Make Mine a Million Comes to South Florida

On December 11, 2008 Nell Merlino and her amazing staff and volunteers presented the Make Mine a Million $ Business (a part of CountMeIn.org) to the Women Leaders in South Florida

 

The real work was done by a variety of judges and program coordinators including Rosana Santos of Big Chef Online, Kitty McGowan of NautiCom Communications, Inc,

The event was held at the beautiful Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida.  A full day of speakers, vendors and sponsors.  And FOOD!  I loved the way the food was served buffet style. This made it so easy to network, walk around and visit the vendor booths and meet some extraordinary women from around the country.  Grabbing my Continental breakfast and looking for a place to park by posterior, I spotted a table with two very friendly faces (and 3 empty seats). I approached the women, introduced myself and was immediately invited to join them.  It was the perfect table for me. Why? Because one woman had a handbag company Angle Handbags in Fairfax, Virginia and Dorinne Tal of Olivia Rose Tal designer footwear for women.  We had lots in common. I love handbags and shoes and they made them!  Whoohoo.  And my good friends Lori Bergman of Reshape Your Life and Jami Lin, Author of Color Alchemy joined us. It was a very animated conversation.

Jami Lin during the Dance Break!

The sessions began with Isisara Bey of Count Me In reviewing the history of Make Mine a Million, and then introducing the Judges for this year’s event. They included Nancy Allen, President and CEO of the Women’s Business Development Center, Vincent Daniels, Professor of Education with Nova Southestern University, Arline Hampton, with the City of Hollywood, and Sherry Friedlander Olsen, Founder of A Child Is Missing.   

As part of the festivities, three women were given the opportunity to “pitch” their business in front of the more than 100 women present for a chance at some great prizes.  One of them happened to be a guest of mine, my friend Shondell Soloman Davis of Synergize Weight Loss. They were all fantastic, however Shondelle ultimately won the “contest.”

There were two fast-paced panel discussions with women who talked about business challenges, and successes and more.  Leah Brown, of Aten Solutions, Dr. Gaby Cora of Executive Health & Wealth Institute, Doris B. Suttin of Doris B. Suttin Realty and Victoria Villable of Victoria and Associations Career Services were on the first panel and shared great insights about what they have learned on the entrepreneurship journey including what they would or would not do differently.  Panel two featured four previous winners of Make Mine a Million. They were Natalie Boden of Boden PR, Adele Horowitze of LiceEnders, Kimberly Martinez of Bonitas International and Rosana Santos of Big Chef

Some of the other women I met included micro business winners and finalists such as Hana Wolf, Founder & CEO of LittleJetSet.com (travel activities for children), Emily McHugh of Casauri (laptop travel accessories), Christina Martinez, Publisher of the Rainbow Pages, Lisa Long of Earth Mart, Trudy Scherting of Moka Joe Coffee, and Christine McDannell of Cleanology.  I met women while networking including Ana Vento of Vento Designs, Claudine Antoinette Francis of The Wedding dress Boutique, Marlene Cardonne, of Power Pops, Alina Larraz, of Tanenbaum Harber, Kendra Fipps of GMMG Travels,  Sanyika Calloway Boyce of TV Publicity Secrets and Gayla Bently of Gayla BentlyFashions and reconnected with Mary Mathis of Mensaje TV and Odalys R. Girado of Right Hire Staffing among others.

(L-R) Rosana Santos, Heidi Richards Mooney, Mary Mathis,
Dr Gaby Cora, Jami Lin, Suzannah Richards & Lori Bergman

 Maxine Tullock of the Maxine Tullock Show was taking photos of everyone she met, and Allyce Zahnizer of James A Cummings, Inc. was another friendly face in the crowd who welcomed women with a big smile and a warm handshake. And Suzannah Richards of New York Life in Fort Lauderdale (an amazing young woman if I do say so) was probably the Queen of Networking that day.  She took advantage of every opportunity to make a great connection with attendees, learn from the panelists and finalists and truly be a PART of the day.

 

American Express Open was the main sponsor and had tons of great resources for women business owners at their booth.  I took a few of their pamphlets to peruse and there is great information for starting, promoting and maintaining a business as well as human resource tips and MORE!  AIG, Dell , FedEx, JetBlue and Cisco were also National Sponsors and provided the “prizes” the finalists and winners received.

 

The day ended with me chatting with my good friend Simone Kelly Brown of Own Your Power who I had missed the entire day (so many women, so much to do!). 

As I was walking out of the conference I met another fascinating woman who makes handbags and accessories out of newspapers. The company, Green Veranda is a sustainable company that supports fair trade. In fact, we are featuring the company in the Winter Issue of WE Magazine for Women which is due out any day and Denise Marques, President of the company will be featured as one of our Women on a Mission in an upcoming issue.

Be sure to visit the websites of the women I mentioned above, drop Nell a note and tell her you’d love to attend and upcoming event and read the criteria for being considered in the Make Mine a Million $ Business. I’d love to be in the audience cheering you on next year!