Lollipops and Polka Dots is a community based store set in a rural and economically depressed area, where we allow space for consignment, custom artwork, networking, classes, and a place to sit a spell and chat with other neighborhood folks. It is designed to develop through word of mouth through personal ownership interest in the success of the store. We are stocking lollipops and all things polka dot, just for the fun of it. We are still a full service decorating business, but for our local customers, we will provide an atmosphere of sharing and caring. This store is designed to generate an economy by developing a higher end atmosphere where the value of homemade items will stand out and find a return on their sweat equity. We are getting rave reviews from our neighbors and lots of interest for consignment. It is working just as we hoped in that a buzz is created from each person who walks through the door telling two friends, who tell two friends who….and so on. Because we all live so far away from the things we need, Lollipops and Polka Dots came into being to bring in things we all want but hate to have to drive 50 polluting miles to get so very often go without or mail order. We are trying to stimulate our local economy by finding sources locally to meet each of our wants and desires. So far, it has inspires others to go out and further develop their own business or to feel more confident in being able to succeed at the ones they already have because there is now a proper outlet for networking and community support. What we need is funding to develop further and the only way to get capital is for the right people to come together. Getting the right people together is about sharing and caring, and lots of talking and open dialog. Nothing happens from keeping quiet. We want to take back America one little town at a time. Vote for us. Please. We need you.

Everything Graphic, Inc. located in Marietta GA is Celebrating 10 Years in Business. While we’re excited about this, the printing business as a whole took a hit these past two (2) years. We are a full service graphic design and printing business. Our services are all inclusive from concept to delivery; design, printing, mailing/distribution. We’ve had some great years and through them have helped a number of start ups, non profits, and small businesses make their mark. We have also provided graphic design and printing for large corporations, for example, we produced maps for Home Depot, and helped the At Home Services division with their printing needs. Other relationships include UPS, Colonial Pipeline, Publix, Burlington Rug Company, and many more. Because we are now only a 2-3 person team it is difficult for us to accomplish all our marketing goals. We believe our business has strong potential for growth, and we are passionate about all we do. We recently came up with a unique localized marketing opportunity for small businesses that are industry related but offer different services. I recently introduced the concept at a business association meeting and it was well received. We signed one (1) business up after the meeting, he was our first. Later, we knocked on doors and left one package behind without having an opportunity to meet with any one in person and received an email reply to please call right away, they wanted to know how to get started, that was the 2nd one, both are committed but we need five (5) more to complete the first package. If we can’t wrap this up, we’ll have to return the funds and tuck our tails and move on but we’re getting excited again and know it’s a great idea, just not sure how to get the word out.

To win a FREE marketing plan from infoGroup would be a tremendous opportunity. We believe Everything Graphic will benefit, and not only to expand our business, but we will share the benefits of working with infoGroup with our client base and spread the word. They grow, we grow!!

I got my degree in History from Indiana University in 1985 and my first real job was with Sunrise Publications here in Bloomington.

I lived in the San Francisco Bay area for five years working for a publication called “The National Real Estate Index.” I thought those were my glory days!

Now I work for Jones Harvest Publishing. We have 800 authors and we are trying to publish then sell their books to bookstores.

We also attend major book fairs and author conventions nationwide.

Through our sister company, Author Celebrity Associates we focus on selling our author’s concepts to Hollywood Studios.

Hello Storm Dawg. I am the inventor of the Revolver Binding Technique.
While there have been many advances in papermaking and printing over the course of the last century, bookbinding has remained largely unchanged, until now. The RevolveR Bound Journal revolutionizes the ancient art of bookbinding.
This versatile, high-quality journal is built using the innovative, patent pending Revolver Binding Technique which allows the journal to Turn Inside Out and back again around a floating spine, revealing the surprise of a second folio – actively demonstrating that there are indeed two sides to every story.

Please visit our website http://www.revolverboundbooks.com to see the RevolveR in motion.

My husband and I are deep into the process of building a business, Revolver Bound Books and Journals, to design, manufacture and distribute RevolveRs.

For the past two years we have been perfecting the design, securing a patent and establishing a strong relationship with our manufacturer. As I write, the first print run of 12,000 RevolveR Bound Journals are on our shelves here in our studio on the lower east side of Manhattan.

We have created an in-depth business plan, which I would be happy to share with you. We presented the plan, along with all of our financials to our loan officer, who was very encouraging. While the bank was considering our application for a small business loan, payment became due to the manufacturer for the first print run. We paid for the print run from our personal savings, leaving us with no capitol. The bank then refused us the small business loan.

