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Business Excellence Center- In the News

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November 21, 2010

Jamie Siracusa's Business Excellence

In The Business Of Helping Business

Written by JORDAN WOMPIERSKI

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – Jamie Siracusa is a true businessman. The 53-year-old Somers Point resident has spent most of his adult life absorbing nearly every aspect of business as he worked various jobs across the country.

From sales and marketing to information technology to consulting and market research, Siracusa has tried his hand and succeeded in a multitude of different business areas. Now he shares his knowledge and experience with local businesses at the Business Excellence Center, a facility at 501 Scarborough Drive in Egg Harbor Township that he purchased in 2007.

The Business Excellence Center, or BEC, is a business development and training center where local businesses can come for help, advice, resource materials or simply office space, Siracusa said.

Siracusa offers free space and services at his center for new businesses just getting their start with the hope they will become paying clients later on. He calls his program for new businesses the “success incubator.”

Classes for Business Issues

“We offer business development and training to help them make marketing, sales, networking and revenue decisions,” he said. “Also, they need resources and ideas and printing and office space, that kind of thing, and I have that there. I call it the success incubator because this is really just for them to get launched and get going and get successful.”

Siracusa has plenty to share with his clients. A member of the Egg Harbor Township Economic Development Committee, he is a certified marketing consultant and trainer.

He has worked for Medical Intelligence Solutions in New York City, a market research company with clients such as Wyeth, Schering-Plough, Eisai, and Bristol-Myers Squibb; Condor Technologies, an information services consulting company working with clients such as Campbell’s Soup and Bell Atlantic; and Faulkner Information Services, a market research company with clients like HP, Microsoft, Sprint, Bell South and IBM.

Siracusa’s clients are able to use all of the BEC’s resources including office space, conference rooms, wireless Internet, printers, fax machines, and marketing and sales materials. The BEC also offers business networking events and workshops. Recently, the center hosted a workshop on how businesses can take advantage of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

Of course, established businesses are welcome at the center, too. They are charged a monthly rate or can sign a year-long lease for space.

“We try to make it as much of their own office as we can,” he said. “A lot of their clients don’t even know it’s a shared office. Some people just think that all of those offices are theirs.”

Some of Siracusa’s clients include Raymond James Financial, Smart College Solutions, Paul Gro Consulting, An Affair to Remember, Billie Moore Law Office, ACOS Energy, Sandler Training Systems and eWomenNetwork. One of his clients, the Axiologix Education Corp., went public in June. All of those companies are also tenants in the BEC. The center currently has 17 tenants, with space for a maximum of 23.

Whether they are in his building or not, Siracusa helps businesses continue to be successful and addresses any issues they might be struggling with.

“We manage what they’re having difficulty doing,” Siracusa said. “If they have ads and their ads aren’t pulling, we’ll look at that and see how we can help them reach their market better.”

Siracusa does what he calls a “gap analysis.”

“I see what’s missing,” he said. “I look for those opportunities in the marketplace to help them reach their buyers better.”

The BEC has three full-time employees in addition to Siracusa: an office manager, a graphic designer/web developer and an IT worker.

In addition to his employees, Siracusa said the BEC is usually buzzing with the day-to-day activity of the businesses that lease space there or come to utilize the center’s resources.

“Everybody is there and they all sort of work together and help each other,” he said. “They’re surrounding themselves with and networking with other business people and we’re constantly sharing different resources and ideas.”

Businesses that are not tenants can still come in for help, Siracusa said.

“You can come in for an overall business assessment,” he said. “I look at your business, the store, signage, the operations, inventory, things along that line. It’s sort of a general business consultation.”

Then, Siracusa devises a plan of attack to get things back on track for the business. He said the two biggest issues that can cause problems for a company are poor budgeting and an unwillingness to adapt.

“The rules have changed,” Siracusa explained. “The rules of marketing, the rules of advertising have changed. You can’t still be doing what you were doing 18 months ago.”

Businesses having trouble keeping up don’t have to look far for help, because Siracusa is always willing to welcome a new client.

“It’s just great,” he said of the BEC and the opportunities it provides. “I love helping people.”

To learn more about Siracusa and the BEC see www.BEC-US.com.

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AC Weekly November 3, 2010

Click here to visit online at AC Weekly: http://bit.ly/cHBxB4

Starting a new business can be intimidating, but so many of us have great ideas and if we just had the right resources and education we could execute our concepts the right way.

Stockton College’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), located in Atlantic City at the Carnegie Libraray, is one fantastic first step.

Not only is this a free service to the public, but the director of the center, Joe Molineaux, is a dynamic individual (and a former Top 40 Under 40 honoree) with a vast amount of knowledge in giving assistance with business plans and marketing strategies among other key areas to starting a business. Not to mention all of the free workshops that are held at the SBDC as well. You can find more information at njsbdc.org or by calling 347-2174 to make an appointment. Molineaux also hosts the M4 radio show on Stockton’s WLFR FM Tuesdays from 4-6pm.

