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Illinois small businesses can also benefit from the Illinois Small Business Job Creation Tax Credit, a one year credit that will help create up to 20,000 jobs.  This new law creates a $2,500 tax credit on withholding tax for employers with 50 or fewer total employees who hire new, full-time Illinois employees during the 12-month period beginning July 1, 2010.  To qualify, a job must pay at least $25,000 per year.  For more information please click here.

Warm regards,
Hedy M. Ratner & Carol Dougal
Co-Founders and Co-Presidents

Save the Date – September 22, 2010!
24th Annual Entrepreneurial Woman’s Conference

The Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) is proud to announce its 24th Annual Entrepreneurial Woman’s Conference, the oldest conference and business opportunities fair for women in business in the country, and the premier event for women business owners in the Midwest. This year’s conference will be held September 22, 2010 at McCormick Place-West in Chicago.

This year’s conference offers women business owners solutions to the current problems they are facing and the opportunity to increase the profitability of their businesses by building relationships with corporate and government buyers, business experts, and other women business owners.

Highlights include: Women’s Business & Buyers Mart, the oldest business opportunities fair for women business owners in the country, with nearly 200 corporate and government exhibitors who are committed to buying the products and services of women business owners; Corporate Connections, one-on-one meetings between certified WBEs and our corporate and government partners; the 24th Annual Women’s Forum Breakfast, where nationally renowned women business owners share their personal stories of success – and the challenges they met along the way; the 24th Annual Hall of Fame Awards Luncheon, honoring the achievements of women business owners and supporters of women’s economic development – and much, much more!

For a complete schedule of the 24th Annual Entrepreneurial Woman’s Conference and to register online please click here.

Program facilitator:  Julia Hubbel, President, The Hubbel Group, Inc.  

Take advantage of this 3-hour interactive, skills-based session and walk away with ready-to-use business development and marketing strategies that will be useful for your success at the Women’s Business & Buyers Mart.  Learn from WBE-Certified facilitator, Julia Hubbel, how best to communicate your core business offerings to supplier diversity professionals and buyers, and – most important – how best to engage them as potential clients.  Learn what you need to bring to the table to get to the next step and the value of capacity building through strategic partnerships. 

Julia’s expertise comes from experience, with nearly three decades in senior corporate and consulting positions in the areas of training and organizational development with the likes of Lockheed Martin, Hewlett Packard and Intel, to name a few; Julia is also a certified Supplier Diversity Professional through the Alliance of Supplier Diversity Professionals, giving her deep insights into the needs of these professionals.

Dates and Locations:
July 26, 2010 – Kansas City, MO - host sponsor Microsoft Corp.
August 3, 2010 – Minneapolis, MN - host sponsor Target Corp.
August 17, 2010 – St. Louis, MO - host sponsor RubinBrown LLP
August 18, 2010 – Milwaukee, WI - host sponsor Harley-Davidson Motor Company
August 19, 2010 – Chicago, IL - host sponsor PepsiCo, Inc.

The WBDC is pleased to welcome Emilia DiMenco, Executive Vice President, Commercial Banking, Harris Bank.  Emilia joins the WBDC as part of Harris' "Loaned Executive" Program and will be taking on the role of Strategic Advisor. 

"Emilia's incredible depth of experience at Harris will be invaluable to the WBDC," said Hedy Ratner, WBDC co-president and co-founder.  "She has a passion for helping and mentoring women in business, and we look forward to adding her to our team as a strategic advisor.  Emilia's new role, as well as her role as a board member over the past eight years, serves as prime examples of the kind of support that Harris has provided the WBDC since its inception."

Since joining Harris in 1980, Emilia has been a strong leader across many facets of the company and has held numerous relationship management and leadership positions.  She is an instrumental force in enabling Harris’ contribution to the community and is largely responsible for the Harris Commercial team’s “Women in Business” initiative.  Emilia’s professional and personal commitment to creating increased financial assistance to small, minority and women-owned businesses has created numerous opportunities and community jobs.

Well known for her support of business and civic organizations in the Chicago community, Emilia has long been an active contributor to the business community – most notably the women’s business community — through service to numerous organizations including the National Association of Women Business Owners – Chicago Area Chapter, the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, the Cook County Economic Development Advisory Committee and the WBDC.

