GoHuman Blog

We’ve been honoring two important themes in April – Earth Month and Autism Awareness Month. Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and we want to help you find ways to create a more sustainable business. We’re also continuing support of our MicroCause for Sunshine supporting autism.

Green is a long-standing buzzword, but what does it mean for your business and community? It’s different for every business and can be difficult to know where to begin. While there is no silver bullet for going green, many great resources are available to help you achieve sustainability.

GoHuman has partnered with Green Globe, providing the premier global certification for sustainability since 1993. Green Globe pioneers what it means to be sustainable and has developed several programs to help businesses achieve sustainability across the planet. They provide independent verification that your business is operating sustainably and in line with Green Globe certified businesses around the world.

Respond today to receive a 10% discount off your Green Globe membership and enjoy these benefits:

• GoHuman Local Marketing Consultant support – we’ll register your business and provide 6 months free at our $5 monthly subscription level.
• Immediate access to the Green Globe Certification System
• The Green Globe benchmarking tool: Green Globe Index
• The Green Globe Environmental Trainings Program
• Listings as “Green Globe Member” on all Green Globe websites
• Access to accredited Green Globe Consultants and Auditors to pursue certification
• Marketing Services provided by Green Globe Marketing
• 10% membership discount applies each year you renew

GoHuman is a marketplace devoted to helping local communities achieve sustainability. Local energy and ideas serve as the foundation for the site’s growth and allow for mutual prosperity. Read more from CEO Wade Fransson about why green energy matters.

Today marks 40 years of working together to live in balance with the planet’s limited resources. Here are 5 easy things you can do to help!

1) Take part in the Official Earth Day 2010 Campaign – Sign the Climate Declaration

2) Click here to tell Congress to pass a fair, ambitious and comprehensive climate bill.

3) Add a pledge to Sierra Club’s map and win a trip to Hawaii

4) Sign the Rock The Vote petition for Energy Independence

5) Cut down on your daily disposables – it’s easy!

Thanks for doing your part!

We have come to the half-way mark of April, Autism Awareness Month, and are about two months away from our June 15th deadline to raise the much needed money to help this wonderful family in need.  As of April 15th we have raised $8,155.79 of the needed $14,900 to ensure Sunshine gets the treatment he needs at the Autism Treatment Centers of America.  I have had some wonderful success in reaching out to individuals and the Autism Community overall these past few weeks and want to just give a brief recap on those efforts.

I was invited to become a member and post a blog on Autism Blogger, an Autism networking site, devoted to spreading awareness and connecting families who are afflicted with this condition.

I also was invited to join, and subsequently reached out to the creators of Crowdspring, who featured GoHuman and Sunshine’s cause in their Small Business Spotlight of the week .

I was also invited to join, and blog on Autisable, a new Autism community started by the creators of the blogging community, Xanga.

Having just moved to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, I am making friends and spreading the word about Sunshine and GoHuman to any and all I meet.  I was also fortunate to make acquaintance with Karyn Vilendre, owner of Twin Cities Cheap, and hope to be working with her further in the upcoming weeks.

All in all the word is spreading, slowly but surely, and as we gain momentum, I look so forward to the day when we’ve raised the funds to be able to send Sunshine and his family to the Autism Treatment Centers of America.

When I was Publisher of some Manufacturing Management magazines, a group that represented Industrial Distributors asked me to survey our readers — their customers & prospects — what they valued most, aside from product-related attributes such as accuracy and reliability. About 15 items were listed.

To most everyone’s surprise, the customers and prospects ranked “Prompt Response to Needs & Requests” a very close second, only to “Price” which almost always comes out first. What came in #3 wasn’t even close.

“Prompt Response” costs you almost nothing and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to do it. It’s not only a great way to improve sales, it’s also a very inexpensive way to gain goodwill.

Launching a business requires knowing the cost and expenses associated with startup operations. Business owners planning to expand an existing business usually need additional financing. Being undercapitalized is one of the most common mistakes business owners make. Attempting to work on a financial shoe string is not only stressful but can impede the growth of the business for years.

The first step most companies take when seeking private capital is the creation of an executive summary and/or a business plan. Executive summaries and business plans typically provide general information about the company, its business model, goals, etc. While this information is important to investors, it does not provide a basis or structure for accepting capital investments, especially from multiple investors. Business plans are important, especially for start-up companies, but should not be relied upon as investment documents.

