Training helps entrepreneurs reach next level

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.

By Greg Kratz
Deseret Morning News

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595066218,00.html

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 [email protected] or at the Deseret Morning News, P.O. Box 1257, Salt Lake City, UT 84110.

E-mail: [email protected]