Babson College Newsroom Blog

Babson Business: Rock Coast Media Inc.

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:30:48 EST

Name of business: Rock Coast Media Inc.
Mission: To deliver best of breed customized search engine marketing and optimization solutions.
Year Began: 2003
Revenues: 5mm
Initial Investment: $2,000
Broke Even: 2005
Where: Newburyport, MA; San Francisco, CA
Partner: Greg Reilly; greg@rockcoastmedia.com; 617-875-7472; Babson MBA student
Employees: 12
Founder's Past Life/Business: Ask Jeeves, Sapient, IDG Communications
How the Idea Began: "We identified opportunity in the marketplace to help small to medium sized businesses capitalize on the benefits of search marketing." --Founder Josh Pike
Initial Preparation to Germinate Idea: Stephen and Josh had experience in the search engine market and used that knowledge to create the business plan.
Favorite Thing about the Business: The ability to help our clients be successful using our services. Often their marketing efforts do not return the kind of ROI that search marketing does. It is always rewarding to discuss our campaigns and hear great feedback from our clients.
Worst Thing about the Business: We do not field a very good softball team.
Biggest Challenge: Innovation is always a challenge, but it is critical that Rock Coast Media spends a great deal of time innovating our services so we can deliver the most relevant and efficient products to the marketplace.
Lesson Learned: A good office space is very important to morale and performance. If you are bummed out by where you have to go every day, it is very hard to be upbeat and positive.

Freshmen Present 2008 FME Businesses

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:08:37 EST

Babson first year students presented their FME businesses to the community on Feb. 5.

Babson Sleepwear
Babson Sleepwear provides customized Babson thermals as well as flannel pants to help keep you warm and comfy. Wear your Babson products to show your Babson pride.

Beaver Stress Relievers
Beaver Stress Relievers sells a squeezable beaver shaped stress ball that provides a cheap and easy way to relieve stress and relax. The Business also provides a service to companies where it distributes stress balls, with a company logo on them, at a designated area.
www.beaver-stress-reliever.110mb.com

BobbleMe
BobbleMe will be selling picture frame bobbleheads. These bobbleheads are a unique and fun way to capture a memory for a life time. They come in a variety of models ranging from police officer to sports players and are fun for everyone.
www.bobblemebabson.com

Business Prep
Business Prep is a clothing company that provides a product mix that consists of polo shirts, neckties, bracelets and necklaces. We distinguish ourselves from other companies by offering customization at an affordable price. All of our products are "preppy".

Coffee Sleeves
Coffee Sleeves sells advertisement space on coffee sleeves. Our sleeves will be distributed via local coffee shops in the Wellesley, Needham, and Natick areas. We pride ourselves on providing advertisement space that guarantees maximum exposure due to the large consumption of coffee on a daily and weekly basis.

www.CoffeeSleeveAds.com

College Kicks
College Kicks will sell animal shaped slippers with customized collegiate logos. Our goal is to provide our customers with superior products and services.

Envy Attire
Envy Attire aims to provide its customers with T-shirts and Sweatshirts that are affordable, unique in design and high in quality. Envy Attire will be creating their own original designs in house as well as using designers from around the world.

www.EnvyOurAttire.com

Finders Keypers
Finders Keypers aims to provide a low priced high quality key finder to college students to help them locate misplaced keys and other important items to eliminate stress, save time and create a hassle free morning. Our product can attach to many different items and is quite affordable for the college student budget.

www.finders-keypers.com

Fresh Scentz
Fresh Scentz is providing the Babson community with customized hanging air fresheners in varying shapes and scents. We also are targeting the auto industry and other schools to provide air fresheners fully customized to meet their needs as an effective way for them to advertise.

www.freshscentz.com

Java Jolt Soaps
Need that extra boost to get you going in the morning? Need that little something extra to help you finish that last minute paper? Look no further, Java Jolt Soaps introduces the latest addition to the Energy Products family. Java Jolt Energy Soap will perk you up and get you moving any time of day.

MeFlect
MeFlect is selling a screen protecting mirror for common use and convenience to be applied on one's cellular phone, digital camera, or mp3. The business will cater to both individuals and businesses' needs accordingly. The product allows the hassle free feature of carrying a mirror around for those occasions where it is needed in addition to protecting the owner's screen.

www.meflect.net

Nef-Nef Bathrobes
Nef-Nef Bathrobes is a unique company that sells 100% organic cotton bathrobes that are both eco-friendly as well as bio-degradable. They are also machine washable as well as extremely comfortable and can even be personally embroidered.

Pens4you
Pens4you is a company dedicated to supplying its consumers with high quality wooden pens. A product that is not only unique in style with customizable options, but also unique in price. Its smooth writing ballpoint pens come in various beautiful wooden boxes which can also hove your own name on it. Pens4you sells at a fraction of the cost, providing customers with a stylish pen at an unseen price.

www.pens4youonline.com

Ping Pong Promotions
Ping Pong Promotions is selling quality ping pong balls with customizable logos at a competitive price. These ping pong balls can be used for sport or advertising. We will distribute the balls for clients who purchase advertising.

www.pingpongpromotions.com

Project Penguin Skins
Project Penguin Skins offers unique and customizable vinyl laptop and ipod skins. We offer three different products in our line; one for laptops, one for iPods and one for iPod nanos.

