Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?
Branding
College to Career’s launch
offers more proof that
job market’s weak
By the fourth quarter of last year, Tom Salonek’s management team was convinced it was time to change the name of one of their two companies. Go-e-biz.com, the name of their software company since 2000, now seemed dated.
“The name seemed like a good idea” at the time, Salonek says. But down the road “it would be like calling ourselves Mainframe Consultants.”
The new name, in effect since early this year, drops the association with the dot-com era. It’s Intertech Software, which develops software for customers to run their businesses. Intertech Training, whose name never changed, teaches programmers mainly at large corporations.
Salonek and his Eagan-based team communicated the name change simply by calling on customers. He says it’s cut the time needed to explain the names when both businesses are working with the same client. “Before we could spend two to five minutes on the names and maybe both of us were confused,” he says.
He says another decision also made in 2000, when they created separate sales teams and other structures for the two companies, proved to be wise and remains in place.
Tom Salonek, Intertech Training and Intertech Software: 651.994.8558; tsalonek@intertech-inc.com; www.intertech-inc.com
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