Good to Know: David Smith

Paul Reiser discusses local economic development with David Smith, Executive Director, Entrepreneurial Acceleration Program (EAP).

What is KTBS: Good to Know Shreveport-Bossier?

KTBS Podcasting and the Committee of 100 present Good to Know Shreveport-Bossier, a podcast series showcasing the good things happening in our area. We’ll go in-depth about economic development, community growth and other topics about initiatives that are having a positive impact in our community. We’ll have new episodes every other Wednesday. You can find the KTBS Good to Know podcast wherever you listen to podcasting. Or go to KTBS.com or KTBS Now on your streaming device to see the full interview.

hello and welcome to Good to

No podcast featuring the good things
happening in Shreveport.

Mosher I'm especially happy today
because my partner

Jeff Bound for isn't here,

so no one's going to make fun of me
or give me any hard time.

But I'm really excited
about the guest today

because today we're going to be talking

mostly about business
and growing business in Shreveport.

I've got the guru of business, Mr.

David Smith is here with me.

He is from the brief and particularly

the ERP, which is the Entrepreneurial
accelerator program.

So if you've ever thought
of a business idea that you want to grow

or maybe you have a business
and you're trying to figure out

how do we get more efficient,
how do we grow sales,

They have
they have the information for you.

So you're in the right place
with Dave Smith, the executive director.

Thank you. It's been ten years.

We've had an accelerator here
in Shreveport for ten years.

I guess our we'll be

celebrating our 10th anniversary
in October.

Well, congratulations.
Thank you. That's a long time.

It is for anybody to do anything. It is.

It is been an incredible journey.

Yeah.

And you talk about good things
happening in Shreveport.

What I would tell you
is that in the ten years

we've been operating the accelerator
at the brief,

we've had over 1700

citizens from northwest Louisiana

come in and talk to us about their idea.

And what I tell people
is it's everything from A to Z.

You know,
you hear about the aquarium downtown

Shreveport, Aquarium, guys from California
came in one to open the middle

market Aquarium
all the way to a petting zoo jubilee.

Petting zoo up in Blanchard A to Z.

We've seen it all.

So, yeah, you talk about all different
kinds of businesses.

I know you're mainly supporting
small business.

So what are the qualifications
or what are the criteria

for someone to come to you
and talk about business?

Well, who will listen to any idea

that somebody has any product
or any service that they want to do?

And our criteria are
you got to be in northwest Louisiana?

Yeah, you we do best
if you're a high growth company

with technology and intellectual property

and you're going to stay here,
that's what we use

to kind of qualify individuals
if we're not a good fit for you like food.

Somebody wants to open a restaurant,
We're not that good in restaurants, but

we know this Southern University Kitchen
incubator, the Marlin Street Incubator.

Our goal is to get you connected
with the right organization

in North Louisiana
that can help you launch. But.

But you do help food organizations.

We do a lot of bakery. Absolutely.

They came to you for some help. At one,
they did.

They did. Lauter Bakery. You know,

Sarah and Preston were baking king

cakes out of their homes
and they had the epitome starting up.

That's right.
And they were right there. Yeah.

And they were passionate about baking.

But what we did was
we took what they were doing

and we turned it into manufacturing
where it was a good fit for us.

And the way we do it is we have five
financial analysts

in ERP and the accelerator
and we worked with them to come up

with a great pro forma all the way down
to how many kilowatt watts of energy

does it take to bake one king cake,

how much flour, how much sugar
and how much labor and time.

And we went to them and said, Hey, look,

here's how this works and this
how many king cakes you got to sell?

And they embraced it

and they said,
okay, we're ready to quit our day jobs.

They both had day jobs. Wow.

And they said, we want to do this.

Now, look, you have louder bakery.

You have a commercial manufacturing
facility

for bread and you've got docks, restaurant
right there.

Great sandwiches right there. Absolutely.

And you smell the bakery next door.

You can't help but go. No, you cannot.

You're good idea.

No, that's not that's not actually
that was actually Sarah's idea.

And that's a neat thing about EAP.

So they originally went in
to just the bakery, but,

you know, as business evolves
and things change, they said, wow,

there's incredible demand for a

artisan bread sandwich shop.

We're getting
asked for a lot of different things.

