Seeking Sources of Venture Capital
Stress-Free Summer Travel Breaks
Unwanted Notoriety: How to Handle It
Corrections or additions?
This article was prepared for the May 28, 2003 edition of U.S. 1
Newspaper, and a correction was made on June 4, 2003. All rights
reserved.
How to Win That Foundation Grant
There are 65,000 foundations in the United States, and
nearly all of them share the same basic mission — to give away
money. “The trend is that the money is steadily rising,” says
Charles Pulliam, vice president of Columbia, South
Carolina-based
Research Associates. Founded in 1985, the company helps non-profits
of all kinds to craft grants that will pull in some of the cash to
fund their programs.
On Monday, June 2, beginning at 8:30 a.m., Research Associates gives
a week-long Certified Grants Specialist course at the Hasbrouck
Heights
Hilton. Cost: $659. For more information, call 803-750-9759 or visit
Research Associates was founded by Mike DuBose, who had worked
as a grants administrator for two South Carolina governors and seven
South Carolina agencies. In addition to training grant writers —
12,000 of them to date — the company writes grants on behalf of
non-profits. “We have over 90 percent approval on grants,”
says Pulliam. The grants, mostly written for elementary and secondary
schools in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, have totaled
$200 million so far, and the company is “looking to expand to
other states,” he says.
A soft-spoken, low-pressure type of guy, Pulliam says his company
is unique in certifying grant writers, but he encourages anyone
interested
in perfecting the skill to take training from competitors as well.
He says that participants in his company’s grant writing courses come
from state agencies, city governments, and all kinds of non-profits.
“There has been an increase in (participants from) faith-based
organizations,” he notes. Anyone is eligible to take the courses,
which attract some freelance grant writers. While some participants
pay their own way, Pulliam estimates that about 80 percent are
sponsored
by their organizations.
In studying students’ evaluation forms, says Pulliam, the company
noted that many participants wanted “someone to stamp their
ticket.”
In other words, they wanted some recognition of the fact that they
had received formal training in grant writing. As a result, the course
ends with a test. Participants must pass it to be receive a
certificate
declaring that they are “certified grant writers.”
Success in writing winning grants depends on a number of skills, some
Research Associates can instill, and some — Pulliam admits —
it cannot.
Writing skill. Narratives within a grant application spellout the applying-organization’s mission, discuss its programs, andexplain why it needs the money, and how it plans to use it to makea difference. Laying out the facts in a compelling manner takesorganization,focus, and a certain flair for making a case in a compelling manner.The stronger the grant writer’s narrative skills, the better chancehe has of making the case. Such expertise can not be taught in aone-weekcourse.A way with numbers. Pulliam himself excels at puttingtogether the narratives, but claims no prowess with numbers. Itdoesn’ttake an advanced math degree to write the budget sections of a grantproposal, but some facility with numbers is important. This isespeciallytrue, says Pulliam, because “some grant reviewers do not evenlook at the narrative; they just look at the budget.”The proper structure. Here is where the grant writers’course appears to earn the lion’s share of its fee. A grant, likea resume, is a structured document. Not only does it have to containspecific types of information, but it has to lay it out in the waythat foundation decision makers expect to see it. Pulliam says thathis organization has the format down to a science. Based on itsexperience,it is able to teach students, for example, just how many bar chartsshould go on a page.The look of the document. Perhaps the biggest error thatnon-profits make in submitting grants, Pulliam finds, is that theytoss them together with too little effort. Often, a person who alreadyhas a full-time job within the non-profit is assigned to knock outa grant proposal. The resulting document may find itself “deadon arrival,” says Pulliam.Like a resume written in pencil or a contract with numbers repeatedlycrossed out and re-written, a grant proposal with uneven margins,blatant grammatical errors, and dog-eared pages will quickly be tossedinto the trash.In addition to the certified grants specialist course it isabout to give in Hasbrouck Heights, Research Associates offers anadvanced course, senior certified grants specialist, which focuses,says Pulliam, “on administrative issues and higher-levelfoundationconcepts.” It attempts to teach participants “how to jumpinside the reviewer’s head.”Information on the advanced course, as well as on books and softwareto take some of the guesswork out of the grant application processare available at the company’s website, www.grantexperts.comTop Of PageSeeking Sources of Venture CapitalIn this current flow of business, we find ourselvesblessed, or cursed, with interesting times. An absolutesocio-technologicalexplosion has created market cravings for an dizzying array of goods,processes, and services. The military, the healthcare industry, retail— every sector is hungering for new, better, and morecost-effectivetechnology. At