Archive for April, 2009
Business Plan Competition- Sitting on the other side of the Table
Apr 14th
Over the last two years I’ve won the Joust Business plan competition for two different ventures. In 2007 my business partner Scott Wall and I presented our niche real estate publication for lease purchase properties and took first place winning $5,000. Then in 2008 I won again presenting GroupTable with another business partner Carl Henderson that time winning $12,000. I was pleasantly surprised when this year they asked me to return as a judge in the finals which took place this past Thursday.
This year’s winner was Helping Hands Healthcare, a service-based firm committed to providing superior consulting and installation of daily living aids to families with in-home healthcare needs.
Other finalists included: Mercury Mobile Software, a firm developing a home screen replacement application for smart phones; Orlando Search Engine Marketing, a search engine optimization (SEO) service provider; and Ski Florida, an indoor snow ski, snowboard and kids’ snow play facility.
It was truly a great experience for me being that I got to sit on the other side of the table with judges much older and more experienced than me.
Just to run through some of the other judges:
Rick Walsh
Mr. Walsh is President of the KnobHill Group, an investment and strategic counseling company. Prior to establishing the KnobHill Group, he served as Senior Vice President Corporate Affairs of Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) and was a founding member of the leadership team that took Darden public in 1995.
Mr. Walsh has been recognized as Orlando Business Journal’s “Businessman of the Year”; one of “Florida’s 100 Most influential” by Florida Trend Magazine; “25 Most Powerful People in Central Florida” by the Orlando Sentinel; and “50 Most Powerful People in Orlando” by Orlando Magazine.
Thomas Bland
G. Thomas Bland, Jr., serves as Chairman of the Board,CEO and president of AquaFiber Technologies Corporation.In 2004, Mr. Bland was inducted into the UCF College of Business Administration Hall of Fame. He currently is a member of the UCF College of Business Administration’s Dean’s Executive Council, and serves as a board member for the Florida Hospital Diabetes Foundation. He also established a home healthcare business, TenderCare Professional Assisted Living Services, Inc., for which he concurrently serves as Chairman of the Board.
Charlotte Williams
Charlotte Williams founded SummerHill Homes, a sucessful construction company, and then became a leading local real estate professional. Charlotte is now a top real estate agent and owner of ERA Williams Real Estate Group.
David Pape
Serial entrepreneur and investor with four successful start-ups and over 30 years of experience. Mr. Pape has developed a keen eye for lucrative market niches and an innovative ability to develop opportunities.
The competition was sponsored by Steven Felkowitz, CEO of Atico International. His company, Atico International is a full service sourcing and product development company that provides retailers, wholesalers and distributors with the insight and worldwide relationships to build a successful import program. I heard they generate over $600M a year in revenue…I guess he could afford to sponsor the prize money and event over the last few years.
Getting to know these extremely successful business professionals and investors on a more personal level was a great experience. I was the youngest judge by far and was judging students I went to school with less than a year ago, as well as students currently enrolled in the MBA program. Being a judge gave me a taste of where I want to be eventually (sooner than later), which is an angel investor sitting on the other side of the table listening to entrepreneurs pitch, investing in companies I like and working with them to help them grow.
This was truly a great experience.
Social Media Marketing- Special Free Report from Forrester Research
Apr 8th
Social Media Marketing can be a powerful way to grow your business if done correctly. Forrester Research, a top technology and market research company recently published an excellent report explaining 
Sponsored Conversations and how to integrate them into your social media strategy and marketing plan to grow your business.
The Forrester report is typically $749, but can be downloaded for free Here.
Flutter to Replace Twitter?
Apr 7th
Rumor has it that a new innovative social media site and nano-blogging software is growing extremely quickly and according to it’s numbers is poised to surpass and overtake twitter within several months. It’s name…Flutter
Obviously this is a joke….The video does pokes fun at some real issues though. For instance what’s next in the realm of social media. Twitter has been around since March, 2006…That’s over three years! 
The early adopters of social media & technology, people like Brian Solis, Chris Brogan and others have been using twitter for a very long time, however it hasn’t been until the last 3-6 months that there seems to be a twitter boom amongst the main stream. Maybe it’s because Barrack Obama is on twitter or celebrities like Ellen, Puff Daddy, Austin Kucher and more are now active on twitter. What’s interesting is that my girlfriend @Lindsay273 is now active on twitter when a year ago she used to make fun of me for using it and didn’t quite get it. Technology is constantly evolving and there’s always something next on the horizon, something that the early adopters begin to migrate towards. I once heard one of the founders of twitter mention that they want twitter to be a social utility like a telephone. There are also stories of people using twitter in strange ways such as turning off the lights in their home or allowing your un-born baby to tweet, but will twitter every be adopted as a main stream method of communication like email or the telephone, or will it just get acquired and trail off over time?
IZEA’s Site Get’s An Upgrade
Apr 3rd
I had to make a post to give props to our design & marketing team at IZEA for releasing a new version of IZEA.com. The new interface allows for so much more informative content and looks great!
By visiting IZEA’s site you can view an awesome case study on IZEA’s social media campaign for Kmart and download Forrester Research’s recent report on sponsored conversations. Another great thing that we’ve added to the new site is that you can see a list of IZEA’s clients including brands like USA Networks, 1-800 Flowers, ColdStone, Dockers, and many more. You can also view a sample of some of the premium bloggers, all of whom I’ve interacted with over the last few months and our IZEA insiders.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for?
