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Entrepreneur Receives Praises From Bill Gates

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At a recent gathering held in Aspen, Colorado called the Aspen Ideas Festival, where leaders from around the world gather to discuss ideas and issues of global concern, Bill Gates spent time speaking  about a remarkable man, Sal Khan. Sal Khan, a recent hedge fund manager, has taken his business to a new level. He is now helping to educate the masses. “This guy is amazing, said Gates. “I’d say we’ve moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job.”

Sal Khan was probably not surprised by the recent public attention. In 2009, his site and “academy” was awarded the Microsoft Tech Award for education.

Sal Khan has created over 1800 learning videos on subjects like  calculus, chemistry, economics, finance, geometry, linear algebra, physics, venture capital, statistics and trigonometry.

Sal has an exceptional ability to take complicated concepts and teach people in ways that are easy to understand. He narrates the videos and uses a big black background to draw on as he speaks. Mr. Gates has used the videos to help his own children learn biology and algebra.

It is interesting to know a little about Sal and his background. Sal Khan was born in Louisiana. His father was from Bangladesh and his mother from Calcutta, India. He received a perfect score on the math portion of the SAT. He has three bachelor degrees, one in mathematics, one in computer science and one in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds an MBA from Harvard. In 2009, Khan Academy, and received the Microsoft Tech Award for education.

Sal Khan has made a huge contribution to the world by providing an education to anyone who may be wanting to learn. From all corners of the world, people can benefit from his videos.

Entrepreneur Resource Center In Utah

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Small Business Entrepreneur Support Center
Roy W. & Elizabeth E. Simmons Entrepreneurial Center

There are some hidden treasures for business entrepreneurs in Kaysville, Utah. Entrepreneurs have access to a beautiful 16,000-square-foot building and a team of supportive staff to help them with their businesses.

Entrepreneurs are sometimes a disconnected group of people. Entrepreneurs need somewhere to go for support, networking and help without overspending. The Roy W. & Elizabeth E. Simmons Entrepreneurial Center center solves that problem.

The idea for creating this type of center came from the business teachers at the Davis Applied Technology College. They thought that it only made sense to build the center and have the staff supported by the proceeds of renting the building out to various companies and small entrepreneurs who need a small office arrangement without huge overhead fees.

Thanks to a generous donation from the Roy and Elizabeth Simmons, the $2 million dollar building itself is completely paid off and runs using that very business model.

History of Roy and Elizabeth Simmons

One may wonder how these people were able to offer such a generous contribution, so a little background history on this family is helpful. Roy Simmons began a career in banking in 1938. He worked for his father-in-law, L.E. Ellison, at the First National Bank of Layton, Utah. His career in banking skyrocketed and by 1952 he had organized the Bank of Utah. By 1955, he and his partners gained controlling interest in Zion’s First National Bank. Roy was named President and CEO of Zion’s and served until 1990.

This family was able to make significant contributions to the welfare of their community. They created The Simmons Family Foundation which contributed almost $3.5 million to the community. One of their contributions was the Roy W. and Elizabeth E. Simmons Trauma and Emergency Services Center at Intermountain Medical Center. It  is a state of the art facility and one of the  largest and best-equipped trauma centers in the area.

NorthFront Business Resource Center
Northfront Business Resource Center

Services Provided By The Center

One of the services that they provide is a private consultation for you about any aspect of your business you need help with. They have gone through training to counsel with you and have experience running their own businesses.

This is where the Davis County Chamber of Commerce has their headquarters.

The center provides office space for people to rent and rooms to use for making presentations. There is a beautiful meeting room that has a view of the valley below. It is large enough to hold a hundred people.

The meeting rooms can hold up to 30 people and people are using it all the time. Be sure to find  their schedule of presentations. You may want to attend a meeting.

The administrative staff helps you get oriented to their building and services. They are completely supported by the revenues of the building and are very happy to be there.

For any entrepreneurs in the Utah area, be sure to take time visiting this incredible resource.

Treasure Hunting Pays Off For Amateur Metal Detector

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Dave Crisp, an amateur metal detector from Britain uncovered 52,500 Roman coins, in Frome, Somerset England. This was one of the largest Roman coin hoards ever  found in England. The coins, now in the British Museum, date back to the time of Emperor  Carausius, who died in 293 AD.

Roman Coins Found By Dave Crisp

In April of 2010, Dave Crisp was allowed to use his metal detector to search for metal on a neighbors land.  He started to hear some odd noises from his metal detector and began digging in that area.  As he dug down about a foot, he started to find small coins about the size of a dime.

“I put my hand in, pulled out a bit of clay and there was a little Radial, a little bronze Roman coin. Very, very small, about the size of my fingernail,” said Dave Crisp.  “I’ve been detecting for twenty two years and I’ve never had a hoard before this weekend.” A hoard is two or more coins that are over 300 years old at the time of their discovery.

When he continued digging he could see some sort of pot and more coins. At this point that he made a critical decision to stop digging and notify professional excavators.  He called archaeologists from the Somerset County Council to come out and take a look.  Historians will be able to learn more because these coins were excavated by archaeologists. They were able to photograph and document the process of excavating these coins.  When excavating was completed, they found approximately 350 pounds of Roman coins in a large clay pot.

Roman Coins Found In England

So who owns the find? The land owner or Dave Crisp or England?

