From a patient-safety installer to a globally connected ag lab to a downtown plant shop, the South Haven Regional Business Hub’s free, 26-week Growth Series has matched this year’s established owners with veteran mentors — built on the idea that no one should have to scale a business alone.
By Art Nicholas
[For the South Haven Beacon]
The hardest part of running a business is rarely starting it. It’s growing it — without losing what made the business work in the first place. That’s the gap the South Haven Regional Business Hub set out to close when it launched in 2023, and it’s the premise behind the Hub’s 2026 Growth Series, a free 26-week program that pairs established owners with mentors and meets roughly every other week for workshops and one-on-one coaching.
This year’s cohort numbers ten businesses across Southwest Michigan: Adapt Technologies (South Haven), Biggby (Stevensville), Blue Shore Marine Services (Bangor), Decorators’ Choice (South Haven), Eccentric Garden (Allegan), Max Transportation (South Haven), Mercury Engineering & Design (St. Joseph), NEW AGE Laboratories (South Haven), Twist & Stout Mobile Bar (New Buffalo) and Waypoint Processing (Bangor). Three of those pairings, profiled here, show what the program looks like up close — and how much experience the Hub has pulled in to guide the next wave of local founders.
Building to keep people home: Adapt Technologies
David Cooper of South Haven runs Adapt Technologies, which designs and installs safe-patient-handling and accessibility systems — equipment that helps people with physical challenges move, and live, safely.
The work is rooted in his own family. Cooper points to his aunt Irene, who had special needs and cognitive challenges, and to his grandmother, whom he calls an early advocate for inclusion and mainstreaming “long before these ideas were widely understood.” A later career in construction gave him the means to act on that history. In the years after the Americans with Disabilities Act reshaped accessibility standards, Cooper said, “safe patient handling and special-needs building became our primary focus and business model.”
Adapt has installed systems in large acute-care facilities such as hospitals for years. What Cooper wants from the Growth Series is help reaching the markets he says get overlooked: home care and smaller private residences, including multi-unit housing. “Most people want to remain in their homes and care for themselves,” he said — and as the region’s population ages, he expects that need only to grow. A second ambition is operational: building a trained network of contractors — HVAC installers, electricians, carpenters, ironworkers — who can deliver Adapt’s systems reliably across a wider footprint without sacrificing quality.
His mentor is Bruce Gobdel, who spent 37 years at the accounting and consulting firm Crowe, retiring as its chairman, and now advises closely held businesses. “I bring experience helping organizations assess where they are, define where they want to go, and set clear priorities for disciplined growth,” Gobdel said. He also named something quieter: “I understand how isolating entrepreneurship can be.” Of his match with Cooper: “David has deep industry knowledge and a strong commitment to growth. We are still early in the process, but David’s talent, experience and commitment are already clear.”
A family lab that went global — and stayed home: NEW AGE Laboratories
One of the most established companies in the cohort is also led by its youngest owner. Sierra Wall is stepping into leadership of NEW AGE Laboratories, the South Haven lab her father built and ran for nearly three decades.
NEW AGE started in 1998 doing environmental testing for clients including the Department of Defense and NASA, and has grown into an international lab best known for plant-sap analysis — work it still does for NASA today. In plain terms, the lab helps growers and food producers see what is happening inside their crops in real time. “Not just what’s in their soil, but what the plant itself is actually absorbing and using,” Wall said. That lets farmers fine-tune fertility programs and catch nutrient imbalances “before they show up as yield loss,” and ultimately grow safer, more nutrient-dense food more efficiently. The lab now handles crops from more than 20 countries. With input costs up and regulations tightening, Wall argues, “data-driven decisions aren’t a luxury anymore; they’re how growers stay competitive and sustainable.”
