Over at the Another Sam Chan blog, there’s a great interview with Sunshine co-founder Cheni Yerushalmi , where he talks passion, drive, entrepreneurship and sports. It’s a really strikingly candid interview where Cheni offers words of wisdom for young, fresh-out-of-college men and women:
“I think that you have to have that ‘itch’ that you can never finish scratching. I think you have to notice opportunity and you have to be hungry because people’s biggest fear is change. That everybody’s not set out to be an entrepreneur? I agree with that. If you’re too content with your life, and you don’t have anything to reach for or you’re afraid (for better or worse) of change? Then you’re probably not meant to be an entrepreneur. The people around here, and there’s thousands of them. They all have one thing in common. They’re all hungry. You could see it in their eyes. Between all these entrepreneurs, I think you can tell very quickly on a person that they are constantly looking for opportunities.”
Over at SmallBiz Central, there’s a brief, interesting look at the way the entrepreneurial spirit has impacted the way that way we experience the traditions of Thanksgiving:
Did you know small businesses play a major role in making our Thanksgiving dinner a reality? Well, think about the star of the Thanksgiving feast — the turkey. There are 319 firms involved in poultry processing, with 265 (83%) employing fewer than 500 and 150 companies (47%) with less than 20 employees…
The great video blogger J.L. Zoeckler, who makes it his passion to “turn the ordinary into extraordinary”, just posted an interview he did with Sunshine managing partner and “serial entrepreneur” Cheni.
Last week my business partner and I were invited to an event by Sunflower Children, an organization that helps disadvantaged children around the world-one of the charitable organizations that we donate free office space to.
The event was a release party for a book written by two (married) Pulitzer-prize winning journalists titled Half the Sky. The title of the book was based on a Chinese expression – “Women hold up half the sky.”
While some celebrities (Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Marissa Tomei) were there, I was more moved by the journalists who had written this book about empowering women. I was amazed to hear a story Nicholas Kristof briefly spoke about – one that is written about in much more detail in the book.
He told of a Cambodian woman – a farmer whose family was very poor. Since her parents needed money, she found a job as a waitress in a restaurant in Thailand. She embarked on the long journey to Thailand with a friend. When she got to the “restaurant” she was escorted by men deep into the jungle and then repeatedly raped and beaten. She was then eventually sold to a brothel in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia where she was drugged, repeatedly beaten, and eventually forced to become a prostitute with about a dozen other girls who had been exposed to similar circumstances. She was beaten if she asked the customer to wear a condom, and kept naked at all times to prevent her and the other girls from stealing and from running away, and bussed from their small room to the brothel with security guards daily. She eventually escaped with three of the other girls. When she went to the police, she was raped and beaten for illegal entry to Malaysia, and then escorted to the border of Thailand.
Eventually she made her way back home to Cambodia, where she secured a loan for $400. With that money she purchased a small kiosk on the Thailand Cambodia border. Eventually, she expanded to a store, then took over the store next to hers, creating a mini-empire. She employs many other women, sends money back to her family weekly, and is now happily married with children.
I was astounded at the pain this woman went through, and at her amazing recovery. I don’t think I could do anything like that, and am thankful that I will never have to find out (knock on wood). One of the best organizations I’ve been a part of for the past three years is Kiva. Kiva sets up micro-lending for small businesses – 85% of them women-owned.
The great thing about this charity is that once you put money in, you actually get it back in only a few months!!! I’ve contributed around $800 over three years, and helped fund around 50 small business loans to people who really need the help. Recently Sunshine Suites formed a lending team at Kiva, which can be found at http://www.kiva.org/team/sunshinesuites. If you’d like to get involved, I really encourage you to sign up and make a few loans – you can make one for as little as $25. The great thing is, if you need the money, you can get it back in a few months. If you’re like me, you can also use it as a savings account that constantly does good for others. I love getting paid back on my loans, simply because it allows me to then lend to another group. To date, after 3 years and around 50 loans, I’ve never lost a penny, and its made me feel great and grateful to read about the ambitions of these people I’ve never met, and the businesses they aspire to start or to grow.
One of our very own Shiners, Guilherme Cuna of The Blend NYC, joined in the trip to Sunshine’s Vermont cabin recently, and wrote an awesome blog about the trip, Sunshine Suites managing partner and trip host Cheni, and the correlation between mountain biking and entrepreneurship.
In the entrepreneurial world it’s important to have a business that is in the right market. The right “vehicle” and industry you choose should have at LEAST a 5 year outlook, if not 10. Longevity is an element of success because products and services change. To be truly successful, it becomes imperative, to pick an industry where the wind is blowing in your direction and where you can take advantage of the natural industry momentum.
