You can tell it’s her passion as you see her smile and hear the excitement in her voice. As she teaches a branding workshop her excitement ‘catches on’ to her students. “It” is teaching and sharing her knowledge to help other business owners and potential entrepreneurs market and develop their businesses. “She” is Dawn Mann, founding principal and president of Break of Day Design AD & PR LLC, (BODD) located in DeSoto, Texas.

Mann established her business in 2000. Her agency, which specializes in branding for the global sports and entertainment industries, is continuing to grow despite the recession.

“I started my business by pulling lessons from former bosses on the things that motivated me to be a good employee and what made their businesses successful,” said Mann.

With over a decade of experience in the industry, Mann first got started in business by reaching out to churches in her area. She provided marketing research for a few churches to help them determine how to make their churches grow. When those churches had great success, Mann’s business took off.

By attending several gospel awards shows, Mann met people in the industry and eventually landed a gospel recording artist as a client. Her success with that artist provided ‘word of mouth’ advertising and her business continued to grow. Mann’s hard work and perseverance paid off when she landed another major client, Dr. Ian Smith, an author. After meeting him at a conference, she e-mailed him for six months with ideas of how she could promote him in the Dallas area. She finally got her big chance when he asked her to set-up book signings in Dallas. The result was a large attendance at the signing in Dallas.

Mann takes this type of experience and shares it with new business owners to help them as they try to market their businesses. Most of them don't have enough capital to pay for expensive advertising. So Mann's information and experience gives them the initial jolt to get their businesses noticed and off of the ground. When Mann sees these businesses succeed, she knows that sharing her knowledge with them has been worthwhile.