Tag Archives: Small business

A Dream Deferred

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dream deferredby Courtney Shackleford

I think when we’re younger, we all have some beautiful dreams that we’d love to see fulfilled. We all grow up wanting to be biologists, presidents, astronauts and figure skaters. A lot of us grow up to be none of these things and instead are repairmen, bank tellers, mothers, and small business owners. Perhaps we are happy with these things, perhaps we are not.

I suppose this post- call it a letter, if you will, as it is intended to be more personal than a simple blogpost. And no, I don’t know you, but I know about dreams.

Right now, I’m told I’m taking a risk on a dream. That what I’m doing is stereotypically going to allow me to make no money, live in a box, and on food stamps. For those of you who don’t know this- many or few- I’m an art major. This apparent future I have- a future of being poor and unhappy- I don’t believe in. Ever since I made the decision to be an art major, I’ve become a better person. I am so, so happy and fortunate. I have met wonderful people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. I have fallen in love with life at a time when I couldn’t have afforded to do otherwise. I’ve followed a dream and I’ve met one of the most important people I’ll meet in my life in doing so: the person I’m supposed to be.

On the other side of that, I’ve had people tell me that my major wasn’t doing anything or that I was majoring in unemployment. I’ve had people judge me. I’ve had people look down on my for being open-minded about others. I’ll never understand why others have to be so negative to make themselves feel happier and better about themselves, but I just let them have it. It’s not worth it to me.

For me, success isn’t measured in money. I’m aware money is necessary for happiness, but from money that feeling doesn’t manifest. I know that all I need is enough and happiness will pay the rest. I know that giving back to others- that helping others find their voice, self expression, and worth- is what is going to make this life worth it to me. And that I can do that through the constant exploration of knowledge, art, and self. I’ve found these to be constant truths in my life, and I hope you’ll find what you need to carry on- as I have.

Now, I will leave you with this small anecdote and a poem.

It was senior year of high school. English class. We were reading from this huge book that we simply called, “The Brick.” In it were assorted poems. I’ll never forget this poem. When I read it, it reminded me of my father. He sits behind a desk when he would rather be living in Alaska out of a cabin, when he’d rather climb mountains or white water raft. I just know he can get so unhappy, at times.

It’s entitled, “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

After reading this, I decided to be an art major. The idea of any of these happening to me- the way I feel this has happened to my father- scares me worse than nearly anything I can think of.

So, I hope that you, too, will think of the loves in your life and pursue them. This life only comes to you once- this is your one chance to live it to its fullest.

http://shackelforce.wordpress.com
Courtney Shackelford

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What We Do | Grameen Foundation

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Grameen Foundation helps the world’s poorest, especially women, improve their lives and escape poverty by providing them with access to small loans, essential information, and viable business opportunities. Through two of the most effective tools known – small loans and the mobile phone – we work to make a real difference in the lives of those who have been left behind: poor people, especially those living on less than $1.25 per day.

We create economic opportunities for the world’s poorest.

Grameen Foundation provides microfinance institutions (MFIs) in poor communities with access to the capital they need to make micro-loans to those working to develop or expand a small business. In many of the poorest regions in the world, micro-business creation is the only way for families to escape poverty and build a better future for their children.

We build large-scale, easy-to-replicate solutions to end the cycle of poverty in developing countries around the world.

As clients repay their micro-loans, the funds are recycled into new loans, thus multiplying the number of poor people who can begin their journey out of poverty. Grameen Foundation develops and spreads technology and open-source software that can be used by professionals serving the poor to enhance efficiency and lower operating costs. Our mobile phone-based technology projects also fight “information poverty” and provide business opportunities for poor entrepreneurs. For more information on our work, please feel free to explore our 2010-2011 Annual Report.

We leverage the knowledge and expertise of local partners to create the most effective programs possible.

Grameen Foundation enhances the effectiveness of our funding and impact on communities by strengthening and supporting local organizations. We respect local ways of life by building poverty-ending programs in partnership with local organizations and leaders, rather than imposing external ideas on developing communities.

We lead the industry in measuring impact and delivering results.

Our Progress Out of Poverty IndexTM simply but accurately measures poverty levels in 38 countries. It enables MFIs and other poverty-focused organizations to better determine their clients’ needs, the effectiveness and efficiency of programs, and how quickly they are able to help people move from poverty to financial self-sufficiency. We also measure our own efficiency and receive high marks from the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator and other raters.

via What We Do | Grameen Foundation.

