Your Money & Business; 0442

You're money in business is made by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you. Right. The Maryland Transit Administration is proud to support your money in business. The public transit choice for commuting smarter and greener we're going to work with Maryland. For more information. MTA Maryland dot com. Good evening and welcome to your money and business I'm Jeff softened on tonight's program what are the smart steps to rebuilding your finances after a period of unemployment with a chart a course in our Baltimore Sun extra. And how to stay at home mom is turning her creativity into a successful birth announcement business. That's ahead in our maiden Maryland report. First tonight growth at a local incubator. Joining us is Clay Hickson director of Tallinn global business incubator. Clay Good to see you thanks for

coming in. Thank you it's great to be here again. I understand you're running out of space. Where 100 percent occupancy So we're definitely running out of space. What's the next step the next step over the next six months to a year or so is for us to move into a much larger facility still within the Tallis of the city limits though. Give me the history how long has this incubator been around. We opened our doors four years ago April 1st of 2007. Of course there had been a long feasibility study process done by the county in the university. Prior to that. But we've been around for four years and have worked with a whole variety of different types of companies which keep things very exciting. Talk a little about the role of an incubator and the role of this incubator in particular business incubators which have been around for more than 50 years. Their basic purpose is to help young companies entrepreneurial ventures to have a better chance of succeeding.

And most of them are nonprofit institutes that provide a mix of space and all of the physical facilities that a young company might need along with a host of support services mentoring networking assistance opening doors for a company so that they truly do have a better chance of succeeding. There are even statistics that indicate that a company that participates in the business incubation program is more than 80 percent likely to succeed or to stay in business by more than five years. And so tell us a global fits into that basic model. But part of something that makes us a bit unique is in the second half of our name global. Our mission is to help companies succeed in the global economy. That may mean right here in Baltimore County in Maryland but it also may mean looking at overseas

markets. And in today's economy almost the smallest business may have international opportunities. What kinds of companies have you hosted. And you know I guess are sort of an assumption that when you say incubator they're all going to be tech companies that we work with a very large and diverse number and types of companies. They include technology companies from solar energy to video gaming but they also include others that have very little to do with technology including coffee importing. Specialty cosmetics even some service companies and that certainly keeps my job very interesting and exciting. Did the owners and employees of these companies get something out of being in proximity to other entrepreneurs. Even if the person down the hall is in a completely different business they do.

And interestingly sometimes they find even when they're in very different businesses there may be collaborative opportunities. For instance we have a specialty food broker. They have found partnering opportunities with a company that originally was importing furniture importing furniture from Asia and Europe. Gave them inroads into importing other types of commodities and opportunities for them them to work with. Work together. What does the university get out of it. Teaching component is community building How do you see it. The incubator falls under the division of economic and community outreach which is really the non academic side of the university. Thompson University is very much municipal in a university participating broadly in the community in which it serves. And this division in particular tries

to focus on economic development workforce development really being a part of what helps the community to grow. So the incubator falls naturally into that mission because if our companies succeed they are creating more jobs and generating more tax revenue in this area. If one of these companies becomes the next Facebook does the school get cut somehow. Oftentimes the university does ask for a very very small equity stake for in return for the. Subsidize support that is provided. It generally is less than one and a half percent so that could eventually be something significant and it would be great that something that we all strive for. It will take 1 percent of Facebook. So I know you're booked up now but when you get a new space how do you decide what

companies get it. I'm sure you'll have plenty of people who want to be in that environment. Well any curator is not meant to be a permanent home for anyone. Typically a company may be in an incubator for about three years. So our idea is to nurture them help them to grow and to graduate is what we call it. And so we hope that there is some turnover as these companies move through the process. There is an application and an entry process and the most important part of that is a good business plan that helps us and our advisory boards to know whether the entrepreneur really has a good idea of what it takes. Whether it's management and other resources. So there is that whole process that anyone today has to go through. While we are at 100 percent occupancy and our resident members we have another type of membership or participation and that is

