Phillip Buelterman-Mark Anderson Scholar

October 27, 2011 Leave a comment

Phillip Buelterman (pictured left) is a Georgia Southern senior pursuing a BBA in accounting and is the recipient of the Mark Anderson scholarship for business. The scholarship, funded by Mark Anderson (joint owner of Joiner-Anderson Funeral Homes) was set up by Anderson who grew up in a large family and had to work his way through college.

“This [scholarship] may help in a small way for a student to spend more time toward their degree rather than having to work during school,” said Anderson.

Phillip first became interested in business while working in high school. He started out working as a bagger in Kroger and worked his way in to the accounting office. Buelterman handled the stores bookkeeping, rectifying cash receipts and bank deposits at the end of the night. Buelterman was the youngest in the accounting office but said because he was confident in his abilities, that his age didn’t affect his work.

Once he came to Georgia Southern University, he credits Dr Gloria Stewart for choosing to become an accounting major.

“I had Dr Stewart for financial accounting as a pre-business major and her class made up my mind for me,” said Buelterman.

He also acknowledges the hard work that Dr. Jackson pulls out of his students. Dr. Jackson has an infamous reputation in the business school for being incredibly tough on his students, but as Buelterman pointed out, he is a completely different person in his office and he is hard on his students so they will be prepared for the “real world.”

“Dr. Jackson just lets you know that not everything is going to be baby spoon fed to you and that you’re not going to like every boss you have,” said Buelterman.

In the spring, the Anderson scholar is taking a break from classes and instead is interning. Starting in the summer he will complete his final two undergraduate classes and will begin working towards his CPA and sitting for the exams. Once he completes the exams he will need one year of direct experience under a CPA to receive his certificate. His plan is to work at a public accounting firm so that he can get a feel for all of the aspects of accounting and then he will try to go in to a specific industry.

“Public accounting is incredibly busy, especially in the months before tax season so I don’t know if I can make a 20-year career out of it.  But every industry has their own way of doing their accounting,” added Buelterman.

Mark Anderson (pictured right) assessing students’ venture trade stand in our entrepreneurship course.

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Tom Hughes-Alumni Focus

October 14, 2011 Leave a comment

Tom Hughes

The beginning of the entrepreneurial journey often begins with, “what do I need?” Or, “what do they need?” From there the entrepreneur begins to determine how he/she can meet and exceed those needs with a new product or service that has yet to be introduced. Then, the entrepreneur can continue to grow their business and their bank account or they can figure out how to use his/her success to help someone in need.

Tom Hughes has gone through steps one, two, and three, repeatedly. After graduating from Florida State University in 1961 with a dual BBA in Marketing and Finance and four years in the Navy, Hughes went on to begin working for Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. After that experience, Hughes realized he never wanted to work for anyone again and started working towards owning his own business by working his way up the corporate ladders. In 1984, after serving as Audit Manager, Controller and Chief Financial Officer for several corporations he became part owner of a $45M a year company, the Pioneer Business Group. In 1987, Pioneer Business Group was sold to North American Acquisition Corporation. From there Hughes went on to own several companies in the health services industry and currently serves as a consultant and part owner of National Electronic Attachment, Inc and Medical Electronic Attachment, Inc.

But what Hughes is most proud of is his ability to give back and help others. Although as an entrepreneur he has not always had full pockets, but he has always been willing to aid in other entrepreneurs’ careers and it has helped to motivate him through his path.

“In order to serve as an example, I had to be a success,” said Hughes.

In 2008, after receiving his Master of Business Administration from Kennesaw State University through the WebMBA program Tom Hughes was brought to Georgia Southern by Dr Constance Campbell and was introduced to Luke Pittaway.

Lead Sponsor Tom Hughes with Georgia Southern Student

Hughes now serves on the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning and Leadership’s Advisory Council. After realizing that everyone is crunching numbers and feeling the strain from university cutbacks Hughes once again asked, what do you need? And he delivered, in the form of two brand new laptops with all the bells and whistles.

“The climate right now is not really in favor of new business,” says Hughes.

He has made it his priority to help young entrepreneurs work towards seeing their dreams and ideas come to life, either by dosing out advice, making network connections for their benefit, or supplying teaching materials.

