north central florida business report may 2012

By Chris Eversole

W hen a prominent international software development company announced that

they were adding a Gainesville outpost, the news seemed to come out of nowhere. But landing MindTree wasn’t just a lucky break.

The timing, as they say, was everything. A well-orchestrated team effort came together March 27, when MindTree revealed its plans to bring 400 jobs to Gainesville over the next five years with an average salary of $80,000.

“Our playbook was Innovation Gainesville,” says Sonia Douglas, vice president and chief operating officer of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce. “We were nimble enough to move quickly and make a giant leap in our goal of creating

hundreds of high-paying jobs.”The first nimble move came when an email

from MindTree arrived at the University of Florida at 2:14pm Nov. 29.

The email came from Scott Staples, MindTree’s co-founder and president of the Americas, and went to Gerhard Ritter, acting chairman of the computer science department in the University of Florida’s College of Engineering.

Staples noted that MindTree, which is a large information technology company operating primarily in India, was planning to create software development shops in the United States and was considering Gainesville and other cities in the Southeast.

Ritter responded at 4:51pm, answering each of Staples’ questions as summarized below.

How many students are enrolled in engineering and computer science?

UF is the biggest producer of computer science graduates in the State of Florida and the second biggest in the Southeast. The computer science department has 534 undergraduate students, 341 master’s students and 147 doctoral students.

UF students finished first in North America and 13th in the world in this year’s 24-

hour marathon programming competition sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

What is the trend you are seeing in enrollment in computer science?

Enrollment increased by 156 this year, and it’s expected to increase by more than 200 next year.

What is the average starting salary for undergraduates and graduates in computer science?

It’s $63,200 for students with an undergraduate degree and $85,000 for students with a graduate degree.

Ritter went beyond the facts.

InsideChamber Chair Michael Gallagher on His Role as SantaFe HealthCare’s President and CEO

12Swamphead Brewery’s Beers in High Demand Throughout the State

17UPDATE : The Search for Community Redevelopment Agency Director

21Q&A : The Nightly Business Report’s Lou Heckler

24

By Erica Hurlburt

There’s no doubt about it: Gainesville is a city full of people with active

lifestyles. There are hikers and bikers. There are athletic fields, pools and tennis courts. There’s even an NHRA drag strip. And, there are the University of Florida’s first-rate athletic training facilities that draw in athletes from all over the world. Combine all of this with the fact that the area’s climate allows for outdoor activity most of the year, and you end up with a place that not only fosters hobbyists, college athletes or weekend warriors, but that is primed for a career in sports.

Game OnGainesville has no shortage of sports

complexes and opportunities to host sports

enthusiasts and events from all over the state.Jack Hughes, executive director of the

Gainesville Sports Commission, heads the small non-profit that is responsible for bringing sports

events to the Gainesville community. He’s seen the field of sports tourism grow at a rapid pace.

“My job and my employees’ jobs have been created from this new industry,” he says.

The National Association of Sports Commissions was formed in 1992. Hughes remembers there being 15 people at the first meeting in New Orleans. At the 2012 NASC

Sports Event Symposium last month, there were more than 700 people in attendance.

“For instance, Newberry, this little town of 5,000 people, has taken sports tourism as their economic driver,” Hughes says.

The Gainesville Sports Commission has grown to be one that is recognized nationally as the way a sports commission should

work. Hughes says a lot of that has to do with the commission’s attention to trends in sports and support of sports that sometimes aren’t easy to break into.

N O R T H C E N T R A L F L O R I D A

MAY 2012

(continued on page 9)

(continued on page 18)

Members of the Chamber of Commerce receive a free subscription to The Business Report.

THE SPORTING LIFE: Gainesvi l le a Haven for Sports-Rela ted Careers

UF Computer Science Professor Gerhard Ritter and MindTree President for the Americas Scott Staples display a copy of the email Staples sent Ritter, launching the company’s decision to come to Gainesville.

Chris Eversole

The MindTree CourtshipHow a 2008 loss of a major prospect led to Innovation Gainesville—and a major local success.

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Content May 2012

Contact:PO Box 15192, Gainesville, FL 32604352-377-1402 (ph) l 352-377-6602 (fax)E-mail: [email protected]

06 Editor’sViewpointJust Go For It

07 In the NewsConference FostersSmall Businesses

15 CRE 101Why Invest inCommercial Real Estate?

22 Money MattersThe ABC’s of Financial Literacy

16 News BriefsChamber’s “I <3 GNV”Campaign and More

21 In the NewsSearch for New CRA Director Finds Familiar Face

24 Someone You Should KnowNightly Business Report’sLou Heckler

28 Calendar + TransactionsMeetings & Start-Ups

30 Sales StrategiesWhat Makes Good Salespeople Great?

26 News Briefs2012 Business Showcase and More

27 Marketing 101Does Your Website “We-We” on Your Customers?

23 Speaking of BusinessThe Peabody Factor

PresidentKevin Ireland

Editorial DirectorMaghan McDowell

Production Director & Associate EditorHeather von Klock

Senior WriterChris Eversole

InternsAnnabelle BrooksCoral DentonKyle EdwardsAura FrancoRachel RakoczyKeilani RodriguezRachel SaleAlexandria Ugarte

Senior Account ExecutivePete Zimek

Account ExecutivesCarolyne Salt

Distribution ManagerRyan McDowell

Operations ManagerLori White

WritersCaitlyn FinneganErica Hurlburt

Contributing ColumnistsShane CarkhuffPhilip GeistHerb JonesSeth LaneJim Meisenheimer

PhotographersChris EversoleCaitlyn Finnegan

Copyright 2012 by Broad Beach Media.

17Made in Gainesville

12Success Story

N O R T H C E N T R A L F L O R I D A

Caitl

yn F

inne

gan

Chris Eversole


( Editor’s Viewpoint )

by Maghan McDowellTHE TIME IS RIGHT: JUST GO FOR IT.

?

“Go for it.”This was the advice that Gina Bianchini said

that she would give to a younger version of herself in an interview with The Levo League, an online community for Gen Y women in the workplace.

Bianchini is the founder of Ning, a free do-it-yourself platform for social networks, and a new site called Mightybell.

Her advice resonated with me. Here was a women who, at 40, had already been on the cover of Fast Company and been featured in Fortune’s “40 under 40.” She left her job as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs to work at a start-up—a pretty brazen move. If someone had told me about the ideas that led to her success in the male-dominated Silicon Valley, I’d probably be left scratching my head. In other words, she’s an entrepreneur who’s succeeded at the unexpected. She went for it.

Now, Gainesville is on the verge of becoming “the Silicon Valley of the Southeast.” In working on this month’s cover story, I found out why.

You might have heard of a project called

Innovation Gainesville. Well, it seems to be gaining major traction. It’s most recent success? Innovation Gainesville was a key player in attracting a major international company to Gainesville, and I’m confident this is the beginning of Innovation Gainesville’s major positive impacts on the community—and its ability to help plug the “brain drain.”

“Innovation” can be a nebulous concept at best, and efforts to be innovative can be a waste of time at their worst. But the leaders of Innovation Gainesville went for it—and they won.

This spirit of hope and ambition is what attracted this month’s “Someone You Should Know,” Lou Heckler, to live here. Of Gainesville, he remarks, “It’s a place where people are always hoping and planning and innovating and studying for something better.”

What a great point.This month, I’m going to keep Lou’s words

in mind. As they say, nothing ever happens if you don’t show up. The timing will likely never be perfect. The business plan might not be complete. And you’ll definitely never have

enough time or money. Despite this, let’s just go for it.

As I write this, I am preparing to host the first night of fashion shows for the fifth season of Gainesville Fashion Week. While this might normally be a stretch for my comfort zone, I’ve embraced the opportunity.

Four years ago, the producers decided to introduce a weeklong series of events dedicated to fashion, art and beauty in a town known primarily for Gator sports. Well, it seems our horizons have been broadened. They certainly went for it—and I will too.

Do you have an idea for a column based on your business expertise? Have something to say?

Submit your columns, ideas, feedback and business questions to

[email protected]. Please note that submissions will be considered for publication as space allows.

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Donna Thomas was looking for solid information about starting a business when she came to the University of Florida’s recent

Small Business Conference & Trade Show.Thomas, who has a “burning desire” to

start a group home, got help that exceeded her expectations from Michael Chung, assistant area director of the Small Business Development Center of the University of North Florida.

“I had 30 questions, and he answered them all,” Thomas says. “He was very friendly.”

Since the event, Thomas, who currently works as a secretary at the Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center, has completed requirements for a license for her business and is looking for a site.

“I’m on my way,” she says. “It’s my time.”Thomas’ experience is exactly what the

event is intended to create, says Faylene Welcome, director of UF’s Division of Small Business & Vendor Diversity Relations. This is the 21st year the division has sponsored the business conference and trade fair, which was held at the UF Hilton Hotel and Conference Center.

In addition to helping people start and expand businesses, the event connects participants with potential public sector clients, Welcome says. Besides UF offices, other entities involved include Santa Fe College, the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Government.

“A lot of small businesses don’t have enough of a sales staff to contact all the departments that might need their products and services,” Welcome says. “This way, they can make a number of contacts at one place.”

The event is beneficial for Chris Singletary, a project manager for UF’s Facilities, Planning & Construction. “We often need someone to work on small jobs, such as painting, cleaning a job site or moving three offices,” he says.

SCORE representatives involved in the event helped participants become realistic in their expectations. “In the early days of the recession, people came running to us for help getting grants,” says SCORE business counselor John Hermann. “There are no easy grants available.”

Instead of looking for easy money, people need to develop a business plan that capitalizes on their strengths, Hermann told participants at the event. “Think about how you can describe what you do best and create a win-win with your customers,” he says. “We’re glad to sit down and help you.”

People who have been laid off may be able to turn the layoff into an opportunity, says SCORE business counselor Charlotte Millsaps-Hermann, who is Hermann’s wife.

“You may be able to work as a contractor for the company that laid you off,” she says. “Although the business couldn’t afford to keep you on the payroll, it may need your services, and you may be able to find other businesses with a similar need.”

By Chris Eversole

Conference Fosters Small Businesses

( In the News )

NEW

S

Michael Chung of the Small Business Development Center gives advice to Donna Thomas, who is setting up a group home.

Chris Eversole


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“Many of our students would prefer to stay in Gainesville after graduation, but there is a lack of companies of your caliber,” he wrote. “Locating your operation in Gainesville would definitely be a win-win situation for the university, the city and your company.”

Staples wrote back 19 minutes later: “This is the best response I have received from any major university. Thanks for the detail and the passion behind it. Gainesville is now on our radar.”

Ultimately, Gainesville would beat out Birmingham, Ala., and Greenville, S.C. But the game wasn’t over yet.

FAST PACE UNTIL DECISIONOn Dec. 5, Staples participated in a conference call with

representatives of the Council for Economic Outreach and the College of Engineering.

Later that day, Enterprise Florida, a private-public partnership devoted to statewide economic development, created “Project Arbor,” a code name for efforts to recruit MindTree.

On Dec. 20, in the peak of the holiday season, Staples visited Gainesville for a meeting at the Florida Innovation Hub.

The day kicked off at 7:30am with a windshield tour of UF.

A continental breakfast began at 8am. During the breakfast, Chamber President and CEO Brent Christensen introduced Staples to community leaders.

The busy agenda began with comments from UF President Bernie Machen and College of Engineering Dean Cammy Abernathy. Presentations ran until 2:45pm and covered the following topics:

The local talent pool• Real estate options• The innovation ecosystem• Economic incentives•

“Scott was really touched by the passion people had for the community,” says Jane Muir, Hub director and associate director of UF’s Office of Technology Licensing.

“MindTree focuses on integrity, innovation and action,” Muir says. “The visit to the Hub played a key role in demonstrating that Gainesville can deliver in all three areas.”

On Jan. 25, Staples had dinner with Gov. Rick Scott in Tallahassee.

LEARNING FROM THE ONE THAT GOT AWAYThe rapid response to MindTree’s interest in Gainesville was

possible because of groundwork that started in 2008, Douglas says.

In 2008, the chamber and other community leaders responded to interest from a company that would have had a similar economic impact to MindTree’s—but that company went elsewhere, Douglas says.

One reason that the effort, named Project Atlas, fell short was a shortage of readily available real estate close to UF, says David Ramsey, CEO’s senior director for economic development. “Location decisions almost always come down to real estate. We couldn’t put up what was needed for Project Atlas fast enough.

“With Project Arbor [MindTree], there was a structure already ready to go,” he says. That structure was the Ayers Medical Plaza, across the street from the Innovation Hub and part of Innovation Square. Occupied offices in the Ayers building have dropped since the closing of Shands at AGH in 2009.

As chamber leaders examined what went wrong with Project Atlas, they concluded that the Gainesville community hadn’t put its best foot forward, Douglas says.

In the August 2008 chamber retreat, the board decided to launch a plan to better coordinate recruitment of innovative companies. That plan evolved into Innovation Gainesville.

Prior to Innovation Gainesville, businesses and organizations were working on economic development independently of each other, says Kim Tesch-Vaught, vice president of FloridaWorks. “We were operating in silos.”

Things have changed. “We don’t go to companies and say,

‘This is all that we can do.’ We ask what they need,” Tesch-Vaught says.

Innovation Gainesville established task forces on topics such as land development and increasing national visibility for the area, says Ann Collett, the chamber’s vice president for Innovation Gainesville. Work of the Funding Plan Task Force led to the recent creation of iGAN, the Innovation Gainesville Angel Network.

Task force members represented a cross-section of the community, including businesses, the arts, government, the media, environmentalists and the schools.

CEO, an arm of the chamber, receives multiple calls from companies interested in relocating

here and conducts 10 to 12 site visits each year, Ramsey says.Some get away, but a growing number choose Gainesville,

Ramsey says.“When we heard about MindTree’s interest, we decided we

were going to fight for it,” he says. “We were determined about keeping it.”

CLOSING THE DEAL AT THE HARNFeb. 13 was the crowning event in the recruitment of

MindTree.A team of MindTree officials, including Staples, co-founder

Kamran Ozair and human resources director Mohan Sitharam, met a group that included Mayor Craig Lowe in the Target parking lot on Archer Road at 1pm. The hosting group toured the town, then came to the Harn Museum of Art at 2:15pm for a meeting on topics that played off the MindTree name, including:

Minds at work (focusing on the workforce)•

DIVERSE COMMUNITY GROUPS PARTNER TO CREATE STRONG RECRUITMENT PROCESS

( Cover Story )

“MindTree focuses on integrity, innovation and action. The visit to the Hub played a key role in

demonstrating that Gainesville can deliver in all three areas.”

—Jane Muir, Florida Innovation Hub director and associate director of UF’s Office of Technology Licensing

Major Global Company Beefing Up U.S. Presence

MindTree started 13 years ago, when software companies were beginning to do their software development overseas, says MindTree co-founder Scott Staples.

Staples and two other employees of Cambridge Technology Partners, based in Cambridge, Mass., decided to form an international company that would develop software in India, have an operation in the U.S. and market its products globally, Staples says. The other co-founders were from India.

“We were a global hybrid from day one,” Staples says.

MindTree has grown to 11,000 employees and more than $100 million in quarterly sales. It’s a major company in India.

The company both develops new software and customizes existing software to customers’ needs, Staples. It is involved in software used in retail sales, mobile apps and many other ways.

The company received the Best Corporate, India Award from World Finance magazine in February, and it was ranked third in the best overall corporate governance category by Asiamoney magazine.

As MindTree has grown, American-based customers have wanted it to develop software here, Staples says.

“They want to work with someone in the same time zone. Our move to Gainesville has to be a success because our clients want it, we want it and you want it,” Staples told the crowd attending the announcement.

“We’ll do our best to make Gainesville the Silicon Valley of the Southeast.”

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who attended the announcement, told the group from Gainesville, “You are helping Florida move forward.”

University of Florida President Bernie Machen welcomes MindTree. “This is exactly the aggressive, creative, global company that we’ve being dreaming about,” Machen said at the announcement event.

(continued from cover)

Ayers Medical Plaza, across the street from the Florida Innovation Hub, will be the new home for MindTree.

Chris

Eve

rsol

e

(continued on next page)


Minds at play (focusing on culture, entertainment, public • schools and child care)

Minding their own business(es)• The business panel included Santa Fe College President

Jackson Sasser, along with founders of local innovative companies Prioria Robotics, Fracture, Grooveshark and Digi-Net Technologies.

Linda McGurn of McGurn Investments Co., who was one of the presenters, says everyone did a great job, but the highlight was the presentation by Jackie Johnson, public information officer of Alachua County Schools.

“We hear so many negative things about the schools, and it was great to hear Jackie tell about the high level of achievement our students have in many areas,” McGurn says.

McGurn talked about how much she’s enjoyed Gainesville since moving here with her husband, Ken, 40 years ago. “It’s a great place to live, and I’ve wanted to stay ever since coming here,” she says.

The Harn presentation clinched the deal, Staples says.“We wanted to see what you could do, and you guys

delivered,” he said when announcing the decision to come to Gainesville. “You wanted us and needed us. You talk like a community. This is where our people will be happy.”

Staples credited Christensen with spearheading a well-orchestrated presentation and presented him with a conductor’s baton during the announcement of MindTree’s decision.

The recruitment team sent a signed copy of Tim Tebow’s book, Through My Eyes.

“Tim said that Gainesville turned out pretty good for him, and he thinks it will turn out pretty good for us,” Staples says.

The recruitment effort ended March 27, with MindTree announcing its decision to locate the first of its U.S. software development centers in Gainesville.

MindTree will initially occupy one floor of the Ayers Medical Plaza, which is being converted into a home for innovative companies, with 35 employees. As the local presence grows, MindTree expects that 75 percent of its new hires will be from Gainesville, Staples says.

The decision has broad impact beyond the 400 jobs over five years, says Douglas. “There will be 400 shirts that have to go the cleaners, 400 new sofas and 400 new cars,” she says.

MindTree’s hirings will help offset the “brain drain” of graduates who leave Gainesville because not enough opportunities are available, says Paula Delaney, chair of the Alachua County Commission.

“We’re thrilled that you will be mining the talent from UF and Santa Fe,” she told Staples.

UF’s Ritter says his students would prefer to stay in Gainesville. “They don’t dislike Florida, and many of them have family here,” he says.

“But our students are smart, and they know where the jobs are,” he says. “Now, Gainesville will be where the action is.”

( Cover Story )

Economic Incentives Help MindTreeMindTree will benefit from $1.2 million in state and

local incentives, which will come in the form of tax refunds through the state’s Qualified Target Industry program.

The state is providing 80 percent, and the City of Gainesville and Alachua County would provide 10 percent each.

The company will be eligible for additional incentives because it will be located in Gainesville’s enterprise zone, says Edgar Campa-Palafox, the county’s economic development coordinator.

(continued from previous page)

MINDTREEBY THE NUMBERS

Year formed

Millions of dollars in revenue that they make every quarter

Global offices

Number of customers

Number of customers that are Fortune 500 companies

Number of employees

1999100

2425844

11,000


“Service” is the most important word in Michael Gallagher’s vocabulary, and he backs it up with action.

Gallagher provides service at a great value as president and CEO of SantaFe HealthCare.

SantaFe, which is headquartered in Gainesville, has three distinct roles—providing health insurance, delivering hospice service and operating senior living communities. It has $2 billion in annual revenues and employs 2,000 people throughout the state.

SantaFE serves more than 350,000 members through AvMed Health Plans, more than 5,000 patients and families a year through Haven Hospice and more than 850 residents through SantaFe Senior Living, which operates The Village in Gainesville and two other communities elsewhere in Florida.

When he’s not busy with his SantaFe duties, Gallagher serves in many industry, professional and community roles, including being a member of the boards of national, statewide and local business organizations. He’s the current chairman of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce.

“I’ve always been a high-energy person who can work 12-plus hours a day and can go six, seven days a week,” he says. “So where other executives might be involved with other activities when not at work, my hobby is serving on all of these organizations.”

Gallagher and his wife, Sonja, have been married for 33 years. They have a daughter, Meghan; a son, Michael; and two grandchildren, Luke and Noah.

WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE JOINING SANTAFE?I graduated from the University of Dayton in 1975,

and I began my career as a business analyst and consultant with accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand in Columbus, Ohio, where I served clients for 18 years.

I benefited from a very diversified background there, which strengthened my strategic and business acumen. When I became a partner after 11 years, I began to specialize and focus more on the insurance industry sector.

I left Coopers in 1993 and joined Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania as its chief financial officer and treasurer, and I quickly took on broader roles. About seven years later, the CEO who hired me announced his retirement. I was one of two internal candidates. Following an extensive national search, an outside candidate got that position.

I had begun evaluating several opportunities around the country, when I became aware of SantaFe HealthCare/AvMed. I met with Bob Hudson, who was president and CEO. Bob and I spent a lot of time talking about AvMed’s

culture, its mission and its values. It became very clear to me that SantaFe was very aligned with my values, and I decided that this was going to be my home.

I joined SantaFe 11 years ago as the chief financial officer and treasurer. However, my roles expanded into other responsibilities, including corporate strategic planning and more. I also became president for Haven Hospice and our senior living entities. When Bob announced his retirement, I was named president and CEO.

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THE CORPORATE CULTURE THAT ATTRACTED YOU?

All of our entities are mission-driven, community-based not-for-profits. Since I’ve worked in so many different business organizations, I realize that the corporate cultures in not-for-profit organizations are very different from for-profits, especially publicly traded companies.

Publicly traded companies are focused on creating shareholder value and meeting Wall Street analysts’ quarterly earnings expectations. As a result, their priorities are not always aligned with the interest of their customers and other constituencies. At SantaFe, we’re focused solely on delivering high-quality products and services to our members, our residents and our patients.

WHAT ARE AVMED’S CHALLENGES?

The economy has taxed AvMed significantly. Despite that, we continued to be the No. 1 managed care plan in Florida in terms of growth over the past four to five years. We’ve experience unprecedented growth in the self-funded large group segment, with clients such as the State of Florida, Miami-Dade County, Jackson Health Systems and Baptist Health.

We’ve been limited in our ability to pass on our increased costs through premium increases because employers are dealing with economic challenges as well.

We pay out 90 cents of each dollar we collect to hospitals, physicians, pharmacies, labs and diagnostic centers for the care they’re providing our members. The remaining 10 percent covers our administrative costs and our profit margin.

The Accountable Care Act has significant costs associated with thousands of pages of regulations. Complying with these regulations is costing us millions of dollars, and we’re still two years away from when it goes into full effect. The health insurance industry supports many of the market reforms under the Accountable Care Act. We’re waiting to see how the Supreme Court rules on the mandate and other aspects of the act.

( Success Story )

“Part of my success comes from giving back to the industry sectors that I serve and from giving back to Florida and my community.”

By Chris Eversole

As president and CEO of one of the largest local employers, and chair of the Chamber of Commerce, Gallagher focuses on values and giving back.

Chris Eversole

As president and CEO of SantaFe HealthCare, Mike Gallagher heads AvMed Health Plans, Haven Hospice and SantaFe Senior Living.

San t aFe Hea l t hCa r e ’sMichael Gallagher



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WHAT ARE SOME OF SANTAFE’S CHALLENGES?

Of the 5,500 hospices operating in the United States, we’re among the top 20 in size, and we’re probably the largest rural provider. Haven Hospice is licensed in 18 counties in North and North Central Florida and faces significant competition in all 18 counties. We are facing ever increasing and costly regulations and reimbursement pressures.

Haven operates several Attics, which are upscale resale stores. The proceeds from these stores, along with significant fundraising dollars, help us subsidize millions of dollars of under-funded and unfunded programs and services.

The economy has also been challenging for the senior living industry. The decline in real estate prices hurts seniors who want to sell their homes to relocate to one of our retirement communities. Despite these challenges, SantaFe Senior Living has been able to grow and expand. In addition to a $100 million expansion completed at The Village in 2008, we acquired East Ridge in Culter Bay and are expanding services on its campus.

Last fall, we completed a $143 million financing for a new community under development in Bonita Springs. SantaFe has also obtained approval of development entitlements from Alachua County for our 179-acre community, SantaFe Village, here in Gainesville. We’re finalizing our development order with the county for high-density, transit-oriented, mixed-use development.

HOW DOES AVMED DIFFERENTIATE ITSELF FROM ITS COMPETITORS?

Florida is the most competitive state in health care in the country. Every national player competes in the commercial and individual markets, including United, Aetna, Cigna,

Coventry and Humana.The first thing that makes AvMed

different from competitors is that we’re local. We have a presence in each of our markets, and we’re able to develop relationships with the agents, clients, health care providers and other constituents to find unified approaches to address the issues and challenges that they’re facing.

If you’re a large hospital system or a large group of doctors, you’re dealing face-to-face with me, the CEO, or one of AvMed’s senior executives, who are local and who understand the local market dynamics.

Most importantly, service excellence is our trademark. In a study by J.D. Powers and Associates, AvMed had the highest member satisfaction among commercial health plans in Florida. The annual survey by the independent Consumer Assessment of Health Plans ranked AvMed as the No. 1 health plan among our competitors in overall satisfaction for seven years in a row. Surveys of primary care physicians continue to rank us as the top health plan in Florida.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO BE SO INVOLVED INTHE COMMUNITY?

