Chic Perspectives

Business Advisor, Elizabeth Gordon interviews Ellen Turner and Laura Boone owners of TurnerBoone, Loren Solomon founder of Advertising for Good, and Jane McCraken, CEO of Proventus Group on The Chic Perspectives Show

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Our final episode of The Chic Perspectives Show this year was a great one!  The studio was packed with impressed women entrepreneurs who shared their stories of business success.   Elizabeth Gordon, President of Flourishing Business and bestselling author of The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels, shined the Chic Spotlight on Ellen Turner and Laura Boone owners of TurnerBoone, Loren Solomon founder of Advertising for Good, and Jane McCraken, CEO of Proventus Group.

Ellen Turner and Laura Boone started TurnerBoone, http://www.turnerboone.com/ a commercial furniture and design firm in 2004 working out of Ellen’s spare bedroom and were dubbed two girls and a car by their mostly male competitors.  Since them, they have doubled their revenue every since opening, in 2009 grew 88% and now have 14 employees and 100+ clients.

They talked about the challenges of being in an industry that has gone through huge declines (commercial real estate), how they have adapted their business and marketing plans to meet and beat this recession and what the future holds.

My next guest was Loren Solomon, an award-winning writer, producer, and Creative Director with over two decades of experience.  Since 1992, Loren has created and developed successful integrated branding campaigns for clients from the local to global arena. Loren graduated with a BA in English from the University of Virginia, attended and taught at The Portfolio Center, one of the top Advertising Graduate Schools in the country.

Her career included stints at J. Walter Thompson, The Martin Agency, and Grey Global before she went out on her own, quickly becoming one of most well-known and respected marketing professionals. Her client work includes Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, Home Depot, MAP International, CNN, Atlanta Ballet, NIKE, The Coca-Cola Company, American Cancer Society, and more.

Loren talked about starting Advertising for Good http://advertisingforgood.org/ which partners corporations with non-profits with an aim of not only doing good but creating a new revenue stream for corporations.  Hear how she’s convincing big companies how to juice up traditional marketing campaigns by adding in social good elements.

My next guest was CEO of Proventus Group, http://proventusgroup.com which works to improve the business of drug and device development.  Jane’s career has focused on accelerating the growth and value of life science and technology-oriented companies in both the US and Europe.  She has worked with private equity, venture-back and public companies most recently as a member of senior executive teams and earlier in her career, as a venture capitalist and investment banker.

Jane is known for putting strategic thinking into tactical plans with innovative yet practical approaches for strengthening corporate operations, finding new market opportunities, accelerating growth and overcoming challenges.  Prior to joining Proventus, Jane was CEO of Nexus Oncology, an international clinical research organization.  She gained additional experience in the life science industry as CFO of Axis-Shield plc, an invitro-diagnostics company.  Jane also worked in the IT industry and was as CEO of all-hotels.com, an on-line travel company and COO of VIS entertainment, a computer games developer.  She earned her Bachelors degree at Wake Forest University and a Masters degree from Georgia Tech.

Jane talked about the business of doing comprehensive feasibility studies for new drugs –  a crucial step in the ultimate goal of getting a product to market.  Proventus works with biopharmaceuticals, medical device developers and clinical research companies.  Jane has put together a team at Proventus with significant experience in clinical operations, business process improvement and information technology.  They bring independent, pragmatic advice to assist companies with process improvements, technology adoption, and expanding your existing capabilities or geographic reach.

It was a pleasure getting to know all these fabulous female entrepreneurs.  We heard about their strategy for differentiating, their philosophy on building relationships, their lessons learned over the course of 2010 and what’s on the horizon for all of their companies in 2011.  And you won’t want to miss their  Chic Tips.