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Our dynamic bundle of services can take the worry out of the green business growth process. Brochures and/or proposals on each service that interests you are available by request. Flexible Billing is available

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BUSINESS PLANNING / BUSINESS BUILDING

The Green Marketing Company provides business planning and business plan development services.  Contact us for a free consultation to determine your exact needs. The Green Marketing Company’s network of business consultants is now at 15,641 and is growing by a few thousand each week, We have the international contacts to help you grow green!

What We Do
 Our dynamic bundle of services can take the worry out of the green business growth process. Brochures and/or proposals on each service that interests you are available by request. Flexible Billing is available, some services can be paid for via Google Checkout, Certified Check / Bank Wire Transfer . Terms are available for some services, 30/60/90 day billing, performance based billing, barter payment (through trade exchange). Consumer finance options are available for longer term needs to accommodate our clients (up to 12 months). Money ddoesn’t have to be a barrier to your success!  More Soon!

Build  Your Green  Business Workshop
 A unique program unlike any other, we provide an “experience” based business workshop that is customized for your particular business need (based on you information).
Everything needed for your business or service profession in one session:
 Utilizing our international network of business consultants, we provide Planning, Financing, Marketing and Management..(documents, resources and strategies)   More Soon!

90 Days to Success
 What would you like to accomplish with your business in the next 90 days? Our performance based program can help you achieve it! If not ..YOU DONT PAY FOR THE SERVICE* How can you lose? * must qualify requires business evaluation only $350  More Soon!

Business Building
 This program is for businesses with cash flow (positive or negative) that are in need rapid business growth to increase revenues and financing opportunities. Program term can be from 6 to 12 months based on your requirements (determined by business review) Cash flow increases between 20% to 55% is the primary goal of this program. The Best part… if your business qualifies, there are 0 upfront fee’s & 0 direct out of pocket cost (monthly consulting fee’s are paid from the net savings and net profit increases)  More Soon!

 Outbound Lead Development
In keeping with our performance based model, we offer an outbound calling program specifically for lead development and prospect appointment setting. Pay for results …not by the hour.  More Soon!

The Business Incubator
Through our arrangement with multiple business centers, we can now offer shared office space , executive suites, virtual offices and business support services all from fully furnished and equipped offices on an “as needed ” basis.
Joint Venture Formation – Need rapid business development and funding to get you to the next level? A strategically arranged joint venture formation can provide you with access to support and resources such as capital, equipment, marketing, branding, customers, supplies, contacts, etc… that can propel your business or venture further then the standard growth process.  More Soon!

via Our dynamic bundle of services can take the worry out of the green business growth process. Brochures and/or proposals on each service that interests you are available by request. Flexible Billing is available.

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Keep it Local – The Benefits of Using a Local Print Shop — Big Design Events

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Keep it Local – The Benefits of Using a Local Print Shop

October 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As a graphic designer that primarily focuses on print projects, I usually provide print service quotes to my clients. Recently, I have noticed one question has been coming up pretty often when it comes to print projects – Why not use an online printer or outsource the printing? While these types of printers are perfectly adequate, I do not recommend online printers or outsourcing printing to my clients.

Do I still use them? At times yes, because I have to keep my clients happy, and deliver what they want to stay in business. However, I feel there is good reason to not go the online or outsource route when it comes to printing. Here is an overview of why I prefer to use local print shops, and why your may consider it for your print needs as well.

Personalized Service

I spoke with my representative, Royce Gregory, at Walls Printing in Dallas about this topic and asked him what his number one reason to use a local print shop would be. His response was service. When you print online or outsource overseas, it is difficult to speak to a representative about what the best option for your project would be. It is also hard (and costly) to get paper samples, print proofs, and have a full understanding of what will be delivered ahead of time. For some projects, this may not be all that essential, but for a large scale print job, this is a vital step in ensuring your money is well spent.

Security

There is always a risk when you release your credit card information to an unknown third party or online. If you have been given a recommendation from a colleague who had success with an online or offshore printer, this isn’t as much of a factor. But there have been multiple online and offshore businesses that collect and disappear without delivering. If this does happen, there is very little you can do to get your money back.

Most local print shops accept payments in increments or after the project has been delivered. This establishes a higher level of trust. The printer does not get paid until the project is right. If you receive the project, and it isn’t what you wanted, you don’t have to accept it and can request a rerun of the project at no cost (given that the printer was in error). If you never receive the final product, the printer does not get paid in full.

Project Accuracy

Different paper stock can print color differently and react differently to different inks. When using an online printer, you get a one size fits all approach to the print process. The result is adequate, but not quality. Online printers only offer digital printing, which is less expensive, but is not always the appropriate print method for every project. This also limits the kinds of paper you can use when printing (for example, you cannot use a thick paper stock when printing digital because it will not run through the machine).

