Region's firms detail hurdles facing small businesses

RATHDRUM — Rep. Walt Minnick on Wednesday saw and heard first-hand some of the challenges small businesses are facing during the economic storm.

Heater Craft, which manufactures marine and case products and performs precision metal fabrication for the electronics industry, has had to whittle its staff from about 100 to 53 during the recession.

Minnick said he’s interested in hearing about roadblocks such small firms are up against.

“When the economy gets moving, it will be small businesses leading the way,” the Idaho Democrat said.

John Knutson, Heater Craft’s marketing director, said the company has had difficulties cracking government contracts, specifically with military equipment cases, despite it offering cheaper, more durable, lighter and more environmentally-friendly products than its larger competitors. The company makes an aluminum product instead of plastic and it claims it can make the products just as fast as the molded plastic route.

“We have a product that outperforms what the government buys,” Knutson said. “Government buyers tell you, ‘That’s just the way it is.’ But we want to change that mindset. It should make sense to purchase our product.”

Knutson said it’s difficult changing bureaucracy and the purchasing system and his company doesn’t have the manpower to attack the hurdle alone, so it wanted to tap into Minnick’s business background for help.

Minnick said it’s not his job to tell government buyers where to purchase products, but he can point companies in the right direction to get international standardization certification to increase business and he can encourage purchasers to see for themselves the products that are offered by the company.

“We could explain why it would be in buyers’ best interest to check (the products) out,” he said.

Knutson said the company is hoping to expand its marine sales internationally because the domestic marine industry is hurting and it’s more of a livelihood overseas. Federal intervention in the company’s hurdles would help that process.

International trade, and possible job creation as a result in Idaho, will be a theme today when Minnick speaks at 8 a.m. at the Coeur d’Alene Chamber during the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s national TradeRoots education program.

Gary Alvarado of the University of Idaho’s Tech Help program, which assists companies increase their manufacturing efficiencies, said he wanted Minnick to see the company’s $172,000 workforce development grant from the state at work.

The company’s plant is laid out for Lean manufacturing, which has employees working in strategic cells to improve efficiency and reduce the cost of manufacturing.

“We want him to see the investment and we need his voice on the Hill,” Alvarado said.