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May 06 2009

American Entrepreneur | Jeff Swedarksy

Washington DC

DC Metro Food Tours offers guided walks merging history, architecture and food in selected DC neighborhoods. The tours encompass several stops at local restaurants where participants enjoy small plates of food specifically designed for the tour. Each stop builds on the neighborhood’s history.

Jeff Swedarsky, founder of DC Metro Food Tours, saw his own neighborhood, Old Town Alexandria, as a great place to begin. Old Town was originally part of the District of Colombia. It was a colonial town that grew up on the banks of the Potomac along with Georgetown. Because of it’s history and small size, it made an ideal location for launching the first food tours. DC Metro Food Tours has now expanded into other neighborhoods that have a diverse history and interesting culinary scene.

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Jeff Swedarsky, founded DC Metro Food Tours, inspired by a lifelong love of food, and a commitment to promote locally owned and operated restaurants.

Jeff invited us to join him on one of his afternoon tours. We had our dog Sadie with us, so we were unfortunately not able to take the full tour. Jeff suggested instead that we meet him at the last stop on the tour at Old Town Coffee Tea & Spice. He saved us a few pieces of Alexandria Jelly Cake and some glasses of iced tea. Jeff wouldn’t consider a visit to DC complete without savoring a local dish.

Old Town Coffee Tea & Spice is one of those tucked away treasures that seems like only locals know. I had to check the address twice. A tiny sign placed high up in the window told me we were there. Long counters held rows of burlap bags brimming with coffee beans and every surface was adorned with an organized assortment of tea and coffee drinking paraphernalia. It was clear from this choice of location that DC Metro Tours was about authenticity.

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Don’t miss the small sign, Old Town Coffee Tea and Spice.

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A slice of Jelly Cake, an Alexandria classic, served at Old Town Coffee Tea and Spice, one of the DC Metro Food Tours stops.

Jeff always wanted to be an entrepreneur. He had a deep and vibrant love of life – specifically for food, travel and history. Taking this relatively abstract passion and turning it into a real product was a challenge. A great deal of planning and logistics goes into DC Metro Food Tours. For each new tour, Jeff labors to bring other small business owners on board and incorporate them into his vision.

Jeff feels that the energy and entrepreneurial spirit is strong in DC; the founding tenets of the nation are based on people building things they believe in. He finds great joy in building his business, creating jobs and building his local economy – while indulging his love of food, travel and history. In order to put money back into the business, Jeff works for the government as a consultant.

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Preserving and continuing the local culinary heritage of his own neighborhood Jeff Swedarsky,

founder of DC Metro Food Tours stands in one of his top Old Town spots, Old Town Coffee Tea and Spice.

Jeff’s greatest hope for the coming year is to continue to build his community, one of the major responsibilities he has identified for his company. In the next year, DC Metro Food Tours is looking to add more tours and increase the number of tour guides. Jeff hopes DC Metro Food Tours will make an impact economically in DC.

Jeff’s advice to us all? “Don’t let the recession be an excuse for failure. Make it the reason you find the answer.”

An Intimate Portrait of the American Entrepreneur Project is sponsored in part by the automated marketing gurus at Infusionsoft

and is championed by the spirited zeal of The Toilet Paper Entreprenuer and TPEs across the universe.

May 01 2009

American Entrepreneur | Mark Spencer

Louisville

Miller-Diehl Construction & Insurance Restoration

Mark is inspired by entrepreneurship. His first business was selling baseball cards. He quickly realized he was making more in this side business than he was at the accounting firm where he was employed. After being a staff accountant, Mark had a short adventure as a candy store owner, but knew that also wasn’t for him. He was just treading water, working more hours a week than he wanted to, looking for something with promise, something that he could see a future in for himself.

As a homeowner, Mark had an inherent interest in real estate and had already bought rental properties. When the chance to purchase an established construction company came up, he decided to go for it.

Miller-Diehl had grown for several generations in Louisville under one family. The last of the family was retiring, and Mark took over the reigns.

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Mark Spencer, owner of Miller Diehl Construction, on site.

Miller-Diehl’s business is diversified with many types of client so that the crew has work throughout the year. Insurance restoration is half of their business and the other half is petitions remodels and kitchens. Winter is typically a slow period for most contractors, but it is a time when the most flood and fire damages occurs in the home. He sees this as a unique differentiator for a construction company in the Louisville area. Mark told us that Miller-Diehl is very busy this year, mostly due to a season of hurricane winds and ice storms.

