Connect Business Magazine

Le Sueur: KOSA, Inc. – Sandra and Jorge Brenes have turned love into a full-time business teaching Spanish.

Mankato: Office Space Design – “I found there wasn’t really anyone competing here in office furniture and design, so I developed my own business plan.”

St. Peter: Pheasant’s Ridge Memory Care Center – “We realized there was a need for assisted living for seniors in St. Peter. From there, we opened a building with 16 assisted-living units three years ago.”

Fairmont: AdMfg. – Owner Ruth Theobald founded AdMfg Inc. on January 1. Her career path has taken many twists and turns, yet seems a perfect background for her current venture.

Le Center: ABC Office Supplies – 37-year-old Brad Arndt was homegrown, graduated from Le Center High, and majored in multi-housing management at college.

St. Peter: Bendura – When starting injection molding company Rolco in 1980, Vern Olson also had a “rep company” called Olson Sales LLC.

Mankato: Between The Bridges Healing Center – Earlier this year, Dr. Jeff Kotulski began Between the Bridges Healing Center in the former ProGrowth Bank building at 45 Teton Lane.

St. Peter: Cooks & Company – Veteran retailer Carol Hayes moved Cooks & Company last October to 316 S. Minnesota.

Mankato: ISJ Regional Women’s Imaging Center – Chief Radiologist Dr. Michael Wolf helped open the ISJ Regional Women’s Imaging Center in January 2009.

Remember the tintype photos of buttoned-down bankers wearing vested suits, their glasses perched on their noses? It’s the stereotype from 125 years ago, about the time Sam Gault’s great-grandfather, Zuriel Gault, went to work at Nicollet County Bank.

Fairmont: Granada Getaway, Granada – Granada Getaway has been customized to please both scrapbookers and quilters. A typical $99 stay lasts Friday through Sunday.

St. Peter: Richard’s Restaurant And Pub – Speech language pathologist Joan Olson opened Richards’ Restaurant and Pub in April 2008—along with a connected five-room, luxurious boutique hotel.

St. Peter: Nate’s Barber Shop – From an early age, Nathan Paschke was interested in the latest clothing, hairstyles, and fashion. “Originally I thought about going to school to be a beautician,” said 32-year-old Paschke in a telephone interview.

Disarmingly gracious and soft-spoken, Dave Neiman of Arrow Ace Hardware since 1985 has shepherded—purposefully under the media radar—the astounding transformation of a solitary St. Peter hardware store into a vibrant, money-making, ten-store group effectively competing against big-box stores.