In this issue
	Kutztown SBDC News Fat Dawg Design - Sharon Rohloff's Success Story Referrals - The Easiest Way to Grow - by Dan Goldberg Digital Keepsake Services LLC - Frank Contigiani Story New Feature - Insights to Success

Fat Dawg Design - Sharon Rohloff's Success Story

In December 2002 when Sharon Rohloff got laid-off after working at the same full-service marketing and advertising agency for eighteen years, she felt like her world had crashed down around her. As a single mother of two, she didn't expect to have to start over again at that point in her life. She was devastated, but in hindsight realizes that it was the best thing that could have happened to her career - and possibly her life. Before working in the marketing and advertising agency, Rohloff earned a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) with an emphasis in Commercial Design from Kutztown University. She entered the marketing world when computers were just being developed. She was with the agency as it grew and worked her way up from a typesetter. When Rohloff lost her job, she learned that she qualified for the SEA (Self Employment Assistance) program. She completed the SEA courses in April 2003 and founded Fat Dawg Design, a graphic design and advertising business. She says, "The last thing I thought of myself was as an entrepreneur. It wasn't something I thought I had the stuff for." Click here for the complete article about Sharon and more pictures. »

Referrals - The Easiest Way to Grow - by Dan Goldberg

Building a business through referrals saves time, money, resources and a lot of angst! It doesn't matter whether your business is a graphic arts firm, healthcare facility, consulting practice, grocery store, manufacturing company, or if it's small, medium or large; no matter what field you're in it's always best to build a solid referral network, both within your organization and with your outside clients and prospects. Remember when you were in high school or college and your friends would tell you to make sure you took a certain teacher's or professor's class? Well, that was a great illustration of a successful referral system at work. Click here for the complete story and info about Dan. »

Digital Keepsake Services LLC - Frank Contigiani Story

In 2003, after 25 years of service, Frank Contigiani was ready to retire from Vertex, Inc. - a 600-employee tax software company with offices in Berwyn, PA and Sarasota, FL. Contigiani joined the Chester County, PA, chapter of SCORE with the intent to become a counselor and to share his management and process experience with the entrepreneurs who come to SCORE for help in starting a business. Part of the training to become a SCORE counselor includes attending the series of four business planning workshops jointly sponsored at the Exton Library by the Kutztown University SBDC and the local SCORE chapter. Involvement with the Active Plans program model taught in those workshops proved infectious. The easy-to-use models and other materials provided at the workshops helped Contigiani quickly analyze several business opportunities and decide to start a profitable home-based business. SCORE lost a promising new counselor (temporarily, we hope) but gained an equally promising client. Click here for the complete story about Frank. »

New Feature - Insights to Success

Insights to Success will be a monthly article sharing challenges/learning opportunities encountered by our clients every month relative to their day-to-day business activities. All Insights to Success articles will come from our clients' submittals. The format for the piece will consist of a brief introduction, the respective challenge, and the solution. Insight to Success - Be Willing to be Flexible By Annarose Ingarra-Milch For five years, my husband and I have owned ROI Training & Consulting. The firm provides business development and human capital services to small and medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations. From the onset, we defined our mission as helping clients achieve their goals by building successful relationships with each of them. Although we have a broad range of expertise with decades of experience leading organizations, we became aware early into our business that the two of us could not be all things to all clients. This caused us to reexamine our business model and realize that if we wanted to successfully fulfill our mission we would have to flex our original business model. Click here for the complete insight. WE ARE REQUESTING INSIGHTS TO SUCCESS ARTICLES OF 200 WORDS FROM OUR READERS. WE WILL SELECT ONE ARTICLE EACH MONTH AND SEND A GIFT TO THE AUTHOR. Please Email your Insight to Success articles to the Success Connection Editor Thomas Skiba at skib0124@kutztown.edu.