Portal for Entrepreneurs in the Caribbean Launches Today

For the past seven months Entrepreneurial Advisors, Inc. (EAI) has been working with Entrepreneurs Portal of the Caribbean to develop what I like to call a "virtual entrepreneurial center." A major problem with providing entrepreneurial services to Caribbean entrepreneurs is that they are scattered over hundreds of islands in dozens of countries. The area generally known as the Caribbean is well over 1,000 miles in all directions and none of the Caribbean island nations have large populations. The solution is a portal that will provide a wide variety of entrepreneurial services remotely.


For over a year now, a handful of Jamaicans have been developing The Entrepreneurs Portal of the Caribbean (EPOC), but two people Neil Rhule and Corine LaFont have done the lion's share of the work. Funding for the development of the portal was provided by the Caribbean Export Development Agency and the European Union, but operation of the portal must come from sources generated by the portal itself.

About seven months ago Corine LaFont contacted me (Jude Conway) to ask if I would be one of the six resident experts on the portal. The expert's job is to write blog articles, conduct webinars and answer questions from entrepreneurs writing in. As I have found, it also includes other duties as assigned.

It is a great honor to have been selected as the only “resident expert” that resides outside of the Caribbean. What is really exciting about EPOC is that is continues to expand its services even before today’s launch. There is a on-site workshop scheduled for May in Kingston, Jamaica; an international business plan competition scheduled for late this year and a weekly radio show on Jamaican radio in the development stages. There are forums, new articles and even a page to place your classified ad.

For those of you living in the Caribbean, Guyana or Suriname, I urge you to register as a member as soon as possible at http://epoconline.com/. The rest of you can become members, as well. I am sure you will find value in joining and the great thing about the internet is it provides access to everyone whether in the Caribbean or elsewhere.

I have only touched the surface of what is available at EPOC. There are things that can be done at the site that I have certainly not discovered. I could go on for pages about what a great resource the portal will be for those Caribbean entrepreneurs who felt isolated in the past. This will act as their hang out where not only they can get expert advice but can communicate with each other, barter for services and tap each others knowledge and creativity.

I will end here but this is only the beginning, I am sure of blog posts you will see here about my experiences in the Caribbean.

Saw Mill Hollow Family Farm

I spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday at Saw Mill Hollow near Missouri Valley, Iowa. For those of you that have no idea this is located, it is about thirty minutes north of Omaha, Nebraska. I went there with Paul McGarvey of Chadron Capital for a business meeting with owner Vaughn Pittz and his son, Andrew. The first thing that struck was how we almost instantly felt like we were somewhere other than Iowa. Saw Mill Hollow is in the Loess Hills of Iowa one of the most unique geologic formations in the world and one of the more fragile. As its name infers the business is located in a hollow with hills surrounding it. The meeting room looked out over one of two lakes on the property. As we drove in we saw five wild turkeys in a field on our left. As we left, over two hours later the same turkeys were just leaving the field, slowly walking up a hill.


But there is much more to this story than its location for Saw Mill Hollow is the first place in North America to grow aronia berries, and all the berries grown at the farm are organic! Since starting this operation in 1991, Vaughn has talked other farmers in the region and elsewhere to grow this unique berry and has supplied each of them with the bushes they needed to get started. He now contracts back with these growers for the berries they grow. He and Andrew then produce extracts, tablets, wine, salsa, jam and other products from the berry. Saw Mill Hollow sells just the berries, as well. Currently, there are approximately 150 farmers in Iowa and surrounding states growing the berry.

So what’s so great about the aronia berry, also known as the black choke berry. Well first and foremost it has more antioxidants than acai berries, cranberries or blueberries. I’ve tasted the wine and the salsa and both are very good. Secondly, the aronia berry was native to the United States but was all but eradicated when the Midwest was settled. It was introduced in Eastern Europe decades ago and is widely grown and consumed in Eastern European countries, especially Poland and Russia. The Native Americans of the region long knew of its medicinal properties and there is an effort to collect this information.

The other great thing about the aronia berry bush is that it is a sustainable crop that’s roots grow far into the Loess Hills’ fragile soil to help hold it in place. This is much better than attempting to use the sandy hills for row crops or even grazing.

For the past five years Saw Mill Hollow has hosted the North American Aronia Berry Festival. It is held the third weekend in September and last year approximately 1,500 people attended. It is a weekend of experiencing products made from the beery, learning from speakers, listening to live music and visiting the dozens of booths that Loess Hills artisans have set up on the grounds.

Currently, Saw Mill Hollow products are only sold in the health foods section of select grocery stores and in health food stores in Iowa, Nebraska, Texas and Hawaii, but most of the company’s products can be purchased online at http://sawmillhollow.com/shop/. Restaurants, retailers or processors wishing to purchase product on a wholesale basis should contact Andrew Pittz at 214-924-4810 or Andrew@sawmillhollow.com.

Check Out I-review Your-Company

Recently, "I-review Your Company" befriended me on Facebook and at the same time sent me a message asking that I try his services. He reviews your company, product, book, movie, music or food. To try to establish his clientele he is, for a limited time  offering this service for free. I looked at others he had reviewed and also liked the idea that he was local (Des Moines, Iowa area). My new book, "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Understanding Angel and Venture Capital" had only been released ten days earlier so I thought I would try it to promote the book.

He posted a short but flattering review on Facebook along with information on where to purchase the book and its price. He also shared the blog that I had written with all of his Facebook friends, as well as those following him on Twitter. For the last several days he has been using the book cover as his picture on Twitter and another company's logo as his profile picture on Facebook. Finally, he wrote to me suggesting other ways that I might promote the book on social media outlets.

I don't know how long his services will be free. What I do know is that he increased traffic to my fan page and this will certainly lead to increased sales of my book, as well as consulting services I offer. I suggest that anyone, especially in Iowa that has something they wish to promote check out "I-review Your-Company" on Facebook or "IreviewYC" on Twitter. And good luck with what ever you're promoting!

the unemployed entrepreneur®: TEACHER FRAUD

the unemployed entrepreneur®: TEACHER FRAUD: "The idea for this post came to me a couple of days ago, but I have to thank Tawana Necole (@CorporateChic on twitter) for sharing this quote..."

The Entrepreneur's Guide To Understanding Angel and Venture Investing Released Yesterday

My new book, "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Understanding Angel and Venture Investing," is now available at http://www.amazon.com/ and at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ in either paper back or as a Kindle eBook. It is intended to be more of a primer for those that know little about the venture or angel investing industry, the criteria used for selecting investments and the process one must go through to receive funding. Any new or young business that has thought about seeking equity investing will find the book valuable as well as those people and agencies assisting small businesses.


It is not meant to teach someone all they need to know to become an angel or venture investor or even to teach the entrepreneur the intricacies of valuation or negotiating a deal. It does introduce these concepts and provides some advice on these subjects.

I think it would be a great book for a service provider to use as a resource with a small business or to lend out to them. It is an easy read. The actual text is only about 80 pages. Then there are another 50 pages of appendices that include checklists, a sample terms sheet, a glossary and a list of resources with links to their websites.

I hope you all take the time to read the book and please give me your candid opinions of the book. Thank you.

Is it Time for You to Start and Make a Brand New End?

Today I was reading a stream of comments on Facebook concerning a friend’s announcement that she is changing jobs. A couple of quotes cited in her original post and the comments had great timing. After all, we are at the beginning of a new year and this woman has cast off the old and begun anew. There is a lot here for entrepreneurs and “would be” entrepreneurs and what better time to look at this than a new year.


The first quote is from Harvey Mackay and it goes like this; ...."Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end". I do not know the source of the other quote but its message is similar to the first one; “….every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.....”

There are a number of people out there that would advise any and everyone to become an entrepreneur. I believe it takes a special personality and set of talents to be successful as an entrepreneur but for those considering it, there is no better time than a beginning of a new year to investigate if you have what it takes and if your idea stands up to some scrutiny. Talk to people who have already made the leap, there are some great articles and books out there about what it takes to be an entrepreneur – read them. If you think you have what it takes, talk to some people about your idea. Does it make sense are there any critical flaws in your plan. Then get out there and see how big the market is for your product or service. Can the business grow? How big? What is the competition? What is your advantage? Are you solving a big problem or is your business a “me too” business?

