Your Name: Dr. Garnett Newcombe and Kay Woods
Business Name: CEO Real Talk, a service to support and advise female in business
Type of Business: Coaching & Consulting
Business Location: Berkeley, California, United States
Website http://ceorealtalk.com
Twitter @CEORealTalk
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ceorealtalk
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/ceorealtalk
Reason for starting
We developed CEO Real Talk as an extension of our own companies to deliver effective strategies to fellow business people, based upon over a decade of professional experience. Through this speaking series we are revealing dangerous caveats that can potentially destroy small and minority owned businesses. It is our goal to help other business owners to promote long-term profitability as they continue to grow and diversify.
How do you define success?
Finding balance and success in both our careers and with our families. We do this by being present and attentive at home, at work and during “free” time. The quality of being present makes a significant and positive impact on our surroundings. Where we spend our time and energy has a direct connection to how successful we are. When we hold ourselves accountable, amazing and wonderful things happen. For us, work life balance is a necessity to be successful in growing our businesses.
Biggest Success
We are both very proud of the businesses we have built as well as our work with CEO Real Talk that is helping other business owners to be successful. Dr. Garnett Newcombe is the Co-Founder and CEO of Human Potential Consultants, LLC, an award-winning employment solutions Company. Established in 1997, Human Potential Consultants was founded on the belief that assisting individuals to improve their self-worth, work readiness and employability skills regardless of their background, will increase job opportunities. Kay Woods is the Founder & CEO of Precious Treasures Childcare, an award-winning 24 hour 7 day a week Child Care Center. Established in 2002, the vision of her child care center is to strengthen family unity at the root through integrating early childhood education and parenting resources.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
Not understanding financials almost destroyed both of our businesses. Starting out, our number one goal was to ensure that our staff had what they needed to operate efficiently. We soon had to close down a project or location. We had enough office supplies, office equipment, and an abundance of extra materials to open second-hand supply stores. We immediately realized that we were not in control of our businesses because we had no clue how, what and when our staff made purchases. To solve this we recognized that there needed to be systems and processes in place to control inventory, budgets needed to be followed for each project or location, and that we needed to understand our financial reports. It is our responsibility to watch over our business finances not the accountant, the bookkeeper or the division managers.
Who is your most important role model?
Michelle Obama.