Gabe Castaneda, Michele Dugree and Joe Schwenk are young Yoopers who have found a way to do what they love.
Entrepreneurs to their core, all three have found success by following their passions and overcoming obstacles with a figure-it-out-as-you-go attitude. What's more, they plan to stay in the Upper Peninsula.
Simply Unforgettable started as a fun DJing business for Gabe Castaneda, 29.
Using the profits from his first year, Castaneda has expanded into a multi-faceted event and wedding company. He has even been able to quit his job to focus entirely on Simply Unforgettable. Now, the company offers cake decorating, wedding rentals, DJ services, bounce houses for kids and more.
For Castaneda, bringing novelties to the small towns of the U.P. is a crucial aspect of his business. He felt local events lacked activities for children and he began focusing on buying bounce houses or mascots to fill this gap or even set up carnivals for families.
"A business is only worth what it's able to give back to the community," Castaneda says. "If a business takes from its community and doesn't give back, then what good is that business to that community?"
Castaneda is the only official employee of the company, but for larger events like the carnivals, he pays his friends to help set up and sometimes run the events. He also says he wouldn't be nearly as successful without the help of his girlfriend.
"I would have to say a lot of my success is just my girlfriend pushing me and helping me with everything I've done with (the company)," he says.
Contracting work to make larger projects possible is something with which Michele Dugree is familiar.
"Everyone who has ever set foot through the studio door has brought something unique to the table," 29-year-old Dugree says. "When we get a large order, we bring in extra help. We've had everything from painters to sculptors to computer scientists in house helping to make our products at one point or another."
Dugree's business,
Revisions Design Studio in Gwinn, creates designs sold in retail stores like Target and Urban Outfitters. Revisions started in Dugree's basement apartment while her husband was away on business and grew over time to be her full-time commitment.
"Two months later (after making Revisions my full-time job), we were creating a large order that was sold in select Target stores. (It was) a crazy and stressful whirlwind of a time, but looking back it was all worth it."
Today, the business has three designers: Dugree, Janna Fox and Torrey Dupras. One of their main priorities that has contributed to their success is focusing on customer service, even when people make orders online.
"Being a real person that runs a company rather than a large corporation makes us unique. We are currently selling items through Urban Outfitters, and being a small business in the U.P. makes that feel like we've beaten a small part of the corporate giant," Dugree says. "Our goods are all handmade in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, not China. I don't know many ceramic businesses that can say that."
And though Dugree has seen an enormous amount of success, she plans to stay in the U.P. The only disadvantage, she says, is an increased cost of shipping, but, for her, it's worth it.
"From the workers to the community that has supported me every step of the way, I've never felt a connection so closely to the earth and the people around me like I do in the U.P." Dugree says. "This is my home and I love it."
For Joe Schwenk, 32, who owns
Rhythm Skateshop and
Industrial Graphics in Houghton, his businesses wouldn't exist without the community he grew up with.
Schwenk and his friends started and ran a skatepark in Houghton for 12 years, and today, he says, most of his friends are people he met or interacted with through that experience.
"Just from the connections that I've made by being at the skatepark and being active in the community for most of my life, I know most of the people in town and most of the people in town know me," Schwenk says.
He created the skate shop as a way to make money doing what he loved. Years later, he purchased a vinyl cutter to create graphics for the shop, and eventually had enough orders to justify creating his second business, Industrial Graphics. Today, Industrial Graphics has four employees and has a wide range of services, including large format printing, vehicle wraps, big outdoor signs and interior signs.
"(The skate shop) was a good time, but because of my mechanical background--I grew up remodeling and building things and other projects like that--I got bored working retail, so I started the graphic business because I wanted to do something more hands on," he says.
It's this attitude that illustrates how these young people have found their success: by doing what they love. Schwenk says it best, when talking about why he does what he does.
"I don't know if I'm the right person, but I'm the one with the most motivation," Schwenk says. He explains, "It was either that or I had to go back to school and I don't like going to school. It's important to me to be happy with what I'm doing."
Lucy Hough is in the English master's program at Northern Michigan University and helps write a blog about NMU history.