Guest post written by Theresa Clark, Director of Development and Communications for Volunteers of America of Wisconsin, and member of the Alliance Breakfast Club Committee.

We’ve all heard the radio commercials – “I am Richard Kessler and I want to be your jeweler,” or “We do diamonds better, because diamonds are all we do.”  Recently, the Wauke

sha County Business Alliance Breakfast Club had the opportunity to meet Richard Kessler in person as he shared his “success story,” and his struggles in building his personal brand.

Richard shared that his business really turned around after spending a weekend with motivational speaker Tony Robbins. His takeaway from that weekend was to find one way to serve customers better than anyone else. He began making a list of everything he didn’t like about the jewelry business, and set out to become the most respected name in diamonds. He got rid of suits and ties, changed the music in the stores, designed stores with lower cases and chairs for customers, and started a four-week training program for employees to help reduce turnover. To further differentiate Kessler’s Diamonds from the competition, Richard implemented a simple warranty policy – “If you bought it at Kessler’s, it’s guaranteed.”  The changes worked.  Today Kessler’s Diamonds is the largest seller of diamonds and engagement rings in the state. And, last year the business became employee-owned as Richard Kessler formed an ESOP to gradually transfer ownership to the employees.

Our takeaways are the lessons learned by Richard Kessler – find out how to serve customers better than anyone else, differentiate yourself from the competition, and market your brand 52 weeks a year.

Join the Alliance Breakfast Club May 2 to hear “Building Customer Loyalty Inside & Out,” presented by Debra Schmidt. More information available here. 

Guest Post written by Michael Arnold, President of Palmetto Partners, LLC and member of the Alliance Breakfast Club Committee

"I'm Richard Kessler and I'd like to be...your jeweler."

Sound familiar? It should, because it is the tag line heard on numerous radio commercials over the past few years in Wisconsin by Kessler Diamonds. This campaign has helped propel the growth of Mr. Kessler's business, not only because of the frequency of his ads, but more importantly because of the message he has created. 

Most jewelers carry almost anything that sparkles, but his business decided to do something different and specialize exclusively in diamonds. This is why his branding message is unique and it seperates Kessler Diamonds from the competition. He also adds his own personality that conveys a sense he really wants to be MY jeweler. I don't hear anyone else saying this.

How can you craft your brand image to become the one and only choice for your prospects? Well, here is a great opportunity to learn from Richard Kessler himself on what has worked for his business. Attend the April 4th Waukesha County Business Alliance Breakfast Club meeting and see what how your company can benefit from creating its own identity. 

Guest Post written by Michael Arnold, President of Palmetto Partners, LLC and member of the Alliance Breakfast Club Committee

I am not somebody who likes surprises. Whether they be parties, tax bills or last-second losses by the Packers. Unfortunately, this sometimes keeps me from being in the present moment and appreciating unpredictability for its, well, surprises. The appearance by Christine Hill at February's Alliance Breakfast Club was an event that I did not expect to appreciate as much as I did.

With her topic being "Leadership by Choice," I sleepily arrived and awaited a presentation where I would be talked at for 45 minutes about a topic that originally did not excite me. These pre-conceived notions were quickly dashed as Ms. Hill walked among the 86 attendees talking about how we can better recognize others' personality traits and use ours to work better in conjunction with them. Okay, I could learn something here.

Guest Post written by Heather DeMore, DataComm Plus, and member of the Alliance Breakfast Club Committee.

What is the Hallmark of your Career?

This is quite a loaded question to toss out on the first Thursday of January, the second day back from holiday break at 8 AM.  However, this is just how Craig Schiefelbein ended his presentation on the first Thursday, the second day back from holiday break at 8 AM.

Guest Post written by Heather DeMore, DataComm Plus, and member of the Alliance Breakfast Club Committee.

It’s never too cold for custard just like it’s never too early to head to the Country Springs Hotel for the Alliance Breakfast Club to hear an amazing speaker to get motivated and pumped up for your day!

Guest Post written by Udo F. Misch, Managing Member at NeoCloud Marketing.


