We’re gearing up for the big MicroCredit New Hampshire event of the season - a full day of workshops for the smallest of small businesses in the state. I had the pleasure of dropping in on the MicroCredit-NH offices last week to deliver our contribution to the swag bags, and told their fabulous Marketing & Communications Manager Tara Dolphin I’d pass the word about the event along to you.

If you’re going to be in the Concord, NH area on Saturday, May 12th, check this out - they just opened registrations to the general business public. Now’s your chance to get in on a great learning opportunity, detailed below:

Concord, NH, May 1, 2007 – Are you self-employed and seeking fresh marketing, business development and technology strategies to further develop your business?  MicroCredit-NH has organized a statewide event dedicated to business development and networking for New Hampshire’s small business owners. 

“Entrepreneurial Exchange 2007: Reach the Peak” will be held in Concord on Saturday, May 12th from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM.  The event will take place at the Grappone Conference Center at the Courtyard Marriott on 70 Constitution Avenue.  Entrepreneurial Exchange 2007 is sponsored by PSNH, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Laconia Savings Bank and First Colebrook Bank.

The Entrepreneurial Exchange will offer participants a choice of four morning workshops to attend. These include: Effective Sales Techniques, covering sales and listening strategies to build rapport with prospects and clients to increase business; Business Development, which will provide participants tools for brainstorming including 50 ways to boost business productivity, visibility and profits; Technology Panel, with three speakers discussing the latest opportunities technology provides to small business owners, including search engine optimization, blogging, and search engine marketing; and Marketing, which will focus on the power and significance of a strong branding strategy.

The event’s featured workshop presenters include: Judy Carlough, Sandler Sales Training; Steve Forkey, WebAction Group; Christine Halvorson, Halvorson New Media; Debby Hoffman, Positive Results Seminars; Susan O’Neil, @Web Site Publicity; Thom Pollard, Eyes Open Productions; Kevin Skarritt, Acorn Creative; and Lani Voivod, Epiphanies, Inc.

In addition to the morning workshop tracks, the event will include two hours of facilitated and open networking time and afternoon roundtable discussions facilitated by the workshop presenters.  These discussions will cover a variety of business issues and challenges facing the small business owner.
 
“The Entrepreneurial Exchange is MicroCredit-NH’s premier event of 2007,” explained Rob Riley, Director of MicroCredit-NH. “Our mission is to increase the income and economic stability of New Hampshire’s small businesses, and this event will offer strategies for participants to achieve increased profits through business skill development and networking opportunities.  We encourage the self-employed from all corners of the state to join us for this unique day of training and celebration of entrepreneurship.”

Pre-registration is required, as space is limited.  The registration fee is $40, which includes lunch.   To register and for more information, visit http://www.microcreditnh.org/ for a live online registration link, or call MicroCredit-NH at 1-800-769-3482. Information about the Entrepreneurial Exchange sponsors is available online at: http://www.psnh.com/; http://www.bos.frb.org/; http://www.laconiasavings.com/; and http://www.firstcolebrookbank.com/.

To accomplish its mission of increasing the income and economic stability of microbusinesses and the self-employed, MicroCredit-NH provides statewide business development programming, loan capital up to $15,000, and expanded marketing and networking opportunities.  MicroCredit-NH delivers its services through local Business Groups that are comprised of self-employed individuals and small business owners.  Since program inception, MicroCredit-NH has loaned more than $800,000 to New Hampshire’s entrepreneurs. 

MicroCredit-NH is a program of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, Inc., a statewide non-profit charitable organization headquartered in Concord.  MicroCredit-NH is generously supported by Citizens Bank, NH Community Development Finance Authority, the Community Development Block Grant Program, among others, and is endorsed by all New Hampshire County Commissions.

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If you see this and decide to go, be sure to find us and say hi!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Microenterprises R Us, Press 'n Such. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

If you missed last week’s Inciter Ezine - click here to sign up and don’t let that happen again - you probably haven’t heard we’ll be speaking at the 24th Annual Governor’s Conference on Volunteerism, Wednesday, May 16th, 8:15am-3:30pm.

Marketing & Communications Director Extraordinaire Tara Dolphin of MicroCredit-NH put in the good word for us that earned us the invitation. We’re thrilled for the opportunity, and look forward to being one of the 30 presenters sharing what we know so volunteers around the state can find new ways to make this world a better place.

To find out more about the event, and the other sessions and presenters for the day, just click here.

As for our 10:45am-12:15pm session…

www.GetYourMissionOutThere.com:
Web Marketing Strategies for Volunteers and Non- Profit Organizations

Did you know the web is one of the fastest, least expensive ways to get your message and mission out to your ideal audience? In this lively and engaging session, you’ll discover the power of Dignity Marketing, and how you can use it to get attention and inspire interest in your cause. You’ll also learn five easy and cost-effective online techniques to promote and position your organization as the go-to resource for your niche.

Hope to see you there!

