Podcast Summary:
In this Blind Abilities conversation, Michael Colbrunn shares a compelling, firsthand look at the Business Enterprise Program through State Services for the Blind and how it created a pathway to self-employment, confidence, and long-term growth. Michael never imagined himself as a business owner, but with training, guidance, and ongoing support from State Services for the Blind, he discovered an opportunity to build and grow a business on his own terms. From managing vending operations to overseeing a full food service contract, Michael explains how the Business Enterprise Program provides the tools, mentorship, and structure needed to succeed—while still allowing operators to shape their own future. He speaks openly about starting small, learning from mistakes, adapting to technology, and staying competitive in a changing marketplace. Most importantly, Michael emphasizes that this program is not about limitations—it’s about ownership, independence, and proving what’s possible. For anyone exploring career options through State Services for the Blind, this episode offers insight, motivation, and a real-world success story.
To find out more about the services provided at State Services for the Blind, and what they can do for you, contact Shane DeSantis at shane.desantis@state.mn.us or call Shane at 651-385-5205.
Links of interests:
Full Transcript
{Music}
Michael Colbrunn:
It’s an opportunity for folks to be self-employed. There’s going to be enough things out there that you need to learn to pivot and be flexible, but sometimes to me the obstacles I put up were the ones that I put up.
Jeff Thompson:
Please welcome Michael Colbrunn, business owner operator in the Business Enterprise Program, BEP with State Services for the Blind in Minnesota, SSB.
Michael:
I think we need to change our thinking that it’s not for everybody else to dazzle us. We need to go out there and dazzle them.
Jeff:
And now, here’s Michael. Hope you enjoy.
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson. Returning to the studio, we have longtime friend of the show Michael Colbrunn, and he’s an owner operator in the Business Enterprise Program here in Minnesota.
And it’s always great to have him on the show. So Michael, welcome back to Blind Abilities.
Michael:
Hi Jeff, thanks for having me.
Jeff:
Well thanks for taking the time to come on to Blind Abilities to talk about this program that has been around for a while through the Randolph-Shepard Act, and you have come quite a long way through it.
You’ve been on this podcast quite a few times. I remember when you were, oh, jeez, was it 2018, somewhere around there?
Michael:
Yes.
Jeff:
So when you were graduating high school, did you ever imagine that you would own your own business?
Michael:
No, never. My real passion in life was I wanted to be a coach, potentially at the college level. I was really into athletics and I was really into track and cross-country. And my goal was to go to college, get a degree, hopefully compete at that level in track or cross-country or both, and ultimately coach.
That was everything I worked for up to a certain point in my life.
So owning a business, being an entrepreneur, never even entered my mind. I had a little bit of entrepreneurial spirit as a kid, paper routes, selling golf balls, diving in the pond, getting golf balls, selling them to golfers, shoveling driveways; how every, probably how every kid or entrepreneur kind of starts. But I came from the mindset that that probably wasn’t any opportunity I would ever have.
My family didn’t, I didn’t come from this echelon of folks that owned things and were entrepreneurs. And that was sort of a way, distant thought. It wasn’t even a thought.
So when this opportunity came through business enterprise, even at that time, I was apprehensive. I mean, I had worked for folks, I had managed departments, had a lot of experience, but working for yourself, it’s an odd feeling if you’ve never done it and you don’t have a roadmap.
So the fact that I got into it was successful with vending businesses at a university and some other locations. Now parlaying that with all the experience and support into a full food service dining contract for Camp Ripley, which is a United States National Guard Center, that brought everything full circle.
And when I look back now, I can sort of see the steps I was taking along the way and it makes sense. But that’s Monday morning quarterback, you know, that’s, that’s hindsight 20/20 vision. But it is amazing. And I’m extremely gratified, you know, with that, but no, just to answer your question, no.
Jeff:
Well, in a nutshell, what is the business enterprise program?
Michael:
You know, we can look up the definition and you can find the code of federal regulations and all of that. But at the end of the day, Jeff, it truly is, it’s an opportunity for folks to be self-employed.
And typically those businesses are vending facilities on state and federal properties.
People can dive into what all of that means. But at the end of the day, it, it truly is a turnkey business. And by the time you get it all set up, you go through your training, you get the tools and the equipment and everything you need. But you really have an opportunity to run a business.
And I look at it now that whether it’s selling snacks in a vending machine or a snack bar or a full food service cafeteria, or whether you’re selling cars or building houses or building rockets, it really is the same structure. You really are learning every aspect of a business.
Now, some of these businesses really, if you can take it as, listen, I’m going to do my job, my obligation and my responsibility is to do X. And you can do that. But you can also take it to a point where you are really becoming part of a business community or of an industry. And it starts with vending machines or snack bars at most cases, but it’s certainly not limited to that.
Jeff:
So what made you take that leap? I mean, you talked about, you know, diving in the ponds and getting golf balls and making money. But what sparked the idea about the business enterprise program? And what made you think this could be for me?
Michael:
Well, I was running out of options. And it presented itself at a time where I really needed it.
Once again, found myself in a job that I was not enjoying, but I was certainly doing to make ends meet and, you know, better than better than making ends meet, but wasn’t anything I was passionate about. It was someplace where I landed. And when the Randolph-Shepherd came, I was looking for an opportunity and it presented itself.
So it was, it was kind of serendipitous. I was speaking with my counselor Maureen at the time, and we were always going through opportunities or things I could do. And she had recognized through an email that there was a need for a blind vendor. And she thought of me and we got the ball rolling and it didn’t happen at that point, but it started the wheels turning several years before.
So when she contacted me again, I thought, you know what, this is perfect. I’m looking for an opportunity. They’re looking for a blind vendor. And let’s just go ahead. Really, I thought let’s give this thing a try. I had nothing to lose.
Jeff:
So through your vocational rehab counselor, State Services for the Blind, she connected you up with this opportunity.
Michael:
Yeah. And it’s interesting because when I had first met her, when I had moved to Mankato, I had already had a job. And, you know, I was pretty, I was always successful at finding employment. That was never, ever, ever an issue. What was the issue was in a lot of jobs I had, I got to a certain point in management or things where I would always hit these walls that could never, it always seemed to be something technologically or whatever. It was always technology. That was always the thing. And Maureen had said to me at the time, she said, you know, there’s a program, right?
It’s this business enterprise program. And I just think you’d be perfect for it because she knew some of my experience being in the food and beverage industry and hospitality and food service. And when she had told me about it, I thought, man, that sounds amazing. But, you know, there was a waiting list and there was training and I had three kids and a mortgage and young family. And there just wasn’t, none of that seemed to ever make sense that I can go dedicate six months to a year to training.
And that was sort of the setback. But then when she had this opportunity came about five years later, she got an email and she reached out and I took it, sight unseen. I said, I’ll take it. And I laugh now because I talked to John Hulet when we met and I said, I’ll take it.
And he goes, well, you know, look, there’s something I’m like, I was so anxious and eager that I just signed on the dotted line and I’d made up my mind at that point I was all in.
Jeff:
And John Hulet’s the director of the Business Enterprise Program at State Services.
Michael:
Yes.
Jeff:
From there all the way to where you are today, the skills that you’ve developed, you probably use them across the entirety of your life, not just for work, but for other things like home finances, the knowledge that you’ve gained from the BEP is probably very transferable.
Michael:
Absolutely. Well, here’s the thing. The greatest gift I think my parents gave me was it never dawned on them that I was disabled and that that was ever going to stop me. They just didn’t raise me to put up obstacles, perceived obstacles, real obstacles or limitations.
And some of that is because I just don’t think, I mean, we’re talking back in the, you know, 1978 was when I was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of macular degeneration. And they were hesitant to even diagnose me, but the doctors I was seeing, they had seen it. And I got a chance to go to the University of Minnesota, see specialist, and they diagnosed me very young. I was nine years old. But the one thing my parents told me is it’s just, you decide what you’re going to do. No one else determines that for you. And it was, I think it was out of survival mode. But that went a long way in me being able to just pursue anything.
It was instilled in me that nothing is off limits. And I worked, like I said, from the jobs that I made up to my first job at McDonald’s that I love. And it’s amazing how much I learned at that first job, you know, just getting myself through the industry and always taking opportunities that, yeah, you know, a lot of it is just hustle. And a lot of it is the tricks that maybe some of us have as blind people that, you know, we find our own way to do things.
But now being a business owner truly, it almost forced me to catch up with things. You know what I mean? The business world moves at a speed that if you’re not keeping up, you’re going to get left behind. So I was forced to get comfortable using a computer and cell phones and texting. And I mean, we’re going back, you know, a decade or so. So those things, you know, now that’s just baked into the cake. But, you know, using CCTV, ZoomText, magnification, starting to learn screen readers, dictation, understanding the notes you need to take.
