Ask the City Planner: Sirolli Project and the North Texas Facilitation Project

As a service to the community, these articles are written to inform the public about important and timely issues in Bonham. I hope this information is helpful to you and that you will pass it along to someone else that can use it.

1. I’ve been hearing discussions about the Sirolli Project and the North Texas Facilitation Project. Who are they exactly and can they help me with my business or business idea?

The North Texas Facilitation Project (NTEP) and the Sirolli Project are the same Project in Fannin County. NTEP has been in the developing stages for over a year and we finally are ready to get started in full force. Currently, we have a group of about 60 board members from Fannin County and the City of Muenster (in Cooke County), available to provide free support and free assistance to anyone who requests such help, provided you meet certain criteria. The Project, operating as a non-profit organization, has hired a Facilitator, Rozelle Fowler, who will take the lead in coordinating your business information, your ideas or inventions, and your needs to start a business or to keep one going, then present them to NTEP at your request.

All information provided to her and the Project is strictly confidential. At your first meeting, she will explain how the program works. If you qualify and take advantage of our services, you will be surprised with the proven results. The Sirolli Institute bases this process on many years of research and practical applications with businesses and entrepreneurs around the world. We are fortunate to be part of this on-going project to help Fannin County’s current small businesses and potential entrepreneurs develop into a functioning and profitable operation.

The Texas Governor’s office provided our project with $200,000 in grant money to kick off the project, with another $20,000 from Workforce Texoma, and local donations. We need clients, more donations, and more board members. To be a client you will need to contact Rozelle Fowler at 903-227-1649 for an appointment. She will not contact you. If you want to start a small business, have an idea to market a product or an idea for an invention, or if you need help with your present small business for any reason, you should contact her and see what it’s all about. We do not loan money, nor do we charge for our services, but we can put clients in touch with sources of funds, professional assistance, marketing assistance, and other assistance; and, in some cases, partners or investors.

We would like to help you get your idea, invention, or business endeavor off the ground, so if you have the desire and ideas, call Ms. Fowler. Even if you can’t use our services, it certainly won’t hurt to call and meet her and share your business ideas. Who knows, you may be another Bill Gates or Michael Dell and just need a push in the right direction. Some of the best ideas and inventions have been laughed at, put down, and commented on negatively through the years. For instance, consider the following negative comments from well-known sources, and the later results of those products, because the companies or individuals didn’t listen to the naysayers:

“I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years. Two years later we ourselves made flights. Ever since, I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions.” -- Wilbur Wright, 1908

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” -- Ken Olson, Pres., Chairman, and founder of Digital Equipment Corp, maker of the mainframe computer, 1977

“There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States.” -- T. Craven, FCC Commissioner, 1961

“The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at most.” -- IBM, 1959
“Computers in the future may weight no more than 1.5 tons.” – Popular Mechanics, 1949

“Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.” -- Mary Sommerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts, 1948

“Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” – Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” -- Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

“A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” – New York Times, 1936

“Who wants to hear actors talk?” – H. M. Warner of Warner Brothers, 1927

“That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its developments is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced.” -- Scientific American, 1909

“This telephone has too many shortcomings to be considered as a means of communications. The device is of inherently no value to us.”--Western Union internal memo, 1876

Don’t listen to negative people about your ideas or inventions. Let our Facilitator present them to NTEP so we can help. We think all ideas have potential. Call Rozelle Fowler, our Facilitator today at 903-227-1649.

If you have questions about what’s going on in the City, please submit your questions in writing to Mike Walthall, Development Services Coordinator, 301 E. Fifth, Bonham, Texas 75418. Phone: 903/583-7555 or FAX 903/583-5761. Email me at mwalthall@cobon.net