Entrepreneur Program’s Bottom Line--Survival--Uncertain

Ventura business owner Charles Stauffer can count among his clients the government of Singapore, Citibank of New York, Kaiser Permanente, Union Pacific Railroad and the Washington state attorney general’s office.

Yet, despite the high-profile names, Stauffer has been disappointed with the progress of his 17-year-old computer-software company.

“We’ve been successful, but we haven’t really grown,” said Stauffer, whose company writes software that enables customers to create their own computer applications. “We’ve been hovering around a staff of 10 people for years and years.”

To help get over the hump, in 1996 Stauffer enrolled in the Ventura County Entrepreneur Academy’s Global Entrepreneurship Program--a series of fundamental business courses for owners of small companies (no more than nine employees) who are looking to expand.

Since graduating three months ago, Stauffer has changed the company name from Stauffer Information Systems to the Blacksmith Corp. to match the name of its primary product line. He has developed a more aggressive marketing plan, split ownership of the company with his employees, increased his staff and begun delegating his workload.

“I’m anticipating a lot of growth now,” Stauffer said. “We probably will get venture capital and possibly go public. We have the product. I think we have the management team. It’s to where I think we could become a $100-million company . . . which would be doubling every year for about six years.”

Stauffer’s story is similar to those of many of the Global Entrepreneurship Program’s 100 graduates to date. But Hui Ling Tanouye, administrator of the Ventura County Entrepreneur Academy, fears for the program’s future.

The global entrepreneurship course, one of three tuition-free programs run by the academy and the first business-owner training program in California when it debuted in July 1996, is approaching the end of an 18-month grant awarded by the state. The grant expires in April, and training will end next August.

If more business owners don’t show an interest in the Ventura County program, Tanouye said, she doubts the California Employment Training Panel will renew the grant.

“We have seven months to really impress the state,” Tanouye said. “If we were able to convince a lot of small-business owners that this is valuable for them, something that they can’t afford to miss, that they should get the most out of this training that the state is paying for--then the state would say, ‘Wow, we have all these people demanding this.’ ”

Tanouye believes that the county’s small-business owners should indeed be demanding the program but the graduate count is well below expectations.

“When we started the [Entrepreneur Academy] in 1994, the economy was at its worst--it was a matter of take the training or shut down your business,” she said. “The economy has turned around and business owners are not hurting as much. They’re able to get by. It becomes an issue of whether they feel the pain enough to say, ‘I really need to sharpen my skills, upgrade my business, so I can stay in business.’ ”

Tanouye said the casual attitude could prove costly.

“We are in a global economy and if it’s business as usual, what will happen is there’s going to be other businesses coming into the marketplace to compete with us unless we become more efficient,” she said. “We’re going to be falling behind and squeezed out eventually.”

The California Employment Training Panel uses state unemployment insurance money to fund the global entrepreneurship course. The Ventura County program receives $700 per graduate, provided the business owner maintains at least the same number of employees for 90 days after completion of the 50-hour course.

Tanouye budgeted the program last year at $200,000, about half of the entire Ventura County Entrepreneur Academy budget.

Charles Lundberg, a spokesman for the Employment Training Panel, said the state organization has been pleased with the Ventura County results thus far. But he agreed with Tanouye that business owners need to show support for the program to keep the money coming.

“We don’t just give away money for any organization that says they need training,” Lundberg said. “They have to show they have employers lined up to participate in the program.”

Since the entrepreneur academy began its courses for small-business owners, 16 similar programs have been organized at colleges and through other organizations in California, predominantly in the northern and central portions of the state.

In addition to the global entrepreneurship curriculum, the Ventura County academy offers a training program for owners of new businesses, home-based operations and small businesses with no employees or only contract employees and for self-employed businesspeople.

Funding for the program comes from community development block grants disbursed by the cities of Ventura, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Port Hueneme and Camarillo, as well as Ventura County. Grants must be renewed annually.

The academy also offers a program for people who are unemployed and interested in starting their own business. The program is funded under the Job Training Partnership Act through the county’s Workforce Development Division.