the same time, the entrepreneurs with the wherewithallto deliver have seen the flow of invention-breeding cash reduced toa trickle.Still, a number of new companies are somehow getting funded. Findout how on Wednesday, June 4, at noon, at the Doral Forrestal, whenthe New Jersey Entrepreneur’s Network (NJEN) devotes its meeting toa discussion of “Leveraging Your Resources: Free Services froma Variety of Sources.” Cost: $45. Call 609-279-0010. Featuredspeakers include Alex Gelbman of Video Technology; RickWeissof Viocare Technologies; Wayne Tamarelli of the Jumpstart AngelsNetwork; Michael Conte of the New Jersey Economic Authority;Lou Gaburo of the New Jersey Incubator Network; and RandyHarmon of the New Jersey Small Business Development Center.Those venture capital funding corporations that once rented plushoffice space and booked appointments with all comers are long gone— burnt up in the E-commerce and stock market crashes. Whileindividualangels and government resources still exist, they are tougher to find.Organizations such as the NJEN have stepped in to help out until theventure taps revert to the open position.Linking the person with a dream to the person with the cash is apassionfor NJEN’s founder, Dan Conley, owner of Silicon Garden Angels+ Investors Network (www.oncallCFO.com). Boston born, Conley exploredevery part of the country before deciding on New Jersey. Hismanagement,information, and marketing degree from the University ofMassachusetts,interlaced with service in the U.S. Marines, gave him ideal training,as he puts it, “for the study of risk and business.”The current depression of virtually all business indicators may makeit seem as if startup capital is a thing of the past, but Conleyinsiststhe cash has just shifted to different pockets:State services. One has only to look at the list ofspeakersfor this forum, and at their organizations, to see thatangel-entrepreneurnetworks are alive and well. The New Jersey Business DevelopmentCenter,the Economic Development Authority, the Small Business IncubatorNetwork,and other state programs, if low on funds, still provide excellentlinks. But in reviewing these, Conley offers a strong caveat.”Mostof the state business programs are broke,” he says. “The NewJersey Commission of Science and Technology, along with its $14millionin business startup grants, has been eliminated. Everyone is gettingcut back.” The mentoring services are still in effect, but statefunds are at a minimum.The private sector. Very few people know how to get afirm up and running on investment capital like Bob Quaranta.Stepping out of the sales force of Motorola, he founded a one-mancorporation called Cellular One and became the grandfather of cellphone distribution. He has since started three successive companies,each financed with over $100 million. His latest firm, AccelleratedCare, will bring the doctor back into the home by digitally connectingthe physician with the patient in rural areas. The investors areliningup.Quaranta insists that local venture money is beginning to creep back.”Investors are rightfully risk-weary, but there are enough peoplelooking for projects.” What has changed, Quaranta says, is whatinvestors are looking for. That new and great idea, which will catchpublic imagination and take off, is just not shaking money loose fromthe tree any more. Instead, he finds investors totally fixated onmanagement, management, management. “Do you have the team to bringthis company and its product to fruition?” they want to know.Their second question involves whether the competition has beatenyou to your proposed niche.Finally, Quaranta notes, “investor and entrepreneur should beseeking a partnership, not an adversarial relation. The entrepreneurshould seek not only money, but team members who can add good counseland bring aboard potential customers for merger.”The fast track. “If you are right now thinking ofstarting a new firm to sell your new invention, don’t do it,”says Conley. “In these tight times with these uncertain markets,it’s better to join with someone whose feet are already running onthe fast track.” He suggests studying the list of all competitorsand similar companies and then testing the waters for a possiblepartnershipwith them. Funds for expansion are much more easily unearthed thanare funds for a new, unknown entity.The federal government. “Always go where the moneyis,” advises Conley, “and at this point, that’s the federalgovernment.” The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programhas $1.5 billion reserved for businesses of under 500 people. Themoney is ear-marked for private industry and for non-profits thatare able to help the government with its technological needs.Virtuallyevery governmental department, from Defense and NASA right throughHealth & Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency dolesout some SBIR money. Even the Treasury Department awards some of itsfreshly-printed capital.Funding comes in two stages. The first is $60,000 to $100,000 toconductfeasibility studies, and the second is a two-year contract of up to$750,000 to produce a prototype.If the project has commercial applications, companies can move intothe Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, wherethird-stagefunding is provided to get the technology to market. More specializedprograms can be found via such agencies as the Office of Small andDisadvantaged Business Utilization and NASA’s Small BusinessIncubators,operated nationally and regionally.Finally, if you have the entrepreneurial skills and the trackrecord, but no current invention, Quaranta suggests another avenue.Offer to launch a product for someone who has an invention, but lacksthe time or skill to market it. Launching a project demands a specificset of abilities, which investment groups or manufacturers often lackin their management team.”You have to be a master of many trades, yet always willing tojump in and learn something new,” Quaranta states. “You’vegot to know how to sell, but also how to hire and to mold the rightpeople into a unit. But above all, you’ve got to have thatentrepreneurialpassion — the stuff that keeps you going 12 hours a day, sevendays a week, and loving it.”