Entrepreneurs learn to implement ideas.

Mari Prentice found out a few weeks ago about the Dream and Discover 2006 Entrepreneurs Conference at College of the Canyons and immediately saw an opportunity.

Her Los Angeles start-up, hungrypotato.com--an online store that sells merchandise and souvenirs from restaurants across the country--is just getting off the ground and Prentice thought the conference could be a chance to learn a few tricks of the trade from those in the know.

Lucky for her, that's exactly what she got.

"It's been so great," said Prentice, during a brief intermission during the jam-packed conference at the college's Performing Arts Center. "I'm so inspired."

Prentice was among about 250 small business owners and aspirant entrepreneurs who turned out Oct. 31 for the half-day event, which included four seminars on small business practices, growth strategies and tackling the myriad other challenges of starting a business from the ground up.

The headliners were Jeff and Rich Sloan, a pair of Michigan brothers who became multimillionaires through a unorthodox business path that included, in order: buying, fixing up and selling dilapidated houses; breeding Arabian horses; manufacturing a car and boat battery device; founding a consumer products import company; creating a $60 million venture capital firm; and starting the small business assistance website startupnation.com, which led to a book deal and a syndicated radio show in 75 markets.

The success, all without either having a business degree, was all possible because they were willing to take calculated risks and invest wisely, Jeff Sloan said.

He noted that such success is even more doable today, given the advances in technology, the Internet and business techniques. "This is the golden age of entrepreneurship," Jeff Sloan said.

As proof, the brothers presented eight steps to creating a thriving business, from the benefits of using smart loans to hiring and working with public relations firms to the importance of establishing connections with those that can help a company grow.

"Find those key players to help you get your business done," Rich Sloan said.

An often-overlooked principal, the brothers said, is to focus on the main mission of the business, even if that means outsourcing non-vital functions like payroll or shipping.

"Keep your mind clear," Jeff Sloan said. "Let the minutiae be taken care of by other people outside the business."

And watch your burn rate early on, he said.

"It is so fundamentally critical managing that precious resource," Jeff Sloan said. "Protect it very, very carefully."

The event also included Lina Ramos of the La Jolla consulting firm Emerging Growth Enterprise LLC, motivational speaker Bodine Balasco and Mitch McMullen, who co-founded the Santa Clarita-based Newhall Coffee Micro Roasting Co. in 1996.

McMullen, using a mix of folksy and passionate language, walked the audience through the growth of the company--from a single coffee shop on Lyons Avenue in Newhall to a major player on the organic coffee circuit, with distribution to Ralphs, Stater Bros., Wal-Mart and Sam's Club outlets and catering agreements with Walt Disney Co., DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., Warner Bros., Getty Center, the ski resort Mammoth Mountain and scores of others.

McMullen credited the swift growth to a deceptively simple business strategy: "You've got to make a better mousetrap. Better coffee is our mousetrap."

It's also been fueled by McMullen's push to find business lost by larger competitors. Piece by piece, he's been able to secure accounts once held by big name suppliers, chiefly Starbucks Coffee Co.

"Remember David and Goliath?" he said. "Your small size can really help; the big guys can't serve them like you can."

Dena Maloney, dean of the economic development department at College of the Canyons and an event organizer, said relaying such pragmatic advice to those that can use it is the ultimate goal of the conference--something not always available to small business owners on shoestring budgets.

"The excitement in the room is amazing," Maloney said. "Just amazing."

So amazing that plans are already in the works for a second conference next year. "Based on the response, there seems to be such a need for this," Maloney said.

That's welcome news for fledgling small business owners like Prentice, who said she took the success stories of the Sloan brothers and McMullen to heart.

"I wish there were more of these," she said.

By CHRIS COATES 

Staff Reporter