(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to "Almanac North".

I'm Mari Hewitt.

Tonight, we are diving into small business.

We're joined in studio by downtown Duluth's President and COO Kristi Stokes to talk about business grants and their mission to provide opportunities to small businesses.

Our "Almanac North" team sat down with Kevin Jacobsen to hear why he decided to start his business, Story North Productions.

Later, Zach Filipovich of Northspan joins us to discuss Driving Access to Wealth and Networks, or DAWN, and what they hope the program will provide for businesses in the region.

And finally, Bayfield businesswoman Lissa Flemming shares her story of starting her business and how she thinks community and small business go hand-in-hand.

That's what's in store on tonight's "Almanac North", but first, some news from the Minnesota State House of Representatives.

Hundreds of environmental projects are funded annually from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust fund.

A bill freshly out of the House Ways and Means Committee is being sent to the floor, seeking over $79 million.

Representative Rick Hansen of Cell St. Paul sponsored the bill, highlighting a specific focus to a $7 million allocation to the University of Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pest Center.

Here he is during the session.

- This bill does not spend any general fund money.

It is spending 79.644 million of Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

Again, the lottery dollars.

In your packets, you will have a variety of information summarizing where that money is spent.

I want to call out a couple of the large appropriations.

There's one of $7 million to the University of Minnesota Terrestrial and Invasive Species Center.

Really important, continuing the work that is recognized around the world, and looking at research for terrestrial invasive species.

- If approved, the money would fund over 100 projects statewide.

Today, most entrepreneurs start their businesses with an idea and an online account, hoping that, one day, their product would be in a storefront.

Duluth downtown is the epicenter of opportunity for small businesses in Duluth.

Here to talk about some of the grants and opportunities for businesses in our city is Kristi Stokes, President and COO of Downtown Duluth.

Kristi, thank you so much for joining us!

- Yes, thanks for having me.

- [Mari] It is always a pleasure to be able to chat with you.

So let's talk about milestones and successes for downtown Duluth.

- Yes.

So over this past year, we've actually done about 17 grants for storefront improvements for our businesses in the downtown area.

That's thanks to funding from the 1200 Fund.

And so, what does that mean?

That means that some of the businesses have been able to add paint, specifically lighting, that's one thing that we're really working with our businesses on, and there's been various different things that they've done just to be able to actually even improve their merchandising in their storefront.

So, these are things that, sometimes, might not be all that sexy, but it's something that really makes a big difference, not only for their business, but for their appearance at the street level and beyond.

- Yeah.

It might not be a need they can do right now, but with the grant, it's possible that they can make those improvements.

- [Kristi] Absolutely.

It's kind of that catalyst for them.

If they can see a bit of that grant, then if they put some of the dollars in, it's easier to be able to take that on.

- You've had a few rounds of this, so it's something that is growing.

It has grown.

- Yes.

So, this is just our second round that we've done.

There are a couple businesses that are still finishing up their projects because they were looking to do painting, and so they're waiting for the weather to warm up a bit, but it was something where we received just great feedback from the businesses.

Our hope is that we can continue it if we received some additional funding.

We see a need for it, and we also see that this is a way to just overall improve what the downtown looks like.

From the storefront to the sidewalk, you're really seeing those improvements.

- Now, I know COVID-19 impacted downtowns everywhere.

- [Kristi] Yes.

- How did it impact Duluth's downtown, and what have you guys done to kind of revitalize?

- Yeah, you know, it definitely has impacted downtowns across the country, and what we've seen is there are more people that are doing some of the remote work, they are doing hybrid, so we don't have as many employees in our downtowns as we did prior to the pandemic.

So what does that mean?

It means we need to activate spaces in a different way.

And so, one of our biggest things right now is really looking at conversion of properties for residential housing.

How can we add more residents into the downtown that are there 24/7 and really active?

And I like to use an example just of our office building alone is, while our offices are on the street level, we have residential units above us, and what a difference you see just on our street, because now, in the morning, you're seeing residents out there walking their dogs or grabbing a cup of coffee, and it just makes for a real active environment.

So that is one thing that I think many downtowns across the country are really looking at, is getting back to that residential housing in the downtown area.

- Yeah, and I know you also have some storefront space because we have remote workers.

You know, some people are moving to fully remote.

What are you doing with some of that space?

