![\"Simmons](\"http:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Simmons-2-32-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSue Small-Kreider
\nIn Motion Staff Writer<\/p>\n
Aim for perfection and accept excellence is the advice that a former teen-age guest on the \u201cOprah Winfrey Show\u201d offered a crowd of approximately 350 students, faculty, staff and local community members at Daytona State College\u2019s L. Gale Lemerand Entrepreneurial Speaker Series.<\/p>\n
Jason Meyer, the founder of Synergy Billing in Daytona Beach, was the 17-year-old entrepreneur that went on Oprah\u2019s TV show to talk about how he turned the offer to help fix a teacher\u2019s computer when he was 14 into a $1 million-dollar business in three years.<\/p>\n
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His first business model was to go to friends\u2019 and family members\u2019 homes to fix their computers, but he came up with the idea to rent a booth at a flea market on the weekends. People would drop their computer off on a Friday and pick it up on that Sunday. Business picked up and he began to think that if he was homeschooled like the \u201cHollywood stars\u201d were, he would have more time to focus on his business. He pitched the idea to his parents who agreed to let him try it for six months.<\/p>\n
By the time he was 16 and purchased his first car, he was able to expand his scope to include business clients, many of whom were doctors\u2019 offices.\u00a0 He taught himself all he could about computer networks.\u00a0 With low overhead costs, he had over $1 million in the bank by the time he was 17.<\/p>\n
During his speech at the Hosseini Center, he recalled asking himself, \u00a0\u201cWhat\u2019s so hard about this?\u201d \u00a0as he expanded into developing software. Inspired by Marc Benioff\u2019s work with cloud computing and Salesforce.com, Meyer decided to design medical software. He had 20 people working for him and then the events of Sept. 11, 2001 happened. His services were no longer in demand. He ended up letting all his employees go and then he and his mother took to the phones trying to sell software.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing builds character like paying back a debt,\u201d Meyers told the crowd, noting that he was a half-million in debt, had a General Educational Development diploma, but no college degree. His business was not thriving.\u00a0 But because his company had been working with doctors\u2019 offices, he knew something about the billing process for health care. A new idea formed.<\/p>\n
By 2006 he honed his business plan to focus on the billing process for nonprofit health centers, which he said aligned more with his personal values. This business became Synergy Billing ,which according its website provides \u201cpatient billing needs of Federally Qualified Health Centers and are experts on maximizing revenue and improving collections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyer attributes much of his persistence in business to Stephen R. Covey\u2019s book \u201cThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People\u201d and his mother\u2019s teaching him that failure should never stop him. He believes in \u201cFailing Forward\u201d or using failure as a lesson.<\/p>\n
In a 2011 Daytona Beach News-Journal article about Meyer, Mary Bruno, vice president for Daytona State\u2019s School of Work Force and Continuing Education, said Meyer\u2019s success is the exception, not the rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are always going to run into people like Walt Disney, Dave from Wendy\u2019s and Bill Gates, who quit school,\u201d Bruno said. \u201cThere are tons of examples of people who have become famous and didn\u2019t follow the traditional route. Most who succeed have had a lot of failures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bruno, along with Meyers encourages students to get a college education.<\/p>\n
Like Meyer, Gale Lemerand, the individual who brought the Entrepreneurial Speaker Series to DSC, is a life-long entrepreneur. Maybe best known locally for his string of Stonewood Grill and Tavern restaurants, Lemerand is also the inventor of the Sanidoor, a touch-free, germ-free bathroom door and the former owner of the insulation company Gale Industries.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet a great education and have fun with your career,\u201d Lemerand said to the students in the audience. \u201cAnd always surround yourself with great people who are smarter than you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to the talk, DSC president, Dr. Tom LoBasso and Lemerand presented three $1,000 entrepreneur scholarships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sue Small-Kreider In Motion Staff Writer Aim for perfection and accept excellence is the advice that a former teen-age guest on the \u201cOprah Winfrey Show\u201d offered a crowd of approximately 350 students, faculty, staff and local community members at Daytona State College\u2019s L. Gale Lemerand Entrepreneurial Speaker Series. Jason Meyer, Continue reading Boom-To-Bust and Back, Speaker Shares Success Story<\/span>