Jeanette Bennett, BusinessQ: Describe successful entrepreneurs.

Aaron Brown, Box Home Loans: You’ve got to have a dream and a vision of what you want to create, build and grow. If you don’t have that, you’re probably not going to stick it out.

David Williams, Fishbowl: You need the willingness to lay it all on the line. Plus, you need a family who can handle not knowing if you’re going to bring in money or if you need to collateralize everything you own to make payroll.

Sean Whalen, Property 23: You’ve got to be fearless. When you do collateralize everything and push all the chips to the middle of the table and lose, can you do it again?
Cary Robarge, Robarge Collision: It takes somebody who understands the “why” is far greater than the “how” and “when.” It takes a big dream tank and the capability to see beyond what’s right in front and the vision to look forward when things are tough.

Williams, Fishbowl: We have to be a provider of hope to our people, even if we’re scared and don’t know if there’s hope. That separates the managers from the leaders. Leaders create hope and provide that for other people.

David Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions: It’s the opposite of the status quo mentality. It’s an extreme need to win and achieve. But there is a misconception that entrepreneurs are big risk takers. While there is risk in branching out on your own, a successful entrepreneur is never whimsical in making key decisions.

Whalen, Property 23: It’s a lot more calculated than people think. There’s a lot more thought and staring at the ceiling at night. It’s a passion-generated thought process. When everybody is jumping off the boat, you’re pushing forward — knowing these people have to put food on their table as well. It’s a totally different mindset than people think.

Brown, Box Home Loans: There’s a transition between being a risk taker and putting it all on the line and losing a couple of times, and then really having something and not just promising your wife, “This one’s going to go, I know it.” When it does actually go, something weird changes inside — you’re not as aggressive because you have something to protect and keep. That was an interesting transition that I experienced, and it was distinct.

Jonathan Driggs, Attorney at Law: To me, it’s not recklessness. There’s a maturity underneath it. They understand risk and they’re comfortable with risk, but they need to have their feet attached to the ground or they’re going to have a disaster.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Is now a good time to be an entrepreneur?

Robarge, Robarge Collision: Now is better than ever.

Williams, Fishbowl: We’ve got one of the most educated employee bases in one of the least expensive places to conduct business. There is cheap rent and other factors that encourage startups to use a smaller amount of capital to engage the market.

Whalen, Property 23: The cost of doing business is significantly less than what it used to be. The risk of rent, payroll, money and benefits is less. The talent pool is unbelievable. When you’re getting people with high-level graduate degrees applying for a $15-an-hour job, it’s remarkable.

Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions: If you have a brilliant solution that fills a major void, there’s never a bad time to go to market. But for most ventures, you have to step back and analyze your audience and understand buying patterns. Is your solution relevant enough or does it alleviate enough pain to motivate your audience to buy it now? If the answer is no, keep your day job until the market shifts.

Robarge, Robarge Collision: The golden rule is to buy low and sell high. We’re low right now, which means it’s time to buy or start a business. The changes have opened doors for new people to come into the marketplace and give it a try — that person who got laid off, that person who had a high-end executive job is still forced to feed his family. Maybe they weren’t willing to put it all on the line five years ago because they had such a good paycheck coming in.

Williams, Fishbowl: We had two main competitors who decided to stand still in this tough market. We decided to press, and now they’re no longer in our space. Not only startups but also mature companies need to make smart decisions during this type of economy. There’s less competition, so it’s a great time to capture market share.

Brown, Box Home Loans: We’re in a recession, but every time I go out to eat, the place is packed. People are paying $5 for a cupcake and $3.50 for a cookie. No matter the market, you can find a niche and provide something people are going to pay for.

Bennett, BusinessQ: During the start-up stage, what legal issues need to be addressed early on that entrepreneurs may overlook?

Driggs, Attorney at Law: Entrepreneurs don’t start a business so they can focus on compliance. But you need infrastructure that will help grow your business while being compliant. Generally speaking, we’ve been better in Utah at growing business ideas rather than growing healthy organizations that turn into long-term employers. Payroll, employment eligibility, I-9 form, e-verify — it’s more complicated than people realize and there are serious penalties if you don’t comply. This is where the entrepreneur’s risk-tasking trait can be a liability. I see common problems with compensation structures, agreements, commissions, bonuses. If they’re ambiguous, you’re going to have claims down the road. The current administration is ramping up enforcement. You can’t treat any employee as salary exempt; they’ve got to fit into an exemption. Get resources to set up your infrastructure and employee base correctly so it can grow in a healthy manner and avoid a painful adjustment period.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Did any of you learn these lessons the hard way?

Whalen, Property 23: Every single thing he just said I did not do when I started my company. A year and a half into running the business, we were growing like gangbusters and losing money. The best decision I ever made in business was bringing on my partner, who is the polar opposite of me. I went to one semester of college, dropped out and never looked back. He was well educated, structured and methodical — not an entrepreneur at all — and it transformed our business. It brought us from scooting-along to growing more than 1,000 percent and becoming a force to be reckoned with. Entrepreneurs don’t know what payroll taxes are half of the time, let alone how to pay them. You say I-9, and that’s like speaking Greek to most entrepreneurs.

Driggs, Attorney at Law: That’s not the fun part of running a business, but it is essential. If you don’t do it, there are consequences. Small businesses begin to grow and there’s a painful transition — there’s a loss of talent, there’s a loss of reputation of the leaders of the organization — and it can impact their ability to survive.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What is the best business decision each of you ever made?

Robarge, Robarge Collision: Jumping in headfirst. You can’t be an entrepreneur on the fence, wanting the security and wanting the dream.

Brown, Box Home Loans: Having the right partner is paramount. I had one partner who was not right, and the whole thing exploded. My current partner, Jeff Reeves, and I line up on our core principles, but we’re like a mom and dad and we go at it. We have different opinions, but because the principles we govern our lives by are the same, it’s been tremendous. Choose a partner who’s opposite so you can look from angles you didn’t see before. Then have the wherewithal to say, “I didn’t consider that.” I can’t imagine being an entrepreneur without a partner to keep me in line and vice versa.

Williams, Fishbowl: For me my best decision was determining what my values or my non-negotiables were. The people I would hire, now 78, needed to agree with my values. There are four non-negotiables, and if you can’t live with them, you can’t work here. It’s had a natural weeding-out effect. The four are: You have to trust one another. You have to believe in what we’re doing. You have to be loyal to one another. You have to be fully committed. If you can’t do any one of those things, you can’t work at Fishbowl.

Bennett, BusinessQ: In addition to aligning values, how can businesses grow by harnessing technology?

Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions: Technology is what makes a business relevant. The key challenge is identifying which technology will directly impact your business and then aligning yourself with that technology at the right time. Timing is critical. If you hitch your wagon too soon, you’ll waste significant resources and potentially upset your customers due to glitches. But if you’re late and the technology is disruptive enough to your market, you’ll get passed by and be out of business.

Brown, Box Home Loans: Our industry is full of variables, and our success depended on eliminating as many variables as possible. There wasn’t off-the-shelf technology that would meet our needs, so we had to build it ourselves. Over the past five years we’ve built a platform that has put us light years ahead of our competitors. Technology allows us to attract an infinite amount of customers. Fulfillment is another thing and we’re finite in that respect, but technology allows us to be different and attract customers.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What part should social media play in running a business?

Whalen, Property 23: Technology can separate you from your client. But if you are real, social media creates a nice buffer.

Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions: We’ve put time and money into building corporate structures and corporate brands, but social media allows people to get to know you as a person. They see you’re a decent human being, and they are more likely to do business with you. But that’s a new perspective for me. I’ve focused on creating a brand that has the right colors and says the right thing to fit the corporate mold.

Driggs, Attorney at Law: From a legal perspective, I’m seeing an increased number of issues where employees are misusing social media — everything from sexual harassment to threats of violence made over Facebook to complaining about the boss or the company on social media. It’s becoming more important to have a social media use policy in your workplace. Talk to your employees about your expectations as far as them making comments about work through social media.

Robarge, Robarge Collision: The power of Facebook and Twitter initially seems so overpowering compared to the other forms of media that I got caught up in that for a while to promote my business. It was a real slap when I got an article in the Daily Herald. The response reminded me that I had been attracting Gen Y, Gen X on Facebook and Twitter, but the clients who had money to pay their deductible and the claim were another demographic. We need to be cautious. Social media is relevant, but only a slim margin of my clientele base was finding me there.

Whalen, Property 23: Social media is crucial, it’s imperative, it’s fantastic. But there’s nothing that trumps a face-to-face meeting. They’re not buying because your Facebook is cooler than their Facebook. They’re buying you.

Williams, Fishbowl: We don’t see our clients, so social mediums are a source to provide awareness. We’ve received an amazing amount of leads through Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn has enabled us to reach out to the Utah market, which we’ve not done a good job of in the past. It has provided great one-on-one meetings with our local customers for the first time.

Brown, Box Home Loans: We’re having people post their experiences on Facebook. When we set out, our goal was to turn every client into three. So we have to provide a vastly different experience. Having people talk about us positively is crucial to our plan and has been from the beginning. Technology doesn’t do that, but it does allow us to systematize all of the variables. Our loan officers proactively reach out to the clients through our technology, which makes people say, “Wow. They care about me, they held my hand through this thing, and I’m going to tell everyone I know.”

Williams, Fishbowl: One of my employees was looking at getting a loan from you. They shot a message to 1,500 Facebook friends and got seven responses about you, all positive.

Brown, Box Home Loans: That is great to hear. Clients rate us as we’re going through the process. They can change the dial on a scale of 1 to 10 on how are we doing. If they drop the score, the loan officer, the processor and the manager get e-mails instantly so we can change that opinion before it’s set in stone. That was our best safety net when we hit explosive growth.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What pains have you experienced as you’ve grown? And secondly, how do you grow without giving up control of your company?

Robarge, Robarge Collision: In 2007 our business model quit working. We tightened our belts, reduced our overhead and whittled away at expenses. The question of growth is a double-edged sword for me. Do we want to grow bigger or more profitable? I found I could grow on the bottom line instead of gross revenue. For me, less is more. We grew by minimizing our menu. We want to be the best at insurance paid-for collision repair, and we did away with diesel performance, auto accessories and retail. We fixed a lot less cars for a lot more money last year.

Williams, Fishbowl: I’ve tried growing different ways. I’ve had lines of credit, VC money, bank money. This time around I decided not to have anyone own me. It’s been interesting to make decisions based on my own cash flow. We’re fortunate to be in BusinessQ’s Fastest-Growing Companies, but we’re also debt free. We can make decisions not based on what the bank wants or what the VC decides. It’s a remarkable experience.

Whalen, Property 23: As an entrepreneur you come in saying, “It’s my idea, my vision. I’m the biggest fish in the room and nobody can tell me otherwise.” Most entrepreneurs need humility. The number one thing I had to realize is there are things I don’t know. I have to find people who can help me. I’m an idea guy. I’m not a money guy. I’m not a structure guy. I’m not a spreadsheet guy. An entrepreneur has to check their pride and realize that running a million miles an hour is great, being in magazines is fantastic, being noted for explosive growth is great, but if you can’t have longevity and sustainability, it doesn’t matter. You have to bring people in who can do what you don’t do. If you don’t, you’ll fail. Period.

Driggs, Attorney at Law: At first, enthusiastic entrepreneurs say, “Let’s all get on the bus, and we’ll figure out where we’re going down the road.” They start making promises about commissions, bonuses, stock options. As the business matures, you’ve got to revisit those promises. Make promises in a reasonable way. Otherwise, there will be complications.

Williams, Fishbowl: I grew up on a ranch and my father would say, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Building the right structure, not promising flippantly, documenting things and having a good attorney looking over your documents is so important. You don’t think it is in the beginning. Sometimes you don’t even think it is down the road because everyone’s so excited. But if you ever hit the wall, things start breaking loose. Having your core infrastructure documented is vital to longevity.

Driggs, Attorney at Law: Just documenting conversations in an e-mail is so important. That has saved me countless times. Write down that which you visited and promised.

Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions: The textbook challenge for most entrepreneurs is giving up control and trusting others to make decisions. While difficult at first, this has proved to be extremely liberating. We’ve been fortunate to find enormously capable people, and there is no question we’ve made strides as a company that wouldn’t have happened if only the owners made the decisions. With that, when you lose one of those capable people, it’s extremely painful.

Whalen, Property 23: When the sky is blue, everybody is your buddy. When the ship starts sinking, you realize who is going to bail water. As an entrepreneur, you put your blood, sweat and tears into that baby, so when somebody realizes that’s not the thing for them anymore, you take it personally.

Bennett, BusinessQ: When is it time to share the success with employees and the community?

Williams, Fishbowl: From the first day, set aside a portion of your company for your employees. Do it in a way that’s prudent and that they have to perform to receive and that is given over time. As far as community social responsibility, that’s from day one, also. That needs to be a part of your culture. People are compelled by that behavior from leaders.

Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions: People want to be part of organizations they can take pride in. You want to take care of your employees and create a family environment. You want to pay them competitively. Creating a brand that I can be proud of, that my family and my employees’ families can be proud of — that’s what it’s all about.

Robarge, Robarge Collision: It’s pretty tough for a company to say, “When we get this successful, then we’ll give it out.” Entrepreneurs are givers at heart. We want to earn more so we can give more. That’s ingrained and that’s part of our plan. Being able to give and see that multiply is as equally rewarding for me as any of my bottomlines have ever been.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Lastly, what is the payday for being an entrepreneur? Why do we do this?

Williams, Fishbowl: Seeing people succeed and gain in their self-confidence, competency and skill set is a huge payday for me. To get to the point where a company has a shot at lasting forever is my most recent massive payday. My own children work at Fishbowl; I hope my grandchildren work there. I’m driven to have an enduring company for generations.

Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions: Candidly, when we started out, I was driven 100 percent by how much money we could make. Fortunately, that has evolved into wanting to build a respectable brand that people recognize in a positive light. Another major payday comes from creating new jobs.

Brown, Box Home Loans: The reward is two-fold. It starts because it’s a great idea and you think you can make a lot of money. But then the organization grows and takes on a life of its own to the point where you transfer ownership of responsibilities and roles. And then other individuals are making it better than you were.

Robarge, Robarge Collision: When I started it wasn’t for the money because there wasn’t any. The biggest reason I did it was to exercise my creativity. I can get up early and run hard and make this work, or I can sleep in and do nothing. I choose to run. I choose to create something bigger than me. It’s awesome to provide a living for others.

Driggs, Attorney at Law: As an employment law attorney, I’m well aware there are many employers in this valley who will go to great lengths to avoid contacting a law firm when they need help. I like finding a way to give them resources in a way they’re comfortable getting it. My practice focuses on prevention and early resolution. The majority of my clients don’t get sued because I work with them closely. It’s rewarding to provide resources that help others succeed.

Whalen, Property 23: The biggest payday is to hear people talking about what we have. There’s something that stirs a sense of pride in me to know people are talking about something that came out of my brain. It’s exciting.

Williams, Fishbowl: When we gather as a company socially, I like to talk to the spouses of my employees. For them to say he or she is excited about what is going on, that gets me emotional. Another example of a payday — three years ago, my 25-year-old son contracted cancer. For six months I didn’t go into work. The company rallied, and we actually had one of our best six months ever. They were motivated by helping and serving when I needed them. That was a massive payday.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Thanks for your insights. Now let’s go grow our businesses!

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Jeanette Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What trends are you seeing with regards to small business benefits packages?

Keith Williams, Employer Solutions Group: Basic programs that include health insurance, dental and vision have in some cases been eliminated or the deductibles are going higher — or they are charging higher premiums to employees. To offset that and still maintain a good work environment, we’ve seen companies offer different benefits such as memberships to fitness centers and allowances toward lunch.

Scott Miller, MillerWade Group: We spend a lot of our time in the small group market. It’s alarming to us the number of businesses not taking proactive approaches in regards to health care reform. Small companies qualify for a tax credit based on certain criteria and can get a credit for the premium they are paying on behalf of the employees. It’s amazing how many don’t want to go to that next level to learn about it. We are approaching this as an opportunity to become a trusted adviser to them. We’ve seen a trend in the past three or four years toward more consumer-directed health care — HSAs, HRAs.

Keith Tintle, MountainStar: The lack of public education is phenomenal. We have an arm through our hospital where we can provide information and connect people with opportunities like the Utah Health Exchange, benefit packages and tax credits. We find more and more people accessing that information, but unfortunately it’s when they get into the hospital. Education needs to happen before that.

Don Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: We conduct a market-wide study every year of employee benefit offerings. In the last couple of years, we expected to see a reduction of the values of offerings. What we’ve seen is that the quality of benefits has held steady. Companies are not cutting their benefits. What we are seeing in the marketplace is a decrease in the size of employee groups due to layoffs and reductions in force. We’re not seeing companies eliminate benefit programs across the board.

Tintle, MountainStar: Employers are trying to maintain a benefit level. In addition, they oftentimes incentivize employees with higher co-pays and deductibles to think twice before they access health care. As a hospital, we have seen an increase in bad debt because we are collecting from the public and not from the insurance companies due to high deductibles.

Miller, MillerWade: We insure several physician clinics as well. Their receivables are much higher than what they used to be.

Tintle, MountainStar: Candidly, a part that speaks well to people using the health care system judiciously and appropriately. You want people to access health care when they need it. But at the same time, there’s a bit of a mentality where people expect first-dollar coverage, where health insurance starts looking like an entitlement or a right. Then they look at the employer and say, “Why don’t you give me that benefit?”

Ron Nielsen, UBIC: Companies have eliminated excess waste because the economy was different at the time they started their business. Benefits are still being offered to those people who continue to be key in the workforce. Business owners are just working a little smarter, a little harder, a little more efficiently.

Tintle, MountainStar: We are becoming a more productive country in terms of gross national product, but that doesn’t address unemployment.

