Consumers Can Show Their Support For Small Business This Holiday Season on “Small Business Saturday”

First there was Black Friday, then Cyber Monday.  On November 27th comes Small Business Saturday , a day to support the local businesses that create jobs, boost the economy and preserve neighborhoods around the country.  Small Business Saturday is a national movement to drive shoppers to local merchants across the U.S. 

Joining American Express OPEN, the company’s small business unit, in declaring the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday, are an initial group of more than a dozen advocacy, public and private organizations, including: Women’s Leadership Exchange (terrific org) and many others!  Will you be part of the movement?

Small businesses are critical to the nation’s overall economy. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, there were nearly 28 million small businesses in the United States last year.  Over the past two decades, they created 65 percent of net new jobs.  Their importance to local communities extends even further.  For every $100 spent in locally-owned, independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures, according to the small business advocacy group The 3/50 Project.

“Small business is the engine of job creation in the US economy,” said Mr. Chenault, chairman and chief executive officer, American Express.  “It is also among the sectors hardest hit by the recession.  By spreading the word about Small Business Saturday, we can help raise awareness about the critical role small businesses play in cities and towns across the country at a time when they need support the most.”

 Joining the Movement

Social media will play a central role in helping raise awareness about the importance of supporting small business and recognizing Small Business Saturday.  American Express is launching campaigns on Facebook and Twitter driving consumers and business owners to facebook.com/smallbusinesssaturday where they can participate in many ways, including:

• American Express is giving a $25 statement credit1 to 100,000 Cardmembers who register their Card and use it to shop on Small Business Saturday at any locally-owned, independent small businesses that accept American Express. 

• American Express is also giving $100 of free Facebook advertising2 to 10,000 business owners who sign up at facebook.com/smallbusinesssaturday to help build online buzz and drive customers to shop at their businesses on Small Business Saturday.  By simply entering a few pieces of information and clicking a button, these business owners can create a personalized, geo-targeted ad that will run on Facebook leading up to November 27th. Facebook has donated $500,000 in Facebook credits for these small business owners to use in the future.

• Small business owners can also download online promotional materials and use a number of social media tools to promote their businesses on the inaugural Small Business Saturday.

• Everyone can spread the word about the day and their favorite businesses by giving a shout-out to their favorite local shops and restaurants via Facebook and Twitter.

• For every person who ‘likes’ Small Business Saturday on Facebook, American Express is donating $1 up to $500,0003 to Girls Inc. to empower young women to be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

To support Small Business Saturday, American Express is also launching a national advertising campaign.

“Supporting local business is more than just a one-day event,” said Mr. Chenault “and Small Business Saturday is a movement we can all help sustain.  We encourage consumers across the country to join us and the many advocates that are already on board.”

www.collaborativefactor.com

www.collaborativefactornetwork.com

Want To Take Your Success to the Next Level? Think Collaboratively in the New, New Economy

Picture this, you’re reading your local news, Financial Times, or the WSJ and the article is highlighting the success of somebody you know, somebody who has gone further, faster, toward YOUR dream of success.  Instead of saying… “..that proves it can be done, or well done -  how can I add to that fabulous idea, often times our competitive thinking jumps in first to say, “That $%@!  she will succeed instead of me! 

So, what should a Savvy Lady do? 

Begin by changing your thinking.  That [old] way of thinking about your competition is so 2008- back then it was about crushing your competition because otherwise how would you get your piece of the pie?  Not the approach to attracting success in the new, new economy. 

Part of what keeps people from reaching the next level of success or from implementing their ideas, is because they are still trying to re-enter their same field, grow their business or career in the same old ways; they are beating their heads against the wall repeating old tactics that no longer work. 

The way we do business, any business, is changing.    Are you ready for the coming economic shift in how you’ll conduct your business going forward?  

The days (and ways) of doing business via simply supplying your clients with the right information, at the right price, are gone.   The new social era is made up of consumers that are smarter and they are looking for smarter suppliers.   One of the most impactful ways to embrace this new era is finding intelligent and empathetic businesses and individuals.   Seek out those that can deliver innovative, one stop shopping solutions, through collaborative “partnerships”.  The power of collective wisdom should never be underestimated! No one is creating success in a vacuum and you shouldn’t either.

Collaboration should be a main ingredient added to your success mix.  If you want build your wealth, expand your financial acumen, grow your customer base, manage your team more effectively – and more, you should be seeking out collaborative partners that will can allow all stakeholders to capitalize.   Investing time to find the right collaborators is worth it.  Apply the same principles and perform the same due diligence identifying the right collaborative partners, as you would to diversifying your portfolio.  Knowledge is power and applying it collaboratively can have your return on investment increase exponentially.    

How has collaboration influenced your success?

        Want to reprint this article?  Please include below:

Janet Wise, Founder: The Collaborative Factor ™ has a Masters Degree in HR Development, and is a successful corporate Learning & Development expert responsible for designing, leading and managing global leadership development programs at Fortune 500 companies, with more than fifteen years experience helping top corporate executives become more effective in their business and personal lives.   The Collaborative Factor ™ is NYC based, on-line networking community, for corporate professionals, women interested in starting their own business, AND open to all women inspired to seek excellence.  Working with select, forward thinking organizations and not-for-profits, as collaborative advisor; offering custom-designed programs, facilitated networking events and personal development programs, in a unique format that encourages collaboration.  To explore how collaboration can enhance your success, visit www.collaborativefactor.com

Are you looking for innovation in all the right places? 
 