Stick-It!
Stick-It! sesigns and prints promotional print products such as business cards, magnets, and stickers. Our customers include small and medium sized businesses, as well as local organizations and schools. From building school spirit, to raising brand awareness, our print products serve a variety of different markets at very competitive prices. As part of our approach to corporate clients, we will suggest utilization of our products to promote either a specific product, or for general branding purposes. We work with our clients in mind to design and produce the perfect print product.

www.stickitco.com

Babson Business: RentingYourHome.com

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:22:42 EST

Name of business: RentingYourHome.com

Mission: Provide a web-based alternative to property management for landlords to advertise and screen tenants, collect rents, and manage maintenance at a 60%-80% savings.

Began: 2005

Revenues: <$1 million

Initial Investment: $100,000

Broke Even: Not yet!

Where: Run out of Boston, MA and Washington DC. We currently help hundreds of clients manage properties in 41 states across the country.

Founder: Jeff Takle, jeff.takle@rentingyourhome.com, (857) 277-9050;Grad student, One-Year MBA Program.

Employees: 2 employees plus 5-7 independent contractors, depending. Outsourced legal, bookkeeping, taxes, and other peripherals.

Founder's Past Life/Business: I started a traditional property management company in 2003 but after just a couple of years I realized that the business model was terrible. It's all human labor cost centered around doing repetitive, administrative tasks like invoicing, depositing checks, scheduling maintenance, and making phone calls. That wasn't the lifestyle I wanted to build for myself. The property management company started as a side gig while I was still an intelligence officer in the Marines but as it grew it started consuming the majority of my time and I wasn't very happy about that. So, in 2006 I closed it down. Then, in order to leverage my experience in the Marines, I started a consulting company in 2006 to contract back to the defense and intelligence industries. Great income, prestige, and flexibility but the business model has limitations. Consulting is certainly profitable but there's an obvious ceiling to how much money you can make: there are only so many billable hours in the day.

How the Idea Began: Daren (co-founder) and I were sharing beers one night in his basement and I was bellyaching about my property management company, "If I have to fill out one more rental invoice in excel, I'm gonna go nuts!" Daren got us two more beers and said, "Don't worry. I'm a programmer and I'm here to help." He built a tool to automate rental invoices and the idea grew into the complete RentingYourHome.com suite.

Initial Preparation to Germinate Idea: We decided to spend a month or two shopping the idea around before deciding whether to move forward. I was also a Realtor so I talked it over with investors, clients, agents, brokers, landlords, and tenants. They all loved the idea and gave us some indications of how much they'd be willing to pay. The very first landlord I pitched the idea to offered to give me $10,000 to start the company. Once we saw how naked the market was and how easily the product could scale, we went full blast. At the time, we estimated that we could have the product finished and ready to sell in two months...we had no idea how much more money and time it was going to take! It literally took 10x as much time and money as we planned - over $100,000 and 18 months to launch the first product! That's called "chasing perfection" and it's not a good thing for a startup.

Favorite Thing about the Business: I believe that ours is fundamentally the best product on the market—that really helps keep me motivated. The industry is so new and unexplored; competition is fragmented. It makes the profit potential fantastic and every day incredibly exciting. I also love that my competitors are rapidly evolving their business models too. There's nothing like the smell of hot competition to motivate you in the morning.

Worst Thing about the Business: The coffee. All I've got is a gigantic 55-cup "Silver Bullet" coffee maker left over from the One Year MBA's summer module. We all pitched in and jointly bought this huge coffee maker to get us through the summer at Babson. For me, one pot now lasts the whole week. Let's be honest...it makes a rotten cup of coffee.

Biggest Challenge: Being satisfied with producing a "great" product now, instead of waiting for a "perfect" product later. We spent the first year and a half trying to build the "perfect mousetrap." Really, we should have taken only six months to develop and then immediately started selling the product to let the customer drive innovation. Instead, we tried to envision (and program) every possible problem/solution pair into the product before launch. C'mon, only iPhone can do that and get away with it!

Lesson Learned: Sell your product today. Everything else you might do instead - fundraising, research, systems, plans, brainstorming...it's all meaningless. There's no better endorsement, no better market research than having a client hand you several hundred dollars of cash. That's your business plan. Unless you're closing sales every single day, you're running a hobby, not a business. Sell the product to the point where, when people ask you how much money the company made, you can give them the real number. Then you can start obsessing about the other stuff. There's a tendency to find excuses not to sell: "The product isn't ready yet," or "It's okay, they've told me they would buy so it's as good as sold." It's not. Receiving cash in your hand is the only true test of your business idea.

GEM Global Report 2007 Finds World Economy Needs Entrepreneurs

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:13:05 EST

Babson College's Kent Jones

Babson College and London Business School today released the findings of the 2007 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) to team researchers gathered here from 42 countries. In-coming Babson College President Leonard Schlesinger said that GEM research is the exception to the historical evolution of management research.

"GEM research on entrepreneurial activity has the strongest link with what is actually happening in the real world." According to Schlesinger, this is because GEM is highly collaborative, and he stated Babson's commitment to continue to make GEM biggerand better.

Michael Hay, LBS and Babson Provost Patti Greene

Niels Bosma, GEM Fellow from Utrecht University, reported on new research looking at entrepreneurial activity in global metropolitan areas. Cities most conducive to entrepreneurship? Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Auckland, Los Angeles, Toronto, Melbourne, Sydney, and New York.

GEM Global Report 2007 also looked at the role world financial institutions play and will play in building entrepreneurship even at the domestic level. "Globalization is increasingly leaving its imprint on domestic market conditions," said Babson Professor and GEM US member Kent Jones, "Any attempts to block or discourage trade will hurt purely domestic, as well as trading entrepreneurs."