Mark spoke at length about building a business with employees. People work harder if they like and respect you, and Mark works hard to build a team relationship. Coming into an established business can be difficult, but Mark prioritized the expertise of his employees and made his role to do the bidding and the administration, which made for a smooth transition.

Miller-Diehl is having its best year; business is up over 50% from a year ago, though Mark was cautious, explaining that he felt much of the company’s recent success was related to the atypical storms that came through Louisville the previous winter.

Mark’s story is a familiar one. The threat of becoming the company man, who at 55, is told that the company doesn’t need him. The veteran company man who is replaced by someone younger, more technically savvy and less expensive. Mark knew this was not where he wanted to see himself, so he took control of his fate. As an entrepreneur the ceiling is as high as you dream it, but that’s tempered, Mark reminded us, with a floor that is a lot lower.

As for Mark? He likes the risk.

An Intimate Portrait of the American Entrepreneur Project is sponsored in part by the automated marketing gurus at Infusionsoft

and is championed by the spirited zeal of The Toilet Paper Entreprenuer and TPEs across the universe.

Apr 29 2009

American Entrepreneurs | Alex Wander & Adam Thuerer

Hillsboro, Missouri

Lone Oak Organics

Welcome and congratulations to Adam Theurer and Alex Wander, founders of Lone Oak Organics, the first certified organic hydroponic greenhouse in the St. Louis area – today is the company’s official grand opening.

Adam and Alex see themselves as stewards of the environment. They are promoting organic food as a way to get St. Louis eating healthier and more nutritious food. Lone Oak Organics is very conscious of the effects of traditional agriculture on the land and have incorporated environmentally conscientious practices into their business.

Lone Oak currently focuses on growing locally grown organic culinary herbs. They grow peppermint, chives, sage, oregano, savory, arugula, parsley, dill, cilantro and of course, basil. Offering a locally grown, organic alternative eliminates the need for grocers to fly culinary herbs from Southern California.

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Hydroponic watering in action.

Like Paul Scheiter of Hedgehog Leatherworks, Adam and Alex graduated in 2008 from St. Louis University’s Center for Entrepreneurship at the John Cook School of Business, facing one of the worst years in decades for business major graduates. Adam had a background in agriculture and access to his family’s land. Alex has a background in marketing. They met in the SLU Entrepreneurship Program, and joined forces to start their own company, launching Lone Oak Organics ten months ago.

Adam sees the recession as being a key component to the sucesss of their start up. Building the greenhouse was less expensive than it would have been a few years ago. They were able to purchase equipment secondhand at a discount. The higher cost of gas has actually worked in their favor, driving up the cost of purchasing organic herbs from out of state.

Maintaining a healthy environment is important to both Adam and Alex. They see green business as the place to be, and are ready to position Lone Oak ahead of the local St. Louis market. They plan to eventually be in downtown St. Louis, developing an urban organics center for fresh produce. The stacked hydroponics growing system maximizes the use of space and during the cold winters of St. Louis when the temperature can drop to near zero, the Lone Oak greenhouses are heated with a wood-burning furnace, using a renewable fuel source.

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Adam Thuerer and Alex Wander stand amongst the basil, at the Hillsboro based Lone Oak Organics, that supplies locally grown organic culinary herbs to St. Louis.

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Adam Thuerer, co-founder and Operational Manager of Lone Oak Organics, changed his shirt, and began harvesting some basil for us to sample.

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Alex Wander, co-founder and marketing specialist of Lone Oak Organics, shows us some fresh mint in the Hillsboro greenhouse.

Alex says that although Lone Oak is in start up mode now, the business has the potential to thrive. Alex and Adam are invested in building a strong client base in their community. Lone Oak is actively available to their customers: offering booths at Farmer’s Markets, demonstrations in local supermarkets and building a stockpile of herb-based recipes on their Website.

Adam and Alex are thrilled to be working in sustainable agriculture and providing healthy food for St. Louis. Currently, Lone Oak is looking for additional financing to expand their greenhouses and connect with other growers. They are working on creating streamlined systems to grow their business efficiently, and bring their local market what it wants. Lone Oak is also actively looking for a botany and horticulture consultant. Please contact Alex Wander directly at alex(dot)wander(at)loneoakorganics(dot)com if you are interested in learning more about Lone Oak Organics.

