Some of the leading ladies of U.S. business join SBTV.com CEO Susan Wilson Solovic to share insights on the best ways to succeed in an economic slowdown. Nell Merlino, founder and CEO of Count Me In for Women’s™ Economic Independence, Francine Glick, Make Mine a Million $ BusinessTM award recipient and Nely Galan, president of Galan Entertainment and advocate for female entrepreneurship and empowerment recently featured on NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice will be joining Solovic in a lively and informative discussion to help business owners grow their enterprises despite slow economic conditions.

Nell Merlino talks about the mission of Make Mine a Million organization, which is to equalize the number of male and female business owners in this country. She also offers this tip: If you already have a business, it is important to really keep close touch with the customers that you have to find out if they need additional services. Focus on your existing customers and their needs.

Francine’s why not me attitude and MakeMineAMillion community support helped her achieve her goals. Nely Galan sited Nell Merlino is a visionary who embodies the mission of Count-me-in. Galan also states the most important thing we should all worry about is women being strong, women having financial independence and an organization, such as Count-me-in, that helps you do it economically with training, helps you create that foundation for yourself.

Here are the 5 tips delivered in the program:

•    Do your market research to determine what products and services are needed in times like these.
•    Be realistic about how much time and money it takes to start and run a successful business.
•    Take care of your current customers and they’ll take care of you.
•    Take care of yourself or you are no good to your business anyway.
•    You may be tempted to cut back on your budget, especially your marketing budget. Don’t do it. Instead, find creative ways to reduce spending.

Power Lunch Webinar Part 1:

SUSAN: Welcome to this very special edition of power lunch with Susan, five tips to staying on top in an economic downturn, sponsored by FedEx. My goal today is to give you the information and tools you need to keep growing your business even in today’s tough economy, and joining me are three fabulous guests, all with their own unique prospective on how to start, manage, and grow a business even when times are tough. First we will introduce you to Nell Merlino, founder, president, and CEO of Count Me In for women economic independence and joining me in the studio is Francine Glick, president of Water Journey and one of the very first recipients of Make Mine a Million Dollar Business Award Package. Francine is on the verge of her goal of hitting that one million dollar mark with her business. It is really incredible, and finally Latina media dynamo, entrepreneur, and Count Me In mentor Nely Galan joins us today from Los Angles. But before we meet our guests, I want to give you little background on the state of small business today. All we hear is gloom and dome these days for business, but the truth is the entrepreneurial spirit of America is robust and strong with small business representing more than 99% of all employers in this country, so it is no surprise, small firms are creating the bulk of new jobs, in fact small business produces roughly half of the private gross domestic product and created more jobs last year than medium and large size businesses combined. Put it this way, if Americans small businesses were a separate economy, it would be the world’s third largest trailing only the US and Japan. Historically, every time unemployment goes up in the nation, the number of people deciding to launch a business goes up too. You can imagine losing a job is the push many people need to make they move into running a small business or may be they are starting a part-time side business just in case they should experience a lay off. Many entrepreneurs start with part-time businesses while they hold on to another job. In any given year approximately 7% of the working age US population is actively engaged in efforts to start a new business, but what does some one need to get started in the sluggish economy and more importantly how to do you keep a float if you already running your own business. We will answer both of these questions with our five tips on staying on top in an economic downturn throughout the program today, so have a pen and paper ready to jot down our experts tips. Well let start at the beginning, you have an idea, may be it is a side business or when you want to become your full time passion or just because it is a slow economy doesn’t mean it is a bad time to start it up. In fact, you heard the phrase necessity is the mother of invention. So, now is the time people are looking for products and services you help them in their own quest for stability and cost savings, so my first tip, if you are think again starting a business in this or any market write this down is to do your marked research. What types of products and services people need in times like these, are you are great wordsmith you can help people with their resumes, do you have a idea that can help companies you are forced to downsize and need to outsource some of their projects. You have an idea for a product that can help the consumers or business save on their utilities or here is a big one for you do you have an idea that appeals to the baby boomer market. Over the next 10 years all 76 million baby boomers will have reached traditional retirement age and will be ready to buy a wide variety of services in health, travel, home furniture, and anything related to grandchildren. So keep in mind this is the wealthiest generation in US history. Okay, now pick up your pen again, because our second tip has multi parts. How is that for value added? A good rule of thumb when you are planning to start an endeavor on your own is it takes twice as much as you think it is going to take and it is going to take twice as much time as you think you will need to succeed, so you need to get your finances and order, you need to know your credit score, you need to know your financial risks, or in other words how much money can you really afford to lose, and always always always keep your business finances separate from you personal finances. So, now you heard our first two tips and believe me there were lots more coming up when we come back. We are going to introduce you to Count Me In for women economic independence whose sole mission is to help women grow their businesses to the heights of their dreams and we will meet Francine Glick a business owner who is almost there, we will see in a minute and stay tuned.

