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

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.

The quest: create an entrepreneurial ecosystem of business specialists that entrepreneurs could tap into as the needs arise.

2009 was quite a year. I heard a great analogy that captures how the year felt to me: “I was focused on flying the plane and ensuring that I stayed in the air as turbulence kept knocking me off course. All the while, I was in the back rebuilding the engine.”

I am sure many of you felt the same way.

For me, the engine is now rebuilt, the turbulence has died down a bit and I can breathe a little easier. I hope we can all enjoy a small, yet critical, breath of relief as we find our way back to our flight path for 2010.

The Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce has charted a new course focused on regional entrepreneurship. Moving forward, the Chamber will focus on initiatives that build business in Central Florida by connecting entrepreneurs to resources for Business Innovation and Growth. To reflect this new mission, we have enhanced the name of the Chamber to Orlando Inc. (Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce).

Orlando Inc. recently hosted The B.I.G. Summit. This exciting event captured and launched our new direction. The Summit provided an opportunity for nearly 400 entrepreneurs, growth companies and those that serve entrepreneurs to have a conversation about connecting entrepreneurs to another other and to resources for growth, fueling the entrepreneurial eco-system in Central Florida. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, provided insights about how to build a $1 billion business by creating a positive and empowering company culture. Entrepreneurs such as Harold Mills of Zero Chaos, Deborah Linden of Island One Resorts and Carol Craig of Craig Technologies shared their secrets of success and what they’ve learned along the way. For video clips and copies of The B.I.G. Summit presentations, visit www.orlando.org.

We already have some great resources for entrepreneurs in our community, but now it is time to take it to the next level through partnership and collaboration. How do we weave the fabric for an entrepreneurial support system? How do we build an environment that is the next “B.I.G.” thing?

Entrepreneurship is appearing in every Florida plan and project. Florida’s key agencies as well as public and private organizations are confronting the role of entrepreneurship in an innovation economy. Entrepreneurship has captured the imagination of people around the world as a means to economic and social development. Just think of India, Ireland, Taiwan, Israel or Singapore.

From our early days of agriculture and citrus in Central Florida, we have evolved in so many ways. We are proud of our tourism and convention industry, our sea and space ports, the significant impact of the high-tech corridor and the burgeoning medical city with the exponential innovation that medical research and healthcare delivery will bring to our region.

The next challenge in entrepreneurship is for our region and state to move from promoting entrepreneurship to creating a vibrant entrepreneurial economy that can produce region-changing and perhaps even world-changing companies. Creating an enduring high-growth company today requires the weaving of a comprehensive fabric of regional entrepreneurship.

In the past, our entrepreneurial economy has had to rely on the heroism of the rare individual entrepreneur to haggle and hustle to take products to market. But imagine that Central Florida’s fertile ground is strewn with a thousand seedlings, each finding its way into an interdependent ecology that can sustain and nourish a variety of new ventures and markets.

In our region, we have a number of wonderful resources through the Disney Entrepreneur Center, UCF Business Incubation Program and Venture Lab and the Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship at Rollins College, plus many others that provide access to education and services that entrepreneurs can tap into as the needs arise. We are beginning to build our entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Our entrepreneurial ecosystem also needs easy access to professionals who specialize in entrepreneurial support. This includes investors, attorneys and accountants; commercial artists and marketing professionals; experts who create prototypes and provide concept testing; experts who can assist in firm creation; company growth managers; franchise developers; IPO experts; business exit brokers; CEOs and more.

We have a unique opportunity to further diversify our economy by continuing to grow the entrepreneurial spirit and provide the needed resources to fuel growth in our region. A strong, interdependent ecosystem could have a significant multiplier effect on the economic vitality of our region.

With one year under my belt, I have come to recognize the greatness of this community and its strong desire to increase the quality of life and prosperity for the people who call Central Florida home. I am honored to work in partnership to advance the entrepreneurial eco-system and to transform Orlando Inc. (Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce) into a resource for the community to create a vibrant entrepreneurial economy.

Executives at three of the region’s leading business and community organizations share their views.

Renate Fox

Marketing Director
Teriyaki Experience

FM: What aspect of your business will you focus on improving the most next year?

Fox: “Success in the fast-food business is based on two primary drivers that work in tandem. One is to be in convenient, high-traffic locations. The second is to provide good food quickly at a reasonable cost. Our current Florida locations — The Mall at Millenia and University Commons Plaza in Orlando, Gardens Mall in Palm Beach and the Shops at Wiregrass in Tampa — have all been selected to meet the ‘strong location’ criteria. With that part of the equation in place, we can now focus on maintaining our high operational standards to ensure we’re meeting customer expectations with each and every visit.”

FM: Aside from that focus, what are your key concerns regarding your Business’s success?

