College and school kids are starting back to school this week. What a great time for business owners to get back into a learning environment too. Can’t make it to a live NxLeveL class? Then let’s blog about it for the next 13 weeks – please join in the conversations!

NxLeveL Topic One: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Our first session outlines the definition of entrepreneurship and in-class discussion is always enlightening when we ask the question, “What’s the difference between an entrepreneur and a business owner?” There are countless answers to this question, but what I feel is evident is the fact that a true entrepreneur spends significant time planning and learning something new, whether it is directly or indirectly related to his/her business. Entrepreneurs are self-directed learners. Our NxLeveL text goes into some details of self-assessment and some very good “food for thought” concepts. Listed as what makes a good entrepreneur includes: Passion, Persistence, Good Health, High Energy, Creativity, Independence, Self-Reliance, Open Mind, Intuition and Self-Confidence.

They don’t kid you about the reality of the “dream” of owning your own business. Hard-core questions that must be asked and answered are critical to the self-assessment. Working 80-100+ hours each week is a reality; making little or no money the first 1-2 years is a reality; getting your family or significant relations on board with you for support must be pre-planned; loss of money is inevitable to launch a business. “Successful entrepreneurs may take calculated risks, but they are not gamblers; they seldom act until they have assessed the situation and done everything in their power to minimize risk.”

In week one, you are asked to take several assessments that include:
Personal Assessment
Business Assessment
Lifestyle Assessment

The bottom line with anyone starting a new venture is, you don’t know what you don’t know. If you’re thinking of starting a new business, or want to work more on your existing business, talk to someone who is ahead of you – learn from others, from books, from classes and don’t do this alone!

For further assistance with business building please learn more about the Nevada Small Business Development Center, a department within the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno. It’s a great place to get some solid help that includes free and confidential one-on-one business advisement. Or contact me because I’ve worked 15 years at this amazing agency and pride myself in connecting people to resources.

Tune in next week for topic two – PLANNING & RESEARCH: Entrepreneurial Essentials

Want some more info on Nevada NxLeveL? Please read on.

NxLeveL for Entrepreneurs begins in five Nevada cities soon. The biggest challenge for people to get on board with this popular and successful business education is time. NxLeveL puts people into a classroom environment for 13 weeks, 3 hours at a time to cover 12 critical topics for small business success.

Most people want this education, but the timing may not be right. With respect to all of you my intention of writing weekly on NxLeveL is to outline the topics and provide some learning that may be useful in your business and in your assessment if this class is something you wish to pursue down the road. All quotes are taken directly from the fourth and fifth editions of NxLeveL® Guide for Entrepreneurs, copyright NxLeveL® Education Foundation, with permission.

Nevada has more than a dozen certified instructors, and those who commonly use social media in their business are on board to add to the content and conversations of our NxLeveL for Entrepreneur Training Network. This platform is also a tool for NxLeveL attendees who can learn from other business owners from all over Nevada. Join us today to learn, teach, share and inspire our incredible force of Nevada Entrepreneurs. There has never been a better time than now to collaborate and help our State’s economic recovery by supporting our small businesses through applied education, networking, and patronage.

Why Should You Consider Enrolling into a NxLeveL® for Entrepreneurs Course? Because…

It is the best training for business owners in the country.
It is a course that has been taken by more than 1,800 Nevadans.
It is completely applied learning and non-academic.
It is a course in which each Nevada entrepreneur who has graduated from says they wish they took it before they started their business.
It is hands-on learning that provides an environment for entrepreneurs to work on their business.
It is a program that provides a safe, confidential and passionate atmosphere for people who want to be smarter in their business.
It is a training curriculum used in more than forty states.
It is the cornerstone training program of the NV Small Business Development Center since 1999.
It is a course for existing business owners and new business owners.
It is a curriculum that provides an outstanding text written by 20 primary entrepreneur-authors from around the country with over 200 contributing entrepreneur-authors.
It is education for business owners who want to become more entrepreneurial.

I had the privilege of spending two days and nights in Carlin last week to attend a workshop hosted by the Nevada Commission on Economic Development. I feel strongly that when I travel I spend my travel dollars in the towns in which I’m doing business or visiting rather than going for the more populated areas.

CDGB Workshop at Carlin Senior Center, NCED's Des Craig Presenting

Elko is an additional 23 miles east of Carlin with more choices of lodging, entertainment and restaurants. However, to stay true to my values I booked my stay locally, ate locally and met some amazing local people.

The workshop I attended was all about the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding processes important to all of us who apply for these funds. The grants provide assistance in areas of economic development to various rural Nevada locations. I applaud the NCED, and Des Craig in particular, for choosing Carlin for the workshop site because it is through our travel that we learn more about our fellow Nevadans and the history behind their home towns.

Nine-acre Park in Carlin, NV Provides Lots of Recreation

Our workshop was held at the Carlin Senior Citizen’s Center, which by the way, was beautifully built through an approved CDBG grant several years ago. In a future post I will tell you about a couple of the amazing seniors who work there and make life better for many of the residents. I also may go into some details of the town’s famous Ghost Cries Murder story.  But for now, this post is to thank the people of Carlin who took their time to take the workshop attendees on a tour. Their 9-acre park is beautiful and houses ball fields, a skate park, an equestrian park, a nature study area, motor cross track, archery range and more.  Backpacking, fishing, hunting and camping are highlights of Carlin as well.

What made the tour additionally valuable was our tour guide, Darcy. She has tremendous pride in her community and is without a doubt one of the nicest and most knowledgeable people in town. Many thanks go out to the folks of Carlin for the warm welcome, home-made cookies and great hospitality.

A lot of work goes into putting on the Star Spangled Sparks Event hosted annually by the Sparks Chamber of Commerce. It’s one of those events that attracts everyone because there are activities geared for, well, everyone. Many thanks to the chamber staff and committee for hours of preparation and planning, and working on a holiday that begins at 5:30 AM to make it all happen. And to each sponsor, you make a difference in our community – thank you!

Model Dairy annually sponsors Star Spangled Sparks

People like to get out on this national holiday that honors our country and our freedom.  It’s a time when red, white and blue are proudly worn and waved. It’s about good times, good food, and good entertainment. What makes this event more special than most is the local talent who compete for first place in the Sparks Got Talent contest.  I didn’t have time to stay for the entire contest, but what I saw was most inspiring and entertaining.

Great music from local talent

It takes a special leap to put yourself onto a stage in front of hundreds of people. This year’s contestants were a beautiful sampling of our community with people of all ages and talents.

this young Cowboy Poet wowed the audience

There was poetry, dancing, singing, magic and comedy. To each of you, I know I speak for many of the audience – a huge thank you for sharing your special talents with us today, on the 4^th of July 2010! God bless you and our great country!

The state of Nevada has one of the highest high school drop-out rates in the nation.  This did not happen overnight so we cannot expect any immediate changes. But there are some causes worth pursuing, and certainly higher education for our youth is one I strongly believe in and will pursue in some capacity my entire life.

Campus Kids experiencing Legacy Hall at UNR

I am one of a couple thousand employees at the University of Nevada, Reno. It has been my business home for almost 20 years. Like any large institution, there are flaws, but I choose to keep my focus on the value of education.  UNR is a significant landmark in my community. I have always considered it a privilege to work here and my job is nothing short of a blessing. In my younger years I would never have imagined myself at the same job for more than 5 years, yet I love this place more and more each year despite the troubling economic times.

I believe that now is the time to spread passion about education – after all, a solid education is the foundation of a solid economy, wouldn’t you think? So how do we get our youth to realize this, and how do we get them to value education on their own?

