Improve Your Networking Skills — Right Now

Bill Davis – Team Nimbus of North Carolina

Team Nimbus All-Star of the Week

Julie Dudley is the owner of Silver Pearl Inc.

Nature of Business:

I provide bookkeeping services for businesses, non-profits, and individuals. I specialize in set-up, catch-up, and clean-up bookkeeping: setting up

a new bookkeeping system or catching up on neglected books. I love my work because I help people get the most from their financial information, not dread it! Bookkeeping isn’t just for taxes–it helps answer people answer questions and run their business or life more effectively. I help people focus on what they do best and gain peace of mind about their finances.

An important aspect of my business is collaboration with CPAs, financial planners and other professionals.

What Julie has been up to since her participation in 100 Days to Abundance/Team Nimbus:

I am thrilled that I have met my goal of having a stable revenue stream that is not dependent on tax season. I have learned to use the Activity Tracking technique on a regular basis, which has helped tremendously to even out the typical “ups and downs” of a start-up business. I always feel that I’m doing something to continue to build

my business. I’ve also been able to commit to a part-time assistant on a regular basis, which makes me more confident about growing my business.

Through Bill’s coaching, I have learned to think of myself as a business owner, rather than self-employed. This has greatly changed the way I approach my business and how I set goals for the future. I’m very excited about building a business with real value for customers long term, and for me for the future!

Julie’s best advice to other small business owners:

Set stretch goals, but don’t be afraid to re-evaluate your goals if things don’t go exactly as planned. If you are starting from scratch, it takes a long time to get to the point where you feel like you have stable income!

Also, if you are in a trust-oriented, referral-based business like mine, learn a process for meeting people and following up, even if you are an introvert. You can’t rely on social media and websites to market for you (but they are great once you get a referral for people to check you out).

If you don’t have the pleasure of knowing Julie you can connect with her on: LinkedIn.com

Olalah Njenga

Team Nimbus All-Star of the Week

Olalah Njenga is CEO of YellowWood Group.

Nature of Business:

As the CEO of Yellow Wood Group my role is to help clients identify and leverage their competitive advantages. In general we work with growth focused small businesses who serve medium to enterprise sized companies. As a marketing and sales performance company everything we do is designed to align marketing efforts with sales goals and help clients win by playing smarter and un-leveling the competitive field.

What Olalah has been up to since her participation in 100 Days to Abundance:

I developed an intensive training course for growth focused small business owners that want to make marketing more measurable in their business. I have received three awards for achievements in business and revenue growth. I have been appointed to two University Boards and I serve as the Chair of a board that supports the professional, political and civic interests of women business owners.

I am excited about continuing to grow my team, opening two new offices in the next two years and expanding Breakthrough Advantage™ into new markets.

Olalah’s best advice to other small business owners:

Business owners should never confuse the role of marketing with its function. The role of marketing is to support the sales process, if you’re not doing that, then what are you doing?

If you don’t have the pleasure of knowing Olalah you can connect with him/her on: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Kat (Haney) Woods

Team Nimbus All-Star of the Week

Kat (Haney) Woods is Founder & CEO of Kat’s Design Services, LLC

Nature of Business:

Kat’s Design Services, LLC is an interior design firm that does business in the Greater Raleigh Metro Area of North Carolina. The company provides both commercial and residential customers with a wide variety of creative interior design solutions to meet their design goals. Kat’s areas of expertise include interior design, redesign, eco-friendly design, and home sale staging.

Kat’s Design Services, LLC is focused on providing high quality service by partnering with clients to plan and implement creative interior design strategies to make their surroundings more functional, more marketable, more eco-friendly, more beautiful and ultimately more enjoyable.

What Kat has been up to since her participation in 100 Days to Abundance/Team Nimbus:

I have hired a part-time assistant. Her administrative strengths have enabled me to accomplish more work and bill more hours.

I recently enjoyed being published on the front page of the Raleigh News & Observer’s Home & Garden Section in conjunction with a piece from the Associated Press titled ‘Strike While the Iron is Hot’:

My side bar box was titled, ‘How to Add More Iron to Your Home’s Diet’ which appeared for an encore edition the following weekend in their on-line edition.

