Moonlighting His Way to the Top: How this KC Entrepreneur Does It All

WRITTEN BY ALLISON WAY, SENIOR COPYWRITER & CHIEF EDITOR

Kansas City-bred entrepreneur Chris Morris is what we like to call a “moonlighter”.  Moonlighting, as defined by Wikipedia, is the practice of holding a secondary job in addition to one’s main job.  But Chris Morris is doing more than just moonlighting—he’s moonlighting a few times over.

Morris is a service catalog administrator at HNTB by day, but a serial entrepreneur by night.  In the little free time that he has, he enjoys working on his newest entrepreneurial venture, Instantly.in.

Instantly.in is a Twitter loyalty program that allows users to check-in on Twitter without the hassle of downloading apps like Foursquare.  Instantly.in can also be utilized by people without smartphones.

As co-founder and developer for Instantly.in, Chris has been interested in developing new businesses since he can remember.  But it wasn’t until one special Thaisday (Chris always gets Thai on Tuesdays with his coworkers and partners) where he met Michael Gelphman of KCITP.  After that meeting, Chris decided to partake in Startup Weekend and had the opportunity to spend 54 straight hours working intensely on Instantly.in.

“I got great feedback at Startup Weekend,” said Chris.  “It was a blast.  I met cool people and the experience kick-started going back to working on Instantly.in.  I would love to do it again.”

Chris enjoys moonlighting and keeps himself busy with Instantly.in, HNTB, other entrepreneurial ventures, classes at JCCC and judo.  But according to Chris, finding the time for all of these interests isn’t all fun and games.  Moonlighting fills up an entire day, which can be extremely exhausting.  But what’s the hardest part for Chris?

“I’m doing so much!  I don’t have to be busy, I just want to get a lot done,” he says.  “The hardest part is the start and the finish.  Not having dedicated time for the business is challenging, but this is my year to get things up and going and eventually finished.” 

Get great tips on how to moonlight effectively from Think Big Partners! Dancing in the Moonlight: Happiness While Holding Two Jobs at Once

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How to Take Your Kansas City Business Mentoring to the Next Level

It has been proven that an entrepreneur can experience greater success when they have a business mentor by their side. A business mentor can provide guidance, advice, and even much-needed vent sessions. But where can you find a business mentor in Kansas City? And more importantly, how can you take your business mentoring to the next level?

Well, nobody ever said that a mentor has to be just one person, right?  And what better way to enhance your business than by utilizing the "two heads are better than one" strategy?  Or in this case, "three heads are better than two!" 

Utilizing more than one business mentor may be another key to business success. That is why The Kansas Small Business Development Center at Johnson County Community College has formulated the ever-popular CEO Roundtables. At these roundtables, CEOs and business leaders with companies over 5-years old (past the startup stage) are invited to sit in on a roundtable in which participators address issues, seize opportunities and overcome business obstacles. In essence, these roundtables are giant pods of mentors who are able to provide knowledge and expert advice. Led by a facilitator and entrepreneur, the collective knowledge and experience of the group provides for lively and effective discussions.

“The CEO Roundtable provides life-long learning so that people can build high performance businesses that are sustainable,” says Sally Smith, facilitator of the CEO Roundtable and Founder/CEO of Smith & Associates, Inc. “These businesses become each other’s advisors and help one another get outside of the box.”

With expertise with high performance companies, Smith reiterates the importance of business mentors and how they can strengthen any business, no matter how large or small it may be. “Leadership is leadership and business is business,” she says. “The industry that these businesses come from is not as important as helping one another solve the problems at hand.”

Tomorrow, from 8:00AM until 10:00AM, the Kansas Small Business Development Center at Johnson County Community College is hosting one of these CEO Roundtables to help a rich variety of businesses answer the question “How do you work on your business, not in your business?” The participating businesses will discuss the importance of strategic planning through a formalized process that is more than just an open format. During this two-hour roundtable, business leaders will be able to lean on one another for opinions, advice, suggestions, and solutions about the ever-changing business environment around the world.

“In today’s age, a leader must understand that business and technology are always changing,” Smith says. “The CEO Roundtable helps keep things fresh and refreshed. It adds to the knowledge of business leaders.”

If you’re interested in joining a CEO Roundtable, please fill out an application or call 913-469-3878. All attendees of the roundtable must fill out an application and pay the event fee. To learn more about the CEO Roundtable events, visit KCSourceLink.

Written by Allison Way. Allison is a writer and videographer for Think Big Partners and bizperc, two of Kansas City’s newest entrepreneurial resources.  To read more of Allison's work, please check out the Kansas City Entrepreneurship Examiner.

As part of our countdown to the New Year, Think Big Partners would like to know what entrepreneurs want to see happen in the Kansas City community in 2011. Take our poll at the top of this blog and let us know!