Success Stories

Creating prosperous communities and thriving businesses

Featured Success Stories

Chalets offer shopping and valuable experience

Leiko Bergers, left, works with Northern Initiatives Business Coach Cailin Kelly Leiko Bergers has always shared her energy and “retail can…
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Working on Job Quality

West Michigan
Leandra Nisbet has looked and looked, but can’t find a practical way to provide healthcare for her small business, with two full-time employees. “Until you…
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Tienda Mexicana El Cuñao

St. Louis, MIchigan
The workers who grow our food need food. Vanessa Muniz makes sure they get what they need – and it goes well beyond food. Her…
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Hiawatha Log Homes

Wetmore, Michigan
‘A TimberPro on Every 40’ Hiawatha Log Homes saves energy and customers benefit Joe Esbrook’s log home was built by his dad the year Joe…
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Wormie’s

Alto, MIchigan
Luis Chen-Aguilera turns compost at Wormie's Luis Chen-Aguilera is turning Kent County’s food and yard waste into fertile soil, with the…
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All Success Stories

Blossom Bird Bubble Tea
Marquette, Michigan
Kaila and Daniel Ball, newly married during the pandemic, had dreams of something fresh, away from metro Detroit. “We had plans to move to Oregon,”…
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PM School
Escanaba, Michigan
Mary Doyen and Peg Lippens have made some pretty savvy decisions for a couple of new business owners. “We had students who were completing school…
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Sleepy Dog Books
Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Riley and Jennifer Justis had always dreamed of owning a bookstore. The pandemic gave them more time to dream. And plan. And make it happen.…
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Messersmith Manufacturing
Bark River, Michigan
Messersmith Manufacturing of Bark River, Mich., designs, manufactures and installs biomass boiler systems. Messersmith was incorporated in 1982 by Gailyn and Valerie Messersmith and is…
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A | M Floral and Gifts
Newaygo, Michigan
Amy McKinley has run businesses before and even has a degree in business. But she knows enough about business to know she doesn’t know enough.…
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Brewery Outré
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Ted Linabury wrote his first business plan in high school. It was for custom rollercoasters rich people could build in their yards. The second one,…
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Supermercado Mexico
Grand Rapids, Michigan
  “Northern Initiatives saw the potential we saw and was the first lender who helped us ... You are the ones who made this happen.”…
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Snackwerks
Battle Creek, Michigan
The sweet smells of cinnamon and apples waft through a northside Battle Creek neighborhood that is traditionally one of the poorest in the state. A…
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Bake Superior Bread
Ironwood, Michigan
“The help we’ve received from Northern Initiatives has been extremely beneficial.” – Andrew Brand, Bake Superior Bread Andrew Brand isn’t sure where his business would…
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