A student organization convened for a workshop hosted by marketing experts on Tuesday.
AACC’s entrepreneur’s club met in the hatchery for a hybrid marketing workshop focused on fostering new connections, held by the club’s adviser and deptartment chair for entrepreneurial studies and marketing Stephanie Goldenberg.
“Narrowing the focus is very important, it allows you to put an efficient use of your time and resources to doing that,” Goldenberg explained during the workshop. “If [your target audience] doesn’t know about you, or aren’t aware of you. They can’t do business with you.”
Goldenberg brought numerous colleagues and Service Core for Retired Executives mentors to the meeting, in hopes of kindling new relationships among aspiring and current business owners. SCORE offers free one-on-one mentoring for student business owners.
The mentorship offers insight to the whole lifecycle of a business. Eamonn McGeady, a SCORE mentor said, “If I had known about SCORE earlier in my life. I would’ve used it.”
Goldenberg posed a couple of questions to attendees to consider what is the ‘why’ for their business, and ‘Who does their product align with?’ In hopes to help them form a more concrete vision for their businesses.
“The more you understand [your target audience] the easier it is for you to be able to talk to them and address their concerns.” Goldenberg said.
Steve Vo, a second-year film student, said the comment made them “think.”
“In order to think outside of the box, you gotta work with what’s inside the box.” Vo, said. “Specialize that and then work your way out. The product you sell, is the story you tell.”
Goldenberg also advised that student entrepreneurs also pay close attention to what channels they use to get their message out. Some use e-mails and SMS, but social media has been proven to boost engagement for student businesses.
“I tested it out a little bit when I first started posting,” Judi Peveto, a second-year ASL student, said. “I found that I had consistently the most engagement posting at 2 p.m. every day.”
Peveto has gained a significant amount of followers since she began posting to Instagram. One reel she posted recently about her crocheting habits received about 10,000 views.
Goldenberg closed out the meeting by highlighting the app LinkedIn, and advised all attendees to download it. Once you download the app you have a convenient and scannable business card that can connect you with other business owners.
