Quinn talks path to success in small business

Bob Quinn, founder and president of Big Sandy Organics, Quinn Farms and Kamut International was the featured speaker at the 108th Havre Area Chamber of Commerce annual meeting, where he discussed lessons from his business ventures and the story of how his business fueled by organic crops has grown.

Quinn said that when Debbie Vandeberg asked him to speak at the annual Chamber meeting, she wanted him to talk about his experience getting into worldwide business activity as a farmer, researcher and entrepreneur.

"And I got thinking, you know, to tell the truth, when I started out, I didn't have any of those things in mind," Quinn said.

He said that when he returned to his family's 2,400-acre farm near Big Sandy on which he had grown up, it was a traditional farm and cattle operation his father still operated, large enough to turn a profit for one family but not two.

"So we had to start thinking of something new," Quinn said.

Quinn said he started looking into different enterprises he could get into to complement his income from the farm.

A blood business in California was one of his first enterprises.

Quinn had a friend who worked in a hospital laboratory. He said there were people willing to pay $30 a pint for sheep blood. His friend said that if Quinn could provide the blood, they could sell it for $25 a pint and the two would share the profits.

"I said, 'Well, that sounds pretty good,'" he said.

Quinn said he began traveling the countryside and he found a sheep farmer and told him that he was very interested in bleeding his sheep. The farmer asked him if he knew anything about bleeding sheep, a question which Quinn dodged saying only that he grew up on a ranch and had been around animals all his life.

Quinn offered to bleed the sheep for five dollars a head, five dollars less than the farmer usually had his sheep bled for.

"So I sounded like a better deal and he signed me up," Quinn said.

Quinn then went out and found a friend  who was in vet school.

"He taught me how to bleed a sheep because I had no idea, actually," he said.

They then started bleeding one sheep a week, which brought Quinn $40 extra dollars a month in income.

"My wife, my little daughter and I were living on $200 a month back in those days so this was a big boon," he said.

Eventually they went from bleeding one to five sheep a week and, after three or four months, Quinn managed to double his income.

He said that business took off. When he left California to return to the grain fields of Big Sandy, he sold it.

Quinn said the experience taught him not to worry when entering a field of business that he doesn't know anything about. He said that lack of knowledge can actually be an asset.

"Just go ahead and go for it, find the resources to make it happen" he said.

After he returned to Montana, Quinn had several ideas. He said he likes to tell his friends that he has lots of ideas in case one turns out.

Along the way, some of those ideas, such as a soil testing laboratory did not pan out. He discovered the busiest time for soil testing overlapped with the time of the year when he would have to get ready to seed in spring and fall.

Quinn said in the world of business, he tries to turn as many of his liabilities that he has into assets.

He said that on his farm he has a great many prairie dogs that are a terrible liability. But he found that prairie dog puppies are popular in Japan and a fortune could be made in selling them for $100 each.

Quinn found pet stores in Japan and invited them to tour his prairie dog pound. He said those pet store owners were buying prairie dogs from Texas. The dogs were being sucked up with a huge vacuum device, injuring most of them.

He said by the time the puppies reached their destination they were dead. Quinn said rather than use a large vacuum device he would flood them out with water. The puppies  would  not be injured, would arrive Japan in good shape and Quinn would have a strong business.

Reality soon set in, however, and by the time Quinn could find veterinarians and got all the paperwork, the project was no longer viable.

"That was kind of a nonstarter," he said.

But in 1983, a cousin of Quinn's moved back to the area.

His cousin was initially going to sell pheasants to high-end restaurants, but Quinn was eventually able to persuade him to go back to California and sell Quinn's wheat to bakers.

The plan was a success for a couple years, but the operation ran into a problem. They had one big customer in San Francisco who had bought from them who suddenly stopped.

That experience taught him that if a customer abruptly stops buying make sure you look into why as soon as possible and try and fix it.

Quinn said he later found out that the San Francisco client stopped buying from them because the protein in Quinn's wheat that year was too low.  

Quinn was determined not to repeat that mistake.

When the temperature was too low on the farm, Quinn  said that if he did not have the wheat high enough in protein, he would get already-harvested grain that was.

His cousin ended up selling a truckload of wheat to a bakery in Los Angeles. When Quinn and his cousin put together a business plan, Quinn was in charge of procurement and supplies and quality control, while his cousin was in charge of customer service.

Quinn said that he learned from that venture that if a person is going to assemble a team, find people who can do the things you are not so good at or can compensate for their weaknesses.

"We put together a team we complimented each other and it went really well," he said.

The venture took off and worked well.

The second year that he and his cousin were in business, customers were looking for organic grain. It was 1984 and there was not much organic grain around, Quinn said.

Then customers in California wanted stone ground flour.

Quinn suggested that his customers put the mill in their bakery. However, his clients told him there were too many state regulations in California. The customer said if Quinn built the mill in Montana, he would buy everything they could produce.

Quinn said he convinced a friend in Great Falls who sold insurance to quit his job and move to Fort Benton be his miller.  

They then had to figure out how to use the mill equipment, which was a challenge, Quinn said. Those in Oregon who knew how to use the equipment  would not teach them for fear that if they did, Quinn's operation would be in competition against there's. So Quinn contacted stone millers in Pennsylvania who showed them how to work it.

Customers liked the flour that was produced, one customer said they would be willing to buy 500 pounds of it.

"So, I was like, '500 pounds? That won't even pay my light bill,'" he said.

He said that with the business he had overhead, had to pay off the equipment and an had an employee on his payroll.

Quinn said that he and his cousin realized they better bring in more money. They went to an organic food show in California but no experience, but they had a plan and ample enthusiasm.

His father accompanied him and his cousin to the show and brought with him a jar of Khorasan wheat which they had.

Thousands of people came by the booth at the show and after three days one person expressed interest and was willing to buy as much as they could grow.

Quinn said that when he arrived home, he and his parents planted all 50 pounds they had of the wheat.

The wheat that he started planting 31 years ago on a half-acre, known as Khorasan wheat, is now the cornerstone of Quinn's business Kamut International.   

"I didn't have a big master plan or anything," he said. "I followed threads to see where this thing had taken me."