I wrote a successful stimulus grant last year that brought close to 300 youths to our campus (40 per week) for a one-week experience of campus life, college students, clubs, play, writing, photography, a little entrepreneurship, and lunch daily on the Quad. This program had well-planned structure that allowed them to “do” what college students do. They toured Legacy Hall, Mackay Stadium, Engineering, the Knowledge Center, Planetarium, Center for Cultural Diversity and listened daily to a new college student’s 7-minute presentation about why they chose college, what they gave up, and what they expected to do in their world when they graduated.

These kids collectively took over 2,000 photographs, currently posted on www.unrcampuskids.org. They wrote daily into their journals about what they saw, who they met, what they learned, and how they felt about being on the campus of UNR. Each team of 10 created marketing posters for their lemonade sales, and collectively raised over $1,000 that funded a 200+ student “graduation” on the university’s famous Quad last summer.

Campus Kids was born last year, and our mottos include Knowledge is Power and Education Beats Vegetation.  These kids did not go into an academic environment because they already knew what that’s like. What they didn’t know they experienced as a Campus Kid at an age in which they can choose to learn, and learn to value education by bonding with our beautiful campus, its people and places.

Campus Kids group photo with 35 kids from Boys & Girls Club

Our program continues this summer, with literally zero dollars. With the passion of a few Boys & Girls Club directors and my personal love of showing kids my university, we have trimmed the program to a one-day field trip. But with full support from our College of Business Dean Greg Mosier and NSBDC Director Sam Males, I have the privilege of coordinating with other campus people to try our hardest to demonstrate a value of education. People on our campus care about our youth, and they care about our campus. We need to spread the value of education as often as possible, and to as many youth as possible. If you see us roaming on Tuesdays this summer please say hello and get yourself photographed as a Campus Kids fan!

I attended a workshop several weeks ago by a good friend and exceptional trainer, Meggin McIntosh. Meggin is one of those people that no matter what topic she chooses to present, everyone is going to walk away glad they came.

The workshop was titled something along the lines of How to Create a “not-to-do” List. This event title made me curious because I’m such a fan of creating “to-do” lists. The title, in more complicated terms, could have been “how to say no, what to say no to, and why you should say no when you want to say yes in your professional environment.”  I can appreciate Meggin’s creative topic title that got me to this workshop.

Great trainers typically have great books in which they recommend. Meggin’s plead with us to go out and purchase #1 New York Times Best Selling Author Tom Rath’s Strengths Finder 2.0 is proving to be a life saver for me. The book comes with a computer access code and test that allows you to really identify your strengths that are based on your innate talent – and not based at what you think you’re good at. The key is to start by honestly identifying your innate talent.

It reminds me of a recent situation when some colleagues actually thought I would be okay in developing my own, simple personal branding web site. The fact is, I get lost going home – I have no sense of direction. I also have no sense of technical instruction outside of using software applications that matter to me. I do have determination, I do know how to ask for help, but seriously, the only thing I could have constructed would have been at best mediocre, and probably dysfunctional. I don’t do “technical” – so why would I say yes to a technically challenging project?

I am very good at what I do because I have an innate talent to organize. I did not learn how to do this, at age 6 every square inch of MY living space was in order. At age 16 I was the only one in the family who could fit every suitcase into the trunk on our 3,000 mile vacation. I was born 3 weeks early, maybe that’s why punctuality is so important to me.

It’s not too late for any of us to honestly identify our innate talents and strengthen them. And it’s never too late to admit that no matter how hard we try, there are some talents in life better left to others to strengthen.

Today is  Father’s Day and I think about my Dad and miss the good ol’ days when he was a few miles or a phone call away.  I was blessed with a Mom who to this day was the greatest woman I ever knew, and a Dad who exemplified human love and compassion, and a pure love of life better than anyone I know.

Today is a day when I remember the countless weekends spent at Northridge Junior High where my Dad would open up the gym and let my brothers, sister and me play on the trampoline, rings, and other gymnastics equipment. My dad worked as a teacher of Physical Education and Math for more than 40 years. He was an amazing athlete, as well as an amazing teacher.

I remember countless afternoons in our front yard when every neighborhood kid came over to learn to walk on their hands, do cartwheels, summersaults, flips, and so much more. Our backyard had a commercial grade swing set, Jungle-Jim, slide, and dough-boy pool. It was a kid’s paradise for those of us who loved to play outdoors. My Dad loved playing with us, and he loved teaching the neighborhood kids basic gymnastics. My Mom loved to tell the story about a few of the neighborhood kids who knocked at our door, and asked if Mr. Carrico could come out and play. He was the biggest kid on the block, and the most popular!

My Mom passed away four years prior to my Dad, and I had the privilege of getting to know my Dad better than anyone as he grew from 82 to 86 years of age. He was a World  War II hero, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, getting shot, missing in action, and having his life saved by a very good German surgeon. He never bragged about his life in the Army, but he did earn a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. I am very proud to be his daughter.

Thirty days before my Dad died he was with “the guys” at the senior center, dancing on Friday night, with a line of ladies 4 times that of the men just waiting their turn. He was as good a dancer as Fred Astaire, and at 86 he was still moving faster than anyone on the floor.

My Father spent his last 5 days in my living room in a hospital bed, and as difficult as it was knowing he was going to die, I felt pure joy at the fact that it would be with me, that I would be there to hold his hand, and tell him not to be afraid. He had always been there for me, and it was an honor to be there for him. I miss him, I love him, and I believe he is reunited with my Mom, and both are with God. Happy Father’s Day Dad!

It takes time to plan a rural trip from Reno when my destination is in southern Nevada. I’m flying to Las Vegas this Sunday where I will get a rental car and drive about an hour+ to my first destination, Pahrump. Working with Al Parker who is our NSBDC counselor in this town is fun because Al’s a fun guy! But more than that, he really cares about his community and welcomes members of our NSBDC team with open arms. We’ll be doing a workshop on social media for beginners Monday morning and I’m excited to learn more about the various businesses in Pahrump who will be in attendance. Al’s like most of us, he’s busy, but took the time to get the word out and create awareness of this learning opportunity for his community.

I want to encourage other rural Nevada communities to contact me for training outreach. We are here to provide valuable services to our entire State, and are always looking for those who want to bring our services to their area. We have funding for specific locations, so give me a holler and we’ll go from there!

I’ve been planning to launch this site, at least in my mind, since last October. As they say, thinking about something and actually doing it are two separate things. Being a huge advocate of planning helped me tremendously. I gave myself six months to prepare, knowing well that once my blog site was published I would have to be prepared to, well, blog.

Effectively engaging into social media practices naturally takes time, and thought, about what one wants to accomplish. I spent more than 40 hours in live workshops, seminars, and various presentations from those who knew more than I did on the topic. I don’t believe for a second that once we post our Face Book and LinkedIn pages we can qualify ourselves as an expert. I will continue to have a lot to learn, but am getting better at “getting it.”

Since October I have discovered countless new websites in which I learned something new and relevant. I have enjoyed the referred posts from colleagues and have been quite active in leaving comments to blogs I felt provided value to me.

To be a best-selling author, one would have to write a book. We all know people who want to write a book, but never will simply due to time constraints. These potential best-selling authors are all over the Internet writing short posts, referencing powerful sites, and sharing expertise, experience and humor with others. It’s an eye-opener for me to discover so many people whom I will never meet in person but can enjoy their contributions via personal branding websites.

There are a number of people encouraging me to do this – launch kathycarrico.com –  and start writing daily. So here I am on Friday, June 11^th going LIVE!  “Good for me,” I say to myself, because regardless of who reads what I write, or who takes time to comment, blogging is absolutely one of the best processes I’ve discovered that keeps my mind sharp, organizes my thoughts, and provides therapeutic solitude as I reflect upon what interests me and what value I can share.

