CFO Solutions, Utah
August 24, 2006
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Today I had the privilege of meeting with one of my CEDO mentors, Kent Thomas of CFO Solutions, www.utahcfo.com. Kent helped me with additional revisions on my business plan, we discussed how to value my company, and what would be appropriate to offer my board of advisors for compensation. I appreciated Kent’s generosity and willingness to help me out today. CFO Solutions supports small to mid sized businesses that need CFO assistance, but cannot afford to have one full-time. I hope to refer many entrepreneurs to Kent! He’s a grandpa too, so he didn’t mind me bringing my baby. Thanks, Kent!
Introducing Start Up Princess Tracey Christensen
August 24, 2006
Here is a woman entrepreneur who saw a need, and decided to do something about it! My dear friend, Tracey Christensen, is the co-founder of Now I Can Center for Intensive Therapy, www.nowIcan.org, located in Orem, Utah. This center is dedicated to improving the lives of children who have physical disabilities with an intensive, four hour a day program where families can come from all over the country to receive therapy customized to their specific needs. Tracey was inspired to start Now I Can because of her daughter, Colby who was born with Cerebal Palsy. Now I Can now provides the NeuroSuit and other intensive forms of therapy. Her center is just 2 1/2 months old and is making a difference for many children in the USA who need this specific type of therapy.
Tracey was a TV producer before having children, so being an entrepreneur is a bit of “producing” on a larger scale! Besides being a business owner, she is multi-talented in voice-over work, acting (she even stars in my Sweet & Charming commercial and video pitch), and has been a motivational youth speaker for many years. She’s ambitious, easy going, and a great friend who cares about others despite her busy schedule. Tracey called me almost weekly for a year while I was going through a personal crisis and I will always remember her kindness and cherish her friendship. She’s a great mom, not only has she provided a place for her daughter to receive the on-going therapy she needs, she will bless the lives of many families!I am thrilled to introduce you to Start Up Princess, Tracey Christensen! Please see her profile page for more, www.nowIcan.org.
Funding Universe’s Brock Blake Wants To Know How Us Mom Entrepreneurs “Do it All”
August 23, 2006
Today Brock Blake, CEO of Funding Universe wrote about the phenomena of how Mom Entrepreneurs balance life. I was honored that he listed me as a mom entrepreneur along with Rachael Herrscher of Today’s Mama (we will feature her this month!) and Wendy Bird, CEO/Founder of My Princess Pearls (I want to meet her)!
He asked for comments on his blog, http://brockblake.com/2006/08/23/mom-entrepreneurs-2/ and I had to laugh, hardly any mom entrepreneurs will likely comment because they don’t have time! So, I will comment here and there. If you can, go comment on his site!! 
This is how my day has gone so far:
I woke up at 6:30am, did my personal devotional time, got ready, did my morning blog and emails, drove the carpool, made some calls, planned our multi-family yard sale with other neighbors, went on a walk, got my daughters fed, now they are napping, so I have a moment again. I have laundry in the hall, a sticky kitchen and dishes to clean, and more calls to make in the next 2 hours while my daughter naps. I hope the people I have to call are available, otherwise, I will be emailing them. Around 4:30 pm I will make dinner, we will eat at 5:30pm and then we’ll do homework, read, play, and get the kids in bed by 7:30pm. Then I will clean up today’s messes, laundry, etc. and more work until bed between 11pm-12:30am. Crazy, insane, but honestly, there is passion or else we wouldn’t do what we do! Just read all of the Start Up Princess profiles on this site. We are all doing this because there is passion, a cause, a reason!
And, there are no answers on how to “do it all”, it’s rather, “do the best you can”!! Lower your expectations of how your home looks, keep your kids top priority, be patient about the growth of your idea and just breathe through it all!! Marielen Christensen, Start Up Princess, Winner of our Glass Slipper Award with her daughter, Liz Rosenbaum, www.scrapbooks.com recently told us at our networking tea party, “enjoy the moment, whatever it is, just enjoy the moment.” I love that.
The Business of Business Cards
August 23, 2006
I have stacks of business cards to go through soon from the ASD tradeshow; I put the info into my contact manager program. This helps me to have a central location for all of my contacts and allows me to update them and write comments about the person/company. I recommend setting up a way to organize all of your contacts! It has been very helpful for me.