Power Lunch Webinar Part 2:

NELL MERLINO: Count Me In is a leading national nonprofit organization responsible for helping women build micro businesses to million dollar businesses, we do that with our Make Mine a Million Dollar Business Program, which is a wonderful contest, it is like American Idol meets the _____ (00:32) women from across the country get to come to live events where they get to compete for a whole package of awards that helps their growth and their growth to micro business to a million dollar in approximately. The goal of Make Mine a Million Dollar Business is to get a million women to a million dollars in revenue by the year 2010, because we discovered a number of years that are the 10.5 million women who own businesses in the United States, only 243,000 are had million and on the male side there are million men had million, so we have a goal of equalizing the numbers and we do it by having these live competitions across the country, as well as providing all kinds of educational information on our website, which is makemineamilliond.org. Women start their businesses for variety of reasons, but I think one of the major drivers for women starting their business is their desire for flexibility in their lives, so if they can build wonderful business as well take care of your families at the same time. A lot of other jobs should necessarily offer you the opportunity to say take time how to go to your kids games or to spent time with a sick parent or something during the day, and having your own business allows you to save your own schedule and really creates something that works for you, so I think that is one of the reasons women start businesses. I think the other reason women start businesses is they have great ideas and they have incredible innovative products and they want to bring them to market or they have thought of an idea for a service that no one else is delivering, so I think it is a combination of work-life balance issues, as well as just incredible creativity and ingenuity that they want to bring something to market and find that the best way to do it is for them to start the business themselves. I would say, you know in these kinds of economic times if you already have a business, it is important to really keep close touch with the customers that you have to find out if they need additional services, I think that is very important so that you really go to where you made money, and also my own sense of this economic climate is its, it sounds really bad for big businesses. I think for lot of small businesses it is not going to be as bad. I would really focus on your business, your customers, clearly I would think through very carefully any large expenditures at this point, but I think it is a marvelous time because in downtimes there are also opportunities. You really got to think about how you can provide services that may help people who are experiencing challenges at this time.
SUSAN: Since 2005, 122 women have received the Make Mine a Million Dollar Business Award and 31 have surpassed million dollars in revenue, and one of ladies is with me in the studio today. In fact, Francine Glick is one of the very first women to be awarded a package from the Make Mine a Million Dollar Business Program, and Francine, I understand that you are just like this close to making it over the top with that million dollar mark with you business water journey.
FRANCINE: That is true Susan.
SUSAN: It is a pleasure to have you here and actually I was at the event where you won your award.
FRANCINE: That is correct.
SUSAN: So it has been fun to watch your business grow, but tell me a little bit about how you got your business idea and got started with water journey.
FRANCINE: Sure, everyone is concerned about germs and we are increasingly a society on the go, so we need to wash our hands and I came up with a solution to do that, I came up with hands to go, which is an alcohol free hand sanitizer, and it has no artificial ingredients in it, it is really gentle to the skin, and it has been clinically tested, and I believe that everyone deserves healthy natural and pure solutions, and I started the company for my family actually. I was car pooling my two daughters around and taking them to volleyball and softball practice and I needed to clean their hands and one of them thought that the alcohol gels were very smelly she said.
