Tyson started out working for a competitor before bootstrapping and putting everything he and his wife Angela had into purchasing four Grease Monkey stores in Idaho for $1.4M in 2014. Even when his credit accounts were briefly frozen, he was able to leverage his relationship with strategic suppliers who helped with the down payment and credit lines.
Joe took over the Floyd Lilly Company in 2017 with an excited attitude and willingness to learn, having already thought of his goals for his customers,team, and company. Floyd Lily Company offers water wells, pumps, tanks, hoses, pipe, tubing, fittings, and sprayers, as well as 24-hour emergency well and pump services. He believes that a part of his business’s success is his ability to retain great staff, who focus on the customer needs and strive to achieve higher customer service; this success has given Joe the opportunity to focus on including a great health care program for his staff, complete with a retirement program.
Debbie and Joe Glordano purchased the Powell’s Sweet Shoppe franchise in 2006 and opened January 2007. They rebranded as Cravin’s Candy Emporium in 2016. Cravin’s Candy Emporium is a neighborhood of candy stores and gelato shops where the aim is to create a fun experience for all ages. Cravin’s Candy Emporium is a ‘Main Street’ type of business – all products are locally made and shown through creative displays.
Kourney Post started Bakety Bake in 2018, just after having her 4th baby as a way to earn extra income and be creative. It began as a home-based bakery, where she sold custom decorated sugar cookies. After baking and decorating thousands of sugar cookies, she found the market was really lacking a meringue powder for making royal icing that was easy to use and didn’t taste like cardboard. After months of experimenting in her home kitchen, she developed a recipe for meringue powder that quickly became a staple in her cookie business. She started selling her meringue powder to local bakers, and then connected with a cookie-based Facebook group, where her sales suddenly and dramatically increased literally overnight. She quickly outgrew her home kitchen and had to find solutions to make larger quantities faster. Sales grew from $2,000 to $100,000 within a year.
DEVILS LAKE – Helping address the pressing issue of a shortage in child care providers, Margy Prozinski has created an invaluable asset for the community of Devils Lake and surrounding area with her business, Joyful Beginnings Child Care & Preschool.
Margy loves watching children learn and grow. She’s had a passion for working with children from an early age. She started working at a child care center when she was a freshman in high school, and worked at the same child care center in Bismarck foreight consecutive years. Through this experience, she saw that there was a great need for child care. Her work experience, along with fantastic bosses who grew her passion and encouraged her to open her own business, led her to the decision to do just that.