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Senate Passes Bill Extending Jobless Aid. The U.S. Senate approved a $138 billion measure that would extend unemployment benefits and provide additional aid to states in lawmakers’ second major effort this year to boost the economy. (03/10/10 09:00 PM)

How to Write a Mission Statement That Doesn't Suck [video].

mission statement

I want to show you why most mission statements are so terrible.

Let's say you founded a pizza parlor. And your first idea for a mission statement is something like this: "Our mission is to serve the tastiest damn pizza in Wake County." That's pretty good. If I worked for you, I could get excited about that. Now here's how it will go off the rails.

[twistage 0fd64afa78711]

So you'll call your colleagues around the conference room table to unveil the mission, and all of the sudden, these people that you like and respect are going to transform into 10th-grade English teachers, nitpicking every word. Everybody starts chiming in with opinions: "Hey, I really like the word 'present' better than 'serve,' it has a nice resonance." And someone else will say, "Well, we obviously can't say 'damn,' that's just offensive." And so it begins. And as you go around the table, your mission statement will be pecked to death.

We can't limit ourselves to Wake County--and also, it's not just tasty pizza right, it's about freshness--we should say "high quality" not tasty.Isn't it weird that we mention pizza but not our great salads and calzones? What if we changed it to "highest-quality Italian food"?That's good but even "Italian" seems limiting--what if we decide to move into gyros?Hold the phone, people, we haven't even mentioned the great family atmosphere--the coloring books and big comfy booths and all that.Great point--you know what we're really doing here, at the end of the day? We're providing a family "entertainment solution!"Yeah, solution!NAILED IT.[Dan] Everyone's excited now. You're almost there. And then Steve at the end of the table pipes up ... [Steve] Listen, guys, we haven't mentioned anything about integrity. That's what it's all about, at the end of the day. Integrity.

And is anyone at the table gonna go to the mat against including "integrity?" Nope. So it's in. And presto--there's your new mission statement:

"Our mission is to present with integrity the highest-quality entertainment solutions to families."

That's what 99% of the world's mission statements sound like, and I think you see the trap here--getting so vague and fancy with the language that it just becomes meaningless. Here are 2 ways to avoid it:

Use concrete language. Check out this mission statement from SonicBids, a fast-growing small business: "We want to help musicians get gigs, and promoters book the right bands. ... We're a bunch of people who think that music can truly change the world and make it smaller and better. ... We believe that independent music belongs everywhere: on festival stages; in video game consoles; on film screens; in college theaters; on the radio; in advertisements; on club stages and at sporting events." Wow. It gives you a picture of what they do and tells you why it's worth doing.

Talk about the why. Most mission statements are all statement and no mission. The whole point is to say why you're doing what you're doing. What makes you care? Look at the start of Johnson & Johson's famous credo: "Our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses, and patients, mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services." Well, okay, that's worth getting out of bed for. Compare that with ExxonMobil's. Did you feel that? A little part of your soul just died, reading that.

So you've seen why bad mission statements happen and two tips for making yours different. At our home Web site, I've put together some other resources for you to check out, if you're interested. And in the meantime, let me challenge you to do the impossible: Write a mission statement that means something. And I'll give you a hint: If it contains the word "solution," you're not there yet. Thanks for watching.

For More on this topic: Download this document Chip and I developed: "5 Tips for a Sticky Strategic Vision." Here's a funny and illuminating review of a book on Mission Statements. My opinion is that most organizations would benefit more from setting a clear, ambitious goal than from crafting the perfect mission statement. On that front, check out Collins and Porras's work on setting a BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal)--here's the original piece (for free) and a helpful overview with lots of examples. (Bonus: here are some audio resources from the guru Jim Collins himself.) And, for inspiration: The J&J Credo. (Many observers credit the Credo with helping to shape J&J's admirable response to the Tylenol-poisoning crisis in the 1980s.)

(03/10/10 09:00 PM)

If the Customer Is Truly King, Then Sonoma Partners Is One Smitten Queen.

Customer Service

Any time a head of a company uses the word "upswing" in detailing his business' recent success, there is a bit of a compulsion around these parts to comment on the company. Please excuse a little cheerleading. But it is especially important to draw attention to an Upswing-ing outfit that saw its revenues swing up by ... 44% last year!

So how did Chicago-based Sonoma Partners do it? The firm works exclusively with Microsoft Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management software, thus they were in a prime position to goose their bottom line during a downturn. First they identified an opportunity in the soft belly of the bear--in this case, Sonoma Partners realized that companies needed a competitive advantage more than ever and a good place to start is by solidifying bonds with customers. If you aren't going to be able to lure new clients into your realm, you sure as hell better hold on to the ones you've got.

Sonoma does this by working with groups in the service industry, like a hotel chain or the home of the Bulls and Blackhawks, The United Center, to both customize their CRM and help them manage it. And they've amped up their customization efforts over the past year, suiting detailed data to each firm with which it works,

This prompted Principle Mike Snyder to crow dryly: "A large part of our business upswing is attributable to our customization efforts, which allow our clients to get the maximum benefit out of CRM."

Huzzah!

Snyder gives examples of such customization as everything from on-the-ground reports during election days to helping a real estate firm better manage its leases.

The company has also been somewhat lucky in that it is catching a cresting wave. As Snyder notes, Microsoft's customer relations technology is enjoy a moment. And I've written here in the past about anecdotal evidence that one check on the plus side of the recession ledger is improved customer service almost across the board. This goes back to the idea that businesses are holding tight to their existing customers. And that works out well for you, me and, clearly, Sonoma Partners.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/ / CC BY 2.0

(03/10/10 09:00 AM)

Advertising Business Internet Marketing - 5 Benefits of Online Advertising. In the world of internet marketing, advertising represents the bloodline of all internet businesses. No online business can survive without a decent advertising. Advertising Business Internet Marketin... (03/09/10 09:01 AM)

Google Really Wants to Monitor Where You Are: May Link Buzz and Latitude.

google buzz latitude

Google's Buzz has hit the tech headlines in good and bad ways, but it's totally swamped other Google offerings like Latitude. Google's not forgotten it of course, and has revealed it may well intertwine Buzz with Latitude. LBS social networking FTW?

Google's mobile Buzz implementation has a location-based system built right in, which grabs your geocoordinates from the smartphone's AGPS system, whizzes it off to Google's cloud, and then drives location-sensitive data back to the app in the form of location aware Buzzes in the "nearby" view. As I noted before, this tech has the capacity to turn into something rather incredible (and slightly creepily unnerving) should Google take the concept to its natural extremes.

But Google has another location-aware social network already, and has had since February 2009--Latitude. Google's not deprecating Latitude, since it's based around slightly different systems, and is more of a location-based friend discovery system as opposed to a chat-based social networking system. Still, many of Latitude's features are emulated, or improved upon (or can be in the near future) inside Buzz. And that's why Google is noting, in an interview with eWeek, that while it's going to continue investing in Latitude since it's "extremely important," it's conscious of the public buzz about Buzz, and will be investigating "points of integration between Buzz and Latitude." In particular, there may be apps Google can "build that have certain compelling use cases" which may be enhanced by location-awareness.

This is fluffy, question-deflecting business talk, and it reminds us that Google truly is a giant organization pushing out innovative solutions in a thousand different directions all at once--sometimes without really thinking about the cross-product potential. But a liaison between Buzz and Latitude really does seem a smart idea, since the potential to enhance a friend-locator app with a sophisticated chat/info-sharing system has obvious benefits for the end users too.

And, don't forget the real motivator behind this idea: Money. Google's skills at profiling you as a user are legendary, and sometimes worrisome, and there would clearly be a huge new array of attributes it could calculate about your habits if it integrated the always-on location sensitivity of Latitude with the info-rich chat streams inside Buzz. And then it can use that data to sell ad space to interested parties who'd like to advertise stuff to you based on your location, or when visiting certain places or talking about them with your pals.

[Via eWeek]

(03/08/10 09:00 PM)

Pixel Qi Skips Shows You How to Bolt a Power-Saving Screen into Your Laptop, Sidesteps Manufacturer.

Pixel Qi's screen tech is impressive in many ways, and neatly solves the e-ink versus LCD question at one stroke. It's curiously not available on many devices, however. Until now, that is: Pixel Qi is releasing a DIY mod kit for your laptop.

The company's CEO Mary Lou Jepsen revealed the plan in a blog posting yesterday. "The DIY kits from our distributors will be available towards the end of Q2. We will be announcing with them prior to distribution" is the important part, revealing we can expect bolt-in Pixel Qi units sometime in June.

The inspiration comes from Jepsen's work in Nigeria where an 11 year-old girl opened a "laptop hospital" to fix broken OLPCs that suffered falls, bumps and scrapes. As Jepsen notes, "most people are scared to change their laptop screen" but in reality "It's only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb: It's basically 6 screws, pulling off a bezel, unconnecting the old screen and plugging this one in. That's it. It's a 5 minute operation."

Pixel Qi's screens offer significant benefits over plain old LCDs that are usually found in laptops and netbooks: It's a lower power than "normal" LCDs when in LCD mode, and also switches to a sunlight-viewable e-ink-esque mode that consumes much less power while also retaining full color capability. These benefits will be tempting to many netbook users who are looking for better battery performance or outdoors-reading capability. Jepsen's promoting the ease of performing the mod--and she's right, though you'll have to be gentle and confident when tinkering with the ribbon connector that actually hooks the screen up to the PC's motherboard.

The idea has set us wondering, though, about exactly how successful Pixel Qi's business model is. The tech is undoubtedly clever, but as I noted above it's not something you see utilized in many places--Pixel Qi is obviously having a hard time breaking into the supplier chain between screen makers and PC manufacturers. It's not a surprise, given the billions of dollars big names like LG have invested in fab plants, and the multi-million dollar deals these companies sign up to with makers like Apple...but it is a shame. Maybe the company will achieve better success with this new DIY system.

[PixelQi via PCWorld]

(03/08/10 09:00 AM)

Effective Sign Design Benefits. Most people believe that by just putting up a poster, the job is done! After all, the poster or building sign contains the message written out clearly, in black and white. Doesn't it? Therefore,... (03/06/10 09:01 AM)

Obama Extends Unemployment Benefits.

President Obama signed a bill last night that extends unemployment benefits for one month, among other things. BusinessWeek has the details: The measure extends benefits for the jobless one month, including subsidies to help the unemployed... Read more

(03/03/10 09:00 PM)

Corporate Events- For the Benefit of your Company. In this competitive world, employees need something more than just a holiday. Corporate Events like holiday parties, picnic... (03/03/10 09:00 AM)

How To Create Your Own Business Cards. Creating business cards is an act which you can perform with ease. The benefits of designing your cards are many. The major benefit is saving money. Other benefits include your control of the finished... (03/02/10 09:00 AM)

What Benefits Can You Gain Through a Successful Debt Settlement?. When you are burdened by heavy debts, eliminating your total outstanding balances is a MUST. Although many financial experts say that debt settlement will affect your credit score badly, in actual fac... (03/02/10 09:00 AM)

Steeped Tea: Tea Party. Steeped Tea is a home-based party business from Canada that brings the tea room into the hostess’ home. Attendees talk about the health benefits of loose leaf tea and the different kinds of tea while being served three different teas. They have a pretty extensive catalog of loose leaf tea, too. If you enjoy tea, [...] (02/25/10 09:00 PM)

Proof it’s not about the benefits, but your product. Go look at Anne Holland’s Which Test Won. Sorry to bypass the quiz screen, but my post’s title already gives away the answer. “Version A, with its main visual of the printer itself, enticed 37.2% more visitors to complete the online call-back form, thus generating more sales leads for the industrial printers.” While an awareness of the [...] (02/17/10 09:01 PM)

Brands See Boost in Search Queries with Olympics Buy. NBC is saying that brands that advertised during last Friday’s telecast of the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics reaped big benefits from their advertising dollars. NBC commissioned... (02/17/10 09:01 PM)

Social Media Infecting Every Aspect of Business.

Social Media Infecting Every Aspect of Business

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

ShareSocial Media Infecting Every Aspect of BusinessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing For this week’s post at AMEX OPENForum I outlined 5 Ways That Sales People Can Benefit From Using Social Media Social media tools are incredible for engagement, amplification, nurturing and deepening relationships – all the stuff that sales is supposed to do. In fact, [...] (02/03/10 09:00 PM)

The Perfect Small Business Collaboration Tool.