Collaborative Factor: Your Ideas Increase Exponentially!

The human brain has roughly 100 billion neurons which are designed to receive, process and transmit information. Creativity is a physiological event that is triggered when our brain generates new neural connections. And that happens through exposure to and exploration of a multiplicity of different perspectives, opinions, ideas.  Conversations are the vehicle for that exposure and exploration and the Collaborative Factor leading to new insights and innovation.

 “We get more good ideas by connecting them than by protecting them” 

Prior to the Enlightenment, people lived more individually. Gatherings were less frequent and, when they occurred, were formal and structured with clear, agendas. Later, as coffee and tea were introduced and affordable to the masses, people began frequenting coffee houses and socializing in new ways.  There, they began engaging in informal conversations without particular agendas, more aimless. This type of interaction allowed people to present themselves more fully and fostered a rich environment of collaboration and sharing of fresh ideas.  (Starbucks has leveraged this experience successfully and built it into their brand).  So, invigorated and eager to connect with others, ideas began flowing. There was a profusion of notable innovations in art and literature, philosophy, science and technology, politics, and architecture.

Again, spontaneous genius rarely occurs. We can’t create in a vacuum. If we don’t have access to new concepts, we remain locked in our own agenda, restricted to our own concerns and opinions and worse, we remain territorial and don’t want to “give away our secrets”.  How does that behavior serve us or the world?

According to Susan Scott, author of Fierce Conversations (Fierce Conversations) and Alisa Deitz, Coach and Courageous Conversations Facilitator, (Alisa Deitz) interesting, serendipitous and brave conversations build those new brain neural connections needed for creativity. Conversations enable ideas to be born, to be shared, to be nurtured, and to blossom. It is the nature of how our ideas are shared, how they connect with other ideas and how we perceive the connection at a specific moment that creates profound results.

Imagine Doubling or Tripling Your Talent, Intelligence and Experience. What would that mean for YOUR success?
 
Indeed, there must be keen respect for proprietary information; and you’ve no doubt heard me write about the importance of protecting your intellectual property (for legal advice: Renee Duff, Esquire), however, Innovations take root in an open, fertile information environment where there is a wealth of conflicting, exceptional, contradictory, unexpected, astonishing perspectives. They germinate over time before manifesting. And the collaborative factor is part of the incubator process.  In the right environment your ideas can explode exponentially!

 How Can You Experience The Collaborative Factor?

I’ve been invited to work with select, leading edge organizations and not-for-profits – to consult, design, and facilitate custom-designed Collaborative programs for their members at New York Women Social Entrepreneurs and Dynamite Youth Center Foundation.  Additionally, I host “public” workshops.  Please contact me directly to explore how collaboration can make a difference to your success and/or your organization’s success.

AND…did you know…

I am almost finished writing an e-book, along with my business partner at A Seat At the Table www.poshplacecards.com, Gail Bigley, on Intentional Entertaining.  This is taking our concept of conversation starter place cards and applying the theme to successful social entertaining.

Janet Wise, MS  Founder The Collaborative Factor(tm) #917-733-3078 janet@wisesolutions4u.com ABOUT: Janet Wise, Founder of The Collaborative Factor(tm), has a Masters Degree in HR Development, and is a successful corporate Learning  & Development expert responsible for designing, leading and managing global leadership, client focus, and professional development programs at Fortune 500 companies; with more than fifteen years experience helping top corporate executives become more effective in their business and personal lives.   The Collaborative Factor is a philosophy to for women inspired to seek excellence!  As a NYC based  networking community for corporate professionals and those interested in starting their own business AND open to all women inspired to seek excellence.  Offering facilitated networking events, corporate, small business and personal development programs,  in a unique format designed for collaboration.   The most successful people in business and in life have a team of advisors, shouldn’t you?

What’s Good For Women is Good For Business!

I had the opportunity to meet Sylvia Hewitt, co-founder of the Hidden Brain Drain, Harvard Professor and author of several books, including Top Talent. I’ve been researching Women, Talent and Leadership and what fascinates me the most is women are identified as the power behind the new Global economy and the various ways that smart companies and entrepreneurs are designing everything from marketing campaigns to solutions with this demographic in mind.

 You can read some case studies here: http://bit.ly/9A5O7ybut keep front and center , what’s good for women is good for business. How good? well if US based women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have the 5th largest GDP in the world, trailing closely behind Germany and ahead of countries including France, UK and Italy – that’s close to $2.8 trillion – and once again proves that women owned firms are not a small, niche market but a major contributor and player in overall economy.

The research revealed that One Woman every 60 seconds leaves her corporate position to start her own company. This suggests that corporations, wishing to retain their women and diverse talent, need to adjust to create a positive work culture; while creating tremendous for all in leveraging that talent, collaborating with that talent, and servicing that talent.

 Do your marketing efforts, products and services focus on women? Truly beyond making your service “pink”? Share with us your innovations, thoughts and successes and help to build this network and enhance our collaborative experiences – after all, collaboration is something women do exceedingly well

 Janet Wise , MS , Founder: The Collaborative Factor