Ni Suphavong

In its first three years of operation, Eagan-based Jade Logistics doubled its revenue, and owner Ni Suphavong is determined to get those numbers even higher. Her journey is remarkable, not just because her company is thriving in a tough economic climate, but because it’s required significant perseverance, from childhood to entepreneurship.

I was born in Laos, at the end of the Vietnam War, the youngest of four children. Not long after my family was sent to a refugee camp, and my parents really believed that we’d die there.

When I was about five years old, a family in Minnesota sponsored us to come to the United States and it was like a miracle. We got here with just ten dollars and the clothes on our backs, nothing else. That one act of generosity changed my family’s outlook and future forever.

After high school, I went to Concordia College, and I was looking for a part-time job. Looking through the want ads, I found an ad for a freight company and just decided to answer it because any job was better than none. I had an interview that day, and started the next day.

The owners at that company took me under their wing and taught me everything they knew. I stayed with them for 10 years, but I always felt like something was missing by working for someone else. I guess I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit that way. But I did want to stay in the industry.

I left that company to go to another in the industry, to learn more aspects of logistics, and pretty soon, I was recruited by a minority-owned freight company. That’s where I learned that there’s an advantage to being a minority in business, and an advantage to being a woman.

I found myself unemployed after going back to the first freight company for a while and then helping some friends with a vehicle remarketing company. I thought, I’m not going to go back and work for someone else. At the same time, I wanted to stay in logistics—people say that once freight gets in your blood, you can’t get it out.

So I started Jade Logistics. It’s a full-service company with warehouse and distribution for clients, and the ability to ship nationally and internationally. For domestic, we do every aspect of transportation that you can think of. If a product needs to move from point A to point B, we can do it.

I went into business at the worst possible time. Banks were doing terrible, companies were failing, and no one was giving out financing. I must have talked to 30 different banks and got turned down at all of them. They didn’t understand the concept of my business, they didn’t get that a minority-owned freight company would have advantages. Finally, I talked to my parents about it, and five minutes into the conversation, my dad wrote me a big check and told me to go for it. It was all of their retirement savings.

In September 2007, I opened my first office in Eagan and worked from dawn until dusk. There were so many naysayers in the industry saying I’d never make it, people were very negative.

For six months, I barely made a penny, but luckily, I had the support of all the vendors I’d known for 15 years. Then I landed a big contract and immediately started turning a profit.

The industry is very competitive, but we have a niche that makes a difference, and that’s being a company owned by a minority woman. Because of that niche, we can actually work with competitors. They can bring us in when they get contracts from corporations that require using a diversity budget. Just about every corporation has some money set aside for diversity spending, and many government contracts also require some sort of minority purchasing. It’s a great niche, because it makes us stand out in a competitive industry.

As soon as I saw a profit, the company began to give back to the community. My family and I never forgot the generosity of the family that helped us, so we’ve always been very focused on giving back. Our company now does a lot of charity work, and my six employees are required to volunteer at least 40 hours per year, at company expense.

We volunteer at many different organizations, and donate to many as well. It’s really across the board, like the Humane Society or women’s shelters or an organization that might contact us out of the blue.

I have some really aggressive goals for the next five to 10 years. I just want to be a role model for other women who are thinking about starting a company. If I can do it, anyone can. You just need determination.