According to the U.S. Census, our nation is home to 5.91 million business owners whose businesses have fewer than 100 employees. If the American dream is to survive, these small businesses must thrive. The success of Wal-Mart and Google is not enough.
Wizard Academy is a business school – not for big corporations – but for companies operated by their owners. Can you name another?
On 1/3/11 6:59 AM, <XXXXXX@yahoo.com> wrote:
Roy,
May I be one of the first to speak up about your “Sponsorship Opportunities?” Enough already. Yes, it’s a good idea to have people buy in to your ideas and write checks to help build things at the Academy. A light fixture here, some paving bricks there. But it may be time to give it a rest. What will we be asked to buy next, a box of paper clips? Please don’t lower yourself to standing on the streets of Austin with a pencil cup. It would be a humbling experience but it’s unbecoming of you. Need more money? Do what the Doobies suggested and Take It to The Street. Get back on the lecture circuit for $25K+ per day plus expenses. There are people out here who would pay big bucks for a Roy appearance. Heck, if Glenn Beck can do it, you can too.
XXXXXX, VA
“Get back on the lecture circuit”? Friend, you seem to think I’m raising money to build Roy-Town. You are mistaken.
My goal in seeking sponsorships is to transfer psychological ownership of this school to the people for whom it is being built. The public already owns Wizard Academy legally. Now I need them to own it in their hearts.
When a person donates money to fund a permanent, physical attribute of this school, his or her relationship with it is made more permanent and physical as well.
I will soon pass off the scene. I’m not speaking of my death, but of my joyful departure to pursue the hands-on, face-to-face growth of small businesses across the land. If the public has not fully seized hold of this school, it will fail shortly after I walk away.
I am sorry you were annoyed. I promise not to let it happen again. To make doubly sure that my tacky, lowbrow behavior no longer offends your sensitive nature, I’ve instructed Barry Skidmore to remove your name from our subscriber list. (Just out of curiosity, I checked to see if you’ve ever made a donation or paid to attend a class. No on both counts. But I did notice that you’ve been quick to fly from Virginia to attend Academy events that are free.) So with a wink and a smile and a snappy salute good-bye, I leave you to the wisdom of Glenn Beck.
Roy H. Williams
“No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man…” – Elbert Hubbard, A Message to Garcia, 1899 (More than 100 million copies of this booklet have been distributed in the past 112 years.)
You, reader, as a believer in this school for small business, are not “the average man” spoken of by Elbert Hubbard. You are generous, gracious and intelligent. You are insightful, creative and committed. You and your continuing success are the reasons this school exists.
I look forward to spending these moments with you each week.
Roy H. Williams
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Michele Miller works with businesses of all sizes across North America, including Best Buy and Timberland. She maintains a busy schedule as an international speaker on the topics of advertising and marketing to women.
She has written a regular marketing column for Inc.com and her blog, WonderBranding, has won many awards and is included on the prestigious “Best of the Web” list compiled by Forbes. Need to sell to Women? Don’t miss her class with Tom Wanek at Wizard Academy January 26-27.
PS – The Gala Grand Opening of the Tower is scheduled for April 23. The construction guys are working like frantic beavers to make sure everything is finished in time. There are lots of little bits left to be sponsored, but only one BIG bit… the Wizard Academy business offices, attached to the tower by the nautical quarterdeck that extends from the 3rd-floor classroom across to the door that enters the business offices. See photo of office door below. The offices are 30k, if you’re strong enough to swing that hammer. But we’ve got a special way of saying THANKS.
We haven’t yet installed the antique teakwood posts under the porch roof that covers the doorway, or the giant ship’s anchor that will stand off to one side of it, (already funded by a dozen special friends of Pennie,) or the 5-foot wooden figurehead that will stand to the other side, (special thanks to Dave “Skunkmeat” Lofranco of Toronto, great-great-grandson of the famous French pirate.) Also already donated is the authentic ship’s wheel on the platform inside the door (funded a year ago by a gang of sailors) and the bronze plaque of Robert Louis Stevenson. Hey, if these are the offices of the people who will steer the Wizard Academy ship toward the North Star, shouldn’t they have some nautical stuff around them?