This post is definitely worth your time reading in full, and you can do so here. Also, be sure to RSVP now for The Blend NYC’s next event, Oct 19!
Great AM New York article went out a bit ago that nicely emphasized the intangible networking aspects of Sunshine NY:
One of the big draws for Robert Leocadi, president of Resolution Expediting, when joining the suites was the connection to other entrepreneurs.
He was feeling isolated working out of his Upper East Side apartment.
“My networking was limited to people I met in the industry or went to school with. Networking was a chore and task,” he said. “When I came here it was instant networking. My business increased by 25 percent.”
The Small Business Advocate, Jim Blasingame, recently conducted an audio interview with Sunshine’s Cheni Yerushalmi on entrepreneurial success and the Sunshine business model as being more than just office space in New York.
Small Business Mistakes
by Sunshine Suites Managing Partner Joe Raby
At Sunshine Suites we’re in the business of small businesses. Over the past eight years we’ve had hundreds if not thousands of startup companies come through our doors. Having met so many first-time entrepreneurs, and as a small business owner myself, I’ve observed almost identical mistakes made by all of them. Falling into one or two of these traps doesn’t automatically mean your business is doomed, but make enough of them and your business might become a statistic.
Joe’s Top 5 Mistakes Small Business Owners Make
1.Not keeping accurate books.
Without this information, business owners can’t tell what their biggest expense is, how much money they made last month, if sales are growing, if their marketing is working, etc. It is absolutely crucial. If you can’t do the books yourself, hire a good bookkeeper to come in biweekly and make sure your books are up-to-date and that you know how to look at a basic financial statement.
2. Not marketing your business, or using the same marketing techniques over and over.
Marketing is the lifeline of a small business. Without marketing, your business will grow much slower than it has the potential to, if it survives at all. The key to marketing is to continually test several different ideas, then use the best results, and then continue testing. But while doing this is important, it is even more important to quantitatively look at the average value of a new sale, and to make sure your marketing is bringing in more business than it costs. For example, let’s say you run a hair salon. Through good surveys and record-keeping, you know that the average customer will stay for 18 months and gets a haircut every month and a half. You charge $100 per haircut, and give an average of twelve per customer, which means that your average customer is worth $1,200 (not including referrals, which we’ll consider a bonus). Therefore, you should make sure you’re never spending more than that (or even some percentage of that amount, like 25%) on a new customer.
3. Trying to do everything yourself.
This is a common mistake, and is not necessarily the worst thing in the world, at first. It’s great to get your feet wet in Quickbooks,to clean the bathrooms, to work with advertising companies, etc. There comes a point, though, as the business owner, where you can’t do everything effectively. If you are doing everything, you are not using your time well. Other people can do various tasks much more effectively than you – find those people and hire them. That leaves you time to do the jobs you are good at and what you enjoy.
4. Going at it alone.
A lot of people start businesses on their couch and their laptop, and end up spending a tremendous amount of time by themselves or with one or two business partners. While I’m all for saving money, particularly as a startup, generally if you surround yourself with other business owners and entrepreneurs you’ll get ideas and new business out of it that vastly offset any costs. For example, a lot of people will pay $500 to go to a conference for a weekend to network, while you can put yourself in an office environment like Sunshine’s for $275/month and network every single day, making very valuable relationships. There are a lot of free or really inexpensive options, such as meetup groups (meetup.com) or networking groups like BNI (bni.com) that are really inexpensive but can be tremendously helpful. The last thing you want is to be working from home all day, with barely a reason to put your pants on in the morning. Hook up with some connectors and let them show you the ropes. Entering into a small circle (like the one at the office) is guaranteed to beget larger ones so long as you make yourself available and keep an open mind.
5. Overextending yourself (with credit).
While credit is the lifeline of a small business or startup, its tempting to continue to grow using credit. While this may be an effective strategy at first, it really adds an exponential amount of risk to the success and survival of your company-one that you won’t notice until times get tough…and then it’s too late. As Warren Buffett once said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” Splurging on top-of-the-line equipment or an executive office with a view is really tempting when you’ve got money to burn, but just remember eventually you’ll have to pay that money back. You’ll want more to show for it than just some nice toys.
I am unable to wrap my head around the fact as to why any
entrepreneur in NYC would not be in this building
considering the price and networking opportunities.
Alex van Klaveran
Founder, LifeStageMedia Inc.
We will certainly never find a better price and I would be surprised if we will ever find the same service we get at sunshine.
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