"I want to thank my colleagues at Harris for making this happen," said Emilia.  "Corporate support for economic empowerment organizations such as the WBDC is critical to fuel economic growth and create jobs."

Headquartered in Chicago, Harris is an integrated financial service organization providing more than 1.2 million personal, business and corporate clients with banking, lending, investing and wealth management solutions. The organization is a member of the BMO Financial Group, which also provides corporate and investment banking services in the U.S. under the BMO Capital Markets name.

Entrepreneurial Spotlight
Ideal System Solutions, Inc.

Elise Hernandez, President of Minnesota-based Ideal System Solutions, Inc. founded the company while pursuing her MBA at Metro State University. Her thesis was based on a business plan for an international technology sales company.  Using this business plan as a starting point, and drawing on her extensive background in the technology industry, Elise launched Ideal System Solutions in 1997.

Since then Ideal System Solutions has grown to be a trusted technology advisor to government, education and commercial organizations nationwide by providing “best-in-class” technology products, professional services and enterprise solutions to meet their customer’s dynamic business needs. 

While Ideal System Solutions worked with government contracts from the beginning, due to an early U.S. Navy contract, Elise credits her local U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) office for helping her to truly understand the world of government contracting.  Elise says, “The SBA officer helped me to fully understand that as a woman and minority small-business owner with technology experience, I had great value to add to government contractors.”

As a certified Women’s Business Enterprise and Minority Business Enterprise, Ideal System Solutions has been awarded many different government contracts and also successfully completed the SBA 8(a) Business Development Program in 2008.  Elise is now looking to diversify her company’s client base with a focus on small and medium sized businesses in MN, by providing a total solution and helping them to develop and integrate their technology infrastructure.

Elise’s connection to the SBA also led her to the WBDC-MN office.  Elise is not only a WBENC certified WBE, but she has attended a variety of workshops and networking events and has been working with the WBDC-MN Program Manager on strategies for expanding her business’s corporate client base.

Funder Spotlight
CDW

The WBDC is honored to partner with CDW.  Since 2007, CDW has supported the WBDC through technology donations, technical assistance and sponsorship of WBDC events such as the Child Care Business Expo and the Annual Entrepreneurial Woman’s Conference.  The WBDC is pleased that CDW’s Chris Rother, Senior Vice President of Sales, is serving as Co-Chair of the 24th Annual Entrepreneurial Woman’s Conference.

CDW has generously provided the WBDC with technology equipment and support over the years, including the implementation of the WBDC’s small business server.  Just recently, CDW came to the rescue of the WBDC once again by contributing 26 Compaq laptop computers..  These new computers replaced outdated equipment and enable WBDC staff to work more efficiently and effectively to help women business owners succeed.

The WBDC is enormously grateful to Nita Smith, Manager, Offers, who continues to champion the WBDC and women’s economic development.  The importance of Nita’s and CDW’s support cannot be overstated, and the WBDC is proud to count them as community partners. 

The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award® celebrates entrepreneurs who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 135 cities in 50 countries.  Now in its 24th year, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award® is considered by many to be the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs.

National Van Lines is an Illinois-based, WBE certified national and international moving company founded by Maureen’s grandfather over 75 years ago.  Maureen, who worked her way up from switchboard operator to become Chief Executive Officer in 1993, is the third generation and first female CEO.  As CEO Maureen plays a vital, hands-on role maintaining the company’s strict philosophy of putting its employees, customers and impeccable reputation needs above all else.

Today, National Van Lines is one of the largest and most successful moving companies in the United States.  It was recently ranked as the 11th largest woman-owned business in Chicago by Crain’s Chicago Business and as the 23rd largest certified woman-owned business in the United States by DiversityBusiness.com.

A recognized women’s advocate and actively involved in community service, Maureen is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of Aspire and is a Trustee for Benedictine University, an Associate at Northwestern University and a Board Member for the Humanitarian Project of Carol Stream, IL, the American Moving and Storage Association and is a Past Director of the Household Goods Carriers Bureau.  She has also served as Chairman of The American Cancer Society Board of DuPage County, IL and is an advocate for women’s health issues.