Get Interested

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” ~ Dale Carnegie

Figure 1 Christine Chen (Presenter), Bopha Cheng and Dr. Shirley I. Metcalf (Lake Washington Technical College)

Held at the Westin in downtown Seattle in-person and online networking married one another in this Seminar Group presented workshop with Candace BelAir and Christine Chen.

Candace, a media and crisis communication expert, led the one-two punch with tips from the field. “It’s (networking) not all about you. It’s about contributing to others,” she explained. “Get interested in the other person. Ask open-ended questions using the 5 W’s and H. (What, where, when, why, who, and how.)”

She also advised, that when approaching a group of people, try an odd number. The single person or triad will be more welcoming as opposed to interrupting a pair.

In the second session, Christine, a Principal with Chen Communications, covered online networking emphasizing being a thought leader and a resource for your network. “After any event, continue building your relationships online using networking tools, like LinkedIn or AVVO, a legal peer review tool.” Christine also adds, ”while these tools save time, budget your online time just as one would for meeting for coffee”.

For those that could stay and continue networking, we all adjourned to the Westin Lounge and practiced what we were taught.

Thanks to the Seminar group and Ms. BelAir and Ms. Chen.

Figure 2 Post-seminar networking with Christine Chen and Candace BelAir (Presenters)

  

Related links:

• President’s Blog on networking: http://gilgido.blogspot.com/2010/01/networking.html
• Candace BelAir Training: http://www.belairtraining.com/
• Chen Communications: http://chencommunications.com/
• The Seminar Group: http://www.theseminargroup.net/ 

How to Write a Winning Business Plan

Left to Right: Ryen Shimizu, Jesse Robbins, Bryan Brewer, and Hang Chen

NAAAP-Seattle hosted the event at Bank of America Executive Education Center, UW, on July 30th. The presentation was carried by our key speaker, Bryan Brewer with Business Plans Northwest. He is an author, journalist, consultant, and business owner specializing in business plans.

We'd like to summarize key points here for folks who are interested in this topic.

Courtesy information by Bryan Brewer

The Seven Secrets:

1. Do the Thinking First: Refine your business model before you start writing your plan. Business plan documents consist of as follows:

• Executive Summary: Get attention, create interest. This is about 2 pages maximum
• Business Plan: Provide details for due diligence. 20-25 pages
• Financial Projections: Provide justification for financial investment. Span 3-5 years (one page summary in Business Plan)
• Investor Presentation: Create desire, close the deal. 10-15 slides of PowerPoint.

2. What Investors Look For: Experienced, passionate team, growth and scalability, real need, cost-effective way to target the market, sustainable competitive advantages, realistic revenue model, and ROI.

3. Talk to Your Customers: Validate their needs and use feedback to develop product and market strategy

4. Embrace Your Competition: Positioning & differentiation, market disruption, communicating your message, and keep motivated.

5. Don't Try To Predict the Future: The Purpose of financial projections is to demonstrate that you understand the key metrics that drive your business engine, and understand the basic elements of the equation, such as, revenue, variable costs, and fixed costs.

6. Don't Got It Alone: Look for entrepreneurial ecosystem and Board of Advisors, such as service providers, organizations, entrepreneurs, or investor.

7. The Plan is Not the Business: It's knowledge vs. Action or Idea vs. Execution.

Posted by Tanantha P. PR/Marketing, NAAAP-Seattle

Entrepreneur Workshop NAAAP-Seattle at UW

The Entrepreneur Workshop

at UW on April 22nd

It went really well. We have about 35 people attended including panelists. Being an entrepreneur has pros and cons that you should weigh them yourself whether or not it's suitable to your life style. It will be for sure difficult and stressful at the beginning. Ask yourself a question, such as, do you like freedom?, do you want to work for yourself or a company?, can you handle stress?, are you okay to not have regular paycheck every month, no bonus? What about in a long run? You work more, you get more.

The next step would be to find what you really enjoy doing and you have passion on. Then write out possibilities if you can turn it to $$$. This seems to be easy, but it's not really. A lot of people have hobby, but how to turn it around to $$$. That's something you need to think about. If you find one, lucky you! If not, keep looking. Opportunities are all around you. Be creative and think outside the box.

Then it comes to strategy and business plan. You NEED a plan! Passion only is not enough. It's tough market out there especially in a down turn economy. Write it out because you can see it more clearly than in your mind. Some entrepreneurs take business class. The question is "is that really help?" It might, but it helps for sure to help you be more structure and think it through. Get yourself out there. Mingle with successful people and ask for help. Our panelists recommend to get a mentor. Professional athletes have a coach, why not you?

A lot of attendees asked about finance. You can either go to organizations that help small businesses, go to an angel and sell your idea, convince them to invest in your idea, or go to your saving. It all depends on circumstances. You can consult this with professionals and mentors.

Have you heard about gut? Everybody has gut. However, it's not always right!! Gut will grow with experience. Take gut and structure together into consideration before making decision. It might be a high risk, but it will also be high return.

Having an entrepreneur-minded is a good start. Not many people have this mindset. If you have it, you're lucky. Good luck and pursue your dream!

NAAAP-Seattle: We make leader!

Courtesy photos of Sopon Supamungmee

The Diversity Career Expo 2009