First what is Business networking? It is the process of establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with other business people and potential clients and/or customers. Notice that I don’t say anything about meeting people in this definition; the ever-increasing slew of businesses networking meet-and-greet events has given business networking a bad name. The key to true business networking is the establishment of a mutually beneficial relationship, and that’s an incredibly rare event at the standard shake-hands-and-exchange-your-business-card events that are touted as business networking “opportunities”. The purpose of business networking is to increase business revenue one way or another. The thickening of the bottom line can be immediately apparent, as in developing a relationship with a new client, or develop over time, as in learning a new business skill. The best business networking groups operate as exchanges of business information, ideas, and support (NO MATTER THE BUSINESS).

The most important skill for effective business networking is listening; focusing on how you can help the person you are listening to rather than on how he or she can help you is the first step to establishing a mutually beneficial relationship. Jim learned a lot about how to improve his customer service through his business networking group. Networking is a lot of fun! Business networking is when a group of likeminded business people gather and help each other. If you check, you will surely find a networking group in your area. The networking group can meet as often as they wish, as is convenient for the participants. Regrettably, most people start with a networking group by looking for immediate gains, that is, for favorable results for themselves. If this is what you are trying to achieve, you are networking for the wrong reasons and will be sticking out like a sore thumb. Many people think that the size of a networking group makes the difference in networking. When groups start falling in size, members will say, “We have to build up our numbers.” Now, what numbers are they referring to? Is it the number of participants? I would rather belong to a networking group of two people who can help each other on a regular basis then have a large group of business people not following the Ten Commandments of Networking. It is not the quantity, it is the quality. “I haven’t got any leads yet!” Well excuse me; have you given one, ever? Or, have you made a suggestion that might help a fellow member? Did you call anyone with a compliment and say, “Just wanted you to know, Jim, that your comments on the XYZ expansion was right on the money.” One must be willing to put in time waiting also. It might take a while before people feel comfortable with offering you a referral. Networking groups will come and go. To get the most out of your networking experience, you need to build a relationship with people who you want to have contact with. Not all members will be able to help you, nor will you be able to help them. That doesn’t mean you should snub them! I still have strong relationships with my networking friends from groups that are long gone. When networking, spend most of your time and effort on people who can help each other out, for the long term. That is right. This is a long term project. Countless times I have been to business networking events and have seen people actually run from person to person, with the expectations of first giving away their card and hoping to gather the other person’s. How can you possibly build a relationship with a person when your objective is to get out there, and collect cards? Some networking groups make a game out of it to see who can collect the most in a certain time. What a waste of business cards! You will find that a highly effective networker will “work the net”. What I mean is that they will go into a function with a goal in mind. My usual goal when business networking is to have the expectation that I will “meet” and “understand” only three people per event. I know what kind of person that I can help and expect that this person will be able to do the same for me. A win/win situation is what I am talking about.

The highly effective networker will take the time to cultivate a rapport. After the business networking event is when the real work begins. After all, you are only at the networking event to meet and build rapport. Follow up ASAP. Now is the time to send a nice customized card, and call a few days after to arrange a time to meet for a coffee or to have lunch. That is when you can listen to the details of what your new “friend” requires. You might even have the chance to offer your goods and services, only after listening. If you want to gain the most out of business networking, follow the Ten Commandments of Networking!

1) Thou shalt drop the “what is in it for me?” attitude.

2) Thou shalt listen.

3) Thou shalt build a relationship.

4) Thou shalt give the first referral.

5) Thou shalt not tell others of the referral you require; thou shalt “show them” with a story.

6) Thou shalt be specific of the type of referral.

7) Thou shalt reciprocate when appropriate.

8) Thou shalt participate in the network executive, functions, and network time.

9) Thou shalt thank the person who gave a referral.

10) Thou shalt follow up on the referral within 24 hours.

Business networking is productive and fun, and that is why it will always be part of the Bigger Picture. Thank you

Kelly D. Price

The reasons as to why businesses fail can be many. Here’s what I think. The reason most businesses fail is because entrepreneurship is a lifestyle shift, which most entrepreneurs do succeed in. It is, however, the mind shift that’s an integral part of entrepreneurship that remains incomplete. Most entrepreneurs do make mistakes during the startup phase.

Below are 9 entrepreneurship principles you shouldn’t forget, to help you be more successful.

