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Executive Education for Women-Owned Businesses

Sunday, January 4th, 2015
WBENC Tuck Class of 2014

WBENC Tuck Class of 2014

As I continue to reflect on the achievements of the past year and plan for an even better 2015, I have to give credit to the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council for all they do to accelerate the growth of women-owned business enterprises (WBE’s). I am especially grateful for my participation in WBENC’s signature executive education program last year. The Tuck-WBENC Executive Program is an intensive, five-day executive development program that focuses on increasing the competitive advantage and robustness of each participant’s own business. About 50 WBE attendees formed a learning community that continues to provide a source of support, expertise, opportunities, and strategic alliances long after our graduation.

This executive development program is designed to help WBEs that are beyond the startup phase to assess, improve and grow our businesses. To survive and prosper in today’s fast-moving, highly volatile business climate, WBEs must ensure we have all the essential components of a highly integrated business, such as:

  •  Financial analysis and decision making
  • Clear and focused strategy
  • Superior value
  • Creating customer orientation
  • Optimal core business processes
  • Motivated and empowered staff
  • Carefully managed relationships for long-term success

Graduate professors from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth engaged us in learning and discussions specifically designed to make a difference in how we think about and operate our businesses when we returned from the program. The primary case study is each participant’s own business. Through collaborative learning groups, we applied the tools we learned to assess and improve our businesses, using the same diagnostic and strategy-implementation approaches that external consultants would use.

The 2014 program brought together a dynamic group of women business owners with the world-class faculty of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and IBM, one of America’s Top Corporations for WBEs. IBM has been the program’s sole underwriter from its start and continues to demonstrate tremendous impact on WBEs, our strategic growth and created an unbreakable bond between the WBE participants.

Held at the IBM Palisades, Dolce property in Palisades, NY, IBM hosted the program and brought key staff from procurement, supplier diversity and marketing to network with the group throughout the week. I’d like to extend special thanks to IBM for its continued support of the program and providing stellar corporate representation: Ginni Rometty, Carol Sormilic, Patrice Knight, Michael Robinson, Luis Cuneo and Katy Brownley. Also in attendance at the 2014 Tuck-WBENC Executive Program were President & CEO of WBENC, Pamela Prince-Eason and WBENC Board Chair and Director of Supplier Diversity for Raytheon, Benita Fortner.

I’d particularly like to thank Pitney-Bowes and Laura Taylor for surprising me by underwriting all of the costs of my participation in the program. I had the good fortune to connect with Pitney Bowes after reading the company’s white paper sharing best practices and lessons learned in business continuity when the company experienced a devastating fire at one of its primary mail sorting facilities in Texas. Thereafter, Pitney-Bowes invited me to join their executives in speaking on a webinar about best practices for small businesses to remain resilient in the face of threats. Pitney-Bowes surprised and delighted us once again when they covered the costs for me to serve as the keynote speaker for Rhode Island’s first ever business continuity conference offered by the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency. More than 400 senior representatives from the public and private sectors came together for a day of learning about how to build a more resilient future for the state. The Kirkbrae Country Club in Lincoln hosted the event, which included complimentary breakfast and lunch for all of the participants. Pitney-Bowes also provided copies of my book for each participant.

I cannot say enough good things about the WBENC-Tuck executive education program and all of the companies that generously support it, in particular, IBM and Pitney-Bowes. The faculty of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth were amazing as they would join us in discussions until very late at night, making this one of the most intense learning experiences I can remember. If you are considering applying to this program, please let me know if there are any questions I may answer. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in the program; it was truly one of the highlights of 2014. And I hope I can be a more effective leader to scale and grow Prisere LLC to justify the investment in capacity-building made by WBENC, Tuck, IBM and Pitney-Bowes.

 

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Supporting Women-Owned Businesses

Saturday, January 3rd, 2015
Women-Owned

Women-Owned

The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) , has certified Prisere LLC as a women-owned business. Founded in 1996, WBENC is the nation’s leading advocate of women-owned businesses as suppliers to America’s corporations. WBENC is the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the United States. We recognize the commitment to supplier diversity that is embraced by corporations and government agencies today and are pleased to be formally certified. The Center for Women & Enterprise is the New England regional partner to WBENC and has worked with over 30,000 women-owned businesses since its inception in 1995. We look forward to working with companies that seek to expand access to new, competitive suppliers.

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Reflecting on the Past With Gratitude

Friday, January 2nd, 2015
Logo and tagline

Prisere LLC. Deep rooted. Farsighted.

