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CEO Business Visits


SIUE Small Business Development Center

Mrs. JoAnn DiMaggio-May, Interim Director

Thank you to Mrs. DiMaggio-May for devoting time to helping our CEO class write our personal business plans. Mrs. DiMaggio-May’s efforts and willingness to share her expertise are very much appreciated.

Written by Kaitlynn Borik


Last Week at Precision Practice Management

Mrs. Renae Eichholz, Owner

We just want to reiterate our extreme appreciation to Mrs. Renae Eichholz and the Precision Practice Management staff for their kindness to our CEO class. We can not thank them enough for their hospitality during this last quarter.

Written by Royce Payne


Leisure Time Pools

Mr. Bob DeRousse, Owner

On Thursday, we met with Mr. Bob DeRousse and he talked to us about his life and how he got to where he is now. It was interesting to learn that he played minor league baseball for a couple years and is a three time cancer survivor.  Mr. DeRousse talked about how The Affordable Care Act almost buried his once successful business model.  He soon realized though this new act caused a need that he was ready to fill.  In August 2015, ABS Facility Maintenance started with a motto called "One Call - Solves It All!"  ABS Facility Maintenance consolidates all services down to one source.  ABS takes care of electrical, general building maintenance, janitorial, floor care, HVAC and plumbing.  Thanks, Mr. DeRousse, for spending the morning with us.


Student Journal Highlights for this week

Week 26 of CEO was very short for me. It featured two days with Jo-Ann DiMaggio May to work on our personal business plans, and one class visit to Leisure Time Pools with Bob DeRousse. Unfortunately I caught the flu and missed another work day on Thursday, and Friday we did not have class due to parent teacher conferences.

The work days were very productive in my opinion. This is my first time writing a business plan and it is much harder than I thought it would be. We literally have to know everything about how our business is going to work and what is going to happen when we start it. I think the hardest part of the business plan is definitely the industry report. This is where we have to talk about everything within the industry our business will reside. With my business involving shirts and hoodies, the industry enormous and too big to talk about in general. I have to scale down the size of the industry by only researching fraternity and sorority clothing, but even then there are a plethora of competitors and markets. The help of Mrs. DiMaggio May has helped tremendously. I can not imagine trying to write a business plan without the help of a professional and my plan would downright embarrassing without her. I’m excited to finish this plan very soon and slowly turn my plan into action.

Wednesday we visited Leisure Time Pools with Bob DeRousse. He told us in a business that cash equals blood flow. If you aren’t making enough money just to support your business you will completely fail just as if your body didn’t produce enough blood for you to live. Mr. DeRousse has had a very interesting entrepreneurial journey to get to where he is today. He played professional baseball for two years until he had a career ending injury, and then he began to get into business. He spent many years in the cleaning industry, and also owned a couple of other companies. Everything changed for him once some legislation passed that required him to provide insurance for his employees and he went out of business. Now he owns Leisure Time Pools and a weapons store next door. He also told us that when somebody tells you no, it’s not exactly a no.  This reminds me of when Austin bartered the cost of the Scottish Rite way down. Just because somebody says no or says this is the way it has to be, doesn’t mean it’s not up for negotiation.

This was our final week at Precision Practice Management. We met with Mrs. DiMaggio May and Mr. DeRousse from Leisure Time Pools. This week we made great strides to finishing up our personal business plans and understanding what all we have to do.

Joanne DiMaggio May came on Monday and Tuesday was a great help to finishing up our business plans. She helped us finish our executive statements, finances, management, and everything else in the business plan. This was very helpful because the only other business plan we have written was the one for our class business. Writing these two business plans were very different. It was tremendous to have Mrs. DiMaggio come and help us two days in a row!

On Tuesday we also took a final tour of Precision Practice Management. We got to see all of the renovations they had made and how different looks. We got to see their new conference room, their new main street entrance, and a lot of new office space. I enjoyed the final tour because I got to see how important it is for Precision Practice Management to foster a positive work environment for its employees. We ended the tour in Renae’s  brand new office and took one final picture.

On Wednesday, we met with Mr. Rob DeRousse. I really liked his presentation and found it extremely interesting. The path his business has taken to get where it is, is insane. From starting out as a cleaning company, Mr DeRousse had to adapt to a lot of changes in his life. His story really showed me just how crazy life can get but you have to continue to be headstrong.

All year we have heard about people getting involved with the community. Almost every successful business owner knows how important the community is to their business and gives back in a variety of ways. It is clear Mr. DeRousse knows this. He was telling us how many things he has been involved with, usually at one of the highest positions. He had groups that took up more than one slide! This really showed me how important involvement is and how easy it is.

Tim Donaho

Tim Donaho
Friday, March 3, 2017Learn More About Tim

At the end of the day, both men and women who become CEOs have shown tenacity and hard work to succeed in their careers. It takes not just skills, but also extreme dedication and commitment. And regardless of gender, CEOs are measured by the same criteria, the growth and success of the business. This week on CEO we worked very close with Joann DiMaggio May while also having our last day at Precision Practice Management .

