Focus on
WOMEN 2010
She’s all business Supplement to the Grand Forks Herald, Sunday, March 21, 2010
By Ann Bailey
Special Features Staff Writer
Jane Meyer knows her business. The owner of Red Wing Shoes, Forks Frame Up, Play It Again Sports and ConsignIt, in addition to two home-based companies in Grand Forks, believes that principles such as hiring quality employees, attention to customer service and being a good manager are universal to all businesses. “Running a business is a skill set,” Meyer said. “It doesn’t matter what you sell, the same theories and good practices are applicable to all the businesses.” Meyers learned business skills when she was a child and working in her grandfather’s grocery store in Randall, Minn., where she grew up. Although Meyer was a physical education and health major in college, she only worked in that field for three years. She began her business career in 1986 in Grand Forks when she and her husband, Ed, opened the French Connection, a café. The couple ran the business at locations in the South Forks Plaza and downtown Grand Forks
Jackie Lorentz, Special Features staff photographer
Business woman Jane Meyer, owner of Play It Again Sports, Red Wing Shoes, Forks Frame Up and ConsignIt, enjoys the challenge of starting and setting up a business.
It’s a perfect fit ■
until the flood of 1997. Most of their clientele was made up of people who worked downtown and
the Meyers knew that they wouldn’t be back in their businesses for at least a year, so they decided to
close the café.
New horizons
In the fall of 1997,
Jane Meyer enjoys the challenge of setting up a new business
■
friends asked Meyer if she wanted to manage the Red Wing Shoes store and she agreed. She managed the store until 2008 when she purchased it and turned the management over to another employee. Meanwhile, the Meyers also had purchased the Framemaker and the Forks Frame Up and merged the two businesses. Initially, Meyer had planned to sell the companies but found she enjoyed working in businesses that sold art and art products. “The more I started learning about the arts and prints and the secondary market, it was fun,” Meyer said. Last year, she bought Play It Again Sports, which sells new and used sporting goods equipment, and moved it from its location on the east side of 17th Avenue South to the Grand Cities Mall. Earlier this month, Meyers opened ConsignIt, a consignment store, next to Play It Again Sports.
Business skills
One of the keys to running successful businesses is to hire responsible, knowledgeable employees,
Meyer said. Her goal is to spend only a few hours a week at the business and let her managers and their sales associates run the day-to-day operation. While Meyer enjoys selling shoes, frames and sporting goods once in a while, she wouldn’t want to be involved in marketing any of them full time, she said. “I don’t care for the same thing all of the time... I like the diversity. I like going from place to place and having a little something different to do.” Though the businesses she owns are very different from one another, they all share a common goal, to meet a need in the community, another business principle that contributes to successful companies, Meyer said. “Every one of those businesses has a need in the community that fills a niche,” she said. As she looks to the future, there is at least one more business prospect that Meyer is considering. “I love the challenges. I like the challenge of setting something up… going in, hiring, setting up systems and letting someone else run it.”
Lisa’s Piche’s job allows her to be creative while helping people in need
By Ann Bailey
SpecialFeaturesStaffWriter
Lisa Piche grew up in a family who believed it was their responsibility to reach out to people in need. As an adult, Piche not only adopted that philosophy, she chose it as a career. As a Northeast Human Services Center assistant regional supervisor, Piche works with adoption agencies with foster children and their families. Piche began her career in social work in 1991 after she graduated from UND. Social work was a natural choice because when she was growing up her parents always were among the first to volunteer when the school, church or a community organization needed help, she said. “That was a part of our lives, volunteerism and stepping up when there was a need… If they
knew a neighbor needed the lawn mowed, they sent me over with the lawnmower.” Meanwhile, when she was growing up she had a friend who was in a foster care and witnessed the need for a team effort to meet the needs of the friend and her foster family. “It kind of grabbed my interest,” Piche said. “It was something I really wanted to be a part of.”
Jackie Lorentz, Special Features staff photographer
Doing what she was meant to do
Ruby Baranski, left, was inspired by her daughter, right, Michele’s accident to start Independence Plus Inc.
Ruby Baranski, owner of Independence Plus Inc., helps elderly remain independent
■
Her calling
After graduation from UND, Piche worked at Friendship Incorporated in Grafton with people who had developmental disabilities for several years, then got a job at Northeast Human Services in Grand Forks in 1997. The new position was a perfect fit. “It allows me to be creative. It challenges me. There are new opportu-
Jackie Lorentz, Special Features staff photographer
Lisa Piche is a Northeast Human Service Center assistant regional supervisor.
nities every day,” Piche said. “I absolutely love child welfare.” Not only
does Piche work with children and adults inPICHE: See Page 4
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By Ann Bailey
Special Features Staff Writer
CROOKSTON – From a small office near Crookston, Ruby Baranski works to make a big difference in people’s lives. Baranski, owner of Independence Plus Inc., strives to improve the lives of eld-
erly people and people with physical and mental challenges. About 200 people across Minnesota use the services of Independence Plus, which employs about 225 people. Independence Plus is reimbursed by the state of
RUBY: See Page 2