Time :10 am-1pm
Venue; Ritz Carlton 3000 SW 27 Ave, Miami Florida 33139
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ABOUT MARIA ELENA IBANEZ
When Maria Elena Ibanez was a teenager in Colombia, her father enrolled her in a course on programming minicomputers. Computers were becoming more common in Latin America, despite their $100,000 price tag, and Maria Elena was instantly taken with this revolutionary technology. In 1973, she went to the United States to study computer science at college and after graduation, she had an idea.
Personal computers were selling in the United States for $8,000–a fraction of what Latin American businesses were paying for their minicomputers. Why not set up distribution of personal computers south of the border she thought, where a fertile market was just waiting to be tapped? She took her idea to the major computer companies in 1980 and asked for a chance to distribute their products in her home country.
They told Maria Elena to forget it!. The computer executives said Latin America was in the midst of an economic crisis and Latin America countries were too poor and didn’t have the money to make it a market for them to pursue.
Maria Elena’s next step was to call a travel agent. Her instructions were simple: “Book me on a flight from Miami to Argentina, stopping in every major city I can without having to pay extra.” That was how Maria Elena designed her marketing plan. She later told me that “Ignorance can be bliss and sometimes it pays off because she didn’t know what she was getting herself into.”
With no experience, belief in her goal and common sense became her guides. She landed in Colombia, checked into a hotel, opened the Yellow Pages, and began calling computer dealers. She figured, the bigger the ad, the bigger the company. So she chose the companies that had the biggest ads first
The next day, fully scheduled with appointments, she hit the pavement running. In the 1980s a woman engineer was rare and many Latin American businessmen were not used to dealing with women–particularly a petite, young blonde who looked about eighteen years old! She turned what might have been a disadvantage into an advantage by balancing her youthful enthusiasm with education and expertise. Maria Elena said her prospective customers were fascinated by a young woman talking about the latest technology, things they didn’t know much about. They responded very favorably because she had a tremendous product, the price was fantastic, and it allowed them to compete with the big guys.
A whirlwind three-week trip through Equador, Chile, Peru, and Argentina followed. In each country, she used the same Yellow Pages approach to market her product. She had projected sales of $10,000 a year and returned to the United States, only three weeks later, with $100,000 worth of orders–prepaid–with cashier’s checks in hand. For someone who earned $6 an hour tutoring at the university computer lab, the checks seemed like millions.
Eventually, Maria Elena’s sales would be millions–many millions. In the next five years, her sales grew to an astounding $15 million. In 1987, Inc. magazine ranked her company, International Micro Systems, number 55 on its list of the 500 fastest-growing businesses. In 1988, Maria Elena sold the company and stayed on for another three years until sales reached $70 million.
Maria Elena has since started a new company selling computers to Africa. Once again, the marketing experts told her Africa was too poor for personal computer products, especially if they were sold by a non-African female in a male-dominated culture. By now accustomed to negative responses, Maria Elena felt the experts were shortsighted. She believed in her own vision of the future. In 1991, she flew to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, armed only with a catalog of products and a map. She checked into a hotel and picked up the Yellow Pages. Two weeks later, she flew home with $150,000 in orders.
Working first out of her garage, then out of a small warehouse, she began shipping products. More orders came in. In four months, she shipped $700,000 worth of computers. In her second year sales totaled $2.4 million, a figure that doubled the following year, and again the next. With sales averaging $13 million each year through the early 1990s, International High Tech Marketing made Inc.’s list of the 500 fastest-growing businesses. Maria Elena is the only person in the magazine’s history to make the prestigious list with two separate companies built from zero capital.
