entrepreneurship
Orlando Big Summit 2011 Recap
Nov 11th
I had a blast today at the Orlando BIG Summit at Full Sail University. The day was packed with excitement and had innovation & inspiration in the air. The day started off with a motivating speech from Full Sail president Garry Jones. During his presentation he shared the story of how Full Sail was founded…very entrepreneurial. Jones encountered many of the challenges that many entrepreneurs face including cash flow issues, uncertainty and lack of ROI on advertising spends. One big take away I took from his presentation was his tip for success:
Relentlessly evolve…change with what changes around you and put people first.
Following Garry Jones Kevin Harrington a world-renowned direct response marketer, infomercial genius and investor on the Shark Tank spoke. After speaking several other judges (Investors) were brought onto the stage and a mock “shark tank” was held where several entrepreneurs pitched their business venture in the hopes of raising capital. Really cool! This was a flash back to when I pitched in the UCF Business plan competition- the Joust, which I won two years in a row, and later judged twice.
Incidentally, Tom from Bongobox, a company that “Makes Moving Less Sucky” won. Following this Orlando’s Mayor Buddy Dyer spoke and discussed Orlando’s entrepreneurial economy and plans. Dyer mentioned that Orlando is #1 in the nation for job creation in companies with less than 100 people. Awesome stat!
The co-founder & CTO of Grooveshark Josh Greenberg also spoke discussing the challenges that his team had when growing their business and how they overcame them.
Later in the day after lunch, which was catered by Arthurs- who catered my wedding the awards for the Big Awards were given.
Props to my good friends at GroundFlights who won the Orlando Inc 2011 Business Innovation and Growth award at the Big Summit today. Check out their awesome commercial when you get a chance. Very well done!
Finally Gary Vaynerchuck gave the keynote and as expected… Crushed it! He spoke about his life story…immigrating into the US from the Soviet Union, franchising a lemonade stand business at 5 and picking up his money on his big wheel…lol , selling baseball cards making $2k+ a weekend and then taking his family business, a wine company, from $3M to $70M by leveraging the power of social media. True American dream story…pure hustle and passion!
Another big thing Gary talked about was building relationships as opposed to push marketing and the importance of building relationships with individual customers, listening to them and doing random acts of kindness. I know first hand that this is very challenging and time consuming, but can pay dividends if you’re willing to make the investment.
Gary discussed traditional media versus engaging through social media and the fact that consumers have more power than ever before because they have instant access to the wisdom of their social circle of influence. This causes the good brands and products to rise to the top and the bad to get exposed. If you’re not listening to what’s being said about your brand or industry you are really setting yourself up for failure. The truth is participating and alone is not enough…you actually have to be better. In a capitalist society the market will indicate what is the best and the fact that everyone is so connected with enable the good (and the bad) to travel very quickly.
If you haven’t checked out Gary Vaynerchuck definitely follow him on twitter: @garyvee and check out his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/gary . He also video blogs often at Wine Library.
Junior Achievement Presentation
Jun 20th
Today I spoke at the Junior Achievement CEO academy to a great group of promising high school juniors and seniors. The Junior Achievement CEO academy boot camp is a very cool program. Students must apply to be enrolled and a certain amount are selected. Students then attend the camp at Florida Gulf Coast University where guest speakers come talk to them about various business related topics. In addition to listening to presentations the camp goes a step further and breaks the students into groups that develop and present a business plan at the end of the week. Business leaders from the community then come and judge the competition.
I was asked to speak about entrepreneurship with the goal of motivating the students to begin pursuing their entrepreneurial journey and have a great week at the camp.
Many people at this age, and many others, want to launch a successful business, but don’t necessarily have a start-up or business concept yet.
Rather than talk about how to market a business I focused my presentation on the following topics:
- Developing a personal brand- How it provides a solid foundation for entrepreneurial & professional success.
- Gaining experience and specialized knowledge-Becoming a student of the “game” you choose to play.
- Standing on the shoulders of Giants-Connecting with and leveraging mentors, advisers and thought leaders.
- Growing & managing your brand online-Beginning to reveal your expertise online & reputation management
- The Entrepreneurial mindset- What to be prepared for, being a problem solver, putting yourself in a position to succeed, etc.
My logic was that whatever business these students decided to go into these principles would help them.
Junior Achievement CEO Academy Presentation by David Brim of GroupTable and Brand Advance
The presentation above doesn’t include the personal anecdotes or additional depth I added regarding the topics referenced, but I still thought it would be worth while to share the presentation slides here.
