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Show The Salt Lake Tribune BUSINESS Poet, Writer subcontracts from a Franklin- Apply Skills in ates. Andthey started getting work mm Allen Communications, which develops multimedia train- Covey subsidiary, Shipley Associ- Business World ing courses‘as well as software for designing courses, where Reddy * knew people from her days at @ Continued from E-1 published poets — even Wallace Stevens didn’t start an insurance company,he just worked for one. Reddy, who has a master’s of fine arts from Columbia UniversiAy, has had her poems published in Colorado Review, River Styx and otherliterary quarterlies. Bona, an English majorat the University ofUtah,planned to earn her living as a reporter. She ‘worked briefly for network, a nowdefunct Utah publication focused on women’sissues, before taking a job at Wasatch Education Systems, which develops multimedia ‘courses, ; There she met Reddy, and the twogottheir first lessons in how to design training programs. Work- ing with people whohaddoctorates in learning theory, they became acquainted with software development, multimedia technology and ‘Web-page design. Bona and Reedy would later worktogetherat Intel and at what is now Franklin Covey Co “Every time I changed jobs, I forced Shauna to go with me,” Reddysays. They picked up skills with each job, such as managing people and running meetings. But growing weary of the managementlayers characteristic of a large company, they began to think they could work for themselves. “We knew we had to build a good team,” Reddysays. Still, starting their own company took somecourage anda lot of homework. They did researchatthe library :on howtostart a business. A bookkeeper told them what forms they “Never buy a $20 chair,” Bona * Contacts helped. They got The contracts can vary from McKi in — the name comes from the birth names of Reddy’s and Bona’s mothers — meshes consulting, writing and technology. The company employs writers as well as Web-page designers and a database programmer. adding employees. There also are the benefits of working for themselves — deciding what work they want to do, deciding where to That’s a good start for a three- spend money and simply making year-old company. Butthere still the decisions. That apparently offsets the hall and of own- Nowadays, a manual is as likely to be posted on a Website as printed in a pamphlet, and a training program will be on a CD insteadofin a stack of binders. More than half of the company’s business is from computer-based training. Theidea is to bringall the pieces together. But the most valuable piece may be consulting: helping. clients understand what they need to accomplish and the most cost- one dayto two months.Thetypical are the challenges of running and building a business — notthe least of which is the age-old problem of managing cashflow. “It can be kind of hand-to- mouth attimes,” Reddy says. ing a business. “We are having a lot of fun,” Reddy says, “creating the kind of place we wantedto work.” Judge Tosses Lawsuit Against Consumer Reports monthsafter Stotler heard oral ar- LOS ANGELES TIMES A federal judge last week dis- missed Suzuki Motor Corp.’s product defamation suit against the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, drawing an immediate vow from the car maker to appeal the decision. Thursday's ruling by District Court Judge Alicemarie Stotler in Santa Ana,Calif., held that Suzuki had not backed upits claim ee the acted damage the reputation of the Su. zuki Samurai sport-utility when it called the vehicle unsafe in a 1988 review. The decision came almost 11 guments and follows a victory last month by Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, in asimilar case filed by Isuzu Motors Ltd. “Weare pleased that a federal court has recognized that Suzuki's case has no merit,” Consumers Union President Rhoda Karpatkin said Thursday. Suzuki attorney George Ball said Thursday that the car maker will appeal Stotler’s ruling “because this decision deprives us of the opportunity to present our case to a jury. Suzuki wants its day in court.” For aslittle as $34.95* per month, your store can beonline! efficient waytodoit. “We just don’t write what they —eMall tell us to write,” Bona says. “We help them see how they can use that document for whatever goal they have. Sometimes people call you in to write a document and they don’t need that document.” A 40-page manual often can be 10 pages, or a chart thatsits next to E The Salt Lake Tribune’s computer. They also understand technolo- Utah Online is expanding to bring businesses and gy. AndJustice for All, a nonprofit coalition of groups that providelegal services for the poor and dis- abled, saw that when McKinnonMulherin wrote a proposal for a shopperstogether. grant to set up an interactive Web site. “Those guys understand that language, andthey weresort ofin- For more information on terpreters, translators, for us,” says Fraser Nelson, executive di- advertising opportunities rector of the Disability Law Center. McKinnon-Mulherin, which doesa project for a nonprofit organization once a year, also did the Says. says.“If you are inside a company, you don’t get a broadperspective.” year, the company had sales of about$500,000. workat a reduced cost. “We never would have been able to get this expertise,” Nelson said. The work, if nothing else, is varied. $100 desks and$20 chairs. pany to help another,” Heaton Finding talented workers is an- otherchore.So is learning how to prioritize tasks. And Bona and Reddy makeless than half of what they did at Franklin-Covey. But they are investing in the business, buying equipment and job generates $30,000 in sales. Last needed to fill out. They used re- tous.” To save money, they worked out of their homes — their first major business expense was renting a laptop computer for a business trip. Within four months, they could afford an office and bought “You can learn from one com- Wasatch Education Systems. sources available through the Small Business Administration and its SCORE program. They learned aboutbenefits. They took a class on how to read a balance sheet. “We are English majors,” Reddy ~ says. “This didn’t come naturally advantages of using outside suppliers, says BYU’s Heaton. E5 Sunday, May28, 2000 Featured Stores - ‘The company has developed an online software guide for Hewlett Packard. It has developed an in- available on The Salt Lake Tribune's Website, call Trent Eyre at (801) 237-2008, or e-mail him at teyre@NACorp.com. 1-877-378-9232 house training program for service representatives at a mutual-fund company. It has done an online training program for adjusters for a unit of Chubb. “The people wholike this are the kind of people wholike to learn TheSalt£LakeGribune new things all the time,” Bona says. 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