The Hware Story
A Short History of Hware’s Founders
Chuck Horton
Chuck Horton is a serial and social entrepreneur with vast knowledge and expertise in technology and business strategies. He sold his first business at the age of 17, a well drilling business. While in college, he started one of the first computerized Bulletin Board Systems, the predecessor to internet chat rooms, social media, blogging, forums, and open source software. He has owned 5 businesses and has created, launched, merged, and spun-off many businesses on behlaf of his clients. As a business consultant, Chuck has become known to all of his clients for taking extremely complex business problems and simplifying them in a very easy-to-understand manner. He then provides a solution with a step-by-step action plan which ultimately helps them become more profitable. As a technology consultant in Silicon Valley, Chuck became known as the “go-to-guy” for automating and systematizing the businesses of his clients.
After 20 years of becoming a trusted business advisor to Fortune 500 companies, as well as small-to-medium size businesses, high-tech companies, entrepreneurs, start-ups, non-profits, and service industry professionals, Chuck was looking for a new endeavor. He had helped his clients make hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, and he had earned the reputation of “the Strategist” by providing high-level consulting, coaching, strategic planning, and developing customized software for his clients. In addition, as a futurist, he could foresee that the internet was going to revolutionize the way people do business. So in 2000, he and his wife, Brenda left the Bay Area and moved to the foothills of Northern California and bought 28 acres and built their dream home on a hill-top which is solar-powered and straw-baled. While fully taking advantage of technology such as wireless high-speed internet via an 80 foot antenna perched up on a pine tree and virtual means, Chuck continued to offer business consulting services and customized software for his clients over the next eight years…and he did 99% of it remotely from his home-office!
Brenda Horton
Brenda is an entrepreneur in her own right. Over the last 15 years, she has owned three businesses and is an award-winning marketing and sales industry veteran. She has built a reputation as “The Closer” from the millions of dollars of business she has generated. While many sales people are tentative in “asking for the business”, Brenda became a top producing saleswoman using her key selling techniques. Adding to Brenda’s immense success was her passion for event-planning. She has hosted many client appreciation parties at her private residence. She always believed in honoring and thanking her customers for their business. She built a network of loyal customers just from this one activity. In addition, while working full-time, Brenda spearheaded and organized many charity fundraisers for children in the foster care system, which brought in over $350,000.00. Her charitable work in her community has garnered regional recognition. As a business woman with high professional standards, Brenda has been called an “Icon and a Master Networker” by her very own peers.
Brenda graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a B.S. in Communications. She is a top graduate of the Dale Carnegie Sales Training Institute where she won numerous awards and later went back and taught other students the techniques that launched her sales and marketing profession. Brenda believes in the importance of ongoing education and learning. She has continued to hone her business acumen by attending some of the top business development training seminars in the country.
Hware Today
After experiencing tremendous success with their own businesses, Chuck and Brenda teamed up as business partners in 2008. They had a burning desire to help entrepreneurs succeed. With the high failure rate of start-ups and small businesses, they believed that they could make a difference in the lives of these courageous and self-motivated people by helping them with the tools, methods, and systems they themselves have used. Hware was then restructured and together they relaunched Hware. Chuck and Brenda bring a combined 42 years of vast knowledge and expertise in the following industries: Telecommunications, public utilities, grocery, agriculture, manufacturing, banking, medical, publishing, high-tech, legal, accounting, commercial and residential real estate, government, office products, residential and commercial construction, hospitality, service industry, non-profits, start-ups, Fortune 500 companies and many, many more.
Today, Chuck and Brenda are tapping into their vast reservoir of business experiences and knowledge and thereby fueling their passion towards helping entrepreneurs become successful. They have taken the top systems and most effective methods that Hware has used over the years to help many of its clients become very profitable by converting them to online usage for the masses. These methods and systems have been transformed into online business tools that are easy to use for small business owners who are ready to take their business to a higher level.
Chuck currently volunteers his time as president of the board of directors for a children’s non-profit, Sierra Adoption Services. Chuck and Brenda enjoy skiing and hiking in Tahoe.
The 3 biggest problems small businesses face…
1. No clear vision of where they want to go. They don’t know what their “end game” is. As a result, they try a lot of different routes and chase a lot of ideas, costing them vast amounts of time and money.
2. No solid plan in place. Most entrepreneurs are guilty of this because they tend to be action-takers and they will “figure-it-out-as-they-go.” This is the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make and the costliest. Eventually, most start-ups run out of capital due to lack of planning.
3. Not taking action or taking action on the wrong items. Small businesses tend to spend too much time on things that don’t make them money. As a small business owner it is very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operational procedures of running the business. Unfortunately, unless there are strong systems and talented people in place, the small business owner spends way too much time wearing way too many hats and focus.
The solution to the 3 biggest problems small businesses face.
ENVISION PLAN ACT. A better way to build your business! Coming soon in Beta.
ENVISION PLAN ACT is a very simple-to-use online business planning tool for the small business owner. Here at Hware, we believe that a vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is drudgery. A vision and a plan without action is a disappointment….but a VISION with a PLAN put into ACTION can change the world!
Chuck and Brenda are very excited about bringing the small business owner ENVISION PLAN ACT, a web-based business planning process and method for growing a solid and profitable business. With ENVISION PLAN ACT, they have put together an online, systematic and easy-to-use process for growing an entrepreneur’s business to huge profits.
The problem with most business plans and strategic plans is that they end up collecting dust on a shelf. Much work goes into creating them, but then they tend to soon be forgotten. ENVISION PLAN ACT is interactive with no software to upload.
TESTIMONIALS
“My business has been profitable every year since Hware began helping us. Strategic business planning is a must have, especially in today’s economy.”
Steve Biondi, owner of Biondi Paving & Engineering
“Hware dives right into the crux of complex challenges within organizations and quickly brings tangible solutions that make a lot of sense and are very easy to understand. Smart, engaging and strategic.”
Elfrena Foord – Certified Financial Planner
Foord, Van Bruggen, Ebersole, & Pajak
