Brigid Murray, 1996 UNH alum, was unsure whether she was investing her startup businesses’ funds in the right places. As the CEO of Sweet Scoops LLC, based out of Portsmouth, NH, Murray wanted to make sure that the company’s focus on product demonstrations and supermarket tastes were the right platforms for her product’s success. As a participant in the Stonyfield Entrepreneurial Institute, Murray was able to receive the advice she needed to make those decisions.
“We were really focused on product demonstrations, but we were wondering whether we should invest in a PR firm or work more on our website,” said Murray.
Though Murray attended the Institute in 1997, the conference, now in its eighth year and its second year at UNH, continues to help entrepreneurial business owners from as far away as California and as close as Portsmouth solve the problems and make the decisions needed to help their businesses flourish.
“The Institute was really helpful because it helped us reaffirm what we had been doing all long,” said Murray. “We also got some advice on our marketing, and we try to do more events now too.”
The Institute, which will take place this year from March 25 – 26 at the Courtyard Marriott Grappone Conference Center in Concord, N.H., is organized around the presentations of case studies by entrepreneurial business owners or CEOs who have hit road blocks in either marketing, finance, organizational development or a combination of the three. These case studies are then considered by a panel of experts, as well as active audience members who both give, at different times during the case study discussion, their advice to the representatives on how to remedy the problem presented in the study.
The panel of experts is a group of 15 men and women who have experience in one of the three fields, (finance, marketing, and organizational development), in which their panel is labeled. Some of the participants for this year’s panel include Bob Burke, from Natural Products Consulting, Andy Whitman, managing partner for 2x Consumer Products Growth Partners and Brad Sterl, president of Rustic Crust.
The audience is open to anyone who has an interest in learning about entrepreneurship, including past case study presenters and students.
“We want the Institute to be a very safe environment and that’s why we don’t allow media to sit in during the discussions,” said Amy Sterndale, communications director of the Carsey Institute, one of the sponsors of the Institute. “We want the discussion with the entrepreneurs and the panel to be open.”
The Institute is also sponsored by Stonyfield Farm, First Colebrook Bank, the Whittemore School of Business and Economics (WSBE), and the Citizens Bank Foundation New Hampshire Business Review, and the Community Development Finance Authority.
The two-day conference is broken up into case study presentations, guest speakers, and meals. Meg Hirshberg, wife of Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield, and Trish Karter, co-founder of the Dancing Deer Baking Company, are this year’s speakers. According to Sterndale, Meg’s inclusion in this year’s Institute was intentional to show the Institute’s attendees what it’s like to have an entrepreneur in the family.
“Gary’s wife's stories are a way to show attendees and make them realize that when you marry an entrepreneur, like she did, that their life will become your life,” said Sterndale.
This year, according to Sterndale, the Carsey Institute hopes to host over 200 attendees at the conference, including business representatives presenting case studies. Last year, 180 individuals attended the conference. According to Business N.H. Magazine, the number of unemployed workers starting their own businesses rose 69 percent from 5.1 percent in 2008 to 8.6 percent in 2009.
“This is the audience that Gary hopes to reach with the Institute,” said Sterndale.
Gary Hirshberg, along with Michael Swack, WSBE faculty member and a member of the research faculty at the Carsey Institute, conceived the Stonyfield Institute back in 1998. Hirshberg told Swack that he wanted a way to give advice to new entrepreneurs.
“I want entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs to have the benefits of my experience and mistakes, things that I wish I had available to me back when we were starting our company,” said Hirshberg, in an email.
Swack, also a member of the finance panel at the Institute, said that each year the Institute receives 30 – 40 case study submissions and in the past, could only choose six or seven to discuss. This year however, the Institute has been lengthened by an hour each day, allowing the panel and the audience members to discuss five or six more case studies in what Swack calls the “fast round.”
“A lot of people wanted to present [their case study] and this allows them to do that,” said Swack.
For Murray, the opportunity to hear more case studies is welcomed.
“I think it’s good to think about other businesses’ problems,” said Murray. “Everyone can get something out of this, and it helps you realize how much you have in common with other businesses.”
The deadline for registration for the Stonyfield Entrepreneurial Institute is Friday, March 12, and the cost of registration is $250. Scholarships for students and business owners who need them are available through the Carsey Institute. The deadline for submitting case studies was Monday, March 8. A full agenda and registration information for this year’s Institute can be found at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/sfei.html,
Follow Amanda Beland on Twitter at Twitter.com/amandapanda1126
Be the first to comment on this article!