Miller, MillerWade Group: For so many years there was the entitlement mentality — minimal premium out of pocket. But people didn’t know what the employer was paying to support that. Employers are having to squeeze to still offer a decent benefit package. Consumerism has been forced upon us as a society so we can see what insurance is truly costing us. It’s forcing us to take a more proactive approach to how we spend our health care dollars. It will be an evolutionary process to move people from traditional plans to HSAs and HRAs. It’s a paradigm shift about what the purpose of insurance is.

Tintle, MountainStar: It’s all evolutionary. We’ve been in a business-driven model until now. It’s becoming much more consumer-driven. What scares me is that if the business-driven model to consumer-driven model stops circling back around, people will look to the government as an entitlement.

Williams, Employer Solutions Group: Most companies are having to offer a dual option because the transition away from traditional insurance for the employee is difficult. They go from having a $10 co-pay to being charged $100-plus for an office visit. In the event of a hospital stay, it’s much higher depending on deductibles. One thing that’s difficult in a consumer-driven plan is that a patient will want to know what a treatment will cost. In my experience, a physician can’t always tell you. There’s a disconnect that makes it difficult for the consumer to use their dollars wisely.

Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: I agree, but fortunately the legislature is tuned into that problem. With the creation of the Utah Health Exchange, the legislature wants consumers to be able to find information about cost and quality. But it’s a little difficult to get at because of contractual privacy between insurance companies and providers. We already have some laws that require providers to publish their rates to some degree. They don’t have to publish their allowed amounts, but we are taking steps in the right direction.

Nielsen, UBIC: If consumers realized that insurance companies are actually for-profit companies, and if they treated the way they went to the hospital or doctor as money that comes out of their pocket, we’d all be better off.

Tintle, MountainStar: One problem is that small-business owners don’t know what to anticipate in terms of health care costs. An insurance company could drop a company if actuarially, the rates are higher. You can make yourself uninsurable. That’s why the Exchange makes sense. It’s what I like to call a defined contribution model. With defined contribution, small-business owners can predict their health care costs more effectively.

Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: The intent of the Exchange is to take consumerism to the next level. What we wanted to see was consumers having more choice over the product, who they buy it from, what design they wanted to buy. We wanted to create a system where employees could have a great choice in the product offerings they have and yet not go all the way over to disbanding group insurance and going to an every-man-for-himself system.

Tintle, MountainStar: The Exchange only applies to companies that have from two to 50 employees, however.

Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: There is a large employer pilot starting Jan. 1. Time will tell whether those medium-sized companies like the system. There’s a great opportunity for them to embrace the Exchange.

Tintle, MountainStar: It’s comforting that the Exchange isn’t meant to replace group insurance. It’s meant to augment it and be compatible with it. It allows existing insurance companies to exist in this market without the government stepping in.

Miller, MillerWade Group: In beta tests for the Exchange this past year, we didn’t get quite the response we were expecting: 133 registered and 13 jumped into the system. There were two or three groups that dropped throughout the year for various reasons, maybe because it wasn’t as user-friendly as it needed to be. With open enrollment in January of this year, hopefully we’ll see more success. I’m a big promoter of the Exchange. It creates flexibility for the employer to avoid the double digit increases they would have to absorb. Can the Exchange work long term? No question. Will it bring coverage to the uninsured? We’re not sure yet. In Utah, we’re being recognized as one of the more proactive states with regards to the Exchange. Outside of Massachusetts, I’m not aware of any other states that have an operable exchange.

Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: The Massachusetts Commonwealth Connector was really built around the individual market. They’ve accomplished some good. They’ve reduced the number of uninsured. The question is whether or not these subsidies are sustainable.

Miller, MillerWade Group: Basically, if you make less than $88,000 a year, you’re going to qualify for some form of subsidy based on the current model.

Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: I have five children, and as a family of seven, under the 2010 federal limits, I’ll be able to qualify in 2014 for an insurance subsidy making less than $133,000 a year. And that number is going to be bigger in 2014 than it is now. I think the intent of the administration was to create a system that was going to embrace the middle class. The subsidies they are providing are not necessarily for low-income people.

Williams, Employer Solutions Group: One of the sources of the hesitation you see from insurance brokers as well as employers is in the fact that it’s so new. I don’t know if there’s been a lot of education on the Exchange yet. Long term, it’ll be a good option. The transparency of costs is a big draw.

Tintle, MountainStar: The operative word here is transparency, not just with cost, but in terms of quality and outcomes. Even though we know what the cost of a McDonald’s burger is, we have to make a decision in our mind, “Is that low price worth the quality or do I get a more expensive burger at Five Guys?”

Miller, MillerWade Group: You hope that by insuring more people, you insure more healthy people — those who might have been on the outside looking in because they didn’t feel they needed insurance before. Obviously they contribute in a real positive way to the overall claims experience and loss ratios. So if you can accomplish that through mandating that everyone gets insurance, that could help. Again the question is going to be cost. When insurance companies are forced to insure everybody, what impact will that have on the whole? We saw some of that in 1997. HIPAA passed in 1996, and in 1997 we started seeing double digit growth. It was a direct correlation of insurance companies having to bring on all of these uninsurable people.

Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: The biggest challenge the Exchange experienced in the beta test was that it was charging companies more to buy the same product under a different piece of paper. That had to be corrected. Now when you go to the exchange, you’ll see parity in pricing.

Williams, Employer Solutions Group: When we tried to set groups up on the Exchange, we found higher prices as well. Now that the price is being addressed, that will help with participation.

Nielsen, UBIC: You have to remember that insurance companies have to be profitable to survive. If you have to insure everybody, you have to look at things actuarially and make sure you price risk accordingly. If the government says you have to price things at a certain place, there’s going to be fallout.

Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: Those who were part of the Exchange were already guaranteed issue under law. It wasn’t a move from a guaranteed-issue environment to a non-guaranteed-issue environment.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: Obviously you are all experts in this industry. But what advice do you have for business owners who are experts in their own industry and don’t have the time or interest to digest all of this information about health care?

Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: It depends on the size of the company, whether they are large or small firms. In my opinion, not to be self-serving, but they are wise to find others who deal with this industry. There is so much information to digest. Larger companies can have a member of their HR staff who are about as knowledgeable as a broker. They can afford to pay a person to do just that. But most companies just can’t pay employees to know this stuff. It’s wise to rely on an adviser.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What are some of the common mistakes business owners make regarding insurance?

Miller, MillerWade Group: Not knowing the basic, fundamental requirements — eligibility requirements, participation requirements, contributions requirements. They need to make sure they are meeting guidelines.

Tintle, MountainStar: I’m not going to say this is the responsibility of the employer, because I think it’s really the responsibility of the individual consumer — but understanding appropriate use of health care is vital. These new developments give our employees incentives to take care of themselves and develop relationships with primary care physicians and prevent paying huge amounts for an ER visit with something that could have been taken care of with an $80 doctor visit.

Nielsen, UBIC: I agree with you on the primary care physicians, but I would take it a step further. I think not getting in a relationship with an agency or broker is the biggest mistake because the agency or broker can understand that risk. They have seen what they’ve done in the past and can assist that business owner in making the right decisions.

Miller, MillerWade Group: As an agency we add as much value to our relationship with clients as possible. It’s not just about health insurance anymore; it’s about all the things you can bring to the table. The new health care bill is 2,000 pages long. People studying it deeply are saying that for every one page of the bill, there are 10 or 15 pages to define and clarify what that one page contained. We’re looking at a final bill that’s 20,000 or 30,000 pages long. How does the average employer understand what that’s going to mean to them? That’s going to fall back on us as consultants to understand what they need to understand and explain it to them.

Williams, Employer Solutions Group: That’s exactly right. For the employers, it’s not only nearly impossible to know what they need to know to make a good decision, but for the most part, they don’t really want to know. That’s not what they went into business for. They’ve got other things on their plate. Does this have a financial impact for them? Certainly. But they need someone to steer them through it.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What final advice do you have for business owners in regards to insurance and employee benefits?

Nielsen, UBIC: The employers need to focus on their loss ratio. What are they doing to lower their loss ratio for the insurance carrier? In the end it is going to help them if they have a lower-cost ratio. It will save their company money, making their bottom line look better.

Miller, MillerWade Group: We try to get our clients to look at the benefits they are offering through the eyes of the employees. If they were an employee, would they see it as an attractive and user-friendly package? It can be complicated. If we as the agency broker can give them resources to turn to if they are having problems and issues, the relationship works. They want to know they are going to get taken care of. That’s what we can bring to the table from a consultant standpoint.

Garlitz, FirstWest Benefits: It occurs to me that some employers may offer benefits because paternalistically they want to take care of their people. More commonly business owners pay for them because they have to competitively. As we study the marketplace annually, we’ve learned those are the two main priorities companies have. They want to bring in good people and keep them there. That’s why they are offering benefits. What an employer needs to do is understand their market, not just the overall market. They need to understand what they specifically have to offer to be competitive in the market they’re in.

Williams, Employer Solutions Group: I agree. Employers need to get a good sense of what the market is doing, but they also need to be creative and offer non-traditional benefits with little to no cost to give them an edge over the competition. Employers can get a good feel from the employees of what they would value.

