Course helps take small business to the NxLeveL               

Raul Martinez, with his "greeter" at his Los 4 Vientos restaurant in Reno, says the NxLeveL courses helped him organize his business and move forward. (MARILYN NEWTON/RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL) 

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
January 30, 2008

Ray Hagar
RHAGAR@RGJ.COM

Raul Martinez's restaurant career started with a catering business, delivering food with his truck.

Martinez still has a catering company but he also owns Los 4 Vientos restaurant in Reno and recently sold his Los 4 Vientos 2 restaurant in Carson City.

But his career might have crashed if he did not participate in the NxLeveL Entrepreneurial Training Program of the Nevada Small Business Development Center at the University of Nevada, Reno College of Business Administration.

"I was working hard but I wasn't managing the business very well," Martinez said. "I didn't know the cost of the food or cost of labor. My administration was not very good, and I didn't know where I was focusing.

"These classes helped me organize my businesses," Martinez said. "It showed me how to manage the business in the right way so I was able to go ahead and open another one."

NxLeveL, a 13-week course designed to give small-business owners hands-on training, will hold its next two sessions on Feb. 5-6.

The Tuesday classes will be taught by Cheri Hill, president and CEO of Sage International.

The Wednesday sessions will be taught by Robert Cutone, who has more than 25 years of experience in sales, marketing and entrepreneurial management.

The curriculum is used in 48 states and nine countries, but each NxLeveL program is taught by local instructors and adapted for the region.

"I learned a lot about the things that I needed to do," said Sam Williams, a recent NxLeveL graduate who owns a confectionery company called How Do You Take Your Coffee Inc. "And one of the interesting things about the class is no matter how buttoned up that you think you are, if you go through it, something is going to be uncovered that you missed, and that is certainly a big benefit of it."

Martinez said he would recommend the classes to anyone: "It will help anyone who either wants to start a business or has a business. It will help tremendously."

Williams, however, said he would only recommend it to those willing to make the commitment in time and energy.

"It is a great value because the course is less than $400 to participate in," Williams said. "It certainly has a robust curriculum and a very robust group of materials for the amount of money.

"But at the same time, it is a big commitment. So, depending on the stage one is at as an entrepreneur or anyone considering becoming an entrepreneur, it is a big investment of time to go 13 weeks for four hours a night once a week."

Surging attendance

NxLeveL, in its eighth year in Nevada, saw its 2007 attendance reach a record high of more than 250 students, officials said.

It has had a $13.1 million economic impact on the area, according to a six-month study by UNR's Bureau of Business and Economic Research and the University Center for Economic Development.

"As a business-assistance center, we see the issues that frustrate and concern our community's small-business owners," said Kathy Carrico, the Nevada Small Business Development Center's training director. "Many find themselves overwhelmed once they start a business and need immediate assistance in areas like market research, financial projections and legal issues. NxLeveL addresses these and other critical topics, allowing for a much greater success rate of staying in business."

Failure to plan is a key reason why a majority of new small businesses go under within two years, Carrico said.

NxLeveL requires planning by the business owner and provides the tools to write a comprehensive business plan.

"It's like taking a road trip without a map, or building a house without a blueprint," Carrico said. "Without a plan that includes solid groundwork and familiarity with small-business issues, failure is only a matter of time.

"Bottom line, you will lose a lot of money," Carrico said.

The NxLeveL program was especially helpful for Williams since he recently moved to Reno from North Carolina.

"Participating in the course was sort of a built-in education in the goings on of the community," he said. "It was an opportunity to connect and meet other entrepreneurs, as well as (finding) different resources I needed for the business.

"In fact, if I had not gotten anything else out of it, that (networking) alone would have been well worth the investment of time and money," Williams said.

"Actually, I hired my bookkeeper from a reference that came from the Small Business Center. I use a piece of software that was developed by one of the counselors at the Small Business Center. So, the list goes on and on as to the different resources."

May, 2008

 NxLeveL
student from the University of Findlay
Small Business Development Center
Rhodes State College
promoting their product at the Home and Garden Show in Las Vegas

 Training helps entrepreneurs reach next level

By Greg Kratz
Deseret Morning News

      To those who haven't done it, starting a business looks easy.
      You get an idea for a great new product. You buy raw materials, put them together to make the product, then sell the new items at twice the price you paid for the materials. You make lots of money and retire young.
      But in reality, turning an idea into a profitable business is complicated.
      Just ask Mac Graham. He spent 25 years working with companies of different sizes, from start-ups to Xerox, and ended his career working with venture capital. He retired in 1994 and now is president of the Dawn Foundation, a family foundation focused on helping people build their lives and businesses.
      But he also teaches prospective business owners as a certified instructor for the NxLeveL entrepreneurial training program.
      NxLeveL is designed to provide hands-on, commonsense skills that help people start and grow a business. Mac says that kind of education is vital.
      A couple years ago, Mac says, he heard then-Gov. Mike Leavitt say 40,000 businesses were expected to start in Utah between 2002 and the end of 2005. But those businesses would have an 80 percent failure rate, and the governor was wondering what could be done to limit the impact of those failures on the state's economy and families.
      "The most critical need is to do some planning before they start into business," Mac says. "A lot of times, people have no business experience. They know how to do arc welding, for example, . . . but they don't know how to run a business."
      Various community organizations offer useful basic guidance, he says, but it usually isn't enough to get a budding entrepreneur on solid ground. And while local colleges offer extensive business courses, many people cannot afford to give the time or money they require.
      "They need some way to be taught a critical mass of information to run a business and not blow it," Mac says.
      NxLeveL is that kind of program. Students pay $695 for the 12-week course, which includes a 608-page textbook and a workbook. Mac says they meet three hours per week and spend additional hours on their own working up a business plan "that they will review each month to see how results compare to projections, make modifications . . . and then the next month see how they did in projecting actual results."
      Classes cover everything from planning, research and marketing to financial statements, deal-making and growth management.
      And Mac says the results speak for themselves. According to a University of Calgary and Mississippi State University study of start-up businesses, 16.5 percent overall were still in business after three years. But 93 percent of NxLeveL start-ups were still in business after three years.
      Some of that difference likely is due to students taking the NxLeveL class and deciding not to start a business, Mac says. Still, the percentage is impressive.
      "During the course, about two-thirds of the way through, the financial numbers begin to come together suggesting how this business will perform," Mac says. "At that point, sometimes people find that the profitability of the business is not great enough to justify going into business, and so they either work with us to modify their plan, or they go off on another idea.
      "What is wonderful here is this is a structure that's in their mind for the rest of their lives . . . every time they look at a business opportunity."
      NxLeveL is sponsored locally by Zions Bank, the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development, Mac says, and that also shows the quality of the course.
      So if you have an idea for a new business but don't know where to start, you might want to give NxLeveL a try. The next 12-week course starts Wednesday with a 6 to 9 p.m. class at the Reston Hotel, near the 5300 South exit off I-15 in Murray. To register, call 541-4682.
      I hope your idea is a smashing success.
      If you have a financial question — or a tale of good or bad customer service — send it to me at gkratz@desnews.com or at the Deseret Morning News, P.O. Box 1257, Salt Lake City, UT 84110.