The Perfect Small Business Collaboration Tool

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

The Perfect Small Business Collaboration ToolThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I need to warn you this post is a bit more commercial than my standard content, but I use the tool I’m going to tell you about today so much that I think you will benefit from just learning about it. I’ve been working for about [...] (12/01/09 09:00 AM)

Referrals Are Always Cool.

Referrals Are Always Cool

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Referrals Are Always CoolThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing If you’re doing good work, have products that people enjoy, and provide a service and experience that exceeds expectation, chances are, your business is benefiting from word of mouth referrals. While this occasional lead generation windfall may be great, there are things you can do to shine a [...] (11/25/09 09:01 PM)

Eight Ways Marketers Can Benefit From Using Alltop. In aggregating and organizing content from top sites around the Internet, Alltop goes a long way toward solving the filtering problem that many of us have. Alltop can be an invaluable tool for marketers. This article shares eight ways that we can benefit from using Alltop. (11/10/09 09:00 PM)

Web Copywriting: Create Powerful Copy and Make Sales. Do you want to write web copy? Web copywriting has a unique benefit for copywriters: you can track results instantly. Discover how you can create powerful copy and make sales. What makes "... (09/20/09 09:01 AM)

June is Entrepreneur's "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month!.

For those of you who are not yet fans of Chase's Calendar of Events, you'll find that it's a great resource for you or for your clients when seeking those special holidays to tie your promotions to! In fact, there only ONE entry in the entire book with the word "marketing" in the title, and it happens to be in honor of Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month in June. Of course, that's reason to celebrate.

In order to do our part for the celebration, we've created a cool little e-book with some marketing planning tools and 30 ideas for entrepreneurs, along with a 30-day e-course starting on June 1st. What's even better is that there's different content and different ideas in the e-book and the e-course, so it's like you're getting two for one!

Learn more about Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month at: www.diymarketingmonth.com

Below is the press release signaling the launch of Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month coming up in June.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: DanaVanDen Heuvel
The MarketingSavant Group
888-989-7771
dana@marketingsavant.com

MarketingSavant Group reaches out to entrepreneurs with "DIY" marketing in honor of June's "Do it Yourself" Marketing Month

Green Bay, WI -- (May 13, 2009) Even in struggling economic times,
small businesses' entrepreneurial spirit continues to be a driving
force in the American economy.

A Green Bay, Wis.-based marketing consulting and training firm is
reaching out to the backbone of American business, providing a
Do-It-Yourself Marketing Plan customized specifically for
entrepreneurs. MarketingSavant is delivering free marketing tools just
in time for Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month in June.

"As an entrepreneur myself, I know how challenging it is to keep
marketing 'top of mind' and to stay front of mind with your customers
when you're wearing multiple hats," said Dana VanDen Heuvel, president
of MarketingSavant and creator of the month-long Do It Yourself
Entrepreneur Marketing Plan geared to small business. "But effective
marketing is even more pivotal to a small business' well-being than
their larger peers'."

Not to mention the sheer number of small businesses ripe for
marketing assistance. Small business is not equated with small
financial impact. Consider these statistics:

In 2008, there were an estimated 27 million small businesses in the U.S. (Source: Small Business Administration)

In 2008, 12 million people were involved in starting new firms. (Source: Small Business Administration)

For 90 percent of these beginning entrepreneurs, it takes more
than five years for an outcome to be determined. In that time,
one-third disengage, one-third continue in start-up mode and another
third implement a new firm. (Source: U.S. Small Business Administration)

Small businesses provide half the nation's nonfarm, private real
gross domestic product, and half of all Americans work for a small
firm. In addition, small businesses have been the primary job generator
in the U.S. economy, creating 60 to 80 percent of the new net jobs
annually from 1994 to 2004.(Source: Small Business Administration)

With numbers like these, there's a substantial audience that can
benefit from Do It Yourself marketing tools customized to their unique
needs. The MarketingSavant DIY Entrepreneur Marketing Plan includes
several resources that entrepreneurs can quickly put to use, as well as
tools to build their long-term marketing plans, including:

"30 Days of DIY Marketing" e-book, an excellent resource that
provides a marketing calendar and more than 30 do-it-yourself marketing
ideas to grow your business over the summer;

30-day e-course, delivered daily by email, highlighting marketing tips;

Eligibility to receive one of 10 free copies of the book, "Guerilla Marketing in 30 Days" by Jay Conrad and Al Lautenslager;

Free access to a BlogTalkRadio program featuring insights from Lautenslager, a well-known and respected guerrilla marketer

Tips for reaching out to the media to obtain media coverage on your event/product/service

Much more!

"Realistically, entrepreneurs want to take charge of their own
marketing, just as they take charge of everything related to their
businesses," said VanDen Heuvel. "The DIY Marketing Plan makes this
good intention a reality by delivering a comprehensive plan
specifically for entrepreneurs in an easy-to-implement, do-it-yourself
format."

To learn more about the DIY Entrepreneur Marketing Plan and/or to
participate in the plan for your small business' benefit, visit www.diymarketingmonth.com today!

(05/14/09 09:00 PM)

Five strategies for building your ethical brand. There's been a lot of discussion about elevating corporate responsibility to become a strategic driver of your business. Most companies would like to benefit from their ethical efforts in the form of increased customer attraction and loyalty, yet few have... (05/08/09 09:00 PM)

Capital Factory Invests in Five Startups for 2009 Fund. As a co-founder and one of 20 mentors for Capital Factory, I'm proud and excited to get started our first year with 5 startups! Here's the release that we just put across the wire today! The program starts with these entrepreneurs May 22 going through August. And you can follow all 5 startups on Twitter! @CubitPlanning @FamiGoGames @Homstie @Hourville @PetzMD Capital Factory Invests in Five Startups for 2009 Fund Also Recognizes 5 Additional Finalists Austin, TX (PRWEB) April 22, 2009 -- Capital Factory, an early stage technology incubator in Austin, Texas, announced investments in five emerging technology startups selected to participate in its inaugural 2009 summer program. Each company will receive a cash investment of up to $20,000, more than $20,000 in free services, and mentorship from some of the top entrepreneurs in central Texas. The free services include office space, legal counsel from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosatti, public relations support from Porter Novelli, and accounting support from The Accounting Group and vCFO, among many other benefits. Investments: * Cubit Planning - Environmental reports at the click of a button * FamiGo - Mobile games that bring the family together * Homstie - Person-to-person marketplace for storage space * Hourville - A marketplace for services by the hour * petzMD - Website for Pet Health, from A to Z Capital Factory also recognizes five additional finalist startups that were top runners among the program applicants as well, including: * Infochimps - An open marketplace for data * Notesmart -... (04/22/09 09:00 AM)

