Join TAB Fort Worth today!
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| TAB Fort Worth Member Corner |
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Tyler Trahant, MINKERTRAHANT
& Associates (402)
Read Tyler's article in the 10/6/09 Fort Worth Business Press.
Janee Harrell, mHe3 Productions(Member at Large)
Congratulations on securing 13 episodes on a cable channel network
Linda Hentz, D&J Medical Supplies/Ladies Choice (401)
Congratulations on nomination for Small Business of the Year
TAB Fort Worth
placed 4th out of approximately 160 TAB Chapters for member retention level |
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| TAB Fort Worth Anniversaries & New Members |
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Oct./Nov. Anniv.
Marc Johnson - 402
Darlene Ryan - 501
Michael Unell - 401
New Member
Kevin Johnson - 402
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| Hear How We Help Our Members |
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| Event Details |
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Attend Business Bites Lunch 'N Learn
More details coming soon regarding November Business Bites
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Watch for Upcoming Events
10/23/09 (to be rescheduled) - Optimizing the Sale of a Business Workshop at TCU
11/6/09 - TAB DFW Business Improvement Workshop - Profit 101 Growth Training, Las Colinas Country Club
11/20/09 - Email Marketing Workshop presented by Julie Niehoff, Development Director, Constant Contact
1/29/10 - Achieving Balance Creates Business Success Workshop at TCU
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| Schedule a TAB Speaker for your Organization |
| The Alternative Board (TAB) of Fort Worth possesses a Speakers Bureau comprised of individuals from various companies and industries. The range of topics is varied (finance, the environment, new technologies - such as LinkedIn business network, ethics, energy efficiency, and small business management, to name a few).
Click here for a list of topics.
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| Quick Tips |
Plus Two
When a client asks for a specific service, we provide information about that service as well as two additional services they did not inquire about.
Todd Bellistri
August Benefits, Inc.
Huntington, NY
Referral Power
When prospects call us in response to some form of marketing they've received, my staff knows to ask who referred them to us. In this way, the caller, even if not referred, knows we get a lot of referrals and it immediately reinforces their expectation of having a good experience with us.
Lorri Cochrane
Certified Payroll
Bohemia, NY |
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| TAB in The News |
For a full listing of press hits, please visit our In the News page. |
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| Now Available: Click on the above book cover to order your copy of The Wall Street Journal business book best-seller the 9 Elements of Family Business Success by Allen E. Fishman, Founder and Chairman of The Alternative Board®. |
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The Alternative Board (TAB) DFW
Business Improvement Workshop
Profit 101 - Growth Training |
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Friday, November 6, 2009, Las Colinas Country Club
Everyone says you have to GROW your business, but nobody really tells you HOW!! If you have innovative ideas, which ones should you develop and which should you kill?
Profit 101 teaches you how to generate, refine, rank, select and develop meaningfully unique ideas that will help you create profitable growth in your business.
This process will also take into account competition and customers. You'll be able to provide more clarity in speaking and writing about your company's overt benefits. And you'll leave the session with an action plan that can be put in place immediately.
This half day workshop (8:30am to 12:30) on November 6, 2009, uses an interactive case study to enhance learning. Participants help the fictional "Buzz Electronics" company find ways to confront declining sales and profits as a result of an economic recession and foreign competition.
 TOM PRYOR is a growth coach, trainer and consultant with Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC) whose mission is to help Texas-based companies grow profitably. During his career, Tom has trained thousands of people and helped hundreds of organizations of all sizes improve their financial results. Tom's customers include such recognizable names as Dell, Nabisco, Lennox, Revlon, the City of Plano, The Dallas Morning News plus hundreds of smaller, lesser known companies.
Tom was the focus of a Business Week magazine cover story, has authored five books and serves as an adjunct professor for the University of Texas - Arlington's Executive MBA program.
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Member Highlight
TAB--Making it Less Lonely at the Top John Brancato, Chief Operations Officer, Puente-Brancato Enterprises (TAB 501 Board) |
What TAB has done for John Brancato is make him feel that he has made commitments to others and that he needs to meet those commitments. "Hold myself accountable to achieve my goals....before I get hounded about it from my Board members," John states.
John also shares that "it is amazing how many of us on the TAB Board face similar problems. Additionally, as one of the members goes through a difficult time, it is an opportunity to support that member AND to learn from their experience." There is the old adage, "It is lonely at the top." Well, TAB makes it a little less lonely if you take advantage of the membership it provides. The truth is that we all need an extra pair of unbiased eyes to look at our business, or at least at our thought process. (Best it is somebody we choose as opposed to our banker or our competitor!)
According to John, it is amazing how clear the decision can be when presented to your Board. Also, finding that he can let it out with his moderator and his fellow board members is what really helps him keep his sanity during his company's hectic times.
He enjoys working with his wife, Gina Puente-Brancato, in expanding the companies they own/operate at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, including Venturas Puente dba Frullati Cafe & Bakery (four locations) where John has served several years as the Secretary of the National Franchisee Advisory Board; V. Puente Currency Services Inc. - local operator of a Travelex Currency Exchange location; and Puente Concessions, Inc.- six newsstand/gift shop locations; Aero Foods, Inc. - another restaurant group operating four different quick service concepts.
