Vail Daily Editor Don Rogers: A humble agent of economic recovery
Vail, CO, Colorado
We all daydream about opening a business, just us working for ourselves. No dang boss. Calling our own shots.
Jack Taylor, well, he’s a guy who can make it happen. Or deliver some sobering truth. Most likely, a bit of both.
First, some sobering truth: More than half of new startups fail in their first year. Only a quarter survive their first five years.
Ever watch the journey of the hatchling sea turtles on a beach?
Now you get the drift. Your beautiful business idea is the baby turtle.
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Taylor is most definitely not the guy who is going to pump you up for the perilous journey. Call Tony Robbins or Jack Canfield for that.
Taylor simply is the sober agent of the next economic recovery –plainspoken, pragmatic, the guy to punch holes in airy fantasy but find the way to help you make the viable plans work.
Small businesses, for all the odds against them, always lead the country into economic recovery, after all.
As our region’s director of the Colorado Small Business Development Center, Taylor is one of those practical shepherds who helps a few more of those hatchlings than otherwise survive those first few years, who delivers more of the hatch to sea.
What he does, it’s not about being quick and flashy. There’s nothing pretty about this trek. He leaves the inspiration to you, and helps plot your way through the maze of hazards — adhering to the laws natural as well as government-issued — that apply pretty much to all businesses.
We’re talking about writing thorough business plans and projecting cash flows — realistic ones rather than those barroom flights of fancy, those cocktail napkin scrawlings.
Do you have enough set aside for your startup? Are you prepared for expenses that will come in higher than you bargained for, and sales lower?
Do you understand your competition, both direct rivals and more broad? Taylor told a story during a seminar this week about a guy who planned to open an ice rink in another town, crowing about “no competition!” Taylor was the wet rag who suggested that he actually had a ton of competition: What about the bowling alley, the movie theater and every other form of entertainment there? Plans change for the better with such observations.
Taylor knows the true journey well. After you’ve slept on your idea and still are convinced to chase your dream, you’ll want to give him a call.
You can reach him at 970-468-5989, ext. 2802, or by e-mail at jmtaylor@coloradomtn.edu.
Editor and Publisher Don Rogers can be reached at drogers@vaildaily.com or 970-748-2920.
