Melinda F. Emerson, SmallBizLady, is one of America’s leading small business experts. She is an author, speaker and small business coach whose areas of expertise include small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda develops audio, video and written content to help her Fortune 500 clients engage small business customers.  She publishes a resource blog,www.succeedasyourownboss.com and hosts a weekly talk show on Twitter called #Smallbizchat for today’s entrepreneurs.  Forbes Magazine named Melinda Emerson one of the Top 20 Women for Entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. 

Melindahas been featured on MSNBC, Fox News, NBC Nightly News and in The Washington Post, New York Times, Fortune, Essence andBlack Enterprise.She is also the author of the bestselling book “Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.” She writes a monthly column for www.secondact.com, and is an instructor for the Black Enterprise Small Business University. Melinda is a graduate of Virginia Tech.