How Serial Entrepreneur Kim Loan Duong Launched Three Businesses By Age 32

How Serial Entrepreneur Kim Loan Duong Launched Three Businesses By Age 32 This small business advice post originally seems in my Work In Progress weblog for Forbes.com: Kim Loan Duong is 32, and onto her third enterprise. She is co-owner of Empire Society, which she co-based in 1999 and organizes events worldwide. She then branched out into Prestigious Models in 2002, North America’s premiere Asian and Pan-Asian modeling company. In 2012, she launched a 3rd time with Image Powerhouse, an entertainment production studio specializing in style, beauty and way of life, as well as new divisions for Prestigious Models in Fashion, Print, Commercial, TV and Film. I met Duong at an occasion hosted at Image Powerhouse and liked her story for a way she broke via a few of the myths that hold back other aspiring entrepreneurs: Myth #1: You have to have all of it found out before you start A 12 months after launching Empire Society, Duong started noticing a sample of shopper requests for Spokesmodels (or Brand Ambassadors). Prestigious Models was born to capture the unmet demand for Asian models. Yes, it helps to have a plan upfront, nevertheless it additionally pays to be opportunistic and respond to a necessity you may not have considered before. Myth #2: You need to broaden rapidly Duong was running Empire Society for 3 years before including Prestigious Models. It took another ten years earlier than Duong tacked on her third business. Although, Duong all the time had an interest in trend and client-dealing with brands, the main industries for Empire Society and Prestigious Models have been Poker, Gaming and Automotive industries. She didn’t launch Image Powerhouse till these two companies had been self-sustaining and Duong could make her move to New York. You don’t should maintain including new offerings, typically not even for years. (In these days of fast-start on-line companies, with $MM valuations seemingly overnight, I found this measured progress notably refreshing!) Myth #three: Entrepreneurship is extra appropriate for sure forms of folks Maybe you assume an entrepreneur has to be significantly creative, or a threat-taker, or from a certain background. Duong battled with the third limiting perception: she is Vietnamese/ Chinese and had robust cultural pressures to get a conventional job. “In the Asian culture, we’re raised to get an excellent training and become docs, lawyers and bankers,” Duong explained. Duong even got her actual property license whereas constructing Prestigious Models to satisfy her parents’ needs for a extra conventional career. Yet, she couldn’t stability two jobs and eventually had an emotional assembly along with her parents and siblings to ask for assist. It wasn’t an in a single day decision, however the family is now so supportive they even help out with her current initiatives. You don’t need to be a certain type of person to be an entrepreneur. (As an Asian-American myself, I can relate firsthand to the strong cultural expectations that favor conventional employment over entr epreneurship, so this part of Duong’s story is so rewarding to share especially throughout Asian-Pacific American Awareness Month.) Kim Loan Duong exemplifies in some methods the short-start, young entrepreneur â€" operating three companies by her early 30’s. But her journey also bucks a number of the conventionally-held wisdom about entrepreneurship, and on this means, makes enterprise success extra accessible to the everyday girl. You don’t should have the lightning-bolt concept. You don’t need to grow quickly. Entrepreneurship is an obtainable choice to everyone. Create opportunities, make issues occur and see your imaginative and prescient turn right into a reality. Don’t be afraid to get out of your consolation zone. Get a mentor or coach, somebody to carry you accountable. Surround yourself with folks that imagine in you and need to see you turn into successful. â€" Kim Loan Duong Our FREE job search mini-course is out there now! Register HERE to get the course deliv ered proper to your inbox.