Club Entrepreneur (Club E), College of Entrepreneurship (CoE) and Club E Offices (CEO)

The Next Generation of Barter

2011-02-20T09:46:00.002-07:00

After "experiencing" nearly all of the so-called barter organizations in the Phoenix area over the last few years-the good, the bad and the very ugly- Club E has decided to launch it's own barter company. As you all may or may not know, barter is the simple trade of goods or services at retail rates through an organization that keeps track of these exchanges through debits and credits of their own currency. The trade organization makes it's profits through transaction fees and (supposedly) provides customer service to facilitate the trades among the members in a (supposedly) seamless transaction. The results are sadly nowhere near these expectations for the client.

Over the years of trying out other barter organizations I have been flabbergasted at both the incompetence and sometimes outright criminality present. With little or no regulation (yet) in the barter world, very stupid or very crooked people are actually allowed to start and run some organizations...a distinct black eye for the barter world as a whole. I, personally, have been ripped off for one significant transaction that I engineered for $150,000 in trade credits and in light of the fact that the principal of this trade organization has been accused, convicted and now sentenced for fraud on another matter, I expected that her trade company would simply fade away. However, that's not the case. They are still out their touting their trade company, probably deceiving more business owners as they did to me and others before. Another very well established trade organization simply "forgot" to pay me what may be tens of thousands of shared trade fees we were to have earned by agreement for enrolling nearly 100 Club E members into their trade group. Now, I am forced to hire my accounting firm's forensic accounting arm to dig into the trade group's finances to prove what they "forgot" to pay me and pry it out of them.

In short, my experience with local trade groups hasn't been pretty but I remain totally committed to the concept of barter...properly executed. So, last Friday I announced that Club E will start it's own barter organization and the Club E Exchange will no longer be a "private label" for other trade organizations but will now do barter business on it's own under the name "Instant Barter."

We're going to do things a lot differently than the other trade companies. First, we're not going to gouge customers with exhorbitant transaction fees. While others may charge their clients 12% to 15% for the "privilege" of buying and selling goods and services through their exchanges, Club E's "Instant Barter" will charge only 2.5%for both the buy and sell or between 1/3 and 1/2 of everyone else's transaction fees. We will also collect that fee at the time of the transaction, so there will not be any big monthly bill to swallow for you active traders.

Club E will also accept barter from virtually any other trade organization that you may belong to. We're receiving many inquiries from people that are "stuck" with large trade balances that they simply cannot spend within their existing trade companies. We'll take care of that for you.

Finally, we're actually going to offer you something that is woefully absent in virtually any other trade group-customer service. How sad is it that customer service is the exception rather than the rule in today's business world and particularly in the barter business? Well, we are committed to doing something about that so, Ana Hawk, our Trade Director, will do her utmost to meet your needs. Simply send her your "wish list" at azclube@gmail.com and join "Instant Barter" with no enrollment fees, transaction costs at a fraction of anyone else's and our promise to do our utmost to serve your needs.

Club E has paved the way on many fronts these past four years to serve entrepreneurs...now it's time for us to lead the way in the barter world. Please join us.

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Join Us at our Club E Office (CEO)

2011-02-20T09:14:00.004-07:00

Last August, Club Entrepreneur moved into new headquarters (our 3rd) at 300 W Osborn in Downtown Phoenix. Our CEO (Club E Office) has been established in N. Phoenix and then in Tempe but our landlords, victims to the economic times, had lost each facility to bankruptcy and we were forced to move. This new facility, with wonderful views of the City of Phoenix and plenty of parking, provides us with multiple private offices (17),conference rooms (3) and an open space capable of housing dozens od drop-ins (instead of the home office and coffe shop "offices) and hosting events of up to 300 attendees.

Our 8,000' (soon to be 10,000') of space is filled with aspiring and accomplished entrepreneurs and I hold my daily one-on-ones (almost 1000 since March) with our membership. Club Entrepreneur and it's various initiatives like Club E Products, Club E Funding and other serevices is housed at our CEO, along with 17 member businesses and scores of others that come through our doors each day. We host both our own events (Thursday noon Club E Funding workshops, "Fridays at 5," and our 1st Wednesday monthly meeting ta 5:30 PM ) along with many other gatherings. Please see if we can host your event at our CEO by reaching out to us.

Our rates can't be beat and the benefits are extraordinary-where else can you be a part of the most dynamic group of pureblood entrepreneurs in the area? We are just introducing the Club E Marketplace, an array of products and services for our membership. See the link below for my "back story" and what the Club E Marketplace is all about.

http://www.cv-vision.com/ovmt/pburns/

If you are interested in a tour of the facility to stake out your own private office or drop-in space, please reach out to us at azclube@gmail.com and we'll show you around.

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Have a Merry (Bartered) Christmas...

2010-12-24T01:46:00.003-07:00

As many of you know, Club Entrepreneur is deeply vested in the barter applications of business. (see www.clubeexchange.net) We've partnered up with the longstanding and integrity-filled barter company, Tradesource (see www.tradesource.net)and have conducted many tens of thousands of barter transactions with our Club E members through Tradesource's barter network.

Over the last year or so, Club Entrepreneur (and me personally) have been able to trade for the lease of our beautiful Downtown Phoenix facility (www.clubeoffice.com), complete with bartered furnishings and even the delicious catered food at our weekly and monthly gatherings of entrepreneurs. In the past several weeks, we've added both print and ink catridges (www.clubeinkandtoner.com) as well as good, used automobiles to the roster of products that can be purchased through our barter network.

Perhaps the greatest personal story of what can be bartered occured just a day or two ago, when I had the privilege of hosting two young single mothers, who are now working with Club E, as well as a surrogate aunt and young Club E member, who were able to pick out literally hundreds of dollars of toys and gifts for their 20 month, 4 and 5 year old little girls for a Christmas that they will never forget. You see, each of these young ladies had been unable to afford to buy Christmas gifts for their little girls because they simply could not afford to this year.

Fortunately, the sale of catridges and cars on barter had left a generous amount of surplus barter in my accounts and I was honored to bring these young ladies to go Christmas shopping at the Tradesource store, which was filed with member items, including toys for little girls of these three fine women. The ladies at Tradesource, named Sally and Amanda, kindly assisted these young ladies in finding many great gifts for their children and the smiles on their faces, as they gleefully filled their cars with gifts for their baby girls, was the greatest gift of all!

Tonight, I was able to fill up my daughter's large SUV to the brim with large boxes of beautiful new furnishings for her townhouse, which she shares with her sister. My daughters had been laboriously filling their new home, piece by piece over the months they settled in together but they still had a long way to go to make their place comfortably furnished. Through one of Tradesource's members in the new and consigned furniture business, I was able to locate beautiful furniture and accessories that I could give to my two daughters for Christmas. Had I had to pay cash for such beautiful items, I never could have afforded to be so generous this Christmas. Barter saved the day!

There are many other examples of how using barter can help us all in this tough economy. I, for one, can proudly gratefully attest that barter has allowed me to provide a very Merry Christmas for five young ladies...the three little girls of Club E members and my own two beautiful daughters!

Have a Merry (Bartered) Christmas to you all!

Best always,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder
Club Entrepreneur

Headliner at Club E On December 1

2010-12-04T13:20:00.003-07:00

The evening started off with the logistics of a military campaign. Chairs were imported for the expected overflow crowd, the caterer arrived with extra tables and enough food to fuel a small army. The sound equipment was being tested, sponsor tables were being organized. That night, we were having one of Arizona's most well known and successful entrepreneurs, Robert Sarver, the SUNS owner and banking magnate with a $59B empire. We were also hosting LeAnn Hull, our very own Club E member that was throwing her hat into the political arena for the Mayor's Office of Phoenix.

We hoped for a crowd over 200 and exceeded that by over 50%, with a solid 300 plus business owners, entrepreneurs and friends crowding our downtown Phoenix headquarters at 300 W Osborn. It was a magical night...

I introduced Club E and it's mission to the many newcomers in the audience and then had each of our 6 or 8 sponsors share what their companies did with the crowd. Robert Sarver had requested an earlier start than usual (5 PM vs. 5:30 PM) to accommodate his schedule, which we gladly complied with. I introduced him and for a solid 45 minutes, he regaled us with his history and observations, all with great humor and ease. The audience loved him and there were a many questions and answers directed to him after his talk. He had to leave right away to head to a family function and I'm looking forward to getting together with him one-on-one myself sometime. He's my type of entrepreneur.

LeAnn Hull, our Club E favorite for political office, stepped up to the mike and in a very well presented speech, shared her sweeping vision of turning the City of Phoenix around as the next Mayor. Her ideas were solid and very executable...if there were cooperation in the City government. She asked us to help put certain Council members into office along with her to make this all come together. LeAnn is a champion and we need entrepreneurs like her in political office. I aim to do whatever I can with Club E to make that happen because we will all win with her at the helm of America's 5th largest city.

The rest of the evening was filled with significant connections being made between the attendees and a universal delight with the event. As always, everyone enjoyed the spectacular feast put together by Club E's own caterer, Janet Williams of JW Productions.

We were so fortunate to have one of our Club E members, Rick Allen, who kindly recorded the whole event and a link is offered here below for those that missed it or for attendees that wanted to see the great evening again.

https://www.onlinefilefolder.com/4fYTVPZJti8p5K

I am very proud of Club Entrepreneur and the organization it has become these past (nearly) four years. Our members are the backbone of this State and together, we will drive Phoenix to rise from it's own ashes and become the "Small Business Capital" of this country and as a beacon of Free Enterprise to others across our great country.

