Small Business vs. Health Insurance
Sophisticated Ways To Charitable Giving
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This article was prepared for the April 20, 2005 issue of U.S. 1
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Survival Guide: Website Choices
Got to have that website. It will be the fastest gun in your selling
arsenal. It will also be the best representative of your company to
the outside world, so you want to be involved in its creation.
Fabulous, but just how involved do you want to be and how much can you
technically handle?
To help company owners and managers sort through the overwhelming
number of web options and website enablers, the Raritan Valley Chapter
of the New Jersey Small Business Development Center presents “Get
Online Now” on Thursday, April 21, at 7 p.m. at the Raritan Valley
Community College. Cost: $42. Call 908-526-1200, ext. 8515. Featured
speaker Nat Bender, NJSBDC director of E-business services, outlines a
very specific list of web development methods, along with accompanying
supplier sites and cost ranges.
Bender’s career has mirrored the communications evolutions through the
past 15 years. Raised in Plainfield by parents who each worked in the
non-profit arena, Bender quickly learned the subtleties of proper
communication. After earning a B.A. in journalism from Rutgers in
l990, he spent five years as a trade journal editor, writing for
industries ranging from health foods to Army-Navy merchandising.
As the world of print began partnering with the web, so did Bender.
Gaining a master’s degree in communication and information studies,
Bender joined AT&T and began developing the company’s websites.
Following intensive course training from the New Jersey Institute of
Technology, he consulted for several private firms and then joined the
New Jersey Business Development Center as its E-business guru.
“It’s all a matter of price and involvement,” says Bender. “Website
creation now allows for several increments of participation, depending
on your time and technical ability.” But before shopping too hard for
the lowest price, he warns, remember the value of your time and
remember that too often you get only what you pay for.
Do it yourself. This handyman special approach offers thecompanyowner total control – often at a very low cost. But add-on featurescan quickly swell the cost, and the process may be more involved thanit first appears. Bender suggests that anyone choosing this pathstrongly consider using Dreamweaver, atwww.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver. It provides the cutting edgesoftware for building your own page. The company can be reached at800-457-1774.Other providers of build-it-yourself software include Adobe andMicrosoft, at www.adobe.com/products/golive/main.html andwww.microsoft.comAdd-ons. A bare bones site can be upgradedfeature-by-featureaccording to personal need. Shopping carts can be installed fromwww.miva.com (or www.trustcart.com). Stock photography (available fromwww.corbis.com or www.picturequest.com) sharpens a site and can evenhelp in logo selection. Employing a content provider (such asinterestalert.com or freenewsfeed.com) can spice up a site withappropriate news summaries. Even basic domain registration is madeeasier with the helping hand of www.internic.net (or www.godaddy.com).While dealing with each of these specialized services can buyexpertise at great savings, your web costs can become as confusing asa hospital bill with multiple invoices of individual fees.Templates. Down, dirty, and cheap, the web template oftenprovides a successful web solution for a specialized retailer with adedicated client market. It is a great way to draw the kayakingcommunity to your paddles or the Corvette restorer to your partssupply. “You can create it on a desktop,” says Bender. “The buyerviews a photo, some description, and he makes a decision.”Since the template allows for little creativity, it works best as aplace where products can be ordered by the already willing, ratherthan a place that lures the browser into a purchase. Yahoo, atwww.store.yahoo.com, will provide a website template for as little as$40. Www.freemerchant.com and www.goemerchant.com are two otherlow-cost options that Bender recommends.Online marketplaces. Sites such as www.elance.com ,www.emoonlighter.com , and www.guru.com act have lists of webdesignerscompeting for your business. You draw up an ad, list all therequirements for a proposed site, and place it on the site, where thedesigners bid for your business. Bids are often far less than quotesfrom land-based designers would be.However, as with everything done virtually, the personal touch, andoften control, is missing. The web design that costs $2,000 locally,may bid down to $500 in Iowa and $20 in India. But it is verydifficult to gauge the distant designer’s knowledge of your businessand needs.Web Designers. Turning the entire web mission over to aprofessionalprovides an enormous savings in time. It also affords great creativeflexibility, which may make the