>> business news from the capital region, this is "washington business report" with abc7 national correspondent rebecca cooper. >> thanks for joining us for a look at businessnd finance in the washington region. this week, new economic numbers show once again in mixexed message the bureau for labor statisticshow more jobs created while we exexperienced a slower rate of economic growth in the second quarter. as the presidential candidates duke it out we will take a look at the campaign from an ternatnal perspective. talking about a hot market overseas that manyny busins leaders may be overlooking. and also tips for how you can

win in the workplace by t taking better care of yourself and better selling yourself. but first, we get to spend some time with a woman who proved the power of personal determination. marissa levin found thatt a western based communications firm known for its innovative and creative environment. for those wanting to grow their businessr wanted o. her latest book k shares some of her secret to s success. welce back. we always like having you. >> i look to be here. the last year you were part of a panel and this time weted to to focus on you. always so inspired and i just attended the national asassociation of women busisiness owners, d.c. chapter. >> the just had their annual meeting and it was so inspiring and i was just reminded of my favorite sry aut you that i think it is an inspiration. that is how you fit got motivated to start your own business.

you went to your boss armed with information about revenue you were generating for the company, ways you helped improve their growth, and you wanted a raise and he told you you wouldld never beorth mor thahan $3$34,000 a year. you we h home e that night and all your money -- husband you are ready too out a and on and you aren' generating $20 million a year in projected revenue? > it would be nice if we get 20 million but we are certainly well. >> but definitely past $34,000 mark. it is always such an amorpho title here in washington. tell us whatou do and give us a real-world example. >> information experts has been around for8 yrs. we had worked up about 1 15 dierent agencies as well as the commercial sector and we provide innovative curricular development, strategic communicatio and human capital solutions. how do we really help our government agencs anand their constituents? for example, for the deparartment

of defense, we provide the trainingng for the procurement system of the departmement of defense uses to procureny kind product they need. ether somebody in the dertment defense is ordering a pencil or an armored tank, ty need to make sure e they use thehe procement system inlacece and we provide the traraining so employees within dod know how to use t the systetem. just one exaxample. >> what do you know thatatod does not augur know ---- already know better in tererms o of buying a tank? >> we know thehe processes ohow to convey the educaonal formatioion so peoplknow how to do it. our companyoces on implementing the right process so people have access to t riright information and education anand they canake informed decisions anand be better at their jobs. >> one othe things he stressed that the conference i attenended was constantly adapting to the markets. the trick k for that, whether y you are a business owner are trying toto remain viable in the

workace, is no getting to the party when it is halfway over. how do you look at where the market is and change and adapt without being almost too late for what is going to go next? >> as a small busess, this is one of t the great benefits. we are able to pick it quickly. when we see trends coming in the market, en we see what ourur stomer requirements are. we are paying attention to what other market leaders are doing. we are able to shiftnterernally and say we need to go in this directio it is just a matter of really staying on top of theame and knowining where things are going and say we will chahange at a momement's notice to meet the needs of our clients. >> what is a way that you evolves, from what you started out to what you're doing now based the marketplace shifts? >> one examples what we are doing now. doing work with the federal gornment -- if you have worked for the goverernment another emphasis n is olowest cost and technicacally acceptable. theyey want the most cost-

effective vendorors toto provide the best solutionsns eiciently as possiblele. whatat information experts have done as an education and aining firm, we veloped a tool internanally to help our tea and r instructiononal designers design and develop e edution and training more quickly and more co effectively without compromisingng qualility. when we started takg that to our customersrs our customers actually wanted to buy our tools. >> and you developed intnally. >> had developoped it internally and we recocognize now th wee have a gold mine re. and we are now bringing it to market because our cusmers nt us to be able to devel educational materials s for them really at 60% to 70% faster and less eensive than n typical develop the costs foror web-based training. that is what we're doi bringing it to mararke >> a little t of the rececipes are willing to share with the non-paying clienents out here washington - watching today?

