North Bay Business Journal

Social media isn’t magic. It won’t fix a broken product or business model. It’s simply a reflection of you and your business.

That said, a social media campaign wouldn’t be successful without a well-thought-out road map for success. Just like having a business plan, planning your social media actions gives you greater odds of achieving your goals.

How many times have you mumbled to yourself about your inadequate delegation skills … how a project went off the rails because you failed to properly delegate some of its most important elements? Not often enough, probably, because most of the time, we complain that “he just can’t be counted on” … or, “she doesn’t get it” … or something like “they can’t ever seem to follow through.” We think we’ve clearly spelled everything out and getting it done should be a no-brainer. But, have we?

(This is the first in a series of four articles on the Four Cornerstones for Business Success.) There are very few (if any) shortcuts, easy answers or simple solutions to the demanding complexities of starting, growing and leading a successful enterprise.

Media headlines, email promotions and book jacket covers might suggest that someone has discovered a breakthrough method for guaranteed success, but genuinely new concepts are few and far between.

To be sure, there’s new packaging, new perspectives, and new insights that are welcome and valuable, but the stuff of managing and leading is much more about doing the hard work, mastering the fundamentals on a consistent basis, than about the application of a new technique or program.

I mentioned in a previous column that we all have a tendency to wear blinders about certain aspects of our jobs or businesses, usually that which we regard as uncomfortable or distasteful. But sometimes we fail to see something because it is completely unthinkable.

Does the current bullish market awaken latent urges in you for bigger returns in your portfolio? If so, you’ll be interested in the new science of neuroeconomics and current research about investor behavior and emotions. Jason Zweig , personal finance Wall Street Journal columnist and author of Your Money and Your Brain: How the Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich, has researched a new discipline called neuroeconomics, combining biology, psychology and economics to explore why investors make emotionally-charged financial decisions.

Nearly every major health care provider in the region has recently opened a new clinic or outpatient center, and numerous others have said plans are under way for similar expansions, reflecting a concerted effort by providers to move outside of the hospital setting. …

Marin General Hospital recently opened the Baden Diabetes Center, an outpatient program that provides self-management skills, treatment and on-going guidance for patients with diabetes. …

NorthBay Healthcare is in the process of developing a new medical office building in Fairfield adjacent to its administrative center at 4500 Business Center Dr. …

St. Joseph Health recently completed the move if its Memorial Hospice program to 439 College Ave. in Santa Rosa, where it will occupy 12,000 square feet. …

Northern California Center for Well-Being will hold its third annual Workforce Wellness Symposium this month at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. …

Agavé Garden (agavegarden.com) is not grape wine, but it is fermented in local wine country and shipped in wine bottles. It’s not distilled like tequila, but it is made from organic syrup of Agavé tequilana weber, or blue agave. This “fine agavé wine” is the work of custom vintner Owl Ridge Wine Services of Sebastopol. …

Large-scale custom winemaking company The Vintners Group, which operates Carneros Vintners, purchased a 600,000-gallon winery it had been renting from the VinREIT division of Entertainment Properties Trust since the middle of last year. …

Karissa Kruse, who has been marketing director for Sonoma County Winegrape Commission since August and instrumental in the rollout of the Sonoma County branding campaign, is set be the 1,800-plus-member organization’s next president on May 1. She replaces Nick Frey. …

The anticipated Kendall-Jackson bistro and tasting lounge is coming to the Healdsburg plaza area around the end of this month. The 55-seat restaurant, called Partake by K-J (partakebykj.com), is set to open March 25 at 241 Healdsburg Ave. …

La Follette Wines (lafollettewines.com), launched in 2010 by Tandem creator Greg La Follette, is set to open a tasting room with private and public tasting events March 15–17 at The Barlow industrial-retail redevelopment in Sebastopol. …

The 17th annual Premiere Napa Valley charity auction by Napa Valley Vintners in late February took in $3.04 million, nearly matching last year’s record. …

A total of $483,500 in proceeds from the 2012 Sonoma Wine Country Weekend charity food and wine events. …

A 9-liter bottle of 2010 Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors pinot noir was auctioned for a Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo record $205,000. …

Imagine a year in which the San Francisco Giants don’t look that great, but to everyone’s surprise, they clinch their division, make it to the World Series — and win. Imagine that in the very same year the 49ers look pathetic then somehow get better, win their league and finally make it to the Super Bowl — and almost win. Combine all that baseball and football excitement, and you’d have the runup to the 2012 winegrape harvest Super World Bowl.

Winemakers often associate low yields with higher quality, but it doesn’t always work that way. The bounty of 2012, in contrast to that of 2005, came after two light harvests and when consumer demand was starting to revive. Most wineries were delighted to get the extra volume.

SAN RAFAEL — In the Dominican Republic and its troubled neighbor Haiti people whisper about a vast, untapped source of oil, mysteriously ignored by the government and foreign mining teams.

The North Bay office of Burr Pilger Mayer is taking part in the launch of a new “Nonprofit Education Series,” a six-part educational program focusing on financial risks and strategies specific to the nonprofit sector. …

The Internal Revenue Service has released data reflecting electronic tax filing last year, showing a trend towards Web-based filing services while anticipating usage of its Web and mobile offerings in 2013. …

The federal tax treatment of charitable contributions was the subject of a recent report by the staff of the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, outlining the impact of the related deduction and casting a spotlight on an issue that has been closely watched by the nation’s nonprofits. …

A partner at St. Helena’s Brotemarkle, Davis & Company has received the President’s Volunteer Service Award, recognizing his history in helping to teach financial literacy to high school students in Napa County, according to an announcement from the firm. …

Russian River Brewing Co.’s cult-like Pliny the Younger, a rare triple IPA, has received yet another accolade, this one coming from state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa. …

The Napa Winery Inn has joined the Ascend Hotel Collection, a portfolio of independent hotels from Choice Hotels International, giving the portfolio its first property in the Napa Valley. …

Passenger volume at the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport in January was 2.4 percent higher than a year before and up 33.9 percent since the same month in 2008 after airline service returned. …

La Condesa, a farm-to-table restaurant in St. Helena, hired Chris Mortenson as its new executive chef. …

A website has been launched to promote downtown Napa’s riverfront, www.NapasRiverfront.com, including information on everything from retail promotions and product offerings to special events and lodging information. …

Many aspects of life require careful consideration and balancing of the tradeoffs that arise from competing demands. For example, a common lifestyle tradeoff is working longer hours versus spending more time with your family.