Tintle, MountainStar: The trend of our whole discussion seems to be transparency. It puts a lot of responsibility on all of us to be accountable for what we do, to be more transparent in outcomes and expectations. A big piece of that is that as a society we need to come to a recognition of what our responsibility is to the uninsured.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: Thank you for your thoughts today.

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Jeanette Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What is unique about the legal environment in Utah County?

Bill Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: If you compare the Utah County bar to bars in other parts of the country, we’re a fairly collegial group. We extend courtesies to other counsel. There’s a common denominator of expected good behavior.

Chris Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: I’m thrilled to practice law in such a wonderful valley. We have great people. We have a competitive growth dynamic. There are 600 attorneys, which is one per 1,000 people. We’re courteous and civil practitioners, which I really appreciate. Some of my best friends are my competitors. People can have a negative view of attorneys, but we buck that trend.

Michael Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: Most of Utah Valley’s companies are homegrown. You can’t pacify clients by saying, “There is a corporate culture in force, and I don’t really want to do this, but I have to.” Here we have a lot of multi-level marketing companies still run by their founders, and you don’t have corporate ill-will that sometimes you get with clients from New York and other places.

Patrick Burt, Kipp & Christian: Although Utah has a rapidly growing economic base, it still has a small legal community. I started my career in Phoenix, and you would never run into the same judge or attorney twice. Here you have to be conscientious about being professional because you are going to run into the same people later. You have to build up the camaraderie, because it’s going to help in future litigation matters.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What are some of the top legal concerns you are dealing with in our community right now?

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: Clearly, the recession has had an impact on the legal profession. We’re seeing more debtor/creditor issues, like foreclosures. We’re trying to find ways to help our corporate clients stay afloat.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: There’s a lot more attention paid to appropriate capitalization of entities. Several years ago people just needed a good idea and things would work. Now people are focusing on the fundamentals that have always been important. You have to be well capitalized. You have to have a firm business plan that will take you through ups and downs.

Burt, Kipp & Christian: Cost is a big thing. Everybody is feeling a pinch. You have to consider how to comply with the laws so you avoid litigation. Or if you are in litigation, you need to get your best result without breaking the bank.

Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: We see a lot more settlements now rather than going to trial, and the cases settle much more quickly than they have in the past. Alternative compensation is a bigger deal now. We do a lot of flat fee work that we didn’t do before. I’m in the intellectual property field. It’s a difficult decision to cut back on an IP portfolio, but we’re seeing a lot of careful paring back.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What can business owners do to find a good attorney and then maintain a good relationship?

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: All too often we find that a new startup business seeks out counsel in their Elder’s Quorum and ends up with a divorce lawyer doing corporate work. Shopping around is good. Asking the right questions helps. Once a relationship is established, honesty and good communication make it work.

Burt, Kipp & Christian: You should communicate with your attorney early and often. We specialize in civil litigation. People show up to us when the wheels have already fallen off. From there we find a good solution with the situation they have handed us. You’d be surprised how many situations could have been avoided. If you talk to an attorney early and often, they can steer you away from problem spots.

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: Nothing beats preventative medicine, no matter the profession.

Caleb Frischknecht, Ray Quinney & Nebeker: Communicate with your attorney and insist on reciprocal communications. Be clear at the outset what the fee arrangement is and the scope of work.

Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: As some companies grow, their biggest problem is getting rid of their president. The same thing is true for counsel; you can’t be afraid to grow your counsel as your company matures. I like loyalty. It’s an important part of a relationship, but sometimes either the attorney has to say “You’ve outgrown me,” or the company has to recognize that. It’s part of having an honest relationship with your client.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: The nature of law has changed. There used to be general practitioners, but now there is individual focus within a framework of a general practice. Quite frankly, being able to say no to a client and refer them out is difficult. I had a conversation with a fellow yesterday, and I told him that Bill Fillmore was perfect for this case. It wasn’t Chris Dexter. You need to know your limits to be good, and know the area to which you dedicate yourself.

Burt, Kipp & Christian: On the other side, business owners also need to know their limits. My mentor always told me you need to let the client know we are the surgeons. You have to trust us when you hand us your case. Obviously we want your input, obviously we want you in the know. But ultimately we are the surgeons, so trust us.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: How has technology changed your industry?

Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: My first 25 minutes of everyday are spent going to five professional Web sites that offer opportunities to chat with other IP attorneys. I’m able to have a dialogue with 50 people from different states to establish best practices and raise the level of my personal practice. By doing that every day, I’m right up on top of the changes that happen in my profession.

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: Everything is faster. In most ways, it’s a good thing, but it is harder to walk away from your office and turn your phone off. We’re also going paperless at an accelerated rate.

Frischknecht, Ray Quinney & Nebeker: Technology has sped things up. Everyone, including the courts, expect accelerated responses. We must be careful in addressing these demands not to lose the art of contemplative and serious analysis of what to those with minimal exposure to the process sometimes mistakenly view as simple and straightforward; it heightens our responsibility to communicate clearly with our clients.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: Law books have become antiques. When I started practicing 15 years ago, law books were important. Then we received an updated CD each quarter. Now legal research is on the Internet. You can find things immediately. That’s good and bad. Sometimes the consumer thinks they have the knowledge and expertise to answer all of their questions just by Googling. That’s not the case. Lawyers should be used as advisers as entrepreneurs go through the life cycle of their businesses.

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: There’s such a temptation for legal consumers to go online and find a form and fill in the blanks and think that’s adequate. That’s so deceptive. There is so much more complexity that goes into forming a business. They need legal guidance. Filling in blanks leads to trouble.

Burt, Kipp & Christian: Bill mentioned speed. I think e-mail is a pro and con for business owners and lawyers. It makes communication much faster, but it’s much easier to send off something you shouldn’t. One of the first things we do when we get a case is gather e-mail correspondence. As business owners and executives, you have to be careful what you say in an e-mail because it can be brought into a legal case.

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: There’s a false sense of security with office e-mails. They become the treasure trove. People need to be very careful of the defamation risks involved in shooting off e-mails in the heat of the moment as Patrick indicates.

Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: Take that one step further with Facebook. We’re seeing a lot of social media problems arise because people think what they are saying is confidential, but it’s not. People post things they wouldn’t say in a professional environment.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What myths about your profession would you like to dispel?

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: By and large, in this county and in the state of Utah, the phrase “honest lawyer” is not an oxymoron. Most of our professional colleagues are very ethical.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: Most of the lawyers who get past all of the barriers to entry are there because they want to help people. We want to solve problems. I don’t know any other profession that gives more pro bono back to the community. Bill, for example, sits on many boards and gives of his time. Attorneys don’t have horns. We like people, we like to help businesses and we like to help families succeed. That’s what motivates me.

Burt, Kipp & Christian: When I first started practicing, people would say I was too nice to be a lawyer. The perception is that we are fighting tooth and nail — and billing you the entire time we’re doing it. My experience is you get a lot further in law and you get better results for your clients if you treat people kindly and if you give respect and have integrity. We want our clients to refer other clients. We want a good reputation in the community.

Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: There are lots of ways to get rewarded in our field. Money was an important motivator early on. As I’ve gotten older, money is less important and I strive for other things. An attorney who is striving for appreciation and relationships is going to do things for free, and all you have to do is invite him out to lunch and be open and honest with him. As the population ages, you have a lot of older attorneys who aren’t driven by money, but are driven by relationships.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What are some of the common ways businesses are charged for legal services?

Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: Everything I do is fixed fee, except for some contract negotiations. Clients know up front what they will pay. They know it’s going to cost them $650. If it’s $659, they will call me. People like fixed fee. I like it, too. Perhaps 30 percent of what an attorney does is fight with accounting and fight with a client over bills. It’s a complete waste of time.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: The fixed fee model is wonderful. I don’t know if I could afford to sign up for a blank check of $250 an hour with the risk of it ending up being $3,000 or $4,000 or much more. That is beyond the comfort level of a small- or medium-sized business. With fixed fee, clients can call the attorney without fearing, “Gee, I’m going to get this ticky-tacky bill for copies or a phone call.”

Burt, Kipp & Christian: Since most of our work is civil litigation, each case is unique and a flat fee usually won’t work. We go with the tried-and-true hourly rate, but we always make sure to provide a budget. Our firm is also good about sending monthly status letters to clients.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What are common legal needs that family businesses need to address?

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: One of the key things is a succession plan. What happens when Dad dies? Failure to answer that question legally can sometimes lead to frustration and bitterness in families. You are well advised to take care of that in advance.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: The theme this morning seems to be communication. Attorneys can facilitate that communication within a family. Sometimes it’s difficult for family members to have those conversations without a disinterested third party.

Burt, Kipp & Christian: Chris mentioned this earlier. You should have an attorney on board when you start the business. Sometimes family businesses aren’t ready for growth. Sometimes their paperwork or structure is not set up for that. They need ongoing legal counsel. Avoid the handshake oral agreements that often go along with family businesses. You need documentation and paper trails.

Frischknecht, Ray Quinney & Nebeker: Family businesses are very interesting. They involve succession issues, how to capitalize for growth, when and if to involve venture capital, how to pass on interests through estate planning, and a variety of other issues for a business that is dear to the heart of those who created it.

