NAWBO-Columbus Member Blog

You most important assets walk out the door every night—what keeps them engaged and coming back? This is one of Sequent’s key concerns for our clients, so it has been a pleasure putting together a panel of experts to help NAWBO members benefit from best practices.

Your people are the key to your success, because they take care of your clients. How to you create and maintain the best possible working environment?

You need to grow your business, but you want to get the right people on your team. How do you hire safely and legally—there are questions you simply can’t ask! Or, how do you discipline an employee in a manner that re-commits her to the larger effort, and doesn’t create a ‘hostile work environment’? Or, when it is clear that someone no longer fits the task, and she has to be let go, how can you do this without inviting a ‘wrongful termination’ lawsuit?

Have lunch with NAWBO Columbus on June 2 and come away ideas that will help your business grow and keep you out of the weeds of the legal jungle!

The always fabulous and dynamic Wendy Goldstein spoke to NAWBO Columbus this month about what it’s like developing a company in a niche industry.  Her business, Costume Specialists, creates costumes for mascots, theatrical productions, and more.

Being the out-of-box thinker that she is, Wendy offered these 6 tools for thinking creatively:

1. Believe it can be done
2. Don’t let traditions paralyze your mind
3. Ask yourself daily: How can I do better?
4. How can I do more?
5. Practice asking and listening
6. Stretch your mind – get stimulated

I think the thing that Wendy said that will stick with me the most was that “men set themselves up for success, and women set themselves up not to fail.” I found that very profound, and so often true!

Arguably the most, well, interesting part of the presentation was that Wendy brought a bag of goodies and played dress-up while speaking.  The end result was, as she put it, that when you let your creativity free, you release your inner-diva.  And that’s exactly what she did – in costume!

Denise Hedges, president of the Business Break Through Institute, provided an intuitive look at how sales and marketing can help grow your business and bring in more revenue.

She provided useful tips via her 3 Essential Steps:

1. Brand yourself to a target market
2. Implement the right marketing strategies
3. Transform your attitude towards sales

You can learn more about Denise and her program on her website: www.BusinessBreakThroughInstitute.com

At the February 3rd luncheon, Denise Hedges, a business development coach and marketing strategist with over 25 years experience in sales and marketing, will be joining us to teach us strategies to make more money…even in a down economy.  Who doesn’t need that?!

As a certified coach, I imagine Denise will help us get into the “psychology” of how it’s going with hour current sales and marketing strategies and help us break through those barriers to a new level of effectiveness.  If you’ve ever wanted someone to give you pointers on how to build your sales and marketing machine step-by-step, be sure to sign up for the luncheon on February 3rd!

We all had a wonderful time at this members-only networking event at the Columbus Museum of Art!  We were given an exclusive, behind the scene’s tour of the museum’s renovation, something few have been given the opportunity to see!  The new renovations will be open for public viewing on January 1, 2011.  I definitely recommend you check them out!

Russ Rosenzweig, founder of Round Table Group, joined us for our lunch meeting on Thursday.  He shared the 7 Wisdoms of a Business Plan, along with some personal stories and examples from his history in launching, growing and selling his company.

First, Russ mentioned there are three pre-requisites to have in place before you even consider creating a business plan and launching a business or new idea:  time and energy management, financial management, and self-mastery.  Each of those topics could be a week-long seminar by itself, but Russ shared a few tips and tools he uses including books, software and meditation to help control the mind.

The main question that a good business plan will help you answer is, “Is it a good idea?”  This question and the concepts explained by Russ apply for any new business that you are starting or a new product or service within your existing company.