But those were all the things that helped me back the first time was that the technology. And now I had all that at my fingertips, literally.
And I still embrace it to this day. It’s just a matter of hustle and want to and not putting up roadblocks. There’s going to be enough things out there that you that you need to learn to pivot and be flexible. But sometimes to me, the obstacles I put up were the ones, you know, were the ones that I put up, were the ones that I created. So.
Jeff:
Oh, wow. I can relate to that so many times that I am the biggest obstacle. When you’re talking to other people, what surprises people the most about owning your own business?
Michael:
You know, that’s an individual question. What surprised me the most? And, you know, my biggest fear was how am I going to make money? Right? I always had jobs, you know, you get your paycheck two weeks, a week, weekly, whatever it is, it’s always coming. And being self-employed.
I guess it, well, the biggest surprise is the fact that you, you can make money. It’s what you put into it in a lot of cases. There’s no limitations on you again. It’s you can decide how successful you want to be.
Nothing surprised me, I guess, in that aspect. But I think the biggest surprise is that it really is unlimited. Like sometimes you think, you know, time, energy, some of those things seem like they do have a ceiling, but they really, they don’t.
You can squeeze a lot of time out of a day. You can get up earlier, you can stay up later, you can learn how to manage your time. So what surprised me the most is that it’s unlimited.
Jeff:
Was it interesting for you to find out that when you change a product over, the one that might not be selling, and all of a sudden you see, whoa, I’m running out of those, I’m putting twice as many in the next time. And then to see your work and the results coming back, like the income just jumped up because you did this and then you try other things. Is that what the innovation, was that stimulating for you?
Michael:
Yes, because it’s interesting. In the vending industry, there’s a lot of planogram’s. There’s a lot of data. These companies spend tremendous amount of money and resources into figuring out what people want. And if you’re a person who’s interested in collecting data and learning and looking at the trends and the algorithms, that’s all there.
I subscribe to all that. But what I had to learn too was that being at a state university, which was my main vending business, it’s a very different demographic than say a federal building in Baltimore or whatever.
My customers, for the most part, are 18 to 22 year olds. And one of my biggest selling products is Takis and Hot Cheetos. And I was on YouTube one day for something and this thing came up a song about hot Takis and something. And I’m like, what’s a Taki? And it’s funny because that’s one of those things that I could almost make a living selling flaming hot Cheetos and Takis and Celsius.
It’s super interesting that at the time I was 50 years old, I don’t necessarily eat Takis. But it’s just things like that you stumble on. But it’s also going to training, upward mobility, going to conferences, joining an ABM, going to the NAMA show, which is an industry convention, learning the products, understanding that there’s a lot of people out there that want to get their products in front of you so that you can get in front of your customers. And you have to pay attention. And that’s what I say about staying relevant.
You have to study, you have to learn your craft. You truly have to absolutely get into every aspect of it. And I sort of wonder why people don’t. Because there’s information, there’s folks out there. You have to be changing. You have to be keeping up with what people want. I’m not one of these people that I’m going to put in the products that I want to sell and they can buy it or not. If they don’t like it, they can go somewhere else. I have so much competition where I’m at the university I’m at that I’m trying to capture every sale I can.
My attitude is not they can go somewhere else. It’s I work hard to sell what people want to buy. That only makes sense. They determine my success. And I never forget that.
Jeff:
Once you got up and running, you’re not left on your own. What kind of support do you still receive through the vocational rehab?
Michael:
Well, that’s just it. It’s always ongoing training. It’s support, learning things, keeping up with the equipment. There’s so much going on with technology right now, with cashless, kiosks, touch screens, micro markets, different ways of setting up. The old vending machine still works. It’s tried and true.
It’s still relevant. But there’s a lot of ways that customers want to have that experience.
They want to touch the product. They want to look at things. They want to read the back. They want to know that it’s in their hand when they pay four or five bucks for it. So keeping up with the business is one thing. And a lot of that’s just through training, upward mobility training.
It’s just it’s learning. So there’s always support for that. There’s business consultants that are looking for other opportunities for blind people, blind vendors. But it’s also you being diligent in your own success and you understanding what the Randolph-Shepard Act, what’s under the purview of the priority. Can we exercise the priority at this type of location?
That’s the support that I get. There’s something in Randolph-Shepard called management services. And what that is the SSB staff. There’s a lot of things behind the scene, a lot of administrative stuff, dotting the I’s, crossing the T’s, the permits, the this, the that.
