For all of you who are Spanish readers, we appreciate your Facebook feedback about the recent AOL Latino profile article they wrote last week!  We posted some photos of when they were here, and you can also check out the slideshow they created in the article.

BUT – for those of you who DON’T read in Spanish – we’ve taken the liberty of translating and posting here.  Credit due to Grandma Nora Vega-Isern… ahem — make that Abuelita Nora Vega-Isern.

Enjoy!

Maureen Isern:  A moped loaded with ideas

By Laura Martínez

Posted 12-01-2009   17:23:21

Filed Under:  Latinos de Exito: Mi Negocio

In this era of labor and financial uncertainty, few people express being satisfied and over committed with their careers.  Maureen Isern is one of them.

At just 30 years old, this young woman born in Ohio of Venezuelan father and Puerto Rican mother, has achieved something that millions of people only dream about – work at something you love, without having to answer to anybody else, because for over two years she has owned her own business: Moped Productions LLC, a media consulting and production company located in Brooklyn, New York.

From a sunny apartment that serves as home, production studio and office, Isern and her staff work at fulfilling the promotion and educational requirements of a varied group of clients that includes media enterprises (MTV and BET.com), a financial company  (W. P. Stewart), a public relations agency (MMG Mardiks), and a social networking site for mothers (CafeMom.com).

Getting there has not been easy. Before realizing her dream, Maureen did a little of everything, from TV news anchor in Tallahassee, Florida, to selling jeans in a department store, to co-hosting a TV program with the popular host Maury Povich of the Maury Povich show.  Maureen, who studied journalism and communications in Florida, says  “I love the news, but I always wanted to do something more long-format.”

On the way to the Big Apple

Even though she had a job with the CBS affiliate in Tallahassee before graduating from Florida State University, the restless reporter and news anchor knew that if she wanted to do something big she had to move, and no other place seemed as tempting and thrilling as New York.  So, in 2002, having barely reached 23 years of age and with lots of dreams, she left her job with WCTV and she left for the Big Apple; well, some 15 miles North of Manhattan, because when she first moved to New York she went to live with her cousins who live in Rockland County, New York.

Her big break came soon, in 2003, when she got a job as segment producer for mtvU, which is MTV’s university channel, becoming the first female to hold that position.  That job was key, because she realized that even though she had had several TV appearances, she was really meant to be behind the camera.  “I always knew I wanted to work in production,“ she says, but she admits that at that time she had no idea how she was going to achieve her wish full time.

Helping to help

You could say that the world of the young producer changed in 2006, when Ashley Faison, an old friend, asked for her help in producing a video for Hospice & Community Care, a home for terminal patients in South Carolina.  Without delay, Maureen went to South Carolina and worked on what would be the first of several promotional videos for that institution.  The moving images of real persons offering their testimonials regarding relatives and friends who are ill not only captivated several hearts, but also the heart of a local bank which promised a gift of $20,000.

“That was when Ashley and I thought, ‘hey, here’s something interesting,’” says Maureen, regarding the moment when she recognized for the first time a real business opportunity:  Everybody has to market themselves, but it’s often very expensive for non-profit community organizations.  That’s when she took on the mission of helping these organizations to promote themselves in a more efficient and, above all, less expensive manner.

Without much fanfare and with only one idea in mind, on February 23, 2007, Maureen registered Moped Productions LLC as an established enterprise.

Moped seemed not only an interesting name, but it included her nickname, “Mo.”

“I remember that I was at MTV and I heard someone say the word ‘moped’ and I thought: that is going to be my company’s name, because it’s a name that suggests movement.  I don’t want to reinvent the wheel.  I want to help enterprises mobilize their mission.”  And that’s how Moped was born.

ACTION: The boost needed

With several projects in hand and her company baptized, Maureen realized that she needed to invest money in the business.   As it happens with many micro-entrepreneurs, she had already used all her savings (12,000) and several credit cards were maxed out.

Moped was growing and needed money to finance the purchase of furniture and equipment (Maureen installed a studio in her apartment), but the funds generated by the productions in the works was not enough to pay for the necessary investment.   “I realized that, if I wanted to grow, I needed to take out a loan; because you can grow organically, but only to a certain point.”

However, her efforts with commercial banks and with the Small Business Administration didn’t yield results.  Then, at a meeting organized by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, she met some people from ACCION, whose purpose of helping micro and small enterprises seemed like a great idea to Maureen.

The procedure to obtain a loan from ACCION was relatively easy.  However, what Maureen didn’t foresee was that they would lend her much less than she had requested (between $20,000 and $30,000) which, in the end, turned out to be positive.  Even though the business is growing, it does not generate millions and there is no guarantee as to the volume of sales.  “The people at ACCION told me that if they lent me more money, they could possibly be hurting my business.  And they were right.”

With the $7,000 that she received, Maureen restored some equipment (instead of replacing it) and, more importantly, she was able at last to invest in a promotional and marketing campaign in order to attract new clients and not have to depend 100% on word-of-mouth.

Today, thanks to that financial boost, Moped has an electronic newsletter, a sophisticated web page, a strong social media presence (Twitter, Facebook), and a more formal marketing strategy, which did not take long to bear fruit.  The outreach helped to reactivate old clients, and also to attract new ones and, since the ACCION loan was not as big as she had wanted, it made her use the funds in a wise and creative way.

For now, the clients keep coming and activity flows in Maureen’s home/office.  The day of the interview with AOL Latino, she was getting ready guest lecture a class at NYU while her staff worked on different projects, and her office coordinator, Steve Lowe, got others lined up.

In hindsight, Maureen has no regrets, although she does remember the terrifying moment when she considered throwing in the towel, selling her computers and look for a job in an established company.  But she did not give up:  “If you really believe in something, you are going to achieve your goal, no matter if it is a business or anything else.”

5 tips for young entrepreneurs

Maureen, who is now learning a lot from Think and Grow Rich, a book from 1937, shared with us some tips for getting ahead:

1. No matter what you are doing, always go forward… one step at a time, but always firm and always forward.
2. Accept what you get and make the most out of it.  Whether it’s a one thousand dollar job, or a ten thousand dollar one, give it your best effort.
3. If you make one client happy, he will keep coming back; and he will also recommend you to others.
4. Always exchange ideas with others.  Listening only to yourself is not good; you could become your own bottleneck.
5. Turn the negative into something positive.  Even when you might be facing the worst, imagine what may come of it.

12-01-2009  4:27:28