LeTip Chester County East met on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Exton, PA. We welcome new members Vince DelVacchio (landscaping - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Toni Schmidt (marketing specialties - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Our showboaters were Kelly Smyth from FastPro Restoration (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Dieter Enz, our painting contractor (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).Kelly brought helpful information about how to contact FastPro for their restoration services dealing with water, mold, and smoke damage. Dieter displayed paint color samples and some of the supplies that he may use for a painting project.

Our first speaker was our food specialist, Sheryl Jennings (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Sheryl offers Wildtree organic food products that are also free from GMOs, peanuts, dyes, high fructose corn syrup, additives and preservatives, Their products are all low in sodium. Sheryl helps busy people to get healthy meals on their dinner tables by offering freezer meal workshops. Wildtree provides shopping lists and detailed instructions. Each customer purchases their proteins, produce, and possibly canned goods prior to the workshop and does some preparation ahead of time. They come to the workshop with their prepared items in freezer bags; then at the workshop they add the Wildtree sauces and seasonings in an enjoyable social atmosphere. Many people won't do this much preparation at home, but they will jump at the chance to have a social afternoon or evening with friends and also put together 10 meals that serve four to six people. Sheryl also told us about Wildtree Gives Back. Wildtree as a company likes to help people, and Sheryl has taken extra steps in her local community. She located two organizations that help women and children who are struggling, and she donates meals that they can then distribute to the families they serve. Each workshop participant is given the option to donate one of their meals, and Sheryl also runs donation-only workshops in which local businesses or individuals can sponsor 10 meals and either do the shopping and prepping themselves or donate the cost of 10 meals and let Sheryl and her volunteer crew do the work.

Our second speaker was Matt Simmers, our banker from First Niagara (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). First Niagara offers many services and products including business checking and savings accounts, personal checking and savings accounts, home equity lines of credit, personal and business credit cards, and mortgages. The benefits of banking with First Niagara are accessibility (with Matt as our banker), knowledge, a customer-centric operation, and good communication. Matt talked with us about the importance of having a good credit score. Factors that contribute to credit score include making payments on time, the capacity of available credit used, length of credit history, types of credit used, and past credit applications. First Niagara offers credit card balance transfer promotions to move credit balances away from cards with higher interest rates. They also have plans for debt consolidation and the ability to borrow against the equity in your home. Contact Matt to ask about any of First Niagara's products or services.

LeTip Chester County East met on Tuesday, February 2, 2106. We were joined by guests representing the categories of marketing specialties and landscaping.

Our showboaters were Claudia Roemer and Beth Rondinelli. Claudia is our gift basket provider from Ceiba (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). She had photos of several different types of baskets that she has made for her customers, all beautifully arranged and filled with edible products, functional items (towels, mugs, etc.), and decorative items. Claudia has a ribbon printer that uses a variety of ribbon colors and embroidery colors to personalize a basket with a business name/logo, a greeting, the recipient's name, or any other message. Contact her to make a personalized and memorable gift for any occasion. Beth (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) is our estate attorney, and she prepares simple wills, powers of attorney, and living wills. Beth understands the importance of having these documents drafted before they are needed, and she charges $150 for the set of three documents to keep this peace of mind affordable for her clients.

Our first speaker was Adam Perkowski (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), our home automation specialist. Adam can design home automation products differently depending upon the customer's desired final result. He wants each person to have the experience they want and expect. Adam's home automation designs allow people to control various systems in their home from one source, which keeps things simple. The Nest Protect system can detect carbon monoxide, which will trigger the system to shut down the heating and air conditioning in the house and ping the customer's phone to alert them. The customer can silence the alarm on the phone to turn everything back on. Adam can install a thermostat that learns customer patterns and reprograms itself accordingly. He can install Sonos sound system products in one room, several rooms, or throughout the whole house. Nest Cam security cameras can be programmed to respond to motion, light, alarms, or other triggers. Adam can install home lighting with controls to adjust brightness, colors, etc. As summer approaches, he will also work to make outdoor living spaces more enjoyable, with outdoor lighting and sound as well as pool jet control.

