Elegant Stone Products Inc., Viroqua, Wis.

   Although Dian Krause, the company’s president, admits natural stone came a little late to the rolling hills of southwestern Wisconsin, she and her husband, Gary, recognized a potential market and opened for business in 1999.
   The operation outperformed expectations; and, by serving an area within a two-hour drive of this farm community of only 4,000 people, Elegant Stone Products grew to an 18-person business with a strong emphasis on granite kitchens.
   And, while competition is now beginning to nibble at the fringes of her market, Krause believes that she and her staff have set a high standard for others to follow.
  
AHEAD OF THE CURVE
   Getting off the ground, Krause admits she had two big advantages. One was a sense of the market; the other is her own can-do attitude.
   Although it took awhile to make a splash in rural Wisconsin, by the mid-1990s she and her husband had some inkling that granite was going to explode into the residential market.
   For more than 40 years, Gary Krause had been in the monument business, and his wife explains that, from time to time, someone would come in and ask if he could make them a countertop. Over time, he even bought a saw to help with the work.
   “It was probably about 10 years ago that this really started,” Dian Krause says. “People were getting interested in stone, and we talked about whether we should do something and make the investment we knew it would need.”
   For two years, the couple studied the market, visiting friends who’d gotten into countertop fabrication and looking at their equipment before deciding that the time was right to go ahead with a business.
   “At that time, Gary was really busy with the monument shop and four or five satellite offices,” says his wife. “He really didn’t have the time for it, and he said, ‘If we’re going to do it, you’re going to have to be the one to do it.’”
   That might have sounded daunting to some people, but not to Dian Krause. One of her favorite quotes – etched above the door of the shop – is from the American writer Oliver Wendell Holmes: A mind that is stretched by a new experience cannot go back to its old dimension.
   “Even before we began this business, that’s the way I looked at life,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to go on and see what’s beyond that corner. I know many new businesses fail, but I thought it would be worse if I didn’t try.”
   Armed with a business plan and a loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA), Elegant Stone Products started out in a converted warehouse space with a Park Industries Cougar bridge saw, a Park Wizard and two employees.
   “I hired two people away from the monument shop who had stone experience,” she says. “It wasn’t in countertops, but it was in stone. And, we all did everything. I was helping in the shop, measuring, and keeping the books, and they were also multi-tasking.”
   One benefit the fledgling operation had was its equipment, Krause says. The Park machines proved to be simple to operate, although the initial decision to go with that company had been based more on concerns with getting repairs done in a timely manner.
   “At that time, most of the major manufacturers were foreign, and we heard over and over that if you had down time you’d better have a backup system,” she says. “Things have changed a bit in the industry since then.”
   The operation subsequently added a Pro-Edge and, more recently, an Odyssey. That last purchase, in 2003, pushed Elegant Stone Products over the edge shopwise.
   “By that time, we realized we needed to do some expanding,” says Krause. “We were almost out of power – there wasn’t enough amperage – and the pipe capacity coming into the building was at its max. There was also a general lack of efficiency.”
   After weighing the possibility of expanding at the rented location, the Krauses decided to approach the local development corporation, which agreed to build them a building they could lease with an option to buy.
   “That was a big boost,” says Dian Krause. “In the fall of 2004 we moved into a 14,000 ft² building that’s designed to our specifications. The throughput is good, we have plenty of capacity for water and power, and plenty of room for expansion.”
   She adds that one of the things the couple will be working on this year is exercising that purchase option.
  
A LITTLE DIFFERENT
   While much of the Elegant operation mirrors many typical shops from Tampa to Seattle, its locale means Dian Krause has to take a slightly different approach to certain aspects of her business.
   For instance, there isn’t a stone supplier just down the street to deliver the necessary slabs when an order comes in.
   “We have six or seven different suppliers, with some of them located toward the Twin Cities and others more toward the Milwaukee and Chicago areas,” she says. “While our inventory usually runs about $150,000, if you came in today and needed a certain stone, we could have it by the end of next week.”
   Nor is there a ready supply of employees skilled in working with stone. Instead, they train their own.
   “We look for people who have some skills and background in carpentry or woodworking so they can use a tape measure accurately,” she says. “With polishing, we put a grinder in their hands and show them what to do. Some people are very good at it and catch on well, and some people don’t catch on at all.”
   Luckily, she says it’s been progressively easier to find people comfortable working with computerized equipment, and a CNC machine is still at a point in the future. Currently, she’s shopping for a backsplash polisher, and her preference after that would be a second saw.
   Employees who get past a probationary period are then cross-trained to provide additional backup.
   “The people in the back continue to wear more than one hat,” she says. “Our lead installer is mainly templating and installing, but he’s been cross-trained to put on an edge. And, if we have a big install, we might have to take somebody off the floor.”
   Perhaps the most surprising combination of skills comes from the shop’s sales manager, who’s been filling that role now for about a year. Originally, he signed on to be Elegant’s sawyer.
   “That was until we found out he had quite a few years experience in sales while living in California,” Krause explains. “He was burned out in sales, but he wasn’t in stone. When we laid out our plans here, it intrigued him and he said he’d give it a try.”
   She adds that having a full-time sales manager out calling on people has really helped the business expand. Until then, Krause handled much of the out-of-shop sales effort, which has relied a great deal on home shows and some of the region’s specialty magazines, including one geared toward women.
   “I really feel our demographic is the woman who’s looking to fix her kitchen,” says Krause. “She’s watching HGTV (Home and Garden Television) and she’s the one who’s motivated to add stone.”
   It’s much that same demographic that fuels the shop’s word-of-mouth sales.
   “If we do a good job for somebody, they’re going to be showing it off to their neighbors,” Krause says. “They’re going to know who we are. It’s why I like home shows; people are there because they’re interested in doing things to their homes.”
   Elegant has also partnered with a number of cabinet makers, contractors and designers throughout their market area, which extends north as far as Winona, Minn., and as far south as Dubuque, Iowa.
   Shortly after opening for business, Krause says the business was also able to tie in with a couple of upscale contractors in LaCrosse, a community of more than 50,000 people 35 miles away, who participate in their local Parade of Homes.
   “That got us into the Parade homes, and it also got us into the LaCrosse Area Builders’ Association, so our name is out there,” she says. “We also have a Website and it’s surprising the number of people who didn’t know we were here but found us through the Web.”
  