I’ve always felt blessed by the opportunity to give back.

I think part of my success comes from giving back to the industry sectors that I serve and from giving back to Florida and my community.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS AS CHAIRMAN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE?

I’ve been involved with the chamber for many years, and I watched it evolve. I don’t think it needs to change anything materially because it has really grown and developed to be the type of chamber—a five star chamber—that I’m very proud of and that I’m very proud to lead. My goal is to continue the positive momentum.

I think the chamber today has found strong partners in not

Residents of The Village enjoy an active lifestyle.

SantaFe HealthCare Photo

“Bringing people together and creating a sense of

collaboration is half the battle.”


( Success Story )

Students and Parents:

Everything you need to

know about life at UF

Fall 2010

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Check Out the Florida Museumof Natural History, pg 56

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This full-color, glossy publication is direct-mailed to incoming freshmen and transfer students at their permanent home addresses and distributed all over campus just before the start of the Fall semester. It allows you to connect with 50,000 students and provides that all-important first contact with 8500 new students and their families.

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only the business community, but also with the University of Florida and Santa Fe College, as well as the city and the county. It has increased its leverage through Innovation Gainesville while continuing efforts to attract and expand business through the Council for Economic Outreach.

Bringing in Silver Airways and MindTree are great examples of our success in helping creating local jobs and having a sustainable economic impact.

It’s a shame that so many young people graduating can’t find an opportunity in Gainesville. It’s a great place to live, and it’s a wonderful community. We’re helping create more jobs those graduates can fill through Innovation Gainesville and CEO. Bringing people together and creating a sense of collaboration is half the battle.

WHAT MAKES GAINESVILLE A GOOD PLACE FOR SANTAFE HEALTHCARE AS AN EMPLOYER?

SantaFe’s roots developed in Alachua County initially through Alachua General Hospital and several other hospitals, which were spun off in 1996 to Shands.

Today, we could operate SantaFe anywhere in the state, but we benefit from the uniqueness of the area. In addition to what the university and the college bring to the town, the community is a very livable and vibrant community with a lifestyle that you can’t necessarily get in other communities in the state.

The attractiveness of the community helps us recruit and retain talented people to work with us.

WHAT QUALITIES DO YOU LOOK FORIN EMPLOYEES?

Obviously, it’s critical that job candidates have requisite skills and a strong background, but that’s only one component that we look at.

Beyond that, we focus on the candidates’ DNA, their values and how their behaviors complement our corporate culture. We spend a lot of time talking with candidates about our values of collaboration, accountability, respect, ethical behavior and being service-driven.

WHAT’S YOUR GUIDING PHILOSOPHY?I’m really focused on delivering

exceptional value for AvMed’s members, for Haven’s patients and families and to the residents and families of our senior living communities. We deliver that value around trusted relationships, exemplary service and consistent high quality.

I’m blessed to have the opportunity to lead a $2 billion family of mission-driven companies serving Floridians through all stages of life and equally blessed to work with 2,000 highly engaged employees who make a positive impact each and every day.

The E.T. York Hospice Care Center in Gainesville is part of Haven Hospice’s network.

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( Success Story )Gallagher Helps Many Organizations

Mike Gallagher serves the community, his profession and state and national organizations in many ways, including:

Chair of the Gainesville Area Chamber of CommerceBoard member of America’s Health Insurance Plans (the trade organization representing 1,000 health plans)Member of National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and LeadingAgeBoard member for the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Chamber FoundationBoard member of Associated Industries of Florida, which is the voice of business in Tallahassee Member of the Florida Council of 100, which is an advisory board to the governorImmediate past chair of the United WayLast year’s chair of the Council for Economic OutreachMember of the advisory board and dean’s council for UF’s College of Public Health & Health ProfessionsPrevious chair of the Heart WalkPrevious member of the executive leadership team for the March of Dimes

(continued from previous page)


People, companies and institutions invest in commercial real estate for different reasons. Some businesses want to own the space they occupy. Some individuals want to earn a yearly return on a retai l center through rent collection. Other investors may be interested in a “buy-and-hold” scenario, seeking to realize a return through appreciation.

Understanding some of the basic reasons behind commercial real estate investments is an important step in realizing your personal or your business’s investment goals.

BUYING REAL ESTATE IS NOT THE SAME AS FUNDING AN IRA—IN A GOOD WAY.

If I fund my IRA each year, it will grow at a faster rate than if I fund it once and never put a penny in. However, other than standard maintenance, a property owner does not have to invest large amounts of money in their commercial real estate asset on a yearly basis. The owner will build equity if the property is mortgaged, and will receive a return on the investment which, hopefully, is higher than the debt service.

In many cases, an owner will be able to use the positive cash flow above the debt service to cover repairs, to invest in other ventures or as additional income.

APPRECIATION.Long-term commercial real estate is a good vehicle for

investment returns. Property values of investment real estate can grow in many economic environments where other investments are declining or unstable. Each dollar of appreciation equates to a dollar of added equity in a property. Slow and steady growth is an attractive aspect of owning investment real estate.

KEEP THE IRS AT BAY.Investment property can offer tax benefits. Through write-offs

and depreciation, an owner can reduce taxable income or capital gains. However, tax implications can be area-specific, so ask your tax lawyer for advice on this.

TURN A LITTLE INTO A LOT THROUGH LEVERAGE. Leverage can allow one to invest a fraction of the sticker price

yet still purchase a commercial real estate investment. While harder than ever, securing financing for an investment property provides excellent benefits.

PREDICTABLE AND OFTEN VERY ATTRACTIVE RETURNS.Whether through tax concessions, increased equity through

appreciation or positive cash flow, investment real estate can provide very good returns. Look for specific information on CAP Rates, Cash on Cash Returns and Internal Rate of Return, all of which can help you define what your return will be.

( CRE 101 )

By Seth Lane

Seth Lane practices in the area of brokerage, consulting and development with Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group. Front Street is invested, donating 10 percent of all revenues to charity. Call 352-505-3844 or visit frontstreet.net for more information.

Why Invest in Commercial Real Estate?


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NEWS BRIEFSGainesville Home Sales ImproveAccording to a report from Florida Realtors, there

were 243 pending home sales (homes under contract that haven’t closed) in Gainesville in February—that’s 77 percent more than last year, when there were only 137 pending home sales.

The inventory of listings on the market was down to 1,733, or 24.7 percent, from 2,303 last year. The numbers demonstrate a shift in the local real estate market from a buyers’ market to a sellers’ market because there are fewer homes on the market and more people buying.

Gainesville Raceway Gets New NameThe historic Gainesville Raceway is now named the

Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville after Uni-Select USA and its Auto-Plus network retail stores acquired the naming rights in February. Uni-Select is a distributor of automotive replacement parts, equipment, tools and accessories. The Uni-Select Network includes more than 2,500 independent jobbers and services 3,500 points of sale in North America.

The venue hosted the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals in March, marking the 20th anniversary of the sport’s first 300 mph pass. The raceway is owned and operated by the National Hot Rod Association. Besides the naming rights, Uni-Select USA and its Auto-Plus networks retail stores also received hospitality privileges and signage around the raceway.

Chamber Plans Gainesville Restaurant Week

The Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce will host the inaugural Gainesville Restaurant Week July 26 through August 5. This event will showcase local restaurants for 10 days, including two weekends. Participating restaurants will offer a special three-course menu at a set price, and the restaurants and chefs will be featured on GainesvilleRestaurantWeek.com throughout the summer. Restaurant participation is open to Chamber member restaurants. Contact Tiffany Williams at 352-334-7105 ext. 309 or [email protected] for more information.

Nonprofit Center to Host Nonprofit Summit

The Nonprofit Center of North Central Florida’s Nonprofit Summit will be on Thursday, May 24, at the UF Hilton and Conference Center. This year’s summit will feature two keynote speakers, seven breakout sessions and several roundtable discussions focused on providing the best practices in nonprofit management. There will also be continuing education available.

Last year the summit had 173 attendees from more than 90 nonprofit organizations. Visit ncncf.org to register. Registration for this year’s summit ends on Sunday, May 18.

( In the News )

NEW

S

CHAMBER SHOWS LOVE WITH “I <3 GNV” CAMPAIGN

On April 2, the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce launched its “I <3 GNV” campaign, a community-wide effort to show local businesses some love.

During last month’s Operation Thank You event created to show appreciation for local businesses, volunteers and staff delivered the I <3 GNV decals to local businesses to be displayed. As part of the campaign, the Chamber launched radio, television and print ads to encourage residents to shop locally at businesses with the decal.

I <3 GNV is an extension of the Gainesville Buy Local program, which is designed to encourage Gainesville-area residents to support local businesses. Visit www.iheartGNV.com or scan the QR codes on the decals to connect with other members and the community through the Chamber Facebook page.


T here ’s someth ing to be sa id about the power o f a ta l l g lass o f beer. From the first time Luke

Kemper took a swig of craft beer, he was hooked on the flavor and the possibilities of brewing his own. So when he wrapped up studying business and environmental science at the University of Colorado in 2005, he came back to settle in his hometown and bring the craft beer craze to Hogtown.

Kemper’s Swamp Head Brewery is the first brewery to set up operation in Gainesville. It sent out its first keg in 2009 and hasn’t stopped rolling out new beers since. What started as a two-man operation brewing a couple days a week has rocketed to a seven-person team with a brewing schedule that runs every day at their location north of Archer Road at 3140 SW 42nd Way.

The brewery stays busy with five year-round beers and more than 15 seasonal and limited-release varieties. No matter the style, brewers like to give each beer a hint of Floridian charm through a clever name or native ingredient. Beer drinkers have taken notice; you can find Swamp Head logos in bars and brewpubs from Tallahassee to Fort Myers.

One thing that hasn’t bent from the pressure of production is the creativity of the brews. Step up to the bar in the Wetlands tasting room and you can expect a range of flavors and styles that most breweries don’t reach for several years. Swamp Head has already veered from traditional styles with releases like a chipotle-infused pale ale, a Neapolitan beer that touts three layers of flavor and a farmhouse ale called Saison du Swamp.

The man behind the brews is head brewer Craig Birkmaier, a seasoned homebrewer who led Swamp Head to regional fame with an 11-medal sweep at the 2011 Best Florida Beer Championship, announced in Tampa last April, and national fame with a spot on Beer Advocate’s top beer lists.

Birkmaier knows his hops. He now oversees two other brewers as the team works to produce the beers that bring crowds to the brewery’s small warehouse near I-75. According to Birkmaier, finding success in brewing boils down to two main pieces: process and art.

“Part of being a good brewer is getting the process down and having control over all that stuff so you can repeat it again and again,” Birkmaier says. “Art is the recipe design and how you tweak things to make them taste good.”

Loca l Mot ionEven after living in Boulder and Atlanta, Kemper always

knew he’d end up back in Gainesville. With so much history here, he says, it just felt right. Propelled by his desire to bring

craft beer to Florida after experiencing the thriving beer community in Colorado, Kemper met up with longtime family friend Birkmaier to talk business in 2008.

Birkmaier, whose first career was in TV production, started homebrewing in 2002 after traveling and developing a taste for the beers found throughout Europe and America. By the time he teamed up with Kemper, he was already recognized around Florida for his award-winning recipes.

“From the beginning we were looking to come out with enough beer styles to satisfy a range of tastes,” Kemper says. “We wanted some for people new to craft beer and some that seasoned drinkers would enjoy.”

By the end of development, the brewery had a balanced selection of five beers all inspired by Florida flavors and ingredients: Wild Night Honey Cream Ale, Cottonmouth Belgian Wheat Bier, Stumpknocker Pale Ale, Midnight Oil Oatmeal Coffee Stout and the Big Nose India Pale Ale.

The beers quickly found their way to taps in local bars and pubs. Word spread about the brewery’s five original brews, along with standout limited releases like the Blackwater Floridian Dark Ale that won best in show at the 2011 Best Florida Beer competition. Soon, people were asking for Swamp Head in cities all over the state.

The brewery experienced such a sharp rise in demand for its brews that Swamp Head’s distributors put them on hold until they could catch up with production. With a starting number of 80 barrels a month, the brewery now churns out 170 barrels—a number that continues to rise.

What ’s Brewing Small 10-gallon tanks sit ready alongside the larger tanks

in the increasingly cramped brewing room. Used to produce limited batches, Birkmaier considers them a great new asset for recipe development.

There’s also a newly constructed cellar filled with whiskey barrels for oak-aging and wine casks that Birkmaier hopes to use to produce sour beers—a rising style admired for its delicious tang.

“Craft beer drinkers love to experiment, and they’ll try anything once,” Birkmaier says. “It’s a really good market to go into where everyone is so supportive and excited to see what’s new.”