After the presentation the students asked a number of questions, some of them were specifically related to start-ups they wanted to launch. It was very exciting to see their passion at such a young age. When many high school students are out hanging with friends, or playing sports, these students committed themselves to learning more to become successful in business. It was a fantastic experience and I look forward to helping out with Junior Achievement more in the future.
Warning: Build your personal brand now, or you’ll regret it later
Mar 6th
February 17th I spoke at the University of Central Florida for their “Entrepreneurial Speaker Series” in front of an audience of 50-60 ambitious business students. The topic was on marketing strategies for entrepreneurs….I decided to take a slightly different direction to help students from falling into a very common trap that can severely injure or even kill a professional career or start up’s chance of success.
The information I shared with the students I spoke with is relevant for many of my readers and others out there. With that being said I thought I’d share it here as well.
First off a small back story to put everything in context…
Over the last six months or so I’ve given probably five different speeches/presentations, primarily to start-ups and second stage companies. This actually included a talk at the Florida Technology Partnership event in Ft. Myers two days prior to my talk at UCF. As I was in my hotel room in Ft Myers, after my speech to a group of CEOs and marketing executives, I had a thought….I’ve given essentially the same presentation the last five times or so that I’ve talked focused on marketing strategy, SEO, Social Media and branding. Though this presentation was good I realized this information and delivery is perfect for those who already have companies and are trying to grow them, but will it add the same value to motivated college students. Many of these college students aspire to be an entrepreneur, but don’t have a venture in mind let alone a product or service to market now.
What should I do…Should I give the same presentation or craft a new one. My talk was scheduled for 1 hour and I altruistically always want to make sure my audience gets the most from my experiences and insight.
Unsure of how to approach it, especially with a day and a half to go and lots of work to do at Brand Advance the next day…I decided to sleep on it and plan my attack on my drive back to Orlando from Ft. Myers (about 3-4 hours).
I started to go through a simple marketing exercise that I take my clients through at Brand Advance and thought about who I was trying to reach and influence….what are their problems, motivations, experiences, etc. What can I offer to impact them the most and add the highest value.
In the case of students, learning new marketing tactics to grow brand awareness of a business isn’t as important and essential as learning how to market themselves…after all you are the only product you will have for the rest of your life. If you can perfect marketing and building your personal brand through the process you will learn and understand how to market other brands as well. Building brand you will continue to pay dividends and attract great opportunities into your life.
Personal branding is more important today than ever before. Unemployment is extremely high, more people are graduating and more people are getting laid off from their jobs.
What does this mean?
It means that you have more competition for both obtaining a job, and growing your entrepreneurial ventures. What causes you to stand out and land that good job, find investment funding, gain experienced mentors, or align yourself with those who will be energized to work on your start up?
It’s your personal brand- made up of your credibility, past achievements, experiences, the way you carry yourself, who you associate with, and the knowledge you have in your respective field.
Here’s how I foresee many falling into the trap…
- A student graduates excited to get a job in their field
- Realize that unemployment is extremely high and get a job in an un-related field to pay the bills until they can find a better job, or launch their start-up.
- They end up working in that unrelated job for years, not building experiences and credibility in their respective field and not keeping educated on new trends and industry knowledge.
- When the market turns around in a few years an employer is going to hire either a fresh college grad that they can mold, or hire someone who was laid off in the field with industry specific experience.
- The college student working in an unrelated field to pay the bills will be stuck in a weird spot…they won’t have enough industry specific knowledge to get a relevant job or launch a viable start-up that solves a market need.
- They then are at a time to move on in their life and get married and have a kid at some point making it even harder to close the gap as others who get on the inside track in an industry so to speak.
So the question becomes….How do you solve this and avoid the trap?
Here’s my thoughts…
- Get Educated…I’m not talking about a school education, though in some fields like medical and education this is essential. I’m talking about keeping up with industry trends and learning how others in your field are staying on top of their game. School is great at teaching you how to learn or the basic fundamentals in a given area. Truth be told many of the trends that can really help you can’t be taught in school because the teachers are too busy teaching older text book lessons to keep up with them. Even if they did teach you something innovative or forward thinking they are also teaching everyone else. You need to learn more than other students in your classes….remember you are competing with students graduating at schools all across the country as well as those experienced industry professionals who have lost their jobs.