A LITTLE EXTRA
   Not only does Elegant rely on more than just would-be buyers wandering into the shop, but it offers some products and services that its big city competitors might not have.
   Leading the list is its Universal Laser Systems engraver with a 4’ X 8’ table, which occupies a separate room in the shop. Krause says because of the couple’s background in monuments, they could see it having some crossover applications.
   “We could see it for backsplashes and putting a design in a foyer floor,” she says. “Plus, we were doing some veterans’ memorials, which is why we needed such a big bed. We’re slowly breaking into the design area; we’re telling designers about this, but we could be hitting it harder.”
   And, while she doesn’t plan on getting into glass decoration on a large scale, one of the recent Parade of Home projects the shop did involved etching motorcycle logos on the glass doors of a den – along with the stonework.
   Along with a full range of natural stone, Elegant also offers several different brands of natural quartz, and also features two green products: PaperStone™, a composite with a high percentage of recycled paper; and IceStone®, which is made from recycled glass and concrete.
   “This is an up-and-coming area that’s really just getting started,” says Krause. “More and more people are interested in green products, and while they don’t call granite green, it’s certainly a natural product. These other products are truly labeled as green products.”
   She adds that PaperStone – similar to solid-surface materials – is worked with hand tools, but IceStone requires much the same fabrication as natural stone and quartz surfaces.
   “A lot of people in this area are interested in being self-sustaining and are into green products,” Krause explains. “We had some inquiries, which made us do some inquiring, and we’re now trying to show the market what’s here and educate some of our partners out there.”
   However, the bulk of her customers remain those building upscale homes – including those constructing second/retirement homes and still wanting the same amenities they may have in their primary residences in much-larger metropolitan areas.
   That includes a few larger-scale development projects Elegant has taken on. Krause says the developer may believe it will be a cookie-cutter job, but it typically isn’t
   “They’ll offer one or two stones and that’s it, but by the end of the project things have changed,” she says. “People look at these units, especially those that are still in the process of being built, and they’ll say, ‘We’ll buy this, but we want a different color.’ It’s still customized work.”
   An area that Krause wasn’t expecting when Elegant opened its doors is remodels. However, she says that’s a market that’s also really grown.
   “While some people are building new homes, others look at the cost and decide they like the house they’re in, but it’s not up-to-date,” she explains. “People get to the point in life where the kids have gone to college and now they feel they deserve something better. Or, they’re making their house more user-friendly for their older years.”
   On the other hand, Krause says Elegant is just now breaking into the commercial market, although the number of jobs it does each year in that area has also grown.
   Krause is optimistic the business will continue to grow in all areas, even though a couple other fabricators have moved into northeastern Iowa and prefabricated countertops are also appearing in her market area.
   “There’s still no one close by who’s fabricating,” she says. “But, we believe we’ve set the standard for the market, and while other fabricators further away are starting to move in, that’s just the way it goes. Competition is good.”
   Whatever happens in the future, however, it’s doubtful Dian Krause will be at the helm of Elegant Stone Products. Gary Krause has sold the monument business, and while he’s operating a retail rock shop, his wife says the “R” word has entered their thoughts.
   “I don’t see myself 100-percent retiring from everything, but I’ve taken this business to this level and I feel there are other people who could take it further,” she says. “If I were 20 years younger, it might be a different story.”
   While she has no fixed date in mind – although probably within the next couple years, she guesses – Dian Krause believes things have a way of working themselves out.
   Until then, “It’s been fun and interesting, and a definite learning experience,” she says. “Life is good.”
  
   This article first appeared in the March 2007 print edition of Stone Business. ©2007 Western Business Media Inc.