The following loan guarantees have been approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration during July:
Bardon Bowling Centers, W6656 Shoreland Rd., Elkhart Lake 53030, $1 million, Community Bank & Trust;
Beach Rays Partnership, 6804 Green Bay Rd., Kenosha 53142, $90,000, Firstar Bank;
Computer Exchange Corp., 2267 S. 108th St., West Allis 53227, $1,287,000, U.S. Bank;
Curves for Women, 8600 75th St., Ste. F, Kenosha 53142, $27,000, First Banking Center;
Dhillon Group, & Loomis Pet, S107 W6311 Loomis Rd., Muskego 53150, $600,000, Community Bank & Trust;
Dollar Discount, N85 W15770 Appleton Ave., Menomonee Falls 53051, $110,000, Citizens Bank of Mukwonago;
Emerald Creek Stables, 1896 Hwy. NN, West Bend 53095, $515,000, Community Bank & Trust;
Express Pantry, 1305 W. Edgerton Ave., Milwaukee 53221, $126,000, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.;
Galioto’s Vintage Grille, 1221 Wauwatosa Rd., Cedarburg 53012, $242,000, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.;
The Harrington Group, W28045 Schmidt Ln., Hartland 53029, $150,000, Waukesha State Bank;
Heartland Video Systems, 1442 Pilgrim Rd., Plymouth 53073, $257,000, Community Bank & Trust;
Hunny Tree, 7850 McHenry St., Racine 53105, $111,000, Racine County Business Development Corp.;
JMA Installation & Construction, 2842 Raymond Ave., Franksville 53126, $50,000, Community State Bank;
Komp Engineering, 1820 S. First St., Milwaukee 53204, $238,500, U.S. Bank;
Medusa’s Garden, 53 Church St., Hartford 53027, $8,000, First Bank Financial Centre;
Michael H. Parrish, CPA, 4801 Washington Rd., Kenosha 53144, $88,555, Bank of Kenosha;
Midwest Foot & Ankle, 113 W. Sunset Dr., Waukesha 53189, $120,000, Waukesha State Bank;
Milwaukee Family Dental Clinic, 4000 S. Howard Ave., Greenfield 53221, $480,000, Comerica Bank;
Milwaukee Mold Industries, W224 S8535 Industrial Ave., Big Bend 53103, $149,000, Wells Fargo Bank;
Mycousa.com, 6526 River Pky., Wauwatosa 53213, $150,000, Delafield State Bank;
Nagra Pump and Pantry, 1211 Appaloosa Trail, Racine 53402, $411,000, State Bank of Chilton;
Oakland Amoco, 3624 N. Oakland Ave., Milwaukee 53211, $150,000, Legacy Bank;
Guaranteed Sewer Services, 2401 N. Colony Ave., Yorksville 53401, $100,000, First Banking Center;
The Quilting Bee, 5690 Broad St., Greendale 53129, $90,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Quizno’s Brown Deer, 9078 N. Green Bay Rd., Brown Deer 53209, $175,100, Community Bank & Trust;
Reprographic Technologies, 1600 Miller Park Way, West Milwaukee 53214, $354,000, Milwaukee Economic Development Corp.;
Rob’s Electric Service, 255 Elmwood Ave., Unit E204B, Lake Geneva 53147, $55,000, First Banking Center;
Rouge, 322 E. Michigan Ave., Milwaukee 53202, $45,000, Wells Fargo Bank;
Sandhar Corp., 1220 W. Manor Ln., River Hills 53217, $2 million, State Bank of Chilton;
Sol, 1229 E. Brady St., Milwaukee 53202, $100,000, Legacy Bank;
Steel Rule Diemasters, 153 N. Milwaukee St., Milwaukee 53202. $74,000, Community Bank & Trust;
Tgar Group, 5115 7th Ave., Kenosha 53140, $33,000, First Banking Center.
Aug. 30, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

www.stritch.edu
Full-time MBA
Location: Milwaukee/Brookfield, Kenosha/Racine, Manitowoc/Sheboygan/Lake Geneva, Green Bay/Appleton
Focus: General management, health care
Program length: 2.5
Classes offered: One night per week
Start Dates: Rolling
Accreditation: Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs
Total cost: Part-time tuition $390 per credit
Typical class size: 14-22
Year program began: 1986
Unique attributes: Students provided with notebook computers; some of the classes offered online; first non-traditional program in the nation to receive accreditation under ACBSP’s acceditation under its Option B (Baldrige Quality Criteria.)
Carthage College
www.carthage.edu
Executive MBA from Loyola University
Location: Kenosha
Focus: General management with international and ethics components
Program length: 18 months
Classes offered: Every other Friday and Saturday, three one-week in-residence classroom sessions and eight-day international study trip
Start Dates: August
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: $43,450
Typical class size: 27
Year program began: 1997
Unique attributes: Consistently among the top 10% of all MBA programs in the country; listed as the “16th Best Part-Time MBA program” by U.S. News and World Report. Resources and reputation of a large university with the personal attention of a small liberal arts college.
Concordia University
www.cuw.edu
Full-time or Part-time MBA
Location: Mequon
Focus: Health care, finance, church administration, global business, human resources management, managerial communication, management information systems, public administration, risk management, marketing, general management
Program length: 26 months
Classes offered: Evenings, one night per week
Start Dates: 8 times per year
Accreditation: North Central Accreditation
Total cost: $400 per credit
Typical class size: 12:1 student ratio
Year program began: 1991
Unique attributes: Christian institution; flexible class schedule; distance-learning classes always an option; no thesis required for graduation
Concordia’s Distance-learning MBA:
Focus: Health care, finance, church administration, global business, human resources management, managerial communication, management information systems, public administration, risk management, marketing, feneral management
Program length: 26 months
Start Dates: Every 8 weeks
Accreditation: North Central Accreditation
Total cost: $400 per credit
Year program began: 1998
Keller Graduate School of Management
www.keller.edu
Full-time, Part-time, Distance/Online MBA
Location: Milwaukee, Waukesha
Focus: Accounting, electronic commerce management, general management, human resources, finance project management, information systems management, international business, marketing, public administration, telecommunication management, health services
Program length: 1.5 to 3 years
Classes offered: Evenings one night per week, Saturdays, Online
Start Dates: 5 times per year
Accreditation: North Central Association
Total cost: $1,420 per course
Typical class size: 15-20
Year program began: 1973
Unique attributes: Online program ranked in the Top 5 by Computer World Magazine; most courses don’t have prerequisites; after graduation, students can come back and take enhancement courses for $150 per course
Lakeland College
www.lakeland.edu
Part-time MBA with distance-learning option
Location: Sheboygan, Green Bay
Focus: Accounting, international business
Program length: 3 to 4 years
Classes offered: Evenings, one night per week
Start Dates: 3 times per year
Accreditation: North Central Association
Total cost: $780 per 3-credit course; $825 per 3-credit online course
Typical class size: 20
Year program began: 1993;
online courses: 1999
Unique attributes: Students can take courses to try program before going through the admission process
Marquette University
www.mu.edu
MU’s part-time MBA
Location: Milwaukee, Kohler, Waukesha
Focus: Marketing, economics, accounting, leadership, quality management, finance, international business
Program length: 36 months
Classes offered: Evenings and/or Saturdays
Start Dates: Sept., Jan., May
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: $615 per credit hour (overall cost $24,00 to $30,500)
Typical class size: 26; off-site 35-40
Year program began: 1952
Unique attributes: Regular tenured faculty teach at off-campus sites; small class sizes; believe personal attention is important
MU’s full-time MBA
Location: Milwaukee
Focus: Marketing, economics, accounting, leadership, quality management, finance, international business
Program length: 18 months
Classes offered: Evenings and/or Saturdays
Start Dates: Sept., Jan., May
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: $615 per credit hour (overall cost $24,000 to $30,500)
Typical class size: 26; off-site 35-40
Year program began: 1952
MU’s full-time, part-time Executive MBA
Location: Milwaukee
Focus: International business
Program length: 17 months
Classes offered: All day Friday and Saturday every other week
Start Dates: August
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: $35,000 all encompassing
Typical class size: 30
Year program began: 1996
Unique attributes: Tuition includes books, food, laptop computer, and 9-day international trip
University of Phoenix – Milwaukee
www.phoenix.edu
Part-time MBA
Location: Brookfield
Focus: Technology management, general management, e-business, health care management, accounting
Program length: 3 years
Classes offered: One night per week
Start Dates: Once a month
Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association
Total cost: $365 per credit hour
Typical class size: 15-17
Year program began: 2001
Unique attributes: Students must be working adults and be able to apply what they do for a living in the classroom
Phoenix’s distance/Online MBA
Focus: General management, accounting, e-business, global management, health care management, technology management
Program length: 3 years
Start Dates: Once a month
Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association
Total cost: $495 per credit hour
Year program began: 1989
Unique attributes: One of the most recognized online programs in the country, very easy to complete courses from anywhere.
