Back To School?! Consider Teaching This Fall

06112006220
Originally uploaded by DerwinMcH.

September means back to school for kids and adults. Sometimes to move further in your business, you may need to take a class or two. However, experience is often the best teacher. There is value in your years of experience and passion, and this fall you may want to teach a class instead of taking a class. It really doesn’t matter if you are an expert in knitting or networking, there is probably a place where you can teach what you know.
Check online for continuing education programs at community centers, colleges, conferences, writing schools, senior centers, nonprofit agencies and see where can teach. Ask around or even consider teaching someone in exchange for other business services that you need.

If money is not an issue, consider volunteering your services and sharing your knowledge with others. Teaching is one the best ways to validate your expertise to others.

Cupcakes For A Cause

Practicing for Nana’s 90th
Originally uploaded by Busy Baking.

The Fourth Annual Cupcakes For A Cause is October 15 through October 21. This is a fun weeklong event in which participating bakeries and stores across the US will sell specially decorated cupcakes and donate a portion of the proceeds from their sale to CancerCare for Kids.

In addition, companies and individuals are also invited to sponsor bake sales to help raise funds for the program.

In New York, Crumbs Bakeshop will be the “spokesbakery”, and check out the
Cupcakes Take The Cake Blog that I run with my friends, Allison and Rachel.

Bookkeeping Tip: If you make donations to this or any other charity, make payment via credit or debit card or get a receipt if it a cash donation.

Small Business Conferences

Conferences are great way to meet new people, develop new business and market yourself.  There are two upcoming conferences this fall that you want to check out.

The New York Times and American Express’ Open is hosting a Small Business Summit on October 10 at the Sheraton New York.  Keynote Speakers are Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group and Tom Scott of Nantucket Nectars and Plum TV. Registration is open and the fee is $99.

The New York XPo for Business is more of a small business trade show.  There will also breakout on technology, small business financing and healthcare. The even is Wednesday November 28. Registration is open and it is free to attend, but it costs to be a vendor. I attended this last year, and it was informative, but there is more of an emphasis on selling services.

Selling Online

Selling products is quick and easy, but you may want to review the legal aspects of selling online.

Safeselling.org offers a resource for business people launching ecommerce enterprises and for businesses venturing into online sales. First-time entrepreneurs and established small to medium-sized business expanding their horizons should find helpful information on this site about selling goods and services online.

And if you are fed up with eBay fees, then you want to try selling on eCrater.

GreenPay

It’s plastic and it’s green! There is a green credit card, GreenPay ,which is made of out recycled plastic. The card promises to help reduce carbon and here are the details:

• 10 pounds of CO₂ reduction for each $1 of eligible net purchases for gasoline and household utilities
• 5 pounds of CO₂ reduction for each $1 of other eligible net purchases *
• New account bonus: 10,000 pounds of CO₂ (which is the average annual CO₂ emission of a car in the U.S.)¹ will be removed as a bonus for your first card purchase
• CO₂ reductions are independently certified

I am not sure how much this helps the environment, but I applaud Mastercard for taking a step in the right direction. BTW, if you do get the card, request that you get credit card statements emailed to you and pay online to reduce paper.

Today’s Flood: How Does It Affect Your Home Business

Some people in New York City were awaken this morning to a torrential downpour that caused major delays. However, if you are a freelance or home-based business, you may not have had to deal with a commute, but maybe other damages and financial loss occurred.If you own your home, and don’t have flood insurance, then get it now. FEMA sets the rates for flood insurance and premiums are low. Check out FloodSmart.gov to  estimate your premium and find an agent.

If you don’t own but experience business loss, then make a estimate of the loss and record it now as an expense. Any receipts relating to the expense (i.e., Home Depot) should be recorded. Then talk to your CPA or tax professional about how to submit for tax purposes.

clipped from home-equity.interest.com Flood insurance: Get it before you’re soggy More than 200,000 people from Maryland to New York were forced from their homes last summer after torrential rains sent rivers and streams flowing well beyond their banks. How many of those victims protected the equity in their homes with flood insurance? And how many faced big financial losses because they didn’t? The fact is, most homeowners only get flood insurance if their mortgage companies force them to buy it.

