Students at Northwestern University in Evanston recently heard from a panel of young entrepreneurs who shared their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of creating their own business. The panelists included Reid Lappin and Sean Vosen, partners, VOKAL Interactive; Li Jiang of Campus Solutions, Inc.; Geoff Domonacki, Founder & CEO, midVentures Group; and Rania El-Sorrogy of Hooking Book. Today’s challenging economy made the topic particularly relevant for students who will soon choose between following a dream of creating their own business, or searching for a job during a period of high unemployment. “Have a business plan, believe, and sell, Sell, SELL” said Lappin, whose company develops mobile applications that allow businesses to interact in a dynamic manner with their customers, business partners and employees. Recently featured on CNBC’s Planet of the Apps, VOKAL works with a variety of clients from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, to create applications for use on the iPhone and other mobile devices. With the exception of Jiang, each of the entrepreneurs graduated from college in the last few years. Jiang, who runs a storage and shipping company that serves Northwestern students, is himself a Northwestern University student. He talked about the many demands on his time as both a student and an entrepreneur. Students had the opportunity to share their business ideas and ask about the obstacles they feared could hinder their success. In answering their questions, students were told to “BELIEVE,” in their products and business. This message, which was a key part of the VOKAL Interactive presentation, was echoed by all of the other participants as well. Each described the need to believe in yourself and believe your concept can work, while paying attention to the input of others. Students were also advised to prove that belief as quickly as possible by making the first sale. Vosen talked about how, in an effort to do just that, VOKAL Interactive actually built a mobile application for their first client on a “risk-free, trial basis.” The application was a success and VOKAL maintains a solid relationship with the client today. “That initial application proved our concept could work and provided a foundation for future sales,” said Vosen. Just one year into the business, the company has grown from just Lappin and Vosen to a full-time staff of ten. Vosen, who worked for a large consulting firm prior to forming VOKAL, told the students that there is benefit to “learning on someone else’s dime,” pointing out that what he learned while working for someone else is extremely valuable as he and Lappin build VOKAL. Regardless of the path they choose, all panelists encouraged the students to “do something they love” because they’re going to spend a tremendous amount of time working on it. The panel discussion was sponsored by inNUvation—entrepreneurship and innovation at Northwestern.

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Virginia V. Mann is principal of Virginia V. Mann, Etc. (www.VirginiaMann.com), an Evanston-based corporate communications, public relations and public affairs consulting firm.

Entrepreneurs Make Life Easier With Apps

Enjoy some photos of our new workspace below.

Recently featured on CNBC’s “Planet of the Apps,” VOKAL Interactive creates custom mobile applications for a variety of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, for use on the iPhone and other mobile devices. VOKAL Interactive’s newest product will help make mobile applications more accessible to small- and medium-sized businesses and organizations. The new product will be exceedingly user friendly as it allows companies to build custom mobile applications for a low, monthly fee.

“By bringing this product to market, VOKAL Interactive will help revolutionize the mobile applications industry, making it much more accessible to small- and medium-sized businesses,” said VOKAL Interactive Partner Sean Vosen.

Vosen added, “Today, small- and medium-sized businesses and organizations are challenged to take advantage of mobile applications to connect with their customers, employees and business partners due to technology, cost and time constraints. VOKAL Interactive’s newest product will help them overcome those barriers.“

“By creating an amazingly user-friendly and cost-effective product, VOKAL Interactive will help businesses, schools and other organizations connect with their targeted audiences in a meaningful and cost-effective way, 24/7,” said Vince Ricciardi, Technical Lead for VOKAL Interactive.

VOKAL Interactive (www.VOKALInteractive.com) is an agile, mobile agency that delivers world-class, custom mobile applications to its clients. Focusing on creating dynamic business solutions through mobile applications, VOKAL works with top brands, Fortune 500 companies and businesses of all sizes to identify ways of reaching customers, business partners and employees more efficiently, effectively and with a personal touch. With teams dedicated to user-interface-design, user-experience, technical architecture and mobile operating systems, VOKAL Interactive merges the powers of deep technical expertise and elegant design. VOKAL puts brands, ideas and information into the hands of customers, business partners and employees whenever and wherever they need it. VOKAL is your mobile voice.

Day of Mobile (www.techinthemiddle.com/DayofMobile) is an all-day event for mobile developers and enthusiasts that will take place at IIT on March 6, 2010. The overall goal of the event is to better prepare Chicago’s application development community and companies interested in mobile initiatives for the upcoming mobile revolution. The program will cover a myriad of different topics relevant to mobile development and strategy, including platform SDKs, cross-platform development, multimedia, CMS/SMS, mobile business models and much more. The event will begin with an 8:00 a. m. breakfast and the last speaker will conclude at 6:00 p. m.

VOKAL Interactive iPhone Developers on CNBC

CNBC’s “Planet of the Apps: A Hand-Held Revolution“, premiers Friday, January 29th at 9pm CST. In this feature, you will hear from iPhone App entrepreneurs from all across the country who are trying to capitalize upon the “App Gold Rush”. In particular, you will meet one of VOKAL’s clients, TextHog.com.

Throughout the hour, you will follow VOKAL and texthog as we define, design, develop, and distribute the TextHog iPhone application. I have not seen a preview of the show and I have no idea what they are going to air, but I can tell you that this is only the beginning of the mobile revolution. Forward-thinking companies like TextHog are leading the way by moving their web applications to mobile Apps to reach millions of on-the-go users. Other businesses are catching on and soon Apps will become a standard platform for conducting business. In business, you need to be where your customers are. That place is going mobile.

So tune in to CNBC to catch up on the action, but 2010 will quickly make you forget about what an App used to be.

Stay tuned..