Burt, Kipp & Christian: If there is an attorney on board in a family business, it’s good to know who the attorney represents. Sometimes the attorney thinks he’s representing the company’s best interests, but family members have other ideas. The family needs to know the attorney’s role ahead of time.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: How have changes in real estate affected you?

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: We’re doing a lot of negotiations with banks. Real estate developers have been turned upside down. The appraised value of their properties is now less than their loans. This creates all kinds of problems for the lender and borrower — and a lot of legal work to be done in that regard. Frankly, some of the best men and women in this valley are under water and struggling to find a way out of the recession. There are things that can be done, strategies for negotiating with borrowers. There is a considerable increase in these types of cases.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: We practice bankruptcy law. There was a decrease of cases after October 2005, but now it has come back with a vengeance. Unfortunately, some get themselves into situations that are unwise from the start; but most who face bankruptcy are well intended. Nobody wants to file bankruptcy. They would like to negotiate their way out and honor their commitments, but the economy manifests itself in terrible ways.

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: The big problem in this valley and this state is the credit crunch. We’ve seen a lot of our clients who have done everything to weather the storm. They’ve cut expenses, they’ve laid off non-essential employees. They’ve cut back on frills and office parties. They’ve restructured their insurance plan, and the storm is still raging. They are up against the wall thinking the credit markets will ease up, but despite all the talk out of Washington, it hasn’t. Credit is still tough. Even those who are willing to lend are facing far heavier regulatory schemes. It’s a problem that isn’t going away quickly. I’m worried about small businesses who are stretched as far as they can go. The light isn’t there yet for a lot of them, and they don’t have much more capacity to protect their businesses. We’ve got to ease up the credit market.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: The national focus should be on small- and medium- sized business, which are truly the backbone of our local economy. If they can’t access capital, they can’t make payroll when things are tight. They can’t expand. They can’t do a lot of the things that would bless the lives of their employees.

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: I bet Michael sees these trends in his IP practice.

Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: We’re doing more provisional pats. The real estate side, interestingly enough, has benefited tech companies because there’s cheap space out there right now. Tech companies have weathered the storm better than most. Most of my clients are hiring. They have a little more money to spend on IT because they are spending less on rent.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: Let’s look forward. I know you have a front seat to the trends in the local economy. What do you foresee happening in our community in the next 10 years?

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: The economy is going to rebound. We have a remarkable entrepreneurial engine in this county that is not on its deathbed. It’s been suppressed by a lack of credit, but we’ll see a rebound. The Utah economy has done better than most states.

Burt, Kipp & Christian: Utah didn’t get hit as hard as other regions because of our entrepreneurial spirit, our fighter mentality. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Utah rebound fairly quickly.

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: The state and local government leaders have done a great job keeping us in the black and staying on top of revenue decreases. We’re well positioned for the future.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: One thing Utahns understand — and the national politicians need to understand — is that capitalism is still good. Self-interest rightly understood is a good thing. As we move forward with ideas and develop in a competitive way, we can make great things happen. That is why America has led the world this last century. We are the good guys economically and socially. As long as we are responsible and respectful in the way we do business and the way we live our lives, we can still be a great force.

Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: My prediction is that in the IP world, we’re going to see a lot more globalization. If not in the next 10 years, soon after we’ll see a world patent. We’ll also see movement toward multidisciplinary practices where attorneys work in offices with accountants and engineers where a client can come in and get all those benefits from one visit.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What is the job market like for those coming out of law school now?

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: With two law schools in the state, we are churning out 300 new lawyers per year. Both schools prepare their graduates for big firm practice and constitutional law practice, and the reality is that many end up in small- to medium-sized firms, so it’s incredibly competitive. I’ve received 30 inquiries lately from people saying “Please, please can I work for free to get experience?”

Krieger, Kirton & McConkie: A lot of the 2009 graduates are starting now because they were deferred by law firms last year. Not only are firms not hiring people this year, but they are filling the few jobs they do have with people from last year.

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: We read about big law firms laying off substantial numbers of young lawyers. That’s tough. A lot of young lawyers would be wise to see law school as a stepping stone to another profession.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: It’s a great time to be in law school, though. It’ll come around.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: What final message would you like to leave with our readers in regards to the legal industry?

Burt, Kipp & Christian: For business owners, it’s crucially important to find the right attorney and be in touch often. Keep them in the loop as business grows.

Fillmore, Fillmore Spencer: Most lawyers want to be perceived as a client’s friend and not a necessary evil. We want to be there for them.

Burt, Kipp & Christian: We take pride in our clients’ successes. It’s a joint venture.

Dexter, Dexter & Dexter: As attorneys, we can make a positive impact not only on the local community but on solving some of the issues people are dealing with. We are here to help.

Bennett, Editor of BusinessQ: Thank you for your time today. I learned a lot, and I know our readers will, too.

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Jeanette Bennett, BusinessQ: What makes Utah Valley such a great place to start a business?

Neal Maxfield, Entrepreneurship Institute at UVU: It’s a culture that continues year after year. I have students in our entrepreneurship program whose parents have their own businesses. They’ve seen it modeled, and they have an excitement about business. Many start businesses as young college students.

Sonny Olsen, Heideman, McKay, Heugly & Olsen: Before becoming an attorney, I worked for dot-com startups. I would travel around the country, and people would ask why Utah County is another Silicon Valley. It’s a culture thing. People in this area are focused. They have fewer hobbies and fewer social activities in the evenings. They have fewer distractions and more support. Also, the culture is focused on networking, and there are simply some very bright people here.

Lance Black, Eli Kirk: Part of our culture is go to school and get an education. We have good people here, and when we put good people in good businesses, we thrive.

Eddy Hood, Dashboard Accountants: There’s a really strong mentorship mentality here. There are great angels, investors and lenders. These people take pride in saying, “I’ll take you under my wing.” You’ve got guys like Alan Hall, Greg Warnock and Brent Crabtree who will take time to help you grow your business.

Kiley Hix, Strategic Staffing: It’s a tight community with a lot of independent thinkers. In the staffing industry, we deal with businesses that are making decisions quickly. Entrepreneurs graduate from college and are ready to take on the world. Utah County breeds that independent nature, that entrepreneurial spirit.

Brandon Fugal, Coldwell Banker: We live in a very pro-business state. Most of the business owners in California right now feel like they’re penalized for being successful. Utah is fostering development and playing into our young, highly-educated workforce — and that entrepreneurial spirit we have. We have the perfect storm of benefits to foster growth in a difficult market.

David Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions: I agree that the culture and independence factor in, but it’s also out of necessity. I’m from Washington, D.C., and the mindset there is quite different. There are many large companies with established brands that have strongholds on market share, and the barrier to entry is daunting. Comparatively, in Utah there are more small to midsized companies so the opportunities of working up the corporate ladder at a blue chip firm are harder to come by. But that’s the beauty of Utah. There aren’t five large companies in every vertical that have the market cornered, so if you look hard enough, there are soft spots or ways to penetrate market share.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Utah is second in the nation for population growth — second only to Wyoming. How does population factor into our business growth?

Hix, Strategic Staffing: It makes for a great labor market. Even when unemployment was at 2.8 percent two years ago, you could find good employees. You might have had to turn over a few more rocks, but you could find employees.
Lee Livingston, Fibernet: Population growth means you need more businesses to feed the families, and that fosters economic growth and builds the economic cycles in the communities.

Fugal, Coldwell Banker: Having a growing demographic gives you a strategic position to grow your business. Companies succeed if they continue to recruit and retain key employees.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Is now a good time to start a business?

Hix, Strategic Staffing: Yes! Everything is on sale.

Greg Fix, Big-D Construction: It is less expensive to start a business today than it was in 2008. You’re starting at a low point and can build over time. The opportunities in the next two years are going to be great.

Olsen, Heideman, McKay, Heugly & Olsen: People hear the word recession and cringe. But recessions are the best opportunities to find value, not just in real estate, but in buying and selling businesses. It may not be the optimum time to start a business, but it’s a great time to acquire a business that may need some retooling. We’ve seen a dramatic increase in legal work for angel investors and securities. Many people have pulled money out of the market and have cash waiting to be invested — and they are investing in entrepreneurs and in businesses.

Fix, Big-D Construction: There’s a great network of people out there who are interested in investing in good ideas and in startup companies.

Hood, Dashboard Accountants: Any business that starts in this economy is going to start lean and stay lean. As we do the books for businesses, I can tell which ones started in the fat period as opposed to the skinny period. We are teaching the “fat ones” how to budget.
Fugal, Coldwell Banker: Right now, there are deals on commercial space. Businesses can procure free rent, furniture and other concessions they wouldn’t otherwise be able to benefit from. Landlords hate to hear that, but it’s a reality right now. If you’re looking to lease space, it’s a very competitive market. It’s a great time to be a new business.

Hood, Dashboard Accountants: It’s also a great time to hire. Every time we put a “help wanted” ad out, we get 50 resumes within a couple of hours and they’re all college graduates. You can build a great staff and not go broke doing it.

