Nicole's Commentary 14 August 2009

I feel like I have not addressed this audience in quite some time. This is been a busy summer! I have been creating relationships and dissolving relationships that do not align with the mission of growing YOUR business. There are a couple of competing beliefs on how business is done. Newman Networks is in the midst of a hostile takeover. There is a belief that this is just a part of business but it is my belief that our clients and the services provided are relationships. Relationships can not be randomly traded. We do not sell inanimate objects, like widgets, that are bought and sold. We sell relationships and those relationships are the key to taking YOUR business to the next level.

DiversePhilly members, I have not forgotten about YOUR business. The Wealth Building Series at IKEA is back, the Breakfast With Fran series is back and soon your network and all associated jobs, events and new members will be back. This has been a learning experience and that IS apart of doing business. The key is to learn the lesson and modify the behavior so it does not happen again. I have gotten much stronger in the process and strengthened my belief in YOU and DIVERSEPHILLY. Special thanks to The Credit Woman, Zana Cakes, LifeSpirit Photography, Hackett Global Marketing, Mitchell's Accounting and Tax Solutions, The Enterprise Center Capital Corporation, Goldflam and Associates, UrbanPhilly, Keep Philadelphia Beautiful, IKEA, Arnez Exquisite Catering, ClientLink , Meleta Lambert Enterprises, Eatible Delights, Women's Yellow Pages, Urban League Entrepreneurship Center and Ultimate Concrete LLC for making sure I did not get distracted and keep focus on the mission of growing YOUR business. Special acknowledgement also goes to our website development company, JeterActive who once again stood by my side.

Looking forward to a continuing partnership, Nicole Newman.

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 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!

Nicole's Commentary 16 March 2009

If you have been keeping up on my book that is featured in the Notes section of my Facebook profile, you know two of my friends own small businesses (though neither of them advertise on DiversePhilly - friends are the hardest to work with). Just the other day, I ran into one of my friends, let's call her Sue, at her business and she said I should stop speaking to her. I asked her "What is the problem?" She said, I was disloyal to her by taking my daughter to her ex-employee's competing business. She also said, "If I am her friend and she does not like someone, then I should not like someone."

There are a few problems with this scenario. As we move the company to the business owner stage, these are the lessons I take with me:

1) Employees are not your friends. Sue thought her employee was her friend and that is why she was upset when she no longer chose to work for her. You can be friendly with your employees but they are not your friends. The employees can become resentful if you hold a paycheck over their head. Always treat your employees with respect (they generate your profit margin) and create an environment conducive to friendly relations.

2) Loyalty - As a customer I am known to be hard to satisfy. Treat your customers as you want to be treated. I stopped going to Sue's business because they have been known to smoke inside of the business and use foul language. Instead of asking why I did not use her services and use that as a learning experience, she used the guilt tactic of loyalty.

My loyalty exists in servicing my clients to bring them information, relationships and success stories they can use to be inspired and grow their business. Though we are friends, loyalty will not keep me as a customer. I left my children's day care center (which is owned by another close friend) on three separate occasions (and I still manage to come back) because my philosophy has been yes, we are friends, but when it comes to exchanging money for services, it is strictly business. My friend who owns the day care center was able to take me back (after some begging) because she shares the same philosophy. Creating a business relationship should not enhance or deter a friendship. I recently found a LinkedIn profile that had 58 recommendations. That is my new goal to reach this year. I only have 50% of that number and am looking to find ways to add more value to my clients and garner more recommendations of a job well done. I want to create an environment where the standard is excellence (see success stories above). Though excellence is not obtainable, it can still be a goal. I am already planning what it takes to win the Greater Philadelphia Chamber's Excellence Awards. Will you join me?

Nicole's Commentary 27 February 2009

My personal and business philosophy is to make everyone that I come in contact with better by creating relationships that will enhance their business. The niche market that we serve are business owners. Most people can tell when we meet them that my company is about working and building together but there was a need to find a way to translate that message utilizing technology. This would allow us to connect with more people than we could ever meet in a person. My facebook profile has 954 friends and business associates half of which I don't know (YET!). It has been the use of technology (sites such as DiversePhilly, linkedin and facebook) that allowed my company to improve our productivity and now we are using videography services (Thanks Red Sun Multimedia and Beckett Concepts) to spread the message across the internet and reach more business owners. The internet can be used to connect but if you are only using it to promote your business, the internet will also be used to disconnect. I recently found out that my e-mail address was in put in a clients spam folder :-)

Does your philosophy show that you value others by sharing information in your newsletter or does your philosophy show that you are using the internet to promote your business?

Tara's Commentary 16 February 2009

Read this section to see how the Wealth Building Series speakers use DiversePhilly for "Each One, Teach One" to share our knowledge and grow together...

Newman Networks is led by a dynamic individual who knows the power of relationships. And I want each of the attendees of the Wealth Building Series presented by Newman Networks' Diverse Philly to understand what we are presenting. In the inaugural workshop, Steve Goldflam of Goldflam and Associates, an accounting firm, spoke about "falling in love with reality". And although Valentine's Day was days away the topic was your real financial numbers, i.e., your budget. The numbers I want everyone in my segment to "love" are your credit scores. Perhaps love is not quite the correct adjective, so let's say to change your Relationship with Money which directly affects your credit rating. And just like with any relationship, if you haven't been exposed to healthy ones it may be difficult to emulate.

President Obama wrote of the 'audacity of hope' and we as individuals and/or business owners must be proactive instead of reactive. You always have choice...even if you don't like the options. Make a decision to move forward. Today. NOW.

Your assignment: Get current (less than 6 months old) copies of your credit reports preferably with scores. There are many sites you can use, but try www.identityguard.com. I am not endorsing this site, just letting you know of an affordable way to get your reports instantaneously. Contact me if you have any problems obtaining your Experian, Equifax or Transunion reports [TheCreditWoman@gmail.com].

In addition, this is an educational series. Whether you attended the first session or not it is just as important to do that assignment. Your budget. Ask yourself this question: Without knowing what I am earning and spending, how can I possibly manage my credit rating?

Looking forward to discussing with YOU how to increase YOUR bottom line in 2009.

About Tara Colquitt, featured in Essence November 2007 for becoming wealthy through real estate as part of the House Depot:
I have a proven track record of helping others improve their credit scores and I educate and mentor clients with diverse circumstances about using credit properly to gain access to wealth. Most of us need to change our relationship with money while building a relationship with people to potentially gain leverage to secure financial freedom for future investments. I believe everyone has knowledge that can assist others in achieving their highest potential; therefore, it is imperative that like-minds work together to reach financial goals and create paths for others to follow.