EVSI Speaks - January 2012

EVSI Speaks!

President Speaks at Women’s Summit - Growing a Business Esther Monzon-Aguirre, President, EVSI was privileged to speak at this year’s Women’s Success Summit. The Women’s Success Summit is Miami’s largest 2-day business conference for women. Hosted by Michelle Villalobos, business skills trainer, the conference provided women with advice for developing their business and strategies to improve growth. At this year’s summit, Esther joined a panel of speakers who spoke about “build-ing scalability and growth.” As President and Senior Project Manager at EVSI, Esther shared tips on how small businesses can best position themselves in both public and private sectors. Although sometimes a daunting task, Esther provided conference attendees with insight on how to navigate the vendor reg-istration process associated with minority,

women-owned firms applying for contracts in the public and private sectors. For those looking to get started but not sure how, EVSI provides services that help businesses register as a vendor, as well as grant applica-tions specific to each business. As a woman business owner, Esther used her insight to give suggestions and advice to the women present at the summit. Her experiences in business development, through both her own business and those of her clients businesses, make her a leader as an entrepreneur. For more information on the Women’s Success Summit, please visit their website www.MichelleVillalobos.com/Wom-ensSuccessSummit/. If you’re interested in growing your business, and would like as-sistance, you can find our resource sheet on our website at: www.EVServicesInc.com.

WOMEN’S SUCCESS SUMMIT Diandra Lamas, Sylvia Farina, Patricia Benavides of Ocean Bank and Esther Monzon-Aguirre step up at Women’s Success Summit IV.

Editor-in-Chief: Diandra Lamas Creative Director: Jaclyn Casal

Issue 1 January, 2012

From the Corner OfficeDear Friends,

It is with great pleasure that the team at EV Ser-vices, Inc. (EVSI) shares with you our first edition of EVSI Speaks! Since we opened shop over five years ago, our company has experi-enced significant growth. It is because of clients, col-leagues and friends, such as yourselves, that we are able to share our successes with you. In the past year alone, we have more than doubled our staff to a team of 20! This growth makes us especially proud because it comes at a time where daily reports fo-cus on the economic down-turn, the failure rate of small businesses and the lack of available jobs. Again, thank you for your support and friendship. We kick-off 2012 with many exciting things to report, and will continue to keep you updated with the monthly edition EVSI Speaks. May this year bring you con-tinued success and prosper-ity, from our office to yours.

Sincerely, Esther Monzon-Aguirre

Photo by Event photographer

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Moving S. FL: Trolleys & Trains Trolleys There’s a growing trend in South Florida transportation – trolley’s. Since 2006, mu-nicipalities such as the City of Doral, Village of Pal-metto Bay, the City of Coral Gables and the Town of Miami Lakes, have all opted to pro-vide their citizens with trolley systems in order to travel to shopping cen-ters, retail areas and local businesses. In June of 2011, the City of Miami began its efforts to evaluate the impact of suggested trolley routes, and EVSI was engaged to assist in this effort. Following the success of other mu-

nicipalities with trolley systems, the City of Miami hopes to encourage commuters to use these trolleys instead of their cars to promote easy transportation throughout

their business or residential areas. Through the use of in-person surveys conducted by the EVSI Research Team the City will determine if local businesses and residents, along the proposed route, are in support of a trolley system. EVSI also as-

City of Doral takes steps to improve Design District The City of Doral recently created the Doral Design District. Growth of the design district – an area that merchants and residents consider a location with a high probability for com-mercial expansion – is part of the City’s continued efforts to grow and identify itself as a business oriented area of Miami-Dade County. As part of its effort to improve the De-sign District, the City submitted its applica-tion for a Brownfield grant from the Federal government. EVSI along with the planning team at C3TS were contracted by the City to prepare the grant proposal . Spearheading these efforts was our Director of Analytical Studies, Amanda Gorski. “Grants are a great way for cities to leverage their resources and fund projects to make bigger impacts on the lives of their citizens and customers,” said Gorski.

The Federal Government sent out requests for proposals that encourage municipalities to clean up sites within their boundaries which are considered brown-fields. Doral convened a Design District Task Force which identified an area used for a few years as a construction dumpsite. Based on this information, Doral approved a reso-lution identifying the location as a Brown-field, making it officially eligible to apply for EPA grants. Along with City staff from the Plan-ning and Economic Development Depart-ments, EVSI prepared the proposal to the Federal Government. The City is awaiting a response. This clean up will allow the City to further improve the Design District area and continue to support the merchants in this area.

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sisted the City in evaluating the impact of a second trolley service, to be created in the Allapattah / Overtown areas.

Trains The South Florida Regional Transporta-tion Authority (SFRTA), receives Federal funding in order to operate its Tri-County Tri-Rail System. The Authority has engaged the HNTB Corporation and EVSI to assist in submitting ridership assessment to the Federal Govern-

ment. In order to receive National Fund-ing, SFRTA must complete an audit of its ridership on a yearly basis. For the last several months, the EVSI Research Team has provided staff and logistical support to HNTB in order to complete the Federal Audit for SFRTA.

