On The Entrepreneur Scene: The Verizon Business Forum with Rodney Sampson

17 Nov On The Entrepreneur Scene: The Verizon Business Forum with Rodney Sampson

Posted at 07:00h in Be Inspired, Career by Charell Star 0 Comments

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Growing a business is a huge undertaking and came sometimes leave you feeling overwhelmed. Every decision that you make rest solely at your feet and it can be hard to find reputable and affordable resources that can help you make the best decision to support your company’s growth. That’s why I was excited to work on the Verizon Business Forum that took place in Atlanta, GA. The ½ day seminar offered entrepreneurs an opportunity to connect with business leaders and experts to obtain the key information they need to take their business to the next level. Here are the day’s highlights and best expert tips:

The day started with a mix and mingle breakfast for attendees to engage and build new connections. DJ Empress Rah was the guest DJ for the event and she keep the sessions jumping with upbeat tunes.

Rodney Sampson, Founder of the Opportunity Hub, kicked off and moderated the event. He opened the day by sharing his top business tips for breaking apart from the competition. The audience took notes feverously as he shared step by step ways for entrepreneurs and small businesses to increase their customer awareness, strengthen their brand and increase their market share. It was great information delivered in very actionable steps. When he was done, hands went flying up for follow up questions. The room was hooked and clearly appreciative that Sampson would share such helpful business incites.

Best Business Takeaway: You need to invest in your own business if you want to be taken seriously. No one will be willing to put skin in the game if you haven’t.

Next up, Sampson introduced Dorinda Walker from Prudential Financial to the stage. Prudential was one of the program’s sponsor-partners and Walker did a short talk on making sure our businesses were protected. She outlined the awesome ways her company is a partner and resource for entrepreneurs and small business owners and highlighted some of Prudential’s key community programs. It was an informative informational and didn’t feel like a sales pitch, which was refreshing. It left us all thinking honestly about how we look at our assets and resources.

Best Business Takeaway: Your company is an asset that you’ve invested your time, money and dreams in. If you won’t protect it who will?

Back up to the stage was Sampson. He moderated a panel with three impressive Atlanta business owners: Sonia Booker, author and real estate expert, Mary Parker, founder of ALL(n)1 Security Services Inc, and Sheri Riley founder of GLUE Inc. These ladies brought their unique business perspectives to the conversation and shared their advice and recommendations for creating lasting success.

Best Business Takeaway: Be careful not to pigeonhole your company by only focusing on minority certifications or contracts. There are times when there is actually more competition for the women-owned or Black owned portion of a contract than the contract overall. Focus on being the best service provider/product and go for the largest business opportunity.

Following the panel, we had our first break of the day, but no one wanted to leave the session. Attendees flocked to the panelists and moderator for follow up questions and one-on-one business advice. Each panelist answered questions, exchanged contact information with attendees and provided recommendations on where more information could be found. It was clear that room found value in the information that was being shared.

After the non-break break; Sampson introduced the Verizon team to the stage for a presentation on leveraging digital trends to accelerate business growth. The dapper trio shared money saving tech strategies with the room and outlined ways new technologies can put small businesses on the same playing field as some of the biggest competitors. It was really informative and attendees in the room were able to test out some of the technology as Verizon had set up tablets at each seat in the room.

Best Business Takeaway: As your business grows and you add more people on your team; it can be easy to get disconnected from your business foundation. Staying abreast of new tech and digital trends can help you protect your bottom line and simplify your business flow.

Next up was lunch, which included a great selection of meal options and sweet treats. They really wanted to keep our energy up for the afternoon sessions. There was also plenty of networking going on between attendees and the event speakers over the break. It was great to see business owners break bread together and plot out ways to help one another.

After lunch Verizon raffled off some amazing tech swag. Three lucky attendees won either Nokia Lumia Tablets or Galaxy Note phones. The winners were too cute and excitedly posed for photos with the Verizon team.

Sampson introduced our final speaker for the day, Troy Brown – a digital strategist, author and founder of One 50 One. Before breaking into his presentation, Brown took an informal survey of the room to evaluate the group’s level of social media knowledge. After assessing the room, he tailored his talk to focus on their specific business needs. We watched as he crafted an entire social media strategy for one self-proclaimed “non-social” business owner. It was fantastic and everyone in the room walked away with social media tips they could immediately incorporate into their marketing and sales strategy.

Best Business Takeaway: A good social media campaign doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You can create a strong level of awareness and engagement by targeting the channels your audience frequents and connect with them in an authentic way.

Sampson returned to the stage to thank everyone for coming. Everyone had a really informative time and left feeling motivated to put into practice all the information they learned. The Forum was an amazing experience and provided attendees an unmatched level of access to experts and resources. Hopefully, these tips will help you as you work to establish and grow your business.