Welcome to Edwards Global Services

Edwards Global Services, Inc. (EGS) was founded in 2001 to help U.S. franchise companies take their business into other countries profitably through licensing.

EGS is known worldwide for focusing U.S. Clients on entering the countries that have the highest potential ROI for their specific brand.  EGS uses a proven, trademarked, stepped process that assesses the global potential for each franchise, develops a business plan to go global, and then implements the plan using their experienced U.S.-based executive team and in-country associate network in 32 countries. Edwards Global Services (EGS) offers a unique combination of experience, processes, network, tools and brand representation that makes taking a U.S. franchise global easier and more successful, start to finish.

"In 2011 and again in 2015, EGS received the U.S. Presidential ‘E’ Award For Export Services because of continued, documented success for the U.S.-based franchises our company represents,” said William Edwards, Founder and CEO of EGS and corporate Member of MAPLE. The President’s “E” Award is the highest recognition any U.S. company can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports. To be considered for this national award, EGS was required to document in detail the process and success taking 20 U.S. companies into other countries.

Going global creates jobs in the U.S.

It is estimated that U.S.-based franchises account for net fee and royalty payments back to the U.S. from foreign operations of more than US$1 billion annually. And the export of U.S. franchise systems creates training and support jobs at home.

Some of the U.S. Brands helped by EGS

Among the many U.S. companies that EGS has helped Go Global are: Abrakadoodle®, Build-A-Bear Workshop®, Carl’s Jr®, Denny’s®, The Melting Pot®, Round Table Pizza, Right At Home® senior care, Sky Zone®, and Two Men and A Truck®.

The company’s tagline is “many U.S. franchises try to take their business global. The franchises EGS take global actually succeed and make money’.

To learn more, please visit www.edwardsglobal.com or contact Bill Edwards at bedwards@edwardsglobal.com.

Welcome to Cardinal Point Wealth Management

Canada and the U.S. have a strong and multifaceted relationship. The close ties and proximity has resulted in significant movement of people and assets.
 
How will a cross-border move to Canada or the U.S. affect my financial goals?

The short answer is that temporary and permanent cross-border movement enhances the complexity of investment management and financial planning. The primary cause for this situation is that investment accounts, real estate and other financial and physical assets have accumulated in both Canada and the U.S.
 
The reality when searching for advice

The overwhelming majority of Canadian advisors are solely authorized and qualified to provide advice on Canadian investment accounts or to a Canadian domiciled client. The opposite is applicable for U.S.-based advisors. Relocating without proper guidance often results in a disjointed financial plan. Further, it often leads to higher taxation, poor estate planning and enhanced financial risk. This is especially true when significant assets are located on both sides of the border.
 
Increasing need for cross-border specialists

A successful cross-border transition requires proper investment management and financial planning. Therefore, individuals and families with cross-border complexities should always partner with a qualified and experienced Canada-U.S. cross-border advisor.
 
Trusted guidance in Canada and the U.S.

Cardinal Point was founded in Toronto and is an independent wealth management group of companies. We are dedicated to providing investment management and cross-border financial planning services to select high net-worth families within Canada and the U.S. Our advisors operate under the fiduciary standard and understand that your wealth, family, interests and values are all interconnected. In the past seven years, Cardinal Point has been featured and asked to comment on Canada-U.S. planning subjects in over twenty-five publications and videos, including the WSJ and Globe and Mail. To learn more, please visit www.cardinalpointwealth.com or contact us.
 

Could You Be Undermining Your Customers?

Could You Be Undermining Your Customers? No one deliberately sets out to do it but it happens all too often. And the opportunity cost can be significant.
 
Imagine a company with a successful product or service that markets to businesses. The company has a great website, they work hard to nurture a great brand, and they are diligent about following up on new business leads. The team is smart and motivated and the company’s product or service is effective at fulfilling its promise. The company is growing.
 
What could be missing?
 
Too often it is the customer who is missing from the marketing mix. The company may attract, convert and even retain their customers very effectively but they may be neglecting to “mine” the inherent marketing value that resides within their customers to help them grow smarter. This lack of focus on a customer base as a marketing asset can result in missing sales that can be closed faster and at less expense. 
 
So how do you avoid “undermining” your customers?
 
Start by asking yourself how well do you understand them. You may have already segmented your customer base by product/service, market geography and buyer persona. But beyond macro-level segmentation, how well do you understand the challenges and opportunities that your customers are facing and what led them to purchase from you to solve these? And how well do your customers understand the value that they have generated from your solution?

There is a wellspring of content waiting.
 
Once you can articulate what types of customer successes exist, you realize that each customer represents far more than the sum of their orders. They can be your next case study, press release, white paper, conference lecture, blog or podcast. They may also be your next testimonial, referral or endorsement. In today’s marketing world where content rules, there is a wellspring of content and insights ready to be accessed and shared by first connecting back with your customers to mine their experiences.
 
Achieve a win/win outcome.