The week started with Jo-Ann DiMaggio May who came in to help us with our personal business plans. My business plan was already done do with me starting it the first time she came in to talk to us. A snippet of my business plan is Iconic Live Entertainment Company, LLC is focused, at this time, on providing Event Planning and Stage/Live Music Equipment distribution. Our focus is the St. Louis market; however, we expect to operate in cities throughout Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Kentucky. Our focus will serve the following client needs: DJ Services, Stage Equipment Rental, Event Planning, Video Distribution, Live Streaming Events Video Production,Live Music Managers. We Intend to be used in the following places: Concerts, Weddings, Birthday Parties, Parties, College Parties, Bat Mitzvahs, City Get Togethers, Professional Wrestling Events, MMA Events, Boxing Events, etc.  Email me at iconicliveentertainment@gmail.com or call me at (618) 531-0089 for more information, just to let you guys know.

The last day at Precision Practice Management was bittersweet. I love going to new places and being in new places, but at the same time Renae was so nice to us and basically treated us like family and it will be hard to see her go but I know that she will always be a supporter of Belleville CEO.

As our week comes to a close we have new jobs and a new home base this is our last home base so I know the clock is ticking for us.

This week in CEO class we had our last days at the PPM home base and started to work on our individual businesses for the class with Ms. DiMaggio May. My mentor Geri Boyer has been an exceptional role model and guide for my venture into the world of entrepreneurship and I am currently balancing the list of things I must do to achieve a successful business with the load of work and responsibility from my school classes and extracurriculars. I have often thought about if running my business will be as time consuming and exhausting as it was described by local CEOs; although that is more than true I’ve also found that the passionate part about a business is what makes it someone’s livelihood and pride.

More than ever, I’m extremely excited to see what my business will grow into and the countless ways I can expand and improve it over the years I am operating it. I am a young artist that has sold many works already, so I wish to create and distribute art to people around the Belleville area. It's a simple trade at the moment; however art has a way of communicating powerful messages quickly and effectively. Hopefully this will be the case with my portraits of strong natural haired women to uplift natural hairstyles.

This past week we also visited the Leisure Time Pools business with the personable, kind, and inspirational CEO Mr. DeRousse. Mr. DeRousse was the most uplifting speaker I’ve heard in a long time, he is quite literally the personification of the ideal “If at first you don't succeed, try try again”. Surviving cancer multiple times her succeeded in overcoming extreme business losses and has triumphed into the owner of quite a few companies, his example will definitely be one I take after in the years to come.

Starting off our last week at Precision Practice Management on Monday with a visit from JoAnn DiMaggio-May who came to help get our personal business plans started. I really like having someone look over my work and giving me advice on how to make it more complex and that’s exactly what Mrs. DiMaggio did. She helped me add info into certain subjects of the business plan and also gave us feedback on what we’ve already done.

On Tuesday, Mrs. JoAnn DiMaggio-May came back to Precision Practice Management to again help created our Personal business plans and give feedback on what we worked on from the previous day. We also took one last tour of PPM and took a picture with Renae to show our gratitude of letting us be a part of the PPM building. Looking at the building when we first started at PPM it was kind of a mess but looking at it now where it completely refurbished it gave me hope and desire to become my own boss with my own building.

On Wednesday, our class met at Leisure Time Pools to speak with Mr. Bob DeRousse. Mr. DeRousse is an incredible man who is currently managing nine other companies. Mr. DeRousse completely blew me away with his presentation because it made me realize that I can truly do anything I want as long as I have the right mindset and I believe in myself. I realized all of this when Mr. DeRousse was presenting his timeline of what he's done over his whole life. For example Mr. DeRousse has done everything from cleaning services to real estate. He taught us “cash flow is blood flow” I really like this quote because it's comparing people to a business explaining that people can’t live without blood flow the same way a business can’t strive without some source of income.

This week was a long week working on our personal businesses. Monday and Tuesday we started working on our personal business plans. Business plans are a lot more complicated than you would think. Starting this class I didn’t realize how much stuff goes into a business that people on the outside don’t see. Especially starting one. We have our first draft due this week and it’s very detailed and for me complicated.

On Tuesday we also had a tour of the new part of PPM and it’s awesome! To look from where it has come from to what it is, is great. I love how her office looks and how modern it is. It has such a relaxed atmosphere.

On Wednesday we met at Leisure Time Pools with Bob DeRousse and he is very inspiring. Overcoming cancer three times and still barely missing work is incredible. He has had so many accomplishments and really does know what he is talking about. He told us be involved in what you are doing. Be involved in clubs, in college, in what you work with. Do what you love or you won't ever want to go to work and do it.

On Thursday we worked on business plans and finished our cleaning. Thursday was our last day at PPM, which means we also switched what we were in charge of. I finished all the thank you notes and passed the chair to the next person. We also worked to finish our personal business plan. This class is about to be getting very stressful with the tradeshow and elevator talk coming up. I really do not like talking in front of people and I am not very good at it so that won’t be any fun. We also have a book report due in a week and another draft of our personal business and everything has to be ready for the trade show.

On Monday, Mrs. DiMaggio-May came to help us with our personal business plans.  I found that it is hard for me to write about any information I have about businesses like mine because there are no official businesses that do book folding.  There is only one other person in the local area that folds books.  I am trying to make my business larger by appealing to more people through social media.  It is also hard for me to limit my market because the products are customizable and can be personalized for each individual customer.  Mrs. DiMaggio-May has done a wonderful job helping me narrow down what I need to talk about in my business plan.

On Tuesday, Mrs. DiMaggio-May visited our class again.  I learned how to make a financial statement by using a template she gave our class.  It is interesting to see how your financials add up over the next six months and year.  My costs for inventory are very minimal, so it was interesting to find out any additional costs I had not even thought of.  I also got to look at some industry reports.  It was interesting to find out about the different industries in business.  I did not know that these reports could be so detailed, and they really helped me write the industry portion of my business plan.

On Wednesday, our class went to Leisure Time Pools and met Bob DeRousse.  Mr. DeRousse taught me what it truly means to be persistent.  He has battled cancer three times and still managed to take care of his business and continue to grow it.  Mr. DeRousse shaped his personal experience in buying and selling businesses he created and told us what he has learned outside of college.  I also learned that it is important to be involved in your community and church.  This is how you can meet more good people and become a better person yourself.

On Thursday, our class continued to work on our business plans individually.  Working on this business plan has been difficult for me.  I have never done anything this detailed like this before, so I need to think through several scenarios to be able to write down all the information needed.

This week in CEO was nice. This week was our last day at Precision Practice Management. This week was short, and we only had one business visit. Most of our week was consisted of working on our business plans. Throughout most of the week Ms. DiMaggio was there to help assist, inform, and guide our class in the preparation of starting our business plans. Even though we have began working on our business plan last week or so it's still a very short time to have our rough drafts completed so soon. But on the brighter side it pushes us to move faster.

This week Royce and I had a business meeting at Project Compassion regarding the NFP part of our business. Although I plan to work with Royce on the non profit business, I may possibly still do something on my own. I like the fact that we have a template to go by when working on our business plans because it's really helpful to have an example, and have someone explain why there are so many tedious, descriptive details of information that have to go into our business plans. I like that we have more workdays, than presentations, and visits, because it gives me a chance to focus my own thing, and not worry about traveling somewhere every day.

Lastly this week I took on Thank you note. Honestly I still haven't figured out how the class activity spreadsheet works, and Thursday I already lost track of who was doing who. Hopefully I can do a decent job at it, and won't regret volunteering myself for it.

This week on Wednesday we went to Leisure TIme Pools for our one business visit for the week. This visit was nice. Also it was pretty cool to meet another person who has ties to Althoff. Mr. DeRousse really had a great personality. I really like the fact that even though he had a lot of setbacks, and failures he never quit. During his presentation he explained how he would continue to invest in other business, and start new projects. Lastly one thing he said that stood out to me was “Cash flow is blood flow if you not moving you're dying”.

Another week of CEO has passed.  We are flying through senior year, and the third quarter is coming to an end.  We are currently working on our personal businesses.  I am starting a t shirt company.  I believe that I am going to sell long and short sleeve shirts as well as bucket hats.  I believe that the initial expense of the heat press will be covered by the $250 dollars. If my financials turn out as planned I will be making money if I sell 5 of each item.  My goal is to sell ten of each product before I leave for college. 

We have been working on our business plans. I am not as far on that as I should be, but I am working to catch up.  Something that will set my company apart is that I will donate a portion of my profits.  I think it is very important to give back, and this is a very good opportunity.

This week we met with Mr. DeRousse. He has a very impressive resume and life.  He has owned many businesses and has some very good success.  He talked about how he does not like being told no.  He stressed the importance of being involved, and stepping out of your comfort zone.  If you step out of your comfort zone you can be successful.  He also said a few quotes that I really like.  The first is, “you can do anything, but not everything.”  I really like the message behind that quote.  The second quote is, “never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun.”  You need to find something you enjoy, and make a living off of it. It is important to be passionate in what you are doing.


Alumni Spotlight Entries for this week

Cassandra Amorado

Hi! My name is Cassandra Amorado, but most people know me as Sandy. I am an alumni of Althoff Catholic’s and the Belleville CEO’s Class of 2016. Currently, I am a first-year student at Saint Louis University majoring in International Business with a minor in Entrepreneurship. At SLU, I am a part of various clubs and organizations such as Greek Life, the Micah Learning Community, Freshmen in Business, and the Filipino Student Association. GO BILLS!

Before partaking in Belleville CEO, I was a shy, naïve little Asian who had no idea what to do with her life. CEO has given me a lot of opportunities to explore what the world has to offer from networking to how to handle any situation. Without this program, I would not be where I am today. I became a more confident and outgoing person. The experience is definitely one I will remember and be grateful for the rest of my life. I know I am ready to take on any obstacle life throws at me because of what I learned. I am and will always be CEO.

               

Cassandra Amorado
- Class of 2016


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