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Feature Article-Seeding the Prairie-Minnesota Technology Magazine Online, Summer 2002 Page 4 of 6
<br /> Elk River understands that not every fiber optic cable and copper
<br /> company in its incubator will become a major cable that will give every
<br /> • employer in the city, or even exist a few years home and business in
<br /> from now, says Catherine Mehelich, the city's Redwood Falls a high-speed
<br /> director of economic development. But the line. New Ulm Telecom's
<br /> hope is that if the companies are screened investment-an estimated$6
<br /> well, at least some will become major million-was essential to keep
<br /> employers and taxpayers. So far, only eight Redwood Falls competitive
<br /> companies have qualified for the incubator in the future,according to
<br /> and not all of them are around today. Says WeldehBusinesses
<br /> neededdWeldon. Businesses
<br /> kind of service,
<br /> Mehelich: "I figure if we get one out of 10, although some of them didn't
<br /> that's good odds." realize how much they
<br /> needed it,"he adds.
<br /> Other communities around the state have
<br /> approached Jacobs for help. "My prediction is To help business owners
<br /> that in a few years you'll have a half-dozen or understand the potential
<br /> so communities with seed funds and value of connectivity,the city
<br /> incubators and the potential to develop high- and the Redwood Area
<br /> tech businesses," he says. Development Commission
<br /> provided assessments for
<br /> many companies in town.
<br /> Help at hand for high-tech The city's major employers
<br /> In Dakota County, the focus has been on include a local hospital;
<br /> nurturing the technology use of all Schutt Homes,a
<br /> businesses. "Many businesses invested in the manufactured housing
<br /> Internet on blind faith, and [now]want to know provider; Central Bi-
<br /> more about how to use it," says Steven Haas, Products, a rending plant;
<br /> chair of the Dakota County Economic and computer chip
<br /> manufDevelopment Partnership's Technology Technology. DuArtringn
<br /> Committee, and a business consultant with Technology. ,During the
<br /> assessments,we found
<br /> • Minneapolis-based Enterprise Development ways that nearly every
<br /> Inc. company could work better
<br /> or work smarter,"says
<br /> To wit, a March conference on Internet Weldon. For instance, a
<br /> marketing drew more than 100 people. local bank with 14 branches
<br /> "There's a big hunger for information out would benefit greatly from
<br /> there," says Boland of Decipher IT,who high-speed electronic data
<br /> conducted the program. "People want to transfer.
<br /> explore these ideas outside of a sales One business owner who did
<br /> situation." not need convincing was
<br /> Jean Lepper,who owns a
<br /> One of the attendees at the seminar was quilting shop in Redwood
<br /> Brian Anderson, president and owner of Falls and a sister store in
<br /> Anderson Air Cargo, an Eagan transportation Hutchinson.The Main Street
<br /> brokerage.Anderson formed his company in Cotton Shop is a mecca for
<br /> 1990 to help firms ship product by air. quilters all over the country.
<br /> Sometime in the late 1990s, "we became The store, named one of the
<br /> top 10 quilt shops in America
<br /> basically an Internet company,"says
<br /> in 1995, is noted for carrying
<br /> Anderson, whose business handles the popular Thimbleberries
<br /> shipments worldwide by air, truck, or sea. The designs of Lynette Jensen, a
<br /> firm now manages 68 percent of its orders Hutchinson resident and
<br /> electronically, a process that has allowed it to long-time friend of Lepper.
<br /> cut three steps out of 26 from the typical Lepper's two shops carry
<br /> shipment process. Its computers even more than 3,000 bolts of
<br /> connect directly to the intranet of its largest fabric and routinely attract
<br /> client, a Fortune 100 firm in Minneapolis. busloads of avid quitters.
<br /> Anderson Air Cargo operates with about half "I could not survive on a
<br /> the number of employees it would need bricks-and-mortar store,
<br /> •
<br /> without the Internet, says Anderson. even with all the local trade
<br /> we do,"says Lepper,who
<br /> Despite his Net savvy, Anderson felt could has specialized in quilting
<br /> get more out of the technology. "What we had fabric, notions, and books for
<br /> http://www.minnesotatechno logy.org/public ations/magazine/2002/Summer/feature_s eeding.a:... 8/16/02
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