entrepreneur business : Entrepreneurs Leverage New Orleans’s Charm to Lure Small Businesses

From left, Seema Sudan, Shawn Burst, John Barton, John Walsh and Sean Cummings in front of Entrepreneur’s Row. credit : Lee Celano for The New York Times

entrepreneur business : It was a long time, since the word "optimism" was spoken in the same sentence as "New Orleans". But a small group of entrepreneurs has recently been using this word to describe their efforts to small businesses in New Orleans. For now, their enthusiasm may be larger than their results. But they say that the city's low rents and business tax incentives, together with his music and culture have proved to be powerful lures, despite the still efforts to curb past the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"We see exactly the same thing that we in the Bay Area in the mid-90s," says Michael Hecht, 38, president of the Greater New Orleans Inc., a non-profit economic development. He moved to New Orleans in early 2006 after the time in San Francisco and New York. "There is a sense of opportunity and the opportunity to work with people who have the horsepower to realize these opportunities."

Since Hurricane Katrina, at least four formal entrepreneurial hubs were in New Orleans: Entrepreneur's Row, the Icehouse, the IP (an abbreviation for intellectual property) and Entergy, the Innovation Center. While they all hope to individual companies, they are not technically incubators. Instead, they house start-ups and established companies, while the "clustering of like-minded entrepreneurs in building their businesses," said Tim Williamson, 44, co-founder and Chief Executive of the Idea Village, a nonprofit group founded in 2000 to contributed to the IP --

So far, they seem a bit to the right. According to the Louisiana Workforce Commission, the New Orleans metropolitan area reported an increase of nearly 100,000 nonfarm jobs from October 2005 - shortly after Katrina - until June 2009. By 2016, the Commission expects that New Orleans area employment to grow 24 percent from 2006, or 98.8 percent of the pre-Katrina levels.

"There has never been a better time in Louisiana for the creative class to thrive," said Mitchell J. Landrieu, the state of the Lieutenant Governor.

Jon Guidroz, 27, is one of the entrepreneurs who were convinced to enter the city. He grew up in New Orleans, but lived in Massachusetts and works for Free Flow Power, a company in the renewable energies, after Katrina. "I wanted to return to help," he said. But he said that he did not have a strong business reason to move.

Then, last year, Sean Cummings, a real estate developer and entrepreneur in New Orleans, FreeFlow accidentally found the site and found that the company is a Mississippi River project in the works. Mr. Cummings, 44, co-founder of the group called Startup New Orleans, asked Mr. Guidroz to visit his offices in New Orleans at 220 Camp Street, a loft building Entrepreneur's Row. As an additional incentive, Mr Cummings even offered him six months rent free.

"He helped me fulfill my dream for this business in New Orleans," said Mr. Guidroz, which back in January. "Until these guys rolled out the red carpet for me - immediate access to a major network in the city and state for Getting Things Done, local investors to find - I do not think we would have done it."

Entrepreneur's Row was founded in May 2007, when Mr. Cummings received a call from Nicolas Perkin, Co-founder and president of the Claims Exchange, an electronic marketplace for buying and selling of debts. Mr Perkin had recently getting married, and he and his bride wanted to relocate to New Orleans from New York. What did Mr. Cummings think?

Mr. Cummings thought it was a great idea, and the two men set out, such as to attract other businesses in the city. "To really succeed, New Orleans must be based on the few opportunities where we have a competitive edge," said Mr. Cummings. "We must also entrepreneurs, employees will contribute to a joyful life. It is a home-run success story. Entrepreneurs invent New Orleans, such as Prague, after the curtain, like Milan, as a small Seattle."

Together with three other managers, Mr. Cummings and Mr. Perkin came with Startup New Orleans, a Web-based information service to connect entrepreneurs with the resources they need to create a new company. In March 2008, Mr. Cummings founded Entrepreneur's Row. Today it is home to nine companies, including receivables Exchange, Mr. Guidroz firm Freeflow Power Socket and Audio, a music licensors. (Mr. Cummings has a financial stake in at least six of the company.)

