Five Questions With: Dave Lubelczyk

DAVE LUBELCZYK runs The Idea Turbine in North Attleboro, helping entrepreneurs build business plans and overcome obstacles, and also is a member of Sprout RI, a co-working community in Providence. / COURTESY DAVE LUBELCZYK
DAVE LUBELCZYK runs The Idea Turbine in North Attleboro, helping entrepreneurs build business plans and overcome obstacles, and also is a member of Sprout RI, a co-working community in Providence. / COURTESY DAVE LUBELCZYK

Dave Lubelczyk runs The Idea Turbine in North Attleboro, helping entrepreneurs build business plans and overcome obstacles, and also is a member of Sprout RI, a co-working community in Providence. In addition, Lubelczyk is part of the Business Advisors Collaborative, which is offering free advice to 2017 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition applicants on their business plans during the month of March. Applications for the annual business plan competition are due April 3.

PBN: Tell me a little bit about how the Business Advisors Collaborative will help the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition applicants.

LUBELCZYK: Business advice will be given not just by myself, but by the entire Business Advisors Collaborative. That’s 12 business professionals who focus on helping startups and businesses in general. They include HR consultants, CPAs, graphic designers, web developers … they’re a good representation of what a startup would need. We came together right after Sprout developed; we all were members of Sprout or colleagues of members of Sprout. We decided there was real value in business professionals working together in a shared common way … because of that, we started to offer office hours at Sprout, anywhere from 15- to 30-minute consultations. That started about six months ago. The Business Collaborative started about a year ago, right after Sprout opened up.

PBN: How is Sprout involved with the business plan competition?

- Advertisement -

LUBELCZYK: Sprout is one of the sponsors. (I am kind of an unofficial official ambassador of Sprout. I’m one of its first members.) Our Business Collaborative asked how we can help the business plan people as Sprout members. We were already kind of doing these office hours, so why not put this out to everybody? Also, anybody that submits a completed application to the 2017 competition will receive two months of membership at Sprout.
I, myself, as The Idea Turbine, am also a sponsor. Winners will get a certain number of sessions with me as part of their prizes.

The free 15- to 20-minute consultation sessions with the Business Collaborative cover everything from having a better business plan, to having someone work on their elevator pitch. Sessions will be held at Sprout.

PBN: Is there one thing that would-be entrepreneurs struggle with?

LUBELCZYK: Some of the common things I have seen in business plans and working with people starting a business is: defining who a customer is going to be and what price point they will enter the market, and figuring out how (they will) recoup (their) loan. Pricing and financials are often a big challenge for people, along with questions about ‘how am I going to finance this.’ I focus on helping people utilize their limited resources. Often, people jump ahead and start trademarking something when they haven’t really thought, ‘Is this a good name?’

PBN: Any advice to entrepreneurs?

LUBELCZYK: It’s OK to make mistakes. Keep trying. If you fail, fail fast and move forward. Don’t let it drag you down. What I’ve seen from past business-plan competitions, maybe someone didn’t win the first time, but they came back the next year and tried again. Even ones who didn’t win have gone on to become successful businesses.

PBN: Tell me about your business, The Idea Turbine.

LUBELCZYK: I kind of act as a triage. The nature of my business is identifying what businesses need and who they need to work with to solve business challenges. They start off with me, then I refer them on to others.

I’ve been a consultant for almost 15 years now, and I’ve done short-form triage consulting for about four years now. I’m like a cross between a triage nurse and a concierge at a hotel. I help people identify a problem and refer them out. I only work in short 90-minute spurts. I meet with them and help them go to the next level and I have a huge network of people that I can refer them to.

No posts to display