Popcorn Junkie, FSBDC at UCF, Lake County, Economic Development

Popcorn Junkie

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Minetta and Neal Crosier were just such entrepreneurs. Building upon successful business careers and a passion for popcorn, they had a vision for a gourmet popcorn company like no other, one with extraordinary flavors found nowhere else, made with the highest quality ingredients, and handcrafted and made fresh daily. Their question was: where to start?

The Crosiers turned to the Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) in Lake County, near where they lived. Minetta Crosier is a UCF graduate and had heard about the FSBDC’s  no-cost consulting, business seminars & workshops and market research resources, all focused on the needs of small-to-medium sized businesses. It was just these services that the Crosiers decided to access at the FSBDC.

Popcorn Junkie, FSBDC at UCF, Lake County, Small Business

FSBDC Consultant Eddie Hill (L) with Neal Crosier

It happens often. An entrepreneur has an idea but is uncertain about how to turn their vision into a real business. And then how to make that business a success.

“When we first started out, we had no idea how to do what we wanted to do or exactly where we wanted to do it. What we did know was what we wanted to do,” says Neal Crosier. “So we went to the FSBDC for help with taking our concept to an actual business.”

With their Lake County consultant Eddie Hill, the Crosiers rolled up their sleeves and started to work. They attended business education seminars about starting a business and using social media to market that business. The relied on Hill’s expertise and experience for business guidance and consultation. And, using the FSBDC’s databases, they accessed extensive market research and industry information.

Further, as the Crosiers progressed toward launching their business, the FSBDC helped them find professional assistance with retail interior design, branding, legal issues, bookkeeping and store build-out construction.

With the FSBDC at their side, the Crosiers were able to make major course corrections in their business plans. They abandoned their original idea of operating from a mall kiosk in favor of a retail store. They adjusted their choice of location from I-Drive in Orlando to the Church Street Station downtown area. And the results have been excellent.

Popcorn JunkieTM, the Crosier’s wonderful new store, opened on Church Street in May 2107 and has been enjoying terrific success. They have been helping customers from all over ‘Get Hooked on Good” with an amazing selection of gourmet popcorn flavors, featuring Classic, Cheese, Sweet, Nutty, Chocolate and Seasonal Varieties. They are close by the downtown sports venues and see extensive foot traffic on game days. And they are building a loyal downtown Orlando following in nearby office buildings and apartments.

“The FSBDC was there when we needed them,” Neal Crosier concluded. “I take my hat off to them. Every time I reached out to them, I received an immediate response or, if they didn’t have the answer, they found it for me fast. They gave us excellent, really excellent service. I didn’t imagine it would be that good. But it was, and helped us a lot.”

FSBDC; Across Borders Management Consulting; Lake County

Across Borders Management Consulting Group

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Humility is not a quality always associated with entrepreneurs. Especially if theirs is an IT services and solutions company with a goal of delivering “Innovation through Strategic Thinking.” But when a self-effacing attitude is present, it can be an important part of a formula for long-term success.

Vijay Krishnan and Arathi Rajagopalan, husband and wife and co-founders of Across Borders Management Consulting Group, recognized early on their situation as they sought to grow their company. Then they allowed their clear-eyed assessment of the challenges they faced in building their business to guide them to seek assistance from the Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF).

“We didn’t know what we didn’t know” is Arathi Rajagopalan’s frank take on the early days of Across Borders. “We were a growing company with limited resources. That’s why we came to the FSBDC there we found a wealth of knowledge and services tailor-made for a company like ours,” she states.

“Since starting with the FSBDC, we have used every service they have to offer because they fit so well into where we want to take our business and how we want to grow. And all at little or no cost to the company,” Vijay Krishnan added. “It has made a big difference for us. We were a $1 million revenue company when we started with them; today we are closing in on $5 million.”

