Thanksgiving Food Drive to Benefit The Canton Food Pantry

Success Express – Canton, has announced the start of a Thanksgiving Food Drive to benefit The Canton Food Pantry.  Success Express President, Eric Douglas of Prospect Mortgage calls this initiative “another way in which our group of local businesses can help the community and provide assistance to those who are in need.”

The Food Drive, which will run from October 10 through November 12 is focused on collecting non-perishable food items as well as personal products most needed by families served by The Canton Food Pantry.  Carolann  Browne and Mary Ellen Hudner, Directors of The Canton Food Pantry, say that the Top 20 items needed include such things as coffee and tea, canned meats and meal makers, canned fruits and vegetables, bottled and canned juices, canned and dry pasta, cooking oils, bar soap, shampoo, laundry detergent and more. “We are always heartened by food drives such as this around the holidays’” said Browne. “however, the truth is that these items are always needed year ’round.”

Donations can be made at the following business locations of Success Express members in the greater Canton area.  To locate the closest one to where you are, please call any of the following members:  Floral Scents Florist at 781-821-5500, The College Planning Group at 781-828-1114, Linehan Photography at 781-562-0032 or The Canton Association for Business and Industry at 781- 828-2555.

For your convenience, you may also drop off food donations at any time during business hours at Humboldt Moving and Storage located in the Canton Commerce Center at 100 New Boston Drive, Canton – right off Route 138.

In addition, The Canton Food Pantry is glad to accept financial contributions of any amount from individuals, businesses and organizations.  Contributions are tax-deductible and can be mailed to: Canton Area Helpline, P.O. Box 202, Canton, MA 02021.  On the memo line of your check, please write “Food”.

Opening Night at the Brockton Rox

SUCCESS EXPRESS – Canton, a successful South Shore business networking – roundtable group, recently held their first member – guest social event for the 2011 season. The group attended Opening Night for the Brockton Rox baseball club at Campanelli Stadium on Thursday, May 26, 2011.  The evening began with an all-you-can-eat picnic hosted by the Brockton Rox in their Picnic Pavilion located beyond the right-field fence.  After a terrific meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken sandwiches, salads, chips, sodas and desserts – and a photo op along the fence above the right field wall, the members moved to a select group of reserved box seats just behind home plat4e toward the first base line and enjoyed watching the home town team take a 3-1 victory over the Worcester Tornadoes.  Future social events will likely include a late summer Cape Cod Canal Twilight Cocktail Cruise and a Fall Bowling Night – both of which were big hits in 2010.

In addition, SUCCESS EXPRESS – Canton is also involved in a number of local charitable efforts and is proud of their affiliation with the Canton Association of Business and Industries and support for its charitable efforts and community outreach as well.

If this sort of social gathering, with other leaders of small to medium businesses in your area, sounds like just the right thing for you as a business owner or manager; if a weekly opportunity to network, talk about your business and build a successful cache of valuable contacts – as well as gaining a great social outlet – sounds like something that fits your idea of how to grow your business, you may want to reach out to SUCCESS EXPRESS – Canton to explore membership.  If you’re interested in learning more, please call or e-mail: Eric Douglas, President at eric.douglas@prospectmortgage.com – 617-785-3727; Joe Delaney, Vice President at joedelaney@kw.com – 781-251-2101; or Brian Hoffman, Social Secretary at brian@aidanhermanpartners.com – 508-238-2100, to explore the benefits of membership in SUCCESS EXPRESS – Canton, a leading business networking group focused on the South Shore – South Coast area.

Advice to New College Grads

At today’s meeting of SUCCESS EXPRESS – Canton, the members tackled a ‘business case’ presented to us by Steve Schottenfeld of TraceTech Solutions.  Steve’s challenge to us, which he had passed along a few days ahead via email, was to prepare talking points that we would share with a new college graduate entering the workforce.

What ensued was a stimulating and energetic dialogue with thoughtful insights shared by every member in attendance.  Here, in no particular order, are the talking points shared by our members:

