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Dear Ken,
During San Francisco Small Business Week we reach into the community to share with you wisdom, resources, inspiration, and best practices through our events and also online.
We've interviewed many small business owners about what makes thier business tick. When we asked local entrepreneur Kristy Lin Billuni what it is about San Francisco that inspires entrepreneurship. She said "We are radicals, we are rebels. We don’t want to work for the man; we want to work for ourselves. We want to do the work that we’re on this planet to do, and we want to do it in our own way. "
Does that describe you?
Find other quotes and visit our blog to receive tips, insights, and words of wisdom from local small business owners and experts, and let us know what you think on social media (FB, Twitter). And please take a few minutes to add your own!
New This Year: Video Interviews
Here are a few excerpts
from our written interiews:
What is it about SF that inspires entrepreneurship? “We are radicals, we are rebels. We don’t want to work for the man; we want to work for ourselves. We want to do the work that we’re on this planet to do, and we want to do it in our own way. I love that about San Francisco. I love that aspect in every way, and I especially love the way it creates our entrepreneurial spirit.” – Kristy Lin Billuni, The Sexy Grammarian
What is the best piece of small business advice you would like to share with our audience? “Delight your customers by focusing on and perfecting what you do best -- the core service or product that you offer. Spend as little time as possible on parts of the business you can outsource or delegate.” - Beck Shahvar Brown, Owner, Keeping Your Balance
What is the next big thing that will shape small business? “Mobile. Hands down. We know that customers are embracing mobile, but what about businesses? Be it a tablet or a smart phone, we need to create easy and effective tools that allow businesses to market to their customers on mobile.” - Dan Levy, Director of Small Business, Facebook
What are some of the key challenges that face small business owners today? “The two biggest challenges are getting customers and getting cash flow. But what really stops a small business from growing is cash flow -- that’s why it’s so important. As a small business it's hard to get loans, but if you have a healthy cash flow you can spend money on marketing, hire people, get more inventory, etc. -- any of the things people can do to make their business thrive.” - Peter Karpas, CEO of North America, Xero
What words of wisdom do you have for people just getting started in business? “When you're getting started, always take the time to write a detailed business plan and make sure it includes a solid plan on how to monetize. In your plan, take your original company budget and timeline and double it. Things always cost more and take longer than expected.” - Shanna McClearn, Co-Founder, Filey
What is one of the hardest lessons you’ve had to learn in business? “The hardest lesson was endurance. Sometimes you fail due to exhaustion of resources. I learned this from running races and triathlons. I stared exercising just to get away from sitting down at the computer, and had races as goals. You learn to pace, and you win by endurance.” - Vic Cekvenich, CEO, Apakua Inc.
What words of wisdom do you have for people just getting started in business? “You must be passionate. If you love what you do and are smart about your approach, success will come naturally.” - Nancy Charraga, Owner, Casa Bonampak
What’s the best piece of small business advice you would like to share with our audience? “Small businesses always believe that they have great opportunities. Their biggest asset is their optimism for where they want to go. The advice is first, hold onto that optimism. Second, as you start up, really invest in the planning. You really need at the beginning to understand the planning of what you’re doing, because that is going to be at the foundation of whether you’re going to be succeeding or not.” – Mark Quinn, District Director, U.S. Small Business Administration, San Francisco District Office
What’s the secret to Ace Mailing’s long-term success? “Persistence, adaptability, and flexibility. We have tried to be as adaptable to the changing business economy and be as flexible as we possibly can with all of our clients.” – Gwen Kaplan, Ace Mailing
We also want to hear from you! Please take a moment to tell us what you think about the state of small business and what it takes to thrive as a small business owner on our Facebook Page or a smart tweet!
We look forward to sharing all the exciting things we have in store for you. See you at San Francisco Small Business Week!
San Francisco Small Business Week 2014 Sponsors include: Presenting Sponsor, Bank of America; Flavors of San Francisco Host, Square; Small Business Conference Host, Wells Fargo; Forum Hosts, Comcast Business, Visa, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Office of Small Business, Workshop Host Plus, Xero Inc., Small Business Conference Procurement Hosts, CDC Small Business Finance, Bay Area Development Company, Capital Access Group; Workshop Hosts, Bank of the West, Vertical Response, Pacific Gas & Electric, Sterling Bank & Trust, Colonial Life, Google, ZenPayroll, Chevron, Kaiser Permanente, Recology, U.S. Bank, Straus Events; Exhibiting Sponsors, Regus, VEDC, Facebook, Keeping Your Balance, Indeed, YP, Marriott International; Media Sponsors, San Francisco Business Times.
Visit www.sfsmallbusiness.com for more information.
For more information, please visit www.sfsmallbusinessweek.com.
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