Best regards,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

"The New (Old) Coin of the Realm"- Barter

2010-11-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

By Wikipedia's standard....
Barter is a method of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money.[1] It is usually bilateral, but may be multilateral, and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a very limited extent. Barter usually replaces money as the method of exchange in times of monetary crisis, when the currency is unstable and devalued by hyperinflation.
My experience with barter goes back 10 years when I first moved to Phoenix and partnered with a businessman who taught me the ropes. Brian had a party bus limousine business and he often traded his services through one or more of the established barter companies in the area. Next, he moved into the magazine business and traded ads for barter currency, which he used for restaurant scrip, printing and other services for himself and his business. I moved on to other enterprises and found a use for barter in literally every field.
I was involved in the first Destination Club in the country, Private Retreats and I actually figured out how to barter memberships (at $100k apiece) and use the barter dollars to both furnish the multimillion dollar residences as well help the company purchase full page ads in such high profile and glossy national magazines like the Dupont Registry and Ritz Magazine. The results of my introduction to barter and it's adaptation to as-of-yet untested uses like private club members...$900,000 in barter sales!
So, like a duck to water, I learned the "ins and outs" of barter. This lasted the couple or three years I was partnered up with Brian and then I was involved in other businesses, which didn't lend themselves as readily to barter. That all changed this past year, when I introduced barter to our ever expanding group at Club Entrepreneur. First, I "tested the waters" by joining one barter company after another. It took four tries because the first barter groups I tried were so incompetent and/or crooked, that only the most optimistic (or gullible) of souls would ever have remained committed to barter. Finally, I landed in an organization whose integrity and longivity were a testament to what a barter company should really be about.
Tradesource (www.tradesource.net) run by the mother and daughter team of Sylvia and Mary Ellen Rosinski has been operating their 1100 member trade company for 24 years. In a barter organization, the members buy and sell their products or services to each other at retail prices, accepting barter currency for their "sales to each other. The barter company, Tradesource in this case, acts as the "bank" and makes it's revenue through the 12% transaction charge, which it assesses each member monthly and in cash, for those barter sales.
The "trick" in any barter company is to maintain the quality of service between the members and to "balance the books' by keeping the value of it's currency intact. Hypervigilance is essential, so that "inflation" or "devaluation" of it's barter currency does not occur and remains solid. In all candor, the Tradsource dollar is much stronger than our own American "greenbacks" because it really is perfectly balanced.
Having my own organization of literally thousands of Club E members (4500 at last count), I proposed a partnership of sorts with Tradesource. First, I established my own "private label" barter organization that I named the Club E Exchange (see link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC_Ir-VzFlM . Next, I negotiated for a split of the transaction fees for Club E members that I brought into Tradesource. I also negotiated a release from both the membership fee of $695 (cash) and monthly maintenece fees of $20 (cash) for the first six months, for all new members coming from Club E. Tradesource would act as the bookkeeper and "bank" to make certain that everything ran smoothly. It seemed a perfect solution for both organizations.
In the meantime, Sylvia approached me with the possibility of locating one of our CEOs (Club E Office) into one of the new commercial properties that were offered through a new account of Tradesource. These landlords, suffering from commercial vacancies on an unprecedented scale had decided that they'd rather take barter dollars than no dollars for some of their properties. My crew and I staked out a facility and the rest, they say is history.
Club Entrepreneur is now heavily ensconced in a beautiful 8,000' facility in Downtown Phoenix, with plenty of parking and a multitude of private offices and open space. We bartered for this "all inclusive" space at less than market rate and for all barter, which includes both the utilities and daily janitorial service. In exchange, we offer the offices and other parts the space to our Club E members at retail rates...but in barter dollars by signing them up on Tradesource through our own Club E Exchange. Our Club E Office (CEO) keeps the spread of barter dollars as our profit and spends those barter dollars to maintain operations.
For instance, we bartered for the handyman services to assemble the furnishings, which we also purchased with our barter dollars. We used a bartered mover to transport our equipment and furniture to the new facility. We even use a bartered catering service to provide our event attendees with delicious food and beverages at our weekly and monthly events.
Recently, I chanced upon a rather unique application of barter...the retention of skilled services needed by companies who haven't the cash to retain the needed employee. I establish these companies as trade exchange members that then use their excess products or services to generate barter dollars. In turn, the skilled worker incorporates himself and establishes a barter account of their own to offer it's services to the company for a 1099 barter exchange. A thorough discussion of this can be read by accessing my blog entry at the link below. http://peterjburns.blogspot.com/2010/09/club-entrepreneurs-solution-to.html
In short, there is no limit on how you can make barter work for you, especially in these turbulent times of limited cash and uncertainty. Sign up to an established and reputable barter company, using your excess products and services to generate your barter dollars. Then offset many of your cash expenses for bartered products and services and you will benefit greatly. My own experience proves this out.
Best to all,
Peter J. Burns, III Founder

CEO Update

2010-10-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Lots to report on the progress of our Club E Office (CEO) expansion. The 300 W Osborn facility in Downtown Phoenix is filling up, with a waiting list for the private offices. We're also starting to get some traction on both the "Drop In" spaces and hosted meetings outside of our regular Club E functions. We are optimistic that this CEO will quickly become the epicenter of entrepreneurial activity in the Phoenix Metropolitan area.

Through a key introduction from our resident CFO, Al Schaap, we are now discussing the possibility of opening a Veteran-only CEO in a secured facility so that we can host military veterans that win some of the 80% "set aside" government contracts (see below.) We have a 6,000' site in Tempe and a Camelback site with 10,000' (both secured sites) under consideration. The government contract expert, Dr. Janathin Miller is scheduled to come visit us in Phoenix in about a week. There are over 1 million veterans returning to America after serving our country in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones.

Many of these men and women are disabled. Our government has established an 80% "set aside" for government contracts for qualified disabled vets who seek to go into business for themselves and bid on these contracts. In order to win such a contract, the military entrepreneur must operate from a secured facility. Club E can provide such a facility and support the fledgling Vetrepreneur with assorted business services and the collaboration that is only found within the ranks of Club Entrepreneur.

My old friend and business partner, Bob Johnson, has established a new CEO in the Atlanta suburb of College Park. A friend from the economic development department of Goodyear, Arizona, Barb Coffee, moved to College Park (Ga) and took her admiration of working with Club E with her. She and Bob connected about creating both a Club E chapter and a CEO facility, located a perfect spot, and for the past 6 months have been working dilgently to make this happen. I just received word that Barb had successfully negotiated a $150,000 grant to help support the $300,000 tenant improvement guarantee that Club E needs in order to open the facility. Bob tells me that we already have commitments to rent for 25% of the space and a real shot at making this facility Vetrepreneur-eligible through the help of our new friend, Dr. Miller.

There are a lot of empty commercial structures across the country that could be retrofitted to incorporate a Club E chapter and a CEO operation that could house the cilvilian and military operators alike. This story will only continue to grow...

Stay tuned!

Best always,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

1% of Club E = Infinity

2010-10-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

Last night, 1% of our membership of Club Entrepreneur showed up for our one-on-one roundtable. That's over 60 individual business owners from every walk of life...and it was powerful!

Generally, around 2 dozen invited one-on-one "alumni" show up, we introduce each other to ourselves and then deal with one or two issues that need solving within the group. Next, we break for a social hour, usually joined by another dozen attendees for refreshments and conversation. Last night was very different.

For some reason, a whole lot more Club E members came to share last night. The group ranged from a young start up restaurateur to one of America's most recognized informercial personalities with over $1 B in sales. As I was listening to the individual business owners introduce themselves and what businesses they were in, I couldn't help but wonder what magic could be performed for our local economy by simply harnessing the energy and optimism within that room last night.

Think about it...60 business owners averaging $700k in gross revenues (average small business statistic) represents over $40MM in annualized sales. Commit that sum to one or two of our local community banks as deposits in Club E's "Bank Local" program and we could pump over $400MM of financing into the economy through the Federal guidelines of matching 10 times a bank's deposits at 0% interest.

We had a husband and wife team whose company provides the successful step-by-step process of obtaining business credit based on a company's EIN number only, without the need for personal credit. For a very reasonable charge (and they'll even finance it) they guarantee that if you follow their steps, your company will receive up to $100,000 in business credit. In a room like last night, that means we could generate over $6,000,000 in unsecured business credit for those businesses. In an economy like this, that is truly outstanding.

A start-up utilizing a proprietary software that attached a bar code on the back of a person's business card debuted last night. The bar code, when accessed by taking a picture from a smartphone that had installed a free aplication, accessed the card holder's web site and video message, making that person's message much more memorable than a handful of other business cards we all collect each time we network. Imagine the effect to that start-up if all 60 businesses became their customers last night.

There was a lady in the ink cartridge business, who recently had a one-on-one with me. Her employer was the largest ink catridge manufacturer in the U.S. with prices far less than the normal providers of such products like Staples and Office Max. I introduced her her employer to barter and we just launched www.clubeinkandtoner.com, where you can now spend your barter dollars and not cash on replacing the "necessary evil" of print and ink cartridges. The average business spends over $700 annually on ink and printer catridges. Imagine if each of last night's attendees gave that business to the "ink lady?" She would have booked a cool $40,000 in sales.

Speaking of barter, the founder of the area's largest and most longstanding (24 years) barter exchange was in attendance last evening. Club E works very closely with Sylvia and Tradesource and counts over 75 Club E members that are part of the 1100 Tradesource members. If all 60 attendees became part of Tradesource and utilized barter for only 10% of their sales, there would be over $4,000,000 in additional annualized business that Tradesource could have booked. This represents millions of dollars in freed up cash flow for these businesses.

We had a talented artist there last night who produces wonderful paintings of classic cars, portraits and anything else that a client might want. Why not consider giving her your business and commissioning a family portrait for a unique Christmas gift?

There was a young woman who had created a number of products from a unique textile that she had discovered after much research. Who couldn't use the beach and athletic towels which were so much better and more compact than available products? There was a longstanding manufacturer's rep in the audience that started discussing his representation of her product after the break. Another product produced by another attendee, a biomass produced log for burning, also caught his attention and they began discussions last night.

A call center operator with state-of-the art technology which hired American workers and charged far less than even offshore competitors to generate leads and sales calls was in attendance. He will be setting up headquarters at our facility and what company doesn't need more sales leads? Many of the members were lining up to speak with this fella last night.

There was a data base programmer there last night. He has engineered a number of software based products including a program that "remembers" all of one's log-ins and passwords for every account. This gentleman has created a CRM, email delivery platform and data base management system that will take all of Club E's thousands of members, classifying them by industry and other parameters for ease of use. What company couldn't use his services? Who couldn'y use his "memory stick?"

Speaking of a perfect candidate for our data base expert...we had a first time attendee, the founder of one of America's most successful product sales through infomercials, with over $1B in sales. This gentleman's data base has over 18 million customers who have bought his products and he has come to Club E to see if there are any new products that he might be interested in promoting through his vast network and via his television celebrity. This man has spent over $250,000,000 in advertising over the years and his recognition factor is greater than former President Clinton's, I am told.

A couple of young men had a towing business and were looking for contracts from commercial property owners. They offered this service free of charge to the property owner and made their money in towing and storage fees. Our landlord was there and she offered them our building and four others that she owned to try out their service. What other commmercial property owners are there in Club E that could use their free towing service to remove unwanted cars that are illegally parked or abandoned?

