Category Archives: Business

Raytheon brings science back to school

Posted on by
Reply
CMS Girls Engineering Camp, photo by Texas A&M University, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

CMS Girls Engineering Camp, photo by Texas A&M University, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Washington School hosts “Introduce a girl to Engineering Day”

There’s a guy I know who was so concerned about the disproportionate number of women in math and science that when his daughter was born, he vowed that every time she was complimented on her looks, he would add the postscript, “and she’s good at math and science too.”

The aerospace company Raytheon is also concerned about the number of women going into math and science, but it’s taking another tack than my friend.

“Three Cheers to Engineers!” was the slogan at Washington Elementary School on Feb. 25, where Raytheon hosted an “Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day” for more than 60 upper grade students.

“Math Rocks!” was one of the four learning stations, where students were challenged to build moveable cars out of candy, cookies and frosting (similar to ginger bread houses), where each of the ingredients had a point-value, and the points couldn’t add up to more than 300.

“The best part is eating the cars when you’re done,” said Sarah Strickland, one of several financial analysts who helped plan the project.

Electrical Engineer Lisa Dunn, who just two years ago was the president of UCSB’s Society of Women Engineers, worked with a group of kids constructing boats out of tin foil. They used their engineering skills to make a seaworthy craft and their math skills to figure out the maximum number of pennies their boats would float.

Software Engineer Ben Burleson was the “balloon flinker,” helping the students test gravity, using foam cups filled with packing peanuts and attached to helium balloons.

Helium also played a critical role in the hovercraft experiment, where students like Gwen Archambault and Korrina Harmsen created floating vehicles out of balloons and paper plates.

Materials and Process Engineer Elizabeth Mallon gave the keynote speech, explaining the difference between engineering and science to students, who were eager to find out what the different industries are that use these skills and what kind of education is needed.

“They asked a lot of questions,” said Mallon. It’s not like high school presentations where they’re too cool — or too shy — to ask.

“Women are very smart and clever and we want to get more of them in our workforce,” said Francisco Cabrera, in explaining to the students (including a few boys) why Raytheon had sponsored the event.

Raffle prizes included an autographed book about Sally Ride, junior science kits, fiber optic lead pencils and more, including the grand prize — a home planetarium star theatre, which went to Caitlin Connor.

Raytheon also donated engineering books, videos and bookmarks to the Washington School library and all of the participating students received “Three Cheers to Engineers!” t-shirts, as well as goodie bags, said Isabel Villegas, the Human Resources representative who coordinated the whole event, as part of Raytheon’s observation of National Engineering Week.

Last year the company hosted Kellogg School students at Raytheon, but spokesman Ron Colman said next year they’ll pick another elementary school and bring the program to the students, since they got an even better turnout than expected.

Raytheon also hosted a week of job shadowing with members of UCSB’s National Society of Black Engineers, which included an engineering competition, an ice cream social and a free hot dog lunch.

“We’re hoping to hire some of the students that came in,” said Villegas, adding that last year’s AS president Jamie Fitz-Gerald is now working at Raytheon.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on March 3, 2005.

Memory Post brings Memorials to the Digital Age

Posted on by
Reply

With the spirits of Mr. Rogers, Bob Hope and Aunt Sevelta on its development team, its no wonder that Goleta-based Memorypost.com is on a roll. Launched in January 2003, the Internet service to celebrate life events has already been featured on national television and has users from all over the world.

The project started three years ago when his Great Aunt Sevelta passed away, said Tosh Bulger, who runs the site along with wife Monica and web designer Safa Scott. Sevelta’s funeral excluded a lot of the family, so he “decided to make a website where people could go and leave stories.”

The site caught on with family members, with about 30 people posting stories about Sevelta. Inspiration struck when one of Tosh’s cousins told him “This isn’t just for our family; everybody could use it.”

The Bulgers had already collaborated on a consulting company, Santa Barbara Techworks, when inspiration struck for Memorypost.com. “We heard that the only thing making money on the Internet was porn,” Monica said. “We wanted to do something positive and profitable.” They self-funded the enterprise with an inheritance from Sevelta, working other jobs and going to grad school at UCSB at the same time. “Most of the work actually took place between 6 and 2 a.m.,” Tosh said.

The site is designed primarily for broadband users. “We built it for the future, ” he said. Although with digital camera sales eclipsing that of analog film-based cameras in market share and dollar value, according to Business Week, the future is gaining ground pretty quickly.

“What we are is an online scrapbook … we started with memorials, but now its really a family website,” Monica said.

The interface is simple, offering a collaborative site to share photos, stories, create personal home pages, a guest book and more. The first Memorypost.com guest invites his family and friends to view the site, add photos and stories and so on, all for free. It’s also free to the original user for the first 90 days, with optional upgrades that include adding additional images (the first 25 are free) and special projects like adding audio and video.

The Bulgers have become experts in guerrilla marketing. For example, when Mr. Rogers died, they created a Memorypost for him and paid for the site to come up first on search engines. They had people from all over the world visit the site to pay tribute.

