February 2009 Newsletter

You can download the full version in PDF: nawbonm-news-2009-2.pdf (PDF; 406KB)

The President’s Corner – Barbara Dawson
Program – Access to Capital
Topic of the Month – Technology In Business
Upcoming Newsletter Topics
Platinum Profile – Caren Dunne
Can People Find You?
Welcome New Chapter Corporate Partners
Did You Know…
Three NAWBO Satellite Breakfast Meetings
Corporate Sponsors and Platinum Members

The President’s Corner – Barbara Dawson

The Comfort Zone

My 13 year old daughter, Hana, went out to interview for a job this weekend. A woman here in Corrales wants someone to ride her 17 hand (measured at the shoulders …about 5’8”) Percheron horse (looks a lot like a Clydesdale) and get it ready to canter for 15 minutes so that her students can use him to do vaulting. My 13 year old daughter is about 5’4 inches tall and weighs in at about 85 pounds soaking wet. Some of you may remember her from the December meeting, she sat at my table.

The instructor asked Hana if she’d like to see what vaulting is like on this large horse. Vaulting is where people do gymnastics-like poses on a moving horse. Hana said sure. She got on the horse. While he trotted, Hana put her arms out, then moved to a position of being on all fours (hands and knees) on the back of the horse, raised one leg behind her and then went from a straddle to a side-sitting position and back.

When she stopped, the teacher told Hana that when Hana got out of her comfort zone, she stopped riding. I thought this was an interesting comment. Then the teacher explained … when Hana was straddling the horse, like she’s done for 5-6 years of horseback riding lessons, she does great. She rides the horse, moved when he moved, moved with him. However when she was on his back on her knees, or sitting sideways, she didn’t ride him. She just sat on him, stiffly and was not balanced, because she wasn’t riding him.

What’s the lesson for us in business? Are you staying in your comfort zone in business? Where are you “riding” in your business? In order to get better at what we do and ride the current economic roller coaster, I think that as business owners, we need to learn to ride better. Get out of our comfort zone and learn to balance and stay in business even with this economy. I believe we’ll come out on top when we can learn some new skills, look at what we do with fresh eyes, see things differently, and apply what we learn through these changing times.

Have fun vaulting!

Barbara Dawson
President 2008-20009
Northern New Mexico NAWBO
505-897-3773
email Barbara

Program – Access to Capital

Learn how women business owners can meet challenges while searching for capital to fund their new or existing businesses. We will hear from a panel of experts in the banking industry, as well as venture capital, angel investors, and other alternative funding sources. You won’t want to miss this informative, exciting evening.

Speakers from the following companies will speak at the NAWBO February meeting:

Bank of the West
Wells Fargo
The Loan Fund
FlyWheel Ventures
New Mexico Angels

Meeting Sponsor

Morgan Stanley will be our meeting sponsor this month.

Hospitality Sponsor

We are still looking for Hospitality Sponsors! If you are interested, please email Katree Edmonds.

Spotlight Tables

The Loan Fund (sponsored by Luci Dawson of Strategic Solutions)

Spotlight tables are still open! If you are interested, please email Lisa Obeji.

Advance Reservations Required by 5:00 pm on Friday, February 20. You must make your reservation online or by email.

Please RSVP online. You will then have the option to continue online and pay in advance.
You can also email Elizabeth Lucero and pay at the door with cash, check, MasterCard, Visa or Discover
To cancel a reservation, please email Elizabeth Lucero
Meeting Cost: $32 members – $38 non-members
RSVPs received after the deadline will incur an additional $5 fee.
Cancellations after the deadline and “No Shows” will be invoiced.

Menu Options

Salad: Iceberg Wedge
Regular Entreé: Pan Seared Salmon
Vegetarian Entreé: Cheese Enchiladas
Dessert: Five Season Mousse

Topic of the Month – Technology In Business

Andrea Carvey
DrumFire
Email Andrea

At the risk of stating the obvious, technology has infiltrated – no, it has taken over – most aspects of our lives and our businesses. In the hands of experts (highly-paid marketers, ad execs and teenagers) it can look seamless, positively brilliant. When we take a harried look at it from our over-piled desks, it looks like a monstrous discontinuity, if not a black hole. And when that vaunted technology doesn’t do what we expect, thoughts flash though our minds of violent acts that we’d surely not want our children to see.