An Intimate Portrait of the American Entrepreneur Project is sponsored in part by the automated marketing gurus at Infusionsoft

and is championed by the spirited zeal of The Toilet Paper Entreprenuer and TPEs across the universe.

Apr 27 2009

American Entrepreneur | Paul Scheiter

St. Louis, Missouri

Hedgehog Leatherworks

Embrace the wild. It’s the first covenant of Paul Scheiter’s business, Hedgehog Leatherworks. It’s also the way he lives his life. On the surface Hedgehog Leatherworks seems to be simply a company that makes leather sheaths. That is what they do, but it’s not all that they are.

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Paul Scheiter, founder of Hedgehog Leatherworks, in one of his boyhood stomping grounds outside St. Louis, Missouri.

Paul wants to change the lives of as many people as possible, by allowing them to experience nature and the wild in the same way he experiences it: without fighting, without conquering or muscling through. Hedgehog embraces the idea that we can all be a part of the woods. The irony, Paul explained, is that embracing the wild is the most comfortable way to be in the outdoors. The more you resist, he says, the more tension you create. Could we use this metaphor for business? Should we, as entrepreneurs, embrace the wild? Choose the path of least resistance?

Paul maintains that this core value helps him align a good team at Hedgehog. Not only do his employees need to be capable of doing the work, but they also need to understand and practice an ‘embrace the wild’ mentality. Paul said, “They need to be fans of the brand before they can truly come in and grow our brand.”

Most companies say thatthey stand for good quality products and strong customer service, but these values are generic. We do business in a world where that is not enough. Paul knows that generic business values don’t have substance and don’t truly explain who he is and what Hedgehog stands for. As entrepreneurs, we all need to be very specific in how we self-define, so that we can build a brand and build a tribe. Paul gets this.

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Paul models using a Hedgehog Leatherworks sheath.

Paul brought Hedgehog Leatherworks to life while attending the undergraduate program in entrepreneurship at St. Louis University‘s Center for Entrepreneurship at the John Cook School of Business. The program is known for its practical approach to teaching business and it is also behind the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards (GSEA), which recognizes full-time students that are also full-time business owners. In 2006 Paul placed 2nd in the competition out of roughly 300 international submissions from around the world.

Placing in the GSEA put Paul into networking circles where he eventually met fellow entrepreneur and author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, Mike Michalowicz. Their values meshed. They hit it off. Ultimately, Mike’s firm became an investor in Hedgehog Leatherworks. (As a side note, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur is a supporter of the American Entrepreneur Project!)

Less than a year later, here we are, chatting about business with Paul and listening to his advice. Paul encouraged other entrepreneurs to be focused, to look for the first step, take it, and then look for the next step.

The first step is the hardest, in life and in business. You can’t get caught up in anxiety so much that you don’t make the first step. Doing it once, you realize that it wasn’t so scary. And after a while, Paul told us, you get acclimated to experiencing that fear. Now he knows that fear means that he is on the verge of breaking through to the next step. And in this way, he’s embracing the wild of entrepreneurship.

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Paul shows us how to start a fire.

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We want Paul on our team! Read more about The Way of Hedgehog at the Hedgehog Leatherworks Website.

An Intimate Portrait of the American Entrepreneur Project is sponsored in part by the automated marketing gurus at Infusionsoft

and is championed by the spirited zeal of The Toilet Paper Entreprenuer and TPEs across the universe.

Apr 19 2009

Road Trip | Sleepover at the Clarke-Fields

Hunter and I met while waiting for our respective graduate school interviews. We met again the first day of school, and spent two years training to be art teachers at MassArt in Boston. In the years since, both of us have migrated away from classroom teaching, but have remained good friends. Hunter, her husband Bill and thier daughter Maggie opened their home to Trent last year when he was working the primaries in Pennsylvania, and we jumped at the chance to visit them as we drove north towards New England.

Hunter woke us up with the alluring smell of bacon, coffee and pancakes. The Clark Fields are a wonderful and warm family. Thanks again for giving the three of us a place for the night. There’s nothing like pancake eating in pajamas after nearly a month on the road.

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ars magna studio – photography blog

Category Archives: American Entrepreneur Project

American Entrepreneur | Jeff Swedarksy

American Entrepreneur | Mark Spencer

American Entrepreneurs | Alex Wander & Adam Thuerer

American Entrepreneur | Paul Scheiter

Road Trip | Sleepover at the Clarke-Fields