So we think we should go into a
a sandwich shop

and we help them do the revise
the business plan,

look at the pro forma,
how do we do it and look at them now.

So you keep saying pro forma.

So describe for our guests
what a performing a pro forma is.

Actually, the analysis of the business
that breaks down the PNL.

Okay, down to the lowest profit
profit and loss day,

which is the important statement
is the important thing.

And we'll use a lot of estimates on this.

The entrepreneurs bring us the ideas,

we'll put it together
and we'll get down to OC.

You can sell that for $10 and 50 cent,

$10.50
and you'll have a 50% profit margin.

Right?

And that's going to be a gross profit
margin.

And just

I mean, not to get too far in the weeds,

although I just love
talking about business,

I think a lot of people
that are interested in

starting a business,
they have a great idea.

Maybe it's interesting and they're like,
Oh, I can make a king cake

for $2 Island and charge $3
and I'll make money.

And you explain to them
there's a lot more cost,

you said down to the kilowatt hour.

So you help them determine
what's what's the costs, what's the what

the what they can charge for a product
and actually make a living off.

That is correct. Okay.

How many of they got to sell
to be successful?

And that's so important
because so many businesses.

Absolutely. And it's usually a financial
and Absolutely.

People come in to us every day.

We love our
you know, we love the opportunity

the breath gives us to do this
because people are passionate

about their ideas, but they don't know
the business side of it.

Right. And that's where we come in.

Help them do that. Now.
We won't do it without them.

They got to be part of the process.

It doesn't
do any good for us to build something

and then hand it to them
that they don't understand

and go or go out
and try to execute a business on that.

Right.

But so give me some more examples
of the different types of businesses

that you've looked at.

Everything you say from apps to baking
to, you know, bricks and mortar,

some of the low,
you know, our portfolio is very broad.

The Red River range,

Brad Simon and the Red River Range guys,
he wanted to build that range.

It was a very state

and he has a shooting range, indoor
shooting range here in Shreveport.

He he had worked the idea

for about two years,
but he really couldn't get any traction.

So we helped him
launch the Red River Range.

Another one is Tolmach
Glass, a tempered glass company

here in Shreveport,
selling glass all over the country. Mm.

Another great one is,

I think recently you had John Dudley on.

Yeah. For Jason Aces.

John had a great idea. Yeah.

John is a great idea. Guy Big, big vision.

Big vision.

Guy. Yeah. Okay.

Just sell king cakes.

He wanted to be. Oh, yeah, he wanted.

He had incredible means.

Of course
he wanted to get in there and slug it out

with Topgolf and have a better venue.

So we helped him
come up with a good business model

for that, what he could offer,
how he could do it, and look at him.

We broke ground and in next year

we'll have our own homegrown
entertainment center.

And some people might
just have an idea for a product.

Some do.

You're telling me about the one?

The guy has a birth control product
for dogs, but it's not a pill or a shot.

It's a now.

It's not It's Dexter.

Dexter Blanch
from highly favored creations.

He is a professional dog trainer.

Mm hmm.

And he had this idea that he could

basically produce a chastity belt for

your pet. Yeah.

And so he went out
and he did a lot of research,

and he built it, and now he sold it.

Last time
he told me he sold that product in 98.

Different countries.

Countries, countries. Okay.

That's amazing.

Yes. And, you know, you learn things.

And what we found out was, yes,
you know, when you have a pet,

you know, right now
there's a big movement in this country

for spay and neuter.

But in Europe,
there is no spay and neuter movement.

Matter of fact, it's
against the law in Europe

to do that.

So they have sold more
in European countries

than they have in the United States.

So you just never know till you
get in there and start slugging it out.

That is interesting.
And you stay with it. Mm hmm.

And he has.

So if a person comes to you with an idea

and the biggest challenge
I think a lot of people have is

they think, well,
I just can't get financing and so what?

What can you help them in finance? We do.

We absolutely do.

Will actually sit

down with them, with their business plan,

look at the business and come up with a

a plan for them to raise capital
depending upon how much they need.

And then when we started this ten years
ago, Dr.

George gave us two tasks.

He said, Stand up and accelerator.

John George,
head of the John George at the brief, he's

the president of the b, r F,
and he wanted an accelerator.

He's a serial.

He's a serial entrepreneur himself
and serial investor.