“It seems to be almost cathartic,” said Tosh. “A lot of times in the memorial they write directly to the person,” said Monica. They did a similar memorial site for Bob Hope, again garnering worldwide attention from both individuals and the media.

This is more than just a commercial enterprise for the Bulgers. “Our goal is to connect people,” said Monica. In addition to the memorials, popular subjects for sites are family reunions, destination weddings and, of course, new babies. “We’ll have fathers rush to post pictures, literally minutes after their baby is born,” smiled Monica. “It’s so cute. They’re so proud.”

Surely Aunt Sevelta is looking on with pride somewhere as well.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on December 12, 2004.

Coalition gets creative with commerce

Posted on by
Reply

Alliance recasts creativity in terms of economic, educational opportunities

About 40 local creative professionals, including key players from the business, political and nonprofit communities, gathered recently to kick off a fundraising and awareness-raising campaign for the Alliance for Creative Commerce. The alliance is working to change the focus of the local economy to develop educational and economic opportunities based on creativity, communications and commerce.

“We want to change the economic basis for this region to rely on what comes out people’s heads instead of what comes out of the ground,” said Patrick Gregston, executive director of the alliance, explaining that much of the group’s philosophy comes from a book called The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida.

“Our vision is to take this creative class, which we can say encompasses virtually all of the people that do academic research, all the people that write, all the people that do graphics … and how do we generate that as a synergy that will make more of this business,” Gregston said.

One of the things the alliance would like to do is brand Santa Barbara as an area known for creativity, art and ideas, similar to Santa Fe, N.M., where people travel specifically to enjoy the vibrant art scene and culture of the area.

Another goal of the group is to create a strong enough network within the community to allow the people who commute to Los Angeles and elsewhere for jobs in the entertainment industry to work here.

One of the group’s first tasks will be to conduct a survey to discover the scope and economic impact of the creative community and establish a database of members, said Mark Sylvester, owner of Mixed Grill.

The creative commerce sector, according to the alliance, would come not just from traditional arts and entertainment, but also from other creative enterprises such as fashion, graphics, music, software, telephony and academic research.

With a fund-raising goal of $250,000 for the year, the money would enable the alliance to hire Gregston, currently a volunteer, as a full-time employee as well as to hold a brainstorming summit with members of the creative community. Right now the alliance is primarily supported by partnerships with the city and county of Santa Barbara, UCSB, SBCC and a few local businesses.

Membership costs $50 per year and includes regular networking mixers. The next one is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Restaurant Nu, 1129 State St. It is free to members and $10 for nonmembers. For more information, visit www.thealliance.us or email info@thealliance.us.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon

This is not your father’s homebuying crowd

Posted on by
Reply

Generation Xers open a gap when it comes to real estate market trends

Once pigeonholed as “slackers,” members of Generation X are now in their mid-20s to mid-30s and having a significant impact on home buying and building trends. Although the high cost of housing on the South Coast makes it difficult for Gen Xers to break into the market, when they are able to buy — through IPO bonuses, good old fashioned savings, 100 percent financing, or help from mom and dad — they want different things than their parents did.

Quality is important. “They are happier with one good thing rather than three average things,” said Greg Nester, owner of Greg Nester Construction & Development and president of the Home Builders Association of the Central Coast.

Their dream house might be smaller than their parents’ house, but not necessarily less expensive.

“They want the best product they can get for the money they spend,” he said.

It’s all about value. This is a generation that has seen dot bombs and the stock market roller coaster. That uncertainty leads to more cautious spending.

“Where wealthy boomers might brag about how much they pay for something, Gen Xers relish talking about how much they managed to save — and that applies even to those in the top income brackets,” concluded a recent survey by marketing-strategy firm Reach Advisors.

Kara Rocque seems to agree.

“We started to think that maybe we don’t want something that’s too nice to have something that we can kind of fix up and make our own,” said the new Goleta homeowner.

Homes should fit their lifestyles. “Gen X are goers, they’re not sitting at home,” Nester said. “They come home in the evening and would prefer to have less of a burden as far as maintenance goes.” For example, they don’t’ want elaborate kitchens because they say they don’t cook that often, he said.

And when they are entertaining on the South Coast, it’s more often in the backyard than in a formal dining room.

“We want to have people come over and have barbeques,” Rocque said.

Flexible interior spaces. “They want media rooms and functional areas that replace the classic dining room and formal living rooms. Secondary to home theater and media rooms are rooms that are more computer and study oriented,” said Nester.

They’re also not afraid to embrace new styles like concrete countertops instead of traditional tile. Stained and glazed concrete floors are becoming more common as well as more modern plumbing fixtures. Xers like to be able to customize their living spaces, said Nester.

They’re not running to the ‘burbs. “Many Xers prefer inner city living. … They are purchasing properties that may have mixed use with retail below and a condo above for residential,” said Nester.

Being just blocks away from La Cumbre Plaza and Upper State Street stores is part of what made her new condominium in San Roque appealing to Cari Thomas. “Being able to walk places in the neighborhood is great,” she said

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on July 8, 2004.

WEV: Women get professional guidance

Posted on by
Reply

Weaving entrepreneurial passion, the desire to build wealth, and feminine energy with the nuts and bolts of business planning and development, Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV) has quickly made a name for itself as the go-to organization for aspiring business owners who want to find success on their own terms.

