Jeff is a lifelong Palmdale resident, only absent from the Antelope Valley when he served five years in the U.S. Army as Military Police. Jeff was recently the Field Representative for Congressman Buck McKeon and prior to that Promotion Coordinator for High Desert Broadcasting.

The Personnel Committee believes Jeff’s community awareness and involvement will be a great asset to the chamber. His event planning experience and familiarity with the business owners and leaders will provide a smooth leadership transition.

Jeff’s first day as CEO will be Monday, May 14, 2012. Stacia will work along side Jeff for one week while Jeff becomes familiar with chamber operations.

I have enjoyed meeting so many talented and innovative people who truly care about our community. It has been a pleasure to work with you and learn from you and I look forward to watching the Chamber continue its positive impact on local business.

Thank you for the experience; keep up the great work of moving business forward.

Sincerely,

Stacia

The Palmdale Chamber of Commerce has recently been recognized with two awards for its communications.
Our monthly magazine Vantage has been awarded first place by the Western Association of Chamber Executives (W.A.C.E.) The magazine was selected first in its class among chambers with fewer than 1,000 members in the western states. Every aspect of the publication was reviewed, including: member information, headlines and copy, photos and photo captions, editorial content, general design, and production.

Vantage went through a complete redesign over the past year including new layout, more member-supplied articles and monthly editorial themes geared toward business.  “The theme approach gives readers much useful information,” said the W.A.C.E. judges.  “One of the better efforts in providing the type of information chamber members can use.”

Truly a collaborative effort, Vantage is published monthly by committee members Justin Rasmussen, Laura Gordon, Eric Rasmussen, Sharon Renteria, George Rasmussen and Chamber staff Liz De La Cruz and Stacia Nemeth.  Four Star Printing in Palmdale prints the publication which is mailed to over five hundred businesses and distributed to an additional two hundred interested parties.

We strive to include member contributions and spotlights, combined with quality information on chamber and community events.  Our themes and member-centric approach make the Vantage a useful business publication for members and non-members. Check out the Vantage online.

Our weekly e-newsletter also received recognition recently. We received the 2011 All Star Award from Constant Contact^®, Inc., the trusted marketing adviser to more than half a million small organizations worldwide. Each year, a select group of Constant Contact customers are honored with the All Star Award for their exemplary marketing results. Palmdale Chamber’s results ranked among the top 10% of Constant Contact’s customer base.

We were recognized particularly for: frequency of campaigns and events; above industry average open and click-through rates; low bounce rates; use of social features; and use of mailing list sign-up tools.

“There is nothing we like more than to see our customers finding success. It’s the reason Constant Contact was founded, and it’s a thrill to see the fantastic results that our All Stars are achieving,” said Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. “This group is really leading the charge when it comes to delivering relevant, engaging content that drives real business results. We salute this year’s All Stars for their success, and are honored to have played a part in their achievements.”

Liz De La Cruz, Communications Coordinator, has taken all that she’s learned at Constant Contact classes and put it to good use. She has created an informative and useful communications tool that truly benefits our members.

If you aren’t currently receiving the e-newsletter, send a request to LDeLaCruz@palmdalechamber.org today!

Visit a local small business, make a purchase, and be responsible for improving our local economy!

Name:

Q: How has being a Chamber benefited your business?
A: It helps me become known, improves my credibility and makes me a part of the community. Being involved is important, you get what you put into it.

Q: How has this economy affected your business?
A: I’m not sure it’s the economy, the age we live in, or the particular retail business I’m in but I think all the above affect what we do. The last time the economy did this back in the early 90′s I had dropped my membership to the Chambers of Commerce. I thought if I could save some money it would help me but what I realized is that not being a chamber member was a bad move. Being involved in the business community is so important to your business. It’s like Mom, apple pie, and join the Chamber.

Q: How do you plan to overcome the economic difficulties?
A: I was brought up with the mindset that the way I was going to make money is with my imagination, my creativity. I think building relationships with people is important because it’s a people business. We are heavily involved in social networking. People are getting to know me through these venues and deciding that they might like me or understand me and that’s where they want to spend their money. We go back to the basics of meeting people, knowing people, being involved in the community, and in social networking. Even though we’ve been in the same location for 50 years it’s having a presence in the community.

Q: Do you think being involved in social networking helps you to make those connections?
A: Part of what it does is keep me excited. So instead of going home and being depressed I go home and think of new promotions. Which is what I used to do when I was 25-30. The sky was the limit, I’d run like crazy all the time, thinking of fun ideas and staying up late. It was so much excitement but after you’ve been doing it for a while you have this feeling of entitlement. Then you have realize that you are only as good as your last arrangement. You continually have to thank people for being your customer.

