Tim Clark earned a degree in Landscape Architecture from Iowa State University’s College of Design and owned a free lance landscape design business for 20 years. In 1996, Tim began working part-time in sales at Amish Haus Furniture, an heirloom quality retail furniture store specializing in Amish-crafted products made in the Midwest. He quickly developed a love of the furniture business and over a ten year period, he grew into several management positions and discovered that quality furniture was his passion.

In 2007, Tim decided the time was right to open a retail store, so he came to the Mid Iowa Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to begin the process of writing a business plan with counselor Greg Saboe. Tim also attended the SBDC’s Smart Start series of classes, to assist him in writing a business plan and preparing cash flow projections and break even analyses. Tim met with an SBDC counselor several times while fine tuning his business plan, but chose to hold off starting his own business, keeping his plan ready for when the time would be right.

One year later Tim returned to the Mid Iowa Small Business Development Center when he had an opportunity to buy Amish Haus Furniture’s inventory and trademarks and keep the existing business open. He was able to negotiate a lease with the landlord of the existing Amish Haus store and worked with the primary vendors to continue the business in Urbandale without missing a day. Tim retained all ten of the existing employees saying, "the transition to new ownership was greatly eased by having a great staff in place".

One of the challenges Tim faced was financing. The asset-to-debt ratio of the business would not allow traditional financing in a time when the economy was challenging, even with Tim’s strong background in sales, design, and furniture and with a solid business plan. In order to overcome this challenge, Tim creatively negotiated with the landlord and the vendors to continue to supply merchandise in the same location, using his personal equity for capital. He maintained ten percent growth each year for the first two years of his business.

In 2010, as the economy was improving, Tim wanted to acquire a new style of inventory to reach a larger market and a wider demographic. Based on two years of growth, he worked on revising his plan with Sherry Shafer, Regional Director of the Mid Iowa Small Business Development Center, Dawn Lull, CPA, and Greg Saboe, Strategic Planning Counselor. Together they packaged a $50,000 loan for the Iowa Small Business Loan Program. Tim said, "Working with the Small Business Development Center was definitely a team approach to solve the various start-up and business purchase challenges."

With his store’s "customer driven" sales techniques and an expanded product line, Tim feels like 2011 will be an even better year than the first two years. His current advertising theme is "Amish Furniture Redefined. Many Styles - One Standard."

Be sure to check out the company’s quality furniture at www.amishhausfurniture.com, or come in to the store located at 3037-100th Street in Urbandale.