Tom Hughes is most proud of the schools he is helping to build in Zambia. Hughes serves on the board for the Alliance for Children Everywhere, Inc where he has played a considerable role in helping 2,500 children go to school for free. In a country where 68% of the population live below the poverty line and most working adults only bring home about a dollar a day, parents simply can’t afford to send their children to school.

Through all of his successes and trials, Hughes concedes that in fact behind every good man, is a good woman. Hughes admits that he has loved his career as an entrepreneur and business man but the lifestyle was probably not as easy for his wife. In down times, everyone is getting paid except for the entrepreneur.

“I remember looking at buying a quart of milk or a half gallon because we were trying to save money to make it through the end of the week and the next week you can buy the whole store as well as the inventory,” recalls Hughes.

In his fifty year career, Hughes continues to look for methods to increase his success so that he can serve as a lesson to young and upcoming entrepreneurs. And equally, or even more importantly continues to work for ways to help anyone he can.

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Andy Kimbell-Local Entrepreneur Spotlight

September 26, 2011 1 Comment

A Georgia Southern alumnus he may not be, but local to the Statesboro area, Andy Kimbell is a part of a new wave of entrepreneurs. He might not have had the original idea to found a specialty woodwork facility but he has taken the next step in the role of entrepreneur. Andy Kimbell bought Advanced Veneer Technologies, which operates under Truax Veneer Company, and has executed to role of business owner successfully for over 15 years.

Kimbell served as Lieutenant Commander and Naval Aviator in the US Navy, received his bachelor’s in Accounting from St. John’s University in 1980 and in 1995 received an MBA from Duke University. Although Kimbell truly loved being a Navy pilot, he knew he was not in a place where he could be entrepreneurial and believed that his best opportunity would be to go in to business for himself.

Tupelo logs delivered to Truax to be turned in to specialty wood veneer

So, Kimbell sought advice from every business avenue, he went to banks and Chambers of Commerce and took additional business classes just to get more information about being a business owner, how much capital would be required and how to successfully run a business and sustain it’s success. But as a young man in his 30s, Kimbell realized he didn’t have the capital to start a company from the ground up. Andy Kimbell expanded his definition of entrepreneurship realizing he didn’t need to create an entirely new business venture. Kimbell’s entrepreneurship came in the form of taking over a failing business, bringing modernity to its business practices, and returning to and exceeding  the businesses past success.

“Businesses come up for sale every day because people are retiring or want to move on to other ventures. There is a steady flow of small companies that are either for sale or in the process of being liquidated,” states Kimbell.

Kimbell knew that looking at the success and failure rates of new business ventures failure rates for new ventures were high but if an established operation could be purchased for the right price the odds of success were greatly enhanced. But he had the opportunity to buy a business at the liquidation value of its assets.

“I see many instances today were business are being liquidated for far less than the start up cost and in some cases less than the liquidation value of the raw assets,” said Kimbell.

Raw materials being turned in to sheets of veneer ready to be turned in to furniture or even violin casing.

Kimbell offers that the idea of entrepreneurship is going through a metamorphosis, that once thought of as solely the creative or inventive aspect, execution is the next step in the role of entrepreneur; entrepreneurship through acquisition offers a low risk, high value path to business ownership and being entrepreneurial does not limit one to starting a business from the ground up. He stresses to the next generation of entrepreneurs  that there is more of an opportunity to buy than build. The so-called echo-boomers are trailing the baby boomers who created and built so many companies before the new era of business leaders could talk, but now the older cohort is looking to take themselves out of business.

“When I was 35, I didn’t have the capital to start a business from the ground up, I now have the opportunity to expand in to new areas or add start up companies to our existing operation,” says Kimbell.

Andy Kimbell is the face of the new generation of entrepreneurs and has evolved the entrepreneurial idea to a higher probability of success. As for the next step, Kimbell is looking to expand within his current success.

“Management skills are portable but it does take time to be a technical expert,” Andy Kimbell

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Alumni Focus-Rachel Edwards

September 6, 2011 Leave a comment

In 1998, Georgia Southern University had less than 14,000 students enrolled, had just begun using the semester system, and graduated valedictorian Rachel Edwards with a BBA in Finance with an Emphasis in Real Estate. Today, Rachel has been practicing for 10 years and is the owner of Wright & Edwards, P.C.

The truest test of Rachel’s business aptitude was the fall of the housing market, because while her qualifications read, “Rachel Edwards, Attorney at Law” she is also a business-woman.  “To be able to operate your own business you have to have a business education,” said Rachel. As a business owner she not only manages her legal practice but also administers the hiring and firing, if necessary, keeping overhead costs low to balance out the decline of the economy, managing payments on her building and phone and internet usage; “when you own your own business you also own your building,” says Rachel. Currently, Rachel keeps two full time paralegal assistants and is always looking to hire one part time assistant.

Working part time is how Rachel got her start.  She started working as a title abstractor for local attorney, Anne Moore, the summer of her sophomore year.”I had in my mind that I wanted to go to law school and knew that I needed some sort of experience,” said Rachel about applying to Mercer University School of Law. In 2001, Rachel graduated from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University and began practicing full time with Wallace Wright, another local attorney.  In October of that year she was notified that she had passed the Georgia bar exam.

Soon thereafter, Rachel became a partner in the firm and the firm was renamed Wright & Collier, P.C.  It was just Rachel and Wallace at the firm until 2005, when Rachel’s husband, John, joined the practice.  In 2008, Wallace retired from the firm; however the firm still operates under the name Wright and Edwards, P.C.  Wallace’s office remains open in case he ever wished to return, even just for a visit. “We’ll keep the name because we are still good friends,” said Rachel, “it’s history.”

Rachel continues to focus on real estate and helps clients with estate planning, probate and other transactional matters.  She aids clients who are starting new businesses, helping them throughout the incorporation process. She also deals with existing business owners looking to sell their business or to buy another existing business.  “A lot of times we have clients who are already in the business and they are just buying out their competition.”

As far as students go, Rachel says to “have fun while you can and don’t rush through it.” She credits her professors at Georgia Southern with teaching her everything she needed and names Dr. Hatem’s investment class as the hardest she has ever taken. “I remember I failed the first test and the next test I made a 100 and he put a lucky dollar bill in my blue book.”

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Alumni Focus-Brandon Blair

April 14, 2011 Leave a comment

A view of 180's weight room from the entrance.

Google “180 Fitness” and you will find at least 10 different gyms in 10 different states with the namesake. But only one of them has trademarked the name and that same 180 Fitness is located in Statesboro, GA co-owned and operated by Georgia Southern graduate Brandon Blair.

Walking in the gym has a clean set up; there is no jarring clutter and confusion of which machine is where and where to start. Upstairs is the cardio deck and group fitness room and on the wall hangs oversized photos meant to inspire and push exercisers through a tough workout. There is no muss or fuss, overstated glitz and glamour, 180 Fitness is gym meant to make even beginners feel comfortable as they hit the weights or jog on the treadmills. Customer service has been their main focus since they first opened in January, 2006.

Before Brandon came to own 180 Fitness, he was a management and marketing student at GSU working his way through school as a personal trainer at Gold’s Gym. As a student, he was interested in small business and entrepreneurship but admits he was scared of rejection from corporations and how an entrepreneurship degree would look to potential job recruiters and managers.

“I was scared that if I wanted to get a job somewhere they would think, ‘Okay, he just wants to start his own business.’ But, what I’ve noticed now, the movement even within large firms is to promote that entrepreneurial spirit. If you promote that within your employees then they are going to do more for your company,” said Brandon.

While pursuing his management degree, he took several entrepreneurship classes and loved them. Before Brandon graduated, he wrote up a complete business plan for his father’s rental company which is still operating today. In 2001, after receiving his BBA and MBA Brandon worked for Fastenal in Savannah. While at Fastenal, he launched a landscaping business and BA Blair Developments, a land development company. Brandon’s landscaping business is still functioning and successful today but is no longer operated by Brandon. After leaving Fastenal, Brandon had to sell off the land from his development company and returned back to work in Statesboro.

In 2005, Brandon’s now partner, Angie Hitchens approached him with a proposition to take over the Gold’s Gym. Angie had worked with Brandon as his manager at Gold’s while he was in working through college. When Georgia Southern opened the Recreation and Activity Center (RAC) on campus Gold’s Gym lost $360,000 in the first year. And corporate offered Angie the opportunity to purchase the business.

