See history in the making at the 5th Annual Conversations in Leadership as, for the first time in eight years, the incoming and outgoing Mayor of Tempe will come together to talk about the City of Tempe—past, present and future—and their roles in leadership. 

Tempe Leadership sponsors this one-time event, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. May 22 at the Tempe Mission Palms. The night will feature both Hugh Hallman, Tempe Mayor for the past eight years, and the new Mayor-elect—Mark Mitchell or Michael Monti—one week after the May 15 Mayoral election. Attendees will hear first-hand accounts of life in leadership, while enjoying drinks, appetizers and networking amongst attendees and presenters.

Conversations in Leadership will allow our mayoral panelists to honestly discuss leadership lessons learned, while providing insight into the future of Tempe.  Each panelist provides a unique perspective, from Michael Monti’s role as a business leader in Tempe, to Mark Mitchell’s time on the City Council, and including Hugh Hallman’s evaluation of his past eight years as the Mayor of the City of Tempe.

Reserve your seat today for Conversations in Leadership, a once-in-a-lifetime event. Sponsorship opportunities are available for the evening. Ticket prices are $50 per person.   All event proceeds support Tempe Leadership –a 501(c)(3) organization. This includes Tempe Cares and scholarship support for both Tempe Leadership and Tempe Youth Leadership programs.

For more information on the 5^th Annual Conversations in Leadership event or to RSVP, call (480) 967-7891 or visit www.tempeleadership.org.

Past Conversations in Leadership speakers include: Neil Giuliano, former Mayor of Tempe; Rep. Harry Mitchell, former Arizona Congressman; Frank Kush, former Arizona State University head football coach; and many more.

For media inquires, contact Tanya Chavez at 480-252-8354 or tschavez18@gmail.com

The Tempe Chamber is proud to present the 17th Annual Women in Business Conference and Trade Show on May 23, 2012 at The Buttes, a Marriott Resort.

Each year, this powerful event brings together more than 300 business leaders in a setting that celebrates success, facilitates networking and offers incredible opportunities for personal and business growth. A trade show featuring local and national organizations, businesses and companies provides the backdrop to a wonderful luncheon and presentations by powerful keynote speakers.

The half-day event culminates with the presentation of the prestigious Business Woman of the Year award. The three finalists are Julie Kent, owner of here on the corner; Deborah Ostreicher, Deputy Aviation Director at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport; and Robin Trick, co-owner and operator of House of Tricks Restaurant.

The event takes place from 8:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. and includes an outstanding lunch prepared exclusively for the Tempe Chamber by the chefs at The Buttes. Advance registration is now open for exhibitors and attendees.

Our keynote presentations are:

9:15 – 10:00 – REACH – Help us honor the achievements of the graduates of our Mentor Program during this dynamic discussion and interview, concluding with a presentation of diplomas.

Heidi Foglesong, CEO of the Market Box and media celebrity with an extensive career and expertise in radio and television will emcee the event.

Heidi Foglesong

10:30 – 11:15 – ACHIEVE – Tamara Woodbury, CEO of the Arizona Cactus-Pine Girl Scout Council

Tamara Woodbury

12:15 – 1:00- CELEBRATE – Linda Clemons, CEO of Sisterpreneur, Inc.

Linda Clemons

 Booths or tickets can be reserved online here  or by calling 480-967-7891.

The Tempe Chamber of Commerce has announced three finalists for the 2012 Business Woman of the Year award. The recipient will be honored at the 17^th Annual Women in Business Conference and Trade Show on Wednesday, May 23, at The Buttes, A Marriott Resort, 2000 Westcourt Way in Tempe.

The award was established to recognize an outstanding business woman who has positively impacted the Tempe community. The finalists have achieved excellence in their fields, displayed leadership in the community, served as positive role models and are active in programs within the community and the Tempe Chamber. They have received numerous awards and accolades for their professionalism and spirit of service.

“The Business Woman of the Year award recognizes the valuable contributions that the candidates have made to the business community and to the Tempe Chamber of Commerce. Their hard work and dedication have made an admirable and positive impact that we are proud to recognize,” said Mary Ann Miller, President and CEO of the Tempe Chamber. 

The three finalists are Julie Kent, owner of here on the corner; Deborah Ostreicher, Deputy Aviation Director at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport; and Robin Trick, co-owner and operator of House of Tricks Restaurant.

