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Table of Contents The roller-coaster ride that Semiahmoo Resort, Golf, and Spa has taken the local economy on is once again experiencing an upward swing that the ownership group has banked $9 million on. (Photo by Gabriel Knapp Photography)
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COVER STORY: REFURBISHED and REOPENED, SEMIAHMOO REBOUNDS
22
THE SHINING STARS OF THE YEAR IN WHATCOM BUSINESS
56
MR. HANDMAN, SENDING HIS DREAMS
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ag education keeps VanderVeen on the go
Room and meeting space enhancements, new management, new cuisine, new amenities – yes, Semiahmoo Resort, Golf, and Spa intends to spoil guests to the max. It has been there, done that. And, in some darker hours, not. Susan G. Cole runs her fine-tooth combing through the storyline of an ambitious new GM, Mark Andrew, and a hospitality/convention conglomerate from Seattle now taking a shot at permanent success in one of Nature’s blessings of water and woods (and irons and putters).
Our 29th annual Business Person of the Year Awards shine the klieg lights on a dozen bright, burgeoning companies and individuals as finalists in three categories – Startup, Small Business, and Individual. They’re all winners to get this far. You’ll know why when you read these personalized portraits in the fields of (in random order) solar energy, metal design, distilling spirits, real estate and tech (yes, one man, many directions), Facebook algorithms, no-tobacco smoking, processing and shipping fish, the aroma of Mex and Italian cuisine, hotel/casino cavorting, welding, and sign-making.
Ivan Owen was tinkering. From a hobby he created an artificial, functional hand with 3-D printing. A fellow halfway around the world saw it on You Tube. From that serendipitous moment, Owen’s invention in Bellingham has led to a global movement creating hundreds of hands – and mass media recognition of his humanitarianism. And he refuses to take even a nickel from it. For real.
Debbie VanderVeen keeps one calendar—paper, by the way, hanging on the wall like normal people. What isn't so normal is that the calendar is so full you can scarcely read the dates. She helps run the family dairy farm that produces milk sold to Darigold and has other associated businesses built into and around that one. She serves as president of the Whatcom Farm Bureau. And she has a bunch of other commitments, too. In Personally Speaking she reveals how the passion for educating folks about agriculture, from tots to seniors, constantly puts her on the go.
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Table of Contents FLORA, FLORA, FLORA – row upon row, by the thousands, line large greenhouses with starts like these at the original Smith Gardens facility on spacious waterfront along Marine Drive. Terry Smith’s lifetime achievements include growing the company as far as his dreams could reach within one of Whatcom County’s legacy family businesses, now in its 115th year. (Photo by Gabriel Knapp Photography)
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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: TERRY SMITH
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BARKLEY – THE ACCIDENTAL VILLAGE
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SPECIAL REPORT: WHOLE NEW WORLD IN RISING AUTO SALES
He had a garden when he was 4 years old, and Terry Smith believes that might well have been his first of many inspirations. Helping his grandfather and father grow trucked food served him well, too, and seven decades later he now watches his sons carry on the 110-year legacy of Smith Gardens based in Bellingham. The elder Smith’s legacy in retirement: Expanding the business to flora, to mid-8 figures in sales, and to 1,000 employees in four locations, combined with heartfelt philanthropy.
When Jim Talbot bought 200-some acres of bushy wilderness where Barkley Village stands, the area had a railroad running through its woods. He envisioned the property as a support center for his family business, Bellingham Cold Storage. The railroad shut down, the city rezoned, and, after the property sat idle several years, a new vision emerged piece-by-piece. Today, the area bustles with business development and leasing. And there’s more to come.
Can you imagine purchasing your next car or truck without meeting any salesperson until you go sign the papers and pick up the keys? Happens every day. Happened right before our eyes when we went to shoot a photo. Dealers have created Internet-based sales jobs to deal with a much more savvy customer, as sales across Whatcom County follow the national trend: upward-bound.
GUEST COLUMNS Wasington Policy Center wonks cast their watchdog barbs at the governor and unions, pointing out negative impacts on industries and workers….Our resident Lean Heretic demonstrates how to apply Kanban to personal lean practices….The HR corner delves into how to protect against internal and external formal complaints….And, we offer a book excerpt from a former Whatcom Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Managing Editor Mike McKenzie Graphic Design/Layout Adam Wilbert
For editorial comments and suggestions, please write editor@businesspulse.com. Business Pulse Magazine is the publication of the Whatcom Business Alliance. The magazine is published at 2423 E. Bakerview Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226. (360) 671-3933. Fax (360) 671-3934. The yearly subscription rate is $20 in the USA, $48 in Canada. For a free digital subscription, go to businesspulse.com or whatcombusinessalliance.com. Entire contents copyrighted © 2015 – Business Pulse Magazine. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Business Pulse Magazine, 2423 E Bakerview Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226. 6 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
Feature Writers Pamela Bauthues Dave Brumbaugh Susan G. Cole Sherri Huleatt Lydia Love Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy Tara Nelson Tyrel Tjoelker Guest Columnists Sid Baron Randall Benson
Todd Myers Erin Shannon SHRM/Rose Vogel Cover Photo Gabriel Knapp Photography Photography Sherri Huleatt Gabriel Knapp Lydia Love Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy Mike McKenzie Jen Owen Courtesy Photos Barkley Company (Mike DeRosa aerial) Coastal Hotel Group
Faithlife Corp Innotech Metal Designs iTek Energy/Kelly Kindler Jen Martin Studios Northwest Honda Smith Gardens VSH CPAs WECU Sales Representatives Pat Draper Jon Strong Subscriptions Janel Ernster Adminstration Danielle Larson
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John Huntley President / CEO Mills Electric Inc.
Dave Adams, President Emergency Reporting
Jane Carten President / Director Saturna Capital Corp.
Randi Axelsson, Sales Manager Silver Reef Hotel Casino Spa
Board Chair Jeff Kochman President / CEO Barkley Company
Pam Brady Director, NW Govt. & Public Affairs BP Cherry Point
Doug Thomas President / CEO Bellingham Cold Storage
Janelle Bruland President / CEO Management Services NW
Bruce Clawson Senior VP Commercial Banking Wells Fargo
Marv Tjoelker Partner / Chairman of the Board Larson Gross PLLC
Scott Corzine Major Accounts Executive Puget Sound Energy
Kevin DeVries CEO Exxel Pacific Inc.
Greg Ebe President / CEO Ebe Farms
Andy Enfield Vice President Enfield Farms
Sandy Keathley Previous Owner K & K Industries
Paul Kenner Executive VP SSK Insurance
Troy Muljat Owner, NVNTD Inc. Managing Broker Muljat Group
Bob Pritchett President & CEO Faithlife
Brad Rader Vice President/General Manager Rader Farms
Becky Raney Owner/COO Print & Copy Factory
Jon Sitkin Partner Chmelik Sitkin & Davis P.S.
Not Pictured: Guy Jansen, Director Lynden Transport Inc. 8 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
WBA, 2423 E. Bakerview Rd, Bellingham, WA 98226 • 360.671.3933
Leading Off Tony Larson | President, Whatcom Business Alliance The Whatcom Business Alliance is a member organization made up of businesses of every size and shape, from every industry. The WBA enhances the quality of life throughout Whatcom County by promoting a healthy business climate that preserves and creates good jobs.
Recognizing and lifting up the foundation of our local economy The 'Oscars' of local business set for March 25
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t our recent Whatcom Business Alliance annual meeting, the board of directors reviewed our activities from 2014 and discussed how the WBA can continue to facilitate local business success.
They decided we must continue to grow our member leadership network. There is strength in numbers, so we want to add more leaders from every industry. We will continue to provide educational events, seminars, industry tours and member events. We will provide education and research on economic matters similar to the economic impact study we commissioned last year. That report focused on the manufacturing industry in the Cherry Point industrial area. Last month we entered it into the record in Olympia at a House of Representatives hearing about keeping Ferndale's Alcoa Intalco competitive in the global metals market. We will continue to offer local employers our very innovative, market-based employer healthcare insurance plan that we rolled out last October. That was a big initia10 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
tive, and the feedback has been outstanding. We developed the program after talking to 20 different local companies of all sizes. We found creative ways to slow the spiraling increases in healthcare costs for employers while providing a higher level of healthcare to their employees. If you have a company with 35 or more employees and find
Business owners and leaders come together because they understand the value of recognizing business people for the positive contributions they make. yourself struggling with this issue, I strongly urge you to connect with us for a consultation. An exciting development for 2015, starting this month: In collaboration with Faithlife Corp, Barkley Company, Saturna Capital, and Larson Gross CPAs, we are launching the Bellingham Business Academy (BBA). Bob Pritchett, CEO of Faithlife and a WBA board member, will line up exceptional presenters who will come to
Bellingham and offer insights into issues important for companies who want to stay on the cutting edge. These high-level programs will be available as a value-added benefit to WBA members, and employees and clients of the sponsors. The presentations at the Mount Baker Theatre, starting March 11, will include some time afterward to network with other participants. This will be a quality opportunity for leaders in your company. Go to whatcombusinessalliance.com for more information. Also this month, we continue to facilitate local business success by recognizing and lifting up the rising stars, pillars, and business icons of the Whatcom County business community as examples to others. On March 25, at the 29th Whatcom County Business Person and Small Business of the Year awards dinner, we will honor business leaders and companies for their successful efforts in creating jobs and enhancing the economic and civic vitality of our community. The finalists in three different categories are profiled in this edition. The winners will be announced the evening of the event. The Startup Business of the Year finalists consist of companies created within the last three years.
The Small Business of the Year finalists have operated successfully for many years and must have fewer than 100 employees. The Business Person of the Year is an open category intended to recognize standouts from private or nonprofit organizations who deserve recognition for building their business, creating jobs, and taking leadership roles in making our community a better place to live and work. The size of their company doesn’t impact their eligibility in this category. In addition, we will present the prestigious Whatcom County Lifetime Business Achievement Award. This annual award goes to a person who has made extraordinary contributions to their business and our community over a long period of time. This year we honor Terry Smith, past President/Chairman of Smith Gardens, who retired in 2004 and turned the operations over to his sons. Terry is an amazing man. It has been a pleasure to get to know him. As a participant at every one of the previous 28 events, I’m always encouraged by the fraternity of business owners and leaders who come together because they understand the value of recognizing business people for the positive contributions they make. Few outside this fraternity understand the risks, efforts, sacrifices, and costs required to start, operate, and grow a successful business. Few understand the weight of responsibility business leaders feel for their employees – the sleep they lose when things aren’t going so well, or when they have to make tough decisions that impact their employees. Many of the business owners I speak to feel as though fewer and fewer elected officials and people in the general public understand the valuable role that successful businesses play in creating community prosperity. The businesses and the business people we honor bring us the
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products and services we need and desire. They help make us more efficient and effective in making our lives easier. When businesses are successful, they provide jobs that allow people to support their families, and other businesses, and charitable organizations in the community. Successful businesses and their employees pay a significant portion of the taxes that allow our government to operate and to provide its public services. They fill the rosters
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in leadership roles on boards and commissions. They get involved in nonprofit fundraisers, and provide funding and volunteers for organizations that serve the less fortunate among us. The businesses in our community drive our economy and our quality of life. Because of them we have what we have. They raise the tide, and a rising tide raises all boats. I hope to see you at the "Oscars." Enjoy the magazine! WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 11
BUSINESS PROFILE: SEMIAHMOO RESORT • GOLF • SPA
(L. to R.) Chef Eric Truglass, Banquets Manager David Archer, and General Manager Mark Andrew at Semiahmoo Resort • Golf •Spa
Semiahmoo resort/spa experiences designed to keep guests coming back Destination facility reboots with new owners and management Article by Susan G. Cole Staff images by Gabriel Knapp Photography Resort photos courtesy of Coastal Hotels 12 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
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s expansive as its namesake curved spit, Semiahmoo struck a vision for Trillium Corporation founder David Syre that encompassed a 2,000-acre, master-planned community built around a Cape Cod-style luxury seaside resort.
Twenty-five years later, that resort suddenly closed. People lost jobs; the city of Blaine lost significant revenue. A shuttered hotel stood silent for eight long months. But today, new deep-pocketed owners and a boutique hotel management group seek to reclaim the resort’s perch at the top of Northwest destination hotels. Semiahmoo Resort, Golf & Spa is back in the game. To recap: The resort closed in December 2012, citing a dramatic drop in bookings during the recession. Its owners, the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 13
BUSINESS PROFILE: SEMIAHMOO RESORT • GOLF • SPA
Meet GM Mark Andrew By Susan G. Cole General Manager Mark Andrew’s career in the hotel business began in the late 1960s, when he picked up a newspaper in the SeattleTacoma Airport Hyatt House parking lot. (His dad was GM there.) He followed up on an ad with his first hourly job as a banquet dishwasher, and got the hotel bug. Mark spent 25 years with Hyatt, six with Westin/Starwood, and seven with Fairmont. “I’ve known Semiahmoo for years,” Andrew said, “and worked all around the world, but I wanted to come back to the Pacific Northwest, God’s country.” He grew up mainly in the Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., areas. He was excited to have the opportunity to reintroduce the resort back into the marketplace. His credo: “Do what you love in life and the rest will follow. Remember the three Ps: people, products, profits.” Andrew plans to move a desk into the lobby so he can do some of his work there and learn more about his guests. “It’s in my DNA, taking care of my guests.”
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Innovation: pre-arrival setup In the hospitality business, taking care of guests also means looking ahead to find the next new thing to deliver the allimportant competitive edge. GM Mark Andrew shared his thoughts on what’s next. “Pre-arrival is huge,” he began. “In the near future we will use smart phones to not only send guests their room number even before they set foot in the lobby, but also to unlock their rooms. Throughout their stay, personal phones will be the conduit for interaction with the hotel, from the meals they order to the golf tee times they reserve.” Despite the high- tech features that guests can embrace, a destination resort like Semiahmoo will always find new and better ways of engaging its travelers.
GM Mark Andrew (far left) works vigorously to keep the front desk busy at the sprawling, rejuvenated resort in Blaine.
couldn’t find an immediate buyer, so they closed it. Six months later, the resort was purchased for $19.5 million by a Seattle-based ownership group, Wright Hotels Inc. (owners of the Seattle Sheraton, as well as the Space Needle and more). Wright then contracted with Coastal Hotel Group of Seattle to manage the resort, the spa, and two widely-acclaimed golf courses. Semiahmoo Resort reopened just two months later, during August last year. “In a perfect world,” General Manager Mark Andrew said, “we would have stayed closed until renovations were finished, but we opened as a favor to the people living at Semiahmoo (residential community).” The hotel’s reputation had gone sour, and Coastal felt compelled to quickly reintroduce it to the marketplace and lure back paying customers.
The ‘Experience’ is the competitive edge Wright Hotels immediately committed about $9 million to the project, first reworking the restaurants and completely updating guest rooms. According to Andrew, parent company Wright buys properties, then improves them and retains them as long-term assets.
Each of Coastal’s five portfolio properties target discerning travelers, exceeding expectations at every turn, he said. (Among them, Coastal also manages the Best Western Plus Heritage Inn in Bellingham.) Before Andrew came to Semiahmoo last July, he had heard that the labor pool in Whatcom County was tough. “That’s so far from the truth,” he said. “The biggest surprise when I
"We've won if you remember the experience you had when you're here." – Mark Andrew, GM, Semiahmoo Resort
came here was the people I found. We have an amazing collection of associates. When I get the right servers, spa attendants, banquet managers, it builds that Semiahmoo experience.” “We give our associates the tools to deliver a great experience,” Andrew said of his 400 employees (including the golf courses). Andrew puts “the right people in the right place, and we let them do their thing.”
Make no mistake. Resorts like Semiahmoo are laser-focused on the experience. Plush pillow-top mattresses, 42-inch HDTVs and Wi-Fi, craft cocktails and artisan food – these are the givens. The experience is what upscale hoteliers like Andrew and Coastal aim to create. It’s their competitive edge. “The Semiahmoo experience is not just a place to sleep and eat,” Andrew said. “We’ve won if you remember the experience you had when you’re here.” It starts when guests arrive. “What do I do after I get in my room? Have they enticed me to check out the spa? We don’t want you to sit in your room. We want you to get a glass of wine, relax with a book in the lobby, go out and explore the resort. “We’re experience creators. We’re taking moments and creating takeaways for our guests.” Satisfied guests are essential. “Every guest is our Trip Advisor,” Andrew said, laughing. Word of mouth matters. Many don’t know the resort reopened, and those who do may not know how it is been updated for today’s demanding consumers. Guests coming to Semiahmoo have been around the world, he pointed out. “They expect more.” WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 15
BUSINESS PROFILE: SEMIAHMOO RESORT • GOLF • SPA Upping that ‘Experience’ ante Who comes here? The target market includes several niches: weddings, corporate meetings, leisure travelers on long weekends. “Our market is everywhere from Whistler (in Canada) to Olympia,” Andrew said. “We’re great for corporate travelers. They’re out of town, but not out of touch here,” he said. The resort boasts 35,000 square feet of meeting space. With 212 rooms, Semiahmoo easily accommodates large groups. “We’re creating something regionally here that we can be proud of,” Andrew said. Historically, less than half the resort’s guests are Canadian. He hopes to change that. “We’d like them to consider us as part of their weekend plans, like going to Harrison Hot Springs or Whistler.” Activity-minded guests can enjoy golf or tennis, full-service spa, heated outdoor pool, plus mul-
tiple fitness facilities. Bonfires and s’mores on the beach, boat rentals at the marina, walks along the spit offer more to do. Visit nearby Blaine aboard the historic foot ferry, the Plover. Whether kayaking among the brant geese in the bay, or sitting by a fireplace with tea and a new
"It is an icon and an important economic engine that draws visitors to our city as well as the county." – David Wilbrecht, Blaine City Manager
novel, “We’re a great place for a resort getaway,” Andrew said.
Live-by words: fresh, local and intriguing Today’s cutting edge resorts boast fresh foods and beverages
sourced as locally as possible. “To be in the game, you must do 100mile dining,” Andrew said. “If you aren’t local and sustainable, you aren’t competitive.” Semiahmoo highlights farm-totable cuisine under the experienced direction of Paris-born Culinary Director Eric Truglass, who oversees four restaurants – Great Blue Heron, Pierside Kitchen, Packers Oyster Bar, and Loomis Trail Bar & Grill. “Don’t just make it food and beverage; make it a celebration of experience,” Andrew said. He added that the menu is built around a great chef ’s strengths. Truglass has sourced foods from more than 20 local small farms and artisan producers. He works directly with growers, whether selecting briny Drayton Harbor oysters or Sage Farm lamb for a harissa aioli burger. Sophisticated fare is the norm: Think duck confit cassoulet, or a foraged mushroom pizzetta baked in one of the internationally-
Culinary Director Eric Truglass, a Parisian originally, has four dining options in his chefdom: Great Blue Heron, Pierside Kitchen, Packers Oyster Bar, and Loomis Trail Bar & Grill. Amberleigh Brownson serves as the resort’s restaurant outlets manager, overseeing three of those – all except the golf club bar and grill.