GEM found that governmental red tape tends to deter high-growth expectation entrepreneurship; and the degree to which governments favor certain industries over others usually works to the detriment of new and smaller firms.

GEM makes it clear said Jones, "The world economy and entrepreneurship need each other."

The GEM 2006 Report is available at: www. Gemconsortium.org

Niels Bosma, GEM Fellow

Babson SMILES

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:52:13 EST

Marie Frances Rivera, Class of 2006, is Program Manager at SMILES. "The name our organization is SMILES," she says, "which stands for the Southcoast Mentoring Initiative for Learning, Education and Service. Our mission is to provide a mentor for every child who needs one in the Southcoast of Massachusetts. We are presently focusing our service area in the two urban cities in the Southcoast, New Bedford and Fall River. We go through many different avenues to recruit responsible, caring adults from these communities to serve as one-on-one mentors for 4^th-9^th graders. Our mentoring program is school-based, meaning that the mentoring sessions take place at the students' respective school. Right now we have about 300 mentors in schools in both cities.

The background or you could say the reason why SMILES began was to combat the low education attainment rate in this region. For our educational attainment to be even with the rest of Massachusetts we would need an additional 14,000 people to graduate high school. We knew no one from Boston or Washington D.C. was going to come down and solve our problem for us. That is why we are engaging the citizens of our community to be the change they wish to see in their community. Not only are we serving the children by providing them mentors, but we're also giving mentors a different perspective that they have probably not had before. So really it's a win-win for everyone.

We are presently looking for 600 mentors in both cities; equally to 1,200 mentors in total by the end of this school year.

This is our website: www.smilesmentoring.org."

Prof. Davenport On Enterprise 2.0

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:50:23 EST

Prof. Tom Davenport participated in a discussion with Andrew McAfee on the Viability of Enterprise 2.0. You can listen to the debate at the FastForwardBlog.

Rice Coauthors SMR Project Management Article

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:15:06 EST

Prof. Mark Rice has coauthored the article, Implementing a Learning Plan to Counter Project Uncertainty, in the Winter 2008 issue of the Sloan Management Reivew. According to the article description,

"In new-product development, most management approaches presume a high ratio of knowns to unknowns, and most planning involves prescribed pathways through developmental stages. In fact, a byproduct of the focus on quality and operational excellence is that companies tend to avoid uncertain situations and resist market experimentation. Such approaches are counterproductive for any project that has the potential to produce real breakthrough innovations. In this article, the authors offer a framework, called the Learning Plan, that enables companies to manage breakthrough innovation by explicitly recognizing that project teams are proceeding on the basis of assumptions, rather than known facts.

The authors identify four different types of uncertainties (technical, market, organizational, resource) that can hinder a project's long-term success. Technical uncertainties relate to the completeness and correctness of the underlying scientific knowledge, the extent to which the technical specifications of the product can be implemented, the reliability of the manufacturing processes and its maintainability. Market uncertainties include the degree to which customer needs and wants are clear and well-understood, the extent to which conventional forms of interaction between the customer and the product can be used, the appropriateness of conventional methods of sales/distribution and revenue models and the project team's understanding of the relationship of the breakthrough innovation to competitors' products. Organizational uncertainties include organizational resistance, lack of continuity and persistence, inconsistency in expectations and metrics, changes in internal and external partners and changes in strategic commitment. Finally, resource uncertainties often can pose difficulties as project teams continually struggle to attract the resources they required.

After discussing these difficulties, the authors identify a plan that allows a team to deal with those uncertainties in a proactive way with the type of ongoing evaluation and redirection that characterizes any breakthrough innovation project."

Ugrad Produces N.H. Primary Videoblogs

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:59:58 EST

Ugrad Joel Holland provided videoblog coverage of the New Hampshire presidential primary voting for WMUR-TV, serving as the station's WMUR.com/YouTube/Facebook campaign trail reporter. To view his coverage, visit http://www.thebostonchannel.com/politics/14884635/detail.html
The senior, named by Businessweek as one of the top 25 entrepreneurs under 25, is founder of Footage Firm.

Lansdowne Performs For Troops

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:08:52 EST

Lansdowne, fronted by lead singer Jon Ricci, Class of 2005, has just completed its Armed Forces Entertainment holiday tour for troops in Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kyrgyzstan.

The band will continue performing for troops this year in cooperation with USO of New England and USO of New York, including a Fourth of July concert.

Lansdowne's business team includes: Managers - Mike Melli, Class of 2004, and Maja Stevanovich, Class of 2007; Digital Marketing Team - Jacob Donnelly, Class of 2004, and Marco Hansell, Class of 2006; and Consultant - Karan Wadhera, Class of 2004.

Babson MBA Teaches Networking Skills to Charity Volunteers

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:40:01 EST

Evening MBA Michael A. Salguero, who daytimes with JPI Real Estate Development, will teach a networking workshop to volunteers of Boston Cares this Thursday Dec. 13^th.

Interested BC volunteers should register at: http://www.bostoncares.org/projects/viewProject.php?_mode=projectDetail&_action=projectDetail&ixactivity=434&PHPSESSID=d125b1a43aa1fe37d4cb0cac0f421896

In 2006, Salguero founded a group called The Junto Group. Modeled after one started by Benjamin Franklin, Junto seeks to empower highly motivated business leaders. Salguero is on the board of The Latin American Health Institute and is an active member of Boston Cares and Thompson Island Outward Bound.

Babson and RISD Students Partner to Create New Product Designs

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:05:58 EST

Babson College MBA students and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Industrial Design students have come up with eight new product concepts showcased today at the Prduct Design Fair at Babson College. 39 Babson MBA students and 16 RISD students in eight joint teams developed the designs during the single-semester Product Design and Development course at Babson.

