As a receptionist at Oppenheimer & Co., Gail Perry-Mason had a strong desire to be something everybody told her she could never be: a stock broker. Her mother constantly dissuaded her from taking a job that involved a lot of risk and had no security. Even her superiors laughed at her for even thinking about taking the Series 7 exam. Regardless, Mason was determined enough to pass the exam and experience a change in her lifestyle.
Through hard work and dedication, Mason became the first female and African-American Vice President of Oppenheimer & Co; she now has over 2000 clients and enjoys offering her expertise advice especially to women who are looking to grow their financial portfolios. Mason flies all over the country to speak at seminars in order to empower and encourage people to gain financial success. She has co-authored a book called “Girl, Make Your Money Grow,” which has also been featured on Oprah. In addition, Mason puts on camps every summer called Money Camp, which teach inner-city children basic finance and economics and even go as far giving golf lessons that may be beneficial for future business meetings.
Gail Perry-Mason said that her dream is to one day work at Costco and sit on the advisory board. “I would love to be the person standing by the door wearing the red vest and Birkenstocks welcoming all the customers while also receiving prescription benefits at the same time.” She is happily married with three children who are also aspiring entrepreneurs.
Since the internet took off in the mid 1990s, electronic commerce has been a significant part of the retail market; it is estimated to reach a quarter trillion dollars in sales by 2011. By definition, e-commerce consists primarily of distributing, selling, marketing, buying, and servicing of products (and/or services) over electronic systems such as the internet. E-commerce continues to grow as already existing businesses turn towards the world wide web for online storefronts.
Companies such as Paypal and Ebay have made it easy for anyone to launch an e-commerce business. Ebay makes it simple for anyone to setup storefronts via their online auction system while Paypal handles all of the financial transactions-both at a low cost.
However, there are still many challenges that face e-commerces today. With an online business, it has difficult to interact and establish relationships with customers. Customers may not know how to buy and therefore, may turn to actual stores for their purchases. Also, a major issue with e-commerce has been numerous cases of identity theft. After stealing someone else’s identity, criminals can illegally purchase goods and send the bill to an innocent person.
The following graph shows more of the problems facing the consumer side of e-commerce:
On the other hand, e-commerce has made it easy for online shoppers to quickly and effectively compare and purchase products online with consumer-based websites such as pricewatcher.com and resellerratings.com. In addition, there web contains various giant retailers where you can purchase high quality products for a low price such as amazon.com and overstock.com. Purchasing products and even services has never been made easier.
Bob Lanier, an NBA Hall-of-Famer and former Detroit Pistons All Star, shared some of his wisdom to the Bizdom U entrepreneurs this past week. Upon completing his fourteen-year professional basketball career, Lanier started his own business publishing children’s books, and he works directly with the NBA as a Community Ambassador. Lanier shared his personal entrepreneurial philosophy with the class; it can be broken down to a one word acronym known as PRIDE.
The “P” stands for “positive attitude,” meaning that in order to succeed, one must believe in him or herself without letting their ego stand in the way. Lanier boldly stated, “Your attitude determines your altitude.” The “R” stands for “respect,” the seven letter word that you must gain from your employees, competition, and community. The “I” stands for “intelligent choices,” which refers to making sound decisions based on your business intelligence and gut instinct. The “D” stands for “dreaming dreams and setting goals”- one of the fundamentals of owning your own businesses. Lastly, the “E” stands for “effort and enthusiasm,” which are key elements in building and operating a successful enterprise.
The Pistons’ legend concluded his talk with one last phrase- “Failure is not an option.” This pertains to the Bizdom U class in particular because of their granted opportunity, a two-year all expense paid entrepreneurial program that even provides startup capital and business consulting by the end of the training. The term failure doesn’t necessarily mean starting a business that ends up in turmoil, but rather quitting after the first try and never willing to take another risk again.
Since last February, Pzena Investment Management L.L.C.’s Chairman, Richard Pzena, has been lobbying against Carl Icahn’s announced buyout of the automotive supplier firm, Lear Corp, for $5.3 billion from the New York-based American Real Estate Partners L.P. Icahn is “notorious” for raiding companies such as Texaco Inc. and Trans World Inc. Airlines since the early 1980s and his more recently, corporate giants like Motorola Inc. and TimeWarner Inc.; his focus remains on purchasing undervalued companies- in my opinion, a risky, but smart, way to make a lot of money.