Julie Kent is the owner of here on the corner, a boutique in Tempe that carries products by many local designers. Subsequent to purchasing the shop in May 2011, she was nominated as a top 10 retailer in Dallas Market Centers’ annual nationwide Next Big Give contest due to her philanthropic work for Maggie’s Place, which serves homeless pregnant women in Tempe, Phoenix and Glendale. Kent is a member of Local First Arizona and sits on the Downtown Tempe Community board of directors, as well as their Retail Committee. Kent is also a graduate of Tempe Leadership.

Julie Kent

Deborah Ostreicher, Deputy Aviation Director at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, works to make improvements at Sky Harbor and help facilitate the ease of doing business in Tempe. Ostreicher is active in bringing high school and college youth to the airport to educate them on the possibilities of working in the airport and has received numerous outstanding achievement awards in marketing and communications. She received Board Chair of the Year and All Star awards from the Airports Council International; was recognized by President Bush and Point of Light Institute for her work with local homeless children; and received the Arizona Business Award for Corporate Responsibility for work with Greater Phoenix Youth at Risk.

Deb Ostreicher

Robin Trick has been co-owner and operator of House of Tricks Restaurant in Tempe for the past 25 years. Trick has served or currently serves on the boards of many organizations, including the Tempe Municipal Arts Commission; Mill Avenue Merchants Association; Downtown Tempe Community; and the Tempe Tourism Office, among others. She has also had heavy involvement with Tempe Sister Cities and is a member of Local First Arizona. Trick was awarded a Downtown Tempe Community MADEE Award and a Business Volunteer for the Arts Award from the Arts and Business Council.

Robin Trick

Have you been tempted to offer discounted prices or fees in an attempt to win the business? Have prospects asked for discounts, promising to give you the business if the discounts are granted?

What did you do?

Cutting the price to win the business is a strategy that has the potential to do more harm than good. In the short term, you may win a piece of business, but at what cost?

By offering a discount, you “brand” your product or service. What does that brand suggest? The suggestion is that your product or service is not worth the price originally quoted. To make matters worse, the suggestion carries over to future quotes for products or service. Once you establish a precedent, it’s hard to break it.

To compound the matter, discounting your products or services creates a perception of greater value for the products and services of your competitors who don’t discount. How? If a prospect has the choice of paying your competitor’s regular price for a service or your regular (non-discounted) price, he is likely to perceive that he’ll be receiving greater value from your competitor.

Why? Because buying from you when your service isn’t discounted would be an apparent loss—paying more than the previously established value.

What clients and prospects really want is value. And you can create value in ways other than discounting. Rather than charge less for what you deliver, deliver more than what you charge for. Bundle in additional relevant services. The impact on the bottom line is likely to be less than out-and-out discounting. And, more importantly, you change the “brand” focus from price to value.

Reach Mr. Miller at linc@sandler.com or 480-285-6338
© 2012 Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. No portion of this Publication may be reprinted or used without the express written permission of Sandler Systems, Inc.

During this event, attendees will learn how to provide services and products to the State of Arizona; the City of Tempe; Arizona State University; and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Learn how the bid and RFP processes work, how you can be included in them, who to talk to, best practices for securing contracts and more. The half-day workshop is broken into four 45-minute sessions, each featuring a representative from the purchasing or contracting departments of each institution. Presentations will include Q&A and practical advice and procedures for getting more business for your company.

The “Doing Business With” Series will take place April 18, 8 a.m. to noon, at the Four Points by Sheraton Tempe, 1333 S. Rural Rd., in the conference room adjacent to the Tempe Chamber of Commerce.

The cost of the program is $20 for members and $30 for the general public. Interested guests may learn more or RSVP at www.tempechamber.org or (480) 967-7891.

8:00 – Registration and Breakfast
8:10 – Welcome by Tempe Chamber and Four Points by Sheraton
8:15 – 9:00 – City of Tempe -  Michael Green, Procurement Administrator for the City of Tempe
9:15 – 10:00 – State of Arizona – Ms. Susan Bayer, Strategic Contract Manager for the State of Arizona
10:15 – 11:00 – Sky Harbor International Airport – Valerie Churchwell, Community Outreach Manager
11:15 – 12:00 – ASU – John Riley, Executive Director of Purchasing for ASU

Kjell Andreassen

By: Kjell Andreassen  Acceler8 llc

Think: Acquisition

In an economy when many of us are tempted to bury our heads until the shooting is over, smart business owners are realizing that this may be the perfect time to acquire smaller, less adaptable, less capitalized or less well-managed competitors.

