Pies and Politics in Lexington, Michigan

Navy veteran, Mary Salmonowicz has been selling pies from her home in Lexington, near the shore of Lake Huron, for 22 years. When you walk into her small kitchen, the smell of fresh baking compels you to breathe deeply. But before you can enter, a hand-made sign grabs your eye.

Next to a picture of President Bush, a wordy, but direct message:
“Iraq Security ‘We can take care of ourselves.’
Iraq’s government said on Friday morning we’re taking a month break from our duties because it’s too hot. Mr. President, bring our troops home now. Iraq doesn’t need us. They don’t want us. We need our troops here. Quit playing with our military and our life and our money just because you can. Grow up.”

Her Dutch apple, cherry crumb and red raspberry pies with their light, flaky crust entice customers who disagree with her politics. “If people don’t like my sign, they just come in, get their pie and leave,”she said.

61-year-old Salmonowicz began her pie business after leaving nursing. “I just jumped in and did it. I had no idea what I was getting into.” Within ten days of quitting her job, she set up a separate kitchen at the back of her house, obtained licensing from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and started baking.

She had been a visiting nurse for private agencies, but became disillusioned as profit grew more important than quality of care. “The agency would receive a specific amount per case. If you closed the case before all the money was spent, that extra money went to the agency. There was a pressure to rush, get the patient done and get out of there.”

She tried a return to nursing five years ago, but found the demands on her time crowded the pie business. She keeps her nursing license current and imagines a kind of nursing that would emphasize patient comfort. “I would start a new type of nursing–comfort nursing. If patients are comfortable, truly cared for, and someone listens to them, they are happy. They heal faster.”

Caring for people motivates Salmonowicz’s pie baking. “I do this because I love to please people. If it pays the bills that’s all I ask.” Her customers come in for conversation as much as pie. “Sometimes I feel like bartender,”she said.

With her retirement approaching, she is making an instructional DVD of her pie making technique for her customers, and perhaps a broader audience. “A lot of people have told me they’re going to be unhappy when I retire, so I decided to make this DVD.“

This summer, Salmonowicz’s business seemed a bit slower. She says fewer visitors are coming up from metro-Detroit and attributes this to the shrinking auto industry and high gas prices. “People are selling their cottages because they have to, not because they want to,”she said.

Fortunately, her business does not depend solely on tourism. In the fall, winter and spring she bakes sirloin pasties, which she boasts “are better than anything over the bridge.” The Mackinac Bridge, that is.

Located at 5846 Lakeshore Rd. (M25) her hours are: Friday 11-4 p.m., Saturday 11-3:30 p.m. and Sunday 11-4 p.m.

Business Ambition Meets Social Conscience

Downsizing doesn't have to be the end of hope and future plans. For many entrepreneurs it marks the beginning of their independent small business careers. Sharon McRill, owner of Betty Brigade, had spent six years helping develop Borders web presence when she was downsized over four years ago.

"I was one of the original five people that started Borders.com. We built the website up so much that it was sold to Amazon. We did a really good thing for the company, but worked ourselves out of a job. We didn't know that's what we were working toward," McRill remembers. "Yes, I was downsized, but I got a stock option buyout and took all that money and put it into creating this business. Failure was not an option."

"I was literally sitting on my couch, feeling sorry for myself watching Oprah do a show about living your best life and starting your own business, when I realized I could start a business," McRill said.

"I started what I'm doing now on a much smaller scale for family and friends, while looking for another job," said McRill. But demand for her services grew rapidly and she found that working as a personal assistant/concierge worked best as a full time occupation.

Since then, the company has grown into a full service concierge company that provides organizing, party and event planning, wedding planning, pet care, and residential/business moving coordination, and referrals. Currently based in Ann Arbor, McRill plans to open another office in West Bloomfield, an area with high demand for Betty Brigade's services. She hopes this expansion will ultimately lead to national franchising.

"Starting a business is by far the hardest thing I have done. An entrepreneur needs to be strong-willed and even stubborn; they can't be wishy washy. You have to really want it. You have to be able to weather the storms and work smart,"McRill advised. Part of that is finding and utilizing the abundant small business resources currently available.

"Early on I put together a mentor/adviser team of about eight people who meet with me quarterly over dinner and share their advice," she said. McRill also has a long range business plan that she reviews and revises annually.

McRill firmly believes in the power of giving back to the community. A portion of her business consists of giving referrals to local companies that provide services that her company does not. Although she doesn't collect a fee of any kind for passing on business to other companies, she contends that this generates good will and future business for Betty Brigade. She also has developed a reputation as a "green" business, due to the large amount of recycling that results from her company's work and a Waste Knot partnership with Washtenaw County Waste Reduction.

Betty Brigade participates in charitable projects, as well. "My company helped build a Habitat for Humanity house last year. Called Rainbow House, it was the second Habitat house in the nation to be built by the LGBT community. I ended up donating $10,000 of company resources to help build the house," McRill said.

With respect to the business, economic and media climate in Michigan, she acknowledges the negative tone and bad news, but counters it with openness and realism. "There are some very serious issues. Michigan has seen better days, but there is a lot of new technology and new industry coming. If you pay attention, you'll see it. The biotech industry in Michigan can become unrivaled in the next five to ten years, if it is allowed to flourish," she said.

"I can't save the world, but I am responsible for my own little plot of land, which is where my business is. If I can take care of that, I can feed my employees and feed myself, while taking care of clients."