The Product: Environmental Water Bottle; inspired by natural forms made from recycled materials. The bottle is made from safe plastics that will not leach chemicals into the water, while helping people reduce their consumption of disposable water bottles. Project sponsored by Recycline, Inc.

The Team: David Ambrose, Melina Martinez, Joyce Pang, Crissy Cook, Ben Pratt, Jacques Deboi, Scott Lemke.

The Product: The Chef's Corner. For supermarkets, a modular recipe display center to service customers with all kinds of recipes for every need in a user-friendly, engaging design.

The Team: Jennifer Bonarrigo, Nick Stavros, Andrew Cagan, Veronica Chapman, Abhismek Jain, Carmel Ilka Bijoux, Erica Kim.

The Product: New children's furniture; functionally smart and playfully stylish. Project sponsored by P'Kolino.

The Team: Seth Snyder, Hoesung Pork, Cristina Belhido, Emilee Berner, Elizabeth Kneer, Charles Burckmyer, Andy Schiaretti.

The Product: Chappy; an innovative and beautifully designed eco-friendly chapstick targeted to outdoor enthusiasts that makes applying chapstick under extreme conditions easy and convenient.

The Team: Asher Dunn, Narasimha Naraharasetty, Ethan Ballweber, Travis Thompson, James Hawkins, Andy Chang.

The Product: Pet Gate; an innovative pet gate that combines aesthetics and function. It blends with your home decor allows ease of passage for people and permits visibility of your dogs on the opposite side, where you want them. Project sponsored by Midnight Pass, Inc.

The Team: Jim Barabe, Brian Bagdonovich, Vuthichai Jotisakulsatganana, Lizabeth Foxwell, Molly Rosenberg, Jo Ko.

The Product: Baby temperature monitor; that creates peace of mind for parents with sick children. It allows parents to wirelessly monitor their baby's temperature from a distance so that they may take immediate steps to reduce their baby's fever and discomfort.

The Team: Patricia Urias, Talia Cohen, Ching Jung Shih, Yena Lee, Anmed Siddqui.

The Product: Tribility (TM); that is more durable, highly stable, and easily maneuvered. In a tripod design that outperforms the bulky, conspicuous, traditional walker. Project sponsored by Essential Design.

The Team: Eason Huang, Loris Machielse, Danilo Sanchez, Lauren Turner, Meredith Otten, Danielle Doge, Kimberly Song.

The Product: Coupon Kiosk. A shopping incentive system that is simple and adaptable to various store environments. Computer card scan delivers coupons to customers. Project sponsored by Incentive Targeting, Inc.

The Team: William Choi, Bhavin Shah, Myungjoon Kim, Josh Herzig, A. Firat Ozpinar, Adam Newhard, Fernando De La Torre.

The Faculty (L to R): Sebastian Fixson, Babson College; Matt Kressey, RISD.

Ultimate Internship Program

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:32:18 EST

Richard Bottner Class of 2007 has authored Total Internship Management: The Employer's Guide to Building the Ultimate Internship Program (ISBN: 978-0-9799373-9-2).

Bottner, president and CEO of Intern Bridge, Inc., has authored his first book about business internships for millennials to help close the gap between interns and their employers.

Understanding 'Interculturally' as Speaker, Learner, and Listener

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:08:03 EST

The Glavin Center's Office of International Programs held a seminar on international/intercultural communication that was open to the entire community during International Education Week recently.

Karen Zuffante Pabon, Manager of International Student & Scholar Services, made this happen because of her own belief in the importance of understanding the nuances of translation and cultural interpretations.

Karen, with the help of Amir Reza, Assistant Dean, Student Affairs, and Management Professor Sydel Sokuvitz whose expertise is communication (language, power and gender) led the interactive, hands-on seminar.

Reynolds 241 was packed with a mix of Babson faculty, administration, and staff who shared experiences and learned new communication tools for intercultural understanding.

We learned to:

Keep communication simple; speak slowly, thoughtfully, and deliberately
Manage our tone of voice; watch volume; don't be defensive
Be an empathetic listener
Be patient; take time to truly understand the intended message or question
Understand the challenge of communicating in a non-native language
Watch facial expression and body language as both the speaker and the listener
Understand our own assumptions!

At a school with a 25+% population of international students and faculty, the importance of mutual understanding cannot be overstated.

If you have a chance to attend a future workshop like this, take it. You won't regret it! A better listener - with both ears and eyes - makes for a better communicator in any language.

Rocket Pitch to a Crown

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:57:22 EST

Babson senior Grace Wong is taking this year off to travel as an ambassador for Hong Kong – and for Babson. Grace was named first runner up at the Miss Hong Kong pageant held last summer! She also won the titles ‘Miss Photogenic’ and ‘Miss International Good Will!’

In January, Grace went to Hong Kong on a semester abroad from Babson and from her New York City home. She wanted to learn business in the culture into which she was born - Hong Kong. It was her first trip back since she was very young and she’d always felt a special bond with her native country.

Grace had competed earlier in the Miss Chinatown competition held in San Francisco, representing NYC, and she came in first runner up! With this win under her belt, and no internships waiting back home, she decided to stay for the summer and enter the Miss Hong Kong competition.

Pictured with Grace (on the left) are newly crowned Miss Hong Kong, Kayi Cheung, in the center, and second runner-up Loretta Chow.

