north central florida business report june 2012

By Chris Eversole

Gainesville’s vibrant innovation economy is paying off again, with the latest potential

opportunity coming from two developers showing interest in a hotel and conference center.

The two companies that submitted proposals expressing interest are Michigan-based Acquest Realty Advisors, which has been involved in hotel and conference center projects in cities of a similar size, and Gainesville Hotel & Conference Center, LLC.

Gainesville appears to be ripe for a mid-range hotel of 100 to 150 rooms and a modest-sized conference center, with the potential to add another 100 rooms later, says Acquest Vice President Doug Smith.

“There clearly seems to be an opportunity to grow the meeting business,” he says. “Gainesville’s hotel offerings are a little bit weak. As Innovation Square expands, demand for conferences and meetings will expand.”

The two companies responded to the city’s “invitation to negotiate” about creating a downtown hotel and conference center. As of press time, the city commission planned to discuss on June 19 whether to ask either or both companies to prepare more detailed proposals.

Acquest helped develop hotels and conference centers in Erie, Penn.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Kingsport, Tenn. It is involved in development in Fort Myers, Fla.

The new complex would need to work with the 124-room Downtown Hampton Inn & Suites, in Smith’s opinion. “We wouldn’t want to overshadow the Hampton and put it out of business,” he says. The project would also need to be within walking distance of the Hampton as well as Innovation Square, Smith says.

The proposals on the project don’t specify a location for the hotel and conference center, although the city has eyed a vacant parking lot located on Southwest Second Street in 2010.

N O R T H C E N T R A L F L O R I D A

JULY 2012

(continued on page 11) Acquest helped develop hotels and conference centers in Erie, Penn.; Fort Wayne, Ind. (pictured above); and Kingsport, Tenn. It is involved in development in Fort Myers, Fla.

By Chris Eversole

In Gainesville, it takes a caring business community to raise an entrepreneur—and

that community’s town square just might be Santa Fe College’s Center for Innovation and Economic Development.

One of its new poster children is 25-year-old Aaron Gibbs, who has found a niche cleaning the growing number of solar panels as the head of PVB Enterprises. But the incubator isn’t his only help. In addition to getting a boost from CIED, Gibbs is learning about the solar industry from Barry Jacobson, co-owner of Solar Impact.

“Aaron keeps my faith in the American Dream alive,” Jacobson says. “He’s taking all the right steps. I’m glad to help him, because our customers are coming to us with help cleaning the solar panels we install.”

Gibbs sees things the other way around. He says that it’s people like Jacobson who make his success as a small business owner possible.

“People within the community want to help

you,” Gibbs says. “As long as I do what I say I’ll do, things will work out.”

CIED PLAYS DIFFERENT ROLE

Although it’s considered a business incubator, CIED goes beyond the role of a typical incubator by focusing well beyond its resident companies, says Dug Jones, Santa Fe’s assistant vice president for economic development.

In addition to providing office space for eight resident companies in its building, at 530 W University Ave., CIED helps another 30 companies or nonprofits—or “associate members,” which participate in its workshop and mentoring programs but don’t have offices there. Resident companies pay $310 monthly, and associates pay $100.

Santa Fe is even negotiating with the City of Gainesville to expand its entrepreneurship help by taking over management of the Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center, previously managed by the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce. (See related story on page 9.)

(continued on page 9)

IT TAKES A VILLAGEIn a land where buzzwords like “incubator,” “innovation” and “entrepreneur” are swirling, the “neighborly” Santa Fe CIED is central to keeping the American Dream alive.

Two Groups Vie to Build Hotel & Conference CenterAfter the city’s recent invitation generated interest, commissioners must decide if they want full proposals.

InsideBASF Propels Game-Changing Local Biotechnology Startup

14Jamie Grooms Gives Back to Aspiring Entrepreneurs

18Getting to Know Southern Legal Counsel

25Members of the Chamber of Commerce receive a free subscription to The Business Report.

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Aaron Gibbs demonstrates cleaning solar panels to Barry Jacobson of Solar Impact. Jacobson and many other people have helped Gibbs launch his business, which fills the niche for keeping the panels clean.

The NorTh CeNTral FlorIDa BusINess reporT JULY 20122

www.gainesvillebizreport.com 3


Content July 2012

Contact:PO Box 15192, Gainesville, FL 32604352-377-1402 (ph) l 352-377-6602 (fax)E-mail: [email protected]

07 Marketing 101What Does Google’s Penguin Update Mean for Your Website?

09 Cover StoryA Community of Camaraderie

11 Cover StoryHotel Could Create Jobs, Bring Millions in Spending

06 Editor’s ViewpointWhat Employees Want–and Why It Matters

13 Building BusinessRecap of MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program

14 In the NewsInternational Company Partners with Gainesville’s BioTork

15 HR Rx3 Keys to Avoiding Accidents in the Workplace

12 News BriefsGigabit Broadband Comes to Innovation District and More

25 Made in GainesvilleLegal Aid Service Represents Those in Need

27 Office SpaceTrendy Entertainment22 Building Business

Lame Sales Lines

28 Calendar + TransactionsMeetings & Start-Ups

23 Business Basics6 Reasons Your Bank Statement Doesn’t Reconcile

30 Sales Strategies3 Ways to Improve Your Sales Productivity

17 News BriefsOffice Leasing Rebounding and More

18 Someone You Should KnowJamie GroomsGives Back

20 TrendsTiny Treats Mean Big Business

16 Speaking of BusinessProfit is Not a Dirty Word

PresidentKevin IrelandEditorial DirectorMaghan McDowellCreative DirectorHeather von KlockSenior WriterChris EversoleInternsAnnabelle BrooksSarah KinonenChelsea LipfordTaylor GonzalezBradley OsburnRachel SaleAlexandria UgarteSenior Account ExecutivePete ZimekAccount ExecutivesCarolyne SaltBrandon SternDistribution ManagerRyan McDowellOperations ManagerLori WhiteWritersKevin AllenErica HurlburtHeather van BloklandContributing ColumnistsPhillip GeistHerb JonesJim MeisenheimerKelley RobertsonJohn SpenceStephanie TravisStephan WycoffPhotographersChris EversoleSarah Kinonen Erik Knudsen

Copyright 2012 by Broad Beach Media.

27 Office SpaceTrendy Entertainment20 Trends

Boutique DessertsN O R T H C E N T R A L F L O R I D A

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( Editor’s Viewpoint )

by Maghan McDowellWhat Employees Want—and Why It Matters

?Do you have an idea for a column based on your business expertise? Have something to say?

Submit your columns, ideas, feedback and business questions to [email protected].

Please note that submissions will be considered for publication as space allows.

Y ou know that good employees are the key to a successful business, but that it can be expensive to recruit, train and keep them.

And I don’t have to tell you that, for the past couple years, many small businesses have been strapped for cash.

Thankfully, most of us are in the same boat, and it looks like the economy is picking up. Still, chances are it hasn’t totally trickled down to your business, and you’re wondering how hard your team can work (without getting holiday bonuses) before they give up—or move to greener pastures.

One of the great perks of my job is that I’m able to talk to some really admirable, successful people, and I often ask them about challenges like these.

One recent example is the young trailblazer Kristen Hadeed, who recently invited us into the new(ish) office of Student Maid. (Her 3-year-old cleaning company was formed while Hadeed was in college, and is known for hiring students with GPAs of 3.5 or above. It won the Leading Women’s Enterprise Award in 2010.)

Hers is an industry known for a three-month retention rate. But at Student Maid, Hadeed told us that the retention rate is 2.5 to four years!

Later, I attended a chat with Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell. She described her optimism and ambitious goals when she was elected in 2006. To her dismay, the economy tanked in 2007. Still, amid budget cuts and a jail bursting at the seams, there have been no layoffs under her watch.

So how do they do it? I have good news. When it comes to employees, it’s not (completely) about the money.

When we visited Student Maid, we were greeted by a live DJ and a handful of employees making smoothies and enjoying cupcakes between shifts. The space is open to employees 24/7, and Hadeed often finds students studying at the Student Maid office… In their free time.

She walked us back to their “Wow Department,” which fosters creativity and client appreciation, while talking about the company-wide book club and rap sessions. Student Maid employees feel like they are part of a team, and take time to enjoy their time at work in between the dubious task of cleaning other people’s homes.

Law enforcement is another one of the most challenging, thankless industries to be in. Sheriff Darnell’s staff works holidays and weekends, risking their lives by just coming to work. Darnell explained that she works to make sure that everyone she works with is valued, whether that’s by offering public recognition in the form of a Sheriff’s Coin or asking the employees of the jail what truly works best for them.

She described the type of person who is attracted to her line of work: someone who is energized by making a difference, and who gets satisfaction when they can do good for human kind.

So, my point is, while rewarding employees is one of the most important business decisions you

can make, it isn’t just about the money. It’s about taking time to let them know they are appreciated, like they are a part of something important, and that they have a personal impact.

I was interested to read that John Spence’s notes from the MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program (excerpted on page 13) confirmed this observation. He wrote about the importance of company culture, and that “more than making money, people want to make a difference—people want to do something that has meaning.”

Key factors that drive a great company culture, he found, are “atmosphere issues.” They do not cost much money—if any—and ultimately are worth the extra time. Every person, he wrote, looks for safety, belongingness and appreciation—both at work and at home. And that’s something we can all bank on.

For exclusive up-to-date local business news straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Insider.

Visit www.gainesvillebizeport.com to sign up.


1

By Herb Jones

( Marketing 101 )

I magine this: You’re working hard to build an online presence and it’s working—you get lots of calls and new leads through your website. Customers are finding you online. Then one day, the phone stops ringing. No new leads in your email box, either.

You scratch your head and wonder, “What happened?” Unfortunately, this scenario is real for many business owners with websites that were negatively impacted by Google’s recent update to their search engine-ranking algorithm. Google has a penchant for naming these updates after cute animals and this particularly damaging update was named “Penguin.”

WHAT WAS GOOGLE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH?Google makes changes to the way they rank search results

all the time. They made an estimated 600 updates in 2011. Their goal is simple; they want improve the quality of the search results that you, the user, get when you are looking for something. Google wants you to find exactly what you want quickly and easily to keep you coming back to Google for your information.

The Penguin update was an attempt to penalize websites that resort to “spammy” or unethical practices to improve their search engine rankings. Specifically, we are told that the penguin update targeted these techniques:

KEYWORD STUFFING Using certain words repeatedly in your web copy to the point that your site visitors would think of it as unusual. LINK SCHEMES Links to spammers and buying paid links on

pages with the hopes of improving your search ranking vs. driving visitors to your site through those links. CLOAKING An attempt to show search engines one form of a website to help it rank better, while showing that same page to viewers in a completely different format (like Flash).DUPLICATE CONTENT The practice of borrowing content that you did not create, using it on your site and trying to pass it off as your own.

Unfortunately, there seems to be quite a bit of collateral damage with the penguin update. Many great websites with compelling content and ethical marketing standards seem to have suffered.

SO HOW DO I AVOID BEING PENALIZED BY GOOGLE?Google has addressed all of these spamming techniques

in the past, and this type of algorithm updating isn’t new. If you have been in the industry for any amount of time, you understand that this is a standard operating procedure from Google. (You might have heard about the Panda update last year or any other cute mammal they use as a mascot for their latest algorithm update.)

There are two kinds of individuals in this industry: Some search engine optimization (SEO) “professionals” will spend their time trying to game the system, while other SEO

professionals spend their time learning more about the best practices laid out by Google (and other search engines) and try to uphold the best and most ethical practices. These tactics are commonly referred to as Black Hat SEO techniques versus White Hat SEO techniques.

To make sure that your content is unique and purpose-driven, both for your target audience and for Google SEO, your web presence needs to be able to convey that you are the best at what you do and the most knowledgeable person in your market to the

people who are performing keyword searches for the products and services that you offer.

If you commit yourself to writing original, compelling content for your audience, sharing that content in social media, and engaging and interacting with your community to maintain your authority and expertise, no Google-mammal-named-mascot-algorithm-change will ever be a concern of yours.

Herb Jones founded and owns Online Potential, a Gainesville-based company that specializes in Internet and email marketing, as well as search engine optimization and social media marketing. E-mail him at [email protected]; follow him at twitter.com/herbjones or visit his website at gainesville-marketing.com.

A N G R Y B I R D SWhat does Google’s Penguin update mean for your website?

YOUR WEB PRESENCE NEEDS TO CONVEY THAT YOU ARE THE BEST AT WHAT YOU DO TO THE PEOPLE PERFORMING KEYWORD SEARCHES FOR THE SERVICES YOU OFFER.