added expense well worth it. But theselection of which designer to choose is indeed a trial. The choicesare overwhelming, the quality highly variable, and the pricingcomplicated. Bender’s personal recommendations for Garden State webdesign firms include www.inforest.com, www.bza.com ,www.orienttech.com , and www.nicwebdesign.com .To choose a web designer look at several sites he has designed, quizhim on his experience in your field, and ask about whether he canprovide content and can arrange for placement with top search engines.Bender offers a basic checklist of considerations that your designerneeds to meet. The shopping cart should be customized, suggest likeproducts, and above all, be easy to use; a modeling tool that matchesclient proposals is a must for manufacturers; the site’s uploads mustmeet both governmental and client RFD (request for documents); thesite should link into marketplace buying with others for bulk rateadvantage; and it should be set up to handle quick bids.As a final word of advice, Bender advises would-be websters “to bevisionary about what suits you now and in the future.” Planning forexpansion usually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and in the caseof websites can save costly retrofitting.– Bart JacksonTop Of PageSmall Business vs. Health InsuranceBy next year, the average family health insurance premium will beover $14,500. Last year, the average individual health insurancepremium rose 11.2 percent – the fourth consecutive year of doubledigit increases,” says Jim Leonard, vice president of governmentrelations for New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. Employers bear the costsin most cases, but the burden is increasingly unbearable. “New Jerseyhas 1.4 million uninsured individuals, up from 1.1 million in 2003.Clearly when the costs go up and employers can’t afford to offerhealth insurance, more people end up uninsured.”Leonard is just one of the speakers at the upcoming Small BusinessConference on Friday, April 22, at the New Brunswick Hyatt.Registration begins at 8 a.m., followed at 8:30 with opening remarksby NJ Chamber of Commerce president Joan Verplanck and by Jim Kosci,director of the Small Business Association’s New Jersey districtoffice. Workshops kick-off at 9:30 a.m. and include Marketing on aSmall Budget; Financing Sources: There’s Money Out There for You; Howto Do Business with Government/Corporations; and The Art of Selling:Obtaining and Keeping Clients. Cost: $69. Call 609-989-9696.Throughout the day SBA loan providers and purchasing agents areavailable and there is free one-to-one business counseling from NewJersey Small Business Development Centers and SCORE counselors. A peekat tomorrow’s office technology is provided by a Microsoft RV, whichattendees are invited to board and explore. Lunch includes the annualSBA Awards Program. This year’s honorees, receiving the award forSmall Business Persons of the Year, are Joseph Needham and J. ScottNeedham of Princeton Air Conditioning.Health insurance, a critical issue for employers and employees alike,is the topic of the Small Business Health Insurance Options workshop,where Leonard addresses both the importance of health care for smallbusinesses as well as new options.Leonard thinks that, as much attention as health insurance costs havegotten, it is not enough. “There’s been a discussion about having aconstitutional convention because of the astronomical costs ofproperty tax in New Jersey,” he says. “The average family in NewJersey pays $5,000 in property tax. By comparison, the averagefamily’s health insurance cost is $14,500, but you don’t hear anyonecalling for a constitutional convention to deal with that. So I thinkour priorities need to be worked on a little bit.”In 2004,” says Leonard, “63 percent of all small New Jerseybusinesses offered health benefits to their workers, down from 68percent in 2001. And what’s most disturbing is that 50 percent of NewJersey’s uninsured are full-time employees.”Leonard, who received his BA in communications from the StateUniversity of New York at Geneseo in 1986, thinks any business ownerwho is frustrated by how much he spends on health care, should attendthe workshop. But employees should also find it valuable because moreand more are being asked to contribute to their health costs. If theemployee discovers new health care options, he can bring it to hisemployer’s attention.The largest and most dramatic change in the health care arena has beenthe advent of Consumer-Driven Healthcare Plans or CDHPs. In thenot-too-distant past, corporations would decide on the amount of anemployee’s pension, and the employee would be grateful. In the 1980sthere was a shift toward more participation on the part of theemployee. That’s when 401(k) plans started to appear. Through thesenearly ubiquitous plans, the employee invests money in a retirementaccount, and the employer often matches some or all of thecontribution.”A similar transformation is going on in healthcare today,” Leonardsays. “The most common form of CDHP – and the newest