US Bank Mentors Entrepreneurs from HSN American Dreams | Giraffe® Razor Extension Handle

US BANK MENTORS ENTREPRENEURS FROM HSN AMERICAN DREAMS

Giraffe Bath & Body® Pitch their Invention, “The Giraffe®” to HSN        

[googlefont font=”Georgia” size=”16px” margin=”10px 0 20px 0″]This is an article written by Shera Dalin, a member of the U.S. Bank’s corporate communications team. It was posted on March 22, 2017,  a week after our HSN debut.[/googlefont]

[googlefont font=”Georgia” size=”16px” margin=”10px 0 20px 0″]Looking back on this time in our lives I still get goosebumps…Thank you again, US Bank for this amazing opportunity. And special heartfelt thank you to our mentor,  Linda Escorcia Norquist,  for all of the wisdom and encouragement that helped James and I get through this experience (pitch day). Well, actually as you know, it really helped me! James is a natural in front of a camera, I’m more like a deer caught in headlights! -Kathryn[/googlefont]

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[googlefont font=”Georgia” size=”16px” margin=”10px 0 20px 0″]USbank mentor, Linda Norquist is pictured with Alejandro “Alex” Saucedo[/googlefont]

Just before Kat Wilkinson-Smith and her husband prepared to pitch their invention on Home Shopping Network, Wilkinson-Smith was overcome with nervousness and froze. “You’re going to be all right,” soothed Linda Escorcia Norquist, a U.S. Bank small business specialist from Phoenix. “You got this! Think of this like talking to a patient.”

To Wilkinson-Smith, a registered nurse in Dallas, that tidbit of advice made all the difference. She and husband, James Smith, made their pitch to the HSN judges in front of a phalanx of bright lights and cameras, while Escorcia Norquist looked on. Their Giraffe® Razor Extension Handle was a hit.

“In the corner of my eye I saw her and I made eye contact with her,” Wilkinson-Smith said. “I was on a roll and the look on her face…“Like a proud parent,” interjected her husband. “It was such a wonderful feeling. We feel very fortunate to have her,” Wilkinson-Smith said.

Linda Norquist is one of five U.S. Bank mentors to coach entrepreneurs who competed in Project American Dreams, the first Hispanic-focused business contest on national television. Out of nearly 100 entrepreneurs who applied to be featured on HSN, five were selected to showcase their products before 94 million viewers in March 2017.

To prepare for the first round of pitches to a panel of judges, the bank mentors counseled 17 entrepreneurs on a wide variety of topics and questions that the business owners selected. The questions ranged from how to better market their products, how to prepare to apply for a loan, what different funding sources exist and how to get the most from professional service providers such as lawyers and accountants.

“Every day we see business owners coming in and they have the same issues. They have to have somebody walking them through it,” said mentor Alejandro “Alex” Saucedo (pictured below), a former U.S. Bank branch manager in Chicago who now is a private banker in the bank’s wealth management group. “An accountant may have 50 clients or more, so do you think they can spend a ton of time on your business?”

That was certainly the case for one of the Project American Dream competitors.  When he was working with Escorcia Norquist, she asked him what his sales were and where were they coming from?

“I don’t know,” he said. “My accountant does all that.”

Escorcia Norquist explained that no business would succeed if the owner didn’t know who its customers are and how much it sold each month or quarter.“As a business owner, you need to know where you are and how to read a financial statement,” she said.

To help the women’s accessories seller better understand his business, she coached him on the basics of how to read a cash flow statement, balance sheet, and a profit and loss statement.

“He discovered a lot of things he didn’t know about his business,” she said. “And [he found a new accountant the next day]. It’s worth it to spend money on a good accountant and a good lawyer.”

Leslie Wilson, who invented thGlam-n-Go hair bun with partner Victoria Flores (pictured below, right, with Wilson), said the financial education the investors received from the U.S. Bank mentors was a helpful reminder of business fundamentals. “We’ve been in business five years but it’s always good to have a refresher,” Wilson said.

For Wilkinson-Smith and her husband, the Giraffe® Razor Extension Handle owners, the mentoring from U.S. Bank affirmed decisions they had made such as signing up to be listed with credit database Dun & Bradstreet.

“We are sincere when we say that behind every great company, there are people like at U.S. Bank that make that company what it is,” Wilkinson-Smith said. “They are so passionate about what they do.”

hsn project american dreams