Washington CASH Feature Story
Creative Marketing Workshop Rocks CASH
What
do you get when you combine 22 years of marketing and entrepreneurial
experience, 7.5 hours of one-on-one tutorials, and 17 eager and determined
business owners? You get a confluence of energy and ideas that coalesce
into one extremely useful Advanced Training Workshop.
After selling her personal training business and retiring from the Board of Silver Platters, entrepreneur Kim Wells was not handling the idle time of retirement well. She had heard of, and had been interested in, microcredit lending, but only knew of international programs. In her own words, she was "thrilled" to meet Board Member Charles Gust who suggested she use her marketing skills to teach a course for Washington CASH.
To develop her course outline, Kim went to the library to familiarize herself with the current curriculum used by local schools teaching marketing. The complexity of the information was overwhelming and often inapplicable to the marketing needs of small businesses. Breaking the information down, Kim developed an outline and presented her idea to Rigbe Fessahatsion, Washington CASH Volunteer Coordinator, who after seeing the outline" booked [her] right away"
The first day of class, Kim told attendees that they would not learn what a banker wants to see as a marketing plan, but that they would learn to make a profit. She explained, "I don't have a degree in marketing, I'm not an MBA, I just have 22 years of business experience."
While
teaching, Kim realized that every single business owner had a different
business and would need to apply the information in a unique way. Wanting
to be sure that each client had an opportunity to do so, Kim offered to
meet with those interested on an individual basis. Five took her up on
the offer.
During the one-on-one business consulting, Kim helped clients identify which aspect of their business had the best earning potential. Together, they then wrote a marketing plan specifically focused on that aspect with incremental goals and deadlines. "I would ask," Kim explains, "how much money do you need by October 15th? What does that mean for September sales?"
During the second half of the marketing course, Kim taught clients to "get out of your own way" by not being afraid to network or ask forsakes. "The worst thing that can happen is that prospective customer can tell you 'no'."
When
asked where she would like to go from here in terms of her involvement
with Washington CASH, Kim quickly responded that she wants to do more
classes and one-on-one consulting. "I've been in the position of
having no money . . .so my entire focus is to help clients turn their
time and talent into dollars NOW!"