Virante CEO Inspires New Entrepreneurs
Virante CEO Ryan Allis met with students this week, inspiring many to start their own businesses. Here is a copy of that article from the Danville Register & Bee.
Self-starters study success
By ANN ANDERSON
Register & Bee staff writer
April 20, 2005
DANVILLE, Va. - Danville Community College sophomore Renee Berger has dreamed of opening her own clothing store for the last five years.
“I have wanted to open a store targeted to fuller-figure women,” Berger said.
She said hearing the success stories of two young entrepreneurs, Ryan P.M. Allis and Michael Simmons, at a Tuesday seminar has inspired her and given her additional hope.
“The seminar helped me to set my goals,” said Berger, president of DCC’s Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization and an information systems technology and microcomputer specialist major. “I have already made my outline and now I am going to get the rest of the process started.”
Allis and Simmons established their businesses while they were still in college and shared their experiences at the seminar at DCC on Tuesday.
Allis, an economics major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is co-founder and chief executive officer of a permission-based e-mail marketing software company called Broadwick Corp. He is also the CEO and president of a Web marketing and search engine consultation company called Virante, Inc. and author of a book that focuses on young entrepreneurship titled “Zero to One Million.”
Simmons is the founder of Princeton WebSolutions (PWS), a Web development company. He also travels across the country delivering inspirational speeches and writes columns for Entrepreneur.com.
Dr. Edward White, dean of DCC’s Division of Business and Engineering Technologies, said the school strives to prepare students to go into business for themselves.
“The seminar is exactly what we do. We encourage students to go out into the world of business,” White said. “We teach our students that there is an option beyond working for someone else. You can be your own boss.”
Vince Decker, an associate professor of marketing at DCC, agreed the seminar is a perfect match with the community college’s business curriculum.
Simmons founded his business at age 16. In the beginning, he had not taken business classes or had local mentors to lead the way. Simmons said he and his partners had several problems.
“We hired someone with an MBA without a contract, paid him close to $100,000 and taught him our entire business,” Simmons said. “Within two months, he announced he was going to open up the same business and he did. We made other painful, poor choices.”
Simmons said the business did not generate a large amount of revenue, but he said he learned a lot, including that success is measured by accomplishing goals, not necessarily making money.
“I know that if I fall down, if I can look up, I can get up,” Simmons said. “Some people build success on money and other tangible assets. But you need to measure success by personal growth, networking abilities and the fact that you are doing something you are passionate about.”
Allis was the vice president of a company at age 17. He said word-of-mouth referrals and a strong dedication to the business are vital.
“The three steps to success are to determine what success means to you, create a plan, write it down and review it, and save money,” Allis said.
For more information about Allis and Simmons, go to www.successmanifesto.com and www.ryanallis.com.
Contact Ann Anderson at aanderson@registerbee.com or (434) 793-2311, Ext. 3119
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