I am also in the process of getting my own new business cards designed and made up. Nancy Cadjan, www.signbabies.com suggested at our networking tea party that Vista Print, www.vistaprint.com is an excellent resource for start ups because they even offer free cards (you can get 250 selected from one of their 43 designs). If you have a custom design (and I suggest this!) then it is only $20 for 250. They offer all sorts of printing. Check it out.
Today’s Magic Wand: www.vistaprint.com
Introducing Start Up Princess Deborah Dushku Gardner
August 22, 2006
Deborah Dushku Gardner and Heidi Glyn Barker co-founded One Heart Bulgaria, a non-profit organization for Bulgarian Orphans in March of 2003. Since then One Heart Bulgaria has become one of the most prominent charities in Bulgaria that supports orphans. I know this organization firsthand because I have been a Trustee since its origin, fundraised and volunteered a great deal, served on the Board, and have traveled with both Deborah and Heidi to assess orphanages. We first became dear friends when we served together in Bulgaria from 1994-95 as missionaries and became aquainted with the needs of the orphans and vowed to do something about it. We rejoice that the organization is still growing and reaching more and more children, however, there is still many more homes that need assistance. There are over 300 orphanages in Bulgaria and currently we are only sponsoring 12-14. If you are interested in sponsoring ($25 donations and up), there are many programs available that you can choose from. One of my favorites is “sponsor birthday parties” or “sponsor diapers.” Visit the website, www.oneheart-bg.org to learn more.
Deborah is Executive Director over the organization and manages things with our Director, Nickolai Gavazov, who lives in Bulgaria and works with our Bulgarian staff there who support 12-14 homes with additional hands to hold babies, taking children on excursions, teaching art classes, and providing assistance with handicapped children. Deborah has been very involved in generating hundreds of sponsorships for special projects that have helped with health, nutrition, remodeling, clothing, hygeine, and life skills. Currently Deborah is working with an American sponsor to purchase a small bakery across the street from one of our teenage homes that will provide jobs as well as a small apartment for a few teens who graduate from high school and are no longer able to live in the orphanage. These are the kinds of programs One Heart Bulgaria is committed to supporting.
On the Personal Side: Deborah is an amazing mom entrepreneur who considers Bulgarian orphans her own…she is very passionate about improving their lives and setting them up to succeed in life. She inspires me with her continued dedication to One Heart Bulgaria, as she is a volunteer and does not receive any payment for her time and efforts. In fact, she fundraises for her own travel expenses or pays out of pocket so she can go back and forth to see the children she serves. What a beautiful sacrifice. One day as One Heart Bulgaria grows, I hope Deborah will take a stipend or a salary for her efforts, she certainly deserves it! Until then, blessings from heaven everyday!!!
To learn more about Deborah, please visit her profile page to the right of this site under Start Up Princess profiles, www.oneheart-bg.org.
What I Learned From My First Board Meeting
August 22, 2006
Yesterday’s meeting went really well. My board members were extremely supportive as usual, completely focused and offered excellent mentoring and counsel. I appreciated that they came prepared and had thought about our business plan, etc.
Some things I learned:
A powerpoint presentation may be helpful next time.
I should have been there 1 hour early (I planned on 30 min, and still only showed up 5 minutes early).
Next time we will need to plan for 2 hours, not 1 1/2 hours.
Food is always a good idea, glad we had cold drinks, and snack foods; everyone was hungry.
We took a few minutes at the beginning to get to know each other, I asked everyone what their favorite movie was and if they had one wish, what would it be…it was fun to hear their answers. I think it was fun to do this because we all had read each others professional bios already, now we want to get to know one another as friends.
Ideas can take a really really long time to execute! I need to be peaceful and patient with the process, we’ve been planning for almost 2 years, we will do some initial testing this Fall, however, full launch date was pushed back to 2007.
We were able to cover everything on the agenda and it went better than I expected …phew!
*I have the best board I could ever hope for, honestly, everyone has such great experience and talent to contribute. This is so key and I am working with my mentor, Kent Thomas of CFO Solutions in SLC to help me work out an attractive compensation package for them so they stay interested and excited in contributing.