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 11:29 am and is filed under Press 'n Such. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Great news we forgot to blog about - seasoned freelancer Dale Buss found a bit of our advice for spousal-preneurs worthy enough to include in the following feature article (way back in February) for Forbes.com:

• How to Run a Business With Your Spouse

AND in the complementary “in pictures” segment:

• The Do’s And Don’ts Of Co-Preneurship

Here’s the winning excerpt: 

Next tip: Involve trusted third parties in the business, especially the finances. The quickest way to marital perdition is to get mired in money matters. If you must, designate one partner as chief financial officer. Better yet, delegate all accounting and tax matters to a professional. “Since we hired a third party to keep us on track and honest about budgets, cash flow, performance targets and so on, we’ve crossed divorce off our list of things to do,” quips Lani Voivod, co-owner of Epiphanies, a marketing consultant in New Hampshire.

It’s true, too. For us, 2007 is SOOOOO much better than 2006, and we know a lot of it has to do with the changes we’ve made in our approach to finances. It’s still all a big ol’ learning process, but it’s a lot easier to learn together when we see steady money coming in, and yelling isn’t a part of our “Financial Fridays.”

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business (and get creative AND effective with your own marketing efforts), sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

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ATTENTION ALL NH solo-professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who’d like to learn how to make more money, strategize creatively, ignite marketing efforts, and get totally fired up about current and future business ventures:

You’re invited to a truly special event.

Get the scoop in the press release pasted below, and remember — if you keep doing the same thing you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same results you always get!

GILFORD — Are you a small business owner seeking to increase your profit margin? Get your creative juices flowing and boost your bottom line with MicroCredit-NH’s “Brainstorm + Brand = Boom!” workshop in Gilford. This day-long workshop will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Southern New Hampshire University’s Gilford Campus on 2 Airport Road.

Participants will access dozens of new ideas and creative marketing strategies to effectively brand their businesses and increase customers. Local experts, including Kevin Skarritt of Acorn Creative; Lani Voivod of Epiphanies, Inc.; and Claudia Needham, MicroCredit-NH’s East Central Regional Manager, will facilitate different topic-related sessions.

Registration is required, as space is limited to 30 participants. The workshop registration fee is $40, which includes lunch. To register, contact MicroCredit-NH at 1-800-769-3482.

For more information about MicroCredit-NH, and to view the complete list of its statewide business events, visit http://www.microcreditnh.org and click on “Calendar of Events.”

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business (and get creative AND effective with your own marketing efforts), sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Press 'n Such. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Allen and I are proud to post that we worked with Acorn Creative last month in a frenzied spurt of glory to create and launch a Special Report designed to help solo professionals and small businesses kick some biz booty in 2007.

The link to the Business Wire news release is right here. But to make things even MORE convenient, we’ve pasted the news release below. (Don’t miss downloading the report ASAP at www.GoNutsin2007.com - the early birds get special VIP treatment with some shwag we’ve got coming down the line…)

LACONIA, N.H.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The New Year offers small businesses a chance to refresh their focus, correct past mistakes, and set a bold new course to improve their performance. Two local companies, Acorn Creative of Laconia, NH and Epiphanies, Inc. of Gilford, NH, recently partnered up to help businesses start 2007 on the right track.

The result of their collaboration debuted Tuesday, December 19th. “The Secret to Making Your Business Go Nuts in 2007″ is a free special report offered by the two companies as a PDF download from their website, www.gonutsin2007.com.

“A lot of small businesses told us 2006 didn’t go as well as they’d hoped,” said Lani Voivod of Epiphanies, Inc. “Now that 2007’s right on top of us, we wanted to help business owners and solo professionals get off to a great start.”

Acorn and Epiphanies combined their complementary skills and service offerings to create the special report. Acorn performs brand consulting, graphic design, and website development. Epiphanies specializes in idea generation, information product creation, and integrated marketing strategies.

“When businesses come to us for a new website, a new brochure, or a new direct mail piece, we like to step back and look at the bigger picture,” said Kevin Skarritt of Acorn Creative. “If the company isn’t making a real connection with their target market, it doesn’t matter how well-designed their new website or print piece is, or how many more people hear about the company because of a new marketing element.

“If the company fails to build a consistent identity over time, the company is bound to fail. We don’t want that to happen. That’s why we step back and make sure the foundation is in place, and that’s what the ‘Go Nuts’ special report is really about.”

“We’re not exactly ‘quick fix’ people,” added Allen Voivod, also with Epiphanies, Inc. “Great business stories have three success factors in common: Building audience relationships, expert reputations, and client bases. None of that happens overnight.”

Because of their similar approaches to business development, Acorn and Epiphanies chose to focus on tactics for improving those success factors in their report. At the same time, they also lay out the underlying strategy behind Acorn’s design process – a strategy that’s helped Acorn win “Best of the Web” honors from Forbes magazine for the last six years.

“The Secret to Making Your Business Go Nuts in 2007″ free special report, which explains the fundamental ideas behind Acorn’s business development strategy and seven ways a business can put those ideas into action for themselves, is available online through January 31st, 2007.

To access the report, and for instructions on how to secure one of 60 free consultations being offered by Acorn Creative in January 2007, go to www.gonutsin2007.com.

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