closing down the blog

Hi Everybody,

We here at the Grassroots Business Association all run our own businesses so it's not unexpected that we're struggling to find time to keep this blog updated as much as it deserves. In the spirit of keeping a balance we've decided to stop posting here. We will see you at the meetings (we've got some great stuff planned) and you can always contact us via email at grassrootsseattle AT gmail DOT com or send us a comment or question through the Grassroots discussion boards over on our Meetup.com group site.

Talk with you soon,

- Megan, Andrea, Kristen, Marlo and Deborah

ZAAZ is looking for help

Hi All!

We’re working with the SMB (Small and Mid-Sized Business) Group at Microsoft to create 4 short videos (less than a minute long) for their portal. We are planning to start on filming NEXT WEEK which means we need to find some awesome small or medium sized businesses to feature.

This is where you come in since we desperately need your help!!! WHO DO YOU KNOW?! Please let me know if you know (or maybe you own one!) someone who would be interested in being featured. This would amount to national exposure on the SMB portal to other small business owners.

Keep in mind – these aren’t big “use Microsoft NOW” videos. We’re trying to tell 4 simple stories:

·         Stick to the Basics

·         Do More in Less Time

·         Find and Manage Customers

·         Simplify IT

We want to hear about their business, their passion, and a little bit about how technology helps them reach their goals.

The commitment is minimal – we’d like to shoot on location (i.e. in their offices/warehouses/kitchens/etc) and we’ll have a list of questions that we’ll be asking. All they need to do is relax and talk about how great their business is. The biggest caveat is that we’d like them to be within driving distance of Seattle (i.e. western Washington.)

Please reach out to your friends and family and let me know if they’d be interested. I can run with it from there!

Thanks so much!

Suzanne Sheldon

ZAAZ

Program Manager

Team Microsoft

suzannes@zaaz.com

May 19th- How important is branding to your business?

How important is a logo to your business?
How does it represent you and your company?
How can I find a good designer to create my logo and brand identity?
What other things are involved in branding?

Beth Bacon (Zoyo Branding), Corianton Hale (Zoyo Branbing) and Michael Ellsworth (Dumb Eyes) will come answer all your burning questions about branding!

Zoyo Branding is a Seattle-area company that helps organizations define, articulate, and visualize their brand identities. We look at companies’ current attributes and future goals and synthesize them into functional, concrete brands. The principal at Zoyo Branding is Beth Bacon whose clients have included some of today’s brand leaders including Apple Computer and Procter and Gamble. Beth a graduate of Harvard University (magna cum laude in Literature) and has a Master’s in Media Ecology from NYU. She recently returned from a year-long, 50-state trip in an RV. The designer at Zoyo Branding is Corianton Hale, whose work has been featured in six years worth of Print Magazine’s Regional Design Annual, as well as multiple graphic design anthologies in the USA and overseas. In addition to six years at the Seattle arts weekly The Stranger, Corianton has worked in France and the United Kingdom, and left his position as the Stranger's Art Director in 2006 to focus on his freelance career.

Dumb Eyes is a full service design studio that assists everyone from individuals to corporations in differentiating themselves from their competition.

As a creative team, Dumb Eyes excels at bringing their unique talents to bear on all projects. From branding to creating dynamic web applications to developing entire marketing campaigns, each project undertaken by Dumb Eyes is treated as an original work of art, and is executed with the attention and creativity it deserves.


If you are a member of GBA this is a free event. If you are not a member it is $5.00 at the door. Or you can become a member by signing up online.

Find out more here

Send out newsletters?

Here is a good article on things to think about when sending out newsletters.  I use Constant Contact and really like it.  I am not computer savvy so this is the perfect way to communicate with my customers without taking all day to make a newsletter look snappy.

The Succession Planning Crisis

Good article on how to plan for your future as a small business owner.  Read it here

Art Star Craft Bazaar

Applications Due on March 23rd. All info can be found here

Review your goals from January!

We met back in January to start off the year right by setting goals for 2010. At this meeting we will review your goals and see if you met your challenge of attaining what you set out to accomplish by April!

We will continue to set new goals at this meeting, see where we might have fallen down if we did not meet our challenge and find new ways to meet goals for the remaining part of 2010.

If you did not attend our first meeting no worries you can still join us. Set a few goals now and work to attain them by April!

The beginning of this session we will have an open discussion on how to set some practical goals for yourself, some of the obstacles that might get in your way and how to overcome them to see your goals through. Then we will break up into smaller round table groups to have a more intimate discussion on what goals you sought to accomplish by April and if you attained these goals. Hearing each other and offering up tips to get things done can be very useful to succeeding in the items you set forth for yourself. We hope you can join us!

If you are a member of GBA this is a free event. If you are not a member it is $5.00 at the door. Or you can become a member by signing up online.