By Irfan Shariff
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Small business owners, including those from diverse industries like entertainment and beyond, gathered at Chase Bank’s Insights Tour on Sept. 5. The event facilitated connections among like-minded entrepreneurs and offered a platform to delve into the latest in cutting-edge marketing strategies, aimed at driving business growth and innovation.
Naomi Morgan
Naomi Morgan is proprietor of Naomi Morgan Entertainment (NM Entertainment), a Chase for Business customer and mentee, and she was excited to meet like-minded people.
“If you’re not an entrepreneur, then you don’t understand the victory of that one sale.”
“I built this business on my back,” says Morgan, whose company is a “premium provider of musical entertainment for senior activities in Washington state.” She hasn’t seen anyone else do what she is doing.
NM Entertainment offers three services to senior centers—professional entertainment, musical fitness classes, and board-certified musical therapy.
“My performers are professionals and Broadway veterans,” said Morgan. “This is often their full-time jobs when they’re not performing on stage.”
Morgan is self-taught and credits books like “Business for Dummies” and “Accounting for Dummies” to have helped her through her initial days.
“I’ve been able to sustain my business since 2015,” said Morgan, whose previous experience has been in the performing arts, as a musical theater actor and singer, a concert singer, and a Las Vegas stripper.
The business was able to grow because Morgan made the sacrifice to stop performing and focus on entrepreneurship. As she was ready to expand, Morgan was approached by a friend to join the Greater Seattle Business Association and from there was referred to Chase’s Coaching for Impact program where she met her mentor, Shelia Winston.
Winston, a vice president and senior business consultant at Chase, believes the mentorship program helps “entrepreneurs grow in scale and focuses on four key components: marketing, cash flow, business development, and capital development.”
The program helps entrepreneurs in historically underprivileged neighborhoods manage and grow their business.
“I haven’t paid anything,” said Morgan, “from my perspective, it’s been wonderful.”
Morgan’s grandparents come from Ozamiz in the Philippines. Her grandfather was recruited by the U.S. Army, which led to the family relocating to Germany and eventually settling in Hawaii. Morgan has family in both Hawaii and the Philippines.
As a child, her “youngest experience was the Rock ‘N’ Roll world.” Her father was in a one-hit wonder band that toured up and down the West Coast.
“People wanted me to be quiet,” Morgan recalled. “They expected me to be dainty…like a trophy wife.”
“I’m 5’1”, about 100 pounds, and aged decently,” she said. “I spend a lot of time helping people understand that I run the business. That’s a challenge and people are going to get there, but it’ll take some people a longer time.”
If Morgan were to give any advice to budding Asian American entrepreneurs, it would be this: “Expect people not to care about your business until they have to. Stay strong because you’ll have things happen.”
Seattle was just one of 10 cities on the Insights Tour, which aims to serve the local community by empowering local business people in a happy hour style event. The tour features a keynote by marketing expert Rohit Bhargava on unique subtleties of marketing and one-on-one consulting from his team.
Rohit Bhargava was the keynote speaker
“I loved getting free information for my business,” said Morgan. “The speaker had a fresh approach to marketing…marketing is the most fickle part of business.”
Pratesh Shah, one of consultants or “speed coaches” from the event, believes that Chase is doing a service to the community.
“They are lifting their community with conscious leadership and a sense of service,” he said.
According to Gretchen Lin, market manager for Washington at Chase and host of the Seattle event, there are over 90,000 small businesses in the area. Chase operates nine community branches in the area. These community branches are hyperlocal-focused, and host business pop-ups, mentorship opportunities, and financial workshops.
“I’m looking at a boring year of business,” said Morgan. For her, boring means expanding her business into other markets and operating at a higher level.