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BUSINESS BOX SCORE renowned Wood Stone ovens manufactured in Bellingham. “We have some fun stuff like a peanut butterand-cheddar omelet. It’s different, it’s a wow, and people talk about it,” Andrew said. Informal events, like a wine and cheese pairing class, are held in Pierside’s open kitchen, the backdrop White Rock and the busy border crossing. It’s one more way locals enjoy resort offerings. “You can have a conversation with a sommelier,” Andrew said, “and learn, for example, why a Malbec is different in France than in South America.” This year’s New Year’s Eve party drew over 300 people dancing until 2 a.m.
Naturally, Sustainability Matters Here As the hotel freshens up to compete with other Northwest destination resorts, sustainability echoes through its newly painted corridors.
Name: Semiahmoo Resort Golf Spa Location: Blaine, on the site of the former Alaska Packers Association salmon cannery Opened: 1987 (closed Dec. 2012) Purchased and reopened: Summer, 2013 Founder: David Syre, Chairman, Trillium Corporation Employees: about 400 Rooms: 212 Restaurants: 4 Golf courses (2): Semiahmoo Golf & Country Club; Loomis Trail Golf & Country Club Number of members in each club: about 600 (over half Canadian in each) In Semiahmoo planned community: 300-slip marina, 500 homes and condos Ownership: Wright Hotels, Inc. Resort management: Coastal Hotel Group Resort general manager: Mark Andrew
Continued on page 20
WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 17
Ups and Downs of Ownerships and Management By Susan G. Cole In 1980 visionary developer and Trillium Corporation Chairman David Syre purchased over 1,000 acres at Semiahmoo for a master planned community to include a hotel. At the end of 2012, several owners and managers later, the hotel closed – victim of an anemic economy. “The city of Blaine was hard-hit when the resort closed,” Blaine City Manager David Wilbrecht said. “Many of our citizens were employed there and lost jobs, the city reduced staffing, sales taxes were negatively impacted, as were revenues for water, wastewater, storm drainage and electric utilities. Residents in the Semiahmoo development lost access to important amenities that provided social and recreation resources for their community.” Various owners and management companies came and went after the hotel opened 28 years ago. Chaffin/Light, the developers of Snowmass (a Colorado resort), planned the hotel and hired Atlas Hotels to build and run it. In 1994 the hotel was taken into receivership by its lender. At that time it was owned half by Nippon Landic and half by a collection of investors that included Trillium Corp. and American Express.
Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, LLC assumed management. John Gibb, currently managing partner of the Willows Inn on Lummi Island and the president/CEO of nutraDried, spent two years as general manager of the hotel for Wyndham. “It was definitely in bad shape when we took it over,” Gibb said. “We did a pretty significant renovation, including reroofing the Inn.” In 1999 Semiahmoo Co. purchased the hotel from Nippon and briefly took over operations. MTM Management came on board the next year. In 2003, Trillium sold a majority ownership of the hotel to the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe (owner of the Skagit Valley Casino). During 2012, with flagging business in the sputtering overall economy, a failed attempt to quickly find a new buyer for the hotel was complicated by bankruptcy proceedings of a part-owner. Closure took place in December. Gibb said the staff during his brief tenure was “incredible….despite all the ups and downs, they always maintained a core of exceptional people – and perhaps that’s the one common thread that’s allowed Semiahmoo to survive.” WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 19
BUSINESS PROFILE: SEMIAHMOO RESORT • GOLF • SPA “We are at the end of the spit,” Andrew said. “We are so close to nature here, we reduce, reuse, recycle.” With an employee sustainability committee, the resort looks for ways to be green. The wood floor in the lobby was refurbished using only organically friendly substances. “It brought the beauty of the wood back to life,” he said. Guest rooms are cleaned with scent-neutral, environmentally-safe products. Used soap in the showers is sent to Clean the World, where the soap is sterilized, remolded, and delivered overseas. Grey water irrigates green spaces surrounding the hotel. Even Andrew’s business card is made from wood scraps, recouped after he replaced china bowls with hand-tooled wooden ones. The lobby carpet? Recycled fishing nets. Cooking grease? Saved for biofuel. Relationships in the hotel business matter. Semiahmoo wants to be a good neighbor to Blaine and Birch Bay, and be in step with the eco-focused Northwest.
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Looking Ahead to Revenue and Rooms Creating a memorable guest experience comes with a cost. Wright Hotels has committed another $4 million to complete updates of meeting rooms, recreation corridors and outside areas. Can Semiahmoo reclaim its cachet as a casually luxe destination resort? Although Coastal doesn’t share occupancy rates, Andrew said, “Our goal is to run an operation that continues to turn moments into lifetime memories for our guests on a continual basis. To that end, our perfect occupancy level would be such that each guest feels wellserved. “My personal goal is to get the resort over the annual occupancy level of 60 percent.” Room rates are generally under $200 a night, with several packages that include addins like spa treatments, golf, or meals. The City of Blaine counts on the
revenue that the resort provides. Jeffrey Lazenby, Blaine finance director, said revenue has not returned to its pre-closing levels. “Although not back to those 2012 numbers, revenue is coming in for the resort, and it is getting close to what it was in the beginning of 2012.” (When the resort closed in 2012, annual utility revenue was around $600,000. Annual sales and lodging taxes contributed about $200,000.)
Boosting Blaine “It’s important to Blaine in many ways,” City Manager David Wilbrecht said. “From a business perspective, it is a countywide resource that represents one of the best developments in the area. Its location, premier facilities, quality management, and service delivery systems are some of the finest in the Northwest. It is an icon and an important economic engine that draws visitors to our city as well as the county. It provides jobs and engenders a sense of pride for our local citizens, who use the facility for many social, recreational, and business purposes.” As Semiahmoo Resort crafts memories for its guests, several new hotels are coming to Whatcom County in the next few years, adding more than 600 rooms. What does that mean for a destination resort? “New hospitality offerings will enable us to better serve our traveling public, and it will force us all to up our game when it comes to taking care of the guest,” he said. “But new hotels alone are not enough when we are talking about capacity. There needs to be thought and money put into answering the question as to why someone would come here. That is a bigger matter when it comes to capacity.” Semiahmoo, with its emphasis on the guest experience, believes it has the answer to that question
Business Person of the Year Finalists
‘Dandy Dozen’ stand in the limelight at 29th annual Whatcom awards fete By Mike McKenzie, Managing Editor
L
ike a fine wine, the Whatcom Business Person of the Year Awards Dinner ages marvelously. Every year—and this is the 29th—as people start filling the room, it takes on an exciting buzz. And, the suspense builds until (drum roll, please), “This year the award goes to….” The 12 finalists—four in each of three categories— receive recognition for having surfaced from among dozens of nominees. They’re all winners, in the bigpicture sense of the word. Their stories always win the hearts of the crowd, too. During the countdown more than 400 people will get to know and applaud finalists who have excelled in starting a business within the last three years, operating a business with up to 99 employees, and attaining indi22 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
vidual achievements at a remarkable level of success. The last spotlight of the night falls on the Lifetime Achievement Award winner: Terry Smith, who is retired as former president and chairman of the board of Smith Gardens. This 5th generation, 110-year legacy business headquartered in Bellingham has locations in Marysville, Wash., and in Oregon and California, stood No. 24 on the Whatcom Top 100 Private Companies listing in the 40–45 million dollars range, and employs more than 600. The event, presented by the Whatcom Business Alliance, Heritage Bank, and Business Pulse, takes place in the Event Center at Silver Reef on Wednesday, March 25. Meet-and-mingle starts at 6, dinner is at 7, and the awards presentations start at 8. This year for the second time, the organizers will feature short video highlights of the Business Person and Small Business finalists. They are:
ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS of the annual Whatcom best in business awards culminates the high-energy, high-emotion night with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 it went to Windermere Real Estate/Whatcom CEO Dan Washburn, holding the trophy in the photo while surrounded by family and associates who celebrated the recognition with him. (Photo by Lydia Love, Business Pulse)
THE 4 FINALISTS – BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR (ALPHABETICALLY) •
•
•
Jesse Cantu founded Jalapenos, a Mexican restaurant that grew to three locations in downtown Bellingham, Fairhaven, and Barkley Village. Last year his company opened a new concept, Luna’s Bistro with an Italian menu. Cantu runs the company with his son, Daniel, and they have plans for yet another expansion into the world of either steakhouse or sports bar and grill. He came to this area by way of Semiahmoo Resort, and opened his business after a couple of years there. Cathy Hayward-Hughes and a business partner started Crystal Creek Logistics seven years ago, and the company has grown to 33 employees operating in seven times more space (43,000 square feet) than their early facility in Ferndale. Crystal Creek started with one large client, former Small Business finalist Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics, and has since attracted numerous high-producing clients by providing fulfillment of Internet orders. This spring the business will expand with Brickstone Foods, a web-based offering of foods delivered to a customer’s door, tagged “Easy Elegance at Home.” Hayward-Hughes said, “We are very excited about this project. It will give us a good opportunity to make use of the sum total of all of our combined experiences with food, with marketing and with shipping. Ben Kinney owns Keller Williams Bellingham, and seven other Keller Williams franchises – six in Washington, and one in Hawaii, all since 2008. At the outset he had about 80 independent agents working through his brokerages; last year the number topped 900, and their sales volume approached $1.7 billion. A few years ago he partnered with real-estate entrepreneur Troy Muljat, a WBA Board member, in purchasing Big Fresh software development and Tech Help, and with two other junior partners they formed a tech
company with two real-estate related software and training projects. Kinney, who issued about 100 W-2s to full-time employees last year, said he recently returned from three straight weeks away from home. “My life,” he said, “is constantly finding, retaining, and investing in top talent.” •
Harlan Oppenheim entered the doors at Silver Reef Hotel Casino Spa in 2001 before the doors were open to the public, and he’s been that booming travel and leisure destination’s only CEO. Never flinching over their remote location, Oppenheim’s company has added rooms, restaurants, activities, and state-of-the-art meeting space in seven expansions that funneled more than $130 million into Whatcom construction contracts and created 675 jobs – nearly four times what it started with. Oppenheim said he always expected success, “But no one thought 13 years ago that we’d grow to the size and stature that we’re at.
OTHER FINALISTS (ALPHABETICALLY): Small Business • • • •
Blue Star Welding (Frank and Sue Priebe, Owners) eCigExpress (Timothy Furre, Owner/CEO) Home Port Seafoods (Christie Benson, VP: owned by retired parents Glen and Jeanne Bischus) iTek Energy (John Flanagan, CEO, and Terry Samson, Owners)
Startup Business • • • •
ActionSprout (Shawn Kemp, COO, and ownership partners Drew Bernard and George DeCarlo) Chazzzam Signs & Graphics (Owners Chas Malich, GM; Sam Malich, Operations Manager, and Jerry Spraggins, Sales Manager) Chuckanut Bay Distillery (Matt Howell and Kelly Andrews, Owners) Innotech Metal Designs (Tim and Tracy Kaptein, Owners) WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 23
Startup Business of the year: ActionSprout
ActionSprout provides SaaS-y, savvy online boost Tools help social causes tap the power of Facebook By Pam Bauthues
A
ctionSprout founders Shawn Kemp, Drew Bernard, and George DeCarlo all worked with private ventures before starting ActionSprout. Their website home page bugles their message, loud and clear: “Facebook power tools for people changing the world.”
ActionSprout provides a platform for organizations to create and run social petitions, discover highly effective Facebook content to repost, and track the activity of their individual social supporters. 24 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
Co-founder Kemp said, “We realized that most organizations were wasting tons of time and resources on Facebook without real direct outcomes.” The owners devised a solution to help organizations benefit more directly from their Facebook presence, and founded ActionSprout in 2012. “We help them grow their email lists, cultivate and retain donors, and increase their Facebook engagement,” Kemp said. ActionSprout, an SaaS business – software as a service – charges customers a monthly fee to use the software application. Last year the company served about 2.8 million petitions and tracked $7.5 million online social engagements. Business boomed, and they hired
seven new employees, bringing the staff to 10 – six of them located in Bellingham. The founders’ seed funding fueled the business for the first two years. Recently, they completed a $1.7 million Series A funding round led by the Oregon Angel Fund and Bellingham Angels. ActionSprout’s customers primarily consist of nonprofits and political organizations and candidates. “We are uniquely focused on serving the needs of causes as opposed to brands,” Kemp said, “and our tools are fine-tuned to be incredibly effective at turning Facebook efforts into measurable outcomes.” In less than three years, they’ve secured many big-name
SHAWN KEMP MONITORS the software engagements in the Bellingham downtown home office, while partners manage business at Seattle and Portland sites. (Photos by Mike McKenzie)
clients, including Greenpeace, UNICEF, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, PETA, Ready for Hilary, Ted Cruz, NRA, Daily KOS, ONE, Occupy Wall Street, and Planned Parenthood. About 40 percent of their business extends internationally. The business focuses on maintaining a lean approach during product development – first devel-
“We realized that most organizations were wasting tons of time and resources on Facebook without real direct outcomes.” —Shawn Kemp, co-founder and COO
oping minimum viable products and conducting thorough market research, then building a scalable product that fits their customers’ needs. And the group is moving fullspeed ahead. “We are scaling up our content marketing to increase awareness and continuing to bring on and train large organizations and agencies who set industry standards,” Kemp said. They also continue to adapt the product as their business evolves, constantly tweaking it and making updates to keep up with digital trends. Through it all, ActionSprout strives to offer amazing support by creating products with reachable support staff behind them. Kemp said, “Our long-term goal is to be the de facto tool used by every nonprofit and politician who has a Facebook presence.”
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Startup Business of the year: Chazzzam Signs & Graphics
That's a wrap!
Young, bold, spunky – Chazzzam vehicle graphics and wraps (and more) sell in 10 countries on four continents to increase 300% in just 3 years By Lydia Love
B
oom! Pow! Chazzzam!
Chazzzam Signs & Graphics has made a bold splash since inception in 2012, attracting about 1,300 customers. Three young owners, ages 26-30, wanted their brand to have a loud, inyour-face quality, and the name Chazzzam helped them come across as a refreshing, funky Bellingham company. From the loud music when you walk in the door to the Toxic Lime Green color on the wall, Chazzzam is all about spunk. The company specializes in vehicle wraps, graphics, lettering, 26 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
banners, signs, and much more. Owner and manager Chas Malich and his brother, co-owner in charge of production Sam Malich, were born into the sign industry. Their father owned multiple sign shops since the ‘70s. The brothers attended college and left the sign world, but soon returned to dive creatively into something unique. They partnered with their friend, Jerry Spraggins, for ownership and sales. The name Chazzzam is a play on Chas and Sam, and has three Z's to represent the three owners. They currently have one fulltime employee and two half-time
employees, with the oldest at age 31. The Chazzzam business model focuses on quality over quantity, and they try to make every customer feel like their friend. "We aren't necessarily the cheapest, but the experience you have with us outweighs the extra pennies spent,” Chas Malich said. Chazzzam mostly does business in Whatcom and Skagit Counties, but they have customers in more than 10 countries on four continents. They tripled sales in three years, topping half a million last year. About 30 percent of that has come from enthusiasts who want
PARTNERS (L. to R.) Jerry Spraggins, Sam Malich, and Chas Malich, holding their shop dog Willie, show Chas’s Toxic Lime Green car with a sign, "This is not paint. This is not plasti-dip. This is a vinyl wrap." At right, Sam Malich and installer Carlos Olvera, apply a vinyl decal on their wall – the logo for Paint is Dead, which approves Chazzzam to install vinyl vehicle wraps. (Photos by Lydia Love)
to add style to their vehicle with graphics or a wrap. Chazzzam likes to focus on wraps because they're exciting, and there is always the option of taking the wrap off and starting over. Wrapping a car is usually less expensive than painting, plus a wrap will protect the car and its existing paint, Malich said.
locations. "Having three owners, we would each like to have our own store one day,” he said, “and have an even greater impact on the sign and graphics world.”
“We purchased all equipment in cash and ate Top Ramen…” — Chas Malich, Owner
The company began on a shoestring budget. "Jerry invested his life savings and Sam and I borrowed money from our mother,” Chas Malich said. “We purchased all equipment in cash and ate Top Ramen for the first year," Malich said. They wanted a lot of space in a great location to begin with a bigger boom, and it was expensive, but that's exactly what they did. Chazzzam started with no loans and no debt utilizing equipment in a spacious shop on Ohio Street. The brothers used skills they learned from their parents to purchase the basics to begin their projects. In their first year, 2012, their annual sales totaled $171,300. By 2014 that number had grown to $520,800 and they are steadily growing in the community. Malich figured that with 1,300 clients, the company gained 1.17 new clients a day since they've been open – including weekends they weren't open. Among their goals to expand and take over their world, Malich said, they would like to reach $1 million in sales each year, allowing them to possibly open more
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WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 27
Startup Business of the year: Chuckanut Bay Distillery
Hot Schnapps (and much more), slow-craft style Rapid first-year growth tied to regional identity By Tyrel Tjoelker
C
huckanut Bay Distillery didn’t let 2014 pass them by. This craft spirits distillery in Bellingham surged ahead in just its first full year, bringing on its first employee, increasing its product line eightfold, expanding its sales from Whatcom County to nearly all of Northwest Washington, opening an on-site tasting room and 28 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
retail store, and much more.
There’s no sign that their rapid growth will slow any time soon. Since founding Chuckanut Bay Distillery, owners Matt Howell and Kelly Andrews have centered their business on a strong core philosophy: A fierce dedication to quality, an appreciation for the local community, and a willingness to innovate and experiment. This philosophy, the foundation of a strong identity, is captured in a term of their own making – slowcrafting. Howell, a co-owner and the head distiller, said, “We coined a term, ‘slow-crafting,’ which encapsulates
our commitment to hands-on production, constant critiquing of our quality, reanalysis of our systems, and rejects shortcuts and timesaving measures that would potentially impact our vision or our end products.” Effects of this approach show up in many different places — ingredients are locally-sourced, fresh produce is preferred over dry (such as in potato vodka, fresh instead of dried and flaked potatoes), and Howell designed many of the machines used in production. Chuckanut Bay Distillery is part of a subset of Washington State craft distillers that chooses to produce their distillates from the base
CO-OWNERS (L. to R.) Kelly Andrews, Matt Howell, and Ethan Lynette have distilled their business strategy to simple terms of sourcing locally, “slow-crafting,” and customer contact with a tasting room and retail store. (Photo by Gabriel Knapp)
agricultural components — in their case, grain and potatoes — rather than purchasing a neutral spirit from a bulk distillery, which is then re-distilled or enhanced with flavors. Howell said, “We envision and produce distilled spirits." They create their own recipes, such as what their website describes as "Old Busker (as) Chuckanut Bay Distillery's take on the coffee liqueur." Their focus on regional identity and local sources led them to use potatoes as the base of their first product, a vodka. Notoriously difficult to work with and rarely chosen, potatoes weren’t an easy first choice. But taking on chal-
lenges like this sets Chuckanut Bay Distillery apart: They choose to work with local ingredients, they aren’t afraid to try things others shy away from, and they put in the
“Within the next 18 months, we plan to move to a larger facility (within Bellingham) that will allow us to increase our efficiency and our production numbers.” — Matt Howell, co-owner and head distiller
dedicated work required to make it happen — including designing their own machinery, and testing to find the perfect ratios when data isn’t
available. Today, customers can enjoy more than just the original potato vodka. Chuckanut Bay Distillery’s product line has grown to include two vodkas, two gins, a coffee liqueur, an herbal liqueur, a “hop schnapps,” and a whiskey. They also sell nonalcoholic items like branded clothing and barware in their retail store. And it appears as if both the slow-craft philosophy and growth are here to stay. Howell said, “Within the next 18 months, we plan to move to a larger facility (within Bellingham) that will allow us to increase our efficiency and our production numbers. Our goal is to increase our sales footprint along that timeline such that our growth in capacity will be concomitant with growth in demand. Expansion of our target market and establishing relationships with distributor partners will assist in achieving the latter goal.”
WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 29
Startup Business of the year: INNOTECH METAL DESIGNS
The million-dollar couple Tim and Tracy Kaptein turn industrial stainless design into industrious painless growth By Sherri Huleatt
I
nnotech Metal Designs, a custom metal design company that designs, builds, and installs industrial stainless-steel equipment, has created a stunning start-up success story. It opened in 2012 with just two employees. Six months later, they’d seen a remarkable $500,000 in sales, and reached $800,000 by years’ end. In 2014, they saw more than $1 million in sales.
TIM AND TRACY KAPTEIN founded Innotech Metal Designs in Bellingham in 2012. In 2014, they made over $1 million in sales, and in 2015, they hope to hit $2 million. (Photo courtesy of Innotech Metal Designs)
30 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
Last year the company also increased to seven fulltime employees, and made plans to move into a facility six times larger than their shop on King Tut Road in Bellingham. Innotech equipment is used for food processing, commercial, and industrial industries throughout the Pacific Northwest. “I’ve always been able to envision a better, stronger, and more efficient way to build things,” said Tim Kaptein, the founder of Innotech. “That, along with my desire to create high-quality metalwork, fueled the fire that is Innotech Metal Designs.” Kaptein was groomed for metal work at a young age—his dad worked in the local metal industry for 51 years – and Tim spent his childhood and teen years working in the shop, learning everything there is to know about metal. After spending a few years working for local metal fabrication companies, Kaptein studied business at Whatcom Community College and earned his Washington Association of Building Officials (WABO) certification—the equivalent of a PhD in welding. At 30 years old, Kaptein and his wife, Tracy, opened their
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first business: Innotech Metal Designs. Kaptein had two things going for him from the start: First, he was born and raised in Whatcom County, and he had long-time connections already interested in doing business with him. And second, he and his wife were incredible money managers. At just 20 years old Kaptein took out a line of credit and bought his first house; since then, he’s sold his first house, bought his second house, and paid off Innotech Metal Design’s property. Upon opening, Kaptein’s first order of business was to help fill what he saw as a customer service gap created by other local industries. “We view customer service as more important than the actual equipment,” said Kaptein. “We’ve built relationships with our customers that go well beyond friendship. When someone calls at 2:30 a.m. asking for help because their process line is down, we’re there. Even
when the company that manufactured the broken equipment doesn’t respond after hours, we do because it’s the right thing to do.” On top of loyal customer service
“When someone calls at 2:30 a.m. asking for help because their process line is down, we’re there. Even when the company that manufactured the broken equipment doesn’t respond after hours, we do because it’s the right thing to do.” and smart finances, Kaptein based his company on superior craftsmanship and on hiring passionate, qualified workers. “Hiring the right people is paramount,” he said. “You have to be very careful who you hire
because choosing the wrong person will most certainly cost you more than wages paid.” While many companies look for specialists—workers whose expertise lies in one area—Kaptein recruits workers who can do it all: read blueprints, weld, fabricate parts, and more. Their biggest challenge ahead is competing with larger companies that have “seemingly limitless budgets,” said Philip Wilson, Innotech’s operations manager. “That said, our ability to grow in a highly competitive market is a testament to the dedication and professionalism of our entire team.” To stand out from larger companies, Kaptein said he follows a business philosophy that mirrors his life philosophy: “Treat everyone with the utmost respect; always do the right thing, even when no one will know, and always remember the most important things in life are not material things but the people you influence along the way.” WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 33
Small business of the year: Blue Star Welding
Blue Star earns gold-star status From broken-down logger to ‘shoestring startup,’ the Priebes weld the broken and create and sell structural steel By Pam Bauthues
N
ow an established Whatcom County business for more than three decades, Blue Star Welding began when owner Frank Priebe encountered a desperate need during his work as a logger. He described that situation: “I was driving a log truck in 1977 . . . and the logger broke 34 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
down. Before I could get loaded I had to wait for a welder. After watching him struggle with welding I asked the loggers if they wanted me to do it, and they happily agreed. In completing the job, one of the loggers asked that if I could weld that well, why was I driving a log truck?” He quit driving, began welding. Priebe said the company was an “original shoestring startup with a pick-up truck, torch, welder, and a few tools.”
Sue and Frank Priebe have led the growth of Blue Star Welding to 29 full-time employees – their children among them, Jerod as a manager, and Jere’ in the front office. While the business is contained within Whatcom County, they offer services statewide and ship finished products worldwide. They provide support for a variety of customers, including contractors, aggregate companies, logging industries, and farming communities. The customer base evolved
IT’S A PREIBE FAMILY AFFAIR at Blue Star Welding: (l. to r.) son Jerod and daughter Jere’ (pronounced Ju-RAY) join their parents in the workforce, Sue and Frank. They have forged a 29-person company that serves customers around the world. (Photo by Gabriel Knapp)
naturally from Blue Star’s humble beginnings. As the business grew in size, it also grew in scope to encompass two halves: servicing repairs, and providing structural steel. Blue Star Welding started with just the repair side in 1981. Their primary focus was providing portable repair services throughout Whatcom County. Frank Priebe said, “As we grew, so did our services and customers, including many heavy-equipment construction companies, farmers, and several logging companies.” Over the years, they increased service offerings to include welding, fabrication, line boring, cylinder repair, machining, bucket building, building or repairing of heavy
equipment, painting, and sandblasting services. “As we have grown over the years, the other half of the company started to naturally evolve for us,” Priebe said. Blue Star Welding expanded to provide structural steel for local, state, and national
“Our business sustains success and continued growth by service, service, service….We don’t argue about mistakes, we just make sure they get fixed.” — Frank Priebe, owner
construction companies for both public-works departments and private sectors. Blue Star Welding continues to sustain growth and success by offer-
ing new product lines, involving themselves in building heavy-hauling equipment, and recently updating their repair equipment in order to provide even better service. Despite its growth and expansion, Blue Star Welding has maintained their original core values. Priebe said their proudest achievement is their “ability to continue to serve many people and make each job our priority at the time.” They constantly cultivate a customer-focused service approach. “Our business sustains success and continued growth by service, service, service,” Priebe said. “Since the day we started…we underpromise but always over-deliver. We do what it takes to keep our customers and employees working. We pay attention to detail and work with our customers so they can get up and running again. “We don’t argue about mistakes, we just make sure they get fixed.”
Contact me today! www.gabrielknapp.net photos@gabrielknapp.net 805.729.3947
WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 35
Small business of the year: eCig Express FOUNDER TIMOTHY FURRE samples product in the lab where ecigExpress creates some original flavors to go with their hundreds of imported offerings. (Staff photos)
Profitable puffs
Furre turned respiratory therapist inspiration into thriving business (4 stores, 44 jobs, $7MM in ’14) of vaping By Susan G. Cole
F
or ecigExpress founder Timothy Furre, the path from caring for people with respiratory ills to selling electronic cigarettes and vapors just made sense. “The experiences I gained as a respiratory therapist inspired me to pursue a career in tobacco harmreduction,” Furre said. “I started an electronic cigarette company because I viewed the products as an effective, affordable alternative to tobacco cigarettes.” A happenstance browsing on the Web moved him to set up shop at 36 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
home in Ohio, while continuing to work with hospital patients in the field that he earned a college degree in. “I witnessed patients suffering from cancer and emphysema,” Furre said, “and after discovering electronic cigarettes on an Internet forum, I ordered one to evaluate it as a substitute to smoking tobacco cigarettes. I was immediately impressed by the potential of electronic cigarettes.” So impressed, in fact, that Furre sold his truck, and invested $2,000 into inventory of electronic cigarettes and flavored vapors. ecigExpress, founded just six years ago as a sole proprietor, today employs 44
people. Its sales of nearly $7 million last year were up 30 percent from the previous year. “ ecigExpress provides a variety of electronic cigarette products to multiple audiences, ranging from retail customers to small electronic cigarette businesses,” Furre said. He sells all the components of electronic cigarettes and more than 1,200 liquid flavors. About 90 percent of ecigExpress sales come through e-commerce. “I didn’t have a business plan or anything,” Furre said. “I just went with a feeling. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and had tried several businesses before starting
ecigExpress. My inspiration was growing up in poverty, a desire to achieve success, and a desire to have a positive influence on other people’s lives.” ecigExpress has four retail stores in Washington (Bellingham, Seattle, Lynnwood) and distribution warehouses in Whatcom County near Ferndale. Plans call for continued expansion, perhaps to Hawaii. Diversification remains key, as proposed federal regulations and big tobacco companies’ interest in joining the relatively new market threatens to upend the fledgling industry. Diversification includes the widest variety of flavors and products.
"I was immediately impressed by the potential of electronic cigarettes." — Tim Furre, founder/owner
His niche, Furre said, is introducing new flavors, such as its latest premium e-liquid line, Immortal Fog. “We’re not the place for hardware,” he said. “We’re all about consumable goods, the largest selection of flavors.” Customers choose their flavors from categories like mint, nut, beverage, dessert, and, yes, even tobacco. Furre is proud of his company’s sustained growth. “Success revolves around customer satisfaction, investing in our employees, and our commitment to professionalism and excellence in the electronic cigarette industry.” As a former tobacco and nicotine user himself, he’s an advocate for the possible advantages of vaping. “I started smoking at age 15,” he said, “I just know that I now breathe better, and feel better.” Soaring sales at ecigExpress indicate his customers likely agree.
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Small business of the year: itek energy
Powered by solar and entrepreneurial energy iTek trebled growth and doubled staffing in three years By Tara Nelson
J
ohn Flanagan, CEO/ President, and Kelly Samson founded iTek Energy in Bellingham during 2011. Samson is an investor partner who lives on Bainbridge Island and operates his own industryrelated business in the Seattle area. 38 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
iTek Energy employs about 80 full-time workers who manufactures solar modules and inverters for a wholesale market to Whatcom County solar installers and electrical distributors. iTek also recently opened a second assembly facility in Minneapolis, and the company plans to start selling in the California market within the year. Flanagan, who has a background in manufacturing and business, said prior to iTek Energy, he had all the components necessary to
put together a solar module manufacturing facility. “I have been an entrepreneur almost all my life and have been manufacturing since 1992,” he said. “That, and I have always been interested in renewable energy as I feel it is urgent that we wean ourselves off fossil fuels. So when the opportunity to purchase the necessary equipment came up, I pulled the trigger.” For two years Flanagan and Samson, who owns Blue Frog Solar
in Poulsbo, attended solar trade shows, studied the process, and monitored legislation surrounding renewable energy. In 2011 the two
“I have always been interested in renewable energy as I feel it is urgent that we wean ourselves off fossil fuels. So when the opportunity to purchase the necessary equipment came up, I pulled the trigger.” JOHN FLANAGAN, CEO/President of iTek Energy, signs his emails, “It’s a great time to go solar in WA state!” The company has powered its way to 80 employees and increased sales last year by 300%. (Photo by Kelly Kindler, courtesy of iTek Energy)
— John Flanagan, President/CEO, iTek Energy
pooled their own money and set up shop. Flanagan said because he owned the building already, they were able to start the business without acquiring any loans or grants. By 2014, the company had
tripled sales and expanded production, doubled their workforce, and was in a position to purchase new equipment. Flanagan said the keys to sustaining that growth in the years ahead are teamwork, a loyal customer base, and a consumer awareness of the benefits of solar to the environment. “Our proudest achievement is sustaining 300 percent growth over the last year,” Flanagan said. “We were also able to expand our employee benefit package.” For community service, Flanagan and Samson sit on boards of several local advisory committees in Whatcom County, and they have donated the company’s excess equipment to Bellingham Technical College for student training programs. The company plans are fullycharted for continued growth. “They keys are introduction of new products,” Flanagan said. “We expect the market to grow substantially over the next decade.”
Alcoa congratulates all of the finalists for the 2015 Business Person of the Year awards. Alcoa Intalco Works has operated in the State of Washington for 65 years. We began our Ferndale operations in 1965 with a culture of service, where each and every one of our approximately 640 employees are encouraged, supported and recognized for the active role they play in making our communities safer, stronger and more innovative places to live and work. We live our values every day, everywhere collaborating for the benefit of our customers, investors, employees, communities and partners. We are proud to be a major employer and help contribute to make Whatcom County a great place to live, work and raise a family. WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 39
Small business of the year: home port seafood
Word-of-mouth packs in the business Home Port processes about 9 million pounds of fish a year By Sherri Huleatt
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ince 1992, Home Port Seafoods in Bellingham has gone from fileting and packing seafood for just a handful of local fisherman to serving global retailers. Home Port works with clients from Bellingham to Germany and packs about 9 million pounds of seafood every year. Surprisingly, in the last 23 years, they haven’t done any marketing. 40 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
All of their growth is by word of mouth referral from satisfied customers. “I can’t tell you how many times a customer comes to us after going somewhere else, and they say how much they love our crew,” said Christie Benson, who runs the business as the vice president of the company owned by her parents, Glen and Jeanne Binschus. Glen had worked many years for conglomerate Trident Seafoods before founding Home Port. “They say we do the best work in the industry, and to hear that makes me so proud of my dad,” Benson said.
Home Port Seafoods first filets, then vacuum packs, freezes, labels, and packages seafood for about 110 fishers and businesses from as close as Lummi Island Wild fishery co-op about a mile away, to industry brands around the world. Home Port manages this global customer base with 65 employees – all but five in Whatcom County. Binschus was just 18 when he got his first job stacking frozen halibut at Bellingham Cold Storage. Shortly thereafter, he was recruited by Vita Foods, then Sea West, and then Trident. After turning down a job in Alaska, Binschus decided that at 51, he’d open a little
HOME PORT SEAFOODS was founded in 1992 by Glen Binschus, known affectionately as "Benny," and his wife, Jeanne (right). It serves customers from Bellingham to Germany, and daughter Christie Benson (left) manages the company’s service to 110 customers fishing anywhere from nearby to Germany. (Photo by Sherri Huleatt)
processing operation of his own. He mentioned the idea to a few friends in the industry and the response was incredible. “All the people dad had worked with over the years began to crawl out of the woodwork to offer him money,” Benson said. “But mom and dad didn’t take any of it. Instead, they refinanced their house, emptied their life savings, and took out a small loan to fund the company. They poured their blood, sweat, and tears into their business for a really long time.” Bellingham Cold Storage also offered them the perfect space and affordable rent to get started. At the time, Home Port Seafoods relied on old connections to make ends meet: One friend, who’d just started a new fishing business, asked for Binschus’s help with crab; another friend from Canada asked for help with salmon. Word continued to spread from there. “It was the good old days and the good old buddies,” Benson said. “It was one family operation helping another family operation. My dad did a really good job creating who he was in the first 25 years of his work experience. Everyone knew he could build anything and do anything.” Upon first opening, Jeanne Binschus hoped to spend her time in the office knitting, making photo albums, babysitting grandkids, and occasionally answering phones. Instead, Jeanne found herself in a flurry of calls and activity, and “grandkid time” was spent at work. “All of the grandkids were raised in the Home Port office,” Benson said. She said she would take her newborn to work with her—swaddled,
in a couple of office chairs. Completely averse to computers, Jeanne Binschus also spent the first year manually calculating and hand-writing paychecks for about 100 employees. When business would suddenly pick up, Glen Binschus and Benson would take the pickup truck to the Lighthouse Mission and the work release house
“It was the good old days and the good old buddies; it was one family operation helping another family operation.” — Christie Benson, Vice President of Home Port Seafoods
in Bellingham, and load up the truck full of people looking for work. “We’d get them boots, and work clothes, and send them off to work.” Benson said. Benson was so impressed by the dedication of some
of these workers, she hired a few full-time, and in 2013, she actually married one. Although Benson had met her future husband, Todd, at work, hard times lay ahead: Not long after she met Todd, her teenage son unexpectedly passed away. “We had to shut down the office for a week,” said Benson. “When we held the funeral, it was incredible how many customers came.” Not long after, Benson became incredibly ill. “No one could figure out what was wrong with me, and then my doctor called me and asked, ‘Have you ever considered you’re pregnant?’” And at 44, Benson found herself the mother of a 23-year-old-daughter and a newborn son—the spitting image of the boy she’d lost. “Home Port is the biggest part of my life,” Benson said. “Growing up, my kids always knew mom was at work. I still made it to baseball games and plays, but Home Port has always been my life.”
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Business Person of the year: jesse cantu
Jesse Cantu is proud of the list of imported fine wines and the discriminate spirits stirred and poured at the bar of Luna’s, his new 2014 restaurant named for his granddaughter. (Staff photo) 42 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
Fine dining expert, friend to all From Mexican to Italian cuisine. Next? Steakhouse, perhaps…. By Sherri Huleatt
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esse Cantu has done everything from catering for presidents, to working the graveyard-shift as a dishwasher, to spending six months straight (without a single day off) cooking in his new restaurant. Today, Cantu is proud owner of Jalapenos—a Mexican threerestaurant chain well-known for its friendly service, its much-loved margaritas (known as Big Mama’s). Last year Cantu added a new Italian restaurant to the portfolio, Luna’s Bistro.