Fox: “Although our franchise concept has been operating for over 23 years in diverse markets across the globe, Teriyaki Experience is a brand-new franchise concept in Orlando. Our key concern is the same that every new business faces, which is how to build brand awareness and establish a loyal customer base. Our Florida area developer, Fior Bresolin, is following our template for success in this area. He’s already opened four locations in just over a year. Based on our past experience, we’ve found that when you build a number of locations, you automatically build a brand presence. Once this is in place, everything else begins to fall into place.”

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Michael Jenkins

Founder and CEO
MarketLeverage Interactive Advertising

FM: What aspect of your business will you focus on improving the most next year?

Jenkins: “The general economic difficulties of the past year have increased the number of companies seeking new customers through interactive, performance-based marketing. This is a great opportunity for our company to grow by helping a broader base of clients realize their sales goals through the acquisition of new customers online. Our model is quite simple: Our clients only pay when they acquire a lead or sale; they never pay to simply advertise. The challenge we face is to effectively scale our team while continuing to provide top-notch results for our customers. We have to keep making it easy for them.”

FM: Aside from that focus, what are your key concerns regarding your Business’s success?

Jenkins: “The pace of change is accelerating. Our company was born amidst the great technological advances created by the Internet. New innovations continue to roll out each year. It is important that we remain highly focused on our clients’ needs and, under that lens, judge which changes merit our attention and which are likely to be distractions. Our valuable focus and resources must continue to be invested where they can most likely yield great results for our customers.”

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Ziad Y. Khoury

President
Frontline Performance Group

FM: What aspect of your business will you focus on improving the most next year?

Khoury: “We will focus on growing our core consulting business, which assists client companies, in maximizing their sales and revenue opportunities. We will do so through a more systemized sales and marketing campaign and speaking engagements related to my book, “Frontline Profit Machine.” We will also take advantage of social networking, a marketing channel that we have not previously utilized. This will include forums that we develop and lead on LinkedIn, as well as increasing our presence on Facebook and Twitter. We will also focus on a formal publicity campaign and targeted marketing aimed at identifying the potential client’s best fit for our services.”

FM: Aside from that focus, what are your key concerns regarding your Business’s success?

Khoury: “The key concern is client viability and confidence. As much as we can help companies improve revenue, they still have to have the ability to pay us and the confidence to move forward with the initiative to improve their frontline sales and service culture. The focus on marketing, therefore, would identify more clients that we would be able to offer contingency-based compensation plans to. Our message of selling ‘results,’ not ‘training or consulting,’ will be more important than ever.”

Executives at three of the region’s leading business and community organizations share their views.

Jim Cooper

President
Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando

FM: What has been your company’s key in weathering the economic storm?

Cooper: “The Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando, like many other businesses and associations, has had to make some adjustments in the way we were doing business due to the extreme economic downturn. Our leadership has cut and consolidated where necessary, and the office is officially open four days a week instead of five. Yet, the level of service is still very high, and the members feel they are still receiving a great return on their investment. We are financially one of the strongest HBA associations in the state. The key has been the ‘teamwork’ attitude of our staff and members.”

FM: How long will it take for market correction to reach a point where the housing industry can be described as healthy?

Cooper: “The housing industry will not be healthy again until the lending institutions release money to qualified buyers and the banks cease using ‘short sales’ and foreclosures as comparables during the appraisal process. The current excess inventory of finished lots and homes has to return to a normal level, and it is definitely moving in that direction. I think we have hit the bottom of the residential market, and my guess is it will take another 12 to 24 months to absorb the excess inventory then slowly return to pre-2003 absorption levels, which are healthy and sustainable levels.”

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David Kohn

President
ABD Development Co.

FM: What has been your company’s key in weathering the economic storm?

Kohn: “To weather the economic downturn, we instituted several critical measures, internally and externally. Internally, our strategy was to reduce debt, reduce operating expenses and defer new acquisitions. We made substantial use of more public relations and more-efficient advertising choices to market our homes. Externally, we made major changes to respond to new market demands. These include smaller, smarter luxury homes, lower pricing, more energy efficiency and more ‘lifestyle’ value.”

FM: How long will it take for market correction to reach a point where the housing industry can be described as healthy?

Kohn: “In some respects, the housing market is already healthy. Homebuyers are seeking smaller, smarter homes with more lifestyle value. This is a substantial improvement over the recent market bulge, when everyone was racing to buy the biggest home imaginable. In terms of volume, some areas of the market are improving rapidly. Baby-boom adults, who are seeking second homes and retirement homes in Florida, are increasingly active. People who delayed retiring are now feeling pent-up demand and will eventually create a surge in the market. We expect to pronounce the housing market ‘healthy’ again in 2010, possibly as early as the second quarter.”

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Suresh Gupta

Chief Executive Officer
Park Square Homes

FM: What has been your company’s key in weathering the economic storm?

