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Cecilia and Jason Hilkey have spent the past few months building their dream business with the help of top-notch professional advisers -- part of their prize as winners of the Kiplinger/Dream in You Dream Job Contest. "We'll look back on this as a major turning point in our business and our lives," says Cecilia, 32, an occupational therapist who works with disabled children. Jason, 36, a computer engineer, says the guidance they received on everything from taxes and corporate structure to business logos and bookkeeping services would have taken years to figure out on their own.
The Hilkeys' unique skills and inspirational vision -- they plan to open a resource center where children with special needs can play and attend therapy sessions, and disabled adults can test-drive the latest adaptive technologies -- landed them one of three winning slots in our Dream Job Contest.
Jean Duane, a passionate cook from Centennial, Colo., who discovered several years ago that she cannot tolerate dairy products and gluten, was another champion among more than 3,500 entries. In her winning essay, Duane described her dream job as the Alternative Cook, using videos to demonstrate to people on restricted diets how to create appealing meals.
Richard Ahlquist, a Northwest Airlines pilot who loves his work but is concerned about his employer's high-profile bankruptcy, rounded out our trio of winners with his plan to create a paralegal-outsourcing company as a hedge against losing his wings.
Last April the winners attended an awards ceremony at Kiplinger's headquarters, in Washington, D.C. Each received $5,000 in cash, plus a notebook computer and office equipment from Sharp, one of the contest sponsors. They also met with the Dream in You team to begin their career transformation, which started with the Kolbe Index, a personality-assessment test designed to identify your natural way of working in order to maximize your business potential. Later, the winners discussed their test results with company president and contest sponsor Kathy Kolbe.
First-rate advice. For years, the Hilkeys, who live in Torrance, Cal., had struggled with the details of how to turn their vision of helping the disabled into a multipurpose business. Winning the Dream Job Contest gave them access to mentors, such as CPA and tax strategist Diane Kennedy (www.taxloopholes.com), who recommended that they set up their business as a Subchapter S corporation. That could save them about $12,000 a year in taxes and protect their personal assets. Garrett Sutton, a lawyer and author of Own Your Own Corporation, handled the paperwork and advised them on establishing a nonprofit arm for fund-raising and serving underprivileged clients who can't afford to pay for their services.
Even something as simple as finding the right name for their business had eluded the Hilkeys. So Dream in You president Elizabeth Kanna and contest sponsor LogoWorks created a new corporate identity -- Believe Ability -- along with corresponding logos, brochures, business stationery and a Web site. "Believe Ability -- 'We believe in your ability' -- reflects our values as individuals and as a company," says Cecilia.
The Hilkeys also met with celebrity mentor Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, to get tips on using technology in education and serving a niche market. As president of Sally Ride Science, the former astronaut now produces innovative programs to improve girls' literacy in math and science.
Throughout the process, they learned to delegate administrative tasks, such as bookkeeping and scheduling, so that they can focus on what they do best. Now they can zero in on their next goal: renting office space to make their resource center a reality.
The Hilkeys were awed by their Dream Job experience. "It's like all of these people have given us a boat and an oar and pushed us away from the shore," says Cecilia. "We still have to row, but without their help, we'd still be standing on the shore."
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