Both Vijay and Arathi Krishnan credit the FSBDC as helping shape the company that Across Borders is today. Initially they sought and received assistance regarding their sales and business development efforts from their FSBDC consultant Stan Austin. That was followed by an in-depth business and financial analysis by the FSBDC’s Roger Greenwald as part of the FSBDC’s Growth Acceleration Services. With that as a starting point, Across Borders was able to develop their first three-year strategic plan.

Meanwhile, the company and cofounders became part of the FSBDC’s Advisory Board Council program, a next-level, business-support service matching them with experienced business professionals with a diverse range of skills who volunteer and work together on a “custom-fit” advisory board. Further on, Vijay Krishnan joined the FSBDC’s CEO XChange, an executive roundtable program offering a confidential setting for top executives to discuss vital business issues, opportunities and trends with a group of peers. Most recently, Across Borders worked with the FSBDC’s International Trade Services team and gained a ready-to-implement Export Marketing Plan.

“Across Borders has done everything right,” remarked Stan Austin. “They are the perfect FSBDC client. They listen. They get involved. They make decisions. They implement. It’s no wonder they have been an Orlando Business Journal  ‘Fast 50’ growth company two years running.”

“The FSBDC has become a critically important strategic partner for Across Borders,” states Vijay Krishnan. “They have worked with us every step of the way. Their services are at the top-most professional level. And their only focus is on helping us grow to the next level. That is the best kind of partnership possible. We’re very happy and thankful for the FSBDC.”

FSBDC, ASBDC, Midstate Caulking, Osceola County

Midstate Caulking & Construction Services LLC

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Managing a small- to medium-sized business is all about challenges: some big, some small, some harrowing, some pleasing. But whatever size or shape they come in, they are still challenges and must be met or consequences will ensue.

Midstate Caulking & Construction Services LLC, and its founders and principals Brenda and Leon Clement, faced a major challenge in 2014. Fortunately, it was the good kind. The company they had started in their garage – really – was exploding and growing faster than they could finance.

Midstate provides caulking, waterproofing, fire stopping, stucco, and deck coating services for commercial buildings in Central Florida and across the state. Their construction contractor customers find that work quality, scheduling and safety are as important to the company as they are to its clients. Midstate understands the need for timely project completion, working with other trades, shift work, and accomplishing zero (0) punch list. It’s a formula that has meant exceptional growth and success for the company.

“We expected to be small and stay small,” says Brenda Clement. “But this is a niche market that started growing faster than we could ever have expected. As a small business with low overhead, we came out of the ’08 recession in good shape. When the economy started to grow again, demand for our services did too.”

And that’s where the challenge for Midstate arose. “In construction, you pay your people and expenses before you get paid. When you are growing fast, it can be tough to manage that float,” Clement continued. “We needed to know where to go to get more money to finance our growth.” That’s when she turned to the Kissimmee office of the Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) and it’s Area Manager, consultant Rafael Martinez-Pratts.

Clement and her bookkeeper met with Pratt-Martinez to develop a financing plan. Together, they identified Midstate’s financing options, who might provide the needed funds, what information they would want and what kind of questions would need to be answered by the company. In the end, Clement was ready and fully prepared when she approached the bank she had selected for financing, and was successful in getting the funding that Midstate needed to pay for its continued growth.

“I recommend the FSBDC to any business owner,” concluded Clement. “If you have questions or need information, ask the FSBDC. If they don’t have the answer, they’ll lead you to someone who does.”

“Rafael and the FSBDC have let us know we are not alone in this. They care. They let you know you are supported. They have worked to build a relationship with us and have been a great resource for our company,” says Clement. “Along with helping us deal with our financing needs, their seminars and workshops have been very valuable. We’ve been able to learn new things and network with other, local business owners. We’ve gotten assistance with human resources issues and recruiting. I don’t see us outgrowing the need for them in any way, shape or form.”

My Nona's Garden; Chuck Wheeler; Amber Harmon

My Nona’s Garden

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Finding the work-life balance you seek inevitably means making choices. Sometimes there are hard choices and sometimes not so hard choices.