Family and friends supplied us with enough capitol to participate in the New York International Gift Fair last month. The response to the RevolveR was fantastic! We were picked up by the Walker Arts Center in Minnesota and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. We have interest from distributors and buyers from stores, large and small, across the country and abroad.

We feel the RevolveR Book Binding Technique has unlimited potential for growth – from travel and bird watching journals to bilingual books and manuals for adults and children.

My husband and I are entrepreneurs to the tips of our toes and are passionate about this product. We have invested every penny of our personal money to get this far. We are the parents of two – a son in middle school and a daughter in High School (with college three years away!). Both of our kids have been involved through every step of the process-from the first prototype that I cut and pasted at the kitchen table, to the bright lights of the big show at the Javitt’s Center.

Now, we are focused on getting the RevolveR out into the world. Marketing is the next slope on this steep learning curve that we are scaling. We have the product, but no marketing experience and no financing. We have been approached by PR and Marketing firms, but their fees are far beyond our resources.

I hope Storm Dawg will be interested in RevolveR Bound Books and Journals because we have “worked too hard” and now we really need some stimulus!

In February 2008, I purchased a Cork & Olive franchise and was excited about the venture – quite a diversion after 30 years in corporate technology. Of course, the decision to leave technology was made for me as my company was right-sizing after acquisition – a good cross-road for reflection about one’s real passion and following dreams!! The franchise purchase decision was made after excruciating analysis and research. Cork & Olive was founded on the fundamental principal that wine doesn’t have to be expensive to taste good and everyone should trust their own taste in wine selection. The Florida franchise corporate invested heavily in branding with good results in terms of look and feel of each store – very comfortable environment with a huge solid wood tasting table at the center of the store. Before buying my franchise, I visited 10 different locations, both franchise and corporate-owned stores. Feeling good about investing significant savings, I moved forward. Now the fun starts…town/county/state bureaucracy took 9 months to get a liquor license and required site selection to be moved 3 times (most of this time was spent trying to negotiate leases which have to be in place before you can apply for a liquor license). In June 2008, Cork & Olive franchise corporate filed bankruptcy (Chapter 11), in Sept 2008, some creditors decided to take over the company so they came out of bankruptcy (or maybe the creditors took assets and the franchises were part of that…legal notices or any communication were not forthcoming). Between Sept and my opening in Nov, the new management team changed all the branding, logos and tag lines. This would have required significant additional investment for me to change since I had already purchased all the collateral. We worked out a deal that I could open under old branding and move to new branding according to a timeline agreed. When it came time to open, I had no corporate support – I didn’t even know how to run the POS system. On top of this, we had to do a soft opening as finishing out the interior of the store with all the required inspections, permits and the ultimate liquor license was unpredictable at best – we really couldn’t advertise a grand opening date! So, with support from family and friends, the store opened on Nov 22, 2008. I don’t recommend anybody opening a new retail operation in peak season for retail – particularly if you don’t have retail experience and even more so if you have no support team (ie franchise corp) behind you!

In January, it became clear that we had significant marketing challenges – first and foremost, between the city and the landlord, we have been prohibited from posting any signage on the main road (a difficult proposition since the store is not visible from the main thoroughfare). Undaunted, we tried moving a 3ft sandwich sign to the head of the parking lot and promptly received a fine. We tried putting sign spinners out at the entrance to the shopping plaza and promptly received a fine. We turned to print advertising and spent thousands which has been ineffective if we measure by the amount of coupons coming in for redemption. To make matters worse, in March 2009, the new franchise corporation filed bankruptcy (chapter 7) and was liquidated. So now I am considered independently owned and operated and operations are significantly costlier than originally planned – our biggest expense is wine inventory which the franchise corporation was buying on our behalf in large quantity and now as I am buying individually in small quantity, product cost has more than doubled. Part of the franchise agreement included advertising which has never come to fruition. Other franchises in my area are moving towards a wine bar format and further away from the original concept and branding. As I bought into the concept and branding, I try to remain true to it.

In addition to print advertising, we have done local radio and we participate in local Chamber of Commerce and are involved in many local events for publicity. We always donate wine, gift baskets, gift certificates for local events. I desparately need help in developing a marketing plan to drive foot traffic to the store. My website needs to be optimized. I need some guidance on where to spend advertising dollars effectively. Please help…my whole life savings is wrapped up in this!

