Iowa MyEntre.Net Small Business & Entrepreneurs Blog

Is It A Robin Or A Chicken

Fay Risner — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:51:00 -3660

I'm sitting at the computer by the dining room window. In hindsight putting the computer there may have been a mistake. With most of the lawn showing, I keep glancing out to see if I might spot a robin or at least a rabbit. I know it's too early by the calendar, but I can hope. The dense fog makes it hard to see, but I think the only animals prowling in my yard are not rabbits but cats and the birds not robins but chickens. All this window gazing makes it hard to concentrate on business. The Amish book I'm working on is coming along but slower than I'd like, and that is mostly my fault.

Have you ever gotten wrapped up in a book's characters until you feel as if you know them especially in a series where you read about the same ones again and again? I hear comments like that all the time from my readers about the characters in my books. Somehow, when I'm writing a book I feel like I'm in the characters heads as the story flows. Except with this one, I outlined the story to have a sad ending for one of the characters. I for one am not fond of sad endings like the ones that Nicholas Sparks uses. However, his endings are very effective and a surprising shock. Having said that, I'm a fan of Mr. Sparks works and pay close attention to how he writes his books to see why his writing style makes him popular.

Now I'm starting the sad part near the end of the book and watching for a robin/rabbit in procrastination. I wound up rooting for one of the characters, wishing she could keep her new way of life with a future ahead of her, and all the time I knew what I had to do. As the author, her fate is in my hands. So I compromised with myself. I will write the sad chapter, and after that write one more chapter with a funny feel better outlook to show that life does go on no matter what. My hope is to leave the readers laughing instead of sad at the end of the book and again wanting another book. In a recent email from one reader, she writes she hopes I keep writing my Nurse Hal Among The Amish series until Nurse Hal has grandchildren. That might take awhile. Nurse Hal just had her first baby in this book which is the fourth in the series. It won't be long until I'm ready to publish then I'll wait to find out how the readers liked this story titled "As Her Name Is So Is Redbird".

My twitter follower count has picked up over the last few months. I stock pile the twitter emails for a week or two and answer them all at once with follows and messages. That brings me more followers. It certainly is a good way for me to advertise my Amish and Mystery series. My challenge is trying to get in titles and sales places with the limited amount of characters. I'm getting followers in England now. Amazon opened up Kindle to England last year and several other countries since then. My books are selling in the UK. Maybe that's why they hunt for me on twitter. MyEnter.net follows me on twitter. If anyone else wants to follow me my address is
http://www.twitter.com/booksbyfay

I'm still working on my author site at http://www.writersownwords.com/booksbyfay
I see that Google search is picking up some of my entries from the writersownwords site. I didn't think it would hurt if I take my time entering summaries for the book list. That way I'm stringing the advertising out. Take a look at my picture if you have time on the home page. It's actually two pictures I put together and did a little painting in Photo shop to blend the two. One is southern Missouri north of Cabool, Missouri in a fall rain, and the other with the Amish buggy is in southern Iowa on highway 63.

My job is an easy one that I like. I work at home and take a long coffee break when I want. Now I best get back to work before I actually do see a robin. That might be a good excuse to take the rest of the day off and celebrate spring way ahead of everyone else. Enjoy this wonderful winter and have a Happy Valentine Day.

Business Plan Competition

Nicholas Krob — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:11:00 -3660

Business Plan Competition - Enter by February 17th

The Entrepreneurship Committee of the Greater Burlington Partnership hosts the annual Des Moines County Business Plan Competition. The competition winners will receive grants from a prize pool of $9000. In addition to the grants, the winners are eligible to receive monthly rental subsidy from Downtown Partners or one month’s free rent at Westland Mall. Also, a complimentary Chamber Membership through 2012! Residents from adjacent counties can participate in the competition, provided the primary location of the new business will be within Des Moines County.

The 1st draft of your Business plan is due March 16. That draft is critically reviewed by a panel of judges and feedback is offered to the participants. “Starting a business is not easy,” said Jason Hutcheson, administrator of the competition. “This competition is a rigorous process with many steps, but the goal in the end is for participants to have an economically viable business plan.” A final business plan is due in late April, and presentations to a separate review panel are conducted in May.

“This competition is important because it encourages people to develop a plan to start a business in our community,” said Michele Schnicker, chair of the Entrepreneurship Committee and Vice President of Retail Services at MidWestOne Bank. This competition can be the incentive that motivates a person to turn an idea into a business.”

