business

For more than a decade he has worked tirelessly, building a solid enterprise and developing a large, loyal clientele across the Upper Midwest.

More recently, he's taken his wares online and gone into diverse new interactive venues.

Now, as he promotes a new product release, his thoughts are about getting bigger, taking an already strong regional brand and going national with it.

The aspiration is familiar to many small-business owners -- even if singing, writing songs, recording albums and touring nonstop aren't.

Brian Leighton, leader of veteran Minnesota rock band GB Leighton, wants to take his brand national. While his concerts are a must for diehard fans, Leighton's entrepreneurial efforts are likely to strike a chord with the business crowd.

He's no Jimmy Buffett, who has built a business empire around one song. But Leighton seeks a bigger profile, while balancing his artistic and commercial aims.

"I've maintained a career for a while," Leighton, 37, said in an interview last month on the eve of the release of "Shake Them Ghosts."To think of it as like some multimillion-dollar company, I'm not there yet. I'm definitely striving to get there someday."

Leighton has run his band in business-like fashion for years. He plays three to five nights a week primarily in the Twin Cities area but also ventures outstate and plays in Chicago, Milwaukee, Des Moines, Fargo and other Midwestern cities.

He has set up two corporations -- one for touring, which pays regular salaries to the five musicians and three crew members he employs (providing them unusual security in the music world), and the other for his merchandise and albums.

He also has licensed the use of his name and a song title for a new nightclub, GB Leighton's Pickle Park, which opened in June in Fridley. The decor includes memorabilia of rock stars, including Leighton, and a 32-foot-long replica of his guitar on the ceiling over the main bar.

Leighton will perform at his namesake locale eight times a year. He also hangs out there frequently, dropping by from his nearby home in New Brighton.

Club affiliation

Tom Tomaro and Mike Tupa, who own the club with general manager and minority owner Amanda Kranz, are longtime Leighton fans.

Tomaro said he has seen Leighton's band pack clubs since he tended bar while he was in the entrepreneur program at the University of St. Thomas. A bar owner for the last 12 years, Tomaro said it's taken several years to persuade Leighton to do business and to find the right place.

"Having the GB Leighton brand to open a place like this is essential," said Tomaro, who has other locations in mind for future Leighton clubs. "Because I had watched Brian operate for so long, I saw that he was a good businessman, that he ran a professional business."

Leighton has sold close to 80,000 albums over the years, all independently, never having signed with a major record label. He estimates that he has sold 5,000 copies of "Shake Them Ghosts" at his live shows, and thousands of others at retailers such as Target, Best Buy and Snyder's Drug Stores.

The new album also is available from his website, (www.gbleighton.com) and as a digital download from the iTunes Music Store and other services linked from his site.

Fans also can go to his website to sign up for his second annual tour to Acapulco this January, booked through Bianchi-Rossi in Golden Valley. More than 150 joined him for performances at the Hard Rock Cafe and other venues and poolside chats last winter, and more than 200 are expected next year.