9 Entrepreneurship Principles:

1. It’s Never About the Economy; it’s Always About You
2. It’s easy to blame everything on the economy. The reality is that entrepreneurship has nothing to do with your idea, previous experience, education and training. Although all of these do help you later on.
3. Entrepreneurship is always about you. It’s about how you organize resources and manage them. It’s about how you market your business and it’s all about your commitment to see it through to the end.
4. You Aren’t Playing if You Aren’t Playing by the Numbers, so think outside the box.
5. If you are in business, you have to make those sales happen. The first hat you wear as an entrepreneur, apart from conceptualizing and designing your products and services, is that of a sales person. A sale manifests itself in various forms and doesn’t always lead to a financial transaction. Wooing investors, convincing customers to buy from you and roping in beta testers for your new startup are all successful sales closures.
6. As long as it’s about sales, there’s a cardinal rule that applies to it: It’s always a game of numbers while you focus on doing it right. The more customers you talk to, the more you’ll sell. Apply that rule to first hires, venture capitalists and everyone else involved in the startup phase.
7. Needless to say, rejections will come with 9 out of 10 interactions. It won’t matter since the 10th person is likely to buy. Rejection is the fuel that should keep entrepreneurship alive. Are you letting it fan that flame in your belly?
8. Use Technology, the new economy demands new approaches to business. The Internet has already turned the tables around. So when you are starting up, is your approach going to be contemporary or traditional? The contemporary route is going to pull you towards the rewards of using technology. You’d typically start a website; create a blog, set up social media accounts and one of the many tools available to run your business. The traditional way still holds (depending on your business), but it still plugs itself into the contemporary way of doing business. That is, even brick-and-mortar business models will end up using technology.
9. Customers Are Humans; Not CRM Entries Customers are not serial numbers. They aren’t entries in your CRM solution or on your accounting ledger. When entrepreneurs come up with ideas, they could fall in love with their own ideas, concepts and product prototypes that they forget that they are selling it to humans with the aim to solve a pressing problem with an effective solution. That process ought to reverse. Find the problem, come up with solutions for it, launch your product or service and then look to serve customers for life.

Ok the story does not end after the sale. Serving customers to the best of your ability kicks in and stays over. In a Sales Process, You Aren’t Important, Entrepreneurs are people too. They have needs as everyone does. That’s where the fault line is. Nowhere is it more visible than in the sales or deal making process itself.

If small business owners need a better conversion ratio in their sales process, they’d have to do the gargantuan task of “removing themselves” from the equation. Your idea might be unique, you’d have invested money in product development and you’d have hired the best people your money could buy. Still, you aren’t important in the process; the customer is. So Just Shut Up Entrepreneur talking about you it doesn’t earn you bragging rights. Nothing ever does. The more you tend to give away in a sales process or while making deals, the more you stand to lose.

How familiar are you with these elevator pitches? For example “We are a edu-tech company with 8 different portals to facilitate online education in the emerging economies. We show up when learners demand better access to education.  $8.5 billion in funding, and having bagged 3 prestigious Startup of the Year awards. ”That pitch does sound nice but it’s got “you” written all over it. It’s not personable, it’s not customer-centric and it doesn’t even say how it benefits your client or customer. All it does is brag about how quickly you grew.

Entrepreneurship without Vision is Abortive; Entrepreneurship itself is a visionary endeavor. While your broad vision for the company can change as you grow and explore opportunity, it should have one to begin with.

1. What do you aspire to be? How do you purport to serve customers as you grow? What, exactly, do you want to achieve?
2. What’s Your Plan? No, you don’t need a business plan. At least, you don’t need to create a 67-page business plan with financials forecast for the next decade. Your business plan puts your ideas onto paper. It gives you a document to go back and refer to when you need to refocus your entrepreneurial efforts. It’s not etched in stone. It’s printed on paper or it might even sit as a document on your computer hard drive. Change plans if you must. Dump the original plan and go for a completely new one. Whatever you do, print it on paper and keep it with you because it guides you along your way.
3. Not Knowing Is No Excuse, Most successful entrepreneurs are well-read, knowledge-hungry, information addicts. Reports, magazines, books and countless hours on the Internet are all in a day’s work for the typical new age entrepreneur. It’s actually a pretty simple trait that’s still so powerful. Entrepreneurs cannot rest on their laurels. Changes are the only constant that everyone has to deal with. The only way small business owners can keep track of changing trends is by keeping on top of what’s happening in the world, in their industry and elsewhere.