- Stand on the Shoulders of Giants / Get Connected…It’s essential to begin developing relationships with influencers in your respective field. These influencers can connect you to other influencers and if you’ve built your personal brand, have credibility and deliver good results this can be a continual never ending process. You can meet potential business partners, employers, investors and much more. Also- those who are more experienced in an industry also will be able to see trends that you may not that can assist you in developing new ventures. Building your network of mentors is also another very wise thing to do. They will have a personal interest in seeing you succeed and will be able to connect you to others in their network to assist with your endeavors.
- Flex your expertise / Build your brand awareness: Once you’ve found innovative trends and can begin constructing your own thoughts on various industry topics begin flexing your expertise by starting a blog utilizing wordpress.org or blogger.com. I also recommend identifying top bloggers in your field and build a relationship with them by commenting on their blog or talking with them on twitter…If possible see if you can become a guest writer for their blog, which in many cases will have thousands of readers. I also would suggest finding online groups and physical networking groups (ex: Linkedin, Google/Yahoo Groups & Meetup) to join as well as answering industry related questions in Q&A sites like yahoo answers. Revealing your expertise through blogging and online networking will work wonders…I have gotten clients from my blog, job offers, new venture opportunities, media coverage and much more.
- Leverage your successes: Often times people will achieve something that can differentiate them from their competitors, but will not put it out there. It’s not bragging, it’s establishing credibility and showing your value. Create an achievements page, it’s essentially an interactive resume. It’s much more powerful than a regular resume because it can go more in depth, show pictures and even link off to other pages where you elaborate.
- Control your brand online or someone else will: You ideally should want to own the page when someone types your name into Google with content that you want them to see. Employers will search for you, potential business partners, customers, investors and many more. This is a huge part of building your brand online. You want it to be easy for others to find you and when they do you want their findings to represent how you want your brand to be perceived.Purchase your own domain name if you can get it, or some sort of variation. This can be done at godaddy.com. Get a wordpress blog up, which should take about 10 mins or so and start blogging! Also be sure to watch what you post on Facebook as well as what others post. Know your brand and what you are trying to convey and don’t do anything contradictory to that because it may end up online. Everyone has smart phones with cameras and video recorders these days…Your slip could be the next viral sensation and really damage your brand.
- Launch a start up: Once you’ve taken time to build your personal brand you should have connections and an understanding of trends occurring in the market place. In my mind at this point it’s not a bad thing to start planning and getting your start up concept in motion. Even if you fall flat on your face you’ll learn. Don’t get discouraged entrepreneurship can have a lot of ups and downs, but more potential risk…more potential reward. Note: I would never recommend running up your credit cards and sinking all your money into a startup. This kind of financial strain is never really a good idea unless you have some strong proof of concept. Best case scenario….Your start up will be a success and you’ll create a job for yourself or better yet an asset that will make you millions. At a minimum you can equip yourself with something to differentiate yourself from others in a job interview. Working on a pet project and showing potential and traction is in my eyes much more impressive than a coffee grabbing internship, unrelated job, or high gpa. It shows that you are a self starter, are resourceful, disciplined and can add the same value to another organization as well.By the way colleges are a great place to launch a business for a large variety of reasons.
Anyway I just looked at the clock and it’s 3:48 am…time flies when your in the zone. Another thought on that note…be prepared to work long hours at times. Launching a start up and building a personal brand, especially when working another job takes a lot of hours. Don’t let your health suffer, but be prepared to put the time in. It will eventually pay off.
Remember: If it was easy everyone would be doing it!
I hope this post helped. If you please share it with others in your network via Facebook, Twitter, Digg, delicious or Stumble Upon.
Good luck on your journey to success and watch out for the trap!
Let me know what you thought about the post in the comments below.
Entrepreneur Wives
May 25th
Guest post from my fiance @lindsay273
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I recently discovered a guilty pleasure of mine is the show “Basketball Wives”. I started thinking that there is something to be said for Entrepreneur’s wives, future wives and girlfriends. Entrepreneurs are very unique and special individuals. They are self starters, they are motivated, intelligent and they do not let anything get in their way. The women that stand beside them must be supportive, inspirational, intelligent and understanding. I feel there is something truly to be said about a man who can start something from nothing, watch it grow and then provide their own livelihood. It is so easy to go out and get a job working for someone else to collect a paycheck, the hard road is to pave that road yourself and make your own footprints. 
