Come help us celebrate 50 years, honor a small business and have to the opportunity to bid on our Top Cop!

The reception starts at 6:00pm, dinner and awards ceremony 7:00pm.
Can’t wait to RSVP?!  CLICK HERE TO DO THAT NOW!

Event Details
Join us on April 12, 2012 in the Grand Salon from 4:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Network With Other Professionals
Attend the event and mingle with hundreds of professionals representing a wide range of industries and services from throughout Southern California. This is a great opportunity to explore other industries, make professional connections and network your way to success.

The Long Beach Business Expo will provide you with an excellent opportunity to establish and build valuable business connections.  General Admission for attendees is $15 per person.

Exhibit Your Business
Promote your business and mingle with hundreds of professionals representing a wide range of industries and services from throughout Southern California. Whether you participate as an exhibitor or simply come to meet and greet potential clients and partners, the Long Beach Business Expo will provide an excellent opportunity to establish and build valuable business connections.

Display opportunities are available starting at $150 for Chamber members.  For more information, please call The Queen Mary’s Special Events Hotline at (562) 499-1771.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

1. Listing on the WBC website.
2. Reserved seating at all our events
3. Speak 1 minute about your business at our luncheons.
4. Exhibit table at “one” WBC luncheon.
6. Special acknowledgement at the Night of Gold Gala.

Click Here to Sign Up Today!

So, now you’re ready for the Power Networking luncheon — Come and network and meet potential clients!  We will switch tables a total of three times so that you will have an opportunity to introduce yourself and your company to a whole new group of people.  Each table has a facilitator to make sure that the flow keeps moving.  Bring plenty of business cards—we’ll see you there!

The cuisine is as “sublime” as the “beautiful rooftop” patio at this modern, “classy” Long Beach white-tablecloth Italian where the “star attraction is a tasting menu” paired with wine from the “phenomenal” cellar; a “charming staff” and a classical guitarist Thursday–Friday nights help make it “special-occasion” ready.  If you’d like to make reservations call (562) 439-7080.

WBC Dine Out Long Beach at Kavikas

1. Disconnect from work when you leave the office.

Thanks to smart phones and laptops, business owners are now able to be on call 24/7. While I love that I can go to a doctor appointment and continue to work from the waiting room, I also find it drains my energy to be connected non-stop in one way or another. I am in my office 10 to 12 hours per day. Remaining accessible beyond that directly affects not just the quality of my life, but also the quality of my decisions. I now choose to disconnect in every way when I have leave the office for the evening.

2. When it’s for personal reasons, use Twitter, Facebook, and the like after hours.

At many companies, employees have the freedom to do personal things like check Facebook during the day. This may seem like a cool thing to allow when courting new hires, but the result is reduced efficiency for businesses and employees. Deadlines that were once set in stone are now moving targets that can always “be finished at home,” resulting in longer time for project completion. I do not allow these kind of blurred borders at my company. My employees are expected to complete all work in the office, and personal activities like texting, Tweeting, and Facebook are limited to personal time. Many technology addicts may be thinking they would never want to work at my company, but consider the benefits of the “work belongs at work” mindset: my employees go home on time every night, have a rich life outside of the office, and come back refreshed and ready to make huge inroads for our business the next day. Preventing burnout, and thus hanging on to valuable contributors, is my highest priority.

3. Keep email concise and complete, and off your screen.

Email is a great way to correspond with someone, both because it is fast and less obtrusive than calling, but when we fail to control our use of it, it diverts focus away from actual projects being worked on. We are constantly scanning for the red ball to pop up and provide us with a new distraction. We have become addicted to responding, and doing so quickly—at all costs. Think I am exaggerating? How many times have you sent an email to someone asking several questions only to receive his reply minutes later answering only one of the questions? Now consider how many times this happens to you each day, and all the follow-up emails this lack of thoroughness generates! I have made it a rule to re-read all emails twice before responding, and then to double check that my response answers the entire inquiry. And most importantly, I close my email box when I am working on other things, so that I can give 100 percent to the task at hand.

4. Work-related texts and Tweets should be quick, but right.

In business, it is important not only to be fast thinking, but also to be able to fully develop ideas. Pertinent questions must be asked and clear paths charted in order to problem-solve and grow. Today’s technology users have yet to strike a balance between rapidity and complex communications. A customer expecting instant feedback does not want to get a half-baked answer. They want to be answered quickly, but also correctly. Business partners expecting to be answered at midnight are still in need of impactful solutions rather than impulsive ones. I try to separate my tools into categories. Emails are for fully developed ideas, texts are for quick practical information, and the phone is still my best tool when I need to get a deal done.

5. Interaction is not engagement.

With all of the great communication tools we have, it is easy to assume being omnipresent is all that’s needed to generate success for your business. A company’s Facebook page may be an indicator of how many people know about a brand, but in the age of technology, that does not always translate to how many people care about that brand. I think about my company’s communications with our customers in every format as a means of engagement, not just a fleeting interaction. Putting it in traditional terms: as a business, having a thousand “first sales” is great, but you will survive and thrive only with repeat business. Technology can help us make the first sale, but it is how we use it that will bring the customer back for more. Face to Face meetings will bring you even more repeat business so once you have them hooked…..get out there to meet and greet!!

Technology is a powerful tool, but only as powerful as the mind in control of it. As a business owner, you must be especially aware of this, because how you use technology not only reflects on you personally, but also on your company and its reputation. Consciousness is the first step to regaining control so that technology can work for rather than against you.

Identity Theft Prevention for You & Your Business

Ms. Vincent, as the Founder of The Identity Advocate is committed to providing unparalleled education, consulting, resources, and investigations to help protect professionals, corporations, and consumers from the perils of identity theft and healthcare fraud.

Ms. Vincent will focus on protecting yourself against identity theft from various scams.  Find out what you can do if it happens to you or your business.