Kat’s best advice to other small business owners:

As Bill said, don’t worry that everything has to be perfect, just do your best and keep moving forward! Perfectionism can look like procrastination to your client, so keep working on that speed of execution. (I remind myself of that every day!)

If you don’t have the pleasure of knowing Kat you can connect with her on: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube,

Kim Niskey

Team Nimbus All-Star of the Week

Kim Niskey is a Senior Sales Representative for the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce

Nature of Business:

The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce is the Triangle’s largest business membership organization—made up of more than 2,300 member firms representing two-thirds of the private sector employment in Wake County. Over 85% of our member companies are small businesses.

Our Chamber is regional in scope and helps our member companies accelerate their growth in greater Wake County. We help them work “in” and “on” their businesses by providing over 120 networking, training and professional development opportunities annually. Whether it’s economic development, networking, legislation or greater Wake County area quality of life issues …. our Chamber is involved!

I am one of the sales reps on staff and my role is to invite businesses into our Chamber membership and help them maximize their membership. I do this by educating them about our benefits specific to them personally and to their organizations and guide them in our opportunities in which to participate. Also, I love to connect them with each other at our events!

What Kim has been up to since her participation in 100 Days to Abundance/Team Nimbus:

Bill Davis’ teachings and consulting has greatly contributed in my working smarter, more creatively and more efficiently. I have had the privilege of building business relationships with several talented business professionals so my business network has grown exponentially. Also, I have already significantly surpassed my sales year-to-date compared to this time last year!

Now that for 2 years I have been a Senior Sales Rep for our Chamber and also have been attending our Chamber events/forums for that duration, I feel very comfortable in discussing the opportunities we offer with any business professional in any size or type of company.

I am excited to find additional networking opportunities to connect with decision makers in all types and sizes of companies! This will expand my network and help me be even more of a resource to others in my current network. Also, some of the opportunities I find may help others I know too … and that is VERY exciting!

Kim’s best advice to other small business owners:

Research.. research… research! It will be very helpful for you and the prospective client or strategic partner if you have researched their company and them personally prior to your meeting. Reviewing their website usually gives you good insight into their company and LinkedIn is a great tool to find out more about them personally. If you do the research, you won’t ask questions that you probably should have known and you will have a much more productive meeting. That has been my experience anyway!

If you don’t have the pleasure of knowing Kim you can connect with her on: LinkedIn

Allen Gayle

Team Nimbus All-Star of the Week

J. Allen Gayle is Vice President of Downing & Gayle Insurance Services

Nature of Business:

Downing & Gayle Insurance is an independent insurance agency which has been serving NC since 1988. We offer Personal Lines policies (Auto & Home, etc.); Commercial Lines (General Liability, Property, Buildings, Workers Compensation, Commercial Auto); Life Insurance and Group Health insurance.

What Allen has been up to since his participation in 100 Days to Abundance/Team Nimbus:

2011 ended up as a down year for us. However, this year started out very well and has continued to improve each month. We have already exceeded last years numbers by the end of May 2012. 100 Days to Abundance is not an overnight fix, but it works. Honestly, it’s like all diet plans, they all work, but you’ve got to do them. No matter how good ideas are, they never work if you don’t put them into action!

Although the unemployment numbers are still bad and the global economy hasn’t improved much either, the economy in the Triangle Area and Eastern NC has begun to show some improvement. I feel our business is in the right place, with the right tools and poised to move forward with every opportunity. All indications show this year has the potential to be the best year in the history of our company, barring any catastrophic losses (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.).

Allen’s best advice to other small business owners:

You’ve got to have Integrity. Integrity – Do what you say you are going to do and do the right thing, even when no one is looking. Listen, the ability to share the “good”, the “bad” and the “ugly” with millions of people in a matter of nano seconds is ever present. So do the right thing, do it well, and be visible, in networking groups, on social media websites or on the internet via your own website.

Success is not the achievement of your Goal. Success is the execution of a well prepared plan that guides you step by step to the accomplishment of your Goal.

If you don’t have the pleasure of knowing Allen you can connect with him on: Plaxo, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp.

