Helper merchants recognized as best new small business in county

Natural Born Adventures
    The owners of a small business in Helper were honored earlier this month with the local Small Business Development Center’s 2017 Client of the Year award, joining only a handful of other fledgling enterprises across Utah to receive the distinction.
    Clear Creek Adventures is not yet a year old, but it is already woven into the eclectic culture taking root in Helper.
    Johnny and Mallery Dunn are the owners. They started the business as a part-time endeavor last April. Mallery might be familiar to you if you are a fan of KRPX 95.3 The Peak. She is the Mallery behind the Mallery in the Morning show.
    The couple met at Carbon High School, have been married 11 years and have a nine-year-old son who has inherited his parent’s entrepreneurial spirit.
    The Dunns sat down with the Sun Advocate recently to talk about their business, how they started it, what their goals are and their reactions to winning the SBDC award.
A Q&A with Johnny and Mallery Dunn, owners, Clear Creek Adventures
Q: How long was this business in the works before you opened?
JD: A little over a year. The ideas, the planning and all that stuff.
Q: Where did the idea come from to start this business?
JD: I’ve always been interested in being an entrepreneur. When we saw all the excitement happening here in Helper, everybody looking for stuff to do here. I’m already an adventure guy, mountain biking, all that stuff. It was a perfect fit. Helper needed something like this, so we just had to do it.
Q: Describe your roles with the company?
MD: With it being primarily a weekend gig, I work part-time at the radio station, so I work there and then come here. We split Saturdays and Sundays and it’s just the two of us.
Q: You guys are closed for winter, when do you open again?
JD: We’ll open April 1 for the spring. We’ll start trying to get the word out there, get the tours booked, things like that. We’re open four days a week, Friday through Monday. That’s the main tourism time right now.
Q: Are you guys online, do you have a web presence?
MD: The website is clearcreekadventures.com. We also have Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, we have it all.
Q: How would you describe your main clientele?
MD: At the very beginning, we thought our main clientele would be tourists, but the locals kind of blew us away. So now, we’re a little bit of everything. The locals love coming and doing the electric bikes and the packages, kayaks and paddle board rentals; yet, the tourists as well are a huge benefit for us as well.
Q: Where are you getting tourists from mainly, who are you attracting to Helper?
JD: Mainly up north, Salt Lake area. Helper is seeing a massive influx from all over the country, but people specifically stopping for us are usually from up north and the Salt Lake area.
Q: You’re almost to your first anniversary, what have been some of the best moments about owning this business?
MD: I think some of the funnest things are seeing families that come and rent the paddle boards or the kayaks and go out for just the day onto the lake, where they typically wouldn’t because they don’t have the means to do it. They don’t want to go out and buy these items, but it’s still something the entire family can enjoy. It’s fun to see families kind of come out and do things together outdoors. It’s been a lot of fun.
JD: For me it’s been being involved with Helper itself. Helper’s been doing a lot of things to get people out and about, shopping, exploring the area. So it’s been great being a part of that.
Q: Were there any challenges along the way your first year that you didn’t expect?
JD: Yeah. This business is all about getting the word out. So in your first year, obviously, no one knows about you. So there are a lot of hours, sitting here waiting for the phone to ring. So you have to keep pushing and pushing. It’s been great. It’s surprised us how popular it’s been.
Q: Describe your core products and services, what can customers expect from their experience with you?
JD: We do road biking tours. And that includes shuttling the people, the bikes, the equipment, and then you ride your bike through Huntington Canyon or Nine Mile. So you’re on your own riding the bike. But then we provide you with the camping gear—it’s a two-day-ride—so you get your camping gear, food, everything is on the house. All you do is ride and enjoy the scenery. We also rent out our outdoor gear, our paddle boards, kayaks, electric bikes, camping gear.
Q: What sort of merchandise do you guys sell, I mean besides adventure tours?
MD: We’ve got t-shirts, hats, mugs cups. We have specialty earrings made from recycled bike tubes. We are in the process of making some new designs specifically geared toward Helper. We’ll have some really cool merchandise that will have the Helper name on it and it’ll be really neat. Ashley Hardy down at Canvas Alchemy has helped us design a couple of t-shirts. We don’t have any to show you because they sold out instantly.
Q: What prepared you to do this, to be a local outdoor guide?
JD: I know this area as well as anybody. I’ve ridden these areas a hundred times. I know them. I knew everybody else would like them, too. If you’re a bike rider, you’re going to like these rides. I’ve been doing it for years, so I knew I’d be able to do it.
Q: What are some of your longer term goals with the business?
JD: With the locals we are just looking to get more equipment. We need more electric bikes. They are sold out every day. My kayaks are always gone. We need to upgrade…For the tourists and the tours, we need to focus on getting the word out there.
Q: So, tell me about this small business award.
JD: It was an SBDC award, Small Business Development Center. It’s a Utah-wide development center for small businesses. This was out at the college here (Utah State University Eastern). Ryan Murray (USUE SBDC Director) does it. When we first started we went to him to learn what to do. We had no idea what we were doing. He gave us the low down on what to do, if it was a good idea or not, basically everything we needed to learn.
MD: They just kind of steer you in the right direction. Their goal is to just help small businesses kind of hit the ground running and succeed. We worked with Ryan Murray from the very beginning. Johnny was meeting with him for probably a year before we opened our doors. They were able to help us along the way. Every single Small Business Development Center throughout the entire state of Utah was a ble to select one client of the year. Here in Carbon County, they selected us for client of the yeat.
Q: Were you guys surprised when you got it?
JD: There’s been a lot of businesses opening up lately, all of them good businesses. So when we heard, it was pretty cool. We were invited to the state capitol in Salt Lake. They had a big reception there. We were given an award and plaque.
MD: It was really great.
    Check out Clear Creek Adventures next time you’re in Helper, it’s on Main Street. Or visit them online at www.clearcreekadventures.com.