On the other hand, what would we do without it? We can’t even remember how we did survive without it! Our lives and our businesses are inextricably interwoven with technology of some sort. For Sally Beers, president of Pattern-Design.Com, her web-based business would simply not exist without the internet and email. To design patterns for the apparel industry, she uses CAD software. When asked whether she had tried any technology that didn’t work for her, she said that she had joined Facebook at one time, but she didn’t have time for it and besides, it was a pain in the patoosh. So when something went haywire with Facebook, she took the opportunity to give it up. If she were able to wave a magic wand and conjure up a technological miracle, it would be a robot, a clone or – better yet – an extra brain! No argument there.

Without current technology, Tracey Fria, district manager for Automatic Data Processing, acknowledges there wouldn’t be a business. With her Blackberry continually at her side, she analyzes day-to-day back office processes. She shows her clients how they can streamline those processes and improve efficiency through automation and appropriate technology. Additionally, she helps clients realize that technological tools are ideal for identifying the little inaccuracies that can become significant, providing real-time data analysis necessary to make mission-critical decisions, and responding to developments before they become crises. With her magic wand, Tracey would share her vision of technology as a way to gain control of your business and its processes, rather than of losing control.

Bair Mesocare Medical Spa, owned by Kristie Bair, utilizes laser technology in cosmetic and anti-aging techniques. In four years, lasers have gone through three generations of improvements so that they actually promote regeneration of collegen and no longer burn the skin. One significant benefit is that some pre-cancerous lesions can be removed without burning or scarring. As with most businesses nowadays, Kristie feels computers, the internet, and email, are crucial. There have been a few computer programs that have come and gone, but one piece of technology that cause her company some grief was a brand of syringe in which the needle kept popping off, to the distress of the doctors (and, understandably, the patients). Fortunately, that little glitch has been rectified! Kristie’s dream technology would be something that would change the sheets and make the beds at home. “It’s funny, but I just hate to do it.” We’re with you, Kristie.

The technologies that Caren Dunne uses most frequently as a partner with Clifton Gunderson LLP are computers, local and wide area networks, and her Windows mobile device. Without them, she couldn’t do her job. The large databases required of her as a CPA and Certified Information Systems Auditor demand a large technological support system, although she does see it as a necessary evil. Because of the barriers and protections necessary to guard information when dealing with projects for the federal government, Caren would use her magic wand to create instant access to files without endangering security…some sort of biotech, wireless, yet secure technology.

President and CFO of D.R.B Electric, Inc., Denise Baker utilizes all forms of technological communication: laptop, internet, email, Blackberry, phone, you name it. She is on the road and out of the office a lot, yet needs to preserve the perception of being at work. The flexibility that the technology provides allows her be more involved with her family, and emailing her brother in Germany is significantly less costly than a phone call. The availability of information on the internet and Google and improvements in copy machines and digital photography have enabled her company to do more planning and advertising in-house rather than outsourcing, which saves both time and money. There are two things that Denise feels are technological duds: call waiting, which she finds rude and obnoxious (you know it is), and those teeny, tiny keyboards which require fingers the size of pencil leads to use. As for her magic wand, one swish and a Star Trek transporter would materialize, saving her from hours in traffic. Now you’re thinking!

Technology has improved our efficiency, organization, productivity, flexibility, and so on. With respect to communication, technology has enabled us to return to a small town. Everyone knows everything about everybody, instantly, all the time.

Technology in Marketing
Compiled by Cassandra Shaw

If you do a web search on “Using Technology in Marketing”, you’ll be inundated (I’m not kidding: 49,400,000 results found in one search) with articles and ideas. I’ve chosen a very few for your perusal. If something here piques your interest, or reminds you of an unmet need in your business, look in the NAWBO-NNM Yellow Pages for someone in marketing and ask either for their help or for a referral. As my dad the physicist used to say, “you don’t have to know all the answers; you just have to know where to go find them.” Happy perusing.

Technology and Marketing: The Profitable Marriage from William J. Flannery, Jr. and Wayne J. Lovett for The WJF Institute
Customer Relationship Management – A Gartner Blog from Gartner
Web Technology in Marketing: Friend or Foe? from C.J. Hayden for About.com
Modern Marketing: Using Technology in Creative Ways from Diana Ransom on All Business.com

Upcoming Newsletter Topics

In March, our topic will be “Preparing Yourself and Your Business for Tax Day”. True, by March it’s a bit late to have any effect on your taxes. But we’ll try to compile some advice, techniques, resources (or at least some sympathetic ears) to help you get past April 15 with a whole skin, with mind and soul intact. Again Andrea, our intrepid reporter, will glean NAWBO-NNM members’ wide array of business knowledge and survival wisdom. If you have wisdom to share, please email Andrea, who will compile March’s articles on “Preparing Yourself and Your Business for Tax Day”, or Cassandra.