“Like (in) that movie, The Sixth Sense, ‘I see dead people.’ I see WEV graduates everywhere,” said Barbara Lanz-Mateo, publisher/editor of Coastal Woman Magazine and herself a WEV graduate. “People have no idea how big of an impact it’s had on this community,” said Lanz-Mateo, who returns each session as a guest speaker — along with the South Coast Beacon’s own Andrea Estrada and public relations firm owner Mo McFadden — to offer expertise on P.R., marketing and media relations to WEV’s 14-week Self-Employment Training (SET) class.

“WEV began providing economic development programs to women in Santa Barbara in 1987,” said Director of Training and Client Services Marie Spaulding. In 1991, WEV established its SET program and micro-loan programs and in 1997 added a career development program. Today WEV provides services throughout Santa Barbara County and licenses its training curriculum to organizations throughout the nation.

In the last three years WEV has served more than 933 clients, in the areas of business consulting, loan consulting and SET classes, said Spaulding. WEV is growing rapidly. “For 2003 we’re projecting, 1,688 (clients served),” she said.

Among the many satisfied WEV clients is Suzy Godsey, owner of The Happy Dog, a dog walking and pet sitting service. “Without the class training I wouldn’t have been able to have a successful business,” said Godsey, who took the class a year ago and still meets weekly with her former classmates in a “Mastermind” peer accountability group. “We’re really focused,” said Godsey about the four-person group. Everybody really puts a lot of energy and effort into it, she said.

At the first class, Victoria Starr, owner of Indoor Environmental Technologies, recalls Spaulding saying, “It’s not what you’re going to learn here, it’s who you’re going to meet.” Indeed, of the dozens of women interviewed for this article, most seemed to echo Starr’s sentiments about the value of WEV.

“We are a referral society. Success comes from people helping people. Yes, we learned … experts come in on just about every topic we can think of. Those are skills that we can learn anywhere. However the bonding and the friendships that you make, those endure. Those people have opened more doors for me in this community than anything else,” said Starr, whose business specializes in commercial and residential air purifiers. “…Certainly what boosted me and gave me confidence was the way WEV alumni and my own class graduates encouraged me and got me started.”

WEV Class of 2003

“I like to think of our trainers as tour guides,” said WEV Director of Training and Client Services Marie Spaulding, as she conducted the orientation meeting for the class of Fall 2003. “We can show you the doors, but it’s up to you to … knock on doors that you’ve never even looked at before, and make phone calls that you’ve always been afraid to make. You have to ask people for help that you maybe wouldn’t have asked for yesterday. You really have to get out there and do the work yourself.”

Here are some of the 50 women out there making it happen for themselves during this Self Employment Training (SET) Session.

Barbara Bartolome started Santa Barbara Scrapbooks just a few months before enrolling in the WEV training. While she doesn’t feel she made any fatal new business mistakes, the WEV classes offer “so much more insight into how to do things an easier way,” she said. “I love the connection with all the people,” said Bartolome, whose scrapbooking business grew out of her loves of photography and genealogy. “People not only connect across generations, but they also connect across every other line that could be drawn,” she said regarding the fast–growing scrapbook craft.

“I feel like a big sister to some of the other people in class. I have a lot to add to the class (having started my business already). Everything (the instructor) said is really right on,” said Bartolome.

Another WEV classmate with experience launching a business is Monica Bulger, who in partnership with her husband, Tosh, in January launched Memorypost.com, an Internet service to celebrate life events. Bulger, a former academic, said she has found the reading assignments very helpful, along with gaining a better understanding of her target market. “We now realize that it is a family-centered website” as a result of taking the WEV class, she said. “I’ve really learned a lot about customer needs.”

“Ken Warfield at Santa Barbara Library is absolutely incredible,” said Bulger about one of the classes’ many field trips. He gave a fabulous presentation then set up another meeting and spent an hour with us. His ideas were just incredible, said Bulger.

“I’d say the thing that I’m most struck with is the easy encouragement and energy and everybody wants to help. It feels great to share this experience with a group of women. It makes you feel like a success even if you don’t end up starting a business,” said Natalie Castaneda, who is pursuing a business importing women’s clothing and jewelry in partnership with her best friend, Krista Caballero. “The emphasis is on indigenous women, whatever their craft is, the emphasis is on woman to woman,” said Castaneda.

“It’s hard not to feel enthusiastic. I know at different times I felt discouraged it felt like everyone could relate, it would be pretty hard to stay in a negative attitude while in the class,” said Castaneda, who graduated from college a year ago.

“They don’t teach you about business in art school, said home portrait artist Sarah Dwyer, who praised the nuts and bolts nature of the WEV course. In a sentiment echoed by several of her classmates, Dwyer said that college-level art courses really don’t tell you anything about the practical realities of making a living. “If you’re selling, that’s commerce. It’s not like it’s crass. That’s something that’s changed in me,” said Dwyer, who plans to market her original oil paintings of homes and gardens to real estate agents (“a unique closing gift”) to begin with.

