EOU
business students form consulting service
By Savino Cisneros
For The
La Grande Observer
Published: Jan. 28, 2004
|
|
|
Photo/SAVINO CISNEROS
Andrew Allen (left) and Joshua Thompson (right) confer with
Bobby Crader about Crader's paintball business.
|
La Grande -- It seems that the U.S. economy
and the Twin Towers in New York fell simultaneously.
Large franchises across the nation saw a diminishing consumer response,
and small downtown businesses across the country suffered the worst
of the fall.
In La Grande, a town in which small businesses come and go, two
entrepreneurial Eastern Oregon University students want to help small
businesses regain the confidence that fell Sept. 11, 2001.
The students, Joshua Thompson and Andrew Christopher Allen, are using
their knowledge of business to start their own business consulting
firm,
ThompsonAllen.
Now, with an expert Web designer on staff, their Web site
www.thompsonallen.com is open to the public.
"ThompsonAllen began when I went back to Sweet Home to help my
parents
develop their home-grown business,"said Allen.
Allen's parents needed extra help in managing and marketing their
rabbit
farm. While in Sweet Home, Allen called Thompson, who has extensive
experience in writing business plans and consulting for small businesses.
"The idea for ThompsonAllen began during a phone conversation
with Josh,"
Allen said. "I suggested we take the consulting we were doing
with my
parents' business one step further and establish a consulting firm.
"I figured, ŒWhy not?¹ We both had the same drive.
We both like dealing with
businesses."
Allen, 21, came to EOU from Sweet Home. He is a sophomore majoring
in
business economics.
Thompson, 20, came from the Seattle metropolitan area and is a junior
at
EOU. He also majors in business economics.
But don't let their age fool you; these two students have years of
business
experience in the their personal records.
Allen's business experience dates back to his freshman year in high
school,
when he decided to begin investing in the stock market.
At one point in his high school career, he had over $6,000 invested
in
stocks, four times his initial investment.
"Overall I was very successful with my stocks, but I also learned
failure.
Baptism by fire, you could call it,"Allen said.
While attending Linn-Benton Community College, Allen, 19 at the time,
began
to work on a couple of different business plans. At one point, he
received
debt capital for one of his plans.
Thompson has been in business for himself for six years.
JART Computers, a company he founded at the age of 14, sold touch-screen
workstations to restaurants in the Seattle metropolitan area, and
throughout
the Pacific Northwest.
"I built the hardware for the workstations in my garage, while
I was still a
freshman in high school," he said. "There are restaurants
I walk into today
in the Seattle area that still have my workstations running."
At 16, Thompson tested out of high school so he could have time to
pursue
his business interests.
"My college life began at the age of 16," he said.
He worked 100 hours per week in his business while studying full time
at Bellevue Community College, and later at Treasure Valley Community
College.
"College gave me a break from my busy work schedule," he
said.
While running JART, Thompson also worked as a consultant for several
start-up companies, finding funding in both debt and equity capital
and
through venture capitalists.
Venture capital is a pool of investor money that is invested in young
and
emerging companies before they are made public.
"I made businesses. That was my job as a consultant,"Thompson
said.
Even with business experience in their personal records, Thompson
and Allen
face a dilemma: very few small businesses in Eastern Oregon use a
consultant.
Judy Loudermilk, director of the Union County Chamber of Commerce,
does not
know of any private business consultants or marketing consultants
in the
area.
One of the few consulting resources available in Union County is the
Small
Business Development Center, a volunteer-based organization that consults
with small businesses, free of charge, and helps in directing them
into
correct business decisions.
But, unlike a private consulting firm, a small business development
office
is not able to give a direct, hands-on approach to consulting.
"It isn't uncommon to hear that small businesses in small towns
don't use
consultants, because many times the business has difficulty finding
a
consultant or finding the right one,"Allen said.
Thompson and Allen agree that sometimes it is difficult for small
starting
businesses to see a benefit in hiring a consultant; it is not like
buying a
product.
Consulting is advice, help, a service that benefits the future of
a
business.
"Sometimes these businesses need a little insight, someone with
a different
view,"said Thompson. "Why do all the Fortune 500 companies
hire
consultants? Because they continually need new insight to keep an
edge in
their markets."
ThompsonAllen is divided into two branches, business consulting and
technological consulting.
The second branch is directed toward developing Web solutions for
customers,
including building a Web site.
With an expert Web-site designer working with the company to build
their
site, www.thompsonallen.com , ThompsonAllen has been open for business
since
Jan. 1.
"We want to change the way people look at consultants. I am expecting
to
create business, one success story at a time,"said Thompson.
Since its debut, ThompsonAllen has secured contracts with three emerging
companies, one in the Seattle area, another here in La Grande and
another in
California.
Bobby Crader, ThompsonAllen's local client, is in the process of opening
Op4
Paintball and Tactical Supply, and is using ThompsonAllen's consulting
and
funding skills to help him start his first business.
"They have been excellent help," said Crader. "This
is their field of
expertise. I give them my ambition and dreams, and they help me tailor
my
business."
Both Thompson and Allen have been hard at work helping Crader with
the
analysis of the paintball market, business planning and finding funding
for
his start-up company.
"Like I said before, I make businesses. That is my job as a consultant,"
said Thompson.
