BEULAH — Eric Billups is a lifelong scuba diver and instructor who’s immersed himself in famous waters all over the world — from Indonesia to Hawaii to the Florida Keys.
But Billups is even more excited about helping share his experience and expertise with area residents and visitors to explore the unique waters of northwest Michigan through Beulah Outdoors. It’s a new scuba, skiing and outdoor shop he’s opened in downtown Beulah with the help of Venture North, the 10-county regional business development agency based in Traverse City.
“The Great Lakes, by far, has the best shipwreck diving in the world,” Billups said.
The Michigan native’s transcontinental underwater adventures brought him to Benzie County through a long-time association with the area that began with family visits as a youth for snowmobiling and hiking, and continued through his studies at Ferris State University.
“I spent a lot of time up here as a kid in Manistee and Benzie counties,” Billups said. His wife, Grace, spent summers near the former lumber town of Watervale on the south end of Lower Herring Lake. It was his wife that connected him with Beulah, the Benzie County seat along U.S.-31 on the east shore of Crystal Lake that he saw as the perfect location to expand his scuba and outdoor business that has two other locations in southern Florida.
“I love this town — I told her if we’re going to do something (in Michigan) I wanted to do it around here … it was going to be Benzie County or bust,” Billups said.
A Helping Hand
Billups was able to launch Beulah Outdoors with the help of $45,000 small business development loan from Venture North. The organization tapped Benzie County’s Community Development Block Grant fund, a federal funding source that will help the shop hire a manager and another full-time employee over the next two years.
“We’re always looking to help businesses that are in interested in creating jobs,” Venture North’s Executive Director Laura Galbraith said. The CDBG loan fund offers funding at a 3 percent interest rate with no closing costs, and is often used to supplement other business financing resources from traditional lending institutions.
Venture North, which started in 2008 under the umbrella of the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce and is now affiliated with Traverse Connect, approached Benzie County officials back in 2014 about managing the county’s $900,000 CBGD loan fund. It was a pot of federal money that sat dormant for several years as the county didn’t have the staff to administer the revolving loan fund program.
“The Benzie County board has been very supportive of the program,” Galbraith said. “There’s always been a lack of programs that support small businesses. We’ve got the ability and the programs to cut through a lot of those obstacles….the need is there, and it’s becoming more significant.”
With its latest support for Beulah Outdoors, Venture North has deployed seven business loans across over the past decade totaling $840,000.
It approved two loans totaling $275,000 to Sleeping Bear Farms apiary, which makes honey and other products sold at its Benzie County farm and distributed to dozens of area restaurants and retailers. Other businesses supported by Venture North include $330,000 to Xpert Fulfillment, a logistics and distribution center near Benzonia, and two loans totaling $120,000 to Eclipse Communications, an IT company that’s expanded high-speed internet and related communications services in Benzie County. Stormcloud Brewing Co. in Frankfort also secured a $70,000 business development loan from the CBGD loan fund.
“We’ve helped businesses in food, wine, internet service — a wide cross-section of businesses in Benzie County,” said Tim Ervin, a communications specialists who work with Venture North.
Galbraith said CBGD loan funding has helped create 30 new full-time jobs in Benzie County, and retained another 93 full-time jobs. The funding has spurred another $1.6 million in private investment in those businesses. There haven’t been any loan defaults within the program, she said, and the repayment of those loans have generated around $1.4 million into a revolving loan fund that Venture North can deploy for business financing anywhere in its 10-county service area.
Billups said Venture North staff made it easy to access the county’s CBGD loan fund.
“Venture North has been unbelievable — they’ve been fantastic,” he said.
Galbraith acknowledged that accessing public business support dollars can be labor-intensive because of the requirements of the various programs, but that Venture North can help even the smallest of businesses maneuver the challenges.
“It’s a federal program so there’s some hoops to jump through, but we absolutely help them work through that,” she said.
Venture North can also help businesses with other critical services including legal, accounting and marketing needs.
“We’re constantly working with (clients) to secure these other resources,” Galbraith said.
Venture North is also spreading the word about the availability of another $700,000 in CBGD loan funds in Grand Traverse County, where it’s approved a few loans but still has a significant amount of financing available for businesses to create jobs and bolster economic development, particularly in underserved and lower-income areas of the region.
The county CBGD loan funds are the tip of the iceberg of the business development resources available through Venture North. The organization currently administers almost $12 million in business financing across the region through a myriad of loan programs. Those dollars have leveraged another $34 million in private financing from local lenders including Huntington and Fifth Third banks, West Shore Bank, Honor Bank, State Savings Bank and others.
Venture North’s efforts are also supported by several other local, state and regional organizations, including a $500,000 loan from the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, and $500,000 each from Rotary Charities and the Chicago-based Northern Trust Corp. global financial services firm to deepen Venture North’s lending pool. Support from other organizations including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. have also been critical to Venture North’s growth and success, Galbraith said.
“They’ve been very supportive of these programs,” Galbraith said of Venture North’s funding partners.
A Deeper Dive
Billups’ lifelong love of scuba diving was handed down from his father, an avid diver who possessed a recreational diving regulator once owned by world-renowned undersea explorer Jacque Cousteau, who co-invented the Aqua-Lung in 1943.
“I couldn’t get enough of it,” Billups said of enthusiasm for scuba diving, recalling memories of donning his dad’s diving gear as a kid. “I’d dive in a mud puddle if it was deep enough.”
But his passion for diving was a personal hobby until 2008, when the economic fallout from the Great Recession forced him out of the construction business down in Florida. He committed himself to “living the dive life” for three months while plotting a new career path.
“That three months became three years,” he said. He eventually invested in a dive shop in southern Florida called the Islamorada Dive Center in the Florida Keys in 2012, and later bought a second shop in that region called the Florida Keys Dive Center. When he and his wife decided they wanted to “reconnect” with their home state of Michigan and look at options for expanding his business here, their affinity and familiarity with Benzie County led him to a vacant building in downtown Beulah that he purchased last August.
“I really liked the location, and loved the building itself,” he said.
After what he described as “massive remodel job” where his construction skills came in handy, he opened the business last month and is planning an open house this Thursday, June 5, from 5-7 p.m. at the business which is located at 213 S. Benzie Blvd. in downtown Beulah. He’s also purchasing a home near Frankfort and said he and his family will split time between southern Florida and northern Michigan to operate the three businesses.
Billups wants his shop to become a gathering spot for outdoor and diving enthusiasts, and wants to bring the experience to local families and visitors from all sectors of the community.
He plans on launching a Scuba Camp for Kids in July, a five-day program to give families a low-cost option to get young people interested in diving, and will conduct three-hour diving demonstration programs in nearby Crystal Lake.
He’ll also offer a Divers with Disabilities initiative to help disabled people participate in diving, and works too with the Higher Ground national non-profit organization to help veterans struggling with PTSD to enjoy various water therapy activities.
After a lifetime of scuba diving — first as a hobby and now as a profession — Billups said the most excitement he gets from his passion these days in introducing others to scuba diving and other outdoor activities who might not otherwise be able to experience them.
“That’s what fires me up these days,” he said. “That’s what gets me going and that’s what keeps me going.”