health careproduct available to small business owners and their employees – is ahealth savings account (HSA).”HSAs are individual savings accounts that allow individuals to savemoney on a tax-free basis to pay for health expenses. Legislation hasbeen proposed that would allow small businesses to band together –perhaps through trade or professional associations – to purchaseaffordable health packages for their employees.HSAs are different from a flexible spending account in which workershave money taken out of their salaries, pre-tax, and set aside to payfor medical expenses. Unlike flexible spending account, which have anannual use it or lose it policy, any leftover balance in an HSAaccount can be rolled over year after year, and used later for healthpurchases. In addition, an HSA is portable. The account follows aworker when he changes employers. If a retired employee needs anursing home, for example, the HSA balance can be used. HSAs are onlyavailable on a limited basis; the only carrier in New Jersey currentlyoffering an HSA product is Horizon Blue Cross. AmeriHealth isscheduled to release an HSA product this summer.Most workers who have an HSA will also have the traditional insurancecoverage that kicks in after a deductible is met, much like disabilityinsurance. With a $2,000 deductible, the first $2,000 of medicalexpenses are paid out of the HSA, anything above that is covered byconventional health insurance. The catch is, if you don’t contributeenough money to cover the deductible, the additional health insurancecoverage doesn’t kick in.”HSAs encourage the consumer to act more responsibly,” says Leonard.”For instance, if my daughter has a sore throat on a Saturday night, Ican take her to the emergency room and spend $386 out of my healthsavings account. If I take her on Monday, during normal businesshours, it will only cost $100.”From that perspective, employers should look at an HSA very closely,says Leonard, who believes that the new plan can lower cripplinghealth insurance costs.Leonard has this advice for small business owners: Get involved in thehealthcare policy debate before it’s too late. To learn more or tosign up for the Chamber’s legislative alert, E-mail Leonard atjim@njchamber.com– Fran IanaconeTop Of PageGiving it AwayThe American people may be soft hearted, but they are also savvy.Besieged daily by mail and phone solicitations, they now select andcheck before donating their hard won discretionary cash. Increasinglypotential patrons log onto www.GuideStar.org or call the New JerseyDivision of Consumer Affairs at 973-504-6215 to find out if a charityis properly registered, its fiscal history as disclosed in the IRS’non-profit form 990, and the actual benefit ratio of each dollardonated.At all levels, government is backing up its consumers. After thetsunami destruction there was a tidal wave of fraudulent charities.For this and other reasons, several new and proposed laws have forcedall charities to be ever more watchful in how they operate. Help infiguring out reporting requirements is available in a free talk, “HotTopics in the Laws Affecting Non-Profits,” on Friday, April 22, at 8a.m. at the Green Acres Country Club. Call 609-219-1800. (This is achange from the previously announced date of Wednesday, April 20.)Sponsored by the Princeton Community Foundation and insurance firmBorden Perlman, which has offices at 2850 Brunswick Pike, this seminarfeatures Jennifer Hauge, deputy director of Newark-based Pro BonoPartnership, and fellow senior staff attorney Nancy Eberhardt.Pro Bono Partnership provides a free legal resource for all non-profits. In addition to offering workshops and literature, theorganization also matches charities with volunteer lawyers throughoutthe New Jersey and New York. Its attorneys offer aid in incorporationprocedures, contractual proceedings, and IRS obligations. “We doeverything but litigate,” says Hauge. To get in touch, call973-273-0600 or visit www.ProBonoPartnership.org.Hauge is one of those attorneys who sided with the angels right out oflaw school. A native of Princeton, Hauge attended Dartmouth College,earning a B.A. in English literature and French in l982. Following herlaw degree from Boston College, she returned to New Jersey and workedfor Morristown-based Pitney Harden as a non-profit specialist.Hauge then launched her own law firm in Morristown, focusing ontax-exempt companies. In l994 President Clinton named her to the StateJustice Institute, a Congressional corporation designed to improve thequality of justice in the state courts. Five years ago, Hauge joinedPro Bono Partnership. She is author of the book “Taking the HighRoad,” a guide to effective and legal practices for non-profits.”The government is very serious about non-profit transparency andaccountability,” warns Hauge. “Charities may be perfectly wellmeaning, but they can still cross into ethical gray areas or run afoulof the new laws.”On the horizon. From within the Senate Finance Committee, SenatorChuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, is pushing a non-profit reformbill that would give a wake-up jolt to every tax-exempt organizationin the country. Its proposals are several and controversial, but threehave received an unusually large amount of attention.Tax exempt status is now an eternal tenure. This bill would limittax-exempt status to five years, subject to review and renewal. Itseems like a good idea, a way to protect the public, butimplementation would be staggering. Currently only 89 IRS agents areassigned to handle the over 500,000 new-tax exempt forms that come inannually. The very idea of a five-year review sets both charity andIRS paper chasers trembling.Secondly, the proposed bill takes a hard look at goods donated inkind. Now if a corporation donates, say, computer equipment, it earnsa tax credit. If this bill is passed, that benefit would disappear.There is a question as to whether this will reduce the incentive forcompanies to take the trouble to find a worthy donor for theirslightly outdated computers and go to the expense of delivering them.The third controversial element of the bill involves limitingnon-profit boards of trustees to 15 members. Designed as a safeguardagainst charities ladling out trusteeships like candy for favors, thisstricture seems a bit Draconian. The image of only 15 frenetictrustees desperately trying to meet the obligations of the FordFoundation or the American Cancer Society is almost humorous. Yet thebill also provides an increased due diligence and a narrower ethicalpath for trustees.On the board. Increasingly, a host of state and federallegislation isforcing non-profit trustees and senior executives to toe the sameethical mark as publicly held for-profits. All registered Garden Statecharities must have some stated conflict of interest policy.Conflict of interest is a complex issue that may arise in even themost well intentioned charity. If an individual is on a non-profit’sboard and does business with that organization, this is notnecessarily illegal or unethical. The same is true with major donors,or even the families of trustees and donors.In many cases, the professional computer specialist on the boarddesigns the organization’s software at near cost. The conflict becomesmore a matter of disclosure. The non-profit is required to have awritten policy on defining what level of business profit constitutes aneed for disclosure. The individual board member must disclose fullyhis business dealings with any part of the organization or in what wayhis firm might benefit indirectly from his board membership. Then theboard must decide whether it is ethical and practical to put a givenjob out for bid.The partner trap. “Probably the biggest blunder I see innon-profitsnowadays is their getting carried away with plans to bring in moremoney,” says Hauge. As competition for non-profit dollars grows morefierce, the lure of partnering haphazardly with private industry growsever stronger.The charity whose mission is job training for the disabled may decideto open a bakery for its people. It may partner with an experiencedcompany to run the shop. Good idea. But the situation can get a littletricky. “The charity’s board must balance the benefits,” explainsHauge. “If more benefit – cash or labor – is flowing back to theprivate firm than is coming down to the charity, you may create aproblem for your tax status.”The charity can and will be charged excise tax on the additionalprofits made from the venture and the board of trustees may personallyhave to fork over this tax obligation.Americans obviously love charities – they have so many of them. Amidstthis sea of solicitations, even the most attractive missions andpurest charities can get lost to public consideration. The push towardtransparency and accountability may actually help an individualcharity to attract donors and volunteers. By obtaining the rightregistration number or variance and by maintaining a spotless boardand admirable IRS 990 form, along with a good benefit ratio, the smallcharity may just give itself enough of an edge to win over those newand much needed patrons.– Bart JacksonTop Of PageHow Confident? How Global?Are we reaching out or retrenching? That markedly vague term”globalization” has become such a cliche that every business personsleeps with the uneasy feeling that all his competitors are benefitingfrom international partnerships. Digital communications have made it,supposedly, all so easy. But at the same time, we on the home frontface an economy hampered by a prolonged, costly war, skyrocketing fuelprices, and a weakening dollar.Learning exactly how this tangle of economic factors affects the hopesand plans of business and consumers is the job of James Almeida. Aschair of marketing and entrepreneurial studies at Fairleigh DickinsonUniversity, Almeida annually conducts a New Jersey Consumer ConfidenceIndex, the results of which can be found at www.publicmind.FDU.edu.This year he has added a component to the survey, asking Tri-Statearea technology companies to reveal whether they are expandingglobally, and if so, where.Almeida