“I want our customers to feel wanted,” said Cantu. “I want them to feel like there’s a place where they’ll be treated with kindness and respect. Our ultimate goal is to make our customers our friends.” That’s a goal his workers take very seriously—Jalapenos employees have been invited on trips with customers, received birthday presents from regulars, and they have offered rides to customers who drank too much. Cantu got his start in the U.S. at 23 when he moved from Monterrey, Mexico to Houston, Texas to work as an all-night dishwasher in a Mexican restaurant owned by a family member. From there, he moved to Chicago to serve as a busboy in a private club in the Sears Tower. Then he moved back
to Texas and climbed the ranks at a club in a Shell Oil building, and eventually The Houstonian—one of the most prestigious resorts in Texas. Throughout all of these experiences Cantu absorbed the finedining experience and eventually was hired as the banquet manager at Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine – a
“Our ultimate goal is to make our customers our friends.” — Jesse Cantu, Owner of Jalapenos and Luna’s Bistro
far cry from his Mexico and Texas background. In 1999, 3½ years after arriving at Semiahmoo, Cantu decided to go out on his own and open a Mexican restaurant that specialized in northern Mexican cuisine. “I wanted my first restaurant to be fun and casual,” he said. “And I wanted to bring the flavor of my hometown here.” After borrowing money from family to get started, Cantu worked every day for six months straight trying to build business at the original Jalapenos overlooking the waterfront on Holly Street. Fearing closure during their first year, Cantu and Jalapenos began gaining loyal customers through word-ofmouth. Since then, they’ve grown about 2-8 percent every year, and now have three locations across Whatcom County operating with 81 employees. Cantu’s first foray into other cuisines also had a rough start.
Luna’s Bistro, which opened during September 2014 near Regal Cinemas in Barkley Village, received a number of bad reviews during its first month. The employees, chef, and menu were all new, and Cantu said it took a few weeks to get the kinks worked out. “We’re settled now, and doing really well,” Cantu said. He brought in a second chef who had previously worked at the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham. The bistro now offers daily specials and “the best happy hour in town.” Cantu’s long-term success boils down to two things: passion and employees. “Restaurants fail when they lose their passion and slip into a routine,” he said. “It’s up to management to make work exciting and to encourage employees. The food-and-beverage industry isn’t just about taking orders, it’s about entertainment and friendship, too— we want to make our customers smile.” Cantu has a number of projects in the works: He’s expanding his catering services, and opening a new restaurant that will be either a steakhouse or sports bar. The catering service—which would offer Mexican and Italian options— would require a new warehouse and a catering manager. “What I love most about the restaurant business is the ability to bring comfort to people through food and drinks,” said Cantu. “I love the Northwest, and I love doing business in Whatcom County—I feel like we’re a big family where everyone knows each other.” WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 43
Business Person of the year: Cathy hayward-hughes Cathy Hayward-Hughes cites accuracy on orders, sharp hiring, wind energy as elements of pride at Crystal Creek Logistics as business climbs over 25% a year. Whatcom Top 100 is within reach, she said. (Staff photo)
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Fulfilling work keeps growing Expansion in Ferndale facilities mirrors steadily-expanding client list at Crystal Creek, which fulfills Internet orders By Dave Brumbaugh
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athy Hayward-Hughes and her company, Crystal Creek Logistics in Ferndale, fit like a glove among Whatcom County businesses, both because of the company’s focus (processing and shipping orders of frozen seafood products) and the values it espouses regarding employees and the environment.
Hayward-Hughes and co-owner Mike Bradburn, both long-time local residents and graduates of Western Washington University, launched Crystal Creek Logistics in 2008 with Hayward-Hughes taking on the roles of president and general manager. Starting with 6,000 feet of warehouse space, they had to survive the challenges of any startup business and then some, as the recession was firmly established. “We weathered the downturn in 2008 as a very young company and were able to learn how to run the business during a time where smart decisions were a must,” HaywardHughes said. “We learned that honesty and integrity were among the more critical attributes we possess.” Crystal Creek Logistics not only survived, but thrived. That was due largely to a commitment to and from their original and still largest client, the continually-growing Vital Choice Wild Seafoods & Organics right there nearby in Ferndale. (Vital Choice, on the
Business Pulse Top 100 Private Companies last year at more than $20 million in sales, was a winner of the Small Business of the Year Award in 2013.) Building on that foundation to earn annual sales growth averaging 26 percent, Crystal Creek Logistics has added fulfillment centers in Nebraska and Virginia, and in 2013 the owners bought a 43,000-squarefoot building in the Grandview industrial area north of Ferndale.
We can accommodate the high-volume customers who have complex needs… because we’ve grown and developed our resources and personnel methodically. — Cathy Hayward-Hughes
The number that means the most to Hayward-Hughes is the one most important to Crystal Creek’s customers – 99.7 percent accuracy in fulfilling customer orders over the last several years during rapid growth in sales. “Going forward, we know that we can accommodate the highvolume customers, who have complex needs, with a high degree of confidence because we’ve grown and developed our resources and personnel methodically,” HaywardHughes said. “In the spring, we plan to launch a new website offering high-quality foods delivered to the customer’s doorstep.” She gives credit for the com-
pany’s success to her employees. Hayward-Hughes and Bradburn believe that treating them fairly is both the right thing to do, and good for business. “Our goal is to create jobs with living wages that allow our employees to hopefully own a home and allow their children the chance for a better education,” Hayward-Hughes said. “… We firmly believe that profits result from an organization that takes the time to do it right the first time, and by a team that truly cares. “I consider hiring one of our most important processes and take this very seriously. I always have the final say. Hiring is of such critical importance in the success of a company.” A commitment to sound environmental practices also is a key component of the company’s philosophy. “In 2015, all three Crystal Creek facilities will be powered with 100-percent clean, sustainable wind energy,” Hayward-Hughes said. “We will be the only perishable fulfillment company to offset the carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions from dry ice and from carrier shipping operations on behalf of our clients. We believe responsible business benefits our environment, stakeholders and clients.” Another goal during 2015 is to climb into the Business Pulse Top 100 Private Companies. “We didn’t quite make it (to the $5 million minimum requirement) last year,” she said, “but I believe we will this year.” WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 45
Business Person of the year: ben kinney
A whirling dervish would appear to go in slow motion compared to the rate that ben kinney spins in managing his wide variety of businesses. He’s anchored by real estate dealings through numerous keller williams franchises, and he wanders into the world of technology, as well, as a self-styled “serial entrepreneur.” (Photo courtesy of Ben Kinney) 46 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
900 agents, $1.7 billion sales volume, and 100 full-time employees This real-estate magnate builds other businesses, too By Pam Bauthues
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en Kinney didn’t start out as a business mogul. He worked as a cableman to get himself through school, and it wasn’t even until 2004 that he obtained his real-estate license. Now, Kinney owns and operates eight Keller Williams real estate franchises, as well as additional companies in the technology and training industries.
Kinney’s successful real-estate career took off when he bought his first franchise, Keller Williams Bellingham, at a time the market was down in 2008. Since then, he has purchased seven additional locations – six in Western Washington, and Hampstead, London, UK. During 2008 those brokerages employed 80 agents altogether. Six years later, they have around 900 agents, and they have topped $1.697 billion in sales volume. Kinney also has about 100 full-time employees in all of his companies combined. “Building a business in one of the worst economic times of my generation has been a challenge, but also a gift,” Kinney said. “I am proud that the tough times were easy for me to overcome, because the recent upshift in the economy is paying dividends for the work we
did during the darkest times.” With such rapid, substantial growth, Kinney began founding more ventures outside of real estate. He and his business partner, Troy Muljat, bought into the Bellingham software development company Big Fresh and the IT firm Tech Help from Doug Devries and Mark Lee.
“I am not willing to put success in the workplace before the quality of my personal relationships and my own personal health.” — Ben Kinney
The four partners launched NVNTD, a technology company in the software, online, and mobile space. They have 30 employees and two major projects in the works: Blossor and Brivity. Blossor is a search portal for consumers to find real-estate listings, similar to Zillow, Trulia, or Redfin. “Google ventures recently nicknamed Blossor the ‘Zillow Killer,’” Kinney said. “This product will change the way consumers and agents interact and search for real estate.” Brivity is a software tool that helps the real-estate industry man-
age business, communicate with clients, and market properties. Kinney said, “Our pet name is the ‘transparency tool’ because it allows consumers to see all the tasks and workflow that a real estate professional completes for the fees that they charge.” Among earning numerous local and national awards, co-writing and publishing a highly successful eBook, and giving back to local charities, Kinney makes a point of staying grounded. “My company’s values are God, family, and then business,” he said. “I am not willing to put success in the workplace before the quality of my personal relationships and my own personal health.” His main business philosophy is centered around focusing on who rather than what. He said, “… My life has to be about constantly finding, retaining, and investing in top talent.” Even though Kinney’s business has expanded internationally, he still calls Whatcom County home. “I have no intention of ever living anywhere else,” he said. “Every year it gets easier to do business in our county. However, it’s going to take more businesses willing to grow and expand to help us tell the Whatcom County story, [which is about] having a life worth living in a place that any person or family would love to live while having career opportunities equal to or better than the larger metropolitan areas around us.” WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 47
Business Person of the year: harlan oppenheim
Harlan Oppenheim has served as Silver Reef Casino’s CEO since they first opened their doors in 2002. His main goals have been to provide incredible customer service, a positive work environment, and economic growth for the Lummi Tribe. 48 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
CEO from Day One nurtures huge growth, helps give millions to charity By Sherri Huleatt
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hen the Silver Reef Hotel • Casino • Spa first opened its doors in April 2002, it was amidst a flurry of swirling doubts: How could a casino built in the middle of nowhere, miles off of I-5 path on a huge expanse of Lummi Nation property near Ferndale, attract enough traffic to make it successful?
And what makes this casino different from one that had failed nine minutes further down the road at Gooseberry Point years before? Many answers have long since quelled the skepticism – with deft management at the top of the list. Now, 13 years later, Silver Reef Casino in Ferndale is in its seventh phase of expansion, stands as one of the largest private employers in Whatcom County, and the only CEO it’s ever had, Harlan Oppenheim, never shared in the doubts. “We always knew we’d be successful, but no one thought 13 years ago that we’d grow to the size and stature that we’re at,” Oppenheim said. He came on board almost a year before the opening. “When we started planning for the casino, people thought, well, it’s a remote location, you’ll have a hard time growing. Now, we hear all the time that people were not expecting to find such a large and high-quality facility in such an off-the-beatenpath location.”
Since opening, they’ve grown from 180 employees to more than 600; they have 10 on-site restaurants with chefs recruited from around the country; customers play 1,200 slots and 18 table games, and guests can choose from 105 rooms and suites, a full-service spa, and banquet facilities. The
“We always knew we’d be successful, but no one thought 13 years ago that we’d grow to the size and stature that we’re at,” —Harlan Oppenheim, CEO, Silver Reef Hotel • Casino • Spa
casino, with a motto of “Experience Everything,” also has received dozens of awards from organizations like Trip Advisor, Wine Spectator, and numerous local media. Silver Reef Casino’s construction projects alone have invested about $130 million in the local community. Hardly any time passed between the expansion that will open this year and the previous expansion that added the spectacular Event Center and Theater at Silver Reef, along with more gaming and restaurants. And every year the company – which is owned by Lummi Commercial Company -- donates more than $1 million in cash, goods, and services to a long list of Whatcom County nonprofits.
Oppenheim said the casino’s initial goal was to provide economic benefits and employment to the Lummis—and that goal holds strong yet today. “What I’m most proud of is the casino’s contribution to the Lummi Tribe,” Oppenheim said. “Since opening the casino, Lummi Nation has built a beautiful administration building, a new school, infrastructure improvements that includes a waste-water treatment facility, and more,” he said. Oppenheim moved to Bellingham in 2001 to open the casino. He got his start working for Hilton Hotels in Las Vegas, which gave him a solid background in the hotel and gaming industry. Oppenheim has helped establish a corporate culture at Silver Reef that focuses on superior customer service and on community. Oppenheim said they hold ongoing comment forums, focus groups, shopper surveys, and other initiatives, to ensure that their customers know they are heard. On top of that Oppenheim said one of the best ways to keep customers happy is to keep your employees happy, which is why Silver Reef Casino offers its employees an extensive benefits package, competitive wages, and a positive work environment. Going forward, Silver Reef Casino plans on completing their seventh phase of expansion by July 2015, which will add 100 new rooms and suites, a small bar, and 3,000 square feet. Hold no doubt that, with many acres of available undeveloped property, there’s likely to be more to come. WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 49
Lifetime achievement award: Terry Smith, Smith Gardens
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At left, photographer Gabriel Knapp captures retired floriculturalist Terry Smith’s easy smile and sample of the company’s starts. At right, Smith lent this scrapbook classic of his grandfather, Smith Gardens founder Harry Smith holding him as a beaming father, Andy Smith, looks on.
Mr. Inspiration
Terry Smith passes on his spirited optimism, vision to the 4th generation at Smith Gardens By Mike McKenzie, Managing Editor
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mith Gardens, at 114 and counting, stands as one of Bellingham’s stalwart family legacy companies. It operates under its fourth generation of Smith ownership.
It has created many hundreds of jobs in Whatcom County, Snohomish County, Oregon, and California… ranged upward to $60 million in sales to sit in the top echelon among our annual Top 100 Private Companies…contributed indelibly to the well-being of their communities. To understand retired, third-generation owner Terry Smith’s role in this, go straight to his core values, in business and in life: Business as stewardship, built upon his faith in God, faith in family, and faith in his limitless dreams and capabilities. He lived inspired. And now he lives to give back hope and encouragement and positive everyday esprit. To spread his constant and contagious optimism (“DNA-wired,” he’ll tell you), armed with aphorisms (“Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future!”), wherever he goes, whomever he encounters. Dr. Rick Goossen, a former professor at Trinity
Western University in Langley, B.C., who introduced himself by phone as “the president of the Terry Smith Fan Club,” granted a Business Pulse request to reprint a slightly-edited Q&A included in Goossen’s book a few years ago. Enjoy reading through the responses that reveal a crystal-clear definition of the term Lifetime Achievement, worthy of our prestigious 2015 award. Welcome to a distinguished lineup, Terry…. ••• Interview reprinted with permission from Dr. Richard J. Goossen, Editor, Profiles of Entrepreneurial Leaders Vol. 3 (copyright 2007, The Entrepreneurship Program at Trinity Western University). Edited for brevity and some updating to present situation at Smith Gardens.
1. When did you start your first entrepreneurial venture, and what was it? When I was 8 years old I started raising and selling pigs. My father, Andy Smith, and my uncle, Russ Smith, owned Smith Gardens, so they gave me free vegetables to feed my livestock. In junior high I started growing conifers and some flowering plants. Then in high school I had a delivery WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 51
Lifetime achievement award: Terry Smith, Smith Gardens route, taking flowers to shops and small markets. When I graduated from Bellingham High in 1960 I had saved $10,000. I used the money to build a new home in 1965. 2. What motivated you to become an entrepreneur? I’ve always been ambitious and able to see entrepreneurial opportunities. After I went to college I chose to run Smith Gardens with my father and uncle. I had developed a strong interest in horticulture and entrepreneurship, so Smith Gardens was the perfect combination. I’ve always loved challenges…and Smith Gardens provided a lot of them. The love started with planting seeds in my first garden when I was 4 years old. Running in track-and-field also taught me discipline, and how to overcome challenges to become a winner. Those experiences motivated me to become an entrepreneur, though I didn’t realize it at the time. As third-generation in an entrepreneurial family I possessed the (necessary) qualities. God gave me these in my “DNA” – Divine gifts, Natural gifts, and Acquired gifts. I’ve always had a positive outlook on life, which I believe is important in entrepreneurship. My attitude and perspective is that I am blessed with a series of great opportunities, brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
3. Was anyone a model of inspiration for you, and if so, how? In 1956 my Shuksan Junior High track coach, Larry Kiehn, asked me to participate in the first “Turkey Trot,” which later became an annual cross-country race at that school. I won, and 50 years later I shared my story in a school assembly….about my coach, because his inspiration had a profound influence on my life and career. His personal interest in me, and his willingness to put on his running shoes and run with me, made the difference. Though he did not teach me directly about entrepreneurship, he encouraged me to join sports where I learned the value of a team, the thrill of winning, and the commitment and discipline needed for victory. 4. Was your educational experience helpful? Yes. After two years at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, I attended a specialized school in floriculture, DuPage Horticultural School in West Chicago (’64). The school motto was “Learn by Doing.” This hands-on approach to growing – and to business – exposed me to the floriculture industry, and the possibilities before me at Smith Gardens. That’s when I choose the tag line for our business: “Our Business is Growing.”
TERRY SMITH AT A GLANCE • Retired President/Chairman. Smith Gardens • Founded 1901 by grandfather Harry Smith • Bellingham, Marysville (Wash.), Aurora (Ore.), and Watsonville (Calif.) • 200 Employees during peak season in Whatcom County • $60 million in sales in a five-market area • 3 Sons: Mark and Eric, now co-owners Smith Gardens; Ryan, Lexington, Ky. • Daughter: Marya Gjorgiev, Bellingham • 13 Grandchildren: “Seven live within 500 feet of our house.” • Philanthropy: “Business as stewardship.” • Writing a book, “Lessons Learned” • Personal mission: “Providing hope and inspiration to people, young and old.”
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PASSING IT ON: Terry Smith, retired 11 years now, is flanked by his sons, Eric (left) and Mark, who have assumed co-ownership. Eric’s expertise is sales and marketing, Mark is all about operations. (Photo by Gabriel Knapp)
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Lifetime achievement award: Terry Smith, Smith Gardens 5. How many business ventures have you started? I expanded Smith Gardens by starting three additional flower-growing operations: in 1987 in Marysville, Wash. (56 acres of land, 10 acres of greenhouses); in 1997 in Aurora, Ore. (3 leased operations…to consolidate into one large operation in 2007), and in 1999 in Watsonville, Calif. (26 acres of land, 6 acres of greenhouses). Watsonville also includes Pacific Plug & Liner, a new, diverse business – we start all of our inputs there, and also sell plugs and liners through brokers to other growers throughout the U.S.
success….(and) pursued those needs diligently. 8. What critical elements did you assess before pursuing the opportunity? I asked myself a series of questions. First, “Am I ready?” No question. I was. “Was there a market?” Yes. “Could it sustain itself financially?” I went forward, and never looked back. Memories of my sports mentors and childhood work experiences helped. Plus, I had ownership shares within Smith Gardens to leverage, and my uncle who later supported and believed in me and my dreams.
9. Did you have partners? Yes, at different times. I officially “I am blessed with a series of great opportunities, joined the family business in 1964. The partners were my father, my brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” uncle, and me. In 1993 my wife, Terry Smith, President/Chairman of the Board (ret. ’04), Smith Gardens Carolyn, and I became sole owners. Smith Gardens is continuing through the next generation. Our sons Mark and Eric joined us as partners, and then they became equal co-owners in 2012. We also consider God a partner in our business. 6. How many of these ventures were financially In some ways our bank and accounting firm are partsuccessful? ners, as well, because we expect them to help us grow They have all contributed to the financial success of our business. Smith Gardens. The assets in real estate have been put into separate 10. Did you have a written business plan? LLCs, and Smith Gardens rents the land and facilities Yes, for our Marysville operation (that) was a modfrom the LLCs. We provide separate and combined ernized facility complementary to Smith Gardens financial statements. Bellingham that would give us future growth. My Our expansion enables us to grow specific crops in plan was to operate it as a separate entity, but I ended diverse locations, and it also helps us in economy of up selling all of my inventory to Smith Gardens scale, being closer to our market, and taking advantage Bellingham, and they in turn sold it to the marketplace. of the physical layout of greenhouses and climatic conditions. 11. What type of financing did you have, and how Smith Gardens is the largest commercial greenhouse much capital did you require? business in the Pacific Northwest. We market to the big Long-term bank financing. Smith Gardens box stores in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Marysville needed about $1.2 million to start and Canada. phase one.
