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That said, Yolanda got nailed for an unwitting Brown Act infraction.  While the DA isn’t pursuing, community members are still uncovering possible FOI infractions. That said, I still admire this young woman, learning lessons the hard way and showing a lot of grace. Here is what Yolanda had to say recently.

Ruth has come under some scrutiny in the last week in her position as the president of the Nevada County League of Women Voters.  While I am involved in many activities, I am not the president of the League of Women Voters.

I have already been mistaken for her twice this week. I am sympathetic to the public attention she is dealing with. But pass it on: same name, different person.

But when I am teaching this. Often, business owners don’t believe me. They still want to command and control. They want an army of clones to deal with their business the way they do. So I am so happy to send you to this lengthy article published in this month’s Inc. Magazine. . Kudos to Sarillo for doing it right. And kudos to Inc. for telling the story.

Lessons From a Blue-Collar Millionaire

When Nick Sarillo launched his pizza business, he had one goal in mind: to create a corporate culture unlike any he had seen.

It’s Takeout Tuesday at Nick’s Pizza & Pub, and the air is thick with the smells of hot pizza crust, peppers, onions, and cheese. Eighteen young men and women — most of them high school age — form an assembly line between a row of worktables and a long bank of pizza ovens. The kids laugh and shout, even as they focus intently on their tasks.

Why not expand your business while you are slow?

By Emily Maltby April 6, 2009

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (CNNMoney.com) — Like many business owners fighting the recession, Mark Rickard is looking for ways to draw in new customers. The challenge: How to expand beyond his firm’s traditional services without confusing customers or taking on more than his company is equipped to handle.

Rickard List Marketing is a direct mail marketing company that Mark and his sister have run since their father’s retirement. Rickard wants to use this slow period to rebrand the company, but he has questions about how to make the transition. He’s brought the issue to a gathering of The Alternative Board (TAB), a panel of seasoned business owners who meet monthly to swap advice on their business challenges.

“I believe our core clients would appreciate us making more connections for them, but I expect they would be skeptical about our ability to add value outside our comfort zone,” Rickard says. “I’m not sure exactly what services to offer initially or how to publicize the change.”

“It’s a no-brainer, because you already have the clients,” says Frank Kelly, president of Kelair, a heating and air conditioning company that is based in Port Chester, N.Y. “But what do you actually want to do?”

“I want to do search engine optimization, market research, circulation analysis, media placement, insert media, data managing and processing …”

“Wow,” interjects John Dugan, partner at Farmingdale Physical Therapy. “Rome wasn’t built in a day. You need to build a bigger umbrella before you put all these things under it. Pick the ones that are most secure in this market and the ones that you feel most comfortable doing.”

“Well, my plan was actually to outsource some of the things I don’t feel 100% comfortable doing to affiliates,” Rickard says. “I already have relationships in place with designers and copyrighters.”

Ask yourself what kind of firm you really want to be, advises Buonfiglio, president of employee benefit broker C&B Consulting Group in Syosset, N.Y.

“At one point we partnered with a firm to provide services we could not perform in-house,” he says. “Eventually the clients let us know our partners’ work wasn’t as good as ours, so we ended up creating those capabilities in-house, with far superior results.”

“Do you think I risk clients by expanding like this?” Rickard asks. “Will they think my eye is not on the task?”

Think about the long-term future, Buonfiglio says. Building up new lines of business will inevitably take some of Rickard’s time away from current customers and projects, but that temporary trade-off can be worth it if the expansion will pay off for the company down the road.

“You’ll have to consider opportunity cost versus reward,” he says.

Tapping new markets

One business owner who faced a similar problem chimes in with anecdotal advice. Dennis Labriola is the president and CEO of Impact, a Farmingdale, N.Y., firm that develops and supplies software to police departments in the metro area.

“We looked at two things,” he says. “The first was at our products – which were in-house that could address a new market? We decided that we could tap the campus security market. The second thing we did was look at all the services we provided that we weren’t getting compensated for, such as software updates and repairs. We productized those services, because we knew we were already comfortable with them.”

The best way to grow is through “baby steps,” Labriola emphasizes. “You don’t want to be too far from the core. Insulate it and expand into areas that are safe. Pick a few things off your list just to elevate who you are. It takes a long time.”

Rickard nods. “What about advertising the services? At what point can I portray that I’m doing more than just lists? I hate the idea of being disingenuous about what I can and cannot do.”

“Don’t sell anything you’re not prepared to offer,” says Owen Mester, president of bakery and distribution company O’Wayne New York Enterprises in Maspeth, N.Y. “You’ll definitely lose customers that way.”

“Actually, don’t think about marketing just yet,” Buonfiglio recommends. “You have a million ideas and directions. Take a holistic look and examine the risk factors associated with each idea. Look at where you are with each one today and where you want to go. Then, you can start to execute those ideas. And only then should you think about marketing.”