— Bart JacksonNote the correction to this story at this link:www.princetoninfo.com/200306/30604c02.htmlTop Of PageStress-Free Summer Travel BreaksSo, it’s orange out again? Big deal. That is theattitudeof an increasing number of leisure travelers. “I have adoptedthe philosophy that I’m moving on with my life,” says GloriaAdlerman, owner of Monroe-based Atlas World Travel, “and I’mseeing that in my clients too.”For a time, she says, “virtually no travel was taking place.”Waves of terror alerts, and then the threat of war, kept residentsof central New Jersey close to home. But, with the end of the fightingin Iraq, tourism seems to have turned a corner.”It was a pivotal time,” says Adlerman. Her clients are comingback. And it’s about time. The travel industry has suffered hugelosses.How has she hung on? “With great difficulty,” she says. Herbusiness provides services to both business travelers and leisuretravelers, and neither group has been out and about much during thepast 20 months or so.With summer upon us, however, the urge to get out and explore is back.Adlerman discusses some vacation options, many tailored to the needsof stressed, time-pressed workers, when she speaks on “ShortVacationsfor Business People” on Thursday, June 5, at 8 a.m. at a meetingof the Middlesex Chamber at the New Brunswick Hyatt. Price: $30. Call732-821-1700.Adlerman, who holds a master’s degree in city planning from Rutgers,got into the travel business by accident. She graduated some 30 yearsago, at a time when government money for city planning projects wasscarce. Casting about for something to do, she and a friend took atravel agent course. She was hooked right away. “Travel representsadventure,” she says.She opened her agency in 1975, and has been traveling every since.A native of New York, she has lived in the area for 46 years. Herhusband and frequent travel companion, Mel, works for her part time,while tending to his own insurance business.”I’m not a timid traveler,” says Adlerman. She feels safeon airplanes, and would not hesitate to spend time in Europe. Still,she admits, there are some regions that are still too volatile torecommend. “I wouldn’t go to the Middle East,” she says.Given remaining uncertainty, this could be an ideal time to plan avacation in any number of less stressed locales. A prime example isthat perennial American summer favorite, a tour of the national parks.”Nothing is sold out,” says Alderman. On the other hand, notevery date is available. “I’m finding that tour operators areconsolidating dates,” she says. They may advertise a tour startingevery Saturday, for example, but if dates don’t fill up, they arelumping one tour together with one or two others and offeringdepartureson fewer dates.Many area residents Adlerman sees are booking the national park tours,while others are signing up to tour Alaska, often by boat. In fact,she says, cruises are becoming one of the most popular vacationoptions.”It’s a very relaxing vacation,” she says. “You can reallyunwind. You only unpack once.” There are plenty of activities— including recent additions such as onboard ice skating and rockwall climbing — for those who want to be active. For those whowant peace and quiet and quality time with a good book, even thebusiestships are full of quiet, private spots.Cruises are an excellent option for burned-out office workers, andare a great choice for families as well. “They appreciate thesecurity,” Adlerman says. Typically, ships have mini-camps forchildren, and are scrupulously careful about releasing them only totheir parents. She suggests that parents take a careful look at portattractions in planning a family cruise. An island with invitingbeachescould trump one where ancient ruins are the main draw if childrenare young, while the converse could be true if there are teens inthe party.New flexibility makes cruising even more appealing, in Adlerman’sview. She especially likes “personal choice dining.” In placeof the old dining arrangements — a seat at a table for 8, ateither7 p.m. or 9 p.m. — she says that many ships now let vacationersmake a reservation at any time they wish, and let them sit only witha significant other if that is their preference.Cruises, in conjunction with tour operators, sell their customersshore excursions. Independent travelers tend to prefer to go theirown way, but Adlerman says that choosing the excursions can be a goodidea in a number of situations. “I just took a cruise toMexico,”she says. She had done her research and knew exactly what she wantedto do onshore — visit a particular area of Mayan ruins. Bychoosingto sign up for the excursion, she says, she was assured that she wouldbe able to do so, and would travel on