MEDweek 2010 Recap - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I think I will start with the grim reality (The bad) of minority owned business. From the official MBDA (minority business development agency) disparities in capital access report, "The probability of self-employment is substantially higher among the children of the self-employed". Studies generally find that and individual who had a self-employed parent is roughly 2 to 3 times as likely to be self-employed as someone who did not have a self-employed parent. In a study by Michael Hout and Harvey S. Rosen, they note a "triple disadvantage" faced by African-American men in terms of business ownership. They are less likely than white men to have a self-employed fathers, to become self-employed if their fathers were not self-employed, and to follow their father in self-employment. Across all ethnic groups business ownership is 10.1% but in the African American community business ownership is just 5.5%. Of course, we all know access to capital creates job and minorities are redlined in being denied access (which creates jobs) by the financial markets.

The MEDWeek conference showed initiatives (The good) the federal government,through the small business administration, has implemented to addressed these concerns. The SBA is guaranteeing loans up to 90% to mitigate the banks risks in making loans to small business. The SBA has also dropped or substantially reduced the loan application fee . The IRS has creating tax incentives (health care credits) to help employers create jobs and provide benefits which in turn allow employees to stay longer. The SBA has initiatives from the white house to to help small businesses. Quote from http://www.sba.gov/jobsandcapital/ "

Administration Announces New Small Business Commercial Real Estate and Working Capital Programs

President Obama announced on February 5, 2010 two new small business lending initiatives to help increase access to capital and create jobs. These temporary Small Business Administration initiatives include a refinancing program for small business owner-occupied commercial real estate and an expanded working capital loan program. At the same time, the president continued his call for a permanent increase of the maximum loan sizes for SBA’s 7(a), 504 and microloan programs and to extend the successful small business Recovery Act lending programs. These initiatives are part of the Administration's broader agenda to improve access to credit for small businesses, including a proposal to transfer, through legislation, $30 billion to a new Small Business Lending Fund that will support lending by community and smaller banks." Small businesses especially minorities are have the upper hand when it comes to importing/exporting goods and services. As we all know people do business with people of a similar ethnic group. The world is brown and 95% of all consumers are OUTSIDE of the United States.

The truth of the matter is that small business is stuck in a rut (The Ugly). Small businesses create 2 out of every 3 new jobs. But inadequate financing and red tape bureaucracy limit job creation. The cycle of business is too dependent on the financial markets. Businesses are required to make the product, pay the employees and wait and average of 60 -90 days from job completion to getting paid from the commercial or government job. To hire employees, businesses must have a solid plan, good credit in order to build a working capital account and float salaries. This is a post on the www.business.gov website that is specific to Philadelphia " I have learned about many business programs that designed to help women and minorities. I hate to say that all of them are dysfunctional. I have wasted my time trying to get any help from those programs.They all nothing but running around service, and they all limited to phone calls and bureaucracy. I suggest to have all these business programs under one umbrella. Through my experience, I learned that those business programs have negative impacts on those who are seeking to start their own business. These programs are: Mayor Action Business Team,Business Development Center,Philadelphia Commission Development Center, SCORE, Profile Re-Employment Program, Fox Business School, Temple University,Women Business, Minority Business.PANO, women WAY etc.. I have tried all of them,until I got exhausted and lost interest."

In this economy, we have to change the financial model of business. We are too dependent on the broken banking system. Commercial contracts need to work with their suppliers and pay deposits on the goods and services they buy. Businesses must give each other lines of credit and work in partnership to complete jobs. We have to shorten the time it takes to get paid from a completed job from 60-90 days to a number under 30 days in the commercial and government sector and the banking system must start providing lines of credit (AGAIN) for commercial accounts.

I was personally impressed that MED Week did not sugar coat these issues. This year they attempted to bring businesses together in the form on a B2B Expo. I found the Expo to be a great idea in theory but the businesses that were there said go to our website and sign up in our database as a diversity supplier. (WASTE OF TIME). Somehow the MBDA must act as an intermediary to build 3rd party creditability (edification). Though the company is IBM, there is still a biased person making a decision to work with that company. The supplier diversity reps did not have a white paper of the type of businesses they were looking for. The responses I heard was they were looking for businesses with capacity and a strong financial foundation (see the good and the ugly with the reason MBE firms do not have this) and that is where the vicious cycle begins. But I am optimistic that a change is coming. Why? Because we have NO choice. Now is a great time to start or be in business because your business in INNOVATION ( read - http://www.examiner.com/business-technology-in-philadelphia/innovation-as-the-new-economy-for-2010)! The president has even dedicated 3% of the US economy's GDP (gross domestic product) to fund research and development. The world is open to your new ideas and technology has dramatically lowered the overhead to get your business off the ground. Capacity (i.e scalability) is key and while the financial door is closed, capacity can be built through leveraging partnerships that provide resources with your business idea. In a very short time, we are now realizing that discrimination has SUNK ALL SHIPS and MBE firms and non-MBE firms must find a way to work together. What a great concept for business (and for schools, for education, for religion, for life)!