Entrepreneurship keeps the world’s economy spinning. It’s the reason why jobs are created and new products and services are launched. Entrepreneurship is the sum of all the work that goes behind the scenes to bring us everything we enjoy, use and experience. None of that would have been possible if any of those entrepreneurs behind everything we have today had not acceded to even one of these fundamental entrepreneurship tenets.  So now what’s the plan, entrepreneur?

Kelly D. Price

Poverty on a scale that’s unimaginable in developed countries is the daily reality for nearly half the human population. Today, more than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day (measured in purchasing power), and 1.4 billion live on less than $1.25.

There is good new, though. Global poverty has, in fact, declined dramatically over the past 50 years, proof that this is not an intractable problem. Income inequalities may always exist, but extreme poverty need not always be with us.

Over the years, a multitude of programs have been proposed to tackle the problem of global poverty. Today, the effects of different approaches can be better evaluated, thanks to the powerful technologies now available for research and analytics. And the best of this research points to some surprisingly hopeful conclusions.

Entrepreneurs and their companies turn out to be powerful positive forces for reducing extreme poverty around the world. High-impact entrepreneurs have been shown to play an outsized role in producing the new jobs, revenues and innovation needed for broad economic growth in emerging markets. They also have the power to inspire and mentor others as role models. Together, these entrepreneurs hold an important part of the solution for lifting great numbers of people out of extreme poverty.

Numerous studies have highlighted the power of these high-impact entrepreneurs to generate jobs, encourage innovation and turn emerging markets into growth markets. For example, in a five-year survey of 800,000 randomly chosen adults in over 60 countries, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor showed that, while only 4 percent of respondents were classified as high-growth entrepreneurs, they generated 38 percent of all jobs created by entrepreneurs in the survey.

As companies generate revenue, attract investments, and increase demand for associated products and services, they contribute to the GDP of their countries, which has been shown to effectively reduce poverty. A study of sub-Saharan Africa by researchers at MIT and Columbia University showed that when GDP per capita went up, poverty went down. Research by Endeavor Insight found similar trends in additional countries with large populations in poverty, such as Brazil, Mexico and China. Similarly, a recent World Bank report shows that a 1 percent rise in mean income or consumption expenditures in a country corresponds with a 3 percent reduction in the proportion of people below the poverty line.

In recent years, micro-finance programs have helped many poor people — primarily women — take initiatives in agricultural or business that allow them to support themselves and their families. But these very small enterprises alone simply cannot kickstart the jobs and economic growth needed to transform the world’s poorest regions. Research shows that, on average, a high-growth entrepreneur leading a company that can grow to become a large business creates up to 100 times the number of new jobs as a new micro-enterprise.

Research on comparative growth in GDP is equally significant. A recent study done in Mexico showed that 273,000 new microfinanced companies would be needed to grow the country’s GDP by 1 percentage point. Only 105 midsize companies would have to grow from medium to large in order to produce the same result. And the jobs created by these entrepreneurial companies were shown to be stable, high-quality and inclusive of diverse skill sets and education levels.

To unlock this transformative potential, Endeavor Catalyst was launched as an innovative philanthropic fund to support promising entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Catalyst’s donated funds are co-invested in professional capital raising rounds alongside institutional investors in a neutral, rules-based process. Unlike traditional philanthropy, Catalyst harnesses the value creation of entrepreneurs to produce investment returns that are recycled into new investments, so that initial donations generate ever-increasing funds for social change.

We’ve long known that the spirit of entrepreneurship exists everywhere — underdeveloped countries have simply lacked the institutions and mechanisms needed to unlock its power. With Catalyst as a model, we now see that finding, supporting and accelerating the entrepreneurial spirit can be a highly effective investment in a transformed future.

With a quick dip of their credit cards into the sleek  machine, grateful customers are able to leave a pre-set tip  (generally $1) for baristas. An old-fashioned cash-register  chime alerts them that the transaction has gone through, but  there is no receipt. Counter workers later divvy up the  proceeds, which right now are not subject to a processing fee.

