• Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Are you concerned about cash flows? Worried about making payroll? Confused by your financial statements? Come to this GROW seminar for help.

If you're like most entrepreneurs, you don't come from a financial background. Therefore, your business finances can be intimidating, perplexing, and worrisome. But effective financial management is the key to continued success, and a challenge that must be overcome for long-term sustainability...even if you have a CPA. Whether it's lines of credit, breakeven points, accounts receivable, or balance sheets, you must know the fundamentals so you can focus on growing your company.

This seminar gives you a chance to learn from others who have done it: experienced entrepreneurs who effectively manage their finances and professionals who specialize in this area. In layman's terms, they will discuss strategies to do the following:

• Improve your cash flows
  
• Keep expenses under control
  
• Work with your accountant as a financial consultant
  
• Use software & financial statements to help manage the business
  
• Measure performance and the success of company

If the finances of your business are a challenge you continue to face, this seminar will give you the foundation skills you need to take them on!

PANELISTS

Robert Leach is the Vice President, Regional Business Market Manager of Harris Bank's City Region. He leads and manages a 31-member team that focuses on small business and lower middle market companies. Leach joined Harris Bank as a vice president and commercial relationship manager in 2002 within Harris Bank's Northwest Region (Barrington). He was selected as regional business sales manager, City Region in 2005, and promoted to regional business market manager in 2006. Prior to Harris Bank, Leach held management and senior commercial banking positions with Deutsche Bank, where he led teams across three different product groups. Leach is an active member of Chicago's business community, with memberships in the Executive's Club of Chicago, Midwest Business Brokers and Intermediaries Association, Commercial Finance Association, and Risk Management Association. Leach received his bachelor's degree from Indiana State University in 1994, and an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army in 1991, where he received numerous military commendations.

Dawn Milani is the founder of Milani & Associates. Dawn has extensive experience assisting business owners to start and develop businesses. She has provided them with assistance in various areas, including accounting, business planning, marketing, and technology.

Prior to founding Milani & Associates, Dawn was Director of a Small Business Development Center. As Director, she was responsible for developing programs and strategies to assist entrepreneurs and business owners in all industries to start and manage a business.

Dawn also has experience working with larger organizations, where she focused primarily on financial systems technologies. She has worked in sales and marketing, implementation and support, and research and development. These roles have taken her to various organizations, including Oracle Corporation, System Software Associates, Ross Systems, and Evangelical Health Systems.

Dawn has an MBA from DePaul University, an MA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a BBA in Accounting from the University of Iowa. She is a CPA and a member of the Illinois CPA Society.

John Nicholson is the co-principal of Botanicals, Inc., one of Chicago's leading special-event design and production companies. In partnership with his wife, John incorporated Botanicals in 1995 and grew the company from a three-employee startup operating out of his basement to a full service design firm operating out of a state-of-the-art 6,500 sf studio in Lincoln Park. The company now employs over fifty persons annually. During John's tenure at Botanicals, he has served as its vice-president, treasurer, and most recently as its president and CEO. In addition to conceiving and defining the original company vision, John's responsibilities over the years have included strategic planning, financial management, conception and management of marketing strategy, client and vendor negotiation, real estate acquisition, oversight of sales personnel, IT and networking oversight, and authorship of customer service policies and strategies. Prior to Botanicals, John worked at the consulting firm The Breakthrough Group, where he was a director, strategist and writer for live and video consulting projects for corporate client companies, including Gateway Computers, Gap, Coach, First Chicago, Arthur Andersen, and SBC. John has served as a member of TEC International, an international organization of business owners and CEO's. In 2004, John was a finalist in Fortune Small Business Magazine's national Best Bosses Award competition. John completed the certificate program at the Purdue University Entrepreneurship Center in 2003, where he captained the winning team at the Center's annual mock consulting competition. John received his BA from Wesleyan University, and his MFA from Temple University.