And that’s where the support comes in. Also the ongoing training. If I were to go back and say, you know, hey, I realized that I’m lacking in this skill or maybe I need to go back and touch up on some things or maybe I’ve lost my vision to the point that I really have to rethink it. It’s that ongoing training that you need as you go.
And sometimes you don’t know it until you get to that crossroads where you realize I need to intervene in my own success here. So there’s constant support. It’s originally it was getting you set up the training you needed, a computer, a printer, a uniform, stuff like that. And as you go, there’s things that you discover along the way that you need that’s not necessarily foreseeable that first day you start. So it’s just an ongoing process. It’s just forever evolving.
Jeff:
I hear your confidence and this is years in the making for where you are today. What would you say to someone who is just looking upon their career and considering the Business Enterprise Program? What would you say to them?
Michael:
Well, I’d say to them the same thing that I would say even if they’re not pursuing business enterprise. And I think about this a lot because every, if you see me now, it’s kind of a wow to an extent. But I started out with not the greatest business. It wasn’t necessarily coveted by the vendors.
It was a difficult business just by geography, by the setup that business is hard. And I said in our podcast going back years ago that I was just, you know, just how hard you work.
But a lot of things that anything I’ve ever done I’ve started out at the bottom. Once I got to a point, I always went back. I had gotten to the point where I was in management with the Minneapolis Hilton and Towers in their food and beverage department. I realized that I got as far as I was gonna get.
And so I took a step down at another location and worked my way up, you know, to a management position. And I did that when I was a kid and I still do that.
And I just, I think that I want people to know that you don’t have to be at the highest point right away. You have to give yourself opportunity to learn, make mistakes. Sometimes you don’t wanna make the mistakes on the biggest stage.
I mean, I look back, if I was offered in the beginning what I have now, I believe that I would have made it but I would have made a lot of mistakes that would have really, that might have been setbacks.
And I was able to make some mistakes and learn at a level that was appropriate at the time. And I just, I see so many people turn opportunities away because it’s not the perfect job. I’m still looking for the perfect job, right?
It’s an ongoing process again. Yeah, that’s my advice is there’s so many opportunities that come your way that we all just sort of shrug off or don’t think. I want people to understand too that sometimes the onus is on you to create your own opportunity. And even if something doesn’t look amazing from the outset, it doesn’t mean it can’t be.
Or I think people have gotten away from the stepping stones and the work that needs to be done to get to where you ultimately think you wanna end up. And so that would be my advice is don’t just overlook everything or don’t think, well, that’s not perfect. I don’t know anything that is.
Jeff:
Mike, what’s the best part of being in charge of your own future?
Michael:
Well, exactly what you just said. You’re in charge of your own future. Business Enterprise has given me the opportunity to prove that I can do something that I didn’t necessarily think was possible. Having skin in the game, understanding that your success is determined by you, not putting those limitations on yourself. And just realizing that you can always pivot, you can always move forward. There’s opportunities everywhere you look.
You’re learning something all along the way. In the beginning, I was probably a little disenchanted with BEP because I was just a workhorse. I was filling vending machines and that was that. And then I realized I went to a training conference with the National Association of Blind Merchants. I met people that had taken this to a higher level. And that’s when I realized, okay, well, maybe I don’t feel like a business owner because I’m not acting like a business owner. I’m just a hard worker. And then I started to realize that learn the business, learn the industry, see what the possibilities are, then learn to work with SSB and the program staff on how far can we take this? Can we add things?
It’s a collaboration truly. There’s different levels of what you can do. People get a business, they work it for 30, 35 years and that’s great, but there’s also opportunities for people that are wanting more or just taking it further and further and further.
And so to me, that’s the beauty of it. Listen, at the end of the day, this is a voc rehab program. This is a work program. We’re business owners, we’re self-employed.
We have all those advantages and all of that. But at the end of the day, there’s nothing telling me I can’t go take this a different way. I’ve learned the skills, I’ve obtained the skills.
I’m a proven concept at this point. Listen, go private sector, take this thing. Don’t let the Randall Shepherd Act say you’re limited. They will, we can’t do this, we can’t do that. Well, then take it further. That’s what you can do when you’re working for yourself.
Jeff:
I like the story of your journey, but I’m listening to you, your journey is still continuing. Tomorrow’s gonna be more opportunity.
Michael:
Yeah, and sometimes I do have to sort of tell myself like, why are you just so inherently that way? But I am that way. And I get excited because I think, there’s a lot of people that just don’t think that way, but I don’t know, I’ve just always been that way, Jeff. And it is, I’m excited about the future. I wanna be a good steward of this program as well. I want it to be around for others.
It’s not for everyone. If someone told me, Mike, you have to go to college, you have to learn how to program a computer or whatever they call it. You’d have the time to do a back of a car and drag me to work. That’s my worst fear would be that. So the fact that this program still exists, it’s 90th birthday here this next year. And I want it to be around for, I don’t know how many more, you know, 90 years.
And it’s still a great opportunity. It’s what you make it. And I want it to be there. So I get excited because it’s up to me to prove the concept that the blind people can do anything. And the business enterprise program to me is included in that.
Jeff:
That’s awesome. So if there’s any people out there, you know, maybe they’re diving into ponds right now, collecting golf balls and wanting to change it up a little bit and determine their own future. And who would they contact?
Michael:
I think you would contact SSB, State Services for the Blind. But listen, it’s also up to you, right? I mean, sometimes you have to give the dynamic presentation. I think there’s a lot of people that think it’s up to everybody else to figure it out for you. And it’s not that to me. And it’s just the opposite. And I had to learn that. I had to learn that going to State Services for the Blind.
I thought it was a job center. You know, I didn’t realize that I have to go in with a plan and I have to sell myself. I had to convince people, you got to get people to buy in. And it’s up to you to give the dynamic presentation.
You know, they would provide you the facts. The, you know, this is the process. But I think we need to change our thinking that it’s not for everybody else to dazzle us.
We need to go out there and dazzle them. But yeah, the first step is figuring out what you want to do. And I feel bad for people that, you know, you’re 14 years old, 21 years old, like who knows what you want to do. And that pressure on people to decide your future at that age, that’s kind of what’s wrong with the system to an extent is that, like, first question, I wouldn’t have envisioned this, but it was a process. All my whole life is experiences and opportunities, whether you take them or not, what you sort of build towards.
But yeah, get ahold of State Services for the Blind, see what they offer. Don’t be afraid to explore things. Don’t be afraid to take a chance.
You know, you’re not committed to life to a decision that you make. But it’s also do your homework. Don’t be afraid to do your own homework. Don’t be afraid to think big. Don’t be afraid to dream. Don’t be afraid to make it fit for you.
Jeff:
And they let you shadow an operator so you can go and get a taste of what it’s like and help out and spend a day or two or a week with them so you can make a good decision.
Michael:
And I’ve done that in the past and I would absolutely be willing to do that. Problem is at my location at the college, sometimes that happens in the summer when it’s really slowed down. And I think people walk around and they see it and they go, eh, you know, I’m like, no, no, no.
I think you need to come in the middle of October or the middle of April or maybe even come in February when I’m pulling my cart through snow drifts and crossing streets. And so you get to see that aspect of it too, but absolutely, it’s a wonderful opportunity.
I’ve had some young people even come spend a day with me and they walk around and I think they’re not interested in business enterprise, but they get on a college and they see the college, they feel the energy there. And now maybe it’s changed their mind to, hey, maybe I want to come to college or we talk about the opportunities there and what the buildings are.
So, for me, it’s even just a field trip to just get everything going, right? Just get things moving, just get that light bulb going off in your head. So that’s what I think it’s all about.
Jeff:
I really like how you mentioned that the payoff is how much you put into it. And when you can see the results, it just probably encourages you to do more and more. So this is a good story. I’m glad you came on here and shared a little bit about the business enterprise program, Mike.
Michael:
I appreciate the opportunity, Jeff. And I also really appreciate what you’re doing. I know that you started the podcasting thing I don’t know that it was the thing that it is now. And I bet you could tell a story that you’ve had to make some mistakes and figure out things and all of that.
So I appreciate the platform that you give blind individuals to tell their stories. I listen and learn and I very much enjoy it. So thank you.
Jeff:
Well, thank you, Mike.
Such a great time talking to Michael Colbrunn and learning more about the business enterprise program. And especially following it in over the years has been quite a treat for me to see his progress. So I hope you enjoyed.
And until next time, bye-bye.
To find out more about all the programs at State Services for the Blind, contact Shane.DeSantis at state.mn.us. That’s Shane dot d-e-s-a-n-t-i-s at state.mn .us.
(Music)
Jeff Thompson:
Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your Voc Rehab and find out what they can do for you.
Live, work, read, succeed.
[Music] [Transition noise] –
When we share-
What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities