How Small Companies Can Snag Health Grants: Rick Weiss and
Kay Etzler
Individual results are may vary. Do not expect your company to win
seven Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants totaling over
$1.5 million, as did Rick Weiss president of Viocare Technologies
(www.viocare.com), a medical device company with offices at 145
Witherspoon Street. Most recently, the National Cancer Institute
funded the development of Viocare’s “eLog” – a nifty handheld gadget
that records food intake and physical output to help individuals with
weight loss and overall health maintenance.
Founded in Princeton in l993, originally as Princeton Multimedia
Technologies, the firm continues to receive federal awards for its
line of dietary monitoring systems.
Weiss says that “almost all of our R&D money comes from grants.”
Struggling entrepreneurs might ask: What does this guy know that he is
getting that kind of funding from the federal government? The answer
is revealed during a half-day seminar, “National Institutes of Health
SBIR/STTR Program and Proposal Preparation,” on Thursday, September
28, at 8 a.m. at Princeton University’s Friend Center. Cost $40. Visit
www.njsbdc.com/scitech.
Sponsored by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) office, in
coordination with New Jersey’s Small Business Development Center, this
workshop features Kay Etzler, program analyst for SBIR/STTR grants at
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In addition to Weiss,
speakers include Randy Harmon, New Jersey Small Business Development
Center (NJSBDC) technology and commercialization consultant; Roger
Cohen, principal of Cohen International in Nyack, New York; Patrick
Alia of accounting firm Amper, Politziner & Mattia; and Karen Price of
the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative.
A native of Frederick, Maryland, SBIR expert Etzler never had to move
far to find her career. She has always worked for the federal
government. For the National Institute of Health, she travels the
country explaining that, yes, the federal government has money
earmarked for a company of your size. No, it doesn’t all go to
corporations the size of Halliburton.
Her duties reflect the full range of NIH’s funding. When not on the
road, most of her days are spent helping young companies with a new
product through the SBIR or STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer)
applications. Etzler also specializes in NIH’s commercialization
mentoring program. “Our mission at NIH is simple – to improve human
health,” says Etzler, “and we support anything that enhances that
mission.” Last year the NIH proved its support by giving $640 million
in SBIR and STTR grants.
Before one can get in line and apply for this fountain of funding, one
must register. Online registration forms and exhaustive details
concerning NIH’s requirements can be found on
grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/sbir.
What’s available. The NIH has 23 institutes/centers, including the
National Cancer Center, under its domain, and all offer SBIR/STTR
grants. To qualify a company must be American owned, small (under 500
employees) and, of course, have a viable idea.
If the review board likes what it sees, an entrepreneur receives an
initial check of up to $100,000 for a feasibility study. This gives
the company six months to technically explore and prove that the
proposed idea can actually become a functioning item. The second phase
provides up to $750,000 over a two year period and basically expands
on the first, moving into a prototype stage and investigating
commercial opportunities.
Almost all NIH funding is awarded through such SBIR grants. The
remaining four percent comes in the form of contract solicitations.
Recently the National Cancer Institute awarded a contract for a
handheld data collecting device whose design exactly met its specified
needs. The NIH SBIR website lists all such contractual solicitations.
Trot to market. While financial participation ends with the second
phase, NIH’s investment in its grantees continues right up to
commercialization. Etzler notes that in the health field getting a
product on the shelves, or into the lab, is particularly tedious and
expensive. “Most people who invent a new drug really have no idea what
it takes and what it costs to get it through the FDA,” she says. “We
help them understand what the obstacles are and how to face them.”
This NIH assistance program begins with helping develop a niche
assessment for the product and gathering competitive data. Each
grantee is assigned an NIH analyst who guides the entrepreneur through
the licensing process. Etzler often leads entrepreneurs with a new
product to investors able to capitalize the costly test phase, which
can run into the millions.
Add star power. “If I had a word of advice for any SBIR grant
applicant,” says seven-time winner Weiss, “it’s to find the very top
person in the nation and get him on your team.” Before applying for
grants Weiss studied the field, found the individual who was putting
out all the most highly regarded papers, and called him on the phone.