After five years in business, Angie and Brandon have learned how to operate the gym, which market segment to concentrate on and how to cooperate as successful partners.

“Angie’s the one who tells me I’m crazy and reels me back in. I come up with all of these wild ideas and she’s the one that tells me ‘No way, that’s  not going to work,’ or goes and figures out the numbers,” said Brandon.

Including the RAC, there are 5 gyms just around the campus area. 180 keeps its focus on families offering clean facilities, group fit classes and child care. They don’t offer 24 hour services because their main goal is to create a comfortable, inviting atmosphere with an emphasis on customer service and the facilities in town that offer 24/7 operations don’t keep a full staff. Brandon and Angie are now working on empowering the gym’s name by enforcing their trademark and are currently working to open a franchise in the Savannah/Hilton Head area.

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SIFE Team Places in Regionals

April 8, 2011 Leave a comment

On Monday, April 4th, Georgia Southern’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team competed in the SIFE regional competition and took second runner-up in their league.  Students in Free Enterprise is an international organization with the mission to “bring together the top leaders of today and tomorrow to create a better, more sustainable world through the positive power of business.”

At 8:00 Monday morning, some 70 teams registered for the Southeast Regional SIFE competition and were divided into Leagues made up of eight to 10 teams. At 8:30 the first team begun their 25 minute presentation.The event took place in just one day and during the presentations students were able to partake in a career fair sponsored by several Fortune-500 companies. At a catered lunch, participants were joined at their tables by company executives or recruiters and were given valuable one-on-one time.

“It was really great! I learned so much about Coca-Cola and their extensive mentor program,” said Matt Chambers

After one team dropped from the competition, Georgia Southern’s team was bumped up by 40 minutes without being warned. But at 9:40 Georgia Southern SIFE successfully delivered their presentation.

Contained in the presentations were updates and conclusions of the individual SIFE teams’ projects. Some universities, such as Belmont University, have been working on sustainable business projects for over five years. For Georgia Southern, contributions came from SIFE’s GED learning project and from SIFE students in Dr. Luke Pittaway’s Applied Small Business Management who have taken on semester long projects devoted to Campbell’s Soup Let’s Can Hunger initiative and fund-raising for a non-profit, free health clinic, Hearts and Hands, located in Statesboro.

In just three months $3,500 have been raised in honor of Hearts and Hands Clinic and nearly 2,000 pounds of non-perishable goods to help feed the hungry. This year the Campbell’s Soup and SIFE effort to ”can hunger” has raised more than 900,000 lbs of food worldwide.

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Alumni Focus- JT Marburger

April 6, 2011 1 Comment

Evaluate. Decide. Evolve. These are the three basic steps to JT Marburger’s entrepreneurial success. After graduating from Georgia Southern in 1984, Marburger worked as a pharmaceutical representative and quickly decided that it wasn’t his career path of choice. In 1990, he was given the opportunity to join his mother’s firm, Incentive Marketing, a corporate promotions company.

JT Marburger and Tiger Woods at a Nike product trial in 2003.

As president of Incentive Marketing, Marburger took the business sales from $200,000 a year to $5,000,000 and secured Incentive’s first major contract with Time Warner. This partnership helped Marburger develop strong relationships with Turner Sports affiliates: NBA, NHL, MBL, NFL and NASCAR. In 2005, Marburger became president of CorpLogo Wear and once again grew the company from $12M to $45M, in just 3 years. Because of the relationships formed, he was able to secure license agreements with United States Olympic Committee and supplied the uniforms for all of the volunteers and employees at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. He also signed an exclusive contract with the Atlanta Braves and licensing agreements with NCAA, NASCAR, and FIFA World Cup. Marburger had to break ties with his partner in 2008 and founded Insignia Promotions, a joint venture between Incentive Marketing and ProForma, which in three years has become a $6.2M business and is the world leader in recycled PET (RPET) merchandise.

PET, polyethylene terephthalate, is the type of plastic used to make recyclable products such as Coca-Cola bottles. Marburger and Insignia Promotions has developed and continues to manage the entire supply chain from collecting and processing the post-consumer plastics, to breaking down the bottles and reforming the plastic into polyester to be used for promotional items and corporate wear.

