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- Heelskinz, LLP
Heelskinz™ is the fashionable way to protect the heel on your favorite pumps! Heelskinz™ easily slips on and off to guard against a torn and scuffed heel when driving your car. Use the handy, elegant pouch to keep a Heelskinz™ in your purse or glove box and prevent another scuff mark! You might even want to keep it on for that Unique and Sophisticated look!
- Money abounds for tech women
For companies seeking capital these days, there’s some good news: In the first three quarters of 2008, venture capitalists invested a total of $22.3 billion in early-stage companies--just 4% less than they invested during the same period in 2007, reports Forbes.
If your company is in certain promising sectors, you can still hope to get VC. What sectors are hot? For VCs with a longer investment time frame, energy technology is huge. In fact, VCs have invested $2.1 billion in alternative energy technologies in the last 3 quarters—double the figure invested during the same period in 2007. The election of Barack Obama, who made energy a focus of his campaign, has strengthened investors’ confidence in this industry for the future. Another hot long-term investment is "green" construction and related technologies, products or services.
For shorter-term investors—who will be looking to see results in as little as six months--energy efficient devices such as sensors, controls and lighting are popular. And entertainment-focused technology, which includes everything from hardware to software, is hot as well, since in a bad economy, consumers tend to stay home for their entertainment.
Finally, in IT, "cloud computing,” including on-demand software or "software as a service,” is expected to remain strong because it enables companies to greatly cut software costs.
If your company is in one of these arenas, 2009 just might be your year to grow.
- A Smashing Success
Do you feel stressed enough to smash things some days? If you live in San Diego, you could visit Sarah Lavely’s business, Sarah’s Smash Shack.
Lavely’s shop lets customers pay to go into soundproofed rooms and throw plates, glasses, vases and goblets against a wall.
Fortune Small Business spotlighted Lavely’s business in this article. Lavely says always liked smashing things as a child, and “broke a lot of stuff” during her divorce—which was when she got the idea for the Smash Shack.
"I wished there was someplace I could go and [break stuff], just go nuts," she says. "I was sure other people felt like that at times, and I thought I should open a shop where you could do that."
Lavely, 38, and partner Ed King, 34, launched the store August 1. Customers wear safety gear when breaking the dinnerware, and can hook up their iPods to a sound system in the rooms. They choose from items like The House Special (15 plates in 15 minutes for $45), the Six Shooter (six rapid-fire wine glasses for $12) or the Juggernaut (two large jugs for $12.)
I’ve always said that if you think there’s a need for a product, chances are there are other people who agree with you—and if you can find enough of them, you’ve got a business idea. So far, Lavely’s story seems to prove the point. Surprisingly, despite the fact that the economy has been tanking rapidly since the shop opened, and you might not think people have $45 to spend on throwing plates, Lavely says business has increased steadily, with every night busier than the last. She says groups of people visit from as far away as Los Angeles, smash things, and “walk away feeling pretty good.”
- Innovative companies can win $100,000--if you live in PA (or want to move there)
Does your company have an innovative product or process you’re seeking to bring to market? Could you use $100,000 to help do it? The Ben Franklin Technology Partnership Program’s Big Idea Business Plan Competition targets innovative companies that are either located in, or willing to relocate to, specific regions in Pennsylvania.
Although the contest is open to all types of businesses, the judges are particularly interested in technology companies in these fields: Alternative energy, information technology, advanced materials and manufacturing, nanotechnology, green technology, software and medical devices.
To be considered, you must have sales of $500,000 and provide a business plan. The winner receives $100,000, which must be used to develop the product or process. For more information and to enter, click here. The deadline to apply is December 17, so don’t waste any time!
- SchoolHeart
SchoolHeart allows you to build your own business.
Part time or full time.
http://www.burnett.schoolheart.com/
Read more!!! We want to help nonprofits, schools, and religious
organizations. If you are a self starter, you should look at our
program. We are introducing this program NATIONWIDE!
- I need great peopel with a professional attitude!
Looking for great people to help with Funding the Heart of America. Just google the name, SchoolHeart or The hCard. We are Funding the Heart of America and need more professional Area Managers. - Let's Get Started
If you are NOT (yet) an entrepreneur—this column is for you. I don’t mean to alarm, depress or frighten you, but if you’re an employee today, you’re in jeopardy. I just looked at the homepage of BizJournals.com (on Wednesday, December 3) and I was met with the news that United Airlines, Adobe, The Carlyle Group and American Capital announced they were laying off over 2,000 workers. And that’s just today’s headlines.
Maybe your employer is in fine financial shape and you really have no need to worry. But how many of you can really say that? I heard some financial expert on MSNBC say tonight that he assumes the financial crisis will be over “sometime in Obama’s first term.” That’s a four year window!
So, as I said, my aim is not to upset you. I want to offer a solution—start your own business. Yes, really. I know many of you might be thinking that a recession is hardly the best time to start a business, but you’d be wrong, it actually can be a great time to get started.
Of course it’s not going to be easy, but business startup rarely is, even when times are flush. Know going in that it’s very likely no one is going to give you startup money. The sad truth is, about 80 percent of all startup businesses are self-funded, or with help from family and friends