Madison-based Applied Tech is among ten 2008 Dane County Small Business Award winners recognized at a June 13 banquet in Madison. This successful information technology services business is one of many Dane County businesses to gain entrepreneurial skills from conferences, courses and other training events at the UW-Madison Small Business Development Center (SBDC), a Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network partner.

On April Fools Day 2007, Kenny Molzahn and Bill Downy formed Historical Fishwrap™, a newspaper reproduction company based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. These two high school teachers were no fools in believing that the teaching tool that had been so effective in their own classrooms could inspire students and appeal to history buffs throughout the country.

Whatever your mission, we’ll get you ready! That’s the motto of a successful Janesville customization and repair business Helicopter Specialties Inc., recently named Aviation Business of the Year by the Wisconsin Aviation Trade Association. This award-winning business got its start in 1999 when entrepreneur Jim Freeman decided to turn his part-time business into a full-time operation.

Bruce Goode knows something about taking risks in business. His growing business, Adventures Restaurant, has had many expansions and successes within the last five years.

Len and Joan Steltz owned a successful auto body repair shop, Len’s Auto Body, in Superior for five years and were eager to expand. In 2005 they were encouraged by lenders to prepare a business plan, so they enrolled in the UW-Superior SBDC's Entrepreneurial Training Program.

Four University of Wisconsin-La Crosse professors, Drs. Aaron Monte, William Schwan, Marc Rott, and Thomas Volk, combined their expertise in chemistry, microbiology and biology to form Mycophyte Discovery, a drug discovery company that develops antimicrobial drugs from natural sources. Dr. Joseph Toce, on the academic staff at UW-L, later joined the team. Toce has prior industrial experience as a R&D Director and executive with Reliable Biopharmaceutical in St. Louis. Though in its early phases, Mycophyte shows great promise for developing drugs that can treat bacterial infections and offer a solution to antibiotic resistance.

When entrepreneur Stephanie Natale decided to turn her passion for photography into a business, she wanted to do it right.

The Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network is all about smart connections. Shared Medical Technology (SMT) in Rice Lake knows first hand the power of those connections in its efforts to mobilize a specialized fetal monitoring technology, called Fetal Magnetocardiography.

Stemina Biomarkers Discovery, Inc. was spun out of stem cell research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That research, based on metabolomics, will initially be used to screen drugs to prevent birth defects.

Architect and builder, Roald Gundersen, has been a persistent innovator and developer of eco-friendly building designs and materials in the La Crosse area. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Small Business Development Center (SBDC) first assisted Gundersen in the mid 1990s when he designed and built cold-climate greenhouses. In 2007 the SBDC helped Gundersen to expand his latest “green” venture, Whole Trees LLC.

If you’ve ever had an aquarium, you know how murky the water gets without frequent cleaning. Thanks to entrepreneur and scientist Terence Barry that fish tank will stay clean a lot longer. Barry’s water purification technology has broader application for removing contaminants from swimming pools, fish farms and even drinking water.

Milwaukee entrepreneur Brad Rake’s wireless technology, ZeroWire, has caught the attention of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Johnson Controls.

In 2003 Rake became a minority partner of Rose Polymer Composites along with Bob Uhren. Then to accommodate their electronic technologies, they started Esker Technologies and focused on Rake’s ZeroWire technology.

For over 15 years Fred Lewis made custom cabinets part time while working full time as a machinist for Harley Davidson. Two years ago Lewis saw the chance to do full time what he really loves –woodworking.

Eau Claire entrepreneur Pete Marsnik and business partner Dave Smith started ClearWater Solutions LLC in 2004 in order to take over a United States Department of Agriculture Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant from a Minnesota company that was going into bankruptcy. Today Marsnik is closer to taking this wastewater filtering technology to commercialization, thanks to a Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) Agriculture Development and Diversification (ADD) grant and some help from the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network (WEN).

Brenda Allbee opened her first Bright from the Start child care center in Platteville in December 2005. In just two years, Allbee launched a second center in Cuba City and plans to open a third in Boscobel in June.

Allbee credits her success to her exceptional staff and the strict standards and policies she has put in place. As she adds more centers, she adheres to those standards.

Before returning to his hometown in Colfax, Wisconsin, entrepreneur Kenny Smith worked for five years as an environmental engineer for Toyota Motor Corp. in California’s Silicon Valley and another four years as a project engineer in the high-tech industry. After returning he started Cool Science LLC to capitalize on his experience in the fuel cell industry.

The story of entrepreneur Rishi Shah is all about networking and collaboration. This University of Wisconsin graduate was recently named by Business Week as one of America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs for his business, Flying Cart, a unique, affordable and easy-to-use e-commerce solution for small retailers.

Before she even made the 200-mile move from Chicago, Shannon Bell knew all about the E-Seed Entrepreneurs’ Course offered by the Economic Development Corporation of Manitowoc County (EDCMC) and its partners Lakeshore Technical College and SCORE. She’d talked a lot about her idea for a healthful restaurant, and friends in Two Rivers encouraged her to take the class once she settled in her new home.

Eau Claire-based entrepreneur Dan Kunkel thought he wasted time driving 20 miles to check his rental mailbox, but that experience planted the idea for Automated Notification Systems, Inc. (ANS), the notification system Kunkel and co-owner Mike Albertson will soon launch as a beta system at Pakmail stores in Eau Claire, Chicago and northern Indiana.

When Anna Moldenhauer came upon an abandoned 1934 English Tudor style beach house in Kenosha, she envisioned a restaurant overlooking Lake Michigan, an old-world pub, a concession stand for lake visitors and a park where all ages could come together to enjoy a day by the lake. On July 1st Moldenauer made part of that vision a reality when she opened the concession stand at the historic Simmons Island Beach House.

As more and more Wisconsin businesses go green, Wisconsin entrepreneurs are giving them the innovations they need. One of those innovative Wisconsin Companies is INOV8 International in La Crosse, Wisconsin. INOV8 was launched in 1990 by entrepreneur Harry Foust, who patented a way for auto service garages to use waste oil to heat their buildings.

Anyone who has visited Door County can attest to the breathtaking beauty of the area. Entrepreneurs Deb Olsonoski and Avery Hoosier, both hearing impaired, had a dream of one day starting a landscaping business using only natural stone to enhance the beauty that was already all around them.

Entrepreneur Ben Hobbins believes his IronClad soft-bait technology will revolutionize the fishing industry. After receiving glowing reviews at the ICAST 50 Exhibition held in a Las Vegas in July, he’s well on his way to making that happen.

Finding success in business often means connecting with the right people. Entrepreneur and Inventor Kurt Brandt found many of the connections he needed through the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network (WEN).  Today Brandt, president of Brandt Innovative Technologies in Pewaukee, has developed sensor technologies that could impact our security and our health.

In 2006 friends Jerry Brainerd and Scott Niemiec opened their wood flooring supply business, Distribution Brothers, LLC in Chippewa Falls. Just one year later, Distribution Brothers employs five at two locations, Chippewa Falls and Des Moines, IA, with plans to open a third facility in Madison early next year.

No one will ever accuse entrepreneur Robert Jordan of having an idle mind. In fact it was the hours of thinking he did as a truck driver from 1987 to 1999 that led to his latest invention, Idle Free Systems.

“Instead of listening to the radio I would just think and come up with ways to solve big problems,” said Jordan. ”Some things would just catch on, and I would go back to them over and over. One of those things was a way to control the environment of a truck when the truck was shut down.”

Those hours of thinking led to hours of experimenting. Over a span of about six years, Jordan experimented with ways to eliminate waste and cut costs by eliminating the need to idle his truck.  He ultimately patented a system to transfer energy electrically between the trailer and the truck.

Buying local keeps dollars in the local economy.  In fact some calculate that every dollar spent locally circulates three times before leaving. That’s one reason Madison-based entrepreneur Heather Hilleren is optimistic about the impact her business, GreenLeaf Market, will have on the state of Wisconsin. 

What if something as simple as flying a kite could bring much needed water to developing countries? It can, according to entrepreneur Robert Creighton, founder of WindLift, which won the Gaylord Nelson Award for Sustainability and took second place in the Burrill Technology Business Plan Competition, held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in April.

“We at WindLift believe that our product will give the poverty-stricken people of undeveloped countries hope for a water pumping system that is affordable, dependable, nonpolluting and energy efficient,” said Creighton.

Now that Entrepreneur Matt Kouba has found success, he wants to give back. He’s doing just that along with his father and fellow entrepreneur Dan Kouba. As attendees of the first Juneau County Inventors and Entrepreneurs’ Club meeting over four years ago, the Koubas are now in a position to help their fellow I&E members.

In 2002 the Koubas purchased a 30-year-old furnace and boiler manufacturing company in Elroy. With a lot of hard work, some innovative thinking and a little help from the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network, the Koubas turned this company, now called Royall Manufacturing, into a true success story.

Sometimes things just come together like it was meant to be. That was the case for North Prairie Productions LLC’s new biodiesel refinery under construction in Evansville. In March North Prairie broke ground on its 62,400-square-foot refinery that will produce an estimated 45 million gallons of biodiesel annually, making it the largest of its type in Wisconsin. Once known as the soybean capitol of Wisconsin, Evansville was eager to welcome this refinery that will utilize soybean oil to produce fuel.

Captain Matt Gates of Two Rivers’ Highlife Charters knows his stuff when it comes to navigating Lake Michigan, reeling in the big catches, piloting a top-notch craft, and giving his clients the best fishing experience around. What this entrepreneur wasn'’t so confident about was strategic advertising placement, networking, and off-season business planning—more of what he calls the business side of Highlife Charters.

The marketplace for entrepreneur Nancy Forman has few boundaries. That's because the storefront for her business, Panache Jewelry, is part of the Wisconsin Common Market, a virtual market for over 200 Wisconsin businesses.  She also sells her handcrafted jewelry on eBay and at her Web site at www.panachejewelry.net.

Portage entrepreneur John Larson said he probably wouldn’t have launched Pegmore Storage Systems without help from Nancy Elsing and Barbara Martin at the Columbia County Economic Development Corp.

Nancy Rappaport launched Urban Accents in Milwaukee's historic Third Ward last year after attending a business plan development class through the SBDC at UW-Milwaukee.
“I cannot say enough positive things about the program,” Rappaport says now.

Joe Widmer, a third-generation Master Cheesmaker, uses the same bricks his grandfather used to press the whey from the cheese.  His cheese plant in Theresa, Wisconsin is a textbook example of a successful family business that has grown with each generation in terms of sales volume and technology, while staying true to their traditional values. 

The 3,000 dairy farmers who belong to the Foremost Farms USA ®Cooperative, which is based in Baraboo, Wis.,  have one strategy: to increase their profit margins by adding value to their dairy products.  Their goal is to take advantage of the most profitable market opportunities so that they are less dependent on the commodity market.
      But how? 

Keri Coffman-Thiede got into career coaching partly because she’d been miserable in jobs that weren't quite “it”.
     “When you are doing something 40-60 hours a week that's not a good fit, you don't feel like your life is a good fit overall,” Coffman-Thiede says. “I want to help people avoid that and find the fulfilling life that waits for them when they align who they are with what they do.”
     Barb Martin and the Columbia County Economic Development Corp. (CCEDC) shared Coffman-Thiede’s vision for Amaze Yourself Coaching.

Michael Trzinski of Port Edwards has taken his interest in writing and hockey to a successful business on the World Wide Web, operating the Wisconsin Prep Hockey website in collaboration with his partner Bill Berg. 
     Over the past five years, they have created what they refer to as the Best Hockey Publication in Wisconsin. Their fans agree.

Dr. Philip Z. Sobocinski's remarkable string of successes as part of the WEN network means about $4-5 million in federal R&D money for Wisconsin tech-based small businesses and direct assistance in the start-up of tech-based Wisconsin businesses.
     His recent activities, some in concert with other WEN partners such as the Wisconsin Department of Commerce and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, have contributed to approximately $4-5 million in federal FY 2005-6 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funds including awards to two recent start-up and three existing Wisconsin firms during this period. 

Jordan Leahy's been building businesses since he was 15 –about three years ago.
      Still in high school in Mount Horeb last spring, Leahy searched out Gary Smith, director of the Southwest Wisconsin Small Business Development Center in Platteville, for business marketing advice.
     "My clients are not typically 18 years old," Smith said. "Jordan is clearly an exception -- not only with his desire to go forward with starting a business, but then to have a focus of what the business needs to be, how to grow it, how to manage it appropriately."

Mike Krysiak walked into a Milwaukee-based garden center with confidence in 1999. His goal: get his environmentally friendly mulch on the store’s shelves. The buyer for the store bought into Krysiak’s dream.
      Today, the Green Bay company Krysiak founded, ENCAP, LLC, is sold all over the U.S. in stores like Menard’s and Sears. Sales have doubled each year since 2000. The company, which just won the Governor’s 2006 Small Business Technology Transfer Award, began with about three people.
      Today, it has 15 fulltime and three parttime employees, plus three consultants and six temporary workers per shift.

  Gwen McCutcheon has invested a lot of hard work and a lot of enthusiasm into her Madison-based transcription business. A secretary in Washington, D.C. for many years, McCutcheon dreamed of owning her own business. So in 1985, she started Premium Business Services; while working at another job.

    After losing her husband to mental illness, McCutcheon moved back to Wisconsin in 1990, taking her business with her. At her sister’s advice, she kept her Washington, D.C. transcription accounts, and again worked a full-time job while running her business. Eventually she quit her job to focus all her efforts on transcription, management, and development of Premium Business Services.

Business is blooming at Fina Gardens in Hillsdale, 11 miles west of Chetek in northwest Wisconsin. Owners Sam and Helen Finazzo are pleased with the first-year sales at their flower growing business specializing in Peonies. 
   

     Success Beyond 2000, LLC (SB 2000) all started in 2000 when Deborah Ragland wanted to make a scrapbook for her father’s 81st birthday.  Deborah’s nephew had played football for UW Madison and her father had kept all sorts of memorabilia from his career.  It was cluttering her parent’s dining room table and so she wanted to put all of the newspaper clippings from her nephew’s football career, from peewee to college football, into a University of Wisconsin scrapbook.  Deborah was very persistent in trying to find a quality UW scrapbook but had no luck.  Since UW-Madison did not have any such product she decided to contact UW Licensing and create one herself.  She now is an authorized licensee which allows her to create and sell products after they are approved for a number of colleges in the East and Midwest region of the country.

    When Duane Lottig, a winter camping enthusiast, couldn’t find the right tent to suit his needs, he bought an industrial sewing machine and made his own. He also sewed a pair of mittens that caught the attention of a local storeowner, who ordered 25 pairs. “

 Jessie McKinnon received one-on-one counseling regarding employee issues and marketing from Russ Roberts, manager Small Business Center at Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC), an Outreach Center for the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network. She continues to have ongoing contact with Roberts and sits on the WCTC advisory committee.

Who can resist a fresh baked cookie? At LEONARD’s Designs, LLC in Hortonville, Wis., about five miles northwest of Appleton, the cookies are always fresh and always irresistible. But something extra contributes to the sweet success of this new business.

A successful direct sales business in Green Bay has the potential to become as recognizable as Pampered Chef or Tupperware. Started in 2003 by entrepreneur Cheri Larson, Azante Jewelry offers high-quality, affordable jewelry through a growing force of independent sales consultants.

By Leah Call
   
Perseverance. It’s the key to success, according to entrepreneur Jenny Erlandson. After nearly five years in business, Erlandson feels good about her decision to leave corporate America and start her custom-framing business, Three Thirty-Five Framing.

Fresh perspective. Refined design. Premier customer service. That’s what you'’ll find at Autumn Hill Creative LLC, one of the newest advertising agencies on the scene in Kimberly, Wisconsin.

When the company that employed Bruce Bathurst was purchased and moved to another state, he and co-worker Greg Retzlaff decided to start their own business. AquaSensors LLC, with an office in Brookfield and manufacturing facility in Menomonee Falls, took shape in November 2002. Three years later, AquaSensors employs five and sells its products throughout the U.S. and Asia.

Melody McCabe, owner and principle consultant of Office Efficient Systems LLC (OES), hopes to someday run an organizing empire. For now she reigns over the growing organizing business she started three years ago in Neenah, Wisconsin. OES provides customized innovative systems and procedures that help businesses, home offices and individuals get organized and improve efficiency.

Paul Mancheski often feels like he’s on vacation when he goes to work at WaterScape Designs LLC, the business he started with his wife Justine in 2002. Waterscape Designs in Door County, Wisconsin, constructs and designs ponds, streams and waterfalls for homeowners.

Boot camps and toddlers don’t normally mix, but for Rich and Caroline Casper, an Entrepreneurial Boot Camp helped a quality child care facility open its doors in the town of Rudolph.

The Caspers recognized a need for such a facility in their community.  "It's my wife's vision," Rich said. "She's a preschool teacher at St. Phillip's, and she always heard it would be nice to have a day care in Rudolph." Rich also completed the necessary requirements for daycare certification.