The Ryder Cup of Word of Mouth. Sean Moffitt at Agent Wildfire, author of blog Buzz Canuck, just published a list of top 23 U.S. Word of Mouth bloggers. As described by Sean..."...these broad-minded bloggers and company heads have distinguished themselves by trying to understand how ideas spread, online and offline, through a range of different strategies and tactics. In my opinion, they are much closer to the purpose and benefits of web 2.0, co-creation, social networks and other web, cultural and social phenomenon."I tip my hat to him for adding me to the list. I'm honored to be among this group. And I need to work on fulfilling this honor by keeping up on this blog, though these days I do a lot of blogging on Social Commerce and WOM on Bazaarblog.Here's his list of the USA Team:1. Jackie Huba/Ben McConnell - Church of the Customer (Austin, Texas)2. Andy Sernovitz - Damn! I Wish I Thought of That! (Chicago, Illinois)3. Pete Blackshaw - CGM (4. Jim Nail - Cymfony5. Ed Keller - Keller Fay6. Jeremiah Owyang - Web Strategist7. Rohit Bhargarva - Influential Marketing8. Owen Mack - CoBrandIt9. Walter Karl - WOM Study10. Fred Reichheld - Net Promoter - Boston11. Max Kalehoff - Attention Max12. Oliver Blanchard - Brand Builder13. Charlene Li - Groundswell14. Sam Decker15. Joseph Jaffe16. John Moore - Brand Autopsy (Austin, Texas)17. Peter Kim, Being Peter Kim (Austin, Texas)18. Mack Collier - The Viral Garden19. Spike Jones - Brains on Fire20. Ron McDaniel - Buzzoodle21.John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marketing22. Kim Proctor -... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

New Event! What's Your Marketing Stimulus Plan?.

I've just launched the first of a series of marketing, thought leaderships and social media events that I'll be running in Wisconsin in 2009. If you're up for some 'marketing stimulus', I recommend that you check out this program!

The MarketingSavant Group invites you to attend the Marketing Stimulus Plan Boot-Camp, a one-day in-depth workshop that will jumpstart or revitalize your marketing efforts in these tough times. The best companies don't cut marketing spend in a downturn, they do the opposite. They know that even the toughest market conditions still provide plenty of opportunity.

Attend this one-day workshop to refine and revitalize your marketing strategy to help you swim upstream during the recession and position your company for long-term success.

Who: The MarketingSavant Group
What: What's Your Marketing Stimulus Plan? Workshop
When: January 27th, 2009 from 8:30 to 4:45
Where: De Pere, WI at the F.K. Bemis Center - St. Norbert College
How Much: $295 early reg / $395 after 1/9/09
Where do I Sign Up: At the Eventbrite website

Marketing managers, sales professionals, business owners, and executives within small to medium sized companies responsible for sustaining profitability and striving growth in a downturn will learn how to:

* Develop a road map for putting frugal, ethical and effective marketing strategies in place immediately
* Understand how new approaches in digital and social media marketing can catapult your company into new market opportunities
* Adapt your marketing spend for today's unpredictable economy
* Adjust prices and promotions without sacrificing market share or brand image
* Focus on accountability and obtaining measurable results from your investments
* Improve strategic and tactical planning with marketing ROI techniques and tools
* Manage your marketing budget and collaborate CFO and CEO

It's been said that "Every adversity carries a seed of equal or greater benefit." This program will help you and your business find the silver lining in those dark clouds by adopting creative, compelling, and low-cost/high-return marketing strategies. We'll discuss and learn new ways to devise new strategies to overcome economic turmoil, and execute new tactics to win, sustain and grow new business.
Bonus Item for Attendees:

All attendees will receive a copy of Marketing in a Downturn: Recession-Proof Strategies for Smart Marketers, a 90-page e-book featuring over 25 interviews with leading marketers, consultants, managers and business owners sharing their most effective marketing strategies for remaining profitable and sustaining growth during a downturn.

Who Should Attend?
* Marketing and communications professionals
* Small business owners
* Channel and brand managers
* Entrepreneurs and start-up managers
* Advertising and public relations professionals seeking new client solutions

You'll Walk Away With:

* Dozens of low-cost and effective ideas that you can implement immediately to jumpstart your marketing in the recession of 2009
* The tools, templates and action plans you'll need to succeed in the world of digital and social media marketing
* An idea packed e-book, Marketing in a Downturn: Recession-Proof Marketing Strategies for Smart Marketers, on how to make the most of your marketing in a recession

Register Now at Eventbrite

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

New Event! What's Your Marketing Stimulus Plan?.

Attend this one-day workshop to refine and revitalize your marketing strategy to help you swim upstream during the recession and position your company for long-term success.

Register Now at Eventbrite

(12/17/08 09:00 PM)

Help Room to Read - Get mystery business books.

The team over at 800-CEO-READ have an awesome project in the works that benefits one of my favorite causes, Room to Read.

Here's the deal:

For $20.00 we are putting together a MYSTERY BOX of three business books. In this box you are guaranteed one title that either won, or made the shortlist for best book of 2007 in its category, and 2 other titles that were submitted for the awards. 100% of the purchase will go directly to Room to Read, and we'll cover the shipping on all orders. Get on board and help us make a difference!

To take part in this special offer, visit The 800-CEO-READ Mystery Box page: http://800ceoread.com/mysterybox

(06/09/08 09:00 AM)

Government Grants and Free Money.

With the economy in bad shape like it is these days, many people are experiencing financial hardships. As a result, the scammers are out in force, advertising their books and CDs that promise free money from the government for everything from paying your bills to getting out of debt, and more.

I'm getting a boatload of emails from people who want me to help them write a letter to apply for a government free money grant. Many others write to say that they need the right form to apply for a grant or that they have written a proposal but don't know which government agency to send it to.