As the sellers of goods or services, owners sometimes forget that they, too, can be buyers. And in this buyer’s market, you can expect to find not only lower purchase prices, but also much more attractive seller-based financing and earn-outs.

Consider for a moment that many of your smaller competitors are experiencing a fall in revenue that portends the end of their company’s viability. While their overhead is not large by your standards, it represents such a substantial percentage of their revenue that, as revenue sinks, they simply cannot correspondingly reduce overhead. The hypothetical business owner, Bob Eustice’s company, All-City Printing, is a good example.

For a good many years, All-City enjoyed a solid business based upon servicing many of the area’s top companies. When this economic downturn began, Bob prudently pruned expenses and actually increased the company’s gross margins. But he didn’t stop there.

Bob began acquiring less fortunate competitors who were unable to weather the downturn. These businesses were much smaller and undercapitalized. Less profitable in the good times they quickly became unprofitable when business declined. Their owners had two options: liquidate and receive very little (if any money) or sell to All-City.

Bob contacted the owners of several smaller print shops whom he thought would consider selling. Within 12 months he acquired three such businesses, or, more accurately, parts of three businesses. Here’s how he structured the purchases:

• All-City acquired only those assets it could immediately use, such as equipment directly used in printing operations. Usually this simply meant assuming existing equipment leases. If Bob purchased other equipment, he paid cash.
• All-City bought the customer lists. As All-City received payment from customers, it paid the sellers for their lists. For two years, All-City paid each seller 10 percent of the future gross revenues received by All-City from that seller’s customers. Payment in this form of “earn-out” was likely more money than the sellers would have received from those customers had they not sold. With its greater efficiencies and economies of scale, All-City was easily able to generate enough cash flow from these new customers to make the payments.

The net result for All-City was a very low risk acquisition financed by future cash flows of that acquisition with the promise of increased future revenues.

All-City’s acquisition methods are far from unusual in times like ours. In many situations, owners are able to acquire businesses — or the parts of businesses they want — with little up-front cash and no bank financing. While you would not sell your company on these terms, they may be the best — and only terms — offered to a less well-positioned competitor.

This is just one acquisition technique you can use to build the value of your company during a recession. If you have questions about other techniques or how to evaluate potential acquisition candidates, contact us.

This article contains excerpts from an article in The Exit Planning Review™ published by Business Enterprise Institute, Inc. Subsequent issues of The Exit Planning Review™ provide unbiased and advertising-free information about all aspects of Exit Planning. Please contact us or if you would like to sign up for a free subscription to The Exit Planning Review™, if you have any questions or want additional Exit Planning information.

1940's USO Dance

In a salute to the nation’s military, the Tempe Chamber of Commerce is providing complimentary tickets to servicemen and women throughout Arizona to its inaugural Swing Into Spring celebration.

Centered around the 14-piece Upper East Side Big Band, the event features dinner, drinks, dancing, desserts, a silent auction and more. Inspired by the USO shows and dances that first supported troops during the 1940s, the Tempe Chamber and its Ambassadors Committee have teamed up with local donors to offer free tickets to a limited number of active duty and retired members of America’s armed forces.

The event takes place on April 5 from 5:30 – 9:00 p.m. at Noah’s, 2100 E. Yeager Dr. in Chandler. To request a free ticket for a member of the military, or to sponsor one through a donation of a ticket, contact Frank Woertz at 602-397-6867 or frank@judywoertz.net.

Swing Into Spring!

Tickets for civilians are $40 for members, $50 for the public and include admission, dinner and two drink tickets, dessert, dancing and hours of swing-era big band performances. Event registration is available here or by calling 480-967-7891.

Food and drinks will be provided by Rigatony’s, Special Moments, Garcia’s, Tilted Kilt, Sonoran Brewing Company, Cookies From Home, Tempe Schools Credit Union, Honey Moon Sweets, Boulders on Broadway, Costco, D’Vine Gourmet and Heidi’s Events and Catering. Dance lessons will be given by the Arizona Dance Zone.    