Our second speaker was Bob Latta (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) of Latta-Kennedy Builders, our general contractor. Bob's goal is to provide the construction services and products that his customers want while helping them to feel comfortable during the building process. He showed a home project for which he and his team moved several house functions (including the kitchen and bedrooms) to another part of the house for the duration of the project. Bob makes sure that all floors are protected to prevent damage and also to allow for easier clean-up. The air-return system in the house is typically shut off to prevent dust from travelling throughout the house. Bob showed pictures of two other projects, one in which a garage was converted to a living room, and another in which a separate garage was built on the customer's property. All of the work was clean and professionally done.

LeTip Chester County East met on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Exton, PA. We welcome new member Sheryl Jennings, our food specialist (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Our showboaters were home automation specialist Adam Perkowski (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and general contractor Bob Latta (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) of Latta-Kennedy Builders. Adam displayed blinds that can be raised and lowered using a cell phone app. Bob had photos of several different projects that he worked on recently. We look forward to hearing more from both Adam and Bob at the next meeting.

Our first speaker was Leigh Friedman, our graphic designer (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Leigh loves designing, and she invests a great deal of intention, planning, and execution into her work for each client. At the beginning of the process, she asks the client what they would like to communicate with their design. If the client isn't clear on their goal or message, Leigh will ask plenty of questions to gain clarity. She will listen to the client and think about how best to design something that communicates their intended message. Leigh will brainstorm to think about a variety of design approaches. If she is designing a logo, for example, she will draw up several concepts for the client to look at and give their feedback. In the end, it is important to Leigh that the client is happy. She showed us two examples of design projects that she completed: a logo for a local physician, and a publication for a law school that wanted to combine two magazines into one. We saw steps throughout the design and collaboration process as well as the final results. Both clients were very pleased with what Leigh designed for them.

Our second speaker was Dan Frame, our electrician (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Dan is committed to client education. He will help a customer to make the best option to meet their needs, even if it mean recommending a product that they could buy themselves at a hardware store without using Electrical Plus for that job. Dan finds that providing customer-centered service and generating goodwill promotes more business in the future. For a larger electrical project, he will first visualize the whole room and think about how the wiring and outlets would work out best. Dan and his crew always wear protective booties for a job, and they clean up after themselves. They try to make as few holes as possible in the existing structures. The Electrical Plus trucks are always kept clean, since they are like travelling billboards for the company, and they want to make a good impression wherever they are seen. Electrical Plus provides service in Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties, parts of the state of Delaware, and they have even done work at the Jersey shore. They are a Generac certified dealer and can service any generator.

LeTip Chester County East met on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Exton, PA. We were joined by a guest representing organic food products.

Our two showboaters were electrician Dan Frame (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and graphic designer Leigh Friedman (Leigh@FullCircleGraphicDesign). Dan provided some promotional items as well as flyers that list many of the services that Electrical Plus offers to their customers. Leigh displayed a wide variety of items that she helped to design, including printed materials, shirts, and a mug. She has helped people and businesses in very different fields to create images and products to promote their company or vision.

Our first speaker was Mike Hoopes, our property and casualty insurance agent (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Mike talked about the growing trend of customers purchasing insurance online and buying the state minimum coverage. True, this tends to give a lower rate for the insurance premium, but it also tends to lead to people having inadequate coverage in the event of a loss. Mike wants to help people get great coverage--not too much nor too little--at a good price. All insurance companies have to raise their rates sometimes, but Mike will make sure that his customers know why rates are going up when that may happen. He knows that customers are frustrated when they see an unexpected surge in their insurance premium. Mike is happy to be a resource for all insurance questions, and he will look at anyone's current policy to see whether it can be improved. In addition to home and automobile coverage, he can write policies for boats, ATVs, snowmobiles, or business insurance. Mike also highly recommends renter's insurance for anyone who is living in a rental space, including college students.

Our second speaker was Dave Kozak, our life, health, and disability insurance agent (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Dave spoke about life insurance and gave an example of a higher-end policy that he wrote for a family who wanted to use their life insurance policy as a vehicle to provide money to pay for college tuition for their three kids as well as a second home after they retire. Not everyone is able to afford payments of the amount that this family is investing, but Dave can help people at various financial stages to find a policy that will help them not only to provide a death benefit but also to supply benefits while they are still living. There are tax advantages to building wealth in this way, and Dave is ready to help any individual or family to acquire a policy that fits their budget, needs, and goals.