7. How did you identify the opportunity that preceded setting up your business? The longer I worked for my uncle and father the more discontented I became with their conservative approach to business. I was a visionary, a pusher, and a driver, so I was continually struggling with their decisions. That led me to start the Marysville greenhouse operation on my own. When it began showing signs of success my uncle and father were more willing to accept the idea. In proactively assessing the opportunities in horticulture I have taken many trips to The Netherlands that put me in touch with the best and brightest horticultural minds. I learned what my business would need for 54 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
12. How long did it take to reach positive cash flow, and how did you stretch your capital? Marysville reached positive cash flow almost immediately, because I had the advantage as a shareholder in Smith Gardens Bellingham. I could sell the parent company the increased production. Thus we kept our market share, and a positive cash flow started. I took out a personal long-term loan, using Smith Gardens Bellingham shares and my home as collateral – all without my father’s blessing. I was still a partner with him and my uncle, but I chose my own banker and accounting firm. We were careful with our money. 13. What were the strengths of your venture?
An established market…and a blueprint for growth. 14. What were its weaknesses? I only saw opportunities for business and team growth.
running a business, what are the three most important lessons you’ve learned and hope to pass on? It is imperative that you do what is on your heart; otherwise your job will only be about the paycheck. It is never too late to start doing what is right. And, humility is the secret to true success.
15. What have been your most triumphant moments? 20. What do you believe are your gifts as an When I share my philosophy and it in turn gives entrepreneur? someone else hope. Encouraging and coaching others. Giving financially In 2000 a major floricultural magazine, Greenhouse so others can do their true calling, too. Having vision Grower, awarded me the “Grower of the Year.” The real to see strategic opportunities. Willingness to delegate joy came in the headline: “Team Terry.” Finally, I’m humbled that two of our sons own and are successfully leading Smith Gardens into the “Don’t we all need inspiration? We need to be future. They do an excellent job. 16. What was your worst moment? In 2001 when our bank decided nationally that it didn’t want to participate in agricultural loans. The bank cut our line of credit by $2 million. That was painful, but we survived. We became a much stronger company through that trial…. 17. What key attributes do you look for in people as you grow the company? Integrity, passion, humility, team spirit, strong work ethic, skills, and honesty. In leading with an entrepreneurial mindset, my sons and I are visionaries with discipline and commitment, and we must have the courage to face and overcome adversity when the going gets tough.
cheerleaders. Cheer…leaders.” Terry Smith
responsibility where I have weaknesses. And being a leader. I have a number of ‘Terry’ proverbs, including, “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
Congratulations Terry Smith of Smith Gardens
18. What have you found most personally rewarding and satisfying? I love the challenge that comes with the territory. It has been rewarding to see my dreams become reality, and to see people take my dream and let it become their dream. I’ve received a lot of pleasure from accomplishing goals that would lead to sustainability. Integrating my business with my faith also is personally rewarding. And I enjoy watching Mark and Eric become the fourth generation to manage and own Smith Gardens. As I cheer from the sidelines it is most gratifying to be appreciated and included in the business. 19. With respect to starting and
Banner Bank congratulates Terry Smith on his Lifetime Achievement Award from the Whatcom Business Alliance. Terry has worked tirelessly to grow Smith Gardens and support the Bellingham community. All of us at Banner are proud to congratulate Terry on this welldeserved recognition.
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PHILANTHROPY: e-nable mechanical hands
56 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
SPECIAL EFFECTS ARTIST and 3D printing specialist, Ivan Owen, teaches children, like this boy, around the state how to create their own mechanical hands with 3D printing technology.
Local inventor Ivan Owen in global spotlight, inspires 3D printing movement By Sherri Huleatt Photos by Jen Owen / Jen Martin Studios
N
ot so long ago, Ivan Owen, an inventor in Bellingham with a few semesters of community college under his belt and some self-taught 3D printing expertise, spent his days tinkering with geeky gadgets and creating costume props for low-budget horror flicks. It never occurred to Owen that his quirky hobby would lead him to be the first person in the world to release an open source design for 3D printed mechanical hands.
His invention would change the lives of thousands of children all over the world, and garner Owen international recognition. And he did it all for free. The story starts two years ago when Owen posted a YouTube video showing off his latest contraption: a mechanical hand. Little did he know that 10,000 miles away, Richard Van As, a South African carpenter who’d just lost four fingers on the job, would watch the video and see a new hope for his future. Owen and Van As spent the next year on Skype, building a prototype for Van As’s new mechanical fingers by using 3D printing technology. At the end of it, they not only created WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 57
PHILANTHROPY: e-nable mechanical hands
DR. ALBERT CHI from Johns Hopkins University (3rd from left) joins inventor Ivan Owen of Bellingham (2nd from right) and medical professionals and non-profit eNABLE in experimenting with 3D printing of artificial hands. They work to educate families and doctors on prosthetic advancements through 3D technology.
new fingers for Van As, they had adapted the design to print an entirely new hand for a young South African boy, named Liam, who was born without fingers. After the success of his first mechanical hand, Owen released his design as a free opensource document; anyone, anywhere in the world, could print themselves a new hand at a low cost and with little wait time. “I wanted to allow people with greater skill levels than I to take my initial design and improve on it,” Owen said. Two years later, Owen has received widespread recognition for his work. Most recently he was named first-place winner in the international Patient Innovation Awards by the Catolica Lisbon School of Business and Economics. He will receive it in Portugal this July. His work also has received mass media attention such as a recent article in the New York Times. Others last year: • Named a “Best Person in the World” by AvBC News in December 2014. • Featured in dozens of media outlets, including the Katie Couric Show on ABC58 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
•
TV, CBS-TV, National Public Radio, TEDx Talks, and Forbes Magazine. Listed on Google’s “Year of Search 2014” video, with nearly 15 million views.
“I can go on tangents, and when I do, I pursue them with ridiculous amounts of focus,” – Ivan Owen, inventor of a mechanical hand, and 3D Printing Project Manager at the University of Washington Bothell
“It is overwhelming to realize that what started as a crazy idea for a costume prop hand has turned into a worldwide movement to create free, 3D-printed prosthetic hands for those in need,” said Jen Owen, Ivan’s wife, a professional photographer. More than 700 hands have been printed, mostly for children. They cost far less than a typical mechanical hand, which runs around $5,000, or a myoelectric hand at about $30,000; a printed hand runs from $50 to a few hundred
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PHILANTHROPY: e-nable mechanical hands
IVAN OWEN from Bellingham is the first person to release an open-source design for a printable mechanical hand; he made it free to the world so anyone could use it and improve on the design.
dollars, depending on how it’s customized. The 3D printing process allows incredible customization for the hands. Most children with missing fingers have to repurchase new hands every time they grow out of them, but with this new technology, new hands can be affordably printed and fitted to children as
“It is overwhelming to realize that what started as a crazy idea for a costume prop hand has turned into a worldwide movement to create free 3D printed prosthetic hands for those in need,” — Jen Owen, Volunteer e-NABLE Member
they grow. John Schull, a teacher at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, heard about Owen’s invention and created a non-profit organization called e-NABLE—an online community that connects talented designers and owners of 3D printers with people in need of mechanical hands. Before the Owens got involved with e-NABLE, the group had already reached more 60 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
than 1,500 members across the globe; now, they have more than 3,200 members. “I can’t take credit for any of it,” Ivan Owen said. “e-NABLE is exactly what I hoped would happen, but didn’t know how to make happen… It’s beautiful.” Last year, e-NABLE co-hosted a conference with Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore that brought together medical professionals and families in need of prosthetic hands to discuss ways to advance 3D printing in the medical field. They helped 25 families assemble hands to take home. “It was a very moving experience to be in a room full of parents getting to see their child pick something up with their new hand for the first time in their lives,” Jen Owen said. Last December several dozen Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in Maryland spent an afternoon building more than 140 hands to send to countries where war and disease have left thousands of children needing a prosthesis hand. Jen Owen said the heart and passion behind e-NABLE has moved her the most. “We have people from all over the world, in dozens of countries making free hands for children,” she said. But that’s not all. “We’ve managed to bring together people from all religions, political views, social statuses, educational levels, races, cultures, genders, occupations, and more, to work together to create happiness in the world. And they’re all
doing so with no reward other than knowing they made someone else happy, somewhere in the world.” Ivan Owen was a school supplies salesman when he first started working with Van As on the mechanical hand. He’d work an eight-hour day as a salesman, go home, spend time with family, and then spend the rest of the night working on his mechanical hand design. After news began to spread about Owen’s work, a representative from the University of Washington Bothell came to visit, and after seeing the “oddities” Owen built in his free time, he received an offer for a position at the university. He’s now its 3D Printing Project Manager—using his self-taught talent to help equip future innovators. Likewise, Jen Owen now spends 5-8 hours a day answering emails and calls from parents seeking hands for their children, and connecting them with volunteers who can print them new hands. She also organizes community events and coordinates with schools that are building e-NABLE hands in the classroom. The Owens are bringing together local innovators, too. After teaching Jason Davies, a local designer, the basics of 3D printing Owen introduced him to Mary Keane, and together Keane
and Davies opened The Foundry. It’s a new Bellingham studio that they call “makerspace” that lets both children and adults access all sorts of equipment, including 3D printers, to craft new inventions and tools. “The potential for 3D printing is, quite frankly, limitless,” Davies said. “It could be as big as the Internet was to manufacturing and shipping. Imagine being able to make anything you wanted just by downloading the plans for it. Metal, plastic, electronics, fabrics, organs – all these things are being 3D printed, and advances are being made every day. It’s exciting to be on the front lines of it.” According to Jen, organizations are popping up all over the world that use e-NABLE designs to print new hands. Ivan has taught families how to create their own mechanical hands, and the children in those families are teaching other kids how to create them, too. 3D printers are also becoming more common, with some of these kids printing new hands at the public library or high school. “The thing I feel most about all of this is gratitude,” Ivan Owen said. “Gratitude for sharing an idea and having so many people assist in making it a reality, and doing it with such generosity and passion.”
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Business Profile: Barkley Village
Stowe Talbot (left) and Jeff Kochman stand before the first Barkley Village tenant, Haggen. (Photo by Mike McKenzie) 62 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
BARKLEY:
THE ACCIDENTAL VILLAGE From RR tracks and raw woods to urban destination for groceries, dining out, movies, financial and medical services, retail, apartment dwelling – a Barkley-Haggen marriage spurred urbanization after years of sitting idle. By Mike McKenzie
A
s Stowe Talbot sat on a couch in his office at the Arch Talbot Building, named for his grandfather who founded Bellingham Cold Storage, he recounted a tale of one of his first jobs. He was 15, living in Seattle.
His father, the late Jim Talbot, successor to running the BCS operations, brought Stowe and his highschool friend, Peter Mueller, up to Bellingham to work sliming fish in a warehouse. Union workers didn’t cotton to a couple of non-union teenagers working there, rules-andall, even if one was the head man’s son. Stowe takes up the story from there: “So my dad came up with the idea for Peter and me to clear a path through his 220-acre Woburn Street property – all densely-packed underbrush, blackberry bushes, and cottonwood trees. He gave us a chainsaw and a machete, and said, ‘Get to work, boys. I’ll see you in another month!’ It actually took us
closer to six weeks, and we had the scratches and bruises to prove it.” Where Stowe Talbot sat, telling this story, is inside a three-story modern structure on that 220 acres he cut a swath through in 1979. And the land had been sitting idle for about a decade at that time. Today, it showcases a sprawling center of business and suburban living known as Barkley Village. It is an urban village by accident. How so? Because it went from intended use for remote warehousing, to a failed proposal for a high-tech business center, and therefore morphed from Woburn-to-woebegone – an abandoned expanse of woods. Jim Talbot bought the land from
a railroad with intent to use the rail spur to serve extended warehousing for cold storage of fish and food. Then the Woburn-area acreage became the center of a firestorm amidst neighboring residential areas when Talbot applied for light industrial zoning by the City of Bellingham, and pledged $1.25 million for street improvements on Woburn and Burns Way. (To read about that, you’d have to dig up the April 2, 1981 edition of The Bellingham Herald, which Stowe Talbot did to help this article. “Two things we don’t want,” an unidentified Woburn Street resident was quoted. “LID, and a truck route.”) With a political tarp pulled over that project, over time Jim Talbot WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 63
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came up with some other ideas. He had another business, and it was involved in commercial ventures in the Soviet Union. During travels there and elsewhere around Europe he saw concepts he liked in cluster villages – or, in real estate vernacular, high density. “My dad had a vision that he was sitting on something here,” Stowe Talbot said. “He just wasn’t sure what. So he went back to the City and said, ‘We want an urban village.’” Jeff Kochman, CEO of Barkley Company that manages every detail of its urban village, said of the man who hired him, “Jim recognized that he had a good value. The challenge became over time, how do we take that and make it work in today’s world?” Barkley started with one building, and even that got stopped dead in the former railroad tracks for a year or so, derailed by financing complications. But once Talbot & Co. arranged a gambit with another community power player, the Haggen Group grocery chain, Kochman had the area’s second major path cleared to forge ahead. “Dick Metcalf, my father’s accountant and confidant, went to the Haggen brothers,” Stowe Talbot said. “He told them, ‘If you’re willing to move your offices from Fairhaven up here, we’ll let you own half the building. To find financing, we needed a tenant.” The Dorothy Haggen building sprang to life, and the overall project has never looked back. With the results, piece-by-piece, methodically and precisely-planned, Barkley Company branded itself with a style not commonly found in the commercial development industry. In broad terms, Kochman summed it up with a comment about his own style, both personal and team: “We’ve been deliberate, thoughtful, always with the larger picture in mind. I’m a detail thinker.” Consider the inner trappings of
Barkley Village as illustration. Planning spaces sideby-side for retail and restaurants. Planning who would face the parking lots, and that eateries want driveby traffic. Planning some multi-level office buildings, some flat, for professional services. Planning an area for medical, an area for finance, banks on corners. And, wholly across the road from the early phases, a center of entertainment sprang to life, featuring a coffee shop, restaurants for Italian and sushi, and quick-stop frozen yogurt and deli sandwich shops, and anchored by a 68,000-squarefoot Regal 16 Cinema complex. (Even that is illustrative of Barkley Company style, in that they turned down the first inquiry of interest from Regal a few years before announcing a deal in 2010 and opening the theaters in December 2012.) What comes next? Roughly half of the total acreage remains undeveloped.
“More residential,” Kochman said. “More entertainment features, like national restaurant brands. We’ll look at taking on new businesses, or growing businesses looking for more space. We have a lot of choices with the advance planning that we have under way…always looking for the best answer under given circumstances.” At approximately 200 acres, Barkley Village doesn’t rank as a giant such as you find in major metro areas. “But in what we do, and how we do it,” Kochman said, “we’re at the forefront and ahead of the game.” Here's how it got there, from three distinct perspectives: history, vision and strategy, and tenants’— Barkley, the Accidental Village from inside.
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Business Profile: Barkley Village
Barkley Village arose from the woods of 220 acres, originally planned for cold storage support, and then a technology business park, and finally a destination for “a top-ofmind destination” for shopping, dining, entertainment, and date nights, says Barkley Company President/CEO Jeff Kochman. (Photo courtesy of Barkley Company, taken by Mike DeRosa)
Stowe Talbot: History
During the late ‘60s my dad, Jim Talbot, set out to find more property on which to expand warehousing for Bellingham Cold Storage. Instead of leasing more land from the Port of Bellingham at the waterfront, he looked inland. He ended up purchasing a large 220-acre parcel from the Chicago Milwaukee Railroad in 1970. The property sat inside the city limits just a mile east of the freeway. It was fairly flat, it had a railway spur, and best of all it was zoned industrial. At the time a lot of people told my dad that it was a really dumb idea to buy such a huge parcel. The local real estate broker who handled 66 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
the deal, Hal Arneson, remembers asking my dad, “That’s a very big piece of property – why on earth would you need 220 acres for cold storage?” But my dad was nothing if not ambitious. He also was optimistic about the growth of the food industry, and about prospects of Bellingham in general. I think he had an intuition that somehow this big parcel would serve the company well, even if he had to stretch to afford it. Unfortunately - or fortunately, as it turned out – cold storage expansion at the site was not to be. By 1972 the rail spur had become decommissioned and removed. Moreover, the City of Bellingham and bordering neighborhoods were wary, questioning the logic of having heavy industry in this area of the city surrounded by single-family
housing. Hence, the parcel sat idle for many years as my dad contemplated an alternative plan. His first idea was to develop a technology business center. He would call it Galileo Park, each of the streets would be named after an early scientist or thinker, and the park would be home to top high-tech firms. I came home from college at Yale one summer, and he immediately handed me a set of newly-printed business cards with my name on them. He put me on a plane to Portland, Ore., to meet with companies such as HewlettPackard and Intel. My dad said, “Let’s go drum up some interest. Tell them you have a technology park in Bellingham, and they should move their offices up here. We’ll build some nice winding roads, and it’ll be just like a campus.” I was horrified, but I did it. Those companies all met with me, and politely listened to my sales pitch. Nothing ever came of the idea. I finished college and continued living in Seattle. In 1993 I moved up to Bellingham to start work at the budding commercial real-estate company, then called Woburn Business Park – soon to become Barkley Village – which had just started developing.
THE BEGINNINGS Woburn Street had been built in 1988 and opened up the property to development. Heath Tecna (now
Zodiac) purchased a large parcel from us as soon as the road went in, and built their 120,000 square foot manufacturing plant. Next came the Dorothy Haggen office building, completed in 1993. My dad had come around to the idea of an urban village, inspired in part from business trips to Europe. He saw how successful smalltown centers could be by building densely, and with an eye to unique architecture and a sense-of-place. It’s reflected in that first very-urban office building. He envisioned multi-story buildings placed close to sidewalks so that they created a comfortable and pleasing pedestrian experience. He would need mixed-use zoning, so that jobs and shops and residences could all be in proximity, some even on top of one another. He asked the Bellingham planning director, “Would you allow us to build whatever we want out here – a combination of residential and commercial and office? Would you let us build more densely than is allowed elsewhere in the city?”