Many thanks to my NSBDC family who keep asking, “When are you going to start blogging, KC?” because for some insane reason they believe I’ll get this. Oh, and let’s not forget, I am not the “techy” type like Kristy Crabtree who built this site and provided the best photo of rural Nevada I’ve ever seen.  She’s got to be the one of the smartest and easiest persons to work with…totally non-nerdy and absolutely has the best hair of anyone I’ve ever known, seriously! It is a pleasure, my friend, to do business with you!

My biggest thanks goes out to Bret Simmons, who is actually in Spain as I write, who turned my head around at the Sparks Chamber Business Forum last fall, in a mere 60-minute presentation on the whats and whys of personal branding – so, Dr. Bret, thank you for providing YOUR value to me!

Like many small business owners I find my position as State Training Director for the Nevada Small Business Development Center (NSBDC) shifting in how I conduct business, and in how I connect with existing and new NSBDC clients and partners.  Five years ago we were happy with providing free standing seminars on popular subjects such as customer service, employee retention, team building, leadership, conflict resolution, communication skills, etc.  Large companies sent their employees for professional development training, and small business owners invested a few hours here and there to polish their skills.  People came, they learned, and they went back to work.  Marketing tools consisted of a standard press release, an uncomplicated e-blast and word of mouth.  Hard copy brochures were mailed out and newspapers listed our events in a calendar section.

As management and marketing tools evolve so do we.  Social media sites have allowed people to communicate directly, with each other, on a 24/7 clock.  Faces appear that personalize the message and no longer do we settle for a monotone voice.  Today we look for conversations that make us feel valued, and the business education and training events that we choose are based not only on a topic, but who we can meet before, during and after we sit and learn.

I have had the pleasure of developing a countless number of meaningful, powerful, valuable and pleasant business relationships this year because our community has evolved to an impressive level of effective networking practices both on-line and in-person.  We are an amazing region of incredible people and my expertise of “knowing experts” is growing exponentially.  I invite you to feel welcome on a 24/7 basis to leave a comment or suggest a training topic that allows our business community to continue its evolution in gaining knowledge, friendships and partnerships…all at the same time!

Every first Thursday of the month for almost 3 years I have intentionally gotten out of bed at 5:00 AM so I could be present by 6:45 AM for the monthly Sparks Chamber of Commerce BizFlash program.  I am not a morning person by choice, but there are some things worth getting up for.  As founder and chair of this great chamber event I continue to be amazed at the amount of other people who are as passionate as I am about this program.

This year has been tough for so many, and when Len Stevens, executive director of the Sparks Chamber, sought program funding to keep BizFlash free to our chamber members I was concerned that we may have to go back to our smaller space that caps out at 55 attendees.  I was also envisioning Len bringing coffee-in-a-box with paper cups and napkins, along with other chamber staff shopping at 6:00 AM for pastries and fruit to continue the free continental breakfast that is an important feature of BizFlash.

To date, we have not had to move backwards thanks to the significant support of our local casino property members.  The Sparks Holiday Inn was incredibly generous to host our event for 12 consecutive months, ending in January 2010 by providing facility space, room set up, and a first class continental breakfast for 115 people.

Circus Circus raised their hand next and hosted 80+ attendees in both February and March, sparing no expense to provide the highest quality arrangements.  First class sponsorship continued as the Grand Sierra Resort hosted the BizFlash program in April and May, adding a raffle drawing for an overnight stay and dinner for two at their fabulous Italian restaurant.  Today the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa hosted our June BizFlash for another 80 attendees, and we’ll be back there on July 1^st.  I was personally greeted by 5 staff members who couldn’t have been more helpful, courteous or excited to be part of our program.  The fine dining raffle was just one more piece of elegance as we ended our popular program today.

There are many more people to chat about (and you know I will), but today we honor our corporate casino property sponsors of BizFlash for their amazing commitment to our community, our businesses and our chamber.  They make a positive difference in our quality of life in northern Nevada!