After spending about a year and a half with them, I am very excited to see this update!

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The CP Environmental Group team wishes you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year and would like to thank you for helping us make 2009 another successful year. 

As we look forward to this exciting and challenging New Year, we would like to share some highlights from 2009 that continue to shape us, and that ultimately become the building blocks of our future success. 

CP Environmental Group (CPEG) has continued providing favorable business solutions for our clients’ environmental challenges throughout the year by continuing to serve our repeat client base while adding key additional industrial, commercial and government clients including the 99th Army Reserve, the City of Pittsburgh, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, the Mon Valley Initiative, the Pennsylvania Department of General Services, and the US Department of the Interior.

Recognition of our success came in several forms, the most important being outstanding client satisfaction.  In addition, CPEG was again named to Pennsylvania’s Top Business List by DiversityBusiness.com. This List is a classification that represents the top small businesses in the U.S., in sectors such as technology, manufacturing, food service and professional services. We were honored to have been selected as one of Pennsylvania’s Top 100 diversity-owned businesses, for the third year in a row. 

Another of the year’s exciting news bites came when President, Peggy Carpenter was featured in the July edition of the Pittsburgh Magazine in the Spotlight on Women in Business – a full page in the magazine! 

CPEG was also honored in 2009 by being selected for the Best of Business Award in the Environmental Services category by the Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA). The SBCA 2009 Award Program recognized the top 5% of small businesses throughout the country. The selection committee chooses the award winners from nominees based on information taken from monthly surveys administered by the SBCA, a review of consumer rankings, and other consumer reports. 

Other highlights included graduation from the Athena PowerLink program with recognition at the 2009 Westmoreland County Winners Circle luncheon, and our President being “locked up” for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Ending the year on a very positive note, we were notified on December 29th that our President was selected as a winner of the 2010 Women in Business Awards by the Pittsburgh Business Times – the awards ceremony will be held on March 15, 2010 at the Westin Convention Center.  Look for a special supplement honoring the winners of the 2010 Business Women First Women in Business Awards distributed in the March 19, 2010 issue of the Pittsburgh Business Times.

We are proud to share these recognitions with you, and are excited to take on the New Year’s challenges.  As always, we want to thank you for your support and business, invite your comments and constructive criticism, and wish you the best for this New Year! 

I just finished a great interview with @Adrienne Graham of Empower Me. Just to recap, some topics that were covered were following your passion, motivation to think big, act big and believe big.  We also shared best practices on starting out on your own, selecting an advisory board, finding mentors, stepping out of the comfort zone of “safe” businesses and really going for broke (so to speak). Pam Perry was also on the call and shared a lot of great advice as well. When the audio is available I will add a link so you can listen, but until then I just wanted to follow-up with some final thoughts and provide links to resources that I talked about.

In regards to setting up your own advisory board, some people relate to this others do not. Both are ok. Personally, I found that having a series of mentors worked better for me. I stay in touch with them individually and get regular feedback. I do enjoy being on others advisory boards. For those interested in an advisory board, I recommend the book, Pour Your Heart into It by Howard Schultz. Yes it is the story of the early days of Starbucks, but Howard does a great job explaining how he went about putting together his advisory board and why he took this approach.

Another topic that I think is vital is the planning aspect. Take the time and plan your business so you have a direction. This does not have to be done in the beginning, but it does need done. There are a lot of great resources out there to help you, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call (it sounds so simple). Some of these resources are SCORE, SBA, SBDC. In some cities, these are integrated and work together. They are usually connected to colleges as well. You can go to these organizations at any time in your business cycle and ask for help. That is why they are here—utilize them. In Pittsburgh, PA there is an organization called E-Magnify. E-Magnify is associated with Seton Hill University and offers a program called ATHENA PowerLink. The ATHENA PowerLink program is a custom panel tailored to the needs of a women-owned business to assist them in business growth.

As for other final thoughts, remember that life is a series of learned experiences, it is not about what went wrong but what you learned and how you will do it different the next time. Please never be afraid to ask for help. The worse that can happen is they tell you no. If you are told no, it simply means you have to learn what will get you a yes. No’s can be a very good thing! You have to try to be able to learn what works for you! Just because an approach, a style, a technique or a way works for someone else does not mean it will for you. Differences do not mean you are weak; instead, it is a strength that you were able to identify and accommodate for your own success. I wish you all the best and please let me know if there is any way I can help you!

Listen to the interview here.