John also helps his wife Gina run 3 wineries- two La Bodega Winery locations in DFW Airport and La Buena Vida Vineyards in the city of Grapevine, Texas. John and Gina have a very hands-on approach to the businesses. At any time either of them may be at a register or in the kitchen. John has described working together with Gina as the ultimate dream because they share the same goals and both love what they do. |
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Financial
What a Difference a Year Makes!
 THE Financial Tsunami hit last fall, and the "music" stopped for most highly leveraged businesses in a way not seen since the '70s. Currently, surviving businesses are running much better, in other cases not running at all; unless you are in a business that was deemed "too big to fail."
The hope is that we don't "blot" the government overhead, and that we in the business world can resume growing our businesses without the government taking too much of our profits which we need to reinvest in future growth and not in a higher-cost government agenda.
The greatest concern for our economy that the media is not talking about is the fact that small businesses produce most of the new jobs; this type of growth is sustainable growth and the government sector should be trying to figure how to lower its costs. This is an issue which must be debated: how much a share of the GDP can the federal budget consume while allowing the economy to grow? (Because government growth is only sustainable with economic growth over the long term, and the government is the only sector of the economy that rarely gets reorganized or reviewed.)
The best thing we all can do for our country is to grow our businesses in a prudent fashion, improve our business efforts and stick to what we know. This is a great time to be growing a business: labor is available, there is work to be done and we have a great country to help grow. Currently, we are looking for talent as we see significant opportunities, as I hope you do. So, let's continue to make our future larger than our past.
Have a great day!
David H. Diesslin, MBA, CFP® Diesslin & Associates, Inc. |
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| TAB Fort Worth Members - Free Sales Skills Classes |
At no cost to TAB members (or TAB members' staff), you have a unique opportunity to attend, along with full-time MBA TCU students, career-related professional sales training sessions. Upcoming session on November 6: "Don't Leave Home Without Them. How to Identify, Develop and Use Sales Tools for Success."
More details and to register. Offered by professional sales consultant and trainer, Shelley Plemons, each of these 7 sessions will be available on one Friday each month. These sessions will be in TCU's Dan Rogers Hall, 2900 Lubbock Avenue, Fort Worth 76129, Room 171 (maximum seating is 10). |
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| Referral Program |
Often we look to our clients to give us referrals. Another good place to ask for referrals is from your vendors. They know you, they want to keep you as their customer and they want to keep you happy. One of the ways we asked our vendors for referrals was to attach a vendor referral document to each payment. We also sent them e-mails.
Ronald Rog, R.W. Rog and Company, Inc., Bohemia, NY |
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Q/A The Workplace Doctor™ Perils of Employees Driving and Texting/Talking |
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A texting driver is 23 times more likely to have an accident or a near miss than a non-distracted driver and the use of a hand-held cell phone may also greatly increase driving risks, making an accident up to six times more likely, according to a July 2009 study released by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
A Car and Driver magazine study showed that reaction time while texting is often twice as long as while legally intoxicated. Employers have been sued for damages incurred in accidents caused by employees talking on cell phones while driving.
An Arkansas company paid $16.2 million to a woman who was severely disabled in a car accident involving one of its employees who was talking on his cell phone at the time of the accident. A Florida company was ordered to pay about $21 million to a 78-year-old woman injured when a company salesperson talking on his cell phone struck the woman's car. In Virginia, an attorney, while allegedly talking to a client on her cell phone while driving, struck and killed a 15-year-old girl walking by the side of the road. Common sense isn't always common practice.
Copyright 2009, Dr. Connie Sitterly, "The Workplace Doctor™" President, Sittcom, Inc., Management Training Specialists. Connie is an international speaker, trainer, executive coach, author, management consultant. You may reach her by phone 817.737.2893 , Connie's email
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| A Productive "Bailout" |
Many of us have either frozen wages or actually reduced compensation in the current recession. As time goes on and as our cash position improves, we have the option of providing a "bailout" (rather than a pay increase) to some or all employees. We can let them know that business is tough but improving and offer them a cash payment of an affordable amount in recognition for their efforts under trying conditions. We avoid locking into a higher wage, while providing immediate cash that will probably be greatly appreciated.
Charles Crawford, ACW Corporation, Wilmington, DE |
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| Two Providers are Better than One |
After our Internet provider irritated customers and staff with momentary and longer outages, I arranged for a second Internet provider. I acquired a special router that detects service interruption and immediately switches to the second provider. This provides uninterrupted service to those customers ordering via the Internet and for my employees' Internet use as well. It is a small price to pay for happy customers and staff-and no lost sales.
Trace Blakely, United Parts Plus, Fond du Lac, WI |
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Touted as the most valuable and beneficial business advisory organization in the world, The Alternative Board® (TAB) has been featured in leading business news sources from the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, the Washington Post, CNN and many others.
The essential and critical counsel and value The Alternative Board® consistently delivers to small and medium size businesses, and the immediate impact it brings to its client organizations is an essential element for any organization that intends to thrive. | |
ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE BOARD®
The Alternative Board® is comprised of members who are business owners, CEOs or presidents who run businesses in non-competing fields. During a TAB Board meeting, you receive the benefit of the collective experience of the board members, who offer practical solutions to your problems-not theories.
You can learn more about TAB, which has been helping business owners succeed since 1990, by visiting TheAlternativeBoard.com |
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