A lovely young woman in the photography business was there. She specializes in weddings but is now branching off into specialized photo shoots and is even working towards producing an album cover with yet another Club E member who started his own Hip Hop label.

Two old friends of mone that I did business with ten years ago showed up for a one-on-one a few days ago and shared what had happended since. They are starting a women-only racecar team and through a Club E connection, now have the first lady Indy driver as their CEO. There are numerous sponsorship possibilities and PR plays for this exciting business starting in our midst.

There were dozens of other business owners with services and products that many of the attendees could use for their own businesses. If all we did last night was to open the possibilities of working together to become each other's clients and referrals, that would be great. But I have something much bigger in mind...

What if we formed a cohort of members from the group last evening and all worked together and acted to become each others' customers? What if we all worked enmasse to drive business to each other, to pool our banking resources and to energize our community from within by throwing our collective weight to each other in an effort to jumpstart the local economy?

I can bring America's largest small business lender into the mix to loan $5k-$25k to each member with a 680 FICO score and an executive summary. This loan carries only a 6% interest, is amortized over 10 years and requires no capital. At a mere $10k per loan for the members of last night's gathering, we can generate $600,000 in fresh capital into the businesses there last night. Add the $6 million in new business credit obtained from our experts and you have some serious resources that could be generated from this group.

We could all come together again and again to brainstorm with each other and share the three type of capital that Club E professes in it's "Open Source" credo of: Relationship Capital, Knowledge Capital and Capital Capital. There could be a simple agenda prepared and we can break into smaller groups, offering each other advice, contacts and most importantly, business. Why dilute this extraordinary collective buying power when we could all throw our much needed business to each other? Like our forefathers once said when facing our British oppressors, "Together we stand or divided we fall."

I work up at 3 AM this morning, so excited with the possibilities that this concept offers all of us. What a model could be created that could be duplicated after proving it out. Sixty talented and motivated entrepreneurs and business owners from within the ranks of Club E can do some seriously great things. I am going to start putting this together right now and I am going to be reaching out to every one of you.

Expect my call!

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!

2010-10-19T08:18:00.001-07:00

Naval hero, Admiral Faragat is credited with these immortal words in the heat of combat and these same words resonate with me now. Like all entrepreneurs and people in general, I've had my fair share of ups and downs, of failures and successes. When you put yourself out there in the battleground of war and even business, you're going to have to take the shots fired at you...literally or figuratively.

I've been a "pureblood" entrepreneur for 35 years now, having started my first "official" business as a young man of 19 years old while a freshman in college. Looking back, I've taken some major rolls of the dice with any number of attempts to start, enlarge or acquire businesses. At the tender age of 21, just two years into my first business of renting mopeds on Nantucket Island, I took the plunge of commercial property ownership when I committed to a $1.1 million purchase of an empty lot with a popcorn stand and a broken down garage in Nantucket's town center.

I signed on the dotted line when "offered" this extraordinary opportunity from the S&H Green Stamps heir, Walter Beinecke, Jr. by carrying the whole balance at 10% interest for six months, when I'd then have to hand him $1.1 million in cash. While nearly every available dime earned from renting my little fleet of mopeds went to supporting this monumental sum (to me), I scrambled around putting together my first syndicate of investors to cover the purchase price.

That day, six months later, when I handed my cashier's check for over a million dollars to Mr. Beinecke, I was a very proud young man. That day, a scant two years later, our syndicate sold just one lot for $2.5 millon, keeping the garage and adjoining lot for redvelopment...I was a rich young man.

If I told you the ridicule I took from nearly every person that learned of my million dollar purchase, (before I multiplied my investment multiple times) you'd learn the lesson I did at such an early age. Admiral Farrgat was right..."Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead." Let the sheep who bray "It can't be done" remain on the sidelines of obscurity.

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Schadenfreude

2010-10-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I've been the occasional target of the German term "schadenfreude."

See the best explanation I've found from Wikipedia...

A New York Times article in 2002 cited a number of scientific studies of schadenfreude, which it defined as "delighting in others' misfortune." Many such studies are based on social comparison theory, the idea that when people around us have bad luck, we look better to ourselves. Other researchers have found that people with low self-esteem are more likely to feel schadenfreude than are people who have high self-esteem.[21]

A 2006 experiment suggests that men, but not women, enjoy seeing bad people suffer. The study was designed to measure empathy, by watching which brain centers are stimulated when subjects inside an fMRI observe someone experiencing physical pain. Researchers expected that the brain's empathy center would show more stimulation when those seen as good got an electric shock than they would if the shock was given to someone the subject had reason to consider bad. This was indeed the case, but for male subjects the brain's pleasure centers also lit up when someone else got a shock that the male thought was well-deserved.[22]

Brain-scanning studies show that schadenfreude is correlated with envy. Strong feelings of envy activated physical pain nodes in the brain's dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; the brain's reward centers, such as the ventral striatum, were activated by news that the people envied had suffered misfortune. The magnitude of the brain's schadenfreude response could even be predicted from the strength of the previous envy response.[23][24]

When you're an entrepreneur, you're really the "warrior of the business world." There isn't a net to catch you if you plummet from your attempts at self reliance in your own venture. If you try something and you fail, there are those around you that will forever chant "I told you so, I told you so." If you surpass all odds and not only survive but thrive in your venture, there are those envious souls that sit in the dark crevasses just waiting for you to fail at your next juncture.

After three and a half decades of starting and running my own companies, well over a hundred of them, I've definitely soared to great heights as well as crashed and burned. Each event brought out the detractors, the naysayers and the cowards that stay in the shadows with their "Anonymous" comments directed to anyone that will listen to hopefully harm me.

Well, I say to all those who cast stones...show yourself and let's see how perfect you are. Where are your trimphs and successes and better yet, what were your failures? The odds are you are pitifully living lives of "quiet desparation," as Henry David Thoreau described. You "Anonymous" detractors, who haven't the stones to identify yourselves when you spit out your vile detractions are cowards who probably never moved from the comfort of your insignificant little 9-5 jobs with your insignificant little lives.

You are the ones to be pitied. I'll continue to take chances and risk failure rather than "play it safe" by living in the darkness of your lame practice of schadenfreude.

Drive on,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

The Club E Phoenix

2010-09-29T08:36:00.001-07:00

This is a repost of a blog that was originally posted on September 25, 2008. I have made some comments (italic) where appropriate.

I chose this story, because much of it is familiar to recent happenings at Club E. Life happens though, and we continue to move forward.

Peter

"Ready, Fire, Aim....Again!"

Seeing a dream that started only a couple of months ago to come to fruition is an amazing experience. Tonight that's exactly what happened. In a small office space in a larger facility of 10,000' which was temporary headquarters for Club E (www.clubentrepreneur.net) the entrepreneurs organization that I started with a handful of my students from a class I taught a couple of years ago (now over 4 years ago), I rehashed an idea that I had put together with a friend some four (six) years earlier.

That idea was the "Entrepreneur Factory," and it was originally conceived by a former buddy and me to take "functionally obsolescent" hotels in inner cities and revamp them into incubators for start-ups, using the hotel rooms as the start-ups' offices and the common area for entrepreneurial support. We never did get around to actually actuating that idea but I dusted off the plan and rewrote it with a different twist this time, while I was sitting in my temporary office a couple of months or so.

I had lunch with our landlord and proudly demonstrated how we could take members of Club E's organization, which now topped at over 3000 local business owners in multiple Valley (and beyond) chapters and fill the now empty commercial building that the landlord was sitting on. There's a lot of that around these days with vacancy rates in commercial buildings topping 30%-40% in many metropolitan cities and Phoenix was no exception (much worse now, my friend). When I shared that he'd have to spend some money to upgrade his older building with amenities and features that would make the building suitable for an eFactory (now called Club E Office, or CEO), he foolishly balked.

I took my crew from Club E and moved out shortly after because what was the use of trying to work with a landlord that just didn't "get it?" His building sits empty today and probably will for the foreseeable future until he gets tired paying the mortgage on a long empty space and the bank takes it back. (he lost it to foreclosure long ago)

One of Club E's fellow members, hearing my plan to create the eFactory called me up excitedly to share that a friend of his had a state-of-the-art building that had been created with exactly what my vision for the eFactory had been in my plan...only better. I visited the site and was knocked over by the sheer magnitude of 15,000' of the nicest building I have ever seen. It turns out that the visionary that owns the building spend some $5MM in creating this incredible facility and now was looking for someone to do something with it. I gladly volunteered!

We put a deal together and Club E had a brand new headquarters plus a prototype for its eFactory rollout. Along the way, word got out in the local press that Club E was looking for a site for an eFactory and I was approached by three dozen developers, one of whom, Green Street Properties, knocked out a sweeping deal to build our custom eFactories in five of their properties...over the next 9-12 months! (Unfortunately, this plan fell through as I have learned often happens when private property owners do not own their property free and clear. We are happy to be in a building now that cannot be foreclosed on!)

Anyway, the awesome inner circle of Club E (Corey, Heather, Tony, Merlin, Toby, Kevin and Meredith - all have moved on to bigger and greater things now. Thank you all for your hard work and effort with Club E.) all worked terribly hard, creating manuals, allocating spaces and figuring out the pricing and amenities for renting out the many spaces to our fellow Club E members and we threw our Open House tonight. It was a smashing success and we already have many checks in hand from our members ready to move in!

Seeing the hundred plus people tonight at our event was heartwarming and exciting. Only a fellow entrepreneur can appreciate that feeling when an idea which was only have scribbles on a napkin or ideas outlined on a white board...actually manifest into an honest-to-goodness business that took in real money... a mere two months or so from conception. Only in America, my friends.

Anyway, we are proving out the new eFactory model and our prototype combination Club E headquarters will start getting out the bugs and systematizing everything we need for an orderly rollout of our first 5 eFactories with our new partner Green Street Properties over the next year. Wish us luck...it should be a heck of a ride! (Boy, I could say that again. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with us over the past several years. I am confident that we have now worked out the bugs in our system and are in the place where we should be.)

Learn more of what we are doing with the eFactory by visting www.clubefactory.com (actually learn more about what we are doing with CEO and Club E by visiting www.ClubEntrepreneur.net) and let us know if you want to be one of our fellow pioneers.

Best regards,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

The early days of Club Entrepreneur

2010-09-20T08:35:00.001-07:00

This is a repost from March 22, 2008. I thought you might find it interesting to see what was happening with Club E back then.

Peter Burns- Club E Network Update...

For someone who actually started what has become the "Club E Phenomenon," I certainly haven't been doing my part like my partners in spreading the proverbial word. Well..here goes...