His observation was people think
you have to leave northwest Louisiana

to launch a business,
and that couldn't be more wrong, Right?

You can do it here.

Matter of fact,

your money will go a lot

further here than it will if you think
you're going to Silicon Valley.

So he said, start an accelerator.

So we went over and we visited
accelerators all around the country.

Then he said,
Your second task is organize the capital

in northwest Louisiana, form
an angel group.

So we looked at angel groups
all over the country.

We looked at Austin.

They were our mentor.

They helped us
put some things together out of Austin.

We looked at Ohio.

Ohio had a very successful model.

We mostly took some of the Ohio

lessons learned on that
and we organized it.

We have 7d2 accredited investors
that are part of the new Louisiana Angel

Fund that invest
in north Louisiana businesses,

and most of them
are entrepreneurs themself

that are making a commitment to help

finance startups in North

Louisiana because they focus solely
on North Louisiana.

So back to your question.

Well, yeah, we'll look at it.

And if there's a bankable piece,
we work with a lot of the banks.

We know what they want to see.

We'll build those products with the bank,
wants to see if you're

going for an investment.

We'll help you put together a pitch deck.

We'll help you
put together an investment strategy.

We won't do

the investment, doc documents for you.

They'll have to get their own attorney
to do that.

And we don't guarantee
anybody an investment.

It's they have to be the one that goes out
and does that.

Well, you said you've seen over
1700 ideas, but you funded 100.

That's correct.

So what are
what are some of the biggest mistakes

people make where some business ideas
they brought to you tell them say, well,

you probably shouldn't
do this or well, here

here's what we try to try to do,

is it's
not our job to tell you that's a bad idea.

It's not our job to tell you
that you shouldn't do that.

You've got to come
to that conclusion in yourself.

We will work with them
and we'll show them the numbers.

Okay.

Let's say, look,
a single product company is hard.

Yeah, that means you've got to sell
a whole lot of these.

Is there anything else, any other product
that you're thinking about

that complements this that can start,
that you can build a business around?

So we don't tell anybody?

No, this is a bad idea.

All right.

We we say we've got to work on this idea.

You're not ready right?

And we'll let them go out and experiment.

And I think that's the best way
that they can learn.

Okay, Go produce a small batch of these.

Go out, see if you can sell them, see
what feedback you get.

Come back.

Let's iterate on the idea.

Let's iterate on the business plan.

And a lot of them have done that. Now.

Some of them do that
and they realize this is work.

This is all right.

I don't like being told
no. Yeah, yeah, right.

And they'll
they'll go on and do something else.

Now, that's not failure.

We don't look at anything like that.

Is failure. Okay.

You learned a valuable lesson

the next time you do
it, you'll probably do it even better.

Yeah.

A lot of people don't have a success
on their very first try.

They do not.

They do not.

So this sounds like
a tremendous amount of work.

It is.

What do you do? You charge people?

We do not the PR.

What's in it for you?
What are you doing it?

Well, the brief as an economic
development agency in northwest Louisiana,

we focus on the diversification

of the economy in northwest Louisiana.

You know,
we've we always ride the oil and gas way.

The reason they form
the brief is to help build

other businesses in the community,

to diversify or help us

ride those waves, because we're always
going to be dependent upon oil and gas.

We know that.

But the more businesses that we can build

in northwest Louisiana,
the better off we are.

That's the return for the brief.

Well, and the small business
is kind of the heart of

of of a of a community.

It is a big it's awesome
to have a business deal.

It's awesome to have,

you know, these big companies
and oil and gas industry and so forth.

But I'm not going to run down to the port
and do any shopping.

You know, you need the infrastructure,
you need the small business,

you need the latter bakery,
you need the products.

But also
when you bring in these big companies,

they want to see that infrastructure in a
in a community.

They do, you know, we work with Justin
and the gang at in LLP.

They focus on Louisiana, North Louisiana
and economically partnership.

Yeah these these acronyms are

getting economically together Everything's
an acronym, right?

It's kind of like being in the military.

People get awards
for dreaming out these acronyms.

It's got to be that way.

I can just index,
well, hard, hard work, hardworking guy.

And we need him out there
recruiting these big, big companies.

And then you need something
like the breath building

local small businesses
so that when they come in,

they see there's local businesses,
they see the quality of life.