Sponsored by Bronze Sponsors Benefits by Design and Wells Fargo, Board Sponsors Edward Jones, Tempe Schools Credit Union and Ambassador Sponsors Acceler8 Business Advisors, Courtney Valleywide Properties, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Studio ADT. Print Sponsor Alphagraphics at Kyrene and Elliot. Floral by Fred’s Flowers.

Swing Into Spring – A Big Band Evening Celebration
Thursday, April 5, 2012
5:30 PM to 9:00 PM
Noah’s
2100 E. Yeager, Chandler AZ

The purpose of the Business Resource Advantage Committee is to provide information and resources to Chamber members in a variety of productive, user-friendly formats in order to impact their businesses in profitable and beneficial ways.

The group meets once a month and plays a key role in establishing programs and educational workshops to deliver vital information and resources to our membership, such as our upcoming “Doing Business With” Series. We also foster networking, leads and growth through our leads group, Coffee Connections.

Help us improve and be a part of your own success. If you are interested in joining the committee, please send an e-mail to Sachiyo Ragsdale at sachiyo@tempechamber.org, and tell us why you would be a good fit for this committee.

The other day I paused for a moment to contemplate all of the lessons in leadership I’ve experienced over the past seven months as a member of the current Tempe Leadership Class XXVII, and I realized the deep and lasting value of taking the time to grow my leadership skills.

 I’m so glad I’ve done this. I now believe it’s one of the best investments you can make in yourself, for your own personal growth, your employer, that favorite non-profit you love to serve, your community and even your family.

What exactly have I learned? I can now say from personal experience that becoming a good leader isn’t always about doing what’s easy. After going through Tempe Leadership I now know I am capable of setting aside my own ego and personal aspirations to do what’s best for my team, I know I can handle disagreements with grace, and I know I can help others to engage their personal strengths, which ironically, helped me discover some of my own. I will come away from this knowing I have all the tools I need to be a good leader in our community, which I’ve now had the chance to not only prove to others, but to myself.

These are lessons you can’t truly internalize by reading about them or simply intellectually understanding the concepts. But you can experience them through structured, quality leadership development programs like Tempe Leadership.

In this 9-month program, we’ve learned about all aspects of Tempe, from government and social services to local business and art. We’ve participated in a class project to reforest 37 dead and dying trees in Kiwanis Park and participated in a handful of fundraisers and community events.

But it’s not just about the actual list of projects and events that imparts the most value, it’s about what you learn as you go through these experiences with other people. The 15 members of my class come from all age and social backgrounds and were carefully selected to provide each of us with the maximum growth experience possible as we worked together through successes, setbacks, disagreements, wins, losses, and celebrations. 

Like a college degree, graduating from Tempe Leadership is something that can never be taken away from me and boosts my value as a productive member of society.

Tempe Leadership is currently recruiting new members for their next class, which will begin in fall of 2012. A recruitment reception for anyone interested in the program will be held Tuesday, March 27 at 6 p.m. at Studio 5C, 3rd floor, 502 S. College Ave., in Tempe. 

 The reception will explain the mission, the program and the selection process along with experiences shared by current and past class members. If you are interested in attending the reception, please RSVP by Thursday, March 22 to the Tempe Chamber of Commerce at (480) 736-4281 or magdalena@tempechamber.org. You’re also invited to apply to the program at www.tempeleadership.org/join.  

Chairman of the Board Dave Long has announced the appointment of a nominating committee to develop a single slate of five candidates to run for election to the Tempe Chamber’s Board of Directors.

Board members serve a three-year term. If you have suggestions for possible Board candidates, please submit their names no later than Monday, March 12, to Dave Long, Chairman of the Board, Tempe Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 28500, Tempe, AZ 85285-8500; fax to (480) 966-5365; or e-mail to info@tempechamber.org.

The current Board of Directors consists of:

Officers

Dave Long, Chairman

Jack Pisano, Chair Elect

Margaret Hunnicutt, Kristine Kassel, Jeff Mirasola, Vice Chairs

Phil Howard, Treasurer

Directors

Todd Christy

Steve Eberhart

Sharon Kausal

Mark Masten

R.J. Orr

Laura Robertson

Tim Ronan

Jackie Thompson

Ex-Officios

Jayson Matthews

Charlie Meyer

Stephanie Nowack

Virgil Renzulli