Sample Availability

Online and offshore printers cannot deliver color proofs or paper samples as easily as local printers, which makes it difficult to adjust your project to ensure the color and content work well with the paper selection. Shipping charges for print proofs can be expensive and timely, and usually involve an additional print charge. Paper overseas is different then the paper in the U.S. and has a tendency to print more yellow, making color matching an essential, timely, and costly step when outsourcing printing.

Social Awareness

I recently attended the HOW design conference. I was very moved by one of the sessions entitled the “Blue Q Method of Making Stuff”. The ideology was that when creating a product, you should consider the full impact of your actions. Specifically, when you work with a print vendor, you should know the kind of working conditions in place and be aware of their business practices. If you cannot see the print facilities, there is no way you can know if they are implementing proper safety measures for their employees. In the words of Blue Q Art Director Mitch Nash, is it really worth compromising someone else’s well being to save a little money on production cost?

The Green Appeal

Working with a local print shop is also a more sustainable practice. Because the printing is done locally, there is not shipping involved, and therefore less emission cost on the project. Because paper selection can be more specific, you can opt to use FSC certified sustainable papers. You can also choose to work with a printer that uses environmental friendly processes, like recycling paper and inks, minimizing water waste and disposing of inks properly.

Economic Effect

If the recent recession has shown us anything, it is that small businesses are the back bone of our economy. As a small business owner, I encourage my clients to support local businesses and use local print shops. When you support local business, you are helping your local economy succeed, which in turn creates a better community and can even create more jobs.

Cost

Most business decisions come down to one simple factor – money. Fortunately, many local print shops are pretty competitive with their pricing. More times then not, the quote I get from a local printer will beat an online printer price. Many online printers advertise low prices, but once you factor shipping, setup charges, and other fees, the project becomes much more expensive then anticipated. Also, if you tell a printer a price quote received elsewhere, many times they can bring down the cost to better meet your budget needs.

These are my thoughts. What do you think?

via Keep it Local – The Benefits of Using a Local Print Shop — Big Design Events.

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Accounting-Accountants

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Accounting and Accountants

The Green Marketing Company is building an international network of accountants and teaming up up with Intuit to provide accounting software to small and medium sized businesses. In the weeks to come Accounting-Accountants will develop its own identity, and we will create pages for every country in the world and then break it down by state and town.

Contact us today to reserve your spot today. Marketing 101: Be where your customer is looking. There are 11,100,000 global searches for the term “Accounting” and 5,000,000 global searches each month for “accountant”. When a search engine sees a hyphen it searches both terms and the combined phrase. We will be developing http://accounting-accountants.info/ as our directory for our accounting partners.

Payment Processing Mobile Credit Card Payments Credit Card Processing Online Merchant Accounts Credit Card Terminals Accept Online Payments QuickBooks Accounting Software Online Accounting Business Accounting Small Business Accounting Software Payroll Services Payroll Service Outsource Payroll How to Do Payroll Hire an Employee QuickBooks Payroll Online Payroll

Your business is your baby…we understand completely.

The Green Marketing Company believes that successful businesses are built and maintained by focusing on activities that generate revenue. Our mission is to enable our clients to focus on those activities by providing them with a full-service outsourced online accounting department to handle everything from daily bookkeeping tasks to weekly, monthly and annual financial reporting. We then integrate the marketing and accounting services to give you advanced reporting capabilities so you can make the best decisions possible regarding the growth and development of your business.

Accounting is an extremely important ingredient in the marketing mix. Without accountability your seemingly successful business can plow into a wall at light speed. We help you keep it simple. Test your price, product, place and promotion, analyze the results and adjust accordingly. When your marketing and accounting go hand in hand your chances for success dramatically increase.

The Green Marketing Company is an approved Intuit Service Provider. We are teaming up with QuickBooks Certified Pro Advisors through out the world to assist our clients in analyzing their business growth in order to maintain control while expanding. Intuit is the Leader in Small business accounting, online accounting, business accounting and accounting software.