Hix, Strategic Staffing: If you’re in a position to hire, you’re going to get the cream of the crop. It’s a great time.

Black, Eli Kirk: Technology also makes it a great time to start a business. Somebody on a bootstrap budget can start a business using social tools and bring awareness to their concept or product or brand. Facebook brings a trusted friend network. If I have 700 friends on Facebook and I’m trusted among those friends, then what I say is gold. And then they’ll re-tweet it or discuss it among friends. So in talking to five friends, I can really talk to 3,000.

Fix, Big-D Construction: Our valley has amazing networking opportunities with the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce, Corporate Alliance and ConnectShare. Add social networking, and there are relatively inexpensive ways to get to know people. People do business with people they know and trust. I really believe that.

Hood, Dashboard Accountants: When a business starts, sometimes they mistakenly take all their capital and go buy office space and business cards and fancy chairs. We tell them not to do that. Every dollar you have should be spent on marketing and getting customers. Then let your customers pay for all that other stuff once they’re paying you. Capital is a finite resource. Don’t blow your money on things that aren’t bringing in customers.

Bennett, BusinessQ: At what point should a startup develop its brand?

Black, Eli Kirk: Yesterday! Your brand is your customers’ perception of your product or service that they get in aggregate over time. It’s much more than a logo. It’s their experience when they call customer service. It’s the experience when they see a collateral piece from you or talk to one of your sales reps, or have a problem with a product and have to return it. A brand will happen regardless of whether you drive it. Who the boss says you are is not necessarily who you are. Who your customers think you are is who you really are.

Fix, Big-D Construction: Our people are our brand. We are who our employees make us.

Maxfield, Entrepreneurship Institute at UVU: Perception precedes using a service or company. If you can create a strong perception quickly, you’ve created value.

Olsen, Heideman, McKay, Heugly & Olsen: People need to spend money and get good advice on branding and marketing in order to get recognition and build their volume. For some companies, image is so important because they don’t have the relationships yet. They deal more in volume. For us, we focus more on relationships.

Maxfield, Entrepreneurship Institute at UVU: When I owned Maxfield Candy, we first had just a generic business card. Then we went to chocolate colored. Then later we photographed the chocolate and put it on our business card. So immediately people would know we sell boxed chocolate. Your logo and materials need to communicate quickly and clearly.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What are the accounting tasks that need to be addressed from day one?

Hood, Dashboard Accountants: Number one, they need to realize sales is the most important thing. You’ve got to get money in the door. The second most important thing is to track it. If you don’t track it, you’re going to lose it. Startups need to have three to six months of cash to cover operating expenses. Most of their operating expenses should be marketing. As clients come in the door, they should use that revenue to fuel growth of their business. Also, they need a cash flow forecast, not a pie in the sky. Sales is not cash. A sale is a transaction. Cash is what I get four months later when they finally pay me. You also need an accountant. Don’t be cheap on how you track money — and don’t be cheap on marketing.

Livingston, Fibernet: If a company is a service provider or has a complex product line, they need to know exactly what the costs associated with those products are. Reporting is such a key element. Set up the income and expense categories so you know how and what to sell effectively.

Hood, Dashboard Accountants: There’s no way you can grow if you don’t know where you’re sitting at all times.

Hix, Strategic Staffing: You also need to know what kind of corporation is best for you. If you grow too big too fast and you weren’t set up properly, you limit your financial capabilities. Are you going to hire employees? Workers comp? General liability insurance? These factors need to be thought out as you structure your business. When looking for trusted advisers, ask people in your network who they would recommend. If you sell widgets, you should seek out the best widget maker in Utah and see if he or she will share experiences with you.

Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions: As we transition to less of a cash-based society, businesses cannot survive unless they accept credit cards. I’d venture to say less than 25 percent of people under age 44 carry cash. But be cautious when selecting a provider. Taking credit cards pertains to your cash flow, so it’s critical you understand what and who you’re committing to. I cannot imagine trusting the lion share of my revenue to a company 2,000 miles away. Find a local company that will explain electronic payment processing and listen to your needs.

Bennett, BusinessQ: How does an entrepreneur figure out all the complexities when he or she would prefer to simply focus on the great idea?

Hix, Strategic Staffing: Bring in a team of advisers. You need an accountant. You need an adviser to tell you how much to pay yourself if you’re an S-corp. You need a marketing team.

Olsen, Heideman, McKay, Heugly & Olsen: You need the right representation. If you’re starting a sophisticated enterprise and you’re projecting millions in revenue, it’s extremely important that you get the right advice, and it’s relatively inexpensive compared to the other startup costs.

Hix, Strategic Staffing: There are companies like Omniture in Utah County that started with five employees and are now publicly traded. You need to take those possibilities into consideration.

Olsen, Heideman, McKay, Heugly & Olsen: The last thing you want to do is have the ability to go public and have somebody say, “You’re an S-corp? You need to be a C-corp for two years. Sorry you missed your opportunity.” That gives your competitors time to get into the market. You need a relationship with an attorney.

Livingston, Fibernet: To Sonny’s point, the setting up of a C-corporation or S-corporation has a big impact on the exit strategy. All of those factors have to be taken into consideration.

Maxfield, Entrepreneurship Institute at UVU: This brings to mind a UVU student who started a business a couple of years ago who wants to grow and sell it. If that’s your vision from the beginning, it makes a difference as to how you set it up. You have to have that vision all the way through. You have to decide are you going to be local? Are you going to grow nationally? What are you going to be doing with the life of your business?

Bennett, BusinessQ: When a business is starting out, how do they anticipate what kind of office space they need? How do they plan for growth?

Fugal, Coldwell Banker: Business owners can never be too proactive when it comes to space requirements. All too often business owners leave that decision to the end and then compromise their ability to negotiate from a position of strength. The earlier in the process you identify the right type of facility for your company, the more thoughtful you can be as you navigate the entire process. A lot of companies don’t look toward a three-to-five-year plan for growth. But the decisions they make upfront relative to their commercial space can have a huge impact on whether their operations can be effective or end up being displaced in multiple locations, which presents a major difficulty.

Fix, Big-D Construction: Knowledge is power. We like to begin with the end in mind and help the owner understand what the costs are going to be before they even get into the design process. Establish what the budget is and then go through that design process and design to what the budget needs to be.

Fugal, Coldwell Banker: People grapple with do I own or do I lease. Right now in the market where global finance is challenged, people don’t recognize there are tremendous opportunities with SBA financing. There are small business loans available. The key is you have to still be profitable. You still have to show profitability, and a lot of early-stage businesses can’t show that. If you can show a track record for profitability, in many cases it makes more sense to own your space. On the flipside, most of the Fortune 500 lease their space. Why? Because they need to be quick and nimble. Any business looking toward growth needs to afford themselves the ability to expand, contract, and to be quick and nimble — which leasing provides. On the flip side, if you are a doctor or an established company and your space needs aren’t going to change in the foreseeable future, it’s wise to create a profit center for yourself by building equity in your space as opposed to giving that equity to a third party. Each type of business has its own needs, and I’ve seen businesses end up building a building that is a monument to themselves that reflects the culture. But the exit strategy isn’t there, the ability to multi-tenant that building doesn’t effectively exist and it ends up being more of a handicap. There are a lot of considerations that go into a facilities planning strategy.

Livingston, Fibernet: If you are going to own your own property, it’s another business. You have to carefully consider where you want to spend not only your time resources, but your capital resources. It’s a huge expense. Are you going to spend your money on real estate or on building your business? What is your core business?

Olsen, Heideman, McKay, Heugly & Olsen: If you’re going to own something, you need to be smart about how you set up the shell to own it. In a lot of cases, you want to set up a separate entity. There can be serious liability implications from owning property that you don’t want to affect your core business.

Fix, Big-D Construction: Many times an owner will setup a separate entity and then lease it back to the company.

Bennett, BusinessQ: It’s not a guarantee that when you start your business, it will succeed. What do you see as commonalities among businesses that do succeed?

Black, Eli Kirk: It’s drive. It’s vision. It’s somebody who does not get too worried about the shortfalls and has the big picture vision and passion. Success in business is also based on having a culture and process in place to ensure customers are raving fans of your company — not just satisfied customers. Also, strengthening relationships with others — whether or not they are potential clients — is imperative to long-term business growth. We can’t see people as objects or as a means to a future business relationship, but instead we must look at ways we can help them.

Livingston, Fibernet: There was a time in history when the Internet was not a significant factor in the success of a business. Today it is one of just a few keys to perpetuating and having a successful business. One of the key factors to succeed is having an effective Web site. If you don’t have that, you are going to be outcompeted. But putting up a Web site does not guarantee anything. Marketing and driving traffic to a site is an essential key.

Fix, Big-D Construction: That’s the first place people start looking, so it’s essential to success. Also, an entrepreneur needs a strong will to succeed. One of the most important things is stay focused on why you started your business. What was it that brought the idea about? Focus on what you are an expert in and then hire people around you for what weaknesses you might have. Sometimes we try to do so much that we don’t focus on what we’re best at. We try to do all the things that bog us down in a business.