For Amber Harmon, the founder and owner of My Nona’s Garden, her choices weren’t so hard. Yes, she gave up a lucrative career. But it required extensive travel and time away from the young family she and her husband were building. Instead, she gained the life she wanted with her young children and the opportunity to follow her passion: gardening.

The challenge she faced was how to make a living pursuing that passion. And so it was, with the help of the Florida SBDC at UCF, that Harmon’s company was born. My Nona’s Garden is in the business of selling and servicing 2 x 8 foot low-maintenance, elevated cedar vegetable box gardens for both business and residential customers. The company makes a fresh, organic, non-GMO vegetable garden possible and its goal is simple: “to bring health into our communities, one garden at a time.”

“My Nona’s Garden is my first time as a business owner. I was going out on my own and didn’t know where to start. That’s why I turned to the Florida SBDC at UCF for help,” Harmon says. “They offered seminars that set me on the right path from the beginning. I learned the basics, received the templates and resources I needed, and was able to get my business plan in order.”

“Then I took advantage of the FSBDC’s unlimited, no-cost consulting services,” Harmon continued. “My FSBDC consultant Chuck Wheeler gave me the guidance I needed. I got in depth assistance on my business plan. He helped me test and validate my ideas about my business concept and my product and services. He enabled me to strengthen my financial projections. And he provided me with ideas and resources to manage important business functions, like obtaining insurance and finding the employees I needed. Chuck was there for me every step of the way.”

Launched in September 2016, My Nona’s Garden is off to a good start. The company had its first customer the day it opened its doors! Along with advertising and exhibiting in the Lake Nona area, she is partnering with a major local developer to promote its community gardens with a gardening workshop series. She is also working with the U.S. Veterans Administration Hospital to teach veterans about the rewards of gardening. Another workshop series is planned for a local retired-living community. And Harmon continues to serve local and metro-Orlando clients interested in purchasing the company’s raised gardens as well as having them serviced by My Nona’s Garden.

“I’m happy with the progress we are making,” concluded Harmon. “I would definitely highly recommend the Florida SBDC to anyone building a business. Whatever stage your business is at, the FSBDC can help. It covers all the bases and can answer all your questions. I’m looking forward to their assistance as I add structure to my business and start to manage its growth.”

For more information about My Nona’s Garden, please visit www.MyNonasGarden.com or www.facebook.com/MyNonasGarden.

VAMP, The Vocational Academy of Makeup and Prosethics, FSBDC, UCF

Vocational Academy of Makeup & Prosthetics (VAMP)

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You have a passion. You have creativity and skills. And you have a vision of how others can become experts in your chosen craft in the RIGHT way – with in-depth training built upon a unique curriculum taught by industry professionals. With all of this in hand, what do you do next?

If you are Heather Fildes and Kimberly Spratt, you set to work to open a school teaching modern special effects and beauty professional makeup artistry. And you start in the right place: by writing a business plan.

It was there that Fildes and Spratt found themselves in 2015. With a clear view of the business they wanted to be in, a sharp definition of the kind of training they wanted to offer and a keen understanding of how their experience in special effects and beauty makeup could be used to turn makeup enthusiasts into professionals, writing their business plan was an exciting opportunity to articulate their ideas, and turn them into a blueprint for realizing their dreams and business success.

Producing the financial plan for the school presented challenges, however. With neither having a background in accounting or finance, Fildes and Spratt were in unfamiliar territory. That’s when they turned to the Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida and consultant Hunt Dawkins.

“We were OK until we got to the budgets and financials,” recalls founder and owner Kimberly Spratt. “We thought we had to take everything down to the penny and our progress stalled. So we turned to the FSBDC and thank goodness we did. We met with Hunt Dawkins at the FSBDC’s offices. He made the financials easier. He simplified it all. He guided us through the process.”

