4245 Balmoral Drive

Huntsville, Alabama 35801
7600 Highway 72 West
Madison, Alabama 35758

www.renasantbank.com

In Business Since:  1904

Moving from great idea to a profitable business enterprises is a difficult proposition.  Many hopeful business owners end up doing nothing more than creating a job for themselves or worse yet, failing altogether.  The proper planning and understanding of the process and what to expect will help hopeful entrepreneurs plan for and achieve their brand of success.
 
Chris Gattis has helped hundreds of people just like you become successful entrepreneurs. He knows how to hone a business model, analyze its viability, launch a business and keep it growing. Chris applies his real world knowledge with the skill that only comes from years of experience. His wide range of hands-on expertise includes finance, manufacturing, marketing and sales. In addition, he has done extensive work with local planning and zoning authorities. Chris has a unique combination of business skills that make his advice and counsel invaluable and indispensable to his many clients. Chris is also an active speaker, teacher, coach, workshop leader and frequent talk radio guest.
 
In 1984, Chris started Blue Point Strategies to provide advisory services to companies and individuals dealing with business start-up, financial and operations management and site selection needs.

The Lunch & Learn will be held at the Chamber of Commerce at 225 Church Street in downtown Huntsville. A map with directions can be found on the website.


Registration/Cancellation Policy: Lunch registrations and/or cancellations must be received no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday before the Lunch and Learn.  If you are unable to attend and do not cancel by the deadline, you will be billed.  

 

Funding to help grow area's high-tech small businesses and stimulate job growth

The Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation (VCSI) was recently awarded a $600,000 Small Business Administration (SBA) grant for the SBA's "Innovative Economies" pilot program to help small high-tech companies create jobs and compete globally.
 
In addition to VCSI, the other key members of the Huntsville Team include the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County; UAHuntsville; Alabama A&M University; the Women's Business Center of North Alabama; BizTech; and Defense Acquisition University.

SBA's "Innovative Economies" pilot initiative supports an economic growth strategy known as regional clustering.  Regional clusters aim to grow small businesses, create jobs and strengthen America's competitiveness. Through this initiative, SBA is supporting local collaborations - or "clusters" - of small businesses, the public sector, economic development and other organizations. These clusters maximize the economic strengths of their region, enhance the ability to create jobs locally and compete on a national and global scale.
 
SBA's funding will be provided to the VCSI, a local non-profit group and the cluster's organizing entity, to strengthen the role and opportunities for small business within the Advanced Defense Technology cluster. The funds can be used to provide services including mentoring and counseling, small businesses commercialization and technology transfer services, business matchmaking events, business coaching and other services that support the growth and development of small businesses in the cluster region and its industries, based upon a plan that each cluster organization developed.
 
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said the award represents the best of Huntsville's technology development. "Technology is, was and will forever be a foundation of the Huntsville economy. This recognition of the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation not only gives us the opportunity to further capitalize on Huntsville's combined strength in defense technology, but also showcases our collaboration in defense technology between government, academia, contractor and commercial organizations," Battle said.
 
Marty Kress, executive director of VCSI, highlighted the strength of the team. "VCSI is honored to have been able to secure this award from SBA for the Huntsville region. VCSI was created to foster and promote collaborative activities, and like so many things that happen in the Huntsville Region, it took a team effort to put a winning proposal in place," Kress said. "The team went after this award because we all believed that the Huntsville/North Alabama Region was a technology cluster worthy of national recognition. SBA has concurred."
 
The Huntsville proposal was one of only three plans awarded in the "Advanced Defense Technologies" category and one of 10 overall. The 10 "Innovative Economies" awardees were selected from among 173 applicants to participate in the pilot program and represent a wide range of diverse geographic areas and industries. From urban to rural and clean energy to robotics, the applicants focused on leading research and commercializing new products. 
 
SBA worked with the Department of Defense to identify areas around the country where innovation clusters can help meet critical defense technology needs such as advanced robotics, advanced defense systems, power/energy innovations, cyber-security and applied lightweight materials.
 