And the end result does not serve just your brand. By celebrating the successes of your customers, you are burnishing their brand too.  And through the discovery process of exploring the impact of your solution on their business, together you can identify benefits that may have been previously overlooked by you both.
 
Engaging your customers in the process gives your company a more motivated and informed customer base to pursue endorsements, referral opportunities, and repeat orders. Truly this customer reconnect is an integral part of their buyer journey and your marketing strategy. It's time to start mining!  Customer marketing is one of many areas that The 360 Marketer provides strategic and tactical support for emerging and established brands.

The 360 Marketer is a marketing consultancy based on over 30 years of growing leading B2C and B2B brands in multiple verticals in Canada, the United States, and México. To learn more, please visit www.the360marketer.net or contact Stephen Armstrong at 714.878.5427 or sarmstrong@the360marketer.net
 

Welcome to Axellium

Will your business stand the test of growth? Lasting businesses invest in continuous improvement and solid project execution to enable their growth. 

Keep improving as you grow.

Whether through organic growth, acquisition, capital infusion or diversification, businesses grow through stages, and what made a business successful in one stage may not carry it into the next. As your business grows, the alignment you had with your founding team may not hold together in the same way. Processes, systems, team capabilities, and the careful management of culture become critical for alignment and productivity.

Successful companies have clarity around their financial performance and how to leverage their success. They know that working hard and smart is better than just working hard. They know that the way they deliver for and interact with their customers is what drives satisfaction and loyalty in the market. And, they know that talented and valuable employees are more engaged when they are not wasting their time on non-productive work. Because of this, they create a culture of continuous improvement.

Invest in your improvement portfolio.

Because there is only so much organization and financial capacity to invest in continuous improvement, it is critical to prioritize initiatives so that you are making investments where they will have the greatest impact on the business. Think of it as investing in a portfolio of improvement initiatives to grow your business. That doesn't mean you only advance initiatives with the highest ROI, but this approach helps the whole team stay focused on driving business impact and making informed decisions.

Manage initiatives like projects for success.

Plan and execute your initiatives with clarity on your objectives. Build a cross-functional team of people necessary to do the work, but also the executive sponsorship and key leaders who will resolve conflicts, remove roadblocks, and be accountable for the business impact. With all of the right team involved in planning and execution, you will improve your chances of success, because everyone will know what has to be done, by whom and in what sequence to avoid issues and re-work.

What's your next move?

Maybe your next improvement initiative involves developing an onboarding process, improving sales performance, getting more value out of your supply chain, improving your fulfillment process, upgrading your financial and reporting systems, or relocating to a new location to support your growth. With a method, resources, and tools that support the continuous improvement of your business, you can ensure your growth won't skip a beat, and your best employees will thank you for it!

Axellium is a professional service firm founded by executives with over 25 years of growing successful businesses in a variety of industries locally and around the globe. Our team, methods, and tools enable us to help you reveal opportunities for improvement, and help you achieve results through project execution. To learn more, please visit www.axellium.com or contact Robert Kelle at 714.988.6440 or rob@axellium.com

Welcome to Knobbe Martens

Knobbe Martens Intellectual Property Law has had several significant events happen over the last year and we’d love to share them with you!
 
Last December, Founding Partner, Don Martens received the Orange County Intellectual Property Law Association’s (OCIPLA) Lifetime Achievement Award.  He was recognized for his significant impact on intellectual property law, through innovation and noteworthy contributions.
 
Knobbe Martens’ longstanding client, Masimo Corp., entered a multi-year partnership that ended a longstanding litigation with Philips Electronics. The parties resolved all outstanding litigation with an agreement by Philips to pay a lump sum of $300 million to Masimo, and entered a business relationship involving availability of Masimo technology in Philips products.
 
Our 2016 sponsorship with leading U.S. Cyclocross Team Aspire Racing marked the firm’s first foray into a year-long sports partnership. Knobbe’s longstanding culture of cycling began with founding partner Jim Bear, an avid recreational cyclist and dedicated bicycle commuter.
 
We have a growing and rewarding partnership with Plug and Play Tech Center in Silicon Valley, one of the world’s largest startup accelerators. Knobbe attorneys are champions of innovation and are providing forward-focused IP law service and representation to Plug and Play startups across all verticals. We are especially enjoying the mentorship sessions that we are a part of as well.
 
In January 2017, we proudly announced that eight associates had been promoted to partner: Jeremy Carney, Karen Cassidy and Karen Lenker based in our firm’s OC office, Christopher DiLeo, Nate Luman, and Adam Powell based in the San Diego office, Bryan McWhorter based in the Seattle office, and Andrea Cheek based in the Washington DC office.
 
Our continued growth and success is fueled by notable moments like these year after year.
 
To learn more about Knobbe Martens and the firm’s practice areas, please visit www.knobbe.com or contact Marko Zoretic.
 
 

Is Paper the Real 'Killer' App?

Is paper the real “klller” app? This was the focus of a recent BBC Capital article on the trend to complement our digital lives with the simplicity and tactility of paper.  

At allura printing, we see our clients integrating print and digital more and more. And today we are investing in both our printing capacity and capability as we celebrate our 10th anniversary.
 
