The Map-N-Tour team with their advisers from the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center
We are pleased to announce our successful nomination and reception of this flattering recognition. The team we have worked with so hard to develop our business has really gone out of their way to help us succeed and we're appreciative to the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center for aiding us as our company grows. The award will be presented May 2nd, 2013. The Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center released the following about Map-N-Tour:
Map-N-Tour Wins 2012 Best Small Business Award from the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center
MIDLAND, Mich. – Twelve companies from around the state of Michigan have been selected to receive the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center’s (MI-SBTDC) Best Small Business Award. These companies were chosen from over 13,000 small businesses that the MI-SBTDC provided with confidential counseling and training in 2012. The Best Small Business award recipients were identified based on their success in creating jobs, increasing sales, improving their business strategy and their involvement with the MI-SBTDC. These recipients will be honored at the Michigan Celebrates Small Business awards ceremony on May 2, 2013.
“The Best Small Business Award provides the MI-SBTDC network with an opportunity to acknowledge exceptional small businesses that we’ve worked with the previous year,” says Carol Lopucki, State Director of the MI-SBTDC. “We are excited to celebrate their successes.”
For Denice and Kevin Henson, what began as a 2,100-mile hike ended up as an incredibly creative business idea. When Kevin began to research and hike the route of an 1846 military group, he decided to store information about different points along the trail using Google Earth. The husband-wife team worked together to create a way to include all types of multi-media inside the location “bubbles” and their son, Brian, helped with the graphics. Kevin presented the story to groups of all ages in communities along their route. MI-SBTDC counselors helped them realize they had created a useful tool that others could easily use to share their own stories. Map-N-Tour gives people with minimal computer skills the ability to create professional, customized web, mobile and tablet apps that give users a virtual “experience” rather than just a “virtual tour.”
"The program has potential to easily be sold worldwide"
The couple registered for the MI-SBTDC FastTrac TechVenture course. Through regular meetings with MI-SBTDC consultant Deb Wieland, Denice was able to further develop her business plan for Map-N-Tour and get an introduction to her first customer – The Bay County Historical Society. At a MI-SBTDC business outreach tour, Denice met the marketing manager of Midland Tomorrow, the county’s economic development provider. Six months later, Midland’s Virtual Tour won a state and international award using the Map-N-Tour software. The program has potential to easily be sold worldwide.