Jezreel Enterprises, Inc. in the News!!!
The Miami Herald:
ENTREPRENEURS SHARE ADVICE AT SEMINAR
BY: ROBIN SHEAR (Special to The Miami Herald)
04-28-2008
Veronica Acebedo, 22, brought some pressing issues to last week's Vision to Venture seminar for women entrepreneurs.
"The massage industry has a lot of problem separating the 'Happy Ending' massage from the real massage," Acebedo told a panel of local entrepreneurs who had just finished sharing their "startup stories" with the approximately 100 women (and a few men) who converged at Brickell's JW Marriott hotel for the event, sponsored by Microsoft.
"You've got my attention," quipped Rich Sloan, one of the moderators and founder of StartupNation.com.
Yet all attendees could relate to Acebedo's question, which was essentially: How do you best educate potential clients as to what your business really is, and isn't?
Yoga instructor Rosa Santana, who owns Yogarosa studio in Hallandale Beach, had advice for entrepreneurial beginners, such as Acebedo, to get off on the right foot: "I just went to the best people who were already successful in doing what I wanted to do and they gave me all this free advice."
Acebedo, who's trying to grow her massage practice while working at a luxury South Beach hotel, had another tricky question for her peers: "Where does the funding come from?"
SBTV.com CEO Susan Wilson Solovic fielded this one: "Most businesses start with family-friend funding and personal assets. It's very hard to get funding for a startup business."
Panelist Tamesha Keel, an attorney also transitioning out of a full-time career while developing Miami-based Jezreel Enterprises, added that she's actually using her salary to pay for a lot of her business-related expenses. Still, she suggested it's important for new enterprises to leverage funding from the inside-out, client by client.
"Develop a track record so you can go to private investors," Keel advised.
Through the course of the Q&A, numerous tips emerged. Wanda E. Gozdz, president of Fort Pierce-based W. Gozdz Enterprises, built a 27-year business managing private library collections out of a $200 checking account, finding her clients through cold calling, pounding on doors and joining networking organizations.
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And she advertised early on in trade publications. "If they recognize your name, that's half the battle," she said.
Several panelists emphasized the importance of allying oneself with an accountant and attorney early on, and any other support system you can muster -- a board of directors, for example. "You can't become accountable overnight," Solovic added.
All spoke to the value of networking and professional organizations.
Gina Amaro Rudan, 36, of Miami Shores, wants to make empowering other female entrepreneurs her business, literally. "I feel that our society -- locally, nationally, globally -- will become a better place," said Rudan, who markets herself as a personal branding strategist.
The daylong event drew a diverse group of entrepreneurs: lawyers, accountants, massage therapists, yoga instructors, chefs, marketers, fashion designers -- even one mustard maker. All comprise what appears to be a blossoming trend, especially in Florida.
Based on projections from the latest U.S. Census data, the Center for Women's Business Research reports that the percentage of majority women-owned businesses in South Florida's tri-county region grew 88.9 percent between 1997 and 2006 -- more than double the national rate of growth, which it put at 42.3 percent, and ahead of the other major metropolitan areas the group analyzed.
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