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NAWBO-SV LOOP - Volume 2 |
NAWBO-SV LOOP | Volume 2 | June 2008 
President’s VisionsWelcome to NAWBO Silicon Valley, where our mission is to assist Women Owned Businesses (WOBs) in creating wealth, giving back to the community, and changing the world.Our chapter has an extraordinary 17-seat Board of Directors not including our NAWBO Silicon Valley South Bay, East Bay and South Peninsula Group Chairs and will soon launch a Santa Cruz Group Chair. One of my goals as President was to bring together a group of women executives that passionately embrace the NAWBO SV mission, as well as to develop future board leaders, work as a cohesive team, mentor each other, become great leaders in our communities, and to make a difference for our NAWBO membership of women business owner executives. These goals are being accomplished by this board. At each board meeting I’m amazed and filled with pride watching these fabulous women lending their business expertise to NAWBO SV. We are very fortunate to have these dedicated, smart, successful and savvy women at the helm of the organization. Give them a pat on the back when you see them and thank them for their dedication; a vote of confidence goes a long way. Our board had its first mid-year retreat in January and it was facilitated by NAWBO member and professional facilitator, Karen Mathews. We celebrated our 2007 accomplishments and expanded our existing strategic plan to include a new diversity board position as well as a new corporate diversity leader. These advisory positions will serve as an integral part of our board. Wendy Buller, President Elect, will be chairing that endeavor. Champion Membership: A new membership category has been established to accommodate WOB executives that cannot attend or participate in our NAWBO events but believes in our mission and would like to support the association. This membership category provides an excellent marketing presence without the attendance of the business owner. For any owners that are away on business and cannot attend the meetings, or cannot contribute any time for activities, they now have a way to reap the benefits of a NAWBO membership. Lend us your successful name and we will create an opportunity to drive more wealth to your company by marketing your business. Plus, you’ll be able to give back to the NAWBO community. The Champion Membership category does not stop at assisting WOB’s that cannot attend, many of our members that attend occasionally or often would also benefit from the Champion category. We are pleased to market your company and give Champion Members an extra marketing presence during our meetings and events. The Board is moving NAWBO SV forward with CHANGES that are RISKY and represent the cornerstone of all successful leadership. They have the vision and the mission in their hearts and they are willing to think, act and step up the level of our association by taking calculated risks required for making all of the above changes and more. “The essence of risk lies at the heart of every good leader,” and that describes the uniqueness of our association of WOB’s. “The ENGAGE 2008 Procurement and Commerce EXPO” was very successful and provided quality connections and marketing opportunities for you company’s business. We have more exciting programs and events lined up for our members throughout 2008-2009. Mark your calendar for March 31 - April 1, 2009 when “ENGAGE 2009 Commerce and Procurement EXPO” and “Invent Your Future” combine their resources to create a high level women’s business conference focusing on business applications and marketing opportunities for executive officers of women owned businesses. “The Power of NAWBO is at work for you!” With great respect, —Carla Cobb Davis, President of NAWBO Silicon Valley Carla Cobb Davis is the CEO for DBC Groups, Inc. that specializes in commercial and investment real estate, business brokerage and commercial lending. :: www.DBCcorporation.com :: Email Carla at Carla Davis@DBCcorporation.com Upcoming Events
The Yin and Yang of Negotiation: Finding the Pivot Point for Optimal AgreementsTuesday, July 15, 2008 5:00pm to 8:30pm Silicon Valley Capital Club, 50 West San Fernando Street, San Jose REGISTER NOW › 
What’s your Surprise?Wednesday, July 16, 2008 11:30am to 1:30pm Location: Deer Ridge Vineyards, 1828 Wetmore Road, Livermore, CA REGISTER NOW › :: Visit our Chapter Calendar page for more information › NAWBO-SV Marketing Value Added Member Benefits!Newsletter Advertisements: Advertisement Kickoff Special!$25.00 for business card size $50.00 for 1/4 page (largest size) Contact Marketing Director, Deb Shea at deb@hellbentmarketing.com Two Monthly Table Top Opportunities at the General / Group meetings $75.00; (2-3 tabletops available per meeting) Contact Jennifer Dizon at jdizon@hoodstrong.com Wine Host Opportunities: Talk about your business during receptions and tabletops plus your company is featured on the NAWBO-SV website main page. Contact Seminar Director, Jennifer Dizon at jdizon@hoodstrong.com or Program VP, Marilyn Ritter at marilyn@creationgroundmedia.com Member Directory: Submit your profile to the NAWBO-SV Member Directory by using our online submission form. Member Profile in Newsletter: Complete the questionnaire and provide the content. Contact Deborah Shea for the questionnaire: marketingdirector@nawbo-sv.org Networking and Building Business Relationships at monthly meetings and other quarterly meetings. NAWBO-SV South County Group: Find out if there are other meetings throughout the area that may be important to you and your company. Contact Wendy Buller at Wendyb@benchmarkenvironmental.com. NAWBO-SV East Bay Group: For information contact Shelley Barry at shelley@artfulsolutions.net. NAWBO-SV Mid-Peninsula: For information contact Janice Robinson at jrobertson@sivalllc.com. EXPO Opportunities: Engage 09 Opportunities to meet Corporate Procurement Officers and Opportunities to build business relationships with NAWBO-SV members and guests. Contact Maxine Goulding at maxineg@pacbell.net or Angi Roberts at info@nawbo-sv.org. Champion Membership Marketing Opportunity: For executive officers and principals that cannot attend the meetings but want to market their companies. Gain visibility without attendance and to support NAWBO-SV and our Mission. Contact Wendy Buller at Wendyb@benchmarkenvironmental.com. NAWBO-SV TALK Opportunities: Subscribe to NAWBO-SV-TALK, send a blank email to NAWBO-SV-TALK-subscribe@yahoogroups.com with subscribe in the SUBJECT. Members and Corporate Partners will be sent an email confirming their subscription has been approved. Friends of the Chapter will be encouraged to join NAWBO-SV in order to take advantage of this member-only benefit. Get more info › 
Feature Article: Protect Your Fortune!Do you hang up on a prospective client who calls to find out about your service?When an associate offers you a business opportunity, do you walk off without a response? Do you write “wasteful - unreliable - indifferent,” on your marketing collateral? Not in a million years? Then why pay for the privilege of networking and then toss out your ROI because you choose not to follow-up?  Not following up wastes your time and money. Not following up wastes your hot opportunities. Not following up wastes your reputation.Follow-up = Opportunities = MoneyPeople with a good follow-up system are known for their integrity, service, and accountability. Those without are prey to procrastination, to endless overwhelm, to forever saying, “I’m sorry!” Which are you?If you don’t currently have a follow-up strategy, are you ready and willing to commit NOW to developing a followup plan? The first step is to ensure that YOU close the gap between the “knowing” that you need to follow up and the “doing” the follow up. How? After you mark your calendar with the event that you want to attend, the biggest tip I can share about follow up is to simply do one extra step. Extra step: Mark off ½ hour or an hour on your calendar the day after your event to do your follow up. Simple~ this single step will improve your follow-up by 90% once the follow-up time is blocked on the calendar. Once you’ve returned from the event you want to address each business card that you have brought home. I do the following check point for each card: Check to see if I owe that person some follow-up information. If YES, email or call with the promised information. Book a walk and talk or coffee if I want to establish a Leverage Relationship / or Friendship. Introduce them to anyone in my network that might be a good fit for them. If there was an interest in my products or services, I will book a “discovery” call.These are the 5 points I cover before I do any data entry of the cards. I will then move the cards to the next step which is enter the data using Card Scan. I love this product and it makes it super easy to enter and manage the data. I then port it to the following items: My Outlook, My Treo, My Filemaker, and My Emma (which is like Constant Contact) and that covers all the software points that I will be utilizing the data for different marketing needs. So, that is the simple formula I use to stay in contact with folks once I’ve met them at an event. I want you to stop wasting your time and monies and take some time to PLAN a well thought out follow-up strategy based on your company's networking goals and objectives. YOU will be able to double your business with the right follow-up plan—I promise! Kathleen Ronald, the President and Founder of SPEAKtacular, is an unparalleled networker, an internationally renowned speaker-trainer, and the founder of Speaktacular. Kathleen has more than 25 years of experience providing custom, inspirational keynotes and training seminars to Fortune 500 companies, small business, and professional associations. Member Profiles
JOANN LEONARD, PRESIDENT, IGNITE MARKETING | View Member Bio ›Longtime NAWBO-SV member continues to be inspired by and grow her business by participating in NAWBO programs For over 10 years JoAnn Leonard has belonged to NAWBO-Silicon Valley. And not just as a casual member, but since the day she signed up JoAnn has been actively involved in the success of the organization. Just as she has grown her own successful business, JoAnn has been and continues to be a major contributor to growing our NAWBO chapter. Not one to sit on the sidelines, JoAnn’s advice to any Women Owned Business (WOB) is to get involved. “By actively participating at our meetings and events, members receive valuable resources that you can’t get anywhere else. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; by talking to other women that have already gone through what you’re going through you’ll receive such wonderful and helpful advice. Every meeting I continue to learn something new to help my business,” she said. In 1995, JoAnn began Ignite Marketing to assist clients with developing promotional programs and purchasing wearables for their own companies and their customers. Always striving to be the best solution in a competitive field, JoAnn became a certified MERIT Specialist and received a Certified Advertising Specialist (CAS) credential; only four percent of the companies providing promotional products receive these designations. Prior to starting her own business, JoAnn had been in sales for years and naturally assumed she would continue selling the same way for her own business. She found out quickly it wasn’t quite the same thing. “I was surprised at how difficult it was to get into companies with a new product. For the first six months I needed to figure out a new approach and that is when I realized that I needed to start networking and building a new contact base for myself. And that led me to NAWBO-SV and other networking groups as well. I can say from my own experience that the support of the other women in the chapter made a difference in building my business. It’s completely different support that you get at the NAWBO meetings than anywhere else. Through the membership itself plus member referrals, I have grown my business and made lasting clients and friends along the way,” JoAnn commented. Today JoAnn and her team deliver worldwide solutions for small to large corporations. “Successful marketing is your product or service separated from the rest of the herd and positively noticed. We encourage our clients to reject their ‘brown cow’ identity lost in a pasture with all the other brown cows. Our goal is to make a company a purple cow in a field of brown cows, and that’s what we strive to do,” JoAnn said. She is also a published author and in 2001 wrote “A Wedding Planner for Brides: Questions you need to ask when planning the perfect wedding.” Ignite Marketing offers a wide selection of incentive products and logo-ready wearables that are designed to Motivate, Educate, Reward, Inspire, and Thank (MERIT) employees, customers, and partners. Founded in 1995, Ignite Marketing provides total customer satisfaction; clients receive competitive pricing, high quality merchandise, and customer service seven days a week. For more information, please contact www.ignitemktg.com or call 408.265.6180. 