And you got to have the, you know,
the entrepreneurs that are willing

to go into the entertainment industry
and the restaurant business.

They want to see all that.

So it's important
that you're building all that

at the same time
that you're out recruiting a big.

So if a person has an idea, they said,
Man, I want to start a business.

I got I just got this great idea.

Ah, what, what do you think they should do
first before they even come see you?

How does a person get started with these
dreams?

The more you know, Google is their friend.

Okay, Google and the YouTube.

That's right.

Google YouTube.

Do as much research as you can.

Don't go write a 100 page business plan,
you know?

Yes. Get your thoughts together.

Think about what you're doing.

Know as much about the business
that you want to be in,

and then we'll help put all of it
together.

People come in to us all the time.

They haven't done their research
and we'll send them.

And you know where we send them?

We send them to the library.

The library is a library.

Incredible resource for someone that's
thinking about launching a business,

because with your library card,

you can get access to probably

15 to 25 different databases for free

that you would not have access to.

And with your library card,
you have access to online

training for free that you will need
to launch your business.

Perfect example of QuickBooks.

You know, we tell everybody, okay,
you get ready to launch. Who?

Who's your accountant?
Who's your bookkeeper?

How are you going to do this?

You're going to do it.

You could probably start off doing it.

Yeah, but if you don't know the difference
between

a debit and credit,
okay, you're going to struggle.

So we

encourage them to go out,
go to the library, learn the

take QuickBooks
and do as much research as you can.

That was the worst thing for me
when I started running

my little hamburger stand,
being up till midnight every Sunday night.

Handwriting payroll. Yep, absolutely.

But I had to do it
until I could afford an accounting.

That is correct.

But now they have service
to so many services there are.

So don't let that stop you from doing it.

But you just need to be aware. Absolutely.

Something has to be done.

It's got to be done.

And if there's you know,
if you can help make that

just that one step,
it's a little bit easier for for them.

They're going to be able to put their time
and effort in other things.

So what do you think
is the biggest mistake people

make when they're trying to start
a business that that trips them up,

overvaluing their idea?

And they won't
they won't move off of that?

I've had people come in,
tell me this is a $40 million business.

And I go, Well, how many have you sold?

I've never sold one yet.

Well, how many have you made?

Well, I've got the patent.

Look, I filed the patent.

I spent $5,000 and I got the patent.

I said, that's a good start.

I like it.

But we got a lot more work
to do to figure out what you

what this is really worth.

And it's probably not $40 million.

Some people take that, you know,
and you sit there and talk to them

about the factors associated with valuing

a company or an idea,

and they go, I did not know that.

And they're very receptive.

Others are 40 million or I'm out,

right?

You got to start somewhere.

You got to start somewhere. Okay.

So now if a person thinks
they have a totally original idea

and then they start looking on Google
and they find out that

that that business type of business
already exists, is

should they give up on it,
that absolutely you should not.

But what we tell them
is, okay, competition is good.

That's that's not a
that should not be the reason

you don't enter into this venture.

But now we need to focus on
what differentiates you

from this individual over here
and this company,

because that's
what people are going to look for.

And it's not it may not be price dropping.

Your price may not be the right way to go,
but the way you have done it,

there may be some things that we can do,
but there's also proof of concept.

There is if somebody else is doing it,
that's great.

That means people actually
like this, right?

There is a demand signal there.

So, you know,
I was in the sonic business, hamburgers

started in 1953,

but the McDonald's brothers started in 55.

So if they would have known
there was already a Sonic

and they would have said up,

we can't we can't do hamburgers
because some of these aren't done,

they would never had a business.

So that's really a proof of concept.

We'd like to say,
What do you do to differentiate?

What do you do to make yourself better,
your business better, and marketing

usually, absolutely.

Marketing is
What do you teach people about marketing?

Well, do you help?

We do.

We do.

And will refer them out
to a professional marketer

when it's right.

What we try to impress upon them is

you will not be 100% successful
just because of social media.

Right. Okay.

The biggest challenge we face today

is everybody

thinks that if I have a Facebook
marketplace and I have a Instagram

and a YouTube channel,

that I'm going to have all the following
and everybody is going to buy from me.

Yeah, of course
they see this amazing thing. Yeah.

