Chris Miller Wants to Bring New Energy and Resources to Young ...

In 2010, the non-profit group Service Corps of Retired Entrepreneurs, or SCORE, awarded Chris Miller and his business partner Cole Strunkard with an Omaha Entrepreneur of the Year award. The award was given in response to the pair’s innovative property management company, DeltaREP. Now 27, Miller has not only founded a successful property management company, but also expanded operations to a different type of property management in Tampa, Fla., established an Omaha chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization, and founded a scholarship for business students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Miller has earned dual degrees from UNO in finance and business, and DeltaREP now manages nearly $10 million worth of property in Omaha. Not one to rest on his laurels, Miller is helping to bring to the UNO campus an exciting new conference for young entrepreneurs, the Midwest Entrepreneurship Conference.

We spoke with Miller while he was attending a similar conference at the University of Tampa, in a city that has also benefited from Miller’s drive to help young entrepreneurs find resources and inspiration. In 2010, while enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Tampa, Miller was instrumental in organizing the Southeast Entrepreneurship Conference (SEEC). He went on to attend both the 2011 and 2012 SEEC as a featured breakout speaker. For the upcoming MWEC, Miller will present “How to Buy Anything When You Have Nothing – Fun with Private Capital.”

One thing that sets the MWEC apart from other regional conferences is the median age of most of the featured speakers. Miller and the other organizers have made a point of spotlighting younger entrepreneurs. Miller himself began his career in real estate at age 20, and founded DeltaREP immediately after graduating. He says he thought it was important in student conferences to bring in younger entrepreneurs. Miller believes many business students are hesitant to act on their ideas because they assume that their youth is a limiting factor. By bringing in young, successful business people like Miller himself, students can be inspired to act on their business ideas and make potential startups a reality.

Miller said that while more established entrepreneurs “have a lot of wisdom and experience to share, younger people often need to also hear from more recent successes, to believe that they can do it too.”

Because Miller has been active in bringing resources to student entrepreneurs in different parts of the country, we were curious to get his take on the regional differences between the Southeast and the Midwest. Miller has found that the Midwest is sometimes written off as more agriculturally based than business-based. He firmly believes this is a mistaken impression, pointing out that agriculture means big business. Miller finds that many young people from the area are educated early on about business ideals from family farms, and he noted that the technological advances happening in agriculture today make the Midwest relevant in the world of entrepreneurship. He also cites agriculture as providing the Midwestern region with a strong work ethic, which he sees as an advantage in real-world entrepreneurship.

For those interested in attending the Midwest Entrepreneurship Conference, early registration is available at http://www.mwecomaha.org/?page_id=38. Besides Miller, the event features a number of keynote addresses, breakout speakers and planned networking events.

To learn more about Miller and his approach to property management, visit his blog on the Delta REP website at http://www.deltarep.com/blog