Besides working on their own fleet of beers, Swamp Head has also partnered with other Florida breweries, like Cigar City

Brewing in Tampa and Green Room Brewing in Jacksonville, to produce special-release beers and to help spread its name to other areas.

“Growing the industry grows us,” Birkmaier says. “We don’t have competitors other than the big guys. Everybody who makes craft beer is our friend. We serve their beers in our tasting rooms, go to festivals with them and share ideas, work and learn with them.”

For craft brewers, it’s all about community. When the brew crew isn’t traveling across Florida to promote their beers or participate in competitions, you can find them around town hosting food pairings, organizing chili cook-offs and bringing in other Florida brewers for tap takeovers and release parties.

As demand for Swamp Head beer grows, so does the need for a larger production space. Both Birkmaier and Kemper

agree that finding a new location is a rising priority, especially since bottling and canning are next on the microbrewery’s to-do list. Even though fans can already pick up a growler of their favorite brew in the tasting room, packaging would allow for even greater exposure as beer enthusiasts trade and carry the beers across state lines.

“We are ready to jump into phase two now that we’re feeling growing pains,” Kemper says.

Swamp Head hopes to reach 5,000 barrels a year with its next expansion, with an ultimate goal of producing more than 15,000 to become a regional brewery. Kemper hopes the increase in space will allow for packaging opportunities, more tanks for brewing beer and more jobs to help boost the local economy. Although there’s plenty to distract them as the company races to expand, at the end of the day, the duo still knows it’s all about the beer.

“Our mission will always be to encourage people to try as many different beer styles as possible,” Birkmaier says. “Develop a palate, learn the differences between good and bad and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You can’t kill someone with beer but you can still make beer that tastes pretty bad.”

( Made in Gainesville )

By Caitlyn Finnegan

Cra f t beer d r inkers love to exper iment , and they ’ l l t r y any th ing once . I t ’s a rea l l y good

marke t to go in to where ever yone i s so suppor t i ve and exc i ted to see what ’s new.

—HEAD BREWER CRAIG B IRKMAIER

PREPARES FOR GROWTH

SWAMP HEAD BREWERY

Caitl

yn F

inne

gan

Head brewer Craig Birkmaier brought his palette, developed from world travels, to home brewing before developing the Swamp Head recipes.

Swamp Head owner Luke Kemper and tasting room manager Andy Bielecki celebrate the release of a barleywine collaboration with Cigar City Brewing.


“We’ve been involved with trying to get new venues built and supporting things like synchronized swimming and lacrosse—sports that 15 years ago weren’t even on the horizon,” Hughes says.

YEAR-ROUND TRAININGPeter Vanderkaay started swimming in his hometown of

Rochester, Mich., when he was 7. In college, he swam at the University of Michigan. Vanderkaay won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece and took a second trip to the Olympics in 2008, bringing home both a gold and bronze from Beijing.

With the 2012 Olympic trials around the corner, Vanderkaay is now training in Gainesville.

“I came down to Gainesville to train because I had been at Michigan for almost 10 years,” he says. “I felt like I needed to get outside of my comfort zone and try something totally different.”

Vanderkaay is training with the coaches at UF. Coach Gregg Troy is the head coach for both the Florida Gator swim team and the head men’s coach of the 2012 Olympic team.

“Gainesville is a great place to train because of the coaching staff in place,” Vanderkaay says. “Many swimmers come here because of that reason alone.”

Gemma Spofforth, who came here from England, agrees. She

chose to swim during her undergraduate career at UF because of Coach Martyn Wilby, who is also British.

“UF had a coach who was able to explain American swimming to me in English terms,” she says.

The two swimmers have rigorous training schedules. Some days involve nearly four hours of swimming at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center and a couple hours of dry-land training. This will be Spofforth’s second trip to the Olympics, and she says this time around, she’s focusing more on her diet and health.

Naturally, she’s happy these games will be held on her home turf, in London.

“I am excited to go and compete at a home Olympics in front of a home crowd,” she says.

MAKING IT WORKAlbert Matheny, a registered dietitian who ran track and cross

country at the University of Florida from 2004 to 2010, knows about using his athletic background in his field.

During his time as a student athlete, Matheny came to understand the importance of protein in a well-rounded diet, but says he hadn’t seen any “clean” protein on the market. This led him to the process of creating Source Organic Whey Protein, a protein free of dyes and artificial sweeteners.

For Matheny, starting a business in Gainesville made sense. Not only had he grown up in the area, he also worked with many athletes around town.

“People in Gainesville are pretty in-tune to sports and living a healthy lifestyle,” Matheny says.

He initially got the word out about Source Organic Whey Protein among the athletes he worked with, and friends and family. He took his protein to local businesses such as Ward’s Supermarket, Citizens Co-op, Mosswood Farm Store in Micanopy, and Patticakes in Haile, where they use the protein as a smoothie supplement.

Matheny also knew that Amazon.com is where people go to find something they can’t find locally. He says putting Source Organic Whey Protein on Amazon.com gave the product good exposure, even if the cost of doing so was expensive in the beginning.

Although Gainesville gave Matheny the jumpstart his business needed, he wanted to expand. He moved to New York, where he is learning to grow his business while working as a personal trainer at Equinox.

And while Matheny felt Gainesville was a good place to start his business, sports attorney Gary Holthus had an opposite approach.

AREA EMBRACES FORMER ATHLETES—

AND THEIR TRUSTED ADVISORS

( Cover Story )

“I get paid to have the best seat in

the house.”—Sports broadcaster Tom Collett

Chris Doering, who is currently the co-host on “The Sports Fix” on ESPN radio in Gainesville and Ocala and is a former UF wide receiver and Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee, says regardless

of whether a player ends up in the NFL or not, eventually he’ll need help landing a career. That’s one reason the Florida Players Network recently began.

His former teammate, Terry Jackson, noticed a void. There is a network of roughly 2,500 living former Florida football players. The Florida Players Network (FPN) was formed as a way to “reconnect all of us in different industries and fields and keep businesses within the [Florida football] family,” Doering, now president of FPN, says.

The other goal of FPN is to raise funds for a charitable cause in Gainesville each year. This year, FPN has selected Shands Hospital for Children at the University of Florida.

Members of FPN presented Shands a check for $5,000 at the Orange and Blue debut game April 7.

Doering believes FPN will be a great resource for student athletes who find themselves looking for a job after college or the NFL because he’s been in that position.

The former Gator player bounced around the country playing in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts, the Denver Broncos, the Washington Redskins and the Pittsburgh Steelers. After seven seasons in the NFL, he settled back in Gainesville.

He was unsure of what to do next until the man who is now his co-host for “The Sports Fix” on ESPN radio in Gainesville and Ocala approached him about starting their own radio show.

Jason Myers

Terry Jackson, vice president, and Chris Doering, president, attend a blue carpet event at the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Cham-pions Club during the weekend of the recent Orange and Blue Game. The former teammates were promoting the newly formed Florida Players Network—a brainchild of Jackson’s that is meant to connect Florida football players around the country.

Peter Vanderkaay poses with the medals he won at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Vanderkaay won the gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay, which he swam with Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps and Ricky Berens. He earned his bronze medal swimming in the 200m freestyle.

(continued from cover)


Holthus, who is also a family law attorney, found that for the line of work he was in, it made more sense to start out in a bigger city like Miami. The connections he formed with people in the sports world there allowed him to continue his job in Gainesville, where his sons were both in school, once Hurricane Andrew kicked him out of his Miami office.

As a sports attorney, Holthus acts as an advocate, advisor, intermediary and negotiator. He also helps his clients evaluate situations. After the agent gets an athlete an endorsement deal, it’s the sports attorney who reads over the jargon-filled contract for the deal and determines whether it’s fair.

After a youth spent playing junior golf and competitive junior bowling, his first clients were mainly bowlers. Now they have expanded to those like drag racing Hall of Famer Darrell Gwynn and football players based out of Miami.

Holthus isn’t the only attorney in Gainesville making money off sports. Huntley Johnson has been practicing law as a criminal defense attorney in Gainesville for 36 years. About 27 years ago, Florida football player Mark Korff came to him for help, and he says he’s been “passed down to other athletes ever since.”

In the last 27 years, Johnson has represented nearly 70 athletes, including 40 football players he’s helped in the last 10 years.

And for some athletes, working with financial advisor Keith Lerner can mean saving their bank account if they suffer a career-ending injury.

Lerner says insuring athletes is a niche market that hadn’t been tapped into when he started 24 years ago. Athletes initially found out about this type of insurance through word-of-mouth. But as salaries in professional sports have increased in the past 25 years, there’s a much larger potential loss of income that comes with injury. Simply put, the increase in salaries has meant an increase in demand for insurance.

As word of Lerner’s service spread, his business took off. He’s written policies for college and professional athletes

around the country, including Heisman Trophy winners and first-round NFL draft picks.

CALLING THE SHOTSSome Gainesville residents have found careers in sports

broadcasting. Tom Collett got his start at Santa Fe Community College

as the public address announcer for basketball and baseball. A friend knew UF was looking to revamp its announcing for men’s basketball. He told the people in charge about Collett, and by fall of 1994, Collett was the new public address announcer for volleyball and Florida men’s basketball. He currently announces for the basketball games and provides play-by-play radio commentary for both home and away volleyball games.

“I get paid to have the best seat in the house,” he says. He believes the responsibility that comes with calling a

game, especially one like Florida vs. Kentucky, which is always a sold-out crowd of 12,000, is invigorating.

Former UF wide receiver and Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee Chris Doering agrees. Doering is currently the co-host on “The Sports Fix” on ESPN radio in Gainesville and Ocala. He says his football background landed him the sports commentating job, and the adrenaline rush he gets from being on the air live during a game is similar to how he felt when he played football.

“I love being on the air, and I love having the opportunity to express my opinions,” he says. “It keeps me close to the football world.”

It’s no secret that many sports commentators played or coached the sport at some point. Doering, who spent seven seasons in the NFL after college, says his experience adds to his trustworthiness as a sports commentator.

“I think that people know that I know what I’m talking about because of my experience on the field and in the locker room,” he says. “I have that factor that people trust because

I’ve been there before, so in that respect I think that helps.”And even though it’s his football background that got him

the gig he has now, Doering believes that the variety of sports in Gainesville combined with the opportunities UF provides makes the town a good place to look for a job in sports.

“It’s definitely a sports town. It’s all about the Gators all the time,” he says. “I think being able to cater to the ravenous appetite of the Gator fans allows for lots of opportunities at a sports career.”

( Cover Story )

Financial advisor Keith Lerner poses in front of sports memorabilia at his office in Gainesville. Lerner writes insurance policies for high-profile athletes. He has been in numerous national publications, on radio shows and has appeared on ESPN.


Kelly Huard-Fisher has both opportunities and challenges now that Gainesville City Manager Russ Blackburn has extended her status as interim director of the

Community Redevelopment Agency indefinitely.Blackburn made his decision after he

and a panel, which included representatives from two of the CRA’s advisory boards, interviewed five finalists—including Huard-Fisher—to replace Anthony Lyons, who left the agency’s directorship Dec. 1 for a post in Boise, Idaho.

Blackburn couched his language about his unusual move of extending the interim appointment, saying he will evaluate Huard-Fisher’s long-term performance and at some point consider making her appointment permanent.

Commissioner Sherwin Henry was more direct, saying that Blackburn wanted Huard-Fisher to gain more experience managing projects and staff before committing to her as a permanent CRA director.

Huard-Fisher joined the CRA as a project manager in 2007 and worked as a planner for the City of Alachua before that. She holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Georgia Tech.

“This is a wonderful opportunity,” she says of her change in status. “I’m glad to be able to move forward in making the changes I want to want to make.”

The opportunities Kelly Huard-Fisher faces are to bring to fruition the CRA’s major current projects, including development of Innovation Square, completing Depot Park and moving Prioria Robotics to a former GRU warehouse in the Power District, the site that previously was the utility’s operations center.

The challenges are to redevelop the Kennedy Homes area, create a new direction for the Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center and pursue a downtown hotel and conference center.

Kennedy Homes, located on Southeast 8th Ave. in East Gainesville, was a federally subsidized housing project that fell into disrepair and became crime-ridden. It closed

in 2003, and the city bought it 2007, after which it tore down the buildings.

The city has plans to redevelop the property in cooperation with a private developer with townhouses, single-family homes, retail space and a community center. Those plans have not moved forward.

“Kennedy homes gives Kelly a chance to be innovative, creating a model green project,” Henry says.

Henry, who leaves office May 16, says he hopes that Huard-Fisher will be able to move forward on a hotel and conference center.

