Consummate Entrepreneur

I knew he was a consummate entrepreneur when I walked into his office and his friend Scott Molander pointed out that the vending machines we were looking at were owned by his three sons, aged 7, 10 and 14. Les Knudson explained to me, “The boys borrowed $2000 to buy the machines and have to keep them filled up. My son Noah, who was six at the time, was the youngest person to ever borrow money at that bank. He signed N-O-A-H in big block letters on the loan documents.”

Les was born and raised on a farm that is within sight of the Canadian border. He went away to college to become an engineer and worked in the aerospace and cabinet industries. His wife was a manager of a clothing store. But they wanted to get out of the big city. As Les told me, “We wanted a life style change so we moved back here in 1994 to farm.”

Les’s dad, Jerome, was an entrepreneur in his own right. Besides farming he invented a hillside tractor that used a mercury filled tube and hydraulics to keep his big 300+ hp tractors level. He only made 26 of his Knudson Tractors, so it wasn’t a big success, but some of the lessons that Les learned from seeing his dad struggle are serving him well today. “Dad tried to do everything himself. He didn’t delegate well. I’m trying to develop a team that can allow us to grow.”

Les started Superior Grains, Inc. in 1998, shipping his first carload of product in March, 1999. He ships specialty crops such as lentils, peas, chickpeas and organics all over the country and world. He employs 40 people, will do $20 million in business this year and has already outgrown the operation that he started on the family farm. I visited his new modern, state of the art processing plant in Williston that will start up production next week. This plant, built right on the main line of the BN from Chicago to Seattle, will allow him to ship 2000 railcars/year compared to the 400/year from his first plant. The original family farm plant will be converted into even more specialized products that Les is dreaming of producing.

Visiting Les Knudson’s dream on the Canadian border reminded me of why I love traveling around the country giving talks on my book and research. I get to meet so many people like him that are making a difference in their small towns.