Thursday, December 21, 2006

Management Development for Entrepreneurs


Management Development for Entrepreneurs



I’ve just finished the classroom portion of the most fantastic course at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. It’s called Management Development for Entrepreneurs, MDE, http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x663.xml, and it’s for entrepreneurs who already own their own business but who jumped in without going to business school first. It’s a 10 week certificate program, with 80 hours of class, about a zillion hours of homework, and a final project called a Business Improvement Project (BIP). Your BIP is based on a series of exercises you do throughout the program: defining your mission statement, evaluating the internal and external environment for your business, and then formulating a strategic plan based on the results.
The picture here is me, www.peace-talks.com, and Patricia Kelly, of www.limerickinc.com, a fellow Make Mine a $Million Awardee.

Ladies, this program was life-changing.

I’m hard at work on my BIP now. What a relief to have some direction based on what I’ve assessed as internal and external strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Prior to MDE, I had a lot of ideas about what might be good projects and lots of marketing ideas, but now I know which of the ideas are most important to do first, and everything else has really fallen into place. MDE has helped me prioritize, know where my money should be spent, and where I need to be spending my time. I've already changed the first page of the web site, www.peace-talks.com, to reflect the additional services which I'm now offering through Peace Talks based on what I learned in MDE.

I can’t wait until February 2007’s graduation! Not only has the class been informative and provocative, I’ve also made some terrific friends. We all have very different businesses, but, like the Make Mine a $Million Awardees, we all struggle with the same issues. It’s an amazing group of people, and their ideas and feedback have been really, really helpful. That, and one is a salon owner who taught me to do my own blowouts on my hair. Fantastic all around!

If you aren’t near Los Angeles, find a business school near you and ask if they offer such a program. For business students, it would be a terrific refresher. For the rest of us, it’s a real formula for success. http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x663.xml

Last but not least, I learned about MDE from Julie Fogg, http://www.activeport.com/, a Make Mine a $Million Awardee in my San Francisco class of June 2006. Thanks to Julie’s suggestion, I not only applied for MDE, but I also applied for a National Association of Women Business Owners LA Chapter scholarship…..so I was able to attend the program free of charge. The Make Mine a $Million connections have been so fantastic! So thanks to Make Mine a $Million, www.makemineamillion.org, to Julie, www.activeport.com, and to NAWBO-LA! www.nawbola.org.

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Braggin Rights on My 2006 Press

My Press, December 2006

Okay, okay, okay, I know I’m tooting my own horn here, but who cares? I’m so psyched about my recent press and articles about me, I just have to say something. Not that I've missed any opportunity to "talk" via my blog, http://www.peace-talks.com/divorcemediation/index.phpm or my premarital mediation blog, http://www.premaritalmediation.com/blog/.

The American Bar Association Journal www.aba.org, wrote an article about me and my career change from litigation to mediation in the December 2006 issue. Check me out on Page 60 in volume 92.

The Association for Conflict Resolution’s Family Law Quarterly’s fall 2006 issue features my article “Advanced Mediator Interventions, Part I” and the spring 2007 issue will have Part II. www.acresolution.net

Not satisfied with just one dose of Diana Mercer, the Association for Conflict Resolution quarterly magazine’s fall 2006 issue, ACResolution, also did a nice article about my winning a Make Mine a $Million Business Award, so check me out on Page 8.

I’ve had new subscriptions to my blog, http://www.peace-talks.com/divorcemediation/index.php. The premarital mediation blog, too! http://www.premaritalmediation.com/blog/

Thanks to a week as Alumni in Residence at my law school, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, IN, so I made the alumni news: http://law.indiana.edu/alumni/profiles/mercer_d.shtml.

And, of course, the CNN Money quote: http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/15/commentary/everyday/sahadi/

Cisco did a press release: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_073106.html and, this is really cool, a French magazine that's for an organization like the National Association of Women Business Owners, www.nawbo.org. Brush off your high school French: http://www.linternaute.com/femmes/carriere/0609-chefs-d-entreprise-laureates/12.shtml

And, best of all, Consumer Reports Money Adviser used our chart of the costs of divorce in a cover article, “Divorce, Los Angeles-style” for the June 2006 Consumer Reports Money Adviser.

Okay, enough bragging….but as I recap 2006, I must say, it’s been a very good year.

We hope you won't need to get divorced, but if you do, please visit us at www.peace-talks.com.

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