Our printing roots are deep and Canadian. As second-generation printers who grew up in Forestville, Québec, my brother René and I learned the craft of printing from our father. Printing technology was much different back then but the commitment to taking care of your customers was not.  
 
In 2006, we founded our own printing company in Orange County, California in the headwinds of the economic downturn. Today, allura supports a spectrum of clients from leading brands and institutions like Arco and the University of California - Irvine to the self-published author who is ready to share their passion with the world! Part of our success has been diversification. We support not only the offset, digital and large format printing needs of commercial customers across many sectors but also the softcover book printing needs of publishing houses and authors.
 
Now in our 10th year, we are expanding. We have recently moved to a larger facility in Orange County – almost doubling our space. We just installed a state-of-the-art computer-to-plate prepress system and the region’s first Heidelberg Anicolor offset printing press. Measuring over 25 feet and weighing over 14 tons, this 5-color press increases our capacity 750%. Itshigh performance capability is both a friend to budgets and the environment. 
 
So while the past decades have seen printers leave traditional offset printing for the economies of digital printing, we have found an innovative offset printing technology to add to our portfolio. Our growing printing capabilities together with our commitment to customer education and service lay the foundation for our second decade.
 
David Gagnon is President/CMO of Orange County-based allura printing inc. Visit www.alluraprinting.com or call us at (888) 799.9948.
 

Welcome to Media-Corps

They say necessity is the mother of invention and that’s exactly what has triggered the big changes that are happening here in Southern California right now.

The continuing success and growth of our Canadian media-buying company, Media-Corps, has led to the creation of UNIVERSE Group, a brand-development group specializing in media buying, data informed brand management, and creative and commerce strategies.
 
Media-Corps' founder, Robert Laplante,  was frustrated by what he saw as an outdated and defunct agency model. He wanted to help brands accelerate their success and growth by applying marketing methods that are relevant to today’s rapidly changing consumer habits.

Through his years working with clients at Media-Corps, he realized the best way he could really help clients solve their problems in a cohesive manner was to bring together experts from a range of complementary fields to head individual companies under one umbrella: UNIVERSE. This way, Laplante felt he could view clients’ marketing challenges through one aligned focal point, instead of them starting from scratch with each aspect of their marketing needs.

Let’s take the luxury lifestyle golf brand, Iliac Golf (www.iliacgolf.com), as an example. Iliac is a brand looking to develop its market presence. It came to UNIVERSE for help. By partnering with the brand (UNIVERSE now has the capabilities to invest financially when it makes sense), we can support them with organic marketing, media, digital design, e-commerce (including Amazon), video production and more. With our strong focus on tying everything together with advanced data collection and analysis, we are now able to do so much more than we ever dreamed possible to help grow brands.

Based in Carlsbad, Media-Corps connects U.S.-based brands and agencies to Canadian media. It is the exclusive sales representative for 17 of Canada's largest broadcast, out-of-home, digital, and print media companies. Using cutting-edge marketing technology and the latest consumer data Media-Corps cuts through the noise to maximize advertising ROI. To learn more, visit www.media-corps.com, or call (866) 744-9890.
 

Welcome to D'Alessio Law Group

At D’Alessio Law Group (DLG), we’ve had an exciting year marked by evolution and growth.

Building from our core practice in entertainment immigration, we continued our expansion into areas like corporate immigration and technology. As part of this evolution, we’ve welcomed new clients such as a top L.A. modeling agency, as well as a tech startup known for its visionary work in transportation.

Among other big highlights, Law Firm 500 recognized us as the 16th fastest-growing law firm in the country. And in another exciting milestone, founding partner Lorraine D’Alessio received the Century City Bar Association’s 2016 award for Next Generation Lawyer of the Year, while also being honored as one of Super Lawyer’s 2017 Rising Stars.
 
October found us on the move as we settled into our new headquarters  in the heart of L.A.’s Miracle Mile. In the fall, we were also thrilled to welcome attorneys Erica Stambler, Sheetal Maya Nanda and LuAnne Morrow as Of Counsel. Experts in U.S. and Canadian business law, Morrow and Stambler will be crucial in helping us open and develop our international entertainment business and corporate divisions. Meanwhile, Nanda is a top Canadian authority on immigration for both startups and entertainment, and will help lead our ongoing expansion into the technology space.
 
Just a few weeks ago, we were excited to see D’Alessio quoted in the L.A. Times’ business section about Trump’s immigration ban, continuing our role as a go-to source for immigration commentary. February brought another milestone as we opened the doors to our first San Francisco office.

And we recently had the immense pleasure of welcoming Elizabeth Jamae, one of San Francisco’s top immigration attorneys, as the newest member of our senior counsel. It’s all systems go for the rest of 2017, and we can’t wait to see what’s next.
 
Based in Los Angeles, D’Alessio Law Group is a boutique entertainment and business law firm with specialties in immigration, technology and corporate practice. To learn more, visit www.dalessiolawgroup.com, or call us at (310) 909-3934.