Finally Start -- or Improve -- Your Very Own Business

The last few months have been busy between personal projects, client projects, and several out of town trips. Anyhow this morning, I ran across a nifty looking resource which inspired this post, which is dedicated to all of those out there who dream of going out "on their own", have already tried and struggled but still plow along, or who are doing alright but are always in search of how to get better.

The site I ran across is:

http://www.myownbusiness.org/

"My Own Business, Inc. is a nonprofit organization committed to helping people succeed in business. The course is presented by successful business owners who point out the common, avoidable mistakes. Our course is geared toward the entrepreneur who wants to start his or her own business, and the individual who has an established small business and would like to see that business grow and expand. Most people fail in business because they make avoidable mistakes! This free course teaches you what those mistakes are and how to avoid them."

The course is on-line, covers a lot of ground, appears to stick to the practical aspects rather than lots of theory, and has words from actual entrepreneurs like you spread throughout.

On a similar note, nearly everyone knows about local Chamber of Commerce organizations and groups such as Rotary which can be useful for networking (maybe, depending on how you do it). But most areas, including SLO County where I'm based, have a number of useful organizations specifically for those who are on their own and are either just starting or looking to take things up a notch (whether they are full-time or part-time ventures). For example:

• Cuesta Small Business Development Center
• Private one-on-one Counseling (consulting) for entrepreneurs
• Workshops
• SLO SCORE
• Counseling
• Workshops
• Other resources (such as an interesting looking online book called "How to Start a Business in SLO County")
  
• SLO EVC
• Workshops
• Loans
• Venture capital
• Site selection
  

Best of luck in all your endeavors!

-jr

Minneapolis high school students take e-field trip to the operating room

About a year ago I observed that 64% of the schools in this region have connectivity at 100 Mbit/s or greater to the K12HSN -- and in turn the Internet and Internet2. I shared a few thoughts on how this might be used to do some nifty things.

Today I came across a news item from the Internet2 web site, covering a high school in Minneapolis that, using an Internet2 connection, participated in a live knee surgery.

As the surgery progressed before them, the 30 juniors and seniors in John Redelsheimer's class reacted to crystal-clear images of sliced flesh and bone with predictable groans and urrrghs. They asked questions of the surgical staff, such as how long the implant might last, and how a full and partial knee replacement differ.

Students in the Robbinsdale Armstrong High School anatomy and physiology class observed Wednesday as a surgeon in Columbus, Ohio, performed total knee-replacement surgery on an 85-year-old woman. And they didn't even board a bus.

Students in the Robbinsdale district are among a select group for whom technological expertise and resources have aligned to allow them to take an e-field trip -- in this case, to Dr. Joel Politi's operating room. Other classes have been to the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minn., a classroom in Egypt and a village in Mozambique.

The session was sponsored by COSI, a science center in Columbus, Ohio. It was made possible by Web-driven video-conferencing technology via Internet2, a superfast network linking universities, industry and government. The basic technology -- the cameras and microphones -- isn't new, but schools haven't been able to use it fully until recently because most lack that fast, powerful connection.

Link to full article is here.



This is what I am talking about!

Fundraising Event for Local Family

A long time client of mine has organized a fundraising BBQ and silent auction event to help out a SLO county family with an 11-year old girl that was born with complex congenital heart defects. You may have seen the posters around the county for the event. It will be on May 31st and they are still accepting contributions to the silent auction. You can find out more information at the web site.

-jr

Underwater Telecommunications Industry Geeks

For those who are interested in the inner workings -- both technical and business -- of the submarine fiber optic cable industry, take a look at SubOptic. Particularly recommended are the presentations from their last conference which are available to freely peruse all you like here.

177 Megawatt Solar Project in SLO County Announced

PG&E and Ausra just announced a 177 megawatt solar thermal power plant in San Luis Obispo County. It will cover one square mile (640 acres) near the Carrizo Plain. Nifty!

The local paper has a good article here. It will be built on private land. Other coverage here, and elsewhere.

Ausra projects that the power plant will create over 350 skilled jobs on-site during construction, and an additional 100 permanent jobs in the area. The plant will burn no fuel, use minimal water, and have no air or water emissions.

The CPUC application and related documents are here and here.

It sounds like the deciding factor as to the location was the similar to what come up when deciding where to build a data center. You can build one in all sorts of places, but proximity to {major fiber routes, transmission lines} can be a deciding factor because it determines whether the project will have a reasonable cost and ultimately be a success.

John O’Donnell, executive vice president of Ausra, said the site identified for the plant, north of Highway 58, is ideal for the project.

“In developing large solar power plants, the biggest problem is not finding the sun or the land, but finding a place where you can transmit the power,’’ O’Donnell said. “And one of the real shaping things in serving PG&E is looking at the California electric grid and for places where we could put power into the grid. The Carrizo Plain is a major transmission line. That was one of the biggest drivers.’’

and:

Although these agreements dwarf the deal with Ausra, New Energy Finance analyst Nathaniel Bullard said that Ausra is well-positioned.

Other solar thermal energy projects such as Solel’s Mojave Solar Park, to be constructed in California’s Mojave Desert, will be far away from populated areas and the electric grid. Ausra’s plant, to be located about ten miles north of Carrizo Plain National Monument, may get less sun than the Mojave Desert, but it will be directly under a PG&E transmission line, O’Donnell said.