First and second runners-up travel with the reigning winner for many of the year’s events, and Grace would be expected to step in if anything prevented Miss Hong Kong from performing her duties. Most of their time is spent at charity and promotional events in Hong Kong and China. In fact, they just returned from Beijing where they talked up the 2008 Summer Olympics!

2000 girls applied to compete. 200 made it to a first interview, then 50, then 24, until there were 12 ‘locals’ competing for the crown. Her 30-second interview – wearing a bikini – won her a place among the twelve finalists. Asked why she wanted to be Miss Hong Kong, she said she “always loved Hong Kong and wants the opportunity to promote it internationally.”

Grace’s focus at Babson is entrepreneurship. She credits the skills she’s learned here with helping her win this competition. For example, she is able to communicate comfortably with any audience, she has gained poise and self-confidence, she can deal with the sometimes negative comments from media, and she understands that failure is a tool for learning and for new beginnings.

Intense days in E-Tower and learning to give rocket pitches also taught her well. (Remember the 30-second interview – in a bikini?)

Just last month, Grace competed in Tokyo representing Hong Kong in the Miss International Pageant – the third largest pageant in the world. She placed among the top 15 out of 62 delegates from around the globe, and won the title ‘Miss Friendship.’

The rewards are many according to Grace. She has learned to be more flexible and can adapt to any environment. She feels cultural barriers she once felt are now broken down. And a real benefit is that she has friends in 62 countries around the world. What a network!

View more pictures of Grace on her fan-made website www.Grace-Wong.net.

An Unequal Playing Field at Babson

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:31:12 EST

The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) has named Babson College winner in the College Division of the Field Maintenance Award. The award will be accepted by baseball coach Matt Noone at a reception in Philadelphia on January 5^th.

The ABCA/Turface Field Maintenance Award includes one ton of Turface MVP, infield soil conditioner, and $400 of maintenance equipment.

Govoni Field, Babson's baseball diamond, is renowned throughout New England as one of the finest facilities in the region. Named after longtime assistant coach and marketing professor Norman Govoni and his wife Terry, the field is home to the highly successful Babson baseball team. The manicured diamond is a fully-enclosed facility with a natural grass surface and an infield of red clay.

Boston Chamber Honors Cafco Construction

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:57:56 EST

The Boston Chamber of Commerce has named Cafco Construction its 2007 Small Business of the Year. Joe Burkett '85 is its CFO. According to the Chamber, "Cafco Construction Management Inc., is a Boston-based construction management and general contracting firm specializing in a variety of development ventures. For nearly 20 years Cafco has built a solid reputation in the construction industry with a unique customer-driven approach and has been trusted with the construction needs of the best and brightest of New England." For more info, visit http://blog.bostonchamber.com/blog/boston-business-directory

Babson Dean and Author Elaine Eisenman to Wellesley Chamber: "Failure helps you understand how strong you are and can be"

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:26:03 EST

Elaine Eisenman, Dean, Babson Executive Education and author, I didn't See It Coming—How to Avoid Being Blindsided in Business, told Wellesley Chamber members to "Make mistakes, fail now and then, because the surest road to failure is unbroken success."

The event was the Babson College/Wellesley Bank Business Series at the Wellesley Chamber's Networking Before 9 breakfast held here at Babson.

Eisenman's focus was on what small business owners need to know to avoid being blindsided—that is any situation where something catches you by surprise. "Most business owners look straight ahead and miss all the environmental cues," said Eisenman, "The consequences of not really seeing is that 10-20% of small growing businesses do not survive beyond five years."

According to Eisenman, because entrepreneurs are action-oriented, they spend little time and thought on self-assessment, self-awareness. Some of the landmines that leave them blindsided include:

Insular thinking—delusion of invulnerability; you need to have an external board of advisors to keep you on track.

Unrealistic optimism—entrepreneurs are prone to this, 81% believe they will be 100% successful.

Anchoring—when all perceived risks are tagged to personal experience leaving no room for contrary input, or new fix-it ideas.

Base rates—paying attention solely to something makes it more prevalent, narrowing your "seeing" field.

The challenge, says Eisenman, is to balance these traps with outside perspectives and other considerations. What else is going on in the environment? You must read it thoroughly and frequently to make sure you have the full picture.

"With mistakes," said Eisenman, "The key is not avoiding them, but managing their cost. Real success is learning and growing from them."

For more about, and to order Eisenman's new book, I didn't see it coming: The only book you'll ever need to avoid being blindsided in business, go to: www.ididntseeitcomingthebook.com .

Babson Business: Turtle Feet Creative Learning

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:20:00 EST

Name of business: Turtle Feet Creative Learning

Mission: To allow children the experience of learning through art.

Began: 2007

Where: Easton, MA

Founder: Kathryn Cowan Porro, create@turtlefeetonline.com
One-Year MBA Program '06

How the idea began: "While running an academic learning center I was afforded the opportunity to speak with thousands of parents. Those many conversations helped me to understand the desires and goals they have for their children and the challenges they faced in terms of finding means to achieve them. Of the most pressing issues was the absence of art programs in school, the desire to learn academic basics early on, and the illustration of fun while learning. Turtle Feet sits at this crossroad."

Favorite thing about the business: Seeing the look on a child's face when they show mom and dad "what they made!" and seeing the kind of progress and learning that takes place during their time in the program.

Lesson learned: "Your customers will help mold the business and are often the greatest source for ideas."

Babson Business: 1.800.Flights

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:44:43 EST

Name of business: 1.800.Flights

Mission:Providing toll-free flight status, gate, and terminal information by phone for airlines and airports nationwide.