“Don’t be scared that they will steal your idea or belittle you as a
nobody,” he says. “I have been treated well every time.” Getting this
expert to join your team and add his name to the grant application
impresses the reviewers.
Meet deadlines. But even the most renowned names do not compensate for
getting a grant application in late. Etzler says that the most
frequent blunder entrepreneurs seeking funding make is missing the
periodic deadlines, which are not the same for every NIH grant.
Try try again. She also urges persistence. If an application is
rejected, the submitter has two chances to revise it and resubmit. If
it is still rejected, try to make the turn-down a learning experience.
Be responsive to the reviewers’ comments. They will be a help when it
is time to submit the next grant application.
But probably the best tip is to keep calling NIH for aid and
clarification. Each registered applicant is assigned a mentor whose
job it is to help that individual make the best presentation possible.
This mentor is not on the review board, but knows all the necessary
protocols.
Grants involve lots of paperwork and substantial competition, but even
the smallest entrepreneur will find help along the way, and, as Weiss
can attest, the result is well worth the effort.
– Bart Jackson
When Your Business Is On the Block: Sharyn Maggio
Two out of five American marriages end in divorce. Add to that
partnership or shareholder disputes – business divorce – and there are
excellent odds that the family firm will be in danger of becoming a
divisible asset. Judges have always known that businesses are like
babies – worth more undivided. So the age old solution is to evaluate
the company’s market price, and let one party retain ownership and pay
off the other with half its worth. At this point, the most important
person in one’s life may be that business evaluator.
When business evaluators are called in to pave the way for buy/sell
agreements, family estates, gifts, or loans, the setting is typically
calm. But let that company become a tug-o-war asset in a big breakup,
and everything explodes. To provide attorneys and business owners
advice on how to handle this volatile situation the New Jersey
Institute of Continuing Legal Education presents “Business
Evaluations: When You Need Them, When You Don’t” on Thursday,
September 28, at 5:30 p.m. at the New Jersey Law Center in New
Brunswick. Cost: $139. Visit www.njicle.com.
Speakers include Sharyn Maggio, independent CPA and evaluator in
Eatontown; superior court judge Patricia B. Roe; and Abigale Stolfe,
an attorney with the Frank Louis Law Office in Toms River.
Maggio, a lifelong native of the Jersey shore, graduated from Monmouth
University with a bachelors in business and took her CPA in l987.
That’s the basics, but a competent evaluator better have a lot more
letters beyond that CPA. After further study from the American
Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Maggio joined the
Association of Business Valuators (CVA). She then earned her ASA
certification, with emphasis on business valuation, from the American
Society of Appraisers. She also is a member and instructor for the
National Association of Certified Appraisers.
“Credentials from any of the three groups is a good sign of quality,
but evaluating is amazingly complex and takes at least a few years of
business accounting experience,” says Maggio. Business valuation is a
probing audit of the most severe kind, but there are some controls for
the business owner.
Choose your evaluator yourself. Typically a judge will appoint a
business evaluator in complicated dispute or divorce cases. But often
a quick lawyer can grab the reins and make the selection himself.
“When people get this chance, I keep telling them to remember that
this is their divorce – not their lawyers’ divorce,” says Maggio.
“Lawyers are only going to move when they have to, and choose whom
they know.”
Maggio suggests that the individual owner actively help in the
selection of an evaluator. Experience in the field and the number of
cases handled are, of course, important, but equally so is the
evaluator’s experience in testifying. If the business is in some way
unusual, for example extremely seasonal, it’s good to have an
evaluator who can claim familiarity with its niche – and with the
locale in which it operates.
At the same time, it is important to understand that the evaluator is
not anyone’s advocate. Yet, as the owner, you want someone whose final
figure can weather all assaults from opposing attorneys.
Avoid cookie-cutter evaluation tools. It is a myth that evaluators
have some sacred formula into which they mercilessly cram each
business. There is no one-size-fits-all template. While such templates
do indeed exist online, Maggio suggests that these may be good only to
satisfy curiosity. They are definitely not an ideal tool for a
business owner in dispute with his whole fortune up for grabs. There
are just too many variables.