• Be yourself; develop a workplace personality that lets you to be yourself, yet stays within the boundaries of acceptable professional behavior.
• Seek out opportunities for community involvement; make sure that you are more than just your work.
• Work to become an empathetic listener; learn to stop and listen and understand where the other person – perhaps a colleague or a customer – is coming from.
• Be well rounded; look for opportunities to include your personal interests and other aspects of your education and life experiences in your work, perhaps through volunteering
• Keep an open mind; always be willing to consider other career options. (Research shows that less than 10 percent of college graduates are still in their first job within three years of graduation!)
• Diversify – look for ways to use your talents and interests whether it’s in your work or outside of your work.
• Find balance between work and life; make sure that there is room for family, friends and outside interests.
• Be an active alumnus; look for ways to stay involved and share your experiences with those who will follow you. Help them understand what you faced when you first entered the workforce.
• Recognize that training and continuing education is important; professional development and a desire to continue learning are the hallmarks of success.
• Make sure that your work is something you feel passionate about and committed to -  if not you may look want to look for other work that will keep your energy and enthusiasm high.
• Understand your level of risk tolerance; opportunities each carry unique consequences. You need to know what those are in order to make wise choices.
• Be industrious; work hard; energy and commitment are important to success.
• Get connected to others; build and use networks as you grow professionally.
• Always display a positive attitude; attitude is often more important than aptitude in a new job. Demonstrating a positive attitude goes a long way toward showing others that you are interested in your work and want to succeed.
• Dress for success; make sure that you are dressing for the job you want as well as the job you have.  When in doubt dress up one level rather than down – you can always remove a jacket and tie when you’re invited to, but if you show up dressed informally and it’s not appropriate, it’s very difficult to recover.
• Recognize that you can’t do it alone; you need to partner with, depend on, and learn from others.
• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; making mistakes is part of the learning process. It’s okay to make a mistake as long as you learn from it.
• Acknowledge your mistakes; don’t try to hide them; don’t offer excuses; make them learning points and use them to create a personal development plan that will help you become better.
• If you cannot write, learn to.  The ability to communicate is key in every career.

On a continuing basis, SUCCESS EXPRESS of Canton will continue to use a portion of our weekly meetings to discuss business cases of value and interest to our members.

Interested in joining this outstanding group of local business leaders and sharing your own insights and ideas??  SUCCESS EXPRESS of Canton meets weekly at the headquarters of Humboldt Moving and Storage, 100 New Boston Road, Canton, MA.

Guests are always welcome!  Plan to drop in and meet us at our next weekly meeting.  For more information, please contact Eric Douglas, President Eric.Douglas@prospectmtg.com, or Joe Delaney, Vice President, at joedelaney@kw.com .

2011 Spring Social Function

The members ofCanton’s SUCCESS EXPRESS business networking group announce their inaugural Spring 2011 members’ social function.  The members and their guests, families and friends will be attending Opening Night for the Brockton Rox baseball club at Campanelli Stadium on Brockton’s west side at 6:00 PM on Thursday, May 26, 2011.

The evening will begin with an all-you-can-eat picnic hosted by the Brockton Rox in their fabulous Picnic Pavilion located beyond the right-field fence.  After a terrific meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken sandwiches, salads, chips, sodas and desserts (beer is optional for adult guests), the members will move to a select group of reserved box seats along the first base line to enjoy the Team’s opening  night game against the Worcester Tornadoes.

If this sort of social gathering, with other leaders of small to medium businesses in your area, sounds like just the right thing for you as a business owner or manager; if a weekly opportunity to network, talk about your business and build a successful cache of valuable contacts – as well as gaining a great social outlet – sounds like something that fits your idea of how to grow your business, you may want to reach out to SUCCESS EXPRESS of Canton to explore membership.

In fact, if you REACH OUT RIGHT NOW and are eligible to become a member of SUCCESS EXPRESS, we will invite you be our guest for this OPENING NIGHT SOCIAL EVENT.  If you are interested in learning more, please call or e-mail: Eric Douglas, President at eric.douglas@prospectmortgage.com – 617-785-3727; Joe Delaney, Vice President at joedelaney@kw.com – 781-251-2101; or Brian Hoffman, Social Secretary at brian@aidanhermanpartners.com – 508-238-2100, to explore the benefits of membership in SUCCESS EXPRESS of Canton, a leading business networking group focused on the South Shore – South Coast area.

Insurance Advice for Startup Tech Companies

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work with several startup technology companies and help them research and design an insurance program that best protects their company.  For most startups, insurance can be a nuisance and an unwanted expense, but the alternatives – having no insurance or having the wrong coverage, can cripple your company.

Some insurance is required by law, such as workers compensation in Massachusetts.  In other situations, it’s a wise business decision to buy a policy to protect the company from claims the business simply cannot afford to sustain, such as a lawsuit or a building fire.

While each business will have their own specific insurance related needs, there is a pattern of typical coverage’s that most startups will require at one point or another.  For the purpose of this post, we’ll discuss the three basic categories of insurance:

Statutory Insurance: Insurance that is required by law.

Contractual Insurance: Insurance that is not necessarily required by law, but may be required by a contract for your landlord and/or client.

Optional Insurance: Insurance that is important to the company’s wellbeing, but is discretionary.

Statutory Insurance:

This is the kind of insurance that every start up must consider first.  With limited exceptions, every employer in the state of Massachusetts with one or more employee(s) is required by law to have a valid workers compensation policy.  Workers Compensation provides injured workers with unlimited medical care and partial wage replacement, but also protects the business from potentially damaging lawsuits from employees.

