Lake County Success Stories

Polyglot Analytics, LLC

Keith Breedlove and his wife Cheryl had both recently retired from government service and they had an idea. They felt that, with their backgrounds, they would be able to operate a successful consulting and training business.  Keith Breedlove has an M.S. degree in Information Systems and Systems Management from the University of Southern California. After serving as a Major in the U.S. Army for 23 years specializing in electronic warfare/signals intelligence, he has served as a senior systems engineer for several major defense contracting companies  including Booz Allen Hamilton, Boeing and Northrup Grumman. Cheryl Breedlove was also retired, in her case from the Central Intelligence Agency, with extensive management experience  that they believe would enhance their consulting business.

The Breedlove’s had a clear vison of what their company  would be about. Their targeted market would be small and mid-sized businesses that want to more effectively use their business data to grow their revenues. The Breedloves’ company would provide these target organizations- U.S. and international private, commercial,  non-profit and governmental clients -with business intelligence, information analytics and business analysis consulting.

Beyond directly serving their own clients, the Breedloves also have an opportunity to serve as a sub­ contractor with a consulting firm located in Marietta, Georgia and have recently been invited to join a consortium of small firms doing marketing and business development with the Department of Defense in Tampa, Florida. And Mr. Breedlove also has the unique ability to deliver training and consulting in English, German, French and Russian, which he believes will give his company many exclusive opportunities.

With this as the backdrop, the Breedloves came to the Florida SBDC at UCF office in Southern Lake County, Florida to talk about their business idea with Dr. Dallas Garrett, the FSBDC consultant in South Lake County. Together with Dr. Garrett, they worked diligently and completed their business plan with a projected start date for their company of July 1, 2014. Their company, Polyglot Analytics LLC, is a home­ based business with very little overhead and within the first few months Mr. Breedlove attended several different training sessions and had the opportunity to deliver on two small development contracts to get his business started. They are currently working on a website and have been attending local Chamber events to develop local and regional contacts. And the company is at this time preparing a proposal on a major software development  effort that would bring them a very large contract. Additionally, Mr. Breedlove is exploring business intelligence opportunities with a network of contacts in Burkina Faso, Africa.

“For anyone considering  or already in the process of starting their first business I highly recommend  the Florida SBDC,” commented Mr. Breedlove.  “While I had a vision of what I wanted to do, the SBDC consultant, Dr. Dallas Garrett, really helped my focus on the business, assisting with development of a coherent business plan and a realistic financial plan to support it.  He has also been instrumental in helping me develop local contacts, especially through the local Chamber of Commerce. My wife and I will also be taking advantage of relevant training courses offered through SBDC, especially those related to business taxes, whiPch is undiscovered territory for us.”

 

All Clean Pressure Washing

Like many entrepreneurs, William Scott Dau had a business idea but didn’t know the best way to turn that idea into a reality or where to turn for assistance to make his dream come true.

Mr. Dau is a retired Maryland Park Police Captain that enjoys pressure washing homes, garages anddriveways for his own home and several of his neighbors. His idea and plan was to start a business doing pressure washing jobs within a very close distance from his home in Clermont Florida.

That’s when Mr. Dau made a great first decision: he came to the Florida SBDC at UCF in South Lake County with his business idea and asked for help with a business plan. The FSBDC worked through the business plan process with him, and he shared that he had several children that would be entering college soon and that he was going to build a saving account for them with his new business.

Mr. Dau and FSBDC worked through all of the details of starting a business with him and helped him establish a limited liability company, All Clean Pressure Washing, LLC; determine the necessary local city and county business licenses; and evaluate and obtain liability insurance. Investing his own funds, he was able to purchase all of his equipment and supplies and, upon completing his business plan,  he started advertising in a church publication and local newspapers. He also began attending local chamber events. Almost immediately, he was contacted for a job that was too big for his small company. Mr. Dau had fun reviewing the offer with the FSBDC and considering the fact that he would probably  need to develop a new business plan to handle a multi-year opportunity!

“As I went to obtain information about setting up a business, I found information about the Florida SBDC at the City Hall in Groveland, Florida,” commented Mr. Dau. “I made an appointment with Dr. Dallas Garrett for counseling and assistance. He shared his personal experience with me and guided me through the entire process. Today I am averaging three jobs per week, which is exactly my goal. I am pleased to have met Dr. Garrett and I highly recommend that anyone planning to open a business make an appointment with the FSBDC,” he concluded.

