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Meet the 2005 Board

Small Office/Home Office
(SOHO)
Next meeting: May 5:
What Financial Institutions Look for in Lending to Small Businesses

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Next meeting: May 5, 2005:
SOVEREIGN BANK, PFCU REPS TO DISCUSS BUSINESS LOANS

How does a Credit Union differ from a bank? How can each benefit small businesses? Aubrey Kenney, Senior Bank Manager at the Mt. Airy branch of Sovereign Bank, and Kenneth W. Hilbert, Business Loan Officer at The Philadelphia Federal Credit Union, will address What Financial Institutions Look for in Lending to Small Businesses at the May 5 meeting of The Small Office Home Office (SOHO) group, a joint venture of The Mt. Airy Business Association (MABA) and The Business Center at New Covenant Campus. The SOHO group meets the first Thursday of every month at Cresheim Cottage Café, 7402 Germantown Avenue from 8:45 a.m-10:00 a.m. Admission is free.

Kenney has also served as MABA treasurer for the last five years. Hilbert has been in the banking business since 1980 and in Commercial/Business Lending since 1986. Small business lending has been his specialty at every financial institution he’s worked at, whether a $50 million Savings and Loan, or a $1 billion commercial bank. He joined PFCU in August 2001. Sovereign and PFCU are MABA members.

Past meeetings 2001-05

Thursday, April 7, 2005
Business Exit Strategies
Presented by Thomas J. Weimer, Vice President of Acquisition Associates, LLC

Thursday, March 3, 2005
Organizing your office for optimum productivity
Presented by Karen Fow of Creating Symmetry™
and Bonnie Ross Coleman, a small business consultant

Thursday, February 3, 2005
Taxes from Accountant and Legal Perspective
Presented by Anthony Davis, EA, ABA, Tax Practitioner, Managing Partner,
The Davis Financial Group, LLC

Thursday, January 6, 2005
What You Should Know About Intellectual Property, Copyrights, Trademarks
Presented by Tonya Evans, TME Law, LLC

Thursday, December 2, 2004
QuickBooks Demo
Presented by Anthony Davis, EA, ABA, Tax Practitioner, Managing Partner,
The Davis Financial Group, LLC

Thursday, November 4, 2004
Preparing Financial Statements
Presented by Anthony Davis, EA, ABA, Tax Practitioner, Managing Partner,
The Davis Financial Group, LLC

Thursday, October 7, 2004
Electronic solutions to business problems
Group participation

Thursday, September 2, 2004
Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations: What Are They and How Can I Utilize Them?
Presented by MABA Administrator Bill Dikeman of WTD Marketing;
MABA secretary Michael Kleiner of Michael Kleiner Public Relations and Web Design,
and Jack Hofmann of Applied Media, Inc.

Thursday, August 5, 2004
Controlling Cash Flow
Presented by Ira M. Feldman, CPA and Tax Director at Bush Levin Tecosky Zinman LLC

Thursday, July 1, 2004
Obtaining and Retaining Clients
Presented by Franne McNeal of HREnergy

Thursday, June 3, 2004
Solve the Mysteries of Pricing
Presented by Kim Miller, owner of her marketing communications and coaching business.

Thursday, May 6, 2004
Unclutter “Chaos” of your life
Presented by Davia Rivka, Owmer of Chaos Coaching

Thursday, April 1, 2004
Why be a $250 a day consultant, when you could be a $2,500 a day consultant?
Presented by Dr. Jim Walters, Principal of Quad 2 Consulting of Chestnut Hill,
and Vice President of Leadership Strategy, LLC, of Princeton, New Jersey

Thursday, March 4, 2004
Legal issues for small businesses
Presented by Tina Lawson, Attorney
Thursday, February 5, 2004
Meaningful Measurement
Presented by Allen Zaklud, Ph.D., President, Allen Zaklud Associates
MABA member
Thursday, January 15, 2004
The Practice of Bartering
Presented by Ken Weinstein, MABA Board member
and co-owner of Trolley Car Diner
Thursday, December 4, 2003
Making Change to Affect the Bottom Line
Presented by Mark Palmer, president of Empire Capital and Consulting Corp
Thursday, November 6, 2003
20 ways to sell your services in tough times
Facilitated by William T. Dikeman of WTD Marketing, and MABA Administrator
Thursday, October 2, 2003
How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis
Presented by Pamela J. Rich Wheeler, Executive Director of The Business Center
Thursday, September 4, 2003
Evaluating your Hardware and Software Needs
Presented by Ginger Sable, President Community Technology Solutions
Thursday, August 7, 2003
Professional Business Etiquette
Presented by Bruce Murray, founder and principal of Success Support
Thursday, July 3, 2003
Raising dollars from Friends and Family
Presented by Christopher Chaplin, Loan Fund Manager for the Economic Opportunity Fund at the Women’s Opportunity Resource Center (WORC), and Pamela Rich-Wheeler, executive director of The Business Center at New Covenant Campus
Thursday June 5, 2003
Developing A Mission for Life and Business
Presented by Angela Gracey of Rhema Writing Concepts
Thursday, May 1, 2003
Spring Clean Up- Working efficiently by decluttering your space and mind
Presented by Janet Taylor of Totally Organized
Thursday, April 3, 2003
The Benefits of Advisory Boards
Presented by Stephen F. Brock, Esq.
Thursday, March 6, 2003
Small Business Administration Loans
Presented by John Banks, Small Business Administration
Thursday, February 6, 2003
Should A Small Business Purchase Another Small Business
Presented by Pamela DeLissio, DeLissio Consulting Group, LLC and MABA Vice-President
Thursday, January 2, 2003
Managing Your Business to Maintain Good Credit
presented by MABA member, Sol Levy of Lincoln Investment Planning, Inc, and Vera E. Primus of VEP Associates Bookkeeping and Financial Services