The Icehouse - a 12,000 square-foot renovated warehouse in the Seventh Ward, which was heavily damaged by Katrina - opened in April 2008 and is now home to seven companies. You pay $ 600 per desk per month, based on a telephone with private number, high-speed Internet, a kitchen and a roof deck access.

"One of the things we wanted, after" Katrina "was to ensure that our footprint had maximum impact," said Robbie Vitrano, president of the trumpet, a branding and business development company that is managing the building. "We wanted in the neighborhood, was the renovation." Mr. Vitrano, 45, is also a co-founder of Startup New Orleans.

Earlier this year, the Idea Village and Greater New Orleans Inc. renovated a 85,000-square-foot building at 643 Magazine Street in the warehouse district and called it the IP - (Intellectual Property). It has nine tenants, including TurboSquid, a 3-D modeling companies; TJ Ebbert and Associates, a disaster management consulting firm, and Carrollton Technology Partners, a company of technological development. The building has a café, a gym with his and her saunas, Business Concierge and several "brainstorming room."

Part of the appeal is that New Orleans is perhaps the ultimate college campus for adults. After work, many young entrepreneurs gather for drinks at International House, the boutique hotel in the Central Business District that Mr. Cummings opened 10 years ago in the street from his loft building. Mr. Cummings and Mr. Perkin also monthly meetings at the hotel in which entrepreneurs the possibility of war stories and Vent.

"What about the city like no other - everyone wants every success," said Seema Sudan, the owner and director of design at the Strickwarenfabrik LiaMolly companies that moved to New Orleans in October 2007. "I've never been to a place that is community-oriented," she said. "Competitive is no further. The point is that cooperation. And this town is like, the people helping each other rebuild their homes to build companies."

She said she also appreciated the quality of life, and the fact that they paid $ 800 for a 900-square-foot studio in the Garden District, and $ 1800 for a three-room apartment with garden and tree house.

Two years into his project, Mr. Cummings is thrilled.

"I am thrilled by the caliber of talent," he said. "It is a thriving creative culture of the invention. And it grows every day." - entrepreneur business

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio - (average) - 05/22/09 - Expesite, LLC is pleased to announce its CEO and president, Jeffrey H. Sopp, was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2009. The award honors entrepreneurs who have the extraordinary success in innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Mr. Sopp is one of the twenty-third regional finalists selected for this year's award. The finalists will be honored at a special gala event on 24 June at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mr Sopp said: "I give all the credit for Expesite Associates for the great accomplishments we have achieved together. The drivers behind our success is the relentless execution of business strategy, rapid implementation of new ideas and ethics, the client and our community in the center of everything we do. I am proud of every one of us humans - and above all the perseverance they show during these difficult economic times. "

"There is nobody, the quicker Jeff Sopp in the energy and commitment he devoted to the great Expesite - and his devotion to the success of our employees and customers is without equal," said Dennis Susa, Expesite's VP of Corporate Development.

Entrepreneurs booster, Congress Works on it..!!!

House committees and subcommittees that deal with entrepreneurship today green-lighted a package of bills that promise to create jobs and help business owners. "These programs offer resources and expertise that can help existing businesses expand and new enterprises get off the ground," states Congressman Heath Shuler (D-N.C.). "The legislation we are passing today will strengthen these programs, providing small businesses with better access to valuable training, counseling and other services."

The proposed bills would enhance U.S. Small Business Administration entrepreneurial development programs and create new commerce initiatives:

-H.R. 1803, the Veterans Business Center Act of 2009, would expand support for veteran-owned enterprises and create new veterans' business-service facilities.

-H.R. 1834, the Native American Business Development Enhancement Act of 2009, would increase entrepreneurial services for Native American startups.

-H.R. 1807, the Educating Entrepreneurs through Today's Technology Act, would boost multilingual training and educational resources at the SBA.

