Fasttrac Instructors Chosen From Waco's Business Leaders

Waco businessmen Pat Holiday, president of Product Development and Marketing Company, and Allan Morris, senior vice president of First National Bank, have been chosen as instructors for the Premier FastTrac program, which is supported by Baylor University.
Premier FastTrac, a national program that has just been launched in Waco, is geared toward aspiring entrepreneurs and current small business owners. The program is co-sponsored by Baylor, the City of Waco and the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce.
As instructors, Holiday and Morris will receive training in the FastTrac curriculum-a curriculum that has been taught, tested and refined in classes held in 31 states.
Holiday will teach students enrolled in FastTrac I, a nine-week session for people interested in beginning a business, testing their entrepreneurial ideas, and writing a business plan.
Originally from St. Paul, Minn., Holiday has lived in Waco since 1973. He has owned Product Development and Marketing Company since 1980, which specializes in new product introduction, industry focus groups, telemarketing plans, and marketing plans and strategies.
Additionally, Holiday has taught business continuing education courses at McLennan Community College for five years. His courses have included: fundamentals of starting your own business, advertising on a shoestring, the marketing umbrella, and how to write your own business plan.
Holiday graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1965 with a degree in electrical engineering. He currently serves as president of the board of directors of MCC's Business Resource Center.
When asked why he interviewed for the FastTrac position, he said, "I love entrepreneurs. I'm a very practical person, and it's fun to be in an exchange environment where people are really getting the information they need."

Morris will instruct students in FastTrac II, an 11-week session focused on current small business owners. This more advanced session will concentrate on existing financial and marketing plans, improving operational aspects of a business, and preparing for possible growth.
Morris is originally from Gilmer, Texas. He graduated from Baylor with a bachelor's in business administration degree in finance and economics in 1974.
Morris has used his professional experience at First National Bank to teach banking courses at MCC since 1978. He describes his interest in the FastTrac program as one from a business/banking standpoint.
"Like everyone else out there, I want for all of my bank customers to do well, and I want for all businesses to do well," Morris said. "It makes for a better economy."
Holiday and Morris were chosen as FastTrac instructors after giving 10-minute presentations on the five key elements to a successful, growing business. The selection committee was comprised of Leah Jackson, associate professor of law and associate dean of the law school at Baylor; Lu Billings, director of the Small Business Development Center; Warren Johnson, dean of continuing education at MCC; Tina Ray, from the president's office at Texas State Technical College; and Nancy Upton, director of the Institute for Family Business and director of the Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship at Baylor.
Applications are being accepted for both sections of the Premier FastTrac program that begin in September. Classes will be held in the Huaco Room of the Waco Convention Center. Applications are available at the Small Business Development Center, the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Black Chamber of Commerce, or the Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business.
For more information, contact 755-2265, extension 3.