New York – Symposium To Offer Investment Opportunities And Advice To Orthodox Jewish Business Owners

New York – An upcoming business conference aimed at the Orthodox Jewish entrepreneurs and small business owners hopes to open new vistas to the Jewish business community by bringing in a panel of well known names in the business community to discuss vital business skills, strategies and concepts.

Let’s Talk Business 2013, which will take place on Tuesday June 11th at Brooklyn’s Dyker Beach Golf Club, is open to both men and women and is the brainchild of Meny Hoffman, CEO of Ptex Group.

“I have been coaching business owners for a few years and people don’t know where to start,” Hoffman told VIN News. “People have limited business skills and there is no platform for Jewish business owners to learn about business. We have so many organizations that help people who are learning, people who are sick or people who need help making Pesach. But if someone wants to build his career there is no one out there to help them.”

The concept for LTB 2013 came from Hoffman’s email series titled “Let’s Talk Business”, which addresses challenges faced by small business owners and entrepreneurs. With a mailing list of over 7,000, Hoffman found that the Jewish business community was very receptive to the idea of growth.

“Jewish business owners tend not to do a lot of networking and I have found that my best relationships have come from going to events such as this,” explained Hoffman. “We have gotten together a group of top notch speakers to give people a good time and get them educated in a Jewish atmosphere. We need to give them extra motivation, teach them better communication skills.”

Billed as the nation’s first large scale Jewish business conference, LTB 2013 is a joint effort by Hoffman, Menachem Lubinsky, CEO of Lubicom Marketing and founder of KosherFest, well known lecturer Charlie Harary, Lou Landau of the Snap-Ahead program and Shea Rubenstein of the Landmark Group.

“It isn’t every day that the Jewish business community is given the opportunity to network and be educated by such a high level roster of speakers at a professionally organized conference,” said Lubinsky. “The LTB 2013 is an unprecedented opportunity for so many businesses looking to get ‘out of the box’ through an ‘out of the box’ first rate conference.”

In addition to an impressive roster of speakers which includes a group of well known corporate lecturers, one of the more innovative items on the agenda will be the Launch Pad segment, modeled after the hugely successful reality series ‘Shark Tank’, which gives aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their product to a panel of would-be investors.

“We will be having five Jewish investors who have all agreed that if presented with the right opportunity they will bankroll it,” said Hoffman. “We aren’t doing this for entertainment. We have seen so many times where a business owner has gotten to a certain level and needs to expand but has no idea how to proceed. We want to show the community that if you present yourself properly, if you know your numbers, if you know what you need help with, if an investor sees that you are passionate about what you do, there are people out there who are interested in doing business with you.”

Twenty one applications for the Launch Pad have already been submitted since LTB started accepting applications just four days ago. Hoffman expects that four or five applicants will be selected to make their pitch to the panel.

“This is a unique opportunity for the Jewish community to leverage the excitement about what is happening in the media world and apply it to some of the ventures taking place in our own community,” said Harary. “By connecting businesses with leaders in a public forum, we get to see some of the challenges that business face, understand some of the thinking that goes behind investment choices and learn how to grow our own businesses, taking full advantage of the spirit of entrepreneurism that is so robust in the Jewish community.”

Hoffman expects yet another benefit to emerge from the Launch Pad segment of the program.

“The most important part of this is that if this plays out live, this will open up tens or even hundreds of other similar opportunities,” explained Hoffman. “There are investors who aren’t interested in getting up on a stage and doing this but they tell me privately that if an interesting opportunity comes up to pass it on to them. We are hoping that Launch Pad will not be a one-time event, but something that will bring the Jewish business community together and create spillover for future programs. There are tons of investors out there who are looking for good business ideas and we want to show that to the audience.”

Rubenstein stressed the importance of allowing small business owners to network with the business leaders within the Jewish community.

“The heimish crowd lacks resources when it comes to business education and I think this can be a model that preserves our way of life and at the same time enhances our business skills,” said Rubenstein. “This event will provide people with a business education and the ability to network and is a great tool for bringing frum business leaders and small business owners together.”

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