May 26th 2004

The Entrepreneurship club partnered with the Austin Family Business program to host Michael Powell, CEO and Principal Shareholder of Powell’s Books, the largest independent bookstore in the world.  Today, Powell’s employs over 500 people at 7 locations, most in Portland, Oregon.  In addition, Powell’s sells over 25 million dollars of books over the internet each year, also selling more e-Books than any other merchant worldwide.

 History

In 1970 undergraduate Michael Powell borrowed $3,000 and started his first bookstore in Chicago. He met with almost instant success. Within two months he had repaid the loan, and decided to go on vacation.

 Michael's father, Walter Powell, came from Portland to mind the store while Michael was gone. Walter enjoyed book-selling so much that when he returned to Portland a year later, he started his own store in Portland.  Later 1979 Michael decided to move to Portland to joint venture with his father in because of the excellent book market there, and to be closer to his family.  The business grew rapidly. In 1980 Walter and Michael moved the store to a larger location. A former used car dealership and car repair shop on 10th and Burnside became Powell's City of Books.

 The Powell’s enjoyed explosive growth at each of their stores.  Michael decided it would be “boring” to make all of their stores the same, creating Powell's Technical Books, Powell's Books for Cooks and Gardeners, and Powell's Travel Store in addition to their full service stores..

 Walter died in 1985, but his legacy continued to grow. In 1994 Powell's launched a website.  A staff member suggested creating a database to track and sell inventory online.  Within two years, Powell's entire inventory was listed on the web.

Today Powell’s has seven locations, over a million titles and world-wide acclaim. It's a favorite spot for Portlanders and a major attraction for those visiting the city

Secret to Success?

Michael shared that successful enterprise was always evolving to stay ahead of the times.  Powell’s was able to thrive at a time when most independent bookstore were folding under pressure from the national chains, (Borders and Barns & Noble) by doing something totally unthinkable at the time: Selling used and new books together on the same shelf.

 Michael suggested that great innovation usually originates when someone outside the industry enters and tackles an age old problem in a new way.  He points out that “industry experts” are usually to rooted in old traditions and habits to think outside the box.  Powell’s has survived and continued to thrive by continuing to innovate, adopting new technology to sell books online, promoting their stores as a tourist attraction, tracking all inventory with a sophisticated computer system, preparing for the changes coming in the book market, (e-Books etc) and constantly striving to get more out of their retail space

The Entrepreneurship Club brought in Brent Bullack for our April 6th meeting.  Brent is a partner at Perkins Coie LLP and is an alumnus of Oregon State, majoring in Finance.  Brent has also served as Head Chair of the Oregon Entrepreneur Forum.  The OEF sponsors entrepreneurs in Oregon to help start and establish their business. 

Brent spoke about my important topics during this meeting.  He told many stories about both successful and unsuccessful businesses he has worked with or heard about.  These stories were very valuable and learned very important lessons.  These are some of the key points pulled from his stories.

KEY POINTS

• ENTREPRENEURS MUST HAVE HEART first and foremost. 

• Entrepreneurs must be willing to put everything at risk to start a business, mortgaging their houses and cars, decreasing their spending budget in any way, and be willing to go into debt at the beginning.

• You do not need the perfect product to begin with.  The product will go through changes in design and manufacturing, and technology will change as well.

• Your business must have the ability to grow and willingness to change to fit the markets and its needs.   

• Forward vision is vital to your company.  The ability to forecast the current and developing markets is important.

• Have a good understanding of the law.  Make sure you have covered every aspect to protect yourself.

• Think about the type of people you want to go into business with.  When first starting out, there is no way to have 5 “CEO’s” or everything is equal.  Create some sort of prenuptial agreements with these people.

• Sales people are extremely important.  They are the people that “get the customer to give you money”.  Take care of them and treat them right.

Things to Watch Out For

·        Set up your business as an entity that separates you from your business.  Things like a corporation or a Limited Liability Company.

·        Have or get legal advice and good accountants.  Jump through all the right hoops to protect yourself.

·        Intellectual Property Rights are very important.  Take care of them properly.  When you have employees, get in writing that anything created or invented by them for the business stays with the business.

·        Always create Non-Disclosure Agreements to protect yourself in any business situation.  This keeps things from going public.

Update made by Ben Wagenblast

February 18th 2004

Our presenter for the February 18th Entrepreneurship Club meeting was Brian Oliver.  Brian is a partner of jmw Capital Partners and alumni of Oregon State graduating class of 1987.  Before joining jmw, Brian worked for U.S. Bank as a loan officer.  At jmw, they provide services ranging from advice for small business to direct investments in large companies in the northwest and some of northern California. 

Brian came and spoke to the club about investment capital, how to generate funds at any level or size of your company.  He went into detail on three of these rounds of venture capital. 

• The first round is friends and family.  This is the best place to start out when you are just beginning your business.  People that know you, and trust you, will be more willing, to lend you money, than any financial establishments. 

• The second round or “Angle Round” is after you have used the money you received from friends and family, created your business, proven your business works, and there is a market for your product.  After all of this has taken place, you find business men that have worked in your companies field, sort of “been there, done that” type of people, and have money they are willing to invest.  These type of people are always looking for a good business plan and a very large return on there investment.  Be prepared to answer many questions from these investors. 

• The third round is when you finally go to a financial establishment such as venture capital companies and talk about large amounts of money.  Usually the company seeking capital has a product already in the market; the product did well, and now is looking to expand into a larger market.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

·        Most successful entrepreneurs know their strengths and weaknesses.  You must find out yours and work on them.