A certified QuickBooks Enterprise Solution Provider can:

  • Identify processes that can simplify operations with flexible reporting, batch invoicing, and expanded user controls
  • Provide consultation services to analyze your needs for advanced inventory capabilities and productivity tools that improve functionality of small business accounting.
  • Lower your total cost of ownership by diagnosing your requirements for expanded functionality that lets you save time and stay more organized with scalability to support up to 30 simultaneous users and track hundreds of thousands of customers, vendors, and inventory items – more than six times the capacity of any other QuickBooks product Learn More

A certified Retail Solution Provider can help you:

  • Lower your total cost of ownership – diagnosing your requirements for easy access to data, in-store and mobile credit card management, and integrated reporting tools
  • Identify and purchase the right Intuit retail solution to simplify your small business accounting and operations
  • Install, set up, and configure your Intuit software plus other hardware
  • Train your users and speed implementation time by integrating online accounting and other cutting edge techniques.
  • Migrate your existing business data and integrate your new online accounting solution
  • Provide ongoing support

Learn More

A Solution Provider can help you:

  • Identify the value and cost savings available from Intuit’s small business accounting and Payroll solutions
  • Demonstrate the increased efficiencies realized from seamless integration with QuickBooks, tax filings, and payments
  • Lower your risks with Intuit’s no penalties guarantee
  • Train your users on how to take advantage of improved reporting and automatic updates to accounting information

Learn More

Solution Providers can help you increase profits and improve cash flow.

Contact The Green Marketing Company Today

via Accounting-Accountants.

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Writing A Business Plan – Marketing Plan Section Of Business Plan

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Writing The Business Plan: Section

The easiest way to develop your marketing plan is to work through each of these sections, referring to the market research you completed when you were writing the previous sections of the business plan.

(Note that if you are developing a marketing plan on its own, rather than as part of a business plan, the marketing plan will also need to include a Target Market and a Competitive Analysis section. You can find out how to do these sections of the marketing plan in “Writing The Market Analysis Section of The Business Plan” and “Writing The Competitive Analysis Section”.)

Products and/or Services

This part of the marketing plan focuses on the uniqueness of your product or service, and how the customer will benefit from using the products or services you’re offering. Use these questions to write a paragraph summarizing these aspects for your marketing plan:

What are the features of your product or service?

Describe the physical attributes of your product or service, and any other relevant features, such as what it does, or how your product or service differs from competitive products or services.

How will your product or service benefit the customer?

Remember that benefits can be intangible as well as tangible; for instance, if you’re selling a cleaning product, your customers will benefit by having a cleaner house, but they may also benefit by enjoying better health. Brainstorm as many benefits as possible to begin with, and then choose to emphasize the benefits that your targeted customers will most appreciate in your marketing plan.

What is it that sets your product or service apart from all the rest? In other words, what is your Unique Selling Proposition, the message you want your customers to receive about your product or service that is the heart of your marketing plan? The marketing plan is all about communicating this central message to your customers.

Continue onto page 2 to learn how to set a pricing strategy for your products or services.

What are the features of your product or service?

Describe the physical attributes of your product or service, and any other relevant features, such as what it does, or how your product or service differs from competitive products or services.

How will your product or service benefit the customer?

Remember that benefits can be intangible as well as tangible; for instance, if you’re selling a cleaning product, your customers will benefit by having a cleaner house, but they may also benefit by enjoying better health. Brainstorm as many benefits as possible to begin with, and then choose to emphasize the benefits that your targeted customers will most appreciate in your marketing plan.

What is it that sets your product or service apart from all the rest? In other words, what is your Unique Selling Proposition, the message you want your customers to receive about your product or service that is the heart of your marketing plan? The marketing plan is all about communicating this central message to your customers.

Continue onto page 2 to learn how to set a pricing strategy for your products or services.

via Writing A Business Plan – Marketing Plan Section Of Business Plan.

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Marketing

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Marketing

If your local market is typical, youve probably noticed the number of eating establishments in your area increasing at a faster rate than the number of people available to frequent them. As an independent operator, chances are you dont just have more competition, but in particular, more competition from chain operators who are very focused on capturing market share and have the marketing budgets to get lots of attention.While the chains can be serious competitors, independents have definite advantages. Youll learn strategies and tactics to take advantage of your independent status and ways to effectively market and promote your restaurant without resorting to the traditional means of expensive and often ineffective mass media advertising.Our objective in this section is to bring to light many approaches and ideas for you to consider in the area of increasing customer counts and sales volume through creative and “low cost” marketing and promotional activities.As you know, marketing a restaurant is not an exact science. What works for one restaurant, may not work for another. But what we do know is that doing nothing fails 100% of the time.A key component of successful restaurant marketing is to keep trying. Constantly experimenting with inexpensive ways of attracting attention and creating interest in your restaurant will eventually lead to positive results. Well give you a wide variety of proven ways to enhance your marketing skills and create more customers.

via Marketing.

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