Corporate Sponsor Southern Calif. Edison Presents Upcoming Workshop

NAWBO-IE Corporate Sponsor, Southern California Edison, is hosting a high-value workshop as part of its 2010 Business Edge Workshop Series in the Inland Empire

How to Prepare a Winning Marketing Plan

Speaker: Michael J. Scotto

A "living" marketing plan is an important management tool of every business owner.

The workshop will cover:

• A "how-to" approach to a sound marketing plan
• Understanding the marketing "process" to effectively market any business
• Tips and techniques on building a competitive edge
• Establishing objectives, strategies, tactics...and more

Date: Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Time: 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Cost: No Charge--Dinner Provided

Location: Doubletree Hotel Ontario

222 N. Vineyard Avenue

Ontario, CA 91764

RSVP by August 30, 2010

To Supplier Diversity & Development at supplierdiversitydevelopment@sce.com or call 800-275-4962

Accessing Capital in a Tight Credit Market

Many business owners and prospective business owners are discussing how difficult it is to access capital in this market. The fact is the credit market is tighter than it has been in a number of years. Banks are concerned about regulators; therefore, they are requiring more documentation and standards are tightening. However, accessing capital for growth and expansion, for commercial real estate purchases and for business acquisitions is achievable. Consider the following to position your business for accessing capital:

• Know Your Financial Health – Know what’s coming into your business (revenue) versus what you are spending (expenses). No longer can that responsibility be solely delegated to a bookkeeper. Business owners must be clear on their company’s financial health and projections for the future. A healthy balance sheet and income statement that shows positive trends or clear adjustments for sales shortfalls is essential. In this market, don’t hesitate to make adjustments that will improve your bottom line. Waiting too long could negatively impact efforts to access capital.
• Be Attentive to Accounts Receivables (A/R) – Business owners often obtain credit from suppliers and provide credit to customers. Today, CEOs must be attentive to the accounts receivable cycle of their customers. When A/R has not been received in 15 days in a 30-day cycle, a call should be made to the customer. Reducing the A/R cycle improves a business’s cash flow, which is essential in accessing capital.
• Explore SBA Resources – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has several programs to assist small businesses in working with banks. SBA provides a guaranty program and a direct lending program. The guaranty program provides a 75-85 percent guarantee to banks for providing capital to small businesses and the direct lending program funds up to 40 percent of project costs for real estate, equipment or tenant and leasehold improvements. In this market, this proves to be a valuable resource to lessen the credit risk to banks.
• Take Advantage of the Market – Commercial and industrial real estate prices are down 25 – 30 percent. If you currently rent space, now is the time to explore being an “owner” versus a “renter.” Real estate owners are able to reduce their tax liability and could create additional income with rental space. The SBA 504 loan program allows owners to rent up to 49 percent of their real estate; requires only 10 percent down versus 30-40 percent conventionally, provides low and fixed interest rates; and provides longer terms so that monthly payments are manageable.

Business owners can access capital in today’s economy and there are numerous resources available to help. To find out more information about SBA programs and other resources for small businesses, contact AmPac Tri State CDC, a non-profit certified SBA lender at (909) 915-1706 or visit our website at http://www.tristatecdc.com/.

 

Peoples Choice Staffing, Inc. Escapes the Recession

Corona, CA – July 6, 2010 – Despite the nation's economic downfall, Peoples Choice Staffing, Inc. has continually exceeded projected sales goals on an average of 30-40% annually and is in process of moving toward national expansion.

The growth pattern for 2010 of Peoples Choice Staffing, Inc. appears to be on target as YTD revenues are trending toward tripling that of 2009. In addition, PCS opened a second company that serves as a Managed Service Provider, Choice Workforce Solutions, LLC that is estimated to produce an additional $65 million in revenue on an annual basis.

"There might be a recession, but we refuse to participate,” says Denise Peoples, President and CEO of Peoples Choice Staffing, Inc. “We wouldn’t allow our employees to buy into a recession mentality; we just knew we had to work three times harder and smarter.” PCS Chairman & COO Wendell Peoples continues, “Our management and employees are collectively committed to represent this company brand in everything we do."

Peoples Choice Staffing focuses on developing mutually beneficial partnerships with handpicked companies that drive results and heighten client interest. Previously this strategy was focused on accommodating clients just in Southern California but with current growth into five states and continued expansion moving across the United States, PCS in on the verge of providing client benefits on a national basis.