We launched the first Club Entrepreneur last February 2007, only 13 scant months ago. Starting with the original 19 entrepreneurship students from that first class as an Adjunct at ASU's Barrett Honors College, we now have a solid 2000 members, from student-entrepreneurs to seasoned, serial entrepreneurs in 3 and soon more chapters in the Phoenix area (Tempe, Phoenix, N. Scottsdale). Club E's foray into Denver just before Christmas 2007 has resulted in a strong Denver base with new sub-chapters opened in Boulder and Colorado Springs.

There are a handful of new ground chapters opening in April-Tucson, Newport Beach and San Francisco with around 30 additional chapters in various stages of development in rapid succession for the next few months. I just returned from Orange County where I was so very impressed with the Grand Opening plans for our April 24th launch. We have a prestigious local college President as our keynote and a number of well-known California entrepreneurs as speakers. There should be a couple of hundred individuals who will be our guests for that launch date.

I'm fielding inquiries for establishing new ground chapters from such diverse places in the world as Singapore, Malaysia, Kenya, Australia, France and England. There's a gentleman from Brazil that has reached out and believe it or not, I even heard from fearless entepreneurs from both Afghanistan and Iraq. Talk about "entrepreneurial spirit!"

Our web site at http://www.clubenetwork.com/ has been getting better and better every day with new content being uploaded, courtesy of our maven, Lyn Graft and the uber strong development team of student-entrepreneur Merlin Ward and Frank, who comes to us from the venerable gaming giant, Electronic Arts. These next 2-3 months should demonstrate how sweeping our web site, a combination of resource and social network fo entrepreneurs can really shape out to be. I noticed this morning that our community online is almost 1600 strong and represents over 20 countries around the world. It's pretty impessive when you think that it has been all viral to this point!

Our ground chapters are the "hidden jewel" of the Club E Network. There are 100 plus entrepreneurs from high school DECA students to well established business titans frequenting each monthly event. The networking between such a diverse demographic is fantastic but lest not we forget how wonderfully entertaining and educating our line up of speakers has and will be at these events. Listed below is my "quick and dirty" narrative of the upcoming speakers for our three local Phoenix area chapters. Talk about a diverse line up!

April 9th-Angela Shinn
West Point Grad, International MBA from Thunderbird, Angela is spearheading the Veteran Business Advocacy Group which is taking the 180,000 Veteran-owned businesses in Arizona and uniting them with Club E to create a cohesive network together. In June, there will be a conference with workshops and high level veteran business owner speakers to start the process here in Arizona, which hopefully will spread to the rest of the 3.6 million veteran-owned businesses across the U.S.

April 16th-Marsha Ralls
Two time runner up to Miss America (Miss Texas and Miss Virginia) Marsha Ralls funded her undergraduate and graduate education from the prize wining and launched one of the country's most successful art galleries in Georgetown, under to tutelage of the art icon, Robert Raushenberg. On the International Council of EO, active in NFTE and Commissioner of Art in Washington D.C., Marsha will discuss how she started and expanded her art empire and has dedicated her life know to "giving back."

April 23rd-Lyn St. James
Lyn was only the second woman to qualify and race in the Indianapolis 500 and actually taught current racing star Danicka Patric how to race cars. She worked with some of this country's major companies as sponsors to her racing team and developed and runs a foundation that empowers young women to compete and win in all areas of life.

May 21st-Cindy Bennett
Active in the Hispanic business community, Cindy recently started her legal recruiting firm after years as a paralegal and employee at a leading area law firm. Cindy will share her story of employee to business owner and the struggles and challenges of a young, Hispanic woman entrepreneur.

May 28th-Steve Thomas
Land baron with nearly half a billion dollars of raw land sales behind him, Steve knows the Arizona landscape intimately. He will be challenging the group to think out of the box and use techniques that he has harnessed over the years to make millions of dollars.

June 11th-Charlie Popeck
As the president and co-founder of the third largest "Green" building advisory company in the United states, Charlie is well versed on the current and future subject of "green" building. He will share how he got started and where he things the "green" industry is heading and where it needs to be.

June 18th-Susan Jones
Susan is the assistant State Director for the business lobbying group, the NFIB. Boasting over 10,000 Arizona members, there are 600,000 independent business owners that belong to this organization across the U.S. Susan will discuss how her group helps small businesses with benefits and legislation and the plans to work with Club E creating a strategic alliance between us.

June 25th-Roy Vallee
Roy will share his story from starting in the mailroom and becoming the CEO of Arizona's largest and one of the country's most successful ($30B annual sales) businesses, Avnet. He will share how his corporate tour of duty was able to support his wife, son and daughter as they strived for success in entrepreneurial ventures of their own.

I just heard from my old friend (HBS days) Jonas Olmsted who heads the Colorado chapters, that he had a banner Club E event last week with Sam Addoms, the retired Frontier Airlines founder to a standing room only crowd of 180 people.

I just want to say that all of these developments for Club E brings a smile to my face as I watch my "baby" growing up in front of my eyes with the amazing guidance and efforts put forth by the "original five" Danny, Corey, Merlin, Toby and Kevin plus the dedication of the tech team and of course, Ingrid, our CEO.

Onward and upward!

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III

Why I Became An Entrepreneur - Part II

2010-09-15T08:26:00.001-07:00

The answer was a resounding "No!" I watched my father sit in his den besides the phone (before the days of call waiting) and wait for the phone to ring, from the literally hundreds of people that he had called or written in hopes of finding another job. Many of these communications went to those who actually owed my father for their own current positions...yet they never called. Every day that I returned from school, I'd go into the den to greet my dad and he'd seem to grow sadder and smaller each day that no call for an interview came. I was the oldest, so the realization of what was happening to my loving father hit me the hardest.
The helplessness of watching my poor dad each day was burning itself into my very soul to never be in the position of depending upon others for my livelihood. I didn't realize it then but the experience of seeing my father suffer indelibly changed my perception of how I was going to earn my living and support my future family. There was NO way I was ever going to work for someone else...NOT EVER!
Losing a big account and having to "fall on his sword" like he did had never happened to my father before and as time wore on and the calls for interviews were never returned by his so-called friends, my father's sprit became broken. Finally, Dad received a call from someone that he had worked alongside for years and had actually been responsible for this man's position as the head of a prominent ad agency. His interview was scheduled for a morning a week hence and Dad was excited beyond belief. As the time approached for his meeting, my dad's old exuberance and optimism returned and as a family, we all prayed for his successful interview and hoped-for hiring.
As sometimes things are destined to happen, Dad's train was late and despite leaving hours before his scheduled appointment, he arrived 10 minutes late. In one of the cruelest acts I had ever seen, the so-called former colleague and friend of my father's refused to see him and hours later, our family received our fallen father. It was devastating to us all and almost four decades later...my anger boils over with the callous treatment my dear father suffered at the hands of this pompous ass.
Eventually, my dad found work, at a much smaller and less prestigious shop than he was used to but he did find work. The salary was far less than he was formerly receiving and the owner of the firm was a bombastic megalomaniac, who seemed to take great pleasure in humbling my once proud father. I seethed every day my father was preparing to go to work as his nerves actually caused him to retch each morning. He tried to hide it from me but I knew. He was going to a job he hated simply because he was the family's provider and he thought he had to do that because he knew nothing different.
Well, I did know differently and after leaving home at 17 to enlist in the Army, I found myself given an Appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, with a stop at their prep school at Ft. Monmouth. From there, I won an ROTC Scholarship at the University of Virginia, where I took a 4th year elective called "Entrepreneurship" in the McIntire School of Commerce and the rest, as they say, is history.
I took that semester's business plan, renting mopeds at U.S resorts, opened up a shop at our summer vacation spot of Nantucket Island and made enough money to know I didn't need a college degree to earn a living. I gave back the remainder of my scholarship to the Alternate, as I had done with my West Point Appointment before and I threw my hat into the proverbial "entrepreneurial ring."
One of the proudest days of my life was in 1979, when after two years of startling success and growth, I was able to offer my own father a position at running the finances of my own company and forever leave the corporate world, which had done him no favors. Dad "retired" to join his eldest son in my first official company and it is just dawned on me that this happened at the same age that I am now...54!
I kept that pledge to myself, made at 15 years old and have never relied on another person or company to provide for my living. I will live and die the entrepreneur that I was forged to be.
Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Why I became an entrepreneur

2010-09-12T08:13:00.001-07:00

This is the video from the November 3, 2010 Club E Meeting where I do tell much of my entrepreneurial beginning stories.

I grew up in the uber-affluent town of New Canaan, Connecticut, where my family enjoyed the finest of everything in the cocoon-like environment of suburbia. My mother was the ultimate housewife, engaged in ferrying her four children to sports practices, PTA and otherly motherly functions, while my father commuted by train every day to Madison Avenue in NYC.

Dad had often preached that none of his children were ever to go into his chosen field of Advertising and indeed, I could see why. The pace was furious, the pressure intense...even if the material rewards were evident in our large, sprawling Georgian Colonial, our beautiful Antebellum country club in Darien and the beach club on Shippan Point on Long Island Sound. As young children, we were never quite sure what our dad did, except it had to do with television commercials and ad campaigns, etc.

At the age of 15, a large account at my father's agency "went South." This happened periodically in the world of Advertising as a rival agency abscounded with a client who was seeking greater creative and greener pastures. The net result to the losing agency was that a shift of personnel was made, if a replacement account could not be secured. In this case, the account was so large and deemed irreplaceable that my father "fell on his sword" and resigned, joining the dozens of ad agency staff that had lost their jobs.

My father had been in Advertising for 30 years and had one of the finest pedigrees around in the field. He had risen to top positions at such powerhouses (at the time) of Compton, Doyle, Dane and Ogilvy, even reaching the Board of Directors. Dad had the honor of actually knowing and working alongside some of the greatest minds in Advertising like Bill Bernbach and David Ogilvy.

Forced unemployment was not going to cause our family to miss its next meal. My grandfather has been a first round investor in what turned out to become the country's largest independent oil company, which even reached the status of membership on the Big Board (NYSE). We were set financially but in the "Go Go" 60s and 70s, where the patriarch was firmly entrenched in the role of provider and breadwinner, losing one's job was akin to having contracted leprosy and often resulted in the breaking of a man's spirit and even his emasculization.

Of course, my father reasoned, his unemployment would be short-lived. After all, hadn't he taken great care to help scores of others on his own rise to the top and wouldn't those folks remember his kindness and reciprocate with job leads and maybe even a new position for him?