unveils the results of this survey at the New JerseyManufacturing Summit II on Tuesday, April 26, at 1:30 p.m. atFairleigh Dickinson University in Hackensack. Cost: $75, but just $15for students. Call 856-787-9700 or visit www.NJTC.org. Sponsored bythe New Jersey Technology Council, this summit, entitled “The Role ofGlobalization,” has a long list of panels and speakers, including PaulRaetsch, regional director of the U.S. Economic DevelopmentAdministration, and Ashok Tomor, deputy consul general of India’s NewYork Consulate. Case studies are presented by Robert Somolinski, CEOof Transistor Devices, and Richard Cass, CEO of Advanced Cerametrics.Launched early on into the international milieu of both academics andbusiness, Almeida’s has been a career of constant, yet easy,transitions. Born in Bombay, India, he earned a B.S. inpharmacological studies from the University of Bombay in l986. Upongraduation he joined a major drug firm and instantly discovered a lovefor sales. “There was a real thrill that came with closing a deal,” herecalls. As often happens, these successes, along with a graduatemarketing degree, led him up the corporate ladder, into design andpromotions, and out of sales.Emigrating to the United States, Almeida earned an MBA at theUniversity of Louisiana and a Ph.D. in strategic management from theUniversity of South Carolina. Following his doctoral studies, hejoined the South Carolina Small Business Development Center, whichsparked his special interest in small and mid-size business.While the final numbers for Almeida’s Tri-State globalization surveyare still coming in, the initial findings point to a link, or at leasta correlation, between the expansiveness of consumers and the healthof the business community. “Interestingly, no one seems sure if theyare living in a fools’ paradise,” says Almeida. “They feel good, butthey don’t know if the feeling is justified.”Consumer conflicts. Surveyed just after this pastChristmas, 52percent of New Jersey residents believed they will be better offeconomically in 2005 than they were in 2004; while l9 percentpredicted they would fare worse, according to the Consumer ConfidenceIndex. Compared with last year, the number of pessimists, expecting apersonal fiscal downturn, took a small 4 percent rise. But Almeida isquick to point that of the 55 percent of those who previously hadenvisioned 2004 as year of improvement, only 37 percent actuallyimproved financially.This triumph of expectation over experience has its limits. “We seemto express a cautious confidence in the state,” says Almeida. “Peopletravel more, take more vacations, but political factors guard anyoptimism.” Two thirds of those expecting a worse 2005, and even themajority of those predicting improved finances, felt that “the countrywas off on the wrong track.”International allure. Some companies are enticed overseasand somehave globalization thrust upon them, but in either case, they arefinding that the quality of work they can expect to find has neverbeen better. Back in the late-1980s, China wanted to become theworld’s leader in computer chip manufacturing. Unfortunately, whilethe nation’s labor supply was inexpensive and plentiful, it was alsovery inexperienced, and it showed in the quality of work being turnedout.”But today the production in so many goods and even scientific testinghas become so routinized and automated that the level of requiredexpertise has dropped enormously,” says Almeida. “Where you onceneeded craftsmen, you now only need line workers.” Currently, Chinaproduces chips in record number.Yet while such automation, simplified communication, and increasedpolitical inducements have eased the way to international networks,getting onboard is not always a matter of choice. “If your product orservice can be digitally transmitted, your company will almost beforced to jump on the globalization band wagon,” says Almeida. In somecases this is because of market competition. Many a domestic companyintends to settle into a comfy market niche, then finds itselfoutmaneuvered by competitors from other countries. The firm’s onlychoice for survival is to outsource some work abroad.Hot spots. Most of America’s big players have alreadyestablishedinroads in China, India, and the other high population, emergingcountries. The numbers of people in these countries are so large thateven if the percentage of those with discretionary cash is low, theactual markets remain huge. “For the small and mid-size company, thismay not present the ideal playing field,” says Almeida. He suggeststhat instead of hopping the next flight to Tokyo or Beijing, smallerfirms might check the schedules to Buenos Aires or Krakow. Evennations like Paraguay and Mongolia afford an accepting environment anda large enough marketplace for the smaller company.We are moving to an age when global partnering is viewed less asoutreach and more just the standard course of business. Thirstymarkets abound around the world, as do skilled workers. Those who havestudied the customs, laws, and competition and are flexible enough toadapt, may just partner themselves into some very sweet profits.