The rock star of business classes

If there is such a thing as a rock star in the world of continuing education lecturers, his past students might likely place Steve Veltkamp somewhere in the Top 10.

And the folks at Truckee Meadows Community College couldn't be more pleased.

"Our programmer says his classes are more in demand now than they were a couple years ago, and that's why we have added more of his classes because he speaks to entrepreneurship so well," says Kathleen Berry, the college's marketing manager for workforce development and continuing education.

"His evaluations are always raving," says Berry. "People love him. His classes just sort of snowball because someone takes a class and tell their friends who take the class and it just grows by word of mouth."

Veltkamp is also in demand elsewhere.

He estimates he does more than 200 presentations a year throughout the country on a host of topics dealing with helping people start their own for-profit business. "I started teaching classes in Port Angeles, Wash., where I live. I did it initially to market my own webmaster business. The testimonials grew and today I go all over the country Denver, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., Providence, R.I., Texas, Florida, Georgia all over," he says.

After doing a 20 year hitch in the Navy, the 56-year-old Veltkamp took a job as a night clerk in a motel. He quickly learned that the employee life wasn't for him. So he dug in, built up a fledgling Web design and consulting business, then took his ideas on the road to whoever would listen and pony up $40, $50 or more to hear what he has to say.

During the winter session at TMCC, he lectured at eight three-hour courses over a four-day stretch. The most popular course, he says, has been running a home-based business.

"People are looking for ideas on what they might do to supplement their income. People will try this out, play with it and see what happens," he says. "In most of my classes, you have 10 to 20 percent who will be serious about it at the top end. At the bottom, you have what I call seminar tourists. The rest fall somewhere in between."

The second most popular class, Veltkamp says, deals with those who have an idea they think they can make money. "We talk about developing the product or service, how do you expand it nationally through trade shows and associations, and, most importantly, how do you retain control. I'd say 40 percent of the class is protecting your idea."

Veltkamp says his entire life has been spent trying to understand how and why people do things a certain way, then dig through and eliminate those steps that are unnecessary and nonproductive. He also credits a former Navy officer who helped him think creatively about every situation. When Veltkamp was in the military, his officer demanded he and those under him clean their desk every Friday including the drawers. There would be no stuffing paperwork into drawers just so his desk would look clean.

Veltkamp seized upon a time-saving opportunity.

Every Friday, he would take the entire contents of his paper piles, stuff them into huge interoffice routing envelopes, mail it to himself, and pull the piles back out when the mail arrived first thing Monday morning.

"There's always a better answer to every problem," says Veltkamp.