“(The class is) getting me focused and realizing you have to concentrate on one thing at a time,” said Dwyer. “If I could have seen myself 10 years ago would never have believed it.” I’m starting to time myself. I clock in and out when working on multiple pieces. “(I see the class) as part of growing up, being mature,” she said.

Creating a business that will allow them flexibility with their kids is a big part of the motivation for Elan Firpo and Dawn Carlson, partners in the burgeoning Doggy Duty pet waste removal service. Initially inspired by a magazine article about unusual jobs, taking the WEV class has helped the partners to focus their business direction. “We thought we’d make it a co-op, a non-profit at first,” said Firpo. “Now we’re getting a more solid plan, looking at how to do it,” added Carlson.

The class has also helped the women refine the target audience for Doggy Duty. Market research showed that the service would appeal to average income families. “They don’t want to argue over who cleans up,” said Carlson. She also commented on having better control of her finances as a result of the WEV class, an observation echoed by many of her classmates. “I just wish I’d done it years ago,” said Firpo.

Ceramic artist C.J. Jilek is actually doing the WEV homework (estimated to be about 10 hours per week) twice — once as an artist and once as a studio owner. A former instructor and head of ceramics for the Ridley Tree Education Center, which lost funding from the Museum of Art earlier this year, Jilek sees a business opportunity for a community-based studio. “Our community has a lot of programs for clay (UCSB, SBCC, Recreation Department) … but what happens is that there’s so much equipment required and no transition place to move to,” said Jilek, who currently travels to Chico to finish her wood-fired vessels.

“I think it’s a fabulous program. I think it services all levels,” said Jilek, who is still undecided about whether to pursue her own art or the studio. (Part of the class experience) is that I can see the vision, she said. “If I do the studio I will be doing very little of my own work.”

“ARTtalk — Travel to New Places of Understanding” is the business being developed by Joy Kunz, who will complete her PhD in art history in December. Kunz plans to offer a menu of services, with a base in art history. “I want to be the consultant that meets with them to say ‘you have three days in Paris and your husband or wife isn’t a big art person or you have the kids along, and their interests are x, y and Z, so let’s see how you can make really efficient use of two hours in the Louvre,'” said Kunz.

Another component to ARTtalk will be Kunz’s services as personal art coach, where she would spend a few hours getting clients up-to-speed on the visual art world. “A lot of times they’re personal or business opportunities to be had if a person looks like they’re conversant on the major issues,” said Kunz, who also plans to offer thematic seminars.

“I think WEV is great because at the beginning you just feel all these individuals who have cooked up something in a very isolated way come together and then WEV is completely practical. …I know I’m a humanities person so I always was comfortable with saying ‘I don’t have a head for business’ or ‘I’m not great with numbers,’ but I’m seeing that’s a cop out and that’s just standing right on the path to failure, because you have to have to have both,” said Kunz.

“In a nutshell, Moonjata is about providing tools for healing. And that’s from healing and jewelry gemstones to retreats,” said Lisa Lemley of the business she is incubating through WEV. “The class really just helped me realize that I don’t really know that much about marketing. … That’s a big part of the business. It’s also pushing me to take the steps that I need to take for the business. … It’s really fun to talk to all the people about their businesses, and get excited about some stupid little step,” said Lemley.

“It’s nice to have that group setting. We get to congratulate each other on little accomplishments,” said Lemley, who has been primarily vending her jewelry at festivals to date. “In a year I’ll be moving into more of the retreat aspects of it.”

Julie Smith’s business, Swim with Phyn, offers swimming lessons, primarily to “learn-to-swim-age children.” A former UCSB water polo player, Smith has been in aquatics for years, but only recently returned to Santa Barbara. “I am loving the class,” said Smith. “It’s so nice to be in an environment where you’re surrounding by strong, freethinking women who all are kind of on the same wavelength as you are. Most people are not entrepreneurial by nature and so when you come into a group where everyone is thinking along the same lines as you are, most people are doing it because they have goals for themselves. They want to be home with their kids or they don’t’ want to be tied down for some reason. I’ve found it so incredible. … You come up with different things that you never would have thought of.”

Small business consultant Maida Smith, who specializes in QuickBooks consulting and recruiting, hiring and training bookkeepers, described her business as a “moving beast that keeps changing.” Among the things that WEV has helped her with are the “idea of formulating your business in terms of your pricing. Looking at your personal needs in your life and going back from there. … It gives you tangible goals to work toward.”

Like most of her classmates, Smith praised the program. “I think it’s just an incredibly wonderful offering for women in the community. My two sons, I would love to see them be a part of something like this.”

Christobel Zamor has been the proprietor of Circus Hoops for the past year. She makes handcrafted, oversized Hula Hoops, teaches hoop dance fitness classes, does performance art with them, and teaches children. The business has been hugely successful, said Zamor, “But it’s been growing so fast that I found that I lacked certain fundamentals for running a business.” She said WEV has dramatically changed her business by providing an amazing support group and holding her accountable to her own goal setting.

Zamor’s overall assessment of WEV: “I think it’s outstanding. I can’t imagine going into business without it at this point. I feel like if all women had this kind of training in high school that the world would be a radically different place.”