-H.R. 1838, the Women's Business Center Act, would expand Women's Business Centers, bring transparency to the grants process and increase National Women's Business Council research.

-H.R. 1839, the SCORE Act, would bolster the SCORE business-mentoring program.

-H.R. 1842, the Expanding Entrepreneurship Act of 2009, would set performance benchmarks and increase partnership with training providers for the SBA's entrepreneurial development program.

-H.R. 1845, the Small Business Development Center Modernization Act of 2009, would modernize the Small Business Development Centers program.

The bills are headed to the full House Committee on Small Business.

Detroit entrepreneurs in one line

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- After David Mancini opened Supino Pizzeria eight months ago in downtown Detroit, he quickly came to appreciate a powerful source of word-of-mouth marketing: his fellow business owners. Even those who are potential rivals. The owners of nearby Russell Street Deli, who sold the pizzeria space to Mancini last year, give Supino menus to their customers and allowed Mancini to test dough recipes in the pizza kitchen before he decided to go into business. Jerry Belanger, a partner with Park Bar in Detroit, has bought rounds of pizza for his patrons and frequently promotes Supino's to the bar crowd.

As a newbie entrepreneur trying to make it in Detroit's struggling economy, Mancini finds the help essential.

"I don't know where I'd be without it," said Mancini, who has hired seven part-time employees. "We've done pretty well considering the economy is the way it is. I'm doing a lot better than I thought I'd ever be doing at this point."

Mancini is part of a community of Detroit entrepreneurs banding together to help each other weather the struggles of running a business through a deep recession. Such cooperation isn't exclusive to Detroit, but local entrepreneurs say having a support system is especially crucial in an economy that is plagued by the troubles of the Big Three automakers.

"We really want each other to succeed, because we know the whole situation with the cars has been a little bit devastating," said Liz Blondy, president of Canine To Five, a dog daycare, boarding and grooming facility in Detroit's midtown.

Blondy is a co-founder of Open City, a small business networking group that gathers monthly. Around 100 people attended the April meeting, at which longtime business owners offered advice on how new companies can navigate Detroit's economy and achieve similar longevity. Among their tips: Keep your overhead low. Detroit's rock-bottom real estate prices help with that -- commercial space is inexpensive and homes can be had for less than $1,000.

"There is no place to open a business where your fixed expenses will be lower than Detroit," said Dave Muer, owner of Blue Pointe Restaurant.
Launching in Detroit

Muer's advice was a welcome tip for Open City attendee Torya Blanchard, the owner of Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes. Blanchard opened her creperie's first location nine months ago, where she now employs four part-time workers. She's planning to soon open a second Detroit outlet and a third in nearby suburb Grosse Pointe Park.

"When you get advice and insight from people who have done business in the city for 10 or 20 years, they can tell you from experience how they got through the rough spots and how to change with the times," Blanchard said.

Open City's co-founder believes Detroit's challenges make the small business community here particularly cohesive.

"Not a day goes by that I don't talk to another small-business owner in Detroit to say, 'Hey, how's it going,' or 'How's business? Is there anything that I can do to help you?'" said Blondy, whose company has 12 employees and had sales of $290,000 last year.

Belanger, who helped Mancini in Supino's infancy, has made it a personal mission to assist new entrepreneurs in town. Most recently, he helped create Detroit Cheers, a local currency circulating among Detroit businesses. Detroit Cheers trade at par with U.S. dollars and are backed up by money in a bank account. The bills, which come in $3 denominations, can be redeemed for cash if turned in to Belanger or his two partners in the currency: Tim Tharp, owner of Grand Trunk Pub, and John Linardos, owner of Motor City Brewing Works.

There are 4,500 Cheers in print, but Belanger said he and his partners are leaking the currency out slowly to keep interest up in the program. Belanger gives the bills out for free to Park Bar customers who promise to use the money at about 20 Detroit businesses that accept the currency.