Began: 2007

Where: Houston, Texas

Founder: Seth Stolbun, Babson Ugrad; seth@1800flights.net, 1-866-447-9937

Employees: Four-member startup team

How the idea began: 1.800.Flights was the result of my two-week senior internship with my dad, Sam Stolbun. My dad has owned the 1-800-Flights number since 1987 and had not been using it. I came up with the concept of using voice recognition technology and an advertising-supported revenue model for a flight status service that would be free to consumers and provide nationwide coverage with one-number convenience.

Initial Preparation to germinate idea: I had to identify a company to develop the software and host the phone calls for 1.800.Flights. Also identify and hire a second company to provide ours with the most up-to date flight status information. To execute the idea, we merged the two services into one, unique service; and determine the length of advertising spot. I led the development of the branding and marketing for the new service.

Favorite thing about the business: The huge potential this business has to grow into, given the millions of air travelers in the U.S. annually.

Worst thing about the business: I always ask the system when I call How's your day going? but all it ever says is I'm sorry I did not get that.

Biggest challenge: To bring all of the outsourced companies together to produce a great service.

Lesson learned: I have learned patience. When I first came up with the idea for 1.800.Flights I thought we could just buy some pre-packaged software and launch and sell the company before the end of my two week internship. Instead I had ten months of research, development, and beta testing before we were ready to launch 1.800.Flights

Trade-In, Trade-Out, or Trade-up!

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:34:55 EST

Dave Chen—Babson alum (MBA '05) and CEO/Founder, NextWorth Solutions, Inc.—announces a partnership with Circuit City stores in the greater Boston area.

In Dave's own words:

"We are pleased to announce the official launch of an 11-store test at Circuit City stores in the greater Boston Area. This important milestone builds on our past successes with Tweeter and J&R in-store trade-in programs, but now gives us an opportunity to mainstream this concept for consumers nationwide. This program allows consumers to get instant store credit for their used iPod. Simply walk into the store with your used iPod and the employees at Circuit City will evaluate your iPod (in any condition) and give you instant credit towards the purchase of anything in the store."

For more on NextWorth and a list of participating stores, go to: www.nextworth.com

CWL Author Series: Beth Goldstein, "The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit"

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:28:07 EST

Babson's Center for Women's Leadership featured Beth Goldstein, author of The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit at last evening's CWL Author Series. Goldstein is founder of Marketing Edge Consulting Group and works one-on-one with clients across the globe. She has more than 20 years' experience in sales and marketing.

The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit provides entrepreneurs with hands-on guidance to implement an integrated sales and marketing program quickly and with minimum cost.

CWL's Sharon Feintuck submitted this outline of tips and advice from Goldstein's presentation and suggests you begin to Execute, Execute, Execute!

Be able to identify your customer's needs and exceed them.

- Why do they buy?

- What factors influence purchases?

- Where do they gather data?

- What is the one problem that you solve for them?

What info do you need to know?

- Spending Habits

- Demographics

- Psychographics

- Influencers

- Other factors?

How do you get this info?

- Ask them

- Sample them

- This takes out all the guesswork, therefore your delivery (of goods and/or services) will be exactly what the customer perceives; not what YOU think you are delivering.

- Use Surveys

- Focus Groups

- Interviews

- Advisory Boards

Competition

- Don't look at look-a-likes only-look at like needs.

- Ask yourself, if you were your own competitor, how would you put you out ofbusiness?

How do you avoid becoming obsolete?

- Differentiate yourself

- Understand your customers

- Learn from innovators

- Form strategic alliances

- "Think outside the box!"

Branding

- What is a brand?

- Be clear with your brand to the world.

Advertise

Network - a must!

Elevator Pitch

- Practice it, know it, own it, use it!

Selling

- Help people buy and sell to their needs

- Know their timing

Have a:

- Plan for action

- Passion.....and

Execute, Execute, Execute!

Babson Professor Michael Gordon: "Entrepreneurs Must Be Superlative Negotiators"

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:14:46 EST

Babson Professor Michael Gordon, author of Entrepreneurship 101: How to turn your idea into a money machine,used his experience in bringing this book to market , to demonstrate the power that entrepreneurial passion brings to the negotiating table.

The event was the Babson College/Wellesley Bank Business Series at the Wellesley Chamber's Networking Before 9 breakfast held here at Babson.

Gordon described how his unstoppable passion to write this book, kept him ahead of his competitor authors. Its publication became the single focus of his existence...and helped him during negotiations of the final contract agreement.

"Great entrepreneurs are superlative negotiators," says Gordon, "You need to know yourself and what points are most important to you...but you must also listen to really understand what's essential to the other party, then you will both end up on the same team."

Five Phases of Negotiation:

1. Establish vision.

2. Plan to succeed.

3. Winning language and techniques.

4. Unblock stalemates.

And when all else fails?---Figure out who has the power,then do what you need to do to improve the power balance.

"It's simple," says Gordon:

Best
Alternatives
Before
Shutting
Off
Negotiations

John Sculley Says It's All About Ideas and The Team

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:00:56 EST

John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and former president of PepsiCo, says "Get the right people on the bus and get them in the right seats. Collective skills are required for entrepreneurial success."

Sculley opened the 6^th annual Babson Forum on Entrepreneurship and Innovation opened with a keynote address to a full house of mostly MBAs.

He began by explaining his background and how he got where he is - and where he has been - from PepsiCo where he helped launch the first 64 oz. plastic soda bottle that got them into the Wal-Mart and Kmart department stores, to Apple Computer when personal computers were new and Silicon Valley was unknown in the east, to wireless technology companies as a venture capitalist. He is currently venture partner with Rho Ventures. At each of these companies, the key to his success was looking at industry changes and seeing them as opportunities.