Upper Iowa University
www.uiu.edu
Distance/Online MBA
Focus: Accounting, quality management, management, organizational development
Program length: 2 years
Start Dates: Rolling
Accreditation: The Higher Learning Commission
Cost: $303 per credit hour
Year program began: 1999
Unique attributes: Do most of work offline and then log into site to post assignments so as not to tie up phone lines
UW-Madison
www.wisc.edu
Madison’s full-time MBA
Location: Madison
Focus: Accounting and information systems; agribusiness; applied security analysis; applied corporate finance; entrepreneurship; finance, investment and banking; general management; information systems analysis and design; international business; management and human resources; manufacturing and technology management; operations and information management; marketing; marketing research; real estate and urban land economics; risk management and insurance; supply chain management
Program length: 4 semesters
Classes offered: Monday-Thursday during the day
Start Dates: Sept.
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: Per semester, Wisconsin resident: $4,168; Non-resident: $11,887
Typical class size: 30
Year program began: 1945
Unique attributes: Ability to choose a functional major; real hands-on experience in class projects
UW-Madison’s part-time MBA
Location: Madison
Focus: General management
Program length: 3 years
Classes offered: Monday and Thursday evenings
Start Dates: Sept.
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: $11,940 per year
Typical class size: 40
Year program began: 1998
Unique attributes: Lock-step program allows students to start and stay with the same people and build network relations
UW-Madison’s Executive MBA location: Madison
Focus: General management
Program length: 2 years
Classes offered: One week then Friday and Saturday every other week
Start Dates: Aug.
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: $21,000 per year, all encompassing
Typical class size: 32
Year program began: 1993
Unique attributes: Small size, virtually no attrition, optional international trip second year
UW-Milwaukee
www.uwm.edu
UWM’s full-time or part-time MBA
Location: Milwaukee
Focus: Cost management and ERP, entrepreneurship, financial strategy, global strategy, Information technology management, investment management, leadership, management of human resources, managing Innovations and new products, marketing strategies, non-profit management
Program length: 16 months; 4 years
Classes offered: Evenings
Start Dates: Sept.
Accreditation: AACSB
Cost: Resident tuition: $1,618 per 3-credit course
Typical class size: 30
Year program began: 1971
Unique attributes: Consolidated foundation courses;state of the art technology; study abroad opportunities;
UWM’s full-time Executive MBA
Location: Milwaukee
Focus: Senior general management
Program length: 22 months
Classes offered: One day alternate Fridays or Saturdays
Start Dates: Aug.
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: $34,000
Typical class size: 35-40
Year program began: 1974
Unique attributes: One of the oldest programs in the country, required international residency trip
UW-Parkside
www.uwp.edu
Full-time or part-time MBA with distance-learning option
Location: Kenosha
Focus: Accounting, general business, human resource management, finance, marketing, management information systems
Program length: 4 semesters
Classes offered: Evenings, Online
Start Dates: Sept., Jan., May
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: $277 per credit
Typical class size: 15-20
Year program began: 1981
Unique attributes: New 8-week courses should allow students to accumulate more credits per semester and finish program sooner
MBA Consortium, UW-Parkside
http://learn.wisconsin.edu/mba
In an effort to offer the foundations courses more frequently, an MBA Consortium was developed. The participating universities are UW-Parkside, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, and UW-Oshkosh.
The program offers all of the foundation courses (except Algebra and BUS 772) every semester via the Web. Some elective courses will also be offered.
UW-Whitewater
www.uww.edu
UW-W’s full-time or part-time MBA
Location: Whitewater
Focus: Management, marketing, finance, human resources management, international business
Program length: Full-time 2 years; Part-time 3-4 years
Classes offered: Evenings, one night per week
Start Dates: Aug., Jan.
Accreditation: Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
Total cost: $261.60 (resident), $758.60 per credit (non-resident)
Typical class size: 28
Year program began: 1975
Unique attributes: The program is endorsed online so a student is not required to come to campus; highly interactive
UW-W’s distance/Online MBA
Focus: Management, marketing, finance, human resources management, international business
Program length: Varies
Classes offered: Online
Start Dates: Rolling
Accreditation: AACSB
Total cost: $550 per credit
Typical class size: 36
Year program began: 1997

The following loan guarantees have been approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration during May:
Aquatic Emporium/The Fish Store, 374 W. Main St., Waukesha 53186, $87,000, Waukesha State Bank;
Classic Tool and Machine Co., 2201 W. Bender Rd., #3, Glendale 53209, $75,000, Port Washington State Bank;
Dominos Pizza, 5100 Washington Ave., Racine, $119,000, Firstar Bank Milwaukee;
Elburg, Inc., 910 West Blvd., Racine 53405, $550,000, The Money Store Investment Corp.;
Fast Foot, N80 W14962 Appleton Ave., Menomonee Falls 53051, $42,250, First National Bank of Hartford;
Fort Handy Pantry, 1012 Whitewater Ave., Fort Atkinson 53538, $465,000, Citizens State Bank & Trust;
Grisby’s Child Development Center, 2856 N. 41st St., Milwaukee 53210, $45,000, Norwest Bank Wisconsin;
Koenig Custom Concrete Corp., 410 McKee Ct., Fort Atkinson 53538, $80,000, Citizens State Bank & Trust;
Lares Fashions, 261 W. Main St., Waukesha 53186, $50,400, Waukesha State Bank;
Mahuta Tool Corp., N182 W19137 Bunsen Dr., Germantown 53022, $299,000, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.;
The Original Gallery Co., 609 Milwaukee St., Delafield 53018, $27,000, Waukesha State Bank;
Pistol Pete’s Pub II, 16755 W. Lisbon Rd., Brookfield 53005, $223,000, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.;
Priya Corp., N96 W17500 County Line Rd., Germantown 53022, $255,000, AT&T Small Business Lending Corp.;
Pull Together Publications, Inc., 5150 N. 32nd St., Milwaukee 53209, $125,000, First National Bank;
Roth Chiropractic, LLC, 64 N. Main St., Fond du Lac 54935, $45,000, National Exchange Bank & Trust;
SGLA, LLC, 105 Industrial Dr., Lake Mills 53551, $700,000, The Greenwoods State Bank;
Sheboygan Family Restaurant, 2704 S. Business Dr., Sheboygan 53081, $550,000, Community Bank;
SPS Productions, LLC, 10437 Innovation Dr., Wauwatosa 53226, $73,000, Southern Commerce Bank;
The Cat Doctor, 236 N. Water St., Milwaukee 53202, $241,500, The Money Store Investment Corp.;
Unimex, LLC, 13095 W. Foxwood Dr., New Berlin 53151, $150,000, Ridgestone Bank;
Wisconsin Tool & Abrasives, Inc., 2107 N. 18th St., Sheboygan 53081, $89,500, Community Bank.
MEDC loans
A $106,000 loan from the Milwaukee Economic Development Commission will help a Milwaukee-based fund-raising firm finance the purchase of a new facility in the city for expanded operations.
Professionally Speaking, Inc., (PSI) will use the MEDC loan to purchase a 10,000-square-foot building at 3942 N. 76th St., just south of the Capitol Drive intersection, and move its telemarketing operation from its current site at 10012 W. Capitol Dr. It owns that Capitol Drive building.
PSI is a professional fund-raising company that handles direct mail and telemarketing campaigns for a variety of non-profit organizations.
The new location will provide benefits to both the company and residents as it minimizes traffic issues and provide PSI workers an easier commute by bus, city officials say.