"It provides new or struggling businesses with revenue they need, and exposes their products to a new customer base," Belanger said. "The point of the program is primarily awareness, togetherness and community. It is more of a social statement than anything."
Lending a hand

For some entrepreneurs, building the local business community means referring customers to potential competitors.

Slow's Bar BQ in Detroit has become a hotspot for regulars craving baby-back ribs or Texas-style beef brisket. The restaurant is so popular that diners wait as long as two hours for a table on a Saturday night.

While Slow's has a bar, co-owner Phil Cooley often refers people to nearby LJ's Lounge, where they can grab drinks until their table is ready. On some busy nights, he points hungry customers to El Barzón instead, a Mexican and Italian restaurant where Cooley frequently dines.

"We want businesses as competition, because in our minds it's about getting more people down here visiting and having a nice time," said Cooley, who expects sales of $3 million for Slow's this year.

Sharing customers is especially helpful in a city that has more than 900,000 residents but few national retail and restaurant chains. "We're so underserved in so many ways, but especially commercially," Cooley said. "So there's plenty of market to share."

When Claire Nelson's home accessories store Bureau of Urban Living doesn't have what a customer is after, she'll often pick up the phone and call Mezzanine or Design 99, two other design stores in town. Nelson, who created Open City with Blondy, says she'd rather steer a buyer toward another independent retailer than lose them to a chain store like Target.

Peer support can be a powerful motivator for new members of Detroit's business community, especially as the city struggles to gain an economic foothold.

"There has to be something that makes people live here, because you have to endure in this town," said Belanger of Park Bar, which opened in 2004. "You have to endure the economy, you have to endure blight. But there's something about Detroit that makes people say it's worth the struggle."

Cooley thinks that "something" is directly related to the struggle. Detroit's turmoil bonds together the entrepreneurs who choose to build their companies there.

"It's exciting to watch people to work together out of necessity to make things work," he said

Entrepreneurial trimmer business plan

An Argyle teen may receive a scholarship worth up to $5,000 for his entrepreneurial efforts.Devon Zielinski, an Argyle High School senior, was one of 21 finalists selected statewide to attend Texas Christian University’s Youth Entrepreneur Days, a program that recognizes high school students who start and run their own businesses.

The event on Sunday and today provides opportunities for high school executives to meet successful entrepreneurs, students and faculty and attend the university’s seventh Texas Youth Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Banquet this evening.

Five judges, with an entrepreneur background, will interview finalists about their businesses today and present one student with a $5,000 scholarship and five others with $1,000 awards. The scholarships, sponsored by Compass Bank, are doubled if the student attends TCU.

Zielinski said he learned of the scholarship hours before its midnight deadline while visiting the bank with his father. He went home immediately to apply and said he was surprised in December to learn he was a finalist.

“When I got the letter from TCU, it blew my mind. I didn’t think I had a chance,” Zielinski said. “Being a finalist for something like this was really huge.”

Zielinski opened Cutting Edge Opportunity (C.E.O.) Lawn Care with a friend in March 2007 to earn money for college.

Offering landscaping services to clients in Argyle, Flower Mound, Denton and surrounding areas for $29.99, Zielinski has acquired 20 clients in less than two years.

He said his business partner stepped away from the venture and he carried it on, purchasing his own truck and commercial equipment and hiring four teen employees to cut lawns three times a week in the summer and two times in the fall.

In taking on a business all on his own, Zielinski said he learned to accept failure, recover and produce a successful company.

“It’s been a good step in the right direction for me, and it’s really helped me for the future,” he said.

It was Zielinski’s story of facing trials, losing a business partner and still continuing on with his company that earned him a spot as one of 21 finalists out of 63 applicants, program director Sheryl Doll said. He also showed strong revenue, profit and an ability to hire employees, she said.

“[His] story told me that he had a really good experience,” Doll said. “He’s done a lot for someone in high school.”