( Cover Story )

I f Santa Fe and the city can reach an agreement, adding GTEC, at 2153 SE Hawthorne Road, will expand the help that the college can provide start-up businesses,

Jones says.“We’ll be able to fill the gap between what

CIED offers and what UF’s incubators offer,” he says. “We’ll be in a better position to serve the incubation and entrepreneurship training needs of east Gainesville.”

CIED serves different needs than the two University of Florida incubators (the Florida Innovation Hub and the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator). While the UF incubators focus on high-tech businesses, often based on UF research, CIED focuses on service businesses, nonprofit organizations and firms with technologies that don’t require access to laboratory space.

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACESIn addition to working with CIED and Jacobson, Gibbs is

getting help elsewhere.Tony Arvesu of SCORE, a volunteer organization of retired

professionals, serves as his mentor. “When Tony and I have coffee, he helps me stay focused on what’s happening right now,” Gibbs says.

Don Davis, the local president for Capital City Bank, and David Whitney, who heads Energent Ventures and is the entrepreneur-in-residence at UF’s College of Engineering, also have given Gibbs advice.

All the resources that Gibbs is using demonstrate Gainesville’s unusual position in offering a helping hand to people starting new businesses, says Bill Dorman, the CIED’s entrepreneur-in-residence.

In a recent letter to the editor, Chad Paris, co-owner of the two-year-old Parisleaf Printing and Design, remarked on what he called “the enchanted city.”

“The camaraderie within the start-up community has impressed me,” he writes. “Rob Castelucci of RoomSync went out of his way to help us network within the community—

from the Chamber of Commerce to Alachua County Emerging Leaders to Business Networking International.”

Later, Fracture co-founder Abhi Lokesh spent time helping him with his social media marketing. Paris says that

experiences like this inspired him to help other local start-ups.Read the full text of Paris’s letter in the June 20th edition of The Insider.

Gainesville’s spirit of helping start-ups was apparent to Gary Schoeniger and Clifton Taulbert, creators of the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program, who spoke in Gainesville at a May event sponsored by Sante Fe College.

“They asked, ‘What’s in the water here? Everybody is so eager to work together to make Gainesville a better community and improve the economy,’” CEID’s Dorman says.

People like Jacobson, Davis and Whitney are essential to lending a hand to new businesses, says CEID Director Jones. “There’s more entrepreneurship talent in Gainesville per square foot than anywhere else in the country,” he says.

CIED HAS CRUCIAL POSITIONCIED plays a key role is connecting people interested in

starting a business with the resources they need. Gibbs, who is an associate, says CIED’s weekly peer support meetings are invaluable.

“We have speakers on topics such as accounting, legal

A COMMUNITY OF CAMARADERIE

The Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center needs to reinvent itself, concluded a report conducted for the Gainesville Community Redevelopment

Agency a year ago.According to the report, The Innovation Hub and the

Sid Martin Incubator are overshadowing the incubator, which was originally focused on growing high-tech companies. Other problems that the report cited include:

GTEC’s rental rates, once below market, no longer • are a draw as area landlords have undercut them.GTEC’s interior has a dark, cloistered feel that • isn’t inviting to tenants.The previous staff fell short in helping companies • find investors, customers and mentors.

Remodeling the space to increase “collisions” among GTEC companies is important, says Santa Fe’s Dug Jones. “People don’t want to feel sequestered. They can learn a lot from each other, even if they’re not in related businesses.”

Bill Dorman, from CIED, served as interim director of GTEC from March through November 2011, following the departure of former director Booker Schmidt.

“Even without any promotion, people from the east side came in to talk with me about getting into business,” Dorman says. “If we do some outreach and hold more events, I’m sure that the community will become much more involved.”

Jones wants to involve people such as City Commissioner Todd Chase who have developed successful businesses at GTEC to return to tell their stories. “It’s like when Urban Myer first came here and he reached out to people like Emmitt Smith.”

“The speakers from the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program asked, ‘What’s

in the water here? Everybody is so eager to work together to make Gainesville a better

community and improve the economy.’” —Bill Dorman, entrepreneur-in-residence at Santa Fe College’s

Center for Innovation and Economic Development

(continued from cover)

(continued on next page)

REVITALIZING

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Sarah Kinonen


issues and business strategies,” he says. “We share our plans for the week and report on what we accomplished. If you haven’t followed through on what you said you were going to do, you have egg on your face.”

CIED companies assist each other through their expertise. “Companies specializing in sales and social media are great resources for companies that are providing services,” Dorman says. CIED also provides expertise through 14 professionals from various fields, who serve as “incubator resources.”

Another CIED program is the Entrepreneurship Academy, a 15-week training program sponsored by Energent Ventures and Santa Fe’s Student Life Program. CIED also runs

Emerging Entrepreneurs, which serves students involved in entrepreneurship training at Buchholz High School and other schools; and Tech Quest, a program sponsored by FloridaWorks that’s designed to instill an entrepreneurial spirit in students.

Working hands-on with CIED and with community members makes more sense than getting a college education for Gibbs, who took a few Santa Fe courses but didn’t graduate. “Most fields like engineering require getting a PhD or a master’s,” he says. “I didn’t want to acquire the debt.”

Jacobson finds Gibbs’ attitude about higher education ironic. “He’s a voracious learner, soaking up all the information he can get.”

That might be, in part, credit to family—a key building block of any village. Gibbs credits his parents with serving as role models and providing encouragement. For several years, Gibbs was a partner in a landscaping business with his father, Dave, who is an agent with Coldwell Banker M.M. Parrish Realtors. “He instilled in me the mindset that I could create something as an entrepreneur,” Gibbs says.

Gibbs’ mother, Leah, director of quality and safety at Shands HealthCare, is unwavering in her support, he says. “She always says, ‘Whatever you want to do, you can do.’”

CIED EXCEEDS ITS GOALSWhen CIED opened in 2009, Jones

expected it would reach a maximum of four resident companies and 12 associates.

“We’ve remodeled our space and squeezed

in every way we could so we could serve more people,” Jones says. “We’re boot-strapping to leverage our resources.”

CIED companies have created 400 jobs and have an annual economic impact of more than $2 million, according information collected from companies it’s served.

“Some of the entrepreneurs we’ve helped aren’t currently pursuing their original idea, but many of them are working on new ideas or applying what they learned from their experience to new ventures,” Jones says.

Among the success stories are Student Maid and Mike Hill Construction, which now share space in a building off of Archer Road. Adam Coelho, who founded the social media tool CitySync while at CIED got a job with Google.

“We focus on instilling an entrepreneurial mindset in the people we work with as much as on the success of their products,” Jones says. “Most successful people didn’t make it with their first product launch.”

As part of his welcoming approach, Jones invites people who are considering becoming involved with CIED to visit for several days.

“We don’t put any pressure on people to join,” he says. “We just talk with them and ask them to hang out and see if it’s a good fit.”

( Cover Story )“We focus on instilling an entrepreneurial

mindset in the people we work with as much as on the success of their products.

Most successful people didn’t make it with their first product launch.”

—Dug Jones, Assistant Vice President for Economic Development at Santa Fe College

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Bill Dorman, the entrepreneur-in-residence at Santa Fe College’s Center for Innovation and Economic Development, talks with Tanya Chappell of Secure Investment Realty, Ginger Schantz of Drum Life LLC and Kim Popejoy of Protect Gainesville’s Citizens (top), along with Laurence Andrews, program coordinator of the Bradford County Incubator, and Katina Maillis of Thornebrook Chocolates.


( Cover Story )

HOTEL COULD CREATE JOBS, BR ING MILL IONS IN SPENDING

(continued from cover)

This year’s request expands the potential sites to an area bordered by Northwest Eighth Avenue (to the north), Depot Avenue (to the south) and 10th Street (to the west.

A hotel chain such as Sheraton or Marriot would be appropriate, Smith says. “There might be tweaks to their standard hotel such as larger rooms, an upgraded exterior and a restaurant that serves three meals a day.”

MORE STUDY NEEDED

While the possibility of the hotel and conference center is enticing, the potential project needs more study, Smith says. “There’s a fair amount of risk in these projects. They are difficult even in good times.”

For example, in Erie, the hotel is doing well, but the conference center is not reaching expectations, Smith says.

Acquest generally pulls together investors, contractors, management groups and local governments when working on a project of this nature. “We’re facilitators, and we typically don’t have any ownership interest,” Smith says.

In some situations, governments have supported hotels and conference centers with either tourist develop taxes or sales taxes, Smith says. The most likely scenario for Gainesville would be for the new hotel to be privately owned and the conference center publicly owned.

In Gainesville, it would be challenging to keep hotel rooms at competitive rates while making them high enough to be profitable, Smith says. “We face the same challenge in a project in which we’re involved in Ann Arbor, where rates are very sensitive.”

FEASIBILITY STUDIES FOUND STRONG DEMANDThe city’s latest exploration of the potential for a hotel and

conference center came two years after the city’s requests for proposals for a publicly owned conference center in conjunction with a privately-owned hotel failed to generate a viable proposal.

Sherwin Henry, whose city commission term just ended, has been the biggest advocate of exploring the project. He says the assumptions in feasibility studies conducted by PKF Consulting and Global Spectrum are still valid.

PKF said in its 2010 report that enough market demand existed to justify an additional 250-room hotel with 25,000 to 30,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 10,000-square-foot ballroom. A hotel and conference center could generate $22.5 million in direct spending annually, according to Global Spectrum.

The project would create jobs, Henry says. “It is important that we bring service jobs to our community. We must

produce jobs covering all levels of employment.”In 2010, the city was hoping to convince the Alachua

County Commission to devote a portion of its tourist development tax to the conference center. The county decided to use that money for a new fairgrounds at the time, but the fairgrounds project hasn’t moved forward, and municipalities throughout the county are vying for it.

The one cent of “bed tax” that is available for new capital projects is accumulating at a rate of $625,000 a year, says Roland Loog, director of the Alachua County Visitors and Convention Bureau. Loog is cautious about the potential for a convention center.

“I would want to be sure that it would have enough additional meeting space to bring in conventions that the Hilton and the Paramount can’t handle,” he says. “I’m also concerned about the burden of ongoing operational costs.”

In its request to developers, the city didn’t indicate that tourist tax dollars would be available for the project. The request does say that the city may get involved in some way, possibly through money generated by the Community Redevelopment Agency. The CRA provides money for projects from funds generated by increased tax valuation of targeted areas.

Overall, as Commissioner Thomas Hawkins says, “This is good news.”


NEWS BRIEFS( In the News )

NEW

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2012 Nonprofit SummitThe Nonprofit Center of North Central

Florida, in partnership with the University of Florida Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, held the second annual Nonprofit Summit at the UF Hilton Conference Center on May 24.

The event featured a mix of 20 for-profit and nonprofit exhibitors, such as FloridaWorks and BBVA Compass Bank. Keynote presenters Jeremy Gregg and Tracy D. Connors spoke about how to properly present a pitch to the community, what makes nonprofits work and how to meet their needs. Several breakout sessions covered topics like planned giving for small nonprofits and governance and board development.

More than 100 nonprofit organizations were represented by 171 attendees, which included 30 students from the University of Florida and Santa Fe College, according to Nonprofit Center co-founder Christopher Johnson. Co-founder Kari Brill said that one of the main goals of this year’s summit was to reach out to the student population.

Brill said that 10 percent of employment in the United States comes from nonprofit organizations, and they are the third largest employer group in the state of Florida. The idea behind the Nonprofit Center is to help nonprofits develop a business plan and a strategy for success.

“We’re helping give these organizations the tools they need to succeed,” she said. “With continuing budget cuts, they need to be able to provide more service with fewer resources.”

Attendee Sarah Catalanotto of the Suwannee River Area Health Education Center was impressed by the summit and its turnout.

“The speakers from outside our area help us get an idea of what else is out there,” she said.

Allan J. Moynihan of Conservation Burial Inc. said that the benefits of the summit are tremendous. “To be able to learn from the experience of successful organizations is a great opportunity,” he said.

Cade Museum Foundation Holds National Architecture Competition

The Cade Museum Foundation has launched a national architectural competition to find a team that can design and build the new Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville.

The goal of the Cade Museum is to not only inform the community of invention and creativity, but to also encourage visitors to become inventors and entrepreneurs themselves. The exhibits will be designed to encourage creativity.

UF Researchers to Craft Tree of Life

UF researchers have received an $800,000 National Science Foundation Grant to help

build a roadmap of evolution. The project, an undertaking never before attempted, will attempt to combine all of the previous research on species evolution into one massive, open-access “tree of life” for all species on Earth.

