EP-10: Kickstarter plus passion equals start-up. Charlotte Hayden - Craft Coffee Flavors

What do you do when you cannot find your favorite coffee flavor? Charlotte Hayden starts a business to develop and sell coffee flavorings. Listen to her describe the challenges of leaving her full-time job and jumping head first into her passion to start her business. Charlotte also discusses the robust entrepreneurial community in Austin, Texas and the adventure of starting a Kickstarter campaign. She is still early in her adventure and we will check in with her periodically to follow her progress.

Thanks for listening,

Bela and Mike

Check out Craft Coffee Flavors here: Craft Coffee Flavors Kickstarter Page

We love to hear from our listeners, send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at [email protected] We will answer your questions in a future episode.

EP-9: Holiday Bonus. Releasing 2 podcasts this week.

To kick off the Holiday season we are releasing 2 episodes this week. The period between Thanksgiving and New Years is a special time of the year. It's exciting for everyone from young to old. We would like to thank our listeners for helping to make "The Unconventional Path: Secrets to igniting your business with Bela and Mike" a success. So this week, we have 2 episodes: EP-10, with Charlotte Hayden - Craft Coffee Flavors, explores the challenges of leaving your full-time job to pursue your entrepreneurial dream and using Kickstarter to help fund that dream. EP-11, with Nichole Snow - Darn Good Yarns, explores the challenges of growing your business and responding to customers. Charlotte and Nichole share stories with a common theme - both turn a life passion into an entrepreneurial journey and feel fulfilled, and have fun along the way. Hope you enjoy these episodes.

We wish all of you a happy, safe and peaceful holiday season.

Best,

Bela and Mike

Check out Charlotte's Kickstarter page here: Craft Coffee Flavors Kickstarter Page

Check out Nichole Snow and Darn Good Yarns here: Darn Good Yarns

Send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at [email protected] We will answer your questions in a future episode.

Lawyers can be great sources of advice to entrepreneurs and can also be entrepreneurs themselves. Rich Honen - Venture Capital & Technology Practice Team Leader at Phillips-Lytle and the leader of the Albany NY office.

Rich tackles the age-old question, "Start a business right out of school or join an existing company." Hear Rich describe how he ended up in law school, joined a start-up law firm right out of law school, then bought out his partner and acquired the frim and then the decision to sell his firm to a much larger law firm. Rich also elaborates on why getting solid advice is so critical for start-ups.

Check out Rich's current activities here: Rich Honen Web Page

Send us your questions, comments, and suggestions at [email protected] We will answer your questions in a future episode.

It's not about risk, it's about being prepared for the challenge. Craig Skevington - Serial Entrepreneur

Disruption, challenge, planning, and entrepreneurship. How do they fit together? Craig Skevington, a serial entrepreneur, shares his provocative views on entrepreneurship. Craig differentiates between challenges (what drives entrepreneurs) and risk (which is driven by the challenge). He discusses the role of planning, disruption, managing, building a team, and managing rapid growth.

Check out Craig's current activities here: STEADfast

Send us your comments and suggestions at [email protected]

How does vision develop? Dave Kruczlnicki the former CEO of Glens Falls Hospital in Glens Falls NY tells his story of how he took on assignments that challenged him and gave him a solid foundation to develop a vision and lead a community hospital. Dave discusses balancing the needs of the community with the financial demands of running a hospital. Finally, Dave shares advice on how to manage entrepreneurially and take smart risks in a complex, regulated environment.

Check out Dave's current activities here: http://www.highpeaksadvisor.com/index.html

Send us your comments and suggestions at [email protected]

How do you build a successful culture? Darrin Jahnel, co-founder of software developer Jahnel Group, explains the role of people and culture in his company. Darrin offers some great tips on hiring and keeping great people, on investing in your culture, and on genuinely caring about your employees. He also discusses his journey from quitting his job, going through all his savings and getting into $70K in debt, before figuring out to "go where the money is".

Check out Darrin's company here: https://www.jahnelgroup.com/

A few links on Servant Leadership

Zimmerman on Servant leadership

Center for Servant Leadership

Forbes Article

Send us your comments and suggestions at [email protected]

Hugh Johnson, the founder of Hugh Johnson Advisors, Albany NY. Listen how Hugh built his career, from humble beginnings, into being a world renowned financial advisor. Chances are you have seen him on CNBC or heard him on NPR. You will hear how he left a large firm and blazed out on his own and how one small thing he did early in his career had a lasting impact on him.

Check out Hugh Johnson Advisors here: https://www.hjadvisors.com/

Send us your comments and suggestions at [email protected]

Ed Mitzen, the founder of Fingerpaint in Saratoga Springs, NY. Fingerpaint is a marketing company with a list of clients any firm would be envious of. This is Ed's second company, but the first one he has done as a solo founder. He discusses the challenges of heading out on your own. Fingerpaint recently made an acquisition, you will hear the challenges in finding and integrating another business into Fingerpaint. Ed also discusses work-life balance and how he focuses on developing the culture at Fingerpaint to help bring that balance to employees. Check out Fingerpaint here: https://fingerpaintmarketing.com/ Send us your comments and suggestions at [email protected]

A great interview with David Dussault, the founder of P1 Industries in Schenectady, NY. David started P1 after leaving GE and has built a solid business in machining and fabricating precision metal components for the energy industry. Listen to how David has grown this company by keeping a keen eye on building a customer service focused culture. P1 is a great example of applying entrepreneurship to traditional manufacturing businesses. Check out P1 here: http://www.p1ind.com/ Send us your comments and suggestions at [email protected]

Welcome to The Unconventional Path: Secrets to Igniting Your Business With Bela and Mike

Your host for this podcast series are Bela Musits, the David D. Reh professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at Clarkson University in upstate New York, and Mike Wasserman, professor of international management at the University of Applied Sciences in Münster, Germany.

Join us on a journey to explore how to build and grow your business in today's global marketplace. In each episode, we try to capture and share the essence of how interesting people often take unconventional paths to build their business, some of whom succeed, some who do not.

We will delve into how they get their inspiration, drive, and persistence to start and grow their enterprise. You will hear the ups and downs, the challenges, and the struggles first hand.

Business schools don't train entrepreneurs to find and explore unconventional paths. These paths, sometimes overgrown and rocky, can quickly become the roads to new products, processes, suppliers, customers, or employees. These roads can lead to competitive advantage, growth, and even happiness.

Since there are no textbooks on how to do this, we are interviewing a wide range of business people, some successful and some less-so, that have found and taken unconventional paths in their business careers. We hope to capture some lessons, advice, and inspiration along the way that will help you attain your entrepreneurial goals.

So, join us for interesting conversations and discussions with inspiring guests on how you can ignite your business by exploring some of the many less traveled, unconventional paths that lie ahead.

If you like the podcast, please tell your friends and give us a review on iTunes. If you have suggestions or comments, please send us an email at [email protected]

Thanks for listening.