The deadline to register for the competition February 17. The winner(s) will be announced at the Small Business Appreciation Breakfast on May 18.

For more information, contact Jason Hutcheson, Executive Director of Economic Development at 319-752-6365 or jhutcheson@greaterburlington.com or visit www.greaterburlington.com.

Newsletter 1/31/12

Sarah Bey — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:20:00 -3660

Get Involved

Don't Miss Bar Camp & CV Start-Up Fair

Webinar Thursday
Feb 2, 12pm
Business Formation: Rush Nigut, Attorney with Brick Gentry, PC
What entity is right for you?

Webinar Archives
View Past Webinars
Watch webinars you missed or get a refresh.
Pricing Your Products
Art of Smart Phone
Buy-Sell Agreements
Using Social Media
Basics of starting a Biz

EntreFest!
March 8-9th
Gateway Center, Ames IA
Register Here
Two-day conference filled with speakers, break-out sessions & entrepreneurial networking. Call Courtney 273-4328 for more info.

CV BarCamp
Friday Feb. 3rd, BCS UNI Campus
An ad-hoc, attendee generated un-conference for creatives, entrepreneurs, developers & others in the Cedar Valley.

Iowa Start-Up: Cedar Valley
Tuesday Jan. 31st, @Far Reach Technologies, 208A Main St., Cedar Falls
A chance for new businesses to exhibit & meet established businesses who support our local start-ups.

Iowa Google Events
Get Your Biz Online
Free workshops across Iowa. Build a free website & find out how to promote your biz online. In Cedar Falls again on Feb 7!!

GET SOCIAL

CONTACT US

Prometheus Awards by Maureen Collins-Williams
Imagine auto parts suppliers like NAPA and Advanced Auto combining their inventory into a massive online 'cloud'. Imagine living in a town of 500 and having live video feeds to your Doc in Des Moines 24 hours a day. How about an alternative to credit cards created in Iowa? All these and dozens more innovations make up the annual Prometheus Awards.

Read Full Entry >>

2011 was incredibly successful as our first year of offering regional Dream Big Grow Here contests across Iowa. Our winners from 2011's contest and preparing to now pitch for a $10,000 follow on investment at EntreFest in early March. Due to the response and interest from our sponsors and entrants from 2011, we've decided to bring things back for 2012. In the coming months we will be announcing the dates and regions for this year. Please stay tuned to DreamBigGrowHere.comfor information on the specific regions and dates. We'll also be announcing them in this newsletter as things formalize.

Virtual & Online Home-Based Business Opportunities by Rob Williams
Here are some real and legal ways to make money online, from your home, or just in your spare time!

You Will Never Make Enough Money
Yes, you read that right. I'm here to break the bad news to you. But you need to know the truth: You won't ever make enough money. Especially if you think it is a means to an end. Trying to make more money is the trap of entrepreneurship...

Raise Cash on Crowdfunding Sites
Need start-up capital - and fast? You may want to try crowdfunding, a money-raising strategy that's become increasingly popular in recent years.

Link-O-Rama by Dan Beenken

If you are looking for cash to start your business and getting sick of hearing “no” from Uncle Larry, the bank, your mom, and everyone else you have tried – give the clouds a go – seems to be working for others.
I love these articles sharing tips on how to get your business off the ground while you get a paycheck from someone else.
Quick advice on why a business plan is still necessary, even if you aren’t going after 3^rd party financing. I wouldn’t say it needs to be a novel by any means, by a couple pages to keep you on track is going to be well worth it down the road.
barCamp is coming to the Cedar Valley in a couple weeks – www.barcampcv.com - I strongly encourage you to come- Feb 4^th. Seth Godin does a great job of explaining what its all about, via the TED imperatives
Here is a little motivation for all of you entrepreneurs-in-waiting
This is a great piece on the crowdfunding revolution, where things are at in the U.S., and why it makes sense to give it a look – mostly from a marketing/pr point of view.

Thanks for reading this weeks newsletter. If you enjoyed it, share it: If you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me.
- Sarah Bey
Send me an Email
(319) 273-4324

You are being sent this message because you registered on our website at http://www.myentre.net. Please be sure to add team@myentre.net to your e-mail client's allow list to prevent these messages from being blocked by your spam filter. To Unsubscribe from this communication from the MyEntre.Net Team, please [unsubscribe-click here]. We deeply respect your privacy; please read our full Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy for more information. Please direct all questions and comments to Sarah Bey at sarah.bey@uni.edu

I've Upgraded

Fay Risner — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:50:00 -3660

When we have a day like this one, I should be outside enjoying the warmth, but here I am trying out my computer. I finally gave up dial up and got high speed on Friday. For months I’ve had connection problems. The problem was so bad that for the last three months it was as if I didn’t have dial up and to the point that I couldn’t download my book file on the website to be printed. I had the computer in the repair shop to get checked over, and it came back with the same problem.

