Tucked away in a remote location in the Keweenaw Peninsula is a business that bears proof that if you have an internet connection you can run a successful business from just about anywhere--and in this case, still enjoy living in the beautiful Upper Peninsula.
Slipdown Mountain Publications LLC and Five Rainbow Services for Authors and Publishers, located in Lake Linden (population, 1,050) is a publishing and editing business serving aspiring authors from around the country, and a few overseas. Recently, the two websites
have merged into one.
The business is run from the home of Walt and Kerrie Shiel. They offer anything and everything an author may need (heck, they’ll even write the book for you!). Their services include mentoring and coaching, editing, book design, cover design, indexing, cataloging-in-publication, news releases, and ghost writing.
All of this is done by three people, Walt, wife Kerrie, and daughter Lisa. Walt is the self proclaimed "chief cook and bottle washer," and coincidentally retired military. He takes care of the day-to-day operations of the business--bookkeeping, customer care issues, PR--and is the one you’ll probably talk to you if you give him a buzz up in the Keweenaw.
Daughter Lisa is a certified librarian, and as such, does all of the cataloging for the business. She also manages the two websites for the company. Kerri is a professional artist; if you can describe it, she can draw it, according to her husband. She also does the accounting for the business.
Walt says the business got its start from a desire to publish the books they had written. Walt and Lisa are authors in their own right. Walt writes on the subject he is passionate about: the military, particularly military planes and pilots. His most recent title is
Rough War: The Combat Story of Lt. Paul J. Eastman, a "Burma Banshee" P-40 and P-47 Pilot. Lisa has a flair for the paranormal and has written a book that should be of interest to any Yooper or visitor to the area:
Backyard Bigfoot: The True Story of Stick Signs, UFOs, and the Sasquatch.
"When the idea of publishing our own books came up, I just figured, why not? Others are doing it; so can we," Walt says.
So they started cranking out some of their own titles. However, as word got around the U.P. and the country, via word of mouth and across the Internet, they started receiving more and more requests from people wanting to self-publish books.
"About four years ago," says Walt, "We began to receive inquiries from self-publishers who wanted some guidance and assistance navigating the turbulent, sometimes treacherous, and too often financially ruinous, self-publishing waters."
This opened up a whole new line of services and opportunities for this family-owned business. They can now take budding authors by the hand and walk them through the whole arduous process of publishing a book--formatting, cover design, layout, book trim size, ISBN, and more. He’ll also coach you in ways to market your finished product.
The Shiels do most of their work from the living room of their home, helping clients from far-flung places.
"They tend to be scattered across the country--California to Massachusetts and Washington to Florida. We also have clients from Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Thailand," says Walt. He says less than 5 percent of his business comes from Michigan, with most of these clients coming from the good ol’ U.P.
The business started in the Shiel family’s previous port of call, Weatherford, Texas, about 35 miles west of Fort Worth. Slipdown Mountain, named after the highest point in the county, was launched in 2003, shortly before Walt retired from Lockheed Martin, where he was the manager for F-16 aircrew training.
As Walt approached retirement from Lockheed Martin, they entertained the thought of returning to their native Michigan; Kerrie finished high school in Escanaba. Surfing the Internet from their home in Texas, they came across a 100 year-old home with 40 acres in Lake Linden.
The key to running a business from a place like Lake Linden, where most folks go to summer or retire, is technology. The Shiels rely on a high speed internet connection and a virtual PBX phone system that can answer calls and route them to wherever they may be, whether it be in the home office or out in the garden.
As for the business itself, Walt says it’s an ever-changing world out there, both in terms of the publishing business and the technology to run it.
"The trick is to keep up with all the various technology platforms and social media outlets, continually evaluate their capabilities and effectiveness. What worked yesterday, or what works today, may very well not work well tomorrow," he says.
So is the life of owning your own business and running it from your home all it’s cracked up to be?
Says Kerrie: "We enjoy the freedom to manage our workflow and tasks in real time. If we feel like taking time off to do something fun for a day or just a few hours, we just do it."
Neil Moran is a freelance copywriter of marketing materials for Haylake Business Communications.