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November 2005

“Fritz” Spademan announces a change in command

Clarkston, MI, November 18, 2005 -- Charles F. (Fritz) Spademan,  long-time Oakland County business figure who advocates aggressive private sector and public sector support of new business formation, is retiring.  Kind of.  Mr. Spademan has appointed new presidents for two economic growth organizations he co-founded and has chaired:  The Money Finders, Inc., and its affiliate, the Entrepreneur & Investor Exchange.

 Charles S. Townsend becomes president of The Money Finders, Inc. (MFI), a group of registered investment advisors licensed by the State of Michigan.  These investment advisors work in teams to locate capital for Michigan-based entrepreneurs.  Mr. Townsend was a vice president of The Money Finders.  As president, he will supervise services offered to MFI clients such as project qualification and management, business plan counseling, pro forma development and funding source locating.

 Mr. Townsend is the principal of the Birmingham Computer Group (BCG), which he founded in 1984.   BCG develops shop-floor. EDI, MRP and integrated supply chain management systems for auto industry suppliers.  Earlier, as a Navy officer, Mr. Townsend helped design and commission the nuclear-powered U.S.S. Nimitz aircraft carrier.   Before forming BCG, he worked with an international financial consultancy and two of Michigan’s largest banks.

 Bruce Brogan becomes president of the Entrepreneur & Investor Exchange (E&I), an affiliate of MFI.  The E&I Exchange hosts a monthly forum at the Fox and Hounds restaurant in Bloomfield Hills.  There, pre-qualified entrepreneurs “showcase” their business plans and explain their funding needs to an audience of prospective investors, potential strategic partners, counselors and professional service providers.  “These ‘showcase’ presentations are, in fact, dress rehearsals for subsequent meetings with targeted investors,” Mr. Brogan says.   “Entrepreneurs benefit from immediate feedback from the audience.”

The monthly forum includes time for networking, and offers tabletop exhibit space for displaying new products and services.  In addition, the E&I Exchange develops and hosts workshops covering key aspects of new business creation and strategic decision-making.”

Mr. Brogan was an MFI vice president.  As president, he supervises Exchange programming, evaluates “showcase” presentation requests and counsels those entrepreneurs who qualify for guidance.

 After serving with the Peace Corps, Mr. Brogan earned an MBA from Spain’s leading business school, IESE.  He then became an international trade liaison and commercial loan officer at major U.S. banks.  He was the first executive director of the Detroit Chapter of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, and has been an advisor to CMS Energy and other companies wanting to expand in international markets. In 2001, he founded the Michigan International Trade Association (MITA), a business organization that fosters trade and investment for Michigan companies.  He continues to advise companies on business development issues.

 Fritz Spademan remains chairman of MFI and the Exchange, but is stepping aside from day-to-day operations.  He says, “It’s wonderful for our clients that both organizations will be led by men whose skills and scope of experience would qualify them for ranking positions in corporate America.”

“Fritz” Spademan (L) and guest speaker Matt Roush,
Editor, Great Lakes I T Report and WWJ Radio 950 commentator

 Mr. Spademan is a Registered Investment Advisor and has been a money broker since 1974.  For over three decades, he has been involved in funding projects large and small.  His mentoring, coaching and consulting activities have helped small and startup businesses succeed.  His seminars and published papers span subjects from the fundamentals of entrepreneurship to business operating plan development, marketing and salesmanship.  Mr. Spademan founded The Money Finders, Inc. several years ago with guidance from his own mentor Dana Tomlinson, a former stock broker and Michigan’s first registered advisor/finder.

 Entrepreneurs come to The Money Finders and attend its monthly E&I Exchange forums looking for help in funding new or expanding businesses that offer everything from self-propelled surfboards, to RFID business asset tracking systems, to advanced x-ray surgical instruments.  “Nothing with return-on-investment potential is beyond our purview,” Mr. Spademan says.  “One recent effort involved a young couple who produce horror films for a fast-expanding direct-to-video marketplace. Their business may sound goofy, but their investors are being well-rewarded!”

  “What will it take to cure Michigan’s economic malaise?” Mr. Spademan asks.  “A big dose of Vitamin C -- capital – to help small, aspiring businesses grow into strong and healthy ones right here in Michigan, not somewhere else.   Michigan’s entrepreneurs have vision.  They know how to innovate.  ‘C’ is the missing ingredient in our state’s business growth formula. My colleagues try to help Michigan entrepreneurs get their Vitamin C!”

E&I Exchange guest speaker Michael Brennan, Editor,
Michigan Technology News online newsletters

Delicacies from the legendary Fox and Hounds kitchen

CONTACTS:

•  Fritz Spademan, 248-922-9595

• Charles Townsend, 248-563-5368

• Bruce Brogan, 248-705-3058

• Neil Jackson, Madison Communications, 734-426-2130

Small-screen film producers find success with help from The Money Finders, Inc. 

The lead story in the August 22 Detroit Free Press business section reveals that small investors seeking generous dividends are putting their bucks into locally produced, low-budget DVD (gasp!) blood-and-guts horror films!

Believe it or not, close to half the top DVD rentals are horror/thrillers.  The Independent Film and Television Alliance says such films gained 23 percent in popularity last year, making horror/thrillers the fastest-growing small screen film genre.  And with some assistance from The Money Finders, Inc., two local producers and their financial backers are making the most of this marketplace opportunity.

A marketplace for murder!  It’s a dark and stormy night.  Why is a wild-eyed clown leering at you through the window?  Why is he trying to force your door open?  Don’t just stand there!  SCREAM!  If you like movies that shock and terrify, you’ll love this one!  But, pull the shades and lock the doors before you settle in to watch “Mr. Jingles.”

