New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

This story features a CPA and his journey into entrepreneurship.  While every story is unique, this one is interesting in that once this conservative CPA caught the entrepreneurial bug, he took high risks to get his venture launched.  Not exactly a strategy I would endorse, but I do understand the enthusiasm that an entrepreneur needs to have while pursuing his goals.  Often, the only thing that will get an entrepreneur past the daunting obstacles are his passion and his determination.  While the providence of God is not mentioned in this story, as Christians we always need to seek God's face to insure we are in His will as we undertake a new venture.  Read on to see how this CPA started an ice cream business...

An aggressive entrepreneur can lurk behind the calm exterior of a conservative, risk-adverse personality.

That's certainly part of Michael Duguay's business story, an adventure that started five years ago when he left a predictable life in Michigan to open an ice cream shop amidst the honky tonks and souvenir shops of downtown Nashville.

Taking big chances was never a part of Duguay's life on Michigan's scenic Upper Peninsula, where he worked as a certified public accountant and assistant school superintendent.

His destiny was altered by three factors : a life-long love affair with ice cream, a passion for country music and the lure of what Duguay calls a "perfect untapped opportunity."

He got the idea for Mike's Ice Cream Fountain when he visited CMA's FanFare festival at the Tennessee Titan's stadium several years ago.

"I'd never seen a tourist city that didn't have an ice cream shop," Duguay says.

Surprising his family and friends - even himself - Duguay started jumping the hurdles to open his first business 700 miles from the forests and rivers of Northern Michigan.

Before he knew it he had signed a commercial lease for space at 208 Broadway, tapped into life savings and chalked up some credit card debt.

Not exactly normal behavior for a cautious accountant.

"I'm pretty risk adverse," Duguay says. "But you don't know when your opportunities are going to come. You can't always be conservative."

Reaching break-even and making a profit happened quickly.

The first year of business at Mike's Ice Cream Fountain yielded about $239,000 in gross revenues. Business has increased at a rate of about 25 percent a year since, Duguay says.

Having a strong background as a level-headed accountant has helped the business stay in the black.

"I had already explored the best and the worst accounting systems," Duguay says. "I'm sure it's helped me."

Soon after opening Mike's Ice Cream, Duguay began to think about how to grow his business.

By his second year of scooping ice cream, he was doing well enough to buy Just Java, a nearby coffee shop on Second Avenue downtown.

He viewed the purchase as strategic on two counts. First, he needed to add another item to his offerings besides ice cream.

Second, he'd be eliminating a competitor.

The owner of Just Java, Joanie Gadler, a well-known local personality also known as "Java Joanie," came along with the deal. She now works for Duguay.

Gadler says Duguay's idea to combine coffee and ice cream on a tourist strip that had neither was brilliant.

"He's just very, very smart," Gadler says. "In the morning the coffee is more popular than the ice cream and in the afternoon the ice cream is more popular than the coffee."

Duguay is making new moves, one that he compares to the first bold move he took five years ago when he moved to town to start Mike's Ice Cream. He just purchased Sip, an East Nashville coffeehouse and is expanding his small ice cream production facility so that he can add more homemade flavors.

Sip and Mike's Ice Cream's production operations are both in Riverside Village, a revitalized neighborhood center in Inglewood.

Dan Heller, the prime developer of that area, says he thinks adding ice cream to the mix will be good for the small business district.

"Ice cream has a magical effect on an area, especially when it's homemade," Heller says. "Plus, I think Mike really knows what he's doing. He's very methodical and determined."

The menu at Mike's Ice Cream is a combination of Purity flavors and Duguay's concoctions. He plans to embellish the homemade flavors with Tennessee brands and products to give the business more individuality.

The move into manufacturing his own flavors on a small scale required substantial research, education and investment.

Although declining to say just how much money the expansion is requiring, Duguay says he's "going in deep."

When you're ready to make your move you have to commit to it 100 percent," he says. "You really can't be so conservative that you don't continue to evolve and improve."

LESSONS LEARNED

• Toughest business decision: Leaving a stable job with benefits to move to Nashville and take a chance on opening Mike's Ice Cream.
• Best business decision: Acquiring and adding the Just Java Coffee Bar to the downtown location to even out revenues throughout the day and year.
• Greatest business challenge: Finding startup financing and struggling through the lean, early years of the business.
• Biggest surprise of your career: Creating a successful business on Broadway in such an amazing, historic area. Sometimes it still feels like a dream!
• What someone else can learn from you: Life is short, so I encourage people to pursue their dreams. But do extensive research first and pay attention to what the data tells you.
• Business philosophy: Serve a quality product and provide quality service, and, over time, customers will find you.
• Greatest frustration: Forms, fees and regulation can take a lot of time and take your attention away from the important aspects of operating a business.
• Five-year vision: To have my two locations become known as the places where you can get high-quality ice cream in flavors that you can't get anywhere else. And to maintain a high level of quality with all of the ice cream and coffee products on the menu.
• Best way to compete: Consistent quality.

By: Linda Bryant

Source: Nashville Business Journal