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BARKLEY TIMELINE 1989 - Zodiac Aerospace (Heath Tecna) 1993 - Dorothy Haggen Building 1995 - Haggen grocery store 1997 - Barkley Village 1999 - Wells Fargo 2000 - Barkley Medical Center Phase I Washington Federal 2219 Building 2001 - Arch Talbot Building (Barkley HQ) YMCA Daycare Center Hitting Zone Driving Range 2003 - Barkley Medical Center Phase II 2004 - Union Bank 2005 - Dahlia Building 2007 - Drake Condos Parking Deck Snapper Shuler Kenner 2008 - Westcom Properties 1855 Building Laurel Building Moreno/Schmidt Dental Building 2009 - Peoples Bank 1835 Building 2012 - 2210 Building 2012 - Barkley Village Lifestyle (Regal Cinemas project) 2013 - Piper Family Dentistry 2014 - Cornerstone Apartments
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Business Profile: Barkley Village The City planning department and mayor were very skeptical. Basically, my father was asking for “carte blanche” to build almost whatever he wanted and asking them to trust us. It took my dad a lot of convincing, but ultimately he prevailed in receiving a modified mixeduse zone for about 40 acres. That allowed us to build a Haggen supermarket, some retail buildings, more office buildings, entertainment venues (especially dining), and residential buildings. My dad began stepping away from the company in about 2000. Like he did, I delegate the day-today operations to managers who have better skills than I do. My role is to make sure we don’t stray from the long-term vision for the development of the property, and to carry on my dad’s legacy of building out this urban village in a way that the City of Bellingham will be proud of – now, and in years to come.
Jeff Kochman: Strategy and Execution
When we started our Dorothy Haggen Building for offices I was chief financial officer. We have pictures from back then of a Woburn Business Park model – a visual configuration of how it might lay out, with the roads. It had European influences of urban-designed, higher-density architecture. Those ideas provided a background for the beginning of the Barkley Village project and a couple of eventual partnerships with the Haggen group. All the ideas were great, but in the beginning we were just happy to have the first building going again after it had been delayed about a year, just standing there as a steel structure. The future was not clear 68 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
at all, as far as what was next, or motions. In recent years we have how this would shake out. been a little more proactive, and In the next 1 ½ to 2 years we we’ll get more and more proactive. met with the Haggen group and MILESTONE TURNING POINTS did some brainstorming, and started envisioning an urban village plan. This (office HQ ) building in After that, we had more clarity September ’01, the grocery store about both Jim Talbot’s and Don (’95), the seven buildings built as Haggen’s view of the shopping cenpart of that project (’97), completter project – a Pioneer Square kind ing People’s Bank, the Dahlia and of project. Drake Building, and where Scotty The development of the grocery Brown’s is really brought it all store project, and the planned first together around 2005-’06. seven buildings defined us, and we When we had seven buildings had embarked on that plan Part of making it work was the long-term when we view… we weren't out to make a quick started seeking interest in buck overnight. It was about longevity…. tenant busi– Jeff Kochman ness to make it happen. Through to fill in the early years, we looked that build-out, two buildings at for a mix of local and chain brands. a time, we established the model Starbucks brought its national where we’d have an inquiry about brand to a suburban setting, and an opportunity, and look to make a that was a big deal. Merrill Lynch, mutually-beneficial business deal. No. 1 in the country with a strong And that really became our M-O: presence local, regional, and nationYou come to me with interest, we al. Scotty Brown’s lent us the ‘hip’ figure out what your interest level factor. We’ll start seeing more of is, what your business is all about, that with restaurants. how it fits in with what we have We worked with big players in planned, and how to make the botour own community, too, such as in tom line work. For you and for us. our medical building. Tenants like Part of making all of that work North Sound Family Medicine, and was the long-term view by ownerNorthwest Ambulatory Surgery of ship of the project. We weren’t out Bellingham. to make a quick buck overnight. As we’ve developed, recogniIt was about longevity – how each tion of the quality environment has component would add up to the appealed to our professional clients. whole being bigger than the sum of Also, many have remarked about the parts. how it’s unusual, and they appreciA great many deals, especially ate seeing many other professional the larger ones, took years. It wasn’t people in the same building or an overnight success. Those were vicinity with them, moving around, about just being persistent and coninteracting. sistent. We worked on understandOther examples of our appeal ing more about when they were include that we are leaders in techpotentially able to move and what nology like our sophisticated stateto consider in their space. That way, of-the-art security systems, and our when the time came we were set to attention to energy efficiency. pursue it. Looking back, at first it took A good many of our deals are some convincing among the varibased on some inquiry first. All ous lenders we work with. They along we used advertising and prorequired work to convince them
it was a good project; that tone changed around summer of 1995 with the completion of the grocery store. We had established something out here. The seven buildings were finished by December ’97. Coinciding with the completion, we had started an awareness of Barkley Village effort. We wanted to respond to people saying, “What’s that? Where’s that?” And we had great ideas to bring people here. Events. Food. Retail. We sized up opportunities as they arose to see how they fit. It was unique in commercial development, but always the way we thought – build pad sites, fill them, manage them well, make a profit at the end.
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Business Profile: Barkley Village
Tom Kenney worked for Haggen when it moved its offices from Fairhaven and built the supermarket as the catalyst for growing Barkley Village. Later, he became a tenant in his role with Washington Federal.
to develop it, determine what we’d like to see more of. We wanted a contemporary product and features with some traditional components. It has continued to be refined and added to as we go. Complementary is a key word with each addition. We’ll see what happens next. We’ve got to keep pushing, revisiting and questioning the details. It’s challenging work – different from having a lot of buildings for rent. That’s the nature of the commercial development game. We are building community.
Tom Kenney: Tenant
Washington Federal, Regional President, Northern & Eastern Washington I worked for Haggen from 19962010 as their financial officer. I collaborated with Barkley CEO Jeff Kochman on some opportunities and changes to the Haggen operation. Back when the Barkley project began with just a couple of buildings as the cornerstone – the Dorothy Haggen Building, and the grocery store – the big question in the Haggen discussions had been: “Was it wise to put a store way out there?” The land was not developed. 70 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
After the financing fell through on the original building and it was just sitting there, Jim Talbot challenged the Haggen brothers, Don and Rick, to join him. Haggen’s prior headquarters, in what is now the Amtrak terminal in Fairhaven, was running out of space. So the Haggens became a 50-50 partner in the Dorothy Haggen Building and the anchor tenant. They took up three floors. It was an aggressive move for both the office and, later, the store. It all worked out quite well with a Class A stateof-the-art headquarters for Haggen and a new store in a rapidly-developing market. As Barkley further developed with the new retail shops along Market Street, it became more noteworthy because it was something innovative, new and different. I recall an article in the Seattle Times when Barkley Village started shaping up that said it was one of just three “urban villages” in the entire state. University Village in Seattle was first, and the big one that everyone talked about. Issaquah had one (Gilman Village). The Washington Federal branch in Barkley Village serves as one of our best offices. This is because of the first-class working and living environment of Barkley Village, and the heavy traffic through the area. We’re in a prime location, a corner of Woburn and Barkley Boulevard, in what has become the financial center of Bellingham. Jim Talbot was a good businessman, and visionary who laid the foundation for Barkley Village’s success. It takes leadership and a great team to execute. The credit for pulling this off so successfully lies with Jeff Kochman and his team of professionals. Jeff is methodical, deliberate, and a sharp strategist. They have operated opportunistically, yet not too rapidly as some developers are prone to do. As such, they have guided the style and composition of Barkley, including its inhabitants, to
Julie Coull (on the right) owns Hamann’s Gallery & Gift in Barkley Village. Her associate (on the left) in the core business of framing is Linda Weil. (Staff Photo)
evolve over the years in many interesting ways. Barkley Village is a great success story. Phenomenal, really.
Julie Coull: Tenant
Hamann’s Gallery & Gifts This is our fifth location since the original owners back in the ‘50s. I bought it from my sister, Carolyn Oltman and her business partner Linda Enfield in 1993 after working for them several years. We moved to Barkley Village in 1997. Each move downtown over the years was an upgrade in space. But none of them had a shopping experience. This is a destination for shoppers, a very nice area for pedestrians, and we were happy to get into this kind of atmosphere. We like that community feel of being where there are plenty of other stores. It’s definitely helped in building our client base of people needing framing and gifts. Framing is still our core business, but the gift part of the store has picked up out here. People love our original, localartists greeting card selection. Definitely the location has made a huge difference.
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Automobile industry report
The Internet drives – automobile sales come along on the ride Some customers don’t show up until they pick up the keys By Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy
W
ant to take the temperature of the economy? For a thermometer, use auto sales.
In Whatcom County, as across the nation, car and light truck sales have long been an indicator of the overall economy’s health. Auto sales in the U.S. in 2014 rose 9 percent over 2013, and 62 percent since 2009 (source: International Business Times, January 2015). “Business is good,” affirmed 72 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
Adam Thurmond, general manager of Smith Kia in Bellingham. “Up
“Up and down Iowa Street, you’ll see car dealerships busy.” – Adam Thurmond, GM, Smith Kia
and down Iowa Street you’ll see car dealerships busy.” Whatcom
County’s 2014 vehicle sales totaled 4,136 – a 3.1 percent rise over 2013. The last five years’ annual rise in automobile sales in the U.S. was one of the longest stretches of positive growth in history. A similar rise took place from 1996-2000. The one before that took place back when cars had tail fins. Since auto sales have regained their former vigor – U.S. sales hit 16.9 million vehicles in 2014, the first time in nine years to hit that number – it’s a good time to take the temperature of the auto industry
MARCY GREGORY (standing) offers Ayla Gregory pointers on a website they use frequently in dealing with Internet-generated sales leads at Wilson Nissan in Bellingham. Marcy has worked the Web full-time for about a year, and Ayla, who started as a temp in clerical work, recently began training to help with the steady stream of online contacts. (Photo by Mike McKenzie)
“Nobody hits the door saying, ‘I don’t know what I want.’ Customers are smart already.” – Jeffrey Watson, GM, Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac
in Whatcom County. What’s changed over the last 10 years, and the last 20? In short: cyberspace shopping.
Shop, click, drive Got a sales lead from the Internet? Respond within 24 hours. In 1997 that was the mandate for dealers, said Jeffrey Watson, general manager of Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac of Bellingham. The next year, it was respond within six hours, and the year after that, two hours, until finally, “You had to have someone (on staff) staring at the Internet all day long,” Watson said. Stephanie Akers, Internet manager at Northwest Honda, is one of those people. Her job did not exist 20 years ago. She keeps the website current, manages relationships with vendors such as cars.com and
Stephanie Akers Internet Manager., NW Honda
autotrader.com, helps the sales force respond to incoming leads, and manages social media and email blasts. First impressions happen online, so it’s important to make a good one, Akers said. “It’s a lot easier (for the customer) to click one dealership down on a Google search than to drive from dealership to dealership.” For dealers to land that coveted first look from customers on line, Watson said he has to be at 96-98 percent of the final sales price. That need to get noticed forces dealers to push prices down. “If you don’t price your vehicles right, and they’re not attractive or well-kept, you have no hope on the Internet.” Like a lot of Whatcom County dealers Watson sells some vehicles every month through a method known in modern dealership lingo as “shop, click, drive.” That means a customer does everything online: research, negotiate price or trade-in value, and submit a credit application. The dealer emails to verify that the customer is coming in and that the selected vehicle, new or used, is ready to drive away. In many cases the salesperson only meets the customer in person when he or she comes in to pick up a vehicle, said John Clough, sales manager of Northwest Honda. That dealership sells about 55 cars every month, out of their average of 115, by way of shop, click, drive – or, as Clough pegs it, “click, call, go.” Ninety-five percent of car buyers
Jeffrey Watson and a shiny new showroom Caddy at Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac. (Staff Photo)
research online first, according to local and national sources. “Nobody hits the door saying, ‘I don’t know what I want,’” Watson said. “Customers are pretty smart already (upon arrival).” When they’re in the dealership, they use smartphones to keep researching right on site. “They’re wonderful tools,” Watson said. “It takes the guesswork out of whether they got a good deal.” Thurmond at Smith Kia concurred that, unlike 10 years ago, today buyers know exactly what they’re looking for. “They might know more about a particular car than the person selling it, because they’ve done so much research,” Thurmond said. “It’s a great thing for the consumer. They come in as an expert.” Besides information on an exact vehicle, potential buyers easily access plenty of third-party opinions online about particular models. The days of spending hours in WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 73
Automobile industry report the dealership are no more, though customers still spend time researching a vehicle purchase: 14 hours, according to studies by J.D. Power/ McGraw Hill Financial. “The decision process takes at least as long as it did 10, 15 years ago,” Watson said, “because there’s so much information.” It’s just happening in cyberspace now. Car shoppers average 24 “research touch points” before deciding, according to automobile blogger Aaron Hassen of Driving Sales. That includes visiting dealer and manufacturer websites, consumer review sites, watching videos, and more. “The whole store is now
John Clough Sales Manager, NW Honda
the Internet department,” one dealer commented. Another said, “We recently had a nice older couple in the showroom that had no computer and no email address… so they phoned their daughter to go online and fact-check my salesperson.” Nor are showrooms passé…yet. Those shoppers who spent 12-14 hours researching online will visit an average of 3.3 dealers before deciding. “Fifty-two percent of all vehicles we sell every month were to people who’d been here at least once before,” Watson said. “They come back and buy from us.” The industry in Whatcom County, as in northwest Washington and the nation, has changed from people coming across the curb to people coming across the Internet, Clough said. “It’s often the first responder who gets the deal. Customers will let you make a profit, if you respond quickly and transparently. It’s not always price. Transparency is a big key, not only in person but especially online.” Dealers, too, use the Internet to buy inventory. Watson calls that a “race to the bottom.” He said, “We find vehicles in the nicest condition and lowest price. Getting late-model, pre-owned, low-mileage cars, and buying them lower than anyone else, is something I work at every day. I buy from across the United States.”
CLICK, QUICK, DONE DEAL…SLICK Marcy Gregory and Ayla Peterson had just had their photo taken for our industry report, and Marcy fielded a quick question: Can you give a specific example of a customer who bought from you on the Internet, and you didn’t meet them until they came to get the keys? Marcy has been the person in charge of Internet leads and sales for Wilson Nissan in Bellingham for the last few years – about a year full-time, fully-dedicated to Webgenerated business. That business bustles so, that she’s now training Ms. Peterson to help keep up with it. Her smile an immediate giveaway to an affirmative, Marcy pointed to a nearby, glassed wall office where three persons sat visible. “There’s a couple right there,” she said, “signing the papers on their new Leaf.” She detailed how they had contacted her through Wilson 74 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
Advertising Like everything else, the Internet revolutionized advertising. A 2015
“The industry has changed from people coming across the curb to people coming across the Internet.” – John Clough, Sales Manager, Northwest Honda
report by media researcher Borrell Associates, Inc. declared, “If local advertising were a train, digital would be its locomotive, first-class passenger car, and dining car.” Nationally, digital continues to be responsible for nearly all growth in local advertising. That’s only partially the case in Whatcom County. Northwest Honda no longer buys newspaper ads but balances their ad budget among Internet, TV, radio, and mailers. Online advertising on sites such as cars.com and autotrader. com generates leads. “We get back to them quickly...That’s working for us,” Clough said. “We have seen big growth, getting people to swim upstream to us from Skagit, Snohomish, even King counties.”
Nissan’s online query. “I called them, we exchanged some emails and calls, we got the deal done,” she said, “and here they are to take delivery.” This transaction, she said, is not uncommon. “I recently shipped a used Mercedes to an Oregon town seven miles from the California border, and never met the buyer at all,” Marcy said. “He was looking for a specific model, the S430; we had one, and he found us on the Internet. We did the whole deal online, a trade, and we delivered it to him.” She said she’s completed similar transactions, i.e., sight unseen, “all around the state…even Alaska. I’ve shipped three or four cars there. In Juneau they only have about 15 miles of road, so they love the Leaf….” Previously, Marcy spent several years in the financing part of vehicle sales. The experience has served her well, she said, because, “This (Internet sales) is all about pricing and financing. It’s that simple.”
Other dealers report newspaper advertising still has a place. Smith Kia of Bellingham runs more newspaper ads than TV, radio, or Internet (though higher-priced TV ads consume more advertising dollars). “We come back to it because it works,” Thurmond said. But even newspaper ads are streamlined by the Internet, with The Bellingham Herald ad department pulling images and information from a dealer’s website to create a print ad. “The same person who does my print ad also helps me do online ads,” Thurmond said. Watson, when he joined Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac of Bellingham in June 2014, was stunned to discover good news in newspaper advertising. “Newsprint does well in this town,” Watson said. “I hadn’t used a newspaper to sell a car since 2005.” Before moving to Bellingham, Watson operated a dealership in Alberta, Canada. Originally from Texas, he started working for dealerships as
a high schooler – mowing grass and washing windows – and sold his first car in 1983.
The product “It’s improved so much,” Thurmond said. “Kia has experienced a huge Adam Thurmond, GM at Smith Kia, had the Seahawks’ No. 12 change in prodflying from the antenna during the playoffs. uct. It didn’t used (Photo by Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy) to be a top-tier car; now it is. manufacturers that sought improved That’s true of the car industry as a efficiency to offset the rise in fuel whole. Cars are built better and last prices over the past decade. Most longer.” manufacturers now offer a model Ten to 15 years ago, cars with that does 40 miles a gallon or bet100,000 miles on them weren’t conter. sidered a decent ride. “Now we see Accessories that 10 years ago a lot of quality cars come in with were luxuries are becoming stan100,000 miles,” Thurmond said. dard, similar to the housing indusFuel efficiency continues to try, where granite countertops improve, partly due to governwere once an upgrade but are now ment regulations, and partly due to typical. In new cars, heated seats
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Automobile industry report are now common; five years ago, the industry started offering cooled seats, too. Seats adjust more ways. In a Kia Sedona, the middle seats recline “as if you’re in a La-Z-Boy in your living room,” Thurmond said. A decade ago, a sun-roof was a little window overhead. A new car is more likely to offer a panoramic sun-roof, or one over the back seat as well as the front. Air bags protect all sides of cars now. Twenty years ago, they were for the front two seats only. Minivans now feature 10 to 12 airbags instead of two. Side beams are reinforced and stronger, offering more protection against T-bone collisions. “We continue to see designs change,” Thurmond said. “Different times call for different styles. You didn’t see boxy cars 10 years ago.” The boxy Soul is Kia’s bestseller by far, offering improved fuel efficiency, visibility, and ease of entry. Honda’s PCF_BusinessPulseAd_Feb2015.pdf Element is a similar 1 design. Kia aimed the Soul at buy-
ers in their 20s, but found its higher seating and easy entry appeals to buyers in their 60s, too.
