Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation

Drop-In Gallery front view

Drop-In Gallery front view
Originally uploaded by Blackerby Associates

Here's the Drop In Gallery

Drop-In Gallery south wall
Originally uploaded by Blackerby Associates

This is where, after the transient youth create the art, it is sold and 70% of the proceeds returned to the artists.

Cameron places the screen on the blank shirt

Cameron places the screen on the blank shirt
Originally uploaded by Blackerby Associates

Here are the Tumbleweed kids in their nascent t-shirt business. This is the program OTEF is helping to launch. They have many orders coming in already.

We Begin the Tumbleweed Program!

drop in gallery
Originally uploaded by a_hoss

What a fabulous morning! We met with twelve Tumbleweed program managers in our first FastTrac(R) New Venture session. We are going to help them expand the Drop In Gallery and the accompanying t-shirt printing businesses safely (without risk to Tumbleweed) and train the managers to train Tumbleweed youth to intern at the DIG and start their own ventures.

One of the most exciting facets of this business is that Tumbleweed has a program for refugee youth. Many of them will not be able to stay in the United States, so the goal is to send them back to their own countries (mostly Central America) with skills to start their own businesses or create crafts that can be imported by Tumbleweed and sold at the DIG.

As usual, I feel blessed to provide some help to Tumbleweed, which helps so many others. And I'm doubly blessed because, as usual, I have the strong support of Phillip Blackerby and Ed Nusbaum, two fantastic facilitators and business counselors.

Tumbleweed and the Promise of Youth

This morning I made my first visit to The Drop-In Gallery (DIG) at 917 N. 5th Street in Phoenix. The Gallery is operated by Tumbleweed Youth Development Center, a drop-in shelter for runaway youth. The shelter has started a program through which young people who stay at the center can create art, which is then framed and sold at the First Friday Art Walks in downtown Phoenix. The kids get 70% of the proceeds of their art; the remainder goes to the Center to pay for the art supplies.

Steve Serrano, who runs the drop in shelter down the street from the Gallery would like to learn how to expand the business beyond selling art to selling custom designed and printed t-shirts created by the kids.nmThat is where OTEF comes in. We are going to offer our entrepreneurial education program to the artists this spring, at the gallery itself.

This won't be an academic exercise; the business is already up and running. Our goal is to expand it. I was so excited that I can't wait to start!

This is a perfect example of what can happen to the lives of ordinary people through entrepreneurship and creativity. We are so happy to be working with Tumbleweed.

If you live in Phoenix, drop in at the Gallery. If you don't, find the Tumbleweed Drop In Gallery on MySpace and friend it.

Second Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Puts OTEF in the Spotlight

This is Michael Gerber, author of "The E-Myth" wrapping up the Second Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference by telling the audience that entrepreneurship isn't about money, it's about meaning. He urges entrepreneurs to find out what they are passionate about, and to "dream big, think small, act even smaller" in creating a small prototype of what they hope to achieve one day.

Michael is all about transformation, and about the transformative power of entrepreneurship. The conference was outstanding, and two of the SEEDs women got to attend, thanks to Wells Fargo, who donated their seats.

More on the Stealthmode blog and on Flickr.

Our Big Fundraising Event is November 8th

One a year we have a major fundraiser for OTEF. Not a ball, not an auction. Instead, we have a day in which we help entrepreneurs who can afford to pay a small fee for the information, and raise money for those who can't. Our registration site is live, so register early and help us continue our entrepreneurship programs.

So if you are looking for funding or need a new go-to-market strategy or a partner, you can find them all at the Second Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference - a must-attend for anyone in or contemplating an entrepreneurial venture.

The theme of this year's conference is "Success" - yours and that of such Arizona successes as Limelight Networks, Jigsaw Health, and Zenter. Don't know them? You SHOULD...

Phoenix Airport Marriott Hotel
November 8, 2007 from 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Reception and meet-up starts at 4:30 PM

You can register at http://www.azentrepreneurship.com

SEEDs graduation day

Here's the SEEDs graduation photo. The women really do look happy.

And here are the facilitators, Ed, Phillip, and Francine with (on the floor) Mona Lou Callery, Executive Director of SEEDs with the plants (grown from seeds) the women gave us as gifts.

SEEDS program photo

In this photo, Ed and Phillip, two OTEF facilitators, talk to the SEEDs women about their business idea.

Pilot Program Concludes Very Successfully

If the response of the participants in a program are an indicator of the program's success, our first program (at the SEEDs) house was an unbelievable success. At the end of the program, we did come out with a business plan for a business to be started and run by the SEEDs participants as a way of supporting the charity. Is this new? Not really, because nonprofits start thrift shops and second hand stores all the time. What's new is that this business was not planned by the Board of SEEDs, but by the participants.

What's new is how the women in the program feel about having created something among themselves. In the three months of delivering the progam, I have noticed that only one woman of all the participants has relapsed. The rest have gone from a group of depressed, down-on-their-luck victims to a room full of attractive,vibrant, potential entrepreneurs.