The company, which will continue its administrative functions on Capitol Drive, employs 210 full-time people and expects to add 75 more full-time.
Participating in the $425,000 project is Investors Bank.
MEDC’s loan committee also approved financing for four other business projects at its June meeting.
Vincent G. Lubsey, M.D., located at 5231 W. Villard Ave., received a $149,000 Target Loan to help expand his family patient practice. Lubsey, whose practice has expanded substantially, has been a practicing physician in the city for 20 years.
When a 12,000 square-foot property with an attached house and three-car garage across the street from Lubsey’s practice became available, Lubsey decided to purchase and remodel it to accommodate his growing practice.
The new building will accommodate 10 examination rooms, a breakroom for employees, chart room and storage, an administration office, and a larger waiting area. Lubsey has four other doctors interested in practicing full- or part-time to assist with clients. Their fields include OB/GYN, internal medicine, general practice, and surgery.
Firstar Bank is also participating in the $406,000 project.
Lubsey’s practice also obtained a $48,100 state Minority Business Development Fund loan, a $3,400 state Minority Business Development Fund grant and a $12,500 state Job Creation Program grant. That financing was approved at the May 19 meeting of the MBDF board.
Lubsey’s practice expects to add up to 16 jobs with the expansion project. Two of those positions will be filled with state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation clients with disabilities.
Urban Foot Care Center, located at 3915 W. Capitol Dr., received an $85,000 Target Loan to assist in expansion and improvements at its current site. Funds will be used for the purchase of equipment and continued use as a medical facility and office for Urban Foot Care Clinic.
Urban Foot Care Center, a foot-care medical operation that provides general podiatry care, currently employs three full-time and expects to add two full-time workers.
Firstar Bank is also participating in the $212,000 project.
Environmental Innovations, Inc., a technical rebuilder that recycles laser printer and fax toner cartridges, would like to expand its operation with a $62,500 MEDC loan. It would use the funds to help it purchase a 12,000-square-foot building at 9600 W. Flagg Ave. The business currently leases 4,000 square feet of space at 111 W. Olive St.
Environmental Innovations, the third largest toner cartridge remanufacturer in the state, expects to increase employment by adding five full-time positions.
The firm currently has more than 350 accounts. Some of its major accounts include Miller Brewing, Marquette Medical Systems, Allen-Bradley and Wisconsin Electric Power Co.
Park Bank is also participating in the $250,000 venture.
Precision Restoration Co., Inc., received a $46,250 loan to purchase a 4,600-square-foot building on a .74-acre site at 5315 N. Lovers Lane Rd. to meet expansion needs of its growing business.
Jeff Wesolaski, president of Precision Restoration and a third generation mason, handles masonry repairs and cleaning, tuckpointing, special coatings for concrete surfaces, caulking, waterproofing, and chimneys, and concrete removal and replacement for the company.
Precision Restoration expects to add two full-time employees.
M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank participated in the $185,000 project.
State Financing
Two southeastern Wisconsin firms are among six companies which will share more than $1 million in Wisconsin Development Fund awards and $238,000 in Minority Business Development Fund loans and grants.
General Converters and Assemblers, of Racine, was awarded a Customized Labor Training grant of up to $125,000.
The company, founded in 1974, is a minority-owned firm that has procured a major contract to be a tier supplier for General Motors. The company will die-cast foam insulation for mufflers and catalytic converters.
Over the next two years, General Converters and Assemblers will spend $2.35 million to acquire the space and equipment to service the contract. It will train 50 new and 185 existing workers in order to obtain ISO 9000 and QSO 9000 certification.
The CLT grant will leverage $159,000 in additional investment.
General Converters and Assemblers also received a $100,000 loan from the state’s Minority Business Development Fund. Those funds will help the firm finance the purchase of new equipment, which will be housed in a 53,000-square-foot building the firm is buying. An additional $2.25 million in other investments was noted in the MBDF package.
Simplicity Manufacturing, of Port Washington, won a $225,000 Customized Labor Training grant. The firm produces lawn and garden equipment, including mowers, chipper/shredders, tillers and snow throwers.
The company is in the process of investing $16.7 million to upgrade its equipment and production process to take better advantages of technological advances. Over the next two years, it will train 439 current employees.
The grant will leverage $815,168 in private investment.
Armando’s Landscape Co., of Big Bend in Waukesha County, obtained a $35,000 Minority Business Development Fund loan. The firm intends to expand its operation by growing some of its nursery stock and purchasing additional stock in bulk from wholesalers. It will use the loan to finance inventory and equipment. The project is expected to create 10 jobs and leverage $15,000 in additional investment.
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

The Bentley Co., of Milwaukee, has been awarded the general construction contract for the new Jewel/Osco to be located at 123 W. Oklahoma Ave. in South Milwaukee. Work is under way on the 62,000-square-foot facility with completion planned for Oct. 19.
McCloud Construction of Brookfield is constructing a 23,500-square-foot building for Dial/Galbaldon Realty of Milwaukee at the corner of Appleton Avenue and Rivercrest Drive in Menomonee Falls. The building will be occupied by Office Max.
Schmitz Ready Mix of Milwaukee has opened its fifth Ready Mix plant in the area, this one at 3131 W. Elm Rd. in Franklin. The 4,800-square-foot concrete plant and 6,030-square-foot recycling building are on 11.4 acres. The facility will serve the area from southern metropolitan Milwaukee to the Illinois border. Founded in 1949, the company also has plants in Port Washington, Mequon, Richfield and Milwaukee.
Beyer Construction of New Berlin has reconstructed and expanded Manpower’s data center at 5301 Ironwood in Glendale. The project involved installation of new access flooring, interior finishes and new mechanical systems. Architectural design was by Eppstein Uhen Architects of Milwaukee.
– Beyer has been selected as construction manager for a $1 million renovation of an historic two-level stone and stucco-face building that houses the Chenequa Village Hall and the village’s fire and police departments. Architectural work is by Aldrian Guszkowski of Elm Grove.
– Beyer is also working on a new training center for the Cutler-Hammer Products division of the Eaton Corp. at 4201 N. 27th St. in Milwaukee. The facility will accommodate groups from six to 100 persons with the main training room designed to accommodate 100 people theater-style or 60 classroom-style. The center also has an executive presentation room, a computer training room, a break area and a product demonstration and display area. Quorom Architects of Milwaukee handled design.
– Beyer is handling a major construction project at The Grand Milwaukee Hotel at 4747 S. Howell Ave. in Milwaukee. Shady Grove Road Associates of San Francisco owns the facility. The $7.5 million project involves complete renovation of all guest rooms, upgrades to life safety and electrical systems, heating and cooling system upgrades and replacements, reroofing, and a new fire protection system. The project is expected to be completed by next April.
G&V Machine Co. Inc., Hartland, has entered into a long-term lease agreement whereby MSI General Corp. of Oconomowoc designed and constructed a 68,400-square-foot manufacturing and office facility on Industrial Drive in the Ixonia Industrial Park, Ixonia.
G&V Machine Co., Inc. is a CNC production machine shop with a national and international clientele. It has produced parts for the construction, agriculture and trucking industries for more than 50 years. The move to the new facility began in June.
G&V Machine Co., Inc. was founded in 1946 by Willard Griswold Sr. in Pewaukee. In 1979, the company expanded to a new 29,000-square-foot facility in Hartland when Willard Griswold Sr. retired and Willard Griswold Jr. and Dennis Griswold assumed ownership. That facility was also constructed by MSI General.
The new 68,400-square-foot plant is expandable to 200,000 square feet, depending on business growth in the next few years. The opening of the new building will result in a number of additional job openings as well as current opportunities. Present employment of 50 full-time personnel could expand to 100 within two years based on business activity.
– MSI General is also designing and building a 32,280-square-foot office and manufacturing facility on Woolsey Street in the Delavan Business Park for Mode Industries of Delavan. Mode is approaching 30 years in the metal-fabricating field with customers in both Wisconsin and Illinois. Its present manufacturing facility, built in 1989 on Industrial Court in Delavan, has 10,000 square feet. The expansion is expected to accommodate business growth and allow for the installation of state-of-the-art equipment.