And very successfully it turns out. First, Fildes and Spratt completed their business plan, and at Dawkins’ urging, entered and became finalists in the Orlando 2015 Business Plan Competition of the National Association of Woman Business Owners (NAWBO). They used their plan as the basis of their successful application for school certification by the Florida Department of Education’s Commission for Independent Education. And it served as their road map for beginning their business: finding a location for the school with proper zoning, forecasting startup costs and working capital needs, designing the school’s construction buildout and building improvements and launching their marketing efforts.

Today, The Vocational Academy of Makeup & Prosthetics (VAMP) is off to a great start. It offers a special effects makeup laboratory and a beauty applications classroom that are both state-of-the art. A respected faculty of experienced professionals is in place and the school has graduated its first Modern Effects Makeup Artistry class; the next one is starting soon. And a Beauty Professional Makeup Artistry class is forming. The FSBDC is now working with them on their second stage marketing campaign.

“We would absolutely encourage everyone to work with the FSBDC,” commented founder and owner Heather Fildes. “Being a business owner takes so much more than we expected. I don’t know if we could have done what we’re doing now if we hadn’t had their help. The FSBDC is a great resource.”

First Response Disaster Team Building for the Future With Assistance from FSBDC at UCF

First Response Disaster Team

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When you look up ‘serial entrepreneurs’ on the Internet, there’s no good reason that you wouldn’t come upon Anne-Marie and Ken Poulin. Over the course of their years together, this wife and husband team has started and sold multiple businesses, most recently launching First Response Disaster Team in 2010.

First Response is an emergency restoration company that is focused primarily on clean up and remediation of flood, mold, fire and smoke damage. Their mission: “We help people through difficult times.” Based in Edgewater, Florida, the business has grown to more than $2 million in annual revenues and employs more than 10 people. And the company is easy to recognize out in the field, what with their sharply dressed technicians, all sporting distinctive bright red bow ties.

It is not the bow ties that set the Poulins and their company apart however. It is their entrepreneurial zeal to constantly look for better ways to run and grow their business. It was that drive to find new strategies to build their business that led the Poulins to the Florida SBDC at UCF and its Advisory Board Council (ABC) program.

The Advisory Board Council is a no-cost board of experts providing advice and counsel to help businesses grow.  Each board is custom designed and assembled by the FSBDC at UCF’s ABC program manager Jill Kaufman. The FSBDC acts as a matchmaker between established local businesses and area professionals who volunteer their expertise as members of an advisory board, with the volunteers selected to address the specific needs of the FSBDC client.

“Jill did such a great job for us,” Ken Poulin remarked. “She and FSBDC handpicked people who had lots of good information about what we are trying to do. They were small business owners like us, folks who had built businesses and sold them. We had an accountant, a banker and even a guy who had been in restoration – our business! – for forty years.”

“We met with our Advisory Board regularly over the course of about two years,” continued Anne-Marie Poulin. “We had a team that we could ask questions of and they’d give us answers. We’ll admit that sometimes those answers weren’t what we wanted to hear. However, they were the answers we needed to hear and therefore all the more valuable. Our ABC meetings created a really significant level of accountability for us that helped us grow our business.”

Working with their Advisory Board Council, the Poulins concentrated on strengthening the foundation of their business. They developed the policies, procedures, checklists and handbooks they needed to expand or “scale” their business, as they like to say. As a result, First Response was able to put processes in place that are driving revenue increases and earning them recognition as one of “Volusia’s Best” businesses.

“The ABC was an amazing experience for us,” concluded Ken Poulin. “We look back on the other businesses we’ve started and only wish we’d come to the FSBDC sooner. We’re just really happy to have them assisting us now.”

Nanospective; Roger Greenwald; Brenda Prenitzer

NanoSpective, Inc.

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One of the greatest challenges a small business faces is transitioning from its startup phase to being an established, high-performing second stage company. It is not for the faint of heart. The changes in strategy, organization and culture are often profound. But the rewards can be dramatically positive for all of the key stakeholders: owners, employees and clients. Nanospective, Inc. certainly found that to be the case when it made the transition to its second stage of growth with assistance from the Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF).