If you need help, you may be eligible for various types of government benefit programs, which are often called grants. Most of these programs are administered at the state and local levels. You don't need a special book to find them, and you don't need to write a letter or a proposal to apply. But you will probably have to meet certain income or other types of requirements, and you'll need to be realistic -- despite what the scammers and books tell you, the government is not going to give you a handful of free money to pay off your credit card bills.

Below is a list of categories of benefits and assistance offered by the government. You'll find this listing along with links to specific programs in your state as well as federal agency programs and other resources. Just click on the link to go to the website.

clipped from www.govbenefits.gov

Select categories of interest.

Select categories of interest. (Check all that apply)

Career Development Assistance Child care/Child support

Counsel/Counseling Disability assistance

Disaster relief Education/Training

Energy Assistance Food/Nutrition

Grants/Scholarships/Fellowships Healthcare

Housing Insurance

Living Assistance Loan/Loan repayment

Medicaid/Medicare Social Security

Tax Assistance Veterans-Active Duty

Volunteer opportunities

(04/14/08 09:00 AM)

Liberate Your Marketing By Setting Boundaries.

This is the article that I wrote this month for adotas. The idea here is that so often, marketers are consumed with all of the media and hype around them that we neglect to setup proper boundaries and filters for ourselves and for our teams to ensure that we're truly able to focus on our marketing mission, only letting that which will truly benefit our organization onto the marketing plan.

â??Donâ??t fence me inâ?? is the mindset of most marketers and creative members of your team. The last thing we typically want is to have boundaries on our time, creativity and choices. Boundaries, however, are what keep you and I focused on the business of marketing and others focused on sales and still others focused on finance and operations. The ability to set, express, and maintain boundaries is an essential part of any healthy marketing department. Boundaries build â??win-winâ?? relationships by making clarifying needs and limits, while opening the field on what options are available for meeting marketing objectives. More specifically, setting marketing boundaries around both new and legacy marketing tactics allow you to focus on those things that matter and only pursue those ideas that pass through your well-established marketing boundaries, ensuring a higher degree of success.

What do marketing boundaries look like, and how can you know where and how to set them?

Peter Block, author of Flawless Consulting, says that â??If you canâ??t say â??no,â?? your â??yesesâ?? donâ??t mean a thing.â?? Thatâ??s so absolutely true. In marketing, if we canâ??t say â??NOâ?? to those things that seem to beg at our budgets and demand our time, weâ??re hamstrung in trying to accomplish those things that weâ??ve already said â??yesâ?? to. In order to keep our yes and no categories in check, there are five key boundary setting techniques that I recommend for all marketers.

Learn to say The Positive â??NOâ??: Yes, you can say â??noâ?? positively. Knowing that your â??noâ?? answer leads to increased energy and focus on the â??yesesâ?? youâ??ve already committed to. To get a feel for this, look at where you should say â??NOâ?? right now. Sit down right now and identify the emerging demands on your marketing team, plan and budget. Identify 5-10 â??NOâ??sâ?? you need to say. Then, for each, ask yourself, â??What would I be willing to say â??Yesâ?? to in this case?â?? Choose wisely - only what you are willing to do, and can do with the same energy and focus that youâ??ve committed to apply to your existing â??yeses.â??

Establish â??gate criteriaâ?? for new marketing vehicles and ideas: Thereâ??s a tool used in product development called the â??Stage-Gateâ?? method that includes a set of predetermined steps from idea to launch. By implementing a similar set of procedural steps in reviewing new marketing ideas, tools, tactics and technologies you will gain a clear understanding of what you should allow into your marketing mix and whatâ??s destined for the â??NOâ?? pile. Just as you have a systematic process for evaluating candidates that you hire onto your marketing team, you need to establish rigor in what ideas make it onto the marketing plan.

Equip your team with boundary setting tools: The best boundary setting tools are of little benefit to an organization if all of the information and minute decisions are still run though the head of marketing. When working through the exercise on the â??positive NOâ?? and setting up your gate criteria, walk you team through the process and gather their input. When you get to the next iteration, walk through it with your team again and point out where their input is included. Repeat until complete.

Transfer ownership of boundaries to your team: Working through step 3, â??equip your team,â?? will set the stage for ownership transfer. Once youâ??ve settled on an initial â??NOâ?? list and have your gate criteria and process established, it should become part of everyoneâ??s job to ensure that everything is vetted through the new process and â??NOâ?? test before it comes up for discussion. This way youâ??ll have a team thatâ??s always focused on the securing the win for each of your committed â??yesesâ?? but that also knows how to spot a genuine opportunity when it comes along.

Keep your freedom to choose: When youâ??re not clear on what you should say no to, itâ??s equally challenging on what to say yes to. By setting marketing boundaries, youâ??ll free up your thoughts and energy to focus on what matters most in achieving your objectives, while simultaneously freeing yourself to make smart choices using your new â??power of NOâ?? and ideas evaluation methods.

Once youâ??ve established boundaries, a system and criteria for new marketing idea review and delegate boundary management to your team, youâ??ll find yourself with more focus, energy and initiative behind those decisions that you have committed to and will have a fool-proof system for staying in step with the newest marketing trends without feeling like youâ??re being carried away on a tidal wave of runaway marketing ideas.

(04/04/08 09:00 PM)

Help Room to Read - Get mystery business books.

The team over at 800-CEO-READ have an awesome project in the works that benefits one of my favorite causes, Room to Read.

Here's the deal:

For $20.00 we are putting together a MYSTERY BOX of three business books. In this box you are guaranteed one title that either won, or made the shortlist for best book of 2007 in its category, and 2 other titles that were submitted for the awards. 100% of the purchase will go directly to Room to Read, and we'll cover the shipping on all orders. Get on board and help us make a difference!

To take part in this special offer, visit The 800-CEO-READ Mystery Box page: http://800ceoread.com/mysterybox

(04/04/08 09:00 PM)

Purchase the Marketech '08 Marketing Technology Guide!.

$19.99

Marketech 08: Using Emerging Media in Marketing - eBook - $19.99

Today's service industry organizations depend on deeper and more relevant customer connections to drive loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation within their coveted client base. These companies don't just need technology however, they need a systems perspective on how to integrate the ever changing world of social media, social networking and Web 2.0 into their core business infrastructure to meet their customers in their medium, now and in the future.