– MSI is also designing and building a multi-tenant retail center at Sunset Drive and Tenny Avenue in Waukesha. The center, approximately 16,775 square feet in area, will be just west of the Walgreens store. Leases have been secured for Blockbuster Video and Payless Shoe Source. Completion is expected at the end of October. Frisch, Shay & Taylor will manage and lease the center.
– MSI is designing and building a 12,000-square-foot retail building for Continental Properties of Menomonee Falls. The building will be in the West Bend Corporate Center at 1201-1259 Paradise Dr. in West Bend.
Anderson-Ashton of New Berlin is designing and building a new facility for Welders Supply Co. The 10,500-square-foot retail and wholesale facility will be at W230 S7720 Hwy. 164 in Big Bend. Occupancy is expected this summer.
Two projects within the Sussex/Hamilton School District have broken ground. The first of the two took place on May 27 for the Maple Avenue Elementary School. Plunkett Raysich Architects of Milwaukee designed the renovation and expansion of the existing elementary school after a referendum was passed last November. The $4.4 million project will include 20,000 square feet of expansion space.
A second groundbreaking occurred on June 2 for Templeton Middle School. This $4.2 million dollar project will include 34,483 square feet of addition and renovation space. Major features of this project include the addition of three art rooms, a new administration office, and additional classrooms.
Participating in the engineering work are Arnold & O’Sheridan, Inc. (structural), Lubenow Gobster Dominiak & Associates, Inc. (plumbing), Ring & DuChateau, Inc. (HVAC), Dolan & Dustin, Inc. (electrical).
Voss-Jorgensen-Schueler Co., Inc., Waukesha, is the construction manager.
Merchants & Manufacturers Bancorp has broken ground for a new Franklin State Bank branch in the Franklin Business Park. The branch is expected to open in September and will be the first branch for Franklin State.
The branch will also house the Franklin State Bank Conference Center, said Donna Kleinschmidt, president of the bank.
Redmond Construction Co., of Waukesha, has broken ground for a 25,000-square-foot, two-story office facility at W228 N745 Westmound Dr. in Waukesha.
The facility, designed by Redmond architect Adrian Langhus, will house the corporate offices of The Redmond Group, which includes the construction company and its divisions.
Those include Redmond Financial Facilities Group and Redmond Commercial Development Corp.
The facility is expected to be ready by the end of November.
The T-3 Group of Milwaukee has been selected to build a Shell Mart/Burger King with a car wash at 2040 W. Ryan Rd. in Oak Creek. The 5,400-square-foot building is under construction and is expected to be completed in September. T-3 is also designing and building an office expansion for Ideal Financial at 17035 W. Wisconsin Ave. in Brookfield.
July 1998 Small Business Times

Dating back to 1975, when Mayor Henry Maier launched the “Milwaukee, Talk it Up” campaign to encourage local residents to help promote their city, Milwaukee has always suffered from an image problem – nationally, regionally, and even on a local level.
While cities such as Cleveland, Baltimore and Indianapolis have succeeded in reinventing negative images of their cities, Milwaukee remains something of an unknown in the national mind.
“The perception is improving, but only slightly,” contends Mike Mervis, a longtime Milwaukee public relations executive. “We’ve got to get our name out, we’ve got to get creative in how we sell ourselves. We have to convince people that we’ve got something to sell.”
Actually, there are any number of efforts, both new and ongoing, to market Milwaukee. The question is, how effective are they in promoting the city’s image?
This month, a special editorial insert in Forbes magazine will tout the advantages of Milwaukee as a business destination. A similar “advertorial” that ran in Forbes in 1994 was one of the most successful of its kind, and led to a number of national inquiries directed here and the relocation of a 350-employee business, Triad Engineering, Inc.
Last year, a new civic group called Spirit of Milwaukee was formed with the express purpose of enhancing Milwaukee’s image to increase business development, tourism and convention sales.
Spirit of Milwaukee will leverage current and future marketing efforts by acting as a funding resource, says Midwest Express CEO Timothy Hoeksema, who sits on the 13-member board of the non-profit booster organization.
A central element in the turnaround of Cleveland, Baltimore and Indianapolis is that each had a group similar in makeup to Spirit of Milwaukee, Hoeksema says.
“There is no better time to live in Milwaukee in its entire history – there is a lot of neat stuff going on here – and I think the Spirit will play an active and important role,” he says.
The Genuine American campaign
For the last three years, the Greater Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) has promoted the city as a convention and tourism destination through the award-winning “Milwaukee – Genuine American” campaign.
The all-American look and feel of the campaign logo evokes Milwaukee icons Harley-Davidson and Miller Brewing Co., and has spawned numerous imitators, according to CVB’s Maggie Jacobus.
“The reason why ‘Genuine American’ works is because it is not selling us as anything else but what we are,” Jacobus says. “It really goes back to a lot of the intangibles of what makes Milwaukee a good city: People come here, and they can’t believe what a gorgeous city this is, and how genuine the people are.”
For all of the accolades the Genuine American campaign has received, Milwaukee advertising and marketing executive Todd Robert Murphy is not impressed.
Murphy says it was a tactical mistake to replace its predecessor, “Milwaukee, A Great Place on a Great Lake,” which was selected as the winner of a contest back in the mid-1980s.
A Great Place on a Great Lake actually describes the city better, Murphy claims, adding that a lack of promotion and development of the campaign is what led to its demise.
“If we are worried about our beer, brats and bowling image, then what is the zeal to run toward motorcycles and beer?” Murphy asks.
Also, it is an axiom that ad campaigns that win the most industry awards are usually among the least successful in doing what they are supposed to do, which is sell, Murphy maintains.
“Great creative does not create movement,” Murphy says. “If it doesn’t instill a lasting message, then it hasn’t done its job.”
Former Milwaukee television reporter Owen May is in Murphy’s camp. He thinks “Great Place on a Great Lake” was much more effective in defining the city.
“If I say ‘Genuine American’ to somebody, what does that mean?” May asks. “Locally, people don’t even know the Genuine American campaign. I say baloney. It is dull, and it says nothing.”
CVB President Bill Hanbury contends that the Genuine American campaign has been “extraordinarily successful” in elevating the city’s image.
“We wanted to position Milwaukee as a national player, as a city that could compete with other American cities,” Hanbury says. “Genuine American positions us as a destination. It’s got some stick to it.”
On the local level, CVB has launched the “Be a tourist in your own town” Milwaukee insider campaign for the second year in a row. Local residents need to be aware of all the recent infrastructure investment in the city, and they need to support and participate in it, Jacobus says. The local tourism initiative is designed to get residents excited and introduce the city to friends and relatives, she says.
Image is critical to recruitment
If Milwaukee suffers from anything, it is from a lack of information, says Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. What comes to mind when he asks an outsider about Milwaukee is the beer, cold weather, a high-quality workforce and the Milwaukee Brewers, Sheehy says.
“In my discussions with employers, they say their future growth is tied to front-office, headquarters jobs – in fields like information technology, marketing, engineering and finance,” Sheehy says. “These types of positions tend to capture a more mobile kind of crowd. So, it becomes important that we pay some attention to how we are perceived, and how we go about communicating the positives of metropolitan Milwaukee.”
Websites help
promote the region
To that end, MMAC is working with its members to develop a Website that will sing the praises of Milwaukee and the surrounding area. Sheehy says the Website will provide employers with a powerful, readily available recruiting tool. Employers will be able to create a link to the site from their own company Websites.
The Milwaukee Department of City Development also will debut its own Website in September, Milwaukeebiz. com, which will provide a compendium of local economic development information, says DCD marketing director Gary Peterson.
On the regional level, the Regional Economic Partnership combines the economic development resources of seven Southeast Wisconsin counties, and provides a one-stop location for information on available buildings and sites, energy rates, labor market data and tax rate comparisons. (This information is available at www.wisrep.org). The Regional Economic Partnership uses WBBM-AM in Chicago to advertise Southeast Wisconsin as a business location.Sbt
June 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Things will be great when you’re downtown …
“No finer place, for sure,” Petula Clark sang in her hit “Downtown.”
Another business apparently agrees.
The city of Milwaukee scored another victory in its efforts to strengthen the downtown area when New Resources Corp. relocated there from a Waukesha County business park.
The firm left the Crossroads Corporate Center in Waukesha in favor of the 1000 Water building at 1000 N. Water St. in downtown Milwaukee.
