Small & Disabled Veteran Businesses Power California Economy | Study, C.S.U.S.

Below is a summary of the study commissioned by the state Department of General Services. The study was just released, but is based on 2006-07 data, so a more appropriate title may have been “Small Business Used To Power California Economy”. The study contains no comment on how state I.O.U.s are going to affect these business powerhouses.

Small & Disabled Veteran Businesses Power California Economy

New study details billions of dollars of economic activity, and tens of thousands of new jobs, created by the state’s contracting efforts

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A new study details the financial impact of the state’s efforts to increase small and disabled veteran business enterprise participation in the state’s goods and services purchasing. The analysis of results from the 2006-07 fiscal year shows how small and disabled veteran businesses enterprises produce about 50 percent more overall California economic impact for each dollar spent than large enterprises. The report also offers a picture of how much this activity increased overall business tax revenues across California’s economy, and how it affected different sectors of the state’s economy.

“The State’s efforts to contract with smaller business created a powerful multiplier effect,” said Jim Butler, that state’s Chief Procurement Officer. “$4.2 billion in new economic activity of all kinds was produced in California by the state spending around $2.66 billion-and 25,617 jobs were created.”

Read the study here.

Continue reading “Small & Disabled Veteran Businesses Power California Economy | Study, C.S.U.S.”

5 Easy Things to Test to Get a Better Response in Your Email Marketing Campaigns | Vertical Response

Testing something new or changing something seemingly small in your email campaigns can definitely tell you something about how your recipients will respond. You’ll either get more open & clicks or you won’t. But you won’t know until you try.

Testing something new can SEEM like a lot of work but it’s really not. If you’re going to create an email marketing campaign anyway, it’s just three more tiny steps.

One: Make a copy of the campaign you’re creating
Two: Change a little part of the campaign (see below)
Three: Test with a small portion of your list or split your list in two

These three simple steps could get you a better response to your next email campaign and it takes just minutes for you to do. Unleash the mad scientist in you with these 5 easy things to test within your next email marketing campaign.
Continue reading “5 Easy Things to Test to Get a Better Response in Your Email Marketing Campaigns | Vertical Response”

Wells Fargo’s America’s Recovery Capital SBA Loan Application | Marty Gronewald

Our friend Marty Gronewald just forwarded us Well Fargo’s ARC loan application. He said none of the local branches had a clue about it but he was able to ferret out the information for us.

It is encouraging the have an application, but in the early paragraphs it says that the program is subject to the banks underwriting rules which would mean that they would never actually loan the money.

If you’d like to brave this adventure, click here to view the application. Right click on the ‘click here’ to save it to your computer. It’s a standard package, so you could send it to multiple lenders.

If anyone gets funded with this program, please let us know. We would love to spread the good news!

Reading List |The Art of the Start

The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything.
By Guy Kawasaki
Publish: Portfolio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.2004

What does it take to turn your idea into action? Guy Kawasaki offers the essential guide for anyone starting anything, from a multinational corporation to a church group. From raising money to hiring the right people, from defining your positioning to building a brand, from creating buzz to buzzing the competition, from managing a board to fostering a community, this book will guide you.

Reading List | The New Rules of Marketing and PR

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
By David Meerman Scott
Published: Wiley, November 2008

Scott provides the technical novice a thoughtful and accessible guide to cutting-edge media arenas and formats such as RSS, vodcasts and viral marketing, without neglecting the fact that technological wizardry can’t substitute for a well-thought out marketing program. Besides emphasizing fundamentals like defining one’s audience, Scott also drills home the ethos and etiquette of the web, encouraging content that’s both useful and unobtrusive.

Reading List | World Wide Rave

World Wide Rave : Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories.
By David Meerman Scott
Published: Wiley, March 2009

A World Wide Rave is about creating a fan base. It is when people around the world are talking about you and your company and your products. It’s when global communities eagerly link to your stuff on the web. It’s when online buzz drive buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s when tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog because they genuinely want to be there.

Enough already with those darn search engines! | Jim Hague

Enough already with those darn search engines!
by Jim Hague, CEO, CrystalDI Web Design (www.crystaldiwebdesign.com)

So you’re concerned about search engine rankings?

You’ve read books, listened to so-called expert advice, and urged your Webmaster to add the correct Meta tags. You’ve established a monthly budget for a pay-per-click campaign only to realize you could have used those same dollars to pay ‘other’ bills. Some of you paid SEO companies who promised results only to fall short of the glory. End result: Your website’s search engine placement is less than satisfactory.

Enough of those ‘darn’ search engines! Obtaining high a ranking is too competitive to rely on traditional search submissions. Why? Because everyone is doing it!

Continue reading “Enough already with those darn search engines! | Jim Hague”

SBA Sponsors Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop

Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop to be held at the Wilshire Grand Hotel Center

Downtown , L A
July 9 – 10, 2009

Stimulus funding:

What you need to know now

March 12, 2009 — Nonprofits should be ready to move quickly, now that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama.
In The Cohen Report (February 14 and February 15, 2009), a web publication of The Nonprofit Quarterly, Rick Cohen explores the significance of the Act for nonprofit organizations. Provisions of the Act include:

$150 million for economically distressed communities;
$225 million for Violence Against Women Prevention and Prosecution Programs;
$100 million for Community Development Financial Institutions;
$750 million for worker training and placement (of this amount, $500 million is for careers in efficient and renewable energy–green jobs)
$50 million for capacity-building grants that will go directly to nonprofit organizations.

Continue reading “SBA Sponsors Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop”