-Published in U.S. Small Business Administration, Nebraska District Office Newsletter January 2011

Some high-tech companies put out a want-ad on trendy websites hoping to snag top information technology talent. There‘s a company in Kearney that has partnered with the local university to develop a farm system to grow talent of its own.

Dan Shundoff, president and CEO of Intellicom Computer Consulting, Inc., first accepted student interns from the University of Nebraska at Kearney back when the company was a home-based business in the mid-1990s. Today, a significant number of the 22 full-time equivalent staff in the firm began their careers as interns with Intellicom.

The company‘s certified technicians offer custom-designed IT solutions, from server installation and support, network engineering, phone systems, help desk functions and web design. The company is on track to see 20 percent year-to-year growth in 2011.

Before founding Intellicom, Shundoff was a senior proposal analyst with Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, Conn., working on proposals for Blackhawk and military special operations helicopters. While with the defense contractor, Shundoff pursued an entry-level education in networking, applications, databases and spreadsheets, something which came in handy when he left the company for life in Nebraska. With his severance pay from Sikorsky ticking away and no job on the horizon, he found odd jobs setting up computer peripherals and modems for his neighbors and acquaintances.
"I was enjoying this stuff on the side," Shundoff said, and thought, maybe there‘s an opportunity here."

As he built his business in the mid-1990s, Shundoff also provided an opportunity for college students at the University of Nebraska at Kearney to get work experience and course credit. Problem was, those students were seniors and often already had a job lined up before they graduated, taking the experience from Shundoff‘s internship and leaving.

By 2001, after the Y2K scare swelled demand for his company‘s services, he had partnered with the College of Business and Technology and other departments at UNK to develop a program for sophomore students. The firm would accept two or three students at a time for 120 working hours, the equivalent to a three-credit class; after some brief training, the interns would best sent out to provide service and value to the company‘s customers.

"You do this enough over time," Shundoff said, "and you‘ll find a rock star in terms of work ethic, character, integrity, the things that over the long term matter in employment. Those we make an offer for a part-time position, if they take it and all goes well, by the time they graduate, they have two years already with us. They know our customers, and it‘s an easy transition to be part of our company."

Shundoff also does two things to attract quality interns: the company pays each an hourly rate, and the work they do for Intellicom is directly related to their education. While at one time about half of the company‘s staff began as interns, many have moved on to other organizations, where Shundoff says they serve as well-paid, strategic people within their organizations.

"They‘re in complex project management, they‘re marketing interns who have started their own businesses, they‘re people have moved on to Lincoln and Omaha and to very large organizations,"Shundoff said.

"It‘s a story that‘s easy to understand," Shundoff says of his company‘s experience. "There‘s a clear majority of small businesses where this can be really impactful. You write a job description, you figure out how to bring two to three people on board, you know, that all can be distracting to somebody running their business. They‘re spread too thin, they struggle with gross margins, they don‘t have the time or energy to invest in future capacity, so they keep doing the same thing year after year. The majority of those businesses are staying flat." Not Intellicom.

" We wanted to grow a little more aggressively," Shundoff said. "So as we tapped out what our existing working capital could handle, we realized we could continue to grow organically" --and slowly. Or, Shundoff said, the firm could ―double down" and get financing to modify its facility, add equipment, and pick up another division to expand its service and product line.

So in 2005, Intellicom was approved for a $150,000 loan through SBA‘s former LowDoc program and a SBA Express loan for $123,000, both from Platte Valley State Bank. The LowDoc funded acquiring an existing company offering business phone services, paid for some inventory, and provided working capital. The Express loan proceeds were used for building improvements, a training center, an upgrade for the company‘s phone system, and servers for the company‘s web department. Thanks to the SBA-backed financing, the firm grew 25 percent in one year.

"It would have been impossible to expand the way we did without the SBA," Shundoff said. "It‘s a difficult thing for banks to finance a service company. I mean, where‘s the collateral? We didn‘t have inventory, a manufacturing line, even a building?"

As Intellicom‘s revenue continued to climb, the company was approved in May 2009 for a $60,000 SBA Express loan through Platte Valley. The company needed the loan to manage its cash flow and fund growth, and to refinance an existing line of credit to a term loan; the financing allowed them to free up the line of credit to fund day-to-day activities.

"If a small business owner is really invested in the process of getting an SBA loan from the bank, they‘ll really learn a lot about their finances in their business," Shundoff says. "That kind of experience stays with you forever. The loans will come and go, but what you learn going through it is invaluable."

Shundoff said he‘s applying those lessons to continue to add capacity; as a result, since 2005, the firm has doubled revenues--and the internship program continues to be an important part of Intellicom‘s progress.