Entrepreneur Jonathan Drury on SIVAD Radio!

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On this week’s show, we had the pleasure to visit with Jonathan Drury, Partner and Director of Operations for KBAR Parts, LLC. Here, he manages day to day manufacturing and parts sales, as well as accounting department and engineering liason. He graduated University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill – Kenan-Flagler Business School, MBA, 2009; and Clemson University, BA Political Science, 2000.

On the show today, we discussed the current status, as well as future trends, in U.S. manufacturing, of which Jonathan is bullish. We talked about doing business in international markets, where both co-host Charles Davis and Jonathan talked about the exciting future of South America. Jonathan also shared how a small organization can compete in international markets.

Finally, as we often do on this show, the three of us talked about entrepreneurs, and we enjoyed hearing Jonathan’s take on how to succeed as an entrepreneur in today’s economy.

You’ll enjoy today’s episode!

Dick Morrison on SIVAD Radio!

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On today’s episode of SIVAD Radio, we had the pleasure to be joined by Dr. Richard Morrison, a retired international executive of Eli Lilly and Company. He has served, and continues to serve on many corporate boards. Dick also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Cameron School of Business at UNC Wilmington.

Dr. Morrison also serves on the advisory board of SIVAD Business Solutions. Dick kindly shares the reasons he was attracted to the company, and shares his insights on progress to date. We are very fortunate to have him on board.

On the show, Dr. Morrison shares his keen insights on the field of technology and healthcare, as well as his outlook on international business and the global economy.

Finally, Dick discusses his work and mentorship at the Cameron School of Business at UNC Wilmington, and comments on his enthusiasm for our future leaders. He also shares his recommendations for future entrepreneurs.

We look forward to further conversations with Dr. Richard Morrison, including welcoming him to our Atlanta-based studio when he visits. We hope you enjoy this episode!

Entrepreneur Dave Spetrino on SIVAD Radio!

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We were honored to welcome Dave Spetrino to SIVAD Radio! Dave is the president and CEO of Plantation Building Corp.

On the show, we discussed what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and whether or not this is a good time to launch an entrepreneurial venture. We also discussed the status of the present day real estate market, as well as the trends on where the real estate market is going over the next several years. Finally, we discussed how the banking community and the regulatory environment are impacting small business.

Dave Spetrino lives in Wilmington NC. He has more than eighteen years of experience in the construction, real estate, and development industries. Plantation Building Corp, a multi-million dollar corporation, focuses on commercial and residential construction and development.

The Coming Age of Entrepreneurialism

As this great country continues to work its way out of difficult financial times, many people look to the future and wonder what will be the “next great thing” that will invigorate the business world. My contention is America is at the forefront of a great new wave of entrepreneurism. For far too long the smart people went into banking, financial services, large high tech companies and other large enterprises like General Electric. Times are changing. Smart people are leaving these industries in droves, both voluntarily and involuntarily. You talk to almost anyone in large corporations and they complain about the daily life, lack of decision-making, and general malaise of corporate life. Many stay because they have a job and lack risk tolerance to go on their own.

Again, times are changing. In the past, MBA schools weren’t open and eager to teach entrepreneurialism either because many of it’s students had their tuition paid by large corporations, or because these same corporations support the schools financially, or students saw it as the fastest way to a corporate job. However, many MBA schools have now embraced teaching entrepreneurialism and are seeing students gravitate in mass to these studies. With the pullback in corporate support, students are now driven to make their own decisions and what gives them the most risk/reward potential. As Gen X and Gen Y become more of the leaders in society, their motivations are driven beyond the classic normal factors. Fulfillment of life goes beyond salary, and building something that will have a more meaningful impact, either by employing people or giving back to their community through services, have become priorities.

My contention is that these corporate “nomads” will start to find each other. They are highly educated and understand the operating principles of business. What they need help with is the risk profile of an entrepreneur. Through education, and most of all through trial and error of running a small business, this group will lead the resurgence of the business community. America needs this to happen and the government should offer incentives to promote the growth of entrepreneurialism. Let’s look at the numbers that the Kauffman Foundation released this year after studying the US government’s data set called Business Dynamics Statistics. From 1997 to 2005, existing companies were net job destroyers, losing one million jobs annually, while new businesses in their first year added an average of three million jobs annually. Corporate America is NOT where the jobs are created. Entrepreneurs and Small Business leaders are the job creators in this country. We need to embrace and exploit this fact as the New Entrepreneurialism Age grows over the next decade. Federal and local governments need to embrace this growth and cater to small business, as these are the growth engines of the future. Over the next eight years, America and Corporate America will struggle in a tough environment due to the deleveraging that needs to continue happening, deflation then inflation, and the end of a nasty debt driven recession.

Entrepreneurs will also struggle, but they understand the ups and downs better because they live with these day to day in their business. They also have an optimistic attitude and a drive in their gut to succeed. Entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do and will work day and night to get their job done. They are problem solvers. Corporate America has lost this trait over the last several years as making money became somewhat easy. No more. The other key to the entrepreneurial rise is access to capital. With debt tight but opening in the future, entrepreneurs have sought out capital through equity offerings. Much of the smart money looking to be placed understands this fact. Investors continue funding entrepreneurs even through these tough times. Returns still look attractive in these investments, even on a risk-based standard. The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article talking about the growth of “Super Angel” investor groups. I believe the growth in angel investing groups will help drive the smaller entrepreneur at a faster pace than ever before. The next decade will be very tough, but I believe the following decade will be the new “Roaring Twenties”. Now is the time to either be an entrepreneur or invest in one. The new wave is coming and I for one am excited every day to have the opportunity to not only be an entrepreneur, but invest in other entrepreneurs as well. We will as a country, get through our issues and the entrepreneur will be a driving force to bring this country to a new level.

Photo from Guerrilla Futures / Jason Tester on Flickr

Why did I start this company and who cares about Business Process Automation?

I have a passion for people who stop at nothing to fulfill their dreams. In short I have a passion for entrepreneurs. Men and women that love what they are doing and when you talk to them you can’t help but get excited. Unfortunately, even with all that passion I still see businesses fail. The dreams of an entrepreneur cannot sustain a business alone. There needs to be efficient and effective processes in place to turn the dream into real business success.

I have been in the technology sector most of my working life and dealing with software solutions for most of this decade. What I have noticed is that with each passing year technology (software / hardware) becomes more powerful, encompasses more of our working life, and continues to be more affordable. What I have also noticed is that business owners continue to struggle at how best to use technology. My passion is to help business owners understand where the bottlenecks are that are choking their business and offer the right solutions to fix them.

As this blog continues, it will be dedicated to educating small business on technology that can make their business run more smoothly, and hopefully take a little stress out of their lives. When I find a useful article someone else wrote, I will link to it. When I add my own content I will try to put it into a case study/story format to offer real life circumstances of problems and how they were fixed. I hope you enjoy!