a gap um in the market and I you know I live here in Duth and I wanted to see something better than the way it was and so that was kind of the driving passion and um I hope we can do some really cool things giving back to the community.

may want to donate some time to the local high school uh golf programs and maybe some scholarship and grant opportunities to kids from communities that um have traditionally been excluded from the game of golf.

And you took a swing at it, so to speak.

Yeah, absolutely.

Show us how this works.

No warm up, bud.

It'll do.

So, there are three uh of these simulators now.

You hope to expand.

Yeah, absolutely.

What's your plans for the future?

Yeah.

uh future is this is a proof of concept and so as you can see as you look around like it's uh it's not a finished product yet.

We're hoping to um put something out there and get data and feedback from our members so we can change this um to how they want to see it.

And then um from there if it works we hope to expand um maybe up the hill to Hermantown, maybe down to the cities to Minneapolis and just keep uh any golf community that'll have this co-op model, we hope to bring it to them.

And speaking over the hill, as Aaron just did, that's where we're going next.

We take you to the Miller Hill Mall, introduce you to some new businesses that are startups there, and introduce you to some more of our entrepreneurs tonight.

Tiffany Simons is the owner of the Wildflower here at the Miller Hill Mall.

You've been in business for a while, but you're new to the mall.

Yes, correct.

I'm new as of last October.

And how you liking it?

I love the mall.

It's been great.

It's nice to see it pick up.

There's been a lot of new businesses that have been local, so it's been kind of fun to see more foot traffic.

And what is the Wild Flower?

Um, well, I started it back in 2017 um at my hometown, which was about 350 people.

And now I'm open up to women's clothing.

I carry sizes from small to 3X.

And um it's just kind of a wide variety of everything from clothing to accessories to um gifting items.

As an entrepreneur, what made you decide that you wanted to own a business of your own?

Yeah, my dad um growing up he owned a business actually and I was going to school full-time, driving quite a bit and just was kind of trying to figure out what I wanted to do.

And um I decided if I was going to put in any hard work, it should be for myself.

And I wanted to kind of grow something that meant something to not just my family, but also to friends.

And I feel like I made an impact over the years.

So that was something I wanted to do as well.

And that makes you feel good.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

It's very rewarding seeing people coming back since I started back then until now.

Um, it's very rewarding.

Good luck.

Thank you very much.

We continue our visit to the Miller Hill Mall.

We're in Bombshell Bridal with the owner.

This is Rhonda Gruenorf.

And this is a new entrepreneurial business for you here at the mall.

But you've been in business yourself for a long time.

I have.

I've had many different businesses, Ken, because I absolutely love being in business for myself and bringing a great product to those in my community.

Now, the reason I'm here, I've been an insider in the bridal business for the last six to seven years with an international bridal designer.

It is called the House of Woo.

And now also, I'm involved with Ava Rio Bridal.

And it's so fun.

It's so exciting.

I get to go to all the big cities.

We have the fashion shows.

We fly in the models from New York.

And we give our clients the best of the best.

Well, everyone that I know, my family and friends who knows that I do this, they're asking me, "Why don't we have this right here in your hometown?"

So, that's why I did it.

I wanted to bring these couture fashions to everyone here in Duth, Minnesota.

As an entrepreneur, what drove you to have your own business.

And how does that make you feel?

Well, Ken, it's really simple.

It goes all the way back to my beloved grandfather Dee Grusenorf and he started a huge landscaping business many many years ago 60 plus years ago and I grew up on that property I grew up on the back 40 there in Hermantown Minnesota and he was involved in so many different things involved with that president of the Minnesota State Fair a St.

Louis County agent and then that was passed on to my father J. Dusenorf, the late JD Grundorf who was so involved in that business and I saw the day-to-day operations of it and how you could also become such a huge part of your community because of it and I followed in their footsteps and you feel good about that.

I love it.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Ken Ronda Gusenorf the owner of Bombshell Bridal at the mall.

Joe Johnson is another local entrepreneur new to the Miller Hill Mall.

Just opened in less than last year.

And it's a mythic merkantile.

Yes.

That uh sells this.

Yeah.

That's among the many things we sell.

We sell uh vintage to modern collectibles.

So toys, movie memorabilia, things like that.

