NATIONAL ASSOCIAT ION OF WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS � CAL IFORNIA � WINTER 2009

1431LaColinaTustin,CA92780714-832-5012

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NATIONALASSOCIATIONOFWOMENBUSINESSOWNERS

NAWBO-CALIFORNIANATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS714-832-5012www.nawbo-ca.orgMarch 8, 2009 � Santa Barbara, CA

Women’s Festival Bringing All Our Worlds Togetherwww.womensfestivals.org

March 23–24, 2009 � Sacramento, CANAWBO California Public Policy Summit for women business-ownerswww.nawbo-ca.org

March 31–April 1, 2009 � Santa Clara, CASilicon Valley Chapter “Invent Your Future” ConferenceSanta Clara Convention Centerwww.inventyourfuture.com

June 9–11, 2009 � San Francisco, CANational Conference of Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC)www.wbenc.org

June 24–26, 2009 � Chicago, ILNAWBO-National 2009 Women’s Business Conferencewww.nawbo.org

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

NAWBO CA PresidentBetsy Berkhemer-CredairePresident, BerkhemerClayton, Inc.

Past President, Los Angeles35 years in business

NAWBO CAPresident-ElectCarla Cobb DavisCEO, DBC Groups

IncorporatedPast President, Silicon Valley13 Years in business

NAWBO CA SecretaryCathy DaughertyPresidentTrademark Insurance

Past President, Orange County17 years in business

NAWBO CA TreasurerMay PonPresident, M. Butterfield-Brown & Associates, Ltd.

Past President, San Francisco19 years in business

NAWBO CAVice PresidentCorporate RelationsRenee Fraser, Ph.D.

President/CEOFraser CommunicationsPast President, Los Angeles17 years in business

NAWBO CAVice President ofLegislative ActionMary J. Griffin

President, Griffin & AssociatesPast President, Sacramento16 years in business

2008–2009 Board of Directors

NAWBO California is a consortium of nine chaptersInland EmpireLos Angeles

Orange County

SacramentoSan DiegoSan Francisco

Santa BarbaraSilicon ValleyVentura County

NAWBO members from throughout the state are invited to Sacramento onMarch 23 and 24 to be educated about new regulations and issues impactingthe state’s small businesses.

“As business owners, we can’t live in a vacuum and expect our businesses to runwell, let alone our communities, state and nation,” said Mary Griffith, Vice President ofLegislative Action. “We need to be educated about our roles and responsibilities asbusiness owners in California. There are new regulations and issues that affect all busi-ness owners and we need to understand how to comply and how to have our voices beheard on the impacts on small businesses.”

Reasons to come to Sacramento in March include:

� Getting to know other NAWBO members, corporate sponsors, legislators and

statewide decision-makers.

� Water rationing has been headline news for months. NAWBO-California attendees

will have the opportunity to take a four-hour educational bus tour through the

Sacramento/San Joaquin Bay-Delta to learn more about the importance of the delta,

levee conditions, and water supply challenges.

� California adopted the nation’s most sweeping plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions,

issuing rules that could transform everything from the way factories operate to the

appliances people buy and the fuel they put in their cars. The Air Resources Board

unanimously approved the plan despite warnings it will put costly new burdens on

businesses at a time when the economy is in extreme crisis.

� Other issues discussed will include healthcare, independent contractors, workers

compensation, unemployment insurance, fair/equitable tax treatment for small busi-

ness and state budget issues.

The NAWBO-California Public Policy Days are open to every woman who owns herown business, or part of a business. The event will be held at the Sheraton Grand Hotelin Sacramento. To register visit www.nawbo-ca.org or call (714) 832-5012.

PUBLIC POLICY SUMMIT 2009

NAWBO Members Invited to Learn AboutEconomy and Water Issues: March 23–24

NAWBOCALIFORNIAand NAWBONATIONALBonded DuringHistoricMeeting inSan Francisco

The leaders of theCalifornia

NAWBO chaptersand the board mem-bers of NAWBO

NATIONAL met together in San Francisco inJanuary. NAWBO California with nine chap-ters, more than any other state, representsmore then 10% of the nationwide member-ship of women business owners. Our thanksgo to Cynthia McClain-Hill, National presi-dent, and Helen Han, acting ExecutiveDirector of NAWBO National, both from theLos Angeles chapter, who made it possiblefor the two boards to get to know one anoth-er and hear the advances each has made.

National NAWBO unveiled its new web-site. Its capabilities are stunning and ground-breaking. Just for one example of “Wow,"please go to www.nawbo.org and click onthe map of the country. Roll your cursor overyour chapter, your city--or any chapter in thecountry---and you will see the actual numberof hard-working women entrepreneurs locat-ed in your geographic region. As you scrollover the map, you’ll be struck by the visualimpact of the numbers showing WBO’s areindeed a force in this state and country.There also will be a national databaseonline--with useful tools for finding categoriesof business. Bravo!

Of course we are all affected by thisunforgiving economy. Client losses, employ-ee lay-offs,and cost-cuts have hit small busi-ness owners very hard. But I urge NAWBOmembers to rely upon their NAWBO net-works as one pillar for survival. When youneed products or services, be sure to call aNAWBO business. Use the website. Being amember of NAWBO is not just for educa-tion and building relationships, it’s the keyto business survival. Every NAWBO mem-ber you help will also help you.