– Bart JacksonTop Of PageSophisticated Ways To Charitable GivingMany people reach a point in life where they want to consider givingback to the community in a more significant way than by writing a fewchecks to a variety of charities. Often, however, they are unsureabout the best way in which to go about it.There are two main options for a person or family interested in a moreorganized approach to charitable giving, says attorney AnnReichelderfer. She speaks on “Charitable Giving Options” at a meetingsponsored by the Princeton Area Community Foundation at 8:30 a.m. onWednesday, April 27, in the foundation’s conference room at 15Princess Road in Lawrenceville. The meeting is free, but reservationsare required. To register, call 609-219-1800.Some of the first questions to ask when considering charitable givingare how much time and money you want to spend on administration andinvesting, and how to distribute the money most effectively, saysReichelderfer. The answers to these questions will often determinewhat kinds of charitable vehicles should be considered.There are two basic types of funds to consider, she says, a privatefamily foundation, or a Donor Advised Fund. The type of fund youchoose depends on you answers to several questions.How much control of the fund do you want to have?How long would you like your fund to continue?How much money do you have to place in the fund?How much are you willing to pay in terms of the cost to set up thefund?A Donor Advised Fund can be set up either through a non-profit agency,such as the Princeton Area Community Foundation, or through aprofit-making firm, such as Fidelity or Vanguard, Reichelderferexplains.The PACF is a non-profit organization, founded in 1991 to raise thelevel of charitable giving in the central New Jersey area “byconnecting individuals, corporations, and non-profits to each otherand to the issues and causes that matter to them.”Not only does the organization help individuals and groups set up,administrate, and invest funds, but it is also “a great source ofinformation on non-profit organizations,” says Reichelderfer.PACF manages more than 150 individual, family, and corporate funds,and nonprofit agency endowments. It is one of a network of over 660community foundations across the nation, and is one of three similarorganizations in New Jersey.The PACF’s website notes that less than two percent of its funds areused for administration, including investment management, which puts98 percent of all funds invested through the group to work forcharitable purposes.In fact, last year, PACF awarded about $6.4 million in grants, withnearly $15 million given back to the community since its founding.Primary service areas for PACF include Trenton and 12 othermunicipalities in Mercer County, along with communities in Hunterdon,Somerset, Middlesex, Monmouth, and Burlington Counties.”If your goal is just to benefit the immediate needs of anorganization, you can just send a check. But if you want your money toappreciate, and have security, if you want to think about what anorganization’s needs will be over time, then you should think about aDonor Advised Fund,” says Reichelderfer.An attorney with Stevens & Lee, a firm with offices at 600 CollegeRoad, she concentrates her practice in estate planning and probate andtrust law. A graduate of Swarthmore College and the New YorkUniversity School of Law, she also represents several institutions ofhigher education in matters such as gift planning, trust and estateadministration, taxation, and regulation compliance.Reichelderfer’s interest in Donor Advised Funds is both professionaland personal. “Charitable giving is a logical component of estateplanning,” she says. Her work in estate planning has also made herfamiliar with groups such as PACF, and she has served on the boards ofthe Gift Planning Council of New Jersey and the National Committee onPlanned Giving and has been a committee member with Leave A Legacy NewJersey. She is currently a member of the board of PACF.Reichelderfer recommends $10,000 as the minimum amount of money neededto set up a Donor Advised Fund. The foundation invests the money foryou, and while you do not control the day-to-day decisions on yourinvestments, “there are options that you choose when you are settingup your account,” she says. Your investments are pooled with other thefoundation’s other funds, so that they are safer as well as morediversified.In addition you decide where your money is donated, although,”technically, the gifts are made by the foundation,” she says.Reichelderfer recently set up her own Donor Advised Fund. As herchildren have grown, she says, “I see beyond where I am to a placewhere I can spend more time with charitable groups and charitablegifts. A fund like this is long-lived.”The fund also will enable her children to participate in decidingwhere and how charitable contributions are made. “We can talk aboutwhere we want the money to go,” she says. PACF’s educational