Baltimore Business Club

BBC #4: 8/13/12

Presentation and Presenter: Erich & Brothers, Erich Raschid

Erich lead off the presentations with the idea for a full service painting company, called “Erich & Brothers.”  Erich’s experience in the painting business is well known among the BBC members.  His family has been in the business for 25 years, running “Finishing Touch Painting,” giving Erich more than enough opportunity to learn many aspects of the business during his summers in high school, college, and grad school.

Presentation and Presenter: Kickstarter, Mike Kirby

I’ve been investigating Kickstarter the last few months and am preparing an application for The Renewable Report.  It’s been a great experience so far and because several people had limited knowledge it existed, it seemed like a great site to browse over.

In short, it is a funding platform for creative projects.  Creators submit a project, whether it’s a film, book, video game or any other project you can imagine.  The creators set a funding goal and users donate money to help the creator work on the project.  Over $250m has been raised to fund thousands of projects, with most projects accounting for less than $10,000.

Presentation and Presenter: Baltimore Grand Prix Pics, Chris Diller & Mike Kirby

The Baltimore Grand Prix is coming to town again Labor Day weekend.  Last year, Chris & I put together an idea to create souvenir pictures of the race, showcasing city landmarks.  We didn’t follow through in 2011, but we are seriously considering it for 2012.  Over 160,000 people attended the race last year, and although the numbers don’t look to be near that, we still think there is an opportunity to sell pictures and make a few grand.  The basic idea is to create 1-3 drawings that can easily be copied and sell them to retailers for $10 a piece, with a retail price of $20.  If we can sell 50 pictures to 6 retailers in the next few weeks before the race, we’ll generate $3k in revenue with less than $600 in cost and 20-40 man hours of work.  If successful, Chris also has a launching pad to expand his talents into other local sports drawings.  Here is an example of a possible picture.

Presentation and Presenter: Ian Johnston, Bow Tie Bike Cabs

It’s always exciting when the BBC has presentations featuring businesses in their launch stage, and Ian did not disappoint here.  Currently, Baltimore does not have a bike cab service available in Federal Hill, Canton, or Fells Point.  Ian has spotted the opportunity and is exploring the market.  The idea is to start small with one Pedicab run by Ian on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.  If the first few months are successful, Ian plans to expand the business with more cabs.

The real revenue opportunity comes with the launch of several cabs and reoccuring advertising dollars, but it all starts with a small test run with one cab.  Ian has secured a cab from Main Street Pedicabs and hopes to have it delivered in late August/Early September.  He see’s Ravens games as an early opportunity to drive business.

Some of the topics we discussed included: costs, marketing with social media, expanding the business, advertising opportunities, potential routes, seasonal revenue issues, unique marketing opportunities, storing the bikes, insurance, and steps taken so far.

Here is the concept for the drivers’ uniforms with the logo Ian has created for the business.

BBC #3: 7/22/12

A flash power outage Sunday night on a few blocks in Fed Hill almost postponed the meeting.  Fortunately, Jackson street opened their doors and the meeting went off without a hitch.

Presentation and Presenter: Lean Startup Loop, Drew Vogt

Drew presented the lean startup model loop, featured in the book by Eric Ries titled, The Lean Startup.  Drew explained the loop and the advantages it has when building and launching a product.  Rarely if ever can a company create a perfect product for a customer.  This loop emphasizes building a minimum viable product that can be tested in the market place.  See the response, learn from it, change it, and re-launch and continually repeat this process.  The loop is illustrated below.

Presentation and Presenter: The Renewable Report Consulting, Mike Kirby

I described through a power point presentation the prospect of using The Renewable Report to set up solar consulting services down the road.  If a regular audience can be built, I see the potential for residential and commercial solar consulting as a viable and untapped market in the near future.  We went over some of the processes and action steps required to achieve that goal.

Presentation and Presenter: Universal Design and The Children’s Book for Grown Ups, Erich Raschid

Erich first touched on an architectural concept called Universal Design.  This method tries to implement building designs that can be used by everyone, with an emphasis on those with disabilities.

Then Erich presented his idea for a book he is creating, The Children’s Book for Grownups.  He did a “prezi” presentation and went over the layout and some of the ideas he is putting together.  He also passed around several drafts of some of his work.  His book has a humorous but real side to it as well.  If you have any questions, hit him up on twitter @youngadultlifeadvice.  But not really.

Presentation and Presenter: Newsletter for Farmers, Teddy Schreck

Before Teddy recently moved to Baltimore (great choice!), he worked in Chicago trading farm related commodities.  He feels there is a huge disconnect between the information available to the people working in those exchanges and the farmers producing the product.