As I look forward to the achieving the goals set for my business in 2015, I am also taking time to pause, reflect and take stock of what has been accomplished to date.  One of the achievements of which I am most proud is that our law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP incorporated Prisere LLC as a limited liability company in the State of Delaware and registered it as a foreign company to do business in other states. Stroock’s very talented intellectual property attorneys also successfully registered trademarks for Prisere, its tagline and its logo. Stroock provided pro bono legal services to Prisere LLC after we were matched by the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project (NELP) of the New York City Bar. The City Bar launched the project in 2003 to help entrepreneurs with legal services to get their businesses started on as sound a footing as possible. The project provides volunteer attorneys who guide small businesses through such matters as incorporation and tax issues, contracts and agreements, commercial lease negotiations, copyrights, trademarks, and patents. Volunteer attorneys also offer presentations and legal clinics at community-based organizations on issues of concern to micro-entrepreneurs. To date, NELP has partnered with more than 100 law firms, 25 corporate legal departments, and 30 community-based organizations to assist more than 14,000 clients through the provision of brief services, direct representation, legal clinics, and community presentations.

I was particularly delighted to be connected with the team at Stroock, not just for their impressive legal talent, but also for their leadership in providing critical legal pro bono services to small businesses in response to national disasters. I had benefited once before from Stroock’s project for small business disaster relief when, after 9-11, I participated in mediation with the landlord of my office building to resolve a dispute. The dispute centered around treatment of the rent for the days when the office was closed after we were evacuated. The issue was successfully resolved, as Stroock had set up a mediation program to address these inevitable disputes in a fair and efficient manner.

The business of Prisere LLC grew from my book after leaders of the New Orleans Small Business Development Centers urged me to find a way to work on enabling disaster-resilient small businesses as a full-time effort, not just part-time book promotion. And, in another of life’s unusual coincidences, I also referenced Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in that very book – published years before I had my first meeting with them. In Prepare for the Worst, Plan for the Best: Disaster Preparedness and Recovery, second edition, I wrote (page xvii) of how government disaster relief programs often harm small businesses more than help them. As an example, I quoted the Battery Park City Broadsheet (February 27 – March 13, 2002 edition), the community newspaper of the residential  neighborhood in the shadow of the World Trade Center, which wrote about the management of HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) funds for the post-9/11 recovery efforts:

HUD’s first allocation towards the recovery effort is $700 million, part of which is earmarked for small businesses. Unfortunately, what most small business owners have found is that receiving a piece of the $700 million is about as likely as holding a winning PowerBall ticket. From the Ground Up, an organization comprising more than 100 small businesses in Lower Manhattan, is dedicated to making the distribution of aid fair, adequate and easier to procure. Kevin Curnin, a lawyer with Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, advised the group. He said agencies allocating financial aid in most cases have defined “small business” as having as many as 500 employees. “Five hundred is not small,” Curnin said. “This includes massive firms who have insurance. Put a big fish in a small pond and that big fish is going to take a disproportionate share of the resources. It is impractical and wrong…” Aid is not getting to the businesses that really need it, Mr. Curnin said. Many pizza parlors and shoe repair shops – businesses that Mr. Curnin argues make a neighborhood a neighborhood – did not have adequate insurance or a safety net that would allow them to survive being closed for months.”

I also included this quote from the Battery Park City Broadsheet in the first edition of the book, published in 2002. I never would have guessed that the year following publication of the book, the City Bar would establish its Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project through which, years later, I would be introduced to the Stroock team in person. Nor could I have anticipated the extraordinary work that Stroock would go on to do to help small businesses impacted by Hurricane Katrina and Super Storm Sandy. And now, thanks to Stroock’s efforts, Prisere has its trademarks and is building a platform for growth and social impact. So I look forward to 2015, as we build on all of our efforts.

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New Year’s Resolutions for 2015

Thursday, January 1st, 2015
Goals

New Year’s Resolutions for 2015

I have written down my New Year’s Resolutions for 2015. Rather than set ambitious goals, and experience disappointment when I fail to realize them, I have set fewer, more attainable goals in the hope of maintaining my resolve through December 31. I remember the old saying that having too many goals is the same as having none at all. So I set three goals for the business this year.  And while others working in the field of business continuity, such as the Institute for Business & Home Safety, advise New Year’s Resolutions to protect the business, I am taking a different approach in 2015. My resolutions all support the goal of building a platform for sustainable business growth -which, of course, results in a more resilient business, able to work through whatever disruptions may come. So I am going to improve my systems for resource management, whether the resource is time, money, man-hours or even digital assets. I expect that will reduce my level of personal stress. I am going to eliminate whatever isn’t working for me – whether it be clients whose goals no longer align with my own or toxic people who enervate me. Finally, I am going to make more time for leisure and renewal. I will proactively plan to avoid burnout by reducing my work hours and protecting my free time from those who would encroach upon it. Those are my three resolutions, inspired in part, by the work JJ Ramberg is doing on her program “Your Business” that airs Sunday mornings on MSNBC. Each week, she tries out a new resolution and sees who well she can stick to it. She has candidly disclosed that the results have been uneven. I’ll report back mid-year as to how I have fared with my three resolutions for 2015.