To be continued...

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Capitalism Against Crime

2010-09-06T17:52:00.001-07:00

Several years ago, I was robbed at gunpoint by a masked man of $10,000 in a bank parking lot...in the middle of the afternoon in front of a dozen or more eyewitnesses. It turns out that I was set up by the bank teller who had tipped off his accomplice that I was carrying a large sum of cash out of the bank to my car.

The police didn't discover all of this or even identify my assailant until nearly six months later when the dirtbag who robbed me was overheard by a jailhouse snitch bragging about the crime. When the police did finally tell me who the masked man was, I was horrified to learn that he was in jail for another crime...first degree murder resulting from a home invasion.

Now, I am well aware that crimes like this and far worse occur every day in the 5th largest city in the United States. With budget cuts and an economy in the dumps, our beleagured police officers can't possibly keep up with the escalating crimes perpetrated on our citizens. By necessity, our police must focus on the prevention and protection from only the most heinous of criminals.

9 days ago, one of our younger Club E members and my friend had her third story condo robbed of many of her possessions, including irreplaceable jewelery from her deceased grandmother. She dutifully reported the crime to the police and the next day, she actually saw the individuals responsible in a car, filled with her possessions (big screen tv and electronics evident)and reported that to the police...who responded an hour and a half later with the perpetrators long gone.

It turns out that the young lady knew these losers and put together as much identifying info as she could including the auto description and license plate, the names, dates of birth, addresses and even pictures of these individuals. So what happened(?) absolutely nothing..although when these scumbags realized that the young girl had ID'd them, they let the word out that they were going to kill her.

My little friend was terrified, the police were doing nothing and she told me that these sorry excuses for humanity were actually armed with unlicensed weapons. I moved the young lady to a secure and hidden new home and am installing a home security system with a panic button for her.

I reached out to a law enforcement friend of mine, who actually holds the highest position in the County to meet with the young girl and give her a suggested course of action. Unfortunately, that won't do her much good because the police detectives on the case just don't have the time or inclination to act upon it.

Next, I reached out to another friend and Club E member who is a tough former NYC cop for advice. Again, I got the unfortunate news that while he'd try to find someone in law enforcememt that might be interested in helping the young lady, the chances were that nothing would happen.

Frustrated beyond belief, I just went online to see if an armed security firm and private investigative agency might be hired by me to track down these scumbags and hand them over to the police with a bow attached. I am awaiting word if this can even be done by a private citizen like me.

The point is that we are at the mercy of the criminal element and literally have no defense but to arm ourselves and hope that we don't ever become victims. The police are nearly helpless and way too busy to respond to any but the most vicious and deadly of crimes. What's the answer, I ask?

Well, what if we citizens in Phoenix band together and marshall our resources to actually fight back? I'm not talking become vigilantes a la Charles Bronson but rather by fighting back by hiring private security services and former prosecuting attorneys to track down criminals and help the police and justice officials to round up and punish those who do us wrong.

Let's hit back where it hurts by embroiling these vermin with arrests and court dates and incareration over and over until they simply don't have time to rob and hurt us. Let's bring civil lawsuits and punish those that harbor and support these criminals and take away their cars, houses and other possessions, garnish their wages and generally destroy the lives of those who harm our citizenry. Let's use the civil justice system to punish the friends and families of those who commit crimes against us and beat them into submission with the weight of our collective capitalistic might to right the wrongs that our criminal system can simply not handle any longer...if ever at all.

With the combined strength of our group, "Capitalists Against Crime," we can hire the private investigators and forensic accountants, we can hire the former prosecutors now in private practice to use every available legal means to raise havoc and wear out the perpatrators against us until they are beaten. We can sue and win civil judgements, seek and receive injunctions and restraining orders and be ready to pounce with police in tow as we hand over these dirtbags wrapped up in a nice bow and condemn them to a life behind bars...until they cease to be a threat to humanity any longer.

Do you remember that old saying "I'm mad as hell it and I'm not taking it any more?"
Well, I'm there and I am going to do something about it by rounding up my friends and resources to combat crime using our sharply honed entrepreneurial skills and not insignificant resources.

Will you join me?

Patriotism and Entrepreneurship

2010-09-06T08:58:00.001-07:00

This is a repost of a blog that was originally written and posted on September 12, 2007

September 11, 2007

(This is a letter that I sent to an Atlanta gentleman by the name of Nick Snider, who single-handedly has created a monument to American Patriotism in his "Patriot Museum.")

Over the past year and a half or more, I've shared my vision, struggles and triumphs in the creation of what promises to be a significant contribution to America. I believe that I've actually put together a vertically integrated program that will not only radically improve the education in the United States but also help to both correct and jumpstart the economy...all through entrepreneurship.

With the advent of starting the Nation's first College of Entrepreneurship last January, (which not only provides a dynamic and alternate fully accredited education,, showing people how to fashion their own destiny through starting their own businesses) to launching the Club Entrepreneur Network, which promises to become the largest and most effective entrepreneurial organization in the world...all I'm missing is one critical piece.

Capitalism is what makes the economies of the world go round. Entrepreneurship is the driving force behind capitalism. All of the giant corporations of today, once were simply the creative thought of an entrepreneur. We seem to have forgotten that America's first settlers, the Pilgrims, did not start off in the New World with 401Ks and paychecks every two weeks. Each and every one of our forefathers was a tried and true entrepreneur and the new country that they formed became the greatest Nation on the face of the Earth through that passion, energy and persistence.National Patriotism , which has been severely tested, especially these past 6 years since the terrorist attacks on American soil is a key ingredient to the continuing success of our Nation. Big corporations have "short sheeted" the public with their dependency on foreign debt, restrictions, outsourcing and outright corruption. Our education is overpriced and now becoming second rate compared to some of the former "Third World Nations" of China and India. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taxed our manpower and resources to the max and the seeming inability of the so-called sovereign nations of Iraq and Afghanistan, (not to mention the whole Middle East) to self govern has begun to tear this country apart. What's more, our national economy is on very shaky ground right now, weakened by our continued dependency on foreign oil and investments... so critical to our survival.What do we have left to save America?

The answer is entrepreneurship. To be an entrepreneur, especially today, is to be a patriot. To create one's own enterprise, providing a service or product for others, while practicing self determination in propagating capitalism...is exactly what this country started with and dearly needs right now. By unleashing an entire new generation of Americans that embrace the Free Economy model and create new businesses that make a profit for themselves, provide gainful employment to others and pump money into the economy...we all win.

Since the Patriot Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, is the premier showpiece of what America should honor, I'd like to propose that my entrepreneurial endeavors in the College of Entrepreneurship and the Club Entrepreneur Network endorse and embrace your 501c3 as its charity of choice. I truly believe that we should integrate our efforts together and I have several very specific methods in which my efforts can support the Patriot Museum in a magnitude that I think you will be pretty significant. I will be forwarding my thoughts on exactly how I would accomplish this over the next few days. In the meantime, please read the Club E Network's second newsletter to see how I've progressed and join me in a prayer of thanks to all those that are fighting for us every day and a prayer of remembrance for all those souls who were tragically lost 6 years ago today.

God bless America.

Club Entrepreneur's Solution to Unemployment

2010-09-03T08:30:00.001-07:00

Unemployment in Phoenix is around 10%, probably higher. Commerce is down, in part by the inability to expand and re-invest in materials and employees. This results in diminished sales taxes, which negatively impacts the City and State. Banks have no money to lend and even if they do have the money, they aren't lending to businesses. Angel investors and venture capitalists are almost non-existent in our state. Business has stagnated, people are out of work and there's no money. People without jobs don't spend and people with jobs are afraid to. In short, something radical needs to be done.

I believe that I have that solution....

Barter has been with us forever. Trading goods and services were the first commercial transactions on the planet. Barter flourished well before money was invented. Trade organizations whose members trade on a retail for retail basis with each other, using that exchange's barter currency represent the tool that makes my plan work. These microcosms of the economy maintain a perfectly balanced budget, with a rock solid currency...if run with integrity and proper controls. My organization of 4500 local businesses, Club Entrepreneur, has chosen a well established and properly controlled Phoenix-based trade exchange as its barter partner of choice and it is through this alliance that we're going to change the face of unemployment and cause a resurgence of commercial activity.

Specifically, we are going to create the program of "Hire Yourself." We're going to take some of the unemployed labor force and have them barter their skill sets to companies that need that labor but believe they cannot afford it. Both the laborer and the business will become members of the barter company, filling out all the necessary paperwork that allows them to legally trade bartered services of the former employee and now independent contractor, for equitable compensation in the form of barter dollars. (Through Club E Exchange, there is no cost to either party to enroll in the barter company, an automatic savings of over $500.)

The business gains a skilled workforce on a contract basis, paying for those services through barter dollars generated from the sale of that company's excess goods and services to the ever growing membership of the barter exchange. The formerly unemployed worker now trades their time and skills to the company that contracts for them and earns barter dollars, which are used to offset former cash expenses like renting an apartment, paying for childcare and even buying an automobile...all services offered in the barter exchange. There is even a "cash conversion" of accumulated barter dollars that can be used for a discount of around 30% of the retail value of the barter that can be offered to the "Bartered Worker."

All this makes great sense and given the infrastructure that already exists; a pool of Club Entrepreneur businesses in need of skilled labor, an established barter exchange and a plethora of skilled yet unemployed workers...there is a workable model here.

Club Entrepreneur itself can become the test case of this potentially sweeping solution to America's unemployment problem. We have already hired two "Bartered Workers" to do much needed administrative work for our company. Starting part time on an agreed upon wage, paid in barter dollars, these two individuals have specific independent contractor agreements with the company, specifying the required duties in exchange for barter dollar payment for the work completed. At the end of the year, 1099s are issued to the "Bartered Workers" for the amount paid to them by the company in the barter dollars. The IRS recognizes barter income the same as cash income for the purposes of paying taxes and the barter exchange maintains careful records to be in full compliance with the law.

In order to comply with all regulations as well as to mitigate the costs and provide the greatest benefits to the "Barter Worker," each will form an entity (LLC, corporation, etc.), complete with a Federal EIN number, in which the Independent Contractor contract will be executed. Each entity will establish it's own barter exchange account, so that Club Entrepreneur can pass it's payments from their own barter account directly to the entities of each of the "Barter Workers."

As part of it's service, Club Entrepreneur will provide incorporation services at cost to the "Bartered Worker," as well as guide them to bookkeeping, credit restoration, business plan writing, equipment leasing and even capital raising services for the "Bartered Worker" and their new entity.