Here’s the scene.  At a birthday party, a professional clown is wrongly accused of molesting a child whom he is actually trying to keep from being kidnapped.  Totally unfair, right?  And totally infuriating when, based on falsified evidence, a judge sends Mr. Jingles to the slammer.

When free, Mr. Jingles resumes his career with a deadly twist.  He’s back in costume, but this time the makeup is sinister, there’s fury in his eyes, a hatchet in his hand, and he’s out for revenge.  Blood flows and heads roll until . . . well, we won’t spoil it for you.

The story of “Mr. Jingles” will not be coming to a theater near you.  Instead, you will find it in video stores and on the internet.  “Mr. Jingles” is the latest tight-budget production of Todd and Thomasita (“Tommy”) Brunswick’s Crossbow 5 Entertainment. Did you catch the Brunswick’s earlier releases? These included “Biker Zombies from Detroit” about a socially challenged motorcycle gang who wreak havoc on the elite residents of next-door Grosse Pointe.  Then there was “Lurking Terror” with themes of cannibalism and monsters in the woods.  In “Writer’s Block,” currently in production, ghosts bedevil a novelist guilty of manslaughter.

These mini-epics are leaving thousands of viewers with memories that nightmares are made of.  And there’s more to come as the Brunswicks, a benign-looking husband-and-wife team, continue to crank out direct-to-video small-budget films that are big hits with horror/thriller fans coast-to-coast.

Filming psychopathic killers isn’t all fun and games, however.  Before the fun begins, the Brunswicks have to round up investors willing to put a minimum of $1,000 each into their production funds.  When “Mr. Jingles” needed financing, they turned to The Money Finders, Inc. whose monthly Entrepreneur and Investor Exchange forums bring business startups face-to-face with potential investors.  The Brunswicks presented their case to E&I Exchange attendees, and this triggered negotiations.

Crossbow 5 Entertainment’s films typically return generous profits to their “angel investors.”  Crossbow is the only independent producer in Michigan with pre-production deals assuring release of its films to over 360 buyers in the world’s 91 film market territories. “Mr. Jingles” expects to become profitable about six months following its release.  Big-league film investors sometimes wait years for profitability. 

Stuart Logan, a principal in Dykema Gossett PLLC, helped the Brunswicks navigate the intricacies of taxation, financing, organization and marketplace survival.  “Stuart helped us organize for efficiency,” Todd and Tommy Brunswick say.  Dykema Gossett has become a sponsor of the E&I Exchange where the firm can encounter additional business opportunities.

Todd and Tommy Brunswick are in their early 30s, have been married for seven years and have three sons.  They learned their trade in school and by working for advertising agencies. “We did commercials, training films, trade shows, everything including sweeping the floors,” Todd says.  Both of them love their work but say they must work hard to succeed.  “Our kind of business takes talent and skill, but most of all perseverance,” Tommy says.  “It’s not for the faint of heart.”

Do they yearn for Hollywood?  “Not at all,” Todd says.  “Hollywood only looks glamorous.   Acting and production talent are available right here.  For example, the actor who plays our demonic ‘Mr. Jingles’ is a local doctor whose regular job is to patch people up, not chop them up.  We can operate here at a fraction of west coast costs, we don’t pay millions for sets and costumes, and we can retain control of the product.  This is the way we like it.”

To learn more about the Brunswicks and their films, email  FSpademan@EntrepreneurInvestorExchange.com

August, 2005

July 2005

THE EXCHANGE EVENTS ARE ON HOLD FOR THE SUMMER - BUT, FEEL FREE TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR WORKSHOPS!

March 2005

“OLD DOGS, NEW TRICKS

 Here’s a question for you!  Is it the economy that makes life tough for business people?  Or something they, themselves, may be the cause of?  Reasonable question?  Then, ask yourself:

Who knows

• Why do many promising startups fail to survive?

• What keeps a business from finding the capital it needs to expand?

• Where can a CEO turn for confidential help when his plans unravel?

Good answers come from people who have fought their way through tough times and have scars to prove it.  12,000 of them are volunteer counselors from SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives.  Many are former CEOs and senior executives who built businesses of their own.  The experience that made them successful can help young tigers avoid getting chewed up in the business jungle.

Here’s the immediate angle.  On Tuesday, March 8, David Kelton, chairman of SCORE’s Southeastern Michigan Chapter, and several of his colleagues will be featured presenters at the Entrepreneur and Investor Exchange. They will describe how SCORE can help attack a range of problems.  For example: 

• How to deal with outsourcing,

• Stripping the fantasy out of business planning,

• What it takes to attract funding,

• Identifying the causes of substandard employee performance

• How to launch a business based on a new product, and

• Focusing on profitability.

The monthly E&I Exchange brings entrepreneurs and prospective investors together for face-to-face networking augmented with Showcase Presentations and elevator pitches. Meetings run from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Fox & Hounds, Woodward at Long Lake.

It costs $25 to attend (less if you are an Exchange member or make a reservation).   A growing attendance indicates it’s money well-spent.

The point is that many business people should be, but aren’t, aware of the confidential, high-caliber counsel that is available to them.  Talk with Dave Kelton and his people at the March 8^th E&I Exchange.  They can tell you about the kinds of aid SCORE delivers to local businesses, and why they keep working instead of playing pinochle in a retirement home.  Here’s how to reach them:

            Dave Kelton, 248-644-4609

            Robert Hodson, 248-446-0958

            Donald Collier, 248-626-4798

E&I Exchange executive director Fritz Spademan can be reached at 248-922-9595.

Relevant web sites:

            www.SCORE.org

            ww.SCORE-mi-detroit.org

            www.EntrepreneurInvestorExchange.com