Martial Arts Fitness Center is located in Marlton, NJ. Our school was opened in October of 2007 and was growing and seeing success. Like many businesses and workers we saw a slow down in growth with many people worried about the economy. We are working through this tough time and have made many changes in order to better ourselves as a Professional Martial Arts school. We advertise in local newspapers, online, networking with other businesses and more. We are also involved with local fund raises at the Schools as well as the Relay for Life ACS and others. We feel as though effective marketing strategies can help promote growth in this down time.
Our Mission Statement:
Through High quality martial arts instruction, students will learn to be triumphant in all aspects of their lives. At Martial Arts Fitness Center, we pride ourselves in creating a safe, positive environment that inspires our students to set high personal standards, practice self disipline, develop a persevering spirit, and have respect for all living things.

Our job is to help students reach their mental and physical goals. It is our commitment to assist students in developing who they are so they can reach their goals. Students of all ages can be safe and successful.
Martial Arts Fitness Center
320 Evesboro-Medford Rd
Marlton, NJ 08053
856-396-3111

Built In Style, based in the metropolitan Washington DC area, is the brain child of Doric Caron, who had many years of experience in designing and building home organizing systems, his former employee, Hyojon Robbins, who was struggling to make it on his own, and Hyojon’s friend Jan Hagen, who was creating beautiful kitchens but lacked the means to expand beyond his circle of family and friends. Plus me–I handle the bookkeeping, advertising, administrative stuff and basically whatever no one else wants to do. Put us all together, and you have Built In Style, an eco-friendly home improvement company with an emphasis on green custom home offices, kitchen makeovers, garage makeovers, entertainment centers and wine storage. We are presently buying our materials from vendors, but we dream of having our own manufacturing shop, where we could cut our own materials for our clients. That way, our turnaround would be so much faster and more reliable than it is at present. Furthermore, we are reselling to many small contractors who are not big enough to have relationships with wholesalers, so we act as a go between for them. Our overhead is high, which means very little money left over for marketing (catch 22.) Many of our clients come from our deep connections in the community, but new customers are coming from our website, which we promote via search engine optimization and pay per click services. We do several home shows per year, generate our own newsletter which we send out to our database and network like crazy. We belong to two barter organizations, a must in tough economic times like these. We have so much ingenuity, experience and talent to share with the community, but we realize our marketing is sadly lacking, homegrown and amateurish as it is. We would love to have a marketing plan designed just for us by infoGroup so we can get the word out to the Washington metropolitan area about all that we have to offer! We see so many great jobs going to other companies that we know we can beat in quality, price and service–we just didn’t get there fast enough, because people don’t know about us. We would be deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with infoGroup to move us towards our goal of being a green home improvement company and wholesaler.

I am a mother of 7 that has finally put her youngest child in school. I have been out of the work force for over 9 years. I recently established a small ladies boutique that sell jewelry, sunglasses, purses, fragrances hats, etc…and need to get the word out that I exist. Currently, my marketing consist of direct mailing to a targeted demographic. This is very hit and miss, but mailing out about 250 mailers a month is all I can afford at this time. I really need to get the clients coming in the door before my small reserve account is depleted. I took on this business with high expectations of providing a better life for my family, and could really use some help to make my dream come true. Marketing assistance would be a wonderful help.

For years, whenever stressed, I cooked – this “task” always sends me back to the days of my childhood standing on a chair in my grandmother’s kitchen stirring something, anything in a bowl and waiting for whatever was in the oven creating the hypnotic fragrance to suddenly appear on the table for everyone to devour. During the ’80’s and ’90’s my husband started a company and we worked day and night to ensure success. In 1991 I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, treated and given a clean bill of health (super condensed version), but my husband felt my value had greatly diminished, as I was now “defective”. As the years passed, I worked for others with the same passion and dedication applied when owning my own business, but never felt the same gratification. I would go home and cook nightly, using my creations for that sense of accomplishment. In 2005 I was introduced to a wonderful couple who manufactured gourmet candy, using family recipes from Portugal dating back over 150 years. In 2006, Peter became ill and could no longer make the candy. I asked him what he was going to do with the candy company and would he consider selling it to me? He said he had never been able to train anyone to make these products, but if I could make it on my own…he would sell it to me. FIRST TRY…I did it…all of those years in my grandmother’s kitchen paid off. We now make over 25 different types of gourmet candy…on the same 80 year old equipment that was origianlly used…and every day is a blast.

We manufacture big and tall apparel for young men. We have tried radio ads, NFL player endorsements,email blasts, trade shows and our own retail store.
It seems like when we show the product to customers, they love it and always buy again.
We produced decorated denim, imprinted tee shirts and hoodies, board shorts, warm ups and thermal tops.
How can we get our products in front of this demographic and introduce the brand to major retail stores?