That's sound advice for anyone in Michigan right now.

A New Attitude

Last week, I read an opinion piece that was simultaneously realistic and optimistic about the role of attitude in Michigan's economic turnaround. For a few minutes, I had hope for our state.

"Nonetheless, the tie between prosperity and attitude seems to be strong, even symbiotic. As we remained walled in our rust-belt prison, we might remember that we have the will, the brains, the drive and the money to turn our state around and reclaim our position of global pre-eminence. We might expedite the process of recovery by talking loudly about our dreams, our prospects and our new love for risk taking."

The author, Jim Hettinger, is a Michigan native and has been CEO with Battle Creek Unlimited , a private, non-profit economic development organization since 1978. We spoke today about Michigan's economic prospects in context of its past and present conditions.

Regarding the pervasive negative press about Michigan, Hettinger said this is quite harmful and just adds fuel to the fire where attitude is concerned. I asked if he had suggestions for creating a new vision for Michigan. He responded that such a vision needs to come from Lansing, but that we aren't well served by "getting swept up in big trends. Communities need to find their strategic local competencies; to find a niche--what nobody else is doing." Cultivating local identity is a part of this. He added, "Finding the niche needs to happen at all levels."

But as Michigan transitions away from primary dependence on manufacturing, former factory workers will need to find their way to personal empowerment, independence and responsibility for their futures. "We have been in a giant paternalistic environment for the last 50 to 60 years," Hettinger said. This was cultivated by corporations, big unions and now, in part by large foundations. The antidote, he added is to, "get people on the edge where creativity and survival instincts come into play."

He believes Lansing needs to play a role in this, as well: "We need to create arranged spontaneity by bringing together different people and groups with similar interests and then let nature take its course."

BCU KnowledgeNow!, a business information portal created by Battle Creek Unlimited, endeavors to do that by gathering and making available information resources to facilitate economic development.

Hettinger works and lives in Michigan by choice. I asked him what gives him hope for Michigan's future. He listed three key elements. He said that with strategic deployment of new technology, a fast turn around is possible. Although our education system needs updating, he estimates that it is still globally competitive. And last, the Great Lakes are an asset beyond tourism, that he believes need protection.

Don't lose hope, Michiganders. Reach out, help each other, take some risks, and believe in your ability to create sustainable communities. And stop being so partisan.

Made in China: Small Business Idea

Looking for a small, I mean really small, business idea?

This weekend, I had the pleasure of staying at a Marriott in another Great Lakes state. Our accommodation included VIP status and special perks, access to a concierge lounge with food and beverages throughout the day, etc. Our room rate, with tax was $144. So why were the cotton balls and ear swabs imported from China? Would little packs of domestic cotton balls and swabs really put such a huge dent in Marriott's profit margin at the end of a day?

This little pack of hygiene supplies struck me as absurd, insulting and alarming. You can be sure there are low-skilled workers in the U.S. who could produce little packs like this and would be grateful for the work. But their labor is too expensive. Think about that. Paying someone in the U.S. minimum wage to make little packs of hygiene supplies is too costly. Or perhaps the actual phrase is "not sufficiently profitable to be competitive in a global economy." I wonder what how the Chinese cotton ball packers live. I wonder what they eat and where they sleep.

Chick Inn, Since 1953

"Paul Bunyan Burger 3.75--a half pound of the finest ground beef, cheese, thick sliced onion, crisp lettuce and our special Paul Bunyan sauce served on a 5" toasted sesame bun."
Good ol' American fare, beefy, large, cheap.

I was doing research for an upcoming piece on Willow Run, and spotted the Chick Inn Drive In at the corner of Holmes and Prospect, just west of Willow Run and just in time for lunch.

Mid-century modern architecture and a tall rotating sign immediately grabbed my imagination, so I pulled in and parked the car. Here was a cultural gem evoking a time of audacious gas-guzzling cars, unbridled economic growth and a thriving middle class--the fifties. The Chick Inn has been at this site since 1953, the current building dating from 1955.

It's iconic, a landmark, a relic, the subject of a song, and still a functioning full-service drive-in. For decades, the Chick Inn has been family-owned and operated. That is the case even now, although the restaurant changed hands about three years ago. I asked the current owner, Mr. Lim, about business. He said it's not great and said he thinks it has to do with the economy generally. Our conversation was difficult, as the owner and I grappled with a language barrier. He is Korean. I thanked him for talking with me and went out to the car to order. Paul Bunyan burger with a side of onion rings.

The car hop, a young woman from Ypsilanti, took my order by speaker and brought it out a few minutes later with a smile. She has worked at the Chick Inn for nearly a year. I asked for her thoughts on the Michigan economy. She shared that, "everyone in my family is leaving Michigan because there's no work. People in my family think we need a new president and a new governor. She tries to say everything is alright and it's not. We'd rather hear the truth from her."

Then she remarked about the situation for the Chick Inn. She had heard that business dropped off when regulars found out a Korean bought the place. The regulars didn't like that he raised the prices. Then she added, "this is an American place, you know."

My Disneyland lunch was over. My hope for the Chick Inn took a blow. Sure this is an American place, a quintessential American place, and how wonderful that a Korean immigrant has taken the chance in the 21st century to sustain a historic landmark in Ypsilanti. Our state economy desperately needs people like Mr. Lim--entrepreneurs and small business people--to take risks and make investments in communities. Thank you for taking a chance in Ypsilanti, Mr. Lim.