what we call associate. They do not have to have an office in the computer but can tap into all of the support services like a virtual incubator. You could call it that is a virtual piece of it. In fact today we have 15 companies eight of them are residents and seven of them are associates. So even today we could work with a much larger number of companies and even though the staff size is limited we augment that with a large number of students and turns and they can help us in doing market research and in doing a whole host of things that the companies need whether it's updating a brochure or helping to work on social media aspects. So for instance this summer we've actually had eight University interns that have been working with us and our companies. Good. Good deal for all concerned let's talk for just a minute before we go about the governor's recent

trade mission to Asia. You were part of that you worked in Asia and in the past. What was the atmosphere of the trip. It was a very exciting trip 11 days out. Door to door. We were in three countries China Korea and Vietnam a total of almost 70 people. And the largest number that were there and we met with companies and universities other potential partners for the university for the incubator in our companies and there were a number of exciting things that happened including a 40 million dollar investment by a Chinese company that will be made here in Maryland. So that is probably the most notable noticeable success out of that but there's a tremendous amount of work that is continuing in the ensuing weeks and months. In a few seconds how are things different than the last time you were in that part of the world.

There are so many more newer buildings newer infrastructure highways high speed rail. So Asia is is booming and changing rapidly. Very good clay Hickson of Telson global. Congratulations on your success and thanks for coming by. Thank you for having me. We appreciate it and now a new source for baby birth announcements and hand-painted stork designs is the brainchild of a stay at home mom in Harford County. A lot of Oscars has this story in this week's made in Maryland. If you've seen one of these beautifully decorated wooden stand the stork displays in one of your neighbor's lawns recently that probably means that a mom a pretty newer here in Harford County has been hard at work. Now these creative designs are the brainchild of Kimberly Cordella. She is the owner of the stork headquarters and she joins me now to talk a little bit more about a company how are you doing today. Great how are you going well. Thank you thank you very much and this is a

hot humid day that will make it work. OK let me talk to you a little bit about the design that we see right there the stand the store display. OK. That is our our twin version of stand the store is double sided on one side and announces to the family it's twins on the outside. We attach our lovely birth announcement plaques that the parents get to keep for the nursery. And what is the information that they have on there. We put the baby's name usually first a metal to their date of birth their time their length and their way. OK we do in Blue in pink of course and right with stenciling all around the edges and there are handmade you're doing them yourself hands on and then another one that you have over there beautiful display that you have in your car I love that one. Tell me about that one right there that is our basic It's a Girl star. That's just a sense simple announcement to everyone just announcing it's a girl. There is no keepsake involved with that one.

Some pole person and it all depends on how much information you want to let your neighborhood know it is the girl you want to know all the specifics about the baby right and it's always wonderful to come home after having a newborn to see something like this I mean is that where you kind of got the idea from yeah it's a happy joyful joyful event and it just makes a little bit more special. And there is a keepsake usually with the premium package and parents love to put them in the nursery. Yeah they do. You know you started this idea so to speak like back in 1909 you were you know just coming out of a surgery and were on the treadmill and you thought it was going to be great to kind of do this. But how did you how did you make that all happen how did you take that idea and turn it into something tangible like we see right now here on the lawn. Well a condo on the treadmill wrote down questions and looked into everything researched. Your competitors are there I mean he's right on the right. We could stop it up with a plaque and come up with a cartoon character Stan the stork. So I sketch them out and you just kind of grew from there. It's a great way of welcoming the new family member.