The city received two responses from private groups by its April 5 deadline to its “invitation to negotiate” regarding a private-public partnership on the project. The city has not released details of the responses, based on a state law that doesn’t make them available to public until the city evaluates them.

Henry says he hopes that Huard-Fisher will be more cooperative than Lyons had been regarding the hotel and conference center. “The CRA had become too autonomous,” Henry says. “If something like this project

wasn’t something he initiated, he didn’t put his total weight behind it.”

As for GTEC, the city and the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, which manages the business incubator for the city, are completing plans to find a new niche for it, Huard-Fisher says.

“When it started 10 years ago, it was the only game in town,” she says. “Now we have multiple incubators, and we need to find a way to make GTEC relevant.”

( In the News )N

EWS

S e a r c h f o r N e w C R A D i r e c t o r F i n d s F a m i l i a r F a c eAf te r the d i rec to r o f the Communi t y Redeve lopment Agency le f t , i n te r im d i rec to r Ke l l y Huard-F isher f ound a somewhat more permanent pos i t i on—which b r ings w i th i t a number o f l o f t y goa ls f o r Ga inesv i l l e . By Chris Eversole


Although it might not seem to directly im-pact your bottom line, your employees’ financial troubles may be dragging down their work. While as their employer you don’t want to pry into their personal lives, you can be of help.

I would know. As a credit union branch manager, I see the results of having a poor understanding of money management, whether it’s over-using credit or not planning for the future—or both. Employers suffer from workers distracted by money woes, and the economy is hampered when people who are overextended don’t pay their debts and restrict their purchases.

I know a manager who discovered that one of his workers was living in her car. I see young adults whose parents told them to turn in the keys to their car because they can’t afford the payments. I talk with professionals whose student loans take up a big chunk of their budget. I see many people who fail to plan for the unexpected and come to me for a small loan when an expense such as replacing a water heater arises.

In extreme cases, workers who are financially stressed may steal from their employers.

Here are some of the pointers I offer, whether I’m meeting individually with a client or offering “money makeover” workshops for businesses, churches and other groups:

Review your credit report and dispute any errors.Pay attention to the interest rates on your loans and credit

cards, and shop for better rates if you’re paying excessive interest.

Cut down on unnecessary purchases. You’ll be surprised how you can save by making small changes.

Beyond that, I encourage people to approach lenders as soon as they have a change of circumstance, such as losing a job or having their hours cut. In some cases, the lender may be able to lower the interest rate or extend the term of the loan.

I emphasize the danger of overextending yourself. “Pay yourself first” is a slogan I use, which means make it a priority to set aside savings. In a two-family household, I recommend putting all or part of one partner’s salary into savings so that the family has money available if one partner

loses his or her job or becomes ill.In planning retirement savings, it’s important to have

three “buckets” of funds: Use one bucket for a product such as a money-market account for funds you might need immediately. Use a second bucket to invest in products such as certificates of deposits for money you plan to lock up for five years or so. Use a third bucket for investments that you expect will grow over time, such as ones in mutual funds or products that guarantee a certain rate of return with a long-term commitment.

You’re never too young to start planning for retirement. Relatively inexpensive investments you make at a young age can grow impressively by the time you retire. The important thing is to get started.

Helping your workers become more financially savvy can pay off in their morale and in their lifestyle.

By Shane Carkhuff

$ ( Money Matters )

Shane Carkhuff is a vice president of VyStar Credit Union and manager of the Gainesville branch.

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If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it’s… an incredible marketing and public relations tool. Let’s examine the role and use of animals in corporate logos, marketing and sales campaigns. Use of animals in corporate marketing can be cost-effective, highly effective and memorable. It’s time to put your pet on the payroll.

Barbara J. Phillips researched the topic in Advances in Consumer Research Vol. 23: “These creatures, called trade characters, are fictional, animate beings or animated objects that have been created for the promotion of a product, service or idea.” Why? According to her research, “Animal trade characters in current advertising… are effective communication tools because they can be used to transfer desirable cultural meanings to products with which they are associated.”

We are all familiar with these trade characters, some with names, some simply generic animals: Duke, the Bush’s Baked

Beans dog; the AFLAC duck; the GEICO gecko; Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales; Gidget the Taco Bell Chihuahua; the Chick-Fil-A cows and the hundreds of others over the years. Why are they used? Because they are effective. A study of effective television advertising stated that, “Commercials with these characters score above average in their ability to change brand preference.”

Where did it all start? Perhaps posthumously. Nipper was a terrier who lived in England from 1884 to 1895. A

painting of Nipper looking into the horn of a phonograph was registered in 1900 as

the trademark of the Gramophone Company. Through a series of mergers

and sales, Nipper served as the trademark of the Victor Talking Machine Company, RCA Victor, RCA, EMI, Columbia Records, Sony Entertainment Group and other recognized companies, and is owned today by RCA Trademark Management SA.

So what is “The Peabody Factor?” In 1932, as a joke, Frank Schutt, general manager of the

Peabody Memphis Hotel, placed some live ducks in the lobby fountain. The public’s reaction was wildly

enthusiastic, perhaps providing a few moments of light entertainment in the middle of the depression, and the ducks became permanent residents at all Peabody hotels. The Peabody Memphis website says former circus trainer Bellman Edward Pembroke taught the ducks the Peabody Duck March from the rooftop Duck Palace to the lobby fountain.

The Peabody has gained national acclaim as the ducks have appeared on the Tonight Show, the Oprah Winfrey Show, in People magazine and in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition.

Will your business benefit from a virtual animal on a logo or trademark? Can a pet in the business boost sales? Think about it. Maybe The Peabody Factor can work for you.

By Philip R. Geist

( Speaking of Business )

Philip Geist, PhD, is the area director for the Small Business Development Center, which provides free, confidential counseling to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Call 352-334-7230 or visit sbdc.unf.edu for more information. This material was condensed from Dr. Geist’s blog at sbdc.unf.edu.

TH

EP E A B O D YF A C T O R


( Someone You Should Know )

By Chris Eversole

National business expert cites Gainesville’s forward-thinking mindset

as motivation for calling the city “home” and credits key personal relationships

for achieving professional success.

The Nightly Business Report’s Lou Heckler

You might recognize Lou Heckler, but it’s likely not from seeing him at a local business meeting or networking event. You see, this business expert has an audience of millions as the “Andy Rooney” of PBS’s Nightly Business Report, which airs weekdays at 6:30pm.

Since joining the show in February, Heckler has flown from Gainesville, where he and his wife Jonellen live, to Miami once a month to tape four essay segments called “Lou’s Been Thinking,” during which he comments on topics such as “why it’s important to own your mistakes” and “why being scared drives us to do better things.”

Heckler could live in many different places, but he chose Gainesville based on a relationship he developed when he came here as a speaker for the March of Dimes. The Hecklers became friends with Lynda Everitt, then the local March of Dimes executive, and her husband, Skip, and decided to move here from Fort Myers.

Another relationship brought Heckler to the Nightly Business Report. That relationship was with Rick Ray, the show’s CEO. Heckler and Ray had been classmates at the University of North Carolina in the 1960s. Yet another relationship provided Heckler with another big opportunity—this time with Gar Trusley, his former Army buddy. Trusley recommended Heckler to the director of the University of Michigan’s Executive Education Center, where Heckler served as a part-time trainer on leadership from 1980 through 1999, commuting between Fort Myers and Ann Arbor.

The Michigan opportunity came at a good time for Heckler, who had moved to Fort Myers because of his son, Steve. Heckler and his wife had left Charlotte, N.C. (where Heckler worked as a management trainer for Jefferson Pilot Broadcasting [now Lincoln Financial Media]) in 1980, because their son had experienced severe allergy problems in North Carolina.

Heckler had launched a public speaking career from Fort Myers, but it was slow taking off. The Michigan job exposed Heckler to business leaders, some of whom hired him to do training for their organizations.

“I’ve worked very hard, and I think because my concentration over my whole life has been on my family and on relationships in general, good things have come to me,” he says.

WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO GO OUT ON YOUR OWN AS A SELF-EMPLOYED SPEAKER?

In the last six years I was with Jefferson Pilot, two things happened. One was I started doing a lot of talk shows on the air as the community affairs director. I’d get asked to speak in the community quite a bit. But then secondly, because I had also been a trainer of public affairs officers and broadcasters when I was in the military back in the early ‘70s, Jefferson Pilot asked me to become its management trainer.

I did that for 18 months, and then we pretty much decided we had to come to Florida for our son’s health. I interviewed with one of the television stations in Fort Myers and was offered a job as news and programming director, but I had that little itch—that little voice on my

shoulder—saying, “I wonder if you could start your own business?”

WAS IT A CHALLENGE AT FIRST?Like a lot of people who start a business, I had a lot

more arrogance than I had intelligence. If somebody needed training or a speaker, they’d say, “Yeah, that’d be good, six months from now, sure.”

Six months from now? What about this month’s

mortgage payment? I didn’t understand the lead time between offering your services and the engagement actually occurring. We never lost money, but we didn’t make much money the first couple of years. I was recording commercials for a local furniture store for $50—whatever we could do to pay the rent.

Once I started working at Michigan [as a leadership trainer], I was in front of 35 to 40 Fortune 500 managers, and their company might need speakers, their professional associations might need speakers. There were people from Exxon, Goodyear, Ford, Pepsi, Mattel and other big companies.

WITHIN THE JEFFERSON PILOT AND UM, WHAT DID YOU FOCUS ON IN YOUR MANAGEMENT TEACHING?

At Jefferson Pilot, we took our best salesperson and made her a sales manager. We took our best engineer and made him the engineering manager. We took our best newsperson and made them news director. But these people didn’t know anything about management.

I had a wonderful boss, Wally Jorgensen. Wally said, “OK, here’s what I want you to do: For the first three months, I don’t want you to do any teaching. I want you to talk to all of the people in all of the stations and find out what their needs are, and then I want you to go and sign up for a bunch of [management] training.”

I learned a lot by going to programs at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of North Carolina and the American Management Association. At Ann Arbor, I was in a program called Management 2. It was a five-day, mid-level program for managers, and I did training typically one of the five days. It started out as time management and delegation, and then evolved into creative problem solving.

“A manager gets people to do things, but a leader gets people to want to.”

Lou Heckler brings smiles to his audience as he imparts wisdom about business and leadership.

Pho

to co

urtesy Lou H

eckler


( Someone You Should Know )In addition to programs on campus, we did off-campus

programs. We went to New York for the Federal Reserve Bank. They sent me to Hong Kong to teach classes. It was a tremendous association.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THEMES OF WHAT YOU TEACH?I talk about things under the main umbrella of getting

the best from the people around you—peak performance. I try to help people in a humorous way, but in a way

that teaches them to become better leaders as they make the transition from manager to leader.

A manager gets people to do things, but a leader gets people to want to. A manager says, “Do this by 2 o’ clock or have this to me by the end of the month.” The leader uses more psychology and has to be more motivating.

But when we think back on the leaders we’ve worked for who we really admired, we realize that they saw us as individuals. Although they have to have a broad-based reward system that was fair to everyone, when they recognized that one little thing about us that was neat and special, it meant a lot.

You need to convey to employees their incredible value.

DOES YOUR MESSAGE CHANGE OVER TIME?The principles don’t change. The

examples change. I’m constantly refreshing my materials with fresh examples.

Here’s an example. I was in Canada for four days in March, and I picked up the Toronto paper while I was waiting to transfer to Halifax. I read a story about Brady Heslip from the Baylor basketball team, who is from Canada.

It told about how he started practicing. The basketball hoop on his family’s driveway was very short. He had to go across the street to shoot the distance of a three-point shot, over trees and other obstacles.

When he got to Baylor, he would make 150 threes before practice every day. Not shots; makes.

I could use an example like that because it was very current about a kid from Canada, and it talks about how people operate at a peak performing level.

I just wrote a blog for the NBR website about a young man who teaches swimming at Haile Plantation Country Club. He’s wonderful with kids, but the other day, I saw him swimming by himself.

I knew he had been on the UF swim team, and I was amazed at how he just knifed through he water.

When he finished, I said, “Man, it was so much fun to watch you.” And he said, “All it takes is 30/12.”

I asked, “What’s 30/12?”He said, “All you have to do is practice for 12 years,

30 hours as week, and you can swim just like this.” So I wrote this blog about the new rule is not the 80/20 rule; now it’s the 30/12 rule.

HOW DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED WITH THE NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT?

After college, [UNC classmate] Rick Ray did a number of things in and around television, but ultimately he and his wife ran Raycom Sports, the producer of many college athletic events.

They had this idea: “We’ll put it together; we’ll pick the director; we’ll pick the talent; we’ll hire the camera people; and we’ll sell it to ABC or ESPN or CBS.”