The building is the most-recently-constructed Class A office tower in downtown Milwaukee and is home to some high-profile companies.
Mark R. Grosskopf, managing principal of the information management consulting firm, said the office relocated after five years in Waukesha to downtown Milwaukee to be closer to its clients, to a well-educated labor pool and to other management firms which New Resources works with.
“This is where we need to be,” Grosskopf said. “The environment downtown is much more conducive to achieving greater productivity.”
New Resources is leasing 10,400 square feet of space – more than twice the 4,500 it had in Waukesha.
The firm, based in Illinois, has 120 employees at the downtown Milwaukee site and expects to add 30 to 40 persons to its staff here.
The office tower, which is owned by Anthony Palermo, houses offices for such firms as Miller Brewing Co., Johnson Controls, and Northwestern Mutual Life.
Palermo and Mayor John Norquist was understandably happy that another firm has relocated downtown.
“The creative employees working at these firms naturally like the vitality and excitement that they can find downtown,” the mayor said. Palermo added, “this is where the action is.”
Hold the lawsuit, pass the estate plan
When you think of franchises, the McDonald’s restaurant chain probably comes to mind.
But what about law offices?
A firm with offices in Los Angeles and Toronto is taking that step, establishing First American Law as a franchise, similar in structure to Century 21 Real Estate.
“First American Law is a new paradigm for attorneys,” says Gary Swernik, president and CEO. “The brand-name concept is already applied with immense success by such companies as Merrill Lynch, American Express and Prudential.”
Seeing that the trade remains fragmented and competitive, Swernik figured America’s now-highly-mobile population will find a comfort level with First American Law, and that small law firms would take advantage of the chance for greater exposure.
No word on whether any southeastern Wisconsin firms have considered an affiliation with the franchise.
Just two wheels, but lots of opportunity
We can’t recall getting news releases from as many divergent sources as those that have arrived at Small Business Times regarding this month’s 95th Anniversary Reunion of Harley-Davidson.
And why not. The thousands of bikers who will roar into town for the June 8-13 event will spend plenty of money here – and not just in the hospitality industry. Even the Hartland-based Batteries Plus is hoping to reap some benefits. A news release from the firm says its outlets will have plenty of motorcycle batteries in stock.
The entire event has been keeping the people at Harley-Davidson pretty busy, including their work to protect their trademark – and to ensure that everybody uses their preferred usage of “Harley-Davidson’s 95th Anniversary.” With all the ethnic festivals here somehow using the word “fest” in their names, Harley is asking that everyone refrain from that vernacular for its big bash.
The company has a complete list of activities – many of them free – surrounding the anniversary on its Website. You can access it at http:// 95th.harley-davidson.com.
He went for broke … and scored big
This is one of those urban legends filed under “Too Young to Know Any Better.” The names are being withheld to protect the innocent, but, we have it on good information that this is a true story.
Rookie stockbrokers all start out in the same boat: they have no clients. They are therefore instructed to get on the phone and find somebody’s money to invest.
While dialing for dollars several months ago, a brash young stockbroker at a Milwaukee area securities firm decided he was going to go after Brett Favre as a client.
The young broker’s calls to Favre’s agent, Bus Cook, were not returned. Undaunted, the neophyte dialed information and asked for Favre’s boyhood home in Kiln, Miss. Once armed with the number, he called and Favre’s mother answered. She was so charmed by this “nice young man” that she gave him Cook’s special cell phone “back door” number.
Cook answered the rookie broker’s call and listened to the sales pitch. He was sufficiently impressed by the broker’s line that he subsequently wrote the broker’s firm a check for a reported $500,000.
Then, several weeks later, Cook called and told the broker that he and Favre were coming to town, with instructions to pick them up at the airport and show them a good time. The broker had to borrow his brother’s car, as his battered Honda Civic was not worthy of the task.
Apparently the broker hadn’t had time to spend his commission check.
June 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

When body and sign language mean something else
In Bulgaria, people shake their heads up and down when they mean “no,” and side to side when they mean “yes.”
Russians knew that and complied with local custom when they entered Bulgaria.
By the same token, the Bulgarians when speaking to the Russians tried to follow the norm of up and down for “yes” and back and forth for “no.”
It’s safe to say that no one ever knew what the other meant.
When I was in high school, I remember one teacher making the statement that if two people from different parts of the world were stranded together on a desert island they would learn how to survive together through sign language.
But, gestures across cultures are frequently misinterpreted.
One of the classic blunders with gestures occurred with Richard Nixon. In the 1950s, Nixon, who was then vice president, made a goodwill tour of Latin America. As a youth I couldn’t understand why the people threw rocks at his motorcade.
The pictures from his famous trip showed him disembarking from the plane, flashing the “A-OK” sign. I didn’t realize the significance of that until much later in life. When I learned that the “A-OK” sign means the same as the middle finger does here where Nixon got off the plane, the reasons for the stoning fell in place. (US relations with Latin America hadn’t been all that good over the years.)
Another of our positive gestures, the thumbs up, is so obscene in Nigeria that American tourists who have tried to hitchhike there have ended up in fist fights or worse. In Australia a jubilant American giving an Australian a thumbs up can receive a quick punch in the nose.
In England where the “V” for victory sign originated, if the “V” is given with the palm facing inward, it can lead to a “bloody” situation from an irate Briton. The “Hook em’ Horns” sign of the University of Texas has some colloquial meanings in the US, but in Italy and parts of Africa you would rather give the sign to a University of Oklahoma fan.
When I have a speaking engagement, I always make an effort to find out as much as I can about my audience. Whenever circumstances prevent me from getting a good clear understanding of the audience, I always worry about the impact of my message. A joke that falls flat because it hits too close to a major problem the audience is experiencing, or an idea that you present that generates a lot of controversy are situations that may spell failure. Even company cultures can present enough difference to ensure that messages could be misinterpreted.
Professional speakers, salesmen, corporate executives, and others are all aware of the importance of knowing a client, audience, or the corporate culture of a potential customer. Learn as much as you can about the cultures where you are selling your products or hope to sell your products.
If you are interested in more stories like those dealing with gestures and body language, an excellent source is Roger Axtell’s Gestures, The Do’s and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. If you don’t have time to look into a book and are rushing off to catch a plane to your next international assignment, remember the obvious isn’t always so obvious, and how you interpret what you see may have nothing to do with the real meaning of a situation.
Waukesha international business consultant Joe Geck can be contacted via e-mail at geckj@execpc.com.
June 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Corporate identity process is really a strategic exercise
When Pat Zander had the opportunity to buy the company she worked for last year, she recognized that the firm’s name had to be changed.
The 50-person, Madison-based management consultancy had been named after its owner – Brian Joiner. But with Joiner out of the picture, Zander saw the need to also leave behind the Joiner Associates name.
But in working with a design consultant, she saw more than that.
The change wasn’t just the opportunity to rename the company – it would also be an opportunity to redefine the entire mission of the firm, and publicly declare that mission through the name.
“You need to define and establish your company positioning before naming your firm,” says John Thiel, president of Thiel Visual Design, a 16-person firm on Chicago Street in Milwaukee’s Third Ward. “You need to identify differentiating attributes of your company – what sets it apart. That will drive everything else.”
When Zander gave Thiel Visual Design the challenge of coming up with a new name, she was thus not just asking them to look in a dictionary to find a nice word. She was asking for help in identifying what her company was all about.
“It’s more than just a sign,” Thiel says, noting that the process can involve aspects of “branding” – creating an image of your firm. “Branding occurs in the mind.”
Zander had just two caveats for the design firm, which has created identifying logos for such firms as Firstar bank, Quarles & Brady law firm, Columbia Hospital and Marshfield Clinic. First, Zander said, the name should not remain Joiner. Second, she wanted to avoid the use of her own name.
Otherwise, “we literally had the option to name the company just about anything,” notes John Leaf, marketing director for Thiel Visual Design.
But the end result couldn’t be just anything. It had to say a lot about what the company was all about. And to get to that
“You need to define and establish
your company positioning before
naming your firm.”
– John Thiel, Thiel Visual Design
end, Thiel Visual Design would have to talk to a lot of people about what they thought of the firm.