a reliable bus and learn aboutthe area from a knowledgeable, English-speaking guide.Touring alone, by taxi, can be risky, she says, pointing out thatsometimes the driver will claim to know all about the area, but thatthe traveler may well get back onboard his ship and learn that hemissed much of the area’s most interesting attractions.While cruise ships leave from New York and from Philadelphia, Adlermanis not tremendously enthusiastic about leaving from theseclose-to-homeports. Cruises from New York to Bermuda tend to be expensive, shesays, because there are so few of them. Less competition translatesinto higher fares. Cruises from these ports to the Caribbean are notideal because the time it takes the ships to get all the way downthe coast and into the Caribbean means little time on shore. Still,she says, some families like this option. The ships often make a stopin central Florida, affording an opportunity to take kids to CapeCanaveral or to Orlando attractions.Florida, lying close to the Bahamas and not far from Mexico and theCaribbean, is a popular place to begin a cruise, and Adlerman saysthere are any number of choices for $1,000 a person, or less,includingairfare, for a seven-day vacation. Many of her clients like sailingfrom ports in Florida, she says, because it offers the opportunityof adding a few days to the vacation, perhaps by visiting Disney Worldor spending a few days in a beach town.While some business people do try to squeeze a vacation into lessthan a week, Adlerman says seven days is about the shortest vacationthat will return a worker to his desk refreshed and ready to go.”Youhave to factor in the time needed to unwind,” she points out.Cruising, national parks, and the wilds of Alaska are looking goodto travelers this year, but vacation patterns were different whenAdlerman started out in business. “International was muchbigger,”she says. “And vacations were longer.” There were far fewercruise ships, and cruises were much more expensive. In thenot-too-distantpast, she recalls, the four or five-day jaunt to a European city wasa popular mini-vacation option, but she rarely has requests for thesetrips anymore.And what is her own favorite vacation destination? Rather thanreturningto a favorite year after year, the travel pro says, “I alwaysstrive to go to new destinations.” Still, she shows enthusiasmfor the big vacation trend of the new century. Just back from a cruiseon the Princess Grand, which features a wedding chapel, aswim-against-the-currentpool, and a two-story “teen fun zone,” she is now planningto take her grandchildren on the same cruise. “I love theship,”she says, “the kids will love it.”This year vacation choices, for travel professionals, as well as forthe clients they serve, are tilting toward all the comforts of home— and all the security associated with home. These are notoff-the-beatentrack adventures. They are stress-busting breaks, vacations wherethere is rarely a newspaper in sight, and there is no evening news.With luck, we will all soon forget what “orange” means, andour fractured world will heal enough so that Adlerman will be ableto report that cruise business is down and jaunts to Casablanca, thepyramids of Egypt, and the Dead Sea are all the rage.Top Of PageUnwanted Notoriety: How to Handle ItHow terrific it would be to see the name of yourbusinessand your business phone number on the front page of the New York Timesin a four-column color photo?Or maybe not so terrific, when the story is connected to aninternationaltragedy.How do you handle the notoriety? That’s the problem faced by JimMentis,the account executive at Jilco Trailer Rentals, who fielded dozensof calls when his company’s name and phone number appeared in aphotographon the front page of the New York Times. The story about the deathsof 18 undocumented immigrants trapped inside the truck trailer inTexas broke on May 15, and the calls began.”There were hundreds of calls, from Channel 10, and fromnewspapersfrom Texas and all over the country,” says Mentis. “I askedfor advice from the owners, Gilbert and Steven Pavone. They said toanswer truthfully. We are not at fault, we are just in business likeeverybody else.”Jilco Trailer Rentals has two locations, one in Gloucester City andone at 377 Half Acre Road in Cranbury (609-655-5001, www.jilco.com).It has more than 600 trailers for sale, particularly refrigeratedones, and it also leases and repairs trailers, and sells parts.”The trailer that was involved in the tragedy was registered tothe gentleman who got arrested, and we have sold him trailers in thepast, but not in over a year,” says Mentis. “We don’t knowif we had sold him this trailer because we haven’t been given thevehicle identification number. The one thing I did notice was thatthe rear doors were damaged. I would never have sold him a trailerlike that. We don’t ever sell equipment in that condition.”It’s entirely possible, says Mentis, that the Jilco mudflaps wereon another company’s trailer. “We could have sold him mud flaps.We sell them at a good price.” Isn’t that just a free ad?”Companiesthat buy parts from us don’t mind doing it,” says Mentis of themudlaps, which cost $8 apiece.Mentis says there were more crank phone calls than anything else,but that he took all the calls. “I don’t like being rude topeople.”The one call that he expected, he didn’t get: “The New York Timesdid not call, believe it or not.”Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