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Is Homeownership Incompatible with Entrepreneurship?

Friday, June 1st, 2012

The High Cost of Homeownership

Is being a homeowner incompatible with being an entrepreneur? That is the conclusion of a study published by economists at the Spatial Economics Research Centre in London. They found that homeowners in the U.K. were less likely to become entrepreneurs as their mortgage debt discouraged them from assuming the additional risks of starting new businesses. The study’s authors believe that homeownership reduces “genuine entrepreneurship”, defined as creating a business more substantial than a sole proprietorship. Being self-employed, or even working from a home office, is one thing; taking on the commitment of a payroll for others is something else entirely. U.S. government policies, such as the mortgage tax deduction, create incentives for homeownership. Did the policy goal of fostering homeownership (more than 2/3 American households live in homes they own) stifle our economic growth?  In reading the study, I was reminded of the premise of the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series of books by Robert Kiyosaki. Conventional wisdom posits that we “own” our homes. Not so, says Kiyosaki, the bank owns the home; we own the right to service the debt. As entrepreneurial start-ups consume capital in their early years, it would be an additional burden to tie up capital in the down payment for a home. The study’s conclusion seems plausible, but homeowners may be a self-selected group that would not have otherwise chosen an entrepreneurial path.  I agree with the authors that government policies incenting homeownership are unwise. Why motivate people to tie up capital in illiquid assets that are cash flow negative? The study focuses on homeowners in the U.K., but let’s hope the team at the U.S. Small Business Administration reads it. SBA loans require collateral, typically property and usually the home of the small business borrower. Now there is a senseless policy incenting needless risk.

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Mismatch Between Small Business Hiring Needs and the Unemployed

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
Too Complicated!

Too Complicated!

National Small Business Week, which just wrapped up this past weekend, is the occasion for everyone and anyone in Washington to proclaim how much they love small businesses, which, after all, created two out of every three new jobs over the past three decades. The Obama Administration’s contribution to National Small Business Week, courtesy of the National Economic Council, is a “Congress To-Do List” presented in the recent report “Moving America’s Small Businesses & Entrepreneurs Forward: Creating an Economy Built to Last”.

I believe the single greatest obstacle to scale and grow businesses is the lack of candidates qualified for employment. As such, I read with great interest the NEC report’s policy recommendations for investing in worker skills and training. Sadly, they are largely a re-tread of two generations of failed federal programs for workforce development.  But a careful analysis of the proposals and existing programs suggests a more effective approach, which I outline in an op-ed piece published today in the Huffington Post.

To its credit, the Administration has correctly framed the issue. The NEC report acknowledges that small businesses are reporting shortages of skilled personnel to fill critical roles even as we continue to experience high unemployment. The President’s proposed solution is an $8 billion Community College to Career Fund. The President appears to believe that lack of funding for job training initiatives at the community college level is an obstacle to creating pathways to employment. The American Graduation Initiative he proposed in 2009, for example, called for $10 billion in funding for community colleges, but received only $2 billion from Congress.

Lack of funding is not the problem. The problem is that the Community College to Career Fund, like its predecessors the Federal Workforce Investment Act (“WIA”) and the Job Training Partnership Act, does not exist to train the workers that the private sector desperately needs.

Consider the WIA tuition grants, administered by the “One-Stop” job centers of the Labor Department in local communities. The grants award up to $4,000 for approved courses at eligible training providers, typically community colleges and other public institutions.  The federal government establishes a performance metric for states to receive federal funding: 75% of those receiving training must secure employment.

No surprise then that the states’ WIA annual reports reveal success in meeting performance metrics. After all, the state workers want to keep the federal funds flowing and with it, their own jobs. But the 75% rate is achieved by establishing barriers to entry that restrict access to training. Only the most determined and skilled can comply with the onerous WIA program requirements, the very people most likely to find jobs anyway. A review of state WIA annual reports of some of the most populous states that beat the 75% metric finds that only 2,000 or so displaced workers in those individual states received training grants. This does not come close to achieving the scale required to lower unemployment.

And I am skeptical that the people who attended workshops, met with facilitators, were counseled by case managers, passed three-hour tests of basic skills, certified job logs, and invested at least two months in completing all of the scheduled tasks required to at least be considered for WIA training grants, obtained employment at our most promising start-ups. The WIA training grants cover courses for “industry-recognized credentials”. The most entrepreneurial firms have disruptive business models and technologies. We have no use for people schooled in the status quo we seek to overturn. I believe that the President’s solution simply throws more money at failed training schemes. In my op-ed piece, I propose a better alternative.