“Yeah, I definitely need to be more deliberate,” says Rickard.

The next steps

In the weeks after the meeting, Rickard has a brainstorming session with his sister, and together they make a list of the most viable services to naturally expand on what they are already doing. Then he takes the list to Steve Davies, the facilitator of the TAB group, to talk through the options.

For more than an hour, Davies and Rickard look possibilities. SEO (search engine optimization) campaign management, while a hot-button topic right now, would be a tough area to expand into considering how crowded that space already is. But data processing is more feasible.

“All our clients do data processing differently,” explains Rickard. “And our personal relationship with them is already set up to help address their goals.”

Rickard and Davies also settle on the idea of helping clients with copywriting and with strategic partnerships. “We already know how to identify customers, so we can marry that expertise with the creative process required to reach them,” Rickard says.

Two weeks ago, Rickard arranged a meeting with one of his clients.

“I basically approached them and said, ‘Hey, we know your customers, how about letting us take a stab at providing copy services?’ Then I showed them what we’d be able to do,” he said. “They took my offer seriously and decided to take us up on it.”

See this article on CNNMoney.com

When I first arrived at “Passion Into Action” on Saturday morning I was excited because I knew so many people who were attending and presenting. And as my BFFs will attest to I was also pretty darn cynical about what was going to be said about and required of me to be “passionate.” Sometimes when women converge, “passion” is another word for being politically correct… in whatever way that group deems correct. And sometimes that correctness can be pretty wimpy and nauseatingly.. ugh.. girly. And, well, there was some of that. But I have to be honest. That is not what happened to me.

I actually found myself thinking deeply about my “reason to be”, my passion and my voice. What is my voice? What stops me from passionately expressing my voice? And the message that I heard repeatedly from all the keynoters, introducers and break out sessions was, “abandon all fear!” And although See Jane Do has somewhat of an agenda, I didn’t feel beholden to their agenda …at all. In fact, I felt not only that all passions were welcome, but that I really wanted to “be a Jane.” That overriding message of eliminating self doubt, limitations and fear is a big issue. It is important. And it is very real for all of us. I left there touched deeply.

So here is my passion- unabashedly- without fear – to appear and appear and appear in this blog:

I want to change our relationship with work. That relationship is normally a pretty negative experience. Last millennium brought us the assembly line and the Labor Movement. This millennium is the birth of life/work balance and capital transparency. And I intend to usher it along, one small business at a time.

Love to my sisters,

Business & Professional Women of Nevada County present: How to Stop Managing and Start Leading

Dates:	January 20, 2010
Days of Week:	Wednesday
Target Audience:	General Audience
Time:	5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Phone:	530-263-4827
Location:	Holbooke Hotel
Ticket Information
Price:	$20.00 members – $18.00 guests
Event Details/Other Comments:
Business & Professional Women of Nevada County present Ruth Schwartz, founder of High Performance Advocates, a company that facilitates strategy building and employee development. Schwartz will direct an interactive presentation specifically on the difference between management and leadership and on how to stop managing and start leading. Schwartz is a certified business coach and peer advisory facilitator and the only consultant and speaker in Northern California who knows firsthand the fortitude it takes to start and maintain an organization. Don’t miss this essential program for business owners and professionals. Please make reservations by Sunday, January 17.

I’m very proud to have published my fourth column, “Taking Care of Business: Take small steps if you want to see the big picture.” in the monthly Nevada City Advocate. If you haven’t been reading The Advocate, check it out. Pat and Stacy Butler have a brave vision and are taking those bulls by the horns. And they printed the entire “Wild and Scenic Film Festival” program schedule in this current issue. That event is this weekend, so go buy ticks now if you haven’t been, you oughta and it does sell out.

Before you move on, consider this: a local business owner wants to know if he should double his prices. I’m interested in what others think because there is a very good argument that if he makes twice as much from half as many hours worked, he increases his profits and decreases his stress. On the other hand, times are tough. People are price shopping. We live in a small community with a limited amount of customers. And after all, sales are sales and we all want those.

Those that have done this doubling of price successfully swear by it. Why is it so scary?

According to Bo Burlington (and Norm Brodsky) in his book The Knack it is because we have a salesperson mentality. We believe that sales trump everything else. But what he explains so eloquently is that gross margin trumps everything.  Of course!  The amount of sales that it takes to create cash flow is most important. That ratio should be– as few as possible to maintain your margin. That is the only way to create viability.

So instead of thinking “How many sales can I get?”  We have to return to “Which sales are the right sales?” ” And only the sales that make your margin are the right sales. The sales that don’t make your margin will cause you to lose money, weaken your cash flow and eventually put you out of business.

While it is hard to say no to a sale it is a habit that we have to get back to practicing. The race to the bottom really is lined with dead bodies.