I am 25 years old and I have been with my Fiance’ David for over 5 years. We recently got engaged and are getting married next April! I love David with all my heart and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for him but being by his side through his ups and downs has been a challenge. One day David decided to move to Orlando to attend and graduate from UCF and also to place himself in a better city for entrepreneurship. This was a major decision for his life and it turned out to be such a positive move for him. He won two business plan competitions, made incredible connections, gained a lot of respect and got footing for himself in an unknown city. For me, this move was devastating. I had to stay behind in Pittsburgh to finish college while my man moved to Florida. At the time I couldn’t understand how he could just leave me. But as I stated above, a true entrepreneur doesn’t let anything or anyone get in the way of their dreams. We did the whole long distance thing and then it came time for me to make a decision. Do I stay in PA with my family, friends, my life etc.. or do I move to Florida to be with my man? Of course I moved to be with Dave. This was extremely hard for me because I never pictured myself living in a different state than my family and friends but I knew Dave wasn’t coming back to Pittsburgh anytime soon and I believed in our relationship. I did what had to be done, packed up and moved. I am thankful that Dave didn’t give up on me because it took me a full year to stop getting extremely home sick and I was a handful.
As time evolved and I became adjusted to the move I really got to see first hand the beauty of an entrepreneurs work. I cant even count the number of ideas, projects and visions that Dave has shared with me. You always hear about women who are looking for a meal ticket in this world or more commonly known as “gold diggers”. If you are with your man and can support them when they are selling cds in the hood or working at a department store and then continue to support them when they are calling you from their private plane while you are on the yacht, that is love. Being with an entrepreneur can be just as stressful and more worth than an NBA wife, rapper wife or whatever. Our men work long hours, they travel a lot, they may not have much time to help you with certain things (wedding planning) and Im not even going to acknowledge infidelity issues that you always hear about involving men with money because that has nothing to do with your occupation, that has to do with your relationship and respect. If a women is not supportive of their entrepreneur man, the relationship is never going to work. We also have to be extremely understanding and most importantly just always there for them. Their careers are always going to be up and down, hopefully more ups than downs of course but no matter what we are to always be there. In this life you could be worth 3.2 million one day and the next -3.8 million.
I think that it is so important for our men to know that no matter what, we are here for you. Whether you’re poor or rich, its me and you always. I don’t come from a family of entrepreneurs. My father is an extremely intelligent engineer, my mother is in real estate and I work as a Physical therapist assistant. This is a whole new life with totally new challenges but if you have the man that you want to spend your life with in the driver seat, let him take you for the ride. “Nobody said it would be easy, they said it would be worth it”.
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Well done Linds!
If you liked this check out her last post on being an entrepreneur’s valentine
Show her some love!
Tips for Investor Pitches
Apr 19th
This past Friday I had the opportunity for the second year in a row to Judge the UCF Joust Business plan competition. This competition, one that I previously won two different times, is organized by UCF’s college of business and numerous successful business leaders and investors are invited to judge various team’s business plans, venture viability, and pitch.
I learned a large amount by participating in the competitions as a contestant when I was in school, however being on the other side of the table teaches you a great deal and is a fantastic learning experience as well. For the record…I like being on the investor side much better 
Here’s 5 quick tips on helping you successfully pitch your business to investors, or judges in a business plan competition.
- Strong Attention Grabbing Opener- Try opening your presentation in a way that relates to your audience. Asking a question or utilizing a “Picture this” or “Think back when” statement is one that I often used in the past….Have you ever (been in this bad situation or felt like this)…well millions of others do every day. But we have come up with a solution…I’ll get to that momentarily. My name is (X) and I’m with (X company).
- Follow a Logical Sequence- The sequence I usually use is a modified version of “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence”. Attention Grabber–>Market–>problem–>solution (your product/service)–>Team–>Marketing plan–>Sales–>Financials–>Ask
This keeps your presentation on track and flowing smoothly. - Don’t Read Directly from the slides! The first two teams who presented on Friday read directly from the slides. This is not only very boring, but it also shows that you’re not very knowledgeable about your business. Reading from the slides also prohibits your passion for your venture from showing. Showing your passion is a very important part of selling your audience on a concept. The first two teams that presented this past Friday read from their slides and I wanted to slap some sense into them!