Hood, Dashboard Accountants: Number one, a successful entrepreneur is not afraid to ask. In a sales appointment, he’s not afraid to ask for the close. Entrepreneurs who are timid will fail. Two, you need a healthy respect for cash. Once cash is gone, you’re gone. Three, you have to delegate everything you aren’t good at. Get it off your plate. You don’t have enough time to do everything. If you are wearing so many hats that you have a kink in your neck, you’re going to fail. Four, the CEO has to be the best sales person in that business. The CEO should be out knocking doors with the sales manager every day.

Fugal, Coldwell Banker: Success in business comes down to identifying a need and filling that need in the marketplace and being able to execute on that. That’s the core of your business strategy. Identify it and then outline a strategy where you’re filling that need and doing it better than anyone else. The older I get, I’m less impressed by people who have money than I am with people who are excellent at what they do. People who have an eye toward excellence impress me, and it doesn’t matter whether they are a schoolteacher, an engineer, an artist or a CEO of a multinational organization. Whatever your business is, be excellent.

Decker, Complete Merchant Solutions:
You are not going to evolve without making mistakes — it’s part of the process. We were recently taken by a professional scam ring out of Los Angeles for more than $100,000. They used stolen identities and forged documents to open a merchant account. This was an expensive lesson. From this we’ve become much more aware of risk exposure. So be patient with yourself because you won’t always be perfect in your execution. And in conjunction with that, align yourself with capital outlets. Establish credit lines or keep angel investors in the wings just in case you have a Los Angeles-type experience of your own. Also maintain an abundance mentality rather than a scarcity mentality. Karma is so important. When you treat customers and partners well, they’ll spread the word.

Hix, Strategic Staffing: Some of the training seminars that I’ve been to talk about how businesses should keep it simple. Focus on one, two or three core things you do as a business. Those are your goals, dreams and passions. Be quick and nimble and able to change what you do. Last year we had to rapidly change what we did. As a business owner, be able to wear different hats and adapt to the circumstances.

Maxfield, Entrepreneurship Institute at UVU: It comes down to finding something you love. Passion comes from within. Even with passion, it takes experience to understand the marketplace and needs of the customer. The owner of a business is the one who really drives it. You’ll be first one there, the last one out and last one to get paid. You have to love what you do.

Olsen, Heideman, McKay, Heugly & Olsen: Our law firm has been known as a litigation firm, but now we are focusing on relationships and our business clients. Business people need sound short-term and long-term legal advice. Companies that are successful value relationships as well. Whether it’s Brandon with real estate or David with merchant services, you can’t do everything and you need to form relationships with others who can help you. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are, if you aren’t getting good advice and setting up your business properly, you’ll run out of cash, you’ll lose focus and your customers will recognize it. Build a network of people who will live and die with you.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Thank you for your advice on starting a business.

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Jeanette Bennett, BusinessQ: How is the convention and meeting industry doing in Utah County?

Joel Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: We’re not feeling the same level of impact that destinations like Scottsdale, Ariz., and Las Vegas are feeling right now, but we are definitely feeling contraction and pull back from corporate meetings and events. Some companies are on edge about how they are spending that money.

Mark Hiles, Diamond Rental: At Diamond Rental we have seen a contraction of corporate events either through cutting back or downsizing. Some companies who do four or five events a year are now down to one or two.

Fritz Black, Cowboy Leaders: Companies are spending less money on lower levels of leadership and spending more on upper management.

Kendall Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: Our corporate numbers are holding well, but the companies are spending less on the higher-end audiovisual and tent rentals. They are still having meetings, but they are downscaled.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What would you say to businesses about the importance of events and why they shouldn’t continue to cut back?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: Anytime you send someone to an event or a retreat you are hoping for a change in behavior. Executives need to understand what that change in behavior is and where you can get the most bang for your buck. One of the best ways you can institute a change is to go away from your comfort zone with people you haven’t met before. Different ideas can be exchanged where there isn’t the pressure of the daily grind. It’s really important to get away from the workplace.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: The notion of teleconferencing has its place, but business is really accomplished face-to-face. That is where you can get creative, you can brainstorm, you can look at the body language of individuals and you can feel how your meeting is going. We just hosted an event yesterday at the courthouse. What we accomplished there we could not have accomplished in a conference call. We had to hash it out and have some compromise and negotiation. We had a successful meeting.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Recently the media has painted a negative picture of some big national companies spending a lot of money on lavish events. What do you want people to understand about why meetings and events are a way of doing business?

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: There is a difference between a corporate retreat and an AIG corporate retreat. Very productive meetings can happen by getting away from the office. These meetings don’t have the distractions of the phones and copy machines or other employees coming in. There is a tremendous amount of team building and camaraderie that comes out of an event. Getting your mind away from the office and focused in an unfamiliar territory elicits new ideas.

Jack Marvell, Marvellous Catering: For the past 10 or 12 years we have done a party for the same company, and their numbers are down this year from 1,500 attendees to 1,100. But they are still going forward with the party to say “thanks” to their employees, because those employees are still working everyday. Every year, we cook steaks and the corporate executives serve them to their employees. They go around and talk to their people. It’s good stuff.

Black, Cowboy Leaders: There is something about changing attitudes that can’t be done just with policy change or a procedure change. What you really need to change is the attitude of the people, and you can only do that in a face-to-face setting. When you are sitting down, getting to know each other or breaking bread together, that is where you really share. That is when attitudes can change.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What role does food play in a successful event?

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: I have discovered that if you want them to come, feed them. If you want them to come back, feed them well. That is what it boils down to. When you feed them filet mignon for 12 years, they keep coming back — as opposed to other parties where it is a hot dog and a bag of chips. Only half of the company shows up to an event like that.

Black, Cowboy Leaders: If the food is bad, that is what they talk about. You can forget the message about the whole event presentation because they are going to talk about the food.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: In the final analysis, it all comes down to that. The food is where the rubber meets the road.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: I agree with everything that has been said, and I also think good food is a lot more affordable than people think. We see a lot of people in our deli area crowded around a public table trying to have a business meeting. For a few bucks more on food and a nominal room fee they can have a catered event in a private room with a staff that will care for their every need. Many places in the community are more affordable than people think.

Jared Kearns, McKay Events Center: We have an excellent Culinary Arts program at UVU. I’ve seen corporations come in and have elaborate dinners for all their employees. Then if they scale back the next time, they have less of a turnout. Food really does play a big part in an event.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: When one company switched from steaks to hamburgers and hotdogs, we didn’t hear the end of the complaining. Everybody was saying, “Where are the steaks?” When I looked at the situation, I really didn’t see a good explanation for their decision because the difference in price between the two options was a buck or two.

Black, Cowboy Leaders: People are trying to walk a fine line between not spending too much and still trying to take care of their people. They don’t want people saying, “If things are so tight, why are you spending so much money on an extra?”

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: As things get tighter, people have the mentality of pulling in. But you have to be careful because people who are working for you need to know you care about them.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Let’s switch gears and talk about planning. What is the ideal time frame for someone to come to you and start planning an event?

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: I’m a member of the Western Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus, and every year we go to a CEO forum. Three years ago I thought, “Why don’t we host this event in Utah?” I wanted to see the economic impact come to my community. I also worked with the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Park City bureau, and we put together a bid. We had to get organized early on in the bidding and planning process.

Sharon Curley, Diamond Rental: We usually work a year out to plan an event, which gives us time to talk to the show managers and the vendors to make sure that everything is in line. Within that year of planning, I keep an open mind in case something comes up. I like to talk to the convention center early on and follow up with them. With a large expo event, we focus our attention on the exhibitors. If they aren’t happy, it isn’t a successful show.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: At a year out, we would love to know they are coming. As we get closer, we secure bigger details. Often the menu falls into place as the last thing.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: I wish I had a year out! We have a lot of people show up two weeks or a month out wanting to pull off a dinner for a thousand people. Our clients are often first-time, local people.

Black, Cowboy Leaders: You need to understand the size and scope of your project. For small groups you can plan things on a very quick basis. And here in Utah County you can put things together in very short time span. Look at the people around this table — I don’t think there is one of us who would say no to business next week.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: How about tomorrow? I’ll tell my wife to load the wagon, and we’ll take care of it.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: We’re seeing that the booking window is much more narrow than it used to be. Groups aren’t always planning a year in advance.

Hiles, Diamond Rental: That is a good point. We do see the time frame contracting a little bit with the economy. We really bend over backwards for a lot for these people to make sure we can accommodate their needs and get it done last minute. Utah County is great for that.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What are some of the big mistakes people make in planning an event?

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: Too often, people neglect to utilize the expertise of professionals. All of the people at this table have done this a lot. We have seen hundreds of events, and I’m surprised how often people don’t take advantage and ask us questions. We have professional meeting planners who often don’t get to use their skills because someone else is forcing an idea that may or may not work. We can take care of the little details, and we are there to make you look good. If you communicate to us about what you need, we can help. People often make the most mistakes when it comes to planning their audiovisual needs.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: The biggest thing I see is that people assume we have everything at our facility. People show up with their computers and don’t know how to run them.