Purchase Now to Discover:

2008 Emerging Media Vehicles

How to Use New Media Vehicles to Your Advantage

The Latest Internet & Marketing Technologies that can Impact Your 2008 Marketing Plans

Your copy of the Marketech 08 Guide PDF will show you how to put these technologies to work for you.

This guide includes a service-organization perspective that will help you:

Utilize relevant marketing & customer service technologies that today's leading service organizations employ to connect with their customers. This includes an overview of tools from social networking via Facebook, organic corporate networks and customer community programs to communication vehicles like blogs, online video and podcasting.
Integrate with existing common customer loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation initiatives.
Identify benefits and risks associated with these techniques and technologies such as lower cost to service and increased referrals vs. loss of central control and the increasing customer control of your brand reputation.
Discover who's doing this already examples and how is it working for them. We'll look at a myriad of case examples with learning's and action items than any organization can apply.

This eBook is available as an Instant Download in Adobe PDF *** Full disclosure: I wrote the e-book as part of a project for the AMA in late 2007 and retained the rights to publish. The response to the guide in my TechnoMarketing sessions and other speaking engagements has been so positive that I've decided to offer the item for sale.
(04/04/08 09:00 PM)

Lovely E-Mail.

I get quite a few e-mails each day. Some are from people asking about my services, others want me to answer their questions, and still others write rather lengthy stories about various hardships that they want to overcome by getting grants that don't exist. Then there is the e-mail I received yesterday asking for a donation so that the sender could attend a conference in Las Vegas, which she can't pay for because she doesn't have any consulting work. Hmmm, I would like donations so that I too could go to Las Vegas.

But every so often I receive an e-mail that just plain makes me happy. I got one of those yesterday too. Here it is:

I am 30 yrs old with little to no experience in writing up
proposals. I am currently working in a middle management position in a
small company. I feel I have an idea that would greatly benefit the
company I am currently working for. After approaching one of the senior
management with it, he told me he liked it and to write up a proposal.

I have been searching the internet for the past week and a half
attempting to gain insight and advice into how to create a quality
proposal. I am not the type of person how expects, or even wants, to
have someone else do my work for me. Most of the sites I found offered
to create a proposal for a fee. It is my belief that unless
circumstances require otherwise that a person should learn to do things
for themselves. It was a nice surprise to find on your site a starter
list of sorts that I could use to begin to make a proposal on my own.
Your "Proposal Preparation Checklist" and Proposal Pointers and
Pitfalls" are wonderful tools and I wanted to take a moment to thank you
for freely distributing them. It is a welcome relief when someone sets
forward information to allow people to empower themselves. The links
you have provided to other websites are also wonderful. Just skimming
over the Checklist and Pointers, I have already noticed some points I
would never have considered.

So again, thank you so very much. I really appreciate the effort you
have put into your site and also the information you have offered freely.

What a beautifully-written thank-you note. And to boot, it expresses my own mantra -- "do your homework" -- just perfectly.

It's just so nice when something like this pops up in your mailbox!

(03/01/08 09:01 AM)

Lovely E-Mail.

But every so often I receive an e-mail that just plain makes me happy. I got one of those yesterday too. Here it is:

So again, thank you so very much. I really appreciate the effort you
have put into your site and also the information you have offered freely.

What a beautifully-written thank-you note. And to boot, it expresses my own mantra -- "do your homework" -- just perfectly.

It's just so nice when something like this pops up in your mailbox!

(02/21/08 09:01 PM)

Red Teams.

I never heard the term "red team" until several years after I began my proposal writing career. My employers never used them and it wasn't until I started working on my own that I encountered organizations that used red teams on certain proposal efforts.

Basically, a red team is a team of outside reviewers that a company brings in to review a proposal once the final draft is completed. Many organizations don't incorporate a red team review process because: (a) it can be expensive; (b) they can't spare the time; and (c) the idea has not occured to them. But if you are preparing a proposal that is very important to your firm, using a red team can be a valuable and worthwhile activity.

In a nutshell, the process works like this:

Your company identifies people (perhaps 4 or more) to serve as red team reviewers. These people should not have been involved in the proposal in any way, and in fact it's best if they are outside your organization. You will probably need to pay these reviewers a consulting fee for their time. Depending upon the size and complexity of the proposal, the red team review can take from one to several days.

Before the red team begins their work, you'll need to prepare for them. They will need a packet of materials, including the RFP, your final proposal draft, the proposal outline, checklists, instructions, and other relevant materials. These can be put in binders that are distributed to each reviewer. The red team will also need a conference room or other space where they can read and meet.

Once the red team assembles, the Proposal Manager or another member of your proposal team may give a verbal presentation on the proposal: what it is about, some background on the issues, what problems have been encountered in developing the proposal, etc. The Proposal Manager also goes over the instructions with the review team. These instructions should be as specific as possible -- they should tell the red team reviewers what you want them to look for. For example: Is the proposal theme clear and consistent? Are the benefits of your approach desirable and clearly stated? Does the proposal address all of the RFP requirements? Is it convicing? How can specific problem areas be fixed? How could the overall proposal be improved? Etc., etc.

The red team begins its review, first working individually to read the materials and document their comments and impressions. Once this is done, they meet as a group to discuss their findings and to prepare a set of recommendations. When the review is completed, the red team presents its comments and recommendations to the proposal team, which then incorporates the reviewers' suggested improvements.

Besides red team reviews, there are also pink team reviews. But that's a topic for another day.

(02/21/08 09:01 PM)

Lovely E-Mail.

But every so often I receive an e-mail that just plain makes me happy. I got one of those yesterday too. Here it is:

So again, thank you so very much. I really appreciate the effort you
have put into your site and also the information you have offered freely.

What a beautifully-written thank-you note. And to boot, it expresses my own mantra -- "do your homework" -- just perfectly.

It's just so nice when something like this pops up in your mailbox!

