Success Stories

Central Wisconsin Agency Off to a Great Start
In February 2009, Keith DuPuis and Kent Perrin launched Adrenalign Marketing LLC, a Wausau-based full-service advertising agency serving central Wisconsin. In business for just over a year, the Adrenalign owners feel like their business is about a year ahead of where it should be, thanks to the help they received from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

Another Successful Business for Wauwatosa Entrepreneur
Don Muehlbauer worked with computers for over 22 years in the corporate world and has owned multiple computer businesses over the last ten years. To market his latest venture that sells ecigarettes and eliquid from a Web site, AmericaneLiquidStore.com, he simply had to apply what he knows best. Then he watched his online business rocket from its first sale on October 15, 2009 to between 200 and 250 unique visitors daily just six months later.

New Insulation Business Increases Comfort, Lowers Cost
After 20 years of working for insulation and construction companies, Kenosha entrepreneur Steven Fani saw an opportunity to capitalize on an industry trend and started Spray Foam Solutions Inc., offering Green weatherization options for new and existing homes and buildings. In business for less than one year, Fani just hired his first two employees and expects to need more to keep up with demand for his services that can increase heating efficiency by as much as 60 percent.

Kenosha Entrepreneur Finds Niche in Construction Industry
Laid off from her job in the construction industry, Beth Gonnering of Kenosha made the decision to start her own business. She enrolled in the Small Biz class at UW-Parkside SBDC and today is the proud owner of HomeTown Pro Inc., which offers home and building maintenance, repair and remodeling services in the Kenosha/Racine area.

Small Business Development Center Helps Entrepreneur Launch Business
Twitter. Facebook. MySpace. LinkedIn. It’s hard to keep up with it all. It’s especially difficult to know just how your business can harness this ever changing digital media marketing world. That’s where John Holcomb and Outrigger3 come in. Holcomb has made it his business to help businesses understand and utilize the emerging media marketing realm.

Bird Man Wins Business Plan Competition
Tyler Danke, 2009 UW-Oshkosh Business Plan Competition winner, combined an interest in poultry and an entrepreneurial drive to form his winning business, Purely Poultry. The $400 cash prize along with valuable advice from the competition judges helped Danke to get his business flying higher.

Fitness and Nutrition Business Finds a Marketing Niche
UW La Crosse graduate Eric Gramza is passionate about health and fitness. That passion inspired his vision of an ideal fitness and nutrition regimen for the Greater Milwaukee Area. In April 2007, Gramza turned that vision into a business, Fuel Up. GO! Fitness and Nutrition LLC, an innovative health and exercise venue offering customized fitness and training programs.

Inner Compass LLC
In 2001, Jeff Nerone looked for a greeting card that expressed his inner feelings. He discovered many cards from a woman’s point of view, but nothing from a man. Later at a bookstore, he found sections on women’s issues and ethnic issues, but again nothing for men. Then it hit him; he would fill that gap. He envisioned a greeting card line, Internet magazines, and an Internet talk radio show. And so began Inner Compass – a media company focused on helping men lead emotionally healthy lives.

SBDC Instrumental in Growing Madison Design-Build Business
When Dani Michels started her interior design-build construction business, Commercial Interior Contractors, she was a one woman show, working on a laptop computer from her home office and often from her car. Though off to a good start, she was ready to grow her business.

La Crosse Architect Builds on Strength of Whole Trees
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.

Success is Sweet for Madison Chocolatier
Gail Ambrosius is one of ten 2008 Dane County Small Business Award winners recognized at a banquet on July 13. For Ambrosius this award is proof that hard work really does pay off.

UW-Milwaukee SBDC Helps Entrepreneur Stay in Business
Nigerian born Yinka Adedokun is a serial entrepreneur and small business owner. For 15 years his downtown Milwaukee restaurant, the African Hut, gave diners a taste of African cuisine and an education in African culture. Though Adedokun closed the doors of his restaurant in February, he is still in business at Reynold’s Pasty Shop, the business he purchased in late 2007 with an SBA Community Express Loan.

JUNEAU COUNTY--- Carol Schriver-Kauscher has returned to Wisconsin! Carol, also known as “D’BugLady," was a successful business woman in Cincinnati, Ohio. She planned on starting her second D’BugLady Pest Management Company and had every intention of locating it in Kentucky.

The Juneau County Economic Development Corporation has opened many doors for Carol and D’Buglady Pest Management by helping to establish links to the organic industry, introductions to current and future small business owners, future government contracts and even the European Market through a meeting with Jean Pierre.

Shani Johnson worked as a rehabilitation director for five years before taking the entrepreneurial plunge and opening Cornerstone Physical Therapy. "I wanted the ability to always treat patients the way they should be treated."

Suzanne Huber couldn't find any "really good" ice cream. So she unearthed a recipe, located a processor and made her own. Her resulting product, Sibby's Premium Organic Ice Cream, can be found in more than 50 stores in southern Wisconsin.

Concrete Sawing Company
Paul Konkler had 15-plus years of experience cutting concrete for others and wanted to build a business of his own. He and his wife, Judy, enrolled in the Entrepreneurial Training Grant Program, and picked up the business knowledge they needed to successfully launch Concrete Sawing Company.