The Greater Mankato CEO team spent a beautiful fall morning at Northland Outdoor Solutions with owner and CEO Tyler Deike.
Tyler's entrepreneurial journey began as a teenager when he started a lawn care business. After a corporate career in industrial engineering and continuous improvement, he decided to pursue entrepreneurship full time and bought his first manufacturing company, Blackhawk Fiberwerx in St. James. In 2021, he bought a landscape company and became owner of Northland Outdoor Solutions. Since then, he has purchased multiple companies - including Keepers RV and an HVAC company. This year, he launched Highmark Equity Management to acquire and grow Midwest businesses.
Today we toured the Northland Outdoor Solutions business, which offers lawn care, landscaping, snow removal, trailer and snow plow sales, and more. We also walked around Mayo Clinic on Main St. to see their landscape work.
Three big takeaways from Tyler:
🔸 There is more than one way to start a business.
It was eye-opening for our young professionals to learn about becoming a business owner through acquisition versus building from the ground up.
🔸 Know what you enjoy most and do that.
Tyler figured out what he enjoys doing, then hired people to do the rest.
🔸 Think like an entrepreneur.
Tyler needed to buy some snow plows and thought, "Why not just SELL snow plows?" That was a new way of thinking for the CEO team!
We were inspired by what motivates Tyler in his work. One of his favorite projects is creating outdoor spaces at Mayo Clinic. He spoke about how people are facing many challenges inside, and he wanted to create beautiful spaces that would bring smiles and lift people up. Walking around the clinic definitely brought smiles to our group today!
Thank you, Tyler, for sharing your story with the Greater Mankato CEO team!
#GreaterMankatoCEO
