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Like Switching
a Lightswitch

How To Seize
Your Moment

Sometimes you seek out opportunity, and sometimes you stumble into it. But the one thing you can’t do is ignore it. The businesses featured in The Way Up have all had ups and downs as they grew, but what’s made them successful is having the motivation to act when they saw a turning point and the perseverance to see it through.

The Definition of Homegrown

Tim Vala started his business with seven acres of strawberries in Eastern Nebraska and a dream. Now, on a fall Saturday night, the population at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch may be bigger than all but a dozen cities in the state.

His secret to becoming a 400-plus-acre agritainment empire? Keep researching and experimenting.

“There was one particular pumpkin farm I went to that was kind of like switching a light switch,” Vala said. “They just had the cutesy red barns with white trim, and they had cornstalks. The guy that ran it, he was like a set dresser. … And that gave me a really good template to follow.”

Vala started recruiting his three daughters to join the business when he saw large-scale expansion possibilities. Kelsey Vala, who’d gone to culinary school, took her dad’s offer.

Soon, the business was moving an old barn onto their property to house a baking operation Vala oversees. Vala’s now sells over 1,000 pies per day in season.

More expansions followed, like planting a 40-acre orchard of high-density apple trees that supports the cider mill Vala’s built on site. The attractions and lines of business – including festivals, rides, and more than 20 different restaurant and snack sellers on site – continued to grow from there. Today, Vala’s Pumpkin Patch is only open in September and October, but can have as many as 20,000 people pass through their gates on a fall Saturday night.

“It's essentially a small theme park, but I like to think that we're even just a bit more authentic than a theme park,” Vala said. “We have a great story to tell. We're actually doing the work.”

Key Takeaway

Tim Vala saw his original seven-acre plot as a landscape of endless opportunity. In the beginning, he took what he described as a "shotgun approach" to see what worked for both crops and customer experience, refining until he"d built a strong foundation. He's been layering on complementary business lines ever since. As you build, always be on the lookout for ways to diversify your revenue streams that make sense alongside your core venture. Considering complimentary products or services your customers mention they want to use in conjunction with what they purchase from you is a great place to start.

Adding Complexity Doesn’t Have To Be a Headache

Large-scale businesses like Vala's rely on the robust back-end system from Square to keep up with their complex daily operations and help them grow quickly when opportunities arise.

Vala’s has more than 150 Square point-of-sale devices throughout its property, operated by more than 400 seasonal cashiers.

“We're one business, but we have so much going on that we do treat each department almost like its own business,” Vala said. “Square just helps us integrate all those departments and see real-time sales, and then we can make key decisions.”

Growth as a Defensive Move

The story of the community bookstore in America isn’t one of expansion. But for Green Apple Books, buying additional storefronts and adding business lines has been a way to protect what it already built.

“I felt like we were required to expand,” said Pete Mulvihill, who’s added two traditional brick-and-mortar stores to the Green Apple Books business since taking over as co-owner. “I've had people say, ‘My God, you must be killing it. You're opening more and more stores.’ … [Instead], this is defensive. If my expenses go up like this and my sales stay flat, at some point, the expenses outstrip [the sales].”

Green Apple has been able to expand not just because they were prepared when opportunities popped up, but also because they’d built deep community relationships ahead of time.

The two additional stores they purchased over the last decade came into their portfolio through existing relationships — one was a DVD rental business that was sunsetting. The other owner was retiring and wanted to keep his community bookstore alive.

“We haven't been seeking expansion,” Mulvihill said. “It's more keeping our eyes out, knowing other people in the small business landscape, and jumping when there was an opportunity.”

Key Takeaway

Mulvihill’s intimate understanding of Green Apple’s business and the benefits of what he considers defensive expansion allowed him to make big moves at the right time. It’s the real-life version of the cliché that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. Constantly analyzing what your business needs — like Square Dashboard that Green Apple uses to view both holistic and location-focused analytics — is important for the next month and the next five years.

From Back of House to Center Stage

Jenny Nguyen started her career as a chef. And while she sounds polished in The Way Up," becoming the face of a brand that makes national headlines was a big transition. "Outside of just starting a business, that part of my personal growth was very, very difficult," Nguyen said. "I have always been a back-of-the-house person. I remember people being like, ‘Jenny, don"t ever cross that line. You are not made for customer interaction.’"

Nguyen says she struggled through some early media appearances but eventually gained confidence because she knew she had to represent The Sports Bra’s community. "You fake it till you make it," Nguyen said. "Another thing that I try to remember is that The Bra is bigger than just me. And so whatever insecurities I have, they have to take a backseat to what the mission is and the impact."