In the last few days, I’m finding high speed internet faster just as people kept telling me, but it has its own bugs. The connection comes and goes, too. So far I haven’t found anyone who can tell me why. I smile as I say I guess as with the higher speed working faster this problem makes me speed up so I get done with what I need to do before the connection is gone for the day.

During this time, I’ve stayed busy doing what I like to do best and that’s writing. The last of November I finished the family history and tree book I wrote for my family. This last weekend now that I have high speed I was able to download that on the website and make the book cover. The book is ready to sell and this afternoon I shipped out several.

While I formatted the family book in November, I entered the NaNoWriMo 50,000 word contest and finished just before the end of the month. I must say it was ify toward the last whether I’d make the deadline. Now all I have to do is edit that book and print it when I have time. There were close to 500 contestants in my area and only 37 wrote enough words to be a winner.

I’ve been working on my next Amish book. I’m getting well along on that. Several readers have emailed me to find out how I’m coming with the book. It’s nice to know they like what I write. The last email said, I’ve read many Amish books, and I like yours the best because the characters seem so real." Makes me think I’m doing something right.

I had an email from a Internet based book publisher recently. After seeing some of my books, he wanted me to sign up with him. After all this time, a publisher noticed my writing and asked me. Several years ago I would have been delighted, but circumstances have changed now. I emailed back that I was doing just fine on my own. Thanks anyway.

Now I’m working on an author website. Have a lot of work to do yet but it’s at Writersownwords.com/booksbyfay. Readers will be able to read my blog and about my books plus see where they can buy the books, and there’s always my Booksbyfay Bookstore to look at on www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com.

Field Notes: Prometheus Awards

Maureen Collins-Williams — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:55:00 -3660

Imagine auto parts suppliers like NAPA and Advanced Auto combining their inventory into a massive online ‘cloud’. Imagine living in a town of 500 and having live video feeds to your Doc in Des Moines 24 hours a day. How about an alternative to credit cards created in Iowa? All these and dozens more innovations make up the annual Prometheus Awards.

Prometheus was a mythical Greek Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mankind, providing the catalyst for civilization. How fitting then, that the Technology Association of Iowa (TAI) created the annual Prometheus Awards in 2006 to promote and celebrate transformational innovation in the state. Last year at this time I was asked to be a judge for Prometheus and came away amazed at how innovation is changing our state economy. Here are just a few of last year’s winners:

Iowa Home Health Care in Urbandale, won the 2011 Prometheus IT Innovation award in Health with a new Telehealth Program, which allows chronically ill patients to have more frequent interactions with providers- from home- with the help of video monitoring units. The monitoring device collects patient's vital signs through an interactive monitor and transmits them to a medical professional located at Iowa Health Home Care; the patient can even talk to the doc via the monitor without leaving home. What a boon for rural health care!

Another excellent company is GCommerce, an eleven year old firm in the historic east village section of Des Moines. GCommerce’s Virtual Inventory Cloud (VIC) technology stood out as an innovative technology solution for the automotive parts industry. VIC provides a cloud inventory system which allows users to find, ship and invoice hard to locate parts within a few seconds via a shared database inventory across many parts suppliers. This is a big improvement over current manual parts searches conducted by fax, phone, web searches and emails. According to Pete Weber, Managing Partner at Integrated Supply Network, one of the largest independent tool and equipment suppliers in the country, VIC will “…create an end to end special order process with one-tenth the people, at one-tenth the cost in one-tenth the time.”

Certainly not all the innovation is occurring in central Iowa. There were many entries from other parts of the state, including the Student Innovation of the Year, which went to Cedar Falls UNI student Nick Cash for his business the Book Hatchery, a self publishing software which takes word documents and converts them to popular e-reader platforms and distributes the final product to major eBook retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Apple.

One of my favorite winners was Dwolla. Dwolla took top honors last year for Outstanding StartUp Company of the Year. Dwolla provides a free web-based software platform that allows users to send, receive and request funds from any other user. Send him an email at bmilne@dwolla.com and he’ll send you a buck so you can try it! An amazing alternative to credit cards-with no charge for anything under $10.