To find entrepreneurial venture opportunities Sculley suggests:

Look for opportunity systemically. If it's a big problem, it may be a big opportunity.
Look at industry changes and find a niche to innovate in; change is ALWAYS coming. Industry disruption can be an opportunity to create whole new markets.
Opportunities lie in simplifying complexities (e.g. innovation in financial industry - inventory, supply chain of financial services).
Small companies only grow when they innovate!
Be a risk taker. If you're not experiencing some failure you're not taking enough risk. Be an optimist; but know you will fail sometimes...
You don't need to be a great manager, but you need a good management team - ideas are what it's about
No one does it alone, it takes a great team. Collective skills are required!
Look for the things in your current experience that you bring to the table/team and build on them.
'Plan A' must have great people and great ideas.
Always have a 'Plan B' - but go to it only if EVERYTHING goes wrong.
Have fun being an entrepreneur!

Babson Author Susan Foley Helps Wellesley Chamber Identify Entrepreneurs

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:59:12 EST

Susan Foley, Executive Director, Research Centers at Babson Executive Education; and author, Entrepreneurs Inside: Accelerating Business Growth with Corporate Entrepreneurs, shared some sound advice this morning about how to find and cultivate entrepreneurial talent within businesses.

The event was the Babson College/Wellesley Bank Business Series at the Wellesley Chamber's Networking Before 9 breakfast held here at Babson.

Using the research from her new book, Foley was able to explore for the first time, the dynamic between business growth and hiring/keeping entrepreneurial talent. Who are the engines of growth within your business; and if they're not there, how do you find them?

"One of the easiest ways for small business owners to recognize the entrepreneur within, is to reminisce on your beginnings....how did you do it? Remember that you are a role model for your employees," said Foley, "Half of all senior executives will retire in the next six years; and middle management is being squeezed, leaving a ten -year gap for good knowledge talent."

Foley said there are three Ps for success in business growth—people, process, place. Most business owners can control People and the enterprise competencies People bring to the organization.

Foley's research show s that Inside Entrepreneurs:

-Thrive in an environment of change and challenge.
-Prefer freedom to create on their own.
-Deal proactively with the unknown.
-Take calculated risks.
-Are passionate about what they are doing.
-Regularly blaze new trails.
-Turn ideas into profitable businesses.
-Seek out opportunities for growth.

"Entrepreneurs are energized and motivated when challenged," said Foley, "Like 'coloring' outside the line. But they will leave the culture and people who resist change."

According to Foley, even though they are independent thinkers who frequently question authority, Inside Entrepreneurs are actually good employees. "They are more loyal to the project than the company, but provide the right corporate climate and they will thrive," she said.

Are you a corporate entrepreneur? Take a quick survey to find out. You may be eligible to participate in a benchmarking study. Go to www.entrepreneursinside.com to take the survey and learn more about Entrepreneurs Inside.

Geothermal Start-up Keeps You Warm

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:48:30 EST

Name of business: HeatSpring Energy

The Team: from left, Duncan Miller, Brian Hayden, Michelle Park MBA 2007, Becca Caspe

Mission: HeatSpring Energy delivers the resources needed to be successful inthe rapidly growing geothermal industry. Through trainings, project design and consulting services we promote consumer awareness and responsible industry growth.

Began in: 2007

Where: At Babson College (of course) in the "Entrepreneurship" class with Steve Spinelli and "Marketing for Entrepreneurs" class with Bob Caspe

Founders: Duncan Miller MBA '07 and Brian Hayden MBA '07

Employees: 4 - Duncan Miller, Brian Hayden, Michelle Park MBA '07 and Rebecca Caspe

Founder's Past Life/Business: Duncan has a background in entrepreneurship and consulting. He is also a licensed real estate agent with educational experience in green building, HVAC systems, and construction project management. Brian was a product manager at a candy company in Portland, Oregon. His previous experience was in technology consulting.

How the Idea Began: We wanted to get into clean energy - geothermal seemed to have reasonable business challenges and accessible opportunities. We thought we could address the business challenges more easily than inventing some kind of new technology for other areas of the clean energy industry. Our industry contacts said that their businesses had expanded greatly in the last few years and that the industry was growing. We took the idea and then really used our resources at Babson to bring the business to life.

Initial Preparation to Germinate Idea: The idea was developed through two different classes at Babson. In Steve Spinelli's "Entrepreneurship" class we did market research and compiled our knowledge about the industry. Then in Bob Caspe's "Marketing for Entrepreneurs" class we worked on implementing our business plan and finding customers.

Favorite Thing about the Business: We are selling a service that we believe in. Also, as a start-up we have the flexibility to do whatever we want to try or think will work.

Worst Thing about the Business: Not enough time in the day!

Biggest Challenge: It has been a challenge to convince consumers that geothermal is a viable and efficient clean technology at a time when there is a lot of interest in solar and wind.

Lesson Learned: Listen to your customers first and deliver second. This has opened many doors for us in terms of opportunities.

Babson Business: Dahlicious, LLC

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:18:45 EST

Name of business: Dahlicious, LLC

Mission: "Our mission is to create honest, tasty, authentic foods that are 100% natural, convenient and full of meaningful health benefits."

Year Began: Feb 2007

Revenues: $150-$250K (EST.)