Nanospective likes to say is delivers “Big Solutions to Small Problems” because it provides advanced materials characterization analytical services and consultation to clients around the world using advanced imaging and spectroscopic instruments to determine what atoms are present in a material and how they are arranged. Those two relationships determine every physical property about a material: is it brittle, will it bend, does it conduct electricity, can it be seen through, for example. It is this kind of information associated with molecular science that the experts at Nanospective provide to their clients, primarily related to quality control and intellectual property protection.

The company was founded by four UCF PhDs in 2003, with initial assistance from the UCF Business Incubator and the Florida SBDC at UCF. Based upon what they had studied in school and then used in corporate America, they innovated with a heavy emphasis on client service. The company grew to be a profitable business but, like most startups, hit a wall where growth was harder and harder to come by. It was then that Nanospective turned again to the FSBDC at UCF and its consultant Roger Greenwald.

“We started working with the FSBDC again and with Roger because we wanted to change from being a lifestyle business and put ourselves in position to understand how to really move forward and grow,” says Brenda Prenitzer, President and CEO of Nanospective. “At the time, we had four, then three, owner-employees leading by democracy, each with different visions for the future. We had evolved into three different companies each working from home. We had reached a plateau.”

At no cost to the company, Greenwald and the FSBDC team were brought in to help Nanospective make the transition to being a second stage growth company. They assisted by helping to develop a strategic growth plan, providing financial analysis, giving marketing and business development direction and offering guidance on organizational structure and development.

“Our experience with the FSBDC has been fabulous,” Prenitzer says. “Roger Greenwald has been immensely helpful to us. While it wasn’t easy and required extremely delicate navigation, we have transitioned successfully to a single-owner company with a unified vision and strong corporate culture. We are fortunate that the two other owners chose to remain to do what they love: be great scientists. We have developed a Nanospective ‘Way’ focused on both our clients’ and our employees’ success. And we have achieved superior business results, delivering an average of 25% revenue growth year over year and adding 9 new employees to meet the needs of our clients, she concluded.”

Alex Aviles; Pauline Davis; Dealer Service Alternative;

Dealer Service Alternative

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Dealer Service Alternative is a European car owner’s dream come true. It services, repairs and maintains all makes and models of vehicles but specializes in European cars, especially Mercedes, BMW and Audi. Owner Alex Aviles prides himself in offering his clients and their vehicles a dealership-level experience at fair prices. Aviles motto is “dealer quality service at friendly prices.”

When he founded and launched Dealer Service Alternative, Aviles’ had a lot of ideas about the direction he wanted to take his company. But before he started investing his money, he wanted to make sure he was on the right path. That’s when a friend suggested he visit the Florida SBDC at UCF for a no-cost consultation with one of their expert consultants.

“When I started my company, I knew I could be a top technician and manager. But there were a lot of business matters I was not trained in at the dealership where I came from. Issues like licensing, procurement and leases were all unfamiliar to me,” remarked Aviles.

It was at the FSBDC that Aviles met Pauline Davis, a consultant specializing in finance and business accounting. “I went in with the original idea that I would buy an existing business. But Pauline Davis showed me a different approach, one that wouldn’t require so much funding. So I purchased some equipment, got some leads and partnered with another company to share space in our building,” Aviles says.

“The FSBDC helped me to figure out all the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of business that I had no idea about,” continued Aviles. Working with Davis and other FSBDC consultants, Dealer Service Alternative moved to a better location, upgraded their website and implemented an internet marketing campaign that was tailored to Aviles’ needs and his budget.

“Between implementing my online marketing campaign in stages, my wife joining the company to manage the finances and the help I received from the FSBDC, we have pretty much doubled the size of our business in the past year,” Aviles noted. “Now we’ve outgrown our space and I’m looking forward to expanding into a new location with all the convenience and comfort of a dealership, only not so fancy or expensive for my customers. I want a showplace that is a reflection of how well we treat our clients’ babies, err, vehicles,” concluded Aviles with a smile.

