GREEN BAY, Wis. (March 11, 2009) – The Northeast Wisconsin Business Plan winners have been named.
Dr. Jessica Serwe-Rodriquez of Ideal Chiropractic, Fond du Lac, earned first place and $10,000; Andy Reuland, Credit Coach Electronic Services (CCES), Kaukauna, earned second place and $6,000;, third place of $4,000 was awarded to Rob Zwettler and Dustin Overbeck of Town Accounting of Sturgeon Bay; the fourth place prize of $3,000 was awarded to Heather Whittaker of Pen-Tech Professional LLC of Outagamie County; and the fifth place prize of $2,000 was awarded to C.J. Schmidt of Fiber MX, LLC of De Pere.
Funds awarded are to be used to put the participants’ business plans into action within one year of its receipt.
Dr. Serwe-Rodriguez’s approach to chiropractic care is focused on finding the root of patients’ problems instead of merely managing the symptoms. Ideal Chiropractic has specific spinal rehabilitation equipment that only a handful of clinics in Wisconsin have. She focuses on improving a patient's posture and spinal structure to not only correct the root of the problems, but also to make patients look and feel better about themselves. Dr. Serwe-Rodriquez is able to take both before and after X-rays and pictures of the patient's posture to objectively measure the amount of improvement in the patient. Ideal additionally offers massage therapy and has nutritional supplements available for sale. Ideal Chiropractic is a family practice serving anyone from newborns to seniors.
Reuland is developing Credit Coach Plus, a unique software application for financial institutions to maximize the potential of their current online banking. Using a model of “Software as a Service” that has no up-front costs and unlimited customization for the institution, the product can be adopted quickly and efficiently, with the end result of putting Credit Coach Plus in front of more than100 million online banking customers. The product is an automated system that assists customers with budgeting, repairing their credit report and maximizing their credit scores, with the goal of making these consumers viable to the bank as borrowers.
Town Accounting’s business plan outlines a delivery of its flagship product, a Web-based accounting and bookkeeping solution, to small towns and municipalities across Wisconsin and the Midwest. Their service, according to their plan, goes beyond what traditional PC-based software packages provide since they plan to leverage the many advantages of proven Cloud Computing technologies including Web design and hosting; automatic data backups and recovery and online document management. Town’s customers will receive significant time-saving advantages over competing products, which will allow them to work more efficiently and effectively with less downtime.
Pen-Tech Professional LLC of Outagamie County is focused on helping their clients add “Published Author” to their resume. The independent publishing company providing copywriting, consulting, publishing and project management to authors and businesses throughout the Fox Valley. The business plan states that Pen-Tech Professional provides authors an alternative that maximizes profits by charging a flat fee for publishing, versus the industry standard of paying authors via royalties. Pen-Tech Professional retains no rights to the manuscript and 100 percent of profits are retained by the author. Publishing is filled with potential traps associated with copyright registration, ISBN numbers, bar codes, cover design, typesetting, digital versus offset printing, galleys, e-books, marketing and distribution just to name a few. Pen-Tech Professional aims to help its clients navigate the publishing process.
C.J. Schmidt De Pere has created a “green” building product from cellulose fiber recovered from paper mill sludge, recycled paper and nylon (from post-consumer carpet). According to the business plan, this dramatically reduces micro-cracking in freshly placed concrete. Water, salt and other chemicals penetrate concrete with micro cracks reducing its durability and serviceable life. Expensive new petroleum-based synthetic fiber and steel typically used will be replaced by this low-cost, low carbon footprint fiber blend. The burden on Wisconsin landfills will be reduced and LEEDS credits provided.
Business plans are a critical tool in the proper planning and launch of new ventures and are the preferred mode of communication between entrepreneurs, innovators and potential investors. The goal of the Northeast Wisconsin Business Plan Competition is to encourage the preparation of business plans for start-up businesses, making significant changes to existing businesses, or launching new products in northeast Wisconsin.
Sponsors of the Northeast Wisconsin Business Plan competition include The Northeast Wisconsin Regional Economic Partnership (NEWREP); Alliant Energy; Dominion; Florida Power and Light; Fox Valley Workforce Development Board; Fox Valley Technical College; Lakeshore Technical College; Moraine Park Technical College; New North; Northeast Wisconsin Technical College; We Energies; Wisconsin Public Service; UW-Green Bay; and UW-Oshkosh College of Business.
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Established in 1882, the mission of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce is to promote economic and community development. Chamber programs include Advance, the economic development arm of the Chamber. Advance is a partner in the Business Assistance Center, a partnership of organizations providing assistance and resources for growing businesses in the New North. Other partners include: Northeast Wisconsin Technical College Center for Entrepreneurship, SCORE, Urban Hope Entrepreneur Center, UWGB Small Business Development Center, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corporation, Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Network, and Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership. For more information about Advance, contact Fred Monique at (920) 496-2118 or Monique@titletown.org. For more information about the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and its programs, call 437-8704 or visit www.titletown.org
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