Platinum Profile – Caren Dunne, CPA, CISA; Partner, Clifton Gunderson LLP, Certified Public Accountants & Consultants

by Andrea Carvey

Caren Dunne is a CPA and CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) who started out in traditional fashion at a “Big 6” accounting firm. After a couple of years and some big projects, she and two others left to form their own company Chavarria, Dunne & Lamey, LLC in 1996, which specialized in providing consulting and litigation support services to the federal government. In 2006, the company merged with Clifton Gunderson, a national firm with 45 offices across the country and one of the nation’s largest certified accounting and consulting firms. As someone who is very methodical and analytical but not averse to taking risks, it has been a good journey for Caren.

For Caren, the best part of her business is that they are a specialized office within a large, full-service accounting firm. This allows them to do what they do best, yet also provide all manner of accounting services to businesses in the local area. It is the best of both worlds, the nimbleness of a small firm combined with the broader resources of a large firm. Her greatest achievement in the business world has been building a practice that a national firm recognized as valuable enough to acquire. In her private life, she considers her two beautiful children her greatest achievements. Caren enjoys spending time with her family, working out at the gym, and watching Top Chef.

She joined NAWBO when her firm was in its infancy more than ten years ago. She feels that it is a great way to connect with other women who share common experiences, and it has given her a greater degree of confidence. She would like to thank the women who started the Albuquerque chapter of NAWBO and hopes they realize the impact that it really has on the community of women in business.

Thank you, Caren, for contributing to the support of NAWBO and its mission!

Can People Find You?
Have you updated your NAWBO contact information lately? You’d never let your business card show incorrect contact information; but how about your “business card” in the NAWBO-NNM member directory?

NAWBO-NNM creates our member directory from the information you enter in the NAWBO national site.

You may have seen an email from NAWBO national about their recent website overhaul. Now would be a good time to check it out, and update your profile information at the same time. Just go to the NAWBO website and complete the Member Login at the top left side of the home screen. If you’ve forgotten your password, there’s a quick link right there and they’ll email it promptly. Your profile will pop up on the screen as soon as you login.

Welcome New Chapter Corporate Partners

In case you haven’t heard already, we would like to welcome our new corporate partners.

Silver – Embassy Suites
Copper – Elizabeth Lucero, ChFC
Bronze – The Loan Fund

Our partners make it possible for the chapter to continue with great programs and opportunities to local women business owners.

Did You Know…

…if you are not quite ready to become a Platinum Member, but would like to support the chapter and receive some additional recognition, consider our newest level, Turquoise Membership for $300. Contact Mary Rutland for more information.

Three NAWBO Satellite Breakfast Meetings

Establish relationships, network, share business building tips in an intimate casual NAWBO group, and experience the added benefit of being part of a powerful group of New Mexico business owners.

NAWBO-NNM NORTHWEST Satellite

Breakfast Meeting
the FIRST Wednesday of every month
Where: WESST Corp Facility in Rio Rancho
For information please contact Lorie Guthrie at 892-1238

NAWBO-NNM UPTOWN Satellite

Breakfast Meeting
the SECOND Wednesday of every month
Where: Le Peep Restaurant
For information please contact Roz Dufour by email or phone 880-0400

NAWBO-NNM SANTA FE Satellite

Breakfast Meeting
The SECOND Tuesday of every month
Where: Zia Diner in Santa Fe
For information please contact Susanne Kennedy by email or call 505-820-6342.

Corporate Sponsors and Platinum Members

We extend special thanks to our chapter Corporate Partners

They look forward to working with our members. Click on a company logo to visit the web site in a new window or click on a name to send an email.

NAWBO-NNM CORPORATE PARTNER: DIAMOND

Jobing.com exists with one key mission: to connect local employers and local job seekers. It’s that simple. Our company was founded by a human resources professional who believes passionately that HR is the driving force behind the success of every business and that finding and keeping great talent is the key to that success. Randy Richardson, General Manager, 505-440-6351

NAWBO-NNM CORPORATE PARTNERS: SILVER

We are a full service regional financial services company with a strong focus on a superior level of customer service. We provide a range of services for commercial banking, retail and business banking, and consumer finance. Bank of the West is big enough to help and small enough to care. Please contact Leslie Quade, 505-271-9770

Perfectly situated between the University of New Mexico and the downtown business district, the Embassy Suites Albuquerque provides a relaxing guest experience with comfortable accommodations and impeccable service. Our contact is Natalee Hoff, Catering & Sales Manager, 505-275-7100

NAWBO-NNM CORPORATE PARTNERS: COPPER