Idaho TechLaunch looking for students, entrepreneurs

Are you a student or entrepreneur with a great business idea? You might want to start making plans for Boise in mid-May and Idaho TechLaunch.

It's an annual business pitch contest designed to educate and provide a stage for entrepreneurs and students to practice and hone their pitches in front of the business/investment community. One of its sponsors is the Idaho National Laboratory.

Last year, more than $20,000 in prizes was handed out. Competition is in four categories:

• Entrepreneurial Idol - A pitch competition including regional businesses and start-ups on innovative products or services. Participating companies from all Idaho regions give 15 minute pitches with Q&A to a panel of judges that rate both the business viability and presentation.
• Next Gen - A pitch contest between participants of regional college and university business plan competitions. Student teams give 10 minute pitches with Q&A to a panel of judges that rate both the business viability and presentation.
• Idaho Ideas to Market (I2M) - Market assessments of patented technologies developed at the Idaho National Laboratory. Participating student teams from the region's colleges and universities give 10 minute semester project findings with Q&A to a panel of judges that rate the completenesss of their assessments.
• Crowd Pitch - Elevator pitch competition that provides an opportunity for individuals to pitch their idea to TechLaunch participants. In partnership with the Boise State Student Entrepreneur Club, individual entrepreneurs from the public will be selected to give a 1 minute elevator pitch with Q&A to the TechLaunch crowd, which will vote for its favorite pitch.

Here is a link to more information: http://www.idahotechconnect.com/home/techlaunch/

Dancing With the Idaho Falls Stars

Never say that BizMojo Idaho is afraid to plunge into the new year. Two weeks from tomorrow night, at the Idaho Falls Civic Auditorium, I will be participating in "Dancing With the Idaho Falls Stars," a benefit event for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

The drill is familiar enough. Rank amateurs are paired up with partners who know what they're doing. I hope mine is patient, but with all due modesty I do not expect to be hopeless either. My parents enrolled me in dance lessons when I was in seventh grade, back in the day when it was a suburban custom, and I have watched my share of Fred Astaire movies.

I will remember to smile, and I have been assured that no one has ever humiliated themselves by doing this.

Even if I do make a spectacle of myself, it will be for a cause all of us can get behind. In my case it's particularly close to home, as my wife, Karen Juell, had surgery last month to remove a tumor from her abdomen. It was diagnosed malignant, so we're looking at chemotherapy this spring, not to mention some horrific medical expenses. (Does anyone find it ironic that even with insurance it costs a fortune to get sick in the land of the free?)

Karen has been to the rodeo before. She was treated for Hodgkin's disease in 1985. Next Tuesday we will be celebrating our 26th anniversary, so our message to you is one of hope. Cancer stinks, but we were put on this earth to live, and that is what we intend to do.

If you want to make a donation, here is the link. It would mean a great deal to us to have your support. http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY12GW?px=17013538&pg=personal&fr_id=38333

A new computer and a bright future in sales

I would like to wish an especially happy new year to all the salespeople reading BizMojo Idaho. Nobody faces a greater challenge in this economy.

Here are some bullet points from a book review of "Up Your Sales in a Down Market," by Ron Volper. I found them interesting, and maybe you will, too.

• “Top performing salespeople ask four times as many questions as their less-successful colleagues.”
• “If you call prospects cold there is only a 2 percent chance you will speak to them, if you have a referral your odds jump to 20 percent, but if you have an introduction they jump up to 60 percent.”
• “Top salespeople write out and practice their sales presentations three times more often than less successful salespeople.”
• “Seventy percent of salespeople said they failed to close business because of price, whereas only 45 percent of their customers said price was their main objection.”

That last point sounds particularly intriguing. Here's a link to the full review: http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/01/review-up-your-sales-in-a-down-market.html.

Don't say I never did anything for you.

Reader wants Dunkin' Donuts in Idaho Falls; who wants to help her out?

Lise Pinkham of Idaho Falls wants to know what it's going to take for Idaho Falls to get a Dunkin' Donuts. Having grown up with one within walking distance of my home, I would not mind this either.

More than 25 years ago, at my father's urging, I actually looked into what it would take to bring Dunkin' Donuts to Idaho. My dad, a teacher, had a colleague who'd taken out a second mortgage to buy the Dunkin' Donuts on Concord Pike, Brandywine Hundred's own 17th Street. It was a home run for him, although the downside was he was usually up at 2 a.m. getting things ready for the day. Still, you can't argue with success.

What I learned then was that for Idaho the company wanted a franchisee who would agree to take on three stores. I don't know if it's that way it still is.

Looking online, I see that there are four in Washington but none in Idaho. I can't understand why some investment company hasn't picked up on Dunkin', especially considering the aggressive job it has done marketing its coffee. The devil is in the details, I suppose.

Now that Carl's Jr. and Chick-fil-A are both open, what is going to be the first chain restaurant news of 2012? Let me assure you we will be watching the T.G.I. Friday's location on Hitt Road with an eagle eye.

Pocatello Hoku plant in jeopardy over power bill

Hoku Materials' Pocatello polysilicon plant, in a photo from 2010.

Hoku Materials' polysilicon plant in Pocatello, a great green energy hope for southeastern Idaho, is in trouble again. The Honolulu company is fighting a termination notice from Idaho Power Co., which is threatening to cut power to the plant next week unless a $1.9 million electricity bill from November is paid.

Hoku filed a protest with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission against the Dec. 27 final termination notice, saying that cutting electricity to the plant would cause Hoku to stop work on the plant and delay indefinitely the plant from becoming fully operational. Such delays would make it difficult for Hoku to fund its operations and keep its 160 employees, the company’s attorneys said in the protest.

In the past three years, Hoku has invested approximately $600 million in the construction of its facilities, including piping systems, pumps, motors and sensitive electronic equipment. "If service is terminated, these high-value systems may freeze, causing irreparable and material damage to Hoku’s plant assets,” the protest said.

Hoku is proposing that Idaho Power take the $1.9 million owed for the November invoice from a $4 million deposit the company made with the utility earlier this year. But in a response Friday, Idaho Power said it could not apply the deposit to the monthly charges because that would violate tariff rules. The electric utility called Hoku’s protest with the IPUC a stalling tactic.

China's Baoding Tianwei Group took a majority ownership in Hoku Materials in 2010 after the plant ran into financial difficulties. Economic development officials have said the plant, dedicated to making materials for solar panels, could create up to 200 green energy jobs in the region.

The city of Pocatello offered a number of incentives for Hoku to locate its site there. For a story about the agreement, follow this link: http://www.bannockdevelopment.org/content/city-hoku-reach-agreement.