Mandatory orientations for the next SET training will start around the second week of January, said Spaulding. Interested people should check the WEV website (www.wevonline.org) or call 965.6073 for more information. The next session will start in Mid-February.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on November 13, 2003.

Locally grown

Posted on by
Reply
"My business is not tourist based; we have the same customers coming back. If you can keep your employees then you can recognize those customers and provide them a place where the staff knows them," said Matt Benko, owner of the Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch. Courtesy photo.

“My business is not tourist based; we have the same customers coming back. If you can keep your employees then you can recognize those customers and provide them a place where the staff knows them,” said Matt Benko, owner of the Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch. Courtesy photo.

Does “buying local” really make a difference? In addition to leaving more money in the community by keeping their profits here, local business owners also cite long-standing employees, customer service, product distinctiveness and community involvement as advantages to “buying local.”

“My business is not tourist based; we have the same customers coming back. If you can keep your employees then you can recognize those customers and provide them a place where the staff knows them,” said Matt Benko, owner of the Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch. “Continuity of staff is critical. It takes a good six months or more to train a cook,” said Benko, who took over the restaurant (and renamed it) when his mother died in 1992. He has one 15-year kitchen veteran, “the first guy my mom hired,” and many other veteran staffers.

Blue Booth, owner of Vices and Spices for 28 years, also emphasized the importance of staff continuity. “One of the things that we do is we’re really focused on real personalized attention. The way we can accomplish that is having the same staff over a long period of time.”

At least 10 of the 30 Chaucer’s Book’s employees have been there more than 10 years, said Mahri Kerley, who in November will celebrate her 29th year as the bookstore’s owner. The staff has undergone extensive training, she said, and “it’s not an easy thing to do.”

Product distinctiveness is another advantage noted by local business owners. “The main thing that sets us apart is that we use mesquite charcoal and only charcoal,” said Benko. It’s cheaper and easier to use gas but the taste isn’t as authentic. Comparing chains such as Taco Bell to local Mexican restaurants, “the spiciness, the flavor goes away as you try to appeal to a lot more people. They blandify it.” But restaurant owners get better quality food when they say, “this is my product” and don’t try to appeal to the masses, said Benko.

While large chain bookstores have enough space to “hold dances in their aisles,” said Kerley, “in almost any section you can think of, I think we’ve got a much better selection than you’ll find in the chains. I like to think the whole store is distinct.”

Being customer-service oriented is another advantage cited by Kerley. ” We can get pretty well anything by special order.” She also points out that Chaucer’s customers do not prepay for special orders.

A personalized touch is important, said Chris Martin, co-owner of Mojo Coffee in Goleta, who trains employees to be themselves and “not be a certain way that the corporations are programmed into teaching their employees.”

Benko also mentioned flexibility as a selling point. “Local restaurants can do things that national chains can’t do. If somebody says ‘This isn’t what I ordered,’ you have the ability to just give them what they want. Whereas (with) a national chain, it’s much harder for them to do that. They have to be more concerned with theft, because they’ve got this on a grand scale.”

Martin also mentioned flexibility in dealing with both employees and customers as an important local business advantage. Six of his 10 employees have been with Mojo from the beginning, and the only reason the four others left is “because they graduated. It’s just a whole better working relationship.”

All of the local business owners mentioned the importance of giving back to the community by providing donations and discounts to schools and other nonprofit groups. “I donate and get involved as much as I can,” said Martin, who has adopted two local elementary schools and a local high school through the County’s “Adopt a School Program.”

“I give gift certificates to every school and church that asks,” said Benko.

While the intangible benefits to the community such as charitable support and customer service are difficult to quantify, in an analysis of local merchants versus chain retailers in the Austin, Texas, area, Civic Economics found that “local merchants generate substantially greater economic impact than chain retailers.” In fact, the study found that for every $100 in customer spending at a national chain, “the total economic impact was only $13, while that same amount spent with a local merchant yields more than three times the local economic impact ($45).”

Other than the Civic Economics study, however, there has been very little objective, fact-based analysis of whether or not “buying local” really makes a difference in a community.

In some areas there are tax incentives given to attract large retailers, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here. “If they have a business and they sell out of that building, the sales tax is going to that area, regardless of whether it’s a huge corporation or not,” said Brian Richard, head of property tax for Santa Barbara County.

The Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel, Sak’s, Trader Joe’s, Sears and Borders were all mentioned by the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce’s Steve Cushman as being very active in the business community.

Costco is also active, said Mike Edwards of the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce. Barbara Keyani, spokesperson for the Santa Barbara School District, also lauded Costco for its generosity.

Also citing the community support of larger corporations was Judy Hawkins, development director for Women’s Economic Ventures, a local, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs. “We are very lucky to have quite a bit of very generous corporate support.”

Ultimately the uniqueness of this area may be what keeps local businesses thriving, despite increased competition from chains.

“In my experience, Santa Barbara is different from a lot of places,” Benko said. “People are willing to go to Farmer Boy’s over Denny’s, even though (Denny’s is) right across the street. I think Santa Barbara people almost actually resist (the chains) because they don’t want it to become L.A.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on August 7, 2003.