Someone who has taken advantage of this advice is Winnie Anderson, (former AC Weekly freelancer and) the founder of one of the many new budding businesses in the area, Virtual Marketing Mavens. Inspired by the turn of the economy, Anderson took her experience as a writer, brand strategist, marketer and human resources specialist and turned it into a business with a primary focus on helping business owners to build and expand their business. Services include everything from consulting and coaching to training and design services.

“We take lots of time to really understand what a company needs before we customize our packages for them,” Anderson says. “We don’t just create a Web site for a business, we help strengthen their overall Web presence.”

Anderson understands that most new business owners don’t know how to communicate what they do to attract their ideal customers, so she strongly feels that working with a business coach can help you market your business effectively.

When a new business owner opens their business they’re good at “it,” says Anderson, but only later do they realize they need to market “it” because without that they won’t be able to do whatever “it” is that they love so much.

Anderson has a team of “Mavens” that work with her, and has an upcoming workshop for the SBDC on Dec. 9 called “Untangling the Web.” It’s a three-hour seminar that will de-mystify online marketing and explain all the pieces of the online marketing puzzle and how they work together to create, attract, engage and retain clients. For more information e-mail info@VirtualMarketingMavens.com with “SBDC” in the subject line. You can also call Anderson at 601-1745 or follow her on Facebook at virtualmarketingmavens or Twitter at winnie_anderson.

Anderson urges new business owners to stay focused on goals and connect with positive, supportive people who are already successful. Read, study, and focus on delivering outstanding service to your clients because you will be rewarded, she adds.

The Business Excellence Center (BEC), located in Egg Harbor Township, is another local business development center. Jamie Siracusa, executive director of the BEC, is proud about the center’s aggressive, cutting-edge marketing and sales training along with business and management consulting.

They also offer resources and services such as payroll services, graphic and Web design, printing and even shared office space when available. The BEC is geared towards existing businesses that want to grow their revenues. With his success of growing his own business 700 percent in a little over 18 months, Siracusa will impart his wisdom to help find and cure problems business owners have in reaching the right customers with the right message. What sets the BEC apart is that it guarantees its clients will grow their revenues or they get their money back. There are quite a few upcoming seminars including social media, marketing, power networking and public speaking. For more information, visit businessexcellencecenters.com or email Siracusa at Info@BEC-US.com.

Now that you have these tips, get started on following your dream!

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http://www.free-press-release.com/news-atlantic-city-businesses-get-a-social-facelift-1288298443.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Atlantic City, New Jersey, Egg Harbor Township, NJ October 28, 2010– Over twenty Atlantic City area business owners and entrepreneurs attended “Social Media Tips and Tricks For Local Business Profits”, a training workshop at The Business Excellence Center, Wednesday evening. There were presentations, assessments, and “interactive” live page creations; conducted by Jamie Siracusa, President of Business Excellence and Wendy Mangnaro, a Partner with I-Color Agency. The message to the business owners, engage, communicate, and build a following, do not try to sell with every communication; a common problem emerging with new comers entering social media marketing.

Jamie Siracusa, the Business Excellence Center’s founder and Executive Director opened the program with an overview of South Jersey and Atlantic City’s small business growth opportunities. “There is an opportunity for small local businesses to capture and reach this regions’ tens of millions of visitors, which has never been afforded independent small business owners before. Social Media and Local Internet Search, if implemented properly, can put your business well ahead of the large chains and conglomerate big box stores, starting at free!” Mangnaro and Siracusa searched and reviewed dozens of local businesses’ social media pages and critiqued and applauded not only their own clients’ but attendees’sites and profiles along with several well known local Atlantic City businesses.

As a humorous example of just how powerful these mediums can be, Jamie asked for his Business Excellence Center’s Facebook page to be critiqued. He surprised Mangnaro when a picture appeared, sent seconds before from his Apple iPhone, of Wendy speaking in front of the group. It had been sent instantly to thousands of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Yelp followers. As the room roared with laughter, it was “liked” on Facebook almost instantly and she smiled brightly and said, “and that’s just a bad picture of me! Imagine if it was your first buyer of a sale item or a happy Honeymoon couple checking in at a hotel, that is how quick and powerful this can be”! One of the most enthusiastic attendees, Renee Johnson of Ravelli Monuments, commented afterwards: I’ve been to several of Jamie Siracusa’s workshops and they were all very informative, but this was the best one yet. Now my husband has to listen me, I have been telling him we need this for our business”.

The Business Excellence Center which has been conducting these interactive training sessions, also offers South Jersey business owners: free weekly sales training, marketing and customer services training, business services such as administrative, bookkeeping and desktop support, conference and training rooms, a reference library with marketing, advertising, and sales manuals and training. Siracusa discussed the Center’s acquisition last year for the exclusive rights to thousands of ads, headlines, and sales letters for members to study and use. It also allows access to one of the largest on-line audio business training libraries in the world. “I spent many years researching and gathering this information for sales, market research and marketing consulting to some of the largest companies in the world. Now I have the opportunity to help level the playing field for small business here in South Jersey and particularly to Atlantic City’s hospitality businesses, to compete against the large corporations and new chains.”

Contact: Bonnie Blum
Business Excellence Center
501 Scarborough Drive, Suite 300
Egg Harbor Township, NJ 08234
Phone: 609-742-2806 Fax: 609-677-0237

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