Learn how Helena's business owners actually run things.
A monthly letter from Homegrown Helena. Each issue takes one lesson from a local owner-operator and sets it beside what I learned in 23 years in the Air Force and six in the private sector.
What you'll get on the 1st of each month
One story.
A lesson from a Helena owner in their own words: what worked, what didn’t, and what they’d do differently.
One perspective.
How that same lesson looked on the flight line, or the sales floor.
One thing to try.
A single practical idea you can put to work with your crew that week.
The newest profiles.
A first look at who we’ve sat down with.
- Why a local shop owner prefers to be “in the trenches” with his mechanics
- Why a Helena HVAC owner stopped calling service calls “diagnostics”
- How a third-generation electrician is handing off a 50-year-old business
- What a barber learned about lowering the bar just to pay the rent
Hi, I'm Allen.
I spent 23 years in the Air Force before I ever thought about small business. What I learned there had little to do with marketing or software. It was about ownership. When things move fast, people don't need more motivation. They need clear ownership, clean handoffs, and a steady way to review what's in motion. The strongest units I served in weren't the best resourced. They were the best organized.
After the Air Force, my family and I settled in Helena, and I went to work in automotive retail. There I learned what happens when sales outpace the systems behind them. A missed handoff or a slow follow-up costs real money, every day. The work was practical: close the gaps between teams, make clear who owns what, and build routines that keep work moving without someone standing over it.
Now I spend my time sitting down with the people who run Helena's businesses and writing down what they've learned. This newsletter is where their lessons and mine meet, so the next person building something here doesn't have to learn it all the hard way.
The first issue arrives November 1.