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Coeur d'Alene Press, The (ID)
Minnick
presents Economic Development Summit
Bullet Tools receives Exporter of the Year Award
Rick Thomas; Staff writer
Published: August 29, 2009
POST FALLS - A sweep through Idaho for a series of summits on economic development
brought Rep. Walt Minnick to the city on Tuesday, just in time to present a
North Idaho manufacturer with the Idaho Exporter of the Year Award for 2009.
Spokane Branch Manager Ted Schinzel from the U.S.
Small Business Administration presented to Dalen and Mary Gunn, and
Ben Toews, owners of Bullet Tools in Hayden, the award at
Minnick's Economic Development Summit at Post Falls
City Hall.
"I feel quite honored to have gotten the award," Dalen Gunn
said after being nominated for the award by Bill Jhung, director of the Idaho Small
Business Development
Center in Post Falls.
"In hindsight, due to the amount of exports we were doing, it
made perfect sense." Gunn said almost 100 percent of the company's
earnings comes from outside the state, and 60 percent from outside the
country.
Bullet Tools
makes equipment used in flooring, siding, roofing and other industries.
The turning point for the company came in 2006, when sales were 50
percent below budget, and the company's warehouse space was completely full,
and expansion capacity was sorely needed, Schinzel said.
With the exception of an SBA loan, growth had been primarily funded
with short-term tools.
The owners had "maxed out" their business line of credit and
most of their own personal resources.
"That's when they turned to the North Idaho SBDC Business Coach,
Bill Jhung," he said.
"They needed strategic direction to help make the growth
transition.
Bill helped them create a business plan and obtain additional bank
financing.
The coaching sessions along with the educational training from the
SBDC, helped the business owners engage in strategic dialogue and future
direction for Bullet Tools." By the end of 2007, they
generated a 30 percent increase in revenue, gained 30 percent in warehouse
capacity, and implemented a complex inventory system to gain efficiency in
operations.
By 2008, they signed on with national chain Home Depot to provide
their tools in the Home Depot Rental Centers.
Companies such as Bullet are vital to the nation's economic
recovery, Minnick said.
"Small business drives out recession," the Democrat said.
"More entrepreneurs will turn the economy around." Minnick
held economic development sessions in several cities and will hold another
next week in Boise,
on a variety of topics.
"We are in the middle of the greatest economic problem since the
Depression, unless we can get our economy moving again," he said.
The Post
Falls session was
devoted to helping connect businesses, cities and counties to the federal
government to show them ways to get grants and other assistance, much of it
available under the federal stimulus package.
"It is valuable to smaller municipalities who may not have a
grant writer," Minnick said.
'They get to talk directly to those who make the grants." One
businessman who lost his financing in 2007 and is looking to the SBA and
other agencies is Ross Yearout, Pleasant View Properties developer who
planned to build an equestrian community in Rathdrum.
He met with Minnick and came away "pessimistically
optimistic" that funding might be available from the stimulus funds.
Tom Lucas, executive director of ElderHelp, also sat in on discussions
to see what funding might be available for low-income housing for senior
citizens.
He said the organization hopes to tie in to foreclosed and abandoned
properties to get them back on the tax rolls while providing housing at a
lower cost.
"We are looking for grants, either federal or state, to support a
pilot program in Kootenai
County," he said.
One business that got a jump start from the stimulus is Rosa's Italian Market and Deli.
It opened in May on Fourth
Avenue, just across from the Post Falls
City Hall.
Owner Tina-Marie Schultz attended to share the results of that.
She got an SBA loan to open the business, but under the stimulus was eligible
for a waiver of fees that saved her $7,000.
"Seven thousand dollars was a lotta lattes," she said.
"It enabled me to do other things, to bring more things into the
store and to do more restoration." Schultz renovated a house built in
1910 for the business, named after her grandmother.
It is doing well, she said.
"It was a big help to be able to get a loan to purchase the house
and a business loan all in one package," she said.
SHAWN GUST/Press Tina-Marie Schultz, owner of Rosa's
Italian Market and Deli, talks about how the Small Business Administration
and recent government stimulus money helped her to be successful in her
business during the Economic Development Summit presented by Rep.
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