Cadeaux wins business plan contest By Liam Marlaire
Leader-Telegram staff
Lorraine Dixon is a native of Canada who recently relocated from Thunder Bay, Ontario.
The 35-year-old business owner said when she left the city of about 120,000 residents, which rests on the northwest shore of Lake Superior, it was undergoing redevelopment efforts similar to those going on in downtown Eau Claire. So far, however, she's seen more progress locally than in her hometown.
"It really seems like they're being proactive and doing something about the downtown," she said. "Some customers have said they're waiting for the downtown to blossom, and it's already happening just in the past eight or nine months since I've been here. Space is starting to get hard to come by."
Dixon owns Cadeaux, a gift shop that opened May 2 at 312 S. Barstow St. The business took first place Wednesday in Downtown Eau Claire Inc.'s Jump-Start Downtown Business Competition, which includes a $5,000 prize.
"It's more than just the money," Dixon said. "It's the fact that our idea is recognized as a legitimate, valid business."
Cadeaux - "gifts" in French - offers an array of gifts and customized basket services. Items include, but aren't limited to, baby products, handmade jewelry, pet treats and international wines. The store measures 1,200 square feet, and vaulted ceilings make the space seem even bigger.
Dixon researched the area before starting the business and found a niche market for Cadeaux.
"Initially it was only gift baskets," she said. "But now we try to have a broad array of gift items for a wide variety of customers."
The fourth annual Jump-Start competition drew 11 business plans. Isabelle and Co. was named honorable mention, Expresso Boutique earned an entrepreneurial training scholarship, and JustSix Grocery Store and The Provincial Chef were runners-up.
"Not only was this the most amount of plans received, it was the highest quality to date," Mike Schatz, DECI executive director, said in a statement. "We are very pleased with the type of businesses that are being considered. The winners have done their homework and fit into the urban culture we are establishing downtown."
Dixon once owned a service business in Canada and has taken full advantage of local resources such as Western Wisconsin SCORE, which provides free business counseling. She plans to use the contest winnings to help add an employee in the fall.
Dixon originally left Canada when her husband, Mark Dixon, took a job at Indianhead Plating in Chippewa Falls, where the couple resides.
"As soon as we moved, we found people here were very friendly," she said. "We had overwhelming response (to the business) even from other retailers."
Dixon said many of the downtown shops help each other by carrying select items from fellow retailers and hosting networking events.
"Businesses also really have the backing of the city," she said. "They offer incentives and many free services. It's a great place to start a business."
Dixon attends gift shows and receives visits from product distributors to determine what items she sells. As a testament to the variety of gifts available at Cadeaux, Dixon has about 45 different suppliers.
Inventory is decided "partially by what distributors say is selling well and partly by my gut feeling about what's a good fit for the store," she said.
Dixon maintains her connection to Canada through visits from friends and relatives; she's hosted 24 such guests since March. Products made in Canada also have found a following at her store. Dixon is offering a growing number of organic items, including coffees, chocolates and wines, as well.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony and customer appreciation event is scheduled for Sept. 12-13 at Cadeaux. Dixon also plans to host wine tastings in the future and schedule chefs periodically to demonstrate how best to use some of the unique food products she has available.
Dixon, alongside other downtown store owners, also host programs for nonprofit organizations.
"You're helping people and they get to know our business and it gets them downtown," she said. "It's a win-win situation. We're just excited to be part of it."
Isabelle and Co.
The high-end clothing and accessories retailer plans to open a shop at 314 N. Barstow Street in the fall. The concept earned Jessica Behrendt honorable mention in the Jump-Start Competition. She received a free one-year membership in DECI, a $150 to $550 value depending on a company's number of employees.
"Competitions like Jump-Start offer entrepreneurs much more than awards," Behrendt said. "These competitions make (businesses) aware of, and encourage them to utilize, available resources to assist in researching and implementing their business plans and, perhaps as importantly, they provide them the opportunity to present their ideas to a group of successful professionals that know business in the Chippewa Valley, and the feedback that provides is priceless."