- So, in the past, we're not doing it at this time, but we have done pop-up shops.

And so, I kind of looked back into the years that we did it.

We probably did it for about five years and had about 30 different pop-up shops.

Those were during the holiday season.

It could be that we look at it again this next holiday season.

We just want to make sure, when we do that, that we have some really good space for people to succeed if they're in it.

So street level space that has some good visibility.

And it has led to a chance for businesses to become full-time tenants in our downtown, and that's really the idea of it, is really giving them a chance to take a test drive of a storefront space, seeing what it's like to be open regular business hours, maybe even if there's not a customer coming in for an hour, you still need to be open to have those consistent hours, and it really gives people a great chance of some visibility that chance to take that test drive, and hopefully, it is something where they can become a longer term tenant for us in the downtown.

We have several success stories of that.

- And I know downtown Duluth does a ton of events throughout the year.

That's another big part of your mission, is bringing people, drawing them into the downtown.

What are some recent events or things that people can get on their calendar coming up?

- Yeah.

Coming up, we actually have our Get Downtown week.

So, another great way for us to highlight the small businesses, and that is coming up in April.

April 22nd, I believe it starts.

And it's just a chance, All of our businesses that participate offer a special promotion that week, and so, it's a chance to say to people, "Hey, come on downtown, check out these businesses.

There's some great promotions, whether that's at our restaurants, retailers, breweries, whatever it may be," and a chance for people to also show their support for those small businesses.

We do things during the holidays for Small Business Saturday.

That is one of the busiest days for our small businesses.

And then, just recently, we have been just testing out with the Holiday Center, working with them and Media USA on just a pop-up market, and that went over really well, just Wednesdays throughout the month of February, and some of those had been our popup businesses in the past, and this was a chance for them to be vendors at that.

Some of them have locations, some of them are looking for locations, so it's great to be able to give them more of that chance to have a showcase on them.

- Well, Kristi, thank you so much.

I know you have events going all year, and you have a great website where you can find them, and I think I did see you can still vote for movies in the park.

- You can!

Yes, yes.

- That's a favorite of ours.

- You can keep voting for that.

That's a big event of ours, and I know it's a great thing for the community.

They love seeing that, so vote for your favorite movies for our movie lineup, and then, if you want any more information about our events, it's Downtownduluth.com.

- Thanks Kristi.

- Thank you.

- Well, now we head to Canal Park to hear from Kevin Jacobsen, a founder and production manager of Story North Productions to learn about why he decided to start this new venture and what advantages there are of doing business in the Northland.

- Kevin Jacobsen, I am the Creative Director and Founder of Story North Productions.

I'd say, for Story North, one of the biggest resources available to us in Duluth is the Duluth Chamber of Commerce.

Being able to connect with other businesses, being able to network, meet other potential clients.

They are a really good resource for small businesses and big businesses in Duluth.

I think we started grassroots.

we funded the development of our business on our own, taking, you know, money we earned from one gig, putting that into the next gig and building it that way.

When we first set out and started this company, started Story North three years ago this June, we had a long term plan, but it was a very small scale plan, right?

You know, it'd be just my wife and I operating the business, and then, as you start working with clients and as you continue to grow the business that you're doing, you realize you can't do it all by yourself, right?

I think it just goes back to, you know, the best resource for Story North has been in the Chamber of Commerce.

Working with them to network at different events, which is why we have two part-time employees now.

Three to five years down the road, I don't know.

(chuckles) We'd love to continue growing, but whether that means growing the team or growing in the work that we do, that's something we're exploring, I think, on a day-by-day basis.

We love what we're doing now on a smaller scale, but we're open to the idea of whatever may happen.

I think one of the biggest difficulties of operating a small business anywhere, not just in Duluth, is just not knowing what you don't know.

There are so many small details that go into a business.

There's the banking portion of it, there's the taxes portion of it, there's, how do you operate correctly?

What don't you do?

And so, there are a lot of things that you have to spend time on researching, and sometimes, you learn by failing, right?

And so, the unknowns, I think, is one of the hardest parts of starting and running a business.

Starting and building a business has been a blast.

It's been fun.

It doesn't come without its challenges.

You don't know what you don't know.

But if you have the desire, if you have that drive to start a business and you have a plan, do it.

You know, it's risky, but if you know that there are risks and you have a plan, then I think it's worthwhile.

