Ask Entrepreneur

Brad Sugars is the founder of ActionCOACH, the world's number one business coaching firm. As a world-renowned entrepreneur, author and Business Coach, he has helped more than a million clients around the world find business and personal success. Sugars has owned and operated more than two dozen companies including his main company, ActionCOACH, which has nearly 1,000 offices in 26 countries.

Tim Berry is the president of Palo Alto Software Inc., which produces the industry's leading business planning software, Business Plan Pro, as well as other popular planning applications for businesses. He also is an author and an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon, where he teaches a course on entrepreneurship. In January 2007, Berry received the Corporate Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Nina L. Kaufman is an award-winning business attorney, author and speaker. For more than 15 years, she has successfully navigated thousands of small businesses through the legal hurdles they face in starting and running their companies. Under her AskTheBusinessLawyer.com brand, she reaches thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners with her legal services, professional speaking, information products, and LexAppeal weekly ezine. With skills honed from stand-up comedy, Nina is a sought-after professional speaker. She has given seminars, workshops, teleclasses and presentations for numerous organizations in the New York City area, with hot topics that include protecting your business on the internet, building business partnerships and collaborative alliances that work, and training clients to pay on time.

Pam Newman is a Certified Management Accountant, author and Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor for Financial and Point-of-Sale software. She is also president of RPPC, Inc., which offers customized business development services. Newman provides financial coaching to entrepreneurs through a variety of mediums, including a weekly talk show, newsletters, books, articles, presentations and personalized consulting.

Greg Digneo is the founder of More Caffeine Please, a marketing consulting firm that specializes in helping small businesses to generate revenue on the Web.
Greg established the business based on the notion that a successful internet marketing campaign is based on three principles: knowing who your target market is, building a relationship with them and converting leads to sales. By mastering these three principals, Greg says, a company can increase traffic to its site and have repeat customers.
Prior to founding the business, Greg worked for a midsize business to business technology company and successfully launched products on an international scale.

Ramon Ray is editor of SmallBizTechnology.com and author of Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses. His site helps small to medium-sized businesses use technology to grow through news, articles, discussion groups, resources, analysis and events. Ray also serves on the board of directors and technology committee for the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.

Rosalind Resnick is the founder and CEO of Axxess Business Consulting, a New York consulting firm that advises startups and small businesses. She previously was a co-founder of NetCreations and hosted AOL's NetGirl Forum. Resnick also serves on the board of Do Something, Inc., a New York-based nonprofit organization that empowers young people to change their world.

Lena West is the CEO and Chief Strategist of xynoMedia Technology , a New York-based firm that helps high-growth companies leverage the power of social media, blogs, podcasts and online communities.

Kim Gordon is the owner of National Marketing Federation and is a multifaceted marketing expert, speaker, author and media spokesperson. She has served as the national spokesperson and consultant for companies such as Visa, eBay, Sprint and Office Depot. Gordon's latest book is Maximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars.

Paige Arnof-Fenn is the founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls, a strategic-marketing consulting firm whose clients include Fortune 500 companies, as well as early-stage and emerging businesses. Previously, she was a key member of the IPO team at Launch Media, which was later sold to Yahoo!, and was the director of the 1996 Olympic Commemorative Coin Program at the Department of Treasury, U.S. Mint. Arnof-Fenn also is an advisor to several early-stage companies and nonprofit organizations.

Viral activist and communications guru Pattie Simone is a nationally known business speaker, writer and consultant. Simone is president and chief success strategist at Write-Communications.com and Marketing-Advantage.net, founder of WomenCentric, a sassy women's speaking bureau and a columnist for WomenEntrepreneur.com. Simone has appeared on numerous radio and TV programs and is publishing her first e-book, Penny-Pinching Marketing Secrets: BIG Results for Small Business Success. For more info on Simone, e-mail profit@marketing-advantage.net or call (845) 362-7880.

Dr. Elinor Robin is a mediator, columnist, and trainer specializing in professional and personal relationship matters. As a recognized expert in the field of conflict management, Robin has a background in small business, a PhD in psychology with a specialization in conflict management and a wide range of experiences from within the public and private sectors. Robin's areas of expertise include small business, professional practice, business partnership, and workplace disputes. She has taught mediation to over 5,000 students nationally and internationally. She has also mediated thousands of commercial and workplace disputes, successfully assisting in conflict management and transformation. Dr. Robin was born and raised in New York City and has lived in South Florida for more than 20 years. While in a fulfilling marriage with her husband David, she is involved with a wide variety of community and professional activities. To learn more, please feel free to contact Elinor at 561-394-9226 or elinorobin@aol.com or visit her website www.elinorrobin.com to sign up for her free monthly E-zine.

Jeff Elgin has almost 20 years of experience franchising, both as a franchisee and a senior franchise company executive. He's currently the CEO of FranChoice Inc., a company that provides free consulting to consumers looking for a franchise that best meets their needs. Elgin also has made numerous speeches to franchise industry groups and at conventions on topics ranging from development strategies to the value of growth for all stakeholders in a franchise company.

Roy Williams is the founder and president of international ad agency Wizard of Ads. He also teaches creative thinking, strategic planning and human persuasion courses attended by executives from many of the world's largest advertising agencies, professors from leading universities, broadcasters, journalists and small-business CEOs from around the world. In addition, Williams has authored numerous books on improving advertising efforts, including The Wizard of Ads and Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.

Wendy Piersall is known for her expertise as an online publisher and social media marketing authority. She has worked with brands such as Epson and Kmart to develop and implement strategic web 2.0 marketing campaigns to target women online as consumers and as business owners. She is also the founder of the Sparkplugging blog network and speaks frequently on the subjects of social media, entrepreneurship and the online publishing business.

Bonnie Price is founder of Silver Vixen Enterprises, a consulting company that helps businesses reach women aged 55 to 70. She also helps "women of a certain age" proactively plan the next phase of their lives through her workshop, IT'S REINVENTION. Price has been a financial counselor with a major brokerage firm and co-owner of a nationwide direct sales company, among other ventures.

Michael H Kaleikini is a business development consultant and VP of marketing and business development with Corporate Rain Makers, LLC in Las Vegas, Nev. Kaleikini has been in consulting for many years working within different businesses and different industries, through which he has been able to learn the ups and downs of market trends, and positioning to internet marketing where his research is now focused. His experience in start up companies has spanned the eighties through to today. He has seen the same challenges and has been able to help many clients through the maze of creating everything from resumes to business plans. Being a certified Business Etiquette Trainer with the American Business Etiquette Trainers Association, Kaleikini has had the pleasure of working with people from diverse backgrounds and helping them understand the finer points of doing business abroad and here at home.

Ivan Misner, a networking expert, is the founder of Business Network International and senior partner for the Referal Institute. He has written nine books, including the recently released New York Times bestseller Truth or Delusion: Busting Networking's Biggest Myths. Misner also has taught business and social capital courses at several universities and sits on the board of directors for the Colorade School of Professional Psychology.