#EYECON The Premier Youth Entrepreneurship Conference#EYECON, Engaging Youth Entrepreneurs Conference, is a one day event designed to expose and teach students the basics of entrepreneurship. #EYECON is full of interactive workshops, games and prizes. All students are offered breakfast, lunch, snacks, en-tre-pre-neur t shirt and conference bag full of resources. Stay Tuned for More Details!

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​​​I am sharing an exhibit booth at a major conference with a friend who is in the same line of business. While this is a tricky situation, we are both working to grow our business and thought this would be the best approach. Any advice?

Finding new ways to generate leads is essential to business growth. Working with someone not affiliated with your company at a major event is another story. Ensuring you and your friend are on the same page will produce a successful event. Trust will either expose or promote your friendship and business relationship. To help you plan out a successful event, consider this list:

• Set your intention. Before the event, schedule time to meet with all parties involved to make sure everyone is on the same page. This includes your team, your friend’s team and any other parties that are related to success at the event. Also, review the organization’s rules and regulations for exhibitors.
• Associated costs. Discuss costs, including exhibit fees, insurance, Wi-Fi and electricity, associated with the conference. Will you need other individuals from your company to assist? Depending on the type of business you have, what inventory is needed to ensure a successful event? How will these costs be handled?
• Avoid conflict. Make a list of exhibitors and possible attendees. Discuss the lists with your friend and the other team members to determine existing relationships. Since you're in the same business and both of you are working to grow your business, you will want to eliminate any conflicts now.
• Whose lead is it? Determine how leads will be handled. Will you only follow up with the people you spoke with individually, split the leads up at the end of the event, or is there another way to fairly share leads? This is an important step to have in place to avoid any misunderstandings or future conflicts. This is a trust factor and will determine the outcome of this event, your friendship and business relationship moving forward. Read more..

My business partner and I started a business over five years ago. We both have agreed that we have come to the end of the road of our partnership. What advice do you have regarding ending a business?

First things first: I am not a lawyer. You will want to seek legal assistance in resolving any legal disputes and entity dissolution. The following tips that I will share are for informational purposes only.
Now that the legal language is out of the way, consider these tips to dissolve your entity:
Attempt reconciliation. Sometimes business owners need a third party to intervene so that the parties can hear each other. I’ve worked with entrepreneurs who engaged the help of a meditator to resolve complicated issues between business partners. To locate a mediator near you, check out mediate.com/businessmediators or your local area bar association at http://bit.ly/barassoc. If you and your business partner do not feel that’s a possibility, then other measures are needed. Keep reading.
Check with government agencies. Depending on the type of legal entity you have, you will need to find out from your Secretary of State office or some other government agency about how to dissolve your company. The state agency may also have other requirements for you as well. You will also need to reach out to the IRS to see what requirements they have for dissolving a business. In fact, the IRS has a useful checklist at http://bit.ly/irsclose.
Find an attorney. If reconciliation does not work and there is no other recourse, searching for a business attorney is up next.  Read more..

​Since I am a business-to-business company, I have limited exposure to people. However, as a growth strategy, I’m looking to move more into the business-to-consumer market. What advice do you have on creating lasting business relationships?


As you might expect, building strong, good and lasting business relationships takes time and energy. Just like with your business, you will need to put in the work to first make the relationship happen and to keep the relationship going.
Consider these tips for creating strong business relationships.

• Define the relationship. In the beginning, define what type of relationships you are seeking and what value you will add to that relationship. Are you looking for business opportunities, employees, a business partner, a service provider or just someone to be a sounding board for an idea or business challenge?
• Add value to the relationship. Consider how many people you connect with on LinkedIn. Do you connect on a regular basis or just when you are looking for a connection? You are probably connecting with individuals where you see value between both parties.
• Diversify the relationship. We all have a circle of people we feel most comfortable with. Go beyond that circle to nurture new relationships. You may seek out an entrepreneur outside your demographic, a supplier, professionals, individuals working in the government space or even a competitor. Read more...

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Help! I’m not sure why customers are not coming to me. I’m on social media, I have a website and I’m out at events. Any advice?

OK, after hearing more about your situation, I believe I can shed some light to help you. Just as I advise other business owners, customers are not going to knock your door down just because you are now open for business. If you want to acquire and retain customers, you need to make sure they can reach you easily. Otherwise, if they cannot find you, then you are leaving money on the table. Consider these tips to help you stop hiding from your customers.
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So, let’s clarify what I mean about hiding from your customers. If we are not providing a wide variety of ways for our customers to reach out, then in essence, we are hiding. Before we begin, I will need you to have access to all the ways you reach out to customers and how you think customers are reaching out to you. The three common ways I believe customers will reach out to you are: Read more...