In putting a price tag on a business, the evaluator spirals in slowly.
First she examines the particular industry and relates it to current
economic conditions. The real estate brokerage cannot be priced at
last year’s level today, for example.
This done, the valuator gets an overview of the books and records to
decide on an approach. The three classical methods are the market
approach, income approach, and asset approach. Each, as the name
implies, launches investigation from that point, with ample overlap to
be fully inclusive.
Finally, all books and records are scrutinized in detail within a flow
of endless variables and adjustments. Capitalization rates, income
streams, and asset valuations are all part of the picture. “There is a
lot of art as well as science in this work,” Maggio admits.
In the end the evaluator submits a single figure backed up by
somewhere between 30 to 300 pages of evidence. The very best thing the
business owner can do during this process is to be totally cooperative
and have his records well ordered. “If the owner is helpful, I can be
in and out in a couple of days,” says Maggio. “But when owners oppose
me, things get more expensive, and can drag on for months.”
Stay out of jail. “My major goal in every valuation is to get to
substance,” say Maggio. By this she means ferreting out all of those
little irregularities in the bookkeeping that may have lightened the
tax burden in the past, but today give a skewed version of the
company’s net worth.
One of her favorites was discovering a business owner’s personal
apartment on St. Croix listed among the company expenses. Other
irregularities may be as small as taking the family to a dinner weekly
on the company tab, or listing junior’s car as a company asset, or
paying junior a salary while he is away at college.
These little tax dodges are items that no one wants disclosed at a
trial. Judges are officers of the court and thus bound to report to
the IRS any potential tax fraud. “We are not out to nail anybody,”
says Maggio, “we just want an honest price and a fair settlement.”
Thus when she discovers evidence of such evasions she contacts the
business owner, who, after a brief explanation, is often eager to
shift his dispute to arbitration. The judge is also pleased to hear
that this case will be removed from his already crowded docket.
“But when I tell the judge and lawyers of the shift in venue,
everybody knows what I am saying,” says. “Oh, and you’d better believe
that the hidden St. Croix apartment got listed as a divisible asset in
the settlement.”
Maggio finds that requests for her seminars are overwhelming.
Evaluation has become one of the fastest growing fields in accounting.
Because it is one of the most creative areas of the profession, young
CPAs are increasing seeking out the specialty. And as current trends
have proven, the market will be there to accommodate them.
– Bart Jackson
Even Good Parents Can Use Childcare: gigi Schweikert
At the age of nine North Carolinian Gigi Schweikert started her career
in early childhood education. “When I was little girl, I set up my
first childcare program in my backyard one summer, as a mother’s
helper for kids in the neighborhood,” she says. She got paid the royal
sum of 50 cents a day for each child. She enjoyed the work, and chose
it as her college summer job, working at the a childcare center. She
has gone up to become a childcare center director, a childcare
consultant to some of the country’s largest corporations, and a writer
and lecturer on the subject of how to provide optimal care for the
children of working parents.
Schweikert gives the keynote address at the 11th annual Early Care and
Childhood Conference, sponsored by the Child Care Connection, on
Saturday, September 30, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Princeton Hyatt.
The conference also provides training for child care providers and
administrators. Cost: $60. For more information, call 609-989-7770.
When Schweikert matriculated at the University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill, she had intended to go to medical school. But
when she decided she wanted to work with young children, she switched
to education. After receiving her degree in elementary and early
childhood education in 1983, she got a job at the Early Childhood
Program at the United Nations in New York, working her way up to
director by the time she left seven years later.
She moved away from the hands-on management of a childcare center when
she took a job at what is now Bright Horizons Family Solutions, where
she did work-family initiatives for Fortune 500 companies. Her
assignments included helping corporations set up onsite childcare and
doing management sensitivity training to help supervisors to realize
that “people have a life beyond work.”
