Guest Speaker Jim Kastama

On March 3, 2015, we had a guest speaker named Jim Kastama. He was a Washington State senator for 16 years. He stated that after 16 years of being a senator, he was advised by another politician/friend to start a consulting business of his own. His consulting business’s name is “Jim Kastama & Associates LLC”. He takes his clients’ business plans and boils them down so that their easier to remember and manage. He has been in this business for almost 3 years now. He started off by doing something that he recommends everyone to do at least once, it’s called startup weekend. People meet-up on a weekend and listen to other people’s startup plans. After they have heard all the plans, people join the startup company they like the best. Next, each startup company works on their business plan for 2 or 3 days straight and then presents it to investors.

I really like Mr. Kastama’s webpage where he showed the list of clients he has worked with. Amongst the list were companies like SEA-Lect Plastics, Automobili Lamborghini ASCL, and Greenpoint Aerospace. I personally think this gives him a lot of credential (which is a great thing to have in business). Furthermore, Mr. Kastama said that most of the clients he meets are through other clients. He likes to socialize and build social networks with his clients. This has gotten him very far with his business and I believe if he keeps it up, he will be very successful.

I somewhat am a man of few words. From his whole presentation, one thing I would say that I have taken from it was that socializing with clients is always a good thing. It helps build relationships past the point of businessmen. It makes people that barely know each other become closer friends. I will definitely keep that in mind if I ever start a business.