Job seekers are encouraged to attend the Job Interview Coaching event at The Mall from 2 to 6 p.m. on April 23. This event will provide participants the opportunity to visit with human resource and workforce professionals regarding resumes and interview skills.
Representatives from Hays Academy of Hair Design, Arc of the Central Plains and Jana’s Closet will be present to offer consultations regarding dress and overall appearance. Additional booths will feature social media analysis, local assistance information from WKACD and more.
For more information, call Linda Koci at KansasWorks at (785) 625-5654. This event is sponsored by The Mall, Hays Has Jobs, Western Kansas Human Resources Management Association, Hays Area Young Professionals, KansasWorks, WorkforceOne and Hays Academy of Hair Design.
By RON WILSON Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
Completely Nuts. Does that sound like an unusual name for business? Today we’ll learn about a young entrepreneur who is involved in several enterprises, but one is focused on a very specific line of products: In fact, the product line is nuts only.
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
Ben Weber is a young entrepreneur in southeast Kansas. His uncles farm and his father is a Pioneer Seed salesman and has been for 25 years. Maybe Ben got expertise in sales from his father.
First, though, Ben went to Washburn University to play football. Unfortunately, he blew out his shoulder and was unable to play. While in Topeka he met an older couple that had a business selling cinnamon-roasted nuts. During school he helped them sell their products part-time. In 2001, he had the opportunity to buy their equipment from them. Two years later, he purchased another nut company.
Ben put himself through school selling these delicious flavored nuts and then took the business on the road. When it came time to name the company, he came up with a tongue-in-cheek name, so to speak. He named the company Completely Nuts.
“I’m working for peanuts so I might as well have a fun name,” Ben said with a smile. He had a roasting machine, a recipe, weighing scale, and supplies. He mixed cinnamon, sugar, and a splash of vanilla, added the nuts, roasted and cooled them and then hand-weighed them into bags. There are three sizes: Small, medium and large. Eventually he got three different sets of equipment so he could serve three locations simultaneously.
When I say he took the business on the road, I mean that literally. Ben started traveling to malls, festivals, and events to sell the delicious roasted nuts. He sold nuts as far west as Las Vegas and up and down the eastern seaboard. Ben sold the nuts from the Orange Bowl parade down in Miami up to Niagara Falls on the Canadian border.
One year, Ben was selling nuts in a mall in St. Joseph, Mo. during the Christmas season. An attractive young woman bought nuts from him and they got acquainted. Her name was Lara. Sure enough, they fell in love.
“If this doesn’t work out financially, at least it worked out socially,” Ben said. Ben and Lara got married and eventually they moved back to Ben’s rural hometown of Yates Center, Kansas, population 1,586 people. Now, that’s rural.
Ben is now an associate in his father’s Pioneer Seed sales business while also selling Meridian seed tender wagons and independent crop insurance. He still sells cinnamon roasted nuts but doesn’t go on the road as much since he started a family. In fact, Ben and Lara have five children, seven years of age or younger: They have girls age seven and five, plus a three-year-old son and twin boys age seven months. Forgive me for saying so, but life in a household like that might be completely nuts.
Ben Weber takes it all in stride. He enjoyed traveling with the nut business, but he is really enjoying being home with his young children. In his traveling days, he had the opportunity to do a lot of sightseeing. Still, he said, the greatest highlight of the business were the nice people he had a chance to meet.
Ben started selling his cinnamon roasted nuts at Bass Pro Shop stores and even met the owner of the chain. He has encountered other celebrities along the way as well.
“One day, I was selling at a Bass Pro Shop in Dallas when Terry Bradshaw came along,” Ben said. “He bought some nuts and was so nice to pose for pictures with us. Not two days later, along came Deion Sanders and he was the same way.”
Completely Nuts. It seems like an unusual name for a business, but in this case it accurately describes the business’s products. We commend Ben and Lara Weber for making a difference with entrepreneurship and family life in a rural setting, and with a product line that consists completely of nuts. Oh, nuts.
Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
Marcella McCluskey, a junior at Fort Hays State University studying communications with an emphasis in advertising, has announced the launch of her new business with the Clever Container company.
She is hosting a kick-off party from 1 to 3 p.m. March 8 at Indigo Cafe in Hays, on Eighth Street across from the U.S. Post Office.
Clever Container is a company dedicated to helping simplify and organize everyday life with products that help do just that. The kick-off party will be a no-pressure opportunity to see the products.
Indigo will have bubble tea available for purchase, and there will be cookies available as refreshments.
Dear Dave,
My wife and I are working the Baby Steps, and we have our budget in place. Sometimes the budget gets busted because of home improvements and various other things. I think we should take money from our emergency fund when this happens, but she says it should come out of our restaurant and fun money.
What do you think? Joshua
Dear Joshua,
I hate to break this to you, but overspending is not an emergency. So, I’m siding with your wife on this one. If you budget a set amount in one category and you go over that amount, you’ve got to have something you reduce or cut out completely to stay within your budget for the month.
You’d be surprised at what some people call an “emergency.” But here’s the deal: If something happens on a pretty regular basis, it’s a predictable event. That means you need to budget a larger amount for home improvements or whatever the problem area may be.
Overall, on a month-to-month basis, if you find you have $200 budgeted for car repairs and the repair turns out to be $250, I’d rather you cut back on eating out to make up the difference. That’s the way my wife and I did it back in the day. We never touched the emergency fund for anything except big, unexpected, scary stuff. —Dave
Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He’s authored four New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover and EntreLeadership. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 6 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.
WICHITA (AP) — Bombardier says it will put about 300 of its Learjet employees on furlough during the first half of the year.
The company said in a memo to employees that the furloughs will take place in two-week blocks over a six-week span.
The memo from vice president and general manager Ralph Acs on Friday that the furloughs involve production of the Learjet 70 and 75 and direct support staff members.
Employees will find out this month who is affected and what dates they will be furloughed.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — University of Kansas School of Business Dean Neeli Bendapudi will be one of the featured speakers at the Kansas Small Business Forum, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at Sporting Park in Kansas City.
The forum will include remarks by Gov. Sam Brownback and other state leaders and a panel discussion of business leaders highlighting how the Kansas business environment can help small businesses succeed, Kansas’ tax policy for small businesses and an update on the Kansas economy.
The forum also will include:
• Stan Ahlerich, executive director of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors
• Gary Allerheiligen, former president of the Kansas Society of Certified Public Accountants
• Commerce Secretary Pat George and Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan
• Ed Condon, senior portfolio manager, Sterneck Capital Management
• Sen. Jim Denning, vice president of business development, Discover Vision Centers, Leawood
• Mike Valentine, CEO, Netsmart Technologies, Overland Park
• Fred Willich, owner, Hi-Tech Interiors Inc., Manhattan
• Albert Balloqui, owner, Labor Max Staffing, Roeland Park
WAMEGO — The 25th annual Kansas Sampler Festival will be May 3 and 4 at Wamego Dutch Mill and Prairie Village.
The festival is a showcase of what there is to see, do, hear, taste, buy and learn in Kansas. Approximately 150 communities from across the stater will take part in the event, which features artists cultural heritage demonstrations and entertainment.
The festival moves to a different community every two years and will be in Wamego in 2014 and 2015.
Tom Thomas, president of Commerce Bank in Hays, announced today Deron O’Connor has been named market president of Commerce Bank’s Hays region, effective Wednesday. In his new role, O’Connor will be responsible for the overall administration of Commerce Bank’s Hays market.
Thomas, who will retire next year, will continue to serve as chairman for the Hays bank.
O’Connor has 13 years of banking experience at Commerce and currently leads the commercial banking effort in Hays.
“We are very pleased to have Deron serve in this important lead role for Commerce Bank,” Thomas said. “Deron has shown strong leadership in both commercial banking and through community involvement. He will provide strategic direction as we continue our focus on our customer promise — we ask, listen and solve. He is well qualified for this role.”
“We have a great team and a strong bank in this market,” O’Connor said. “I am excited to lead our efforts in the Hays area as we continue to provide our customers top-notch products and services.”
O’Connor has been a resident of Ellis County since 1989 and started at Commerce Bank in Hays in 2000. He is a graduate of University of Kansas with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He completed the Commerce Bank Aspiring Leaders Development Program in 2010.
NEW YORK – December 20, 2013 – USA Communications announced today that it has sold cable television systems in Nebraska and Colorado to Eagle Communications headquartered in Hays, Kansas. The cable television systems serve the communities of Central City and surrounding towns in Nebraska and Burlington, Colorado.
“We are thrilled to be passing the ownership of our systems on to Eagle Communications,” said Chris Hilliard, CEO of USA Communications. “They are a great homegrown Midwest operator just like us. We are confident that they will take good care of our communities and our employees.”
Eagle Communications is a Midwestern-based broadband services and media company with more than 270 employee-owners. The company currently operates cable television systems and radio stations in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado. Eagle also offers e-business solutions, web hosting, high-speed Internet, telephone service, rural wireless Internet and digital services in most service areas. Eagle employee owners have been committed to delivering the most reliable services with better quality choices even in the smallest communities.
“The USA communities feel like home to us at Eagle and our Eagle Employee Owners look forward to becoming their neighbors and growing with their communities,” said Gary Shorman, President/CEO of Eagle Communications. “Our history of providing cutting-edge technology that is reliable and easy to use will build on the great services already available from USA Communications. We will bring the ‘Eagle Experience’ to these areas with affordable and user-friendly Cable TV, Internet, and telephone service combined with customer focused support.
Waller Capital, a leading independent investment bank focused on the telecommunications, media and technology sectors, served as the exclusive financial adviser to USA Communications on the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new survey of bankers suggests that the economy will grow at a healthy pace in rural parts of 10 Midwest and Western states in the months ahead.
The monthly survey’s overall index rose to 56.1 in December from November’s more moderate 54.3. But any score above 50 suggests growth.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says the region continues to benefit from the strength of agriculture and energy businesses. But declining crop prices and the lack of a farm bill are concerning.
The index is based on surveys of rural bankers in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
It ranges from 0 to 100, with 50 representing growth neutral. A score above 50 suggests growth in that factor in the months ahead.
