Entrepreneur Profile: Morgan First – President/CEO First Publications – MAP Boston

You should know that YOPI is all about women entrepreneurs!! So, we could not contain our excitement when we met young entrepreneur Morgan First. Morgan is the soul and mastermind behind First Publications and MAP Boston – Motion Affair Planner Boston, a guide and weekly agenda for Bostonians.

 

If you haven’t heard of MAP Boston, well, my friend, you are living on another planet and you need to come back to earth presto!

Take the time to read our extensive profile of Morgan and be inspired by her story and experiences.

A TIP just for you: ‘MAP Boston’ makes an amazing gift! You can buy it at: http://motionaffairplanner.com/site/buyonline.php

Barnes and Nobles, Brookline Booksmith, The Globe Corner Bookstore, Harvard Coop, MIT Coop. check out more locations at http://www.motionaffairplanner.com/site/buyyours.php

Also, join Morgan at the following locations during the month of December:

Design Hive Dec 6th and 20th

Prudential Holiday Market Dec 7th and 21st

the SOWA Holiday Show (www.sowaholidaymarket.com) December 13th and 14th.

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“Living the Dream: Morgan First”

“Education: B.A. in Marketing Communications from Emerson College in Boston; minors in entrepreneurship, photography, and publishing

Job Title: Founder and editor in chief of First Publications

What She Does: Morgan’s main publishing project is a combination planner and guide to Boston called the Motion Affair Planner (MAP). The idea came when she was traveling around Europe and got tired of carrying her planner and Let’s Go guidebook. “It’d be perfect if they were the same thing,” she realized. So Morgan created a planner whose weekly pages feature a different location around Boston with a description, subway directions, and other info, encouraging readers to get out and explore their city. It was originally targeted at local college students, but young professionals around Boston and others who are new to the area have also gotten excited about the guide.

How She Got Her Gig: A magazine lover from a young age, Morgan always knew that she wanted to work in publishing. But she had an epiphany during her junior year of college. “I’m probably the worst speller you’ve ever met,” she admits. “I really wanted to go into publishing, but the way most people break in is through the production route or through copy editing. I just don’t think my eye is design- or production-oriented, and no one would want to hire me as a copy editor.” Instead, Morgan graduated a semester early and persuaded her father to let her use the money he would have spent on tuition as seed money for her start-up company. He agreed, and the first edition of MAP Boston came out in the summer of 2006. “Everything came together and I was able to skip that middle step,” she explains. “It’s like grad school.”

Entrepreneurship 101: Morgan credits her entrepreneurship professor, Karl Baehr, with encouraging her to take the idea and run with it. “I e-mailed him saying, ‘I’m terribly sorry, but I won’t be returning.’ He e-mailed me saying, ‘We will miss you, but that is fantastic. That’s the best news I could get.’ After I graduated, Karl let me come …”

 

You can read the article at http://www.nicolewilliams.com/leap/living-the-dream-morgan-first/

  

Morgan’s work doesn’t stop with MAP Boston. She is also part of “the ONEin3 Mayor’s Advisory Council…. She first became involved with the city through her work with Onein3’s Boston Young Entrepreneurs (BYE) and helping to organize Neighborhood nights throughout the city. Morgan also works with female leadership/entrepreneurship groups such as Ladies Who Launch and Massachusetts Conference for Women and she is the Career Development Chair of the Emerson College GOLD Alumni association. In her free time Morgan loves traveling and has an affinity for outdoor markets.”  https://www.cityofboston.gov/bra/betterboston/flash/advisory.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Entrepreneurship @ NYU

Thank you John for your email and the information!  This is really great!

Hello Yopi,

 

I have read your friend Sandra Z’s first installment of The Social Entrepreneurship Series. Today I came across some information related to the topic about which you might want to alert the ever-growing YOPI Army.

 

The only booth to catch my eye at the Idealist.org-sponsored Graduate School Fair held today was that occupied by the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship. Reynolds Fellowships and Scholarships are open to New York University students pursuing degrees in any of their 14 schools. Graduate and undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines use Reynolds Fellowships to customize courses of study related to social entrepreneurship culminating in field work, or projects of their own. 

 

It looks like Reynolds Fellowships are available at other schools, too (as I just gleaned from a Google search). 

 

Here’s the Foundation’s site: http://www.cbrf.org/

 

Here’s the NYU-Reynolds page: http://www.nyu.edu/reynolds/index.flash.html

 

Here’s Harvard’s: http://www.reynolds.harvard.edu/

 

Here’s the e-mail address for David Russell, the Reynolds Felow I met today from NYU: david.russell@nyu.edu.

 

In the coming week, I hope to follow up with what I mentioned before.

 

Kadi, ko e mbinndol Pulaar, mi watinta, sabu ko innde Pulo inniree-mi. A jaaraama; mbaalen he jam neddo am.

 

“He YOPIAAGAL“ (Pulaar for YOPI pride, or YOPI-ness).

 

Ousman York

“How to network your way up the corporate ladder” by forbes.com

Check this article: “How to network your way up the corporate ladder” at

http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/10/network-building-careers-lead-cx_tw_0710bizbasics_slide_2.html?thisSpeed=20000

Not all interviews have to be formal!

Thank you Pauline for finding and sending us this great article! Yopi.

Check this article at: Making the Most of Informational Interviews

Abstract:

“If you’re a professional in finance or accounting and are on the hunt for employment, you may have a difficult time obtaining job interviews in this unsettled economy. If you haven’t done so before, you may want to consider conducting informational interviews.