SUSAN: They can be, I agree, yes.
FRANCINE: Yes, and the other one said it has stung her hands and I knew that they were flammable, so that was not a very good solution, so I literally started in my kitchen sink. I started putting ingredients together to come up with something that would work for my family, and when I did, I thought if this works for me, this could work for other people.
SUSAN: As we said early in the program, necessity is the mother of invention sometimes.
FRANCINE: This was it, this was the case, and so I took this formula that I had to a chemist to commercialize it and we did and then we have the product patented.
SUSAN: Wonderful. Now you have been involved with Make Mine a Million Dollar Business Program and I actually said you are one of the first award recipients. You are very close to hitting your mark. How did you get involved with Make Mine a Million Dollar Business?
FRANCINE: It is interesting, I attended a small business conference and they were taking about Make Mine a Million and the timing was perfect for me. I needed to grow my business to bring it to the next level, and I needed a community that could really encourage me, and make mine a million program really does that, also I had just read this book by Donny Deutsch that talks about, why not me, he states that really successful people have this attitude why not me, so I had this attitude about why not me and I decided to apply, so it was perfect.
SUSAN: That is great, and you get a lot of resources through the Make Mine a Million Dollar Business Program I know, but tell us how have the process really helped you to grow your organization.
FRANCINE: How much time do we have? It has really helped me, I would say in two different levels. One are the intangibles and one are the tangibles. From an intangible level, you have Nell Merlino who is really a visionary and she inspires people and she inspires this whole movement that I am involved in and it is very important to have people who believe in you because then you can believe in yourself you could really pressures off. So that is sort of the intangible side of it. On the tangible side, you had coaching, last year we doubled our revenues through the coaching that really helped. We have a network of really smart women, we have the sponsors, for example open for American Express buys hands to go and actually distribute it at trade shows, FedEx has helped with our all of our shipping needs.
SUSAN: That is wonderful. I also want to say that one of the things that I see is lot of obstacles that Make Mine a Million helps with is just this whole thought of thinking big and dreaming big, did that help you too?
FRANCINE: Absolutely, absolutely you need to get to the next level when you are running the business and you are starting out and Make Mine a Million really helps you see the possibilities. It makes you feel that you can get there and you can do it. SUSAN: I know Francine, we all have challenges when we are growing out businesses, myself included and I think that our third tip today for surviving in a down economy is coming from you, so what is your tip.
FRANCINE: Well I think the best thing to do is to really focus on your current customers and keep them happy. It is lot more expensive to try to get new customers, so this is a good time to really go back to current customers and see what their needs are. If there are any problems that you can solve or if you are in a product business or service business to sell the more products and to get to know them little bit better.
SUSAN: That is excellent advice Francine, and actually now we are talking little bit about that and her taped package as well, so you have got great advice you have done a wonderful job, we wish you the best of luck, and I appreciate you being here today sharing your time with us because I know you got a hectic schedule as your business is growing by leaps and bounds, and in fact can you stay around because Nely Galan is coming up next and I love for your chat with her too.
FRANCINE: I love to.
SUSAN: Thank again for joining us, and make sure that all of you stick around too while we take another quick break because when we come back dynamo entrepreneur Nely Galan joins us from Los Angles with her experience and advice on staying on top in an economic downturn, no matter what your business is.

