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Posts Tagged ‘small business’

Organic Clothing Market with Becky Prater of Beckons Organic

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

In this Podcast Episode

Rob McNealy interviews Becky Prater, co-founder of Beckons Organic, a company that makes yoga clothes from organic cotton and other sustainable natural fibers.

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More About Becky Prater and Beckons Organic

Beckons Organic FoundersBecky Prater (right), and her business partner Ann Sather, have been a design team since 1987, jointly designing children’s wear, snowboard clothing and dance costumes. They got their start working on projects together as stay-at-home moms. When their children entered high school, Becky and Ann decided it was the right time in their lives to set out on their dream of bringing flattering eco-conscious clothing to the market.

Beckons began in 2005 because Ann and Becky recognized a need for colorful yoga clothing that fits the average woman, rather than just the refined yoga body. They found an outstanding domestic manufacturing facility and a supplier of organic fabrics to create a package they could be very proud to bring to the consumer.

Becky and Ann contribute their unique strengths to the Beckons collection. Ann is a genius pattern maker and production coordinator. She is naturally the most “green” person — air-drying her clothes, walking, biking or taking the bus around town, and organically growing her own food. With a Masters in Marketing, Becky manages the business arm of Beckons. She also gardens, growing mostly grapes, berries and roses.

“Our biggest challenge is that people do not understand what organic cotton clothing is. We need to educate the public on the benefits of organic cotton and the problems associated with conventional cotton,” states Becky Prater. Through information on their website, hang tags, and point-of-purchase displays, they strive to increase consumer awareness.

Social Networking for Small Business at Sta.rtUp.biz

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

Earlier this month, the birth of yet another social network, Sta.rtUp.biz, was announced. So, what exactly is Sta.rtUp.biz doing to set themselves apart? Well, Sta.rtUp.biz describes itself as “a small business social network where networking and resources intersect.” To that end, they are targeting small business owners, and providing educational content and advice, as well as a forum for networking with small business colleagues – essentially everything you need when starting a business.

Sta.rtUp.biz is making a bid to separate itself from the pack by staffing their forums with four topical experts, the “Star Lawyer,” “Search Guru,” “Serial Veteran” and “Financier.” These experts moderate the forums, answer questions and post their own thoughts and educational posts about their areas of expertise. For example, “Search Guru” answers SEO questions and helps improve your website’s search engine rankings with free search engine optimization.

In addition to connecting small business owners and startups, