The writing is on the chalkboard. Wanted: scientists, technicians, engineers and mathematicians.

Jim Jardon was able to build a company virtually from scratch. In 1990, he founded JHT Inc., which began as a small business that developed training programs for the Department of Defense and affiliated agencies. Since that time, JHT steadily has expanded services and grown from its Orlando roots to reach 30 states. Read more

TAKING ACTION

When it comes to improving and expanding the STEM talent pipelines, educators and industry leaders are conducting their own research and development.

Last fall, the Obama Administration announced plans to strengthen America’s economic competitiveness by improving education and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

In a speech, President Obama stated: “Lifting American students from the middle to the top of the pack in STEM achievement over the next decade will not be attained by government alone. I applaud the substantial commitments made … by the leaders of companies, universities, foundations, nonprofits and organizations representing millions of scientists, engineers and teachers from across the country.”

The President could well have been talking directly to leaders in Central Florida. Read more

Suzanne Bonham

Founder

Urban Flats

As a young girl, Suzanne Bonham dreamed of a career that would fulfill her passion for food, fun and hospitality. A stint at the Walt Disney Co. from 1993 to 2002, when she traveled the globe teaching others the magic of a memorable guest experience, further whetted that appetite. In 2004, she founded Urban Flats as a “refined casual restaurant and wine bar, where the centuries-old flatbread is given a modern new twist.” Last month, Bonham, also the chief executive officer, opened her 12th location, in Jacksonville, with plans to open nine others in 2010. Read more

Where do we grow from here? As a new era beckons, we must recognize the real opportunities.

As our economy shows signs of life, we will encounter both new and familiar challenges.

Like previous recoveries, this one will be unique and create new opportunities for growth and prosperity while old business models collapse with changing consumer demands. Unlike recent recoveries, however, there are transformational macro-economic forces at work that will redefine our economy and our quality of life. Read more

One solar step at a time, Robert Reynolds and Solis Energy can help light the way for aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere.

Robert Reynolds readily concedes he once knew little about solar energy. So he went to school, almost literally.

Reynolds had agreed to team with his teenage son on a summer project that involved creating a solar unit to generate power in their home’s Florida room. Reynolds bought the requisite solar panels and batteries. He Googled and asked business associates. And he goofed up, a lot. Read more

Entrepreneur/philanthropist David Maus is driven by passion in business and compassion in community.

After nearly 17 years of doing “whatever it takes” for customers and building his business into a successful empire, David Maus has become one of the most recognizable faces in Central Florida. Read more

If you’re going to survive the economic turmoil, you must innovate your way out of it. Here are nine ways your company can create one bright idea after another.

Yes, the recession still is with us, and companies everywhere continue to feel the pain. Amid the lingering malaise, even the most optimistic leader might wonder, is there an end to this particular tunnel?

Sure there is, but you’re going to have to excavate it yourself — and you’re going to have to light your own way. Read more

In our top-10 city for starting a business, a menu of services awaits those with an appetite for growth.

I love eating at buffets! They present the opportunity to try a variety of foods, all at one time, all on one plate and all in one visit. Buffets provide a chance to taste a little of everything or a whole lot of just one thing; it doesn’t matter, it is all included.

For the past seven years, Orlando has had its own unique version of an “entrepreneurial buffet,” called the Disney Entrepreneur Center. Located in downtown Orlando, the center is home to 10 individual business organizations, which share a single facility and a single mission: to help small businesses to grow and flourish.

Much like a normal buffet, visitors may choose to visit a single organization, or they may choose to sample a little from each. Yet, unlike any other buffet, this one provides many offerings for free.

The Disney Entrepreneur Center was founded in 2003 to assist local businesses that were dealing with a very difficult economic time. Through the visionary leadership and financial support of Orange County Government, Walt Disney World Resorts and the University of Central Florida, the center was formed and began to serve the community. Additional financial sponsorship followed from Banco Popular, Regions Bank, Florida High Tech Corridor Council, Orlando Utilities Commission, City of Orlando, BankFirst, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida and Orlando Magic. These financial sponsors provide the needed funding each year to operate the center, which, in turn, benefits each resident organization that provides services, training and coaching to the small business community.

The organizations located at The Disney Entrepreneur Center share everything from copy machines to clients. A shared facility is cost efficient for resident organizations, but another major benefit is the synergy that is created between organizations — the sharing of knowledge and experience. The daily collaboration and mutual cooperation has aided each organization and accelerated the delivery of practical services while providing convenient one-stop access to business assistance for local entrepreneurs.