Russ shared two acronyms, each with 7 letters, that encompass all of the main elements of a solid business plan.  IMPACT and OUTSIDE.   While he went through each letter and what it stands for in detail, here are the basics:

I: Idea

M: Market Size

P: Positive NPV

A: Acceptance by customers

C: Competitive Analysis

T: Timing

S: Speed

O: Opportunity

U: Uncertainties/risks

T: Team

S: Strategy

I: Investment

D: Data

E: Exit

The PowerPoint slides he used during the presentation are available to you and is posted along with this blog.  Download them here…

One key idea that Russ talked about is the idea of carving out special, specific time on a regular basis for rigorous strategic thinking.  He told a story where he tried to schedule a doctor appointment one day and told that the doctor couldn’t take any appointments on Thursday afternoon, as it was reserved for surgery.  Russ thought, “wouldn’t it be great if I could be in surgery every Thursday?” and so he began to carve out “strategic surgery” time for himself each week to dedicate to thinking about his business.

Here’s hoping that we all carve out strategic time for ourselves with our business to work ON the business instead of working IN it.

The NAWBO Columbus monthly meeting this month was dedicated to honoring one of our own, Karen Hough of ImprovEdge, as the 2009 ATHENAPowerLink® recipient.

Karen comes from a very unique background and learned to adapt her creative talents to the business world, forming a groundbreaking and lucrative niche for herself along the way. In typical Karen fashion, she started off her speech with an activity to energize the crowd, and then lead us through the journey that took her from improv comedienne to small business owner, and how the ATHENAPowerLink® board of advisors helped her grow business – by double! Read more about Karen…

Not to be overlooked was the keynote speaker, Lynn Elliot, owner of Columbus Window Cleaning and 2008 Visionary Award Winner. Lynn also recounted her path to business success with an inspiring and amusing look at what it was like to enter into a complete new industry when she assumed the mantle of leadership at Columbus Window Cleaning.

The 2010 ATHENAPowerLink®, Jan Emerick of Knitters Mercantile, is currently undergoing her advisory board process. The 2011 ATHENAPowerLink® recipient, Haleema Shafeek of Green Office Furniture Solutions, will begin her program on January 1, 2011.

Though the word has often become cliche and overused, the best way to describe this event was absolutely INSPIRING! I’m very glad I attended both the workshop and the ATHENAPowerLink® recognition, and I am really energized to create an advisory board for my company!

The Building Your Bridge to Success with an Advisory Board Workshop which accompanied the ATHENAPowerLink® Recognition was a great success!

Basically set up as a rotating roundtable, two panel members advised each table for approximately 15 minutes while they proffered their experience with advisory boards, and then answered questions from the table members.  The panel members came from various backgrounds, including law, banking, coaching, HR, marketing, and more, and they either had experience serving on advisory boards, or had had an advisory board for their own company.

At the end of the two hour workshop, participants shared the information which they found most helpful, including:

• What kind of people who should be on your advisory board and what their backgrounds should be
• What kind of compensation you should provide for your advisory board members
• The distinct differences between an advisory board and a board of directors
• How many advisory board members you should have
• How you should find and approach potential advisory board members
• How often the advisory board should meet and what they should discuss

Many of the panel members provided handouts with extremely useful information, and the participants left full of inspiration, ready to tackle this next big step in growing their business!

As a part of an outreach effort between NAWBO Columbus and Ashland University, chapter members Amanda L. Sage and Caroline Worley hosted a workshop for Ashland University students.  Ashland, having one of the only entrepreneurship programs in the state, has reached out to NAWBO Columbus to work together in the future towards providing information and inspiration for their female business students, who make up nearly 50% of the business school’s student body.

Caroline Worley, owner of Worley Law, kicked off the session by introducing NAWBO and discussing how the organization helps women business owners.  After turning it over to me, I started off by discussing what it was like to be a young business owner myself, specifically the advantages and drawbacks that come along with being a 20-something entrepreneur.

The meat of my presentation, however, was on Social Media for Business, and how the students could use the rapidly emerging media in future internships and jobs.  A total of 70 students attended the 2 hour session on Monday, September 20th, and the faculty of Ashland University were overwhelming positive about the experience, looking forward to more cooperation with NAWBO Columbus in the future!

Amanda L. Sage is the owner of Gong Gong Communications and is a member of the NAWBO Columbus communications committee.