resourcesand knowledge of area charities will help her family make wisedecisions, she adds.A private, family foundation is the second option for someone seekinga long-term investment in charitable giving. However, more money isneeded for this type of fund. “I recommend a figure at least in thehigh six figures or low seven figures as minimum for a privatefoundation,” Reichelderfer says.Private foundations are more complicated and take a greater commitmentof time, as well. “The legal and accounting fees are much greater,”she explains. However, there are advantages. A private foundation, shesays, “offers much more control. You have family members on the board.For the right family, it is a good way to go.” A number of well knownfoundations began this way, she notes, including the Robert WoodJohnson Foundation and, on a much larger scale, the Ford Foundation.– Karen Hodges MillerTop Of PageAdministrative Assistants DayAdd an entrepreneurial spirit to a teacher turned psychologist and youget Teena Cahill. In her 50s, having taken time out of her career tocare for her sick husband, she decided she wanted to be a “topspeaker” – nationally. Her first step was to hire a hall in Florida,invite her friends and neighbors, and give a talk – with all theaction documented by a wedding videographer. She impressed an agent,and after six months of “begging people to speak” and “trying tofigure out what a hot speaker looks like,” she hit the big time.Culling her own experience as a mother, grandmother, teacher,businessperson, and psychologist, Cahill’s upbeat talks tocorporations, associations, and educational facilities share themeaning of wisdom, as she has come to know it. “Wisdom,” she says, “isa combination of understanding and judgment.” She provides heraudiences with the knowledge she has gained through research findingsand her own personal experience, but she says “it is up to you to takethe research and make judgments about your own life at work and athome.”As keynote speaker at Mercer County Community College’s AdministrativeProfessionals Day on Wednesday, April 27, at 9 a.m., Cahill addressesissues of leadership, balance, and power as they apply to life at workand at home. The full-day event takes place at MCCC’s ConferenceCenter. It includes lunch and a number of other talks, including MarcDorio on “Building Better Work Relationships,” Stephen Oliver on”Managing Multiple Projects and Bosses,” Ellen Benowitz on “EffectiveBusiness Writing,” and Suzette Gore on “Strategies for Stress Reliefin the Workplace.” Cost: $139. In addition to MCCC’s Center forContinuing Studies, sponsors include the YWCA of Princeton, thePrinceton Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the Greater Mercer CountyChamber of Commerce. For more information, call 609-586-9446, orE-mail ComEd@mccc.eduAccording to Cahill, the first step toward wisdom is understanding thecontext of the world in which we live and work and using it to bestsuit our purposes. Two models, she says, operate simultaneously incorporate America and in the personal realm, one competitive and onerelational. In the competitive model the road to success climbs upthrough the hierarchical pyramid – you need to be seen, speak up, havehigh impact jobs, and compete to get to the top. A coexistent modelfor achieving success involves forming “webs of connectedness aroundyou.” Personal impact in the work place comes through people you arecomfortable with and who you can rely on.Cahill sees a place in life for both models. “You have to know thatboth exist and which mode to use in different circumstances,” shesays. She cites examples from her own family. Her husband was a Marinefighter-pilot, “life or death in skies,” she says. Clearly acompetitive model. But he is also a great guy with many friends andwebs of connectedness to others. In her own field of psychology, whichdemands “a level field so people are able to say what they need tosay,” Cahill always works within a web of connectedness. But justwatch her out on the tennis court, where it is “pyramid” all the wayto the top. “I choose in different situations what model will workbest for me,” she says. “There is no way you can be successful withjust one model.”Leadership is a convergence between the two models, requiringconnectedness with colleagues and reports, and a clear awareness ofthe needs of the hierarchical structure. “Leadership is not about you;it is about the people around you and what is best for your company,”says Cahill. “It is about listening, developing other people, andsetting up a succession so that many can take over when you are notaround.”The next level of leadership, dubbed by Cahill “strategic leadership,”is “the interaction between what you have learned from the peoplearound you and your judgment about what is best for your company, oreven your family.” Although women don’t often see themselves asleaders, Cahill believes they practice the same approach in the familysetting: listening to their kids and making strategic decisions aboutwhat is best for the family.Leadership