And what gave you the idea to get into this?

Well, for a long time pre uh pre- pandemic, my wife and I would go to conventions and sell toys.

Like I've always been like a kind of a nerd and a collector.

And so we we uh we one year we had an overflow of stuff.

We went to um do a convention.

We kind of got hooked on doing conventions.

And that was, you know, just making some extra money year by year doing conventions.

And then the pandemic hit, conventions fell down, we lost the money.

We kind of put everything in storage and we were in Duth.

We were walking through the Miller Hill Mall.

We saw a popup opportunity and we said to ourselves, let's give him a call.

So you're an entrepreneur, a local one.

And why did you decide you wanted to be your own boss?

Um because honestly, I don't really have the mindset to work for other people.

Uh that's a perfect example.

That's really the only way I can put it.

I've never owned a brick and mortar store or ran a brick and mortar store before, but I just figured I'm getting older and why not shut try it, you know.

Thank you, Joe, for uh sharing your wonderful collection and your new business with us.

All right.

Thank you.

On our little walkabout here at the Miller Hill Mall, we introduced you to some local entrepreneurs who are expanding or opening new shops recently here at the mall.

But there are also national businesses coming.

Megan Ryer is with us.

She is the director of marketing and business development for the Miller Hill Mall.

And we do have some national firms that are new to the mall.

Kind of start with Cinnabon.

Yeah, we are so excited to welcome back Cinnabon.

I know that they've been here in the past.

Um we're uh welcoming them back in Center Court uh with a new location and fresh smells.

Tell me about Windsor.

They're just down the hall here.

Yeah, Windsor is a great store.

Uh I think we really needed their addition into Miller Hill Mall.

Um they sell great items like homecoming dresses if you're out looking to shop.

U great tops and uh great jewelry and accessories.

And then Perfume Mania.

What is that?

Yes.

A Perfume Mania has really high-end great perfume.

Uh but if you're looking to find anything on a budget, that's where you want to go.

And because this is always changing, we have a new business that will be opening sometime this year.

Tell me about JD Sports.

Yes, we're so excited for JD Sports.

Um that's going to be a big takeover, huge storefront.

Um, they offer great sports apparel, top brands, uh, and shoes and accessories for all the sports nuts out there.

Megan, what do you like best about your job?

I think, oh my gosh, Ken, there are so many favorite things of mine.

Um, whether it's all of our free community events that we carry out uh throughout the year.

I really do uh enjoy bringing new local businesses into town.

This is in business.

Thank you for joining us.

In an earlier life, I was an entrepreneur.

It was exhilarating, totally rewarding, and equally frightening.

Fortunately, I had a great partner and dedicated employees, and together we built a business that employed more than 120 people.

As one of Doo's most famous entrepreneurs, Gino Palucci once said, "Business are for selling," which we did.

With us to discuss the entrepreneurial spirit is Mike Hill.

Mike is a seasoned business consultant and an entrepreneur with a passion for technology and innovation.

as a business consultant for the Small Business Development Center in Superior.

He works with new and existing businesses to help them succeed.

Mike, thank you for joining us.

How is it that a person can determine whether or not they have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

Well, that's a good question.

There are a lot of people that want to be entrepreneurs and I think one of the first things that they need to consider is uh how good can they listen?

Because you need to listen to your customers.

You need to listen to yourself.

you need to listen to your stakeholders and and really get a good understanding of the the land you're you're you're you're moving along.

Um the other thing is persistence and perseverance because it's as you know going uphill isn't always easy and you get a lot of that as an entrepreneur starting a company or trying to grow a company.

Starting a business is a complete process.

Uh it's not just one thing, it's a series of things.

What can the uh small business development center of Superior do to help uh wouldbe entrepreneurs?

Well, in Superior we help I mean our our our state has about 40 41 consultants and they say or we say when you get one you get all of us.

So really what happens is we can help you anywhere from ideiation and trying to really congeal your idea and and make it you know manifest an a plan and a model uh all the way to mergers and acquisitions funding marketing uh employee issues HR and and mostly I think is really the psychology of becoming an entrepreneur because that's the hard part.

It's all about the money.

And um how does that business person develop that very first budget?

First off, you have to have a really good understanding of your costs.

