by ·Comments Off on Social Work Class Helps Create Neighborhood-Scale Businesses

By Nic Custer

UM-Flint Social Work professor Todd Womack has been creating important multi-semester partnerships through his SWK 304- The Urban Context course at Joy Tabernacle Church in Flint’s Civic Park neighborhood. The goal of the course is to provide social work students with a real world, understanding of historical, economic, political and demographic issues that affect urban populations in the U.S., with a focus on Flint in particular.

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Professor Todd Womack leading his students in a discussion about how to best address community needs

This semester the class has partnered with Civic Park residents who are trying to create neighborhood-scale food and beautification businesses. University Outreach’s Innovation Incubator has been working with the social work students, not only to explain some of the necessary components of a successful business but also to teach them how to help residents build their own business model and create a start-up cost analysis that will help community members prepare to launch their ventures.

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Innovation Incubator staff member Nic Custer explaining a start-up cost analysis to Social Work students

The class culminated in a presentation for community members at the end of the semester, where students were able to dialogue with stakeholders and present their final projects. Community partners will continue to develop their neighborhood businesses in the Winter semester through an ongoing teaching partnership with the Innovation Incubator.

by ·Comments Off on [IN] at the Center of Co-working and Co-learning in Flint

costart picBy Nic Custer

Mark Baldwin’s filter that turns rain into drinking water, Stephan McBride’s safe space for gamers to congregate, Porcha Clemons’ Christian dance studio, and Glennis Holcomb’s urban farm business producing pickles and kilts are just some of the interesting and exciting business ideas that participants hope will win them start-up funding at a Grand Rapids pitch competition Nov. 30.

At the final session of Co.Starters, a 9-week business boot camp at UM-Flint’s Innovation Incubator, the cohort of entrepreneurs practiced pitching their big ideas and shared feedback.

Eleven participants gave brief pitches about their new or pre-existing businesses. Several entrepreneurs already sell products out of the Flint Farmers’ Market including Alyson Caverson’s Happy Girl Granola, Franklin Pleasant’s The Local Grocer and Cindy Eckert’s Whimsicality, which sells old fashioned toys. Others are looking to launch or expand their community businesses in the next year including Qareena Clemons’ massage therapy business, Isaih Dawson’s Dawson’s Kitchen and Catering, and Francine Houston’s Writers Inc., a publishing business.

steffan picThe program was brought to campus through a partnership with Grand Valley State University’s Sprout Lab, which subsidized some of the costs of the Flint boot camp to make it affordable for local entrepreneurs. The Innovation Incubator was an ideal location because of its convenient free public co-working space downtown and free parking adjacent to the building.

Co.Starters participants across the state are automatically eligible for a pitch competition in Grand Rapids on November 30. One of the Flint pitches will receive a special AKT Peerless sponsored prize of $1,000 and could potentially win the competition’s grand prize of $5,000.

AKT Peerless, an environmental remediation and economic development firm, also sponsored the program and provided Garrett Geer, vice president of business development and government relations, to teach the course in Flint.

porsha picParticipants enjoyed Geer’s teaching style and appreciated the cohort model, in which participants share feedback and together gain a more complete understanding of the concepts. By the end of the program, the more than 20 students and community members who participated were more confident in themselves and the direction of their ventures.

The Innovation Incubator will hold a free pitch clinic in January to prepare entrepreneurs for two other local competitions in early 2016. For more information, visit the Innovation Incubator webpage.

by ·Comments Off on The Art of the Ask

By Nic Custer

Imagine you are riding in an elevator with a venture capitalist. You have less than one minute before they reach their destination and one chance to convince them why they should invest $100,000 in your business concept. Do you think you could do it?

pitch-clinicThis is the central premise behind a so called “elevator pitch.” Flint residents will have two opportunities to pitch their big ideas in early 2015. First, UM-Flint’s School of Management is holding a Business Plan Competition to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The winning student or alum will receive a $5,000 grand prize. The second competition, sponsored by Michigan State University’s Spartan Innovations, is called Greenlight Flint. This competition is open to anyone in the community as long as their business is less than one year old. The grand prize will also be $5,000 but there will be an additional $5,000 in prizes for second place, third place and crowd favorite. First place will also receive automatic entry to the statewide Greenlight Michigan competition in East Lansing to compete for a $25,000 prize.

To prepare students and community members for the upcoming competitions, the Innovation Incubator partnered with the UM-Flint Entrepreneurs Society to hold a 3-hour business pitch clinic Nov. 20. The clinic coincided with Global Entrepreneurship Week and was one of only nine events in Michigan that celebrated innovators and start-up businesses.

More than 20 people attended the clinic, learning the basics and watching winning competition pitch videos.

Dr. Michael Witt, entrepreneur-in-residence and lecturer in the School of Management, told attendees that a pitch needs to have a hook, should ask for a specific amount and should be 150 – 300 words long. He said the presenters need to have a thick skin when trying to pitch to potential investors. They also need to show they are passionate, have energy and enthusiasm for their idea and how they will make a profit.

A good pitch covers six basics:

  1. What are the products or services offered?
  2. Who is your market?
  3. What is your revenue model
  4. Who are you?
  5. Who is your competition?
  6. What are your advantages and what makes you different?

Eight people pitched their ideas and received feedback from Dr. Witt and President Bryon Killin of the Entrepreneurs Society. Business ideas included a mobile sushi truck, a fire safety coloring book, a mesh internet network, a bib with attached pacifier and a housing redevelopment project. Audience members who didn’t pitch their concepts were able to benefit by hearing the critiques other people received on their pitches and applying it to their own ideas and approaches.

Want to give it a try? Apply these basic rules to your own concept to develop a great pitch and maybe you could be the next grand prize winner.

Links

UM-Flint School of Management Business Plan Competition
Greenlight Flint
Innovation Incubator
Global Entrepreneurship Week

by ·Comments Off on Our Home Transitional Wins Start-Up Business Award

563531_391180014313509_1364912815_nby Nic Custer

Our Home Transitional, a housing and social services business for female veterans located in the University of Michigan-Flint’s Innovation Incubator, has won the 2013 eTEAM Spark Award.

The eTEAM Spark award recognizes the “determination, vision, identified market, growth potential, and setting and achieving business goals” by a newer business.

To qualify for a eTEAM Spark award a business must be less than two years old and have partnered with an eTEAM member organization among other criteria.

The award, which includes a plaque, was given to ten start-up businesses around Flint and Genesee County. These included Consolidated Barber Shop, 107 W. Kearsley St., Healthy Dollar, 138 W. First St., New Thought Movement of Davison, and Our Home Transitional, 432 N. Saginaw St., Suite 207.

Joyce Hitchye, OHT volunteer grant writer, accepted the award on behalf of Executive Director Carrie Miller.

She said, “I have just recently met Carrie through our BEST Project Leadership Program, but her energy and her honest vigor to see the single female homeless veteran housing come to fruition has greatly inspired me.”

Our Home Transitional was presented the award Feb. 28 at the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce 2013 Jumpstart Entrepreneur Conference.

The conference was held at the Holiday Inn Gateway Center in Grand Blanc. Dave Zilko, vice chairman of Garden Fresh Gourmet, was the keynote speaker. There were two breakout sessions where attendees could choose between subjects like tax planning, government contracts vs. grants, 21st century marketing and legal structures.

Sherry Hayden, of the Innovation Incubator, originally nominated the start-up business for the award.