In 2007 Coca-Cola approached JT, who has been an approved supplier for ten years, with the idea of recycling plastic Coca-Cola bottles to create polyester goods. At Turner Field, zoos nation wide, and recycling centers, Coca-Cola collects the used bottles and sends them to a recycling plant where 50% of the plastic goes back to Coca-Cola to be processed and cleaned and formed in to new bottles. The other half goes to Marburger’s manufacturers who transform the plastic containers in to polyester yarn, which is woven in to fabric and is used to create T-shirts. The RPET is also used to create promotional items such as reuseable plastic bags, hats, and even furniture and hard goods in which Insignia Promotions is currently working to expand their product lines.

When you visit Turner Field to watch a Braves game, all of the employees are outfitted in RPET uniforms manufactured by Insignia Promotions and on the sleeve is the iconic Coca-Cola contoured bottle with a number in the middle. Marburger’s licensing agreement with Coca-Cola allows him to use the contoured bottle and the number in the middle which represents the number of bottles used to create the shirt.

“Everyone wants to be green friendly, but they want to do it at the same price,” says Marburger.

The challenge, Marburger said, is in getting the efficiencies necessary to create economies of scale so that companies like Time Warner, NCAA, and Delta Airlines will want to replace their current uniform and promotional goods with Insignia Promotions’ products.

“I have worked with manufacturers to grow our volume and produce economies of scale so that now the recycled shirts are roughly the same price as regular polyester,” states Marburger.

An usher at Turner Field wearing Insignia Promotions' RPET uniform.

Marburger’s evaluation of Coca-Cola’s proposition to use post-consumer goods and to create eco-friendly merchandise has led him to where he is today. With a $6.2 million company. And his decision to manage the entire supply chain from collection of recycled bottles, to processing, to fabricating has propelled his success. Insignia Promotions has provided RPET merchandise to companies in over 41 countries, has established relationships with 10 key recycling centers and plans to increase the number to 25 in the coming years, and has significantly decreased businesses’ carbon footprints just by replacing their uniforms. But Insignia and Marburger are still evolving.

Insignia opened a London office just 18 months ago and was named as one of Think London’s Top 100 Companies to Watch and is currently working on a contract with Penn Tennis and the Tennis Industry of America. In October, while playing tennis, Marburger noticed that the Penn tennis ball container was made from PET, just like the Coca-Cola bottles, but it had a metal ring around the rim. Marburger went to his supply center to see if the cans were being recycled, after discovering that they couldn’t use the bottles because of the aluminum around the lid Marburger figured out how they could easily remove the hinderance and use the bottles to create recycled merchandise.

Marburger approached the Tennis Industry of America and Penn Tennis with an idea to set-up an entirely new enterprise. The initiative would set up recycling centers at tennis courts nation wide and the PET collected would be used to create wet wiking shirts, sweat bands, racket bags, etc.

In just twenty years after graduating, JT Marburger has grown three multi-million companies and has become a world leader in RPET merchandise and attributes his success to his Georgia Southern degree.

“Georgia Southern prepared me 100% to be an entrepreneur. Georgia Southern teaches you to think like an entrepreneur, I think of my management degree as a degree in logical thinking,” says Marburger. He advises students to “to be thoughtful with questions and listen and look at every opportunity and then try to logically breakdown that opportunity and decide whether or not to go for it and not be afraid of failure. You can’t be afraid to fail.”

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FastPitch 2011 Comes to a Close

April 3, 2011 Leave a comment

FastPitch 2011 Front Row of Judges. Picture by Joe Chang

On Thursday, March 31, 40 competitors pitched their products, services, and start-up business ideas to a room of spectators and judges made up of local business-people, members of the Ariel Savannah Angel Partners, lawyers and students. The 40 competitors were narrowed down from 106 applicants from the Coastal Empire and Low Country as well as some from the Atlanta area. The participants were then divided in to three groups: Students, Academics, and Entrepreneurs.

The day of the FastPitch Competition judges had already read over the presenters’ packages which included product and company information, cost and profit evaluations and market research. The competitors were given just three minutes to pitch their ideas to the 20-some judges who judged the participants based on their one page presentation, business viability/attractiveness, and the overall presentation.

A winner and runner-up were chosen from each category and an overall winner was chosen. For the winners, there were trophies and prize money. But according to judge and start-up businessman Radford Harrell, the cash prizes were not the real value of the competition.

