May 4, 2006

In this issue:

NEWS: Changes at the Bevans Group
IDEA: Leveraging for good

NEWS: Changes at the Bevans Group

Email Ann

The past year has been marked by change, both for me personally and for the Bevans Group. One year ago, I decided to hang my shingle on Main Street in historic Laurel. Now, I’m moving back to my home office in Silver Spring. Coming to this decision has been complicated; many competing personal and business forces have been at play. However, one thing stands out. While I loved working with my talented staff, I missed working directly with many of the loyal clients who have both supported me and benefited from my efforts over the years.

I consider this change to be a realignment. I am realigning my business with my passion: the nuts and bolts of marketing, design and web development. I think my track record of personally delivering successful marketing programs speaks for itself, and I look forward to continuing that tradition and to building even stronger relationships with all of you over the coming months and years!

Here’s how to reach me:

Bevans Group
PO Box 6061
Silver Spring, MD 20916
301-598-9440 (office)
240-463-3110 (mobile)

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this change or what it may mean for your project! I look forward to hearing from you!

My best,

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IDEA: Leveraging for good

By day, my husband Dave is a very talented tax attorney. I’m fond of telling him that he’s the smartest attorney in his row, and I enjoy bragging about him at parties. However, as a well rounded guy, Dave also has hobbies. Chief among these is Discovergirls.com.

I enjoy telling people about Discovergirls.com. I like to see their reactions. I say, “My husband manages a website called Discovergirls.com,” then watch them squirm. They want to ask, “Discovergirls.com? What’s that?” But they’re afraid of the answer.

The answer, gentle reader, is actually pretty cool. Discovergirls.com is a portfolio site for emerging models, actresses and female musicians. It’s been one of Dave’s passions for over 6 years now – a true labor of love. What else would make him climb out of bed at two in the morning and trundle down to the office, bleary-eyed, to make a new portfolio?

Did I mention he does it for free?

About two years ago, Dave started to ask himself how he could leverage Discovergirls.com into something more than a website. After all, he’d built up a tremendous amount of goodwill among some seriously creative people. Thanks to his selective approach to building the site, a number of these people had hit it big since first appearing on the site years earlier.

After some thoughtful consideration, he hit upon an idea. He handpicked some of the musicians from the site and posed a simple question: “Would you be willing to donate one of your songs for a compilation CD featuring musicians from Discovergirls.com?”

This query was met with some skepticism, until he added, “Would you do it if I give all the money to the National Breast Cancer Foundation?” Catalyst18 was born.

It all clicks: using Discovergirls.com as a vehicle to produce a music CD, which will help find a cure for cancer. If you know Dave, you know that this is the perfect expression of all sides of him. After all, he’s a cancer survivor himself. And his mother and best friend both died of cancer. What better way to make a difference?

I am writing about Dave’s story for two reasons. First of all, I’d like to ask you to support our cause. You can visit www.discovergirls.com, or go directly to the album site, www.catalyst18.com, to learn more. You can also by directly from CD Baby, Amazon.com or TowerRecords.com.

The other reason I’m writing about this is because I think there’s a valuable lesson here. You are constantly building momentum. If you do your job well, you are creating goodwill all around you. Dave got the chance to pursue the CD project because he spent countless hours selecting talented people for the site and building them great-looking portfolios. What can you do for your customers? How can you do just a little bit more than they expect, every day? And what it’s time to cash in, how will you leverage that goodwill? Whether you use it to grow your business or change the world, it’s a force that can’t be ignored.