Inside track: Architect lands in home care business

Sini Ross, a University of Minnesota-minted architect, has had an interesting career.

Ross hasn't practiced since a recession took her job at a Swedish architectural firm 20 years ago.

"I had wanted to be a lawyer," recalled Ross, 46. "But I'm dyslexic. And I'm not afraid of change. I survived 27 percent unemployment in Sweden."

An entrepreneur, Ross opened a western-wear import shop, including saddles, boots and clothing that she shipped throughout the Nordic countries.

She sold the business in 1998 and returned to Minnesota, taking a job in sales and marketing with Xerox. But the travel became a burden for the mother of a teenage daughter.

She worked as a marketing consultant to Sexton Printing, while searching for her next gig.

Recently, Ross and her business partner, Beth Piper, a former Blue Cross Blue Shield manager, invested about $225,000 to acquire the franchise rights and related start-up costs to launch Bright Star in the southern suburbs, as well as Washington and Dakota counties.

Ross expects to employ about 100 caregivers, in full- and part-time positions over the next year. The rates will range from under $20 per hour to $50-plus an hour for skilled nursing care, with around-the-clock coverage available.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the number of caregiver positions will nearly double in the next eight years from about 1.75 million to 2.6 million, as the population ages.

"We hope that we can break even within a year and be able to take a salary," Ross said.

In 1993, Bill Sands, then-CEO of St. Paul's Western Bank, spun out Western's community development subsidiary as an independent Neighborhood Development Center. The organization reached beyond Frogtown and University Avenue to help train and finance more than 500 small businesses, employing several thousand workers, operating street-front shops, small factories and eateries in several inner-city neighborhoods of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

"NDC," under its original CEO, Mike Temali, and backed by area businesses, foundations and individuals, expanded from career training to small-business finance, business coaching and real estate services.

•Haiyen and Neeson Vang, who opened "The Clearance Rack" in 2004 and now operate six stores featuring affordable fashion, shoes and accessories for women at $10 per item or less.

•Local D'Lish is a small grocery store in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis owned and operated by Ann and Yulin Yin, specializing in locally grown products. The Yins have brought the farmer's market atmosphere they knew and loved from China to their community in north Minneapolis.

•All Washed Up, a new laundromat at the expanding, born-again commercial hub of Lowry and Penn Avenues N., and its owner, Shantae Holmes, a neighborhood woman who spent years working and saving to become an entrepreneur.

•Joyous Care & Family Preservation Services. Owner Elizabeth Mafe and staff provide economical, in-home family support services include respite care, personal care, home health aides, chore and companion services to people of diverse cultural backgrounds.

•Connie Hanson, an asthma sufferer, created EZKeeper out of her own frustration with finding something to hold her inhaler. Now the owner of federal patents, Hanson offers five styles of inhaler holders and two styles of spacer holders.

Business is cooking at St. Louis Park-based Northland Aluminum Products, maker of the Nordic Ware line of iconic Bundt pans, waffle irons and other cookware.

Nordic Ware, which chose not to move manufacturing to China or Mexico, has seen sales rise and added employees in recent years.

The company is headed by David Dalquist, CEO of the family-owned company that his parents founded in 1946.

And the weak U.S. dollar has made it economical to manufacture and export.

An ABC TV news crew recently featured the family-owned company as part of its "Made in America" series. The piece can be viewed at www.abcnews.go.com.