Q: Is there anyone who inspired you to choose this career?
A: I enjoyed working with my dad and he was a hard worker and he had great people skills before that was a term that people understood. I liked the business of making people happy and taking care of people. I met many great florist, and in those days, we had a relationship with the growers.

Q: Do you feel like the internet and price are affecting your business?
A: I think people have always thought of flowers as expensive but at least we got past the need for only two occasions; funerals and weddings. If I had to wait for funerals and weddings to sell what we sell I would be in big trouble. Flowers are every day now, they are still built around holidays but now it’s about what’s the cheapest. People will go online to save 12 cents but that’s not the customers problem. That’s the problem of the proprietor and so we have to offer them something that they can’t get anywhere else.

We received an order and the card read, “I know it’s not Friday but it’s the 13th, have a nice day.” What kind of occasion is that? It touched her and she’ll never forget it. That’s what it’s about! What did you have for dinner three weeks ago? You don’t remember? You spent money on it. You might remember last night. What do you have that you’ve spent money on that you still have today? There are few things we spend money on today that we will keep forever but an emotion or a feeling, that will last. Especially, if it’s done at the right time and the right reason they will never forget it.

Q: Do you offer a rewards program?
A: I have a Club 150 for the person who’s in here a lot, on the 12th purchase they get $50 off. Most of the time they just take a $50 arrangement but then again, it becomes a to-do card. Pretty soon you’ll have 12 of these cards from various people. That’s why we have to figure out how to put it on the smartphone so you don’t have to carry around a thick wallet.

Q: Who inspired me to choose my career path?
A: I had many talks with my dad about going to school and ended up getting a Bachelors degree. You can go to school but when you get out, you still got to work. Being a florist was a business where you could set your own hours, your own pay, it had benefits and it’s a very active business. I’m 60 and I’m still able to move around.

Q: Did you start this business?
A: My parents bought the business, it was started in the 1940′s. My mom and dad saw an ad in the paper and moved up here from Los Angeles because it was the land of opportunity. This was a place where they could get in on the ground floor. They were young adults with all the original people who developed this valley.

Q: Why did you choose this career over others?
A: I was traveling in a van after college and I decided that it was time to get to work and I know how to do this and I know the community. Every young person never looks to make this decision for their whole life but down the road you look back and you realize you did. I looked around other flower shops and no one was hiring, and I was qualified!

Q: What do you like most about your business?
A: It changes every week, there’s always a new product released. I enjoy meeting new people. The challenges we face every week is exciting. This weekend we have three weddings and a corporate event, there’s never a dull moment. I love the constant activity.

Q: What’s a typical day like?
A: I come in at 7:30 because the flowers come in early, we make sure everything is in water. This is an “AM” business, meaning that everyone wants their stuff when they open their office or before she leaves the house. Between 9 and 10 o’clock is when we do the bulk of our deliveries. We then take phone orders and fix flowers up for spec for the store. Then the day is busy planning for future events and deliveries. Sometimes throughout the day we are a resource for customers, such as what’s the meaning of purple flowers.

Here are five struggles that a person may potentially deal with in his or her home business.

1. Transition from Job to Business: This is a great struggle for people to deal with because most people are very comfortable with their position financially. The idea that a pay check is guaranteed every week or two weeks gives the person the impression or facade of stability. Even if we all know that any job could potentially end at any time. Nonetheless, the transition from job to full-time business person is a great struggle for many.

2. Marketing: Not all of us have the gift of knowing where all the buyers are or predicting buyer behavior. Because of lack of knowledge in marketing, home business people sometimes get nervous or scared to set a budget for marketing. Therefore, business people will waste valuable time trying to learn how to use “free” methods of online marketing or offline marketing just to cut costs, but little do they know, it is hurting their business.

3. Tax Knowledge: Understanding taxes is probably the highest struggle because people don’t understand that they have to consult someone for tax advice. Make yourself aware of what you need to do in order to get yourself situated with taxes. It will always benefit you to keep updated about the tax laws about the business you are in.

4. Licensing: This is also a very stressful thing for people to think about because we all know that eventually we have to get “legit.” That way you can be a full established business. The problem is, people don’t want to deal with this part because it costs a lot of money for most people  and they don’t want to deal with the paperwork or legal fees.

5. Work Space: This is another problem for most home based business owners because they may think that they can work “anywhere.” However, the truth is that most people cannot work in areas like their living room or in the basement. In fact, probably the most difficult thing to figure out is where to create an effective workspace. You have to make sure that the space is big enough to place a desk and/or a printer and other materials that will that you use within your space. This is usually a bedroom or den area in the house.

