By the time I rolled into NOVA 535 for tonight’s Entrepreneur Social Club meeting, yup it’s Thursday night again, November 3, 2016 to be exact-O, there were already several members milling around the bar. For reasons to be discovered, we’ll call tonight, “Milling Around DTSP with Boxes Full of Flavor”. Other members were already at the meeting table, chatting away. I was running a bit late, you know, busy BUSY Entrepreneur and all that. Our delightful neighbors, Alin Leslie and Caylin McDonie of Dollylocks Salon, the really cute, modern and organic salon just a few stores down the south, were in the house. Yeah! Plus, I spied several new faces awaiting their first ESC experience. Guess it’s time to get things rolling for another fun and productive night of networking, schmoozing, drinking, learning, growing and Tom Foolery! (Love Sheri Kendrick chewing on Tony’s head!)
New member Greg Simek , of Body Dietary Nutrition, from Louisiana to St. Pete = WELCOME GREG!! His company offers private labeling, formulation, packaging, and more. BodyNutrition.com was in 25,000 square feet in Lafayette, LA , needed more. Search was between CA, Texas and FL, and luckily they found 65,000 sq ft in St. Pete!
Also attending tonight is newcomer Mike Bartolotta of Sun Belt Business Brokers, BBflorida.com. We asked Mike: How do you value a business for sale? ‘We use comps, and value is based on profit + inventory. We can help you with exit strategy. It is hard to sell a one man show. What can you do to make your company more sellable? Make more money, create a system (get yourself out of the system), get a good inventory system, stop paying your personal bills out of the company (12 months before you want to sell). Business Brokers take 10% of the sales price. They are selling 4 businesses / month. Average biz sells every 7 years, so 14% of small businesses are selling every year. Florida law assumes biz owners know what they are doing vs. florida real estate transactions, which assumes they do not.’ Mike started as a business broker back in 2001. Welcome to ESC, Mike!
Above left John Pereira, plus newbie Missy Carpenter, both with Imperio real estate. Welcome Missy!
Pictured below is the always delightfully hilarious Julia Marie, 5DollarFacials.com
** REMINDER ** We are having our Annual Holiday Party for ESC, DTSP and NOVA 535 on Thursday Dec 8th, 6pm to 1 am. http://NovaNoel.com get your tickets online in advance and save some $$.
After our 20 second pitches and sharing our business cards, we..
…had a round-table discussion, sharing something new / useful with the group.
Chris Backe – Facebook Group: “Screw the 9 to 5″ Full of fellow entrepreneurs, digital nomads, and those with wanderlust!
Chris Jenkins – Transitioning from Small (10 employees) to Medium (up to 75 employees) [SBA says small biz 75 employees with $1MM revenues] – the struggles of moving from Small to Med business, and his take on doing just that with SymphoniAgency.com. Chris recommended edgebusiness.org
Arthur Gueli, injuryclaimcoach.com – A16Z podcasts with Andreessen Horowitz (venture capital firm), new business trends, and so on.
John Pereira – How do you maintain corporate culture after merger and acquisition? It’s complex, expect change to happen. Culture is resources, processes and history…according to Nick Mazeika … make sure to negotiate expectations.
Gary Vaynerchuk https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/ author, blogger, social media expert.
Julia Marie – science isn’t gonna lie!
Chris Jenkins – When you are the nexus of your business, you know everything, as your biz starts to grow you need METRICS for everything, what are your employees contributing, cost / hour / productivity, business intelligence. So what are you spending / employee? What are you earning / employee? Failure from small business to medium businesses is commonplace. Within Small Business, each employee has multiple roles; growing from Small to Medium, you need to measure everything. Mapping out processes, the biz processes cycle, everyone’s jobs and responsibilities, etc. What is the cost / employee? Find how to accurately bill for your goods /services. What are the most efficient processes?
TheFlavorcrate.com Kym Jenkins – Found Custom Boxes via uline.com. Pratt custom big box converter for 500+ quantities. Feedback on her Flavor Crate first prototype box: box too big, don’t print on the box, instead use stamps or stickers. Flavorcrate allows for more sampling testing to find what you like / don’t in smaller sample sizes,.. need coupon code for 15% off in box. Response was good from ESC.
Teresa Rae Gay – Business Rock Stars podcasts
DJ Spin Spencer Rankin – Drill and Practice your craft, over and over and over and over!
Michael Novilla (that’s me!) BlackMirror TV SHOW, BBC. Automated Manufacturing by creating anything via 3D Printing, this is a global game changer we are just starting to understand its possibilities.
Above it’s me, Michael S. Novilla, along with Alin Leslie (owner) and Caylin McDonie (stylist) of Dollylocks, plus newcomer Marianne Birk, independent distributor for Premier Designs. Marianne is a personal stylist, who holds intimate “style parties” for you and your friends / associates. She updates you with current fashion trends and will even provide a fashion intervention for that pal of yours who desperately needs it! The style party if a free service, she then showcases and upsells jewelry, with about 80% under $50; from $30 – $120. Sounds fun – lots of ladies hanging out, drinking and enjoying themselves…hmmm, maybe I should host some of them here at NOVA!
Below and back again is Keith Widmer of Acclaim plastics, Tony “Mr. Rock-n-Rolla” Michaelides and newcomer Greg Simek, who moved / expanded his packaging business recently to St. Pete. Welcome Greg!! Greg was quite knowledgeable and hopefully he’ll join us again.
(Above) Newcomer, Chris Backe founder of (awesome!) interactive “choose your own adventure” (we both loved those Choose Your Own Adventure books as kids!) travel guides “ChooseAWay.com, Michael Bartolotta, seasoned and certified business broker of Sunbelt Business Brokers plus me, showcasing my DowntownStPete.com business card. DowntownStPete.com features ONLY LOCAL, high quality places, personalities and Things to Do DTSP. Tag your photos #DTSP when you’re exploring our gorgeous downtown!
Below we have some of our favorite core ESC members, Arthui Gueli InjuryClaimCoach.com, Theresa ReaGay and lovebirds Kym TheFlavorCrate.com and Chris COI of Symphoni Agency Jenkins
Dinner tonight was at a big time ESC favorite DTSP (DownTownStPete) restaurant, The Mill. Always delicious, you really never have to worry, you can throw darts at the menu and be thrilled with your choices. We tried so many things tonight, the Watermelon Bruschetta (with tomatoes) the mouth-watering Tenderloin and Potatoes, the Charcuterie Sampler, LOTS of vino and margaritas, some of the…well, you get the drift. Check out The Mill DTSP, located at 200 Central Avenue, Downtown St. Pete. Call 727-317-3930 for more info.
Jzon Livingston and Keith Widmer, below. Be Careful of hanging with Jzon after dinner………just saying!
Last official photo of the night…a bit blurry (hey wanna be waiters / photogs, keep your fingers OFF of the lense and flash – ugg!!) but it IS nice to get into at least ONE dinner photo! And THANKS to Arthur Gueli for the Beaujolais Vino recommendation…yummy!
Hope you enjoyed our “Milling Around DTSP with Boxes Full of Flavor”. Join our growing, global family of business owners and Entrepreneurs, who work together to make our world a better place for everyone. Just leave your negativity, religion and politics at home. See you next Thursday! Where? Check here.