“William Dau maintains contact with our office on a monthly basis and provides me with a financial update each month,” said Dr. Garrett. “He has also sent us several new clients, already has a new business idea and is now working with me on a prototype for a new window screen idea for homes.  Thanks to the right first decision – coming in to see the FSBDC at UCF – he is really on his way!”

Drive Solutions

Drive Solutions Inc., a Central Florida business based in Clermont, FL is a manufacturer’s representative company in the bearing and power transmission segment selling products used in the mining, forestry, air handling and pumping industries.

Fred Louwersheimer, CEO and owner, identified an opportunity to significantly grow the business by entering the manufacturing arena producing customized small-size couplings that complement the core business, provide fast turnaround for customers and create a significant point of differentiation from competitors.

This growth initiative required “capital” in a difficult environment.

“Our bank recommended we get help from the SBDC which was the best advice that they could have given us. The SBDC Growth Acceleration consultant, Roger Greenwald command of business growth concepts and financial analysis guided us in producing an expansion plan and loan request package that greatly enhanced our understanding of the entire financial picture that impressed the bankers and helped us attain the financing we needed”; said Fred Louwersheimer, CEO and owner.

On the strength of a nearly quarter million dollar SBA Express loan form Regions Bank Drive Solutions expects to double its 2010 revenue to nearly $2,000,000 in 2012, adding 5 new jobs over the next 18 months.

American Backflow Testing, Inc.

Like many business owners, Gary Gamache, the president and CEO of American Backflow Testing, Inc., was looking for ways to grow his business. He understood that growth costs money and sought out the Florida SBDC at UCF (FSBDC) in Lake County for assistance in securing bank financing. His goal was to obtain a $50,000 line of credit to better manage the cash flow in his business and have funds to expand the business into additional business opportunities.

Gary first came to FSBDC in January 2013 when he attended the Business Plan Writing Made Easy class taught by Stan Austin, a certified business consultant at the FSBDC in Lake County. Shortly after the seminar, Stan started working with Gary to put together the business plan he would need to win approval of his bank loan application.

image (1)Through the summer Stan and Gary revised multiple iterations of his business plan. By early fall, Gary was ready for a final printing. The plan was printed for him in the FSBDC in Lake County’s office and bound with a comb binder. Gary then approached several banks seeking a line of credit for his business. Gary obtained a $50,000 line of credit with a bank in December 2013.

At the same time Gary was preparing his business plan, he began looking for new customers. One of the areas Gary has had business success is with local cities that need backflow testing done on a scheduled basis. Stan introduced Gary to Derek Hudson, a CBA and member of the FSBDC’s Government Contracting unit [formerly its Procurement Technical Assistance Center – (PTAC)]. Gary attended all the Government Contracting classes available to better understand the “ins and outs” of working with government entities. He immediately put to use what he had learned by winning business at another city by “piggy backing” on an already in place municipal contract he had with a city in the same area.

So it was that, once Gary had his credit line in hand, he was in a position to finance servicing new customers and better manage his cash flow. In Gary’s business, managing the payroll can put a strain on cash flow. He must pay his employees for the tests they perform immediately, even though there is a lag in time before Gary is paid by his clients. In addition, if Gary is to capitalize on the growth opportunities his national account clients are offering him, he needed operating capital to set up a larger support organization to manage the additional backflow testing calls. The additional workload also would require him to add personnel in the office to manage the necessary paperwork for billing the clients, paying the subcontractors and recording the information regarding the backflow tests with the correct water authorities in each local municipality.

With the credit line in place, Gary was able to grow his business with a few major accounts and with local municipalities. Gary has transitioned his personnel from using 3 subcontractors in 2013 to adding permanent employees in 2014. He now has two permanent office administrators and three employees conducting backflow tests. In May, he projects hiring one more field employee.

Two of his major accounts are now asking Gary to expand his testing operations to states other than Florida. In addition, now that he has a solid working model for managing major accounts, he is actively pursuing additional major accounts with multiple locations.

Over the past year, Gary and Stan have enjoyed building a professional and personal relationship. Gary counts on him and Derek Hudson personally to help him as he continues to grow his business. He is also relying on Stan to continue to direct him to other resources within Florida SBDC when need be. “The FSBDC in Lake County has been an invaluable resource to me and my business,’ says Gary. “They have mentored and coached me on how to better manage and grow my business. Companies in Lake County are making a mistake not to take advantage of their amazing, no-cost consulting, training and support.”

