Your VU Efficiency Consulting

Efficiency solutions for small to medium sized businesses as well as corporate executives to enable more efficient management of data. (Thus resulting in increased productivity and decreased efforts with unnecessary tasks.)

What you sell / services you offer (brief description of your company):

For executives: Brain enhancement and speed reading technologies

For companies: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Content Management System (CMS) Solutions

Have you always wanted to run your own business? What were some of your previous jobs / companies?

When I was around seven years old I saw an item in my mom's mail order catalog called "My First Business". I begged and pleaded to have it. Though it was mostly simple items like paper clips and a stapler, there were some more complex concepts that were involved that surpassed the typical lemonade stand. My father, who founded the largest and oldest commercial cryogenics company in the world, 300 Below, Inc. (www.300below.com on the web.) has also been instrumental in shaping my entrepreneurial spirit, as he started his company from $400 and a credit card in the basement of our Decatur, IL home. To answer the question, yes, I've always wanted to run my own business.

The last company I had was a computer repairs and web design business called "Presky Networks" which was based off of a nickname I had in grade school that, for some reason, stuck. Though I'm not too fond of the nickname, I kept it with the business and eventually weaned myself off of the business entirely. The reason for that is because I believe in something called the Kabalarian Philosophy (www.kabalarians.com), which I discovered when I was in high school, but it fit a belief system I had established when I was in 6th grade stating that people with the same name have similar personality traits. Upon talking to a specialist with the organization, I found that my nickname was ill-suited for me, let alone a business, so I planned to dump the entire idea. It didn't really convey much about the company either.

Now I have a customer centric name (Your VU Efficiency Consulting-pronounced "Your View") that lets a client know that their views and ideas are most important.

I've worked independently as a beta tester and developer (via product feedback and strategic development) for companies like Akimbo Systems, America Online and MusicMatch Jukebox. I regret not getting compensated for my ideas with MusicMatch, as they were probably worth more than a few million dollars in revenue to the company, but I fed them free information because I was a music hound and not a programmer, so my ideas, once implemented, were immediately enjoyable to myself in hindsight. It was a good tradeoff to see my visions for the company put to good use, though I disagree with the way Yahoo is currently managing the company.

I also worked as an intern at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, FL with a cast role in Park Operations. I was responsible for operating the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride as a tour guide and drove a fully customized safari vehicle that seated around 30 people. Part of my job was recognizing animals in the park's preserve in order to provide an interactive tour to the guests. During my time there I also completed a 20 hour course in Security and Loss Prevention at Disney University. I managed to network with a diverse number of people in the security division and got to shadow various security roles in the field, including K-9 and Bike Patrol. I also worked side by side with a dispatcher during one of my visits to the Disney Command Center, which was an experience that very few other people have had.

Have you got any qualifications? Please tell us about yourself academically...

During the summer between my junior and senior year in high school, I led team of ten people to win first place in "Improvement of Existing Technology" at the International Summit of Young Technology Leaders in Austin, TX against 1,000 other competitors from around the world. I currently attend Babson College, which is number one in the world for Entrepreneurial Business.

Before I transferred to Babson I was attending the College of Business and Administration at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale with a 3.333 GPA where I spoke to incoming freshman business students about Success and Motivation. (I was a second-semester freshman at the time.) I was the first freshman representative in CoBA History to join the LINX program for recruiting prospective students. I also developed a multimedia video to promote membership in FMA and then went from class to class showing it which resulted in a massive attendance at our first informational meeting. People were overflowing out the door of our conference room, and we retained many of the members from that meeting.

SIUC Activities and Societies: Secretary of Financial Management Association (FMA), College of Business & Administration (CoBA) Student Council Member, LINX Representative, Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), SIUC University Honors Program, Treasurer of Phi Kappa Tau Social Fraternity (Beta Chi Colony), Treasurer of Walt Disney World College Program Alumni.

How / when did the idea of your website / company come about?

A couple of years ago I noticed the need that people had for websites that needed constant updating. They were always generally simple text updates and resulted in people paying for web designers when they could have just done the updates themselves. I've always been good at setting up websites so I decided to create a business that allows me to help both companies (doing this) and people (by using the brain enhancement and organizational technologies).

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