Author: correllcoaching

Each Becoming a Destination

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter February 2020

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

A growing number of retail businesses know about becoming a destination. Being a destination means that something about a business is so unique, exceptional, and/or compelling that people will go beyond normal efforts to go to the business. Efforts to become destinations should not be limited just to retail businesses. Our businesses, organizations, attractions, hospitals, and schools should all strive to become destinations. As more and more entities become destinations, a “critical mass” occurs and cities within a region, and indeed, the region itself, becomes a destination. As people come to the destination, they bring with them dollars to spend and thus economic prosperity for the region.

People Go Far for a Great Experience

If you normally spend up to fifteen minutes getting to your usual restaurants, perhaps there is one restaurant that is so good you’re willing to travel for up to one or even two hours to get there. That would be considered a destination restaurant for you. A destination restaurant has figured out a way to do something extraordinary to be worth your extra effort. Most of the time, this requires more than just good food.

Becoming a destination has to do with the way people; i.e. customers, clients, patients, citizens, students, and visitors are treated as they seek solutions for their problems and needs. Each entity has to figure out exceptional ways to meet those needs in ways so much better than the competition that people will go out of their way to purchase the solutions. This is where innovation comes in. Sometimes innovation can be a totally new product or service, but many times innovation can be changing an existing product or service to provide new and better ways of solving people’s problems and meeting their needs.

How to Become a Destination

What is required to become a destination varies widely based on the type of entity? Helping businesses and entities become destinations is an important component of the Growth Accelerator Program at Fab Lab ICC. We’ve partnered with E-Community, a Network Kansas initiative to promote and facilitate the help of an internationally recognized destination expert, Jon Schallert, and two of his programs; “Destination Boot Camp (DBC)” and “New Rules of Business Success (NRBS).” The goal of both programs is to help businesses and organizations transform themselves into “Destinations.”

During DBC, participants spend 2 ½ days with Jon in Longmont, Colorado learning “how to reinvent their businesses and marketplaces.” Jon spent 10 years in marketing at Hallmark before starting his own business in 1996, launching Destination Boot Camp in 2002. During this time, he’s helped thousands of business owners and other leaders figure out how to make their entities’ destinations.

How-To Coming to Independence, Mar. 11 and 12.

In 2018, Network Kansas requested that Jon develop a distilled version of his destination strategies and bring them to Kansas for folks who had not had the opportunity to travel to Longmont for DBC. New Rules of Business Success made its debut in Kansas in October of 2018 in Marion, sponsored by the Marion/Hillsboro E-Community (Entrepreneurial Community is an initiative of Network Kansas.) Since then, there have been two other NRBS events in Kansas and we are pleased to be hosting the fourth in Independence on March 11 and 12. The 2-day event will conclude at 2:30 on the 12th. Both days will include breakfast, lunch, and strategies that businesses and organizations can begin to use immediately to grow.

There are no geographic limits regarding who can participate. Promoting our businesses, cities, and other entities to be innovative in becoming destinations in their own right will help our region become a destination for customers, visitors, entrepreneurs, and businesses.

Fab Lab ICC is pleased to be one of the sponsors of New Rules for Business Success in Independence on March 11 and 12, and we are handling registrations and inquiries through our web site at http://www.fablabicc.org.

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks. Archive columns and podcast at jimcorrell.com.

Terry Trout-From Saw Dust to Coffee Grounds

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter January 2020

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

Growing up in Altamont, Kansas, Terry Trout liked to make things. In high school, his shop teacher, Mr. Holroyd, suggested that since he liked to make things, he might be interested in a wood technology program at Pittsburg State University (PSU.) So it was then that he graduated from PSU in 1996 with a major in Wood Technology and a minor in business. He and his wife, Tonya, also a PSU grad, made their way to Monticello, Arkansas where he became an engineer in a company specializing in hotel and institutional cabinetry. He was in his element, so he thought. After a couple of years on the job, at 24, company owners summoned him. With some trepidation, Terry went to see what they wanted. To his surprise, they wanted to make him the supervisor of 100 employees. He protested a bit saying he was only 24 and had no management experience. Didn’t matter they said. They had seen his work ethic and the way he built relationships with coworkers. So, a supervisor he became.

Returning to SEK

Meanwhile, back in Southeast Kansas, health became an issue with Terry’s parents. That and the fact that the rest of both families were in the area prompted the family to return. Terry went to work for Prestige Cabinets in Neodesha. The great flood of 2007 prompted Prestige to move to Coffeyville’s industrial park. A few years later, after a change in ownership, the company consolidated plants in Coffeyville and Columbus, Kansas, closing Coffeyville. Terry retained his supervisor position. The commute was long, leaving at 4:30 each morning and arriving at home by 6:30 or 7 each evening. Working on Saturday was often required. Even so, everything was pretty much fun and games until the day management told him the plant was closing and that he needed to lay off 100 employees. Remaining a faithful employee Terry, who likes people, went about the painful task of the layoff. After that, management told him they had no supervisory positions open for him, but he could take a demotion and move to Tijuana, Mexico, or Anaheim, California.

