his plan to launch a new web venture, Time
Trails, with Roger Douthett ’75, left, and Bill
Ellison ’71. Douthett and Ellison head up the
Wichita-based chapter of the Service Corps
of Retired Executives.
WSU student Ben Tyson needed some help getting his small business up and running, and he found it with Bill Ellison ’71 and Roger Douthett ’75.
Ellison is chairman and Douthett district director of SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, a volunteer organization designed to assist budding entrepreneurs of all ages.
“A lot of people have an idea in their head for a business,” Ellison says, “but they need a plan for success. We get them thinking about all the things it takes to run a small businesses.”
Ellison, an industrial engineering graduate, enjoys his volunteer work. “You can help someone and provide a service to the community,” he says. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Like Ellison, John Stevens fs ’65, is retired and enjoying his work with SCORE. As he puts it: “We’re the experience boys. We’ve done it before.” He spent most of his career running an independent oil and gas business.
While there’s no paycheck for his new job, there are benefits, including what he calls “physic income,” or the thrill he gets from helping others.
Helping oversee score’s endeavors is another Shocker, Wayne Bell ’89/03, district director of the U.S. Small Business Administration. A former WSU football player, Bell earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial technology and an Executive MBA. He has experience running an independent business, as well as in large company management.
Bell, who is a member of the 2009 class of Leadership Kansas, is a strong supporter of Wichita State, especially of its EMBA program. He says enrolling in it was “one of the best decisions of my professional life. It opened me up to the career I have today.”
Business Administration, talks to SCORE meeting
attendees about the Recovery Act.
At the SBA, Bell uses a network of relationships to help businesses in such areas as obtaining funding, something he sometimes finds frustrating. “Deals that were being done a year ago are not being done now,” he says, reflecting on the tight lending environment.
His current emphasis is sharing information about the Recovery Act, a $730 million stimulus package aimed at providing tax incentives and financing opportunities in order
to create jobs. Bell notes with emphasis this statistic: Small businesses have created 70 percent of all new jobs in the
past 10 years.
