As a serious gardener, I think a lot about tools. Gardening in Minnesota is not for the faint of heart. Preparing the beds, pruning, weeding, planting and harvesting all happen in a relatively short period, so choosing the right tools, using them properly and keeping them in peak condition is critical to a successful harvest. [...]

It’s important to think hard about your bottom line when you’re in business. You won’t be profitable or stay in business very long without keeping track of your expenses and revenues. It’s also true that fixating on your costs and cutting too many corners can create expensive mistakes.  This issue is about ensuring your shop’s [...]

My brother is a wacky painter. A lot of his art is filled with blurry faces and unfinished bodies. Some of his paintings show finer techniques, but he says he prefers to take a “messy approach” to potentially achieve a more creative result than “something that matches a couch.” Being proficient at the nuts and [...]

As a writer and editor, I prefer to do most of my work alone in the quiet of my home office. But during the dark days of a Minnesota winter, working alone gets lonely and my ideas feel thin and uninspired.  That’s why I attend literary conferences and classes each winter. The creative spark that [...]

There is a ritual (some would say a bad habit) where each generation complains about the generation that comes after it. “Young people today are (lazy, selfish, self-involved, distracted, demanding, impatient…fill in the blank).” Some young people are sometimes those things. And some older folks are sometimes those things too. But young or old, the [...]

If we humans are good at anything, it’s adapting to change. You might think I’m talking about pandemics, but I’m actually talking about business in general. Running a business means continuously adapting to forces both within and outside of your control. It’s about remaining flexible while having a strategic vision of your goals and constantly [...]

Are your marketing efforts attracting the types of clients and projects you’re interested in? If not, how should you go about it? The first step, obviously, is creating quality projects. And then you need to get the word out to your desired clients. For Midwesterners like myself, tooting our own horns can feel uncomfortable, but [...]

The marine fabrication business often seems like a business of nothing but problems. Supply chain bottlenecks, a lack of employees, demanding customers and too little time to address the ever-growing waitlist. But it’s also a business filled with problem solvers. That’s the beauty of working with marine fabricators: they find ways to excel despite, and [...]

If 2020 was a rollercoaster, 2021 was more like a Zero Gravity amusement park ride where spinning forces beyond anyone’s control pinned us to the wall making movement impossible. Businesses experienced a centrifugal maelstrom of surging customer demand, labor shortages, price increases and supply chain bottlenecks.  As the control equation shifted for business owners, it’s [...]

With or without COVID-19 restrictions, many fabricators spend a lot of time alone. Aside from interactions with clients and employees, fabrication work itself is often performed solo, either onboard or in the shop. Given the solitary nature of this profession, finding ways to make industry connections is crucial. Otherwise, where do you get your design [...]