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From the Minor Leagues in Appleton to the big stage
May 11, 2026
WAUSAU – NorthStar Restoration Services is celebrating a major win, as Co-owner/Founder Jay Cricks said the company earned the Wausau Area Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year award in its first year as a nominee.
“When they said ‘NorthStar,’ I was in shock,” he said. “Then, I just heard this big roar of all of our staff… They started hooting and hollering and cheering. It was really an awesome feeling.”
With many of the for-profit finalists being multi-year nominees – such as Chase Outdoors LLC, CWAV LLC, The Palms Supper Club and Restlawn Memorial Park LLC, according to wausauchamber.com – Cricks said it was an honor to win the award in NorthStar’s first year out.
“There were some really good businesses we were up against,” he said. “I think one of the businesses has been around for 80 years, there’s another that has been nominated three times…, so we didn’t take anything for granted. We were holding our breath and had our fingers crossed.”
Awarded at the chamber’s recent Business Expo, due to severe weather in the North Central region – including an EF-3 tornado that struck the Ringle and Weston areas last month – Cricks said many of his staff weren’t able to attend the event, and subsequently the recognition.
“We were inundated with calls because of the storms in the area,” he said.
That kind of dedication to its customers and community, however, is what Cricks said he believes made NorthStar stand out against its competition for the award.
“That was one of our secret weapons, or ‘special sauce,’” he said. “We’ve always said, ‘if you want to be part of the community, then be part of the community.’”
Humble beginnings, rapid growth
Cricks said he and his Co-owner/founder, Shawn Millikin, were informed of their nomination a couple of months prior to the Wausau Business Expo.
“I guess somebody or a couple of members of the community had nominated us for Small Business of the Year,” he said. “We were pretty surprised when the chamber notified us… they wanted us to move forward with the application process.”
Cricks said the application to become a finalist prompted a trip down memory lane for himself and Millikin.
“We had quite a few afternoons of going back and forth, talking about different milestones that we’ve hit as a company,” he said.
Cricks said NorthStar Restoration Services – initially featured by The Business News in its Jan. 6, 2026 issue – was born out of humble origins, but has enjoyed rapid growth ever since.
“The business started out of our homes,” he said. “It grew, got to be too big for our personal homes and [prompted us to buy] our first building, which we thought was going to be our ‘forever home.’ Quickly, within a few short years, we realized we were already bursting at the seams.”
Memories such as NorthStar’s transition from its first facility on Stewart Avenue to its current home “right down the road,” Cricks said, were reignited as he and Millikin decided which milestones to include in their award application.
“It was fun going through old pictures, going over big jobs that we did in the past, customers who we’ve met over the years and talking about all the different employees who we’ve had,” he said. “We have a couple of guys who have been with us [for more than] a decade, so they’ve seen a lot.”
‘Our key to success’
NorthStar and its employees, Cricks said, are often called in to help during some of people’s most difficult days.
“Their home could have just had a fire, their basement could have just been washed out – who knows what it is,” he said. “So, our staff goes through a lot, meeting a lot of customers who are feeling despair, and when all of your customers are feeling despair, it makes it a difficult job.”
For that reason, Cricks said NorthStar employees must have a high-level of empathy for each customer they encounter.
“You don’t want to just be dismissive of their feelings and what they’re going through, especially in something like a home, where it’s our most intimate space,” he said. “So, there’s a lot of emotion that goes into the work we do.”
That’s why Cricks said NorthStar’s leadership focuses on creating an environment in which employees can thrive despite needing to perform under consistent emotional pressure.
“We like to give them a good outlet to release,” he said. “In the summertime, we’ll roll the grill out on a Friday, and all the staff who are coming back, we’ll hand them a burger or a brat [to] clock out and just hang out… Sometimes we do a cornhole tournament or whatever [we can] just to let them relax [and] build that camaraderie with their co-workers.”
NorthStar’s workplace culture is another aspect Cricks said he believes played a role in it being named Small Business of the Year.
“I think having an environment like that and being such a great place to work, even though we do dirty work, really helps build the culture of NorthStar,” he said. “Other businesses or members of the community see we have a pretty good employee culture, and the people who do this work genuinely like to help people and give back.”
Either through internal events or community gatherings, Cricks said NorthStar and its team are always looking for additional ways to give back.
“We have about a 2,000-square-foot space right at NorthStar that we open up to the community,” he said. “Inviting them in to see what we’re made of, or getting out there into the community and participating in other people’s events – that certainly has been our key to success.”
Bridge Street Mission – an organization, which according to bridgestreetmission.org, helps “individuals who struggle with homelessness, addictions, hunger and sustaining a stable life” – was named Small Business of the Year finalist in the nonprofit category.
Upcoming events
In the wake of the EF-3 tornado and other severe weather events in North Central Wisconsin, Cricks said NorthStar is hosting several educational events – one being for area home or property owners impacted by recent disasters.
NorthStar, he said, is hosting a Lunch and Learn event May 13 focused on navigating recovery efforts after the Ringle tornado – featuring insights from Andrew G. McCabe, a nationally recognized restoration and insurance-claims professional.
Then, May 14-15, Cricks said McCabe will stick around for a two-day “Restoration Spring Training Camp,” geared toward area contractors.
For more information on either event, visit NorthStar Restoration Services’ Facebook page.