And when I say costs, I mean the structure as well as you know what those costs are.

And I I've heard many times people say, "Well, I understand what my costs are."

And then we go through them very specifically and try to put together a projection going forward.

And oh yeah, I didn't think about that.

Oh, so I just take care of that myself.

Well, that's not necessarily the way you you should be putting it together because everybody else has to understand that, too.

If you're going to to seek funding or grants or really expand, sometimes those those unspoken or underrecognized expenses or costs uh can creep up pretty quickly.

The other side, of course, is your revenue structure and all the different ways that you can make money.

There might be some ways that you didn't think about.

Maybe you're not charging for consulting or design, for example, uh that you could be doing as a as a landscaper, for instance.

So, getting getting the costs aligned with your revenues really helps help you scale because if you don't have them lined up, you can run into some big challenges when you start growing.

Mike Hill is our guest.

Uh Mike is with the S uh Small Business Development Center in Superior, Wisconsin.

We're talking about entrepreneurialship and one of the things that uh sometimes surprises entrepreneurs is government regulation.

It's a moving target.

How can the SBDC help uh navigate the uh structure of government for a new business?

Well, of course, there are regulations, federal, state, county, municipalities.

So, there's a a lot of different ways that they can creep up and affect businesses.

Some aren't that affected that much.

It depends also if you're property owners or not.

It depends if you're exporting or not.

So tariffs obviously are changing and those are very important for costing purposes and and figuring out where your sweet spot is where you're more competitive than others if you're exporting or building and importing and figuring out well where should I get my s my source my materials.

So, we can help we can help identify that through our connections and our our our our affiliation with the SBA and with Wisconsin with the Wisconsin Economic Development uh Corporation uh as well as local uh local organizations and the local government.

I represent eight counties in the Northwoods uh in Wisconsin, but everybody has connections with the economic development offices and we can find that information for our clients.

What do you find are new impediments?

uh to business getting started today that didn't exist 10 years ago.

Well, one thing that didn't exist was AI.

Everyone talks about AI and it's a double-edged sword.

You can use it to your advantage.

Sometimes you're it's a disadvantage if you have competitors with other processes or other other services or products and they're maybe using it in an let's say a very overly competitive way that's not necessarily uh up and up.

Then again, AI can be very very useful in identifying new uh new methods for getting out to the uh for marketing your product and and uh building your product.

So, it's not an impediment, it's a double-edged sword.

Do you think this is a good time to uh go into business?

And if so, why or why not?

Is this a is this the right time for somebody that goes, you know, I've been thinking about this idea?

I think it's always there's always an opportunity for going into business for yourself.

Again, we go back to the first question you asked is how do you know you're ready?

And being able to listen, being able to really focus on uh what you're doing and and and and being and persevere it.

I think that's great.

So, my answer to that kind of a question would be it depends on you.

If you can identify that gap with what you really feel is important to you and you have a strong personal why you're building this company, you can identify the gap in any kind of a any kind of an economic climate.

Can you share a couple of uh success stories from the region that you've been working on?

uh we're strictly under under strict confidentiality, but I can give you some examples of what I what I ran across when I first started about two years ago.

Um I'd say three out of the first 10 clients that I had were related to the inability to scale properly.

They had really strong revenue, but they and they were growing in revenue, but they didn't have their costs and revenue structure aligned properly.

So as they made more money, they were working harder and getting not really growing in net profit and that was really frustrating.

Obviously, one of them had seven figures in revenue, but they couldn't align that properly.

So we had to restructure their pricing and their costing to help come up with that.

So that was those are really important and I I do run across that periodically now, too.

Mike Hill has been our guest.

He is a a consultant with the Small Business Development Commission in Corporate Small Business Development Center in Superior, Wisconsin.

Mike, thank you for being with us this evening.

Now, before our final story, here's a quick look at top business news from across the region.

Hoops Brewing will close its Canal Park location February 23rd after 10 years in business.

Industry data shows craft brewing has slowed nationwide amid changing consumer tastes, higher costs, and competition from non-alcoholic and THC infused beverages.

Warrior Brewing also announced it will close its Lincoln Park tap room February 7th.

The company says it plans to continue brewing and has future plans in the works.

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged this week, signaling the economy remains strong, but inflation is still above target.