For business owners, creating an effective marketing plan is a more complex process today than ever before. Today, business owners and their marketing teams need to find a balance between executing traditional marketing strategies with evolving new media marketing strategies.  Decisions to place ads in the phone book, design brochures, send direct mail, and place magazine or newspaper ads must be weighed against their new media counterparts, like a web site design or redesign, a social media campaign, e-mail marketing, search engine optimization and mobile search.

It’s hard to believe the most of 2012 is already behind us! While Waukesha County appears to be on the road to continued economic recovery, now is the time for small business owners to explore new tools to keep the momentum going and plan for 2013.

One-on-One with Public Officials is one of our newer monthly programs. On the fourth Friday of each month, we have coffee and conversation with a public official in Waukesha County.

When you’re an event planner for a living, some events and programs will rise above the rest. I’ve found that I have loved planning and participating in every single event for the Young Professionals of Waukesha County (“YP”).

The goal of the YPs is to help “20-& 30- somethings” advance professionally, connect to the community, enrich relationships and become the next generation of leaders in Waukesha County.

  Guest post written by Michelle M. Friedman, Director of Marketing, DeWitt Ross & Stevens S.C.

Has it been five years or more since you last updated your estate plan?   Since then, has your financial situation changed or have you retired? Have any of your beneficiaries married, divorced or experienced financial problems? Are you concerned about estate taxes or probate?

Guest post written by Roxanne Baumann, Director Partnerships & Global Engagement Service Line, Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP)

If you’re in business, your primary purpose is to make money. America is facing a huge challenge right now to increase or stabilize profitability, maintain or build new business, find growth opportunities and grow jobs. As we emerge from this historic recession now, the world is different. We are challenged to use American ingenuity and intellect to lift ourselves out of tough times. But how?

Guest Post by Jake Brunner, Sales Engineer – Southeastern Wisconsin, TDS Telecommunications Corp.     
 
“Okay, so what the heck does that mean,” you’re probably asking yourself. I will try to clear up some the confusion related to what bandwidth really means.

It’s really quite simple.  Everything you do on a computer network requires bandwidth. Network bandwidth could be related to your internal computer network, or from your external Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Guest post written by Mary Scheibel, principal and founder of marketing communications firm Trefoil Group.

Last week, the Alliance hosted the 2012 Top 10 Businesses of the Year awards, with manufacturer DUECO, Inc. taking top honors.  In competitive industries, with numerous prospering companies in the game, you have to wonder what makes these specific companies so successful.

Guest Post written by Michael Arnold, President of Palmetto Partners, LLC, and a member of the Alliance Breakfast Club Committee. He can be reached at michael@palmettopartners.net. 

I consider the 1994 movie “Glengarry Glen Ross” to be the ultimate film depicting the highs and lows of being a sales professional. It is the story of a group of real estate salesmen who receive an incentive.  Win the sales contest? You just earned a new Cadillac! Lose the sales contest? You’re fired. The first time I watched this movie with my wife she said she got a stomach ache from it. I looked at her and said “Welcome to my job.”

Guest post written by Barbara Eckblad, Director of Lending for Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC).

Obstacles and small business are two terms that often coincide.  Fortunately, entrepreneurs are made of tenacity unlike anyone else in the workforce.  Driven, motivated, determined—these are just a few characteristics that make up the clients we see every day in our offices at the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp (WWBIC).

Guest post written by Steve Dyer, President & CEO of Dickten Masch Plastics. Steve is also the chair of our Manufacturing Alliance Steering Committee.

I recently wrote a piece for BizTimes Milwaukee highlighting the importance of manufacturing jobs in our state. With 20% of Wisconsin’s employees working in manufacturing, we boast the highest concentration of manufacturing jobs in the country. Therefore, we must address the need for a robust, skilled workforce.

Guest post written by Barb Knutson, Account Executive servicing all of small business for HumanaVitality. Barb will also be our speaker at Alliance Breakfast Club on Thursday.