“The project is ambitious—we plan to assemble a first draft tree of life for the 1.8 million named species,” says co-principal investigator Doug Soltis. “Nothing in this scale has ever been done. It is the biodiversity equivalent of the human genome project.”

The tree could help track the spread and origin of emerging diseases, creating agricultural products and controlling invasive species by helping to understand the relationships between organisms.

UF&Shands Launches New Website

The University of Florida Academic Health Center has replaced 40,000 web pages with a new patient-centric website. The new site will serve as a source of information on medical conditions, clinical research, health care providers and other health topics. The site contains clinical and academic information from both the Gainesville and Jacksonville sites. New features include branching topics pages and a “Find a Doctor” feature.

The old Shands and UF Health Science Center sites have been replaced by UFandShands.org. The move emphasizes the further integration of UF and Shands into the University of Florida Academic Health Center, a unified institution.

Silver Airways Adds Flight from Gainesville to Ft. LauderdaleIn June, United Airlines partner Silver Airways added a nonstop daily flight from Gainesville to Ft. Lauderdale. Flights depart at 8:30am and return at 6:30pm. Round-trip flights from Gainesville to Ft. Lauderdale start at $118, and are $128 from Ft. Lauderdale to Gainesville.

President Machen to Step Down in 2013

University of Florida President Bernie Machen announced in early June that he will be stepping down as president, ending his tenure.

Machen, 68, made his announcement at the UF Board of Trustees meeting in Gainesville on June 8. He will continue to lead the university until its governing board fills his position for 2013. Machen took office Jan. 4, 2004 as UF’s 11th president.

For almost 10 years, Machen focused on expanding research opportunities, embraced sustainability ideals and practices and created a more financially independent university.

“This has been the most exciting and productive period of my career, and I feel we have everything in place for a great future,” Machen said in a press release. There is a

time for everything, and I will be excited to move on to the next phase of my life when the university is ready for a smooth transition.”

Local Inventor’s Group Moves into New Space

Call it a pre-incubator incubator. A Gainesville “hacking club” has moved into a 3,000 square-foot basement office space

downtown in the Sun Center. The group, made up of about 40

engineers (spearheaded in party by Trendy Entertainment CEO Augi Lye), is a part of a growing national trend of hobbyists who get together to pool resources, expertise, equipment and ideas in the pursuit of invention. The group meets on Tuesday nights. “This is how Apple got started,” says Lye, “just a bunch of kids hacking.”

Residents and businesses in the Innovation District will soon have access to a blisteringly fast one-gigabit-per-second broadband connection.

The program springs from a partnership between the University of Florida and GRU’s GRUCom telecommunications network. The service was expected to be available to the Innovation Square area by the end of June, according to a press release. The network could eventually expand throughout Gainesville as demand rises.

GRUCom Director Ted Kellermann says that Innovation Square was picked for the rollout because of its concentration of technology-based start-ups. He says that these are the companies that need the high peer-to-peer network speeds being offered because they push the boundaries of our technology already and need to continue with network speeds that may one day become commonplace.

The connections will run at a speed up to 100 times faster than standard cable or DSL connections. Kellermann warns that people shouldn’t think of the

network in terms of “Internet speed,” but rather as transferring data between two parties on the same network. These high-speed connections can present a boost in productivity for technology firms that need to transfer large amounts of data between workers.

GRU already has an existing infrastructure of fiber-optic cables—through which the network will operate—in the area, which will cut production costs dramatically. These cables operate by sending data as light waves from one machine to another.

“They’re about as future-proof a transmission medium as you can get,” Kellermann says. “Now the electronics just need to get better.”

As the electronics improve and manufacturing costs drop, so do prices. Kellermann says that the price of current machines now makes it economically feasible for businesses to purchase them.

Further expansion of the Innovation District will tap into existing fiber-optic cables and see new ones built as demand spreads for the service, he says.

UF President Bernie Machen said in the release that this is what was needed to attract entrepreneurs and technology leaders. “Having a high-bandwidth community near our campus creates an environment that will better serve the mission of educating our students and creating a hub of high-tech economic growth for Florida.”

But Mayor Craig Lowe is excited for what is also means for the community. “Sharing this capability beyond our campuses and to our communities will help us retain startup, high-tech businesses as they prosper and grow in the city of Gainesville,” he said.

The ultrahigh-speed broadband initiative is part of the nationwide University Community Next Generation Innovation Project, also known as Gig.U. The program is designed to speed up the adoption of these networks by universities and their surrounding communities. UF News Bureau Director Steve Orlando says that the university was the catalyst to get the project moving in Gainesville.

“We took on the role of making it happen,” Orlando says. “That kind of service will attract the kinds of businesses we want in the Innovation District. We’re looking for high-tech, entrepreneurial, inventive businesses.”

Orlando says that while UF isn’t the first school in the nation to adopt the program, it is the first in Florida. (The University of South Florida is a part of Gig.U as well, but it’s not adopting the broadband changes yet.)

The university splits membership dues with GRU. The ultrahigh-speed network will be available to Innovation District residents at an introductory rate of $99 per month (plus tax). Business rates will be determined by individual circumstance and quoted on an individual basis.

—Bradley Osburn

GIGABIT BROADBAND COMES TO INNOVATION DISTRICT


In May, I both attended and served as an instructor at the Entrepreneurial Masters Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The program brings together 65 entrepreneurs—each a founder or co-founder of a business that grosses more than $1 million—for four days at the MIT Endicott House in Dedham, Mass.

In the past, this program has been called the “Birthing of Giants” and is considered one of the most prestigious entrepreneurial training programs in the world. In the class I attended, there were 66 top entrepreneurs from Spain, Russia, Dubai, Qatar, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil and the United States as our students.

Here are some of the key takeaways, from the brand and employees to the customers.

THE “BOSS” & THE BRANDHere are topics the entrepreneurs were most interested in learning about:

Growing the business and making it scalable.1.

Managing fast growth.2.

Creating a culture of disciplined execution with high 3. levels of accountability.

Building a high engagement culture that attracts 4. top talent.

Dealing with aggressive and new competition.5.

Adapting and changing business models.6.

Focusing and not being distracted by 7. other opportunities.

Your brand promise must be functional, economic and emotional. As Jack Welch says, “If you do not have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” Be obsessive about the essential question.

Care about the people in your business…and care • enough to listen.

Accountability equals empowerment.•

The formula for business success: • (T+C+ECF) x DE = Success. (Talent + Culture + Extreme Customer Focus) x Disciplined Execution = Success.

The five factors for being a great strategic thinker • are: 1) business knowledge; 2) experience in your market and in business; 3) taking time to sit back and look for the patterns; 4) seeing a pattern and getting a flash of insight and then taking massive action; 5) disciplined execution on your strategic insight.

The key to building a world-class company and career is: KNL.

KNOWLEDGE: You must be knowledgeable and competent at something that is highly valuable in the marketplace.

NETWORK: A lot of the right people need to know that about you—people who can tell hundreds or thousands of other people about how great you are.

LOVE: You must be a person of honesty, integrity and love. If you are a loving, kind, high-integrity person and a lot of the right people know that about you, and they also know that you’re very good at something that is highly valuable in the marketplace, you have everything you need to build a solid and successful business.

The three key elements of excellence are: focus, discipline and action. You must be extremely focused on your “philosophy of excellence” for both your life and your business. You must have the discipline to go out and execute that every day. Not just talk about it, not put it on a poster on the wall, but to actually live it in every part of your business and life. Action, the amount of action you apply, directly determines the amount of results you will get.

THE EMPLOYEE & COMPANY CULTUREThe quality of the people you get and keep on your team will determine the long-term success of your business. It is all about people, people, people. You cannot grow your business. Only your people can grow your business.

Recruit for fit. Hire for attitude. Train for skills.Visibility drives accountability, accountability drives

engagement, employee engagement drives customer engagement, customer engagement drives customer loyalty and customer loyalty drives increased revenues and profits. In other words, culture = cash!

Culture is not “perks.” •

A culture of greatness means a company of • greatness.

Core values, core purpose and envisioned future are • what build culture.

You need to create raving fan employees.•

Culture is built by design—not by default! To build an inspired culture, you must build it around your core purpose. Purpose is the secret weapon in your business. More than making money, people want to make a difference—people want to do something that has meaning.It is all about quality relationships first with your employees and with your customers.

You must be fanatic about your core values; no guts, 1. no glory.

Get the right people on the bus.2.

Hire slow; fire fast.3.

Reward and recognize for cultural fit.4.

Tell stories to support the culture.5.

Create systems to support the culture in 6. multiple ways.

The No. 1 factor that impacts the level of highly engaged, loyal and satisfied customers in your business is the number of highly engaged, loyal and

satisfied employees in your business. Key factors that drive a great culture are “atmosphere issues.” They do not cost any additional money. Every person looks for safety, belongingness and appreciation.

People do not leave a job for pay. As long as the pay is fair (10 percent above or below what they would make to do the same job at any other company), they are most interested in working in a place that is fun, fair, friendly and family-oriented, where they have the freedom to do their job well, they take pride in the organization they work for, they get some sort of genuine, honest and sincere praise every 7 to 10 days, they feel that their work is meaningful, and they feel like they get to finish what they are working on—they actually deliver real results.

THE CUSTOMERPick the customer type first, and then build a business around them. Surround that customer type with a “network of value.” Give them a product of superior value that they will enjoy greatly and tell their friends about.

Create interest and urgency. Help your key target customer understand that they can only get what they want from you, and they might not be able to get it because it’s limited. Start with a big idea: Create the package, communicate the value to your key target customer type, create a community of key target customers, then sell a “web of value” to them—other products and services that your key customer type wants and would trust you to sell to them.

Deeply understand your key target customer and • clearly communicate one focused benefit that they will enjoy by investing in your products/services.

Answer this: What problem do you solve or desire do • you deliver to your key target customer?

Whoever owns the voice of the customer owns • the marketplace.

Be fanatic about listening to your customers. Ask them in 100 different ways if they are happy, what would make them happier, what makes them unhappy about your products and services, what would it take to get them to give you more of their business, etc. Ask lots of questions and listen, listen, listen.

There are hundreds of touch-points when you interact with a customer, but there are only a few key moments of truth that are “make or break” interactions between your company and your customers. It is essential that you create systems and processes to flawlessly deliver your moments of truth each time you come into contact with the customer.The only person who can tell you what your moments of truth are—and what you need to do to deliver them superbly—is your customer.

( Building Business )

John Spence is the author of Awesomely Simple – Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action. He is an award-wining professional speaker and corporate trainer, and has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Business Thought Leaders in America and also as one of the most admired Small Business Experts in the nation.

R E C A P O F M I T E n t r e p r e n e u r i a l M a s t e r s P r o g r a m By John Spence


B ASF, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, has formed a partnership with Gainesville-based BioTork to use BioTork’s

“game-changing” technology to improve its production of chemicals from organic material. This is the first milestone in a development project that could lead to more jobs locally and the production of chemicals from plants globally.

Naysayers have doubted BioTork’s technology—which successfully uses microbial strains to produce bio-based polymers and high-value chemicals. But with the endorsement from an international company that boasts 111,000 employees, there is little doubt now. “This is a vindication of our technology,” says Tom Lyons, BioTork’s chief scientific officer.

While other companies are using microbes to produce various products, including biofuel and industrial chemicals, BioTork, located in the Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center, stands to lead the way in the race to produce chemicals from organic material.

“What sets our approach apart from the competition is the robustness of our microbes,” Lyons says. “They grow faster and survive at a broader range of industrial

conditions than other microbes that are used.” This translates into a potentially lower cost for using plant material to create products that are currently derived from oil.

“Our ability to satisfy the unique needs of a company like BASF is a testimony not only to the quality of our

employees and the power of our technology,” says communications manager Ziad Ghanimi in a press release, “but also to the quality of research and development conducted in Alachua County—and the success of GTEC.”

The Germany-based BASF and BioTork recently completed a successful six-month test of BioTork’s process. Details of the partnership haven’t been disclosed.

BioTork was founded in 2008 by biochemist Eudes De Crecy, who developed the process that BioTork uses under his company, Evolugate LLC. BioTork now employs 10 people at its headquarters, and it plans to create 30 full-time scientist positions during the next two years and contribute to the development of East Gainesville, where GTEC is located.

In May, BioTork announced that it had completed two years of successful research in collaboration with the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center on a

yeast strain that improves biofuel production—just another example of its growing success.

“This will allow ethanol plants to eventually increase their production by 10 percent without any more capital investment,” Lyons says.

( In the News )

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International Company Partners with GAINESVILLE’S BIOTORK By Chris Eversole

Pictured from left to right: Ewa Hughes, Tom Lyons, Ben Lyons and Grier Philips.