Gupta: “Our ability to survive is tied to our employees multitasking and the ability to react quickly to an ever-changing environment. Maintaining a tight reign on overhead and cash flow have been critical, and the staff’s assumption of ever-increasing and broadening responsibilities allowed us to right-size the business to the available opportunity. Park Square Homes realigned the core business so that we could serve the first-time buyer and reduce the dependence on the move-up market, which is having difficulty selling their existing home.”

FM: How long will it take for market correction to reach a point where the housing industry can be described as healthy?

Gupta: “Orlando is a vibrant market that is temporarily suffering from reduced demand caused by the bursting of the national housing bubble and the increase of national unemployment. We are dependant on tourism [local and foreign] to drive our economy and both are suffering. New unsold inventory has declined, but recovery requires the absorption of a very high level of foreclosures. A healthy housing market will take a while; only after people can be secure in their jobs and the unemployment rate declines will the house market bounce back.”

Executives at three of the region’s leading business and community organizations share their views.

FM: With the calendar having turned to fall, specifically what’s atop your agenda?

Gilley: “Maintaining momentum and not letting our guard down! We plan to continue spreading the message that economic development IS economic recovery. The way out of this recession is through the attraction and expansion of companies that are in their growth cycles and are hiring. We’re already preparing for the 2010 Legislative Session, which is sure to be a tough one, by keeping our state legislators and elected officials abreast of what we’re doing and the feedback we’re receiving from companies with whom we’re working. While, undoubtedly, there will again be tough decisions to be made, it is critical that economic development remains a top priority.”

FM: Recent news reports have indicated that the population of Florida and perhaps even Orlando are declining. What’s your view of those findings?

Gilley: “From an economic development standpoint, the main attractor to a region is less the quantity than the quality of the workforce. What is most essential is having the right mix of educated workers in the industries that metro Orlando is strongest in — life science, simulation, digital media, film and entertainment, financial services, aviation, etc. And the key to attracting companies that are hiring in those high-wage industries is education. With a strong presence of colleges and universities, including UCF, the nation’s fifth-largest university, this region will remain a competitive place for businesses and an attractive place for people to locate.”

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FM: With the calendar having turned to fall, specifically what’s atop your agenda?

Hielema: “Providing market intelligence to entrepreneurs and preparing them for the rapidly changing regional and global marketplace is a priority for the Orlando Regional Chamber. And, that is what the upcoming B.I.G. Summit (Business Innovation and Growth) on November 19 is designed to do. The Summit will also be relevant for businesses and organizations that are advocates for business success in Central Florida. Featured speakers will primarily include Central Florida entrepreneurs but will also feature Tony Hseih, CEO of Zappos.com, who built a $1 billion business utilizing digital media. This sharing of strategies and resources by entrepreneurs will contribute to a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Central Florida.”

FM: Recent news reports have indicated that the population of Florida and perhaps even Orlando are declining. What’s your view of those findings?

Hielema: “University of Central Florida economist Dr. Sean Snaith stated, ‘Coming out of this recession, we won’t have what we’ve had to pull us through recessions before. One of those things has been population growth.’ Since population growth will not be a primary economic driver for Florida in the near future, we will need to effectively transition towards the economy of the future. In order to impact economic vitality, the Orlando Regional Chamber places emphasis on ‘Ready to Go’ infrastructure projects, preserving innovation and investments, reinforcing the talent base of tomorrow, credit availability and liquidity assistance, opening international markets to trade, protecting employees’ rights to private elections, and ensuring reasonable taxes and regulations.”

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FM: With the calendar having turned to fall, specifically what’s atop your agenda?

Sain: “Fall is traditionally a slow period for the destination, and our focus shifts to couples, getaways, grand-travelers and families with children not in school. Our ‘Free-for-Fall’ marketing program was developed to increase visitation during this need time. In 2010, we will take our ‘Orlando Makes Me Smile’ marketing campaign international. We expect international visitation to be a bright spot for our destination because of our increased international air-travel service. Finally, we are working with the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association and the U.S. Travel Association to ensure that Orlando continues to be a viable option for government meetings and that we have the same opportunities as any other meeting destination.”

FM: Recent news reports have indicated that the population of Florida and perhaps even Orlando are declining. What’s your view of those findings?

Sain: “Orlando is a great place to live, build a business and raise a family. Unfortunately, with the economic situation that we are in, it doesn’t surprise me that we may have lost some population due to the unemployment rate in our region increasing. People move to where they can find increased opportunities. However, I believe this is a temporary phenomenon and Orlando will see increased population growth in the future because of our location, highly educated population, innovation, creativity and leadership. I also believe that Orlando is one of the few destinations in the U.S. that will continue to offer a high-quality lifestyle at an affordable cost of living.”

Executives at three of the region’s leading business and community organizations share their views.

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