Doug and Carol Severson, owners of Handyman’s Inc. 
If you walk into Handyman’s Hardware in east St. Cloud, the odds are good that owner Doug Severson will wait on you.  Severson started working in the family business in 1976 when he was 15 years old.  After graduating from St. Cloud State University with a finance degree in 1983 he joined the store full time, taking over the leadership role in 1993. Since that time he and his wife Carol have doubled the number of employees, doubled the size of the sales floor, and doubled sales. 
 
Most recently the couple bought out the minority interest of Doug’s sister, as she moves into retirement.  This  transition is part of a succession plan that the Severson’s hope will eventually lead to their children taking over store operations and becoming the third generation to own the hometown hardware store.
 
Staying local and still being competitive is an on-going challenge for the Seversons.  As an independent retailer they have no corporate or franchise support to create an online presence or point-of-purchase software for their hundreds of products.  And they don’t have a multi-million dollar advertising budget. 
 
Instead, all advertising and outside sales are handled by staff, which the Seversons believe is their greatest competitive advantage.  The personal touch creates loyalty among customers.  And they are able to carry products that the typical hardware store does not have available, allowing for quick response for customers who often need just the right part with little or no warning. 
 
Maintaining the “local hardware store” feel is critical to the Seversons.  “We could get rid of the store front and focus on commercial,” Carol Severson said, “but we love working with our customers and having that hometown feel.”
 

 

Brenda Eisenschenk likes sales.  Since graduating from St. Cloud State University she has focused her career on sales: copiers to outdoor, telecom to newsprint.  In the end she discovered that telecom was her passion and business ownership was her future.  She was selected as the 2019 Women in Business Champion because along the way she has made a point of supporting women and girls. 
 
Eisenschenk started inteleCONNECT, Inc. in August 2007.  Her vision was new to the St. Cloud area.  She wanted to provide telecommunications consulting for businesses on their phone, internet and cable TV services.  Telecom agents were uncommon, but she found a few in the Twin Cities market who were willing to talk with her and explain their services.  She wrote a business plan and started making sales calls. “I started at zero and went out and sold,” she said. 
 
Though she started as a one-person operation, Eisenschenk now has four employees.  Her growth has been in part because of her desire to see others succeed.  “Lisa Vouk was planning to make a change and I told her I wished I could hire her, but I couldn’t afford her.  She said ‘How do you know?’”  The two worked out a plan that would accommodate Eisenschenk’s growing business and Vouk’s desire to have more time with her family.  A similar arrangement was made with a second employee who was looking for a change following the birth of a baby.
 
In addition to her support of the women who work for her, Eisenschenk has been a strong advocate for women and girls.  She participates in Mentor Morning, a program of the St. Cloud Times/LocaliQ that connects young women with experienced female professionals and she mentors girls in her church.  Possibly her greatest impact is her volunteer work with the local Girl Scout program.  She does presentations on how to sell cookies, how to run a business, and serves as a mentor.
 
In addition to running her company, Eisenschenk  volunteers for a number of organizations, including the Sartell Chamber, the St. Cloud Area Chamber, her church, Girl Scouts of Minnesota and  Wisconsin Lakes and Pines; Habitat for Humanity, and Sertoma.  She also provides paid time off for staff to volunteer.