As an employer, you have the ability to make a huge impact on your employees. It’s important for your employees to see you making the change as well as making the difference in their environment.  Here are a few things that you can do to start changing the mind-set of your employees.

This column ran in the Lake Country Publications in January.

Today everybody seems to be talking about the “skills gap” in manufacturing, but tackling this problem “can’t be the flavor of the month, it’s got to be the flavor of the decade!” So said Rick Steinke, vice president of manufacturing at Sentry Equipment in Oconomowoc, at a recent local chamber program.

Guest post taken from a press release from Rentapen, Inc.

Rentapen Inc.’s Marketing Assistant, Bethany Kratz attended the Young Professionals luncheon held by the Waukesha County Business Alliance in January. The featured topic was generational differences in the workforce and how to mend the gap. There are four different generations working in the same workplace today: the veterans, baby boomers, generation x, and millennials.

Guest post provided by Buckley Brinkman, executive director of Wisconsin Manufacturers Extension Partnership. This article appeared originally in the In Business Wisconsin Report in January 2012.

It’s been a week of high-profile “state of” speeches, but while people of goodwill can disagree about the state of the nation and Wisconsin, there is no question the state of Wisconsin’s manufacturing industry is strong, according to Buckley Brinkman, executive director of the Wisconsin Manufacturers Extension Partnership.

Guest post written by Heather DeMore, VP of Sales & Marketing for DataComm Plus. Heather is also a member of our Alliance Breakfast Club planning committee.

The Waukesha County Business Alliance never fails to impress with all the Networking and Educational programs that they offer. The Alliance Breakfast Club presentation on January 5 was presented by Mark Rodgers author of Accelerate the Sale. Mark was the perfect speaker to set the tone for the Alliance Breakfast Club series for 2012.  The topic was “12 Ideas for a Faster, More Productive 2012.” This was the perfect topic to get the crowd revved up and ready to go for a successful year of selling in 2012!

Guest post from Freeman Newspaper. Written by Sarah Pryor, photos by Charles Auer.

Easter Seals warms hearts, hands of Hope Center clients
Both organizations benefit from collaboration

By Sarah Pryor
Freeman Staff

WAUKESHA ­ Winter’s chill was no match for the warm scarves and warmer smiles of Easter Seals’ Workforce Training Center participants who presented hand-knitted items to the Hope Center Wednesday morning.

For the past few months, Easter Seals has worked with adults who have disabilities such as autism to improve their fine motor skills by knitting scarves using yarn donated by families and friends, said Vicki Hastings, Easter Seals of Southeast Wisconsin’s community relations manager.

Guest post written by Jeff Hoffman, VP of Industrial Real Estate, Judson & Associates, S.C., and Jim Brandenburg, CPA and Shareholder of Kolb + Co, SC.

In the early part of this century there was a prevailing thought that if the State of Wisconsin was going to compete in the “Economy of the Future” we needed to move on from our manufacturing heritage and embrace the new economy. The State should be grateful that our manufacturing community did not heed the advice of the experts as manufacturing has shown remarkable resilience in an economic recovery that still feels like a recession for millions of people.

Post written by Amanda Payne, Strategic Marketing Communications, Scheibel Halaska.

Sip. Taste. Meet. Enjoy… (and then take some home)

I’m looking forward to all five of those activities at the upcoming Waukesha County Business Alliance’s World of Wines and Beer on November 4. In its 11th year, the event brings together not only 150 different wines and 25 microbrew selections, but over twice that many professionals and business leaders from across Waukesha County.

Post written by Brian Nemoir, President of Full Impact Communications, LLC, and chair of the Waukesha County Business Alliance Board of Directors.

Redo, reposition, revamp, retrench…more often than not anything with the added prefix “re” is in response to a challenge of some sort.  Challenges are often tough to categorize as either good or bad, and as business leaders we face any number of challenges on a daily basis, some of which require those preferably avoidable “re” words.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend recently about the difference between doing what you want to do, and doing what you choose to do. When I said “You can do whatever you want to do!” his response was “No. I can do whatever I choose to do. I don’t get to do whatever I want to do.”