Past meeetings 2002

Thursday, November 7, 2002
Making Sure Two Heads Really Are Better Than One:
The Value of Collaboration and How to Collaborate
presented by professional writer and MABA board member, George Milite
Thursday, October 3, 2002
Marketing on A Shoestring Budget
presented by Lisa Duhart-Collins, President of Creative Focus Media, Inc, and Bill Dikeman, Administrator for MABA, who runs his own marketing business.
Thursday, September 5, 2002
Using Public Relations to Market Your Business
presented by Michael Kleiner of Michael Kleiner Public Relations Consulting and Web Design, and Lee Marshall, President-Elect of the Philadelphia chapter, Public Relations Society of America, and Mid-Atlantic Regional Representative of Business Wire.
Thursday, August 1, 2002
Maximizing Technology for Small Businesses and Individuals
presented by Dr. Chris J. Rhoads,
President and CEO of Enterprise Technology Management Associates

Did you miss this meeting or were there and wanted a summary of the presentation? Don’t worry. CJ Rhoads has been kind enough to provide a tool kit and summary of the program which you can download from here. It is in a zip format and you need WinZip to unzip the files.

Download Maximizing Technology program and toolkit.

Tuesday, July 2, 2002
Applying Holistic Principles to Your Business
presented by  Michael Dolich, an attorney/mediator and MABA member.
Thursday, June 6, 2002
Staffing and Recruiting Issues
presented by  Sheree Gary, Placement Coordinator, The Career Link Center/Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation, and Tim Styer, Owner Urban Works Agency, and a MABA board member.
Thursday, May 2, 2002
The Importance of Strategic Thinking
presented by Nancy Cunningham, founder of Fox Run Associates, a newly-formed Mt. Airy-based consulting firm serving corporate and governmental clients
Thursday, April 4, 2002
Various SBA programs, specifically the Loan Assistance program,
presented by Joe McDevitt, Director of Marketing and Outreach for the Small Business Administration.
Thursday, March 7, 2002
Management of financial, tax, sales and productivity data,
presented by Mark Palmer, President of Empire Capital and Consulting Corporation and MABA member
Thursday, February 7, 2002
The Resources of the Temple University Small Business Development Center, presented by Diane Pearce of Temple Small Business Development Center
Thursday, January 3, 2002
How you can profit from special events -- how to select, plan, promote, present and follow up, presented by Bill Dikeman of WTD Marketing and MABA administrator, and Michael Kleiner of Michael Kleiner Public Relations Consulting and Web Design, and MABA secretary.

Past meeetings 2001

Thursday, December 6, 2001
The Whens, Hows and Whys of Choosing Investors and Getting Loans for Your Small Business -- Family Members to Venture Capitalists, presented by Christopher Chaplin.
Thursday, November 1, 2001:
The Value of Computers and The Way They Are Using Them In Their Businesses, panel discussion by Michael Kleiner, a public relations person who does web sites, and secretary of MABA; Melinda Zipin, a web site designer who does marketing, and Robert Butler and Gretchen Deahl of Think Tech Design, which does web sites and graphic design.
Thursday, October 4, 2001:
Developing the Character of an Entrepreneur, presented by Angela Gracey, who owns Rhema Writing Concepts and is a MABA Board member.

All meetings start at 8:30 a.m. at Cresheim Cottage Café
7402 Germantown Avenue.

 

History of SOHO group

One of the most exciting developments within MABA over the last few years has been the development of the Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) group. In April, 2000, four MABA members -- Ross Goldberg, Michael Kleiner, then-MABA President Bob Kaufman and administrator Bill Dikeman --who operated home businesses, met to brainstorm ideas for attracting this untapped market. Drawing upon their own lists, they invited people to attend a meeting that June. More than 30 people attended that initial get together and SOHO has met every month since then. Many of MABA’s new members have come from SOHO. Ken Weinstein, previous owner of the Cresheim Cottage Café, graciously offered the Cottage free of charge for the meetings, held the first Thursday morning of each month. New owners Donna and Lizza Robb have continued the tradition.

People gather for refreshments and talking at 8:30, followed by a meeting with a topical speaker. Attendees often linger afterwards to talk, network and exchange business cards. Pamela J. Rich-Wheeler of The Business Center at New Covenant Campus and Pamela DeLissio of The DeLissio Consulting Group organized the programs the last couple of years, which are now jointly sponsored by MABA and The Business Center. Rich-Wheeler and Sarah Greene, Director of Educational Programs at The Business Center, are now facilitating the program schedule along with a MABA Programming Committee.. Looking at the history of topics above shows how the group has matured and developed. The level of discourse is quite high, the atmosphere relaxed. Members often respond with advice for other members. Occasionally, there is a case study, where a member presents a problem related to his or her business and seeks feedback from the group. Those who have been the case study, have benefitted greatly.

If you have additional questions -- or perhaps a suggestion for a meeting topic, please send an e-mail to soho@mtairybiz.com