Once they see this,
they're going to buy crazy. Yeah.

And I'm like, Mm,

no, that always doesn't work.

There's got to be more to it than that.

So the biggest mistake
they make is thinking, you know,

Hey, I'm
going to do this on social media, right?

And that's going to get me over the top.

So what services do you provide inside

your organization?

Do they come
and they sit down with you and show them?

And we do. We do.

We have a set of blue couches.

That's what we call them.

And I'll bring you over to the to ERP.

Awesome.

Let you see the blue couches.

We sit them on the blue couch
and we have a list of things

that we like to go through

and talk about.

And then we have a list of products
and services that we can help them do.

And it's everything from

build
a pro forma based upon their estimates

and their research to build a pitch deck,

draft a business plan,

draft a marketing plan,

something we spend a lot of time on

is corporate organizational structure.

Have you thought this through
from a tax standpoint?

You know, everybody,
you know, generally walks in.

So I want to be an LLC,
but I really fear it

and ask for structure on this.

And we like it when they've done
that much research and they understand it

because it's, you know,
if we can launch as a C Corp or an S corp

and we don't have to transition later
on, it's very expensive to do.

Yeah, do that, especially
when you start raising capital. Right.

And explaining to people
all those different reasons

that you do incorporate
or you form a structure like that,

that's I don't want to make it sound
so hard that people give up on a business,

but you want an amazing resource
to be able to come.

And you guys, thank you.

Tell people that well, that, you know,
that was our goal when we launched

the accelerator to be there for people.

If we can provide,

you know,
the smallest bit of service to them

that helps them make an informed decision
and they go launch their business

in Shreveport and they're generating jobs,
then we're successful.

That's all.

That's what we do.

Well, owning a business,
running a business

is one of the most exciting things.

It's one of the most fun things,

but it's also one of the hardest,
most challenging things.

And a lot of it is these details
that people don't think about going in.

So what a great opportunity you guys have.

So how does someone get in touch
with you all?

It's really easy.

We've got a just go to E.P.

dot com.

There's a popped in

set up right there
You can just apply right there

And there's also a phone number
on our website right there.

I keep in since we've been doing this,
I always have at least one,

sometimes 2 to 3 interns and my interns.

Their job is if you contact us
via social media web page

or you call them,
they got 72 hours to get a hold of you.

Oh, wow. Okay.

I like it because I want to be able
to service the entrepreneurs.

And that's one of the easier acronyms.

GAAP L.A.

Someone looks up ERP. That's right.

They should be able to find you
pretty quick. Yep.

So what have I forgotten to ask?

Forgot about jeff
always says I got 2 minutes.

The good thing about a business
is being part of a team

and this little podcast,
I'm usually part of a team.

I got Jeff buying for him, understand?

And he remembers to ask a lot of questions
that I wish he was here to help me with.

But what have I forgotten to ask you
today?

That you're like, Boy,
they they should ask me this.

I would tell you that

entrepreneurship

in a community is a team sport

and if if the community pulls

together and embraces
their small businesses

and their start ups,
they're a stronger community.

Okay.

So lately and they have real impact.

And that's what we're trying to do

in Shreveport.

The part of the first steps
toward building it

that soon is coming out to you guys.
That's right.

And I would also add,
don't don't be afraid

someone's going to steal your idea
now. Absolutely.

If somebody wants to steal it,
that's good.

That means it might be
that means there's some value there.

But as hard as you've worked to do it,

imagine somebody else
is going to just grab that idea.

I haven't seen a case in the ten years
where he just jumps up and tries to steal.

It's good to start throwing it out there
and see what people.

Yeah, absolutely.

You got to experiment with
with your idea, man.

David, thank you so much.

Thank you.

I regulation.

So, uh, I got to wrap this thing up.

Usually Jeff Bynum for us, he's
the professional.

He's actually a news anchor person,
and I'm just.

Oh, you're doing great time.

Really good.

Like,
come on, you're an entrepreneur yourself.

I know your story.

Appreciate the encouragement,
but thanks for joining us on.

Good to know.

Come we this episodes go up
every other Wednesday.

Look for us everywhere

you look for your podcast
and check out our YouTube channel and see.

Dave is a good looking guy right here.

Thanks for joining us
and we'll see you on the next episode.