THEY (not me) attribute a lot of their recovery to being involved in the program and being able to create something -- a business. They gave us potted plants yesterday, in pots they had designed, with seeds they had planted,with instructions on how to make these plants grow. It was "payback" for us teaching them how to grow their own business.

We've got the plan, we've got the numbers, and there is no reason why this business can't start, grow, and contribute to help support and grow SEEDs.

My co-facilitator, Phil Blackerby, who spent ten Sundays down at the SEEDs house and finished gloriously by crunching the numbers for the business plan and giving the women a set of spreadsheets that represented their own work and research into planning the business, was equally touched.

I'd like to thank the women of the SEEDs program for volunteering to be our pilot project, and for throwing themselves into it with such enthusiasm and effort. I feel validated in the foundation's mission -- that the principles of entrepreneurship not only grow businesses, but grow the people in them as well.

Great Arizona Republic Article

There is a great article about us by Andrew Johnson in today's Arizona Republic.

Number Crunching Time

We are in week 8 of our program with the SEEDs house. Yesterday we could see the difference SEEDs especially, and to a small extent our program, has made with the women who live there. They are actually beginning to dress and look like the entrepreneurs they are trying to become. And the energy level is so high!

We are working on the numbers for our business plan. We had Judi Butterworth of DeRito Partners, one of the Valley's top retail brokers, speak to us yesterday, and tell us what landlords are looking for in a tenant, and how to look at a triple net lease. It was an eyeopener for everyone in the room, including me. The women are engaged in a homework assignment for next week: figuring out the startup costs for the business and the ongoing operating costs. Phil Blackerby will then put them on a spread sheet to take to backers.

The current name of the business is Passionate Pursuits, and it will be a cafe with a retail component that sells both crafts created by the residents and secondhand items such as baby clothes and furniture. Although it will not have a full kitchen, snacks and sandwiches will be available, along with anything else welcoming.

There will also be a space for AA and NA meetings on site, and they will be comfortable and inviting. Three different revenue streams will be provided for SEEDs.

On the walls of this destination hangout will be the stories of some of the SEEDs women and their journeys into and out of domestic violence.

I can't wait until we get this opened. OTEF will remain in counseling mode with these women until we do!

Happy Easter! No program next Sunday.

Creating a Social Venture

Last Sunday we came closer to helping the SEEDs women realize their entrepreneurial dreams. We are closing in on one over-arching business that will contain all the others and help make SEEDs self-sufficient. Tasks have been assigned in the writing of a business plan that will contain plans for both profit and mission.

In the mean time, we are all bonding. The women have been through so much!

I was also contacted by another program, part of the Phoenix Rescue Mission. We will have a conversation about our program and whether it's right for them, too.

And now to fund OURSELVES...I've begun planning the Second Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference, which will once again benefit OTEF. We've already begun the preliminary planning. This year, we are looking for better pre-event space and easier parking. I'm in discussions with both the Biltmore and the Airport Marriott on 44th Street, which is right off the freeway.

Pat Sullvan has graciously agreed to be one of the keynotes, and we are going to try to get Ken Blanchard to speak as well.

Now is the time to submit your ideas for making the conference better and more relevant. What does it need? What can you contribute? Should we build it around financing? Business models that work?

Success!

Well, the REVOLUTION IN MARKETING conference on Thursday was a big success, with over 170 registrants. We don't know how much we made yet for OTEF, but it looks like we made something. And most important, we gave our audience a chance to learn something and have some fun. I will keep you posted! Check out my other blog for the details about the conference.

Why we are doing this...

"Well, I've read the blog. Does that make me a blogger? I was going to respond on the page about exactly how incredible you, Phil and Ed are! I'm not sure if you really have any idea how these women are really feeling and what you are all doing for them. I get to sit with them afterwards and talk to them. Whether they open a business for themselves after these classes are over is not the only way their lives will probably forever change. They truly are so grateful for this opportunity and the fact you all take this time to meet with them on a Sunday. They obviously realize Sunday is a day that could be spent on non-working time."

This email I received from Mona Lou of the SEEDs houses makes me understand why we are doing what we are doing and what its value can be. I felt the same way when I launched my former foster child's business and saw how just the idea of having options and choices expanded his horizons. Loss of control is demoralizing, and dead end jobs with incompetent supervisors are a big contributor to feelings of being out of control. In my experience, the success of the business itself is almost secondary - the key is that entrepreneurship restores feelings of control over one's own destiny.

Progress at the SEEDS House

Yesterday at the SEEDS House, the entire FastTrac facilitation team (Ed, Phil, and Francine) helped the women in the house, which is a safe house for recovering victims of domestic violence, articulate their business concepts. These women are wonderful, but they are struggling in dead-end jobs to support themselves and their children. They graciously agreed to be a pilot program for the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation. Every Sunday afternoon we sit down with them and help them create business plans. Once we have the plans, we will use our networks to get the plans funded. That's the mission of the Foundation -- to provide Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship for economically disadvantaged populations.

The afternoons have been incredible so far, both for the facilitators and for the women. Yesterday I was literally jumping up and down with enthusiasm for these concepts.