This type of interview provides a rare opportunity to gain invaluable, up-to-date knowledge about the industry you’re targeting from an “insider,” and it can expand your network of contacts. In addition, it is typically easier to schedule an interview, since you aren’t specifically asking for a job.

Following are tips on how to arrange, prepare for and conduct an informational interview. “

 

Interview: Devin Cole – Manager ONEin3 Boston, MA

Last June (2008), we interviewed Devin Cole – Manager of ONEin3 Boston.

About Devin: Only 27 years old, Devin is the manager of ONEin3 – a Boston based program that provides resources to 20 – 34 years old. He is here to present ONEin3, and give us tips on how to boost our professional lives.

 

YoPI: You are a young professional (YP) yourself. Tell us about your career path.

Devin: I started working for the Boston Redevelopment Authority (www.cityofboston.gov ) right out of college, as a program assistant for six initiatives – ONEin3 was one of the six. I ended up spending most of my time working on ONEin3, something that I really enjoyed.

YoPI: How did ONEin3 get started?

Devin: ONEin3 started in 2004. It was based on a set of focus groups that were done that summer to figure out, from young people themselves, why they live in Boston, what they love about it and what they find challenging about living here. The reason for doing it was because between 1990 and 2000 we saw a reduction of the number of young people working in Boston. The City’s approach was to do focus groups and also do some research about the issue. The research revealed that the decline was mostly due to demographic shifts – we had more people becoming 30 to 44 years old than people becoming 20 to 34 years old.

So, ONEin3 started with the research and the focus groups and grew into an advisory council, an entrepreneurship program and neighborhood groups.

Our mission is to serve “the one-third of Boston’s population that is between the ages of 20 and 34. The program connects Boston’s young adults with resources related to home buying, business development, professional networking, and civic engagement.” ONEin3 is about giving people a platform to take ownership of the city and make it better.

YoPI: What is our professional landscape in Boston? In what industries are we heavily represented?  What is our educational background?

Devin: Most 20 to 34-year olds in Boston have bachelors’ degrees. We’re represented pretty well in the retail, finance, life sciences and creative industries. We also have a lot of people who come from all other the world to get college degrees or who already have higher degrees and come to Boston to work. 

YoPI: How do you reach your “target market” and what kind of events and activities do you have in the course of a year?

Devin: We have a very broad target market: it is 20 to 34 year olds and it includes different subsets – students, recent college graduates, young professionals, people who have just moved to Boston, families, etc… Therefore, we use different ways to reach them:

We have an electronic newsletter – which has approximately 5,000 people on its list.

We also have neighborhood events which are great for outreach. We have a series called ‘neighborhood nights’. These are localized events per neighborhood where we invite all members, people we know and people from the neighborhood. The goal is to create a ‘setting’ for young people to meet and network. Eventually, we would like to create civic activities from these events. We use those events as a way to reach a lot of people, to get our name out, bring people into the ONEin3 family and get them engage in civic activities. People also use these events as ‘platforms’ to discuss issues in the neighborhood and find solutions.

We also have monthly entrepreneurship meetings. It is free and open to everybody. It focuses on business plan presentations, skill-focused presentations and workshops.

YoPI: “I would like to start a business in Boston. What resources are available to me?”

Devin: There is a ton of resources available to people who are looking to start a business. The ONEin3 program has “Boston Young Entrepreneurs”. It has a wealth of information. It is informally organized and has expertise in a lot of different fields – especially when beginning a business. The biggest plus of it is that, it is a very collaborative group of people who are very resourceful.

There is also a great Office of Resource and Development at the Department of Neighborhood Development (http://www.cityofboston.gov/DND). There is the Small Business Association (www.sba.gov) which has Small Business Development Centers. The list can go on and on. The city of Boston’s web site (www.cityofboston.gov) also has a wealth of resources to help young entrepreneurs.

YoPI: What, do you think, are the biggest challenges YPs face today? 

Devin: I think that most colleges don’t force their students to think about what you want to do for work. It leaves a lot of people graduating from college without a clear idea of what they want to do and that puts a lot of pressure on their first jobs because it means that they have to really figure it out. So, I think that YP should find really good advisors early on in their career, and talk to them to find out what their experience has been and used that shared experience to make decisions about their careers. However, it is also difficult to find good and reliable advisors. Therefore, you really need to start networking and talk to the people you know.

YoPI: What advice would you give to current and prospective YPs looking to work in Boston?

Devin: You need to find an association like ONEin3 or the Boston Young Professional Association and start networking. The value of networking, especially for someone who is looking for a job, is huge. You need to meet people, find out what is out there, and talk to people. I also think that getting socially and civically engage is very important. You can also join sport association, book groups, etc…

YoPI: How can I get involved in ONEin3?

Devin: The first step is to attend the events and sign up for the newsletter. You can also decide to take on a leadership role in your neighborhood. We need planning teams for neighborhood nights. In each neighborhood we have a chair and a co-chair and other positions depending on the neighborhood. These groups have a lot of autonomy and a lot of room for creativity.

You can also volunteer to help during specific events.

We also have an advisory council for the Mayor that we need applications for – the deadline is July 1^st. 

YoPI: How can I contact ONEin3?

Devin:  If you would like more information about ONEin3 you can check it out at:

www.ONEin3Boston.org .  We also have a facebook group.

You can email me directly at: Devin.Cole.BRA@cityofboston.gov

Internet and Networking

Networking is one of the essential ingredients of a successful professional life.  Internet – particularly social networking web sites – can be very useful.

I read an interesting article on the subject: “How to Network on the Web” by Eileen P. Gunn.  You can read it at:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/careers/2007/10/24/how-to-network-on-the-web.html