A Conversation With ... Sean Clarke

The Springfield Score chapter aims to parlay the knowledge of experienced owners into useful information for small businesses. As a counselor, you plan to specialize in media and telecommunications. What issues are small-business owners facing in the industry right now?
Whether or not there are people in this area who need that type of support is to be determined. I’ve also worked in a variety of roles, doing business development and crafting some strategic partnerships.

From a product development standpoint, I think I can add some value to folks who are looking to develop and the cycles that go along with that type of business environment.

I have been down in the Branson/Kimberling City area advising a client for a long time. He is a satellite distributor for a rural area, and it’s a small business. There are a lot of challenges being solely focused and trying to serve the local community with a product you are competing with big boys on. You are always asking, how big of a piece of pie can you carve out for yourself?

Why did you choose to volunteer with Score?
What it comes down to for me is trying to help people make the right decisions before it becomes too late. A lot of times, especially in this area, I see a lot of small businesses open and close their doors within a short time frame. There are a variety of reasons that happens, depending on the industry you’re going into. A lot of that can be prevented if owners would just sit down and do some fundamental work. Maybe the answer, in the beginning, is that a restaurant isn’t such a good idea.

I’m trying to offer some assistance based on what I have experienced, my 25 years of working for big companies, startups and small businesses. I can add perspective. I’m a big believer that you learn a lot more from your failures than your successes.

You are currently working to develop strategic partnerships with satellite communications companies to offer broadband to underserved communities. Tell me about that.
There is a fairly new company out of Denver – Viasat – that provides satellite Internet. I have been working with their VP to try and establish support and foster enthusiasm for some of these communities that don’t have DSL or broadband capabilities. When the community doesn’t have the population density, it’s cost prohibitive for the phone guy to even consider providing service.

I’ve worked on a couple initiatives and with a group called Connected Nation that has state chapters. Missouri isn’t one, but Iowa is. I work with people in Iowa to basically test and validate the system as advertised.

Why is this important for small-business owners?
It’s all economic development. We want to provide that enabling technology to folks who would otherwise not have access to it. For the person who lives on a rural farm, if they want to take a class online, they can’t do that without broadband access. The same can be said for a small business. That business will take advantage of that connectivity on many levels. They can automate back-office systems or improve the customer experience on the front end.  

Where do you see the net neutrality debate headed in 2014?
This next year will be interesting given last month the courts basically reversed the decision. What happens a lot of time, we provide a service out there – government assisted or mandated – and the public becomes used to that. Then when you want to change the terms of that service – basically limiting whether or not you are going to be able to stream as much video content as you want, which is what you can do today –  without any cost as a consumer, the service provider doesn’t see any benefit. Granted, you are paying him a monthly fee to gain access using his bandwidth pipe, but the challenge is bandwidth isn’t unlimited, it’s a finite resource and somebody is paying at the end of the day. The question becomes, for the guy who wants to stream Netflix 24/7, should he pay more than the person who doesn’t stream anything?

Is Missouri doing anything to improve rural access?
In Missouri, it’s a question of resources and how much emphasis the state places on that connectivity. The state is part of the president’s ConnectEd initiative and Missouri has ongoing initiatives, such as issuing grants and loans for providing broadband to rural hospitals.

(President Barack) Obama recently spoke about the initiative he launched in 2013 which would provide broadband to every school and library in the state regardless of where they are located. Some of those are in these underserved areas I’m working on. He announced several major companies would commit resources to the tune of $750 million to the effort, along with allowing the Federal Communications Commission to free up money for broadband initiatives. That money – about $2 billion – takes it to the next level and expands that coverage area.[[In-content Ad]]