I am anxiously awaiting this year’s contestants to get a front row seat among Iowa’s innovators!

Link-O-Rama for 1/23/12

Dan Beenken — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:38:44 -3660

If you are looking for cash to start your business and getting sick of hearing “no” from Uncle Larry, the bank, your mom, and everyone else you have tried – give the clouds a go – seems to be working for others.
I love these articles sharing tips on how to get your business off the ground while you get a paycheck from someone else.
Quick advice on why a business plan is still necessary, even if you aren’t going after 3^rd party financing. I wouldn’t say it needs to be a novel by any means, by a couple pages to keep you on track is going to be well worth it down the road.
barCamp is coming to the Cedar Valley in a couple weeks – www.barcampcv.com - I strongly encourage you to come- Feb 4^th. Seth Godin does a great job of explaining what its all about, via the TED imperatives
Here is a little motivation for all of you entrepreneurs-in-waiting
This is a great piece on the crowdfunding revolution, where things are at in the U.S., and why it makes sense to give it a look – mostly from a marketing/pr point of view.

Link-O-Rama for 1/23/12

Dan Beenken — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:25:16 -3660

[No text]

Planning From the Business Owner’s Perspective

Maurie Cashman — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:24:00 -3660

This week I am going to discuss how an owner benefitted from Transition Planning well in advance of the actual transition of ownership of his business.

Newsletter 1/17/12

Sarah Bey — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:05:00 -3660

Get Involved

EntreFest is Just Around the Corner!

Webinar Thursday
Jan 26, 12pm
Details to come.

Webinar Archives
View Past Webinars
Watch webinars you missed or get a refresh.
Pricing Your Products
Art of Smart Phone
Buy-Sell Agreements
Using Social Media
Basics of starting a Biz

EntreFest!
March 8-9th
Gateway Center, Ames IA
Register Here
Two-day conference filled with speakers, break-out sessions & entrepreneurial networking. Call Courtney 273-4328 for more info.

CV BarCamp
Friday Feb. 3rd, BCS UNI Campus
An ad-hoc, attendee generated un-conference for creatives, entrepreneurs, developers & others in the Cedar Valley.

Iowa Google Events
Get Your Biz Online
Free workshops across Iowa. Build a free website & find out how to promote your biz online.

GET SOCIAL

CONTACT US

Getting to Know EntreFest!
Ah, the dream of business ownership. It's all about being your own boss and getting to call the shots, right? But when a tough decision comes up, you'll soon find out you're not as independent as you might have hoped; especially if you have business partners, investors, a spouse or family who gave you a loan. Join us at EntreFest! and get a head of the game! Learn More...

When a Child is Lost by Maureen Collins-Williams
My husband Dave and I ran an antique shop when we were first married. Called Antiques of Marion, we opened it in 1982 in a beautiful downtown Italianate-styled brick mansion in Marion, Iowa. This past month I met a young couple in Dubuque who live much the same way that we did all those years ago, but their house of cards collapsed around them over Christmas. It has broken my heart...

Read Full Entry >>

"The MyEntre.Net Business Concierge provided me with a targeted mailing list that I could use to market my services. The Business Concierge is a great free resource!"
- Andy Brudtkuhl, 48Web

10 Ways to Expand Your Customer Base
If you’re a small business owner, you’re likely on the lookout for new customers on a fairly regular basis. After all, having a steady stream of interested parties who become paying clientele is the benchmark of a successful business.

How to Use Your iPad for Business
So here I was, off to NYC on business with only my ipad…..and no real sense of how to maximize it's fabulousness! I have to admit I was slightly panicked as I am very attached to my macbook, yet was thrilled to be toting this new lightweight toy. What's a girl to do?

6 Tips for Building a Web-Based Store
Building an ecommerce platform within your company website doesn't have to be complex or expensive. A number of new services—such as such as Goodsie, Shopify, Storenvy and Weebly—now make the task easy and affordable. You can use these services to design a store, upload product, create shopping carts, manage fulfillment and more, —all for as little as a few dollars a month.

Dan's Link-O-Rama
Links to great articles about: keeping your brand positive, peer-to-peer lending, venture capital, food trends, specialization, sales tips, hiring, and using twitter.