What she’s after in the Growth Series is the scaffolding around the science. “‘Established’ does not mean ‘finished,’” she said. She is building systems, strengthening her management team, and trying to make sure the company can scale “without being dependent on any one person, including me.” The program, she said, gives her “structure and accountability to work through deliberately instead of just reacting to whatever’s loudest that week.” The timing was personal, too: “As a 28-year-old woman in a male-dominated industry,” she said, “it is essential that I work on myself just as much as I work on the business.”
For all its global reach, NEW AGE stays put. The company once operated in Benton Harbor before her father moved it to South Haven and built its current facility, and Wall — a South Haven High School alumna — sees no reason to leave. “This is home,” she said. Being rooted in a small agricultural community while serving growers worldwide “keeps us grounded and reminds us who we are actually working for. We do not need to be in a major metro to do globally relevant science.”
Her mentor is Julie Callaway, president and owner of BDN Industrial Hygiene Consultants — a match that lands on exactly what Wall said she wanted: someone who had led a business through a transition. Callaway took ownership of BDN in January 2020, just as the pandemic hit. “I quickly learned that owning a business requires a different skill set than being an expert in your field,” she said. “Leading through a pandemic accelerated [my] learning curve in ways I never expected.” She earned her Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) certification along the way. That stretch is what drew her to mentoring: “the opportunity to help someone navigate those same challenges a little faster and with more confidence.”
Plants, art and a downtown reborn: Eccentric Garden
Plants, art and a downtown reborn: Eccentric GardenThe cohort reaches beyond South Haven. In downtown Allegan — the cohort’s only Allegan County business — Lacey Schmitt opened Eccentric Garden in June 2023 and named it for her late father, Christopher. A lifelong artist, she built the shop as a deliberate blend of greenery and gallery; it now carries work from more than ten local artists. “With my background in art and my love of plants, I wanted the shop to be a cohesive mix of both,” she said.
Now Schmitt is scaling, shifting from buying inventory to growing her own plants on-site through tissue culture — a change she says will let her offer more variety, cut restock travel, and build the volume to launch an online store alongside the storefront. “My business is growing in big ways, no pun intended,” she said. What she most wants from the program is financial fluency: “the financial knowledge to grow smartly and invest our profits effectively, while learning to budget and gain a better grasp of managing incoming revenue.”
Her mentor, leadership and business strategist Michele Coy, is matched to that need. Coy pairs a financial background with rare firsthand horticulture experience — she has worked for both a flower wholesaler and a flower broker — and says she can help Schmitt price her products, including the new tissue-culture line, profitably. Coy started her own career at 16 in an accounting firm and, at 42, took a leap to focus on supporting small, women-owned businesses, later volunteering with SCORE and helping owners through the pandemic via the Small Business Development Center at Western Michigan University. “Lacey has been a pure joy,” Coy said, describing the reward of mentoring as “the opportunity to plant a seed, bring a new perspective, provide a new resource.”
A common climb
Different as they are — a patient-safety installer, a global ag lab, a plant-and-art shop — the businesses in this year’s Growth Series share a starting point and a destination. Each has cleared the fragile early years. Each is now trying to grow without losing its footing. And each, through the Hub, has someone in the room who has made that climb before. As Coy put it, the Hub is “a vital resource,” a place that has assembled “a large collaborative group of Subject Matter Experts” for owners who might otherwise go it alone.
From the Hub
“We are incredibly proud to welcome our 2026 Growth Series cohort. This group represents a diverse and ambitious set of business leaders deeply committed to growing stronger, more resilient companies across Southwest Michigan. What makes this program so impactful is not just the curriculum, but the combination of strategic education, mentorship, accountability, and community. Over the next 26 weeks, these entrepreneurs will be challenged to think differently, lead more intentionally, and build businesses positioned for long-term success. We’re equally grateful to the mentors who have stepped forward to invest their time and expertise. Their guidance helps turn insight into action and plays a critical role in each participant’s growth journey.” Elizabeth Bernhard, Executive Director South Haven Regional Business Hub
The South Haven Regional Business Hub’s Growth Series is a free, 26-week program. More information is available at southhavenregionalbusinesshub.org.