“As a start-up, the value is really in the presentation to this culture. The start up culture here in Savannah, as well as, the academic culture who also is tied to potential business networking…The real value is in showing up on the radar,” said Harrell.

There was no specific product, service or business category that the competitors were limited to and there was no central theme among the competitors. Of the 12 students, business ideas ranged from publishing companies to Bowsworld

Student Contestants Waiting to Pitch. Picture by Joe Chang

backpacks that “can carry anything from an elephant to an iPod” to businesses focused on local sustainability. 3 competitors in the academic category pitched product ideas for business software, fashionable and ergonomic crutches and slings, and a model that will help students training in physical and massage therapy schools pass competency exams. The entrepreneur’s ideas were even more diverse.

Many of the entrepreneurs focused on products that would improve day to day business life ranging from social media management to software that allowed businesses to create websites and write software in plain English so there is no need to know how to write html code. Other entrepreneurs had created environmentally friendly pest irrigation systems, water filtration systems, kids furniture that only allowed one toy out of the toy chest at a time, iPhone games, and modern bartering systems.

Of the many different ideas, judges had to choose just six contestants to compete in the final round where the overall winner would be chosen.

From the student category, Alysse Shuffer was chosen as runner-up. She and three of her Georgia Southern classmates came up with “A Magical Banquet at Hogwarts: Dining with Wizards,” a dining experience that mixes the outrageous Hogwarts banquets, owls and magical effects. They are currently in talks with Universal Studios and plan to pitch their idea to Disney executives at the end of the semester.  James Bowerman was the winner in the student category with Bowsworld backpacks. A completely convertible backpack that can transform into a satchel or shoulder bag with just a few clicks. James boasted a simple design that he could manufacture for just $8  each and already had Savannah stores willing to sell his products and local designers to create original fabrics and designs to differentiate his product.

Mariah Hay took top honors in the Academic category with her stylish and comfortable medical products. Mariah came up with the idea after having to wear an arm sling herself and noticing that it was so unattractive and uncomfortable that she never wanted to use it, even if it meant that her arm wouldn’t heal properly. According to Mariah, current medical products don’t pass the “psychological wellness test,” but her stylish and ergonomic crutches and slings are good enough to be sold in Nike’s slick, modern stores. Chris Masters was awarded second place for his Muscle Magic, the detailed, realistic model that is currently helping students in Savannah School of Massage pass their competency exams. Masters’ goal is to expand his customer base and assist students nationwide.

Student Winner James Bowerman. Picture by Joe Chang

Three contestants were chosen from the entrepreneur category. Second runner-up, Louise Hodges has already started GreenBug All Natural Pest Control with sprays made from Cedar which is a natural pest deterrent but is not harmful to humans, animals or helpful insects such as ladybugs, butterflies and honey bees. She is currently working on expanding her business to include an irrigation system which automatically sprays a client’s yard once a day and is more effective and cheaper than traditional mosquito sprayers. Kevin Werntz took second with Peas-Corp (www.Peas-Corp.com)  a creative development, game production and distribution company that was started after the success of the iPhone app Whirled Peas. Peas-Corp games are currently available on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Go Hastings! nationwide as well as Polka Dots and Four Kids in Savannah. Peas-Corp is looking for additional funding to help get their products off the ground by creating a strategic marketing plan to attract consumers to these retailers to purchase Peas-Corp goods.

Diana Keough not only took first place in the entrepreneur category but was also awarded as the overall competition winner. Keough’s winning pitch was for her company shareWIK (www.shareWIK.com). ShareWIK is an online community for family members and friends of patients who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, Parkinson’s, etc. ShareWIK stands for “share what I know” and was described by Keough as “WebMD meets Facebook.” It is an online community where real people can share their experiences and offer  hope, advice and facts to those who are dealing with a family member’s diagnosis. ShareWIK was started by a team of journalist and offers an objective point of view in their podcasts, blog and article posts.