Photo courtesy of Biotork


Stephen Wycoff is the franchise owner of the Remedy Intelligent Staffing office in Gainesville, Lake City and Ocala. Visit their website at www.remedystaff.com.

By Stephen Wycoff

DON’T LET THEM SLIP UP3 Keys to Avoiding Accidents in the Workplace

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Someone slipping and falling on a banana peel may be funny in the movies, but in the real world and especially the workplace, it’s no laughing matter. One bad accident can wipe out many years of profits.

Slips, trips and falls may sound trivial, but they are responsible for more than one million lawsuits a year and are the leading cause of emergency room visits in the U.S., according to the National Safety Council. According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, slips, trips and falls cause 15 percent of all accidental deaths and are the second leading cause of fatalities, right behind car accidents. Last year, 822 people lost their lives to work-related falls, according to Don Ostrander, CSP, director of consulting services occupational safety and health at the National Safety Council in Itasca, Ill. Most of these, he said, resulted from falls from one level to another.

Luckily, many such accidents are avoidable. The workplace blog Tradepost suggests three key steps to ensuring a safe workplace.

RECOGNIZE HAZARDS. Familiarity breeds contempt, or at the very least, complacency. Just because you know to look out for that hard-to-see step or loose floorboard doesn’t mean everyone else does. Don’t ignore such potential trip hazards. Recognize the danger so you can protect others.

CONTROL HAZARDS. Merely acknowledging a hazardous situation is not enough. If something is spilled, clean it up immediately. If there is a hazardous structural issue, either fix it or make sure others know to avoid it. Don’t assume that the problem can wait or that someone else will take care of it. Get it under control before someone gets hurt.

PREVENT HAZARDS. Removing hazards is important, but the safest workplace is one where they don’t occur in the first place. Don’t just wipe up spills and put away objects

people may trip over—determine the fundamental causes of any recurring hazards so you can prevent them from happening again in the future.

Following these three commonsense measures can save companies money and workers from a world of hurt.

( HR Rx )


Small businesses have traditionally been a strong economic engine, accounting for more than 50 percent of the capital investment made and for more than 90 percent of the jobs created.

While some business owners may need to be making investments in their company’s future rather than taking immediate profits, the actions must lead to ultimate profits to avoid loss of the investment. “Pay yourself first” may not always work, but if you are working for minimum wage or less, you are missing the concept of business and may be putting your future in jeopardy. Don’t let your business become a charity.

Here are some do’s, don’ts:DO create a formal business plan to guide you toward the future you want. Remember the old adage, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Without a plan, you will react to current situations without seeing the big picture.

DO update the plan to reflect current conditions. Business, like life, is dynamic. Yesterday’s plan, based on yesterday’s assumptions and conditions, must be reviewed, updated and revised if you want to position your business for tomorrow.

DON’T assume that everything will go back to the way it was as the economy recovers. We hope that will be the case, but do you want to bet your future on it? Technology, consumer trends and outside factors continue to evolve and will affect the

marketplace. Your business must adapt to the future.

DO ensure that investments you make in your business in terms of both money and time have an ultimate payback. A good accounting system can make the difference between failure, mediocrity and success. Make sure you know your costs and profits by product or service line.

DO seek input from and discuss potential changes with employees. In many cases, they will be able to contribute ideas on how to reduce costs by streamlining your processes.

WARNING SIGNS — Seek help for your business if:Volume is up but profits are down.•

You have multiple product or service lines but don’t know • the profitability of each.

Your customer base has eroded and you are waiting for it • to return.

Your competitors have announced new lines of business, • but you are doing “the same old thing.”

You are worried about costs and sales but have not sought • input from key employees.

Your business has not yet been affected by economic • conditions and you think, “It won’t happen to me.”

You do not have an updated business plan.•

By Philip R. Geist

( Speaking of Business )

Actions taken by some small businesses during the current slow economy include:

Reducing salary and pay rates in exchange for a profit-sharing plan. While it means less income now, employees avoid layoffs and will benefit when the economic cycle turns up again. The business benefits because the employees have an interest in its success and will work to maximize its profits.

Switching to a three- or four-day workweek to avoid layoffs, while allowing employees to seek part-time work on a scheduled basis until sales levels increase again.

Profit is a Dirty WordNot

Philip Geist, PhD, is the area director for the Small Business Development Center, which provides free, con-fidential counseling to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Call 352-334-7230 or visit sbdc.unf.edu for more information. This material was condensed from Dr. Geist’s blog at sbdc.unf.edu.


ON THE MOVE

Following a two-year break from the business, insurance agent Perry McGriff has purchased the former Johnson & Fletcher Agency. The agency has been renamed Perry McGriff, Johnson & Fletcher Insurance. McGriff says he plans to double the new agency’s size in five years.

Jack Bovay of Dean, Mead & Bovay has received the Professional Advisor Legacy Award recognizing his service, expertise and work in helping a client complete a substantial charitable gift. The award comes from the Gainesville Community Foundation in partnership with the North Central Florida Estate Planning Council.

UnitedHealthcare has awarded North Florida Regional Medical Center the UnitedHealth Premiun specialty center designation for total joint replacement and its highest quality rating of three stars. NFRMC met extensive quality and outcomes criteria based on nationally recognized medical standards and expert advice. The hospital scored well in important areas like readmission rates and inpatient mortality rates.

In June, the Lewis Oil Company celebrated half a century in Alachua County and the surrounding area. Lewis Oil has offices in Gainesville and Palatka and is one of the largest locally owned businesses in the community. Though H. Wendell Lewis retired in 2001, his wife Jualene, and their children, have kept the business running.

Newberry Mayor Bill Conrad received the Home Rule Hero Award at a Newberry City Council meeting on May 29 by Florida League of Cities Legislative Advocate Ryan Matthews. The award is in recognition of Conrad’s efforts during the 2012 legislative session to protect the home rule powers of Florida’s cities and his work promoting the League’s legislative agenda.

Mercedes-Benz of Gainesville is one of 14 Florida car dealers to win the “CarGurus Best Deals” award, presented to local car dealerships that offered the best value to consumers over the past year. CarGurus analyzed the market values and prices of each dealer’s inventory and determined which Florida dealers had consistently offered the best deals.

Gator Domino’s General Manager Caleb Kinch has been named national Rookie Manager of the Year and James Phillips took home the title of national Delivery Expert of the Year. Gator Domino’s owner Freddie Wehbe said in a press release that Kinch’s award is a testament to his unrelenting commitment to success. Phillips has worked with the company for seven years and performed 35,000 safe deliveries—6,500 last year alone.

Florida Citizens Bank of Gainesville and Ocala has begun construction on a new facility to be located on SW 34th Street, north of Ember’s Grill, in Gainesville. The groundbreaking took place on May 21 and construction is expected to be complete by October. The new, full-service branch will be open from 7am to 7pm Monday through Saturday and feature free checking and online banking.

The Plum Creek Foundation has awarded the Alachua Habitat for Humanity a $10,000 grant for the construction of the Santa Fe III Habitat for Humanity home. Construction will begin in September at the Santa Fe College Charles R. Perry Construction Institute. The Student Builders Association will work on the project, along with other student groups and Habitat volunteers. This home will be the third Habitat home built on the Santa Fe campus.

Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group has added a new team member in its push to expand operations. Sandy Burgess has taken the position of director of property management, bringing along her 27 years of commercial real estate experience and substantial management portfolio.

University of Florida graduate Michael L. Gray has joined Doctors Imaging Group as a physician assistant for Vascular & Interventional Physicians, which operates as an interventional outpatient surgery center.

The JAG Agency has taken home a bronze award from the 33rd annual Telly Awards. Its 30-second commercial, “Quality Plumbing-Silent Movie,” was created for Quality Plumbing of Gainesville. The commercial was presented as a silent film.

Douglas S. Jones, the Florida Museum of Natural History director, has been appointed to a three-year term on the American Association of Museums Board of Directors. Jones will join 22 other directors guiding nearly 13,000 member institutions.

UF educator April Hines has been chosen from a pool of more than 300 applicants to participate in the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Summer Teacher Institute. The participants will work with library education specialists to learn more effective ways to utilize primary sources in the classroom.

NEWS BRIEFS( In the News )

NEW

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Leasing of Alachua County’s office space is edging up, while vacancies in retail space are virtually unchanged, according to a report on the first quarter of 2012.

A total of 18,350 square feet of office space and 3,635 square feet of retail were leased in the quarter, according to the report by Coldwell Banker Commercial M.M. Parrish Realtors. Available office and retail space totals 1.57 million square feet.

“The first-quarter results were only a 1.38 percent reduction in the inventory over the previous quarter, but it’s one of the best quarters in the past four years,” says Coldwell Banker Commercial President Beau Beery.

Office leasing rates have held steady in the last three quarters, Beery notes. “Potential tenants may be seeing current prices as the best they’ll ever find,” he says.

Free rent and moving cost enticements are falling off, the report shows. “Any deal in 2012 is still going to be one of the best for years to come,” Beery says.

Office listings increased by only half a percent in the last quarter. “Barring any unforeseen

political developments here or internationally, the situation only looks to improve,” Beery says.

While the office-space inventory is decreasing, the retail-space inventory has been roughly the same for the last three quarters, the report shows.

The days-on-market average for retail space has increased to almost 20 months. “Nearly every grocery-anchored center, lifestyle center and power center in Alachua County has desirable vacant space,” Beery says. “Unfortunately, retail is tied to discretionary income, but we’re seeing some improvement nationwide.”

While some retail is being leased, an equal amount of new listings are coming on the market. “The inventory decreased by 16 percent for spaces up to 1,000 square feet, but no other range has

been nearly as successful,” Beery says.Retail pricing has stabilized around $15 to $16

per square foot plus overhead.

All information reported from the CBC 1st Qtr 2012 Alachua County Office and Retail Leasing Report and CBC Bluebook Market Review.

—Bradley Osburn

Chamber Summer Lunch Series The Gainesville Chamber of Commerce will kick

off its 2012 Summer Lunch Series on June 28 with the theme of “Money, Money, Money: Making it, finding it, and what to expect from it…”

The lunches last from 11am to 1pm and include a presentation with topics such as how to make money through marketing and finding cool funding sources. The cost is $25 for Chamber members and $35 for future members, plus lunch.

Gainesville Nation’s 14th Smartest City

It turns out Gainesville’s pretty smart, according to a cognitive training and tracking software called Lumosity. Developed by Lumos Labs, the program determined the brainiest cities in America, and out of 169 metros, Gainesville ranked No. 14.

Lumosity utilizes a suite of online games that 20 million members play to assess and attempt to improve their cognitive performance. Lumos scientists tracked the performance of more than one million users in the U.S. and mapped them using IP geolocation software, with individual scores recorded in five cognitive areas.

Nonprofit Leadership Boot CampThe United Way of North Central Florida will

hold a Nonprofit Leadership Boot Camp in which participants can engage in career mentor-matching, professional networking and learning about nonprofit issues.

Beginning on Sep. 17, the classes will take place in the United Way boardroom on Monday evenings. Topics include personality assessments, leadership skills, emerging nonprofit issues, servant leadership and board roles and responsibilities.

The series is free to current Young Leaders Society members who donate $250 or more annually to United Way. For all others, the cost is $250 and includes a YLS membership.

Public Leadership Institute Graduates Inaugural Class

In early June, the Business Community Coalition, a partnership of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Gainesville-Alachua County Association of Realtors and the Builders Association of North Central Florida, celebrated the graduation of its inaugural class of the Public Leadership Institute.

The free, non-partisan PLI was created to help business and social leaders transition from private to public leadership.

Restaurant Week ApproachesAll prospective sponsors and restaurant

participants in the first Gainesville Restaurant Week have until June 29 to register for the 10-day event, during which participating Chamber member restaurants will have the chance to showcase their cuisine and attract customers by offering community members the chance to try out local dishes in late July.

Office Leasing Rebounding, Retail Flat


( Someone You Should Know )

By Chris Eversole

After fighting administrators to support his idea, Jamie Grooms made millions—and is now helping other start-ups evade the hurdles that hindered him.

Local Former Boy Wonder Gives Back

A t 32, Jamie Grooms was passionate about his product—spinal fusions machined precisely from the bones of human transplant donors—but no one took him seriously.

“I had a big kid’s dream, and everyone told me ‘go away,’” he says.

Grooms’ biggest stumbling block was the University of Florida administration. He was director of UF’s Tissue Bank, yet most administrators would hear nothing of his vision of creating a nationwide business based on human bone transplants.

