Get Your Biz On at March’s Start-Up Slam

Some serious business talent and experience is gathering in one place in Northern Kentucky on March 19 to help entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground.

The Start-Up Slam, a new effort by the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation and its partners, brings aspiring entrepreneurs together with business veterans for a day of networking with the ultimate goal of cultivating new and successful businesses.

Sponsored in part by the state Cabinet for Economic Development, the NKU Entrepreneurship Institute and Tri-ED, the Slam will be at Northern Kentucky University’s Student Union. The event starts at 10 a.m., and includes a series of 15-minute presentations on marketing your product, forecasting revenues and expenses, and how and when to pitch your idea to investors. Representatives from the Small Business Development Center and the Service Corps of Retired Executives are expected to be on hand.

“The goal of the Start-Up Slam is to provide a lot of valuable information on what it takes to start a business, and to make it last,” explains Keith Schneider, commercialization director of the Northern Kentucky ezone and an organizer for the event. “People who attend will get that information from business leaders who have been there, and done that.”

That is the the main benefit of the Slam, Schneider says.

“Often, reading about how to do something is very different from the actual practice of it. Participants will get the best advice there is from people who know what they’re talking about,” he adds.

Executives lined up for the Slam include Lyle T. Hawkins, a longtime executive with several firms including the Bosch Tool Co., Home Depot and Sears and owner of his own advertising agency; Steve Kaiser, a product development and technology commercialization veteran with Ford Motor Co., Union Carbide and Dow Chemical; Jodi Graham, the vice president of sales and marketing with United Medical Resources-United Healthcare Co.; and Patrick Just, an associate with bCatalyst Advisors and CFO of PackStream, a marketing firm.

There will also be attorneys available, Schneider says, to meet one-on-one with participants to offer legal advice, help set up single-member limited liability corporations and register new businesses with the state. They’ll also help set up legal documents for LLCs, while other consultants will help participants set up websites and register internet domain names.

“That one-on-one time is probably the most valuable thing about the Slam,” Schneider continues. “After lunch, there’s an opportunity for people to not only meet on an individual basis with the attorneys, but also the executives. It’s really helpful to talk to them and get their expert opinion on how you should go about setting up your business.”

This will be the third Slam put on by KSTC, following events late last year in Louisville and Lexington. Those events spawned 10 new start-up companies on the day of the Slam, with participants signing up for another 20 vouchers that allowed them to get consulting work on setting up their new business within 90 days.

The Northern Kentucky event’s goals are even loftier: 10 start-ups the day of the Slam at NKU.
Admission to the Start-Up Slam is free, though it does cost $65 to set up a business during the event — compared to three times that much if you sought help from attorneys and business consultants outside the confines of the event. There will be free pizza, and early registrants will receive a free gift.

Another selling point for the NKU event is the presence representatives from the Small Business Development Center, located at the university. The center provides a wide variety of professional consulting and training services to hundreds of prospective business owners each year.

At the event, the SBDC can “build a relationship with people who are serious about starting a business that those people can use to their advantage long after the Start-Up Slam,” says Schneider. “That can be invaluable. It’s hard to start a business and make it successful, but with the help of all these experts, we can give them a better chance of sticking around.”

To register for the Start-Up Slam, contact Shari Ball at sball@kstc.com or visit www.Start-UpSlam.com.

SOURCES: Keith Schneider, Commercialization Director, ezone.