BizAims

In the beginning...

Rutabaga was founded way back in the '70s. There were a few fledging companies out there like Wenonah Canoe, and a score of small companies making accessories, (Dagger was a paddle company back then). The problem was that the leading sporting good shops in town thought whitewater was for crazy people, they didn't have any gear available, and they wouldn't go to the trouble of ordering it. Basically, if it didn't involve hunting, fishing, or a ball of some sort, it wasn't a real sport. Parenthetically, those places are all out of business now. Adapt or perish.

Rutabaga moved from the basement of Rutabaga Manor, (the source of the name), to an old gas station, then to an old grocery store, and finally into the current facility eleven years ago.

Fast-forward fifteen years or so...

In 1990 Darren Bush was a state employee working a pretty uninteresting statistics job, for a really bad manager, (incompetent but also ineffective so it was a wash), and staying just this side of going postal. To stay sane, he worked weekends and evenings for $5.00 an hour selling canoes and kayaks at the old grocery store location on Park Street. He spent all of his paycheck at the shop (and then some) and the fleet of canoes and kayaks in his garage grew to the point where the cars were evicted and it became boat storage.

In 1994, soon after Rutabaga opened the new store here in Monona, a particularly bad staff meeting, (one person fell asleep), coincided with a full-time job offer. Leaving the state service with its one sick day a month and endless vacation was not easy, but he managed to pull himself to the precipice, give a vegetal scream and jump with both feet into the private sector. Darren worked on the sales floor as an assistant manager for a few years and then was made Vice President of the company. Gradually he took on more and more responsibility on the back-side of the business, planning events like Canoecopia and working on the new web site.

We're not sure when Darren and Jeff Weidman first met, but Darren's pretty sure it was in the very early 90s. Jeff was the sales rep for Yakima, Cascade Designs, and a bunch of other stuff Rutabaga sold. A very energetic guy, Jeff was in the shop quite a bit, teaching the staff about the stuff he sold and making sure things were going well in general. Jeff was different than a lot of other reps. He was passionate about the products he sold and gave clinics with lots of enthusiasm. Darren liked him immediately but they never did anything socially because of their busy schedules.

Many years later after a clinic, Darren said something like "Jeff, this is stupid. We never go paddling. Let's go paddling next month." He agreed, so Darren planned an overnighter on the Wisconsin River. Fun was had by all, and it started a tradition that continues to this day.

The Purchase.

Darren was approaching his 40th birthday, which lead to some serious introspection (but no mid-life crisis, he got that out of the way years ago). He wanted to figure out what to do with the second half of his life. Working for someone else in a small business didn't seem like the right thing to do. Go back and work a suit job? He interviewed in a few places and it felt weird. Decent enough jobs, but sheesh... dress shoes hurt after years of sandals, and ties made his face turn red.

What about purchasing Rutabaga? Darren didn't want to buy such a large place alone and be married to his business 24/7 though. Besides, there were skills he didn't have that would be essential to running the business.

Then he had breakfast with Jeff to ask his advice. Darren was surprised to find out Jeff had given notice at his agency that he wished to exit the partnership to spend more time around home. Seems his dog was growling at him when he got home and he was burning up a Volvo every two years on the road. Surprised to hear this, Darren asked if he'd consider partnering up to buy the shop.

"No way, that's a lot like work," was his response. Jeff was a hard working guy, but he wanted a rest for a while. Darren convinced him to come in as a consultant and get a good look at the business from the inside out. Once he was in, he thankfully changed his mind, and in July 2002 Jeff and Darren announced to the world that they were purchasing Rutabaga.

Transitions...

Going from employee to owner was a strange transition for Darren. Suddenly he had to do his job and the former owner's job too. Thank goodness for very cool software like QuickBooks. Jeff jumped into remaking the sales floor immediately and we painted and cleaned and re-merchandised and it was a lot of work and great fun. At the end of the season some of the staff left to pursue new careers, some stayed to see what would happen with new ownership.

So where are we now?

Well, in a good place, we think. Jeff has retired (this time successfully to do volunteer work with some nonprofits that are near and dear to his heart - Big City Mountaineers and the Outdoor Industry Association. Darren is now the sole owner of Rutabaga, and has what he considers to be the best staff in the entire universe. They are like a second family to him. The hope for the future is that we can have an employee-owner enterprise as Darren gets older and balder.

Darren was elected to the Board of Directors of the Paddlesports Industry Association. It is a good group of people who want to grow paddling in an organic, holistic sort of way, given the constraints of a very small industry with limited funding to do so. This means we have to be really, REALLY creative.

Rutabaga Outdoor Programs is still the largest flatwater paddling school in the country, with classes for all ages in all disciplines, certification courses for ACA and BCU, and master classes by instructors from all over North America.

We won the Paddlesports Retailer of the Year Award from Canoe and Kayak Magazine for 2003, 2004, and 2006. We begged our vendors not to vote for us so we came in second in 2007. We really don't seek such honors, we just like doing creative things.

Where are we going?

Darren believes that a good business needs good people, good product, and good processes, the three Ps of success (sounds like a bad business book you'd find at the airport B. Dalton). Our people are the best we could ever hope for. Our product is amazing and we work hard to help manufacturers co-develop even better stuff. Our processes are good, but we are working to fix the little problems now that the big ones are fixed. It's all about continual improvement.

We intend to be around for a long, long time, providing the best gear, teaching, and experiences for anyone who loves to be outside.---Source: rutabaga.com;