Things have changed in the 17 years since.He’s now an administrator on the state payroll. He’s also

working hand-in-glove with UF administrators, as well as with administrators of state universities and state-funded research labs across the state.

His job? Making the process for today’s entrepreneurs easier than it was for him.

In January, Grooms took over as CEO of the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Health Research, which helps bring discoveries to market at state universities and research labs. Grooms administers an $8.5 million low-interest loan program that provides start-ups with $50,000 to $300,000 each, which must be matched with private funding.

“What I experienced before was ‘then,’ and this is ‘now,’” Grooms says. “Administrators and researchers have worked things out. Now we have a high level of trust and respect for each other.”

Every start-up gets to a point at which it is up-and-running, but it doesn’t have enough money to cover all the expenses it needs to be successful, Grooms says. The state loans will bridge that gap. “This money will help businesses get across the Valley of Death,’” Grooms says. “I’ve survived it, and it’s a painful process.”

The “Valley of Death,” as Grooms sees it, is the point at which a start-up has begun to generate sales but hasn’t proven itself enough to attract venture capital.

“This is my cause,” he says of his new role. “I want to share what I learned from all the failures I had so other people can succeed. This is something I truly believe government should do.”

Most people don’t associate Grooms with the word “failure.”

Grooms and his partner, Richard Allen, made tens of millions of dollars for UF—as well as a tidy sum for themselves—from the company that grew from Grooms’ work at the tissue bank.

That company, now known as RTI Biologics, is a global leader in implants from donor tissue. RTI, based in the Progress Corporate Park in Alachua, raised $75 million in its initial public offering in 2000, and its annual sales for 2011 were $169.3 million.

UF profited handsomely from its 60 percent stake in RTI at the time of the IPO.

Despite the success of RTI, Grooms says it could have been better—if he had the kind of help that he’s now providing in his new role. “RTI could be three or four times as big as it is if I had avoided the mistakes I made,” he says.

BUILDING SUCCESS ONE STEP AT A TIMEThe first breakthrough in the financial success of RTI’s

predecessor, Regeneration Technologies, came when Metronics, a medical products corporation based in

Minneapolis, invested $2.5 million in the company.UF administrators finally took notice. It was then that

Grooms and the university reached an agreement to split the proceeds of the “intellectual property” involved with the company’s tissue transplantation technology.

Sales started to grow, enticing $10 million in investment in 1999. In addition to Metronics, Lehman Brothers was among the investors.

Bringing Allen into the company was critical to its early success, Grooms says. “He had been helping new companies for quite a while. He brought business experience to the dream. No one trusted me, but they trusted Richard.”

Grooms and Allen realized that they needed a CEO with more experience running a company of the size they now had.

Grooms recruited Brian Hutchinson, who joined RTI as CEO in 2001. Hutchinson had been vice president of worldwide product development with Stryker Corp., a global leader in medical equipment and medical devices.

Grooms left RTI and started AxoGen, which produces nerve graphs and is also headquartered in the Progress Corporate Park. Once it was getting off the ground, Grooms again looked for a CEO with the kind of experience needed to move into the big leagues.

He found Karen Zaderej, who had been successful in product development with Johnson & Johnson. Zaderej joined AxoGen as chief operations officer in 2007, and she now is CEO, with Grooms remaining as chairman.

Under Zaderej, AxoGen’s nerve graphs have become widely used, helping restore functioning of extremities of soldiers and civilians who otherwise would be paralyzed.

In November, the company merged with LeeTec Corp. of Texas, which invested $12.5 million, and AxoGen became publicly traded.

The willingness of Hutchinson and Zaderej to join local companies demonstrates the quality of the companies that have grown in Alachua County, Grooms says. “We can attract world-class CEOs because of the quality of our companies.

These aren’t ‘mom and pop’ companies. They’re global companies.”

Grooms could have been content to work with AxoGen and with a small number of start-ups he was mentoring privately. “I love what I’m doing. It’s incredible to have the money and the other resources to make the impact we’re making.”

WEARING MULTIPLE HATSGrooms has assembled a staff of eight, with four working

in Gainesville, and the other four dispersed throughout the state.

This team has multiple roles, including serving as mentors, helping companies become business-like and evaluating funding requests.

The mentoring role comes first, Grooms says.“Founders of start-ups have to be willing to learn if they’re

going to succeed,” he says. “We have blunt conversations with them about how to behave. The important things are, are they passionate about what they’re doing, and can they learn?”

The key behavior Grooms teaches is making a strong pitch to investors. “When you’re presenting to venture capitalists, you have 30 seconds to get their attention and no more than 30 minutes to close the deal,” he says.

“You have to be crisp and cover A, B, C and D of your business plan,” he says.

Don’t expect investors to buy into your venture just because you’ve been successful in the past, Grooms tells start-up companies. “I found that out when I started AxoGen. I expect investors from RTI to jump onboard, but I have to prove myself again.”

The institute helps companies become business-like through a web-based tracking system. The institute’s staff can call up any company’s reports at any time.

“By holding them accountable, we’re making these companies better,” he says.

Each company needs what Grooms calls an “ecosystem.”

Jamie Grooms talks with Tania Querido, CEO of Linear Options, following a recent speech at the Gainesville Area Innovation Network.

Chris Eversole


( Someone You Should Know )We helped one company that had purchase orders but no invoicing system to put the invoicing system in place,” he says.

The institute has some money available to help companies buy services they need, such as creating marketing material. Still, Grooms is reaching out for all the help he can get.

One tool he’s using is a 40-member Investors Advisory Board. “We keep them informed about the progress of our companies, and they point out red flags when they see something going wrong with a company,” Grooms says.

Grooms is also creating a pool of potential CEOs for start-up companies. “Florida is rich with managerial talent,” Grooms says. “Many retired executives are eager to help create a new company.”

The legislation creating the institute’s funding pool only runs for a year and a half. Grooms realizes that the institute must prove itself by showing that the funding is creating jobs. “We’re trying to behave like a start-up and operating with a sense of urgency,” he says.

“This money will help businesses get across the Valley of Death,’” Grooms says. “I’ve survived it, and it’s a painful process.”

A preview copy of this story was sent to subscribers to The Insider, TBR’s bi-weekly

e-newsletter, earlier this month. Go to gainesvillebizreport.com to subscribe.

A Gainesville company is growing faster than it expected, thanks to a state loan program.

Shadow Health provides a web-based patient simulator to train students that’s based on collaboration between University of Florida medical and computer science researchers.

The original work received federal funding, but it took a loan from the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research to bring Shadow Health out of the shadows.

“It jump-started us,” says Linda Nichols, Shadow Health’s educational director. “We were able to double the amount of state money we got through investors.”

The company used the state loan and $280,000 in private funds to hire computer programmers, including one University of Florida computer science faculty member who joined the company as an owner and another who is working part-time.

“These kinds of people are hard to find,” Nichols says. “We have a spectacular group.”

The hiring brought the staff up to 20, enabling the company to bring a sophisticated product to market after only 10 months of existence.

“When we went to medical national meetings of nursing educators, we were able to sign contracts with nursing schools both inside and outside Florida,” she says. “It’s shocking that we will be bringing in revenue so quickly.”

It’s common for nursing and medical schools to hire

people to pretend that they are patients with certain medical conditions or have other students role-play. With Shadow Health, students interact with “Tina,” an animated character who has certain illnesses. “She’s like a real patient,” Nichols says. “It’s a very realistic experience.”

If the students don’t ask the right questions, they won’t learn what’s wrong with Tina.

The database records all of the typed conversations between students and Ana. After the simulation is over, students—and their teachers—compare their work with how an experienced doctor or nurse would have conducted the examination.

“What we’re doing saves a lot of time for faculty,

which frees up their time to do other things,” Nichols says. “That’s a big deal, in light of the shortage of nursing school faculty.”

In addition to Nichols, the executive team includes David Massias, the CEO; Aaron Kotranza, the chief technical officers; and Ben Lok, the head of technical development.

Nichols, who is retired as a department head in Santa Fe College’s health science program, says today’s students are eager to use the new simulator. “They grew up on video games,” she says. “It drives them insane to come to college and take courses that use very basic and simplistic technology.

“Our technology rivals video games and makes a big difference in how fast they learn.”


J ennifer Matchett’s home-built business started as a disaster. That only motivated her to become obsessed

with the macaron. To get her business off the ground, she baked day and night, experimenting with different ratios of coloring, temperature, baking time, age of egg white, batter consistency and other variations.

She now has perfected everything, from grinding the almonds into flour to making the creams and various fruit spreads that go into the wildly creative (and colorful) mini “sandwiches” that are the “bread and butter” of her business: Chew La La, an online “Parisian” macaron boutique. Flavors range from “simple” Tahitian vanilla to cayenne pepper with dark chocolate ganache.

Chew La La isn’t alone. Armadillo Chocolates has joined the ranks of Gainesville staple Thornebrook Chocolates and become known for custom-made chocolates—with a twist. Or what about the Eastern-influenced caramels with unexpected flavors from Gville Sweets?

It’s not just Gainesville enjoying a tiny sugar rush.

According to the National Restaurant Association, the bite-sized dessert category remained in the Top 5 restaurants trends over the past four years. The Food Channel calls this transformative menu trend “OK, Just a Bite.”

Nestleprofessional.com says this is the reason more chains and home-based businesses are creating small dessert options. They say that one bite-sized portion meets an ideal combination of price sensitivity, concern for portion size, holding the line on calories and sugar and just the plain old urge for fun.

CREATIVE PERSONALIZATION TAKES THE CAKEArmadillo Chocolates is owned and operated by Natalie

Suwanprakorn, who started out working at Volta Coffee, Tea & Chocolate. Suwanprakorn’s product line grew out of her fascination with flavor and her desire to provide artfully and thoughtfully packaged products. Armadillo Chocolate’s Badass Bar, for example, is a chocolate bar filled with Natalie’s signature bourbon, and her peanut butter cups are

made with peanut butter chipotle and butter crunch hearts.

These unique flavors reflect a trend of unique flavor combinations that are highly customizable and dictated by the whims of their creator.

Take Mustafa Hussain, for example. After graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in architecture, this Gville Sweets owner worked as an architect before he was laid off. He decided to pursue his passion for food instead. He uses Bangladeshi influences (where he lived until age 10) to incorporate ethnic dishes into his handmade salted caramels, with flavors like pistachio, espresso, ginger-honey and more. And he says he still “thinks like an architect” when cooking, baking or designing packages.

Hussain says that in light of the recent economic troubles, professionals have been forced to try something they would not try otherwise. This might include

focusing on specializing in certain cuisine and creating a market niche.

Gville Sweets recently created a recipe called “Sandesh.” It combines small white cubes of sweet cheese flavored with cardamom and pistachios, but instead of going into a fermentation process, it is slightly sweetened with sugar and kneaded like dough. Once set, it is sprinkled with crushed pistachio and topped with dried papaya.

Fred Posner and his wife, Yeni, left their previous careers in 2010 and now work 12 to 15-hour days on their labor of love: Dream Day Cakes, a from-scratch cake and small-dessert bakery. As one of only two wholesale bakeries in the county, the Posners use no mixes or chemicals. In addition to cakes, they offer small treats like cake pops, cake truffles and cookies.

“We’re your friendly family bakery,” Poser says of the charm of a small-town dessert business. “We will be there with you and your family year after year. Every cake tells a story—it keeps us coming to work in the morning.”

Posner says that in his business, he gets to help people celebrate their lives—and to work a job that brings him joy. “As a business owner, you must have something deeper than the money to motivate you.”

Local vegan cupcake store Sarkara Sweets, created by identical twins Stephanie and Susan Browning, has seen an increase in single-serving desserts as well. Focusing on a highly personalized cupcake experience has allowed Sarkara Sweets to maintain growth through self-funding. Sarkara’s most popular request is for red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles. They say that being a boutique shop has been an advantage by setting them apart.

COMPETING NATIONALLYSurprisingly, none of these retailers seem to worry

about direct competition from other local boutique dessert companies. While highly specialized boutique desserts are become more popular, each company is a little bit different, which allows them to complement, rather than cannibalize, the dessert marketplace—as long as customers are willing to pay for it.

Posner and others find that rather than competing with local businesses, their biggest competition is the national brands. While some national recognition has created new markets for

( Trends )Ph

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C upcakes as trendsetters? It would seem so. While the colorful confections have dominated the growing dessert market, they’ve paved the way for a host of local start-up businesses based on small, whimsical delights. By Heather van Blokland

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Jonathan and Jennifer MacAlister launched late-night cookie delivery service Midnight Cookies in 2010, combining her love of baking with his creativity in the kitchen. Flavors include ice cream cone, peanut butter and jelly, and bananas foster.


custom treats (see: Cupcake Wars and Ace of Cakes), Posner says that often, customers expect prices similar to those of big-box store sheet cakes.