Power Lunch Webinar Part 3:

SUSAN: Welcome back, we really excited today to be joined by Nely Galan media mogul and internationally known speaker and health and wellness and beauty _____ (00:24). She is the former president at Telemundo network and creator of Fox reality hit “The Swan.” She also recently finished a stint on the Donald Trump’s Show Celebrity Apprentice, where she was able to raise $250,000 for Count Me In Too. Welcome Nely.
NELY: Hello Susan, so nice to be here with you.
SUSAN: Great I have Francine Glick here too today.
NELY: Hi Francine how are you?
FRANCINE: Hi Nely.
SUSAN: It is just wonderful that you wee able to take time out to join us, but I know we got lot we want to talk about Nely, but the first and most obvious question is what was that like to work with the Donald.
NELY: Well you can imagine the Donald why, you see on TV is really how he is, I mean his value system Susan is very much win by any means necessary, so for woman like us that are entrepreneurs you know and we don’t really play that way, but I do have to say that the experience on the show was unbelievable and you learnt so much from everyone on the show, I mean I really learned a lot from Donald Trump. He really pointed out to me things that I do in business that may be working for me any more and I have to say Jean Siemens was the #1 most wonderful reason to be on the show because he is so smart and I learned a lot from him and you know I also learned a lot from the women on the show. We are all going on a female empowerment this summer the women of the apprentice and I have made girlfriends for life, so all in all the experience was great, although anybody that saw the show know I got into kind of a bit of a tearful Donald Trump because my value system in his value system are very different.
SUSAN: I was to going to ask you that, I mean Nely you really does so to tell the guy of I mean, how did he take that not very many people tell the Donald off.
NELY: Well, you know I told him off, I am very proud of how he him told off because I did a right thing in a very classy way, which is why he could even take it at all and you know women in America have really responded because I think everybody when they are around Donald Trump he fires you or whatever and everybody just got to say thank you Mr. Trump and I sort of stood up for myself and he didn’t like it and he fired me anyway, but you know that was very offend to who I am, I mean I have been an entrepreneur for a long time and I am not going to sit there and take an injustice from anybody, so you know he and I actually get along really well, I mean we were very respectful of each other and I think he was very respectful of the fact that I respectfully disagreed with him, so it all worked out.
SUSAN: Well that is great. I was cheering you on, as I was watching in the audience and of course you raised the money for Count Me In too, which was fabulous, but I want to talk to you little bit about Nely because you have been an entrepreneur and very successful, but you was also in Corporate America with Telemundo. What made you to decide to jump from a high level and very successful corporate career into entrepreneurship you were sort of jumping from the fine hand into the fire sort of stake.
NELY: I think you know Susan I started my entrepreneurial life in my 20s and then I kind of got sick of it, I got sick of paying my own pay roll, I got sick of not having fringe benefits, I got sick of always having to sell and I got a job offer to go back into corporate life, and I had forgotten how bad corporate life was and I went back in and I always say you know while I learned a lot the three years I was running a network it was the three worst years of my life. I got nine breast lumps, you know I was just very stressed out. It is very difficult for me to be in a system where it is taking of meetings and you know passion isn’t rewarded and you know I kind of I got the fringe benefits for three years, I got the W-2 pay, you know I got people paying me W-2 payroll and then I realized that just wasn’t my path in life and sometimes I wished my path wasn’t to be an entrepreneur because it is really hard, and sometimes I just say God why have you given me this path it is so difficult, but it is my path and I no longer question it, I just know it is and life is an easy for anybody, but it is certainly for me is not to be in Corporate America, it just isn’t and so I don’t question it any more. I am very happy to be back in my own company even with its ups and downs and being on the apprentice only confirmed that for me. That is truly my path. My path is not to go get a job Donald Trump. My path is to work for myself even if it is the most difficult path in the world and it is a very difficult path. I always say to women you know what it doesn’t get any easier just, you know what once you surrender to that it does get easier because you just know it is not easy, it is not an easy path, but it is a remarkable path.
SUSAN: Francine do you have a question for Nely?
FRANCINE: I do, I am just curious do you have one of those days when you think what I am doing? So what you are do about it?
NELY: I have those days everyday, fear comes over me everyday, you know peoples come to me all the time they go, you are so fearless and I said well I fake it well doesn’t I. I am so full of fear, but I breath through my fear, because I know everyone else on the planet is full of fear too and you know what that is the path of greatness and that is the path the hero’s path, it is like you have fear and you just breath through it and you surrender to it and you get to the other side and it is not that bad, but I have those days every day and I would be a complete liar if I didn’t say that and everyday I wake up and I go why I am an entrepreneur, why I have chosen this path and then I just go because there is no other path for me and once I surrender to that and you know I talk myself out of that moment of fear, I am okay, and it dose always workout. It really does. It is just for all of us fear is the greatest horror in our life. It really takes over us and you cannot let it, you have to talk yourself out of it.
SUSAN: Nely, of course running a business you have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. There is no doubt about that, but we are definitely in tough economic times right now and this whole program is about how to survive in this economic climate and we are doing tips, so Nely I am going to ask you for your tip.