Here is the “Best Kept Secret in Funding.” The Regulation D series of funding allows you to efficiently raise the funds necessary for your business, in legal compliance with Security & Exchange Commissions laws. Whether it’s $50,000 or millions, there is a Reg D to answer your requirements.

Offering equity in a privately held company, such as a corporation or limited liability company, without proper exemption from the Securities & Exchange Commission, is in violation of offering securities. The Reg D series of private placement offerings are the exemptions. A Reg D 504 Private Placement Offering is ideal for raising $1 million or less. It’s cost effective, has few restrictions, and is easy to comply with.

Ken Hollowell, CEO/President of Profran Consultants, Inc., is sponsoring this issue by offering a free Reg D 504, a $10,000 value. To apply, provide a one or two paragraph description of your business with the amount you wish to raise, up to $1M. Ken will select the business he feels is the best candidate to generate investor interest, from among the first 20 responses. The other 19 candidates will receive a personal counseling session on how to improve their pitch. GoHuman.com will also upgrade your subscription to our $9 Enhanced Subscription Level for 6 months, free of charge.

You owe it to yourself to learn about methods of raising funds for literally any type of business. Respond today to increase your understanding of funding options to chart your path toward business growth and expansion.

Although the concept of Branding is simple, effective execution is neither easy nor inexpensive.  Too many business execs today talk about Branding as though you can buy it by the pound at your local supermarket.

To develop an effective Branding program you first have to determine:

1. What markets & market segments can most benefit from the product or service you offer?
2. What are your prospects’ major wants and needs, and how well you can satisfy them?
3. Can you satisfy any of them better than your competitors?
4. If so, are the ones you better satisfy as important as the ones your competitors excel at?
5. What concise message best conveys your ability to satisfy those wants & needs?
6. How will you effectively convey your message to those prospects?
7. How much will it cost, and can you afford to do it as often as needed to make it register?
8. Can you do it over an extended period of time?

Branding is hard.  Branding is costly.  Branding is forever.

Branding must be a total company commitment to giving customers & prospects everything they expect from a superior, committed organization.

Branding is every public thing you do, not just the obvious like:

• Ads & PR
• The media that carry your message
• Websites, Brochures & Newsletters

But also the not-so-obvious like:

1. Product Quality & Packaging
2. User Manuals (appearance, ease of use, etc)
3. Your Supply Chain, including your sales staff, service people, dealers, distributors, etc.
4. Speedy, on-time delivery
5. Competent, courteous Installation & Set up
6. Customer Service in all its forms – with special emphasis on “Prompt Response to Needs & Requests”
7. Your website and letterhead
8. Sales Presentations & Sales Materials
9. Your Receptionist & the way you answer the phone
10. Your office, your furniture, their cleanliness & condition
11. How fast you pay your bills and how you deal with suppliers

These are just the basics, but hopefully that’s enough to get you started!

What does green mean to you as a business owner or consumer? It’s certainly a buzzword that gets a lot of attention, especially this month as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

In 40 years have we accomplished as much as we could to sustain a sustainable ecosystem for our planet? Probably not, but it’s human nature to move incrementally until disaster strikes.

GoHuman is a marketplace devoted to helping local communities achieve sustainability. Local energy and ideas serve as the foundation for the site’s growth, and allow for mutual prosperity. Local means:

• Fewer resources to transport goods and services is better for the environment
• Money spent by the community stays in the community
• Services tailored specifically to the needs and challenges of the community
• Reduced costs due to lower overhead of the individual provider
• Greater flexibility for better quality of life
• Bringing back the unique downtown communities this country has lost
• Helping the economy-at-large by feeding it at the smallest level
• Taking the current crisis into your own hands rather than waiting for someone else to fix it

If you are a green-certified service provider, you’re one of us. So why not join us? I welcome you to post your services to GoHuman and join a growing community of like-minded businesses and community members. Together we can help local communities and the environment.

Thank you for making a difference in your community and ours. Read on for ideas on marketing a green business.

Our mission is to bring you the best quality marketing assistance at the lowest cost. GoHuman.com offers very low cost subscription upgrades for you to list your business in more ZIP codes or feature different products and services in different markets.

You can upgrade or downgrade you account at any time via your account management page on GoHuman.

$5/month gives you 15 postings, which helps you market specific services to customers in other ZIP codes.

$9/month gives you 30 postings as well as a unique WebAddress, which makes it easier for people to find your business posting on the Web. (http://www.gohuman.com/chicago-lawyer)