Generally, the landowner and the finder come to some sort of agreement as to what they will do with anything that is found before any metal detecting begins. The country’s laws need to be considered as well. England’s Treasure Act of 1996, states that anything found in the earth that is considered an artifact belongs  to both the land owner and the finder.  They must, however, offer the find for sale to the British Museum at a price determined by the Treasure Valuation Committee.  The value of this particular find has been estimated at around $5 million. The proceeds will be shared by the land owner and Dave Crisp.

Worldwide interest in the historical find has inspired the creation of a documentary. The BBC TV is creating a movie called, “Digging for Britain,” which will be released in August of 2010.

Before you go out and buy yourself a metal detector, be sure to study the laws regulating your finds. There are Federal and State laws that help protect and preserve artifacts. You don’t want to find yourself in jail because you found something and inadvertently broke the law.

Snow White – The First Disney Princess

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Disney PrincessesMillions of people all over the world are enchanted with the first Disney Princess, Snow White. The full length feature film, Snow White, took over two years to produce and was first released to the public on Dec. 21, 1937. This artistically animated film was produced by Walt Disney and 600 of his talented staff.

Walt Disney, an extraordinary human being, an avid cartoonist and storyteller constantly worked for perfection in every way imaginable. He hired the best artists in the country, often recruiting talent from well known art schools and provided in house training for them. His working environment was more like a college campus, complete with guest artists as instructors.

One night, he gathered his team together and enchanted them by telling the story of Snow White, a three hour ordeal. He acted out each and every character. Although it was a long evening, he was beginning to prepare them psychologically for the two long years ahead of them. Just exactly how Snow White should look and what type of personality she would have, took months and months of discussions. Everything about the production took longer than expected. There were over 150 women interviewed to be the voice of Snow White. Walt would never see the person before her voice was heard so that he would not be influenced in any way with her appearance.

The creation of the seven dwarfs was also a time consuming project. Each dwarf needed to be a character with their own peculiarities and distinct personalities. Months were spent on names, what people each dwarf would be based on and what voices they would have.

The film was completed and shown for the first time to a private group. The audience’s reaction was highly favorable. Walt Disney’s four year-old daughter Diane, had to be escorted out of the movie because she started crying in reaction to some of the scenes. Others cheered, laughed and cried during parts of the movie. People who watched this first screening of Walt Disney’s film, knew that they had just witnessed something that would be historic. Animation had reach an artistic level that was previously unknown.

The love for Snow White’s feature film had journalists writing things like, “It was among the genuine artistic achievements of this country.” It was the story of young people overcoming hurdles in an adult world and becoming responsible and mature. It was the story of life and it’s challenges. It is no wonder that so many people loved Snow White, the first Disney Princess.

Snow White, the first full length animated film brought in $6.7 million dollars by May of 1939. It was the highest grossing American film to that point, had run in over 49 countries and had been translated into 10 different languages. It truly set the stage for the birth of many new Disney Princesses to be introduced to generations of fans.

© 2010 Sherry Tingley

Information source = “Walt Disney, The Triumph of The American Imagination,” by Neal Gabler.

Women In Business Success Story – Scentsy

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A group of about forty women were delighted to hear an entrepreneur success story at a recent “Women In Business,”  luncheon in Layton, Utah. Two women who seemed like your next door neighbors, spoke about how they created a product that is now being sold by over 35,000 business consultants in the United States and bringing in revenues over $100 million annually.

Scentsy Employees, Meridian, Idaho

Kara Egan and her sister-in-law Colette Gunnell,  shared their story of creating a simple product that would bring many people pleasure. They created a wickless candle that was warmed by a low wattage light bulb. With many different scents for people they decided to name their company “Scentsy.”

Kara and her family were struggling financially because of her husband’s health problems. After watching an Oprah show on Millionaire Moms, Kara became determined that there must be something she could do to help her family. If regular people like the people she saw on the Oprah show can create products, then why couldn’t she do that too?

After watching a neighbor melt some of her old scented candles in an old pot pouri burner, Kara got the idea to create scented flameless candles. She got on the phone with her sister-in-law and asked her if she would go into business with her.  Colette said, YES!

Building your own company from scratch is not without challenges, but these two women conquered them with their determination and ingenuity. One important strategy they used was to make sure they knew about all the products currently available that were similar to theirs. They bought many of these products and did tests on them. Repeatedly testing existing products and then creating a new product seemed to be the correct formula for their eventual success.

After manufacturing the products on their own and developing enough product for people to purchase, they started selling at local trade shows. It was at one of these trade shows that they met Orville Thompson and his wife Heidi. During one of the breaks at the long convention,  Heidi took some of Scentsy bars home to share with her family. Her family and friends enjoyed them so much and that got Heidi’s husband’s  attention.

Orville could see the business potential in this new product.  He talked to Kara and Colette about helping them take their business to the next level and they listened.  It was the contact that they made with Orville Thompson that began the transformation of their business from a local business to a nationwide business.

Orville and Heidi Thompson bought the entire company from Kara and Colette, who are now Scentsy consultants, on May 1, 2004.  They decided to market the flameless candles through direct marketing which opened up a new team of sales  people. The Scentsy products are manufactured in Meridian, Idaho where there are over 500 employees.

The two mothers, Kara and Colette, that created Scentsy are heroes to many women who strive to build successful businesses. Their determination, creativity and desire paid off for them as well has thousands of other Scentsy consultants. An entrepreneur’s dream come true. Congratulations!