>> our tool called the tractor we are bringing it to market. we basically c created the best content management system that allows multiple pple -- when instructional designers work on a project,t is a very collaborive environment. a lot of pple have too touch of the product. and we have created a pce d product that allows multitiple pepeople to inputut content a audio and video and multitimedia elements collaboratively and streamline the whole eire content management process and it literallyas reduced the time t to briring training and signed to mark it from 200 hours or five weeks -- it is a really nice tool and d we are excited to bring it to the mark. >> let's talk about the book. scale stands foror certa thihings yoyou think people -- companinies need to aceve breakthroughs. the book "built to scale" is an acronym that statands for a

five--dave the 5 5-phase methodology onow small siness owners -- selt, cocompensa, associate,e, leverage, anvaluate, a bald, and exit. the reason why wrote this book this past winter is bececause two years ago o i put in an advisory board. i foun that my company was stopped at the $5 million mark. i cannot get access to the right peoplele and customers. my procees were broken. i did not know how to get past this plateau. one of my mtors said, havave you started about -- but abouan advivisory board? i did notnow what o was at the time. being a research junky i tried to research and there were a l lot of our clsn that you needn advisory board but no informrmation on how to do it. i basically crereated a model myself. at thehe e of the day i had a phenomen advisory board that literally has tnsformed my company. it helped me overall prorocesses and make sure hired the r rig peop. it broug me into clilients and

opportunities i never would hav gotten it brought me business. the are some advisor that i work with where i didot make a move withouthem. it really changed myinusiness. >> i nt to share with the audience if they want to be further inspired or when to feel really bad about their lack of productivity, you are a mother ofof two boys, your marriage has survived the working tether side-by-side. you are tired this. you consntly a helping other women srt theirir own businesses. >> iis my passion. > marissa levin, you are a force nature. >> thank you. and informationexpeperts.com -- > thank you so much. we are going to be back after the break with our weekly roundtable.

>> welcome back. it is titime for the "washington business rept" wkly roundtable to reflect on the siness new of the week. we are happy to have that one of our f favorites,j -- jennifer cz-conner, special stions producer, and najat sharafeddine, future t-

television correspspondent tererry najat, i got to know youhen i went to the root for a conference and you have been looking at the presidential race. i wanted to get your perspective. here in the uniteded states so much of the mpaign has focused onssues portant to this show -- business, theconom how people are feeling. that the prospective overseas from your vantage point? people see this as a referendum on t u.s. economy? how did they see the campaign? >> it is a d difference in lanon anand the arab worldld. y of looooking at it dferently for the election. they are very interested. theyey follow every candididate. whatat you will say abo the foreign policicy. thisis isery important. we k know for the american p people, the voters, the main isss the e economy. and d we remember the famous

rase from bill clinton -- it isis the ecoconomy, stupid. [lauaughter] so, fofor us, what is important for us is the foreign policy. because the relation between the united states and ththe ararab world, the m main issue, the conflict b between israel and the palestinians.. they wouldovee to know the future of the relation between the united states and the arab world. >> pritchett -- president o oba decided to skip the bilateral meetings that he usually holds. he went on "the view" which is a domemestic talk-ow and campaign stops t did not meet with any foforeign leaders during the general assembly. how was that ken overseas, or at least the lebanese perspective? not t that the hit -- that he did not have time, bause he had time foror "the view."

ththe voters are in the united states and the most important in the united states is the economy and to present his project to them and convince him of his points -- convince them of his point of view. buthis is not the case for the arab world and the lebanese. the lelebase and the ever world they are interesd out the press -- palestinian cause, the conflict, and ththe point t of view from obama about these issues. >> he seems to be holding his cas as he wiped it out to se if he canet to the american voteters first. jennifer nycz-connnner, speakingng of the enomy, the campaign has been very od for the virginia economy. you have beelooking at how much spending have been taking place in virginia thanks to the ce.. >> a big number. $5$53.5 milliosince the campaign began. that i is a loof money and a lotot voters if they are trd to

court. i can te you the evidence for the e number of times my telephone has been ringing. >> break it down. >> it goes all over the place. the interesting thing- $53.5 million, 10 times thanas spent in neighbori maryland right now. but what is inteterestings the money is all over the place in a sense of how much the dollars how it breaks down. from thousands of f dollars forr rent, space -- they paid about $1,600 to rent vfw when michele bachmann came, $3.million to republican fund-raiserer firm. it is all over. what is i interesting, in my colleague's story, while the money is coming in a lois going to the media comnies and raight to the ads, so it is not always been felt as a direct impactct othe local economy. >> speaking o of the trickle-down economy, we will take a break and tatalk about more subjects and i bet we will have a couple of political ads occurring during the break. but first, the federal hot

minute. >> with both financial and human resources stretched thin within federal agencies, the proven performance has emerged as a primary management initiative of the obama administration. in 2009 president's appointed jeffrey zyontz as the chief performamance officer, and in 2010, updated version of almost 20-year-old government performance and results act was signed. a year after that, the web site performance.gov, designeto be the one-stop report card on performance when live. a blog worth checking out on public-sector performance is make gov gnment better, put out by patri jackman, author of "getting things done in government." and deral news radio has a section that reports and news on the improvement council. in many cases improving performance could not happen without targeted investments and work force training and better systems. let's ho they surve b budget cuts. go