Ausra’s proposed plant will only need “850 feet to connect,” said Bullard. They’ll be able to “tap right into the electric grid. It’s a lot less expensive and it speeds up the process.”

The high cost of the feeder and trunk lines required to connect to the grid from a long distance are often well outside of a smaller developer’s range.

-jr

California and SLO County School Connectivity (and Ideas!)

According to this data posted by K12HSN, 17% of schools state-wide are connected to the Internet (and, in turn, Internet2) at 100 Mbit/s or higher. What I found nifty is, upon zooming into the local schools here in San Luis Obispo County, that number jumps to 67% (fifty seven out of eighty four). You can see other data for SLO here. (You can zoom in on other areas of California there as well). With this foundation, some intriguing possibilities now exist.

Quick background: K12HSN is a state program funded by the California Department of Education, providing Network/Internet connectivity and related services to K-12. Through K12HSN, schools get access to CENIC/CalREN and, as a result, Internet2 as well as, of course, the Internet. CalREN, the California Research and Education Network, is specially designed to meet the unique requirements of these communities, and the majority of the state's K-20 educational institutions are connected to it. CENIC oversees CalREN and coordinates other related services for California public educational institutions. Internet2 is an R&D platform, for various research institutions both public and private (and, if you're under the impression that Internet2 is just about high speed connectivity, a bunch of network geeks, and some talk about tele-medicine, look here as well as as some of the following links to see how it's being used in the performing arts).

With this as a backdrop, interesting possibilities have emerged for local K-12 students. Here are some ideas:

• The SLO County Office of Education could host an Internet2 Day where research projects and applications are demonstrated to promote awareness and spur ideas in the minds of researchers (read: students, teachers). Projects/applications discussed and demo'd might include collaboration, health sciences, arts & humanities, and science & engineering. It would reach across all disciplines.
  
• The "economies of scale" necessary to have live expert guest lecturers teaching students statewide via video conferencing (and here). I'm talking about having the top professors, researchers, artists, politicians, etc. speak live to students across the state and have the capacity to take real-time Q&A from students. Sure beats watching a passive recorded video on television! And it's sure to intrigue students who might easily overlook great thinkers sitting still on a textbook page in front of them. You get the benefits of serendipity, live action, interaction, and young minds all rolled into one. This same infrastructure could be used to publicize to the larger student body things like state-wide competitions, which, at least traditionally, only the local and regional winners of contests have been able to visit when they head off to compete at the higher level. Why not spread the inspiration around?
• Got more ideas? Post 'em!
  

How about it?

Local company, Shopatron, gets $6m in Additional Funding

Congratulations to the folks over at Shopatron, a nifty San Luis Obispo (California) based company. Until relatively recently, they were called Firepoppy while Shopatron was the name of their primary product. They have picked up some additional capital and continue to be working hard on solving problems in their niche.

Shopatron solves problems for manufacturers that don't or cannot sell their products directly, namely connecting their customers (say, visiting their web site) with their retailer/distributor network. They do it in a way that is conducive to the customers desire to "buy now", with less hops to jump through, and make it a win-win all around (win-win-win, uh, win, really) .

It's one of those niches that makes a lot of sense once you hear about it and they've been working hard at perfecting it for a number of years now. And, since they are so focused on solving one particular problem space (and it's a real one at that, as best as I can tell), rather then solve every interesting opportunity that they run across haphazardly, they are sure to be successful.

Congrats Ed, Sean, Dave, and the rest of the crew over there.

Further Related: Links:

• Shopatron takes $6M funding to capture in-store pickup crowd
• Shopatron closes $6 Million in Series B Funding
  

Mid-State & Rabobank & Brand Equity

According to their press release Mid-State Bank & Trust will be switching to their new parent's, Rabobank, brand name:

The Mid-State franchise will be integrated into the Rabobank organization immediately but will continue to operate under the Mid-State Bank & Trust name until the Fall, when it will be renamed “Rabobank.”

So much for the tremendous local brand equity demanded by the Mid-State Bank name on the Central Coast. Seems to me that focusing on "synergies" behind the scenes such as infrastructure, processing, outsourcing, advertising economies of scale, and perhaps even more visible but still not completely destroying the brand equity areas such as best practices, products/services, management structure, etc. would make the most sense.

It's not as if Mid-State was a teeny tiny acquisition for Rabobank N.A. (though their ultimate parent is much larger admittedly). Though I presume the idea is that Rabobank, in the long-run, intends to expand their North American presence considerably and their plan is to do so under one brand -- which has obvious benefits in the long run.

I wonder if a slower approach was considered -- stick with the Mid-State brand until Rabobank N.A. has a larger piece of the pie in the U.S. then announce the change as a simple "same bank, same ownership, different name". It would be less abrupt and alienating for customers. Right now I'd argue that the Mid-State brand has more stickiness value in its markets than the Rabobank will for quite awhile. Why alienate (and probably lose) more customers before Rabobank has even had an opportunity to prove itself?

Then there's how similar sounding "Rabobank" (especially when spoken fast) is to a criminal activity that banks (and their insurance companies) tend to frown upon. Apparently "Rabo" is a combination of the letters from the original two Netherland-based banks that merged in the 1970s. Rabobank is huge but has a much smaller presence in the U.S. I wonder if they'll make some tongue-in-cheek ads in the U.S. about their name? :)