Contractual Insurance:

This is the kind of insurance that, although not required by state law, may be required by a contract that your business is obligated to provide.  Initially, before you rent office space, the landlord will typically require that you be responsible for providing proof of commercial general liability insurance as part of a lease requirement.

As your company begins to grow, insurance can take on a bit more complexity.  Client and vendor contracts will require the placement of various other coverage’s such as Errors & Omissions, Directors & Officers, increased Liability and Umbrella Limits, as well as many others.

Optional Insurance:

Because many startups have a limited budget, Optional Insurance can be the most difficult type of insurance to determine.  Some coverage options to consider include:  Property (equipment and computer coverage), Business Interruption, Errors & Omissions (if not already required by contract), Hired and Non Owned Auto Liability, Crime, and Umbrella.

Many startup business owners are looking for insurance for the first time, so it is critical to find an insurance broker that has both experience within your industry and also represents the right carriers that are most willing to insure companies like yours.

At Aronson Insurance, we represent over a dozen of the top rated carriers, which allows us to provide our clients with the right coverages at the right price – often lower than what they were paying elsewhere.

Mike Kennedy – Mike@aronsoninsurance.com

Read more of Mike Kennedy’s insurance tips at http://mikekennedy11.wordpress.com.

Knowledge Based Economic Growth and Stability – Good News

I know, it sounds terribly boring; like a topic for a graduate school research paper.

Rather than boring, however, the results of this recent study are stimulating, maybe even exhilarating, for those of us who work in support of human talent acquisition in information technology here in Massachusetts and the surrounding region.

A recent comprehensive study by the Milken Institute looked at over 75 indicators reflecting how each of the 50 states fosters, invests in, and promotes the growth of modern, knowledge-based business models.

The study examined such areas as investment in technology and infrastructure; education; human capital development; risk capital and entrepreneurial support; and technology and scientific work force capabilities. The composite score derived from all of the indices placed the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on top, with Maryland, Colorado, California and Utah rounding out the top five.

The complete study can be a bit daunting; however, a brief synopsis reported in Recruiter.com sums it up nicely. This study, the article points out, “… is important in that it may predict future economic growth … [the] findings do indicate a real trajectory for future employment growth and innovative businesses …” and, the results point toward “… further job growth and corporate investment and hiring.”  (The bolding and italics are mine.)

Of course, traditional business models such as retail, manufacturing, service delivery and many others will continue to thrive as well.  However, in many cases their economic health and future growth will be directly tied to how well they are able to harness knowledge-based product and service branding, marketing, customer positioning, and, above all, customer satisfaction.

Since the foundation of knowledge-based business relies heavily on technology to capture, share and distribute information, the underlying message here is that information technology – the tools, products and frameworks with which organizations create, capture, store, protect and use mission critical data – will continue to be a direct, definable, and measurable contributor to the bottom line success of the enterprise.

Good news for all of us.

Brian M. Hoffman – President, Aidan Herman Partners, Inc.

Read more of Brian’s IT Resourcing blog at www.aidanhermanpartners.com.

Confused About How Your Auto Insurance Premiums Are Calculated?

Many consumers are often confused about how their auto insurance premiums are calculated after an at-fault accident or traffic violation.  In Massachusetts, the bad driver point system is referred to as “surchargeable points”, and is based on the state’s Safe Driver Insurance Program (SDIP).  The idea of the SDIP system is to charge bad drivers more insurance premium and to reward the safe drivers with less insurance premium.  The more points you have, the higher your insurance premiums.

The point system itself is simple in nature.  If you have an at-fault accident or commit traffic violations, your driving record will accumulate “points” depending on the nature of the accident.  An “at-fault” accident is defined as “an operator of a vehicle being more than 50% at fault and if the accident involves a claim payment exceeding $500”.

Surchargeable Point Schedule:

• Major Traffic Violation (such as a DUI): 5 points
• Major at-fault accident: 4 points
• Minor at-fault accident: 3 points
• Minor traffic violation: 2 points

The SDIP system also has built-in-discounts to reward drivers with consistently clean driving records.  Drivers who have at least 5 years of driving experience and no surchargeable accidents or traffic violations for the previous 3 years will receive the Excellent Driver Discount.

It pays to have a clean driving record.  On average, a person with a clean driving record (no points) can expect to pay between $650-$750 a year for auto insurance while that same person with an at-fault accident could see their insurance premiums balloon an additional $500 or more in premium.

Mike Kennedy – mike@aronsoninsurance.com

Michael L. Kennedy

Insurance Broker

Aronson Insurance

950 Highland Avenue

Needham, MA 02494

781-444-3050

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