Sensitive to these issues, Schweikert rearranged her work life after
she had her second child, moving to part time. By the time she had her
third, and then her fourth, she sought flexibility by consulting,
writing, and speaking through BabyStep Consulting
(www.gigischweikert.com). Her consulting clients have included Johnson
& Johnson, Prudential, Bank of America, Merck, IBM, Genentech, and SC
Johnson Wax.
She has written several books, including “I’m a Good Mother, for the
Not-so-perfect Mom” and “God, God What Do You See? I See a Mother
Looking at Me,” and she has hosted the television show, “Today’s
Family.” Schweikert offers advice to working parents on how to choose
out-of-home childcare:
The program should be accredited. The NAEYC accreditation is the
national standard of excellence for early childhood education.
Although there are some good centers that are not accredited, the
NAEYC imprimatur ensures that the facility meets requirements for
safety and appropriate ratios of staff to children and that staff
members have ongoing training. “It makes it a professional
organization,” says Schweikert.
Parents must feel comfortable with the place and the people. Parents
have different needs, says Schweikert. “Some need pristine and clean,
because that conveys quality to them, and some are more comfortable in
a homey environment. You have to feel comfortable to be able to say,
do, come, and go as if it were your own home.”
Caring for children requires a partnership between the caregiver or
teacher and the parent. “It’s an intimate relationship, and you have
to really feel comfortable,” she says. Even in the best accredited
program things will happen. “The children will get bumps and bruises,
there will be biting and illness, pacifiers will get lost, and the
academics may not be what you feel they should be,” says Schweikert.
“But in the end, it’s how do they work with you to resolve the things
that happen.”
Lead staff should be in for the long haul. Look for longevity in the
administrators and the lead teachers, even if there is a lot of
turnover among other staff. Longevity suggests a good working
environment.
Location, location, location. Don’t compromise on quality, but look
for convenience. “Parents often want to make a sacrifice for the
highest in quality of care,” says Schweikert. They will often drive
great distances. “But convenience is important too,” she says. “If
you’re able to pop over at lunch or get involved in the center, you
will feel more comfortable.”
Curriculum should focus on exploration, not worksheets. “Forces in our
society push us into thinking that earlier is better and more is
better in everything we do, but that’s not necessarily true for
children,” says Schweikert. “We need to celebrate the developmental
milestones they’ve accomplished rather than always looking ahead.”
Parents want their kids to be well equipped for school and life and
think, wrongly, that learning alphabets and numbers is the best way to
achieve this. Schweikert believes instead that exploration, “being
little scientists,” will lead the children to develop skills for
success.
Using an analogy to how adults learn to use the computer in a hands-on
way, she continues, “Children have to put their hands on everything to
learn.” As a result, the environment should include lots of things
that are safe and hazard-free for children to touch and explore – not
just plastic toys. The caregiver is the facilitator of the
environment, she says. It is her job to help children “discover what
we’ve already discovered” – for example, that things sink or float,
that books are just words written down, that ice melts, and that some
things are hard and some soft.
Teachers should be well schooled in child development. Teachers should
receive lots of training about what is and is not developmentally
appropriate, and the curriculum should highlight the types of learning
that are happening, with pictures of block constructions, movies of
water play and field trips, and descriptions of what children learn in
the dramatic play area. “They need to focus not on what the children
make,” says Schweikert, “but on the process.”
Parents must stay involved. Once parents have selected child care for
their children, they need to continually monitor that care. When
spending time at the center, they should stay attuned to how it looks,
feels, and smells.
“Good programs want parents to be the eyes and ears of the center,”
says Schweikert. “They want you to voice concerns and suggestions.”
Yet don’t expect that every suggestion you make will be accepted.
Parents can expect responsiveness, but must realize that the child
care providers are making decisions with the best interests of the
group in mind, not just those of any one child.
If something makes a parent uncomfortable, however, for example,
concern about a staff member or about inadequate supervision on the
playground, the parent should take action.
From her wide experience with childcare, Schweikert urges working
parents to “let go of the guilt.” She doesn’t believe that working
makes you a bad parent.