We are in a position where we can scale up or scale down depending on the client that we're working with, and so, you know, having two part-timers and then us as two full-time people, that's great.

And then we can always bring on subcontractors when we need to.

And, like I mentioned, what we're seeing is there are plenty of people who are interested in the field.

And so, if we can bring them in, help train them, and also put them to work, great.

I think the great thing about doing business in the Northland is the fact that the businesses that are here are invested in, not just what they're doing as a business, but also the community as a whole.

And so, if we can help a business or an organization tell their story to really help make our region a better place to work, live and play, then we've done our job.

That said, I think the great thing about being a small business, being in the business community, being in the Duluth region, there are a lot of resources and people we can point to when it comes to that.

And so, we have plenty of clients who ask us for certain things that we can't offer.

But again, you know, having the Duluth Chamber of Commerce and having a network of trusted sources and partners, we can turn and tell people, "Hey, we can't do that, but they can."

- When starting out as an entrepreneur, the people you know and those within your network could be vital to your success.

Now joining us in studio is Zach Filipovich from Northspan to speak about their DAWN program.

Welcome, Zach.

Thank you so much for joining us!

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Maybe to start this interview off with a good foundation of understanding Northspan, could you tell us a little bit about Northspan and and the mission of the organization?

- Yeah.

Northspan was created in 1985 to help our region get through some hard economic times, and we're still here, doing that mission, engaging with entrepreneurs and business owners and elevating their products and their businesses.

- And do you have a few different kind of like, organizations underneath Northspan that people might know about?

- Yeah, we have four programs.

One is our Northland Connection program, looking at different sites and properties that might be helpful to site selectors, our Northforce program that I hope a lot of people know about that's helping to connect people with job opportunities, specifically in our region, and helping to attract those folks, our Welcoming Communities program goes hand-in-hand with that last one, helping to create our region, a more welcoming community for people with diverse backgrounds, and then our newest program that I'm really excited to talk about is our DAWN program or Driving Access to Wealth and Networks.

- Yeah, so tell us about how the DAWN program helps small businesses network and develop.

- Yeah, we do that in a few different ways.

We help build connections and provide access to those networks and maybe those people that you might not get to meet firsthand.

Things like angel investors and and other funders.

That leads into the second piece, which is capital, and we're talking about financial capital, and we have long standing relationships with really cool non-traditional lending partners like the Northland Foundation or Entrepreneur Fund that can help create capital resources for small businesses just starting out, and those working capital pieces.

And then capacity, we have open-ended kind of cohort programs to help teach future business owners and current business owners what they need to know to start and grow and scale their businesses.

- I know it's a newer program, but do you have any success stories so far?

- [Zach] Yeah.

It started in November, was when we launched the program at the Fond du Lac Reservation, and we have actually had about 50 people go through some of the cohorts already.

They're learning so many cool things about, you know, how to scale their business, things that you might not think about that are needed when you're starting a business.

- So is it like, modules that you can go through?

- Yeah, yeah.

We have kind of two tracks.

One is, if you have an idea, let's dive into that and figure out what is needed to make your idea an actual business and help monetize that and to be able to provide that product or service to the community, and the second is a more advanced program.

You have a business, but you're looking to scale that business up.

- [Mari] Okay.

So, how do you collaborate with this program?

With other organizations or other communities in our region?

- Yeah.

We partner with, like I said, those long established organizations, but we also partner, specifically for the cohorts, with a few newer and really innovative organizations like the ILT or I Like That Academy, and the Family Freedom Center based here in Duluth.

- How do you adapt with the DAWN program to like, the changing needs for small businesses as the climates change?

- Yeah, so, you know, a lot of the programs that some of these established organizations have are still really relevant, like the SBDC or Small Business Development Center.

They actually provide 10 hours of, kind of, free service to business owners.

But for business owners with maybe diverse backgrounds or have trouble accessing capital, maybe getting a loan to help buy whatever piece of equipment is needed next to help grow their business, that's where some of these really innovative capital financial support programs can come into play.

- So, what are some of the upcoming events or initiatives?

- Yeah, I have to look if that's all right.

- [Mari] (laughs softly) You have notes.

Of course.

- We actually have a couple things coming up.

The ILT Academy Spring Cohort.

The deadline to apply is coming up on March 5th, and that's going to be a really cool thing if people are looking to start and grow their idea into a business, put together your business idea.