Denise Peoples, President and CEO of Peoples Choice Staffing, Inc., brings more than 22 years of knowledge and in-depth experience in the staffing industry, making her one of the leading experts in Human Capital Management. She is a member of NAWBO-IE and serves on the Board as Mixers Chair.

Contact:
Denise Peoples, President and CEO
Peoples Choice Staffing, Inc.
1269 W. Pomona Road, Suite 107
Corona, CA 92882
Ph: (951)735-0550

Blogging: How It Can Benefit Your Business

Did you know that 346 million people worldwide read blogs? Imagine how many of these people could be clients or customers of your business. It sounds cliché, but the possibilities with blogging are endless.

A blog, originally known as a “weblog” is merely a web page made up of short, frequently updated entries or posts. Many blogs are personal, informal and set up like an online journal. A business blog, however, can be a low-cost, highly effective marketing tool for any business.

According to Holly Suso, the founder of MymompreneurTM and an active blogger who offers a blogging boot camp workshop, there are three key reasons why businesses should blog: improve visibility, demonstrate expertise, and increase profit.

Improve Visibility
“In terms of visibility, blogging allows you to meet your audience, customers, and colleagues where they are,” said Suso. To put it another way, a business blog will help you and your company be found online.

According to new research released from The Nielsen Company, Americans spend a third of their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging. That means your potential clients are definitely online and they are reading blogs, so why not take the opportunity to engage with them?

Business owners often will say that they are already engaging with customers through email marketing with a newsletter. While a newsletter can indeed be a valuable source of information, a blog does not have to replace it, but rather it can work in conjunction with it. You can use the newsletter to drive traffic to your blog.

Demonstrate Expertise
With a business blog you can offer knowledge, expertise and experience via quality content that will make you a resource your audience will value and follow.

“We've all heard that content is King. Blogging reinforces you as the expert in an authentic, credible way,” said Carolyn Ortman of CKO Marketing and Training Group. “Providing in-depth commentary on a blog about what you stand for in the marketplace is an excellent way for others to get to know you and your company, build your reputation and enhance your brand.”

Note that providing quality content is the key here. You want to be seen as an expert or a company that offers valuable information (oh, and you just so happen to provide a product, service or solution). You do not want to be seen as a pushy salesperson.

Beyond sharing your expertise, it’s also important to show your audience that you care. Remember, one of the key benefits of a blog is that it is interactive, meaning it allows for two-way communication between you and the readers. Once you create a post, readers will read it and often they will post comments back to you, asking questions and sharing insights.

Tip: Make sure you respond to blog comments. If you’re not visiting your blog, why should anyone else?

Increase Profit
As you establish a relationship with the readers of your blog and they begin to see you as an industry expert, you will see a boost in sales and subscriptions.
According to a Hubspot report, blogging can have a very positive effect on your company’s branding and growth. Reportedly, companies with blogs gathered 68% more leads than companies without blogs.

“Your blog can be used as an effective lead capture tool. Blogs can offer incentives such as eBooks, coupons, specials and information products in exchange for leaving contact information on email forms,” Suso added. “Data can then be compiled and segmented for sales usage via newsletters, upsales, and evites, for example.”

People are likely to do business with you if they like what you have to say, enjoy reading your ideas and can see your passion and drive within your words (or video) on your blog.

Moving up the Ranks
Another key benefit to blogging is that blogs are search engine friendly. If you’re like most business owners, you’d like to achieve high rankings among the search engine giants like Google and Yahoo and thereby see a jump in the number of people who visit your company website. Blogs are not only frequently updated but often contain keyword-rich content, which is a must for search engine optimization.

While monetary costs associated with blogging are minimal, your main investment is time. This could be a huge drawback because as any business owner knows, time is a precious commodity we all wish we had more of. In an interview with Technorati, a blog search engine, Fred Wilson the managing partner of two venture capital firms and a well known blogger at AVC.com said, “It's not easy for an entrepreneur to find the time to blog. But for those who do it, it is a great tool to communicate with the various stakeholders in their business and build a reputation for thought leadership.”


Joan Burke Stanford is the owner of Jazzy Pen Communications. With a journalism background, she has more than 15 years of experience writing and editing for a variety of companies and publications. Visit http://www.jazzypen.com/ for more information.

Get in Balance with Your Balance Sheet

Business owners often say they want to have a cash reserve, collect on receivables sooner, pay down accounts payable, and pay off credit cards. Does this sound familiar? If so, then my question is: Why does everyone spend so much time obsessing over the Profit and Loss, aka P&L?

Don’t get me wrong. I too spend much of my time analyzing my company’s P&L. I compare my prior year’s earnings with this year’s earnings. I make sure my budget-to-actual is in line. I compare my earnings and direct expenses with my company’s projections. However, if I truly want to know how my business is doing, I spend time with my balance sheet.

I believe the answer to my first question, why so many business owners only spend time with the P&L, is that they don’t know how to interpret the story of the balance sheet.

A balance sheet is a record of company assets and liabilities. Assets are what your company owns. Liabilities are what your company owes. Equity is what your company has.

3 Ways to Spend Time with Your Balance Sheet

 1. Evaluate your company’s liquidity. How quickly can you turn your company’s assets into cash? Current assets (CA) determine liquidity. Current assets are made up of cash, accounts receivable, and inventory. Cash is the most liquid and inventory is the least.

Take the sum total of your current liabilities (CL) combined with current payments on long-term debt. Current liabilities include accounts payable, credit cards, payroll payable, taxes payable, etc. Calculate your current obligations on long-term debt for the month (car notes, mortgage, and equipment finance loans) and add to your current liabilities.

Now that you know how much you have in current assets and how much you owe in current liabilities, divide current assets by current liabilities. Coverage of assets to liabilities should be at least 1.25. Example: Current Assets = $1,000 Current Liabilities = $460. CA/CL = 2.17. If assets to liabilities is less than 1, there could be a cash-flow problem.

Basically, if a company generates more liquid assets than operational costs, it can give the excess to the shareholders/owners. At some point in the future, the company may end its operations. It will pay off all liabilities and what remains is tangible shareholder/owner value. This is the return on invested capital/sweat equity generated by the company’s operations.

This step also identifies if the company can fund its own growth, or if debt will need to be issued to the company to support growth.

2. Determine whether liquid assets are increasing or decreasing. How about your payables? From one month to the next review the change in cash, accounts receivables, inventory, payables and credit cards.



**Note: The chart above is a very basic analysis, but hopefully you can start thinking about the relationships between accounts.

3. Employ tactics to control cash. Going back to the first sentence of this article—businesses want to have a cash reserve, collect on receivables sooner, pay down AP, and hopefully pay off the credit cards. Are these goals attainable? Yes! Let’s start with the need to have a cash reserve.

As a business owner, what are you doing to control cash? Is there a budget in place to control expenses? Are expenses realistic? For example, you don’t lease a luxury auto that the company cannot afford. Is the company collecting AR in a timely manner to pay for operational costs? Do you maintain credit card debt and have a plan in place to pay off the debt? Do you separate expenses for your life from your business? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you are on your way to having a cash reserve and getting in balance with your balance sheet.

Beth Bockenhauer started her career with five years of military service. She then worked for ten years as a small business owner, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. Beth has worked in public accounting for the past seven years. Her company, Beth Bockenhauer, CPA is dedicated to helping business owners establish beneficial financial systems and processes, and to wisely manage growth as well as budgets.

Member Event You Don't Want to Miss

New Location

Join us for a celebration of Peoples Choice Staffing's

Grand Opening

August 11, 2010

4:30-6:30 pm

Enjoy a classy afternoon featuring live jazz, food and wine.

A Coach purse will be raffled off along with other great prizes!

Peoples Choice Staffing, Inc.

1269 W. Pomona Rd. Suite 107

Corona, CA 92882

(951) 735-0550

www.peopleschoicestaffing.com

Chapter President Delivers Inspiring Speech

The following is the installation speech from Tina Loza, NAWBO-IE President for the 2010-2011 term:

Tina Loza,
NAWBO-IE President

I was working on this little speech in the Ronald Reagan Airport in Virginia after having spent a week in our nation’s capital for the NAWBO National Conference. The message during the conference was clear and coming at us from all sources; Nancy Pelosi, Valerie Jarrett, and Karen Mills all had one clear, unwavering message: Economic recovery will be powered by small businesses. Period. We are the answer to this economic crisis. You are the answer to this economic turmoil.

And although I was surrounded by influential, interesting, and smart women all week, frankly, I have to say that I was most energized by actually being in D.C. I had never been to D.C. before and I feel that the city was so magical, empowering, and energizing and that most of all has helped me solidify what I want for our group this year. I want you to feel that you are knowledgeable and informed so that you can run your business instead of your business running you. I want you to feel empowered and energized.

