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Find the Story

Every business has a story to tell.

How did they get started? What was their most memorable moment? Whose lives have they touched? Why do they keep going?

And just as each business is different, so is each story.

The Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce encourages you to shop locally when you can. So to help you feel comfortable with our local small businesses, we’re sharing some of our member’s stories here.

Please come back often as we add to our collection, and then visit some of the people and companies you find here. Tell them we sent you. 
 

My true passion is making prosthetics. I’ve always made legs.

I made my first leg when I was 7.

My dad was the hardest working man in the industry. He always followed through, and when I was seven years old, I always went to work with him. He wanted to make sure I was working well. He had a strong work ethic and led by example. He taught me.

When I came into the business, it was a true trade … handmade leather, metalwork. In the lab, I worked with people from other countries, old guys who were true tradesmen. They took their skills with them when they left without teaching those skills to anyone else. I benefitted from working with them and learning their tricks. Their work was art.

I opened Orthotech because I wanted to focus on that old school service I learned from my dad.

You have to make your customers feel special. You do what the patient needs.

You have to educate people to know what to expect … tell them that they can amputate one day, and I can have them standing the next. No one tells people that.

You have to help them understand what will happen to them, what kinds of questions they should ask.

Whether they use me or not, I need to help them understand for their comfort.

I love to help people … it’s my favorite thing to do.

-Mike Bugg, CEO/CPO
Orthotech Orthopedics


I always loved taking photos. I loved the work. I had a Master’s Degree in finance, but after college I was tired of words and wanted to tell the story with pictures.

Even though I never took a picture before, the Saginaw News gave me a chance.

Later, I was a supervisor at a boat manufacturing facility. I wanted to get back to photography, and my wife was supportive of my quitting my job to pursue a photography business. I’ve been doing it ever since. Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people and great companies who’ve been supportive of my efforts.

I got the drone because the customer needed the photos I could take with it in order for me to keep the contract. I’d been thinking of getting one anyway, to be able to take aerial shots.

After teaching myself how to use it, I took it to my customer’s site and used it to get some really good shots of her facility. The drone was surprisingly easy to work with. I thought that if I could get just one last shot of the property aligned from the back, my customer would be really happy. The only problem was that in order to get that shot, I would have to hover the drone over a pond. I hesitated, but eventually decided to try it.

You know when you have a business, you do what it takes to make your client happy.

   
I got the shot I needed, but the wind came up unexpectedly and interrupted my navigation. I watched my brand new drone, with all the photos I had taken drop into the pond. There I was out in the middle of nowhere, by myself trying to figure out what to do. I didn’t know how deep the pond was or if I would be able to find the drone. I also didn’t know if I could salvage the photos even if I could get it up out of the water. I finally decided I had to try.

Fortunately, I had a pair of shorts in the car. The water was really cold, and all I could think of was no one would know where to look for me if something happened. I walked out into the pond, and it kept getting deeper and deeper. I wondered if I would have to swim for it.

I was really fortunate. I found the drone and was able to go under and bring it to the surface. I still didn’t know if I could make it work again after being submersed, and I didn’t know if I could rescue the photos.

In the end, it worked out great. You know, I’ve always been a technology guy. I even flew airplanes when I was young. They didn’t end up in the pond though.

-Gary Bublitz, Owner
Bublitz Photography


Adam: We grew up in Saginaw and went to Heritage High. We were acquaintances. It wasn’t until after we went away to two different colleges that we became friends.

We were both hired to paint the U of M House on Shattuck and recognized that we shared a strong work ethic as we stayed until 2 a.m. to get the job done. We also realized that we both really loved the Tigers and eventually ended up coaching Little League together during the summers when we came home from college.

I had an art background and Ryan had strong business knowledge, and really thought it could work. I’d always wanted to own my own business, so when the screen printing company I worked for wanted to sell, I thought it was my chance. I thought I knew the business, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Ryan: Adam convinced me he knew a lot more about this business than he actually did. We found out when we went to our first trade show that we were working with an antiquated system and had the whole wrong model compared to other people in the business. We had to start over with all new equipment.

During our first three months, though, we got our first big break when SVSU asked us to bid on 1000 shirts for their Battle of the Valleys. We won the bid but needed to make 1,000 shirts in just two weeks. Then they called and needed another 1,000 more in just one week.

Adam: I remember the police stopping by at 4 a.m. while we were trying to get the order done. They wanted to make sure we weren’t being robbed.

Ryan: That launched us. It pushed us and paid our rent for a few months. It bought us enough time to get the business growing.

 

  

We just invested in online software so you can have a team store online. It’s been a huge investment, but everything we bought has propelled us to the next level. It made it worthwhile. Everything has snowballed, and we had to move from our original small space to our new location.

Adam: I think during our first full year in business, we made about $9,000 each. We invested everything we had in this place.

Everyone told us not to quit our day jobs, but we didn’t listen.

-Ryan Dost & Adam McCauley, Co-Owners
Sandlot Sports
 

I knew in high school that I wanted to do something in marketing. I started doing marketing every place I worked back then, because I liked it and no one was doing it. I financed my whole wedding with sponsorships and marketing. Then social media came along. No one was touching social media, so I thought that would be a good place to jump in with my own business.

What really gets me pumped up is the ability to help businesses use these tools. There are endless possibilities of what you can do with them. Just take one thing, one focus, and you can build it into an entire campaign.

 

  


In this business, nothing stays the same. Everything changes, and it’s never boring. I like to try everything new. I read podcasts, articles, follow thought influencers … Apple sells me everything they make.

But the part I love the most is speaking to people and businesses. I love to open people to new ideas and new ways to use new tools to share their messages. It’s exciting to see people get excited about what I’ve taught them.

I guess I am a techno-geek. 

-Jeff DeHaven, Digital Marketing Director
Blue Thumb Digital