Posted by Paul Thompson on October 17th, 2010
ReDunJeans gives a new life for old jeans: I turn old jeans into fashionable and fun handbags, totes, clutches, checkbook covers and more. I recycle the jeans by using all parts; top part for the bag, legs for the handles, bottoms and additional pockets.
Information from her grant application is available here. Read below for more, and if you have questions for our semi-finalists don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments section.
Also, don’t forget to cast your vote! YOUR vote will determine which entrepreneurs most deserve to be amongst the finalists.
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I came up the idea while trying to find a way to create income from home. I was laid off from work and a caregiver to my husband and my Mom and need to stay at home to care for them.
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Posted by Paul Thompson on October 15th, 2010
Reeling and celebrating after a great win with Idea Café’s Small Business Grant, the All-American Fencing Academy felt empowered! We thought, “There must be other small business contests out there! We can harness the power of our loyal followers and win more!”
What did we find next? Businesscardproject.com’s Business Card Makeover contest. The premise was simple. Send them an image of your business card, and if it’s horrid enough, their designers will redesign it for free and send you a free pack of newly redesigned business cards. Would the Al-American Fencing Academy be willing subject ourselves to this little bit of humiliation for free stuff? Of course, we would.
The All-American Fencing Academy prided ourselves in having North Carolina fencing’s most creative and innovated graphic design and marketing team. Our flyers w
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Posted by Samantha Martinez on October 15th, 2010
Some mortgage bankers and portfolio lenders are also wholesale lenders that deal with mortgage brokers, sometimes exclusively.
Most mortgage lenders have both wholesale and retail departments. Mortgage brokers prefer to obtain wholesale rates and then mark up these rates by adding points, presenting the borrowers with quotes that are similar to what borrowers could obtain directly from a retail lender. Mortgage brokers are free to set whatever prices they want, and have different methods for marking up wholesale rates.
Wholesale mortgage lenders generate residential mortgages through a network that includes independent brokers and lenders, offering a wide variety of home financing options: conventional, home equity, government, alternative and jumbo loans. All of these may be purchased from the mortgage professionals, including lenders and brokers, who make up a wholesale mortgage lenders network.
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Posted by Christina Lopez on October 13th, 2010
I’ve been interviewed more times in the last two weeks than I was in the last six months. Financial news outlets such as Kiplinger, Entrepreneur, Inc., Money, CNNMoney, FoxNews, MSNBC, DowJones, and many others have called me, asking for my opinion of the current small business credit market. Everyone wants to know the truth.
Last week the writers interviewing me were asking question such as:
“Why is it so difficult for small business owners to get financing now?”
“Will anyone be able to get financing based on what’s happening?”
This week the questions began to change. Now they ar
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Posted by Christina Lopez on October 13th, 2010
Communication is the most important factor in your success. People on the list of sales and revenue, will provide the successful development of the business ladder to go along with an authoritative source.
If your contacts, and the proper setting, you can overcome it, if you have target list of business for your business. It is very important to see a list of people to contact them, because it will give you the biggest advantage to achieve business goals.
List allows you access to the people. Most challenging problems, but your ability to make the necessary communications company lies. When you know who is the target list of companies doing business with you who are interested in giving, who would like to buy products and services links.
You will be who you can immediately, it gives you a better opportunity to create business relationships for your organization very much.
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Posted by Paul Thompson on October 11th, 2010
Preliminary voting results as of October 11th. Please note that the semi-finalists who received less than 1% of the total number of votes are not presented in the chart.
The results show that the semi-finalists holding the leading ten positions are in a tight competition with very close percentages. So your vote can definitely make a difference.
You still have time until the 1st of November when the poll will be closed. Use your chance to support your favorite business idea. And, if you really want your small business “idol” to be a finalist, you can encourage your friends, clients and colleagues to add their votes to yours. Note: only one vote per Regular!
Presently, Idea Cafe’s team is publishing online interviews with the semi-finalists.
Posted by Samantha Martinez on October 10th, 2010
Unless you are committed to avoid using credit in any form, you should educate your children about credit cards and other loans at some point. They won’t learn any meaningful information about credit during the typical school day, nor will they normally increase their knowledge base from their friends or family. Understanding how credit works is learned, not innate.
The Right Time
Even if you compare credit cards and evaluate credit card offers regularly, the question of “when” to introduce credit cards to your children is perplexing. Preparing a “show and tell” credit card comparison for a six year old will be a frustrating exercise in futility.
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