Organizations located at the center: Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida, SCORE Orlando, Metro Orlando Urban League, Hispanic Business Initiative Fund, National Association of Women Business Owners, UCF Business Incubation Program, African American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida, Central Florida Disability Chamber, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando and British American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida.

From free one-on-one business coaching to low-cost training seminars and networking events, the center has a continually changing agenda of activities. Last year, more than 14,000 business people were coached and trained by the service providers of the center. This combination of public and private financial support, combined with nationally recognized service providers and an abundance of passionate advocates for small businesses, has produced tangible economic results for our community and has begun to attract national attention. The August issue of Entrepreneur Magazine named Orlando as a “top 10 city” for starting a business and highlighted Disney Entrepreneur Center’s efforts, and the December issue cited the Buy Local Orlando initiative as a “top trend” for business in 2010.

While our region moves to diversify the local economy, embrace entrepreneurship and nurture high-tech development, it is essential that we continue to aggressively support and fund our “main-street gardening” efforts, which promote the growth and development of small and start-up businesses.

Remember, most Fortune 500 companies started out as small businesses. According to the Edward Lowe Foundation, 90 percent of Florida’s established businesses have less than 10 employees, so it is no surprise that the Disney Entrepreneur Center serves mostly small businesses. Like any good buffet, however, there are a variety of offerings for a second-stage company, too. Larger companies might engage in a CEO roundtable group, the Small Business Development Center’s Advisory Board Council, join the Disney Entrepreneur Center 100 Club or attend advanced training classes, like our upcoming Family Business Forum.

There is something for most every taste.

This variety of offerings, unique resources, creative programming and entrepreneurial approach to delivering assistance to local entrepreneurs has made the center a hub of entrepreneurial activity and economic development for main-street businesses. If you have not visited the center yet, drop in and see what might be available for you, or you can visit the Website (www.disneyEC.com) to connect with a business coach, take a class or attend an event.

Who knows? You might just become a regular visitor to Central Florida’s entrepreneurial buffet.

Tom O’Neal

Executive Director
University of Central Florida 
Business Incubation Program

Essentially, Tom O’Neil is an entrepreneur in the business of helping entrepreneurs. In 1999, he was a key member of a collaborative effort that resulted in the establishment of the University of Central Florida Technology Incubator, now known as the UCF Business Incubation Program. Today, as executive director, he works to provide tools and resources that enhance prospects for the success of developing companies. Since its founding, the program has helped more than 120 emerging companies (including more than 75 current clients) create $500 million-plus in annual revenue and more than 1,600 new jobs. Also the associate vice president of research at UCF, O’Neil has helped UCF become a leading metropolitan research university.

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What is the one component most often missing as entrepreneurs strive to build successful companies?

“Usually, there is one component, but in every operation it’s different.

With some it’s the cash flow, with some it’s time, with others it’s focus — a number of things—and usually there is one flaw that stands out with most entrepreneurs. Our job, in our business incubation program, is to help them identify that flaw and help them fix it. It could be a patent strategy that’s just not good or not knowing the right lawyer to help them, or they’re just not making a connection. It’s usually something, but there’s not one that’s at the top of the list; it’s all different. And it makes our job interesting.”

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What bit of advice would you share with someone interested in becoming an entrepreneur?

“I think you need to really understand what that world is like, if you’ve never done it before. The level of time that’s required is much more than most people think. If you’re going to start a company because you’re tired of working hard and not making enough money, [if] you want to start a company to make more money, generally speaking that’s not what happens. Our advice is [to] become a realist and understand what you’re getting into. And discuss it with your whole family, if you have a family, because it affects everything. You are not going to be at home as much as you [have been]. You’ll need that [family] support so you can focus intensely. Go into the new venture with eyes wide open; do research first to see what it’s going to take to be competitive.”

Linda Landman Gonzalez doesn’t suit up, shoot, rebound or defend. She’s on the offensive, though, in a battle for community inclusion, equity and voice.

For Linda Landman Gonzalez, nothing has been like the lessons she received abroad. Her experience in high-profile corporate roles over more than the past decade in Orlando pales in comparison to the B.A. in education she earned from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City and her ensuing years of marriage, classroom teaching and raising two daughters in Mexico.

That period in her life, from leaving the United States at age 17 to returning in her 30s, brought an enlightenment that has shaped the remainder of her life.

“I came back very aware of just what makes America so extraordinary in its community feel,” she explains. “And I wanted to be a part of that.

“I couldn’t imagine not knowing the community or being a part of it or not trying to understand the community. Being a participant [in] the community is who I am. … It’s not something I think about. It’s just how I exist.”

Indeed, many people find work in their life. Far fewer, such as Gonzalez, find life in their work.

A mid-1990s stint as vice president of Hispanic sales and marketing for Barnett Bank in Orlando served as a prelude to nine years as director of diversity, community and government relations for Darden Restaurants, Orlando’s only Fortune 500 corporation. While at Darden, she focused on creating community partnerships, employee volunteer opportunities and leadership development in top markets nationwide, including Orlando. She also managed corporate giving while developing a second-language translation initiative for the corporation.

Her efforts resulted in numerous corporate awards for Darden, including Fortune’s Top 10 Diversity Elite, Black Enterprise’s list of Best Companies for Diversity and Hispanic Business magazine’s Best Place for Hispanics to Work.

In September 2007, Gonzalez was named vice president of community relations and government affairs for the Orlando Magic. There, she oversees community relations, government affairs and multicultural insight, and she presides as head of the Orlando Magic Youth Fund Advisory Council.

In that 2007-2008 season, the team won 50 of 82 games and made the playoffs. Yet, one of the franchise’s best moves, it turned out, was the hiring of the multidimensional Gonzalez, an all-star point guard of sorts who contributes mostly by elevating the level of play from those around her.

“Linda has great passion and vision, while having her finger on the pulse of the community,” comments Alex Martins, the Magic’s chief operating officer. “Her leadership is outstanding and allows the Orlando Magic to enact programs and initiatives that make an enduring impact.”

With Gonzalez at the helm of its advisory council, the OMYF has stated its mission as helping “every child in Central Florida realize their full potential, especially those most at risk, by supporting programs and partnerships that empower families and change lives.” Since the Fund’s inception, it has granted nearly $15 million to Central Florida nonprofit organizations. This year, OMYF checks were presented to 27 organizations from nine counties. With funds raised by the OMYF and the match provided by the McCormick Foundation, a total of $750,000 in grants and scholarships was distributed to the community in 2008-2009.

Additionally, a staffwide campaign provides more than 5,500 volunteer hours annually, establishing a sense of civic spirit throughout One Magic Place that’s reminiscent of the crowd buzz created from an emphatic Dwight Howard dunk.

Gonzalez also worked to ensure minority participation in the construction of the new Amway Center, scheduled for completion this [EWP1] fall. The result: a reported 35 percent participation by women and ethnic minorities. “This is something we did not take lightly,” she says.

Similarly, Parramore, the neighborhood surrounding the new center, has been among her chief agenda items. The Magic have helped to fund the Parramore Kid Zone, an initiative aimed at reducing juvenile crime, teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates, along with building basketball courts and playgrounds and working with the neighborhood’s schools. “[Parramore],” she notes, “is just as important as Thornton Park or the Lake Eola historic district. It is downtown, and it is a top priority.”

Her last name offers clues, but her work leaves little doubt that diversity isn’t simply an option or the right thing for a community to do. Instead, it’s a natural state of being for Orlando. “It is who we are,” she says, citing that more than 260 languages are spoken in Orange County schools. “The number-one thing is you always should recognize, celebrate and then ensure that who you are is at its best.”

Gonzalez acknowledges that effort, for her, isn’t easy. It’s often exhausting, in fact. Aside from her duties with the Magic, she currently is involved in volunteer activities for several organizations. Among them are the Central Florida Transportation Corridors Task Force, Florida State Conference NAACP Corporate Advisory Board, African American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida, Casa de Mexico, WMFE Board of Trustees and the city of Orlando’s Children’s Trust Committee. Also, she is the chair-elect of the Valencia Community College Foundation and the immediate past president of the Orlando Ballet. And, for good measure, she serves on the board of Fifth Third Bank and was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist in February 2009 to sit on the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County.

Still, her commitment is tireless. The word excuse remains missing from her bilingual vocabulary.

“The time exists; there are enough hours in a day,” she says. “You just really have to be committed to being there. I use the hours in the day for things that to me are important.

“It’s my name and my commitment.”

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[EWP1]Next fall (2011) or this fall (2010)?

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