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What Are You Doing for the Holidays?Happy Holidays everyone! In the spirit of the season, I would like to share with you some inspiring and fun information in this month’s newsletter. The first item is a great entrepreneurial story with a philanthropic twist. It’s amazing to read how this guy got his start. Plus I love the fact that this company gives 50% of its profits to 7 different causes. In this season of giving, I hope you find this story inspiring. Second, I would like to introduce you to the NW Classical Theater Company founded by my cousin Grant Turner. They perform great plays by great authors, primarily Shakespeare. I realize I may be little biased, but I am a big fan of this theatre. The acting is superb and the staging is very well done. I also enjoy the intimate setting. If you love going to the theatre, you need to check them out. They are performing Hamlet in December and January. Finally, I’ve really been enjoying Michael Buble’s new Christmas album. Below is a video of one of the songs. Enjoy!
A Scrappy Entrepreneur's Plan B: Chewing Gum for a CauseWhen his first idea doesn't hold water, an entrepreneur turns to gum -- and a philanthropic business model. By Gwen Moran | For the full article, visit: Entrepreneur
Magazine - June 2011 Tyler Merrick was sweating. Sitting in a buyer's office at Whole Foods in Austin, Texas, he'd just had his bottled water idea shot down. His company, Project 7, didn't have other product lines yet, so he did what any scrappy entrepreneur with a shot at the big time would do: He lied. "I was raised going to buyer meetings and trade shows in my family's business, so it was kind of in my DNA to think 'You've got a meeting with this buyer. Make the most of it,' " Merrick says. "So, I said, 'Hey, what else are you reviewing right now?'" The buyer pulled out his book and rattled off the categories: diapers, baby food, chocolate and chewing gum. Tyler did some quick calculations in his head and offered up a then-nonexistent gum, which he delivered eight weeks later. Apparently the buyer didn't want to see one more "bleeping" bottle of water, Merrick says, but he liked the philanthropic concept behind Project 7 and was willing to give it another shot. The Southlake, Texas-based consumer products company now donates approximately 50 percent of its profits to support seven areas of human need: ending hunger, healing sick people, promoting natural resource conservation, assisting the homeless, providing potable water, educating children and promoting peace. Each product line's variations and flavors support different causes, allowing consumers to choose which causes they wish to support through their purchases. While the gum wasn't exactly Merrick's crowning achievement ("It was really crappy gum," he says), it did set things in motion. Whole Foods agreed to pick up the line, and Merrick immediately went into overdrive, using the cachet of having his products in such a massive retail chain to develop and sell other merchandise, including mints, fair-trade and organic coffee and his original line of sustainable bottled water. In Q1 2011, Project 7:
Since its launch in 2008, the company has landed in nearly 4,000 stores nationwide, including Caribou Coffee shops in the Midwest and HMSHost airport locations. In March, approximately 170 West Coast Wal-Mart stores picked up Project 7's (much-improved) Save the Earth Fresh Mint gum and Feed the Hungry Peppermint Vanilla gum and mints. The company's annual revenue has topped $1 million. Merrick now splits his time between Project 7 and 29 Agency, his boutique product packaging and advertising agency, also based in Southlake. And while he is pleased with Project 7's growth and the good works it has been able to fund so far, he's looking forward to bigger and better success. "We have a few new retailers coming on in the fall that will grow what we can do like crazy," Merrick says. "As we get more successful, we can do more in all of the seven areas we want to improve. That's what's really exciting to all of us." Copyright © 2011 Entrepreneur Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Northwest Classical Theatre Company
Grant Turner started the Northwest Classical Theatre Company for selfish reasons. He felt that no one was presenting the plays that he wanted to see in ways he thought they should be performed. He wanted to perform plays for their artistic merit or for their entertainment value, not for their ticket selling ability. He wanted to present plays in an unadorned, accessible way that mirrored not only his artistic sensibilities, but his belief that theatre is about communicating with an audience first and foremost. And finally, he wanted to have fun. Several years later, it is still going strong. Since the company's inception in 1998, Grant has been involved in one way or another (be it is as an actor, director, designer, or understudy) in all but a handful of NWCTC shows. Past favorite roles include: Parolles in All's Well That Ends Well, Marc Antony in Julius Caesar, and Oswald in Ghosts. The NWCTC is the resident company of Portland's most intimate performance space, The Shoe Box Theater (2110 SE 10th Ave. Portland, OR 97214). For more information and purchase tickets, visit their website at www.nwctc.org. WEO Connect and Grow Dinner Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Northwest Classical Theater Company
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