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We'll start with our featured member spotlight. Christine Decker is CEO and President of Amenity Rentals, a full service corporate relocation firm that has a reputation in the Tri-State region for going above and beyond in service to their clientele.
Christine's business – and life – has taken many twists and turns over the past few years but she's got a lot going for her – including the fire in the belly that many of our speakers said was absolutely critical to success as an entrepreneur. She's also a great example of a business owner who's not taking the current economic climate lying down – and has a strategy and a plan that are going to ensure her success.
Christine Decker has moved sixteen times. She's lived the stress of landing in a new city, having to furnish a new home and needing not only window treatments and cable, but a new dentist and hair salon. For Christine, relocation is a way of life. And – it's her business.
For the full article click here.
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Be Sure to SAVE the DATE for our next "Un-Marketing" Event – Friday, the 13th of March, 2009.
Our third annual "Growth Strategies" breakfast summit is right around the corner. This year we're featuring Aldonna Ambler, President of Ambler Consulting(aka "the Growth Strategist") who will be giving us her perspective and advice for dealing with whatever comes our way in 2009. We'll also be sharing the results from our annual Growth Strategies survey of small to mid-size businesses in the Greater Philadelphia region. More to come but mark your calendars now!
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Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Workshops – Coming to Philadelphia!
And if you haven't heard, Doug Diamond (one of our CEO Think Tank® licensed facilitators) and myself have recently become Certified Coaches with the Gazelles organization and are in the process of scheduling our first few "Mastering the Rockefeller Habits" workshops for 2009.
We've both been very impressed with the material, the tools and the philosophy – especially when it comes to supporting the growth of small and mid-size companies. We also believe that the methodologies and disciplines taught in the workshop will be of particular interest to companies who want to successfully navigate the tumultuous waters of the next year or two. To kickoff our certification, we'll be holding a private workshop on February 18th and 19th and are co-sponsoring a public workshop in May of 2009. If you'd like more information or would like to sign up, let us know by emailing us at info@ceothinktank.com or giving us a call at 877-CEO-3264.
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Greetings!
Surviving what the next few years have to offer has certainly been on the mind of many CEO's and business owners in the past few months. But there's always a silver lining. A few weeks ago at the Fortune Small Business Growth Conference in Atlanta, Verne Harnish, author of "Mastering the Rockefeller Habits", challenged a group of over 350 entrepreneurs and business executives by asking the following question. "What are you doing or planning in your business right now to take advantage of the biggest opportunity in two decades?" That's right – opportunity. It's a great question in the midst of all of the gloom and doom and one that I posed at our December "Un-Marketing" event, 'The Keys to Success" as well as at our Think Tank meetings.
And kudos to our members for their response. They've been brainstorming various business scenarios, sharing what they've done to be successful and how they could apply their learnings going forward, talking with their customers to fine tune their offerings and services, tightening budgets, and planning for whatever future comes their way. So we thought that we'd use this edition of our "Un-Newsletter" to share some of what they're doing – and hopefully give you some ideas of your own as you venture into 2009.
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 As promised, our "Un-Marketing" event – 'The Keys to Success' on December 2nd turned out to be quite informative! Thank you to all who attended and a special thanks to the following presenters who not only entertained us, but also gave us sound advice with concrete examples of how to achieve our goals in 2009:
Marco Lentini, Avanti Food Corporation
Chris Burkhard, The CBI Group
Helene Rodriguez, The McConnell Group
Eric Jansen, Parallel Edge
Emmy Miller, Liberty Business Strategies
Paul McGrath & Larry Waddell, 5K Logistics, Inc.
James & Jeffrey Stanch, Runnemede Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric
Throughout the evening, an array of topics and subjects were discussed. Here is a recap of some of the salient points made during this great session.
For the full article click here.
Another benefit to attending the FSB Growth conference was the opportunity to hear Tom Peters speak. As always, he had wonderful stories and great observations about the successes and failures of any number of businesses and the people who run them. He was also full of witticisms, shared pointed commentary on the current state of business, in the United States and abroad, and had some great one liners – which we've captured in our piece, "The Top Ten Memorable Quotes from Tom Peters". Enjoy!
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Congratulations to one of our newest members, Michael Holahan, President of the Pennsylvania General Store, Inc. His company won the Retailer of the Year award from the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Way to go!
And, some commentary from Dave Raymond, Emperor of Fun and Games at Raymond Entertainment. Dave was recently featured in the Philly Inquirer and had this to say about planning – and fun - for 2009.
"Hey...I wonder if you were aware of the recent economic woes that have been occurring...in case you've been so focused on your business that you haven't been paying attention. Maybe you missed the downturn being on the front pages of every newspaper, periodical and television news story...oh...and by the way, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. With all of this change and unrest with the economy, you might think that it is tough to be in the business of Fun. Actually Fun is still in but everyone is stretching their dollar so our deliveries of Fun must be low cost, short duration and a ton of fun. Read this recent article from the Philadelphia Inquirer about the benefits of fun in the work place...and don't forget to budget for fun in '09."
For the full article click here.
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