·        Have a great business plan.  Take the time to get things right and looking good.

·        Network with anybody and everybody to find people you “click” with and would be willing to invest in your business.

·        Look for people that are in the industry that you are trying to get into.  Make contact, ask them questions, and see how they can help you.

·        Have a short and to the point Elevator Pitch ready at all times.

·        Have both types of Business Plans ready:

o       A short summary of what your business does and is easy to read, give these to non-business people.

o       A full business plan to present to business people.

Update made by Ben Wagenblast

January 28th 2004

Our guest speaker was Becca Williams, CEO of WallNutz.  Mrs. Williams graduated from the University of Arizona with an MBA.  Currently, she is a successful small business owner who started her company 4.5 years ago through the process of bootstrapping.  The mission of WallNutz is to help you, the customer create loving and imaginative spaces for your children.  Mrs. Williams' main product is a Paint-By-Number Mural kit.  Through bootstrapping she was able to start her initial business with only $1000.00 and the perseverance to succeed.  

Key Takeways:  Be cheap but look professional.

• Do your own packaging

• Cut cost anywhere you can (use home phone as business phone)

• Use people you know and contacts you have to help you without having to paying them

• The internet is a great place to jump start your business if you have a product to sell, it is very inexpensive compared to other methods

• Look for sources of financing everywhere, friends, family, banks

Additional Thoughts:  When starting your business you are going to have to make the decision between having a lifestyle business or a large company.  A lifestyle business operates around you as the CEO and your schedule.  Large companies are your life, all you think or do relates to the company in some way.

• For additional information about Mrs. William's company products feel free to visit the company's webpage at www.wallnutz.com.

Update made by Ben Wagenblast

December 3rd 2003

We were privileged to have two guest speakers who also happen to be students as OSU.  The first speaker of the evening TJ Robertson has almost completed his masters in Computer Science and has already had tremendous experience in his field by co-creating OSU’s Beaverchat.com.  Now he hopes to create the next “big thing” in online community listings with everylist.com.  Similar to craigslist.com, Robertson’s everylist.com will fill in the spaces that other services of this type lack.  Participants of everylist.com will be able to look for items from all over the world, instead of being confined to one area.  Another unique feature of everylist.com is that it will automatically adjust your search radius to give you a high amount of listings to view.  Robertson has a prototype already up and running with more and more participants joining each day, and has fanned the interest of other companies who are looking to expand their own services with what Robertson has to offer. www.everylist.com

Our second featured speaker was Roshan Khemani, or Roach for short, a freshman in Business Administration with a knack for turning clothes into cash.  Roach is no stranger to entrepreneurship.  His father, a clothing tailor in Portland, built a highly successful business from the ground up.  Roach was able to complete his senior project on his father’s business, where he saw first hand what qualities are required to be successful in the business world.  After seeing incredible opportunities available in the clothing market Roach decided to start his own garment printing business, Roachwear.  At first he was only able to design clothes and then had to send them to another company to be printed, but soon Roach found his designs were so in demand he had to buy his own screen printing press.  Today, Roach has made t-shirts and other items for many leading Portland businesses including Tony’s Pizza and Hookah Bar, and after arriving at OSU has joined forces with various sororities, fraternities, and residence halls to provide high quality items at a college student price.  He also has a website where customers can create their own customized wardrobe.  Without a doubt Roach is well on his way to following in his father’s highly successful footsteps. www.roachwear.biz

Key Takeaways: Don’t be afraid to try something different.  Every great idea has to start somewhere; it might as well be with you.

 Look the part.  If you want to be recognized as a professional you need to look like one.

Get your message out.  No matter how great your idea is no one will care if they don’t know about it.  Create a publicity plan that will be sure to attract an audience, even if it is as simple as chalking a sidewalk with your web address.  At the very least tell everyone you know about your idea, you’d be surprised how quickly word of mouth can draw costumers.

Know your stuff.  Any serious investor of buyer will probably have questions.  If you can’t handle all possible questions smoothly those potential clients will walk away.

Update made by Ashlee Clair

November 11th 2003

Update made by Ben Wagenblast

October 7th 2003

Our featured speaker was Bryan Sims a 20yr old college student who has placed in the finals of two out of three business plan competitions as the youngest team at every competition winning a total of $8,500. He has also secured $112,500 in cash and commitments for his business. Bryan's in the process of launching a money magazine for young adults through credit unions nation wide. www.brasscu.com

Key takeaways: Be passionate. Find something you are passionate about, and then pursue it.

Differentiate Yourself. Just because you sit in your room and get all A's doesn't mean people will notice you.

Listen, but don't listen. Take feedback from people, but don' let it get you down. When someone says you won't be successful, use it as inspiration to prove them wrong. The one thing that is certain in business is that nothing is certain. There is always more than one right way.

Determination. The most important trait of an entrepreneur. Most people get to the 90% mark and then quit, its the people that go that extra 10% that make people entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are the people who jump out of the plane, and then find out if the parachute will open as they are falling. They are the risk takers and adventurers.

Network, anytime, anywhere. You never know who is sitting next to you. They could be the next Michael Dell, their dad could run a multi-billion dollar company or their friend could be starting their own magazine. You just never know. Always get to know the people around you, because it is not what you know, it is who you know.

Recommended Book: A Good Hard Kick In The Ass- Rob Adams        

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