does not require a particular personality type, but it doesdemand self-understanding, self-care, internal balance, and optimism.Cahill explains a number of these necessary ingredients for successfulleadership:Find your own strengths. The first step is to “find thepower to say no to unrealistic expectations, to distractions, and tothings thatsuck up time, like the computer,” says Cahill. By clearing thistemporal space, “you can say yes to the things you’re really good at”and that “you love to do.” She believes that people can only beleaders consistent with who they are and what they love to do. “If youhave a passion for something, you will lead about that,” she says,adding that everyone has the capacity to lead, and it’s just a matterof finding your own strengths.Understand the need for self care. “If you’re not takingcare of yourself, you can’t be available to anyone else,” says Cahill.She describes an incident in the wake of 9/11 where her own anxietiesprevented her from correctly assessing her granddaughter’s needs.Picking up her granddaughter at school, Cahill grabbed a globe andshowed her where Afghanistan was, only to be interrupted by “Grandma,do you want to watch me to do a handstand?” Her granddaughter wasfine, but Cahill’s own fears blinded her to that possibility.Challenge yourself to look at the world differently.Cahill believes that although we are hardwired to overcome crisis,this is not true for the irritations, oppositional people, andcommunication difficulties we encounter daily. Through a “cognitivereframe,” however, we can transform pessimism about these difficultiesinto hope, allowing us to move forward despite them.Cahill relates that 12 years ago her husband had a cerebral hemorrhageand stroke and was given no chance to live. But finding he was stillalive after 20 hours, she did a cognitive reframe and decided, “I willplan on him living. If he dies, then I will deal with it.” She saysher thoughts affected her feelings and her feelings, her behavior. “Acascade of hormones is set off,” she says, “when we believe we canhave a positive effect on the future.” She had her husbandhelicoptered to a hospital “where they had hope too,” and he survived.Learn to be optimistic. “When pessimists make a mistake,they think itis personal, permanent, and pervasive,” says Cahill. Optimists, on theother hand, look at a mistake and ask: What did I do wrong? What can Ilearn from this? “People who are incredibly successful rarely hadsuccess on the first try,” she continues, but they learned from theirerrors and moved on.Focus on what you do well. Many people look at themselvesand say “50percent of what I do I’m good at, 50 percent not.” Instead of focusingenergy on your weaknesses, Cahill’s advice is to do what you’re goodat 75 percent of the time.Clump periods of intense work and relax in between. “Whenyou’re inthe middle of a great performance, it’s not time to relax,” saysCahill, except for short breaks every 90 minutes or so. Once the bigjob is finished, however, take a serious time to relax, maybe evengoing away for a few days. “Those who succeed take breaks,” she says.If you go from intense work straight to more intense work, that leadsto burnout. Downtime used to be built into the system, but now stores,cell phones, and computers keep us going 24-7, unless we choose to puton the brakes.Balance expectations of men and women. Cahill believesthat the sexesare more alike than they are different. “Men and women are both fromEarth,” she says. Beyond that, she adds, “in today’s world, when youstart playing the gender game, women lose.” Her goal is to maintain aneutral standard by using neutral language.”If someone were to say, ‘I think we need to do a study to see ifthere is a biological reason why women don’t go into carpentry,’” shesays, “you’ve just set going into carpentry as a male standard,”thereby marginalizing women. The better approach would be, “I wonderif we should do a study of the biological reasons why people choose togo into carpentry.” On the other hand, it used to be that running thefamily was based on a female standard, and men got marginalized. “Whenyou are making things gender neutral,” says Cahill, “you feel freer tobe yourself.”Besides running around America giving lectures, Cahill maintains asmall psychology practice in Princeton. What this woman with a B.S. ineducation, and M.S. in counseling, and Ph.D. in psychology loves tosay about herself these days is: “For the first time in history, on amass scale, a woman who is almost 60 has started her third career andsucceeded quickly in the setting of corporate America.”But she adds that, in truth, it is the same career. She startedteaching, then moved to psychology, which is part teaching, now she’sjust teaching in a different way. She ends with some advice for otherwomen thinking about what to do when they retire. “Find out what youlove to do,” she says, adding, “This is what I’m going to do forretirement. But I’m not ever going to retire.”– Michele AlperinNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