Please don’t make this same mistake. - Utilize Visuals- This tip goes with my last point and makes your presentation more engaging. Don’t simply put massive amounts of text on your slides. If your presenting about an actual product, bring your product or a beta in to share it with your audience. The other option is simply adding graphics to your presentation:
- Add pictures of your market
- Add images that represent the pain they are facing
- Add graphics of your product or service offering
- Add images showing your marketing initiatives
- Show a graph of your financials (revenue, expenses and break even - Make sure your financials are solid! One team that presented in the competition didn’t even have financials! One of the other teams had financials that were very incomplete. The team spoke a large amount about their marketing and how they would capture 5% of a large market and didn’t even allocate a marketing budget! Don’t make this mistake! I would recommend having an income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement and financial assumptions. If you are very early stage everyone is going to know these are not 100% accurate, however you need to be able to defend these financial statements….hence the reason for your financial assumptions.
Now there are a lot more tips that can be said, but these were the five that really stuck out in my mind after judging the competition Friday.
I wish all of you the best of luck in your various entrepreneurial endeavors. If I can be of any assistance let me know!
If there are any other tips my readers would like to share feel free to drop a comment.
Cheers,
David
Are you an Entrepreneur? Here’s a Challenge for you
Dec 7th
I recently came across an interesting video from Stamford University’s Entrepreneurship program. A professor there came up with an interesting challenge for her entrepreneurship students. First she formed them into groups then gave them each “seed funding” of $5. The groups had 4-5 days to plan and then had 2 hours to make as much money as possible after their envelope was opened. Afterward the groups presented their findings and outcome in front of the class.
There were some really creative ideas. The team that generated the most money actually ended up selling their 3 minute presentation slot to a company interested in recruiting the students.
Some ideas that I think would do quite well include:
1) Buying tickets and cans then raffling off “dates” for group members. (This depends on the attractiveness of the group members. This could also be an auction where the highest bidder wins the date)
2) Massages for $X or doing them free for donations.
3) Hold a focus group for businesses in the area so they can better understand and reach college/grad students. Call restaurants and solicit food donations. This focus group concept could be held for almost any vertical. You could simply give the participants a free lunch and charge the companies $10-$20.
4) Hold a educational session on how to use twitter or new media to grow your business. Again lunch would be provided through solicitations and you would charge people to attend.
5) Call a magician or other skilled person (artist, musician, etc) and invite local parents and kids (or the talent’s target market). Convince the talent to perform for free to get his name out there and request $10 for admission for attendees giving half to charity. People give their money away a lot easier when they know a portion goes to charity. You could also get food donated for this event as well.
Well it’s late and that’s all I got for now. I may add some more later.
What do you think about this challenge? Which was your favorite of my ideas? What would you do with $5 and 2 hours to generate the most money possible?
British Airlines helps your business Take off- Small Business Contest
Sep 17th
A recent study done by The Harvard Business Review and British Airlines identified that face to face meetings have the potential to make or break your business. (More Information here)
I can verify this statement through experience. About two years ago i co-founded a collaboration software called GroupTable. What I’ve found through my interactions with GroupTable and other collaborative software applications is that they are best utilized to keep a group cohesive and connected when apart….not as a replacement for physical meetings.
Here’s just a few ways you could take advantage of travel services like those offered by British Airlines to grow your business:
- If your considering a new supplier or distributor…why not fly out and check out their facilities? Seeing their establishment and meeting their team can help you make a more informed decision. This kind of thing could save you thousands of dollars or help you rest easy knowing that your making the correct decision.
- Trying to close a big client? Show your commitment by flying out to meet him. Much of sales in any industry is developing a relationship built on trust, communication and rapport. Of course you have to have a good product or service, but developing a great relationship will only result in the deal getting closed faster, future sales and lots of referrals.
- Spending time face to face with a potential partner can really help you get a sense of who they are. After handling business go have a drink with them and get to know them more personally. Would you want to be in business with someone you don’t know or don’t get a good vibe with?….I know I don’t
- More productive meetings…if meetings are structured properly and those attending are prepared in person meetings have the potential to be much more productive than virtual meetings. Many times quick meetings can be done effectively through collaborative tools like GroupTable, but for extensive meetings that are more involved having a large whiteboard to diagram and plan things out is very helpful. Though many collaborative tools have whiteboards you don’t get the same effect or end result.
Now we all know that we’re in a economic recession and most businesses are cutting back on nearly all expenses including travel. Once you give it a try I’m sure you’ll see that face to face meetings often pay for themselves.
Still not convinced….How can you find the budget to invest in seeing this for your self?