The idea became a huge business. They sold out a number of years ago, and he started doing some other

things. Last fall, through some of his old broadcasting contacts, the powers-that-be at PBS asked him if he would like to run the Nightly Business Report. He wrote me an email and asked if I would like to be an essayist on the show.

HOW DOES SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECT YOU AS A SPEAKER? It’s something I have to get used to. When I was up

in Canada, it was very obvious to me that a number of people in my audience were Tweeting.

Should you do anything about that? I think, as a 65-year-old person who is relatively polite, that you should put those things down. But that’s not what they think.

I actually asked a couple of the young women at this one table, who both were in their late 30s, about it. I said, “Please don’t take offense at this, but I noticed you were doing something, Tweeting or sending emails. Would you talk to me about that?”

They said, “Don’t worry. We were saying very nice things about you.”

I said, “No, I’m not fishing for compliments. Just tell me what this is about.”

The one woman said, “Well, a couple of my friends wanted to be here today, but they weren’t able to be, and I said I could fill them in.”

ANY THOUGHTS ON GAINESVILLE AND THE “INNOVATION ECONOMY?”

When I’m on the road, people say to me, “Gainesville—that’s that football town isn’t it?”

I say, “Yeah, I guess,” but what I always say that I love about it is that it’s a city of hope. It’s a place where people are always hoping and planning and innovating and studying for something better.

Don’t get me wrong, Fort Myers is a gorgeous place, but it’s also a fairly heavily retirement-oriented place. It has an awful lot of happy golfers and happy tennis players and happy relaxers. They’re looking back more than looking forward. My entire perspective changed when we moved up here. It’s a city of hope and a place for looking forward, instead of looking back.

We love all of the things that we have access to at the university. We go to a lot of the athletic things: women’s volleyball, women’s softball, women’s gymnastics. We swim about 300 days a year.

We love to do that, and we love all of the cultural things. We like to tube on the Ichetucknee.

We love musical theater particularly. We go to New York a lot, but we also like to go to the Hipp.

DO YOU FEEL LUCKY?Yes, I do. I just think that the business world and the

world in general move at the speed of relationships. I grew up with a Midwestern ethic: everybody’s okay; nobody’s better; nobody’s worse.

I spent most of my adult life in the South. When I was at Chapel Hill in the ‘60s, we were expected to be very mannerly, to be ladies and gentlemen. I think people have appreciated over time that we nurture relationships, and that we are polite.

I think we have a wonderful marriage. We’ve been married almost 44 years. We still like each other a lot.

I could make you a really good list of a lot of bad stuff over my lifetime, but I’ve never concentrated on that. I think I’ve

always tried to come from a place of joy. I’ve always had the ability to see things through a

lighthearted perspective. I’ve been very healthy and at 65, that’s a pretty good thing to say.

I had an aunt in California who lived to 93 or 94. When our son was in school out there, we would go visit her and say, “What’s the secret?”

She said, “I can’t wait to get up in the morning to find out what’s going to happen.”

“Gainesville is a city of hope and a place for looking forward, instead of looking back.”

Chris E

versole

Lou and Jonellen Heckler designed their home in southwest Gainesville.


( In the News )

NEW

SON THE MOVE

Seide Realty announced the addition of real estate consultants Marilyn Bush and Sharon Dwyer to its team. Bush and Dwyer have been business partners for almost four years.

Seide Realty also welcomes Real Estate Consultant Adrienne Bleichner. Adrienne started her career in real estate more than 10 years ago.

Girl Scouts of Gateway Council board executive Nona Jones is chairing the search committee for a new Girl Scouts CEO. Current CEO Sandra “Sam” Tysver plans to retire in June 2013.

North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System Director Thomas A. Cappello retired on April 1 following a successful 40-year career with the Department of Veteran Affairs. For the past five years he administered the operation of one of the largest Veteran Affairs healthcare systems, which provides care for over 130,000 veterans.

ING Financial Partners recently honored Craig Robert Morrison with his induction into the Century Club, which honors achievement in the financial services industry. Morrison is a graduate of the University of Florida Fisher School of Accounting and has more than 12 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Jeff Tice, Brenda Banks and Jennifer McIntosh, of Brookfield Residential Property Services Company, have received awards from Prudential Real Estate. Tice received the President’s Circle award, and Banks and McIntosh both received the Leader’s Circle award.

McKinley recently acquired Windmeadows, a 323-unit luxury community located by Shands Medical Center at UF. McKinley owns 5,000 units and operates over 12,000 units throughout the state of Florida.

Crime Prevention Security Systems opened a new location in Orlando. The new branch offers interactive solutions for commercial, residential and builder customers.

Skobel Homes is the new owner of Grand Preserve on Archer Road. Within the last six months, Skobel Homes has also acquired the Campo Verde and Belmont communities.

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses awarded the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) and Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit (CTICU) a Silver Beacon Award for Excellence. The award recognizes caregivers in units that distinguish themselves by improving every facet of patient care. The Malcom Randall team is one of three Department of Veterans Affairs facilities nationwide to receive the award.

Magnolia Plantation Bed and Breakfast of Gainesville has been awarded North America’s Most Pet-Friendly Bed and Breakfast 2012 by Pamela Lanier’s B&B Directory.

Matthew Ellis, Mary North, and Simon Flatt were announced as the recipients of the 2011 Frist Humanitarian Awards from North Florida Regional Medical Center. The award honors humanitarian and volunteer activities and recognizes Hospital Corporation of America employees and volunteers who perform their work with concern.

NEWS BRIEFS2012 Business ShowcaseGainesville’s annual business-to-business

expo, the 2012 Business Showcase, will be May 17 from 4pm to 7pm at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

There will be more than 70 local organizations featuring Gainesville products and services, and the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce is expecting more than 500 guests. Vendors can network and share ideas at the vendor-only sneak peak, 3-4pm.

Registration forms, in addition to participation requirements, booth pricing and locations, and a list of participating exhibitors are available online at gainesvillechamber.com.

Tickets for the event are $12 at the door, and guests are invited to submit a business card to participate in a door prize drawing. Booth registration is open until May 4 and can be reserved by calling 352-334-7100 or emailing [email protected].

Commerce Building Earns EPA’s ENERGY STAR Certification

The Commerce Building, located at 300 East University Ave., which was developed by the Gainesville Commerce Center Ltd. Partnership and is managed by AMJ Inc. of Gainesville, recently earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR certification. The award is given to buildings that perform in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency and meet energy efficient performance levels set by the EPA.

Commercial buildings that receive this award use an average of 35 percent less energy than typical buildings and release 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The Commerce Building is able to achieve such numbers by managing energy through AMJ’s management practices and by cost-effective improvements that were made to the building.

The Commerce Center upgraded building control systems, improved lighting efficiency, enhanced the chiller tower and boiler and engaged in preventive maintenance.

“We are very pleased to accept EPA’s ENERGY STAR certification in recognition of our energy efficiency efforts,” said AMJ president Mike Warren. “Through this achievement, we have demonstrated our commitment to environmental stewardship while also lowering our energy costs.”

United Way Recognizes Business Leaders

United Way of North Central Florida recognized the top workplace campaigns and community partners and celebrated the close of its annual workplace campaign season on March 27 at the Best Western Gateway Grand.

At the luncheon, United Way recognized 37 local businesses with awards and announced the top 50 campaigns for the 2012 year.

While this year’s figures won’t be available until after June 30, early campaign numbers were good, according to Debbie

Mason, CEO and president of United Way of North Central Florida.

“Despite a weak economy and more people in need than ever, our 2012 workplace campaigns total is up $300,000 over last year,” Mason said. “This shows that when a community is in need, people will come forward to help.

“Our donors see the need in our local area and want to do something about it. This rise in donations from our area employee company campaigns show just that.”

Among the businesses honored at United Way’s luncheon were AvMed, Shands HealthCare, RTI Biologics, Nationwide and the University of Florida. UF leads the Southeastern Conference in total dollars raised for local charities with $1,027,875 directed to 80 different local non-profits through the Gators Give effort.

Local Businesses, Schools Partner with Cartridge World

In honor of Earth Day on April 22, Cartridge World-Gainesville encouraged the Gainesville community to recycle ink cartridges.

The company offered a recycling and fundraising program at schools in which parents raised money by dropping off empty printer cartridges at the schools. In exchange, Cartridge World paid the schools based on the quantity collected. Cartridge World also provided drop-off recycling boxes for businesses and organizations.

“Less than 10 percent of all ink and toner cartridges used in homes and offices are recycled,” said James DiEugenio of Cartridge World-Gainesville. “Cartridge World’s recycling programs are a win-win for everyone. We’ll encourage recycling at our store until it becomes second nature in our community.”

Innovation Gainesville Creates Angel Network

At the University of Florida Celebration of Innovations on March 27, Office of Technology Licensing Director David Day announced the launch of a program that will help local investors support local start-ups.

The Innovation Gainesville Angel Network (iGAN) will create opportunities for local investors to directly fund companies that sprout up from licensed UF technology. The network will help create connections between local investors and the local startup companies that need access to resources in order to grow.

Working with the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research, iGAN will aid member investors in choosing which new technology startups in the Gainesville area are ready for mentoring or investment and are a good match for the investor. Networking events will serve as a way for startups to show off their new technologies and allow for investors to discuss the new companies.

iGAN will begin by focusing on innovation industries like software, electronics, medical devices, Internet applications, advanced materials, manufacturing, biotechnology and life sciences. See innovationgainesville.com/igan for more.

Also in March, Innovation Square received the 2012 Donald E. Hunter Excellence in Economic Development Planning Award from the Economic Development Division of the American Planning Association (APA).

Submit your business announcements to [email protected] to be included in our monthly On The Move (as timing and space allow).

Local moving company 2 College Brothers, Inc., has expanded its services to the Tallahassee and Orlando areas.

2 College Brothers began in South Florida in November of 2010 as a moving company offering professional moving services. The company expanded its services to Gainesville in July of 2011, where the brothers quickly found that college towns are the company’s niche.

Realizing that summer is when movers are in highest

demand, Miami natives and owners Kevin and Bryan Weschler traveled to both cities to interview and hire operations managers who will in turn hire up to 25 movers for each new branch.

2 College Brothers expects to employ between 100 and 150 student movers by this summer.

2 College Brothers Expands


1

By Herb Jones“WE-WE”( Marketing 101 )

ON YOUR CUSTOMERS?

DOES YOUR WEBSITE

H ow are you communicating with potential customers online? What is your website saying to them, and what kind of impact is that having on your business?

The last thing that you want your website to do is “we-we-we” on people. Successful businesses are customer-centric and so are their websites.

Last month, more than 372 million searches were performed on Google. They were searching for information on products, services, advice, tutorials and more. To thrive as a business online, it is vital that visitors to your site quickly understand exactly what you have to offer, and more importantly, how that relates to their needs and desires.

In other words, all customers care about is, “What’s in it for me?” I tell clients that their customers only listen to one radio station: WIFM.

So why is it that if your potential customers are searching the web for solutions to problems, we fill our company websites (and specifically our homepages) with words about how great we are?

Here are three tips on how you can fix the “we-we” problem and help your website be what it should be—your best salesperson!

FIRE YOURSELF. OK, you don’t have to quit your job—but in order to really write customer-centric copy, it helps to stop thinking like a company insider. You need to think and talk like your target market. How much industry-specific jargon can be found on your website? Are those terms that potential clients use to describe your products? If you’re not careful, not only can you quickly alienate visitors, but you can also make them feel uninformed—a surefire recipe for disaster.

IDENTIFY THE PAIN. Do you want your website to turn into a lean, mean sales machine? Sit down with your sales team and spend some time thinking about your best-fit clients. What are they concerned about? What big, whopping problem can you solve for them? Once you have identified this problem, dig even deeper. How would not solving that problem impact their lives? Would it cost them their job? Their business? Once you have a feel for the deep reasons that drive someone to seek out your company, it’s time for tip No. 3.

FIX THE PROBLEM. Here is where you want to tell your website visitors how you are going to help them. Not only are you going to solve their problem, but you are also going to help them sleep better at night. Keep in mind

that this involves not writing about your product features. Your aim should be to describe what the benefits are going to be for the reader. A common test that you can apply here is the “So what?” test. Read what you have written about how your services are fixing their problem and making their lives easier. Remember: You should be articulating how you answer their “So what?” question about your product features in the content of your website.

Your customers need you. If that weren’t the case, you wouldn’t be in business. The question is, do they realize how badly they need you? Your website should be a powerful selling tool that engages readers, ties their needs to your services or products and then clearly identifies what to do next. This doesn’t require a huge marketing budget or a fancy website design. It requires developing a customer-centric approach that cuts out the “we-we” and instead focuses on “you” and “your needs.” Don’t stop with your website; take this angle for all aspects of your marketing and watch your customers respond.

Herb Jones founded and owns Online Potential, a Gainesville-based company that specializes in Internet and email marketing, as well as search engine optimization and social media marketing. E-mail him at [email protected]; follow him at twitter.com/herbjones or visit his website at gainesville-marketing.com.

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ROTARY CLUB OF GAINESVILLEParamount Resort and Conference CenterEvery Tuesday, noon

GREATER GAINESVILLE ROTARY CLUBNapolatano’sEvery Monday, noon

ROTARY CLUB OF DOWNTOWN GAINESVILLEVilla EastEvery Wednesday, noon

KIWANIS CLUB OF GAINESVILLEParamount Plaza Hotel and SuitesEvery Wednesday, noon

GAINESVILLE AREA WOMEN’S NETWORKSweetwater Branch InnThird Wednesday of every month, 11:30am

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APRIL 21, SATURDAYGAINESVILLE AREA INNOVATION NETWORKSolar Energy & Efficiency ExpoUniversity of Florida Campus, 11am

BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDAParade of Homes1pm-6pm

APRIL 22, SUNDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDAParade of Homes1pm-6pm

APRIL 23, MONDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDAParade of Homes5pm-7pm

APRIL 24, TUESDAYINTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALSAdministrative Professionals LuncheonSweetwater Branch Inn, 10am


ALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSSocial Committee MeetingCoffee Culture, 6pm

ALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSAnnual Dinner Sub-Committee MeetingCoffee Culture, 7pm

APRIL 25, WEDNESDAYKIWANIS CLUB OF GAINESVILLESpotlight on Youth; Guest Speaker Rahda SelvesterParamount Plaza and Conference Center, noon


NONPROFIT CENTER OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDACreating a Healthy Home Environment WorkshopNonprofit Center, 9pm

ALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSMembership Committee Meeting2-Bits Lounge, 6pm

APRIL 26, THURSDAYGAINESVILLE AREA INNOVATION NETWORKSmall Business Startup WorkshopsSF Center for Innovation and Economic Development, 1pm


NEUTRAL7 DESIGN GROUPExpansion Ribbon Cutting CelebrationNeutral7 Design Group, 5:15pm

UNITED WAY OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDALeadership ReceptionHarn Art Museum, 6pm

APRIL 27, FRIDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDAParade of Homes5pm-7pm

APRIL 28, SATURDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDAParade of Homes1pm-6pm

APRIL 29, SUNDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDAParade of Homes1pm-6pm

APRIL 30, MONDAYNONPROFIT CENTER OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDAGrant Writing WorkshopNonprofit Center, 9am

ALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSCommunity Relations Committee MeetingBooks-A-Million, 7pm

MAY 1, TUESDAYINTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALSBoard MeetingAyer’s Building, 5:30pm

ALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSBoard of Directors MeetingLifeSouth Community Blood Center, 6pm

MAY 2, WEDNESDAYGAINESVILLE AREA INNOVATION NETWORKGAIN Unplugged: Meet Pulitzer Prize WinnersFrancesca’s, 11:30am

GREEN DRINKS*(Not available at press time), 5:30 pm

MAY 3, THURSDAYUNITED WAY OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDAYoung Leaders Society SocialBlue Water Bay, 5:30pm

GAINESVILLE AREA WOMEN’S NETWORK Spring MixerBlue Water Bay, 6:00 pm

MAY 4, FRIDAYBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF MID FLORIDA6th Annual Golf “Fore” Kids SakeIronwood Golf Course, 7:30am

MAY 7, MONDAYVISITGAINESVILLENational Tourism Week; Bed Making ContestParamount Plaza Hotel, 9am

MAY 8, TUESDAYGAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEConnect MeSun Country Sports Center, 8:45am

VISITGAINESVILLENational Tourism Week; Proclamation ReadingAlachua County Commission Meeting, 9am

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEEntrepreneur Series – I’m a Business Owner – Now What?SF Center for Innovations and Economic Development, 10am

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALSChapter MeetingAyer’s Building, 5:30pm

MAY 9, WEDNESDAYVISITGAINESVILLENational Tourism Week; Hospitality Council LuncheonThe Opera House, 11:30am

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEChamber 101Chamber Board Room, 3:30pm

ALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSPublic Committee MeetingVolta Coffee, 6pm

GAINESVILLE AREA NETWORKING GROUP MEETINGPiesanos Stone Fired Pizza, 11:30 am

PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE IN REAL ESTATE MEETINGSplitz at Funworks, 5:30 pm

KB KAKES, LLCRibbon CuttingKB Kakes, 13570 NW 101 Dr. Alachua 32615, 5:30pm

MAY 11, FRIDAY FLORIDA PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSOCIATION2012 Professional Development Symposium: The Story of BrandLevin College of Law, TBA

CADE PRIZE NIGHT 2012 Santa Fe College Fine Arts Hall, 6:30pm

MAY 12, SATURDAYVISITGAINESVILLENational Tourism Week; Gainesville’s Amazing RaceWestside Park

MAY 16, WEDNESDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDACommercial Builders CouncilNapolatano’s, 11:45am

MAY 17, THURSDAYGAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEBusiness Showcase 2012Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 4pm

MAY 20, SUNDAYFLORIDA RESTAURANT AND LODGING ASSOCIATIONGolf TournamentMeadowbrook Gold Club, TBA

MAY 21, MONDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSKickball Committee MeetingBooks-A-Million, 7pm

MAY 22, TUESDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSSocial Committee MeetingCoffee Culture, 6pm

ALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSAnnual Dinner Sub-Committee MeetingCoffee Culture, 7pm

MAY 23, WEDNESDAYUNITED WAY OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDASpring Reception and Vase ExchangeDowntown Gainesville, TBA

ALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSMembership Committee Meeting2-Bits Lounge, 6pm

GAINESVILLE AREA NETWORKING GROUP MEETINGPiesanos Stone Fired Pizza, 11:30 am

MAY 24, THURSDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDAMembership MeetingBest Western Gateway Grand, 11:45am

GAINESVILLE AREA INNOVATION NETWORKSTART THAT BUSINESS! WorkshopSF Center for Innovation and Economic Development, 1pm

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEProfessional Women’s RoundtableLocation TBD, 4:30pm

NONPROFIT CENTER OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDANonprofit Summit 2012Nonprofit Center, 8am

BOB GRAHAM STUDENT CENTERCNN’s Katherine GreenBob Graham Student Center, 6pm

MAY 29, TUESDAYGAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEConnect MeJason’s Deli, 4pm

Submit your business

event to editor@

gainesvillebizreport.com

to be included in the

monthly calendar

(as timing and space allow).


( Transactions )Transactions(All content comes from city, county and state official records.)

COMMERCIAL SALESAddress: 2604 NE 19th Gainesville, FL 32609Property Type: CommercialSeller: Craig & CraigList Agent: David FerroList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services, LLCSell Agent: David FerroSell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services, LLCPrice: $160,000Buyer: Reggae Shack Cafe, Inc.

Address: 500 NW 43rd ST Gainesville, FL 32607Property Type: CommercialSeller: TAR Properties, LLCList Agent: Michael RyalsList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services, LLCSell Agent: Michael RyalsSell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services, LLCSell: $260,000Buyer: Willarr, LLC

Address: 7705 SW Archer Rd. Gainesville, FL 32618Property Type: CommercialSeller: Redus Florida Housing, LLCList Agent: Gerald KirkpatrickList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishSell Agent: Loree SchulsonSell Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishPrice: $1,875,000Buyer: AMA Gainesville Investments Three, LLC

COMMERCIAL LEASESAddress: 2233 NW 41st St. Gainesville, FL 32606Property Type: (OFF)OfficeLessor: Steinberg, MiriamList Agent: Zana DupeeList Firm: Ashby, Hintze Associates Real Estate, Inc.Sell Agent: Jim RoppSell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services, LLC Lease Term: Month-to-month

Address: 4110 SW 34th Street Suite #3 Gainesville, FL 32608Property Type: (OFW)Office/WarehouseLessor: Prestige Equities/SouthGate, Inc.List Agent: Michael SteinbergList Firm: Prestige Equity Management, Inc.Sell Agent: Michael SteinbergSell Firm: Prestige Equity Management, Inc.Buyer: AHA Specialties, Inc.Lease Term: 2-5 Years

Address: 14029 W Newberry Rd. Jonesville, FL 32669Property Type: (SHO)Shopping CenterList Agent: G.W. Blake FletcherList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services, LLCSell Agent: G.W. Blake FletcherSell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services, LLC Buyer: Shari ProwsLease Term: 2-5 Years

Address: 2420 NW 66th Ct. Gainesville, FL 32653Property Type: (OFW)Office/Warehouse

List Agent: David FerroList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services, LLCSell Agent: David Ferro Sell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services, LLC Buyer: Best Water Solutions, Inc.Lease Term: 1 Year/2-5 Years

Address: 605 NW 53rd Ave. Gainesville, FL 32653Property Type: (OFW)Office/WarehouseList Agent: Gary ThomasList Firm: Re/Max ProfessionalsSell Agent: Out Of AreaSell Firm: Out Of AreaBuyer: Air Liquide Healthcare America CorporationLease Term: 2-5 Years

Address: 315 SE 2nd Ave. Gainesville, FL 32601Property Type: (OFF)OfficeLessor: Magnolia Bay VenturesList Agent: Perry PursellList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishSell Agent: Perry Pursell Sell Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M Parrish Buyer: Florida Democratic PartyLease Term: 2-5 Years

Address: 3600 NW 43rd St. Gainesville, FL 32605Property Type: (OFF)OfficeLessor: Cameo Homes of Florida, Inc.List Agent: Beery/Rainsberger GroupList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishSell Agent: Beery/Rainsberger GroupSell Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M Parrish Buyer: Neurotronics, Inc.Lease Term: 2-5 Years, 5+ Years

Address: 910 NW 57th St. Gainesville, FL 32605Property Type: (OFF)OfficeList Agent: Beery/Rainsberger GroupList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishSell Agent: Beery/Rainsberger Group Sell Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishBuyer: UF OB/GYN, MIC, WIC & Healthy FamiliesLease Term: 2-5 Years

