It’s Friday, and that means the Brag Basket is open for the weekend.
This is where you can share your projects and accomplishments. You can also cheer for other people, give shout outs, congratulate, and even give someone a well-deserved pat on the back. Lately, lots of folks have bragged on their small town.
The Brag Basket is open for everyone, whether from a small town, a big city, or anywhere in the world. (But it’s true that I love small town brags!)
Will you put something in the Brag Basket this week? You can brag on a friend, your own project, yourself, others, anything! Make it personal, and not just an ad. You don’t need special permission, and you don’t have to be from a small town. Just leave a comment right here. There’s no deadline, so you can brag anytime during the weekend, and I’ll open a fresh Brag Basket each Friday.
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The rural small business blog. We talk about small town business, with how-to articles, especially on social media marketing and making your community a better place. We use this “author” for announcements and other things you’ll want to know.
We launched two, count ’em two, new sites yesterday. The first is for a property owners association in the small (population 150) community of Cold Springs, CA. The second was a long time in the making and is for an Angels Camp, CA reseller of computer hardware and software for government, education, medical and non-profit organizations. Give them each a visit:
Cold Springs Property Owners Association: http://www.coldspringspoa.org
Main Street Technologies: http://www.main-street-tech.com
One of my small biz clients in Woodward, Scrap Addicts celebrated her first anniversary on Wednesday. Business is doing well!
Repower America held a press conference yesterday to talk about green jobs in Rural America. There’s a lot of opportunity workers and entrepreneurs. You can read more here and here.
I know I’ve shared/bragged about the coming together of Idea Anglers (http://www.ideaanglers.com) before, an online collaborative tool for small business. Well, we’re back again and with a twofold brag!
First we launched our private beta! It’s been very exciting to see months of hard work coming together just as Brad and I had envisioned! Press release about the beat can be viewed here:
http://www.ideaanglers.com/about-us/2009/8/17/idea-anglers-launches-private-beta-of-membership-site.html
Secondly, we found out late Friday that we were featured on BusinessWeek’s website as an affordable tool for small business with some HEAVY hitters! We led off the list that included Google Apps, Skype, Twitter and Batchbooks to name a few!
Link here: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/08/0814_online_business_tools/1.htm
Can’t explain the excitement!
First, a comment from Barbara Winter. She dropped it in last week’s basket, so I’ve caught it and brought it forward:
Just learned about you this week and love what you’re doing. Will be raving about you to my readers soon.
Thought some of your readers might be interested to learn that my book, (first published in 1993 and never out of print) MAKING A LIVING WITHOUT A JOB: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love is about to appear in a new, updated edition. It’s a handbook for creating and living the joyfully jobless life.
Congratulations, Barbara! It sounds like your book has never been more relevant than today. Impressive that it has never been out of print.
Now, on with all of you who beat me here today. Wow! What a great group of comments already!
Greg, congratulations on both of your new launches! They both look great. I got your Twitter request to add the hotlinks, so here they are:
Cold Springs Property Owners Association
Main Street Technologies
OkieJ, congrats to you, and to Scrap Addicts on a full year of successful business! Yay!
Mike, always great to see you here. Hooray for green jobs in rural areas! (Folks, if you haven’t checked out ReImagine Rural, go do that now.)
Neal, welcome back. Huge congrats to you and Brad on these exciting developments for Idea Anglers! You are right up front and center in that BusinessWeek feature. Wow!
Wanted to do something I don’t do often, a personal brag. Specifically about my wife, who is a pediatric oncology nurse. She has had a particularly tough week with some patients. If you had a sick child, you would want her caring for your child. She is great with both the kids and their families. During the very stressful times, she helps me realize what is really important. Our small business would not be approaching 5 years without her support.
Wow. What an amazing tribute to your wife, Paul. We all stand and applaud her dedication and caring.
Hello there, found you thru Chris Brogan’s NL, love your site. Been reading a couple of days, first comment! I love the idea of this post, it is really warm and inviting! Going to brag about me this week. I completed my first speaking gig this past week at a social media boot camp. Was really nervous, but did well and got another gig out of it. What I liked best about it was that all the speakers, who are in all the same space, were all gracious and helpful to each other. A great experience with great people a true community spirit.
Welcome, Andi! Glad you’re here. Congratulations on a successful first speaking gig. May it be the first of many wonderful experiences.
I set aside the next two weeks to leave on a vacation at the beach- no email or voicemail!
Becky,
My wife Sarah just received her degree after waiting over 30 years!(she quit school to marry me)
She raised 5-children and was a successful recreationalist, but she wanted to go back and finish what she had started.
She left her home here in Oregon and went to Utah for 8-weeks for school.
She now has the Recreation degree to go along with a lifetime of accomplishments.
I am very proud of her!
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to brag…
Oops,
I forgot to brag that she is my partner in the development of our family game: AlbinoPhant, the online white elephant gift party.
Barry, that sounds wonderful! Enjoy that feeling of freedom.
Bruce (PartyWeDo), congratulations to Sarah! That is so great that she was able to go back after 30 years. Yay!
Confidence is what this recession is all about!
The consumer wants to believe that everything will be all right. …..
that the American Dream still exists
that there will be enough money left for retirement
that energy will again be affordable
that their job will exist
UNTIL CONSUMER CONFIDENCE IS RESTORED………the american business community will suffer plain & simple.
Don’t believe that things will just turn around or that your business will somehow be spared. YOU MUST LOOK AT YOUR BUSINESS MODEL & MAKE ADJUSTMENTS NOW.
WHAT ADJUSTMENTS ARE LEFT TO BE MADE?
1) Look at the way you treat your customers (customer service) and think of ways to make the experience of buying your product or service BETTER in the eyes of your customer. Be pro active and ask your customers what more you can do for them to solve their problems & pains. Ask your prospects what you could have done better to get that sale that you just lost or the client who just left you for a competitor.
2) Price Adjustments – Better for you to have fewer sales at a lower margin of profit than no sale at all.
3) Fire up the cheap marketing machine – THE old telephone still works and a real human voice is a welcome change to cold faxes & emails and direct mailings.
4) Get out there and mix it up where your clients and prospects hang out – listen to their concerns and don’t just do a sales presentation on them. Make them realize you are hurting too.
Earl L. Sigmund CPA, President
NewBusinessLearningCenter.com
Earl, thanks for your contribution. I hope lots of small businesses take encouragement from your words.