Since health care coverage is such an issue with all of us, especially the unemployed, who often seek employment with a company for the sole benefit of being eligible for health insurance, Club Entrepreneur will be offering an affordable solution to that issue. Through one of it's own Club E members, a health care provider who offers solid health plans to business owners and their employees, these affordable plans will become an option for each "Bartered Worker." Often, these rates are 1/3 less of any other provider.

Although many cash expenses of the "Bartered Worker" can be offset by purchasing barter services within the exchange, there will always be the need for some cash. To provide that cash through the "Barter Worker" program, a "cash conversion" option to turn earned barter dollars into cash is being created. Through an arrangement with both residential and commercial rental providers and an automobile dealership, Club Entrepreneur has arranged to "purchase" a significant volume of residential/commmercial rental space as well as good used vehicles...in exchange for barter dollars, which can then be liquidated at discounted rates for cash on the open market. The "cash conversion" process will be a service offered to the "Bartered Worker" by Club Entrepreneur.

When this model has proven to be an effective solution to the unemployment issue through it's introduction to our first two "Bartered Workers" at Club Entrepreneur, we will then be offering this to our 4500 Club Entrepreneur membership and reaching out to the unemployed to take positions in those companies that want to enter the program.

In the barter business, there is a 12% cash component whenever the barter dollars are spent. This fee remains with the barter company that facilitates the trades and acts as the "bank." By prior arrangement, Club Entrepreneur will receive half of every transaction fee, or 6%, which will support Club Entrepreneur's underwriting this new program.

In short, everyone wins. The company that needs skilled help but doesn't have the money to hire, wins. The formerly unemployed worker who now incorporates himself and farms out his skill sets at an equitable wage paid in barter, wins. Finally, Club Entrepreneur, which pioneered this "game changing" strategy, wins by creating a significant passive cash flow from completing the transactions ...proving the point that the proper execution of the Free Enterprise system really does benefit us all.

Best regards,

Peter J. Burns, III

The Perfect Storm, Part 2

2010-09-01T08:40:00.001-07:00

This is a continuation of an original post from August 2007. Part 1 was republished on August 30, 2010.

I recently received an email from locally-based construction entrepreneur Jim Riggs of Shea Commercial, who expressed his desire to speak in one of my classes. We met-four times now- and I find him to be bright, energetic and thoroughly engaged in the entrepreneurial process. Having first met him in regards to his pending speaking engagement at my class, we’ve since entered discussions involving his desired participation in the Phoenix downtown-based Entrepreneur Factory project. My partner, Bill Kilburg and I have entered into negotiations to acquire and refurbish a defunct hotel on Van Buren and 22nd Street, whose 160 rooms will be outfitted as offices in this state-of-the-art business incubator to house fledgling businesses prior to their launch into the community. Jim Riggs is the perfect contractor/ partner for such a project and we’re moving towards that possible alliance.

As part of my classroom experience, I’ve engaged local business leaders and fellow entrepreneurs to share their stories with my students as guest lecturers. Recent speakers such as Avnet’s CEO, Roy Valle, Pepsico’s Chairman, Steve Reinmund, Don Budinger, Rodel Foundation Chairman and Diane Graham, Committee of 200 Chairwoman and Stratco Global CEO, have all spoken and interacted with my students. Roy Valle actually took the time to write the (namesake) Barrett Honors College’s main benefactors, Barb and Craig Barrett (Intel Chairman Emeritus) to tell them about his positive experience with our program. I recently met with a former CEO of Motorola who contacted the Barretts on my behalf to share with them some of the kudos being offered about our program. Finally, the gentleman who had previously donated the $500k for the ill-fated ASU entrepreneurship program, has arranged for me to have a personal meeting with Barbara Barrett to share about the success of BHEP, as well as to discuss my new College of Entrepreneurship initiative.

The Entrepreneurs Organization (fka the Young Entrepreneurs Organization) is a collection of nearly 6,000 extremely successful independent business founders in 40 countries around the world. I was one of the original members in 1987 and have recently become very active in both the local Arizona chapter, as well as the National Board, serving on committees on two groundbreaking initiatives. The local chapter (Arizona) has spearheaded one of our classroom-developed concepts, called e-Lab. This exciting new development will take EO member-inspired business concepts and hand them over to hand-picked student teams ( taken from the ranks of Club Entrepreneur) to fashion marketing studies, feasibility reports and business plans with the goal of bringing these new concepts to market in a combined effort of entrepreneur and student teams. We are just launching this program with the local EO Board approval having been granted only weeks ago. The National EO board is watching closely with plans on replicating the program chapter-wide (140 locales) if proven viable here in Arizona.

I’ve joined the committees of both the Global Student Entrepreneur Award and the Accelerator Program at the national level of EO. Each program incorporates much of what I’ve been doing in my own initiatives at the Barrett Honors College and I’ve forged strong new networks within the infrastructure of the global EO organization.

Additionally, I’ve been making great strides at allying myself and new initiatives with the Kauffman Foundation, first through an alliance with Jeff Horvath, the head of Fasttrac, which offers the business plan curriculum that we use in my classes, “Ready, Fire, Aim” and “Adventures in Capitalism.” Jeff and Fasttrac came to me by way of my friend and colleague, Dr. Francine Hardaway, noted entrepreneurship educator and proponent here in Phoenix.

Further interaction and hopeful cooperation with the formidable Kauffman Foundation comes by way of Sue Hesse’s introduction to various members of Kauffman. Sue was my Forum trainer in EO and is the “Entrepreneur in Residence” at the Kauffman Foundation. One such introduction is Desiree Vargas, a team member of Kauffman’s collegiate entrepreneurship team. ASU has recently been selected for the designation as a “Kauffman Campus,” which provides significant funding prospects for the University. I was told by Ms. Vargas that our program at Barrett Honors greatly helped ASU’s application for this award. My new College of Entrepreneurship should have considerable chances of being designated a “Kauffman camous” itself, once it is up and running.

My entire business life has been immersed in entrepreneurship, having started the first of over 100 companies at the age of 19, while a freshman at the University of Virginia. Fate brought me to Phoenix at the threshold of its own re-birth as the “mecca of entrepreneurship” and I’ve now come full circle by being given the privilege of teaching entrepreneurship at Barrett Honors College…just as I was taught at the University of Virginia 29 years ago.

It is only fitting and right that I do whatever it takes to assemble the people and resources that I have in my life and work towards the goal of creating the first of its kind….the College of Entrepreneurship, right here in Arizona. A short time ago, I met with Shea Commercial’s Jim Riggs yet again. Jim has an extraordinarily ambitious commercial project being built right smack in the middle of downtown Tempe and which actually abuts ASU. Since the development process will take all of the next year, he has generously donated as many of the existing buildings on this 1 1/2 city block downtown Tempe property as we need for our entrepreneurship purposes. Specifically, Jim’s property will serve as the interim Entrepreneur Factory - an incubator format for the growing number of student-inspired businesses….at no cost to us for the next year.

Since I am no academic, I reached out to Dean Stuart Mann, the head of the Harrah School of Hotel Management at UNLV. Stuart and I are friends and I value both his direction as well his significant introductions to leaders in literally every field of industry. He will be one of the academic administrators that I will look towards in negotiating the accreditation process and professorial staffing for our new College of Entrepreneurship.

I also spoke with Nick Rago, former Fortune 100 CEO and now an adjunct educator about my plans for launching the College of Entrepreneurship. He offered the sage advice of teaming up with an already accredited institution like Thunderbird or the University of Phoenix. He suggested that rather than reinventing the wheel, I fast track my plans by joining forces with one of these already accredited schools and establish of College of Entrepreneurship, in conjunction with them. I concur and recently met with the president of Thunderbird, Dr. Angel Cabrerra and their Director of Entrepreneurship, Dr. Robert Hisrich to open discussions together. We will hopefully be working together on a Masters of Entrepreneurship program, a possible relocation of Thunderbird’s newly launched incubator to our anticipated Tempe location and a collaboration on the undergraduate entrepreneurship curriculum, which will result in this country’s first Bachelor of Entrepreneurship issued from a wholly dedicated undergraduate insititution.

Negotiations with the fully accredited Grand Canyon University recently resulted in a contract that will allow us to open up the brand new College of Entrepreneurship as early as this coming Fall. We are busy creating the curriculum and searching out the top entrepreneur/professors to teach as Adjuncts in our new school. We will be operating out of an interim facility, most likely in Tempe, until our permanent location is negotiated…also, hopefully, in Tempe.

The road from small niche business operator and novice member of the adjunct faculty teaching entrepreneurship (pro bono) to Barrett Honors College students is a far cry from establishing this country’s first College of Entrepreneurship. However, with the help of my friends and associates and with the determination and tenacity of the “pure blood” entrepreneur…I have no doubt as to this project’s ultimate success. After all…it’s all about the journey anyway.

"The Perfect Storm"

2010-08-30T08:39:00.001-07:00

This is a repost of one of my original blogs from August 2007. Thought Part 1 and Part 2 were originally published together, my editor has recommended that I split them to make each easier to read.

As many of my friends and business associates are aware, for the past 9 months, I’ve been actively (some would say obsessively!) involved in creating a vertical entrepreneurship program, starting with the educational component. To date, we have met with resounding success and like the theme of the Hollywood action film, “The Perfect Storm,” it appears that the “stars have aligned” in order to manifest my ultimate entrepreneurial goal…to create the country’s first and only fully accredited College of Entrepreneurship.

Starting in late August 2005, with a single class of 19 bright interdisciplinary students at Barrett Honors College at ASU in a course of my own making entitled “Ready, Fire, Aim,” our newly fashioned Barrett Honors Entrepreneurship Program now boasts 94 students in four interactive classes at Barrett’s. What is even more impressive is the fact that as of March 31st, we will have actually funded and started five student-inspired businesses launched from last semester’s class, which ended a scant three months ago!

One student project, Club Entrepreneur (www.club-entrepreneur.com), is now a fully functioning ASU-sanctioned student organization that may very well become the largest and most powerful club on campus in very short order. Initial estimates of potential membership exceed 1000 members, which is being accomplished by the assimilation of existing student organizations under the Business Council at the W.P. Carey School of Business. The creation of e-Lab, which utilizes selected Club Entrepreneur members in student teams to research business concepts provided by local EO (Entrepreneur Organization) members is another exciting student-inspired project. Each student team will prepare a marketing, feasibility or full blown business plan for the entrepreneur’s idea and if economically viable, that entrepreneur will fund the plan and provide internship and perhaps an equity position for both the student teams as well as compensate e-Lab with fees and an equity position.

