EnTrends

major events. These include tours, concerts
and fashion shows.

Spoonamore has founded nine other
companies in his lifetime. Therefore, he
already had an existing company to incubate
CPR-Group inside of. The parent company,
called CBT Productions, was founded in
1986. CBT had primarily produced fashion
shows and corporate parties in New York
City.

When clients began requesting more
permanent spaces and larger events,
Spoonamore developed the idea to pre-
consolidate teams of top-flight designers,
along with design managers, to focus on the
branding strategies of clients. The
developed strategies would then be pushed
down through the aesthetic and
communication necessities of delivering
multi-million dollar projects. When
Spoonamore's model proved to be correct,
the company was split off of CBT
Productions.

Spoonamore says that while there are a
number of very good set design, lighting
design, and sound design firms out there,
there was no one who was willing to create a
Director of Design that would look at a
client's branded image and then integrate a
design team across the board. CPR-Group's
objective was to make their own in-house
employees the mangers of clients' corporate
identities. Rather than working as short-term
contractors going project by project, CPR-
Group establishes long-term contracts with
companies to do all their events for a
specified time period as part of a branded
strategy.

CPR-Group now focuses on three market
spaces. The first of these is television
studio design. Within this sector, CPR-
Group deals with scenic, lighting, and blue
screen technology. The Oprah Winfrey
Show, Fox News, and Bloomberg Television
have been some of CPR-Group's more
notable clients. Spoonamore's company has
also done smaller internal communications
screening studios for IBM and a number of
other corporations.

"Every one of my companies has been
because with my previous company, I
couldn't find somebody to do something,
so I thought, fine, I'll build it. As the
companies evolve, hopefully I have
found the right people, created the right
systems, and built the right client base. I
then step further back as the company
gets older. It's like children. I let them live
their own life."

As for business mentors, Spoonamore
says that a friend named Joe Sherman
has been his. He has been a friend since
Spoonamore was 20 years old. A former
VP of American Express, Sherman has
run his own bar, had his own restaurant,
and has written four books.

"He believes in living life fully and being
present in the moment," says
Spoonamore. "Sherman has always
listened to both my personal and
professional problems and given good
advice."

Spoonamore says one's business should
be an extension of their life. He
intrinsically distrusts people who say
their businesses are separate from who
they are. "I put a lot of trust in people
who take their businesses personally,
either good or bad. If it's not part of you,
then what is it a part of?"

When it comes to activities outside of
work, Spoonamore really enjoys going to
baseball games, in addition to biking and
sailing.

"I am a huge Seattle Mariners fan. I grew
up in Seattle. I went to the first Mariner
game. Back when they were the worst
team in baseball, I was a season ticket
holder. My partners call baseball my
Achilles' heal. It's my one weakness."

Spoonamore says that he has not
indulged at all in his financial success as
an entrepreneur. "My very first company
when I was 15 was a recycling center. I
built it from scratch and I sold it for a
couple hundred thousand dollars. So, by
the time I was eighteen, I had a quarter
million in the bank and no
responsibilities. A lot of people that age
would have made different choices. I
learned about futures and investment
trading and turned my quarter million
into more. I then had enough to bank roll
other corporations that I wanted to start.
I've always made more than I've spent."

Spoonamore says that there are basically
two things that he likes to do. One is
taking friends out to dinner and drinks,
and the other is going on long bike rides.
He recently bought a house, but says it
was only because he likes to garden. "I
would rather splurge and put my money
back into the business!"

When it comes to advice he would give
to other entrepreneurs starting out,
Spoonamore says quite simply, "Be
good people."

Very specific knowledge of how blue screen
technology, streaming, switching, and
lighting controls work is not widely known.
Therefore, CPR-Group also delivers
integrated solutions. One example of this is
when Morgan Stanley told architects they
wanted large public spaces with interactive
screen communication and high-end
controlled lighting within their facilities. The
architects then turned to CPR-Group for
consultation. Spoonamore says that his
company now brings in a significant dollar
amount through contracts from its
architectural support sector.

Spoonamore says that, as an entrepreneur, a
typical workday involves waking-up, feeding
his pets, and then biking to work through
Manhattan. He usually sits through a few in-
house meetings still wearing his biking
shorts and t-shirt. Sometime before meeting
with clients around ten o'clock, he changes
into "whatever level of costuming is needed
for that day." Spoonamore says that 50% of
his day is spent delegating internally. There
are now twenty-two full-time employees and
three other partners in the firm. The other
half of Spoonamore's time is spent selling.
He works with clients to inform them of what
the company is currently doing, providing
thoughts about what the client could be
doing, and making them aware of services
they may not be utilizing through CPR-
Group yet.

Spoonamore says that he is trying to scale
back the number of hours he works.

"When a company is growing and you are
going through the process of developing it,
it is important to put systems into place. The
first two years with this firm, I have probably
averaged about a sixteen hour day, six days
a week."

Spoonamore made a very conscious
decision about two months ago to step back
and limit himself. He is now taking every
Sunday off and half-days on Tuesdays to go
sailing. This is at the insistence of the other
partners because they know he enjoys it.

Spoonamore is also involved with several
other companies in either an advisory or
board level. He just finished a three-week
road trip visiting the CEOs of several
corporations across the U.S. During his
visits, Spoonamore talked with senior
executives about where their companies are
going and how his company can help. "It's
very valuable. I am expanding my knowledge
base."

Spoonamore is definitely a serial
entrepreneur. Over the next six months, he
would like to shift his gears to work mainly
in the strategic delegation and sales level of
CPR-Group. At the same time, he will be
incubating a new construction management
company that will deal with the
incorporation of presentation technology.