Exit strategies

Posted on by
Reply

With the impending departure of Fidelity National Financial to Jacksonville, Fla., and the speculation that other large employers may follow their lead and flee, one has to ask, how friendly is this community to businesses?

Rumors abound that Santa Barbara’s other Fortune 500 company, Tenet Healthcare, may also be pulling up stakes, but company spokesman Steven Campanini denied that.

“A move is not under active consideration,” he said. “Leaving Santa Barbara is not even on our radar screens.

“Although,” he laughed, “I’m not happy with the weather this week.”

June gloom aside, the weather is undoubtedly one of our region’s greatest advantages. But despite the lush climate, is Santa Barbara a friendly place to do business?

It ranked 31st on Forbes magazine’s 2003 “Best Places for Business and Careers,” based on a variety of weighted criteria. The areas in which Santa Barbara scored the best were crime rate and education, and it ranked lower on cost of doing business and housing afford-ability. A 2002 metropolitan — rather than city — ranking, conducted by Forbes and the Milken Institute, also ranks the Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc area at No. 31.

Some doubt the veracity of this type of ranking.

“There’s no real scientific measure of business friendliness,” said Bill Watkins, executive director of the UCSB Economic Forecast Project. “The problem with those sort of ranking systems is that they’re based on somebody’s value judgments of what is best. Given our environment, (our level of business-friendliness) is appropriate. If unemployment were higher it might be different.”

A report by the Public Policy Institute of California appears to support Watkins’ position, stating, “The idea that there is a single business climate in the state that is applicable for all businesses and regions is too simplistic.”

Despite the oversimplification, when the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency was questioned about the number of businesses leaving California, it said data was not tracked by the government, instead pointing to research from Fortune magazine (No. 1 state with 53 Fortune 500 companies; 15 of the “100 best companies to work for”); Inc. magazine (No. 1 for “fastest-growing companies”); and Forbes (five of the top 25 fastest-growing tech companies).

“We consider it to be very friendly here,” said Raytheon spokesman Ron Colman. “We have no plan at all to move.”

While Raytheon Vision Systems, formerly SBRC, recently purchased a new building in Lompoc, and plans to locate 40 employees there by year-end, Colman said that expansion was predicated on the specific need for a clean-room facility and has no implication for future expansion into the North County at the expense of the South Coast.

“In a weak economy we tend to be a little more friendly,” said Steve Cushman, executive director of the Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce.

“In the North County, there’s more available square footage … they’ve created more incentives … the approval process is faster and more dependable.”

Regarding the permitting process, Dave Gustafson, Santa Barbara’s assistant community development director, cited ongoing efforts to streamline the development approval process.

“I don’t think we’re all that unpredictable,” he said.

On the housing issue, he continued, “We are constantly looking at land-use strategies to try to accomplish affordable housing for the workforce.”

State-mandated constraints such as insurance and workers’ compensation are also a business concern over which “the city has no control,” said City Councilman Dan Secord.

“Employers must pay the freight for richer benefits to the injured worker,” he said.

Secord urged an active business retention program for the city to “express the city’s caring for business, whose productivity in jobs and taxes make the other city services possible.”

Thus far, Goleta city officials have not announced any plans for business retention or future outreach programs. Calls to Mayor Jack Hawxhurst for comment on business issues were not returned.

The city of Santa Barbara is planning a series of meetings with different business segments in the community to see how it can best address their needs, Gustafson said.

“Businesses want to be appreciated,” Cushman said.

Cushman cited Alias-Wavefront and Openwave (formerly Software.com) as companies that followed a familiar scenario of starting here, getting acquired or merging, and eventually having the parent company question the expense and travel inconveniences of being located in Santa Barbara.

While Tenet seems to be staying for the moment, “Vetronix is on the edge,” Cushman said. “We’re hoping they’ll stay.”

When questioned about the city’s efforts to try to retain Fidelity, senior vice president Daniel Kennedy Murphy said, “As far as I know, nothing really was done.”

Meanwhile, Fidelity chairman William Foley was quoted by Jacksonville’s First Coast News as saying, “Jacksonville actually wants to have us. California likes having us, but it isn’t very concerned about not having us.” Foley declined to return a Beacon reporter’s phone calls on this matter.

“I think it (the Fidelity move) was a surprise to us,” Gustafson said.

“I think there was not anything we could have done to stop it. Florida gave them $12 million worth of subsidies … We don’t have the financial tools to compete,” he added.

As for preemptive gestures to secure Tenet’s future in Santa Barbara, Campanini said there’s been “no interaction with the city that I’m aware of. You would have to ask the mayor’s office.”

Gustafson answered queries to Mayor Marty Blum.

“Over time there’ve been lots of meetings with Tenet. Many, many meetings with them,” he said.

“I don’t know, to be honest with you, about with Fidelity. I believe there’s one pending with Tenet’s new chairman.”

On the business growth vs. lifestyle issue, he said, “If we were looking to attract large Fortune 500 companies there might be environmental issues to that growth. This gets into the whole growth, and quality of life balance.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on June 19, 2003.

