"Doing Business in the USA", A FRENCH student's blog - by Benjamin BERTHELON

       Welcome to my Blog!

       First of all this Blog is entirly written by me, Benjamin BERTHELON, a French student who study in business in the "windy city" of Chicago for a semester. Velerie BECK gives me the keys to succeed to write good, relevant and interesting things. I thank her for it.
       To begin, as the title indicate, through that Blog I will present you one thing which passion me : Business in USA and more particularly strating a business in the US.
       This Blog is building in three parts :

1)  The most important steps for starting a business in the US
2) How Valerie BECK strated her business and gained customers
3) How Mary Vallender strated her business and gained customers

Let's go, enjoy my experience!


1) The most important steps for starting a business in the US

       First, there are some steps to start a business. In my opinion some steps are more important than others. You have to follow this key steps if you want to success. ( even if all of that steps do not guarantee the success, because lots of others parameters have to be considered, like the market, competitors, human ressources...)

        According to me, in every business in every part of the world the most important thing you have to do is to find an idea.
Indeed, some businessman have dicided to jump into te venture after finding an innovative idea, or just because they wanted to run them own corporate. In any case, they all had an idea.
       Then, this step arrive in seconde position for me : a business plan. Your business plan shows the coherence of your project on a long term. It show your strategie, chose your target and ow you will sold them your product, what you want to do with a special schedule... It is a key step to start your business successfully. Then you can show it to investors and you will be able to convice them to invest on your project.
       So naturally, the next step the most importante for me is money. Why money? As our teacher, Valerie BECK told us, money is importante. Even if you don't always need a base of a million dollar you have to bring money.
       Finally, the last step which is the most important for me is to make your "advertising". Whitout it you can not have customers and whitout customers you can not have money and if you don't product money your business is in peril. By advertising I hear networking, social networks, all medias... You have to be creative, adapt your advertising to your product. I mean, you will not do the same advertising for a luxury product and for a low cost product.
       Then there are a lots of others steps ( like choose a business location, determine the legale structure of your businessetc...), however, according to me those I have announced are those you are foreced to remember.




2)How Valerie BECK strated her business and gained customers

here is a picture of Valerie BECK

First of all, Valerie BECK is my teacher of "Doing Business in the USA". Our bright teacher passed a Bachelor of Art from Harvard College and in more of that a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law school. Before she was a lawyer. Then in 2005 she started her own business : "Chicago Chocolate Tours" (You can appreciate below a screenshot of her website with the link of the website). As I told before, she had an idea and it was her first step. She found this idea when she was in Paris. At the beginning she had no customers. So she asked herself and found solutions. She succed to have more visibilities with a website and she used her networking. She send emails to all the lawyers that she knew. So those lawyers made advertising for her. It is like this that she succed to have customers. She insisted on the fact that we have to networking.

http://www.valeriebeckchocolateuplift.com/
( A screenshot of her website with the link of this one)

3) How Mary Vallender strated her business and gained customers

Mary Vallender

To begin, Mary Vallender made us a visit of a luxury apartment based on the Loop. It was at the 66th floor and the apartment was at 2 million dollars.

This is the apartment we visited

Before she worked as a brand manager for a marketing company. Now she work on her real estate agency. She explain us that at the beginning she had not money, no customers, not a strong network but she had a few knowledge, she had notions. So she told us that she built herself a network. In every occasion you can raise your network, like during parties, on the street... Then she make kinds of agreed with the persons of her network. Like a kind of partnership. She send customers to the persons of her network and conversely. She noticed us that now the most part of her network are friends. 

To conclude, this course taught me a lot of things that will make me grow up. I have strong tools for my future and it is just the beginning.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Benjamin Berthelon