John Dimmer
Guest Speaker
John Dimmer, a University of Oregon
graduate, spoke for last Tuesday’s entrepreneurship class as a guest speaker.
He had offered the class an enlightening lecture of how his business ventures
progressed through all stages of the financial/ business cycle. Mr. Dimmer did
discuss some of his past work and ventures which included: Puget Sound Bank
(Key Bank) for 9 years, Reliance S. & Bonding, Honda car dealership, and
Air Stream.
One of the key notes that Mr.
Dimmer provided, was advice taken from his own experiences to start a new
company or venture. He discussed in detail many of the ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ an
individual faces when trying to pursue any venture. It was also remarked that an
individual should acquire the needed skills sets and capabilities to indeed go
into a venture. If the entrepreneur did not have any of these capabilities, it
would make any pursuit extremely difficult.
The three “C”’s that John Dimmer
discussed had been: Character, Capacity, and Capital. He stated that these
three were essential in evaluation of a company venture. Character being the
character of the company, Capacity is the capabilities of what that company is
or can progress to, and the Capital that is required to sustain or grow the
business.
John Dimmer also discussed the
concept of what “angels” are; angels being the term for investors at a certain
stage in the financing life cycle. When was the necessary time to approach an
Angel, if the Angel was truly needed, and where to network to find such
investors for your starting business. He also mentioned two of the ‘upsides’ to
entrepreneurship: 1.) To run my own business 2.) To make a boat load of money.
I found that throughout the lecture,
I became very intrigued with the entrepreneurship lifestyle, and how Mr. Dimmer
was able to make decisions based on his life experiences and skills sets. I am
looking forward to the next guest speaker.
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