DipJar, located in six stores, is just one high-tech  innovation seeking to make up for declining gratuities as people  pay for small purchases with credit or debit cards. More than 30  percent of debit card receipts were for less than $10 in 2011,  with the median amount of all debit transactions just $19,  according to the ATM/debit network PULSE. Losing out, however,  are workers, whose pay is directly impacted as fewer customers  leave behind loose change as tips.

“Tip jars once upon a time could mean $2 or $3 more in  hourly wages,” says Richard Seltzer, author of the 2010 book  ‘Gratuity.’ “That’s a significant pay cut for the person behind  the counter.”

It is not just a simple bonus baristas are losing out on.  “Employers have come to depend on wages being paid out of the  tip pool,” says Shannon Liss-Riordan, a Boston-based attorney  who has represented workers in tipping cases for a decade.  “Workers depend on tips to pay for things like rent,  tuition- it’s real money for them.”

After years of seeing tipping decline, Oren’s Daily Roast, a  coffeehouse chain, agreed to test-pilot DipJar at two of its New  York locations last year. “Credit cards aren’t just reserved for  special purchases any more. I saw one woman charge 45 cents,”  says Gabe Smentek, director of operations at Oren’s. “But less  cash means less tipping, and that affects workers’ morale.”

In October, Starbucks said that from next summer it  would start letting customers who pay via mobile devices add a  digital tip through Square, the San Francisco-based mobile  payments system started by Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey.

Ziptip, a nascent startup based in Boston and Florida, is  also experimenting in this space. Tippers use the Ziptip  smartphone app to scan unique QR codes, those funky-looking  square barcodes, assigned to tip recipients and transmit their  gratuities through PayPal.

“The money goes directly into the recipient’s account to be  used that day,” says Lois Hamblet, Ziptip’s CEO. “And you can  tip anyone you feel who deserves it, from a barista to a hotel  doorman to your yoga teacher.” Ziptip service is available in 20  countries so far.

HOW MUCH TO TIP?

As tips drop, Liss-Riordan would like to see employers to  make up the difference with higher wages. She is realistic,  however, and would at least prefer that customers be given  credit card slips to sign. “More often than not, most will leave  a little something,” Liss-Riordan says.

The rule of thumb, among baristas at least, is $1 per drink  for counter service. Beyond anecdotal evidence, little research  on gratuities has been done in this area, experts say.

New York City taxicabs offer one prime example. When cab  drivers started accepting credit cards in 2007, riders were  given the option for tips of 20 percent, 25 percent or 30  percent. Tips more than doubled in the first two years. Over  time, though, fares increased and riders began to ignore the tip  options, and tips as a percentage of fares have fallen back  closer to pre-plastic levels, according to the NYC Taxi &  Limousine Commission.

Perhaps the closest comparison is to waiters and bartenders,  for whom patrons are now accustomed to adding 15 to 20 percent  onto their credit card receipts, and as much as 25 percent in  pricey cities like New York, according to Cornell University’s  Michael Lynn, who studies tipping.

The analogy isn’t a great one, however. Restaurant workers  typically earn what’s known as a “server’s wage,” the federal  tip minimum wage of $2.13 per hour since 1991, with the  expectation that they’ll earn the rest of their hourly wages in  tips. Even with tips, however, the median wage for restaurant  workers is $8.90 per hour, slightly below the poverty level for  a family of three, according to the advocacy group ROC United.  Plus, compensation rarely includes health insurance or  retirement plans.

What most restaurant-goers don’t realize is that when they  tip on plastic, management will often deduct a portion, usually  for processing fees, before distributing the money to servers on  a weekly or monthly basis. State law in New York and several  other states prohibits management from taking any part of tips  for any reason.

Baristas, on the other hand, don’t work for tips. By law  they make at least minimum wage. At major coffee houses like  Starbucks, they may also qualify for health benefits.

Smentek estimates that at the busiest Oren’s stores in New  York, cash and credit card tips add up to an extra $10 to $25  per employee’s shift.

Technology, of course, isn’t always a solution. When Swork  Coffee in Los Angeles recently swapped paper receipts for an  iPad checkout system at its three locations, tips  dropped more than 25 percent overnight, says owner Patricia  Neale. Neale laments that her baristas, who make between $9 and  $12 per hour, could once count on $50 in tips per shift, but now  sometimes make less than $5.

Neale says she has also had to raise prices for customers to  cover credit card processing fees. She estimates she rings in  $30,000 in sales each month, and pays $1,500 in credit card  processing fees.

