Healthy Fundraisers
As childhood obesity levels rise, schools are looking for healthy fundraisers as an alternative solution for raising much needed funds. Many school districts have even banned fundraising candy sales, so what kind of school fundraisers will help bridge the funding gap?Here are several ideas for healthy school fundraisers:Participant events Many schools have discovered that events where all students participate in a fun exercise-based event do a good job. Examples of this are school walkathons, rope jumping contests, and fun runs.Students raise funds by getting sponsorship pledges linked to their performance. For instance, a pledge sheet for a fun run or a walkathon might suggest a donation of $1 a lap or $5 a mile.In a jump rope contest, pledges might be raised by the number of consecutive jumps a student performs or by a set amount for each participant. The important thing is that parents are encouraging their children to be physically active as part of a fundraiser versus buying candy to help support their school.Nonfood product sales There are also plenty of fundraising products that can be sold that don't involve candy or other unhealthy foods. Examples include books, magazines, gift wrap, flowers, plants, calendars, candles, pumpkins, and kitchen accessories.All of these items have the same type of markups as products like candy, doughnuts, or cookie dough. The key point is that these are all healthier alternatives.Healthy food pr

Keep Your Kids Occupied and Your Business Growing!
How many times have you been in the middle of a major deadline with a business project or assignment, when, all of a sudden, your home office door opens, and it's your child saying "Mommy/Daddy, I'm bored......" ?You usually just groan and say "Honey, go play with your toys or watch tv...." Children - especially young children - get bored easily. They need a constant string of activities to keep themselves occupied.Well, sometimes that works and sometimes you have to stop what you're doing and think of an activity to keep your child busy and out of your hair for awhile.One of the more popular activities for children is making art projects. They absolutely love art!All of us can probably remember how great it felt when we were in grade school and drew or painted a picture of our house or a special friend. Why did that feel good? Because you were tapping into that special place inside each of us that wants to create and express ourselves. Those were your creative juices flowing through your mind-- sometimes gently, and sometimes in an excited manner!There seems to be a growing need to promote creativity in pre-school aged children, as well as school-age children. Creativity is being discussed in almost every realm: books, articles, tv and radio programs and the work place. Creative arts and crafts can be used to teach reading, writing, history, etc. We need to get the word out to many teachers on how to use art in teaching more than just art. The a

The Importance of Forum Marketing
Any serious online marketer should take advantage of the many home based business and marketing forums available across the internet. These forums serve many purposes for online marketers, but first and foremost they are an informational resource. By being active on these forums a home-based business owner can brand themselves a professional in their particular niche, and create product awareness without having to ‘sell’ their idea or product.By posting regularly to these forums, and properly utilizing the signature tags, you can also generate much needed back links to your web page which helps with search engine optimization for your site. The more your website link appears on the internet, the more priority it will receive from the search engines. This is extremely important, as your true marketing online marketing ‘residual’ is built by properly utilizing search engine optimization.One thing you don’t want to do while using forums is to shamelessly and excessively promote your product or opportunity, because this will destroy your credibility with that particular forum community, and you will never brand yourself a professional there. Any communication over a forum should be done by offering valuable information and ideas, and only promoting your programs and opportunities through your signature tags. Unless of course, the forum thread allows for promotion of your particular business.Almost all full time marketers are extremely active on forums. it’s a

Business Case Study Automotive Detailing Franchise Company
How do automotive detailing companies start? What makes them work and how do they grow? How do they choose which services they will offer? This is an interesting case study about a test market of a franchise company in the cleaning business and how they went about setting up Auto Detailing Shops. It maybe of interest to your business study and research; I am familiar with this story because it is one of the companies that I founded.It all started in Reno, NV where we had set up a mobile car wash franchise of the Car Wash Guys for a franchisee there. www.CarWashGuys.com . Because we have significant market share in Reno NV, we wanted to expand into different lines. So we looked at co-branding with Ziebart, yet their corporate culture did not mix with our Entrepreneurial Fiber and the cost of their franchises were quite high. On top of that they had sold so many franchises in the US, there would be a problem later if we decided to roll out our system nationwide or continue buying their units to expand with our current franchisees, still we felt this might be worth pursuing. So instead going thru all the mistakes, which had already been learned we wanted to buy into a proven system and wanted to exhaust this possibility first. They turned us down. So we have decided to take the market, city by city. But first we needed to establish a prototype unit and this is where our Reno Franchisee came into play. Ziebart instead of partner would become a challenge, as they had 216 units a

How to Get the Right Clients and Avoid the Wrong Ones
If you are like most service professionals and small business owners one of your primary concerns is generating as many leads as possible. And that may be your biggest mistake, resulting in wasting time on unqualified prospects and working with too many clients you wish you didn't have to. Bill is a financial advisor looking for clients. Working from his stack of leads he picks up the phone and starts making calls. The first person he gets on the phone has lots of questions and it turns out is just looking for free advice. After a half hour Bill finally gets him off the phone. Bill's next call finds a highly interested prospect. After forty-five minutes, he's ready to sign her up, when he discovers she only has a couple of hundred dollars to invest. At the end of the day, Bill has spent eight hours on the phone and still hasn't signed up any new clients. Do you ever spend time chasing leads that are just a waste of time? Martha is a graphic designer who has plenty of clients but her profits have been shrinking instead of growing lately. One of her long-term clients calls her daily with a question or a complaint. Just when Martha thinks a project is done, this one client changes her mind and wants it redone. And while the customer is always right, this customer's lack of respect and professionalism is starting to get under Martha's skin. Have you ever had to deal with clients who waste your time or are unrealistic in their demands? A comm

Writing Your Book Was Only The First Step: Marketing Your Book is the Survival Step
Marketing your book is too important a task to leave to the good intentions of a publisher. Harsh words? Maybe, but after spending so much time writing your book, don’t assume the publisher will put the same effort into the marketing of your book. I hear this issue every day from authors who contact me to promote their books. Believe me, writing your book was only the first step, making your book known so it can be sold is the survival step.What you must always remember is that it does absolutely no good to promote your book if it is not readily available to buyers either at bookstores, online or by phone.After writing your book, do not hurry your book into the market. With 175,000+ new books every year, the world is not waiting for your book to hit the stores. So take all the time you need to market it correctly.The key to marketing is to really know your book. What is the overwhelming message your book conveys? Whether you self-promote or hire a professional, you must know your message so you can know your market.If you decide to self-promote, I strongly recommend the purchase of MAXIMUM EXPOSURE Marketing System Book Marketing Training Program for Publishers and Authors by Tami DePalma and Kim Dushinski. This is a very well written publication that teaches authors all about marketing their book. If it’s not in here it’s not important.I also recommend that authors purchase John Kremer’s 1,001 Ways to Market Your Book. This is a collection of tec