Well I the great news is that British Airlines has a contest where they are offering a business grant to 100 companies. Each grant consists of a years worth of business class travel anywhere British Airways flies! But….that’s not all!
I can’t help that I sound like an infomercial it’s cool what they are doing
See for yourself…
The Grant
- British Airways airfare for 10 round-trip Club World business class flights.
- 5 free British Airways World Cargo freight shipments of up to 500 kilos to worldwide destinations
- $1000 toward accommodation at Courtyard by Marriott
- 5 Regus Businessworld Gold Cards providing access to business lounges worldwide
- Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer
Applying for the grant is easy all you need to do is answer a few questions about your business objectives in 2010 and how this grant could help.
I strongly encourage all aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners to enter the contest by visiting: Business Opportunity Grant Contest
New Beginnings
May 15th
We’re in the midst of the worst economy since the great depression. People are getting laid off or fired everyday and thousands of college graduates (and millions of others) across the country are struggling to find a job. With that said why in the world would I choose to quit my job now?
Allow me to explain…
First off let me say that I not only quit my job, but a job at a really great work environment with awesome people and fun/unique company culture….Where else do you ring in new hires with tequila shots, have cubicle decorating contests and plow your face into cake on your birthday & anniversary of employment? Of course I’m talking about IZEA, a top social media marketing company that operates SocialSpark, PayPerPost and more.
So the question I know many people are thinking…Why the H*ll did you quit? or What is he thinking?
Well I have always been a person that doesn’t shy away from challenges. I have also always trusted my gut, which was one of the main reasons why I moved to Orlando in the first place. I knew no-one in Florida, but something told me this was the right choice. That decision turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and over the last 2 years I’ve accomplished a great deal.
Besides trusting my gut I also moved to Orlando to be in a fertile environment to grow my own ventures. My goal has always been to create jobs for others, not be bound by an hourly job and to grow extremely wealthy in the process. Then be able to give back and help other young entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.
With these goals constantly in mind I came to the conclusion that IZEA has done all it can to assist me in reaching them at this stage in my life.
I’ve really enjoyed my time at IZEA, feel that I have learned a great deal and built relationships with a lot of great people, however now is the time for me to go hard after my goals. As time passes many people sink into a mode of comfortably and they stop striving and are content with their current situation. Though this is completely alright for some people at this point in my life this is not okay for me. At this time I have no children to pay for and no major expenses. There’s no better time for me than right now. If you desire to reach your goals no matter what they may be you have to go for it. When there’s more risk, there is a greater chance for more of a reward. In addition to that my dad taught me a long time ago that you improve and grow the most during periods of uncertainty and turmoil. If you’re not working through problems or challenges your performing not growing. I recently saw a great quote on Drew Mclellans blog: “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”
That quote really sums up how I feel and why I did what I did. I have so much of a desire to achieve my goals that fear seems very trivial in comparison. Some may call me foolish, some may call me outright stupid, but the way I see it it needed to be done. I have full confidence in my abilities and in god and know I will make it work.
Stay tuned…
More to come
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.
Ideas Versus Implementation
Feb 24th
So many people have ideas for ventures they feel would succeed. They keep these ideas in the back of their mind and think that one day they may find the time or money to actually launch it. This will rarely ever happen….Great things may come to those who wait, but are left over from those who hustle. 
It’s all based on risk and return. If you are involved in a venture that needs full attention to succeed it’s ok to put other ideas on the back burner. However, I feel that just as a successful student may take 5 classes at a time and be able to get good grades in all of them, if you delegate your time and resources properly you can do, and succeed, in multiple ventures at a time. Again if you are involved in a venture that needs your full attention to succeed and feel the return will be worth it, by all means that venture should have nearly all of your energy. However if it doesn’t and you can put people or resources in place to make something happen….why not?
Diversification is key to obtaining wealth (Any investor worth their commission, or degree would tell you the same). If you have your hands in a bunch of different endeavors and have proper people in place to help them grow, your likely hood for success & wealth rises immensely.
I can’t tell you how many times that I had an idea that I thought would do great and then someone else launches it. I take it as a compliment, however compliments won’t put dollars in your bank account. Ideas are really nothing until they’re implimented.
If you have an idea that you feel could be a success and don’t already have your hands in too much, what are you waiting for? You don’t want to be that guy (or girl) that says “Hey….I had that idea” after a million dollar company is born.
There are ways to fund or grow a company with slim to no budget.
Make it happen!