As Suwanprakorn of Armadillo Chocolates put it, “It is a unique product.”

Pressure on these niche local retailers comes from consumers choosing either full-service restaurants or chain dessert shops as alternative dessert dining.

Each owner underscores the importance of supporting local businesses. Posner acknowledges that the dessert industry as a whole is growing and diversifying—both big-box retail stores (like grocery stores and restaurant dessert menus) as well as small and start-up dessert boutique businesses.

The owners of these successful home-based businesses also share some common marketing practices. They all utilize Facebook marketing as well as other online media and networking daily.

Armadillo Chocolates maintains a blog to interact with customers and to act as a “digital storefront,” in addition to selling the chocolates in local cafes, stores and restaurants. Armadillo Chocolates are sold by seven local retailers (and growing) as well as at local farmer’s markets.

Pinterest facilitated a success for Chew La La when their macarons were posted on a pin board, generating significant site traffic and emails. Chew La La, which sells online through its website and Etsy.com, has catered large events like a recent wedding in Colorado, for which Matchett produced almost 1,000 macarons.

Yeni Posner was recently featured in Cake Central Magazine as one of only three featured bakeries from Florida in a nationwide story—perhaps due in part to their strong online presence.

Still, the Posners’ biggest marketing focus remains right here in Gainesville, and they work to be active in the community and philanthropic events.

A SWEET RETREATAngie Mobly, who recently started Tasty Oasis to provide

candy buffets at events, notes that candy is one of the most recession-resistant industries, as people tend not to budget for it and purchases occur on a whim.

Local chocolatier Linda Bowen started Simply Delightful! Confections three years ago after making the decision not to attend culinary school. Instead, she focused her time and energy on studying with some of the world’s top chocolatiers before opening up a shop in Trenton. She is currently in the process of moving to Gainesville in the Tower Square complex on the corner of Tower and Archer Roads, and in addition to chocolates, creates truffles, caramels, ganaches, marshmallows and more.

Bowen sees a trend in dessert-only destinations throughout the U.S. with the opening of dessert-bars, chocolate bars, and chocolate and wine shops. These specialty stores draw

customers looking for a special treat yet conscientious about how they spend.

“Being a specialty dessert shop is an advantage,” Linda says. “It is a special item. People can’t take trips and bigger expenses, but they can do the smaller treats that are affordable.”

Economic data supports Linda’s observation; as the economy becomes difficult, chocolate (and other “comfort” item) sales go up.

And the local, exclusive attention to detail doesn’t hurt.“Final presentation is of utmost importance to me,” Hussain

says. “I am always trying to better every product I make. I have no problem admitting that I’m a perfectionist and I lose sleep over the tiniest details.”

Utilizing resources from the business to develop more ideas, Bowen puts every dollar and idea back into developing more.

“People who love chocolate are very passionate about it,” confirms Suwanprakorn of Armadillo Chocolates. “It makes you feel good.”

Fred Posner agrees. “Dessert means something social. It signifies an ‘end’ and is a great way to leave a lasting impression.”

( Trends )

“People can’t take trips and bigger expenses, but they can do the smaller treats that are affordable.”

—Linda Bowen, owner and chef, Simply Delightful! Confections

R ecently, bakeries are looking for alternatives to all-purpose flour, as they cater to customers

they have never been able to reach before—people with celiac disease, who cannot digest gluten, (a protein found in wheat, barley and rye). Gluten-free dieting has even grown into a fad for people without celiac. Celebrities have been said to stick to gluten-free diets to shave off unwanted pounds.

Fred Posner, of Dream Day Cakes, asks every customer who orders a cake if he or she has celiac. He advises customers who claim to have a gluten-intolerance, but have never been diagnosed, to go to their doctor. “It’s a serious, life-threatening disease,” Posner says. “People should know if they have it.”

“Some people order our gluten-free cakes just because they like the taste so much,” Posner said. “Gluten-free cakes tend to be overly dry or overly moist. Our cakes are really moist.”

Depending on the time of year, Dream Day Cakes receives one to two requests a week for gluten-free items.

Payal Patel, co-owner of Karma Cream, has also noticed an increase in the demand for gluten-free baked goods. The bakery has offered custom-order gluten-free products since its opening three years ago. And althought the gluten-free cakes are pricier because gluten-free ingredients are expensive, it’s not a trend that local bakers see losing steam.

“The vast majority of people who ask for gluten-free don’t even know the name of the disease,” Posner says. “That makes me think it’s a trend and not medical.”

—Gina Chitko

Gluten-Free Desserts

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Mustafa Hussain, of Gville Sweets, sells his handcrafted caramels and chai tea at the downtown farmer’s market.

Chris Eversole

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A friend of mine recently attended a trade show and heard a variety of lame sales lines all intended to push him toward a buying decision. He suggested that I write about the

lines people use to capture a prospect’s interest and increase their sales. I thought this would be fun, so here are a dozen questions and lines that can make salespeople look stupid.

WARNING: There is a serious dose of sarcasm.

“What will it take to earn your business?” Uh, maybe you could act like a professional and show me how I’m going to benefit from your product or service.

“Is price the only thing holding you back?” No, but the fact that you think price is the most important issue shows your complete lack of sales tact.

“Here’s the phone, why not call your wife right now and talk to her?” Seriously?

“Don’t you want to save money?” No, I’m an idiot. But, please insult my intelligence again by asking another stupid question like this.

“If I could show you [insert benefit], would you be interested?” How about you ask me a question or two so you can figure out how your product will help me?

“This price won’t last long.” Really? You can’t come up with anything better than that?

“At this price, we’ll be sold out by the end of the day.” Sure…and your new shipment arrives tomorrow morning.

“I don’t think we’ll be offering this incentive next week.” Yeah, I bet it will be better, so maybe I’ll wait.

“What do you know about us?” Didn’t your CEO get sued for something?

“What do I need to do to get you interested in…” You’re not “getting” me into anything with that approach.

“Have you heard about us?” No, and do you really think this question is going to make me want to listen to your sales pitch?

“What are your needs?” Why don’t you ask me some good questions that take a bit more thought and effort, and I’ll tell you? What about you? What lame or cheesy sales lines have you heard?

( Building Business )

By Kelley Robertson

Kelley Robertson, author of The Secrets of Power Selling, helps sales professionals close more sales at higher profits. Kelley conducts workshops and speaks regularly at sales meetings and conferences. Contact him at 905-633-7750 or [email protected]. Get a free copy of “100 Ways to Increase Your Sales” by subscribing to Kelley's free newsletter, "59 Seconds to Sales Success" at fearless-selling.ca.

Lame Sales Lines Here are three wrong ways to keep your name in your prospect's mind.

THE "CHECK-IN" CALL.A common approach is for a sales person to make a "check-in" call-either by telephone or a face-to-face visit. The conversation usually sounds something like, "Hey, Mr. Jones, just checking in to see if anything has changed or if you're ready to discuss that project now."

CORPORATE BROCHURE.Sales people often send corporate brochures and other marketing materials related to their solution. They believe that these materials will give the prospect the information they need to make a buying decision.

However, having worked in the corporate world for many years, I can say that most expensive brochures end up in “the circular file.”

THE CORPORATE NEWSLETTER.Many companies send newsletters to their customers. However, I have often found that the newsletter focuses on the selling company and contains information about new products, services or other "stuff" that is largely irrelevant to the customer's company.

So, what is the takeaway?

BECOME A VALUED RESOURCE.If you want to differentiate yourself and keep your name in your prospect's mind, you need to do something different.

Research trends in your industry and send your prospect an article outlining the top three trends that are affecting the industry. This will catch their attention and help you position yourself as a valued resource, which increases the likelihood of that prospect calling you when they are ready to move ahead with their buying decision.


( Business Basics )

By Stephanie G. Travis

6 REASONS

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YOUR BANK STATEMENT DOESN’T RECONCILE

There are several reasons a monthly bank statement in QuickBooks might not reconcile to zero. Here are some tricks to find—and solve—these problems.

A previously reconciled item (deposit, check) has been deleted or changed. Pull a report in QB that shows you items that have been edited or deleted since the previous reconciliation. From the pull-down menu, go to Reports > Banking > Reconciliation > Discrepancy.

A transposition of numbers of the transaction amount. If your bank reconciliation is off by a number that is evenly divisible by nine, there’s a good chance the error is a transposition. For example, if you are off $90, then it could be that the amount in QB is $120 when it should be $210. If you are off .27 cents, then the amount occurs in the cents part of the number - $4.63 should be $4.36.

Too many or not enough checks or deposits were cleared in the bank reconciliation. You can compare the total debits/deposits you have cleared in QB with the total debits/deposits clearing on your bank statement. In QB, look at the bottom middle of the bank reconciliation window for “Deposits and Credits” and “Checks and Payments.” Compare these totals with the totals on the first page of your

bank statement. If the deposits totals don’t match, you know you’ve got to review that side.

Missing checks or deposits. Missing checks or deposits can be reviewed using No. 3 as well. If you have reviewed everything and are still stumped, try the following: Export your banking transactions to Excel and then sort by amount. Then sort the bank reconciliation transactions by amount, and begin comparing this way. Sometimes a different view helps you see the problem.

Erroneous dates or a check cleared the bank before the date on the check. This can be a problem if you selected “Hide transactions after the statement end date” in your bank reconciliation window. Go into the QB check register, and at the bottom right in the “Sort By” field, choose Cleared Status. Then, scroll up in the check register until you get to the last transaction with an asterisk by it. Review the dates of the transactions below the last transaction with an asterisk and see if any transactions have dates after your bank statement ending date, but in fact cleared on the bank statement. This can happen if, for example, you date a rent check for the 1st, but the landlord received it and cashed it on the 31st.

Checks were cleared only by check number, and there are incorrect check numbers attached to checks in QB. The bank export trick in No. 4 and the tip in No. 3 can help

find this. But often, a review of checks you cleared by comparing only amounts, not check numbers, will find this error.

Stephanie G. Travis is the owner of One Source Accounting, LLC, which provides outsourced bookkeeping, consulting and managerial accounting services. She holds a Master of Accounting degree from the University of Florida and is a 37-year resident of Gainesville.


As Southern Legal Counsel celebrates 35 years of advocating for justice for all, it advocates for its own

public profile—and hopes to garner support in the process.

—Kevin Allen

It may be one of the most familiar names you’ve never heard of.

Given its involvement in some of the biggest legal cases in Florida over the past four decades, you might expect to find a lot of information about Gainesville-based Southern Legal Counsel.

But besides a reference or occasional quote from one of its lawyers in accounts of those cases, there is not much to find. The public-interest law firm, which has traditionally represented people who might not have access to the legal system, is not known for courting the spotlight. It often works to represent citizens with disabilities, reform education law and protect the environment—all to live up to its mission of advocating for “equal justice for all and the attainment of basic human and civil rights.”

“We’re attorneys,” says SLC lawyer Kirsten Clanton. “We’re not focused on telling people what we’re doing or touting our accomplishments because we’re usually trying to move on to the next problem and tackle the next issue.”

That may soon change. The not-for-profit legal service is marking its 35th anniversary by trying to raise its profile, and in the process its donations.

A GATOR INSTITUTIONSouthern Legal Counsel was founded in

1977 by faculty at the University of Florida College of Law. Founders include Jon Mills, Chesterfield Smith Sr., Joseph R. “Dick” Julin, Michael McIntosh and Joseph Onek. An offshoot of the law school’s Center for Governmental Responsibility, it was set up to handle lawsuits that grew out of the center’s watchdog efforts. Today, it is run largely by three University of Florida College of Law alumni, several UF law clerks and UF undergraduate interns.

Eventually, the focus grew slightly more independent from the university.

“When it changed, really from research and providing work under some grants into needing to do some litigation, it was time to get out from under the UF umbrella,” says Jodi Siegel, the firm’s executive director since 2004.

Recent litigation has ranged from suing the state over how it funds education in Florida to challenging rules on state care for institutionalized patients. Its most recent case is working with residents concerned about a water permit for the Adena Springs Ranch in Marion County, but does not yet involve any lawsuit.

“SLC is a rational way to get policy changes that affect a large group instead of one person at a time,” says co-founder Mills, the dean

emeritus at the UF Levin College of Law and founder of the Center for Governmental Responsibility.

