Upsize is a magazine with a single mission: to help Minnesota's small-business owners build bigger and more profitable companies, and to connect CEOs with the people, products and ideas they need to grow.
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Risky business? WHEN HE FINALLY limped into Dr. Timothy Kelm's chiropractic clinic in St. Louis Park a couple of years ago, Alan Bignall was desperate. Bignall had been to the renowned Mayo Clinic to treat his peripheral neuropathy, which was so painful all he could think about every day at the robotics company he runs was getting home to soak his feet. "He had a tough time walking a block to a business meeting," recalls Kelm. But after several treatments, "he did very well." Kelm, a D.C. or doctor of chiropractic, had been working since 2005 to perfect the use of a Class IV therapeutic laser to treat neuropa- thy, a condition causing pain, numbness and balance problems. Kelm was simply treating one more patient when he helped Bignall. But Bignall is CEO of Recon Robotics, which makes small robots used by the U.S. military to scout out dangerous locations, and he smelled a business opportunity. He recruited one of his board members, Phil Walter, as CEO. Bignall himself invested, and they formed Realief Neuropathy Centers, with the aim to roll out franchises throughout the country and build a national brand. I'll tell you more about Realief in a future issue of Upsize, but I wanted to tease you about the story in this Growth Guide because of Wal- ter's interesting approach to risk. Like all new ventures, plenty of risk is involved in building Realief. But what may seem like risk to others, Walter says, isn't for him, because he keeps studying a topic until he knows all the ins and outs. Only then does he make his moves. For example, Walter's background includes a stint with Michelin developing high-perfor- mance and motor sports products, and he cites the experience when describing how he approaches evaluating and developing a business opportunity. "I went to my boss and said, you put me in charge, so you have to send me to race-driving school. So he wrote a check for $2,000 and I went to race-driving school. Eventually I went to 27 schools." In the same way, he says, he diligently re- 4 UPSIZE ONLINE THE GROWTH GUIDE 2012 www.upsizemag.com searched all aspects of the Realief opportuni- ty: Was there a need to be met? Was there a deal-breaking reason why the need wasn't be- ing met? Was there anyone else that could or would meet the need before Realief could do so? "There's nobody with the business model and a big footprint," he decided, who was delivering laser therapy to treat neuropathy in humans. "The playing field was wide open." The key for Walter is to study and research until he becomes an expert. Walter says he once worked for a CEO who hailed him as a risk taker at a company meeting. "I had to correct him. I said, I don't take risks. I only do it because I know what to do," Walter said. "In the military I used to jump out of airplanes. I used to do race car driving. Those may seem risky to you because you don't know how to do them. I study them," Walter said. "I don't take risks. I'm risk-averse. The way you avoid risk is you learn how it all works." The idea is instructive for any entre- preneur growing any company. Use it, along with the tips and perspec- tives in this guide, along the journey. Beth Ewen Editor and co-founder Upsize Minnesota bewen@upsizemag.com PHOTO BY JONATHAN HANKIN