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Archive for January, 2015
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Wednesday, January 21st, 2015This is a test
Tuesday, January 20th, 2015This is a test
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King
Monday, January 19th, 2015On this national holiday, I decided to take advantage of the resources offered by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute of Stanford University. You can go online and read and listen to many of Dr. King’s speeches as he delivered them. Dr. King offered insight not only into civil rights issues, but into what we need to do to foster a more inclusive economy centered around human values. This quote comes from the “Beyond Vietnam” speech Dr. King delivered in New York on April 4, 1967:
“We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from being a “thing-oriented society” to a “person-oriented society”. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Mentoring for Victory in Procurement
Sunday, January 18th, 2015
Victory in Procurement
I have participated in three of the programs offered by OPEN: the Small Business Network of American Express and I strongly recommend all three. Two were day-long events held in mid-town Manhattan (they are held in cities across the country) for the Victory in Procurement, or VIP series, which aims to equip small businesses to compete and win federal government contracts.
In addition to live events, small businesses may take part in the annual VIP mentorship program, which consists of 12 hours of free one-on-one communications and guidance with a government contracting expert. Participants will be educated on a host of topics, including the GSA schedule, business certifications, teaming arrangements and the importance of networking. Since 2009, OPEN has mentored twelve small business owners looking to grow their business through government contracting. Click here for more information.
I participated in the VIP mentoring program and my group of three small business owners and one government contracting expert had weekly hour-long sessions, often with a guest speaker, to address specific elements of government contracting. We had homework to prepare for and make the most of our weekly sessions, such as developing a capability statement. I cannot say enough good things about this initiative and thanks to American Express for making it available to us.
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Saturday, January 17th, 2015This is a test.
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Thursday, January 15th, 2015This is a test
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Wednesday, January 14th, 2015This is a test
Today is National Clean Your Desk Day
Monday, January 12th, 2015
Tidying Up
Today is National Clean Your Desk Day. It is also National Kiss a Ginger Day and National Marzipan Day, but since a clean desk is relevant to me, and to this blog, I’ll stick with the desk. And, in keeping with today’s theme, I have been following the publishing phenomenon that is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of De-Cluttering and Organizing, the international bestselling book that has sold over two million copies to date. Author Marie Kondo promises that if you organize your home once, you will never have to do it again. (Maintenance is easier than the initial process of organizing and de-cluttering.) I suppose the same principles apply to your office and to your desk. Kondo has an infectious enthusiasm for the calm and motivated mindset a tidy home can inspire. I find it less stressful when the clutter is gone and I do feel motivated to start tasks when I don’t feel overwhelmed by looking at piles of stuff.
So in the spirit of January 12, I cleaned my desk. I also took to heart Kondo’s advice to only keep those items that “spark joy”. My desk and my office have pretty organizing clips, attractive and festive folders for sorting paperwork and my favorite fountain pens. There are a few national retailers that offer name-brand desk accessories that may cost a few dollars more than the generic versions, but they are affordable luxuries. And they make starting work each morning even more pleasant, so I see these items as a good investment. While Kondo surely didn’t have business resilience in mind when she wrote her book, a resilient business is de-cluttered and organized. In an emergency situation, you don’t want to waste time searching for an important file. You don’t want to waste that time on such needless tasks in your normal business day, either. So now that my desk is clean, I will resume work!
Inspiring Image
Saturday, January 10th, 2015
Iris Watercolor
Many people have asked me how I came up with the name for my business, Prisere LLC. It was not an easy task. The challenge was to come up with a name that is unique, memorable and available (meaning no one else is using the name in commerce and the URL is available to register a website – the Facebook, Twitter and other social media handles must also be available). I put together a spreadsheet and generated over 400 naming concepts before finally coming up with Prisere.
The concept of the business name derives from the vesper iris, the most resilient flower. It can thrive in all climates and even bloom in the absence of sunlight. Indeed, the vesper iris would blossom as the faithful were going to their evening prayers, or vespers; hence, the name. Of course, the iris also enables vision by allowing light to enter the eye.
Prisere is an anagram of the vesper iris, minus the letter “V”. Variations of the iris include the Louisiana iris and the fleur-de-lys, the symbol of New Orleans, and the Japanese iris, significant as both Louisiana and Japan are associated with renewal following major disasters. The Siberian iris can even bloom in the frozen tundra. The prisere is the ecological succession to the climax community, in which populations of plants and animals remain stable and exist in balance with each other and with their environment. It reflects the concept of sustainable development. As such, Prisere is the name of the business and the iris is featured in the logo.
The tagline (“Deep rooted. Farsighted.”) refers to the deep roots that enable us to weather the storm the foresight to prepare for the storm, again reflecting the word iris as representing both a flower and a part of the eye. Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP did masterful legal work in registering trademarks for the name Prisere and its logo and tagline. The Twitter and Facebook pages for the business both show the iris blooming in the frost.
This beautiful watercolor of the iris is displayed in my home office. It is the work of Ms. Suwannee Sarakana, a Thai artist whose paintings have won a number of international and regional awards including first prize at the International Watercolor Competition in Rome. Her paintings are included in the collections of the National Gallery of Thailand, the National Gallery of Singapore and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bangkok. I find the imagery inspiring and I hope others will, too.
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Friday, January 9th, 2015This is a test.