Entrepreneurial Development Center

After the first hour that Bill Witherspoon spent with Curt Nelson, President and CEO of the Entrepreneurial Development Center (EDC), in 2003, he was thinking of things he had never considered for his new business. Having a mixed, yet successful career in art, scientific ventures and even running a number of businesses, Witherspoon had come to learn that he didn't know everything.  "It's essential for an entrepreneur to seek out support when there are good resources like the EDC.  Regardless of what we may think, none of us has all the answers," he says. "In that first meeting Curt advised that we needed to protect several of our processes. Today we have several patent applications on file. But at that time, I just wasn't thinking about that, and his advice was invaluable," Witherspoon added.

Originally a painter with an education from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, Witherspoon picked up photography in the 1970s.  Always painting or photographing the sky, his love affair with the sky provided the foundation of his business when he figured out a way to cost-effectively print his images for use with ceiling applications. SkyCeilings have achieved excellent traction in the healthcare industry where people are "captive observers" of ceilings and are in need of the tranquility the sky/nature can offer when a person is ill. But, thanks in part to a concentrated marketing and public relations effort, SkyCeilings are catching on in hospitality, offices, call centers and even residential homes in Beverly Hills.

"One of the defining moments for our company was when the EDC came to visit our offices in Fairfield. We were showing them some small, but free publicity we had received in a couple of the healthcare industry publications. Curt immediately said, "Do you know what this is? Gold! You need to maximize this!" We took him seriously and dedicated one of our then four employees exclusively to public relations. Sales took off," says Witherspoon.

According to Witherspoon, "Whenever we have a need, or even if we don't think we need it, we schedule a visit with the EDC and invariably we get good advice. A trend in our company or opportunity that we just don't see ourselves always emerges from our discussions.  Then we get on it and develop it."

From an entrepreneurial dream in 2002 to a successful business in 2006, "the key to our success lies in accessing and using all available intelligence and experiential know-how - from all sources.  To that end, we have developed an internal program of Open Book Management that engages all of us in the business with the intensity of owners and, for business expertise, we consistently reach outside the company to EDC," adds Witherspoon.