“I believe that quality versus quantity time is huge,” she says. “A
lot of people stay home and don’t spend time with their kids. They’re
around the kids but not with the kids.” She emphasizes that before
parents pick up their kids from daycare, they should turn off their
cell phones. And no electronics or car TV either. The goal is to
“actually have conversations.”
But however much time parents spend with their children at home, their
environment during the work week is critically important, and parents
need to find the best place they can for themselves and their
children. But, according to Schweikert, sometimes they don’t put in
the necessary time and effort.
“Sometimes parents find themselves being greater advocates when they
are looking at a car or purchasing a home,” she says. “You also need
to be aggressive and consumer oriented when purchasing care for your
child.”
– Michele Alperin
Putting On An Expo with a Holistic Approach: Michele
Engoran
The popularity of holistic treatments as an alternative to traditional
medical and health treatments has been growing by leaps and bounds in
recent years, and as a result businesses are springing up throughout
the area to meet the need. Practitioners take a “holistic” view of
health, including physical, spiritual, and emotional aspects of life.
As the interest in these types of services grows, not only in central
New Jersey but throughout the country, the number of businesses
catering to the need also grows. “We are a growing segment of the
business community,” says Michele Engoran of the Center for Relaxation
and Healing in Plainsboro.
She has organized a “Natural Living Expo: Mind, Body and Spirit” to
showcase these businesses on Saturday, September 30, at 10 a.m. at the
Premiere Hotel, 4355 Route 1, Princeton. Cost: $10.
The expo is sponsored by the Engoran’s center as well as the Center
for Holistic Awareness and Integration (CHAI Center) in East
Brunswick. Engoran and Marcus Padulchick are co-founders and partners
at the Plainsboro center, which opened in 2000. The expo is a natural
outgrowth from the center, which houses a variety of businesses with
services ranging from counseling to massage therapy, to acupuncture,
meditation, and yoga, says Engoran.
“We want to help the public learn about what’s out there and available
as a complement to traditional health care, but it was also a
strategic business decision. We want to build our name in the
community.”
The expo features 45 vendors with products and services including feng
shui, Chinese herbal medicine, and nutrition and wellness products. A
separate room will be set up for massage and body work therapists, who
will charge $1 per minute for their services.
This is the second expo that Engoran and Padulchak have run. The first
was held in Bridgewater in March. The second time around things have
gone easier, she says. Still, planning, organizing, and running an
expo takes time, money, and a network of people. “I wouldn’t encourage
anyone to try it if they are coming into an area with a blank slate
and no contacts,” she says.
Targeting Vendors. One of the first issues when planning an expo is to
ensure that you have enough vendors interested in setting up a booth.
Engoran has used direct mail, advertising, and word of mouth to locate
vendors. “We did a widespread marketing campaign, including
advertising in some alternative health magazines. We really tried to
tap into our community. One of the things we do at the center is run a
support group for holistic business owners.” This group was a great
referral source for the expo, she says. “Word of mouth is great. It’s
free.”
Most of the vendors who will attend are from the central New Jersey
area, with a few from Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, and New York,
she says. Their vendor campaign showed there was “tremendous interest”
in the event and, she says, and as vendors sent in booth fees, Engoran
pulled in working capital to cover overhead.
“We’ve had more vendors show interest than we had room for,” says
Engoran. “We are still getting phone calls. It makes me feel very
positive about how we can grow next year.”
Targeting the public. The second wave of the advertising targets
customers – the people who will attend the event and purchase products
and services from the vendors. Again, Engoran and her partner
advertised the event in local newspapers as well as in publications
targeted to their audience. They’ve hung flyers announcing the show in
area businesses as well.
Other expenses. Advertising is the largest expense in setting up a
show like this, says Engoran. Then comes renting a hall, then the
incidentals, such as signage, and “a lot of other small items.” The
show will cost several thousand dollars to produce. Meyra Findel,
owner of the CHAI Center and a co-sponsor of the event, has an
accounting background, says Engoran. “She keeps track of everything,
and when it’s all over she’ll sift it all out.”