From the overwhelmingly positive response garnered from students and their parents, guest speakers and local business people that have had the pleasure of interacting with students in the Barrett Honors Entrepreneurship Program…it seems only natural to continue with this momentum. Phoenix, itself, has been enjoying a recent Renaissance of sorts by fashioning itself as an entrepreneurial mecca and of course, ASU has become reborn as the “New American University.” It seems only a natural evolution to utilize this combined synergy and create a private, fully accredited, four year educational institution for the purpose of teaching, supporting and nurturing entrepreneurship in the first ever College of Entrepreneurship.

Recent press of our educational efforts in ASU’s State Press, The Arizona Republic and the Business Journal has attracted some very impressive attention. Dean Jacobs of the Barrett Honors College recently fielded a call and had a subsequent meeting with one of the co-founders of Quiznos Subs and now the current owner of Crocs Shoes. This 30-something serial entrepreneur told Mark Jacobs that he had amassed $100MM business, saw the article of our program at Barrett’s in the Business Journal and wanted to make an initial gift to our program of $1MM. He stated that his accountants and lawyers had told him that he had to give away some money and fortunately for us, that day saw our article in the Business Journal. I had the opportunity to speak with Anthony Kruse a couple of times on the phone and we plan on getting together when he returns to town in mid May to discuss how we can work together on the entrepreneurial front. (Update-I had an excellent lunch meeting with Anthony only days ago and he has wholeheartedly endorsed my sweeping entrepreneurship and has agreed to serve on my new College of Entrepreneurship’s Board of Advisors and is considering investing a significant amount in either the University Venture Fund to capitalize student-inspired enterprises or any of several other financial initiatives that I presented to him.)

Additional inquiries came from potential benefactors who read the press and wanted to contribute to “the cause.” One such potential partner had given $500k to ASU some eighteen years ago for the purpose of establishing an entrepreneurial program… which was never implemented. Now, this gentleman has access to the significant amount of many millions of dollars that he represented would like a “home” at an Arizona educational institution. In light of the unsatisfactory treatment by unnamed administrators at ASU, that gift may very well land in our camp for our own plans. I am in conversation with this gentleman and his associates at this time discussing just that possible scenario.

To be continued in a few days...

Peter

Why I teach Entrepreneurship

2010-08-27T08:29:00.001-07:00

This is a repost of my first blog - originally posted just over 3 years ago. So much is still true that I wanted to share with you again.

My first experience in teaching anything, let alone entrepreneurship, occurred at Arizona State University's Barrett Honors College in late August 2005. Dean Mark Jacobs was kind enough to let me teach my own version of entrepreneurship in a course I only half-jokingly named "Ready, Fire, Aim."

Inevitably, I was queried by more than one student who wanted to know "What's in it for you?" You see, all Adjuncts teaching in Barrett Honors College Enrichmnt Program instruct pro bono. Why would a decidedly capitalistic businessman take time off from his for-proft ventures to teach 20 undergraduates each week...for free?

Let's go back to the year 1976, when yours truly started at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Enrolling in all of the required freshman sunjects, I spied a 4th year Management elective course in the McIntire School of Commerce, entitled "Entrepreneurship." Reading about this unique offering (in 1976, only 4 schools in the country had any entrepreneurship courses)...I wanted in. The only problem was that the course was offered only to 4th year students enrolled in McIntire and I wasn't even eligible to apply to the McIntire School of Commerce for two more years.

Did I let that stop me? Of course not! I promptly petitioned my way into the course and after the professor had me get up in front of the rest of the class and explain how I, a lowly first year student, felt that I should be permitted to take this fourth year course...I was in. This course called for each student to come up with an original idea and then develop a business plan to bring that idea to market.

For my project, I picked importing mopeds into the U.S. from Europe and taking advantage of the new Federal legislation that allowed the individual States to allow any automobile licensed driver to ride a moped...which opened up the new niche business of moped rentals in America. That project earned me an "A" in the class but more importantly, my professor took me aside and said that my business idea had a great chance for success and that I should take advantage of the window of opportunity before me. I was sold and that summer after my first year of college, at the tender age of 19, I entered into the world of entrepreneurship on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.

Fast forward to thirty years later, after learning many hard lesons and paying very high "tuition" involving over 100 business start-ups...I had plenty of "content" for teaching my own brand of entrepreneurship. Barrett Honors College gave me that first forum and I owe a debt of gratitude to both Dean Jacobs and the 100 plus students that I had the honor of teaching that first academic year.

That first semester's one class of twenty students grew to over ninety students in the second semester with four separate classes. After the little "challenges" I had with some of the more traditional members of academia at ASU caused me to think about teaching elsewhere...I was spurred to even bigger and better things. I decided to start my own College of Entrepreneurship and negotiated a strategic alliance with the private Phoenix-based Grand Canyon University to become my academic partner. On January 11th, 2006, I opened this Nation's first fully accredited College of Entrepreneurship at Grand Canyon University.

Why do I teach entrepreneurship(?) is the question we come back to. Well, for starters...entrepreneurship is my passion and after experiencing the pleasures and challenges of engaging a roomful of bright and eager young minds teaching that subject, I'm hooked.

Secondly, this country was founded by entrepreneurs-no 401Ks or benefits packages for those brave souls coming over on the Mayflower. Students today have seen their parents "short sheeted" by Corporate America with layoffs and outsourcing. There is no more gold watch and pension awaiting those entering America's corporate workforce any longer and if we don't stop embracing our natural born American innovation...there won't be any America left either.

Teaching entrepreneurship to our youth is of paramount importance and I'm not talking about having a so-called educator who never had to meet a payroll, teaching entrepreneurship out of a book, either. I'm talking about a bona fide "teacher-entrepreneur" educating our youth with practical subject matter and lessons learned from real life experiences taken from actual businessmen and women.

Finally, like all of us, I want to leave my mark on this world and teaching young people to help light that fire in their hearts and souls is how I want to do it. If I can be responsible for only one young person taking his or her idea and through undertaking a well-honed and practical curriculum, turning that fledgling idea into an actual business that supports the entrepreneur, his or her family and contributes to growing our Nation's economy...we will all have won.

Now, providing a state-of-the art entrepreneurial education is my mission. I have one College of Entrepreneurship in place with hopefully many more to follow. My Institute For Entrepreneurship (www.instituteforentrepreneurship.com) has also recently developed a comprehensive Certificate of Entrepreneurship, which will allow any person interested in starting their own company to learn every step of the way and all online.

There's much more to do and I'm just getting started but I'm loving every step along the way!

One-On-One Small Groups...

2010-08-23T08:55:00.001-07:00

Since Mid-March (around 5 months now) I've had over 450 one-on-one meetings with Club E members and their referrals. For the past eight or nine weeks on Friday afternoons at 5 PM, I've invited selected past one-on-one participants to meet each other.

Generally, there have been a dozen or two attendees and the structure of each gathering is simple. First, each person introduces himself or herself, what he or she does and what he or she needs. Next, I ask the group members to chime in and ask for help in solving a challenge they are currently facing. We usually are able to help 2-3 members during this session and after solving these issues, the group networks for around 15 minutes. The whole session lasts a mere 90 minutes and is very powerful.

I find that this wrap up session to those members fresh from our one-on-ones is very helpful to us all and keeps the collaborative spirit alive and well within our ranks. I have personally witnessed many strong associations begun or cemented at these events and am very anxious to learn of the continued success of these new relationships between our participants.

One of our valued members is "banker by day/caterer by night" Janet Williams. She was a referral for one of my one-on-ones from Club E member, Deborah Sease, the owner of a plus-size wedding gown retailer. Janet has embraced her entrepreneuruial vision and is fast moving into that space full time. She has kindly catered each small group session for the past month of meetings with her delicious desserts and beverages. Now that we have our new CEO facility operating at 300 W Osborn, Suite 315 in Phoenix, she is moving ahead by establishing an office there and has agreed to cater all of our events. By attending each small group on Friday afternoons, where up to two dozen new business owners sample her wares each time, Janet is gaining many new fans of her cooking and hopefully lots of new clients when they put on their own events.

There are scores of new associations made through our One-On-One small groups and as time goes on, I'll be reporting of specific success stories in this blog.

Until then, stay well..

Peter

Club E Rocked it's CEO Grand Opening Tonight!

2010-08-21T23:40:00.002-07:00

Like anyone who has planned and sweated over an upcoming event that they were throwing...I worried about people showing up and that the event would go as planned. I needn't have been concerned...tonight's Grand Opening event for our new Club E Office was a smashing success!

After listening to so-called Club E insiders tell me point blank that few would show for a downtown Phoenix event on a Saturday night, I was mildly concerned that they might be right. You see, my dear friend, Sue Malone, our featured speaker, had asked for my help to give her a forum to air her concerns that two idiots in the SBA hierarchy were trying to sabotage the best (and only) programs that actually helped start-up and expanding entrepreneurs like Club E menbers. Sue travels 51 weeks a year and in a very short time, these morons who are trying to block Sue's efforts to continue the Patriot Express and Community Express loans would be bullying their way to remove the program that Sue Malone had not only pioneered but single handedly made a great success. Saturday, August 21st was the most convenient time for Sue to fly into town and be our featured speaker to coordinate her mission with our Grand Opening of our new CEO....and we both accomplished our goals in a spectacular fashion tonight!

I had other reasons to pick the timing for our event. Two candidates for public office that I personally endorse and who represented the entrepreneurial mindset that each could bring to separate government offices, if elected...face the primaries only three days from now. Sue Malone, LeAnn Hull, Bill Montgomery and Club E aligned their forces and tonight, Club Entrepreneur hosted over 200 bright, optimistic and earnest entrepreneurs from literally every age group and walk of life. Sue, America's largest SBA lender, LeAnn Hull, a Congressional candidate and Bill Montgomery, the hopeful for the Maricopa County Attorney's position, all came together to present in front of Club E tonight...and did a fantastic job in getting their messages across. To a one, the message resonated from all three..."The only salvation for America, lies within it's entrepreneurs."

We started the event with an invitation-only roundable discussion between Sue and what turned out to be an astounding 45 Club E members that gave up their Saturday afternoon to ask questions and hear from Sue about her concerns of losing the coveted SBA programs that help our country's entrepreneurs. Sonia Graham, co-manager of the CE with her husband Jim, recorded the engaging and often emotional conversations between us all for future posting and circulation. The message was powerful, "Entrepreneurs need help with financing and these programs (Community Express and Patriot Express) are one answer that needs to remain."