Although Lear’s Chairman and CEO, Bob Rossiter, is in favor of the buyout by stating that Lear’s intentions are what the company needs right now, Pzena, a 10% controller of Lear’s stock, says that the company’s stock is worth nearly 167% ($36/share –> $60/share) than the proposed selling price. Pzena argues that Lear is on the verge of financial turnaround. Last week, Crain’s Detroit reported that Icahn’s response to Pzena’s opposition stemmed from the fact that Pzena had an opportunity to purchase the stock back in October for $23 a share but turned it down. However, this week’s Crain’s Detroit Business featured an article regarding Pzena’s response to Icahn’s comment titled “Pzena: Icahn didn’t tell the whole Lear Story.”
The article published Pzena’s claim that Lear did an “overnight quick equity offering” giving Pzena and other investment firms only six hours to respond. Pzena’s partner, Ken Brown, boldly stated, “unlike Icahn’s company, Pzena is not a private-equity fund. Rather, it is a value-investment manger that invests money on behalf of individual investors… Pzena consults with its clients before making investment decisions.” Brown also added, “We just couldn’t do it, by the logistics of it.” Secondly, Pzena and Brown were unhappy about the broken confidentiality agreements of publicly discussing the situation.
In conclusion, it seems as though Pzena is perhaps bitter that they were not able to take advantage of the “overnight quick equity offering” and may need to consider restructuring some of their “logistics” in order to be able to quickly respond to short period equity offerings that may benefit their clients. Secondly, Icahn should probably stop “sticking it” in them for having an opportunity to profit so hugely on the whole Lear Corp. deal. Lastly, whatever the confidentiality agreements were, they should be respected by both parties.
ePrize, an online interactive promotional company, is full of positive culture, energy, and innovation- their focus is on excellence, passion, accountability, and delivering great work to great clients. The headquarters, located in Pleasant Ridge, MI, is an old renovated warehouse with high ceilings, free coke products for everyone, and unique cubicles (pods) scattered throughout the floors. In order to increase productivity and free thinking, the building is decorated with colorful pictures and contemporary light fixtures that stylistically illuminate the building. In 2007, ePrize introduced a new brand called Caffeine, which is designed for small businesses without the hefty marketing budget. Caffeine consists of various templates for promotional ideas and it is free to setup; small businesses pay $1 for each of the leads they decide to keep.
Josh Linkner, the founder and CEO, enthusiastically expressed, “Nothing lives in linger-land. ePrize is a place where ideas get done. The company’s interpretation of ordinary vs. extraordinary can be best explained by this: the difference is the extra turn on the knob.” That phrase and “Kaizen,” the Japanese word for constant improvement, is often used within the company and provides the meaning that ideas can be strengthened by the smallest changes and tweaks. There are many similarities within the culture of ePrize and Quicken Loans because of the relationship they hold. However, ePrize remains unique on its own, due to its leadership and company philosophy.
As one of the leading promotional companies, ePrize’s clients extend to seventy-three of the top one hundred brands, including Coca-cola, Proctor and Gamble, General Motors, and Subway. In 2005, the company produced 85% more promotions than any other company in the United States. With additional offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, and London, ePrize is constantly growing and servicing new promotional ideas for small businesses and the world’s largest corporations.
John Plaza, a former Northwest Airlines pilot of ten years, started his own energy company, Imperium, after a large company layover. As a pilot he realized how much fuel was being consumed to mobilize large aircrafts- a flight from Anchorage to Tokyo consumed enough fuel to power his Nissan Maxima for forty-two years! After mortgaging his home, cashing in his 401(k), and selling his jet ski, he purchased a 5,000 square foot plant in Seattle and dove into the renewable energy businesses.
Plaza imported raw materials from soybean farmers and converted old beer brewery machines into biofuel generators. Relative to oil, biofuel is cheap to produce and it burns much cleaner. Therefore, it is less costly to purchase than conventional oil. Imperium became very popular amongst small marine companies. At an average savings of a twelve cents per gallon, these small business owners are able to cut the costs of running their businesses. Campbell Maritime, a cargo company based in Seattle, reported that it was able to save over $5,000 over a span of two years. Currently, Imperium is able to produce up to 800 gallons a day and even that amount is not enough to keep up with the demand.
Instead of trying to capture larger fuel consuming markets, Plaza has focuses his business on small companies that utilize tugboats. In my opinion, his targeted niche market contributes greatly to his success, especially because diesel is required to contain biofuel in the state of Washington, Minnesota, and Louisiana. Fortunately for Plaza’s business, it seems as though many more states are on their way to converting into biofuels due to their clean and renewable nature.
Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans, and his investment partners came into the Bizdom classroom last Friday for a “Q & A” session. As future entrepreneurs, we were able to ask them whatever question we wanted concerning his companies and the ventures of our own interests. So here is the question I asked him: “It is interesting why you started Bizdom U, a two year entrepreneurial academy for people over the age of 18 (with a minimum of a GED), and yet you surround yourself with people [business partners] that have educational backgrounds well beyond college educations, including yourself. With that said, how is it that you see successful entrepreneurial careers arising from Bizdom U?”
Gilbert’s answer was something like this: Running a successful company has little to do with your educational background. What’s most important about formal education is that you learn discipline and a strong work ethic.
I thought that Gilbert’s response was ok, but I preferred David Carroll’s answer, the Quicken Loan’s “VP of Miscellaneous,” which he gave to me after the “Q & A” session. Carroll stated that although there may be some correlation between your education and success, Bizdom U is designed to accelerate “students” beyond entrepreneurs attaining bachelors and masters degrees. This made more sense to me because I realize that traditional educational institutions require students to take classes that don’t necessarily pertain to the student’s interests in attempt to provide a”well-rounded” education, which also delay the completion for a degree and the launching a company. In fact, most schools don’t even teach the proper knowledge and practical skills needed to become an entrepreneur.
In conclusion, education is not necessarily the most important factor in terms of success in the business world. Even some of the wealthiest people in the world such as Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft), Michael Dell (Founder and CEO of Dell), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Co-founders of Google) are college/graduate school “drop-outs.” Granted, they all dropped out of top-notch universities.
Dominic Pangborn is one of many successful entrepreneurs who came to this country in order to pursue a dream; he is a prime example of hard work, dedication, and determination. His company, Pangborn Design, caters the design and creativity needs of numerous large companies such as Proctor and Gamble, Pfizer, and Audi of America. In addition, Pangborn Design carries a line of fashionable neckties at high end department stores.
In my opinion, the most compelling part of Pangborn’s presentation was his decision to stay in Detroit, Michigan, leaving behind a job in Chicago that promised him security and success. Upon his arrival to the automotive capital of the world, he quickly came to the realization that there was no major design company in the city. Although most designers saw this as the reason to leave Detroit for larger cities such as New York City and Chicago, Pangborn viewed it as opportunity.
Pangborn’s story reminded me a lot of one of my father’s former clients that I met in a recent trip to my hometown, Oklahoma City. Mr. Gregory is one of the youngest and most successful commercial real estate brokers in Oklahoma. He shared with me the reason why he decided to stay in Oklahoma instead of seeking careers in much larger and affluent cities. Despite the fact that his family resides in the state, Gregory saw the opportunity in the small towns that surrounded Oklahoma City because there are no other large real estate firms in them, which allowed him to capture a large market-share within the state.
Opportunity is all around us and yet most of us fail to see or even acknowledge its presence. Only the few seek these opportunities and take the risks involved in them. As an entrepreneur, it is important to take advantage of the potential that lies in the city of Detroit. What’s going to be the next big thing that comes out of it? Most likely it won’t be a new line of automobiles.
Ray Tomlinson developed the first email system back in the early 1970s; messages were typed and then another program sent that message to another remote computer. However, email back then was a lot different from what it is now—you could not send to multiple addresses or even directly reply. Email now works off of SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) which is a defined set of rules all email servers use to communicate.
The following is an example of everyday use of email technology in a medium size company: Quicken Loans will process all inbound email in order to examine them for spam and viruses. If detected, the email will be deleted; otherwise, “you’ve got mail.” More interestingly, it will save all exchanged emails. QL has nearly 5 terabytes of emails saved on their server! About 1,000,000 (majority SPAM) emails are sent to QL daily and only 35,000 of them are accepted.
So what would my life be without email?
Let’ say that I have all the modern technology EXCEPT for email or any other way to transfer files electronically via the internet. Without email, I would have to either burn files onto a CD or copy files to a flash drive and then mail it to the recipient. Considering that I live in on campus at WSU, I would have to enclose the files into an envelope (with a postage stamp) and walk downstairs to the front desk to have it shipped away. This would probably take me at least 8-10 minutes to complete at a cost of $0.37. On average, I send about 10 emails a day, which means that I would have to spend approximately an hour and half per day at $4.00 sending mail!
However, with email prevalently available I can simply attach a file electronically and within seconds have it sent to the recipient at no cost at all. It is as simple as that.
