I am a professional business speaker and my audiences are usually composed of small business owners, Internet business entrepreneurs and marketing professionals.
Last week I got to be a University Speaker again and it is truly a nice change. In some ways, the advice you give to inexperienced (and some experienced) student entrepreneurs is a nice barometer to measure your progress.
It was a round table session at the Kent State University Entrepreneur’s Extravaganza and I found myself talking with small groups on simple things like: What is a CRM? Why you do not want to hire employees and get office space until after you have proven there is a market for the product or service. Also, why it is unlikely to raise much money early on so it is better to build a business assuming you will have to self fund it.
A lot of the advice I gave was drastically different from what I would have said a few years back. It was not that long ago I would have thought the credibility of a full time staff, office space, your own servers and your own phone system were an important part of having a business. Now I would say that unless you really need it, those things are only for after you experience rapid growth – not before.
New entrepreneurs spend too much time thinking about having a business in the traditional sense, when they should be thinking about having a product or service with a nice profit margin from day one.
Hiring speakers for business conferences can be tricky and costs can be all over the place.
When I planned my first business conference, I was lucky to know the speakers that I wanted to invite.
If you have good relations with a past business speaker you have worked with, you may consider asking them if they know people that would make good speakers on other topics.
Of course, speaking fees for speakers at a business conference are going to be all over the board. Some people will be willing to speak for free, but they will be looking for sales of a book, program, coaching or consulting usually.
On the otherhand, a professional business speaker will usually require a fee. Usually travel and accomodations as well.
As a professional business speaker it is always appreciated if the staff is clear on everything up front, including fees, payment, time to arrive, etc. I know that I bend over backwards to help people that hire me as a speaker, including helping in any way I can with the promotion and by staying out of the way if that is the best way to help.
If you are an event planner for Business Conferences don’t overlook the fact that a paid, professional business speaker may be willing to help out and even do some advanced promoting if you are clear and make it easy for him or her.
Ron McDaniel is a Professional Business Speaker that teaches sales people and business owners how to build simple but powerful lead generation engines that will make them much more money with much less effort.
Ron is also available as a Professional Keynote Speaker.
When Ron is hired as a Professional Business Speaker he will often help the audience understand how simple tools are now more important than knowing complex programming and advanced technologies. A lead engine can be built for free and sometimes produce sales leads within hours of launching the project.