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FedEx Small Business of the Week

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

I am delighted to report that Prisere LLC is one of three finalists for the FedEx Small Business of the Week. The public will choose the winner by online voting. You don’t have to disclose any personal information to vote, just one mouse-click will do it. Please vote for us and encourage your friends and family to vote for us. Here is the site where you can vote until 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, December 13:

http://www.nflsbotw.com/vote.html

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New York Times Small Business Case Study Highlights Disaster Risk

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

After the flood

Check out the New York Times‘ weekly small business case study which presents the story of Pulling Down the Moon, a Chicago business affected by disaster. Three experts were asked to advise the business owners with respect to their future leasing plans. Our comments were heavily edited for space considerations. Here is the complete comment I submitted:

“The co-founders and owners of Pulling Down the Moon are to be commended for doing so many things right: developing an operations manual to provide for systematic processes to scale the business, storing critical data offsite and securing business interruption insurance to replace their lost revenues. Sadly, few business owners take these essential steps, resulting in losses that could be avoided.

But now the business faces a dilemma: should they stay or should they find new space? The answer to that question is to be found in the mission of the business, providing stress-reducing yoga to aid fertility. Disruptions are stressful.  We are all on autopilot to a certain extent, relying on repetitive familiar routines to get through the day. Even trivial changes, such as a new commute on an unfamiliar route, cause stress. Should Pulling Down the Moon impose upon its clients the stress associated with its current sub-leasing arrangements? Better to find space that is less vulnerable to water damage to ensure future continuity for the business and its clients, who need a consistent, soothing space in their lives.

But the founders of Pulling Down the Moon should be under no illusions that they will move from the back seat to the driver’s seat by moving from a sub-lease to a primary lease.  A commercial tenant’s disaster response is always dependent on the efforts of its landlord. That is why businesses should consult with their landlords to determine in advance what facilities and services will be in place after a disruption and establish roles and responsibilities for such cases. This avoids disputes that can arise later. Pulling Down the Moon is fortunate that it avoided what could have been a costly misunderstanding by having a relatively cooperative landlord. As it enters into lease negotiations with a new landlord, it should document explicit arrangements for procedures in the event of a disruption so both landlord and tenant can each benefit from greater predictability.”

Donna Childs is the founder of Prisere LLC and the author of Prepare for the Worst, Plan for the Best: Disaster Preparedness and Recovery for Small Businesses (Wiley, second edition paperback, 2009).”

Thanks to the New York Times and to author John Grossman for a great case study that we hope will raise awareness about the importance of preparedness.

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Breaking the Bat

Friday, November 11th, 2011

A friend took this photograph at a Yankees baseball game showing the batter hitting the ball with such force that he broke the bat. It is a great photograph, the detail is perfect. And I thought it a great image for this blog posting describing what a friend and fellow small business owner had to do to get a large corporation to pay her (hint: it is one of the Wall Street banks that accepted government bailout money) an invoice that was more than two years past due. FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, oversees this particular company and, in the course of a routine audit, found that it had failed to properly disclose this past due debt on its books. After FINRA auditors surfaced this matter, the company paid my friend’s business the money that was well overdue. And FINRA imposed a fine on the company of five times the debt owed my friend. She told me that she has over $50,000 in receivables due her from large Wall Street firms for work that she has performed that she has been struggling for over two years to collect. Now she is informing all of them of the action FINRA took against this one company in the hope of motivating the others to pay. “I know I am destroying my relationships with these companies,” she told me, “but I need the money.” Actually, if she has to fight with them for over two years to get paid, these relationships are not worth preserving. Well done, FINRA.

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Small Businesses for Vermont

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Hurricane Irene caused the worst flooding to strike Vermont in 83 years, leaving the state under 15 inches of rain in a single weekend. National Weather Service hydrologist Greg Hanson described it as “one of the top weather-related disasters in Vermont’s history.” A little over two months later, residents and businesses are struggling to recover. USA Today reports that Vermont residents are learning that while FEMA, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, provides assistance to individuals, the only alternative for small businesses is to apply for federal disaster loans. And, predictably, most businesses didn’t have flood insurance for not being located in a flood plain and for the fact that the insurance premiums are very expensive. Predictably, Vermont’s representatives, notably Senator Sanders, are protesting that disaster relief is caught up in Washington politics. Senator Sanders also protested the slow pace of approval of SBA disaster loans, particularly in comparison with local assistance from the Vermont Economic Development Authority. Vermont’s economy is dependent of its small business sector and local businesses are doing what they can to help one another. Independent Vermont Clothing, an online retailer, raised $26,005 for the disaster relief fund of Vermont’s Red Cross by selling T-Shirts with a “Support Vermont” theme. I already bought mine, shown here on a dress form, because there is no one around today to snap a photo of me wearing it! Whether it is donating to the relief efforts, volunteering to help or patronizing Vermont businesses, either in person or online, we should all show our support.

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