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How To Become An Entrepreneur
Larry Humberstone and Pam Gunderson of PJ Lawrence and Associates (Omaha, NE) discuss key concepts individuals need to consider when starting a business. Individuals must discover their passion for the business, understand what drives them to succeed and consider whether the market is also interested in their passion and business idea. Individuals must be self-motivated to further research the idea. Use the Internet and mentors to help refine the idea. Write down the ideas, make connections, and take action. Validate what works and what doesn’t. When moving from idea to concept, Larry says there must be pain. That is, individuals now move from a comfortable position to putting personal credibility or financial commitment on the line for the business. (http://pjlawrenceassociates.com/) View Video
Motivating Your Sales Force
Keeping a global sales force motivated can be difficult. Gene Beckman, President of Management Communication Services, Inc. talks about their strategies for assisting a global sales force. MCS, Inc. uses a business model that provides for employee autonomy coupled with assistance to help the employees succeed in meeting individual and corporate goals. Keys for motivation are enabling your employees, having the employees buy into the goals, and showing them how they are integral to the process. People need to understand where they have been successful and what value they have and are capable of providing to the customer. (www.mcsit.com) View Video
Becoming a Global Entrepreneur
Gene Beckman, President of Management Communication Services, Inc. shares his story on how he started the business, and why? Gene and his team have grown the firm to $20 million in sales, with half of the revenue generated internationally. A key management decision was obtaining exclusivity from the vendors to provide services. Beckman found that the business model worked in the US and decided to venture into ten other countries. Another key was finding the correct representatives and maintaining high communications. (http://www.mcsit.com) View Video
Evolving a Business to Capture Markets
Jeffrey Hicks, Chairman and CEO of 21st Century Systems, Inc. (21CSI) (http://www.21csi.com) shares his experience working within an evolving company. From employee number five to CEO of the company, Jeff says that the key was learning to give up control for the benefit of the company. 21CSI has shifted focus from R&D to commercial applications. The goal is to learn as a company how to take the capital investments they put into products and further commercialize them to grow the business. (http://www.21CSI.com) View Video
Innovation and Patent Issues
Attorney John Miles from the Lincoln, NE office of Cline, Williams, Wright, Johnson & Oldfather L.L.P. discusses the different patent issues inventors may have when dealing with idea and product protections. http://www.clinewilliams.com View Video
Intellectual Property Protections
Attorney John Miles from the Lincoln, NE office of Cline, Williams, Wright, Johnson & Oldfather L.L.P. outlines the different types of intellectual property rights and details why a business owner needs to protect their these rights. http://www.clinewilliams.com View Video
Bootstrapping a Technology Business
Solving a problem opens the door to opportunity. Dennison Bhola, Owner of Assessment, Learning and Technology Solutions (ALTS) (Lincoln, NE) (http://www.alts.com) discusses how he saw a problem and developed an educational software program to solve the problem. This idea launched ALTS. Dennison outlines the steps he took from idea concept to product prototype to market entry. (http://www.alts.com/) View Video
