Are you a fan of the TV show The Apprentice? Bill Rancic, the first apprentice to win his place next to “The Donald,” Donald Trump, led the lineup of keynote speakers at the COSE 2010 Small Business Conference.
“My mother said I was born an entrepreneur,” Rancic reported with a smile. “When I was 10 years old and shipped to my grandmother’s on weekends, I asked her to teach me to cook. After learning how to make pancakes, we had her friends over for a breakfast. When they each left me a $5 tip by their plates, I was hooked on the pancake business.”
After graduating college and becoming restless at his first job, he searched for the right opportunity to seize. Exploring several ideas, Rancic started his company, a cigar of the month club called Cigars Around the World. He told his audience of small business owners and entrepreneurs how he parlayed his cigar company into a multi-million dollar success.
The COSE Small Business Conference had one special quality that stood out – it was energizing and affirming for the small business community to just get together and compare notes. It was all about meeting new people and learning new business approaches. Over 80 experts in the field gave educational presentations covering a wide range of subjects — reducing healthcare costs, effective HR practices, analytic software, video production, energy use, advertising, IRS tax updates, market research, social media, sales strategies, and effective lead generation and follow up. Financial planners, landscape architects, graphic designers, home contractors, IT consultants, marketing communications managers, sales reps, cleaning companies, pre-paid legal services, alternative health practitioners, and accounting business people were among the hundreds of attendees.
The last speaker of the Conference was Warren Brown, a Cleveland native now living in the Washington D.C. area. He left his successful career as a practicing attorney to bake cakes and start his company, CakeLove. He told an inspiring story how he overcame doubts, laughter, and raised eyebrows to become more personally-aligned with the person he is. Describing what it’s like to be an entrepreneur, Brown said, “It’s as close to the American dream as you can get because you are independent — not relying on others to make decisions about your job and your future. I make the decisions for my company (now seven retail locations) and I try to work with the people in my company along the way,” he added.
Do not miss next year’s COSE Small Business Conference. For more information, please visit http://www.COSESmallBusinessConference.com.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Susan Schaul, who says the act of writing is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. The challenge lies in getting the pieces to fit together and make sense.