COURTING PUBLIC OPINIONTo maintain its ability to act as watchdog

to government agencies, the SLC depends on outside donations. But a legal service with a reputation for going to court on behalf of the disadvantaged can seem like a tough sell for some donors. Businesses, for instance, have been on the opposing side in some of SLC’s cases, like challenges to trespassing ordinances aimed at the homeless in St. Petersburg and Ocala.

Mills says that the cases they take on aren’t always popular, but adds that he thinks “there are a number of people who realize the need to hold government accountable.”

Siegel notes the cases they take up are just as likely to favor business interests. One example

is the suit filed in 2009 on behalf of parents and education advocates, claiming the state is not living up to its constitutional responsibility to properly fund the education system. She says that effort, still in the courts, garnered support from businesses wanting a good educational system to draw on.

The challenge of cultivating a unanimously favorable image, according to Director of Litigation Neil Chonin, is that “we do everything.” The variety of issues the legal

service takes on, he says, means that depending on the circumstances of any given case “there might be a segment that is not in love with us, and another segment that is.”

“What people probably don’t understand is that one of our primary goals is making government more effective and more efficient,” Siegel says. She cites one suit involving care for the disabled, where a court found that the state was spending more to keep people in nursing homes than to pay for home health care.

“We are really trying to make the systems work better,” she says.

CREATIVE COUNSELClanton says that keeping the effort going

will require Southern Legal Counsel to come up with “some creative and strategic thinking in terms of how we fund our work and what we do.”

A good example of that is SLC’s effort to draw on the donation that attorneys pay in lieu of the Florida Bar requirement of offering “pro bono,” or voluntary representation, as a public service. Development director Nell Page encourages attorneys in Gainesville and the 8th Judicial Circuit to offer their pro bono dollars in lieu of hours directly to SLC.

“It’s really touching, the response we have gotten just on this preliminary level with attorneys who do know about Southern Legal and what they do,” Page says.

Making sure that not only lawyers know about Southern Legal Counsel will be important to the firm’s continued success, but Siegel says she is confident. “I think once anyone really understands the stories of the people we help and how we are helping improve the State of Florida, almost anybody will support us.”

( Made in Gainesville )

Homeless Advocacy Project director Kirsten Clanton (L), litigation director Neil Chonin and executive director Jodi Siegel work for SLC in both litigation and policy advocacy, as well as providing training and technical assistance to lawyers and organizations.

Funding S L C

To keep the independence needed to watch and challenge government agencies, SLC does not seek out government funds. It has traditionally raised the majority of its nearly $1 million-a-year budget through grants from outside groups, particularly the Florida Bar. But that funding is getting scarce while calls for aid have increased, notes Siegel.

The firm is looking for other sources of money and, in particular, is putting more emphasis on attracting private donations. “That’s one of the areas that has not been tapped into,” says Nell Page, the firm’s new development director. Her position, created just this year, is one example of the altered approach to fundraising.

Page says the initial emphasis is to make sure potential funders have “an awareness of what we’re doing and how we’re different.” That means illustrating for donors Southern Legal Counsel’s focus on tackling systemic issues, as well as emphasizing the firm’s ties to both Gainesville and UF. “I think we just have to make what we do understandable,” Siegel says.

Legal Aid Service Represents Those in Need

“We are really trying to make the systems work better. It not only saves money; it makes the democracy work.”—Executive director Jodi Siegel


O F F I C E S P A C E

TRENDY ENTERTAINMENT

( Office Space )

T rendy Entertainment is an independent video game development studio that operates out of a fourth-floor office right in the middle of downtown, a hop-and-a-skip away from The Hippodrome Theatre. The spacious, 6,500-square-foot office is full of programmers, artists and testers making sure that the products they put out not only

look great but are a blast to play. The layout of their new office, which they’ve been in since January, is more conducive to the collaborative atmosphere of this successful game studio.

And although the business is about “fun and games,” CEO Agapitus Lye and his employees work hard. “Game development is an industry where you don’t go into it because you want to ‘make a living,’” Lye says. “You go into it because you love what you do.”

The previous office was a “disjointed” 2,000 square feet spread over

three rooms that made it difficult to communicate. Employees would often

work in the hallways. The new office offers space for the team to get together in one place and space to break off into

individual departments.

The rooms with the most traffic are the art rooms. The collaborative nature of art makes it the most active, and employees often talk about projects with one another.

“Augi” opened Trendy Entertainment in December of 2009. Lye is a classical violinist and the inventor of ToneRite, a device meant to simulate years of play in instruments. In addition to running the company, he also participates in a weekly hacking group, where a group of about 40 engineers and tech-heads get together to tinker with machines.

For Christmas, Lye bought his employees NERF guns. What ensued were two weeks of sporadic non-lethal gunfire throughout the office. The office will still occasionally break out in epic NERF battles—fitting for a gaming company.

—Bradley Osburn (text and photos)

LOCATION: 110 SE 1st St.

WEBSITE: www.trendyent.com

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 30, including interns

HOW LONG IN CURRENT LOCATION: 5 months

WHAT THEY DO: Trendy develops downloadable video game titles for all platforms. Trendy contains a full team ranging from game testers to marketing professionals.

DESIGNED BY: Most of their interior design was done by their own artists.

FUN FACT: Dungeon Defenders has been downloaded more than 3.5 million times since its October release.

WANT TO WORK THERE? Trendy is hiring. Lye warns that everyone is expected to work 50 or more hours a week, so potential applicants should love making games.


( Monthly Meeting Calendar )

REGULAR MEETINGSPHOENIX AUCTION SERVICES1832 SE 3rd Ave., Trenton, Every Thursday, 6:30pm

SUNRISE ROTARYUF Hilton Conference CenterEvery Thursday, 7am

BREAKFAST CLUB OF GAINESVILLEUF Hilton Conference CenterEvery other Friday, 7am

ROTARY CLUB OF GAINESVILLEParamount Resort and Conference CenterEvery Tuesday, noon

GREATER GAINESVILLE ROTARY CLUBNapolatano’sEvery Monday, noon

ROTARY CLUB OF DOWNTOWN GAINESVILLEVilla EastEvery Wednesday, noon

KIWANIS CLUB OF GAINESVILLE Paramount Plaza Hotel and SuitesEvery Wednesday, noon

KIWANIS CLUB OF UNIVERSITY CITYUF HiltonEvery Tuesday, noon

GAINESVILLE AREA WOMEN’S NETWORK Sweetwater Branch InnThird Wednesday of every month, 11:30am

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALSAyers PlazaSecond Tuesday of every month, 5:30 p.m.

FOOD REVIEWS

MENUS

VIDEOS

SPECIAL EVENTS

SEARCHABLE DATABASE

MyGainesvilleRestaurants.com

Hungry?Visit Gainesville’s Most Complete Dining GuideDetailed Listings for Over 400 Local Restaurants

CALENDARJULY 3, TUESDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSBoard of Directors MeetingLifeSouth Community Blood Center, 6 p.m.

GAINESVILLE REGIONAL UTILITIESFanfares & FireworksFlavet Field at UF

JULY 5, THURSDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSWebsite Dev Sub-Committee MeetingStarbucks Downtown, 6 p.m.

JULY 9, MONDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSProfessional Development Committee MeetingUF Hilton, 6 p.m.

UNIVERSITY CITY KIWANIS CLUBClub Board Meeting(not available)

JULY 10, TUESDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFAmbassador Committee Phone BankBuilders Association of NCF, 8 a.m.

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE4 Things Entrepreneurs Need to Know About GrantsSanta Fe CIED, 10 a.m.

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEConnect Me(not available), 8:45 a.m.

ROTARY CLUB OF GAINESVILLE“Sudan” with speaker Dr. Peter G. Roode(not available)

JULY 11, WEDNESDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSPublic Policy Committee MeetingVolta Coffee, 6 p.m.

JULY 12, THURSDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSHappy Hour2-Bits Lounge in the UF Hilton, 6 p.m.

JULY 13, FRIDAYGAINESVILLE AREA INNOVATION NETWORKStart My Gainesville BusinessGoogle Hangout (video chat), 12:30 p.m.

JULY 14, SATURDAYSUNRISE ROTARYButterfly Garden Work SessionRonald McDonald House, 9 a.m.

JULY 16, MONDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSKickball Committee MeetingBooks-A-Million, 7 p.m.

JULY 17, TUESDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSMarketing and Communications Committee MeetingMaude’s, 6 p.m.

JULY 18, WEDNESDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFMember Recognition CommitteeBuilders Association of NCF, 8 a.m.

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEChamber 101Chamber Board Room, 3:30 p.m.

JULY 19, THURSDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCF

Membership MeetingBest Western Gateway Grand, 11:45 a.m.

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCESummer Lunch SeriesFinding Cool Funding SourcesVilla East, 11 a.m.

JULY 23, MONDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFCity GovernmentThomas Center, 11:45 a.m.

JULY 24, TUESDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSMeetingCoffee Culture, 6 p.m.

JULY 25, WEDNESDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSMembership Committee Meeting2-Bits Lounge in the UF Hilton, 6 p.m.

GAINESVILLE AREA INNOVATION NETWORKSpeaker Series: Kristi Taylor of TS Tech (Monkey Wish)Carrabba’s Italian Grill, 11:30 a.m.

JULY 26, THURSDAYWORDPRESS MEETUPDigital Brands, Inc., 7 p.m.

BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFCommercial Builders Council Mixer Sponsor(not available), 5:30 p.m.

BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFSoutheast Building ConferenceOrange County Convention Center

GAINESVILLE AREA INNOVATION NETWORK

Start that Business! WorkshopSF Center for Innovation and Economic Development, 1 p.m.

JULY 27, FRIDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFSoutheast Building ConferenceOrange County Convention Center

WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP COUNCIL Champagne TastingTBA, 5:30 p.m.

JULY 28, SATURDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFSoutheast Building ConferenceOrange County Convention Center

JULY 30, MONDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSCommunity Relations Committee MeetingBooks-A-Million, 7 p.m.

BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFCounty GovernmentBuilders Association of NCF, 11:45 a.m.

BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFGovernment Affairs CommitteeBuilders Association of NCF, 12:45 p.m.

JULY 31, TUESDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFExecutive CommitteeBuilders Association of NCF, 11:45 a.m.

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEConnect Me(not available), 4 p.m.


( Transactions )Transactions(All content comes from city, county and state official records.)

VACANT LANDAddress: 1104 SW 6TH St. Gainesville, FL 32601Property Type: (MF) Multi-FamilySeller: Kinsley-Momberger List Agent: Jeffrey SiegelList Firm: Prudential Trend RealtySell Agent: Ricardo KokkasSell Firm: Campus RealtyPrice: $90,000Buyer: Fly Start Properties LLC

COMMERCIAL SALESAddress: 3801 NW 40th Terrace Gainesville, FL 32606Property Type: CommercialSeller: Etherington, David TrusteeList Agent: Perry PursellList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishSell Agent: Perry PursellSell Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishPrice: $290,000Buyer: Office Solutions of Gainesville 2, LLC

Address: 2131 NW 40th Terrace Gainesville, FL 32605Property Type: CommercialSeller: Alarion BankList Agent: David FerroList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCSell Agent: David FerroSell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCPrice: $550,000Buyer: Office Solutions of Gainesville 2, LLC

Address: 2114 NW 40th Terrace Gainesville, FL 32605Property Type: CommercialSeller: Brown, LewisList Agent: Anthony PorterList Firm: Florida Real Estate Sales Inc.Sell Agent: Anthony PorterSell Firm: Florida Real Estate Sales Inc.Price: $1,325,000Buyer: Samuel Mutch

COMMERCIAL LEASESAddress: 7328 W University Ave. Gainesville, FL 32607Property Type: (OFF) OfficeLessor: ---List Agent: James RoppList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCSell Agent: James RoppSell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCLessee Name: Shanaz Sawyer, Andrew and Razia Ali Hamm

Address: 4647 NW 6th St. Gainesville, FL 32609Property Type: (OFW)

Office/WarehouseLessor: Cheshire CompaniesList Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishSell Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpSell Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishLessee Name: J & A Auto Style, Inc.

Address: 2750 NW 43rd St. Gainesville, FL 32606Property Type: (OFF) OfficeLessor: ---List Agent: Joseph Freck List Firm: Prudential Trend RealtySell Agent: Joseph FreckSell Firm: Prudential Trend RealtyLessee Name: Lightspeed Voice

Address: 2815 NW 13th St. Gainesville, FL 32609Property Type: (OFF) OfficeLessor: ---List Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishSell Agent: Rick CainSell Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishLessee Name: NCA Pearson, Inc.