All of the things I have mentioned can be done before quitting your day job. There is nothing wrong going through this assessment and deciding that either your not right for the entrepreneurial life or that your idea won’t fly. You may find that in two, five or ten years from now with a new or revised idea you’re ready to make the move. At least run your idea to ground.

By the way this advice is not only for the twenty and thirty somethings. More people than ever are making the leap in their 40’s, 50’s and even 60’s. I left a 30 year government and corporate career in finance to begin a consulting practice at 55 years of age.

For those of us that have already taken the leap into entrepreneurship these quotes have applicability, as well. Many of us need to adjust and re-adjust are product offering, marketing or operations several times before we get it right. I started my consulting business 18 months and I am not where I want to be or where I thought I would be when I started. I have needed to change directions a couple times and now that I have, it is probably time to re-focus. Right now I see myself going in too many directions.

Look at where you are with your business. How do you recreate your business to make it more successful and what do you change to make it more personally fulfilling for you? Is it a change in personnel, a new marketing campaign, dropping some products or adding others?

Too often we don’t step back from where we are to take a fresh look at where we want to go and how we can get there. Whether it is a dead end job or a business that is not providing a living wage or fulfilling our personal needs we need to assess our situation periodically. Where are you in this process? I’d like to here what you are doing to assess your situation and where you wish to be a year from now.

Developing an Entrepreneurial Economy in Iowa

There has been a great deal of discussion in Iowa over the recent months and years about how to encourage entrepreneurial development. The formation of new businesses has lagged other states for decades and now that the recession has curtailed new plant locations all eyes are on starting new businesses. Certainly we need to do something after all unbeknownst to most, we were the slowest growing state in the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century was not much different.


Most of the proposals have as there centerpiece an angel or venture capital fund. This is not new either it goes way back to the 1980’s with the creation of the “Iowa Fund” and the “Iowa Product Development Corporation.” These were followed by the Business Development Finance Corporation and the Iowa Capital Investment Corporation. All of these have been noble experiments but in some cases they were not given enough time to work and in other instances they were ill conceived. None of them were enough.

When I say they were not enough, I don’t mean enough money although that could be argued. Providing investment capital does little good if there is little or no entrepreneurial culture, support services or training. These initiatives really need to come before at least simultaneous to the investment capital. They will cost as much or more that the funds directed toward investment capital and they must be given years, perhaps decades to work. If one reads documents prepared by those involved in the North Carolina “Research Triangle” initiative one finds that significant results were not seen for ten to twenty years following its launch.

An entrepreneurial development program that will bring success needs to identify potential service providers and train or re-train them. It needs to educate local and regional leadership and get there buy-in. It needs a commitment from these leaders to work regionally instead of parochially. Those same leaders need to re-direct most of the funds committed to traditional economic development towards developing entrepreneurial businesses. Finally, we need to change the cultural mindset of Iowans. This is the toughest because Iowans have engrained in them the notion that it is better not to take on risky or unfamiliar endeavors than to try and fail.

This initiative is doomed to failure if we do not do something that has opportunities for all regions of the state to succeed at some level. This means an initiative that may be statewide but where program design for a particular region is largely developed locally. The programs should also be, at least in part funded locally, as well.

I have seen this type of program work in other states not unlike Iowa. Recently I have had the opportunity to work with a group of people in Caribbean and South American Nations on an entrepreneurship program for a twenty nation area. I have also had the opportunity to provide input to those attempting to rebuild the economies of Iraq and Afghanistan. In all of these cases I have recommended a comprehensive program that begins with education, training and the building of support services.

I believe that state government has some role to play in all of this. And just like local governments needs to re-allocate funds away from traditional economic development programs and toward entrepreneurship. I also firmly believe that if we are to make significant progress in changing Iowa’s economy the lead and most of the funds must come from philanthropy. This is the only way to keep politics out of it, to keep it flexible and to make quick decisions when necessary. It is also the only way to get a commitment for sustainable. The problem with some of the funding programs mentioned earlier was that they were subject to the whims of people running for office every two or four years. A change in legislature or governors office could doom a program or take it a different direction.

I think this is far more important than many initiatives funded through foundations and other philanthropic organizations. It will take millions of dollars over a number of years but will return far more over the long term. Let me know if you agree or if you are someone with financial means whether you might consider financing a piece of it.