When are you starting your marathon?

This morning, my accountability partner (yes, you should have a person who holds you accountable to completing your goals) said a friend told her the Nicole Newman of today is not the Nicole Newman she met 3 years ago. She said "Nicole lost the weight and is now determined and focused on her goals to build a solid business community in Philadelphia."


Yes I am not the person I was 3 years ago when I started my marathon. I started at 240 pounds and a mom of a 4, 2, and 1 year old. My first book "E Myth Revisited" said to grow your business, you must grow yourself. These words went straight to my heart.

I did not complete my marathon by myself. Melanie Marchand from SIS Fitness (Open House on 1/23/10) taught me, through the Fitness Challenge how to do discipline myself to get it done! The race, like your business, is a marathon not a sprint. Yes, I registered for the marathon March 2009 but the journey began September 2007. Your goals this year should stretch you into becoming the disciplined, committed, focused business owner you need to be.



Last year was a hard training year - It rained and I ran out of time. I did manage to complete the checkpoints like the Philadelphia half marathon. Completing that goal made me buy my ticket to Florida and get to the point of no return. I had to wake up at 3:30 in the morning but I was committed to the race. Look at your goals and see if they are stretching you. If they are not, set your goals on higher grounds. I have already registered for the SheRox Triathlon on August 21, 2009. This year, I will learn how to swim and ride a bike. When will you start your marathon?

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!

National Minority Economic Development Week Recap

I had the pleasure of attending the national Med Week celebration in Washington DC on behalf of DiversePhilly. The national director, David Hinson, University of Penn Wharton School of Business alum (and a former business owner) talked about the importance of strategic alliances (partnerships, joint ventures, mergers/acquisitions) as growth strategies instead of the traditional organic growth. Then Ervin "Magic" Johnson, former team captain of the NBA champion LA Laker's and business owner, spoke about his growth strategies and his partnership with Starbucks (he owns 105 stores in the urban community). I wish I could copy his speech but these are highlights from my notes. When he approached Starbucks, they had no stores in the urban community. He went to them with a value added proposition about how the urban population (a previously untapped market) is critical to the growth of the Starbucks brand. So the owner of Starbucks said he would come down to LA and conduct due diligence on the Magic Johnson movie theaters. Magic said when he conducted his SWOT (strengths, weeknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, the strengths were Him (passion, drive, brand name and competitive nature), a great management team and excellent customer service. He listens to his customers because they will tell you what they want to make your company successful. As he is from the urban community he identifies with his target market. The fountain drinks in the movie theater chain have not only the traditional Coke but also strawberry, fruit punch and grape because his target audience grew up on Kool-Aid! He asked the food vendors if they had enough hot dogs and the food vendor said they had enough for a month but they sold out of hot dogs on the first day because his target audience does not do dinner AND a movie, they do dinner IN the movie! As a result of seeing the revenue generated at the AMC/Magic Johnson theaters (which was a proven track record) the Magic Johnson/Starbucks deal was done. Now Magic has proved that the urban community can pay $3.00 for coffee but he offers pound cake and red velvet cake among others because the target audience he serves won't eat scones.

Magic talked about how every other community has figured out that partnerships and trust are needed to do well in business but the message has been sadly lost African American community (see Nicole's Commentary 5 August 2009). I would rather have 25% of 10 million than 100% of 10,000 any day. What really struck my heart was when he talked about passing the knowledge to the next generation. The story behind the story of Nicole Newman is my grandfather, Robert Newman. Robert Newman came from a farming family in Virginia to build a life and new home out on the main line. The key to his new life was creating a paving business which did residential beautification projects in Delaware and Montgomery County. He was blessed with three sons before my aunt, the baby girl, was born. None of his sons (including my father) joined him in the family business which unfortunately closed doors (he did not sell the brand name, client list and goodwill, the business just shut down) before he passed in 1991. That family history taught me the importance of passing the knowledge. Magic shared a similar story of getting your children involved early in the business. He started his own son as a janitor and an associate on the concession stand. Last Sunday, I had a meeting with a client and I took my children along. My 6 year old son was so excited to go to a business meeting at Chili's, he asked could he give me a kiss. I said "No, not now". He said "when OUR clients leaves can I give you a kiss?" My client and I shared a laugh because he identified her as OUR client. Magic, I agree start them young in the FAMILY business and make it a prioirty to pass the knowledge to the next generation.

I will be front and center as my inspiration, Nakia Stith from Top of the Clock, receives her award from the 4th annual "Passing The Torch" ceremony at The Enterprise Center. This is my annual event as I watched with great pride as our friend, Sirena Moore from Elohim Construction Company received her honor last year. It is these events which continue to inspire me to build this company so that my children, Sahar Omar and Nasir will be standing next in line with a chance at being honored at the 24th Annual "Passing the Torch" ceremony....

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.