BAP Minutes- January 30, 2008
Sabrina Wenning started the meeting with a few announcements. First, Meet the Firm will be Friday night, February 29 from 5-7. If you are interested in having your resume included in the resume booklet, send your resume via email to by Monday, February 18. Include your full name and major. Save your resume document in the following format: lastname_firstname. Second, VITA training will be held Saturday, February 16 from 9-12. Third, the last day to submit your BAP application to be initiated in the spring is March 3.
Today’s speaker was Eric Tinshaw, President of HomeTown Lenders Net Branch Operations, which is located in Huntsville, AL. Mr. Tinshaw is a UAH Alumni, receiving both an undergraduate degree in Finance and an MBA. As an undergraduate, Mr. Tinshaw served on the UAH Capital Management Group for two terms. As a graduate, he built an online mortgage business, HomeLine, which still operates today. He now serves on the W.B.C.N.A. Business Plan Review Board, the Greater Huntsville Rotary Club, and he was recently featured in Jack Welch’s book, Winning: The Answers. Mr. Tinshaw is an Internet Marketer and a serial intrapreneur.
Mr. Tinshaw began by talking about the “mortgage meltdown.” He says that a little bit of everyone is to blame- the mortgage industry, overanxious investors, and appraisers’ inflated values. As a consequence of this crisis, the mortgage industry is now heavily regulated. However, the good news is that the Huntsville market is solid. The areas hit the hardest are resort areas where real estate was bought up for investments.
Mr. Tinshaw decided that in order to make a six figure salary and work from his home straight out of college, intrapreneurship would be the thing to pursue. (According to Wikipedia, intrapreneurship is “the practice of entrepreneurial skills and approaches by or within a company or at home.”) Therefore, he began to look for a company with similar values as his, an ethical company that would be willing to try something new. He chose Hometown Lenders. Teaming up with a company provided him the opportunity to pursue his ideas in a less risky manner since his own resources would not be tied up his new idea. After starting up and running businesses for 2-3 years, Mr. Tinshaw decided that he did not enjoy managing people but enjoyed the startup process much more. As a result, he decided that he would use his abilities to get businesses up and running but leave the managing to others.
Mr. Tinshaw added that he had to do all sorts of functions to make his dream work. This included working on computers, doing accounting, marketing, and even human resource practices. He gave two tactics that he felt were especially important to succeed at becoming an intrapreneur. First, you must attract top talent without making enemies. You must get good at hiring and firing people quickly. Second, you should always hold the wildcard. This means that you should strive to be the only person who knows how to do what you do. In other words, try to position yourself in an irreplaceable spot.
In closing, Mr. Tinshaw gave a brief summary of some of the most important things that he learned from his experiences. He said to find out who you are or what motivates you. You want to find an area that you are excited about and be flexible enough to redirect your path when certain experiences point you in an unexpected direction. Mr. Tinshaw also discovered the importance of networks and advises to continuously evaluate your networks. Also, he said to be careful of your starting salary because your starting salary will be an indicator of your next salary. His last piece of advice was to always think big and positive.
Lindsey Taylor- BAP Reporter