Basic HTML Version
84
BizVoice
/Indiana Chamber –
September/October 2012
“T
he devil’s in the details.”
Entrepreneurs and business leaders are painfully familiar with this timeless
adage. Many spend so much time focusing on everyday operations that they
lose sight of opportunities to grow – whether that includes opening
additional facilities or hiring more employees.
“As business owners, we tend to get wrapped up (in the particulars). You’re so busy
trying to stay afloat that you don’t think about swimming,” asserts Skye Huff, national sales
partner and coach at Sales Artists, a corporate training company headquartered in Anderson.
Mentoring and coaching offered through the IDEA Academy are helping Huff and other
entrepreneurs address that challenge.
IDEA (Innovate, Demonstrate, Educate,
Accelerate) is a collaboration among the Madison
County Chamber of Commerce, Flagship Enterprise
Center (FEC) and the Corporation for Economic
Development.
At the helm is DeWayne Landwehr, former
executive director at the FEC.
“A lot of entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily
business people,” he contends. “They’re idea people
and inventors, and they have a drive to do something,
but not necessarily to run a business.
“Even when you get past the business formation
side, (it’s), ‘How do I hold people accountable? How
do I get people to feel they’re in the same boat I’m
in and that we’re going in the same direction?’ ”
More than a dozen companies from a diverse
group of industries took part in the inaugural class, which launched last September.
Participants met twice a month: for training (blending traditional classroom learning with
group interaction) and for informal networking at the FEC. The course spanned one year,
covering topics such as accountability, business planning, marketing and innovation.
“This is for existing businesses, more than brand new businesses,” Landwehr notes.
“Most of the businesses that participated have been in existence for more than three years –
some for as long as 30 years.
“Training is so important. I see people struggling every day trying to keep their business
afloat. I think knowledge in a few different areas would really help people make a better
profit and make us as a region more economically viable and more prosperous.”
Helping hand
Sales Artists, created in 2007, has clients in a variety of industries, but works primarily
with telecommunications companies.
Huff says that the IDEA Academy provides “a foundation for the company to be
sustainable.” In addition, she says the emphasis on collaboration is what impressed her most.
“We go in, we learn something and then we have to apply it,” she declares. “We work
together to solve a challenge. People who go to the Idea Academy are setting themselves up
for success instead of failure because they’re taking time to work on their business.
“We wouldn’t have continued to stay in IDEA if it hadn’t provided results,” she adds.
“We believe it’s made over a 10% rate of return to our revenue – not only in new business
that came in, but also cost savings overall. It was worth every penny.”
They’ve Got an IDEA for You
I N F O R M A T I O N L I N K
Resources:
DeWayne Landwehr, IDEA Academy, at www.getlinkedmadison.com/idea
Skye Huff, Sales Artists, at www.salesartists.com
By Symone C. Skrzycki
The next IDEA Academy
class, starting in September,
will feature a shortened
timeframe (six months
compared to one year) and
a second location (in
Noblesville).