Engoran is confident that the show will turn a profit, “if you don’t
count the hours we’ve worked.” She estimates that she and her partner
have each worked on the expo for about 10 hours a week for the last
six months.
There are several income producing elements to an expo like this one,
she says. First are the vendor fees. She is charging $150 for a
six-foot table, and because of space limitations, has restricted
vendors to one table so that she could ensure a larger variety of
products and services. The massage and body work vendors will pay $75,
and must bring their own equipment. Another income producer is the
expo program. Finally, of course, is the entrance fee of $10.
Engoran and her partner opened the center, she says, because they saw
a growing need for small “holistic” businesses to have a space to
offer their services to the public. Engoran herself is a therapist who
“combines therapy and spirituality” in her practice. She also teaches
and runs small groups at the center.
She has been interested in psychology and in helping people all of her
life, she says, and her interest in opening a center was sparked by
her mother, “who ran women’s groups,” when she was growing up. “I
can’t imagine myself crunching numbers or not doing something where
I’m working with people. I’m a good listener.” She received her
master’s degree in counseling from Goddard College in Plainfield,
Vermont, in 2000. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology
from the College of New Jersey.
As people’s lives become more hurried and stressed, Engoran believes
that more and more people will turn to holistic to “re-energize.”
While for many who attend the event, the expo will come under the
heading of “preaching to the choir,” she hopes that it will help to
bring holistic businesses to the attention of people who are not
familiar with them.
– Karen Hodges Miller
Corporate Angels
Sovereign Bank has given the Martin House Foundation a gift of
$25,000. The funds will be used to continue construction of a 32-unit
townhouse project currently underway on East State Street for very
low-income families and individuals in the Wilbur section of Trenton.
These houses were designed by Princeton architect Michael Graves.
Martin House provides no-interest mortgages for its residential units
and all payments collected are invested back into continued housing
development in the community. To date Martin House has provided more
than 4,000 adults and children with housing and educational services,
rehabilitated 102 homes, and built 42 new townhouses.
Of the 142 mortgages provided by Martin House, 64 have been retired.
For more information about Martin House, call Michael Schneider at
973-868-1000.
The New Jersey Association of Realtors Housing Opportunity Foundation
has given New Jersey Community Capital a donation of $57,900, an
amount that represents one dollar for each member of the association.
The funds will be used for the Neighborhood Development Initiative
Predevelopment Loan Partnership Program, which provides predevelopment
funds for affordable housing developed by nonprofit and
community-based organization.
In previous years, NJARHOF contributions have enabled New Jersey
Community Capital to secure the financing for rental and homeownership
opportunities to low and moderate income families. Visit www.njar.com.
Farm-Dependent Businesses Get Aid
Federal disaster loans are available to small, non-farm,
agriculture-dependent businesses for all counties in the state. “SBA’s
disaster declaration was issued as a result of a similar action taken
by the Secretary of Agriculture to help farmers recover from damages
and losses to crops caused by excessive precipitations, high winds,
hail, and high humidity from June 1, 2006, and continuing,” said Frank
Skaggs, director of SBA Field Operations Center East.
Under this declaration, SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is
available to small, non-farm, agriculture-dependent businesses and
small agricultural cooperatives that suffered economic injury as a
direct result of the weather’s effects on agricultural producers. A
business that sells goods or services to agricultural producers may be
unable to pay bills or meet expenses because of the reduced purchasing
power of farmers and ranchers. Examples of eligible businesses include
farm implement dealers, seed and feed stores, and spraying and
irrigation businesses.
Interested businesses should call 800-659-2955 or visit
www.sba.gov/disaster.
all, non-farm, agriculture-dependent businesses and
small agricultural cooperatives that suffered economic injury as a
direct result of the weather’s effects on agricultural producers. A
business that sells goods or services to agricultural producers may be
unable to pay bills or meet expenses because of the reduced purchasing
power of farmers and ranchers. Examples of eligible businesses include
farm implement dealers, seed and feed stores, and spraying and
irrigation businesses.
Interested businesses should call 800-659-2955 or visit
www.sba.gov/disaster.