“My experience with the FSBDC at UCF has been nothing but great,” Aviles says. “They’ve always had answers to my questions, and if they didn’t, they found the answer. It’s an amazing set of resources they have over there – all under one roof. They are like a business encyclopedia…the business Google. I say ‘Thank You’ for all you’ve done, Ms. Davis and FSBDC.”

Pond Science; EFSC; FSBDC; Success Story

Pond Science LLC Thriving with Support from Florida SBDC at Eastern Florida State College

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Brevard Company Making Aquatic Ecosystems Healthy and Beautiful

February 1, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Hal Thayer, Communications Director, FSBDC at UCF, 407.420.4850 or hthayer@ucf.edu

Orlando, FL – Water is a big issue for Florida and its future growth. Population growth, agriculture and industry threaten the natural beauty and water quality of our springs, waterways and wetlands. Invasive foreign plant life infests our ponds and streams. In the face of these challenges, there are solutions to be had and business opportunities to be pursued.

Pond Science LLC of Brevard County, FL, led by founder and owner Laura Parkel, was started 10 years ago to improve the ecology and enhance the natural beauty of Central Florida’s ponds and shorelines. Building on a B.A. in Limnology (Freshwater Ecology), her experience as an Aquatic Biologist at Walt Disney World and a subsequent M.S. in Soil and Water Science with emphasis in wetlands and aquatic systems from the University of Florida, through Pond Science LLC Parkel has set about “to create healthy, beautiful ponds” in two ways:  by revitalizing earth-bottom retention ponds and by building, rebuilding and/or repairing water gardens and features, and maintaining both.

By strategically deploying aerators to re-oxygenate the water and removing exotic nuisance weeds, Pond Science is able to rid retention ponds of muck, make the water clearer and cleaner and create a healthy environment for water creatures, insects and native plants. As trained and certified aquascape contractors, Parkel and her team are able build beautiful new water gardens, or repair and rebuild those that were originally installed by untrained developers and landscapers.

As worthwhile as Pond Science’s mission is, it is still a business and Parkel wanted to make sure it was sustainable and growing. Based upon her experience at weVentures, the Florida Institute of Technology’s program for ‘womenpreneurs’, she turned to Martin Duffy, a consultant at and the Area Manager of the Florida SBDC at Eastern Florida State College, a satellite office of the FSBDC at UCF. With support from Duffy and his FSBDC team, Parkel has been successfully growing her business ever since.

The assistance from the FSBDC has come in a variety of areas. Parkel and her employees attended seminars to build their marketing and finance knowledge. The company leveraged the FSBDC’s market research databases to identify business opportunities. And she benefited from Duffy’s consulting in the form of improved budgeting, financial forecasting and online marketing.

“My business has grown tremendously since we started working with the FSBDC,” says Parkel. “We have doubled our revenues and been able to hire two new employees. I may be an expert in aquatic science but, on the business side, I didn’t know what I didn’t know before. Now, with the help of the FSBDC, I want to see what else I need to know to take the company to the next level.”

“Building a marketing plan; financial management training; digital marketing best practices: these are just some of the services our team at the FSBDC can provide,” remarked Duffy. “We have the people to do labor-intensive market research as well as tools and databases that small businesses don’t have access to. Bring the whole package together and we are able to make a big difference in the community.”

— FSBDC —

About the FSBDC at UCF

With its main office in the National Entrepreneur Center located at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, the Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) is part of the UCF Office of Research & Commercialization and the Florida SBDC Network (FSBDC Network). THE FSBDC at UCF provides business seminars and no-cost, one-on-one business consultation to emerging and established businesses. The FSBDC at UCF serves an eight-county area that includes Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties and maintains 10 service centers across Central Florida.

In 2015, the FSBDC at UCF served almost 7,000 entrepreneurs in Central Florida through consulting and training, resulting in more than 7,300 jobs created, retained or saved; $990 million in sales growth; $74.4 million in capital formation; $101.7 million in government contract awards; and 111 new businesses started.

About the FSBDC Network

The FSBDC at UCF is a member of the Florida SBDC Network, a statewide service network funded in part through cooperative agreements with the U.S. Small Business Administration, Defense Logistics Agency, State of Florida and other private and public partners. The Florida SBDC Network is hosted by the University of West Florida and is nationally accredited by the Association of SBDCs. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.

For over 35 years, the FSBDC Network has nourished a statewide partnership between higher education and economic development organizations, dedicated to providing emerging and established business owners with management and technical assistance, enabling overall growth and increased profitability for the businesses and economic prosperity for the state. The FSBDC Network is a statewide service system of 41 centers with 60 outreach locations, including the FSBDC at UCF.

In 2015, the Florida SBDCs served almost 45,500 entrepreneurs and small business owners through consulting and training, resulting in 217,849 jobs created, retained or saved; $29.3 billion in sales growth; $947.4 million in capital accessed; $2.1 billion in government contract awards; and 3,857 new businesses started.

FSBDC at UCF | 3201 E. Colonial Drive | Orlando, FL 32801 | p 407.420.4850 | f 407.420.4862

BedTop, FSBDC, UCF, Palm Coast, Flagler

Bedtops Mattress Clearance Center

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Imagine moving your home more than 1200 miles and starting a new business in a new and unfamiliar city… simultaneously.  Sounds like a steep climb, doesn’t it? But that’s exactly what Judy and Gary Lemay did. And they couldn’t be happier.

They have fallen in love with their new hometown of Palm Coast and its residents, “the nicest people in the world” according to the Lemays. At the same time, they have successfully launched and are now watching their new company, Bedtops Mattress Clearance Center, build a loyal customer base and grow into a profitable local business.

Bedtops Mattress Clearance Center sells brand new, name brand, direct-from-the-manufacturer mattresses which allows them to offer their customers the lowest possible prices. “Make us your last stop and best stop in mattress buying,” says Judy Lemay. Our company prides itself in making deliveries available using local people who are polite and caring. “We’re all family here” states Judy.

The Lemays will be the first to tell you they didn’t get the business up and running and growing alone. “We didn’t know the market. We didn’t know what location to pick. We didn’t know if we’d get a warehouse,” says Gary Lemay. “So, the first thing we did was go to the Palm Coast Business Assistance Center (BAC). That’s where we found the Florida SBDC at UCF-Palm Coast and FSBDC consultant Mike Oppenheim. Mike and the FSBDC have made all the difference.”

The Florida SBDC offers entrepreneurs and business owners expert, no-cost consulting, business training workshops and seminars and access to major market research database resources. Thanks to Oppenheim, the Lemays were able to benefit from many of these services.

“At the beginning, I’m not sure how fast we would have moved,” remarked Judy Lemay. “We were pretty sure we could be successful. But after we met with Mike Oppenheim, we said ‘We can do this. We can make this happen.’ And so we did.”

The FSBDC provided the Lemays with the outline for how to open their business in Palm Coast. Through Oppenheim, it provided tax information they needed, direction on signing up for a resale certificate, market data on local demographics and possible warehouse /sales office locations. All in the Lemay’s first meeting with him.

“As an entrepreneur, when you get excited about your business, sometimes you can be tempted to spend money too fast,” continued Gary Lemay. “You want to do this. You want to do that. You see opportunities everywhere. That’s where the FSBDC came in. We were fortunate to have Mike advising us because he would get our feet back on the ground and help us take things one step at a time.”

“To all the entrepreneurs out there, we say ‘Go use the resources of the FSBDC’ because there’s going to be something you didn’t think of or something you didn’t plan for. And when that happens, the folks at the FSBDC have your back. It’s the only way to go.”