MARILYN RITTER, OWNER, CREATION GROUND MEDIA | View Member Bio ›VP of Programs Finds Board Membership a Starring Role for her Business Are you ready to be a star? Marilyn Ritter, owner of Creation Ground Media (CGM) and a NAWBO-SV Board Member, is ready to help you. But if you’re not ready to leave the Bay Area for Hollywood, Marilyn and CGM will help you successfully produce a custom video for your business. In the new world order of electronic media, video is the elegant and efficient way to communicate to your customers. “Carefully chosen, artfully filmed and edited visual images, combined with just the right music, effects and graphics, can communicate a lasting message to your customers or shareholders,” Marilyn said. Her clients run the gamut from global technology companies to local non-profits; looking to expand her customer base, Marilyn joined NAWBO-SV two years ago. “Since starting the business the biggest hurdle has been tackling sales and marketing. With NAWBO-SV I’m joining a group of wonderful businesswomen that I enjoy networking with. Participating in our chapter and getting business out of it has been a bonus,” she said. Marilyn continued, “Serving on the NAWBO-SV Board of Directors and as VP of Programs has been a valuable learning experience. Working with speakers to develop programs, creating meeting agendas, and executing a smoothly running meeting has been very rewarding. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some highly accomplished women and each program has been a completely unique experience. The lessons learned are ongoing and I plan on improving my performance during my next term as VP of programs.” Networking Has Been Key: Through NAWBO-SV and other business networking groups like the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce, Women in Consulting and eWomenNetwork, Marilyn has met amazingly diverse and talented business people. “It has been the most delightful surprise to discover that relationship building has been key to growing our business,” she said, explaining that clients typically don’t need a video made everyday, so when it is time for one she wants to get the call. “When clients are ready to produce a corporate video, they’ll recommend us or call us because we have developed a relationship. It’s been a rewarding experience, our clients and business associates are very special people,” she said. If there’s one piece of advice to pass along to other WOBs, Marilyn will tell you to network everywhere and no matter what you or your company does, be fully present and participate. “Listen, learn and give back, and you’ll enjoy the experience even more,” she concluded. To find out more about Creation Ground Media, go to www.creationgroundmedia.com or contact Marilyn Ritter at 650.947.7779. Member News: AwardsCECELIA MCCLOY, President/ CEO, Integrated Science Solutions, Inc. Recipient of the NAWBO-SV Women Public Policy Award 2008 Recognized at the ENGAGE 2008 Luncheon at the Silicon Valley Capital Club.BARBARA MESSNER, President / CEO, The Purchasing Group, Inc. Recipient of the NAWBO-SV Women’s Business Advocate Award 2008 Recognized at the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal’s Most Influential Women Awards Dinner at the Fairmont HotelCARLA COBB DAVIS, CEO, DBC Commercial Group Selected for the 2008 Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal CEO Who’s Who Annual Publication Recognized at the CEO Who’s Who Dinner held at the Silicon Valley Capital ClubDEBORAH SHEA, CEO/President, Hellbent Marketing Recipient of two 2008 Communicator Awards by the International Academy of the Visual Arts for website and logo designMARILYN RITTER, President, Creation Ground Media NAWBO-SV Member of the YearWENDY BULLER, President, Benchmark Environmental Engineering NAWBO-SV Company of the YearJEANNE BEACHAM, CEO/President, Delphon Industries NAWBO-SV President’s AwardMARILYN BUSHEY, CEO/President, Power PAC NAWBO-SV President’s AwardWHO’S WHO 2008 - 2009The following persons were listed in the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal Who’s Who Publication 2008 - 2009:NAWBO-SV Members: Linda Gold, President, M3iWorks, Inc. Laurel Leone, President, Leone Advertising, Inc. Patty Purpur-Gash, President, TimeOut Services, Inc. Stephanie Harkness, CEO, Pacific Plastics, Inc. Celeste Voltz Ford, CEO, Stellar Solutions, Inc. Carla Cobb Davis, CEO, DBC Commercial GroupNAWBO-SV Corporate Partners: Michael Comerate, Executive Director Silicon Valley Capital Club Joanne Maguire, Executive Vice President, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company
Questions? Email us at: newsletter@nawbo-sv.org. |
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