Hiles, Diamond Rental: As a rental business, we see people try to cut expenses by doing it themselves. They don’t realize what goes into planning an event. We try to accommodate them as much as possible, but we do get a lot of last minutes calls about audiovisual or sound needs and lots of little overlooked details.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: I went to a tech summit in Northern California, and we had Internet connectivity problems. There were all these wired techno-geeks with laptops and Apple products, but they couldn’t get connected. We were close enough to Cupertino that it should have worked. It was a wonderful event, but the tech problems are what people were talking about. Think about the type of group you have and be proactive about the things that absolutely have to work.

Curley, Diamond Rental: As part of the planning, we need to ask the client the important questions. We ask them if they have thought about this or overlooked that. We can find out how to make things work.

Bennett, BusinessQ: After all the planning has been done and the event is actually happening, what can companies do to ensure the meeting goes smoothly?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: Watch the behavior of the people. Make sure you are getting the behavior you want to get. Get comments from people at the event and make changes on the fly.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: What you don’t want to do is start a meeting with chaos. For a lot of people the first hour is spent running back and forth getting the last minute things taken care of. The key to an event going well is in the pre-planning stages. With proper planning and using your meeting planner, you can walk into a room that is already set up and be shaking hands at the door instead of running up and down the hall.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: When an event begins, you have to be in execution mode.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: It’s showtime!

Bennett, BusinessQ: Are there any misunderstandings about the options in Utah Valley? Do you see businesses going to Salt Lake for meetings when they don’t necessarily need to?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: Absolutely. I think people look outside of Utah County first. We’ve got some great businesses here, but they look to Denver or Las Vegas or Salt Lake City. They figure they have to leave the county to get what they want, but they don’t pay attention to what is right here under their nose. If you want to cut money out of your event, cut your airline ticket. If you cut that you can spend more time and more money at your venue.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: The accessibility of areas in Utah County are much better than in Salt Lake or other outlying areas. The ease of parking and access from I-15 makes a big difference.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: We in Utah County can do much more than people give us credit for, but we do have limitations. We have limitations of the size of groups and meeting space. Many network marketing companies hold their events in Salt Lake where they can handle 7,000 or 8,000. In Utah County, we only have about 3,000 hotel rooms.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What about tourism in Utah County? How do we entice people from out of state to come here to host events?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: The majority of our business is out of state. We host small groups that come to our outdoor setting where all of our meeting facilities are open air with all the modern conveniences you would expect to have. People come and spend time in the mountains — just a half hour out of Provo — and then they say they want to bring their families back. It boosts tourism.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: Meeting attendees are definitely future tourists. I can’t tell you how many individuals who attended my conference a week or two ago had never been up here, and they are already planning a trip to bring their families back. We’re talking about Utah Valley, which is great, but high tide raises all boats. When outdoor retailers comes to the Salt Palace, the attendees will cross lines and come down to Thanksgiving Point, or come down to the Provo River to fly fish.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: We’re seeing a lot of businesses bringing families with them to conventions. We’re seeing corporations taking it into consideration — What is there for my family to do? Mom or dad are going to the meetings, so the kids are finding avenues to explore.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: It’s become a trend to tack on a vacation at the end of a business trip. It’s also a trend for people to stay closer to home — the “staycation.” Our state park numbers are up this year because Utahns are visiting. Timp Cave, Camp Floyd State Park and Utah Lake State Park are spiking in the number of attendees during the summer travel season. People are bringing their families and tacking on one or two extra days. Some people may not think of Utah County as a true tourism destination. Our goal is to help people understand what additional things they can do here. Whether they have come here for a purpose or a specific vacation at Sundance, for fly-fishing on the Provo River or golf at one of our 11 incredible golf courses, we have a lot of things to do.

Bennett, BusinessQ: What are some of the trends in conventions and meetings? What things are big right now in food and decor?

Curley, Diamond Rental: Utah County is very conservative. We have seen a lot of weddings scaled down. But a lot of them like to use lighted canopies. Décor-wise, they use lighting to give more flow. As far as conventions, we use the standard tables and chairs. A lot of times the exhibitors want to upgrade to different linens to add to their booth packages.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: It’s been interesting to me to watch the trends in food over the past 20 years. I would attribute most of it to the Food Network because people are now aware of food. About 12 or 15 years ago, there was a little barbecue place down by Albertsons, and it didn’t make it. Now we have seven or eight of them in the valley. People want to taste what they see on TV — chipotle this, Asian that. The Food Network has changed things dramatically. We still serve a lot of the traditional kinds of things, but all the time we see requests for things they’ve seen on TV. In Utah Valley, we’ve become very international as it relates to food.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: We’ve got some good ethnic restaurants here, so I would agree with that.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: The trend we’re seeing is toward athletics. We had the Utah Thunder start up, and we have the Utah Flash. Throwdown does a few events, also. And, of course, we have UVU athletics. The trend I see is more and more people coming out to support these athletic events at the McKay.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: I admire your programming ability. You’ve got to be on top of things to pull off everything that happens in your facility.

Bennett, BusinessQ: Let’s look forward. What are some of your predictions for trends in your industry for the upcoming years?

Black, Cowboy Leaders: I predict people are going to start making decisions to do things they have been putting off. Rather than saving money, they are going to say, “No, we’ve got the money so let’s go ahead and do an event.” People are going to start breaking loose with dollars for conventions and training. They are going to look for more value for their dollar — whether it’s the quality of the food, the quality of the facility or the quality of the training. I strongly recommend to anyone who is going to hold any type of event that you look at the quality of the change you hope to make. Decide what outcome you want, and go to a place that will give you that outcome in buckets. If it’s food and pleasure, certainly go to someone who is going to give you the kind the food you’re looking for. If it’s training, then look for a company that can train. Whether it is sales training, leadership training or relationship training, find those things that are going to have a profitable outcome. People are going to be looking for that.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: Our infrastructure is going to change dramatically in Utah Valley. The venues we have are going to improve and increase. There have been groups who would love to come here but haven’t because we can’t meet their needs. Once the economy turns and the airlines are looking toward small carriers, we’re going to see scheduled service at the Provo Airport within three to five years. When we have a carrier that connects to Las Vegas or Denver, we’re basically connected to the rest of the world. Some facilities have been announced and we have seen efforts toward developing them such as the Frank Gehry Project in Lehi and the John Q. Hammons project in Pleasant Grove. Utah County has talked for a number of years about developing a smaller convention center in downtown Provo. I got three phone calls yesterday that said they are moving forward. It’s very exciting because if we wait before the economy rebounds to start this facility, we’ll continue to miss opportunities. This facility could be built in the next two years. We’re going to start getting a better piece of the pie. Hopefully, the regional corporate meetings, events, monthly training meetings and fly-in weekends that are currently being held elsewhere, will be held here. So we’re going to see incredible growth and much improved infrastructure.

Wimmer, Thanksgiving Point: We anticipate continued growth at Thanksgiving Point. This year, our food service numbers have been down, but our venue numbers have been higher than last year. It’s been good to see the locals come out and take advantage of local opportunities. As we start to get back to business, there will be a return to old business practices. People are understanding — particularly on the wedding side of the business — it’s not a whole lot cheaper to try to pull something off by yourself than to use one of these venues. The cost of a tray of fruit might be more than you would pay at Albertsons, but after you factor in tables, chairs, linens, glassware and canopies, you get a-la-carted to death. You end up spending a lot of money, not to mention the headache involved and not really enjoying the day you’re supposed to be enjoying. We continue to see talk about the quality of life here in Utah County. I think that will continue to attract businesses, and businesses will continue to build in this county. Transportation is huge. When UTA’s Front Runner goes in, that will be huge. I think it’s a very bright future for Utah County.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: I’m more in the entertainment industry. There continues to be more entertainment and better quality. I think of the Orem Owlz and the Utah Flash. Businesses come for parties and entertainment. Businesses are using these different venues and avenues to bring clients in. Utah County is developing these areas, which they haven’t in the past.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: The days of nothing to do are long gone.

Kearns, McKay Events Center: Right! There is always something to do here.

Curley, Diamond Rental: As Utah County continues to grow, there will be more tradeshows and conventions coming to Utah County.

Marvell, Marvellous Catering: I don’t even suppose to know what’s going to happen in the industry. I just know that we have recently moved into a new facility and we’re keeping ourselves in as good of a financial condition as we can. We’re going to ride this thing out, and we’re going to figure out how to sell some food. When the economy comes back, we’re going to be ready.

Hiles, Diamond Rental: I’m excited about the new facilities that will come in and bring more business. As Fritz was saying, people look for a bang for their buck. In Utah County, we don’t have a Salt Palace or a South Towne Expo Center. But I think UVU offers a great venue for the expos, especially for the smaller ones because you get a better bang for your buck there. I’m excited Utah County does have enough to offer. We just need to continue to get the word out about what is available here.

Racker, Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau: If we can get folks in Utah Valley to be thinking about how they can become an ambassador and bring events here, there are organizations to help them. And the Convention and Visitors Bureau is one of them.

Bennett, BusinessQ: That’s a positive way to end. I’m excited about the future just as all of you are. Thank you for your time today.

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