Eagle Mountain's Hidden Florist

Emmie's Hidden Floral

Emily page

7787 Crestwood Cir.

Eagle Mountain, UT 84005

(801) 717-0618
emilycrs@netscape.net

Emily Page was enthusiastic when she came to the Orem Start Smart Class. "I've always had the thought in the back of my brain to start my own business." Two months and a few SBDC appointments later, Emily was in business as "Emmie's Hidden Floral". She was thrilled to have some help with the business part of starting her own floral shop, because Emily already knew flowers. "I love being creative," she said. "I like to make something beautiful that makes everybodys day." After working in several florist shops over the years, Emily knew she had style, skill, customer service charisma, and good relationships with vendors. What she lacked was the knowledge of how to start. Though a few years had past since then, Emily had been looking forward to the time where she could start her own florist business.

The time was right in 2009. At her first SBDC appointment, Emily started the process to become a legal business entity. She had been looking for equipment and wanted to get things in place. Emily and her husband live in Eagle Mountain City, and she knew that a large community of families lived miles away from a floral shop. Lehi had the closest florist and Emily was convinced there was a market just waiting to be served. Her challenge was that she wanted to work from her home. After consulting the City Municipal Center, Emily was approved to run a flower shop from her home - actually from one section of her garage. After starting her business, Emily advertised in the local newspaper, and took an arrangement into the City Offices, talked to her neighbors and within 2 weeks, was booked to create custom arrangements for a fall wedding.

Since then, "Emmie's Hidden Floral" has become the Eagle Mountain City's florist of choice and has spread the word to local residences. Still enjoying creating beautiful floral pieces, Emily is also enjoying the business side of owning her own business. She has excellent relationships with her wholesaler and she continues to add to her portfolio of arrangements. She now comes in to the SBDC to brainstorm marketing ideas and research target markets. She has plans to create a website that people can order from and offer delivery to those in Eagle Mountain. Emily is glad to have the help of the Orem SBDC team to guide her. "You have been awesome to work with and have helped me out a ton!" Now, Emily is focused on increasing her sales. Her goal is to develop "Emmie's Hidden Floral" into Eagle Mountain residence's favorite florist.

CDL Training Success Story

CDL Training Inc.
Jose Bentura
1555 Technology Way, Orem, UT 84097
801-987-2222
info@mycdltraining.com

Jose Bentura is not new to the business world. He has owned a variety of businesses since he was 18. His previous business ventures included huge overhead costs, such as used car dealerships, where he was generating up to $10 million in sales a year, operating costs were close to $9.9 million. Jose came to Utah with his family from the east coast. After losing $400,000 in a business deal, with nothing but the shirt on his back and the will to work hard to build a successful business.
Jose started his company, CDL Training, in Orem in March 2009. He came to the Orem SBDC in January 2009, for guidance in setting aggressive goals to run his company. The ocean of knowledge at the Orem SBDC was priceless. Jose was looking for structure and organization – the SBDC helped him attain that for his company. Jose considers that to be a foundation of his business, “Because if you don’t know where you are going, how do you know when you get there?” He says that “the monthly meetings are helpful to keep him on track”. Just eight months into the life of CDL Training, Bentura is 100% debt free, a first in his many business ventures. Ironically, in the worst economy, he is doing better than ever before.
Bentura recognizes that the bumps in the road from his previous businesses has been good experience, and he has learned from his mistakes. His keys to success are low maintenance, low overhead, and low expenses. He delegates well and is able to employ 2 to 4 employees while training anywhere from 5 to 50 students to certify for their CDL. His niche is the Hispanic market. While other companies turn these folks away, Bentura’s staff is bilingual and able to train them. His first priority is to give and create opportunities for his students. He not only helps them in a one-on-one program to get CDL certified, going at the individual’s pace; but after certification he assists his students with job placement. The program is 3 to 4 weeks long, and after that, his students can often triple their prior annual salary as truck drivers. Also, Bentura is now assisting his students in starting their own trucking businesses. He helps them find semi trucks for their own company and sends them to the SBDC for further business help.
Bentura advertises through Spanish radio, TV, print, word of mouth, and ads on his vehicles. He has found the internet marketing and SEO classes offered by the Orem SBDC center to be tremendously helpful in getting him more business. He runs his business out of the UVU incubators so his students have a store front to pick up applications, a space for a receptionist that is always available, and a place to study if needed. He started his business with one truck and a rented trailer, and has since grown to 3 trucks and a bus in the 8 short months since he opened. He has already graduated 110 students from his program; and has recently expanded to a location in West Valley City and hopes to soon open 5 more locations in Seattle, Wyoming, Denver, Idaho and Las Vegas. With his success spreading like wildfire what Jose really needs to concentrate on now is taking a few days off.