Lead Sponsor Tom Hughes with Georgia Southern Student. Picture Joe Chang

Additional advice from judges included, Chair of the Center’s Advisory Council and Entrepreneurial Fellow Jim Williams told the contestants to “be sure to explain what the money [you are asking for] is going to and be realistic in your revenues, your expenses and your profitability.” To which Entrepreneurial Fellow Larry Zaslavsky added, “don’t be afraid to ask for more money up front, the first bite is always the worst but once you get over that you don’t want to have to keep asking for more and more.”The

Savannah Morning News Article March 27th

WTOC-TV Savannah

The Savannah Morning News Article March 31st

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Alumni Focus – Lori and DeWayne Grice

March 11, 2011 1 Comment

Lori and DeWayne Grice

It is evident after meeting this husband and wife duo that giving back plays an important part in their lives. The couple strives to live according to the “Rick Warren concept” of living on 10% and giving away 90%. But had it not been for one photograph, the Grice’s may not have been able to play such a vital role in their community.

Since the age of eight Lori has had a camera in her hand when her Uncle entered the photography business and later founded Regency Photo.  When she was 18 years old she had the opportunity to attend her first Georgia Southern football game. Working her way through college in her uncle’s photo lab, it was a rare occasion when she got a Saturday off to go watch the Eagles. Given that opportunity, she was sure to take her camera with her. She snapped many shots but one in particular of a Georgia Southern Eagle running the ball, with his teammates cheering him on in the background, for a touchdown.  The owner of Archibald’s, which is now Gnat’s Landing, saw the photo and asked Lori for a print for his restaurant where the famed Erk Russell frequented. Coach Russell fell in love with the portrait and requested that the action shot be used in GSU’s marketing campaigns.  Erk’s endorsement of Lori’s work gave her the boost she needed to launch her highly successful photography business.

“My aunt actually said after that ‘it’s such a shame that you have reached your peak at 18,’” laughed Lori.

DeWayne, Lori and their daughter Edie Grace with GUS before an Eagles' game.

DeWayne started off as a co-op student at GSU where he later graduated with a BBA in entrepreneurship.  While in college, he co-founded Cable Ad Concepts, a consulting agency for Northland Cable.  In this role DeWayne helped establish the advertising, production and news divisions in Northland Cable systems throughout the southeast. While managing Cable Ad Concepts, then Georgia Secretary of State Lewis Massey convinced DeWayne to come to Atlanta and help lead his gubernatorial campaign. In 1997 DeWayne founded Z to A Solutions, a nonprofit and political fundraising company. DeWayne’s company made a tremendous impact in the political and nonprofit arena by raising more $20 million in the short time he presided over the company. But this fast paced life wasn’t quite right for the couple who wanted to start a family.

John C. Maxwell, a successful leadership development author and motivational speaker, spoke to Lori and DeWayne while they were trying to figure out their path and said to Lori, “you have no idea how lucky you are and how wonderful it is to know what your gift is.” He also challenged DeWayne to find his gift, and DeWayne knew that leading political campaigns just weren’t his primary gift. So, DeWayne merged his company and returned to Statesboro full time to join Lori in her photography studio downtown.

Photography is more than just a portrait session and portrait sales for DeWayne and Lori, they pride themselves on their work and their community involvement.

“It doesn’t matter who we photograph, we have made it our goal to be proud to display our prints in any home across America,” said DeWayne.

In 2002, just 14 months after the birth of their daughter Edie Grace, Lori was offered the opportunity to travel to France and train with other professional photographers on a Thursday, on Friday she was chosen for Georgia Trend Magazine’s 40 under 40 and the following Monday she was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer. After being diagnosed, while holding her baby in her arms, Lori realized that if she couldn’t beat the cancer the only memories Edie Grace would have of her mother would be captured in portraits. Lori was reaffirmed of the power and importance of her job as a family’s portrait artist.  The cancer was caught early enough that Lori did not have to undergo Chemo-therapy.  After several surgeries and treatments, Lori is living cancer free. But she looks at life and photography in a new way.

“The greatest gift of the cancer, I realize, is that every day that I go into the studio I create the images and memories that may be someone’s last. So no matter how I feel that day I have to give my A-game.” says Lori.

Statesboro's Averitt Center for the Arts as it stands today. The efforts of DeWayne Grice and community members led the renovation of a dilapidated bank into the arts center.