Technology Besides changing the buying experience outside the car, technology has changed significantly inside the car. “The days of pulling out a map are over,” Thurmond said. Navigation screens are now 8-10 inches, with stereo and radio running through the same touchscreen. Technology is changing quickly, and there’s much more of it. “What came out five years ago is already outdated.” Some cars now offer wireless internet, making a car its own hotspot. Not so a few years ago. “For someone who works on the road, in sales or whatever, Internet access is a nice bonus.” Teaching a customer how to operate a touch-screen or rear liftgate, pair his phone to his new car, 2/17/15 9:37 AMhis address into the or program
navigation system – none of which existed a few years ago – all add up to delivery becoming more important, and more time-consuming. “Used to be, you could do a delivery in a couple of minutes, show them how the blinkers work,” Thurmond said.
What hasn’t changed Whether it’s 1995 or 2015, whether customers walk in or come across the Internet, dealer interaction still matters. The Google study Digital Drives Auto Shopping says 62 percent of vehicle owners saying customer service would influence future decisions. Classic example of the more things change, the more they stay the same, right? Personal service sits at the core of local dealerships as they work to keep vehicle sales going through the roof. Sunroof, if you care to upgrade….
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Personally Speaking
Debbie VanderVeen feeds one of the cows that her Veen Huizen Farms and many other area farms donate to the Lynden School District barn for studies. 78 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
Personally Speaking… with
Debbie VanderVeen Interview and photos by Mike McKenzie, Managing Editor
S
he’s on the run to a meeting of the board, any of several she serves in the Whatcom world of agriculture, such as the local Farm Bureau, or the NW Washington Fair Foundation.
She’s calling from a bus ride at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, on her way to judging at a Sectional FFA contest. She’s giving a tour of a school district barn full of small animals in stalls—rabbits three days old, a pig, cows, alpacas, a goat, a horse, and more—and then a tour of Veen Huizen Farms outside of Lynden/Everson, and then an interview. She’s marking her one and only calendar (paper) on the wall next to a door in her home, near where she grew up. She’s sharing thoughts about her passion for educating anybody she can reach about the business of agriculture and how it’s much more than just the farm.
She’s sharing equally passionate thoughts about major issues facing agriculture, especially dairy, involving ditches and dikes, estuary management, and marijuana and hemp. She travels widely, from the state capitol to national conventions to U.S. Congress, to lobby on these issues. She’s proudly introducing her family, one-by-one – on the farm, at the school barn, at the Dutch bakery in downtown Lynden, including her father, Bob, whose shoes she has filled as a leading spokesperson, ambassador, and advocate in Whatcom ag. She’s Debbie VanderVeen, wife (both she and Jason come from 5th generation dairy families), mother of four (they all plug into the farm business in various roles), and a woman on the go, go, go. Join us here in the barn at milking time, and learn some insights about growing up immersed in the life style, commerce, and politics of dairy farming in Whatcom County…. WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 79
Personally Speaking the hospital after being born he took me out to a field to see a cow.
FATHER WELL-KNOWN He was president of the Whatcom County Dairy Federation and on the state board. He was involved in the Farm Bureau, too. He was named (by the Lynden Tribune) the North Whatcom County Man of the Year in 1998. And, I felt honored to be North Whatcom County Woman of the Year 10 years later, which I never dreamed would happen.
YOU AND JASON?
Shane VanderVeen, second of four children, works full-time for his mother Debbie and father Jason, becoming the fifth generation on each side of the family to continue dairy farming in Whatcom County.
My husband Jason and I have five generations in each family that dairy farmed in Whatcom County. My great-grandfather Govert Van Weerdhuizen started it all in my family when he came here from Holland.
THE REST OF THE HUIZEN LINEUP…. My grandfather Gerritt, my father Bob, me, and then our children. The second oldest, Shane, works full-time with us at the Veen Huizen Farms.
THE OTHERS? They’re all doing different things. The oldest, Jordan, teaches high school in Lynden and is a lawyer. Our oldest daughter, Lacey, works for the Whatcom Farmers Co-op in Lynden and part-time with us handling payroll, AR and AP, and human resources. She has a veterinary assistant degree, and a business management degree.
ONE LIVES AFAR 80 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
Our youngest daughter, Brooke, is a high school agriculture education teacher and FFA advisor in Echo, Ore. When she is home she helps with some bookwork, and she conducts tours of our farm. Jordan especially likes tractor driving during summertime when school is out.
Before I even went in the house, coming home from the hospital after being born [my dad] took me out to a field to see a cow. – Debbie VanderVeen
THE PATH TO FARMING I think you are born that way. You’ve seen the life style and the business aspect of it. You develop a passion for it, and you continue moving forward in it. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to do this. My dad tells the story about how, before I even went in the house, coming home from
He grew up north of Lynden and went to Lynden Christian School. I went to Lynden public schools. We met at one of those famous Tacoma state basketball tournaments in our senior year of high school. It was a really big deal for me to get away (from working the farm) and go to the games. I liked him, a very nice guy, and I liked that he grew up on a dairy farm. We married 4 ½ years later, in 1982.
THE FARM NAME At first we rented it from my parents, then purchased it in ’97. Veen means “peat,” and Huizen means “home” (in Dutch). We have 220 head of dairy cows that produce milk we sell to Darigold, and we also raise corn and grass that we turn into silage to feed to our cattle, but also sell and deliver those crops to other farmers.
JERSEYS, PLUS… We have mostly Jerseys, which have become more and more popular in Whatcom County because of the high fat and protein in their milk. We switched in 2001. We still have some Holsteins and Guernseys, too.
OTHER BUSINESS We raise animals for other farmers, and board heifers and dry cows, as well. Diversification is important.
BUSY OFF THE FARM, TOO
GATHER IN THE WILD NEARBY
I serve on many boards, and stay active regarding issues. As president of the (Whatcom County) Farm Bureau, I went to the American Farm Bureau convention in San Diego in January. Some of our board go to Legislative Days in Olympic. I’m also a leader of a 4-H club, and work with other organizations.
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UNUSUAL FOR WOMEN? In the big picture, we’re often a woman in a man’s world. That’s not changing very much. Farming is still mostly male. Tradition in the past, of course, was women in the house and garden, men in the barn and the field. Times have changed some. It would be great to have more women involved.
NEED ALL IN I wish there were more farmers involved in active leadership participation, female or male – just involved. Leave their farm for an hour or two and get to a hearing or a political information meeting to know what’s going on, and see how they can help with regulations that meet their needs, or sometimes stop regulations from robbing their income.
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of acres of productive farmland. It would all be covered in sea water – estuary water, where the river meets the sea. We need compromise.
WHAT WOULD HELP? As president, I’ve asked our Whatcom County Farm Bureau members to help because we have some with land in that area. It would be effective. We’ve contacted legislators, County Council, worked at the state Farm Bureau level, and even the American Farm Bureau. At their convention we worked on getting other states to join us in dealing with this. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Debbie’s husband Jason interjected that in western Washington, “We’re on the leading
front of regulations, and whatever happens here has a trickledown effect across the U.S.”] Jason and I have always been very grass roots. When there’s something going on at a very local level, we’ll keep going higher and higher until we get as much done as we can. We’re active with some PACs, too (political action committees).
REGULATION OVER-REACH Overall, grass roots issues arise such as draining our ditches – getting them clean so they can drain water well and the water can come off the fields so we can plant and harvest. And with all the regulations, all the burdens of time-con-
EXAMPLE OF ISSUES A big one is the acronym PSNERP. That’s Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project. In Whatcom County this is a big deal, and our Washington Farm Bureau state committee is working hard on it. It is a federal and state project that would put up new dikes, take some dikes down, in the Nooksack River delta. That would create a larger estuary to allow in more salmon habitat, which in turn can feed on migrating whales. And also it would create more wildlife habitat in that area – the pro part, if they can make that happen. But it’s taking away hundreds
VANDERVEEN at a GLANCE: ALWAYS A BOARD, NEVER BORED • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Whatcom County Farm Bureau, President NW Washington Fair Foundation, Board Whatcom County Dairy Women, past Board NW Washington Fair Cargill-Nutrena Small Animal Experience, Chair Barn Buddies 4-H Club, Co-Leader with mother Pauline and daughter Lacey Barn Buddies, Sponsor, Fair Small Animal Experience Lynden School District Ag Advisory Committee Lynden HS Barn Animal Project Whatcom County Youth Fair, Ass’t Manager Lynden Tribune North Whatcom County Woman of the Year, 2008 FFA Judge Whatcom Farm Friends Graduate WWU, sociology and psychology Co-owner with husband Jason of 500-acre Veen Huizen Farms (Darigold milk producer, crop-growing silage production and sales/distribution, boarding/growing milk cattle for customers) WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 81
Personally Speaking We’re strong believers in property rights, so when members are concerned about the proximity of marijuana – sales, stores, processors, distributors, growers – the Farm Bureau is getting involved. That’s a new topic for us. How are we going to handle all the implications from that? I was told a couple of days ago that a marijuana packaging building was next to a gymnasium where kids are going for sports events, and the kids are leaving there smelling like marijuana.
MEETING ISSUES HEAD-ON Several board members went to Olympia in February for Legislative Days. Melodie Kirk went with me as board members to the American Farm Bureau convention in San Diego. Some board members will go to D.C. in March and bring up specific state issues, such as PSNERP. I met with U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene recently to discuss the 2015 Farm Bill.
AG ED A BIG DEAL
Debbie VanderVeen, woman on the go, uses one lone calendar to log her many engagements.
suming regulations just to clean one small ditch area, it’s unbelievable… it’s crazy.
for farmers, ranchers, and consumers on issues of social and economic concern.]
PRESSING ISSUES FOR ‘15
SOCIAL CONCERNS?
Labor shortage is a major one. That affects all facets of agriculture – raspberry and strawberry, potato, dairy. We’re committed to assisting and protecting all farmers on adequate laborers. [EDITOR’S NOTE: The Farm Bureau mission addresses advocating
Right now marijuana is a big one. Technically it’s a crop, and Farm Bureau supports farmers and their crops. Hemp is the potential new crop discovery for Whatcom County farmers.
82 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
PROPERTY PROTECTION
The Farm Bureau supports the Northwest Washington Fair Cargill-Nutrena Small Animal Experience. I’m the chair of that. Our 4-H Club hosts it. My mother Pauline and daughter Lacey and I form a three-generation leadership for the Barn Buddies 4-H Club. All of our members are nonfarm kids. Getting them out on our farms on a regular basis has been great education for them. We enjoy teaching them about agriculture and where their food comes from.
SCHOOL BARN CLASSES During summer all the animals are on our farm. During fall and winter, we take the animals to a Lynden School District-owned barn on the Lynden High School property. All the district schools have access to those animals for education. So many classes are held down there.
Students come to learn about food, and the business of agriculture. They learn all the different species, how they’re different, and how they help humans with clothing, food, milk, etc. They’re going to go on and become a consumer, and tell their kids, “Yeah, when I was little I did this and this,” and maybe their kids will want to learn that, too. It’s a responsibility we all need to take as farmers to teach young people who otherwise might not have the ability to be on a farm and get the information. A lot of farmers donate heifers to the school barn program, too.
NOT JUST FOR KIDS JASON VANDERVEEN grew up on a dairy farm on the opposite side of Lynden from his wife Debbie, and they met at a state basketball tournament. He helps run their 500-acre farm.
We want consumers to understand what it’s like to be a farmer. We have tours on our farm regularly. We have them ask any question they want, and we answer to the best of our ability. We do it for all ages.
We have preschoolers, and we have the Lynden Christian Health Care Center for senior citizens fill their van and come out. Some have a hard time walking, so we drive them out to our fields and they get to watch silage harvesting – corn, grass, right there close, feel it, smell it. We bring calves on the bus. And you can see the tears in their eyes. I get emotional, I’m passionate about it.
COLLEGE CLASSES, TOO WWU brings classes. Geology, to study the soils. Business courses. Science, physiology, health, dietician – any class fits into what we’re doing.
VIRTUAL WORLD Yes, even computer programming. Each of our cows wears an anklet on its leg with a computer chip in it. Some people can’t believe farmers do that. They still picture the farmer standing there, hold-
Introducing
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WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 83
Personally Speaking I see people who have their schedule on their phone. How does anybody know where they are? Does everybody have access to it?
FULL LIFE, BUT… Certainly I did not have a normal childhood, no way. On one of my birthdays I butchered a cow. It was about 8th grade before I knew kids got together in the summer to see all their friends. That never happened. We worked.
AT? Irrigation. I drove a tractor when I was 4 ½. My first milking was at age 11 ½ when a hired man went on vacation. We milked through high school, before and after classes, and milking for my father paid for my college. Nowadays people leave college in debt; I left college with money. At the Lynden School District barn, Lacey VanderVeen (l.) and her mother Debbie tend to a variety of small animals used in classroom studies to learn about the physiology and business of agriculture.
ing a pitchfork. Everything we do is on computer and in a laboratory. Manure, soil, all the corn and grass, the milk are lab tested, so that everything meets the need of the cow.
private donations. On the board of Whatcom Women in Dairy we’re raising funds that will pay for a brandnew building at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds.
DIFFERENT KIND OF COW CHIP
WHAT? 23 COMMITTEES!
The chip measures many things. One is how many steps each cow takes each day. Comparing, if there are more steps, perhaps it’s time to be bred. Less, maybe they’re ill and you can check for that. As they come in to be milked, the milk machine can detect any infection starting. Before, my father, my grandfather, they had to squirt out milk to see what it looked like. Now, computers diagnose it before we even see or feel the milk.
When something comes up, I can determine which committee it’s most closely related to, and I can get that committee on it immediately. No matter what comes up, we have somebody to cover it, in place, ahead of time. I think that’s really important from a leadership standpoint. We have people ready.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND FUNDING Farm Bureau gives scholarships raised from reinvestments and membership dues. We receive no 84 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL METHODS I have one calendar, on the wall by the door. People can just look to see where I am. I use email, texting, Facebook, which is the greatest for promoting agriculture…a great way to get messages out.
THE UPSIDE There are many advantages on the farm. We’ve done a lot of traveling, been to all 50 states. Dad always arranged to have work covered so we could go six weeks at a time. It was important to my parents that we experienced the country. He would not take freeways, we’d take back roads and stop to visit with people and learn about their farming and their customs. That was important to keep our minds open to other cultures. I remember going to Arkansas and seeing chickens all dead from the heat….or, Kansas wheat fields, with tornadoes coming through. Every section of the country was different. In Hawaii we went straight to some farms to tour before we ever saw a beach. Always, wherever we went, it was go to some farms right away. That was part of the vacation.
NORMAL BREEDS NORMAL For life on the farm, those things were normal. I liked it so much that I’m still doing it.
Whatcom Business Alliance Fostering Business Success and Community Prosperity
Member News BOARD ELECTS SLATE
Jeff Kochman
Barkley Company
‘Street-smart’ Bellingham Business Academy opens for WBA members March 11 By Business Pulse Staff
Barkley Company, Faithlife, and Saturna Capital in collaboration with the WBA and Business Pulse have created the Bellingham Business Academy for WBA members, billing it as “the streetsmart school of business.” Faithlife began the concept internally, then partnered with cosponsors to add yet another outstanding no-cost benefit to WBA membership. Faithlife’s founder and CEO Bob Pritchett sits on the WBA Board of Directors. The inaugural 2-hour event takes place Wednesday, March 11, 4-6 p.m. at Mt. Baker Theatre in downtown Bellingham. Future sessions have been scheduled on April 15, May 13, and June 10. In May, Nate Moch will be the presenter. He is the group manager at Internet powerhouse Zillow Nate Moch which streamlines real estate listings, shopping, Zillow and mortgage lending. Other presenters will be announced soon. These outstanding business leaders from around the U.S. will provide insights into strategies and best practices aimed at both professional and personal growth. An emphasis will be placed on practical skills through shared experiences, and the program will include some Q&A Register on www.WhatcomBusinessAlliance for individual tickets, with a limit of 2 for each WBA member organization.
Jane Carten
Saturna Capital
Marv Tjoelker Larson Gross
Doug Thomas Bellingham Cold Storage
John Huntley Mills Electric
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Jeff Kochman of Barkley Company was reelected as chair of the WBA Board of Directors at the recent annual meeting. Also remaining in officer positions: Jane Carten of Saturna Capital, vice chair, and Marv Tjoelker, secretary/treasurer. Doug Thomas of Bellingham Cold Storage was reelected to the executive committee at-large, and the only new member was John Huntley of Mills Electric, at-large.
RIDE, SALLY, RIDE The first industry tour of the year drew about 100 passengers onto the Sally Fox last month for an extended ride around Bellingham Bay. All American Marine hosted the event, starting with a briefing and a tour of their facility near the Port of Bellingham Cruise Terminal in Fairhaven. The Sally Fox and an identical
companion passenger water taxi, the Doc Maynard, will launch this summer to serve King County’s ferry routes from Vashon and West Seattle to Downtown Seattle. The boats and All American Marine’s CEO, Matt Mullett, were featured in our January Winter edition. The next industry tour, a popular no-charge WBA benefit, takes place at Alpha Technologies April 23. Check the website for particulars and sign-up.
WECU REELECTS 3 TO BOARD Whatcom Educational Credit Union returned three members of its board of directors to their Harte Bressler seats – Harte Bressler, Phil WECU Isle, and Kristi Lewis Tyran. Annual elections included the supervisory committee, and former board member Harte Bressler of Phil Isle Metcalf, Hodges WECU P.S. was reelected. Isle, on the WECU board 30 years, is retired CEO/ CFO of Walton Beverage Co. and Advantage Kristi Vending & Lewis Tyran Distribution. WECU Lewis Tyran is the an assistant professor in the management degree program at WWU. WECU also announced a fourth-quarter donation to start the year of more than $46,200 distributed among 30 local nonprofits.
to open in mid-April at a spot in Burlington that Herman said he’d “had eyes on for more than 10 years” – directly in front of Panera Bread and next door to Costco. A couple of weeks later, slated for May 1, The Woods will open its third in-grocery operation; No. 17 will serve inside the Barkley Haggen in Bellingham. The Woods also serves inside Sehome Haggen (since 2011), and inside Safeway Center in Lynden. You can read The Woods’ story as told by Herman in Personally Speaking, October 2014 digital edition on our website.
ANOTHER NEW IN-GROCERY OPENING Industrial Credit Union opened a new Whatcom County branch (No. 8) inside the new Safeway at Sunset Square last month in Bellingham. ICU offers a full range of financial services there, M-F 10-7 and Sat. 10–3. Executive Vice President Kim
Sutton cited the central location and extended hours as an incentive for customers to “come see how convenient banking can be with Industrial CU in your corner.” Members own ICU, which has served customers for 74 years.
VSH NAMES MANAGER Jessica Good, after three years in the company’s International Services Group, earned a promotion to manager recently. She started with VSH Jessica Good in 2011, attaining VSH CPAs CPA designation that year soon after graduating with honors from WWU’s school of business. She works with cross-border businesses and compliance for U.S. persons living abroad, according to Kathy Herndon, partner at VSH CPAs in Barkley Village.
Congratulations to the Business Person of the Year Finalists!