>> welcome bk for r more w with ouour roundtable. najat shaharafeddine, wanteded to

talk aboutnvestmtment opopportununitieineban. we hear more and more about violence spilling over the border from syria b but yet i have the opportutunity to v visit over the summer ani was blown away -- it is the paris of the middle east. and there are cotantly new buildings going up and the jury. granted, i got to stay at the foureasons. an amazing o opportunity 119 thahat manyny business people may be overlookin >> yes because lebanon is a small economy and we have many opportunities for investors who come from abroad. there are many factors to h help lebanoto be like that. first, the banking system. we havave the most famous and important big bankining sysm andd we had this award in 08 during the crisis, our banking system was the safest t one.

and we have an award about that. and welso h have $120 billion -- in these -- invested in these banks because it is safe.. around two times the gdp. >> what i was in beruit consumer cononfidence is alive and well. even irecession -- growth the followining year was.2% in beruit. something i just learned whenn i vited you -- i did not know how much the u.s. leads other exporter as exported to lebabanon. the last stisticscs shows we are more than twice the sisize of your next largest, china. but the gap is closing at american exporterso not move toto continue to take advantage of the market. >> yes, our market i very --e have many opportunities. yes, we have thehe problems of syria and the problems s of the tourism, which is ththe main issue

for r the lebanese. they benefit from tourirism. but at the same time, we benefit also from the banking system, as i said. and d the sesecond thing is the lebanese abroad. lebanese abroad sending money to their filies, and they moved the economy. and also $8 billion a year, which is 25% o of gd f for lebanon. >> it was an amazing city and i think i trieded help move the econy a little bit as well. [laughter] jennifer nycz-coer, i want to give it to something different. yet a great article telling peop how to better apply for any kindnd of award or nomination. you judge them from your perch at." -- purge at "washington biness journal. whatre thehe striking mistakes? >> i hate hearing t word judge, because -- judgmentatal. it iintereresting.

being fly on the ll working the "the shingtgton business jourl" pructs where we recognize different companies for achievements. to take a look at all of these nominations, coming frfrom some very high level and smart people. the missing some of the key elements. as far as numbers -- numumbers of the kething. we are a business publication so when people e are apapplying to be recognized among their peers, i was surised how many people were reluctant to put n numbers. >> 1 number of was not surpriseded by -- - someeople try to be cute about their age. everything from revenue and growth -- but if you are going to be rececognized, and for mission is the key. >> it tells the story. how big you are, where you are going, with a a " is. if you do not t want to put it out for r fear o of privacy, you are going to lose ou because your competitors are doing it and it is important to give us the informatation. if we do and of recognizing you

a paper we will ask a anyway. >> and people should read the full article. you said -- when n essays are a key to winning anan award sure, talk about h how great you are but really focus on what the award is about. >> for exampmple, what icoming up is women who mean business -- people want to say great this abouout the woman's family and her work and community. they are important but for us one of the key elements is the name -- women who need -- mean buness. what has she done to grow the business and hp the econonomy and make a material change in the econonomy locally. it is one of the things that get glossed overer for the more fluffier things.s. the abilitity to make susure the hard nuts and bolts are included. the mamarch oducerer mars says -- >> the produr -- stick wh us we will have the number of the week right after the break.

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struggling to find work in today's economy. too many of those who are working are living paycheck to paycheck trng to make falling incomes meet rising prices for food and gas. more americans are living in poverty than when president obama took office and fifteen million more are on food stamps. president obama and i both care about poor and middle-class families. the difference is my policies will make things better for them. we shouldn't measure compassion by how many people are on welfare. we should measure compassion byow many people are able to get off welfare and get a good paying job. my plan will create twelve million new jobs over the next four years helping lift families out of poverty and strengthening the middle-class. i'm mitt romney and i approve this message because we can't afford another four years like t