Best wishes,Betsy Berkhemer-CredaireStatewide President, NAWBO California

NAWBO mea n s b u s i n e s s . G e t i n v o l v e d . F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n , g o t o NAWBO - CA . o r g

In this current economic environmentthere is money to be made. A recentbad customer “non-service” experience

made me realize I need to spend timeexperiencing my business from my cus-tomer’s perspective. It also made me askmyself “How can I make it easier for peo-ple to do business with my company?” Iinvite you to do the same in addition tothe following:

� Focus on marketing, marketing, mar-keting. Now is the time to double up onyour marketing efforts.� Tighten up your business processesand strategies.� Thank everyone, especially clients, fortheir business and employees becausewithout them you’d have no business.Listen openly to customer and employee

suggestions/criticisms and set about fix-ing what’s appropriate based on theirfeedback.� Focus on what you want (not what youdon’t). Keep moving forward and doeverything you can to set yourself apartfrom your competition.

Dawn Hampton, RHIT� President,

NAWBO-Santa Barbara� Ph.D. Organizational Services

Business Success Tip: Customer Perspective

Businesses owned by women of colorare one of the fastest growing seg-ments of all small businesses.

According to the Center for WomenBusiness Research (CFWBR), these busi-nesses started at three to five times the rateof all other groups between 2002 and2008. Businesses owned by women whoare African-American, Asian, Latina andother ethnicities are a powerful economicforce; yet, they lag behind other firms interms of growth indicators like revenue andnumber of employees. These are the find-ings of CFWBR’s multi-year study releasedin 2008 called “Research to Roadmap:Accelerating the Growth of BusinessesOwned By Women of Color”.

AT&T, one of the corporate sponsors ofCFWBR’s study, followed up on theCenter’s work, and collaborated withCFWBR to host over a 150 participants atforums in Los Angeles and Sacramento inOctober last year to further disseminate thestudy’s findings to women business ownersin California. The research found thatbeing a woman of color business ownercan evoke misperceptions about businesscapability, lessen access to capital forbusiness growth, increase the difficultyof attracting top talent and more issuesassociated with the intersect of raceand gender.

The importance of the forums was to notonly identify the challenges, but also tohear how successful women of color entre-preneurs have met and overcome suchchallenges. Three prominent panelists, who

are women of color suppliers to AT&T,were Betty Manetta, CEO of ArgentAssociates, Tamara Rashid, Vice-Presidentof Act1 and Cindy Kazee, CEO ofUniversal Network DevelopmentCorporation. AT&T plans to continue itswork to accelerate the growth of women ofcolor businesses throughout 2009.

AT&T held the two forums as part of itsSupplier Diversity Programs’ 40thAnniversary. AT&T was one of the firstcompanies to initiate a formal supplierdiversity program in 1968. It has sincedeveloped several supplier diversity bestpractices used today by other corporateprograms and has spent more than $43billion with diversity owned firms in its fourdecade history. Special guest speakers,CA State Assemblymember, Curren Price

and Board of Equalization Chairwoman,Judy Chu, were both on hand in LosAngeles to help AT&T and the businesscommunity celebrate its milestone at areception. AT&T has been recognized asone of America’s Top Corporations forWomen Business Enterprises by theWomen’s Business Enterprise NationalCouncil since the award’s inception.

At&T Supports The Growth Of BusinessesOwned By Women Of Color

Thank you to theNAWBO-CaliforniaCorporate Partners

Partners with the Center for Women Business Research on 3-Year Study

What’s your communicationsreputation? Do people sendyou e-mails knowing you’re

probably not going to respond…or areyou a “super communicator” who makes apoint of being extremely responsive?If you’re not in the latter group, or atleast leaning that way, you may want toreexamine your communications stylethis year.

Consider the following strategies:� Set aside a specific time or times a dayto address e-mail. When you’re jugglinge-mail with other job tasks, it’s easy forthings to fall through the cracks.� Keep your responses brief. If you don’tthink that’s possible, maybe a phone callwould be more efficient.� Remember to “reply all,” or not.Consider whether a whole group needs tobe privy to your response.� Change subject lines appropriately.

When the topic changes during thecourse of a series of e-mails, make surethe subject line reflects it.Remember, e-mail can make you look

good, and it can also tarnish your reputa-tion. Don’t react emotionally, don’t replyquickly when some thought is required,and don’t use bad grammar or fail to spottypos…but do take pride in respondingin a timely fashion to those who contactyou via e-mail.

Adrienne Moch� President,

NAWBO San Diego� Business Writer & Editor

Business Success Tip: Email Is Critical

NAWBO CA Plays RoleIn Successful Coalition

Earlier this year several organizationscame together to form a small busi-ness coalition. We wanted to ensure

that California’s small businesses wouldnot be forgotten during critical decision-making at the State level, either throughlegislation or regulations. Workingtogether we stopped several pieces of legis-lation that would have negatively affectedour small business communities.In the regulatory arena, we were able to

make our voices heard regarding the AB32 Air Resources Board regulations rela-tive to global warming. As a result ofcoalition forums held in several parts ofthe State, the regulatory package passed onDecember 11/12 now includes provisionsfor addressing small business issues.Small business continues to be the back-

bone of the California economy despitesome of the challenges facing our business-es. The number of women owned businessin California is at an all time high. 2008data identifies over one million, three hun-dred thousand businesses which are jointlyowned or 50 percent owned by women inCalifornia.Together small businesses have a

big voice!!

Mary J. Griffin� Vice President of Legislative

Action, NAWBO CA� Past-President,

NAWBO Sacramento� President

Griffin & Associates� Legislative &

Governmental Advocacy

> Karime Sanchez

Bradvica, AT&T

External Affairs