{"id":7287,"date":"2023-11-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=7287"},"modified":"2023-11-24T01:58:07","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T01:58:07","slug":"entrepreneurial-dough-just-what-stagnant-wisconsin-kneads-to-rise-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=7287","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurial dough: Just what stagnant Wisconsin kneads to rise up"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/entrepreneurial-dough-just-what-stagnant-wisconsin-kneads-to-rise-up\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to be thankful for the risk-takers<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Did you enjoy home-baked bread at Thanksgiving and think to yourself that you\u2019d have it more often if only baking weren\u2019t so involved?<\/p>\n

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\"Chris<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A La Crosse man, Chris Wysong, is hoping to hit it big on such wishes.<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving is followed, of course, by \u201cblack Friday,\u201d retailers\u2019 day to get out of the red. How about keeping the Thanksgiving gratitude going another day, spending a moment Friday to realize that in our land of liberty, there are entrepreneurs trying to get ahead by thinking up new ways to please us, a thing to celebrate in a state that\u2019s only middle-of-the-pack in entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

Take Wysong, for example.<\/p>\n

The Iowa native, 51, settled in Wisconsin after retiring from an Army career. He was doing this and that when, he said, he had a middle-of-the-night dream about making a living from bread. He\u2019d enjoyed baking since childhood \u2014 always the guy tapped to make bread for fundraisers. During a deployment to Iraq, the Iraqi army bakers on his base taught him flatbread and, \u201cNext thing you know I\u2019m having lunch with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he wrote down his 3 a.m. dream idea and, when it still made sense the next day, he started Bucket of Bread<\/a>, his company. He sells flour (certified organic) and all other necessary dry ingredients for bread, premeasured in a bucket (recyclable plastic). You add the specified amount of lukewarm water, stir, leave it for two to three hours, and you have four pounds of dough ready to become bread, rolls, pizza crust, what have you. There\u2019s white, wheat, seven-grain, and no oils, preservatives, dairy or kneading.<\/p>\n

And, for now, there\u2019s just him \u2014 founder, bookkeeper, flour-measurer, sales guy. \u201cI\u2019m a solo entrepreneur who wants to be America\u2019s next favorite brand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Maybe he will be. Flour in a bucket sounds humble, but so does mailing books to people who order online, and that turned out big<\/a>. You never know if you want two weeks of ready-to-bake dough in the fridge until someone like Wysong bets a lot of time and effort on offering it. Good for him.<\/p>\n

Good for Wisconsin, too. We could use more such spirit.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re number 34<\/h4>\n

Andrew Hanson, a Badger Institute visiting fellow who took the measure of our state\u2019s economy<\/a> for our \u201cMandate for Madison\u201d in 2022, observed that Wisconsin was \u201csquarely in the middle\u201d among neighboring states when ranked by business starts. Using the respected Kauffman Foundation\u2019s early-state entrepreneurship indicators<\/a> to measure us against all states, Wisconsin ranks 34th<\/sup>, a little below average, a couple of notches behind Iowa, but at least not as supine as Minnesota. Meh.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d prefer growth to stagnancy, said Hanson, you\u2019d like to see the number of new businesses started by Wisconsinites to be high. The fact is that a lot of them fail \u2014 not every new idea\u2019s a winner \u2014 but if there are more start-ups, there are more chances that one will be big. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to be Babe Ruth, a home run hitter,\u201d said Hanson, \u201cyou\u2019re going to strike out a lot.\u201d You need a lot of at-bats.<\/p>\n

On the margins, state policy can help to encourage middle-of-the-night dreams. It\u2019s a matter, said Hanson, of lowering barriers to expansion or increasing gains from it. It can be hard for a politician to persuade you of the value of clearing regulatory impediments that hinder the guy who could eventually put your employer out of business. But, said Hanson, \u201cthe role of the state is to do that very thing.\u201d Success means more happiness for all the new hires and satisfied customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wysong says he\u2019s found lots of encouragement since he started selling in May 2021. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse offers advice to entrepreneurs<\/a>. A program for veterans who start businesses offered advice, as did some other programs. His quarters are in a nonprofit incubator<\/a>. While his $44,000 in sales so far (no profits yet) have come mostly from online, some are from the gift shop<\/a> of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison. He\u2019s planning to start knocking on grocers\u2019 doors, though the tradeoff is that growth will bring new licensing complications.<\/p>\n

Please, please u<\/strong>s<\/h4>\n

Notice that if Wysong really does become America\u2019s next favorite brand, it will be because he pleased lots of Americans. It\u2019s common to describe capitalism as \u201cdog-eat-dog,\u201d but entrepreneurs don\u2019t win by taking or by fighting but by being more appealing to others, serving them better. That surely is something we all can celebrate, especially during the ramen-for-dinner pre-profit stage, when entrepreneurs could use some encouragement.<\/p>\n

Wysong said that when he went full-time into dough, his boss at the gig he was quitting, upon hearing the plan, told him, \u201cYou\u2019d be leaving for all the right reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the spirit.<\/p>\n

Patrick McIlheran is the Director of Policy at the Badger Institute. Permission to reprint is granted as long as the author and Badger Institute are properly cited<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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