(02/20/08 09:01 AM)

Notes on "The Likeability Factor" (Tim Sanders at Austin Texchange). Last week I became president of Texchange, a local association of Technology entrepreneurs and executives. At our June event we had Tim Sanders, formerly of Broadcast.com, Yahoo, author of Love: The Killer App, and more recently The Likeability Factor. He spoke to a June audience of 130 entrepreneurs and shared some sobering statistics, research, and recommendations. Thanks to Josh Toub at BluefishGroup and Secretary of Techange, I can share these notes for you. [Note: if you are an Austin-based technology entrepreneur or in a Austin-based startup, email me to join]. Biology behind increased importance of emotion in business and everyday life The amygdala (part of brain in charge of emotion) has grown ~1% in the lat 35 years Makes liking the people you do business with much more important than it once was EVP When Tim evaluates a company to invest in or do business with, he evaluates three things: What is the emotional value proposition What is the emotional cost of ownership What is the emotional compensation plan Did research at Yahoo about the essance of loyalty--it's all about emotional attraction In life, the likability factor is almost always the tie break Every presidential election since 1976 has been won by the likability factor. What is likability? Not about charimsa Not about being popular It's about reciprocity, not attraction Emotional Attraction (EA) Leadership An emotionally attractive salesperson will gross 40% more than a neutral person 3 benefits: Reduced risk Doctors who smile are much less likely to get sued... (06/18/07 09:03 PM)

Internal blogs not always blogs as we know them. My point exactly: BusinessWeek writes that corporate blogging is an internal rather than external communications channel. And not only that -- the "bloggers" don't even know they're blogging.

It may not seem like they're blogging. They're simply using software to send information. Sometimes they do it from remote Internet cafés. In time, they'll be able to file from cell phones. But each mailing, technically, is a blog post. And the program will expand to a host of Cannondale staffers and affiliates. "We're transferring our corporate content management system to blogs," Maurice says.

I believe this is a glimpse of the future. It's not necessarily the future many early bloggers long for. Blogging have until now been a very conscious act. We are deliberately (trying to be) open, we speak in a personal voice with an informal style because we see that as part of the format's great benefits. And because we want to, of course.

But if someone is just publishing, there is nothing to suggest that their style would be any different from whatever content people have produced for intranets for years. Content that is all but personal, informal, open-minded.

My conclusion? None, yet. But if the conversation and the informality is disconnected from the blog tool as such it might actually be a good thing. The important aspect is after all that we -- organisations in general -- become more humanised and that needs to go beyond a few active bloggers. We should speak with a human voice everywhere. (04/06/07 09:01 AM)

Do you give good PowerPoint?. Do you have a great PowerPoint presentation? Slideshare is hosting The World's Best Presentation contest. My father, Bert Decker, and friend, Guy Kawasaki, are two of the four judges. As such, I don't think I can enter...but you can! Just upload your best PowerPoint presentation and you could win an Alienware PC. Of course, for the Mac loyalists who know guy that aren't excited about Vista, you can hope for 2nd or 3rd prize...an Xbox. This contest does not give you the benefit of sharing your verbal presentation with the slides. IMO, a PowerPoint contest isn't a presentation contest, it's a slides contest. Notwithstanding, here are three suggestions that might help you win...and create better slides in the future... Read Guy's PowerPoint tips. Read Garr's tipsRead my father's tips (dispersed throughout his blog)... (03/20/07 09:00 AM)

How Measurement Can Impede Long Term Growth. Measurement and accountability crystallizes movement towards a goal, individual performance, and helps identify employees worthy of merit. Measurement is the language of any organization. The more measures we can hold employees accountable for the better, right? Hold on. There’s a cautionary tale to running a company with an extreme and unbalanced reliance on internal measures. Most corporate measures and employee goals are internally focused, financially-oriented, and functionally silohed. There’s an unfortunate consequence for companies that ONLY focus on these measures. While it’s healthy to manage business with a pragmatic view of financial health, over the long term, a primary focus on these internal lagging measures is not what builds a great company. Can you agree that a great company is one which builds products based on customer needs, strives to delight customers, and generates positive word of mouth as a result? Great companies reinvent and innovate. Now, how many internal measures and key performance indicators directly tie to accomplishing these objectives? Can you identify the internal measures that measure the required cross-functional cooperation to ensure the entire customer delights customers? Sustained-growth companies create great experiences and benefit from positive word of mouth. The Ultimate Question / Net Promoter questions supports this, where Fred Reicheld studied companies with sustained growth and found when customers were willing to tell friends about that company. What companies are you willing to tell friends about? Here are some ideas: Toyota / Lexus, USAA, Costco, Southwest Airlines, Craigslist, Apple, JetBlue, and Amazon. What do these companies... (02/19/07 08:59 AM)

What Color is Your Proposal?.

Yesterday I got this sort of panicky-sounding e-mail:

Subject: Technical proposal.
What does a score of yellow in this area mean?

DOD (and sometimes other agencies) sometimes use a color-coded system to evaluate proposals. I interpreted the above e-mail to mean that the writer had received a "yellow" score on her technical proposal and didn't know what it meant.She may have forgotten to look in her RFP, where the meaning of the colors are usually explained.

The color-coded system is usually something like this:

Blue - Excellent
Proposal demonstrates excellent understanding of requirements and approach that significantly exceeds performance or capability
standards. Has exceptional strengths that will significantly benefit the Government

Purple - Good
Proposal demonstrates good understanding of requirements and approach that exceeds performance or capability standards. Has one or more strengths that will benefit the Government.
Green - Satisfactory
Proposal demonstrates acceptable understanding of requirements and approach that meets performance or capability standards. Acceptable solution.

Yellow - Marginal
Proposal demonstrates shallow understanding of requirements and approach that only marginally meets performance or capability standards necessary for minimal but acceptable contract performance.

Red - Unacceptable
Fails to meet performance or capability standards. Requirements can only be met with major changes to the proposal.

When the government uses a color-coded system to evaluate proposals, the colors indicate the degree to which the proposal has met the standard for each factor that is being evaluated.

(12/12/06 08:42 AM)

Red Teams.

In a nutshell, the process works like this:

Your company identifies people (perhaps 4 or more) to serve as red team reviewers. These people should not have been involved in the proposal in any way, and in fact it's best if they are outside your organization. You will probably need to pay these reviewers a consulting fee for their time. Depending upon the size and complexity of the proposal, the red team review can take from one to several days.

Before the red team begins their work, you'll need to prepare for them. They will need a packet of materials, including the RFP, your final proposal draft, the proposal outline, checklists, instructions, and other relevant materials. These can be put in binders that are distributed to each reviewer. The red team will also need a conference room or other space where they can read and meet.

