The Small Business Expo is coming back to Las Vegas on September 21st.
It will be held at the Plaza Hotel and Casino at 1 North Main Street, Las Vegas NV 89101. This is America’s largest business-to-business trade show, conference and networking event for small business owners, start-ups and entrepreneurs.
At this event, industry experts will be on hand including Young Han, a serial entrepreneur, business coach, investor, and soon-to-be-published author. He’s also a married father of two who hosts a podcast called “The Girl Dad Show” about balancing parenthood and entrepreneurship. Han’s motto is network equals net worth and he said the Small Business Expo is one of the best opportunities for small business owners to learn, grow and build important new business relationships.
1. You recently hosted a webinar for Small Business University (an educational arm of Small Business Expo) called “Unlocking the Power of Networking”. You talked about how you transform from being an awkward band nerd to a relationship-building extraordinaire. What is the secret we can all learn from this story?
YOUNG: “Practice, practice, practice! Just like most skills – networking is a learnable skill that you can practice and get better at. The world works on relationships and nothing levels you up faster than having the right network and leveraging that network to grow your company. Very rarely is anything extraordinary built alone and learning this skill is super important! Be vulnerable and be specific about what you need help with and learn the valuable skill of asking great questions so that you can relate and offer value. Building meaningful and deep relationships is the key to networking effectively”.
2. What advice can you give first-time business owners who are trying to juggle everything from running a business and building a community? How do you balance everything and still maintain sanity?
YOUNG: “I’m a strong believer in your business working for you and not you for the business. My entire coaching process is based in ruthless prioritization, accountability, and time boxing. If you can figure out how much time you’re willing to allocate to your business and priorities you will more easily figure out what quality of work you can achieve in preset hours. Think of your hours like cash and budget it accordingly for your business and life”.
3. Southern Nevada is one of the fastest-growing cities for small businesses. Many of our local entrepreneurs are finding a way to stand out from the crowd. What advice would you give them as a business coach?
YOUNG: “Take the time to do the deep work and figure out what you want out of your business personally. How does your business support you and your lifestyle? Starting from the end goal of what this business does for you is key. Then working backwards on your business with the personal goals in mind will help you make the various decisions that you will cross. Once you have your personal goals established. Really niche down as much as you can so it’s easy to target your ideal customer profile and it’s easy for everyone you talk to remember what you do and who you serve”.
4. As part of your venture, you run The Owners Club, a virtual community membership network for growth-minded business owners to build community, share resources and grow friendships. Why is having a strong community so important for both new and veteran business owners?
YOUNG: “The inside of building a business is incredibly lonely and can be stressful as well as confusing. Often building your small business with limited resources is being really good at making the decision on the lesser of two bad options. This process is easier to navigate with others who are traveling in the same journey and that morale boost is sometimes all you need to push through the risk and build of your business. And of course being able to ask other owners questions will help all of us crowdsource all of our learnings so we can all grow together”.
5. For people attending the Small Business Expo for the first time, what are the top 5 things they can do to prepare to make the most of this event?
YOUNG:
1. Clearly define your needs and asks. People inherently want to help people. If you can design something that is simple but meaningful to help you with it will build rapport very quickly and it will help you on your business journey!
2. Ask open-ended questions and listen well. You want to be able to provide value and having conversations that can go 1 or 2 levels deeper will help you figure out how to provide someone value that will build a strong foundation for your relationship.
3. Have business cards or an easy way to be connected afterwards.
4. Plan your day and find the workshops and vendors that you want to connect with. You must define what you want to attend and learn so that you achieve success for yourself at conferences and fill in networking and everything else around the critical things you want to attend and learn.
5. Bring something to take notes. Whether it’s for building relationships or lessons on running your business give yourself a few breaks in between sessions and networking to document information, lessons, tactics, and important action items.
For more information on the Small Business Expo and how to register, go to https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com
For more information on Young Han, go to www.owners.club
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