Laser pain procedures and handmade knives were the featured businesses at Wednesday morning’s 1 Million Cups event at State Fair Community College.
1 Million Cups is a nationwide program that helps foster networking between entrepreneurs and small business owners, as well as promote community support of those businesses. The Sedalia group meets monthly, mostly featuring businesses in the west central Missouri area.
Connie Kiburz is the owner of Sedalia Laser Pain Center, which opened in July 2014. A nurse for more than 30 years, this is her first venture into owning a business. The medical profession runs in the family, as her husband is local orthopedic surgeon Doug Kiburz.
Kiburz said SLPC is the first freestanding laser center in America and one of only a few health care facilities in the country that offers some of their laser treatments.
She explained that the laser procedure enhances the body’s healing capacity.
“Both of these lasers are FDA approved and are patented and have no side effects, and there is no damage to the tissue in the area,” Kiburz said. “… We treat conditions that range from anything like a fresh injury like a sports injury. For instance we had a Sedalia Bomber who stayed with us who was hit by a 90 mile-per-hour pitch. Or something chronic like having neck pain, back pain, knee pain, ligaments, as will as post-op discomfort.”
She said the number of treatments varies based on the person, the type of injury and how old the injury is. While most businesses hope for repeat customers, Kiburz said they are achieving their goal of helping people get better and not needing additional treatments.
“We feel like it was an important thing to offer for people here, but when you do the first of anything it’s pretty tough,” she said. “Anything new, medical folks have preconceived ideas and thoughts without having all the facts.”
Kiburz said she and her husband faced many obstacles when opening the business, including preconceived ideas about laser procedures, high equipment expenses, a learning curve and getting the word out. They first started by hosting evening informational seminars and relying on word of mouth, later purchasing radio advertising.
Joe Schrum is the owner and sole employee of Halcyon Forge where he makes hand-crafted knives from repurposed metal and other materials for the handles. He has been making knives for a few years, but it turned into a full-time job last October.
He said he works about 80 hours a week producing three to five knives. By changing to full-time, Schrum said he now spends about 15 hours on each knife, paying more attention to detail than before when he was only spending about eight hours on each product.
“There’s a lot of science behind all this, as well as art,” Schrum said. “Metal is an entire science in itself. I have to research all the steels I use, it’s a constant ongoing learning process. I’m the only employee so everything is done by me — I do the books, I do everything.”
His business increased to full-time after he was featured in a Feast video last year. When asked by the audience about advertising, Schrum said he doesn’t advertise much at this point because he already has an eight-month wait list.
Most of his products are direct sales, while he does sell some wholesale to businesses. He also does custom work with meaningful materials, such as turning a woman’s late grandfather’s shirt into laminate for a knife handle.
“I don’t necessarily want to go into full production knife-making mode because I enjoy making really nice knives. It’s quality over quantity,” Schrum said.
1 Million Cups, which is open to the public, is hosted at 9 a.m. the first Wednesday of each month in the Thompson Conference Center at State Fair Community College. For more information, visit www.1millioncups.com/sedalia.
