Grow your business with video

Grow your business with video

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How to leverage technology for your business

How to leverage technology for your business

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Introduction to Social Media - Facebook for Business

Introduction to Social Media - Facebook for Business

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Felicia's Commentary - It's Not Easy Being Green

One of the many things I love about this network is knowing that I don't have to have all the answers. Collectively, we all have the answer. As I was talking with Felicia Middleton of Urban Aestethics, we chatted about the Sustainable Business Network (we are members) and being green. I was looking for a way to save energy by not utilizing gas. I have already switched the heat, dryer and oven to electric (getting ready for solar energy). Let's thank Felicia Middleton for giving me the answer for my hot water tank (tankless water heater!). This month we are sharing her knowledge....

It’s not easy being green but if you are advertising as a “Green” business, I hope that you, yourself are practicing a green lifestyle, no matter how difficult. Do you recycle? Do you reduce waste? Do you seek to reuse items as much as possible? Being green is not an easy task. However, as you start the change in your habits, it will begin to feel more normal. Old ways of living are difficult to change but with the right mindset and effort, being green is possible. I will admit, it is not easy being green. It is easier to through your water and / or soda bottle in the trash while you are out instead of taking it back home to your recycle bin. It is easier to have an item placed in a plastic bag in the store instead of refusing the bag and placing the item in your briefcase, pocket of purse. Now I will admit, all items cannot fit in your purse or briefcase or should be without a bag but if we start to think about it, many items that we purchase do not require a bag. It’s a challenge being green. Purchasing recycled paper and printing on recycled business card stock requires additional thought and money. You have to be committed to the cause in order to take on the responsibility. You have to want to be different than before; want to make a difference and want to help the cause. It’s really not that easy being green. Especially in my business. We have a bad habit of using a lot of paper. It’s the nature of the business. Normally, we make a practice out of printing drawings, checking the prints and reprinting. Over the years, the level of difficulty in cutting back on these practices has gone up and down. In the early years, I made a conscious effort to cut up unused drawings into scrap paper to make small tablets. Recycling the paper was always a general practice. In the present, I offer “Green Client Services”, where drawings are not printed, they are emailed. Although it’s not easy being green, here is:

This Week’s Green Tips for You and Your Business:
1) Carry a refillable mug with you to your favorite coffee house.
2) Read emails online as opposed to printing them. If printing is required, print on a sheet of paper that has been used on one side.
3) Recycle Batteries and then invest in rechargeable batteries and a battery charger.
4) Recycle printer cartridges. Staples offers a return on investment for all recycled printer cartridges.
5) Purchase recyclable paper.
It’s not easy being green. But I hope you will join in and make the color change. For real.

Click here to read the full article...

This Week's Green Tip: Install a tankless water heater.

Help save the environment by cutting back on energy usage. Conventional water heaters utilize energy (gas, electric, etc.) to consistently heat a tank full of water in order to keep steady temperature. In contrast, tankless water heaters have a heating element that heats water on contact. This cuts back on the continuous energy used to heat water in a tank. An added benefit is the constant flow of hot water as opposed to using all of the water heated within your hot water tank.

Thank Felicia Middleton of Urban Aestethics LLC, a full service MBE/WBE design and project management firm located in Philadelphia for this blogpost. Urban Aesthetics provides complete building planning, design, green design, construction and permit services.

Nicole's Commentary 11 May 2009

What DiversePhilly means to you?

As we revealed in the 1st Annual Membership meeting last month, DiversePhilly has a 4 quarter strategy to position your business for growth. The merger with Premiere Brand LLC gave DiversePhilly, which in turn, your business more cost effective marketing solutions. The 1st quarter, which completed April 30^th, consisted of branding the DiversePhilly website, branding the Wealth Building Series and implementing a brand management strategy. The 2nd quarter consists of implementing the referral program to consistently grow the membership base through revenue sharing initiatives, convenient solutions to find your business on mobile devices and implementation of a business to consumer card program to move Diversephilly from the consumer's computer to a consumers wallet!

What does all this mean? This means that we can create buying power. It is the collective buying power of DiversePhilly that will lower the cost of doing business in Philadelphia. Just as Target uses it’s giant distribution network (plus a lot of importing from China) that allows this mega-chain to beat the neighborhood stores prices.

Just this year, we added the following member benefits:

1) Partnership with the Philadelphia Business Journal to create a savings program for DiversePhilly members - http://www.bizjournals.com/circPro/promotion/jnsy28.

2) Partnership with the Urban League Entrepreneurship Center - $10 off Membership to ULEC for seminars and workshops on growing your business and access to FREE business consulting

3) Partnership with The Enterprise Center's Capital Corporation which provides a no fee application (50.00 savings) to the strategic growth loan Program.

We leveraged the collective buying power of hundreds of business owners working together to create costs savings for DiversePhilly members. As we move into phase 2 of our growth strategy, we are looking to leverage thousands of business owners to create even greater cost savings and opportunities to position your business for the growth cycle that comes after the recession - underneath all the Information Technology and Marketing, I am an economist at heart. It is the harmony of the members working together like the game face coaching event featuring DP businesses The Career Makeover Coach, Jennifer Dent Events, Urban Momentum Network or the after work mixer hosted by (Urban Aestethics, Provident Business Services) or Motivating Mondays with DP businesses (GPW Towing, Abundant Home Inspection, Tara Colquitt - The Credit Woman, Ultimate Concrete LLC, JSPN & Company LLC, Soul Purpose by Veronica Freeman, FullCircle Aestethics) or the 4th Friday Wine and Cheese Events (featuring FullCircle Aestethics, Mary Kay by Mylisa Flowers, Whole Unit Studios and Whole Unit Artisitic Development Inc.) that will increase the return on your DiversePhilly investment ten-fold and move DiversePhilly from a business to business network to a business to business and business to consumer network. Stay Tuned!!!

April 2009 Wealth Building Series

Join DiversePhilly Business Owners Brian Williams , Tara Colquitt, and special guest Michael Bing from The Enterprise Center Capital Corporation as we share our collective knowledge to show you how to build wealth!

Register for the next event at http://wealthbuilding3.eventbrite.com

Nicole's Commentary 16 April 2009

While I was waiting for the next newsletter topic to come my head, I did a quick search on the internet. In about 10 minutes , I found a great article on the right topic - Speed of Business. I had the pleasure of attending the Entrepreneurs Forum Group monthly meeting yesterday on Commercializing Intellectual Property (thanks Tim Bosworth for the gentle reminders). As we talked about the very expensive patent process and the very expensive litigation fees to protect the very expensive patent (do you see a pattern?), all the panelists agreed that for the small business it is to beat the competition in the market place than trying to obtain a patent and protect it. Understand that we live in the "Internet Time". When I was growing up, my mom had to thaw the food from the freezer, cook the food and then finally after 2 hours it was time to eat. Then when I was a teenager, microwaves came into existence but at first the food did not taste very good until the market changed to fit the new technology and now I will take a microwave dinner from Trader Joe's any day (my favorite are the fish tacos!).
When I started my IT career in 1995, the commercialized version of the internet was just getting started. In 2009, we are perfecting the technology platform to our lifestyles. My mom will call me on my cell phone and spend 3 minutes leaving me a message. When I call her back in 5 minutes, she will ask if I listened to the message and I, of course, say no. (Why would I spend 3 minutes when I would just call back anyway, let's save 3 minutes and just get to the end result..). My friends, on the other hand, rarely leave messages, they just call until I answer the phone or their number pops up 4 times as a missed call. We live in "Internet Time" which is even faster than the microwave.
The objective for our businesses is to go big and go fast! This is not just applied in growing your business but in any process. Though I only made 1 connection from that event, I am positive a VP from Open Source Business at a fortune 500 company who took the time to respond to my linkedin request (fortune is in the immediate follow-up!) will come in handy. As the article stated (even though the article was 9 years ago) take some time move fast and smart (this can be accomplished by surrounding yourself with people smarter than you). It will require some sacrifice in the beginning but envision the reward at the end. We added this guideline to the confirmed detail of "Smart Marketing always trumps a good product". This is just a a gentle reminder -- Premiere Brand Marketing is just getting started! Learn more on April 28th, 2009 at the DiversePhilly Membership meeting!