Start Up: Innovation Is Everywhere

Start-Up! is weekly column on entrepreneurship, start-ups, technology and innovation, powered by the Adams Hub for Innovation.

Hello Carson City! It’s great to be back!

Following WNC’s graduation in May, I returned to my hometown of Haines, Alaska. Haines is a small town in southeast Alaska, 90 miles north of Juneau. It is home to 1,713 people year round (1,714 when I’m in town) and swells to 5,000 plus in the summer.

What is most amazing about Haines is the entrepreneurial spirit that exists among its residents. In a town where the “stable” jobs are in government, healthcare and K-12 education, people need to be extremely creative to make a living, while maintaining their Alaskan lifestyle. We can’t let work interrupt our hunting, fishing and playing.

According to livability.com:

The top industry in Haines, AK is the Supermarkets and Other Grocery industry with 7.5% of all workers in Haines employed in this sector. Other leading employment sectors for Haines include All Other Amusement and Recreation Industries, Hotels, and Finfish Fishing. There are 696 business establishments in Haines with fewer than 10 employees, which is a good indicator of the entrepreneurship in the community. Another 96 business have between 10 and 50 employees, 6 have between 50 and 250, and 0 businesses have more than 250 employees.

I want to highlight two of those 696 businesses.

Tour de Scooter was born out of a sense of longing to share the sights and sounds that had taken two years (and a budget I wasn’t ready to acknowledge) to experience. Alex, the owner, brought a unique mode of transportation to Haines for the wide-eyed visitors who wanted to see the nooks and crannies Haines has to offer.

After a summer of watching cruise ship visitors experiencing only a fraction of what the great Alaskan town of Haines has to offer, it was a no-brainer. Located at the cruise ship dock and open whenever a ship was in town, Tour de Scooter rents motor scooters. This allows anyone who can legally drive a car to rent from them. In addition to scooters, they provide helmets and eye wear, a full tank of gas and a free map available with suggested destinations.

But Alex goes further. He figures if people are in a group or with another person, they may want to converse while en route to seeing the sights. So he offers voice-activated walkie-talkies with hands-free headsets!

But there’s more. Alex knows that when people are on vacation, they want to capture photos of their adventures. Alex offers a service where his staff will follow the tourists around town with cameras to capture all the fun. This way everyone can be in the shot!

I know you are thinking to yourself, “This is nothing new. They do all that in Tahoe!” Yes, this is true. However, entrepreneurship and innovation are location specific. If a market need is not being met, innovation meets that need. It is the willingness to take the risk that leads to opportunity and business success.

Moving from transportation to knitting, Theresa, the owner of Dalton City Yarn Emporium is a sole proprietor specializing in high-quality yarns and supplies. When she opened her shop in 2008, her goal was to provide the supplies that the local knitters needed which is a pretty basic business goal.

As is common in many towns, there are a limited number of knitters and crochetiers. However, in a cold weather area, there is an unlimited market for high quality finished goods-sweaters, hats, scarfs, etc. What Theresa did was expand her product line to include goods that she and other local knitters have made. In a consignment shop-type setting, she sells the wares of other knitters (who have purchased their yarn from her) to locals and tourists alike. She essentially sells the same product twice--the sale of the yarn and a commission on the finished good sale!

Theresa cultivates her market by offering “yarn tasting parties” where she showcases new yarns. She provides free instruction at the shop and in the schools, and when you mess up your project and can’t figure out how to fix it, she provides free project recovery; and then, of course, there’s the free Internet access (think Starbucks with knitters). In marketing terms, she’s augmenting her product. In entrepreneurial terms, she’s addressing unmet needs.

The key takeaway in Theresa’s story is to know the market and then the market’s market. By doing a deep dive into the “why” of the purchase, Theresa found secondary markets that keep her going year round.

I fear too many of us think that innovation and entrepreneurship are exclusively high tech, big dollar ventures. It’s just not so! Quite simply, innovation is introducing new and better ways of doing things. Alex and Theresa both do this--Alex by providing alternative transportation, Theresa through developing alternative markets.

Take a moment to think about your opportunities for innovation. You’ll find they are right before your eyes.

Dr. Robert Whitcomb is Professor of Business, Management and Marketing at Western Nevada College. He may be contacted at Robert.whitcomb@WNC.edu.