Behrendt is a Rice Lake native who's lived in Eau Claire the past five years and works as a financial adviser for Johnson Investment Services. She started her career in Sydney, Australia, and worked as an analyst for Arthur Andersen in New York City, where she developed a passion for fashion.
"After moving here from New York City, I felt 'shopping deprived' and would have to drive to the Twin Cities to find the designers I fell in love with in New York," she said. "But it wasn't until Eau Claire started revitalizing the downtown area, and urban planning such as the Waterford and Phoenix Park Neighborhood began, that I started thinking seriously about opening a boutique.
"I feel like Eau Claire is definitely ready for a boutique clothing store that offers designer clothing to fashion-forward women, and the downtown area is the perfect environment."
Behrendt will have some help from family members. Her sister is an interior designer, her mother is a graphic designer and her husband has operated his own retail store for six years.
"We hope to capture the hearts of women in the Chippewa Valley with our atmosphere and our product selection," Behrendt said. "They will love the convenience of our location, our ambiance and, most importantly, our clothing."
Expresso Boutique
Renata Sarauer, 27, earned a $1,000 scholarship for entrepreneurial training through the UW-Eau Claire Small Business Development Center for her Expresso Boutique entry in the competition.
Sarauer is fine-tuning her business plan and hopes to approach area banks for financing in the spring of next year. She also recently finished work on the company's Web site.
"I started off selling on eBay, and my husband said maybe I should actually have a Web site," Sarauer said. "I just love fashion and want to get products that are lacking in the Eau Claire area."
Expresso Boutique will target college-age women and businesswomen with culturally diversified lines of products. Sarauer also will be carrying some colorful products from her native country of Trinidad and Tobago.
"I want to incorporate my Caribbean roots into Eau Claire," she said.
Sarauer's husband works for Menards and will be building the fixtures for the store. The space will have a lounge area so people can relax and watch the big game while their spouses or children shop.
Sarauer said shoppers in her native country prefer visiting a variety of stores, as do tourists from docked cruise ships. The ambiance is festive with music playing outside and the potential for rain never far away.
"They love bargains and go downtown where all the action is," she said. "I kind of envision having a little piece of that in my store.
"Gradually, you hear more about (Eau Claire's) downtown. You see all the buildings and envision what the future will be. There already are more restaurants and spas. It's grown just since I've been here."
Runners-up
The concept of a wellness-related foods outlet,
JustSix Grocery Store, was put forth by Brenda Martineau. Although she has not opened any brick-and-mortar stores yet, she's targeting the Phoenix Park area for her first location, which will offer groceries and other wellness-related services.
Martineau and her husband are joint owners of the venture. She has a diverse background in accounting, taxation, training and development, technology implementation and organizational performance. His background is engineering, both manufacturing and product development.
"The idea came about when I was trying to devise ways to reduce family grocery planning and shopping time each week, while also asking what would make it more inspiring and more supportive of heart-healthy meals," said Martineau, who currently works at IDEXX Computer Systems.
Amy Belden's entry, The Provincial Chef, also was a runner-up and rounded out the five finalists for the Jump-Start contest.
The plan is for a high-end kitchenware store potentially located near the Eau Claire Farmers Market downtown. Calphalon, Doughmakers, Norpro, Mario Batali, Zyliss, All-Clad and Cuisinart are among the brands the store would carry.
The business, which is in the early planning stages, also would conduct cooking demonstrations to showcase the store's goods.
Belden, whose maiden name is True, operated a catering company called True Confections while she was pursuing a master's degree at Central Missouri State University. She also has lived in England and Switzerland. Belden has been a member representative for AAA since 2004.
"In my time off, I love to take classes," she said. "Until a few years ago, we had no cooking classes available in Eau Claire. I was always driving to Stillwater to take classes and there are these big, beatiful, wonderful cooking stores in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Stillwater and Red Wing.
"I thought we needed a store like that here, so my plan was started for The Provincial Chef."
Marlaire can be reached at 833-9215 or 800-236-7077.
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Contributor's Note
Expresso Boutique owner's are excited about the award and can't wait to open the doors of their boutique Summer 2009.
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