“Each year in the US, over 440,000 people are killed or injured by distracted drivers.”

Learn more atwww.textthelastword.com


Keep Both Hands on the Wheel!

In the 3 to 6 seconds it takes you to read this sentence, you could have traveled the length of a football field in a moving vehicle. Looking down while driving can have deadly consequences, but in Florida today, there are no legal consequences. That may be changing; in December, the Florida Senate Transportation Committee took the first steps to ban Texting and Driving with Senate Bill (SB) 416. If passed, Florida will join 39 other states who currently have ei-ther partial or full bans on cell phone usage while driving. Sylvia Farina was present at the Trans-portation Committee meeting when SB416 was passed, continuing the Firm’s support of this initiative. SB416 addresses “nonvoice interper-sonal communication,” which means text messaging, emailing or instant messaging. It does not apply to phone calls made while driving. The intention is to reduce injury or deaths caused by wireless communica-tion use while driving a motor vehicle and improve roadway safety. Sen. Nancy Detert, who represents parts of Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties, sponsored SB416. The legislation

was passed unanimously at the meeting, and Senators Larcenia Bullard and Rene Garcia, of Miami-Dade County, both spoke in sup-port of the bill.

Bill Advances Towards Law Against Texting & Driving

Growing Small Businesses, Together In a time where many members of our community are struggling, the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) is making strides in its efforts to involve small and lo-cal businesses in its contracts and programs. In addition to requiring small business participation in its procurement process, the MDX Procurement Department also funds a Small Business Outreach Program – MDX For Business. The program recognizes needs that the small companies have to improve their business – such as technical and administrative certifications – come at a high cost. For that reason, MDX continues to provide trainings to the small and local businesses either at a free or discounted cost. The EVSI staff is proud to assist MDX in its efforts to facilitate the outreach pro-gram including the Small & Local Business Workshop. The Workshop brings together minority businesses, corporations, federal

and state government officials in one place. The focus is on small and local business development in the community and learning the skills necessary to succeed in the trans-portation industry. This year marks a new and exciting pro-gram which began in January – the Miami Dade College (MDC) Certificate in Entre-preneurship Program. The Entrepreneurship Program is part of MDX’s partnership with MDC and allows 8 small business owners to earn 12 college credits. The course schedule and professor selection, developed by the MDC College of Business and MDX, is meant to make the participants better prepared to handle day-to-day business operations. Graduates of the program will be spotlighted at the 9th Annual Small & Local Business Enterprise Workshop scheduled for later this year.

About MDX for Business

• In the last 2 years, MDX has awarded over $48 million to certi-fied local businesses. Given the challenges small businesses must face, MDX remains involved in the community to create opportunities for small and minority business growth.

• Additionally, in 2011 MDX Pro-curement Manager Helen Cordero was recognized as the S/M/WBE Advocate of the Year for Miami-Dade County by the MDBA Busi-ness Center. Congratulations!

For more information on the MDX for Business program, visit www.mdxway.com/doing_business

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More than 15,000

people have made the

pledge on Miami-Dade

Expressway Authority’s

“Text the Last Word”

Campaign banner.


After 5 years of success thanks to the support of our clients, EVSI is proud to an-nounce – we’re moving! Our new office will be located at 2150 Coral Way, 4th Floor. “Moving offices isn’t the only change

happening for EVSI,” said President Esther Monzon-Aguirre. “We’re fortunate to have added two outstanding profession-als to our team. With them on board we will be able to expand our

services and continue to provide excellent customer service,” Esther said.

The new faces of EVSI are Andrew Suarez, joining us as Public Information Manager, and Julissa Ri-vera joining us as Public Information Officer. Andrew brings to EVSI first hand

professional experience in entrepreneur-ship in South Florida. Julissa came to us by

way of the International Visitors Leader-ship Program, an agency of the US State Department. Because of her passion for government, she continues to work with the local division located in Coral Gables. We are proud to add Andrew and Julissa to our amazing team including: Sylvia Farina, Director of Policy and Governmen-tal Relations, Amanda Gorski, Director of Research and Analytical Studies, Diandra Lamas, Communications & Special Projects Manager and Public Relations & Graphic Design Interns Kathryn Pepin of Miami Dade College and Jaclyn Casal of the Uni-versity of Miami. Diandra has spent the last year absorbing all elements of New Media, and alongside the communications and public relations support staff, provides New Media services to our clients. Working alongside Diandra on strategy development and implementation of New Media campaigns are Jaclyn and Kathryn. We’re looking forward to 2012 and delivering continued quality services to our clients.

New Year! New Digs! New Faces!

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Esther [email protected]

Sylvia FarinaDirector of Policy & Governmental [email protected]

Amanda GorskiDirector of Research & Analytical [email protected]

Diandra LamasCommunications & Special Projects [email protected]

In February 2012, visit us at our new office

2150 Coral Way, 4th Floor, Miami, FL 33145

Learn more about us at

www.EVServicesInc.com

Follow us on Twitter: @EVServices

Like our Facebook page:www.facebook.com/EVSer-

vicesInc

Find us on LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/company/ev-services-inc

Career

EVSI Speaks - January 2012