An Interview with Cerida Corporation’s Jeanne Lambert

Posted on by
Reply

Recognizing the critical need for teleprofessionals who could focus on driving the entire sales cycle — from marketing to sales to customer development — Jeanne Lambert founded Cerida Corp. (formerly TeleSales, Inc.) in 1993. As President and CEO, she has built up an impressive client list that includes IBM PartnerWorld, Cisco Systems, and Texas Instruments. Here, Lambert shares her insights on customer service, CRM and what she’s learned recently about branding.

SAM: Define expert customer service.

JL: We refer to our expertise as Customer Development as opposed to pure customer service. … Our emphasis … is to focus on up-selling, cross-selling and other revenue opportunities. … We consider ourselves sales cycle experts, going from the objective that a marketing side of the organization is trying to target, qualify, educate — moving through to sales and further education — and closing business by going back to your existing customers to sell, and up-sell while they’re going through that customer service center.

SAM: From the client perspective, the benefit to up-selling and cross-selling is obvious, but in terms of the customers, how would you define an excellent experience?

JL: … First [make] sure that customer service is easily accessed, and gives you all kinds of channels, so that as a customer, you select how you want to be serviced. The choices in the market today are about the customer.

[Also critical is] the sophistication of the customer service experience … Do not send me a blanket e-mail response that says “thank you for your request, we will be processing that” and then take credit in the market for having a fast response! You didn’t answer my question, you just acknowledged the fact that I sent you one.

SAM: What else is important?

JL: … You don’t have to go through this “could you hold, I need to get my supervisor to talk to you about this.” We learn good quality customer service and we go over those things with clients first, so that as we’re going through training with our clients, we’re aligned with them.

SAM: So you try to be proactive?

JL: [If there are problems with a product] we work with them on an answer level. … very quickly we are able to train the agents so that they can deal with those as soon as a customer calls and complains … Usually you disarm the issue … when you’re on top of it.

SAM: That makes a lot of sense. What about your company’s marketing strategy? Prior to this you were working under a different name, why the change to Cerida?

JL: …We were getting feedback … that our name [“Telesales”] was deceiving and limiting in its perception in the market. … I’m Irish. … I found this site that had Irish goddesses: Cerid, the Irish Goddess who imparted knowledge and intelligence to humans. … It’s that thing that I think describes what we as a company are trying to do.

SAM: Now will the essence of the name be part of the branding that you’re doing?

JL: Absolutely. …. It’s … right under our logo. “Our name, Cerida, is derived from the name of the Celtic goddess Ceridwen, the goddess of knowledge and wisdom. We carry this name because it symbolizes what we do best, apply business knowledge and sales wisdom at any (and every) point in the contact sales cycle.”

SAM: It’s perfect. In your field, especially, there are a lot of company names that are either confusing or nonsensical.

JL: … I just started to really understand and I’m learning every day and reading a bunch of books on what the word branding means. That was a foreign concept to me. My background is mostly sales and now that I’m now getting involved in marketing and understanding more about it and the concept of branding is everybody’s responsibility in the company. I never really understood that before.

Originally published in SAM Magazine in September 2001.

Case Study: Interliant’s Sales Incentive Program

Posted on by
Reply

The Challenge: Every morning, Travis Lupo, Web Hosting Sales Manager for Interliant, an ASP with offices through the U.S. and Europe, meets with his 25-member Atlanta-based sales team. Daily updates and friendly competition are an important part of his motivation strategy, but Interliant’s internal platform for sales reporting was being transitioned and he couldn’t get daily updated results for the sales reps.

The Solution: A sales incentive program developed in conjunction with Salesdriver provided Interliant with a cost-effective, efficient, web-based solution.

“We provide real-time feedback for sales managers,” says Dan Berger, Salesdriver’s CEO and President. “Right now the Internet is the most powerful change agent in the $23 billion annual incentives market.”

Lupo agrees. “Being web-based … it’s more efficient … you have to do a lot less manually as far as rolling it out to your people, and the results are up there on Salesdriver on an automated basis. … less strain for management.”

Salesdriver’s innovative on-line sales contest service allowed Interliant to build their program for free, and launch it with the click of a button. The bill came when the “DriverDollars” were cashed in by winning salespeople at the end of the contest — the ultimate “pay for performance.”

“Trips and electronics are what incent our employees the most,” says Lupo. “We’ve been using Salesdriver for almost a year now.” The results? “It’s kind of hard to quantify, but our numbers have definitely grown exponentially and the sales force and efficiency in the organization have boosted our revenue … I would say this has definitely positively impacted our revenue.”

Originally published in SAM Magazine in July 2001.

SAM talks to Donald Baird about the America’s Schools Program

Posted on by
Reply

Talk about a win-win proposition. Who wouldn’t want to associate their brand with something as wholesome and all-American as helping to bring textbooks, art, music and sports to their children’s schools? Aussie Olympian Donald Baird, Founder and CEO of the International School Licensing Corporation, has devoted over twenty years of his life to developing revenue generating programs for schools, school districts and athletics. As any good coach will tell you, one key to success is having a great game plan.

