Welcome to DI Squared….a ten-part weekly feature of KBOO News….

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 Is there ANYONEworking in a business, large or small, maybe a factory, or a store, or in the government, or in a school,…ANYONE…who hasn’t thought, and maybe even dreamed, of starting their own business, and working for themselves?  ANYONE?

 At one time or another most of us want to work for ourselves, not for someone else.

That’s the starting point for this KBOO news feature, “DREAM IT, DO IT.”  We call it “DI SQUARED.”  Dream it, do it.  Our goal is to wake you up, and get you thinking, about starting a business of your own.   Maybe you’re a person who should start your own business, take the risks.  Dream it, do it.  Or maybe not…

 

This is the second of ten episodes.  Each week we’ll feature these three elements:

First, a featured entrepreneur profile ofsomeone who’s done it.

Second, a featured resourcethat you can use to find funding or get other types of support to get started or expand. 

Third, we’ll have a question of the weekfrom a listener and a response from an expert that focuses on a specific burning issue that you as an entrepreneur face in getting started.

 The entrepreneurs we are covering are all people of color in the Portland area, and people who have created businesses that range from… asbestos removal to…. wine-making.

 You’ll hear their stories and maybe you’ll be inspired.  Or maybe not. No matter, these are people who dreamed it, and then did it.  And that’s what DI Squared is all about.

shaker. 

 

We spoke with featured entrepreneur of the week,  Christian Kofi, at KBOO’s studio.  Eight years ago Christian and his wife, Natalya,  started Portland Movers Company LLC.  Here’s Christian to tell his story:

 That was Christian Kofi, of Portland Movers. 

 And that brings us to our question of the week, and that comes from Sam Bowman:

 

QUESTION

 

To answer Sam’s question, we invited Maggie Finnerty to KBOO.  Maggie is President and Executive Director of Oregon Entrepreneur’s Network.

 Listeners, you can learn more about what the OEN has to offer by looking at their web site, making contact with them and asking for the help you need.  There are lots of resources out there that you can access in getting started.

 Next week we’ll continue to explore what it is that makes a person likely to be successful as an entrepreneur.  Just keep in mind that there’s no one "right" set of characteristics for being a successful entrepreneur. 

 I’m quoting the winemaker we interviewed last week, Bertony Faustin:

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 That’s it for DI Squared for today.

 Thanks for listening. If you want to review what you’ve heard just now, go to KBOO.com and look under evening news for today’s date.

 And send your question to [email protected].  We’d like to make your questionthe featured questionfor one of our shows.

 We’’ll be back in a week! Tune in then for the next episode of DI Squared----Dream it,Do it.

 From KBOO News, I’m Tom Flynn