There is another piece that you have called a birth plaque that we're going to go inside and take a look at right now because you sketch those as well that looks good. So Kimberly we've come outside from the heat now and then you can get a full home which is where you make a lot of these birth plaque that you have here and speaking of which we've got a really nice one here. Zachary Benjamin Tell me about this one right here this is a plaque of course with the pale blue background we do some stenciling of some bears and hearts. The lettering isn't a Wedgwood blue and it's all been router and protected to withstand the elements for 10 days for the premium package. Time and this is a typical color combination that you have as a pretty typical ok with the girls will step up the pink more yellow in the boy's voice so we've got another one here for the painting this is one that's being worked on of course but tell me a little about this heart shaped design I like this that's our newest we call the Cirque lastic in this or when this when we do 3 color stenciled which I haven't done yet. Blue

are more pink and some yellows and this is it. People can put on them if you want you can yeah this is an example how you can display it in the nursery after the running periods are. So what does it take to put these plans together that are you here working in the home how long does it take to get one finished. We spend about two hours altogether on each clock the first hour would be priming and getting them ready for the elements outside protecting them about six coats of different primers and things. The second hour is actually when the order has come in and we sit down and do the lettering in the stunt sawing drying time and packing up and getting ready to deliver on the world. So how do people find you because I know that you have a website is that primarily where your customer bases are on how Google and find out why so most people come through the Internet. Call a certain email us. We also are happy to get a lot of word of mouth business also. Yeah that's been tremendous for you so much so that you put together like this lovely keepsake I love this you've got

those from all the different events that you've brought stand the store to this is a bel air festival that you know that there are Festival the arts has been really good. We do that almost every year. OK it's a lot of fun. And then these are all the thank you notes and I love what you know the stork is fantastic the lettering is beautiful so clearly you're doing something right I mean what is it what is it you hope to do with the stork each queue in the future. Well I have to step it up a notch and maybe do a business in the box kind of idea idea and solve the stork so other people can do the same thing I do own cars. Well a lot of fun. You deal with joyful people. One is you don't know as we do having a having the birth of a baby and something nice was Kimberly it was a pleasure. Thank you they were it was very nice meeting you as well. And if you'd like to find out more information about stork HQ Just log on to our website at NPT dot org and click on your money in business. All right Jeff that will wrap it up here from Harford County and one last thing we didn't get a chance to talk about these wonderful plaque that she has are also good for a

baby shower stand the stork and come and visit you for a baby shower in case you're planning one of those. All right Jeff I'm going to toss it back to you in the studio. The median life of unemployment now almost six months how to survive that and rebuild your finances afterwards. Joining us now Eileen Ambrose of the Baltimore Sun thank you for being here. You're welcome. Very tough situation for a lot of people and then frequently when you get a job it's one that probably pays less than the one you had before. Yes. And so getting back on your feet you can't do the same thing you might have done like a decade ago if you switched jobs or something like that. But you have no choice. It's going to be it will be hard and I'm one of the first steps you have to do is budget especially if you are getting paid less than you did before so you can't use that old budget. And the next key thing that really really important is building that emergency fund again. That's that fund that covers your expenses for three to six months. And in

case you know this new job doesn't work out and you lose that one then at least you have a fallback and you can starting to save again. At the same time you advise people to not ignore or for a 1 K contributions if the new employer has that opportunity and you're going to need the money for a lot of things but you were advised Take a close look at that. Yes you always if your employer has a 4:1 can they have a match. You want to contribute enough to get that match because again that's free money. But because you've been out this time in retirement so much depends on you know putting aside a little time is so important because you can never get back that time so as soon as possible even if it's not very much in even if your employer doesn't match. If you could start setting aside a little and then you know increase that as your finances improve your column on this also recommended taking a look at your credit reports which might be a good idea anyway but why in this

particular case should that be on the agenda. You want to see how be unemployment what kind of damage you might have done to your credit report. You might not have been able to make bills you know meet them on time and so your score would get. Some people have a situation where they've lost their credit cards there because they've been unemployed. And so that if you're going to apply for new credit you want to have as good as a credit score as possible. So all of that is tied up into your credit report. There's also I suppose a tendency to want to splurge on something. You know we're driving around the old car and as soon as we get the new job we're going to replace it. Your column on this should advise thinking about that carefully too. I know that was hard advice to give because I you know I can imagine I can imagine being unemployed for six months and you finally get a good paying job again and you want to splurge or you want to splurge with your family. And I again I guess I guess the prudent advice is do a little splurging maybe taking the family out for dinner but postpone that trip until you know your job