Deciding Not To Move to Tijuana

He and Tonya elected not to uproot their family to move to either of those choices. Terry hit the streets to look for another job, management or not, something in the industry. It was early 2011 and the local industry had not fully recovered from the recession in 2008. “You’re really overqualified for anything we have right now, why don’t you check back with us in a few months.” He heard that a lot and was willing to start at any level, but no job materialized.

Let’s Buy a Restaurant

In the late summer of 2011, Tonya noticed a classified ad in the Independence Reporter that Ane Mae’s Coffee and Sandwich House was for sale. She was familiar and really liked the business so as a joke she circled the ad and left it where Terry would see it. They had a good laugh together but as the laughter subsided, they began to play the “what-if” game. Eventually, they decided to buy the business, but they didn’t want to incur any debt in case it didn’t work so they used their life savings instead. In September 2011, he took over knowing about all about sawdust but nothing about coffee grounds; he didn’t even like coffee and didn’t drink it. (Today he’s amended his ways and enjoys his coffee products.) BTW, some local “experts” told him the location at 325 N Penn would never work. Too far north of the main pedestrian traffic patterns, they said.

Becoming An Entrepreneur

Terry is a life-long learner. He got involved with our Entrepreneur Program in 2012 and was in the inaugural Entrepreneurial Mindset class featuring the Ice House Entrepreneurship program in August 2012. He established good relationships with the food inspectors, vendors, and most of all his customers. He learned quickly; some lessons the hard way, but pleasing his customers were always at the top of his list. In 2014, he and another tenant in the “iMall” building bought it, opening a gift shop in the center of the building, “Ane Mae’s Gifts and Goodies.”

The main hallway in the “iMall,” the building that was “too far north of the pedestrian traffic patterns,” now has more foot traffic than any other building in downtown Independence. Ane Mae’s offers customers a respite from their daily routines with coffees, juices, baked goods, and lunches. They cater all over the area and Terry has built a welcoming culture. Terry would say he still has a lot to learn, but it looks to me like he has successfully made the transition from sawdust to coffee grounds.

Listen to my Correll Files podcast interview with Terry. If your computer has sound, just Google Correll Files and click one of the podcast links that appear.

2020-State of Fab Lab

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter January 2020

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

I recently had the opportunity to present a program at the Independence Optimist club. They had asked me for an overall status and to know what’s new. In today’s column, I thought I’d present a kind of state of the Fab Lab report as an update of our activities and a look forward to this new year in a new decade.

Last Year’s Birthday

Our fifth birthday came and went on October 1, 2019, and we were so busy we didn’t celebrate. Our opening and first 5-years of operation were characterized by many, many great opportunities and a kind of seat-of-the-pants management style. As with many start-ups, we’d like for 2020 to be a year of process and planning. We want to document more of our processes and do more planning, turning many of our projects into work plans with the tasks lined out, each assigned to someone. Even though we want to do more planning, we know that things rarely turn out as planned and we will always be flexible and on the look-out for new opportunities whether they were in our plans or not. Starting this year, we want to share some of our plans and dreams and have a Wishlist on our web site. The Wishlist shows the things we’d like to acquire and the initiatives we’d like to launch. For some, we have the resources we need. For others, we are waiting for resources to become available. To review, go to www.fablabicc.org and look for the Wishlist link.

New Building, Welding and Paint Booth

The new building construction is pretty much done except for a few items on the punch list. The request for a quote for the welding equipment has been approved by the Economic Development Administration and will soon go out to area suppliers for bid. I’m working on the specs for the paint booth so the bids for it can go through the same process.

Greenbush Programs and Camps Will Continue

The Greenbush Gifted and Robotics programs continue with students coming to the lab every Wednesday to work on their project-based learning. For the third year, we’ll collaborate with Greenbush to host a series of week-long morning boot camps this summer. In addition, the Greenbush teachers that live and work in this area have office space for planning their activities.

STEM Camp Renewed

The Verizon Foundation grant that financed the girls STEM Camp and follow-up learning sessions had been renewed. People sometimes ask why we don’t do a STEM Camp for boys and the answer is resources. Although Verizon sponsors some boys’ initiatives in urban areas, at the moment Verizon’s support to us is limited to the girl’s camp. We’ve added an initiative to our Wishlist at www.fablabicc.org for a boy’s camp awaiting the resources to make it happen.

Fab Lab Blab Newsletter Returns

A temporary casualty of our busy year in 2019 was the popular “Fab Lab Blab” newsletter. Thanks to Joanne Smith and her Fab Creative Services, we are expecting our first issue since the end of 2018 to come out very soon.