At 5 PM, people began to stream in. I was fortunate enough to be befriended by several other networking group leaders that supported our guest speakers and had thrown their marketing muscle to help Club E reach it's goal of having a solid 200 attendees for our Grand Opening kickoff event. I thank each of my friends like Austin Feldman, who aided our cause with a spectacular turn out of loyal Club E members and a host of newcomers to the ranks.

The event was catered by our own, Janet Williams, who provided a feast for all of us from the main course to the delicious desserts. Janet is a "banker by day, caterer by night" member of Club E, who is itching to become a full time entrepreneur and we are helping her achieve that dream through Club E. In turn, we enjoy the greatest food of any networking group out there. Thank you, Janet!

Two new Club E members, Mike and Kelly Porter, manned the video recorders and taped the entire presentation of our speakers as well as assorted footage of the group and our spectacular new headquartwrs. We'll be editing that footage and posting it soon to our sites and future video emails to our membership. Thank you Mike and Kelly for your support!

The message to me was clear tonight...despite the many challenges we have had as an organization that had lost it's former home in Tempe to our landlord's foreclosure of our building, despite the reshuffling of our core team because of relocations and other life decisions, despite the constant challenge of too little resources for too many obligations and despite the need to work tirelessly to fight all the odds of running a business in America today....Club Entrepreneur is alive and well and leads the way for small business and entrepreneurial activity in the Phoenix Metroplitan area.

I am proud to be associated with all of you who support Club E and our wonderful country by being who you all are...the backbone of America..."The Entrepreneur!"

Thank you and good night,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder
Club Entrepreneur

Resurrection....The Club E Way....Part 2

2010-08-20T09:23:00.001-07:00

So we liked the possibilities that working with the Clancy's posed.

The Club E crew checked out one of the Clancy properties but decided immediately that the second property viewed is the perfect spot. The new spot is located on the NW corner of W 3rd Avenue and Osborn, just off Central. Sure that this was where we should be, we quickly moved from our temporary administrative office, courtesy of Dolf De Roos. Through the tireless work of some friends of Club E and led by the General Managers of CEO, Sonia and Jim Graham...we are now open for business.

Featuring several thousand feet of open area that houses workstations, meeting tables and large conference desks, the main space boasts a panoramic view of downtown Phoenix. There's enough room to host well over 200 attendees and we're busy booking the space for events of all kinds. About thirty different start-up or expansion businesses can be housed in this space.

There are three suites of offices, one featuring four private offices, a conference room and a lobby and the second featuring six private offices, including a kitchen and lobby. The third suite, features eight offices, a lobby and a very large conference room. Each office will be furnished with a desk and file cabinet and there are plenty of chairs.

In total, between forty and fifty Club E member businesses can be situated at our new CEO and once filled...the amount of energy and activity that will be emanating from this epicenter of entrepreneurship in downtown Phoenix will be a sight to see.

Our little but mighty crew has been busy setting up for our upcoming Grand Opening, which will be on Saturday, August 21st at 5 PM, featuring SBA Lender Superstar, Sue Malone, coming in from San Francisco to support Club E. We're also very fortunate to have small business supporter and Congressional candidate, LeAnn Hull and Maricopa County Attorney candidate, Bill Montgomery, addressing our group, a mere three days before the Primaries.

So far, after only a week or so of moving into the space, our CEO has secured leaseholds from the following businesses:

1) Law firm that specializes in business
2) Start up Hip Hop record label
3) Architectural design firm
4) Small business health insurance company
5) Specialty photography business
6) High profile PR firm
7) Caterer
8) Hypnotherapist
9) Workshop coordinator
10) Business plan writer and strategist
11) Water purification manufacturing company
12) Auto broker
13) Hired gun CFO
14) CPA and wealth manager
15) Advertising agency and creative director

This is a tremendous start for our new facility. I am continuing my tradition of holding one-on-one sessions and then inviting select "alumni" at 4 PM each Friday to meet each other. Our "Fridays at 5" Social Hour will continue at our CEO and there will be a wide range of seminars, workshops and events at 300 W. Osborn in downtown Phoenix.

This model is already working and I predict great success in both this location and future spots that I'm already scoping out.

Join us this Saturday, August 21st at 5 PM to tour the facility, hear great speakers, enjoy the catered provisions and make new best friends from the over 200 expected attendees that will be joining us.

Best always,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Resurrection...the Club E way...

2010-08-18T10:17:00.001-07:00

Happily situated in the comfortable office space right up from my home, courtesy of friend and Club E member, Dolf De Roos, the last thing I was contemplating was moving into a multi-thousand square foot facility in downtown Phoenix and re-starting our Club E office (CEO).

You see, I had a very bad taste in my mouth, not to mention my wallet, from the abrupt expulsion from our beautiful Tempe facility when our landlord had his facility foreclosed on and seized by his lender. As I ruefully learned, commercial tenants have absolutely no rights and with zero notice, we were forced to close our doors and move from the over 11,000 sqft CEO home in one hour. I had no intention of falling into that trap again...

The funny thing was, I had recently decided to discount any private commercial property home for a future CEO and make an an appeal for free space from many of the local cities through their economic development departments. I reasoned that the cities could contribute one of their empty properties, with furnishings and utilities provided and Club Entrepreneur would fill the facilities with Club E members, fostering new business start-ups which would create much needed sales tax revenue to that city that wanted to play ball with us. I had gone so far as to prepare an email and video and shoot it off to a dozen local economic development departments when I was approached with an alternative...

As many of you know, I am an ardent believer in the barter business as a viable financial tool and new business generation almost, for literally all enterprises. In conjunction with the Phoenix area's largest and most established trade firm, Tradesource, Club E Exchange was created to address the barter needs of our membership.

Tradesource founder, Sylvia Rosinski, plopped down a color brochure featuring four large commercial properties offering to trade their space on barter. I was intrigued and decided to check it out.

Local real estate magnates, Joan and Chuck Clancy had been assembling a portfolio of hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial buildings and over 1800 rental apartments over the past 35 years. Like commercial property owners everywhere, their vacancies were soaring but unlike nearly every other developer and commercial property owner, the Clancys had not leveraged their holdings. Therefore, they were not in danger of losing their properties like virtually every other commercial property owner is in the Phoenix market.

What was even better was that Club E could establish a new CEO for barter...offering the same arrangement to its tenants, thus giving everyone a greater chance of succeeding through the conservation of capital. Barter could be generated through the sale of excess services or products and used to pay for what would have been a cash expense...in this case commercial property rent. I was thrilled to learn that our barter lease also included all utilities as well as janitorial services!

Best always,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

The Game of Entrepreneurship...

2010-07-19T08:35:00.001-07:00

It's Saturday late afternoon in Phoenix...and a scorching 108 degrees or so outside. The house is quiet - the long week before behind me and the complications of multiple deals in the air weighing heavy on my heart. Welcome to the ups and downs in the life of a serial entrepreneur.

We can't quit...where would we go? We've chosen this world of independence and playing without a net to catch our fall. Well, things can drag on and promises made not kept, resulting in deals lost or postponed and our promises made to others must be broken.

Why do we persist? What possible reason do we continue to fight it out against all odds as the bare fisted pugilists in the world of free enterprise???

I'll tell you why, plain and simple, it's what we do. We are the starters, the originators and the warriors in the world of business. It's our money, time, connections, spirit and drive that keeps the economy moving. No one but the entrepreneur could have pioneered this country and made it the greatest in the world. The entrepreneur is now tasked with saving America from the utter ruin that has been put upon her by the corrupt and inept worlds of "Big Business," "Big Banks" and "Big Government" colliding.

So, when the quiet settles in over the weekend like today and the tasks ahead seem so daunting, the obligations of time and money so unsurmountable and hoped-for deals so far away...what does one do? The first thing you have to realize is that events are not conspiring to make you and your business miserable. There is no collusion, just happenstance and if you can examine each elememt of what is facing you, the tasks are far easier to handle. As my father often remarked..."How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III

The Game of Entrepreneurship Continues...

2010-07-19T08:34:00.001-07:00

Dealing with each issue, it's completion items, time lines etc. may seem a lot of work but even more important is simply looking at each issue as an opportunity. Looking at a problem, which I prefer to call a challenge, from every vantage point is helpful. I look to the solution first and then try to figure out the quickest and most effective way to reach it. Often, by just examining the problem with "fresh eyes," a solution is triggered that you may never have thought of before.

One thing that over three decades of entrepreneurship has taught this old warrior is that everything has its own time line to get done. You may wish things would happen at your own schedule but more often than not, that's just whistling Dixie. One cannot get all bent out of shape if a potential deal doesn't fall into place exactly as one had planned. You cannot force an investor or would-be partner to cough up the cash at your terms and scheduling...that's just not how it works. Your best laid plans simply might not meet the time line of others' responses and guess what(?), you have to learn to roll with the punches.

I am a big advocate of back up plans and back up plans to those. In business, often things simply do not work out the way you had hoped and planned. Business plans and projections are a joke, really nothing more than an exercise to show you've done your homework and are worthy of receiving an investment or a loan to launch your business. You really do need to have those magical "contingency" plans built into whatever you are planning to do.

As I'm sitting in the cool living room of my town home, away from the scorcher outside, I'm reflecting on the fact that while things may be a bit unclear as to the multiple paths laid before me....I am still so blessed to actually have those choices in the first place. I have options - many of them - and if one or more simply don't pan out, there will be many more that seem to evolve with each passing day. By putting yourself in the paths of other entrepreneurs and learning to read the signs of opportunity, each and every one of us has a plethora of vibrant possibilities. One must simply be alert to the possibilities.

Now, you can't just wish something bad away but looking at it from a different perspective and with "fresh eyes" again, is it really that bad? Is a deal that doesn't go down as planned or an expected payment that is delayed going to derail everything you've ever worked for? Of course not. Get over it and see the endless other possibilities that will make themselves evident if you only care to look.

So my friends, from the perspective of this battle-scarred entrepreneur...look at your challenges from multiple angles, try to have Plans A, B and C lined up in case your plans are changed unexpectedly and treat the world of business for what it really is...simply a game. The rules may change midstream. The prize may be snatched away from you or given to someone else. But remember this...as long as you can pick yourself up off the floor and shake off the hurt and frustration, there will be yet another game to play and this time...you just may take home the prize. You've already won anyway, just being given the chance to play. In the end, it's all about the journey anyway...

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III