Initial Investment: $40K

Broke Even: Not Yet

Where: Boston

Employees: 3 Full-Time

Founder: JD Sethi; jd@dahlicious.com; 617-281-1311; Babson Grad Student

Founder's Past Life/Business: "IT Consultant with specialization in internet marketing. I worked on many consulting projects in Asia, Europe, and North America during my eight-year career. The work involved more than 10 Fortune 500 client organizations."

How the Idea Began: "Often food that is tasty is not healthy and vice-versa. I wanted to address this dichotomy and create "real" foods with "real" health benefits."

Initial Preparation to Germinate Idea: "Coming from a non-food background, I had to educate myself on food science and manufacturing. I met with a number of experts in the field, visited a number of dairy plants, and asked numerous dumb questions. All the hard work paid off, as I was able to develop a product that was well received in the marketplace."

Favorite Thing about the Business: "Meeting consumers face to face to get their feedback. I go out weekly for product demonstrations. It gives me an opportunity to meet people who love the product and also those who hate it. From both groups, I learn a lot, come back and improve the product."

Worst Thing About the Business: "Working in my kitchen surrounded by food. I have put on five pounds since I started this businessJ"

Biggest Challenge: "Entering the established, consolidated dairy industry was challenging. Initially, I had difficulty finding a manufacturer for my product. Most large dairies needed huge initial volumes to be interested. I called all the major dairies on the east-coast, but could not interest them in the product. My perseverance paid off, and I found a mid-size dairy processor in upstate NY who was very excited about the product and started producing it."

Lessons Learned:

Don't hesitate to ask questions.
There are many more helpful people out there than you think.
Listen to your gut. It might sound odd, but I do try to listen to my instincts when making a decision.
Hire slow, fire fast.
Be wary of consultants.

Babson Business--Surreal-Media

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:19:34 EST

Name of Business: Surreal-Media; www.Surreal-Media.com ENTER MINDS

Mission: To provide--
-Web-based product development.
-Custom creative Web media solutions for small, medium, and enterprise level companies.
-Unique and expressive visual design and motion with high impact value.
-Web hosting and related Web services.

Year Began: 2003

Initial Investment: $0

Broke Even: Day one.

Where: Registered in Australia

Founders:
Maxim Blagov; maxim@surreal-media.com
Monte Punjabi; monte@surreal-media.com; Babson Ugrad student

Employees: 4 employees ( 1 Japan, 1 US, 1 UK, 1 Canadian)

Past Life/Business: Monte Punjabi—"I had no formal business training/knowledge, or any work experience. The selling skills were a direct influence from my father and observing him sell to his clients."

How the Idea Began: "Maxim and I met on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and joined together to form a business focused on marketing to the e-sports gaming market while still providing services to the corporate industry sector. Maxim provided the design expertise while I was in charge of business development and marketing of our products."

Initial Preparation to Germinate Idea: Several gaming teams showed great interest in our custom solutions—thus we decided to lower the cost from a custom site (several thousands) to as low as $9.95 for a template product we resold. A perfect custom alternative.

Favorite Thing about the Business: Ability to ever-expand

Worst Thing about the Business: Keeping track of ever-expansion

Biggest Challenge: "Fanatical organization and communications. As this company is completely online based in multiple time zones with employees scattered around the world, my partner and I need to be in constant communication and utilize the right online tools to manage the "virtual office"."

Lesson Learned: "Every small mistake was a hard lesson learned...I've learned a lot!"

PosiPeople--New Online Community-Driven Forum--Launches PosiPeople Blog

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:41:23 EST

PosiPeople Corporation (www.PosiPeople.com) -- a new social network community "highlighting the good apples in the world"-- announces the launch of its Blog at blog.PosiPeople.com.

The PosiPeople Blog will feature posts from the PosiPeople community addressing issues, products, and services that make a positive impact on society and the environment including:

Organic food and personal care products
Green and sustainable building
Hybrid and electric cars
Energy efficient electronics and appliances
Natural household products
Natural and preventive medicine
Socially responsible investing

The PosiPeople Blog will also keep its community informed of the launch of its beta site. You can sign up to be a beta tester at www.PosiPeople.com.

Co-founding partner Jonathan Chang, an '07 Babson College MBA, has worked in Internet media for more than nine years and sees PosiPeople gathering the "good apples" within internet content.

Says Chang, "We have all heard the saying, 'All it takes is one bad apple to ruin the whole bunch', but PosiPeople doesn't believe in the bad apple. We believe in all of the good apples that are still in the bunch."

CWL Author Series: Judith Bowman, "Don't Take The Last Donut"

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:09:28 EST

The Center for Women's Leadership kicked off its author series with a presentation by Judith Bowman, author of Don't Take the Last Donut, in which she unlocks the mysteries and benefits of business etiquette. Babson students asked great questions and were hungry for more!

Bowman advocates the 4Cs every business person must heed:

Confidence, Control, Contribute, Connect

"Remember networking is your lifeline," said Bowman, "and preparation is key to successful networking. If you are prepared, that knowledge will help with small talk. Small talk can become the gateway to making connections and paving the way to longer term business relationships."

"Work the room like it is your event. Approach people who are talking in three's." Why? Two will most likely be talking and the third is secretly screaming inside 'No one is talking to me, how do I exit this tactfully?' If you approach this group of three you can automatically engage this third person."

More do's and don'ts from Don't Take the Last Donut:

Don't hand out shoddy looking business cards....toss them out!
Don't have a glass in one hand and a plate in the other; you don't have a hand to shake with.
Do take a napkin with your beverage; you don't want to shake with a cold clammy hand.
Do make sure you are clean and neat, including your outerwear. Present your best neat self.