The competing demands within this decision are the income necessary to provide a suitable quality of life for your family versus the immeasurable benefits of quality time spent with them. There is no right answer, but most people understand the tradeoff and attempt to find the balance that is right for them.

The Petaluma Health Center recently received recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance for being a “Patient Centered Health Home” for the care provided to patients in Sonoma and Marin counties. …

Santa Rosa Community Health Centers was awarded The Joint Commission’s “Gold Seal of Approval” for accreditation. …

Petaluma-based WellFX announced that United Health Centers of the San Joaquin Valley, a federally qualified community health center serving a patient population of 50,000, will launch the startup’s online social platform for its patients and employees. …

Queen of the Valley Medical Center Foundation was awarded a $500,000 give from The V Foundation for Cancer Research to support the Napa hospital’s clinical laboratory and pathology services in the forthcoming Herman Family Pavilion, a 72,000 square-foot facility currently under construction. …

Fairfield-based NorthBay Healthcare is seeking designation as an Emergency Department Approved for Pediatrics for its NorthBay Medical Center, considered a best practice that will enhance the nonprofit health system’s trauma services. …

A date has been set for a do-over in labor elections between the National Union of Healthcare Workers and Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West at Kaiser Permanente facilities in Northern California, including more than 4,700 workers in the North Bay. …

The value of a company is in its innovation, product, and market position. I believe the most often overlooked asset is the staff. They create your goods, provide your service, have direct contact with the customer, and represent your brand everywhere they go online and off. They impact your business in a multitude of ways on a daily basis. Investing in their business education is critical to your success.

Santa Rosa’s Exchange Bank announced that net income for all of 2012 had risen slightly versus income for 2011, meeting the bank’s projections despite a lukewarm demand for financing from both households and businesses. …

Net income at Novato-based Bank of Marin was up 14.5 percent in 2012 compared to 2011, with $17.8 million representing $3.28 per share, according to an announcement by the bank. …

Year-over-year net income rose 55 percent for Santa Rosa’s Summit State Bank, a period that president and CEO Tom Duryea called “the best year yet in our 38-year history.” …

Citing challenges of a low-interest-rate environment, San Rafael-based Westamerica Bank announced that 2012 net income had slipped 7.7 percent from 2011. …

Bank of Napa, N.A. announced record profit in 2012, with net income up by more than two-thirds from the year before. …

Dixon-based First Northern Bank announced that net income of $4.6 million for all of 2012 marked a 70.4 percent increase versus net income in 2011. …

Total assets as of Dec. 31 were $831.5 million, up $50.3 million — 6.4 percent — compared to one year prior. Total deposits were $730.8 million, up 7.6 percent from the same period in 2011. …

Annual net assets rose 15.82 percent for Santa Rosa’s Community First Credit Union comparing 2012 to 2011, reaching $150.63 million in a period of rapid growth for the lender, according to an announcement. …

Partnership Health Plan of California, a Fairfield-based managed Medi-Cal plan, has petitioned the state for further expansion, hoping to include Lake and six other Northern California counties, in addition to the six North Coast counties already in its network. …

Woodruff Sawyer & Co. of Novato is holding an seminar to discuss health care reform for employers, with subject matter including compliance with the Affordable Care Act, the California State Exchange and private exchanges, benefit design strategies, major employer issues for 2014, and other matters. …

Kristina Keck has joined Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. in the firm’s employee benefits practice as account executive, retirement plans. …

Covered California, the state’s insurance exchange set up under health care reform, plans to provide grants totaling $43 million for community groups to help spread the world of the exchange and how it will work. …

Insurance experts have questioned whether the penalty levied on individuals and business for not obtaining health insurance as part of the Affordable Care Act would be enough of an incentive, but a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that would be. …

The beginning of the year is a natural time of transition. Now that the frenzy of the holiday season has passed, it’s a time of re-focusing and getting back down to business. Whether or not you’ve made (or already broken) New Year’s resolutions, this is a good time to re-assess your goals for your business or career and perhaps set new ones. Did you meet your goals for last year? Did your business grow? If not, why? What do you want to accomplish this year? How about in the first 90 days of 2013?

On a recent morning, I headed to a favorite place just down the street to fetch a couple of lattes for my wife and me. Our forebearers would have awakened in woolen underwear, stepped in the dark onto a cold dirt floor, and stumbled outside to chop some wood to start a fire in the cook stove balanced on the rocks outside.

The New Year is a great time to seize the opportunity of hitting your “refresh” button. Although it’s certainly something we can do any time, a new year is a natural time to make a fresh start, to take stock of what’s important to you, what you’re doing, and why. When we clarify our values as individuals, we can then update, re-prioritize or renew our commitment to the things we hold dear.

Clearly, the U.S. and global economy are still in a slow-growth recovery period, but there is some reason to be optimistic that 2013 could be a turning point in the long climb out of the Great Recession. After six years of decline, the housing market appears to have finally bottomed out in 2012. The inventory of homes on the market is down 20 percent or more from a year ago, and sales of existing single-family homes jumped 11 percent in 2012.