Clipmarks, Forbes and Me

I love Clipmarks! I have been using here on this blog and some of my other blogs for the past couple of month. I love it because it is a efficient way to link to content from other sites. Now I here that Forbes.com loves Clipmarks, too.

clipped from www.paidcontent.org What is happening is that Forbes.com will integrate Clipmarks’ service into its site. And Macnamee elaborates a bit on the slightly-tangential reasoning of using such a service: “Forbes is committed to transforming business journalism so that our audience gets more insight about business and investing in a lot less time. We think Clipmarks will play a really key role in this. We are committed to supporting Eric and his team as the continue to develop the Clipmarks site. In addition, they will embed the technology in the Forbes.com site to ensure that this amazing functionality is available to our editors and readers.”

Vote To Boost A Business

Forbes.com has a contest where entrepreneurs have submitted business plans and readers can vote for the best small business plan. One of my clients Lindsay Mure of The Femme Network is one of the contestants. All of the plans are available for review at www.forbes.com/boostyourbiz. The winner will receive100,000! The contest is sponsored by HP.

PSFK Conference LA: September 18

In March I volunteered/attended the first PSFK conference in New York and it was one of the most informative, interesting and well-organized conferences that I ever attended. The next PSFK conference is in LA, and the roster of speakers and panelists is stellar.

“PSFK presents a series of presentations and discussions by leading innovators over the course of a day. We have invited some of the most brilliant thinkers who will lead tomorrow’s businesses to speak to an audience from the creative, media communities.

In the morning our speakers and panelists will explore new trends in areas like digital media and eco-consciousness; and in the afternoon the speakers will provide inspiration on how to apply the insights gained from looking at trends and ideas and applying them for new creative ideas.”

Speaker Line Up Thus Far

Rafat Ali (PaidContent.org)
Shana Nys Dambrot (Flavorpill LA)
Andrew Delaney (Getty Images)
John Doffing (Start Soma)
Roberto Espinosa
Shepard Fairey (Studio Number One)
Conn Fishburn (Yahoo!)
Kinsey
Adam Gayner (Fred Water)
David Merkoski (Frog Design)
Jeff Miller (Thrillist LA)
Mike Monello (Campfire)
Missy (Suicide Girls) – tbc
Kenny Ochoa (Sony BMG)
Jason Oberfest (Los Angeles Times)
Adriana Parcero (Nokia)
Mr George Parker (Madscam)
Tony Pierce (LAist)
Emmanuelle Richard (Vogue)
Aaron Rose
Jean-Marie Shields (Starbucks)
Lenny Stern (SS+K)

You can register here.

Balancing Act For Entrepreneurs

This article is part of The Street’s Small Business Soap series that is doing about Treats Truck, which is one of my bookkeeping clients.

 

 

clipped from www.thestreet.com

Kim Ima’s Treats Truck has had her working 17-hour days since it kicked off earlier this summer.

“The one thing I would change about my business would be to set aside a couple hours a day for my office,” says Ima.

For a start-up, she says, it’s common for the owner to wear the “worker bee” hat too much and neglect the hat that started the business in the first place: the entrepreneur.

Ima often finds herself baking from early morning and selling through the day.

It’s hard prying herself away from the truck because “to see me actually working in the truck has its appeal
[to customers]
,” says Ima, who enjoys the personal interaction, but realizes the importance of focusing on her company’s operations.

Finding the Balance

Too often Ima feels like she is just playing catch-up while finishing tasks the day before they need to get done.

Before launching the truck, “I used to have a lot of time to make plans
[for the business]
and network,” she says.

I would suggest that Kim finds a way to delegate more to employees in order to carve out time for more business development.