Free Mandarin Seminar on How to Start a Business

Language barrier may become less of a problem to some recent immigrants from China or Taiwan who wish to start their own businesses, if they go to a free seminar at on April 27.

The "Should I Start a Business?" seminar will be conducted in Mandarin, the official language of China and Taiwan. It's the third Mandarin seminar of its kind and a joint effort of Cupertino and Milpitas to address the needs of the two cities' large Mandarin-speaking population.

Besides the cities of Cupertino and Milpitas, both cities' chambers of commerce and two nonprofit organizations, and , are also sponsors of the seminar.

The keynote speaker of the seminar is Catherine Chen, a local business owner and State Farm Insurance agent. A panel of small business owners will also share their experiences with participants.

Chen is now involved with publicizing the event. So is Erny Arifin, who attended the first Mandarin seminar on how to start a business in 2009 and runs her own graphic design business, Kree-ayt.

Arifin says she is happy to help promote the upcoming seminar, because she benefited from the first one of its kind.

"The seminar in 2009 was a beginning step that told me it's possible to run my own business," she said.

The lecturer for the 2009 seminar was Vicky Tsai, a local small business owner and member of the . Tsai is still an organizer of this year's Mandarin seminar, but she won't be available to conduct it, because she'll be on a business trip to Taiwan, she said.

The upcoming seminar conducted by Chen will basically follow Tsai's format.

According to Arifin, the seminar conducted by Tsai in 2009 gave an overview on how to write a business proposal, how to get a loan, and how to approach clients. The general information she received inspired her to take specific classes to learn more about starting a business.

Arifin says those classes she took were offered by , a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small business start, grow and succeed nationwide.  The classes were all taught in English, which was no problem for her.

However, for other Mandarin speakers who are not as fluent in English as Arifin, the SCORE classes may not work. So for those who wish to learn more about starting a business in Mandarin after the April 27 seminar, there will be classes in November, but with a fee.

To sign up for the free April 27 seminar, call Catherine Chen at 408-335-9777 by this Wednesday.