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Fischer SIPS Last Four “Brutal” Years

September 30, 2014 By hatfiled developer

industria meccanicaDamian Pataluna describes the last four years as “brutal”.
Pataluna is the owner of Fischers SIPS, a manufacturer and distributor of structural insulated paneling. He says the best way to describe his product is to think of an Oreo cookie – it’s the framing, insulation and sheeting pressed together in one product. “It’s the fast way to put up a very sound, very strong building and a more energy efficient option to steel,” said Pataluna.

His own 20,000-square-foot building is made from his product and his average monthly energy bill is around $1,200. He also has another building made of steel that is half the size at 10,000 square feet and that energy bill runs about $1,400 a month.

Pataluna started with the company straight out of college as a sales person. He had co-oped at GE where he said he felt like just a number. “I never felt like I was making an impact on the business,” he said. He went to his career counselor at Bellarmine University and said he was interested in finding a small, growing company to start his career. The counselor knew of Fischers SIPS and encouraged him to apply for the open sales position. In a small company, Pataluna quickly learned that even in sales, he had to do everything himself. “There were no product videos and very few marketing materials to work with,” he said. “The owners were supportive, though, and told to me to create whatever Ineeded and they would pay for it.”

Pataluna became educated on every facet of the business and was soon promoted to general manager and plant manager as the business grew. He had a big part in taking the small company from $400,000 annual sales when he started to an over $3 million company. So, in 2001, he decided he wanted to be a partner and bought out one of the minority owners. In 2003, he bought out a second minority owner and then in 2006, went to the only other majority owner to inquire about owning the whole business. Several banks turned him down, but Pataluna said his tenacity is what paid off and in 2006, he was able to buy the whole business. “If I had just waited one more year,” he says, smiling. “I could’ve gotten it for a song.” Then, in 2007, the housing market crashed and 65% of his customers disappeared. Suddenly, his very successful business was losing millions in sales and Pataluna had to go into survival mode with nonexistent cash flow.

What Pataluna learned
He cut his full staff of 23 down to 15 the first year and then to 10 the second year. He immediately started only making purchases that made sense. He could no longer afford to make purchases betting that work would come in. Pataluna all but eliminated his own salary. The same tenacity and perseverance that got him the loan to purchase the business is what kept him in business. He borrowed from friends and family; triple mortgaged his house and maxed out his personal credit cards over the years.

Filed Under: News, Spotlight

Diaper Fairy

April 16, 2013 By hatfiled developer

Diaper-Fairy

By JENNIFER RUBENSTIEN

Many of us think of glitz and glamour when we hear the word “entrepreneur.” Visions of Bill Gates  programming away on a computer, then heading to a black tie dinner to hang with the glitterati.  But examples of entrepreneurs come in a wide variety. “Mine is not a glamourous business,” says Emily McCay, local entrepreneur and owner of The Diaper Fairy. She says, “ I like to joke that we’re #1 in the #2 business.”

Emily started The Diaper Fairy, a cloth diaper laundry and delivery service, in 2010. Since that time she has also changed her definition of what it means to be an entrepreneur. “For a long time, I felt like I needed to be the one to do everything for the business – accounting, sales, deliveries, sorting, etc. It was very taxing and the business was not growing.” She realized a few months ago that she needed to either close up shop or make some changes, so she called the Small Business Development Center to get some advice. “They made me realize that just because I started the business, it didn’t mean I should continue to do everything. It was time to take another leap of faith and hire people who are skilled and proficient in the areas I’m not.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: News, Spotlight Tagged With: diaper, Diaper Fairy, Kentucky, laundry, laundry service, Louisville, small Business

Keeping Eyes on Your Newborn

April 16, 2013 By hatfiled developer

Keeping_eyesPresident, Blake Rutherford and CTO, Dominic Foster of Healthcare Observation Systems, LLC sat down in their Baxter Avenue office space to talk with LouPreneur about the success of their company and innovative product, NICVIEW.

NICVIEW, a play on words for NICUs, or Neonatal Intensive Care Units, is a webcam system designed to provide parents, families and caretakers the option of having real time web access to monitor their newborn infants admitted into NICUs. These specialized neonatal facilities are important for infants who are born prematurely or with life-threatening health issues but are not available in every hospital, therefore children with needs that require NICU admission are often far from home in a regional facility, instead of a local one. [Read more…]

Filed Under: News, Profiles Tagged With: Foster of Healthcare Observation Systems, Healthcare, infant surveillance, infants, Kentucky, Louisville, surveillance, surveillance systems, technology, webcam

Music in the Clouds

April 16, 2013 By hatfiled developer

IMG_0038Local entrepreneurs, Ron Karroll and Aaron Stack sat down at GLI to talk with LouPreneur about Collabra Music, a product where one can make and listen to music with the crowd…in the cloud!

Having loved music from a very young age, one thing that always inspires me is when various musicians cross paths or collaborate on songs that they normally wouldn’t. One of the best examples when that happens is at the end of awards shows. For example, at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Inductee Ceremony there is always an incredible ‘final’ jam consisting of various musicians, from various bands, belting out a classic tune that is usually one of the inductees’. Another would be during live shows when perhaps a member of the opening act joins the headliner for an impromptu on-stage collaboration. Either way, it is always very exciting to see and hear such moments.
To further understand the possibility of musical collaboration, another prime example would obviously be on the studio level. Whether an artist choses to invite ‘special guests’ to play on their recordings, do covers of other people’s songs, or even in cases of ‘tribute albums’ there are numerous ways in which various artists can come together using music as their outlet for artistic expression. [Read more…]

Filed Under: News, Profiles, Software Tagged With: cloud, Collabra Music, file sharing, Kentucky, Louisville, music, technology

Finding the Supply for Demand

April 16, 2013 By hatfiled developer

IMG_0077 Loupreneur sat down with Jermaine Watkins, the President and CEO of Supply Ark, a Louisville business that provides distribution channels and seamless fulfillment strategies for military and government contracts as well as commercial bids. Since 2009, Supply Ark’s team of three has had an innovative focus on strategically winning contracts from the Defense Logistics Agency bid process. Watkins crafted a proprietary system that automates the bid process for the military’s miscellaneous items requests.

Success for Watkins comes from combining a tech background as a former employee of the US Army Corps of Engineers and as a website developer for Borders Unlimited Inc., a wholesale distributor of wallpaper borders for a company in Shelbyville, KY. Supply Ark grew out of his desire to be a self-motivator and from his childhood in which he was raised by entrepreneurs. “I got tired of working for a company and paying my own salary. I thought, ‘this is ridiculous, I can do this from home.’ I realized that if I can sell almost a million dollars in wallpaper borders, then I can make my own money doing something else,” jokes Watkins. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business, Government, News, Profiles Tagged With: contracts, Kentucky, logistics, Louisville, military, Supply Ark

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