4/13/2010

Rent & Relax

""The business experts at SBDC are all small business champions, with special recognition given to Mr. Adams. Not only has he been a good coach, but a good friend. He helped us to realize our dream and put thoughts into action,” "

The movie rental business is a very competitive venture. You have your Block Busters, Movie Galleries, Video Warehouse stores in every city and town, on almost every corner, as well as online and through the mail DVD movie renting. Yet three young college students, Carlos Gaviria, CEO, Nicholas Grate, COO and Joaquin Urrechaga, CFO, rose to the entrepreneurial challenge with the help of the Small Business Development Center @ Florida A & M University, opening Rent and Relax, a company that will provide a 24/7DVD rental kiosk on college campuses. The three gentlemen were professionally counseled by Walter Adams, a Certified Business Analyst with the SBDC. “I remember when we first discussed the idea of placing a DVD rental kiosk at FSU, Mr. Adams was very encouraging and he gave us the extra push as well as the knowledge that we needed to go ahead with the idea. Being that the three of us are just college students, we had never written a business plan before, but thanks to Mr. Adams’ guidance we were able to break it down into sections and navigate through it with ease,” said Gaviria, CEO of the company. The men all agree that the skills learned at the SBDC were invaluable and will remain with them for the remainder of their lives. The Rent and Relax team also expressed their gratitude to Mr. Nixon, Executive Director of the SBDC. Mr. Adams and Mr. Nixon both went above and beyond the call of duty when it came time to help the company locate start up financing. Best of all, the SBDC did not treat their job as being over once Rent and Relax had attained all the funds necessary to execute their idea. The SBDC remains in contact with the Rent and Relax Company and are genuinely concerned about the progress of the business. “The business experts at SBDC are all small business champions, with special recognition given to Mr. Adams. Not only has he been a good coach, but a good friend. He helped us to realize our dream and put thoughts into action,” says Gaviria. Thanks to the SBDC at FAMU, we are now the proud owners of Rent & Relax, providing DVD rentals on the Florida State University (FSU) campus 24/7.