DipJar plans to expand rapidly across the United States and  abroad over the next year. For its 10-device pilot project in  six locations, the company is covering all the debit and credit  card fees. Co-founder Ryder Kessler says going forward the  company hopes to ensure that at least 80 percent of each tip  goes to workers. “Fees are a reality,” Kessler says. “But we’re  negotiating with banks and credit card companies to keep them as  low as possible.”

Using Ziptip, tippers pay an extra 1 percent of the tip,  which goes to Ziptip, and tip recipients pay any associated  PayPal fees.

History has shown, time and again, that from the ashes of economic upheaval come the potential sparks of massive-scale progress.  Today is no different.  After years of near-catastrophe at worst, and malaise at best, our economy is showing signs of shaking off some cobwebs and moving into a new future.  And I believe technological innovation, already an important driver of recovery, is going to be what defines our future more than anything else.

We are simply living in a new digital age, bringing people and ideas together in ways that we couldn’t have imagined only a few years ago.  Companies like Google have obviously seen technology as an immensely powerful force for good since our founding 15 years ago.  But we can’t do it alone.  It’s up to others, outside of Silicon Valley, well beyond the tech sector, to embrace an innovation agenda if we are truly to build a new economy — and new future — that will endure for generations.

Thankfully, this is already happening in places that have historically been at the forefront of innovation: America’s cities.  Startup culture — the inventive energy, the garages serving as labs for the ideas that will shape our future, the crazy people dreaming up the crazier ideas that actually will change the world — is not the sole provenance of Silicon Valley.  It’s a mentality that should belong to everybody, that everybody should benefit from — and it’s a mentality shaping some of the most innovative thinking going on in cities around the country today.

As they face budget cuts, funding problems, and economic distress, cities have had to think in new ways about what kind of economy they want to build for their people.  When they take that thinking seriously, they learn quickly that technology and innovation are the best bets to drive both economic growth and social progress, generally their two chief concerns.

They see the stats about the power of the Internet, and it becomes harder and harder to deny where they should place their resources.  Over the past five years, the Internet has grown explosively, contributing to 21 percent of GDP growth, whereas over the past 15 years, it contributed 10 percent of GDP.  And it’s creating jobs: 2.6 jobs for every job in obsolescence, to be precise.  More generally, it’s providing opportunities that simply didn’t exist before, building the single best infrastructure for the exchange and creation of ideas the world has ever known, and then connecting and empowering individuals to bring those ideas to life.  It’s no wonder municipal governments are starting to get into the game.

One of the most exciting stories in the field of government innovation is Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge, a competition to inspire American cities to identify innovative ideas to solve common city challenges.  The response to the first-ever challenge has been extraordinary, with hundreds of cities applying from all over the country.  Twenty cities have been selected as finalists, and all of their ideas use technology and innovation as their fundamental underpinnings.  Five winners will be announced in the coming days.

In Houston, for example, they want to construct a high-tech sorting facility that would allow 75 percent of the city’s trash to be recycled using technologies from the mining and refining industries (residents put everything in one bin; technology handles the rest).  In Boston, they want to put more youth data in the hands of parents and empower them to share it more easily with educators, technologists, and researchers to ensure the best programs for their children.  Even in a smaller town, like Springfield, Oregon, they are trying to create mobile primary healthcare that combine at-your-door service with telemedicine technology in order to reduce EMS and ER costs.

These are just some of the 20 examples from the finalists — which themselves represent a smaller fraction of what’s going on in cities all around the country.  Local leaders all over are championing innovative solutions to difficult problems.  Cities of all sizes are harnessing technology to address and advance a diverse array of issues.  Ideas are bubbling up more and more, faster and faster.  And, the Mayors Challenge is removing political gridlock and tearing down the bureaucracy that has a tendency to extinguish those ideas before they have a chance to flourish.  Indeed, the Challenge is instead identifying the best ideas out there, helping them break through and spread, and, in the end, accelerating the economic and social progress our country needs right now.

The famous American architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen once said that, when you look at a city, it’s like reading the hopes, aspirations, and pride of everyone who built it.  When I look today at the 20 finalists of the Mayors Challenge, and at cities around the country, I see those hopes and aspirations and pride coming to life.  I see the beginnings of an age where technological innovation, more than anything else, will foster widespread growth and prosperity.  I feel the energy that built Google 15 years ago — the same energy that will build our new economy, and will define the way we all live far into the future.

I’m trying to clarify differentiating here between those who always offer advice, seminars, etc. for free, and those who charge some or all of the time. All of the advice below is referring to paying for business advice or coaching services.

While in most cases, no rules or laws are being broken, I have reservations as to the advisability of paying for these services for the average

demonstrators & product promoters. I do not feel as if you have less chance of succeeding, if you don’t have a business coach. That is simply not true. While some business coaches claim a high “client” base in the percentage of demonstrators who are high achievers, which of course we have no way of verifying, I can assure you that most high-achieving demonstrators are not paying anyone to coach them.

A simple easy to understand business plan, with excellent resources and training materials which is available in a variety of formats. While I would never say there is nothing to be learned from a business mentor or marketing and home business books, websites and bloggers, I truly believe there is no need to pay for any extra services beyond this, I’m an encouraging people to build there networking opportunities provided through physical events and online social connection.

YOU and your unique talents, dream  and efforts are what got you to where you are or where want to be today and what will get you where you want to go. In fact, those coaches would agree with me when I paraphrase the quote by an unknown author “all the business advice in the world will not work unless YOU do.”

Not all business coaching services are bad, although there are none that I recommend without reservations of their true worth. However, some business coaches use frankly shady tactics to draw customers in. I have identified some practices that should set off your alarm bells when you are considering a business coach:

•promise ridiculously high sales increases in short time periods

•provide no statistics or don’t back up claims of efficacy with proof of their services.

•have few or no testimonials, provide no dates for testimonials, or never update the testimonials they mention

• regularly offer “free” webinars and phone conferences that contain some generic advice but are obvious vehicles for advertising paid services, books or products.

Remember, as soon as a person solicits money from you, their motives must be taken with a grain of salt. It stands to reason that those who claim to help you learn all the secrets of good advertising are good advertisers of themselves, and they know how to present themselves in the best light possible.

If you do decide to spend your hard-earned money on a paid business coach, go into the relationship with your eyes wide open and your research well done. Do yourself a favor and commit to really working the resources around you first, before you spend your dollars for advice. Seek out experienced mentors and business owners who have been there and done that. Take full advantage of the tools available, and trust in your own intuition and ability to learn and grow and help your business flourish.

by Kelly D. Price

Balewa Bayete is a 35 year raw vegan, nutritional consultant, and wholistic health practitioner who specialize in the treatment, prevention, and maintenance of illness and disease through nutritional therapy. Aside from providing Memphis with delicious raw vegan meals and snacks, Balewa Vegan Gourmet offers a variety of services including herb walks, sprouting classes, detoxification, and seminars on the benefit of raw foods and wholistic living. At Balewa’s, they are changing lives one meal at a time, which is where it all counts.

Call Balewa Bayete for general information regarding cafe hours and location, call in orders, services, programs, classes and seminars: call 901-859-0590. You also can schedule an appointment for nutritional consultations and counseling, detoxification information and session please call the number above. Analysis and lifestyle transformation guidance: contact Indigo @ 901-674-8139.

Dr. Ivory L. Taylor and his wife Dr. Joyce Taylor are providing a great service to the Memphis community and the people that people that are underserved in the downtown area. Taylor Brown Apothecary has been recognized for being an award winning facility by the City of Memphis and the State of Tennessee. Taylor Brown Apothecary is a local business and we ask you visit and support our local business here in Memphis, Tennessee. Visit Taylor Brown Apothecary online as well @ http://taylorbrowngroup.com/home#

Dr. Ivory L. Taylor

Chairman/CEO

Dr. Ivory Taylor has serviced as the Chairman/CEO of Taylor Brown, since July 2003. Dr. Taylor primary focus is to ensure that the company continues to meet the healthcare needs of the Memphis and Shelby County community. Dr. Ivory Taylor offer over thirty-five years’ experience in Leadership/ Administration. He was a successful and highly respected educator/administrator at both the University and Community College levels and served in the military as a first sergeant of combat soldiers. Dr. Taylor possesses a strong background in leadership and human relations skills with excellent interpersonal skills, and a strong motivation to excel.