Membership Grows

Even while maker spaces in the big cities routinely charge members $60 to $70 per month, we will leave our individual membership at $125 per year. Here is a partial breakdown of our 258 current members. Through individual memberships, 95; family, 23; corporate, 11; ICC students (no charge), 30 and Adult Basic Education students (no charge), 32. We have a tax-deductible “Sustaining” membership for those who want to support us but do not have time to use the Lab.

Business Development Continues

In a previous column, I covered our relationship with Montgomery County E-Community and the services we provide to entrepreneurs and small businesses within the county. Besides providing nearly $1M in gap financing loans since 2009, E-Community provides for other kinds of programming too. One such program is the upcoming “New Rules of Business Success” by destination business expert Jon Schallert. He will be in Independence on March 11 and 12. Rarely have I seen strategies as beneficial to small businesses as those of Jon Schallert. Follow the links at www.fablabicc.org for more information.

Volunteer Growth Continues

We have to rely on volunteers to get all of this done and we could always use more. You don’t have to be an expert on all machines or any machines, to volunteer and help share your enthusiasm and knowledge with our members. We need volunteers in other areas too, like bookkeeping and help with a variety of Fab Lab projects. Contact me if you’d like to know more.

The year 2020 will be as busy for us as any of the previous five years. Our mission remains to build people’s self-confidence, in a variety of ways, in their personal, academic, and professional lives by helping them do things they never thought they could do.

Origins of Montgomery County E-Community Part 2

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter January 2020

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

In a previous article, my good friend and VP of Entrepreneurship for Network Kansas summarized the beginnings of Network Kansas (NK) aka Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship. The journey started for NK in 2005 with what has grown to be 500 resource partners across the state to aid entrepreneurs. Soon after the start of the Successful Entrepreneur Program at ICC in 2006, we applied for and became one of those resource partners. In 2006, NK initiated Start Up Kansas, a statewide program of gap financing for small business start-ups. This evolved into the addition of local Entrepreneurial Communities (E-Communities) around the state that also provide gap financing loans and another programming with loan decision-making at a local board level.

Local E-Community Started in Coffeyville

Happening in the same timeframe, in 2007, I was a founding board member of Downtown Coffeyville, part of the now-defunct, but soon to be reinvigorated Kansas Main Street program. We hired Shelley Paasch as executive director. In 2010, we applied for and became an NK E-Community for Coffeyville and the surrounding area.

Meanwhile, sometime in 2009, after the recession of 2008, there was a community meeting in Independence to brainstorm ways to revitalize Independence. I can’t remember the exact date or what it was called, but local banker Chuck Goad facilitated the gathering of about 100 people. In groups, we circulated among tables, each with a different economic development theme writing our related big ideas on large sticky notes. All the sticky notes were put on a wall in their appropriate categories. One of the ideas was to create an entity to help start and incubate small businesses.

IBRC Started in 2009

I found an email from July of 2009 I sent to organize the first meeting of an unnamed business institute that would help entrepreneurs and develop a business incubation program. The group would be made up of a volunteer board of business owners. I became the volunteer executive director; ICC has always supported my volunteer work in area economic development. There would be no paid staff with our initial resource of $5,000. That came from Independence Action Partnership. We wrangled over a name for several meetings. The first name was Independence Business Resource Center, but by the next meeting, the board did not want to limit its scope to just Independence, so we became Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC).

Montgomery County E-Community Merges Two

In 2012, we applied for and became North Montgomery County E-Community. I had to explain to Network Kansas that the time wasn’t right to attempt to combine this new E-Community with the one in Coffeyville. Both E-Communities in the county co-existed for a couple of years. With the dissolution of the Kansas Main Street program and eventually the Downtown Coffeyville group (BTW, Shelley Paasch has since become the Network Kansas manager for rural entrepreneurship), conditions became right for combining the E-Communities and in middle of 2017, we became Montgomery County E-Community with IBRC the local partner entity.

Network Kansas provides a dashboard for us each month showing a summary of all loans credited to the original two E-Community groups, now one. Counting one or two of the Start-Up Kansas loans made to Montgomery County business earlier in 2009 and 2010, Network Kansas and E-Community have made possible nearly $1 million in gap financing loans. Montgomery County E-Community currently has no delinquencies or failed loans. We’ve also provided nearly $25,000 in scholarships to aid businesses in programs such as Destination Boot Camp, a two- and one-half-day camp during which businesses learn a 14-point program to draw customers from a wider area.

County-Wide Collaboration

Although completely separate entities, we work in conjunction with Montgomery County Action Council (MCAC has its own long history of working toward county-wide economic development) in putting together loan packages for businesses throughout the county.

Every county has its own methods of promoting economic development. For Montgomery County, Kansas the Montgomery County E-Community, the fabrication, prototyping, marketing tools and coaching of Fab Lab ICC, the overall economic development efforts of Montgomery County Action Council and the work of the Chambers, Main Street and city and county governments, make for a powerful combination in helping entrepreneurs and small businesses grow and thrive amid an uncertain global marketplace.