Show Me The Money

Author

Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, Chia-Li Chien came to the United States to attend college in 1988 at the age of 21. She blends elements of the rich Chinese culture (slightly influenced by Japan, which once claimed Taiwan as a colony) with American openness.  As an entrepreneur, Chia-Li has experienced many of the issues that women business owners face. That’s one reason she’s so passionate about helping women entrepreneurs excel.

Chia-Li founded Chien Associates LLC in 1993 – the day before her son was born. For the next six years, she had only one client. Her income provided for her family, but she knew she needed a strategy to grow her business.  So she fired her longtime client and shifted her business model to handle multiple clients. One of those clients was a Fortune 500 Company. Working for that firm taught her how to create and capture value for a business. That inspired her to retire from the technology consulting business in 2002 and transform her business into a niche business in exit strategy the following year.

Three years into this transformation, she realized that exit strategy was only a part of the equation she should be considering. Many factors drive business value over a period of time, and these strategic value drivers are what set the conditions for entrepreneurs to increase their business’s value.

She has helped Diageo win awards in best practice of human resources. Combustion Engineering (today Westinghouse) was honored for a strategic planning system that links company strategy to individual employee performance in a continuous, real-time process.  Even before moving to the United States, Chia-Li was appointed as a junior ambassador of Taiwan for a goodwill mission to the U.S. in 1986.

Chia-Li received her associate degree from Ming Chuan University in Taipei, her bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University, and her master’s degree from the University of Hartford.  In addition, she is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC), Charter Trust and Estate Planner (CTEP) and a Project Management Professional (PMP).

She was a board member and a pro bono director for the Financial Planning Association (FPA) of Charlotte. She led a team of pro bono volunteers to service the community. The benefactors include  CharlotteSave, the Charlotte Housing Authority, city of Charlotte, Goodwill Piedmont, Habitat for Humanity  and many local nonprofit community organizations. She is chair on Pro Bono Advisory Committee for Financial Planning Association. She leads & expands pro bono services in 75+  chapters nationwide. She is an appointed board member of Women’s Advisory Board (WAB) in Mecklenburg County for Board of County Commissioners in North Carolina. She is a Community Advisors for Women's Inter-Cultural Exchange. She is a volunteer mentor for SCORE and counsels hundreds of start-up and mature small businesses nationwide. She is a member of eWomen, FPA and Project Management Institute (PMI).

She has been married since 1990 and has two children. She describes her family as national parks fanatics. They aren’t serious hikers, but they enjoy nature through international travel.

Chia-Li Chien, CFP®, CRPC, PMP; Chia-Li like “JOLLY!” She is CEO and chief strategist at Value Growth Institute, dedicated to creating business value that transforms your world. Chia-Li is also a Midas Advisor to MidasNation, a community dedicated to helping private business owners increase the value of their firms. She is the award-winning author of Show Me The Money and faculty member of American Management Association. Her blog and newsletter was recently named a top small business resource by the New York Times “You’re the Boss” blog. She is available for consulting, speaking engagements and workshops.  She can be reached at http://valuegrowthinstitute.com, http://www.chialichien.com or jolly@chialichien.com.