With that in mind, Baird has been laying the groundwork for the America’s Schools Program since 1984, developing partnerships with school boards and schools districts throughout the United States. The hardest part is over — 14 states representing 80 percent of the country’s population have signed on to the program. SAM caught up with Baird recently, as he was about to launch his pitch to the Fortune 500.

SAM: To a marketer, the America’s Schools program appeals on a few different levels. You have the partnership marketing where you’re sharing the expense and the promotional efforts with a lot of different companies, and, the philanthropic aspect is still a bit unusual.

DB: It is unusual. We’re putting the entire educational family under this one identifiable mark. [the America’s Schools logo] … We’re not one of the 30,000 companies trying to get a foothold in education, we’re working with education for education.

SAM: How?

DB: We are … developing what is going to be the biggest, most powerful marketing vehicle this country has ever seen. … a system that will enable national advertising dollars to affect the well being of a local school. Every school is going to be treated exactly the same. The money is distributed to each individual school based on population.

… I did not want to stand in front of a major corporation unless I could explicitly tell them that we have the school systems signed on. We met in Tennessee and 14 states, representing 80 percent of the country’s population, convened [to establish] the America’s Schools National Business and Licensing Board. Eventually it will be structured from all 50 states.

SAM: It sounds like a tremendously ambitious program.

DB: It is. If you can envision something it can happen. … All you have to do here is basically just have a half a million people believe in one thing. That’s all.

SAM: Now that you’ve conquered the schools, what about marketing this to corporate America?

DB: We are at a point where we can sit down and present the program with all the confidence in the world. The first company that’s going to see [our presentation] is Coca Cola. We have to show corporations that I am going to change what I do on a national basis. One of the challenges we had with each individual state, was that they had to sign a contract of a minimum of 12 years, some of the contracts are as long as 26 years. The reason for that is to show solidarity.

SAM: That makes sense.

DB: … a minimum of 50 cents on every dollar had to go back to the local school districts. That’s before any money went to any of the bodies that were helping to put this together. We’re looking for corporate partners, not sponsors — people … that are going to be impacted by a corporate relationship with the educational system.

SAM: With Coca Cola, do you have a certain percentage in mind that you’re asking for these partnerships?

DB: What it’s going to be is a minimum. We spoke to people [on the boards of] five Fortune 500 companies … and asked them hypothetically … would you, for the exclusive relationship with this program on a nationwide basis, be interested in the program, how would you go about getting involved with it, and the third thing, which is would you be turned off by the fact that it would be 25 million up front annual fee. In every case they said they would be excited.

SAM: Are you going to be doing any kind of promotional campaign, besides having signage in the schools?

DB: We have a deal with Viacom [who owns a number of media companies, including CBS and MTV] …Where there’s available billboard space, they are giving us the space. They want to work with us and help make this work.

By the fifth year, in our budget, we will be spending 50 million in advertising alone, that’s all funded by the individual corporations. … Our objective is to make this symbol more recognizable than the Olympic rings and Nike put together — in one-eighth of the time it took them to establish themselves.

SAM: And what’s the timetable that you’re looking at for the core group of partners?

DB: By September/October we’re hoping to put in two to three. Within 2 years we hope to have 12 put together.

SAM: Have the school boards given you any kind of guidance in terms of the types of corporations?

DB: No tobacco, nothing religious, no alcohol, all the typical things. The final list of companies has come from that national board … already pre-approved.

SAM: Is it meant to be a non-profit model?

DB: No, it’s not. Anyway, that’s what I keep telling my investors. It’s gonna take some time. If you’re talking 25 million and you’ve got 12 companies, you’re basically talking about 300 million in annual revenues that are going to be created. Obviously we have a certain threshold or a certain dollar amount that we’ve got to make in order to be profitable in order to make it work.

… 76% of the entire country said that if price and quality are equal, they will buy something that supports a cause over buying something from a competitor — if it’s for a cause that they can relate to. Their family is the most important cause …

SAM: That’s absolutely true.

DB: If we can positively affect the hearts and minds of these people, their pocketbooks will follow, just out of natural human instinct. We’re gonna hit the hearts and minds of everybody in this country. It’s gonna be unbelievable, unlike anything that anyone’s ever done before. It’s gonna be like a virus across this entire country.

SAM: The part that’s going to be of the most interest to our readers is the corporate angle, that’s still evolving. Our readers are going to be most interested in how that whole arrangement will work.

DB: They’re gonna pay money to have a relationship with us, and we’re gonna be directing every check that comes out of it to the schools. The education system … it is the airport of life. Everybody has to go through school.

SAM: What was your inspiration for coming up with this program in the first place?

DB: Frustration. … There is absolutely no reason why a girl or boy should be deprived of a full education for the lack of money. The money exists. … That’s the inspiration. If I can imagine it, it can be done. And luckily enough there are some great people out there who feel the same. Our board of directors rivals any Fortune 500 company in this country.

If we do this right, when they write the book of the history of marketing and sales and advertising, I think there’s gonna be at least a paragraph on the America’s Schools Program.

Originally published in SAM Magazine in July 2001.