The Huntsville team performed a gap analysis of its Department of Defense customers. Based on information gained from that analysis and customer inputs, the team will have five Technology Focus Areas that are considered well-aligned with emerging DoD requirements, including:
 
(1) Small spacecraft, airships & nanosats
(2) Environmental monitoring & security
(3) Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance
(4) Robotics-interoperable systems
(5) Innovative energy applications
 
The Huntsville team proposed an expansion of existing business services for small businesses in the 10-county region to help secure advanced defense technology contracts and subcontracts. The team also proposed a core set of key technology and market intelligence services identified as critical requirements by regional small businesses.
 
"This award will strengthen our community's ability to support and grow our small businesses in the area of advanced defense technologies. This will allow us to grow our region by creating more jobs and to help these businesses compete on a global scale," Don Nalley, chair of the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County Board of Directors.
 
Karen Mills, SBA Administrator, praised the award winners for capitalizing on their economic strengths. "Maximizing a region's economic assets is one of the best ways to create long term job growth, and that's what SBA's new Innovative Economies pilot initiative is doing," Mills said. "Today we are announcing funding support for 10 regional economic clusters. SBA's support will help expand the opportunities and the role small businesses play in these regional collaborations, which are enhancing the ability to create jobs locally and compete on a national and global scale.  I'm thrilled to announce the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation's participation. They're creating jobs in the community and making Huntsville an industry leader."
 
"The overall quality and diversity of proposals reflects the ingenuity of the American people and the vitality of high-growth, high-impact small businesses in the U.S.," said Gary Fontaine, SBA contracting officer.
 
The team will immediately move out to put it technical approach in place on behalf of regional small businesses. Markeeva Morgan, a NASA project manager with experience in both NASA and the Department of Defense, will serve as project manager for this activity following the next space shuttle launch. Marty Kress will serve as interim project manager.

For more information contact WBCNA at 256-535-2038.

The need for business planning and a business plan for a new venture cannot be overemphasized. It forces entrepreneurs to consider every facet of the business and places decisions on paper; where they can be evaluated and considered before getting started. 

Writing a Business Plan can be a time-consuming task. Software programs or instruction manuals can assist you with preparing your plan, but it is still important to polish and perfect the document before submitting it to investors or lenders. The best way to refine a Business Plan is to have it reviewed by other business professionals who are accustomed to seeing and reviewing Business Plans.

WBCNA's Business Plan Review Committee will help you answer these important questions:

 

Do you have experience starting and growing a non-profit organization?
 

The WBCNA and our clients need your expertise.  It has been a challenge to meet with all our non-profit clients. You can help by volunteering as little as 1-2 hours per month as a Business Coach.

 

For every two hours of volunteer time, we will provide a $25 gift certificate to use toward WBCNA workshops (one per workshop; excludes Lunch and Learn & FastTrac).

Call Stephanie at (256) 535-2038 if you are interested and want to know more about how YOU can make a difference!

 

Every Tuesday on Your Morning Drive

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
 
Please welcome Marianne and Darin Windham, the new hosts of WBCNA's Talk Show for Entrepreneurs.

WTKI (1450 AM) Huntsville and WEKI (1490 AM) Decatur have returned to the air with a business-slanted format they call "Talk Radio for Real Life."   
 
"Talk Radio for Entrepreneurs" is a weekly hour-long program focusing on a topic of interest to small businesses.  Subject matter experts and entrepreneurs will be invited as guests to provide useful information and share their stories with listeners.  Our guests will take calls to answer any questions on the topic. 
 
A WBCNA client or small business owner will also be invited to the studio each week to inform listeners about their products or services.  If you would like to come on the air, please contact the WBCNA at 256-535-2038.  There is a small fee for participation.

 

The WBCNA is currently overwhelmed with demand for our services (which is a good thing). We welcome your time and support as a WBCNA volunteer.   Here's just a few ways to get involved:

For every two hours of volunteer time, we will provide a $25 gift certificate to use toward WBCNA workshops (one per workshop; excludes Lunch and Learn & FastTrac).

Call Stephanie at (256) 535-2038 if you are interested and want to know more about how YOU can make a difference!