“This isn’t just artwork,” Leaf says. “We’re approaching it from a strategic perspective, forcing the company to think about itself.”
“We couldn’t identify them if they didn’t know who they were,” adds Norene Thiel, John Thiel’s wife and operations director for the firm.
Thus, naming a firm can be one of the most difficult aspects of identifying a corporate mission, John Thiel says. There are legal issues, along with creative issues. Further, there just aren’t as many names available anymore.
“A lot of the good, obvious names are taken” Leaf notes. At the same time, the name a firm selects has never been more important.
“What’s in a name?,” Leaf asks. “How much time do you have?,” he responds, suggesting that there’s a lot in a name.
“A company name is an asset – if you manage it,” Norene Thiel says. “If you don’t manage it, it can be a negative, a liability.”
For Zander, the Thiel team would talk with employees and clients of Joiner Associates to learn those people’s perceptions of the firm – what it does, what it does well, and where they see it going.
Besides the interviews, the strategic design process at Thiel Visual Design includes an analysis of existing materials, products and services, and the culture of the firm.
From that analysis a positioning statement is made to define the project, including available design opportunities and implementation strategies.
The positioning design is then carried to the visualization step, where creative development of conceptual design alternatives takes place and the options are narrowed.
Finally, the approved design strategy is implemented and, preferably, maintained. Maintenance of the strategy beyond the identification and implementation process is crucial to successful marketing, image designers say.
Zander, who told the Thiel team she would be hard to please, was given 10 options stemming from the design study. Of those 10, attention was focused on four “favorites,” Leaf said.
The winner would be a word that reflects a thought that kept coming through in the review process, Leaf said. “The client kept saying, ‘We offer a better view.'”
The natural follow-up for that was for the Thiel team to work with a “window” concept. And from that emerged the word “oriel,” a term that describes a bay window in a castle – a window which gives the view a vast perspective. The Oriel logo thus incorporates a subtle image of an oriel.
A perfect name for a management consultant firm, John Thiel says. “It’s a beautiful solution that’s perfectly logical.”
Further, “oriel” is a real word with a real meaning, Norene Thiel notes.
For most people, however, the word is an unknown. Even Zander had to ask what it means. But that can work for the company, Leaf says. “It gives the company an opportunity to explain what they do.”
While that opportunity exists for business-to-business operations, consumer-oriented firms need to be more direct with their names, Norene Thiel adds.
“But in either case, you have to go back to a client’s positioning statement,” she notes. “You can get hung up if the customer hasn’t articulated itself.”
In the legal review, the Thiel team could find only one other application of the name – that by a medical products manufacturer in Hungary. [The Hungarian firm already had taken the “oriel” name for its Website, so the Madison Oriel Website is www.orielinc.com.] Because of the dissimilarity of the two firms, no conflict in usage was seen. It’s rare to find a real word so untouched, Leaf says.
Oriel used its Website and an open house to announce the name. The Web announcement – a first for Thiel – allowed the announcement to be shared with clients outside the state and with others who couldn’t attend the open house.
Printed materials announcing the new name led off with the Joiner name. As the reader unfolded the announcement, the new name was revealed. Employees were told of the name a few days prior, allowing them to attain a comfort level with it.
Not just a pretty picture
Coming up with a new logo or design element for your company isn’t just a matter of finding or creating a nice-looking visual.
It’s a matter of looking at what you really want your company to be, and then coming up with a succinct way of expressing that vision.
“Very clearly, corporate identity is a strategic initiative; or it should be,” says Bruce Renquist, of Renquist Associates design firm on Washington Avenue in Racine. “It offers the potential to an organization to clearly say who they are. It’s not design; it’s strategic positioning.”
Adds Tim Dodge, president of Hanson/Dodge design firm in Milwaukee’s Third Ward, “Design is driven by the vision of the company; it’s a defining thing.”
In a way, designers are management consultants, helping companies determine market position and growth strategy.
“You really have to crawl under their hide and take time to understand the organization,” Renquist says. Thus, the design process involves some fairly extensive interviewing, as the design team seeks to find a central theme which a firm seeks to project.
Those interviews are conducted with external audiences – customers, dealers, end-users and others, and with internal audiences – employees.
As part of the process, Renquist makes a word list, looking for repetition of quality. “These words begin to frame the nature of the organization, and the vision.”
The internal audience tends to be the most sensitive and critical, Renquist says. That audience needs to be very clear on where a company stands and where it’s going. “They’re the people who make the place go; they need to be together on the stand a company takes.”
If that stand is clear, the design and image identification process is not just a one-time exercise but, rather, an investment in the future, says Hanson/Dodge’s Ken Hanson, executive creative director. “We’re actually helping our clients to build equity,” he says, noting that for some companies, image is actually another one of their products.
A non-unified design/marketing approach can actually dilute that equity, he says, particularly in this day of a fragmented, multi-media messaging.
If you doubt the value of design and image, just look at Nike. A local parody paper once ran an article stating – facetiously – that Nike would stop making products and instead would focus on what it does best: make commercials. In reality, its image may be more valuable than its products. “You are as good as you are perceived to be,” Hanson observes, noting that, locally, the Wisconsin-based Trek bicycle company’s “greatest asset is its image.”
“You take the highest-priced products, and the difference between them and lower-priced products is design,” Dodge says. And that price difference can translate into greater profit margins.
While a corporation’s image can be a key element of its business plan, in many situations, images of a company’s brands may be more important, Renquist says. “The brand can be the name that carries your business to the customer’s mind.”- David Niles

Tailor presentations to your customer
Question: I recently attended an extensive product training session. We have more than 400 items. How do I organize my information to make sure it makes sense for my customer?
Answer:
This question reminds me of a greeting card that I once saw which read something like this. On the cover it had a picture of a man talking to his dog. It read,
“Fido, you’re my best friend
“I truly love you Fido
“I especially love how loyal you are Fido, and how you bring me my slippers when I come home from work
“Oh, by the way, I bought you some new Dog Food, Fido”
The inside of the card said, “And here’s what the dog heard”
“Fido, Blah, Blah, Blah,
“Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah Fido
“Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Fido, Blah, Blah, Blah
“Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Dog Food, Fido”
The moral of the story? Find the dog food! Having a lot of product knowledge is important. Knowing how to use your product knowledge to appeal to each individual customer’s interests and values is the real key to effective selling.
Recently, I was in the market for a new phone system for a house that we are building. The salesperson told me more about transmitters and other technical aspects that I really didn’t care about. When I left the appointment, I was a bit confused and overwhelmed by the amount of information. I looked at my husband and said, “So, can we pick up line two when we are upstairs?” While the salesperson gave us a lot of information, he never addressed the specific applications that we had.
For years salespeople had been taught to develop fairly standard sales presentations, incorporating as many features and benefits as they felt were important. That is sometimes referred to as traditional feature/benefit selling. The message is more of a monologue, told from the seller’s point of view.
A more effective approach in today’s competitive sales markets is a customer-centered dialogue, one which the customer helps to direct and one which emphasizes the specific values for that customer only. Today’s sales presentations may appear less structured than the traditional approach. Yet, in order to conduct an effective interactive customer-focused presentation, preparation and structure are essential. Here are some suggestions for conducting customer-focused sales interactions.
Before the call
Understand value – Value only relates to the individual that you are working with at the time, and the specific solution(s) that you are offering to that person. People do not buy features and benefits. They buy specific solutions. First emphasize value for that customer and then use features of your product to emphasize how you accomplish those values. Don’t worry if you haven’t told your customer everything.
Set an objective – Prior to each sales call, know the specific outcome that you expect. What action should result from the meeting? That will help you to stay focused and know when to close.
Use a needs checklist – Before the call, ask yourself specific questions about how you are positioned with your key contact and any other persons who may influence the sale. Examples may be questions about how they feel about you, your product, the competition, and what’s in it for them. Based on this checklist, construct questions to help you fill in the gaps and present solutions during your sales meeting.
During the call
Position your agenda – This may simply be a statement like, “Here’s what we will accomplish today.” That will help to ensure that you and your customer are on the same path right from the start.
Uncover needs and then position solutions – This is the heart and soul of customer-focused selling. You may choose to uncover many needs at one time and then position your solutions all at once. Or you may choose to uncover needs and position solutions one at a time as you move through the interaction. Either is fine. The latter is less formal, allows for more customer interaction and gives you an opportunity to affirm positive solutions throughout the presentation, making it easier for the customer to commit.