Today’s Magic Wand: Take time to get to know your Board Members, write down their birthdays on your calendar and send them a card or email at least!
My First Board Meeting Today
August 21, 2006
Today I am conducting my first official board meeting. I am excited that Sweet & Charming is moving forward! Does anyone out there who have any suggestions for conducting a successful board meeting? I have some ideas and have been talking to others who have done this, but wanted to ask.
Sweet & Charming’s incredible board:
Joe Atkin, Manager of Sorenson Capital
Jeff Donovan, Entrepreneur/Founder of First Choice Solutions (raised 12M)
Joe Franchesci, Naartjie, COO
Karl Larsen, Roberts Craft, COO
Leslie Smoot, Designer, 16 years in film industry, set design, props
Today’s Magic Wand: Form a Board of Advisors, if you don’t have one already.
Questions about Young Chef’s Academy Franchises
August 20, 2006
My friend, Julie is considering buying a franchise of Young Chef’s Academy www.youngchefsacademy.com. When we were talking on the phone about it this afternoon I asked her a lot of questions that she doesn’t have answers to yet. She told me to email her with my questions, but I am going to just post it here, because maybe others will benefit.
Does the franchise require that you are owner-operator?
What does their monthly royalty fee include (theirs is $395 a month)?
What kind of initial and on-going training do they provide?
Do they require that you send them an overage check (percent of sales) if you exceed a certain amount in revenues?
What non-compete clauses are you required to sign (for example, if you do a Color Me Mine franchise you are not allowed to do another arts/crafts store)?
What does their suggested store build-out cost? Length of lease required? How much square footage do they require?
Does your franchise fee include build-out?
Are you allowed to create your own products to support theirs and sell in your space?
Required hours of operation? Are you required to be there when there are no classes in session (for example, to answer questions to a walk-in client)?
** Any other questions for Julie to consider?? Let’s help a Start Up Princess! Please leave a comment/question for Julie.
www.pingomatic.com
August 19, 2006
There is so much to learn on the internet and about blogging! I’ve only been doing this a month, so I’m still learning about registering blogs, etc. I just found, www.pingomatic.com this is very important for registering blogs and updated posts. It sends messages to all the major blog search engines.
Kid Hair Salons: Who will have the most staying power?
August 19, 2006
Since my business is for kids, I look at kids businesses all the time… if your business also involves children (product development, retail, education, etc.) check these out:
Simon Says Salons, www.simonsayshair.com; this one is in Chicago at the famous Marshall Fields, they have a good website. I like how they offer free hair cuts for people to fill out surveys, leave comments, etc. They want to be the leader in the business and will be catering to an upscale clientele.
Sweet & Sassy, www.sweetandsassy.com; this one is new to me. I just learned of it and it looks great. I like it because at one time I was going to make my business a salon/princess day spa. They’ve done a nice job and looks to be doing it well. They are new, but I bet they will be a strong leader in this industry. Their website tells a lot of details, perhaps too much detail. It’s a cut-throat world and I think they should protect their ideas more carefully. This is a franchise; there are just a handful of them right now. Birthday parties are a big thing for them; lots of space too, their stores are 3000 sq ft. That’s an expensive lease! I would like to know what they require for their franchise fees. Also, who funded the first one??
Pigtails & Crewcuts, www.pigtailsandcrewcuts.com; this is a less girly, more generic fun kids themed salon/franchise. They also do parties. Nice site, lots of locations.
Lollilocks, www.lollilocks.com; another girl focused kids salon, pricey services, but cute concept. They do princessy ideas, but they are more generic. They don’t have as strong branding, however, I’ve been in one of these locations in Colorado and it seemed fun and the kids were enjoying it. It was a really small store, however, too tight. They require that the franchise be owner-operated so they are looking for a salon stylist/ owner to run it. Lolliloot card is an interesting concept, you gain points for services you pay for and then earn more services. They could improve their store build out.
My pick for future Kid Hair Salon Franchise Princess: Sweet & Sassy; sounds like a winner! I’d just advise them to tone down their exuberant sharing of information.
