COMMITMENT

Why are we afraid of commitment?
This week, I taught the social media for business class to 4 students. Although I received e-mails from at least 15 people saying they were going to attend. The 4 students who came had pre-registered for the class months in advance unlike the 15 who just sent an email. Why are we afraid of commitment? As I pondered this question, I looked up the word in the merriam websters dictionary - Commitment is an act of TRUST. Ok, so that is why we are afraid. It is hard to put faith in the future. But for business ownership, failure to plan for the future is akin to being caught in complacency. There is no standing still in business, if we are not moving forward, we are moving backward.

It is running that taught me how to be in training mode and plan for the future. Today is the first day to register for the SheROX triathlon on August 22nd, 2010. Though I don't know how to swim and haven't rode a bike in years, I am registering and making a financial and time commitment in this future activity. It is time to stretch myself and move to the next level so I can lift the lid on my personal leadership skills (John C. Maxwell - Leadership 101 and Sulaiman Rahman) and help more businesses navigate the road blocks in business ownership.

I found a great little article in my google search and it laid everything out in this one statement - "The most important single factor in individual success is COMMITMENT." Commitment requires practicing your beliefs consistently and fully adhere to those beliefs with your actions. My mentor, Sulaiman Rahman, likes to say that you have to practice little commitments to get to the big commitments. My business partner and I have an accountability call every single day. This is our journal of what we need to do for the day and it was her idea to add this activity to the schedule (Thanks Tara!). I am committed to running 4 times a week which translates in to the business commitment of creating a weekly (what is the schedule and what needs to get done), monthly (close the accounting cycle and publish the newsletters) and yearly (how many employees will we have, who are the strategic partners, what certifications do we need) list of what my business has to do to move forward. Sulaiman, I agree it is those little commitments not just saying the words but doing the action which builds belief into completing bigger goals.

The article also states that commitment is demonstrated by a combination of two actions - supporting and improving. "Genuine support develops a commitment in the minds and hearts of others. This is accomplished by focusing on what is important and leading by example." It is my hope to show this by using and supporting businesses in the network and uncovering opportunities and new avenues to market their businesses with cost-effective marketing solutions. The second action is improving. "Improving stretches our commitment to an even higher level. Commitment means a willingness to look for a better way and learn from the process." Though it was my dream to complete a triathlon, it started with a commitment to walk 1000 steps a day use what I learned to walk 10 miles a week ; use what I learned to complete a 5K race which has lead me to register for the tri. Though we can never stop improving, this is where the fun is! My lifetime is not long enough to learn everything so we must use our networks to shorten the learning curve and learn from each other!

That is why I am not afraid of commitment, I TRUST that I don't know everything and would be honored to learn from YOU! I will see the next group of students at the social media for business class part II and COMMIT that the coffee is on me!

Also - women business owners commit to a 3 day conference to learn from your network of like minded businesses who are working together to move to the next level at the 1st annual relax and learn conference at the 4 star Heldrich Hotel and Spa from 4/23/10 - 4/25/10! 100 deposit due now!

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!!!

Nicole's Commentary 3 April 2009

This is the beginning of our 3rd year in business and today, we have alot to celebrate! It is official, Nicole Newman has found a group of individuals who have put ego's aside to work as a TEAM - TEAM work makes the DREAM work! Network marketing taught me that it takes at least 5 individuals/businesses who were willing to lock arms to make the dream work. Dreamer #1 - Nicole Newman is a lady with a vision who was busy marketing (marketing comes before any product is sold) and found Dreamer #2 - JeterActive who could turn the vision into a concrete product (at the right price of course!). After almost a year searching on the internet building an e-mail distribution list, we found Dreamer #3 -Tara Colquitt, the Credit Woman by her response to a newsletter. She is my right hand woman, sometime editor-in-chief and founder of her own networking group, Motivating Monday along with fellow DiversePhilly business, Abundant Home Inspection! One of the businesses that signed up from an on-line conversation on the Urban Philly Professional Network was Dreamer #4 - Williams Accounting and Tax Service. After a few one-on-one appointments, Newman Networks became a client of Williams Accounting and Tax. I can't forget Universal Concept, they played an integral role with the logo design. See, I was using DiversePhilly to build my own company.

Facebook is becoming a new favorite website and alot of people tell me they don't like facebook because strangers can find them. That is the point! New clients are the lifeblood of your business. Facebook proves that we are all connected. Just going through the contacts shows the overlap in mutual acquintances. I was out and about on facebook looking at the profile of Sherman Toppin (we meet people through people - in this case through a profile) when I saw a group, Keep Arts in School on their profile and found Dreamer #5 - Malik Boyd. After corresponding for a while, we found out that we were both alumni of Masterman school. So now we had a common connection, just like each of you do by listing your business on DiversePhilly.. Based on this one little detail, we decided to turn on-line conversation into off-line business meeting.

Network marketing taught me that businesses only make money in 2 ways - selling products/services and recruiting talent. I was so busy recruiting him that before I could blink he had recruited me! Partnerships can be a little scary because you are no longer in control but the benefits far outweigh the risks. Not every business can partner with another business. What makes a partnership/relationship/marriage stong is having compatible value systems. If one partner does not value the work the other partner is doing then the relationship will not work. As we were looking at the possibility, we had to know that we valued each other's ideas and businesses. Our values translate into the mission statement of the company and now we can strategize to reach targeted goals. We have a goal to triple the membership base allowing more relationships to happen (common connector) by enhancing DiversePhilly and with working with and recruiting more people. Recruiting people is how you get exponential (not linear growth) to create leverage. Come meet your TEAM and learn Premiere Brand Marketing 's plan on making 2009 a great year for all the businesses who are apart of the DiversePhilly network on April 28th, 2009 from 7:30 am - 10 am!

Marketing Tips shared at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce

Be sure to join us next month as we share more tips with our Montthly Breakfast with Fran event from 7:30 am - 10:00 am on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008!