Use questions to guide the presentation – Questions are like the tools of a carpenter. They are only valuable when used at the right time. Here are some examples:
– Open ended questions allow the customer to respond freely. Use these to conduct a needs analysis at the start of your presentation in order to gauge the presentation according to the customer’s needs and interests. They typically start with who, what, when, where, which and how.
– Tie-down questions are used to get a customer to move with you. It is said that a customer will not do business with you unless he’s said yes at least twice. Tie-downs are simply statements that end or begin with a question such as, “Isn’t it?” “Wouldn’t it?”
No more than two of those in a row or they start to sound like a technique.
– Give customers some options. This is particularly useful when you’re working with a customer who doesn’t know what he needs. If you give too many options, he may get confused. Limit the choices to two or three at any time.
– Value questions are used to emphasize the value for the customer. You ask the value in terms of a question. When the customer responds positively, you provide them with the specific features and benefits that allow you to accomplish this, such as: “If you were able to process your orders faster, what would you do that you can’t do now?”
– Involvement questions – These are used to gauge the progress of the sale. During the presentation, you would ask a customer about something he would have to decide after the sale. Involvement questions usually begin with, “If you decide to, or “When you decide to.” The way the customer responds will give you a lot of information about how close he is to a decision.
– Reverse questions are used to close the sale. When opportunities to use the reverse are recognized, they are highly effective. You reverse by simply asking a question with a question. For example, If the customer says, “Can you start on this project next week,” you say, “When next week do you want to start?” Rule of thumb is to reverse specific questions and answer general questions.
Adjust to different communication styles – Present information visually, auditorally or kinesthetically depending on the type of customer that you are working with.
Close on actions – Go back to your initial objective for the call and close on a specific action.
Don’t forget to say thank you – Send a handwritten note at the completion of a sales meeting. It will help to separate you from your competitors.
Marcia Gauger is president of Impact Sales Training in New Berlin.
June 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Are you posting the required employment notices?
Posting certain notices is required by many federal and state employment laws – a fact that most business owners know, but frequently overlook.
After all, how important are a few posters on the timeclock wall, given the challenge of complying with a seemingly infinite number of other employment regulations?
The answer is that it’s better to be safe than sorry. Although chances are slim that improper posting will cause problems, the possibility does exist, as a large employer in southeastern Wisconsin learned.
Before discussing that case, it should be noted that many employers apparently are not fully aware of their obligations related to the posting of notices. That observation comes from conducting human resources audits at small and medium-sized companies over the past year. Of the more than 25 companies audited, not a single one was in full compliance with its posting requirements. Most were seriously deficient.
The potential liability becomes clear in the case mentioned earlier. In that instance, the lesson pointed to the importance of where posters should be displayed.
The case mentioned above involved an employee who was terminated for excessive absenteeism. Eight months later, he filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, claiming the company violated his rights under the Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act (WFMLA).
The law gives employees 30 days to challenge their termination based on violating the WFMLA. However, the 30-day window begins only after the required WFMLA posters are displayed in a location where employees can reasonably expect to see them.
In this case, the WFMLA notice was posted near the Human Resources Department, in a lobby entrance area that employees do not use. Since employees enter the building elsewhere, the posting was not in a location where employees could expect to see it. Thus, the terminated employee was not held to the 30-day limit for filing his lawsuit.
After four years, the company agreed to a settlement that included substantial costs – a $266,000 payment to the former employee, legal fees, plus management time consumed working on the suit. The company also experienced unwanted publicity in a front-page story on the settlement.
It may be presumptuous to assume that this firm would have avoided a problem if it had placed the postings in the proper location. In that case, the employee might have been more likely to file a charge within the required 30 days. However, the company’s exposure was increased by the posting oversight.
A more proactive approach would be to ensure that employees understand their options under WFMLA and any other law that requires posted notices.
For instance, as soon as the employee’s attendance problem arose, the company could have researched whether he was entitled to either state or federal FMLA leave. If it was determined that FMLA was not applicable, the termination decision would have been confirmed and strengthened.
This case deals with only one of the 17 postings that an employer may be legally responsible for displaying.
Posting in the proper location will greatly reduce your liability. Posting the latest revision of each notice is a less serious violation, but one that is much more difficult to ensure.
Unfortunately, the agencies responsible for issuing notices do not automatically send employers new posters when changes are made.
In response, some employers turn to vendors who supply regular posting updates for a fee that can sometimes be rather high. Certain vendors offer an “all-in-one” poster, but there’s a danger in using it because not all of the items apply to all employers.
For example, the FMLA has different implications for companies with 1 to 24 employees, companies with 25 to 49 employees, and companies with 50 or more employees. A vendor with a “one-rule-fits-all” mentality could produce a poster with items that might not fit your company.
Such a posting could mislead your employees and prompt them to file inappropriate claims, resulting in a cost of time, money and damaged employee relations.
If your company has an HR professional on staff, that person is likely to have the contacts and resources needed to keep abreast of posting requirements and revisions to specific posters.
For those who don’t have an HR staff, the State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development offers an automated phone service (453-7705) that provides information on which state posters employers are required to display, as well as the latest revision date of each poster.
The DWD also offers a brochure (“Workplace Posters FAQ Frequently Asked Questions”) that provides this information, as well as federal posting information.
While this sounds like an ideal solution for employers who are uncertain about their posting obligations, caution is recommended in utilizing these services – at least in the near future.
A recent call to the automated system found the information to be significantly out of date. And the most recent DWD brochure was found to be equally outdated. When the system is updated – the DWD is working on it – employers should have an efficient and accurate method for ensuring compliance.
Jim Rittgers, SPHR, is the director of human resources for EPIC Staff Management. Comments and questions are welcomed via e-mail to jrittgers@epicstaff.com.
Checklist
Do you know if your company has taken the appropriate steps to avoid serious problems related to legally required postings? It has, if you can answer “yes” to the following questions.
4 Are you aware which of the 17 federal and state postings apply to your company?
4 Are all of the postings that apply to your company
displayed in your facility?
4 Are the required postings displayed where employees are certain to see them?
4 Are all of your legally required postings the most up-to-date revision?
4 Is someone in your organization responsible for
periodically ensuring that legally required postings have not been removed, damaged or obscured?
Small Business Times, Milwaukee, June 1998

AHC’s Rich Blomquist puts emphasis on quality care
Richard Blomquist was in on the ground floor of the managed-care industry back in 1974, and he’s got a few stories to tell.
There was the time he was setting up his first dental managed-care organization in the Chicago area. Problem was, the few existing HMOs had close ties to the Chicago mob. Ultimately, Blomquist got around the problem without getting his legs broken, and went on to establish one of the nation’s first dental plans of its kind in the country – one the Wharton School of Business used as a case study.
Almost 25 years later, the 50-year-old Blomquist can afford to look back and laugh, and take stock of the growth of his 85-employee company, Associates For Health Care, Inc., in Brookfield, the largest Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) in the state.
Associates for Health Care (AHC) combines a network of physicians, hospitals and other providers who have agreed to provide affordable, quality health care in exchange for a larger volume of patients.
Essentially, Blomquist and AHC line up the patients with the health-care provider network, then AHC manages the costs by processing the claims and factoring in the discounts. The patients get affordable care and greater flexibility in choosing physicians, while the health-care providers gain a larger captive group of patients. AHC, meanwhile, ensures that patients receive the proper level of care through utilization management review.
And because everybody wins, AHC gets more business with each passing year.
In 1996, AHC handled $198 million worth of claims. Last year, that figure increased to $280 million. This year, AHC expects to represent $400 million in claims. Since 1989, the firm has grown at an annual 45% clip. That growth has been recognized by Ernst & Young, which nominated Blomquist as Wisconsin Entrepreneur of the Year for the second year in a row.
Not bad for someone who first came here in 1984 with only his knowledge of the health-care industry and a deep-seated conviction that PPOs represented the future of managed health-care organizations. While Blomquist commuted to Brookfield from the Chicago area, a utilization management nurse ran the fledgling operation from her home.
