May 18, 2010 - Los Angeles, CA – The Making It! Institute for the Advancement of Business in partnership with the Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) Network held the first Superstars of Small Business event on Tuesday, May 18 on the Long Beach City College Campus. The program was an intensive one-day learning format that brought together five entrepreneurs who built their businesses to gross $10M annually or more, with an audience of 75 eager small business owners and young entrepreneurs on scholarship. The event was purposely sized for intimacy to offer attendees the opportunity to ask questions and to maximize the peer to peer learning benefits.

Our presenting Superstar entrepreneurs were Karen Caplan, President of Frieda’s Inc, Janice Bryant Howroyd, President of The Act 1 Group, Frank Moran, President of Team One Staffing, and Helen and Marty Shih, founders of the Asian American Business Association. Combined, their businesses gross over $1.5 billion dollars per year! Each Superstar shared insightful wisdom with our audience. Interspersed amongst these Superstar speakers were three instructors educating on the various topics pertinent to small business. John “Dr. Revenue” Haskell, a business consultant, welcomed the audience into the “Sales Emergency Room.” Kimberly Gros, an SBDC instructor and social media expert, explained how Facebook and Twitter can level the playing field and allow for small businesses to compete with much larger companies, and Ed Von Leffern, a Long Beach City College SBDC Business Adviser, gave them essential information for getting an SBA loan.

For complete information on the event read our press release here.