The Next Generation: Vermillion's New Entrepreneurs

In the last few months, we’ve seen several new entrepreneurs hit the stage in Vermillion. These young professionals do everything from pet care to landscaping, so we sat down with each of them to see how they like being their own boss.

Luke Van Peursem — Pristine Enterprises

Luke has been mowing lawns since he was seven years old. After two years of college, he decided he preferred manual labor and hard work to the university life, and started Pristine Enterprises. Pristine now has four employees and serves clients like Knutson Family Dentistry, Ace Hardware, numerous small businesses, and residential customers.

“I didn’t know how far my business will go, but this year, it absolutely blew up and I’m making a lot of good connections in town. I couldn’t be where I’m at without the great people who offered me jobs.”

Luke’s goal is to serve more commercial properties, expand his staff, and bring great landscaping to as many clients as possible.

Kasey Elder — Jensen Kennels

Kasey had always wanted to start a doggie daycare—it was just a matter of finding the right building. She had even planned on building one from scratch when her dad suggested she check out a location on Cherry Street. She was joined by one of her best friends who had spent years working at a doggie daycare in Sioux City, and with the help of a contractor to fix the place up, her dad’s business acumen, and her brother’s financial know-how, Jensen Kennels was born.

Jensen Kennels now has space for up to 40 dogs and shares the building with T&T Canine Connections, which offers services like puppy school and hunting dog training.

“The best part of owning a business is getting to share it with my family… All my cousins, aunts, and uncles having dogs makes it so fun to share the business with them and see their dogs more. You can’t really have a bad day being around 20–30 dogs every day!”

Kassi Meng (Peters) & Sydney Jensen — Ulah

After several years of working in Kansas City and Sioux City, respectively, Kassi and Sydney started Ulah to bring their beautification expertise to Vermillion. Ulah offers hydromassage, hydrafacial, waxing, and permanent jewelry services, and has been exciting, overwhelming, and extremely liberating all at once, according to Kassi.

“It’s completely up to us how we run it and what we decide to bring,” Kassi said.

“It’s been very gratifying being able to have different hours for people in the community. We’re open til eight o’clock at night; even though our storefront’s not open, our books are open, so all people have to do is book online and we’re able to come in,” Sydney said.

Ulah has been growing steadily since its opening, and conducts its business entirely online through GlossGenius—they don’t even have a phone!