As most of you know, I am an attorney and started my practice with not even one client in May, five years ago. I came to my first NAWBO meeting that summer five years ago and have been coming ever since (except for a small absence while on hospital bed rest that brought me my wonderful twin boys). I came to my first NAWBO meeting with my business cards printed on my home printer on Avery card stock. I was very busy pretending to busy, wondering how and why my husband convinced me that starting a practice, on my own, would be a good idea.

I waited by the phone hoping it would ring. I went to event after event, shaking hands, exchanging cards, taking a mournful, deep breath every time I entered a room filled with people that I did not know. I took and momentarily entertained calls from people who told me that James Cameron stole the plot of the Titanic from them. I swore at Quickbooks. I wondered whether I needed a business license, a CPA, or disability insurance. Not to be boastful in any way, but I am proud that today, I have six other attorneys working with me and we have two assistants. We have approximately 300 active clients. We made it the first five years, we survived, we grew, we made mistakes, we learned, and the bottom line is NAWBO had something to do with that.

Now, in case you did not know after laughing at lawyer jokes all your life, attorneys work on the concept of the billable hour – so, for example, when I am sitting in a waiting room at a doctor’s office, I literally look at my clock and calculate how much money I am not making. I have often considered sending the doctor a bill for my wasted time because usually there is no return on my investment of time at the doctor’s office – they say my flu/cold/etc. is viral, they can’t do anything, and send me on my not so merry, feverish way.

What I want this year, is that each one of you will not leave here wanting to send NAWBO a bill for your time. My aim is to give you a return on your investment of time. That is what I will strive for at each and every meeting and the Board has been and will be tasked to help make this happen.

With that said, this is not a one way street, I encourage and urge you to come here and be active. If you are not on the Board or a Committee, you should consider it. You should attend NAWBO-U and come to our mixers. Hurriedly sitting at a table, avoiding eye contact, and running out the door is not the way to make NAWBO work for you. The value of NAWBO is in these women, your peers. Their knowledge, advice, and business are part of the return on your investment.

Because I often look at each hour as a potential billable hour, I do not want my time to be wasted. Wasted time is time that I could have been investing in work or I could have been spending with kids, my husband, or reading a People magazine while catching up on back episodes of The Good Wife. Is there anyone here uninterested in being profitable and getting a return on your investment of your time? Please raise your hand. OK. Good. We are on the same page.

With that said, we have a theme that will run through every meeting and program this year. This year will be aimed directly at taking you and your business to the next level by giving you the knowledge you need to avoid risk, make good decisions, and operate with intelligence so that you are a profitable and productive person. Every single program will be aimed at you walking out the door with information that you can use.

The breakdown of businesses in this room is essentially (1) emerging business owners, (2) growing business owners, and (3) established business owners. My intention is that each meeting will be tailored this year to the "growing business owner." Emerging business owners will be infused with information on how to step up their game and will be placed in a position of learning what they will need to know to be a success. Growing business owners will be armed with the knowledge to ensure that they will not fail because they did not know any better. Established business owners will gain as they review, re-assess, mentor, aid, and learn as they polish their businesses and perhaps grow new areas of their businesses that have yet to be explored. You will get a return on your investment merely by listening and if you do not, then I will have considered my term a failure. If you are not getting what you need here, tell me. I work for you. For one year, you get an attorney, free of charge.

I also encourage you to attend NAWBO-U. At meetings, we can only provide a short snippet of things you need to grow. NAWBO-U is the charitable, 501(c)(3) arm of NAWBO-IE. NAWBO-U is there to provide you with intensive, longer programs designed to educate and guide you. There is so much power in learning. Even when it’s hard to tear yourself away from your many obligations; it is worth it.

In closing, I am so happy that you have attended this meeting today. I am really excited to be starting this term with a Board that I have been calling the “Dream Team” since the moment Hilda Kennedy signed on as President-Elect. I am humbled by this opportunity and hope to make your membership dues worth every penny. We are looking forward to meeting you all, working with you, helping you, laughing with you, and empowering you so that you can take your business to the next level. Enjoy this beautiful day and remember, you’re the boss. Run your business, don’t let it run you.

Tina Loza is an attorney based in the Inland Empire. Tina and her husband have their own legal practice specializing in intellectual property law (patents, trademarks, copyrights, domain name disputes, etc.). She also has three kids under the age of 3 and lives in Pomona, CA. For more info, go to http://www.lozaip.com/.

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For more information about the National Association of Women Business Owners, please visit www.nawbo.org and for specific information about the Inland Empire chapter, go to www.nawbo-ie.org