is secure again and you've built up some cash reserves. Good advice Eileen Ambrose of the Baltimore Sun thanks for being here. You're welcome. And your money a business continues right after. Us. As the

old saying goes variety is the spice of life. It also has a lot to do with motivation. Joining us for this week's Smith business close up is Jordan Atkins a Ph.D. candidate at the Robert Smith School of Business. Jordan thank you for being with us. Thanks for having me John. So just what is the connection between variety and motivation. Well it's an interesting question and one that I am working on for my dissertation research here at the school. And it's more. Located then people would initially think. So the general intuition would be that the more variety the better right you sort of as a consumer you go through your environment and you see lots of different options. You want to have a granola bar you can have you know there are 50 different choices different things that you can choose from. So certainly retailers seem to think that the more variety they can give consumers the better. However in my research I find that variety can be good for consumers but only in certain situations and in particular when you're using products to help you pursue a goal that you may have. For example having granola bars to how they pursue a goal to be healthy.

These types of having variety among your products helps you when you feel like you're very far from the goal. However as you move closer to goal attainment you actually don't want variety you want less and less variety among your set of products that you consume to help you really stay motivated to pursue that goal. So I know you used to work as a personal trainer is that where your interest in this came from. Yes. So in my time between graduating from undergrad and entering grad school I had a little stand as a personal trainer and found myself. But a lot of time thinking about how much variety to give my clients in their workout programs. So you know before you meet with a given client you think about their goals or strengths and weaknesses and then you design a program. And so I have to think a lot about you know how many different exercises to incorporate in the hour session that we had and also how much priority to include week to week to week across the different sessions. Was it true in that case that the closer someone got to an objective or a goal

the less Friday was was needed. Yes. So I found especially when you're working with beginners to keep them sort of interested in the goal and coming back to you for repeated sessions I found it to be a better idea to mix up their program so we try a bunch of different things wouldn't do a lot of repetitions of any one exercise and really keep it sort of very stimulating whereas my clients that we're working you know still towards their fitness goals but have moved farther along they had more muscle mass you know whatever their goal was for them. We tended to repeat the same exercises a greater number of times and there was more continuity week to week. Tell me about the research people think academic research is you know just sitting in a lab somewhere. How did you how did you test this. OK well I got out of the lab which is always a good idea when you're doing this type of academic research and went to for a number of these studies went to the fitness center at the University of Maryland. And survey people coming in and out of the gym

and that we're actively engaged in pursuing their fitness goals and showed them different varieties of fitness supplements of protein bars or different types of protein supplements and ask them to think about using those supplements to help them pursue their fitness goal and then measured their motivation in terms of how committed they felt how much energy they wanted to devote to their fitness goals. Those types of things and found this predictive pattern that I discussed earlier where when people felt that they had yet to make a lot of progress towards their goal either because they personally just felt like they hadn't come that far or because they haven't had yet to workout that day. The more variety a show them the more sort of pumped up they felt to really go after their goal. However people that did feel they had made a lot of progress or had already worked out that day. They didn't want as much for i.e. they were really motivated when I gave them a very narrow set of protein bars that only differ in flavor and even Actually when I showed them identical protein bars. So you know the same set of

three chocolate protein bars that really got them pumped up to workout. Interesting stuff Jordan and Kim joining us from the Robert Smith School of Business. Thank you very much for your time. And that is our program for this week tune in every Thursday at this time for your money and business. And remember you can watch full episodes of our programs on law and by visiting video dot NPT dot tv that's video dot m p t dot tv. We have streaming videos there 24 hours a day. Tomorrow we'll have the latest in Maryland politics on state circle. And now for all of us here at NPT I'm Jeff soften. Thanks for watching your money in business and have a good night. Your money in business is a production of Maryland Public Television in

association with the University of Maryland's Robert H Smith School of Business and the Baltimore Sun. The Maryland Transit Administration is fraud to support your money in business. The public transit choice for commuting smarter and greener we're going to work with Maryland for more information. MTA Maryland dot com. This program was made by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities.