Wayne - Sand Creek Post & Beam
Len Dickinson and Jule Goeller have expressed the spirit of entrepreneurship in their own unique fashion. They moved back to their country roots to enter a market they were not sure existed. However, with the help of NBDC, the two entrepreneurs realized a dream of recreating the beautiful traditional post and beam barns of the past using today’s materials and technologies.
Their company, Sand Creek Post & Beam was incorporated in March 2004, but did not open for business until a year later. During that year, Dickinson and Goeller did extensive research into their potential market and its opportunities. By the end of the year —and after many national blind ads—the two were confident that their idea was viable. And so they began ... in their driveway. Very soon the business grew into a sizeable operation with numerous employees and a large facility in Wayne, Nebraska.
For Sand Creek Post & Beam, Dickinson and Goeller revived the kit-building industry, familiar to those who remember the Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward kits of the last century, to custom design and manufacture buildings that use modern materials and technology, but appear historic. “The people who purchase our kits are purchasing with an emotional attachment to a time past,” said Goeller.
After three years of operation, Sand Creek Post & Beam needed more room. The staff—many who had started as part-time and now are full-time—had grown to 35 employees. The business owners contacted Loren Kucera, Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) director at Wayne State College, to help obtain financing. This resulted in an addition of 75,000 sq. ft. to the plant and the purchase of 25,000 sq. ft. of office space, previously a bank building, to house the growing number of CAD operators and sales personnel.
“Loren was our how-to guy,” according to Goeller.
Because the business relies on wood, the owners are sensitive to their responsibilites to the environment. Both are commited to options that reduce their impact, such as using untreated, rough cut, full dimension wood. They also provide scrap wood for youth and school organizations and donate, in the purchaser’s name, ten pine or fir trees through the Arbor Day Foundation for every barn they sell.
The entrepreneurs are full of ideas for the future. An internet store to market barn accessories, such as weather vanes, decorative hardware, and cupolas, is in production. They are also creating wooden windmill designs with back-up generators that—looking even further into the future—could charge an electric car.
Both agree that they are pleased with their location and the friendliness and work ethic of the people around Wayne.
NBDC consultant: Loren Kucera, director, Wayne center
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