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For Day Shelmire, the decision to obtain an MBA from a top business school was a no-brainer. After graduating from the University of Texas in Austin in the '80s with a bachelor's degree in history, he soon realized he needed more education to prepare him for the business world.
After enrolling at SMU Cox, Shelmire decided to take entrepreneurship classes on a lark, joking that he thought it would give him a break from the heavy, numbers-laden courses like accounting. "Liberal arts grads are usually allergic to numbers," he said. "Little did I know that I would become an entrepreneur."
Upon graduation, at the urging of his mentor and business policy professor, Shelmire went to work as an onsite contractor for NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC in NASA's Office of Commercial Programs. His goal was to position himself in an area where he could come in contact with emerging technologies, commercialize one of these technologies and start a company.
While at NASA, Shelmire was exposed to thousands of technologies that were in the process of being developed for the space program that had commercial applications. One of NASA's many spinoff technologies was an integrated automated mapping system using GPS technology to map roads and roadside infrastructure. He started a company with fellow NASA contractor and Cornell MBA grad, Fred Bennett. They licensed and brought this technology to market providing highly accurate digital mapping of roads to state and local governments who were in the process of trying to figure out how to digitally map their roads. These types of maps are now the backbone of turn-by-turn navigation systems.
"That was my first attempt at starting and building a company from scratch. I made a lot of mistakes and I did some things right," said Shelmire. "I learned the pitfalls and benefits of having a business partner. In this case and at Janie's Cakes I picked the right partner who brought complimentary skills to the business."
After Shelmire and his partner sold Global Visions, he and his wife settled with their family in Tyler, Texas to be closer to family and the countryside. Shelmire was looking for a business to buy or to start when he was approached by an old friend, Janie Clapp, about her cake business, Janie's Cakes. They partnered in 2003 to produce and sell the world's best pound cake.
Clapp, a graduate of New York's Culinary Institute of America, had operated her company for 15 years as a local bakery specializing in sculpted birthday cakes and wedding cakes. Janie's Cakes quickly gained a reputation in East Texas for producing the finest quality and most beautiful wedding cakes. Her services were in high demand, and brides were known to set their wedding dates by when they could get on Janie's calendar.
By 2002, Clapp was beginning to tire of the hectic wedding schedules, lost weekends and the sheer stress of wedding days. She was contemplating getting out of the business all together when she was approached by Shelmire about changing her business model and launching something new and different.
Janie's Cakes' new business model was simple. Make one exceptional product and focus on growth through word of mouth. This concept was a success, with Tylerites sending Janie's Cakes to all 50 states within their first year of business. Those recipients have become repeat customers and the customer base has grown exponentially.
"Our philosophy is that in an era of high-tech processed foods laden with chemicals, preservatives and processed fats, it is almost impossible to walk into a store and find a simple, all-natural food product like something your grandmother would have made. We have proven that people still desire real, wholesome, handmade foods," said Shelmire.
Janie's Cakes has also been "discovered" by QVC, Whole Foods Markets, Texas Country Reporter, Texas Monthly, Southern Living, Country Living and many others.
Shelmire attributes his MBA from SMU Cox for starting him on the path of success. He uses the skills and knowledge he learned in the program every day. And most importantly, he has confidence in his ability to learn in unfamiliar situations and to fear nothing in the business world.
"The Cox MBA program is the single best decision I have ever made to get my business career going. Although I struggled in the program because of the fact that I had a liberal arts undergraduate degree, I now believe that liberal arts and business degrees are a fabulous complement to each other. Nothing prepares you in the areas of reading, writing, critical thinking and communications like a degree in English, history or economics. Nothing prepares you for business like a Cox MBA," he said.
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