Coldwell Banker Camelot Realty

Florida residential real estate has been a tricky proposition since the end of the last decade’s great recession, and its reduced property values has affected all aspects of the industry, including depressing values in the real estate brokerage business. For some, however, the diminished values of brokerages and the uncertainty around the recovery of the Florida real estate market represented an opportunity if the pieces of an investment could be pulled together in time to take advantage of an unpredictable market and ambiguous future.

Karen and Ray Levy were just such people. Having been successful Real Estate Professionals in the Lake County Area for 7+ years, they knew the industry. And with a sales team of four individuals working as representatives of Coldwell Banker Camelot Realty in Mount Dora, Florida, they had an ear to the market that told them there were opportunities to be had in the future as a full service brokerage office.

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By early spring 2013, Karen and Ray had decided to move on the opportunities they saw and visited the office of the Florida SBDC at UCF in Eustis, Florida (Lake County). Their goal was to acquire Coldwell Banker Camelot Realty by year end 2013. While they are both astute Real Estate professionals, they were in need of guidance on how to build a plan to acquire the brokerage business and its related commercial property. In addition they weren’t sure how to evaluate the selling price for the business. Finally, they knew they needed a robust Business Plan to convince potential investors to help them make their dream a reality.

Stan Austin, Area Manager for the FSBDC at UCF in Lake County, was uniquely suited to assist the Levy’s and welcomed the chance to work with them by providing them with the expert, no-cost consulting the FSBDC at UCF is known for. The FSBDC services like no-cost consulting, training seminars and data base research resources, are an integral part of the three Business Opportunity Centers (BOC’s) in Lake County, Florida. The Business Opportunity Centers offer incubation services along with the training and consulting services provided by the Florida SBDC at UCF team in Lake County

Being a Business Broker in a prior life, Stan helped the Levy’s re-cast the current owner’s financial information to estimate the value of the business portion of the transaction. In addition Stan recommended they obtain a certified commercial appraisal on the business property. That would give them the pieces of the puzzle necessary to begin negotiating a sales price that would be fair to all parties concerned.

In the meantime, Karen and Ray availed themselves of the training offered byFSBDC at UCF in Lake County. They attended the “Start-Up Basics” and “Business Plan Writing Made Easy” seminars to better acquaint themselves with the best practices of both. After the Business Plan class, Ray began working in earnest to put together their own business plan. After multiple iterations it was decided it would be necessary to recast the current owner’s financial information in light of the operational changes the Levy’s desired to make to the business (when they owned it). Stan worked with them to document the changes and reflect the savings in the Profit and Loss statements as if the changes had already been made. The savings were substantial.

During the summer of 2013, as work continued on the business plan, the Levy’s obtained the appraisal for the commercial property and began “floating trial balloons” with potential private investors and financial institutions. The intent was to test the feasibility of obtaining financing to purchase Coldwell Banker Camelot Realty.

As the year went on, Stan re-worked the financial information multiple times with the passing of each quarter. The good news is the real estate market in the area, as the Levys had foreseen, also began to rebound some as well. The financial picture and projections became more and more positive! As we approached the end of the year, it became easier to project the year-end financial picture, as well as project 2014.

Late in the summer, the Levy’s obtained a loan commitment from United Southern Bank to finance the commercial property. Around the same time, they were able to line up financing for the remaining amount needed to buy the business portion of the acquisition. The financing consisted of a private investor, seller financing and an equity position by the Levy’s.

On December 27, 2013, the Levy’s closed on the transaction and met their goal to acquire the business prior to January, 2014! They have already added five full employees and are well on their way to implementing the operational changes they stated in the business plan!

Ray Levy summarized his feeling by saying, “There are a lot of people out there that have good ideas, but they don’t have the expertise of business consultants,” said Ray Levy. “The FSBDC at UCF in Lake County and the BOC really moved the needle forward for us.”

MotorSports ConneXtions

If you think high gas prices, environmental impacts, cautious consumer spending and old friends separated by nearly 6000 miles are business obstacles, then you should talk to Lisa Knowles, CEO of MotorSports ConneXtions, a new importer-distributor of motor scooters in Clermont, Florida.

“We weren’t sure how we were going to sell the product as it seemed difficult, so I discussed our options with [the SBDC at UCF].”

