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Ron Wacks
Co-Founder, CEO
Ron P. Wacks, a native of the San Francisco bay area, has served in various leadership positions on (24) boards of directors, commissions and task forces since 1970. He has extensive experience in program and policy development, strategic planning, resource and partnership development, advocacy, legislative development, organizational improvement, curriculum development, customer service, public speaking and training, large event coordination, volunteer program management, creative & resourceful problem solving and elite power networking.
Ron has spent the past 37 years working in the non-profit world and became an entrepreneur in 1978. Ron spent many of those years developing a higher level of networking and partnership development skills, which led him to write a definitive workbook entitled "Power Networking: How to Solve any Problem by Connecting with the Right Person". Ron uses his book as a guide in workshops and seminars he teaches around the country and helps businesses and organizations to apply these strategies. Ron works exclusively by referral and has not placed an “advertisement” for his services since 1978.
Ron was one of eight Featured Speakers at the International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (IFIA) Conference in Budapest, Hungary on August 10-11, 2007. The IFIA membership represents 84 countries and the 2007 Conference theme was Innovation in the Age of Globalization. Ron’s topic was Innovation and Microbusinesses. The title of his presentation to this international audience was “Microbusinesses are from Venus; Big Business is from Pluto”.
Ron has authored hundreds of articles and facilitated workshops and seminars on many topics dating back to 1971. Ron published his first major white paper in 1984 called “The Fundamentals of Volunteer Program Management”. Ron recently authored “Trade Show Myths and Truths” which was published in India in 2006. Ron published a two-part piece in 2005 called “Summer Conversations in Eleven States” after interviewing entrepreneurs in eleven states and published the common themes of those interviews. Ron also authored a two-part feature in 2005 that discussed the lack of affordable health care coverage for small business. He also published a controversial two-part series “Why Take a Stand?” that featured a discussion of one of the most crucial, high profile Intellectual Property law suits in the U.S.
Ron is Co-founder and CEO of the Microbusiness Strategies Group of Companies. Headquartered in Minnesota, the “Strategies” Group of Companies employs these 'Power Networking' concepts, tactics and strategies to help those who serve the microbusiness demographic, market, and constituency in a mutual interest with microbusinesses.
Ron served for eight years as President and CEO of the American Association of Microbusinesses, a non-profit professional association of microbusinesses and entrepreneurs. Ron oversaw the educational curriculum, partnership development, and general operations of the association including chairing its Board of Directors. He also co-chaired its annual Small Business Expo & Conference, the largest small business event in the Midwest…that started in 1999 in a school gym.
In 2003, the United States Small Business Administration recognized Ron for his work with home-based microbusinesses by awarding him the Home-Based Business Advocate of the Year awards for Minnesota and the Midwest Region. In January of 2005, Ron was also named to the Board of Directors of the New York-based Microbusiness Research Institute where he currently serves as its Vice-Chair.
Ron was also recognized in 2004 by the Aspen Institute in Washington D.C. in its Best Practice Guide for entrepreneurial service providers called, "Staying Connected: Building Entrepreneurial Networks”.
Ron is frequently quoted as a regional and national microbusiness leader and speaks on issues which affect microbusinesses including affordable health care, access to capital, rural economic development, entrepreneurial best practices, partnership development, home-based business issues, entrepreneurial innovation, young entrepreneur mentoring and elite Power Networking.
To represent American entrepreneurs, Ron filed an Amicus Curiae Brief in January 2004 to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of the free use of the word “entrepreneur” in the EMI vs. Scott Smith case. Ron was in court on February 7, 2007, in Sacramento, California and continues to be involved.
In 2006, Ron co-hosted “MicroBiz Live”, a national weekly pilot radio program that covered an array of microbusiness feature stories and vital issues.
Ron is also a trained chef and lives in Minneapolis with his 15 year-old daughter, Alyssea. | 