Mary Jo Sheerin

Team Nimbus All-Star of the Week

Mary Jo Sheerin is the Owner of MJ Sheerin, CPA, MST.

Nature of Business:

I am in the field of providing accounting, tax and business consulting services to my clients.

My clients are mostly composed of small closely held businesses. Small businesses are my specialty.

I assist individuals in forming their businesses by educating them as to the pros and cons of each “business entity type” (corporation, LLC or other). There are many reasons to operating your business as one form of entity as opposed to another. It is not just a financial decision. This is not a decision to be taken lightly.
I also prepare tax return for individuals, businesses,estates and trusts. What makes my tax preparation service different is the manner in which I service my client. I believe in meeting with my clients and reviewing their information with them. By meeting with my clients, I have discovered many other deductions they could take on their tax return, or actions they could make, to lower their taxes. Many other firms simply pick up your information and go from there.

I also assist small businesses in setting up their accounting books. I assist them in the accounting functions necessary in running their business.

What Mary Jo has been up to since her participation in 100 Days to Abundance/Team Nimbus:

My business has grown. Through the tracking methods learned in 100 days I am much more aware of the dates in which I do things. As Bill says, the advantage small businesses have is that they can “act quickly”. Large firms may have to go through alot of red tape. By watching the dates on my meetings, projects, networking events, I stay on top of what I need to do!

I am able to grow this business. It is growing in reputation and that is very important to me. The quality of my services and how my clients feel when they are in my office are very important to me. I want to be the “fun” CPA to work with. Life is way to short! Why not put a little fun in our work life?

Mary Jo’s best advice to other small business owners:

You can do it. There will be bad days, but have faith in yourself! Many people started out of their garages…IBM

If you don’t have the pleasure of knowing Mary Jo you can connect with her on: LinkedIn.com and Inside919.com.

Nate Brown

Team Nimbus All-Star of the Week

Nate Brown is the owner of Brown Financial Group NC.

Nature of Business:

I help create comprehensive financial plans for families to help them acheive their retirement goals. These plans include an understanding of where you are currently and how long of a roadmap is necessary to complete in order to reach your goals. In general I serve new families, newly married couples and couples expecting children, as each of these new variables invites an examination of their financial situation to verify that an optimal circumstace is still in place after the life changing event.

What Nate has been up to since his participation in 100 Days to Abundance/Team Nimbus:

I have built a network of over 2,000 people in a little more than a year, by focusing on building relationships with those I meet at events rather than looking for prospects. It is a subtle difference, however having my main priority always be building relationships has lead me to establish a network of people that I have inspired with my interest in helping them.

Everything is exciting right now, I have created my own financial firm the Brown Financial Group of NC recently and the transition is a very enjoyable one. I am being personally mentored by an experienced independent advisor that is allowing me to learn all the specific information that will allow me to succeed. In addition to that, my personal business Networking with Nate is about to release the first module of my book, The Networking Roadmap, designed to teach any business owner how to increase the efficiency of their networking efforts.

I would like to offer my perception of the wisdom that Bill Davis freely offers to participants of the Networking with Nate meetings every Thursday and Friday at the Team Nimbus center. We meet for an hour with a unique networking event structure that I have designed to amplify the ability for someone to interact in a small group environment to build relationships with other business owners. Bill runs a business strategy table where he facilitates a discussion of how to incorporate the principles of the 100 days to abundance program into your specific business model. Anyone can come bask in the warmth of his knowledge for great effect to their bottomline profit for just an hour of their time. I don’t know of any other place where so much good knowledge is offered pro bono by such wise people. Please contact me at nate@brownfinancialgroupnc.com if you have any questions, I hope you have a great week.

Nate’s best advice to other small business owners:

Take the time to understand what benefit you provide to what specific group of people. Having a clear understanding of your value is necessary, as I see many business owners struggling to pay their bills because they aren’t attaching the correct value to their service. Often times if the service is valued properly, the target market isn’t well thought out. The 100 days to abundance program taught me the optimal strategy to use when planning the foundations for a business model, which I have used twice to form both Networking with Nate and the Brown Financial Group of NC.

If you don’t have the pleasure of knowing Nate you can connect with him on: LinkedIn.com