Here are the rough concepts the women are working on. We are hiding the special details that make these businesses different and we hope successful, because those details are the intellectual property of SEEDS and the women in the houses, and we don't want to reveal them before they are properly protected. When the business plans are written, we will take the plans public.

1) a company that would make jeans that actually fit women (a mass customization manufacturing business

2) a company that makes and sells South Beach diet recipes into the state and municipal government buildings downtown for healthy lunches (this is a home-based business)

3) a store that provides drive-through convenience items for seniors and mothers

4) a second-had clothing store

5) a home-based business that sells the arts and photography of the residents

A portion of the proceeds of all these businesses will go to support SEEDS. Thus, these are all social enterprises.

Right now we are investigating how to set up the companies -- many of the women want to make the businesses not-for-profits that employ former domestic violence victims and pay them a living wage. We're going to get legal advice on whether to set up all the businesses under the SEEDS 501 c(3) or make them separate companies.

If any of these businesses work, they would provide jobs, help support SEEDS, and -- most important --give hope to these women who have been through unimaginable trauma at the hands of people who were supposed to love them. Help us help them by signing up for the Revolution in Marketing Conference on March 1.

Or if you can't go, send a check made out to the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation for $75.00 to Francine Hardaway at 2438 E. Whitton Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85016 and I will use it to provide a scholarship for an entrepreneurship student who can't afford to go.

Next Sunday afternoon, we will discuss the money management aspects of becoming an entrepreneur with the women. If you live in Phoenix and are interested in volunteering your time and talent, especially if you are an accountant who knows how to do books for a non profit, an attorney who helps set up businesses, or an expert in any of the industry segments above, call Francine at 602.910.5622. We also need people who have had experience with the Delancy Street project in San Francisco.

Our Pilot Program Has Begun

Ed and I kicked off the Pilot Program at the Phoenix SEEDS house yesterday afternoon. There are a dozen women in the program, and the Executive Director, Mona Lou Callery, also has good business ideas. We are going to go in two directions: 1) establishing a business that will suppport SEEDs itself, and 2) working with women residents who wish to try to achieve self-sufficiency and opportunity through entrepreneurship.

We are using the First Step FastTrac materials. Our goal with this pilot program is to see if we can get Mona Lou up and running with one of her business ideas, and to sow the seeds of entrepreneurship in as many of the women as want to be entrepreneurs.

SEEDs is a safe house for domestic violence victims who are in recovery or have been released from prison. The women are wonderful and enthusiastic about the program; they are scrambling right now for jobs, and face transportation issues, self-esteem issues, income issues -- and all the other issues.

We will be looking for people who want to co-invest with the SEEDS women on their projects as those take shape. We're not sure yet whether loans, mortgages, or equity will be involved, so stay tuned. We are very excited!

One data point

The first person going through our entrepreneurship training, Jerry K., has begun his handyman business. He has now secured his second handyman job, which he uses to pay expenses that are more than his "day job" will cover. But for him, a former felon, it's not about the money. For the first time, he sees options and opportunities. For the first time, he's not afraid that if he gets laid off, he will not be able to pay his restitution and will get put back in prison. He feels hopeful that he will be able to support himself and live as a man.

This foundation will be making changes like these in our society one person at a time. We are teaching people to fish. To help us, please register for and attend our entrepreneurship conferences. The next one, "The Revolution in Marketing,"
is March 1, 2007 and will feature Robert Scoble, vlogger and host of "The Scoble Show" speaking on how social media will revolutionize marketing. For details and registration click here.

Exciting News About the Next OTEF Conferences

OTEF is not a traditional charity, it's a nonprofit dedicated to teaching entrepreneurship skills, and we are trying to develop into a true social venture: a business with a double bottom line (a mission and a margin). We have two annual fundraisers, both of which are educational.

I'm excited to announce that Robert Scoble, the famous former Microsoft blogger and now the vlogger from Podtech who just got off the John Edwards presidential announcement plane (covering how technology and social media will change politics) has accepted our invitation to keynote the next Arizona Entrepreneurship miniconference, "The Revolution in Marketing," scheduled for March 1, 8-11 AM in the Ethington Theatre at Grand Canyon University. This is a real coup for us, as Robert and his wife Maryam (who grew up in Iran and is an expert on "Girl Geeks") are both bloggers and experts on the use of social media. We have also planned our Second Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference for Nov.8. This is our major fundraising event.

This conference is part of the Kauffman Foundation's initiative, National Entrepreneurship Week, and will benefit the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation. We haven't decided yet on how much to charge, because that's determined by the cost of such items as food and expenses for speakers. It will probably be in the neighborhood of $75.

Only 300 people can fit in this conference venue, so mark your calendar, and we will let you know as soon as we have details for registration.

Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference

The First Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference was held on November 8th, 2006 at the Ritz Carlton Phoenix. We filled the room (500+ attendees) and kicked off the fundraising for OTEF.

About OTEF

The Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation (OTEF) helps at-risk youth and young adults improve their lives and their communities by training and support to apply their innate talents in creating entreprenurial ventures, businesses, jobs, and successful lives.

More coming soon...