Erik Zeahnan-American Accessories International

Like many people who start a business Eric never set out to be an “entrepreneur” and doesn’t even know if that word means the same thing to himself as it does to others. Some may think of an entrepreneur as someone with a great idea and passion to create a business around it. Eric just feels that he saw something that could be done better and a way to monetize it. As a professor once told me he could “see what others missed.” His company delivers product design and development globally and has many offshore manufacturing facilities.

Erik has had great opportunities to travel and experience many different cultures. He expressed his thoughts on doing business with China and reflected that the Chinese government makes it very easy to do business.

He feels that in this country the thing that has died is service. He seeks to change that theme in his business by developing custom created products to the customers.

While he doesn’t picture himself as an entrepreneur, he does feel that he has an entrepreneurial attitude about the way he does business. He puts the customer first and feels that the best way to find new opportunities is to listen. Listen to what your customers are saying and create a solution to their problems. The easiest thing in the world to sell is a solution.

Tony Buhl- EnergX

EnergX was founded in 1997 by Tony Buhl a service –disabled veteran. The primary business function is environmental management for the DOD and DOE, including decontamination and decommissioning, integrated renewable energy, and commercial nuclear power. Tony focused his discussion on useful advice that can apply to entrepreneurs in any industry. I love making lists when I set goals that I want to accomplish and Tony gave us two great lists!

To be a happy and successful entrepreneur you must do the following:

· Communicate well

· Listen

· Embrace change

· Forgive and let go, have no regrets or resentments

· Acknowledge others and yourself

· Create exciting vision

· Set realistic goals

· Make others feel important

· Admit mistakes

· Hear new ideas

· Take reasonable risks

· Say thank you very often

Things that Tony wished he had learned sooner as an entrepreneur:

· Focus on yourself as much as your product or service

· Starting a business is like getting married

· Wish he had known how demanding starting a business would be on family

· You are in sales whether you know it or not

· More than selling, relationships matter

· Thinks are unpredictable all the time

· Find the best and most knowledgeable people you can afford

· Get customer validation early

· Networking is valuable

· Start ups are an emotional rollercoaster

· Change means opportunity, embrace it

I am so grateful to have a list of goals to achieve and a list of things to be prepared for an entrepreneur. This is a great set of tools and knowledge to enhance my professional development.

John Platallero, EventBooking

EventBooking is an online application that allows for agencies to book events at top level arenas. John idea for this business came in the mid 90’s when he realized he could merge two things he was fascinated with—musical entertainment and the internet.

While John was working fulltime for Alcoa he was also helping book concerts on the side as a hobby. He realized that sometimes it would take so long to communicate with venues about availability that it was possible to miss out on booking opportunities. The internet was just starting to be used by the general public and no one really thought about it as an application yet. John’s idea was very innovative and almost ahead of the technology and learning curve.

At this point in time Alcoa was beginning to hit some hard times and John’s supervisor saw an opportunity. He planned a layoff for John that would allow him to pursue his dream and also paid for 75% of his MBA degree. During John’s last semester while most students were interviewing for jobs, John was raising capital for his new business starting with friends and family. The first employees that John brought in were 2 sales people and 1 programmer.

One of Johns early lessons was that he was pursuing the wrong target. He originally thought that if he could get the endorsement of the agencies the venues would come on board. What he learned was that the venues didn’t really see value in changing their processes and using an online calendar instead of their hardcopy planners. John changed the entire focus of the business so that venues were the customer and the focus was creating value for them. He really learned to listen to his customer and find out what they valued. This truly paid off as EventBooking currently serves 80% of the top US venues and customer satisfaction is very high. Now that they have captured many of the top venues they can begin to pursue the agencies once more.

EventBooking is positioned for growth into new market segments. They have recently started including specialized software for conference centers and Disney tours, and are considering many other segments for the future. As EventBooking currently does not do any marketing or advertising, John is considering including those functions in the business in order to move into new markets.

John was a very enjoyable speaker because of his passion and excitement for his business. His hard work and dedication is evident in the success and potential of the business.