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Write2Market

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2013 Steve Awards for Women in Business

Company: Write2Market
Company Description: Write2Market Promotes Sustainable Energies and Tech companies - making reputation count.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Services –10 or Less Employees

Nomination Title: Lisa Calhoun - Entrepreneur

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated entrepreneur since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words):

I change the world through building an agency that gets other organizations the reputations they deserve.

My agency Write2Market helps companies get their stories told. The right reputation pays big dividends for our clients like $2.9B Exide Technologies—better employees, less price competition, and better access to the market of opportunities.

In the past year, Write2Market opened its Industry Leadership Center in a reclaimed factory warehouse, made possible by a business loan from SBA allowing us to purchase our building. We have since grown retainer-based revenue 77% and increased our recurring revenue 220%, paving the path to help more companies and hire more talent. In the same time period, we’ve doubled our roster of full time employees, hiring talent from well respected competitors like Fleishman Hillard and Porter Novelli.

Over 130 entrepreneurs in the city of Atlanta elected me to serve as their President through the Atlanta Chapter of Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO). EO is a global, nonprofit group of founding CEOs of companies with over $1M in annual revenue.

The US Department of Energy invited me to speak to an audience of over 300 energy marketers from across the country. I was honored by Business to Business Magazine as one of Atlanta’s “Top 25 Entrepreneurs and Ones to Watch.” Write2Market was a Technology Association of Georgia Impact Awards Finalist thanks to our Triple A reputation tracking software system.

Over the summer, I was invited to judge venture capital pitches alongside investors from Cisco, IBM, X Prize, and Mozilla a GigTank, Chattanooga’s first venture/entrepreneurship competition.

Kennesaw University’s Launchpad2X program for women entrepreneurs appointed me to its Advisory Board. I also speak for the educational series as woman entrepreneur in residence helping to groom other female CEOs. I opted to pro bono sponsor the Southeast’s largest venture conference, Venture Atlanta, advising over 40 startups on how to build their reputations.

Even more significant than the accolades, however, is the scale of the work our industry leadership boutique has achieved. We operate through our own trademarked industry leadership method called Triple A Industry Leadership. We track each “A” in a proprietary software system we developed in-house, and for which we were recognized by the Technology Association of Georgia. The Three A’s are Awards, Awareness, and Access.

Write2Market has completed 1243 separate national Triple A “wins” in the last 12 months for our clients, resulting in almost 3 million dollars of earned media, over a billion unique impacts, and an average retainer ROI of 240%.

Volunteer service is how we say thanks for our many opportunities. This year, I continued our sponsorship of C5 Georgia, which changes the odds for children from tough circumstances. I accepted the call to join the Advisory Council of Junior Achievement. We’ve also taught over 400 local executives through free programs at our Industry Leadership Center like “RESONANT REPUTATION” and the event for tech entrepreneurs, “FROM ANGEL TO ACQUISITION.”

Provide a brief biography of the nominated entrepreneur (up to 100 words):

Crafting the perfect reputation for industry leading organizations is a work Lisa started in childhood from her parents' print shop. A 4th generation entrepreneur, Lisa founded Write2Market, an industry leadership consultancy, in 2006, after earning an MBA from University of Texas. Lisa is recognized by Business Leader as a Top 25 Atlanta Entrepreneur. She serves on the Advisory Board for Cole's College of Business at KSU. She is also on the board C5 Georgia and the Leadership Council for Junior Achievement (JA). Lisa is a past president for Entrepreneur’s Organization, a global network of 7,000 entrepreneurs in 38 countries.