Address: 4029 W Newberry Road Jonesville, FL 32669Property Type: (SHO) Shopping CenterLessor: ---List Agent: G.W. Blake Fletcher List Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCSell Agent: G.W. Blake FletcherSell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCLessee Name: Ference Insurance Agency

Address: 4110 SW 34th St. Ste 1-A ST Gainesville, FL 32608 Property Type: (OFW) Office/WarehouseLessor: Prestige Equities/SouthGateList Agent: Michael SteinbergList Firm: Prestige Equity Management Inc.Sell Agent: Michael SteinbergSell Firm: Prestige Equity Management Inc.Lessee Name: ---

Address: 4110 SW 34th St. Ste 24 ST Gainesville, FL 32608Property Type: (OFW) Office/WarehouseLessor: Prestige Equities/SouthGateList Agent: Michael SteinbergList Firm: Prestige Equity Management Inc.Sell Agent: Michael SteinbergSell Firm: Prestige Equity Management Inc.Lessee Name: ---

OCCUPATIONAL LICENSESASHBURN, JOHN E JOHN ASHBURN’S BUILDERS2869 SW 39TH AVE

BAKER, CRYSTAL INTEGRATED EQUESTRIAN MASSAGE & PERSONAL TRAINING115 NE 7TH AVE

BARKERBRUSHWORKS2160 NE 1ST BLVD

BERGEY, SIMONE M SIMONE BERGEY’S BOOKKEEPING5751 SW 10TH PL

CAVE, ADRIAN A FIVE STAR CLEANING1600 NE 12TH AVE

CHAMBERLIN, STEPHEN1002 NW 23RD AVE

CUTZ BARBERSHOP AND SALON1020 NW 23RD AVE

DOUGLAS, SIERRA K CREATIVE IDENTITY, LLC3100 SW 35TH PL

DSR TECHNOLOGIES INC203 SW 3RD AVE

EISENHART, THOMAS W REDLINE ELECTRIC LLC3451 NW 52ND AVE

ESCALERA, EDWIN CREATIONS HAIRSTYLING2441 NW 43RD ST

GATOR DORM MOM PAINTING, CARPET & CLEANING SERVICE, LLC2602 NW 6TH ST

GREEN MARKET NURSERY LLC5402 NW 8TH AVE

HILL, PATRICIA E PATRICIA HILL FOREIGN LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION & TUTORING3908 SW 5TH PL

JEFFERSON, KENNETH, JR3240 SW 35TH BLVDJERSEY MIKE’S SUBS2015 NW 43RD ST

LANNON, JOHN F AMAZING TILE BY JOHN LANNON INC4228 NW 10TH ST

MACHADO, CRISTIANE CRISTIANE MACHADO, LMT726 NW 8TH AVE

MACK, MARYETTA L.MOBILE ONLY

MIKE ROSS IMAGES4131 NW 13TH ST

MILLER, AMBER3324 W UNIVERSITY AVE

MOTADUVAL, AGUSTIN O EQUACLEANING SERVICES, INC307 SW 16TH AVEMOTOCYCO GEAR EXCHANGE, LLC5200 NW 34TH ST

MUSSEN, JARRED H SWAMP FITNESS, LLC4000 SW 37TH BLVD

NE 16TH AVE DETAILING/WINDOW TINTING/TIRES1152 NE 16TH AVE

NEWGENT, SEAN NEWGENT TRAINING SYSTEMS701 SW 62ND BLVD

PRIDGEN, DESTER L, JRMOBILE ONLY

RABELL, RICARDO L ADVANCED PAINTING SERVICE LLC3851 NW 15TH AVE

RAHMAN BROTHERS, INC DBA FOOD MAX FOOD STORE404 S MAIN ST

REECASTE ENTERPRISES LLC DBA VINE1801 NE 23RD AVE

REISMAN, LAURIE LAURIE REISMAN, LCSW3131 NW 13TH ST

RICH, ARTHUR WARREN PLATINUM CLEANING LLC309 SW 16TH AVE

SIMON, BRUCEMOBILE ONLY

SISTROM, BRENDA BRENDA SISTROM, LMT1002 NW 23RD AVE

SKANDERA, RICHARD P HORIZONS HERMENEUTICS HOLDINGS INVESTMENT CORPORATION2930 SW 23RD TER

THOMAS, WALKERMOBILE ONLY

VOUGHT, SUSAN SUSIE VOUGHT, LMT3131 NW 13TH ST

WILLIAMS, KEN-E SPLASH & DASH MOBILE DETAILING6519 W NEWBERRY RD

FICTITIOUS NAMES A 1 DAVIS CLEANING SERVICEP.O. Box 2105Hawthorne

A DECOR STORE4333 NW 6th St.Gainesville

AFGE LOCAL 27791601 SW Archer Road Room A-164Gainesville

AGENCY OF BENEVOLENT CARE7257 NW 4th Blvd. #331Gainesville

AKIN MOTORSPORTS27440 SW 143rd Ave.Homestead

BARKERBRUSHWORKS2308 NE 14th St.Gainesville

BEEFS”O”BRADY’S1999 NW 43rd St.Gainesville

BI-RITE FOOD STORE809 N Main St.Gainesville

BORN TOO LATE605 NW 2nd St.High Springs

CALICO JACK’SP.O. Box 12088Gainesville

CARIBBEAN SHORES3842 NW 68th PlaceGainesville

CARPET SPARKLE CARPET CLEANING925 NW 5th Ave.High Springs

CHEAPER BY A STUDENT3425 SW 2nd Ave.Gainesville

CHRISTINA SCHECHTER11740 NW 71st TerraceAlachua

CMPHOTOGRAPHY330 SW 7th Ave.High Springs

DUST BEE GONE CLEANING SERVICE319 NE 50th TerraceGainesville

ELMARIE CROUS1700 NWAlachua

ESPRIT CREATIONS13422 W SR-235Alachua

EXCEPTIONAL CARING2225 NW 15th Ave.Gainesville

FLAQUITOS MIDTOWN1702 W University Ave. #F1Gainesville

FLEA FACTORY PUBLICATIONS5001 SW 94th St.Gainesville

FLORIDA LIQUIDATORS3020 N Main St.Gainesville

FLORIDA MOTORS125 NE 23rd Ave.Gainesville

FLOWERS THAT SPEAKP.O. Box 546Alachua

GAINESVILLE FAMILY PHYSICIANS AT TIOGAOne Park PlazaNashville

GAINESVILLE MACHINE SHOP2936 NE 20th WayGainesville

GLORIOUS FOOD CATERING420 NW 1st Ave.High Springs

HOLISTIC HORSE HOOF CARE21219 NW 70th Ave.Alachua

HONEYDO CLEANING SERVICE2111 SE 36th TerraceGainesville

JUST JOAN SHOE SPA4110 SW 34th St.Gainesville

LEAP (LEARNING THROUGH ENRICHMENT AND ACADEMIC PREPARATION)25053 SW 18th Ave.Newberry

LON’S LAWN CARE7007 SW 59th St.Gainesville

MAIN STREET SIGNS PLUSP.O. Box 1033Newberry

MAMMA MIA PIZZA SHOP490 NE 23rd Ave.Gainesville

MICANOPY MART507-C NW 60th St.Gainesville

NE 16 AVE DETAILING AND WINDOW TINTING/TIRES1152 NE 16th Ave.Gainesville

NEW BREATH OF LIFE2632 NW 43rd St. A 109Gainesville

NEW TECH CITY PROMOTION AND ADVERTISING904 SW 16th Ave.Gainesville

NORTH FLORIDA GROWSNorth Florida GrowsGainesville

NUISANCE ANIMAL REMOVAL4142 NW 21 TerraceGainesville

P & J MARINE100 NE 23rd Ave.Gainesville

PRESTIGE FLOORING125 NW 23rd Ave.Gainesville

QUALITY CLEANERS TOWER 24 VILLAGE2440 SW 76th St. Suite 150Gainesville

REEL SEAFOOD5200 NW 43rd St. Gainesville

REGROUP27 Wood Amber LanePalm Coast

RISING SUN LODGE #10P.O. Box 140626 Gainesville

SEAGLASS TRAVEL115 NW 1st Ave.High Springs

SHARON MACNEILLE10845 NW 61st TerraceAlachua

SHEESHA1114 SW 104th St.Gainesville

SOBEK CONSULTING AND HOSTING COMPANY1500 NW 16th Ave. Apt. 210Gainesville

SOUTHERN PRO LAWN SERVICE9316 SW 99th PlaceGainesville

SPARKLIN TOUCH CLEANING & PAINTING2330 NW 65th PlaceGainesville

SPLASH & DASH MOBILE DETAILING6519 W Newberry RoadGainesville

SSS MANAGEMENT4180 NW 50 Terrace #6106Gainesville

STARSMILEZP.O. BOX 142035Gainesville

SWEET THURSDAYS5228 NW 23rd PlaceGainesville

THE BREW SPOT CAFE 1000 NE 16th Ave. Building HGainesville

THE EDUCATION FOUNDATION OF ALACHUA COUNTY, INC.1725 SE 1st AvenueGainesville

THE REAL ESTARE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE4414 NW 69th St.Gainesville

THE WORKSHOP638 SW Hawthorne TerraceFort White

UF NAILS917 W University Ave.Gainesville

VERSATILE STYLEZ PUBLISHING627 N MainGainesville

VIXEN VIRGIN HAIR COMPANY2800 SW 35th Place Apt 3006Gainesville

WHALEY TREES14128 NE State Road 26 Gainesville

WILD BIRDS UNLIMITED4215 NW 16th Blvd.Gainesville

YARDGAZERS.COM1062 NE 20th Ave.Gainesville


ONE

TWO THREE

$ ( Sales Strategies )

By Jim Meisenheimer

Jim Meisenheimer lives in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, and is a sales training consultant who has worked with more than 500 clients over the last two decades. He publishes the Start Selling More Newsletter (startsellingmore.com), which provides common sense sales tips and selling strategies based on practical ideas that get immediate results.

THREE WAYSTO IMPROVE YOUR SALES PRODUCTIVITY

How’s your personal sales productivity these days? I’ve got a few ideas on how you can get more done in less time.

DOING IS BETTER THAN THINKING ABOUT DOING. It’s so easy to become distracted from achieving your goals.

Develop a “first things first” approach to every selling day. Start every day with a “six-pack”—a list of the six most important things you want to accomplish every day. Put your list on a sheet of paper. Forget hiding it in your computer. This list must be in writing and should be prioritized using the numbers one to six.

Be careful of the daily distractions. You won’t get much done if you’re tethered to your cell phone. Your cell phone can be a time-saver, but it can be a time-buster if you’re not careful.

Throughout the day, stay focused on your list and only do another task if it’s more important than one of your six priorities in your six-pack.

Procrastination kills more sales deals than anything else imaginable. Sales professionals are always thinking about new ways to attract business. That’s okay if it doesn’t get in the way of getting things done.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST KEYS TO YOUR SELLING SUCCESS.I’ve been observing salespeople during the last 30 years, and

many of them try to climb the ladder of success without a plan. Nothing will push you up the ladder of success faster than having a plan and having sheer determination.

I took my wife to lunch yesterday. The restaurant is perched on the water overlooking Sarasota Bay. There was a 70-foot yacht docked in front of the restaurant. The name of the boat was “Determination.” Having determination makes you unstoppable. I’m sure the owner of this boat is not easily distracted from achieving his or her goals.

You can achieve anything in life if you employ your mind and engage your self-development with self-improvement. The key word is “self.” Nobody else is responsible for your self-improvement because that’s entirely your responsibility.

Ask this question every day: “How can I do it better?” If you ask this question every day, you will automatically achieve a degree of self-improvement.

Don’t assume your last sales call was terrific or that your sales proposal hit the bull’s-eye. Next time, ask yourself, “How can I do it better?”

Asking that question will put you in the fast lane on the road to continuous improvement.

CONSIDER HIRING A COACH.I’ve been in business for 24 years. Beginning with my first year, I achieved 18 consecutive years of increased sales and profits. That’s a pretty good record.

My business was good and continued to grow because of my focus on increasing my sales and beating “last year’s numbers” every year.

There is a business coach in Phoenix by the name of Somers White. We talked a couple of times over several years. Because of my business success, I really didn’t believe I needed a business coach.

Boy was I wrong. I hired White in 2001 and told him to look at me as a block of Swiss cheese. I told him to find the holes in my business.

His office was lined wall-to-wall with his audio cassettes. He asked me how many cassette albums I had. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the biggest hole in my block of Swiss cheese.

Within 12 months, I sold $100,000 of my first audiocassette album.

The point is, a good coach can often see factors that you can’t see because you’re too close to your business. Remember this phrase: “If it is to be, it is up to me.” And in this case, the “me” is “you!”

north central florida business report june 2012

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