EMPOWERING WOMEN ONE WORKSHOP AT A TIME
GLORIA MAYFIELD BANKS
I was thrilled to speak about 5 Points that really can make a difference in one business when it is small and growing and when it is big and growth is still a priority.
important no matter what you do. The more people are pleased to be in your space and feel better when they are with you the more effective you will be. People want to be Celebrated not Tolerated – how can you make them fill better. Some small things can make all the difference. Smile with energy and show your teeth – not pressing your lips together, stand up straight with your shoulders back, make sure you speak loud enough so your voice is heard, direct eye contact and a firm/meaningful hand shake gives people a lasting impression of your confidence.
1. Become a People Magnet:
Be on purpose with drawing people to you. Building strong people skills is important no matter what you do. The more people are pleased to be in your space and feel better when they are with you the more effective you will be. People want to be Celebrated not Tolerated – how can you make them fill better. Some small things can make all the difference. Smile with energy and show your teeth – not pressing your lips together, stand up straight with your shoulders back, make sure you speak loud enough so your voice is heard, direct eye contact and a firm/meaningful hand shake gives people a lasting impression of your confidence.
Create a place for people to win. Being in the profession of sales and being a motivational speaker, I am clear that people love to create under the momentum of accomplishing a goal and making a positive difference. People love to love what they are doing and winning in the game of life drives passion, increases creativity and creates the power and determination necessary to excel. Become an expert at finding peoples needs and filling them when you can.
important no matter what you do. The more people are pleased to be in your space and feel better when they are with you the more effective you will be. People want to be Celebrated not Tolerated – how can you make them fill better. Some small things can make all the difference. Smile with energy and show your teeth – not pressing your lips together, stand up straight with your shoulders back, make sure you speak loud enough so your voice is heard, direct eye contact and a firm/meaningful hand shake gives people a lasting impression of your confidence.
2. Short Term Clear Strategic Goals backed by Big Thinking: Everything starts with a dream. This is the place where your personal juices start to flow towards creating some new and difference. But dreams alone will not produce results; hard work alone will not produce the correct results. Yet specific short-term BIG yet achievable goals assist a person in gaining momentum towards his dream and builds confidence. Understanding that a good year is made from good months, good months come from good weeks and good weeks come from great days. Write down your plan, make it very clear and always make a daily to do list. Planning makes the plan clear, understandable and it takes a big goal and turns it into doable steps.
Clear goals create passion; passion drives the creativity that pushes you to a place you have never been before. To get the fruit you must go out on the limb – everyone who has achieved success has these experiences to reflect and build upon.
3. Create a Powerful Circle of Influence: You always become like the people you hang around. Show me your friends and I will show you your future. One must be on purpose with deciding the people that will influence your thoughts, information, decisions and perceptions. You will have to tell some people (some friends) goodbye for now because they are not positive nor are they positive or encouraging about your wiliness to take risk. Negative responses and options can be very expensive. I believe it is important to take advice from people you are willing to exchange places with not just people who offer advice – mostly unsolicited advice. It is ok to be a copy cat as long as you copy the right cat. Surrounding yourself with excellent powerful help who love what they do creates a success platform of excellence – then others with excellent are drawn to be a part of your dream, actions and results. important no matter what you do. The more people are pleased to be in your space and feel better when they are with you the more effective you will be. People want to be Celebrated not Tolerated – how can you make them fill better. Some small things can make all the difference. Smile with energy and show your teeth – not pressing your lips together, stand up straight with your shoulders back, make sure you speak loud enough so your voice is heard, direct eye contact and a firm/meaningful hand shake gives people a lasting impression of your confidence.
4. Work the Numbers: Opportunities are endless but most don’t know it because they are not asking, they are not offering. Fear, rejection, assuming decisions for other people stop many people in their tracks from just asking. Many people need to focus on the activity of offering. Focus on the number of people they are asking not just the answers. To get more yeses you have to ask more people and therefore get more no’s. No’s cannot be taken personally, the customer does not know you well enough to make a judgment about you. They are saying yes or no to what you are offering. Once you are clear that you have something that will make a positive impact on others be willing to asking enough people, make enough presentations, deliver enough explanations so that you are in front of enough decision makers that yes’ will come in volumes.