From those humble beginnings, today AHC operates out of a 20,000-square-foot facility on Corporate Drive in Brookfield, its third location since its inception.
AHC provides cost management services to more than 5,300 corporations which collectively provide health benefits to more than 370,000 people. Last year, more than 1.5 million health claims flowed through AHC. Corporate clients include Allen-Edmonds, Jockey International, Kimberly-Clark Corp., Snap-on Inc., Wisconsin Electric, Wisconsin Gas, Versa Technologies and a host of others. AHC also extends the PPO network to a number of large unions which participate through Taft-Hartley trusts.
Quality care saves money
Beyond the impressive numbers and the big names, AHC represents a commitment to quality health care that saves the marketplace money in the long run.
AHC’s utilization managers do not take the approach of: “How soon can we get Aunt Hattie out of the hospital,” Blomquist says. “Our orientation is, if you can provide the correct mix of care in the proper time frame, it’s going to result in tremendous economies.”
Blomquist says the message that goes out to members of the AHC provider network is one of doing nothing in the interest of economy that jeopardizes quality, because poor quality health care is very expensive.
“This is a significantly different message than what typically comes from the marketplace, but it is very effective,” Blomquist states.
AHC PPO members have some of the lowest hospital admission rates and some of the lowest average hospital stay rates in the state. Using the Professional Activities Study as a benchmark, AHC’s utilization management team has consistently achieved savings in excess of 25% over the study’s norms.
What typically happens in a managed care setting is a patient calls a nurse and indicates that he is scheduled to undergo a certain medical procedure. The nurse goes to a computer, which determines the average length of stay, or if it should be an outpatient procedure. AHC does not take this approach, instead applying a large case management approach, which is normally reserved for heart transplants and other substantial medical procedures. This means the AHC team applies medical need to every case instead of applying a rigid computer model.
“I’m not a big fan of trying to apply these very rigid programs to fit a patient’s needs,” Blomquist says. “There are so many variables for each individual that I just don’t think it works very well. By applying medical need criteria, it makes for a better outcome for the patient which saves everybody money in the long run.”
Why PPOs work
Today, fully 50% of the private sector’s health care is being provided under PPO-type plans. When people talk about managed care, they generally think about Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs). But in fact, HMOs represent a minority of the managed-care industry, or about 27% of health care in the private sector. Blomquist says HMOs are actually in decline while PPO organizations continue to grow.
“I think that’s because the basic principles of PPOs are more in concert with the mindset of the American people,” he says. “Such things as freedom of choice. People don’t like to be told: ‘You have to go to this doctor or that doctor.’ Or, you have to get the blessing of this doctor in order to see a specialist. There is much more freedom to choose under a PPO.
“Someone could go into a PPO primary care doctor this morning, and, if they didn’t like that doctor, they could go to see another doctor within the PPO,” Blomquist says. “Time and time again in meetings with employees, we get that positive feedback on the freedom of choice. We tend to get 85-90% of the people using the PPO after a year to 18-month growth cycle.”
Blomquist got the idea for setting up the Chicago dental PPO after reading an article by Peter Drucker about a new health-care delivery system in Germany. That served as the basis for what he established in the Chicago area back in 1974-75.
“It was a new approach which was being used in Germany where employers were contracting with the doctors and hospitals to provide care to their employees,” Blomquist recalls.
The term PPO was not actually coined until 1986. By that time, Blomquist had picked up the 5,000-member Milwaukee Graphic Arts health and welfare fund, and the former W.A. Krueger Co. But many people’s employers were reluctant to sign up with AHC in the early days, telling Blomquist to come back when he had assembled “some real numbers” which would allow for greater economies of scale.
Providing incentives
Blomquist says AHC has always looked for a balanced relationship with the medical community. In order to achieve that benefit, if AHC asks for a discount from the physician in order to enhance the benefit plan to give the employee an incentive to use it, Blomquist says. It’s a matter of putting together a benefit plan that says you will pay 80% of health costs outside the PPO and 90% if members stay inside the plan, he explains.
That 10% increase comes, in part, through a fee reduction on the physician’s side, Blomquist says. If the health-care provider gives you a 10- to 20% fee reduction, AHC reinvests that into the better benefit that is offered to the employee.
“That gives you a win-win situation, and that incents the employee to use the plan,” Blomquist says. “There are some PPOs that do not provide the financial incentive. We have always insisted that there be some kind of financial incentive for the employee to use the plan, but we are the only PPO in the state which has done that.
“I have turned away literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of business that didn’t meet that criteria,” Blomquist shrugs. “We have terminated the largest national PPOs because they didn’t meet that criteria, and others.”
Blomquist insists on having the PPO’s logo on the patient ID card, and on the remittance that comes back with the benefit payment. On the administrative side, AHC also delineates discounts from ineligible charges and co-pays and deductibles, as opposed to giving the doctor a single number and instructing him to write off that amount.
“You need to split it up so there is clear communication so that it works administratively so everyone understands how the program is fitting together,” Blomquist says. “Some people simply don’t do that.”
Other PPOs haven’t done that because the medical community hasn’t forced them to do it, Blomquist says. The worst transgression, he says, is a blind or silent PPO, where an insurance carrier or payor is able to contractually tie into a discount, yet the doctor or hospital is not notified that this particular patient is eligible for a discount.
“The doctor provides the services, sends the bill to the insurance company, then he gets a notice back that he owes $1,000 in discounts.”
That happens, to a large extent, because the medical community has allowed it to go on, Blomquist says.
June 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Don’t let the “It’s summer” excuse slow down your sales efforts

Eddie” came up to me at a recent sales conference. “Thanks for the great ideas,” he said. “Too bad it’s almost summer.” I knew what he meant, but asked anyway, “What do you mean?” His answer: “That’s our slow season. Everyone’s on vacation and it won’t help to start any new strategies until fall.”
Here’s my question: do procrastinating customers put us off in the summer, or do we do it to ourselves?
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about selling. Everybody’s in meetings on Mondays, everybody leaves early on Fridays and (unless you’re retailing snowthrowers) summer slows down because of vacations. The truth is, summer is a great time to do business. If it weren’t, pent-up sales would make September 400% greater than any other month.
If you stop “selling,” or too readily accept “waiting until Labor Day” as an excuse, prospects cool off, budgets are diverted and competitors cash in.
Before you bite into that trap this summer, here’s some food for thought. Expect resistance from some customers. Some will have valid reasons. Plan accordingly, and be prepared with solutions that make sense for them now. A problem they have today could be three months greater if put off.
Start by probing a little deeper. Ask questions like “Is summertime a problem?” “Why is fall a better time?” or “Couldn’t you have a competitive advantage if we take action now?” The answers will often include staff vacations and suspended company meetings. Decisions are still being made, but yours may not be pre-positioned as a priority. Identify the urgency of your product or service by asking, “Aside from that, how do you feel about the plan?” Their put-off may be just a sign that there are unanswered questions or concerns.
Another course of action is to increase, rather than decrease, your activity. Sure, some customers have valid reasons to wait, but they don’t represent everyone. Somebody’s always in the market to buy.
It’s easy to get caught up in the myths and misconceptions of doing business. The pros are the ones who look at obstacles as challenges to be beaten, then take the action, and the risks, to overcome them.
Summer is a great time of year. My personal favorite. It’s also a great time to sell, no matter what anybody tells you.
Joe Guertin is president of Joseph Guertin & Associates, an Oak Creek-based speaking, training and coaching firm. Your comments are invited at 762-2450, or at jguertin@tcccom.net
Ten Tips
… for hot sales in the
summertime
1 Plan ahead
Set lofty summertime goals for yourself
2 Give prospects a reason to buy
Be creative and use special packages
3 Expect summer resistance
Be prepared to probe their reasoning
4 Use positive positioning
Help buyers see competitive advantages
of avoiding delays
5 Expand your customer base
New business will fill in the gaps
6 Take advantage of summertime activities
Treat clients to outdoor events,
or bring cool refreshments to hot meetings
7 Control your own mind-set
Don’t accept the first few setbacks
as an affirmation
8 Expand your summer business wardrobe People who dress for the weather
spend more time in it
9 Avoid quitters and pessimists
Negative talk rubs off easily
10 Always ask for another reason
The fact that it’s summer should never
be enough
June 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee