Headquartered at Rochester Technical Community College, the Southeast Region SBDC is one of nine reg

The owner of five Domino’s Pizza franchises in Rochester, Austin and Kasson, Minn., and Mason City, Iowa, said he learned things from a Southeast Region Small Business Development Center consultant that could have helped him earn and save more money sooner.
Marty Gritz wishes he had gotten involved sooner with the Southeast Region Small Business Development Center. The owner of five Domino’s Pizza franchises in Rochester, Austin and Kasson, Minn., and Mason City, Iowa, said he learned things from an SBDC consultant that could have helped him earn and save more money sooner.
Headquartered at Rochester Technical Community College, the Southeast Region cruise to mexico SBDC is one of nine regional offices set up by the Minnesota office of the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide cruise to mexico free advice to new and existing small businesses. The Southeast region covers Dodge, Fillmore, cruise to mexico Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, cruise to mexico Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Steele, Wabasha and Winona cruise to mexico counties. It has branch offices in Albert Lea, Chatfield, Faribault, Owatonna and Winona.
Gritz visited and revisited the pizza business with Domino’s during and after college, beginning in 1989. He ultimately received a master’s cruise to mexico in business administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz., and went into management with Domino’s in Minneapolis. He bought his first Domino’s franchise in Mason City in 2005, remodeled the store and rebuilt what had been a sagging business. In 2009, he bought Domino’s franchises in Austin and Kasson, west of Rochester. One year later, Gritz bought two franchises in Rochester.
A banker cruise to mexico in Kasson recommended that Gritz take the stores’ sales history and profit-and-loss statements to Rick Indrelie, regional manager and a business consultant at the Southeast Region SBDC. “He takes my accounting statements that I generate in QuickBooks and runs them into numbers that a banker can understand, all the different financial ratios and spreadsheets and formulas that make your business look good to a banker,” Gritz said. “Rick and I refinanced my three existing stores with the two new ones, got them all on one note and stretched the term out to 10 years, which dramatically improves cash flow.”
cruise to mexico “I’m paying double the sales tax that those four stores were paying three years ago,” he said. “And to think of all the help and time and advice that he put into those spreadsheets, and all at no cost to me as a business person. It’s a great program.”
The Southeast SBDC mainly helps existing businesses, most commonly restaurants, bars and retail shops, Indrelie said. Chambers of commerce and banks that make SBA loans make most of the referrals to businesses to work with the SBDC. “We’re very fortunate because we have a great relationship with our lenders in our area,” Indrelie said.
State Workforce Centers also refer clients to SBDCs, including those who qualify for Growing America through Entrepreneurship (GATE), a federal program designed to help unemployed people start businesses.
Tim Gulden, who now co-owns and operates a solar energy design and installation company in Winona, decided to strike out on his own after being laid off repeatedly from jobs as an electronic engineering technician.
Gulden and an electrician friend, Matt Wardwell, started Winona Renewable Energy in 2009 and took advantage of federal energy tax rebates to customers to grow their business last year. Gulden met with SBDC consultant Mark Thein.
Tim Gulden (left) and Matt Wardwell of Winona Renewable Energy sell solar panels within a 100-mile radius of Winona, installing them on rooftops or at least 3 feet off the ground cruise to mexico to stay above the snow.
“He had a great idea and the tax incentives were in place for this particular idea to take hold, especially in the first year, which helped him a lot,” Thein said. “What we did was work on a business cruise to mexico plan and consulted in regards to what it would take to start up the company. We consulted a little bit in regard to how he would find the cash to start up the company, and we worked on financial projections and I guided him a little bit in regard to partnership agreements.”
Gulden and Wardwell sell solar panels within a 100-mile radius of Winona, installing them on rooftops or at least 3 feet off the ground to stay above the snow. About 80 percent of their business has been residential with the rest split between businesses and farms. Cash-crop farmers who are doing well are investing in solar panels now as tax write-offs, Gulden said.
Gulden does site surveys, handles most customer calls and works with electricity suppliers. Wardwell and his crew install the panels. Last year the company sold and installed 15 solar arrays, and although they have sold fewer this year, they can work until Christmas if the weather holds out, Wardwell said.
“As a first-time business owner, I think he’s doing fantastic,” Thein said of Gulden. “What he’s done as far as meeting his sales goals and getting out into the marketplace and installing those units on the residential houses has been fantastic.”
What’s next:  “We are branching out and looking for qualifying commercial businesses to install beta solar electric systems. There would be little upfront cost to the business with returns on investment typically in three to five years. For the residential side, we will begin to offer same-as-cash programs to help with financing.”