Officials say rate cuts could come later this year if prices cool.

And now for our final story, we'll take a look back at how a new business once changed Canal Park and helped shape Duth's economy during a very, very different time.

Brian Dhy is the president of Grandma's Restaurants Incorporated.

Thanks for having us down celebrating 50 years and transforming Canal Park.

February 8th, 1976, 50 years ago, Grandma's Restaurant, transformational, opens in Canal Park.

What was the beginning idea?

Who came up with this?

Well, um, it's not going to be this highbrow business plan, okay, that you might think.

Couple of 20somes, Andy Borg, Mick Paluchi, really just looking for a place to meet their future wives.

That was really the motivation behind it.

um let's open a bar end and let's meet girls and you know and I'd like to say that that's shallow and uh you know an incomplete way to view life but that's that story's probably been told a hundred times as a motivating force for people to get over something over the goal line and I remember not even being able to get into this place on almost any night of the week there was a line well you're probably and you're right, we were very popular a few years later.

It took a while.

Uh this was a pretty quiet place to begin with and I can attest to that.

Um I can tell you that when we were building the upstairs, okay?

Uh so this the first year we're open and during the winter we're remodeling the upstairs to open as a nightclub called the Wooden Lake Saloon.

And we would be down here in February and we would say, "Okay, it's pretty slow.

Let's go upstairs."

And we'd start working on the upstairs.

And all of a sudden, Andy would stand up and go, "There's a car coming."

He would go to the window and he would watch it drive down and he go, "Come on.

Come on."

And we'd pull in, we'd drop our tool belts and come downstairs.

I would meet him at the door.

And that honestly, that's that's how slow it was at times.

Do you think uh we started out the program today talking about how transformational Grandma's was to the Canal Park area.

We talked about junkyards.

We talked about oil on the water.

We talked about this being a transformational business.

Do you think the founders really thought that was going to change everything down here?

My gosh.

You know, again, I I want to attribute some vision to what has happened, but a lot of circumstances, okay?

as as we talked about these guys couldn't find a liquor license in Duth because they were distributed very differently per capita and the only way they could find a liquor license to open their new restaurant in the promised land area of Spirit Mountain that was where it was going to go they had to buy a bar in dilapidated surrounded by junkyards and warehouses Canel Park called the Sandbar they bought the Sandbar and they walked in negotiated with it and said let's do it here we can do it here and you know to the chagrin of all the lead industry leaders then his father included Gino the gold pines you don't want to build in Canal Park they built the plan for the restaurant evolved over time was there a direction who uh spearheaded the the movement that turned one restaurant into a chain of fabulous restaurants again you know our forefathers you Andy Borg, Mick Paluchi, founders and forefathers.

They had a wonderful tension with each other.

Uh, you know, Andy was this uh antique collector, hardworking uh uh guy from Superior and Mick Paluchi is the son of uh, you know, food magnet Gino Paluchi, sophisticated, worldraveled and uh has been all over.

And these two get together and uh Mick was inspired I would say uh locally probably by Praa and Maine Ed Devik in Chicago just these very busy tributes to a a u a location's history and uh historical significance and Andy uh uh the antique collector was almost serendipitous as they met and he had a collection and Mick allowed him to get a much larger collection.

ction.

You mentioned uh Andy being the collector of all these wonderful antiques that uh really give the character to Grandma's Restaurant, though.

Um over 50 years, you've been here for most of them.

What's your favorite one?

There's a lot to choose from, and I honestly love Neon.

Uh we've been credited for being some of one of the largest neon sign collectors in the United States, by the way.

But one that stands out only because it gets talked about and I get emails on it uh and have for the last 50 years is smoking Santa uh marketing lucky strike cigarettes.

Well, congratulations to 50 years.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you to the founders for helping transform Canal Park into ground zero for tourism.

It turned out that way, didn't it?

I'm Ken Builder and thanking Andy Bour and uh Brian Dherty and Mick Palucci for all that they did to transform Canel Park.

Brian, thank you for your time on the show this evening and thanks all of you for watching.

And now if you missed any parts of tonight's show, you can always watch it at PBS North or listen on Monday at 5:30 on the North 1033.

Thanks again for watching and until next time, let's take care of each other.