Thanks for reading this weeks newsletter. If you enjoyed it, share it: If you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me.
- Sarah Bey
Send me an Email
(319) 273-4324

When a Child is Lost

Maureen Collins-Williams — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:09:00 -3660

My husband Dave and I ran an antique shop when we were first married. Called Antiques of Marion, we opened it in 1982 in a beautiful downtown Italianate-styled brick mansion in Marion, Iowa. We spent most weekends at auctions, where Dave would select furniture to restore and I would take photographs with a vintage 35 millimeter camera and write articles for a regional antiques journal. The journal work paid our gas to the auctions and the antique shop paid the mortgage, but little else. It was, however, a wonderful part of our early married life: we had a business in an industry that was experiencing growth, a close circle of friends and extended family nearby as we raised a family.

Our small business experience, like many of you, was also a house of cards. We paid nearly $400 each month for lousy health insurance that didn’t cover most of the cuts and bruises that make up daily life. To be honest, there were bad months in the shop when I didn’t pay our insurance- at all. We were young and healthy; the odds were with us. Paying the premium was sometimes a choice between dinner and a deductable -and with three small children, dinner always won.

This past month I met a young couple in Dubuque who live much the same way that we did all those years ago, but their house of cards collapsed around them over Christmas. It has broken my heart.

Michael Breitbach is a longtime small business owner in Dubuque, Iowa. He started an organic food store in downtown Dubuque in 1985- within a couple of years of when Dave and I started our shop in Marion. While we sold Antiques of Marion after a decade, Michael kept his store for nearly 26 years. When he decided to retire, Michael’s daughter Maple and her husband David Estafen acquired the iconic Dubuque Organic Food Store. The couple has three small children- all boys- ages six, three and a toddler. David and Maple took to business ownership with relish. In their first year of management, they remodeled the store to expose the old brick walls, then, they refinished the beautiful pine floors to accent the high ceilings and lovely glass storefront windows.

We had the opportunity to meet David and Maple only two days before tragedy struck. We’d been shopping in Galena and our daughter (who knows the family) convinced us to stop at the store on our way home to Cedar Falls. As we walked in the door, Maple’s husband David Estafen, was singing (!) behind a tall counter at the front of the store, dishing up some kind of organic spiced rice and bean omelet for a customer who was merrily perched on a stool at the front window. Wearing a trademark crazy hat, David waved his spatula at us from behind the counter as if to say, just come on in and we’ll take care of you. As we worked our way through the aisles, Maple’s brother and father came through the back door with strong handshakes, warm smiles and a nickel tour of the renovations. Maple’s father Michael would start a conversation- her brother would jump in and soon we were regaled with stories about the organic food business, the farmer’s market they have worked to create there and the way the town has come to embrace organic foods.

Listening to the conversations swirling around us that afternoon, I was taken back to our own shop some twenty-five years ago, and the days when my father-in-law would stop in and sell a dresser, answer the phone or entertain a customer when I was really busy in the shop. It was magic to be a part of the circle that made up this family, if only for a few moments.

Two nights later, on New Years eve, David and Maple experienced the unimaginable. While chasing an errant ball, their three year old son slid behind the stove to reach for his toy and was electrocuted on exposed wires from the oven in their rental house. Within an hour he was airlifted to the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics but his condition was bleak. In ensuing days the collective Brietbach/Estafen clans descended upon the hospital. David and Maple took up a painful vigil at their son’s bed side. Family and friends kept the store open informally and hundreds of people came out for a candlelight vigil for the little boy, whose name means ‘quiet warrier’. Sadly, Nakoa did not survive. This past week, the family removed life support and the little boy slipped away.

It is unimaginable to lose a child. Worse still, to face the aftermath of piling medical bills and burial costs when running a small lifestyle business with razor thin margins. My heart aches for this couple who, addition to dealing with the crushing pain of their loss, must now wrangle with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills- costs they can never expect to pay. David and Maple didn’t have health insurance that would cover this catastrophe. They probably reasoned that they were young, healthy and the odds were with them- health insurance could wait. I get that. It was a gamble- a poor gamble to be sure- but one I am sure many of you, like me, understand.

An Estafen family benefit fund has been established. I am asking you to join me in helping David and Maple reconstruct their life. Will you join me? If we each contribute a little, this young family will benefit a lot. $10. $20. $50. We can make a difference. You can send checks to the fund at Dubuque Bank and Trust, 1398 Central Avenue Dubuque, Iowa 52001 (563-589-2000). The family fund can also be accessed via PayPal at Michaelbreitbach@gmail.com*. Thank you, Iowa small business owners.

Hug your children.

Image credits: First, The Food Store Homepage; second and third, The Food Store Facebook Page.
*Please note that this e-mail address has been corrected, the 'i' and 'e' were reversed.