| Five businesses. Five regions. One state worth knowing. |
| This week we found five Michigan small businesses that have been quietly building something extraordinary. From a nearly century old Finnish bakery tucked deep in the Upper Peninsula to a woman who started making art tiles in a garage and never stopped, every one of them is independently owned and worth your attention. |
| Lotus Wellness Studio – Your home for wellness, balance, and self care in Michigan |
| Benjamin’s Bookkeeping – A proud Michigan small business supporting Michigan small businesses |
| R&R Junk Hauling LLC – Michigan’s trusted junk hauling and demolition team. Open every day, free quotes, same day and next day availability |
| Upper Peninsula |
| Trenary Home Bakery |
| Trenary, MI |
| In 1928, Finnish immigrants Jorma and Elsie Syrjanen opened a small bakery in the tiny Upper Peninsula town of Trenary. They made a twice baked Finnish toast, crispy and cinnamon sweet, sold in simple brown paper bags. The town was small. The recipe was simple. The result was something people could not stop eating. |
| Nearly a century later, Trenary Home Bakery is still standing. The recipe has never changed. Current owner Andy Reichert describes his role as that of a facilitator and steward, someone who keeps the bakery alive and in good hands so it can be passed on to the next caretaker after him. He does not think of himself as the owner so much as someone the Upper Peninsula entrusted with something precious. |
| That perspective says everything about what this place means to the region. People report teething on Trenary Toast as children and passing the tradition on to their own kids decades later. The bakery now ships across the Midwest and beyond, but the toast is still made in the U.P., still packed in the same simple bags, and still tastes exactly the way it has since the year Calvin Coolidge was president. |
| Flavors include plain, cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, and seasonal varieties. Available online and in stores across Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. |
| Trenary Home Bakery E2918 State Hwy M-67, Trenary, MI 49891 (906) 446-3330 trenaryhomebakery.com facebook.com/trenarytoast |
| Northern Lower Peninsula |
| Grain Train Natural Foods Market |
| Petoskey, MI |
| It started in 1971 as a buying club. A group of Northern Michigan residents who wanted access to healthy, local, organic food decided to pool their resources and make it happen themselves. There was no storefront. No funding. Just a shared belief that their community deserved better food and a willingness to do something about it. |
| From that buying club, the Grain Train grew. First into a tiny retail space on the second floor of a local bookstore. Then into a small historic building in downtown Petoskey. Then, after years of fundraising and active member participation, into its current 4,500 square foot storefront that opened in 2002. A second location followed in Boyne City in 2014. |
| More than 53 years later, the Grain Train Natural Foods Market is still a community cooperative. Still locally owned. Still committed to the same principles it was founded on. Farm fresh produce. Local meats, dairy, and honey. Artisanal foods. Organic and natural products at a fair price. Every vendor held to a standard. Every purchase a vote for the kind of food system the community actually wants. |
| When you shop at the Grain Train you are not just a customer. You can become an owner. That is what a food cooperative is. A business that belongs to the people who believe in it. |
| Open seven days a week. |
| Grain Train Natural Foods Market 220 E. Mitchell St., Petoskey, MI 49770 (231) 347-2381 graintrain.coop facebook.com/graintraincoop |
| Mid Michigan |
| Foster Coffee Company |
| Owosso, MI |
| Jonathan Moore and Nicholas Pidek founded Foster Coffee Company in Owosso in 2013 with a mission that goes beyond what is in the cup. The name itself tells the story. To foster something is to encourage it, nurture it, help it grow. That is exactly what Moore and Pidek set out to do, not just with coffee, but with the community around it. |
| Foster Coffee is built on the belief that a great coffee shop is not just a place to get caffeine. It is a place where something happens between people. Where conversations start. Where neighbors become friends. Where a community finds a reason to gather and stay a little longer than planned. |
| They back that philosophy up every day. Pour over coffee made with carefully sourced beans. Homemade baked goods and syrups made entirely in house. A downtown Owosso location that has become a genuine gathering place for the city. Regular events, live music, reading and discussion groups, and an ongoing investment in the next generation of the community beyond just what happens inside the four walls of the shop. |
| Customers have driven two hours just to buy their beans. The owners are hands on and deeply involved in the Owosso community well beyond the shop itself. It is the kind of coffee company that earns loyalty because it gives it first. |
| Open Monday through Friday 7am to 5pm, Saturday 8am to 4pm, Sunday 8am to 3pm. |
| Foster Coffee Company 115 S. Washington St., Owosso, MI 48867 (989) 720-3459 fostercoffee.co facebook.com/fostercoffeeowosso |
| West Michigan |
| Garsnett Beacon Candle Co. |
| Holland, MI |
| Chad and Sabastian Garsnett were not candle makers. Chad worked in real estate. Sabastian worked in podcasting. Then the pandemic hit and, like a lot of people, they found themselves rethinking everything about how they were spending their time and what kind of life they actually wanted to build. |
| They decided to stop waiting and start building. |
| In February 2022 they launched Garsnett Beacon Candle Co. from their home in Holland, Michigan. Their idea was to take everything they loved about candles and combine it into one product done right. Non toxic, cruelty free, made with a natural soy wax blend, and completely free of lead, plastics, parabens, phthalates, and synthetic dyes. And built around a mission bigger than the candle itself. A portion of every sale supports mental health awareness, minority communities, educators, and the LGBTQ+ community. More than $75,000 has been donated to date. |
| What started as a website and a dream moved fast. Within two months their candles were on the shelves of 30 local boutiques. By summer they were doing arts and craft shows across West Michigan. By August they had their first brick and mortar store in downtown Holland. A second location opened in November 2023. Today Garsnett Beacon has three stores and candles in over 140 stockist locations across the country. |
| In three years, two people who bet on themselves during one of the hardest seasons in recent memory built one of West Michigan’s most beloved independent businesses. |
| You can pour your own candle from over 100 scent options or shop their full collection in store. |
| Garsnett Beacon Candle Co. Downtown Holland, MI garsnettbeacon.com facebook.com/garsnettbeacon |
| Southeast Michigan |
| Motawi Tileworks |
| Ann Arbor, MI |
| Nawal Motawi graduated from the University of Michigan’s Stamps School of Art and Design, moved to Detroit to learn tilemaking at the legendary Pewabic Pottery, and then did what entrepreneurs do. She went home, convinced her parents to help her buy a house with a 600 square foot cinderblock garage, hooked up a kiln, and started making tiles. |
| That was 1992. |
| She sold her first tiles from a stand at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. Demand grew. She outgrew the garage and moved into a building. Then a bigger building. In 2011 she purchased Rovin Ceramics, the company that supplies the clay used to make Motawi tiles, and moved it to Ann Arbor. Today Motawi Tileworks employs more than 40 people and sells handcrafted art tile in over 300 shops and galleries across the country and internationally. |
| The philosophy has never changed. Motawi runs on the principle of choosing to be great rather than simply big. Every tile is still pressed, glazed, and fired by hand in the Ann Arbor studio. Employees know the company finances and are responsible for individual budget line items. Safety, transparency, and full time employment are not talking points. They are built into the way the business operates every single day. |
| Motawi tiles have been installed in the University of Michigan Medical Center, in historic homes across the country, and in public spaces that will carry them for generations. Each one started as a handful of clay in someone’s hands in Ann Arbor, Michigan. |
| The gallery and factory are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 5pm. Free public tours run Fridays at 11am. |
| Motawi Tileworks 170 Enterprise Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 motawi.com facebook.com/MotawiTileworks |
| Michigan Small Business Spotlight is a weekly newsletter dedicated to independent Michigan businesses. If you know a business that deserves a spotlight, reply to this email or visit our application form. |
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