Think about who might you want on your team, what type of progress you'd wanna make in three months, or a year, or two years, and then what are your objectives that you want to achieve.

- So, the DAWN program can really help you from wanting to start the business to then helping you through scaling it.

- [Zach] Yeah.

It is, oftentimes, the most difficult point in a business's life is that very beginning.

We've heard the stats where a lot of business fail within the first five years, and this program is to help, one, get the business off the ground, but also to help set it up for success in the future.

- So if someone wants to get involved, how would they do that?

- They can go to DAWN, D-A-W-N-M-N, .org.

- [Mari] Okay!

And I know that you have the Northspan website that can also get you there, and you can also learn about all the other programs you have under the umbrella, too.

- That's correct.

- Alright, well, thank you so much for joining us, Zach.

It was a pleasure.

- Thank you so much.

- Well, our next story takes us to Bayfield, where business owner Lissa Flemming shares the origin story of her business, as well as how the strength of the community and small businesses working together benefits everyone.

- [Lissa] Opening this gallery and this space, pretty much, I did it all on my own with a credit card.

I wasn't able to get funding.

I don't know if I was young, if I was female, whatever it was, but I pretty much did it all on my own with support staff along the way.

And so, being able to be a role model for especially women who wanna start out, and this goes back to your other question, and do this sort of a thing, you can.

You can totally do it, but now I would love to help you.

Please come and ask me questions.

Because I didn't have that, I didn't have a supportive community here in the arts when I arrived here.

It was very, very different.

I wanna support that.

I wanna support the Bell Street Gallery who just opened up in here in town, and how she has some other artists.

I wanna support everybody, 'cause I think there's enough to go around for everybody.

It is a change.

It's a change in all small, small, small communities that have had the good old boys, good old girls club as the way it's been, and I think it takes people who are willing to change things up to help change for the better, help empower people, help empower women, help empower kids who might not have, you know, the means to do other things.

I feel like, because I've had all these struggles and these things happen, I have some insight.

It's not they're all a hundred percent correct, but if I had a small business person come over and say, you know, "I wanna try and start this business.

What do you think?"

I'm open to helping.

I'm opening to help that, because that supports young women entrepreneurs, and it supports the jewelry community.

I worked in a lot of different places doing a lot of different things.

When I shined the most is when I could be the one making the decisions, (laughs) and I don't want to be negative, but I feel like that is when I can thrive, it's that I am the one who's calling the shots.

It is to the specifications that I strive to have, and if it doesn't go right, it's on me, so I gotta go and I gotta make it right.

I think there's ebb and flow with that community support, and the only reason is, is 'cause summer is so fast and furious here, and so, it takes a slowdown, which is what's happening here in wintertime, for us to really think about that and like, Okay, so how can we connect and how can I do that?

And even if it's that taking your staff out to dinner at St. James Social to support them, but also to support your staff, you know, but keeping it local.

You know, volunteering and coming up with these creative pops, which is what keeps me going.

In order to have a creative, supportive community, you need to support your community, 'cause if you don't, then there's no community.

So I think little things like that, having internships for some of the high school students, which I've also done in here, is bring students in who are just learning, and, you know, have them be a part of our family, our Silverwaves Jewelry family, and just being supportive and empowering, you know?

I think that, if you come into a business and we want you to succeed, and so, if what that thing is not working out, then you know what?

Let's not have you do that, but we're gonna switch it out and we're gonna have it do something else so that we can all succeed then, because if I have everybody in here succeeding, that means I get to succeed, too.

But then it's a team.

It's our little Silverwaves Jewelry family community doing that.

And then, if we can do that, then we can spread that out into the community.

I love to do things like that.

I had, actually, in October, our Core Resource Center, which is for elders mostly, and that's our amazing food pantry, we had a Day of the Dead celebration.

And so, we had a whole set up, and we made it a fundraiser for Core.

And so, we gathered, we had Mexican music, we had tamales that was created by Chef Dustin over at Core, and we had two fires, and we had a lot of people come.

It's so important just to see all facets of all different, you know, whether it be culture, or what you eat, whatever, all those things.

And so, the more you can get out and be a part of different little things, I think, the better it is for you, but for your community.

- I'm Mari Hewitt.

Thank you for joining us on "Almanac North".

I'll see you next time.

Goodnight.

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