NELY: Okay. Well #1, I think people should know that in the worst economic times is the greatest time for entrepreneurs, because entrepreneurs come in when great corporations are failing, when there were holes in the market, and whenever I feel this way, I remember that my grandfather emigrated from Spain to Cuba at the turn of the century at the worst most horrible crisis in Spain. It was a Spanish war and he came to Cuba and made a fortune and then there was the depression, which also hit Cuba and he remade his entire empire during the depression. It is the greatest time for entrepreneurs. I have to say, I am actually excited right now because I look around and I go okay what are the holes in the market during bad times, what do people need, what are the things that I can provide that no one else is providing, and I think that for entrepreneurs it is the most exciting time of our life, it is when you really can show your stuff, so I think entrepreneurs should not be bumped out at all, this is the moment to really rise to the occasion and have the greatness that you have inside of you come out and look I am in a time when the entertainment industry is really in a bad place, we just had a writers guild strike, you know there is a 100 million channels out there and now they are paying us less for shows and they are not giving us ownership, so guess what diversify I am doing a lot of other business, I have been developing real estate, I am actually thinking of opening up franchises, I am think of all the other things that I can do, it doesn’t mean I am still not going to do my main business, but I know my main business is going to be soft for a while. This is a great time for me to think out of the box and I just think people should feel that way.
SUSAN: Nely you also really big into wellness and taking care of yourself, is that particularly important in this environment now too?
NELY: I really thinks it is important always, but particularly now, in fact I was talking to one of the moms in my son’s school yesterday and I said to her the most important thing you can do is take care of yourself, and I have learned this the hard way, so I love to tell younger women this. If you don’t put yourself first and if you don’t take care of yourself and if you are not constantly working on yourself, you are no good to anybody else, and it is the #1 part you have to love yourself first and I know for woman that is really hard to hear, because it sounds selfish, but in these moments the first thing you don’t cut back on is your massage or your facial or going to therapy or going to all your doctors appointments because if you are not the strong foundation of your home for everybody else, you are not good for anybody else, your entire family starts falling apart and so that is the first thing you do even in spite of bad economy, even in spite of anything you have to take care of yourself. I think it is really really really the most important thing you can do.
SUSAN: Nely I love what you are saying and we are almost out of time, so in just three minutes or so can you tell us you are such a huge supporter of Count Me In and why is this cause so close and near and dear to your heart?
NELY: First of all I love Count Me In because they are very clear about their mission, which is they want to take a million woman and have them create companies that are at least having a million dollar in revenue, a million women with a million dollars in revenue, I cannot even imagine a more important mission. Nell Merlino embodies the mission of that company, so I stand behind her, and I think the #1 thing we should all worry about is woman being strong, woman having financial independence and an organization that helps you do it economically with training, just really helps you create that foundation for yourself. To me nothing is more important and that is why I really stood behind them and I went and raised money, although I was fired from the show, I went and raised money for them because I think they are very very important organization that all woman should know about and you know we are starting Quanto (10:36), which is Count Me In in Spanish to help Latinos, because I think so many Latinos in this country don’t speak English well and need that help. Latinos are the fastest growing entrepreneur group in America and I stand behind that.
SUSAN: Nely you are such a role model and thank you so much for joining us today, I wish we have to lot more time, but it is great being with you and you are just like I said such an inspiration and role model.
NELY: And Susan you are doing such incredible things for woman too and I just really stand behind you too.
SUSAN: Well thank you, take care Nely.
NELY: Thank you.
SUSAN: She is amazing. Well just in case you missed anything along the way we are going to recap the tips we covered so far. Do your market research to determine what products and services are needed in times like these and be realistic about how much time and money it takes to start and run a successful business. Take care of your current customers and they will take care of you and take care of yourself or your no good to your business anyway, and our fifth tip for staying on top of an economic downturn you may be tempted to cut back on your budget especially your marketing budget, but don’t do it, instead find creative ways to reduce spending and there are lot of resources out there for that, for example Sam’s Club has a program where you can take a competitors invoice into their stores and they will compare it to their own items to show you just how much money you can save by shopping there. You also might consider joining a buying group. We at SBTV, we have a partner organization called the Buying Group, which allows you as a small business owner to join together with other small businesses to maximize your purchasing powers as a group. You can save money on all sorts of things like insurance, credit card processing, free employment screening, shipping, car rental, and the list goes on and on. So the moral of the story today is just because we are going through some tough economic turbulence at the moment doesn’t mean you cannot start and grow a successful company, just do your research, _____ (12:39), take care of yourself and your resources, and also I want to be sure and thank our in studio guest Francine Glick with water journey and Francine you are so close to that million dollar mark, so we are going to be checking in.
FRANCINE: Thank you Susan.
SUSAN: We want to hear great things and of course I want to thank Nell Merlino for being part of our program today and of course Nely Galan for being here as well, and thank to all of you for watching and join us again for the next power lunch with Susan and power up your business.