Lisa Knowles
MotorSports ConneXtions
Clermont

“I’ve had this friend in Hawaii for the past 20 years,” says Knowles, “and we discussed many times about going into business but the timing just wasn’t right.” That all changed in July 2008, when Lisa, her husband Russ, and their friend Joe in Hawaii, pooled their limited resources to put a deposit on a ship container full of motor scooters – some 44 bikes in total. That’s when Knowles contacted the SBDC at UCF’s Gene Romagna, area manager for Lake & Sumter Counties. “She was one determined professional”, Romagna recalls, “and she wanted to ‘do it right’ from the start.” Knowles immediately started in on a business plan and what the proper legal structure would be for the company. “We weren’t sure how we were going to sell the product as it seemed difficult, so I discussed our options with Gene. With his (Romagna’s) help, getting his input and his direction to various web sites to research as to what was best for us, we settled on being a distributor.” They filed with the State for a distributorship in late November, the scooter shipment arrived Thanksgiving weekend.

Determined to make it work, Knowles continued to work with customs brokers and trucking companies to successfully get the products to their rented storage facility. There were also other necessary items to complete including working with state offices for a distributor license, drumming up potential dealers, creating contracts and advertising pieces, and getting a harder than expected “MCO” (manufacturer certificate of origin) document. By early February 2009, MotorSports ConneXtions received their approved license to distribute motor vehicles in the State of Florida and have six dealers with more on the way.

“Gene was always there by phone and email to help lead us in the directions we needed to go, including working with the state and the folks in Tallahassee,” says Knowles. “You just knew this was going to work from the start,” says Romagna. “Success was the only option for her positive attitude and hard work.” MotorSports ConneXtions recently co-opted with a dealer to run a TV commercial that will be airing in the greater Lake County area over the next few weeks. Additionally, Knowles is looking to bring on another manufacturer with 3 more scooters styles along with after-market parts. So, keep your eyes and ears open when driving in central Florida. You just may catch Lisa Knowles “scootering” to one of her dealers.

amaZulu, Inc.

Finding “paradise” amid the Recession.

Born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa, when Claire Evans decided to pursue her dreams by opening a company in Clermont, FL, in 2002, the name “ama Zulu” seemed only “natural”. With a brilliant and contagious smile Claire will tell you it is a Zulu dialect that means “people of heaven”. Under that name she developed a natural architectural company that would introduce and develop new innovations and sustain higher service standards in the industry by supplying of natural and faux materials such as thatch, bamboo, reeds, etc., and the innovative installation specialists to go with it all.

“Gene helped me get through all of the fluff and get back to the basics.”

Claire Evans
amaZulu, Inc.

When Claire Evans contacted local SBDC counselor, Gene Romagna CBA, it was May of 2008. “I remember the three key things about meeting Ms. Evans”, recalls Gene. “She energetic, organized and faced a big supplier problem.” At the time amaZulu, Inc, had five employees and a successful track record of becoming a key supplier for such notable companies as Disney, Sea World, and Outback Steak House. But as Claire will explain, “the industry was ready for more environmentally safe and longer lasting fire proof synthetic materials, but getting the quality is becoming almost impossible.”

It was trying to sort through that business development process and how to create business agreements that caused her to call Gene at the Clermont SBDC. Working together over the course of the next year, Claire gained the clarity needed to face various obstacles and several attempted solutions to getting a quality product on a reliable basis. Finally, by the summer she was ready to take her plan – which now included working with a manufacturer in Canada – to seek financing. “We needed a half million dollars, but just couldn’t get a bank (she had been to 3) to take us seriously.” Looking at the plans and the financials, Gene suggested that she approach a local lender who he knew to be supportive of small businesses like amaZulu, Inc. The introduction to BankFIRST (the regional office is an active member of the SBDC’s Small Business Resource Network in Central Florida) was just what was needed. “Gene helped me get through all of the fluff and get back to the basics”, says Claire. “It was her dogged persistence and belief in her directions that won out in the end” Gene will say; “she deserves the $500K loan for sure.” It is fitting that at the bottom of every email from Claire is this Thomas Edison quote “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time”. So the next time you enjoy a little bit of “paradise” at an exotic attractions like a theme park, zoo, aquarium, spa, restaurant, resort, camping facilities, retreat or even high end real estate, you just may be experiencing some of amaZulu’s unique creations.