Russ Falls

661-533-5138
www.russfalls.net/

There is no difference between having a home based business plan and a regular brick and mortar business plan. The only difference is that you are not going to have office space. Instead you are going to operate your business from your home.

When you build your plan, the only thing that you are going to have to adjust is how you are going to run your daily operations. The key to having your plan taken seriously is a little secret called getting “legit” or having a business credential like an LLC,  license and/or DBA (doing business as.) This will enable you to take advantage of lines of credit and other benefits that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of without some sort of credential.

Of course you will want to incorporate this in your business plan so that you can accelerate your efforts. You will also want to make sure that you find out any tax information you need so that you don’t get penalized.

You will want to pay attention to the training department of Russ Falls Home Business site so you will improve your skills to be more successful in your home business.

Russ Falls
661-533-5138
Russ Falls Home Business

One of the best places to find funding sources is on the internet. This is a great place not only to find legitimate sources, but to also locate seminars that will ultimately help you further find funding sources for your online business.

Once place you can search is online and type in “Business Grant Writers” in the search engine. The result should come up as a list of sites and sources with available grant writers who specialize in business grants. You might want to be careful though because some may not be certfied and most are very expensive (as much as $5,000).

You will also want to do a search for available business loans and what you need to do in order to qualify for an actual loan. There are also loan programs that you don’t have to pay back at all.

For more business information visit www.russfalls.net.

Russ Falls
661-533-5138

On and off, for 30 years, I have been involved in different Multi-Level Marketing
(MLM) companies, sometimes called networking marketing model. Many
people do not have very positive thoughts about this kind of business model.
I have been with this company since February 2008 and it is my intention to be
with this MLM company for the rest of my life.

I want to share with you three reasons why a person may not have positive
thoughts, then I want to use those same ideas to show how a person could
adjust their thinking a little bit and see what a difference it could make.

A person may think a MLM business is an “illegal scam and not a real business.”
According to the dictionary.com, a scam means to defraud or to cheat someone.
If a MLM company has a product or a service that does not do what it says it they
do, I would have to agree that is cheating and defrauding people and that is
completely wrong. There are many companies in any business industry that
cheat and defraud their customers. Like anything else, it is your duty to check
out the company and find out about the people in charge of the company.

“Do all MLM businesses cheat and hurt people?” No. Although there are MLM
businesses that do scam and hurt people, it is unfair to assume that all MLM
companies are out to hurt people, without checking them out first. For the
last three and a half years I have been checking out my MLM Company and
I found out that the owners of my company put in many pay enhancements
in the pay plan to improve the potential income for each distributor. My
commissions for the past three years have increased because of this. I have
listened to many conference calls and been to many live meetings in the past
three and a half years where I met the owners of my company and they are
a very caring group of people.

“Sales are not for me.” Oh really? That is an interesting thought. Have you
ever wanted something from a friend, a parent or anybody in your whole
lifetime and with the people skills you have, you were able to get what you
wanted? Of course you did and I did too. Everybody has been able to get want
they have wanted at some time. Well, if you adjust your thinking it is the
same thing with a MLM business.

“Making money off of people is not for me.” Ok. I can understand and appreciate
your thinking about making money off of people. Why not adjust that thinking
to helping people to make money instead of making money off people? Any MLM
pay plan is designed to be a successful for a team. If you look at any sports
team all the team players have to work together for them to reach the team goal
to become a world champion team in their sport. Adjust that thinking
into a network marketing business model.

I want to share with you little bit about the way my network marketing pay
plan is set up. It is designed for average people to succeed in it. For the past
60 years or so, the average person recruits three people in their business. My
company has set up a pay plan with that in mind. This means that if a person
just does the average sponsoring then trains their whole team to do that
average, their income could possibly be a six figure income per year. This is
on your team pay.

One of the things that I have learned about this business is you should not
rely on people that you sponsor because they may not do what they are
supposed to do. So the pay plan solves that issue with three things that are
in place. First is the fast start pay that you could get up to $220.00 per sale.

Second, with the pay points so you can start a new team pay plan within your first team pay plan that will also cause you to get multi-commission on the
team pay also which means possibly you could have complete control how
much income you want to make. No other company has this feature. It is
copywritten by the owner.

Third is the profit sharing pools that the company has. You can quality for
one pool of 10 percent of the company gross sales by doing the work necessary
to be qualified in this pool. There is no group volume at all. It depends on
what you do, not what your group does.

If you would like more information about this Multi-Level Marketing business,
please contact me. I enjoy sharing my business plan with others so they can
increase their health and their wealth.

Russ Falls
GBG Presidential Platinum Representative
661-533-5138
Company Website