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Entrepreneur Gerald Flood meet marketer Jim Milford thanks to Tech Town's Shifting Gears program. Now both men are back in business. (Credit: WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com)
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Tech Town Helps Extinguish Unemployment for Entrepreneur, Marketer
Updated: Wednesday, 11 Jan 2012, 12:50 PM EST
Published : Friday, 06 Jan 2012, 7:07 PM EST
DETROIT (WJBK) -- Two strangers, a bad economy and a contraption that was the perfect way to extinguish unemployment for both of them. It's just one of the stories of success at Tech Town in Detroit.
"20 some years ago, I started developing different products and working on different projects basically in a wide variety of fields," said Gerald Flood.
He calls himself a serial entrepreneur. He had a lot of great ideas, but his company went bankrupt. So, at the age of 72, he went through a program called THRIVE in Tech Town. He's now introducing a new invention perhaps coming to a laundry room near you.
It's called OnGuard, an automatic fire suppression device that attaches to any dryer. If the dryer sparks and heats up, OnGuard releases fire repellent right away dousing any flames.
He had the know-how, but not the marketing. That's where Jim Milford comes in.
"I had wandered around for about a year looking for a job and going about it all incorrectly," he said.
After years of working in corporate marketing, he was laid off for a year. Then he joined a program run by the state helping people get back in the job market.
"I am an absolute testament to that. I have never been so charged in my life. This is probably the greatest thing that's happened to me in a long, long time," Milford explained.
Flood met Milford thanks to a Tech Town program called Shifting Gears. It's a program that's already helped retrain close to 200 people in just a short few years.
December's job numbers are the best in three years with 200,000 new jobs added in the U.S. Milford is one of those success stories.
"Small businesses are the job creators nowadays," said Michael O'Rourke with Tech Town. "We're working with these small businesses and helping them get to the point where they can create those jobs, succeed and grow their businesses."
Flood and Milford are thankful to O'Rourke and Tech Town. Sparked by an invention, they're both back in business.
"It was a slow process, but I think now, 2012, we've turned a corner," Flood said.
If you would like to learn more about the Shifting Gears program, visit MITalent.org/Michigan-Shifting-Gears-Program.
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