His idea is to create an informational, paper newsletter for farmers to relay that information, allowing them to make better decisions for their business.

BBC #2: 7/10/12

Presentation and Presenter: The Railaway Business Model, Mike Kirby

I based this presentation off a book that recently came out, Business Model Generation.  The book offers a unique perspective to look at various types of businesses, through a 1 page business model.  Modeling your business this way doesn’t guarantee success, but it does give a great overview of how a business runs and can really indicate where strengths and weaknesses lie.

For this presentation, I briefly explained the 9 building blocks of the business model.  Then we brainstormed a few ideas we wanted to model out, and chose Chris Diller’s band, Railaway.  The group then came up with all the pieces that illustrate Railaway’s business model.  Below is a blank copy of the Business Model Canvas with the 9 key building blocks.

And here is the whiteboard model we brainstormed for Railaway.

Presentation and Presenter: Doomsday Jesters, Seth Franz

This was the first active business that was presented at the BBC, doomsdayjesters.com.  Seth works in commercial real estate, but began building a satirical online retail store in January 2012 to compliment the reality show “Doomsday Preppers” by offering products to fans relating to the oncoming Apocalypse.  Seth brought all his products and the presentation turned into an enjoyable question and answer session about how he started the business, some of the challenges he faced, and what his goals are between now and December 2012.

Topics included:

Costs, building a website with limited money and no tech skills, dealing with foreign and domestic suppliers, product development, prospects beyond 2012, idea creation, implementation steps, launching the website, marketing, and landing office space on the cheap, to name a few.

Below is a picture of Seth holding two of his products (and wearing a third), a Doomsday insurance policy certificate and insurance card.

BBC #1: 6/25/12

Monday, June 25th marked the first official meeting of the Baltimore Business Club.  Three presentations were made, and the response was strong enough to keep the club going.

Presentation and Presenter: The Renewable Report preview, Mike Kirby

I made the first presentation, and we viewed one of my draft episodes of the Renewable Report.  The concept for the online show was born this past April, and this was the first time anything had been shown publicly.  The episode we viewed was a not yet released show, featuring an interview with Fritz Eisenbrandt, the Founder and President of Smart Homes Services.  In the episode, we discussed home energy audits and the various services his company provides.  After the show, members offered tips and suggestions for how the show could be improved before it’s launch on July 16.  Two ideas that were immediately incorporated into the show were to include the logo, email address, and twitter handle of The Renewable Report on the screen during the episodes.

Presentation and Presenter: Investing in the Pride of a City, Drew Vogt

Drew made a power point presentation about putting together an “investment group” to purchase 2-6 Personal Seating Licenses for the Ravens.  It was a funny, but well thought out and informed presentation.  Drew’s summary of his presentation is below:

Main Points:

-2009 recession dramatically reduced the price of M&T Bank PSLs.
-Section 550, $4,000/PSL in 2007 -> currently $2,000/PSL
-Sell tickets at 20-30% above face value
-Hold on to PSLs for 5-10 years allowing PSL market to go back to 2007
levels, or higher.

Revenue Generation:
– Yearly ticket sales
– Sell PSLs at higher value (50-150%) in 5-10 years

Summary:
With an investment team of 2-6 people, purchase a group of 2-6 PSLs.
Invest money now, make money later.

Presentation and Presenter: The Drift and Thinking the Unthinkable, Mark Wheeler

Mark presented parts of a consulting workshop he attended during his time with Colorful Remedies, a painting and remodeling company in West Chester, PA.

The concept of the drift basically states that within groups of people, actions and words are often repeated, whether right or wrong.  When things are repeated, they are justified within the group and solidify their place as truth.  This can have negative consequences in certain cases, and the main idea is to avoid the drift, step back, and think about what is really going on as an independent mind.

Thinking the Unthinkable is a model Mark illustrated on the white board with four quadrants: 1) status quo, 2) crisis, 3) thinking the unthinkable, and 4) new reality.  There is a circular cycle here that promotes progress.  What Mark stressed was the importance and value of skipping the crisis stage and heading straight from the status quo into thinking the unthinkable.

Introducing the Baltimore Business Club

The Baltimore Business Club is a grassroots entrepreneurial club geared toward twenty-somethings living in Baltimore.  We meet twice a month to share business ideas and any other worldly knowledge our members have to offer.  We’ll use this site to recount the discussions of our meetings and share some new material.

The idea of the club was inspired by the Shark Tank, Mark Cuban, and our fake business conglomerate Stack Street Enterprises.  Here are some pictures from the early days of the Baltimore Business Club, before we got real.