INTO THE WOODS…AGAIN & AGAIN Expansion continues to serve as a byword and top activity for The Woods Coffee owner Wes Herman. The 16th location is scheduled WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 87
Guest Column: FREE-MARKET ENVIRONMENTALISM Todd Myers | Environmental Director Washington Policy Center The Washington Policy Center is an independent, non-partisan think tank promoting sound public policy based on free-market solutions. Todd Myers is one of the nation’s leading experts on free-market environmental policy and is the author of the 2011 landmark book Eco-Fads: How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism is Harming the Environment. His in-depth research on the failure of the state’s 2005 “green” building mandate receives national attention. He recently became a contributor to The Wall Street Journal.
Who pays (through the nose) for governor’s climate plan? G
overnor Inslee made climate change the central issue of his 2015 legislative agenda, and the centerpiece of that effort is his “cap-and-trade” proposal that would tax companies that emit CO2.
The system is complicated, but it basically has three essential steps. 1. The Department of Ecology sets a limit to that state’s emissions – the “cap.” 2. Then, permits to emit CO2 are auctioned, with the state keeping the money from the sale of those permits. 3. Finally, companies can trade those permits, sell them if they have more than they need, or buy them if they are short. The Governor likes this system because he believes the cap guarantees a reduction in emissions. That, however, has been false security 88 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
where carbon cap-and-trade systems have been tried. Additionally, cap-and-trade systems are notoriously volatile, with prices fluctuating wildly. In Washington state, the Department of Ecology says there are 130 organizations that will be hit by the tax, although their list only includes 94 names. Roughly one-fourth of the companies facing the cost haven’t been named. Another seven companies experienced 2013 CO2 emissions that fell just below the threshold of the 25,000 tons would put them in the system and could require them to pay the tax in the near future. Advocates of the governor’s plan portray these companies as “big oil,” implying they are the only ones impacted. The list, however, includes many companies that do not fit that image and are unrelated to fossil fuels. The Alcoa aluminum plants in Ferndale – Intalco Works – and in Wenatchee would also have very high costs. REC Solar in
Moses Lake is on the list. So, too, is silicon circuit manufacturer Waftertech in Camas. Fertilizer and food processing companies in the Tri-Cities and Othello also make the list. The Governor estimates it will cost $12/ton of CO2 in the first year to comply. That cost, however, is optimistic and is projected to increase. Experience in Europe and California's projections show the cost will likely hit $30/ton or more. Using state emissions data released last month, there is a diverse mix of companies that would be impacted. Using the more typical cost estimate, the University of Washington would pay about $2.7 million a year and Washington State University would pay $1.8 million. Manufacturing would also be hit. Alcoa Intalco Works in Ferndale would pay $32.8 million annually. Nucor Steel in Seattle would see a tax of $3.8 million. Ash Grove Cement in Seattle would see a tax of nearly $11 million.
There are also some companies typically considered “green” that would also see big tax bills. REC Silicon solar manufacturing in Moses Lake would pay $4.2 million every year and a number of lumber mills – whose products are more sustainable than alternative building materials – take a big hit. Weyerhaeuser’s Longview plant would pay an estimated $10.7 million to comply with the Governor’s plan. The entire spreadsheet is available on our blog at www.washingtonpolicy.org. Due to gaps in state data and inconsistencies, the list isn't perfect, but covers more than 90 percent of the companies covered by the proposal. The companies that fall just below the 25,000 metric ton threshold include two Boeing facilities, a
Carbon cap-and-trade systems have been tried. (They) are notoriously volatile, with prices fluctuating wildly. couple fuel suppliers and food production companies. It is important to know that much of the burden of these increases will be paid by consumers as companies pass along these costs. As we saw after the increase in electricity costs in 2001, aluminum and other cost-sensitive manufacturers may end up leaving the state. When considering the Governor's proposal, legislators need to remember that it will impact companies beyond those involved in fossil fuels. Further, the inherent volatility of cap-and-trade will result in costs that go beyond the low-end projections offered by the Governor.
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Whatcom Business Alliance Upcoming Events Calendar March 11 March 25 April 15 April 23 May 27 June 5 June 10
Bellingham Business Academy Business Person of the Year Awards Dinner Bellingham Business Academy Alpha Technologies Industry Tour Bellingham Business Academy Semiahmoo Resort Industry Tour Bellingham Business Academy
Learn more about these events online at www.whatcombusinessalliance.com or by calling 360.746.0411.
Whatcom Business Alliance Fostering Business Success and Community Prosperity
WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 89
Guest Column: labor market Erin Shannon | Small Business Director Washington Policy Center Erin Shannon became director of the Washington Policy Center for Small Business in January 2012. She has an extensive background in small business issues and public affairs. The Center improves the state’s small business climate by working with owners and policymakers toward positives solutions.
Double-Standard of Union Execs Impose sick leave and vacation rules, except on themselves
W
hat do unionbacked bills in the Washington state legislature to mandate paid sick leave (HB 1356) and paid vacation (HB 1163) have in common? Besides increasing costs for employers, both bills would mandate paid sick leave and paid vacation for non-union workers, but not for the union’s own members. That’s right, the labor unions pushing these paid leave measures don’t think their members should actually benefit from them. Union executives also want to exempt their members from benefiting from a bill to require triple pay for people who work on Thanksgiving Day (HB 1694). Each of these bills includes an exemption provision, “…if the employee is covered by a collective bargaining agreement.” Labor unions’ willingness to undercut their own members demonstrates the real motive behind the legislation—encouraging employers to become union shops in order to take advantage of the exemptions. Unionizing becomes a low-cost 90 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
option for employers to avoid paying the otherwise mandated benefits. Meanwhile, unionized employers translate into more union members and more dues money. Left out of the employer-win/ union-win equation are the union workers who not only don’t receive
(With) an increase in the cost of doing business in Washington State of more than $1.5 billion a year... No wonder unions want to exempt themselves from the requirements they want to impose on others.
the benefits, but must pay union dues or a representation fee in order to get and to keep a job. Since Washington is not a right-to-work state, unions have the power to compel workers to pay if they want to work. Collective bargaining once was
a way to improve the pay, benefits, and working conditions of workers who otherwise might not be able to negotiate such improvements. Today the purpose of collective bargaining seems to be nothing more than a bargaining chip for government and labor unions to coerce and incentivize employers to unionize. Of course, once the cost of the two paid leave bills is considered, it isn’t so surprising unions want to exempt themselves. • HB 1356 would require employers with five or more employees to pay for five, seven, or nine days of sick leave per year, depending on the size of the company. • HB 1163 would require employers who employ 10 or more employees for 20 weeks of the year to offer paid vacation (two hours for every 40 hours worked) for employees who work as few as 240 hours per year (that’s less than five hours per week). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average cost to an employer for paid sick leave is 25 cents an hour for each employee. The average cost for paid vacation is a steeper $1.02 an hour. Taken in isolation, those numbers might seem modest. But in aggregate,
those seemingly modest costs add up quickly. Companies in Washington of five or more employ about 2.7 million workers. Nationally, 39 percent of private-sector workers do not receive paid sick leave. So, theoretically just over 1 million Washington workers would benefit from the paid sick leave bill. Assuming those workers clock the national average of 1,700 hours a year, multiply by $.25 an hour, and the annual cost to employers in our state for the paid sick leave law would be a staggering $449 million. About 2.5 million workers in Washington work for businesses with 10 or more employees. Nationally, 23 percent of privatesector workers do not receive paid vacation, thus approximately 573,000 Washington workers might benefit from the paid vacation mandate. Assuming the national average of 1,700 work hours a year for each worker, multiply by $1.02 per hour, and the cost to employers in our state for the paid vacation law would be a mind-boggling $994 million every year. Taken together, that would be an increase in the cost of doing business in Washington State of more than $1.5 billion a year. No wonder unions want to exempt themselves from the requirements they want to impose on others. Employers cannot simply absorb an extra $1.5 billion every year. They would be forced to shift costs back onto workers, eliminating nonmandated benefits and reducing hours. Consumers would see the higher costs in the form of increased prices, a burden that falls hardest on low-income families. There is a reason only three other states (Connecticut, California, and Massachusetts) mandate paid sick leave, and why no state imposes paid vacation: Such mandates increase the cost of doing business. And most states are loath to increase costs on their
job creators, especially when economies still lagging from the Great Recession. In Washington our new business start rate has declined while our failure rate continues to increase. In 2010, Washington ranked 9th in business starts and 11th in closures. In 2012 (the most recent year available), Washington slipped to 12th for new business starts and 7th for closures.
Other states are doing a better job at fostering a positive business climate on the heels of the recession, as we are moving the wrong way in both rankings. Adding $1.5 billion a year in new costs on our state’s job creators is not the way to reverse this disturbing trend. Union executives know this, which is why they don’t want to be covered by the same rules they want to force on others.
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Visions for the future Guest Column: Lean heretic Randall Benson | Lean Consultant Randall Benson is a management consultant, author, and Lean master working out of Whatcom County. You can visit his blog “The Lean Heretic” at www.leanheretic.com, and his website at www.bensonconsulting.com.
Use Personal Lean to manage your tasks
D
o you suffer a meltdown when you sort through your task list? Feel overwhelmed by a huge to-do list, conflicting deadlines, and competing priorities?
Having trouble focusing on a single task while other tasks demand your attention? Haunted by the disquieting feeling that you should be working on more important or urgent tasks? Feel buried, even after you reprioritize your tasks? If so, you’re not alone. I confess that I could answer yes to all these questions. I was always on the lookout for a better task management tool, hoping the next one would unburden me. I’ve been a Lean consultant for over 20 years, but my task management system was an afterthought – like the mechanic’s car or the cobbler’s shoes: It ignored the Lean principles that I brought to my clients. I’ve learned to instill Lean Thinking into my personal task management, using a technique 92 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
called Personal Kanban, and the results have been profound. I highly recommend the process to you. Personal Kanban (PK) understands that managing task priorities is a futile and worthless effort.
Feel buried, even after you reprioritize your tasks? When you manage your task flow, priorities take care of themselves, and you won’t go crazy. That’s what makes Personal Kanban a personal productivity breakthrough. Priorities hold no meaning if you can’t manage your task flow (think throughput, not just input and output). When you manage your task flow, priorities take care of themselves, and you won’t go crazy.
That’s what makes PK a personal productivity breakthrough. Five simple Lean principles provide all you need:
1. Exercise respect for people In this case, “people” is you. Your task management approach should honor your precious time and your creative energy. It shouldn’t overload you with urgent tasks. If it isn’t substantially reducing stress, it’s not working.
2. Create visible flow Focus on your task flow and make it highly visible. When you do, you can stay on top of your task situation. PK practitioners create flow visibility by putting their tasks into a few simple buckets. I use task buckets labeled Inbox, Backlog, Ready, On Deck, Working, and Done.
3. Set work-in-process limits I put task limits on my Ready, On-Deck, and Working task buckets. My task limits: 15-Ready, 5-On-Deck, and 5-Working. Set
your own limits, and don’t exceed them. This keeps in-process tasks at a manageable level.
Experts in Injury Rehabilitation & Prevention
4. Pull, don’t push Pull tasks through your flow as you have capacity available within your defined limits. Stop using due dates to push tasks forward. For example, if I’m at my task limit, I can’t pull tasks forward without first completing an existing task. Follow this principle, and you can’t overload yourself.
5. Hold extra work in the backlog
Specializing in: • Hand & Upper Extremity Injuries • Lower Extremity Injuries • Vesitbular Rehab • Sports Injuries • Pool Therapy • Occupational Injuries • Neck & Back Injuries
Only pull forward as many tasks as you can handle in the next two weeks. Keep the rest in your Backlog bucket. Pull tasks out of your Backlog when you complete downstream tasks. If you get too many tasks in your Backlog, then For an appointment call... you’ll need more time, more help, Bellingham • 752.1575 Lynden • 354.5245 or fewer tasks. 805 Orchard Drive, Suite 2 1610 Grover, Suite B-2 Good tools will help you implement your PK system. Check out on-line Kanban sites like Kanban Flow and Kanban Box. You can also adapt traditional task tools to incorporate PK. For example, I’ve adapted DropTask, Apple Reminders, Things, and OmniFocus. Many tools will work, if you follow the five Lean prin“Experts in Injury Rehabilitation &As Prevention.” a Member of the Whatcom ciples. Business Alliance you will: Following the Lean principles, you can create your own PK system. • Become part of a rapidly Personal Kanban relieved me of growing leadership network. task tyranny. Could it do the same • Connect with other business for you? leaders in Whatcom County. This is the first in a series of articles • Obtain assistance with local about applying Lean Thinking to personal business issues and concerns.
Join the Leadership Network for Businesses of all Sizes
management. If you have questions, write to RBenson@BensonConsulting.com. Please socialize with us on Facebook at both the Business Pulse Magazine page and the Whatcom Business Alliance page.
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Visit the website or call for details. www.WhatcomBusinessAlliance.com 360.746.0418 Fostering Business Success and Community Prosperity WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 93
Guest Column: Human Resources Rose Vogel | HR Programs for SHRM Rose Vogel is a vice-president co-chair of the Programs Committee for the local Mt. Baker Chapter of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). She serves as director of human resources for ecigExpress in Bellingham, a company with 34 employees. She is a graduate of WWU-Fairhaven and has a masters degree in Human Resources labor relations.
Avoiding the minefield of formal complaints
W
ays we talk to each other and ways we treat each other make up some of the most complex, and sometimes most difficult parts of work.
As you know, employers have a legal obligation to maintain a hostile-free work environment. Mainly, that means creating a workplace culture of nondiscrimination when it comes to race and skin color, age, gender, national origin, religion, disability, and genetic issues. And, if you’re not taking that seriously – very seriously – you’re inviting trouble. Sometimes that trouble, which can blossom into expensive legal actions, stems from seemingly minor or unintended occurrences. Offenders sometimes even find it startling when confronted about something they said, perhaps with innocent intent or naiveté—such as when a worker files a formal complaint.
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Possible complaints that warrant an employer to conduct an internal investigation: 1. Sexual harassment (inappropriate language, inappropriate touching, flirting or hitting on, etc.) 2. Bullying (this can take the form of loud or gruff or shouting communication). 3. Expense report fraud (you can’t count your family in a business or entertainment expense). 4. All violations of protected classes under Civil Rights Title VII Act of 1964.
Tools to help the company HR department when an employee files a complaint: The legal form should include: • Name. • Date. • Witnesses (if any). • A brief description of the occurrence (declare names of anyone they told). • Where the occurrence took place. • Description of how they felt in the situation. • Ask what outcome the complainant expects.
The Investigation Process: Investigate the complaint immediately. Allow the complainant ample time to tell their story. Ask for specific details. Gather statements from witnesses. Ask for documentation.
Guideline to follow: Ensure confidentiality The employer has an obligation to protect employee claims. This could be difficult because the employer’s obligation requires a prompt and thorough investigation. The employer should explain to the complaining party and all witnesses involved that all the information is private and confidential, and that information shared is on a “need-toknow” basis.
Provide interim protection The employer might need to take immediate action to separate the complainant from the alleged accuser. Employers might want to consult with their employment attorney.
Select an investigator.
Create a written summary.
An HR professional is an obvious choice. But never hesitate to seek outside legal counsel. It’s always better to be informed and prepared. The investigator must operate objectively, listen actively, maintain confidentiality, document all details, and follow up with unanswered questions.
Write an account of the investigation and action plan. Keep all documents. Summarize all facts and findings, and file them. Downsides arise from not handling a complaint immediately, internally, and appropriately. For example, an employer can waste valuable resources contesting an occurrence that could have been handled internally, correctly and without escalating to legal entanglements. Mishandling can lead to heavy monetary damages levied against a company. Also, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Council (EEOC) mandates proper training that an employer pays for. In conclusion, never mistake an employee’s formal complaint for whining, and brush it off. Big mistake. The best preventative medicine: a positive workplace environment thriving on respectful, measured language and behaviors with each other.
Have a plan for the investigation. Take notes. Make an agenda. Establish clear guidelines.
Develop interview questions that directly relate to each allegation. Questions should directly and only relate to the allegations. Never get off in the weeds. If you have specifics, reframe them accordingly.
Conduct the interviews. Once you have established the rules and boundaries, start interviewing – thoroughly, and noting any inconsistencies.
8 Common Mistakes Employers make that result in employees filing external complaints: 1. Failing to plan for a complaint. 2. Ignoring complaints. 3. Postponing investigations. 4. Exhibiting bias before a complaint is thoroughly investigated. 5. Not paying attention to detail during the investigation interview. 6. Not maintaining a neutral position during the interview/investigation. 7. Not conducting a formal and thorough investigation. 8. Neglecting to reach a conclusion. 9. Neglecting documentation of the report(s).
Come to a conclusion. The investigation should provide adequate proof to make a final decision. Once interviews are complete, gather evidence of witness statements and make a formal recommendation. It must follow the law – both state and federal. That includes consultation with legal counsel on determination of responsibility.
Close the investigation. Inform the complainant and the alleged accuser of the outcomes. Assure all parties involved that you conducted the investigation seriously, responsibly, through prescribed processes. Then, tell them the appropriate action steps for resolution and to eliminate future hostile free work environment.
Whatcom Business Alliance Fostering Business Success and Community Prosperity
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Scene on the Street
Scene
on the
Street
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Gapping the Bridge A bridge is hiding back in there somewhere, ready to spring into full view on James Street any day now. Bellingham Public Works engineer-in-charge Craig Mueller confirmed at our deadline time that completion of the James Street Bridge project – due last December, after closing 8 months ago – will happen in “early March.” The bridge, in fact, is done. What you see here is roadwork, adding wider lanes, bicycle lanes, and sidewalks to the gap between Sunset Square and Orchard Drive. Ram Construction of Bellingham had 180 work days to meet specs of the $2.5 million project, and will finish ahead of that pace; however, reopening comes three months later than anticipated before November weather delayed the new 85-foot span that replaced two rickety wooden bridges. Reopening is good news for the average of 11,400 vehicles a day that were using that stretch of James Street. (Staff photo)
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ADVERTISER INDEX Alcoa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Anderson Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Archer Halliday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Banner Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 55 Barkley Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Bellingham Bells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Bellingham Business Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Lakeway Inn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Big Fresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Chmelik Sitkin & Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chocolate Necessities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Data Link West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 DeWaard & Bode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Diane Padys Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Evergreen Christian School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Faber Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Gabriel Knapp Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Hardware Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Heritage Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Hilltop Restaurant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Invent Coworking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Larson Gross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Laserpoint Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 North Cascades Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 PeaceHealth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Print & Copy Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Puget Sound Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 ReBound Physical Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Roger Jobs Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Saturna Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 SaviBank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Sig's Funeral & Cremation Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Silver Reef Hotel Casino Spa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Skagit Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Skagit Valley Casino Resort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Umpqua Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 VSH CPAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 WECU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Western Construction Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Whirlwind Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Wilson Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
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