BIG Café
BIG Café, the monthly networking event held by the Business Innovation Group (BIG), was a great success. Local entrepreneurs, students and faculty gathered at City Campus in downtown Statesboro, enabling one another to help solve business problems by providing feedback while enjoying a delicious complimentary cup of coffee provided by Cool Beanz.
The two presenters for BIG Café on Wednesday, January 13, 2016, were Sally Minton, owner of Boro Take-Out Express, and Demetria Smith, owner of Simplified Flooring. Each presented her current challenges with hopes of receiving feedback from the attendees to help solve each business problem.
Sally Minton proposed, “I need to find out what options are out there to help [Boro Take-Out Express] with growing our business and becoming a call center with backup Internet and backup electricity.”
Marco George, owner of Covenant Home Security, stated, “There are two things you may want to consider, one a backup generator. There is a program called Grasshopper, and it’s a 1-800 number that routes the call based on the extensions. If someone doesn’t answer, it will hop from line to line searching for that person. You may also want to look into a dedicated wireless communicator as a backup if power goes down or cable is knocked out.” David Hoyle, owner of Cool Beanz, suggested that she could “outsource to a dedicated call center.” Other suggestions included utilizing the business incubator at City Campus, where PeachNet’s fiber optic internet is installed, sitting down with a local tech company or trying out Google Voice.
After a short break for coffee, Demetria Smith began her presentation by asking, “How do we upsize effectively, and how do we plan for upsizing?”
Fred David, owner of Minuteman Press, suggested Demetria should “reach out of the area, like Augusta or Jacksonville, to people that you’re not in direct competition with, but are doing similar work. Ask them if they have personnel that has down time that they could loan you or rent to you. Then, they wouldn’t have to pay them for that week and you could. That could be a win-win for both of you.” Other suggestions included searching church congregations because someone who needs work is always available, bringing in temporary help and bringing in individuals who specialize in specific tasks to work only when needed for those tasks.
The BIG Café was a huge success thanks to everyone who attended and gave invaluable feedback. Special thanks go to Sally and Demetria for presenting. If you would like to present your business challenge(s) at BIG Café, please contact Jill Johns at jjohns@georgiasouthern.edu or (912) 478-0872. Attend the next BIG Café if you would like to come together to network, drink free coffee and help one another thrive. Attend five times, and you will receive a free BIG Café coffee mug!
The next BIG Café will be Wednesday, February 10, with presentations starting at 9 a.m.
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