It Wasn’t a Half-Baked Idea
Karen Heyman was an air traffic controller at Montgomery Field in the summer of 1983, content in her job but looking to make more money.
So she and her husband, a computer marketing manager, threw caution to the wind, quit their jobs and struck out on their own.
Their entrepreneurial quest? Making muffins from a small storefront in Encinitas.
Those who laughed then aren’t laughing now.
On New Year’s Eve, Heyman’s Marvelous Muffins--with sales in 1986 of about $180,000--signed a deal for a $1-million capital infusion by California Cold Storage & Distribution in Anaheim.
Plans call for Marvelous Muffins--now 75% owned by California Cold Storage but still captained day to day by Heyman--to open 12 stores this year and to begin offering franchises by July.
For the 31-year-old Heyman, a private pilot who joined the Federal Aviation Administration after President Reagan fired striking controllers in 1981, it’s something of a dream come true.
“I’m going to buy my own plane one of these days,” she said, beaming, then added quickly that the pressure of owning a small business is greater than directing the comings and goings of craft that fly. “It’s more stressful to be a baker in a muffin shop than an air traffic controller.”
Despite the outside ownership, Heyman maintains that she will retain operational control. “They’ve put no restrictions on me,” she said, “and they’ve encouraged me to strive for excellence.”
Credit Union on Right Track
Mission Federal Credit Union’s drive to double its 14 branches this year is taking some interesting bends in the road.
Mission Federal’s Hillcrest branch, now in temporary quarters, will relocate soon next to the San Diego Unified School District headquarters, at the former site of Frank the Trainman at Park and El Cajon boulevards.
As something of a tribute to the toy train store’s 43-year tenure, which ends Jan. 24, Mission Federal officials say they will build a mini-museum that will display some of Frank’s antique trains and the store’s original neon sign.
Wrong Form for Takeoff
Even former U.S. congressmen can get trapped in a government snafu.
Which is what former Rep. Bob Wilson claims happened to him and his Air/Space America Associates, which hopes to take off with a Paris-style air show at Brown Field in May, 1988. Wilson told Times staff writer Greg Johnson last week that he had asked for a 501-C-6 certificate, per the Internal Revenue Service’s advice, to get a tax-exempt status for his group.
In fact, Wilson’s group needed a 501-C-3 certificate, which it has since duly filed. Wilson says that the miscue has pushed his project at least three months behind its ambitious schedule to attract $25 million in sponsors and exhibitors.
It is, after all, difficult to get signatures on the dotted line where there isn’t one.
Somebody Missed the Boat
The Piret’s eatery in the Imperial Bank Tower downtown was supposed to close last week and reopen next week as the Boathouse Grill.
But the plan hit a snag, as “somebody may have dropped the ball” in the building permit process, according to one Piret’s source.
Updated deadline: Piret’s will close as early as week’s end and will reopen on or about Jan. 19, according to Bill Seckinger, vice president of marketing of Vicorp Specialty Restaurants, parent of both Piret’s and the Boathouse.
