Most entrepreneurs, having formed and verified a new business concept, want to jump in with both feet and devote full time to building their dream.  But that isn’t always possible.  Such is the case with Steve Cope, a native Daytonian with an important and challenging job, and a passion for preserving family memories, two things that are not easily compatible.  Steve is General Manager of Eastco Enterprises, a firm that provides vocational training, rehabilitation, placement and support services for people with special needs. Utilizing this workforce, Eastco Enterprises, a division of Eastway Corporation, offers a number of value-added business solutions to public and private organizations throughout the Miami Valley and Ohio.

   A few years ago, Steve and his grandfather began sitting for hours at a time talking religion, politics, and, most interestingly, family and the amazing things Grandpa did growing up.  Steve realized that he was hearing things that no one else in the family had ever heard.  He asked Grandpa if there were stories he would like remembered after he was gone.  Grandpa liked the idea of telling his children and grandchildren about their family tree.  One evening, Steve took his video camera to record their conversation.  Grandpa was camera shy at first, but soon forgot the camera was there.  They recorded several hours of stories over the next few months, before Grandpa passed away in February of 2009.  Steve played some of the video at the funeral, and friends and family were able to hear Grandpa’s stories, see his smiles and hear his laughs.  Everyone raved about the video.  The germ of a business idea was born.

   Steve has always been a history buff, particularly local history.  And he is particularly concerned about our WWII veterans who are leaving us and taking their war memories with them.  As Steve frames it, “When an older person dies, it’s like a library burning down.”  So he decided to explore creating a business in which he would capture real people telling their life’s stories, preserve them for their families on high definition digital video, and do it as inexpensively as possible.  Having a lot of good business experience, but always working for someone else, he realized he had a lot to learn about starting his own business. Eastco Enterprises has the janitorial contract for the Federal Building in downtown Dayton in which Dayton SCORE has its office.  So Steve had the opportunity to come into the SCORE office and pick up some of our printed resources on business start-up.  He found the material helpful, so he attended some of our workshops.  Also finding them useful, he took the next step of scheduling an appointment with a SCORE counselor.  He met with Ron Footer, a seasoned counselor, several times. 

They did considerable market research in an effort to test the viability of the new business idea.  Interestingly, they could not find another company with Steve’s business model.  But they did verify that, if priced right, a good market exists.  Ron also suggested ideas for how to market the service, including calling on senior citizen centers, church groups and independent and assisted living centers, conducting email campaigns, etc.

   Confident that he now had the knowledge to proceed, Steve invested in professional video camera and lighting equipment and launched his company, Family Films Forever, www.familyfilmsforever.com.  He made arrangements with the activity directors of a couple of independent living centers to set up his equipment on a Saturday morning and do free sessions with residents in order to hone his interviewing skills, practice his equipment set up and operation, and get feedback from the interviewees.  The practice sessions served these purposes well, and Steve began to get real paying customers for the service.  In a few months he had paid back his equipment investment.  He knew the business could be successful if he marketed it aggressively and continued to produce a valuable product.

   However, Steve found that he was easily distracted from building his new business due to the challenges of his full-time job and family obligations.  He wasn’t getting the traction needed to put the business in a rapid growth mode.  After serious reflection, Steve decided on a goal to grow the business such that it would be his full time career within two to three years.  He knows that achieving this goal will require extreme focus and sacrifice, but he is committed.  Don’t bet against him!

   Steve sings the praises of Ron Footer and Dayton SCORE: “Ron and SCORE gave me the information and confidence to get my business up and running.  I will continue to use them to help me reach my goal.”