Education: A Doctor of Leadership (Arkansas State University, Jonesboro) Master of Leadership and Master in Higher Education (The University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS) Bachelor of Science (The University of Louisville, Louisville, KY) Retired U. S. Army – 20 years of service

Awards
: “Business Community Service” in Memphis TN., by the City of Memphis Tennessee (2008).
One of the “Top Men of Excellence” by the Tri-State Defender Newspaper of Memphis Tennessee (2010).
Company of the Year by the Black Business Association (2010).
Rising Star Company of the Year Award by State of Tennessee (2010).

Dr. Joyce Taylor

Executive Vice-President/Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Joyce Taylor has served as the Executive Vice-President/Chief Medical Officer since January 2004. Dr. Joyce Taylor also planned and designed Taylor Brown from the ground-up. Dr. Joyce Taylor has over twenty-five years’ experience in leadership and management as a Pharmacist. Dr. Joyce Taylor is responsible for the overall operation of the pharmacy. Her responsibility include: investigating and securing pharmacy related business opportunities; assisting in the selection, training, and development of pharmacy personnel; and protecting all pharmacy assets. She also assures compliance of all records and documents required by DEA and State Board of Pharmacy regulations.

Education: Pharm. D. (Doctoral of Pharmacy) Xavier University of Louisiana
R. Ph. (Pharmacy) Xavier University of Louisiana
B.S. (Chemistry) Xavier University of Louisiana
Licensing in the state of Tennessee and Louisiana
A member of the Professional Compounding Centers of America

Awards: “Best Small Business Facility” in Memphis TN., by the Black Business Association (2007).
One of the “Top Women of Excellence” by the Tri-State Defender Newspaper of Memphis TN (2009).

1. Arrive time:  You want to make the most of an event?  Stay late.  Why? Not everyone arrives early or stays late. Arriving early and staying late gives you the opportunity to meet professionals with varying schedules and you have more time to get to know the people you just meet.
2. Remember, business relationships are a two-way street:  It’s OK to talk about yourself but the best compliment is to ask a lot of questions about the person and their business.
3. Ask open ended questions and listen: This highlights ways you can add value and meet needs other professionals might have. It’s like dating:  the more questions you ask the more the person feels a connection with you.
4. Stand.  Why? Sitting signals that you are having a private conversation, or otherwise busy with your iPhone. Sitting should be reserved for serious conversations and follow up meetings. Don’t be a wall flower.
5. Know your current perspective:  Connecting with like-minded professionals can give you inspiration, insight and the inside scoop on emerging trends and needs within your industry.
6. Wear a nametag:  Why? Everyone attends a networking event to meet new people, so don’t be shy!  Say hello, mingle and introduce yourself. Make sure your nametag is written clearly with your name and business name for others to read.
7. 50/50 rule: Spend an equal time with people you know and meeting new people.  The more people you meet the easier it get when you attend your next event.
8. Pay it Forward: the best networker is a connector, someone that refers business to other people without thinking about themselves but thinking about helping others in networking. This will help you in the long run by getting more business and contacts in the future.
9. Elevator Pitch: Have several Elevator pitches ready for your event.  This way, if someone already heard your last pitch they can hear another one which might help them find you more business and or know more about you and your business.
10. Volunteer: The best way to meet everyone at an event is to volunteer at the front sign-in desk. This way you can meet the people you want to talk to and it will save you time.
11. Share relevant news: Sometimes we all like to talk about ourselves but knowing about current events, business news and other relevant events will give you something to talk about.  By doing this, it will make you more memorable.
12. Networking groups: A good way to grow your business is to join a Chamber, to increase your business and get your name out there. It’s just like customer service the more you have contact with your current and past clients the more likely they will refer more business your way.
13. Network, network, network: Try to visit at least one event a week. The more you network the more business contacts you gain which will result in more business.  If you don’t network, your business won’t grow and no one will know about you and your business.
14. No limp handshakes and eye contact: the worst thing you can do is to give a really bad handshake, remember you want to give a good first impression. Always have eye contact with the person you’re talking to, by not looking in their eyes it could show that you’re not telling the truth or hiding something.
15. Have a professional looking business card: If you break out a business card, make sure it’s high quality. Don’t start a conversation by giving a person your card first, it’s really tacky.

I hope for some of you is to network more for 2013 and by reading this I hope you’ll be a more prepared networker for your next event. Networking is about spending time getting to know people and getting your name out there.