Your Guiding Light

Bond as a family while exploring the high ropes courses and ziplines! Kids — lead your parents across the challenge courses and ziplines — or try the Kid's Bike Adventure! Parents — watch your child's confidence grow with each challenge they conquer! Try your hand at the Axe Throwing Palace! Create family memories at the North Shore Adventure Park!

There has been no private medical practice in Brainerd (pop. 13,500) for more than 20 years. A private medical practice is owned by a physician and can provide a higher level of health care at a lower cost than a large health care system. Dr. Kristy Lelcu moved to the Brainerd Lakes Area and worked for Essentia Health, but found she missed the connection made with patients. She opened North Star Family Medicine to provide care that focuses on the patients’ needs in this underserved community.

NASBITE is the leading authority and industry standard for global business education, trade credentialing, training and practice. NASBITE accomplishes its mission through a portfolio of programs and services including its recently launched Trade Passport website, for which the Minnesota SBDC was a charter member, funding partner and beta tester. Our Minnesota international trade specialists are listed as resources on the Trade Passport website to help their clients learn how to export. Clients can contact them for one-on-one assistance or view any of the informational webinars on the website: https://www.trade-passport.org/

Laura Wolfram and Kayla Adams have been operating a successful, home-based bakeshop for the past year and a half, baking cupcakes and specialty treats for the community under a Cottage Food Industry License. The natural next step was to open their own store. The goal of Korppi Coffee & Bakeshop is to use local sustainably-sourced ingredients to create tasty offerings that are free of preservatives, artificial flavorings and excessive sugar. Cultivating a healthy community begins with nourishing both the body and soul, and nothing is more nourishing than the sense of kinship that comes with genuine human connection. Laura stated, “We feel so fortunate to have been able to work with the SBDC to help us get our business up and running.”

Adam Stegeman, owner of “Advocate 3D”, located in Gibbon, Minnesota shares that he understood the technical aspects of his proposed business, but needed help working through the process of actually starting and operating the business. His SBDC consulting team helped him secure financing, structure a business plan, build an accounting system and create his idea into a 3-D reality!

Clients got help from the SBDC since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is more than TWICE the number of clients we serve in a typical year!

Minnesota has the highest 5-year business survival rate of any state in the US.  The SBDC helped businesses recover from the COVID-19 disaster.

We've done a lot of crazy stuff together as brother and sister, including serving together in Kuwait and Iraq during our time in the Army. Now that we both have our own families (Beth Fynbo has two kids and brother Eric has four) we’re thrilled to be working together to run Busy Baby and help make life a little easier for Busy Parents everywhere! Says Beth, “One-year-olds are notorious for throwing toys on the ground! I thought, there has got to be something I can buy for my son so we can enjoy a peaceful lunch together! I couldn't find anything that would do the job, so I created Busy Baby." It’s a food-grade silicone mat with straps to hold toys in place. As seen on a recent episode of Shark Tank — it’s an investment in your sanity!

Kay Williams Prunty was forced to move her business when the building she was renting went up for sale. The “Dance Academy” had offered ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, and modern dance in downtown Worthington since 1996. Kay contacted the Southwest Minnesota SBDC for assistance in finding a new location and completing the financial projections she would need to secure a loan. The Dance Academy moved into a larger, newly remodeled building with the start of fall classes in September 2020. The new space now allows Kay to offer even more programs. “I am so thankful for Berny Berger at SBDC and the team that made it possible to move my business and continue doing what I love. They truly care about us small businesses!”, said Prunty.

First Children’s Finance provides financial and business development assistance to high-quality childcare centers and at-home childcare businesses serving low- and moderate-income families and building partnerships that connect these vital businesses with the resources of the public and private sectors. First Children’s and the Minnesota SBDC have created a special partnership to link this critical childcare expertise with SBDC business consulting expertise to all regions around the State — something we have never done before. Creating new childcare solutions for prospective employees is the first step in solving workforce issues for employers.