FICTITIOUS NAMES19TH STREET GROUP HOME2233 NW 41st St. Suite 300Gainesville

A TOUCH OF JAZZ MASSAGE THERAPY607 E University Ave.Gainesville

AAA TRANSMISSION & AUTO REPAIR1011 SE 2nd Ave.Gainesville

ALL CRITTER SITTERS2221 NW 54th Terr.Gainesville

ATMOSPHERE APPS408 W University Ave.Gainesville

BELLAFLEUR FARM17768 NW 62nd Ave.Alachua

BESSENT ROAD GROUP HOME2233 NW 41st St. Suite 300Gainesville

BIRTH & WELLNESS CENTER OF GAINESVILLE, LLC934 SW Rum IslandFort White

BOMBAY RESTAURANT – JOLIE6529 NW 56th Ave.Gainesville

BONNET CERAMICS15100 Main St.Alachua

CLAUDIA DRIVE GROUP HOME2233 NW 41st St. Suite 300Gainesville

COLETTA DRIVE GROUP HOME2233 NW 41st St. Suite 300Gainesville

COMPLETE SLEEP AND FURNISHINGS OF LAKE CITY6916 W University Ave.Gainesville

COOPER REALTY1715 SW 78th St.Gainesville

CRIS CRAWFORD’S CLYDES TIRE AND BRAKE SERVICE5344 SW 63rd Blvd.Gainesville

CULINARY CAMP GAINESVILLE2221 NW 42nd Ave.Gainesville

CUSTOM BIRDWORKS OF FLORIDAP.O. Box 83Hawthorne

CYM COFFEEP.O. Box 357131Gainesville

DIVE HIGH SPRINGS16264 NW 202nd Dr.High Springs

Earth Pets of Gainesville404 NW 10th Ave.Gainesville

ELITE CLASSY AUTOS, LLC702 NE 27th St.Ocala

EMC MARKETING16264 NW 202nd Dr.High Springs

FLORIDA BACKYARD SOLUTIONS14524 SW 15th Ave.Jonesville

FREDERICK AVENUE GROUP HOME2233 NW 41st St. Suite 300 Gainesville

FREEWAY MOVING AND DELIVERY501 NW 30th Ave. Gainesville

GAINESVILLE DOOR COMPANY3007 SW 132nd Terr.Archer

HEATHER MCCALL CABALLERO115 NW 1st Ave.High Springs

HIGH DESERT COURT GROUP HOME2233 NW 41st St. Suite 300 Gainesville

INVERSIONES BEREX 59000 CCA1031 Ives Dairy Rd. Gainesville

INVERSIONES SEREX 3000 CCA1031 Ives Dairy Rd. Gainesville

INVERSIONES SEREX 47000 CCA1031 Ives Dairy Rd. Gainesville

J&D ENTERPRISES5901 NW 99th Terr.Gainesville

JEANETTE’S CUSTOM SEWING1818 NW 10th St.Gainesville

KIDZ SHUTTLE236 NW 3rd Ave.Gainesville

KINESIS2109 NW 34th St.Gainesville

MAA & PAA GROCERY STORE3436 W University Ave.Gainesville

MAGICS ALTERATIONS4117 SW 20th Ave. Apt. #94Gainesville

MALI SPORTSGainesville

MARTINBACK GROUP10930 NW 9th Pl.Gainesville

MAXIE THE PERFECT CHOICE “MPC”P.O. Box 487Archer

MY SMART HANDS GAINESVILLE/HIGH SPRINGS21523 NW 190th Ave.High Springs

NETGEN FINANCIAL2921 NW 24th Terr.Gainesville

ORIENTAL FOOD & GIFT MARKET3345 SW 34th St. #3Gainesville

OSPREY CONSTRUCTORS, LLC410 NW 122nd St. Gainesville

PLAZA OVAL GROUP HOME2233 NW 41st St. Suite 300Gainesville

PW CUSTOM & PROFESSIONAL CLEANINGP.O. Box 357714Gainesville

RIGHT TRACK ATHLETIC & SCHOLASTICS FOUNDATION3423 SE 35th Pl.Gainesville

SALON 231135 NW 23rd Ave. Suite EGainesville

SARAH’S HAIR STUDIO2714 NW 147th St.Newberry

SOUTHEASTERN COMMUNITY PHARMACYP.O. Box 357010Gainesville

SPOTLIGHT WEBSITE DESIGN5200 NW 43rd St. #102-213Gainesville

STARMER SYSTEMS3515 SW 39th Blvd.Gainesville

THE JONES EASTSIDE521 NE Blvd.Gainesville

THORNEBROOK GALLERY2441 NW 43rd St.Gainesville

TOP NOTCH LAWN SERVICE1704 SE 2nd Ave.Gainesville

USED TO BE NEW1801 NE 23rd Ave.

WOOD CREEK NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION2440 NW 38th Dr.Gainesville

YOLO PERSONAL HEALTH AND FITNESS4212 NE 17th Terr.Gainesville

OCCUPATIONAL LICENSESADAMS, CLEM LAVON D&D AUTO DETAILING4121 NE 15th St.

ALTERNATIVES GLOBAL MARKETPLACE4203 NW 16th Blvd.

ANDERSON, TONY - TONY ANDERSON CLEANING605 NW 3rd St.

BOROWSKI, RICHARD – RICHARD BOROWSKI, LMT1212 NW 12th Ave.

CELLULAR MART, INC.5010 NW 34th St.

CFL PIZZA5004 NW 34th St.3515 SW Archer Rd.7331 NW 4th Blvd.1204 N Main St.

CICI’S PIZZA3246 SW 35th Blvd.

DITTMAR, RUDOLF J. - RUDY’S PROFESSIONAL FLOOR SANDING4029 NE 17th Terr.

ENCOSPACE, LLC1201 E University Ave.

FASTENAL COMPANY203 SW 16th Ave.

FBC MORTGAGE, LLC2610 NW 43rd St.

FIFF INCORPORATED (DBA: BELLA DONNA’S ITALIAN EATERY)1023 W University Ave.

FUSSELL, SYLVIA SUE3240 SW 35th Blvd.

GEMAIRE DISTRIBUTORS, LLC3040 NE 20th Way

GRFXPRESS, LLC14 E University Ave.

HENE’S HEALTH CARE AGENCY2233 NW 41st St.

ISENTIAL SKINCARE4900 NW 41st St.

JOHNSON, SANDY – MASTER FITNESS GURU, INC.4121 NW 13th St.

KUMON MATH & READING CENTER OF GAINESVILLE-WEST7337 NW 4th Blvd.

LARSSON, IRENE B. – IRENE B. LARSON REAL ESTATE SERVICES2835 NW 32nd St.

LIQUID INNOVATIONS, INC.3709 SW 42nd Ave.

LUCKY MOES3845 NE 15th St.

MATTRESS FIRM, INC.3416-B SW Archer Rd.

MORGAN, SAMANTHA GEER – STYLIN GATOR SALON1135 NW 23rd Ave.

MYERS, PRESIDENT - NOAH’S ARK OLD SHIP OF ZIONMOBILE ONLY

MYSTIC GAIA5200 W Newberry Rd.

RASHAD, ALI N. – ALI N. RASHAD LAWNCARE/LANDSCAPE26 NE 17th St.

RULE, LISA – LISA RULE, LCSW2630 NW 41st St.

SHARP D SIGNS3350 SW 42nd Way

SMITH, CHARLES – GOD MADE IT HAPPEN ENTERPRISE4225 NW 21st Dr.

STAFF AMERICA HEALTH, INC.5200 W Newberry Rd.

SWEET SERENDIPITY PHOTOGRAPHY4731 NW 53rd Ave.

WHITE, CORNELIUS T. – COMPLETE SURFACE PAINTING, INC.2701 SW 13th St.

WILLIAMS, SR., STACEY JEROME – STACEY WILLIAMS WASH AND WAX2555 SW 31st St.

WILLIS, DEANGELO R. – WILLIS CLEANING SERVICE2600 SW Williston Rd.

YORKTOWN UNIVERSITY, LLC4500 NW 27th Ave.


Register for Low Fare Alerts at: www.flygainesville.com

Now, a fast and smooth ride from Gainesville to Miami and beyond!

VISIT AA.com

$ ( Sales Strategies )

12 TIPS:By Jim Meisenheimer

WHAT MAKES GOOD SALESPEOPLE

GREAT SALESPEOPLE

15 10

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879

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Have you ever thought about what makes good salespeople great? Consider the difference between winning the Kentucky Derby and finishing in second place. The

difference between being ordinary and being extraordinary is actually quite small, especially if you work in sales.

GREAT SALESPEOPLE SMILE. You may not realize this, but a simple smile acts as an attractor. Smiling immediately warms up the environment, and since smiling creates an involuntary reflex, it forces sales prospects and customers to smile too.

GREAT SALESPEOPLE ALWAYS SEEM TO HAVE A “CAN DO” ATTITUDE. They don’t recognize the words “can’t” or “impossible.” Whenever they are challenged, they always figure out a way to get the job done, especially if it involves one of their customers.

THEY’RE GOOD LISTENERS. They always pay close attention to their sales prospects and customers. Their eyes are like laser beams and are not easily distracted when talking with their customers.

THEY ASK GOOD QUESTIONS. They prefer to ask open-ended questions because these questions are the best to get their prospects and customers talking.

GREAT SALESPEOPLE ARE ALWAYS FOCUSED ON SOLVING PROBLEMS, NOT JUST MAKING A SALE. The key to making more sales is solving more problems for their prospects and customers.

THEY NEVER TALK TOO MUCH. Talking too much often puts the brakes on building rapport and credibility. The best substitute for talking too much is asking questions and listening. Attentive listening usually means taking notes.

GREAT SALESPEOPLE ARE SLOW TO COMMIT AND QUICK TO DELIVER. They seldom overpromise, which gives them the opportunity to exceed customer expectations. Overpromising is one of the quickest ways to underwhelm sales prospects and customers.

GREAT SALESPEOPLE ARE ALWAYS ON TIME, WHICH MEANS THEY ARRIVE EARLY FOR ALL APPOINTMENTS. Look at it this way: Being on time means being late.

THEY ARE ALWAYS ENTHUSIASTIC. They love their work and are passionate about their products and services. Positive energy can be felt whenever they walk into a room. This is not something people are born with. If enthusiasm doesn’t come naturally, fake it. It’s important to becoming a great salesperson.

GREAT SALESPEOPLE ARE EXTREMELY GOAL-ORIENTED. They always have written objectives for every sales call. They don’t make routine sales calls because they know it’s simply a waste of valuable time.

THEY TREAT THEIR SALES PROSPECTS AND CUSTOMERS THE WAY THEY WANT TO BE TREATED. If the Golden Rule says you should treat people the way you want to be treated, then the “Platinum Rule” says you should treat people the way they want to be treated.

GREAT SALESPEOPLE ARE GRATEFUL. They appreciate their customers’ business and will often voice their gratitude. They also appreciate the help they get from their own staff.

While the difference between good salespeople and great salespeople is not so big, there is still a difference. With a little effort, you too can become a great salesperson.

Jim Meisenheimer lives in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, and is a sales training consultant who has worked with more than 500 clients over the last two decades. He publishes the Start Selling More Newsletter (startsellingmore.com), which provides common sense sales tips and selling strategies based on practical ideas that get immediate results.


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Office

500 NW 43rd St.

SO

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Office

4011 NW 43rd St.

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7750 Newberry Rd.

Restaurant

LEA

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3,150 SF

Office Space

Millhopper Area

$13.85/SF

Restaurant

NW 13th Street

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4,785 SF2,150 SF

42 Acres Commercial

US HWY 441

$1,600,000

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17,000 SF

Class A Office

Williston Road

$15/SFFO

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7,200 SF

Office

7555 W. University Ave.

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Mike Ryals has been involved in commercial real estate in Gainesville for over 25 years. He has vast experience and expertise within Gainesville, Alachua and the surrounding areas. Whether you are looking to sell, buy, or lease commercial real estate in or around the Gainesville area, Mike can help you. He has handled hundreds of millions in transactions over the last decade and worked with many national and local firms. So whether you are looking to invest, sell or lease, give Mike a call.

LLC

JOIN THE NEW SUPER WALMART!Retail/Restaurant spaces available from

750 SF up to 36,000 SF adjoining new Walmart Super Center in North Gainesville.

CALL FOR LEASE RATES AND/OR BROCHURE.

EMERALD LAKESOffice/Warehouse Condos

2,285 to 11,400 SFNW Location

Call for brochure.

FORMER MELTING POT

4,197 SF Historic Downtown Restaurant Building

SCHMIDT FARMS43rd Street & 441NW Gainesville

FROM...

SALE OR LEASE

PRICED TO SELL!$295,000

11+ ACRES COMMERCIAL$1,500,000

TO116 ACRES COMM/AG

$6,400,000ALL OR PART

$2,650,000

ARCHER/ 34THInvestment Opportunity

10,000+ SFMulti-tenant Retail Building

2,100 SF 5,900 SF

$14.60/SF

$400,000COMING SOON...

PEPPERS MEXICAN GRILL

School Solar ProjectIn this era of shrinking school budgets, the Alachua County Public School Solar project will generate $2.5 million in revenue for our local public schools over the next 20 years, support renewable energy education, create over $1 million in work for local contractors, and pay annual double-digit rates of return to investors.

$2.5 million in revenue to Alachua County Public SchoolsThe School District of Alachua County will receive $125,000 annually for 20 years in guaranteed roof lease payments. This is $2.5 million dollars that the school district will earn for using roof space that otherwise would sit idle.

Renewable Energy EducationThe Florida Solar Energy Center has developed a K-12 renewable energy curriculum and part of the $2.5 million that is being generated by this solar project will enable the curriculum to be made available throughout our local school district. Solar Impact is donating a computer and large display that links to the web-based solar monitoring system so that students and visitors can see their solar system’s production.

Over $1 million in local employmentThe Alachua County Public School Solar Project has created over $1 million in much needed work for local electricians, roofers, and general construction workers.

High yield and safe investment for local investorsPhase 1 investors carefully reviewed the financials of the projects and chose to invest because an investment in the school solar project allowed them to meet their financial goals while helping the schools and the community.

Solar Impact thanks School District staff, School Board, City of Gainesville, GRU, and UF Environmental Health & SafetySolar Impact would like to thank the many people who worked together to make this innovative project a reality. The Alachua County School District staff and the School Board members carefully evaluated this solar project to make sure that it promoted education and protected the interests of the schools.The City of Gainesville and GRU have been internationally recognized for creating the nation’s first solar feed-in tariff program. All parties worked tirelessly to make this project a reality.

Solar Impact thanks Phase 1 InvestorsThis project couldn’t have happened without the Phase 1 investors. Solar electric is an investment vehicle that is relatively new in Florida, but has been in existence in other states and countries for many years. The following list of investors includes some well-known Gainesville residents. These investors appreciated their ability to help the local community while also receiving a double-digit annual return on their investment for 20 years.

Ken & Linda McGurn • Dr. Celia Martin Dr. Sam Martin • Steve & Laura Shey

Dr. Malcolm Sanford • Marty Tod

Learn more about how you can receive double-digit returns on this safe and secure investment opportunity. Projects will be available for next 30 days or until all projects are purchased, whichever comes first.

north central florida business report may 2012

Documents

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