5. Study Hard to Become Skill-Based: My education at Harvard University’s School of Business showed me the value of preparation and detailed understanding whenever possible. Studying brings competence, competence builds confidence, and confidence produces BIG results. Being skilled and knowledgeable turns a professional into a problem-solver and leader; which in turn increases their effectiveness and quickens the pace of moving towards the goal. Change is important in business, the awareness that comes from studying and the determination to win makes change easier no matter how big the mountain you are choosing to climb. Put the time in book study, internet study, people study – Class is never out for the pro.
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Six Billion Not Served – Catering To Your Target Audience
By Mike Michalowicz - Founder, Obsidian Launch
The world population is now over 6.6 billion and growing at nearly 2.5 new people every second. That’s a lot of individuals with a lot of needs. All these people are starved for
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products and services – business opportunities abound! But, in almost every case, companies are serving up products and experiences that come up short. That’s an opportunity for you, but only if you tackle it from a different vantage point.
The traditional entrepreneurial approach is a statistical review of the numbers. Business plan after business plan is prepared with sliced up demographics and “pessimistic” considerations. Divvying up prospects in this method alone completely neglects the most critical details. It ignores that a 42 year old, married, white female may have different values and different expectations than the next 42 year old, married, white female.
Let’s say that you want to have the leading Italian restaurant in your neighborhood and you’d like to focus on young families. The traditional analysis may yield 75,000 prospective consumers within a 30 mile radius of where you are breaking ground. It is pessimistically realistic that 8% of these prospects will come to your restaurant three times a year and spend $85 per visit. A quick Excel calculation later and you have a business doing over $1.5M a year. Not too shabby.
With the stats on your side, you open your doors for business, balloons in hand, waiting for the families. The initial turnout is overwhelmingly average. Over time, the anticipated returning customers are non-existent. Say good-bye to your million-dollar plus business. There goes another restaurant.
Now, let’s analyze this opportunity from the vantage point of the consumers’ values and expectations. An informal interview of prospects (as they walked out of the competing restaurants) identifies some of their loves and hates. They love the convenience of the local chain competitor, but hate the watered down experience and atmosphere. A quick trip to Italy shows that a traditional family restaurant is hard to decipher from someone’s kitchen party. The value and expectations analysis yields the need to make it like an Italian home – a little bit loud, a little fresher and always with wine flowing.
Now with the stats in hand and values/expectations analysis complete, the doors open. The initial turnout is overwhelmingly average, like before. But, over time the returning customers grow and grow. You are serving the values and expectations your customers have been starving for.
This is more than an example, by the way. This is how the super successful Italian restaurant Romano’s Macaroni Grill did it. By listening to the values and expectations of the customers they delivered a restaurant experience that no one else did. Large, fresh flowers were all over the restaurant and the cooking area was open for everyone to see, just like a family kitchen. Open jugs of wine sat on every table and were served by the customers themselves, on the honor system, just like home. Roaming singers belted out traditional Italian songs, just like the good old days in Italy. These tweaks far outperformed the traditional numbers expectations and caught the demographic where it needed to be caught, right in the heart.
You can employ this exact strategy in your business. Once you identify the target consumers you are going to service, you have the obligation to learn about their values and expectations. What are your customers starving for? What do they hate about the competition and the entire industry in general? What expectations and values do they have that are not being met? With the answers to these questions you have the opportunity to offer them a level of experience they never had before. By servicing these needs you differentiate yourself dramatically from the competition and set yourself up to become the next multi-million… or multi-billion dollar business.
Bottom line: Analysis by the numbers alone just doesn’t work. You must know what your customers’ values and expectations are at the most core level. When you set up shop, ensure that you are servicing the heck out of those values and expectations. Or at least I believe that was what Philip Ramona said. It was hard to hear him over the roar of his private jet.
For more about how Mike and Obsidian Launch helps grow small businesses, visit their website!
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