News Releases

Entrepreneurship program aims to save shuttering Kansas businesses

Thursday, November 12, 2009

BY WAYNE LARSON

KU Succession Planning Cooperative LLC has identified nearly 22 percent, or nearly 13,000 small businesses in Kansas have owners who plan to retire in five years, but do not have a succession plan in place. "Those are the sorts of companies that Red Tire is hoping to Ôsave,'" said second-year KU School of Business MBA student and Red Tire Consultant Richard Smith.

Red Tire stands for "redefining retirement," and that is exactly what the KU School of Business group wants to do for small family-owned businesses in Kansas and eventually the entire nation.

KU Succession Planning Cooperative LLC, which is a part of the School of Business' Entrepreneurship Program, developed Red Tire in an effort to provide succession plans for small business owners who may not have one in place and are about to retire.

KU Entrepreneurship Program Director Wallace Meyer said the idea for Red Tire hatched when he was eating dinner with an economic developer from Goodland, Kan. "I asked him what was the most worrisome thing he was facing in his town and he said ÔWe have no one to succeed our small business owners when they retire,'" Meyer said.

The Red Tire program is currently in the business planning stages, but the concept has generated a lot of excitement already. Meyer has been giving presentations about Red Tire to economic developers in Kansas for the past few months. He said the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. "Despite explaining that the project is only in the planning stages, I still receive calls after my presentations from small business owners saying ÔI am a candidate for Red Tire.'"

The program has also received numerous votes of confidence from distinguished groups. The Red Tire idea won best business concept in June 2009 at the U.S. Department of Commerce-sponsored University Center Showcase.

Two teams, made up of six KU MBA students, are currently working on the program. One team is developing a plan to create an in-market beta test to prove the Red Tire concept works. The second team is developing a "franchise book" KU Succession Cooperative LLC eventually plans to franchise the program to other universities in the U.S.

The program is not only great for Kansas businesses. It also provides School of Business graduate students with unprecedented opportunities early in their career. "Red Tire provides graduate students with the chance to already have CEO or CFO of a company on their resume at age 22 or 23,"Smith said.


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