Wilson said he experienced some discouragement, disappointment and self-doubt in the process of finding a suitable, affordable building for the center – his implementation phase. Several attempts failed, but in the end he believes he found an ideal location for an excellent price. “It was taxing and frustrating. There were times I wondered if it was supposed to happen,” he recalled. “You do the best that you can with your due diligence, but you’re always going to find obstacles and financial surprises. Be ready with prayer, persistence and a lot of hard work.”
NEED TO NETWORK Ryan Alter (’98) likes to joke that an entrepreneur has to be “borderline insane” because of the hard work and the risk involved, but says he wouldn’t trade the lifestyle for any other. You could call Alter a “serial entrepreneur.” He’s launched several business enterprises since relocating to Montana after completing his YSU degree in environmental science. Now, he’s pursuing his passion for the environment by marketing an award-winning Automated Bear Trap that he designed, but he’s also following Professor Dangol’s
practical advice – his day job as president of an information technology consulting business pays the bills. Alter is part of a networking group with fellow entrepreneurs, and their support, advice and insight have been invaluable for him as he’s faced the ups and downs of business start-ups. “It all boils down to your tolerance for risk, ” he said. “It’s a lifestyle that you have to seriously consider before you jump into it. Some are cut out for it, some aren’t.”
SURVIVING A CRISIS StarBound Entertainment founder and president Toni McKay (’70, ’84) is no stranger to business challenges. She said she’s had to “reinvent” herself many times since she started her giant helium balloon company in New Castle, Pa., more than two decades ago. “An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds an airplane on the way down,” she quipped. “I’ve built a lot of 747s.” One of the worst crises the successful balloon entrepreneur encountered came four years ago when a national helium shortage caused prices to triple overnight.
The Automated Bear Trap – Email from the Wilderness Ryan Alter, ’98 BS Inventors always try to “build a better mousetrap.” Ryan Alter took it a step further – he built a better bear trap. Living in Missoula, Mont., where bears are often a problem for wildlife managers, Alter’s patented Automated Bear Trap captures and safely contains even the largest bear. “I’ll never forget the first bear we caught – a 700 lb. grizzly,” he says with a laugh. “I welded that trap together myself, and I was thinking, I sure hope I did a good job!” His bear trap was named one of the Top Five Innovations of the Year at the 2014 Niagara Summit business conference in Las Vegas. Alter said he built the trap, with funding assistance from an anonymous environmentalist donor, to help park managers who complained of wasting countless hours, driving hundreds of miles to check bear traps. Equipped with webcams and monitors, the trap emails wildlife managers when a trap door is tripped and they can check the webcams to see if it’s caught the bear they’re after; if not, they can trigger a remote Ryan Alter poses outside his Automated Bear Trap with a release to set the unwanted target free. Alter said one park ranger testing tranquilized grizzly bear. out the trap reported that it saved him 150 work hours and $5,000 in gas in a year. But here’s the rub: Alter hasn’t sold a trap yet. He calls it “a solution waiting for its time,” and feels confident that parks and wildlife managers around the world will eventually start ordering. “The bear trap was never about money,” he says. “It’s about progressing technology in the environmental arena. It’s my way of giving back.” Fortunately, the bear trap is just one of several entrepreneurial ventures for Alter. He created Inspired Classroom, a company that provides virtual field trips for schools, and sold it in January. Alter also has a natural aptitude for technology that is invaluable to him as president and founder of Alter Enterprise, an information technology consulting firm, now serving 50 business clients. “As an entrepreneur, at some point you have to put your flag in the ground and say, ‘This one,’” he said, “but I’m always looking for new projects. It’s the driver in me.”
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YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY