A TV personality and national designer from Weatherby Lake, Missouri, was the keynote speaker Wednesday at a Small Business Summit hosted by the St. Joseph Chamber Commerce.
Jennifer Bertrand, who won season three of HGTV show Design Star and now hosts Paint Over!, shared her entrepreneurship experiences and funny stories with a room full of regional business owners inside the Fulkerson Center at Missouri Western State University.
“Everyone thinks like ‘No one can be that person that can go win a TV show,’” Bertrand said. “I tell everyone, that it takes the dreamer. Be the dreamer that everyone thinks you’re crazy, but you can be that one person.”
Bertrand took the audience through her personal journey of realizing that she can accomplish great things, and also encouraged entrepreneurs from all generations to use social media as a platform to promote work.
“If you don’t have an inner fire of why you wanted to create your business in the first place, then you need to find it,” she said. “Whatever it takes, pause, step back and regroup, and find it and do it again. I always have to do it, all the time.”
The business summit at Western also featured a resource fair with free one-on-one consultations with professionals, and break out sessions that covered a variety of topics like search engine optimization, financing and getting noticed by the media.
Greg Hatten, a St. Joe native and consumer products consultant, presented on brand building and said it’s tempting to rush right into the naming a product or service.
“You have to resist that,” Hatten said. “Because there is a lot of strategy work that has to be done before that to make sure you have all the components and the foundation so that the name represents not only what the product is but where you want that product and brand to go.”
At the conclusion of his talk, Hatten covered a list of 10 common pitfalls that tend to consistently sink brands.
“That is very helpful for somebody who doesn’t have a lot of resources and can’t afford to make a mistake,” he said. “Try to avoid these 10 things that I’ve seen people make mistakes, and have cost them a lot of money.”
Aaron Brennan, a young entrepreneur, got feedback during the summit on his Toss It Curbside furniture and junk removal service that has been running for four months, and he said the session was well worth his time.
“I think if you’re going to remain competitive, you have to get outside opinions,” Brennan said. “Get their knowledge and feed it into your business. It is an essential part of growth. It is worth your time. We have attorney’s here, marketing agents, and HR people. Coming here and asking them a few questions that you may have, it’s free, so why wouldn’t you do that?”
A very similar event to the summit called Cup of Joe happens every Wednesday morning at the downstairs conference room at East Hills Library from 8:30 to 10 a.m.