Once the red team assembles, the Proposal Manager or another member of your proposal team may give a verbal presentation on the proposal: what it is about, some background on the issues, what problems have been encountered in developing the proposal, etc. The Proposal Manager also goes over the instructions with the review team. These instructions should be as specific as possible -- they should tell the red team reviewers what you want them to look for. For example: Is the proposal theme clear and consistent? Are the benefits of your approach desirable and clearly stated? Does the proposal address all of the RFP requirements? Is it convicing? How can specific problem areas be fixed? How could the overall proposal be improved? Etc., etc.

The red team begins its review, first working individually to read the materials and document their comments and impressions. Once this is done, they meet as a group to discuss their findings and to prepare a set of recommendations. When the review is completed, the red team presents its comments and recommendations to the proposal team, which then incorporates the reviewers' suggested improvements.

Besides red team reviews, there are also pink team reviews. But that's a topic for another day.

(12/12/06 08:42 AM)

How to work from home. "The benefits of working from home are obvious. If you're a regular employee: you skip the commute and there are no office distractions for the day. If you're an entrepreneur: reduced overheads, no commuting and a congenial working environment." (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

10 Productivity Tips for Home-Based Businesses. Running a business from your home offers many benefits, but there are pitfalls as well. Distractions abound, and family and other responsibilities can intrude on business time. But the productivit ...

(08/28/06 09:02 PM)

Benefits and Cautions: What Does a PEO Do for Me?. A PEO is a company that specializes in taking care of all the responsibilities that come with employing people. By hiring a PEO, you are "getting out of the business of being an employer," says Bill M ...

(08/27/06 09:03 AM)

Sponsoring B2B email newsletters. Globalspec's newsletter, Marketing Maven, posts a e-marketing 101 article titled What to Know About Sponsoring e-Newsletters that caught my attention. I don't think the subject gets talked about very much. Ultimately, she is making a case for sponsoring Globalspec's industry-specific newsletters.

"A compelling case exists for suppliers and manufacturers to add sponsorship of e-newsletters to their marketing mix. The benefits of the right sponsorship include:"
Brand visibility
Frequency
Low barrier to entry
Audience
Ability to test"

Okay, the Maven is right on these (and she explains more for each bullet), but there are two other issues that come to my mind:

1. Cost. Of course.
Globalspec has always positioned itself as costing about as much for a one year listing as a single full page ad in a trade publication (around $15K). Their newsletter sponsorships (three different positions available) are about $2,500 per issue. This was true regardless of the audience size (30K or 70K), but is on par with pricing I've seen with trade publications.

This expense could be acceptable for an advertiser with a large budget trying to round out their exposure triangle. For a partial-page advertiser like myself, this is a big price to pay for a extremely fleeting exposure. But that leads to my second point.

2. Effectiveness
Just how fast do people scan e-newsletters? Fast. The quality of content and the format is going to effect how the user reads the newsletter, but the process is fast nonetheless. While there is a 'low barrier to entry' as the Maven says, and it sounds good to get your promotion in front of 70K folks at one shot, I don't think that you can just throw money and a simple ad/listing and expect results. Particular care needs to be placed on what your ad says and looks like, and how it fits in the newsletter. Essentially, the same due-diligence should be applied as to a print ad in order to be effective.

So, in summary, I think e-newsletter sponsorship works when:

It is a smaller part of an overall marketing program
The newsletter format makes the sponsorship likely to be noticed
The advertiser prepares content that gets noticed
Sponsors should take advantage of the points the Maven calls out

Longtime readers may remember I once posted about a newsletter sponsor that got me to click, only to lead to a white paper as a Word file. Hopefully we're all past that by now. (08/25/06 09:02 AM)

What Are the Benefits of LLCs and LLPs?. Limited liability corporations (LLC) and limited liability partnerships (LLP) are two new business entities created to mix some of the properties of corporations, partnerships and sole proprietorships ...

(08/22/06 09:00 AM)

B2B content trapped in need for completeness?. The one thing I like about writing is that I get to address the topic as completely as I feel I need to. Over the years I've found that the one detail I leave out in a email or brochure or webpage is the one piece of information that folks call back looking for. When blogging, I write until I feel I've addressed the topic until it is resolved in my mind. Writing saves interuptions and makes revising easy. The end result is a complete document.

Reading an article in this month's Wired called What Kind of Genuis Are You (a facinating article about two types of creatives, nicely summarized here at Reveries), I find myself identifying with 'experimentalist' creatives like Cezanne who only signed 10% of his paintings because he was never sure if they were complete or not.

Regardless, the point is that one goal of B2B marketing is communicating information effectively, which means completeness. But perhaps we are overachievers. Engineers need certain data from our materials, but they aren't dumb. They can connect the dots. We don't need to spoon-feed them.

Yet we continue to produce 'features and benefits' lists that treat them as dumb. That's because we are told that benefits sell, not features. And it becomes complete that way. How many of you have written something like this...

"Our latest model features a smaller footprint to save your valuable lab space."

Perhaps we are lacking feedback on our writing, because on the other side, this is what is happening:

Engineer reading web page: "Duh!"

How much smarter is it to leave your marketing incomplete and let the reader do the heavy lifting? The conclusion may be obvious, but the conclusion is now theirs. They own the idea now. Even complex concepts may fair better, because explaining them takes more effort then just pointing the reader in the right direction. (This happens in art and B2C advertising, but they also have the benefit of multiple mediums to make this more effective.)

Or to quote a Chinese proverb I saw somewhere else this week:

"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."

I think I've reached the asymptote of completeness with this post, so I'll leave you to figure out what it means to you. (Of course I'm wondering if your reading this going 'duh', how obvious.)

UPDATE: Kathy Sierra latest post complements (adds to) this one: Hooverin' and the space between notes (07/29/06 02:28 PM)

Mondays Contract Management News and Comment (24th July 2006). Turtle Bay contract is ratified (Pacific Business News) The new labor agreement at Turtle Bay Resort gives retirees back their medical benefits, while validating existing outsourcing of work by management. Pelham joins county garbage contract (The Shelby County Reporter) The City of Pelham received approval from the Shelby County Commission on July 10 ... (07/29/06 02:28 PM)