On top of their commitment to quality, the couple is dedicated to building their community. Lori and DeWayne played a fundamental role in rebuilding Downtown Statesboro. As President of the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority, she played an integral role in the redevelopment of several downtown buildings that were in ill repair including what is now City Hall. DeWayne was appointed by Statesboro professionals and then Mayor Hal Averitt to restore an old bank and movie theater into the successful Averitt Center for the Arts. DeWayne was a charter member on GSU’s Board for the Center for Continuing Education. DeWayne led the effort to restructure the largest nonprofit organization in the world, the American Heart Association, by streamlining the organization and creating just 12 regional offices instead of 51. DeWayne served as Chairman of the Southeastern Affiliate of AHA and as a national board member. Lori is an activist and national spokesperson for the HPV vaccination and early diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer. They were the first husband and wife team to be listed in Georgia Trend Magazine’s 40 under 40 and have both received gubernatorial appointments. Lori has been named Georgia Photographer of the Year in 2007 and twice named International Photographer of the Year. She is 1 of 2,000 photographers nationally certified out of the Professional Photography Associations 20,000 members. Lori was only the 14th photographer in Georgia to be inducted into the prestigious American Society of Photographers.  In 2008, Lori was chosen to create an ornament for official White House Christmas Tree by First Lady Laura Bush, after being nominated by Congressman John Barrow.  Lori was the only photographer to be chosen. Currently, Lori and DeWayne are integrally involved in founding the Hearts and Hands Health Clinic in Statesboro.  DeWayne serves as the President of the clinics’ Board of Directors and they are committed to raising awareness and funds for the clinic, which offers free health care to those in the community, who have lost or cannot afford health insurance.

For more information about the husband and wife team or to schedule a Portrait Session please visit their website: www.lorigrice.com

Filed under Alumni Tagged with , , , , , ,

Student Carnation Sales Help Hearts and Hands

February 23, 2011 Leave a comment

On Valentine’s Day last week, students in Dr. Pittaway’s Applied Small Business class raised just over $400 by selling carnations. This was the class’ first fundraiser of the semester with proceeds benefiting Statesboro’s Hearts and Hands Clinic. Hearts and Hands clinic is a Volunteers in Medicine Alliance. It is a free clinic for those who are uninsured in the Statesboro area. With 20% of Georgia’s population being unemployed, they have quite a feat to accomplish. The clinic is open to see patients two Tuesdays a month by a general practitioner and if they need additional, specific care there are 12 specialists who see patients, free of charge, during their office hours. Hearts and Hands also has 13 dentists that volunteer their time, space and equipment to taking care of patients. Everything that patient needs is taken care of by the clinic from filing claims and paperwork to providing free prescriptions.

Georgia Southern Students at the fundraiser. Hannah Shedd, committee HR representative, is using her social networking to inform additional students about the Hearts and Hands Clinic and benefiting fund raising.

This is where Dr. Pittaway’s class comes in; the class has been split in to two groups, one has the goal of raising 5,000 pounds of food for Campbell’s Let’s Can Hunger initiative and the other group has been charged with raising $5,000 for the Hearts and Hands clinic.  But, in the spirit of small business the groups are being graded on the innovation of their fundraising/can raising events and how successful their events are in obtaining their goals, among other criteria decided by the acting CEOs of each initiative.

The carnation sale was the first event of either group to be generated after just one month of class. The Hearts and Hands fund raising committee wanted to accrue capital early on in order to have extra cash in order to invest in upcoming events and to boost group confidence. The idea to sell flowers on Valentine’s day was suggested in one of the first brainstorming  meetings, the thinking being that there would be several Georgia Southern male professors, faculty and students who would have forgotten the significance of February 14.

When approached to buy a flower for the charity one man responded, “Why do I need a flower? Who would I give it to?”

To which Matt Chambers, the CEO of the fund raising committee simply stated, “You’re wife?”

And a light bulb went off in the professors head when he realized that this Monday was not just any ordinary Monday, but that it was, in fact , Valentine’s day.

Applied Small Business students, Brittanie Barber, Portia Dickerson, Whitney Long, and Scott Martin, man the table in Georgia Southern's Coca-Cola Plaza selling carnations.

The carnations were given to the group at a discount by The Flower Girl, a local flower shop in Statesboro located on Buckhead Dr. and over the course of 5 hours $400 were raised by donation and flower sales. If you are interested in the cause, please look to this website for upcoming events and also connect to the effort on facebook at:

http://www.causes.com/causes/572452

Filed under Clubs, Teaching & Learning Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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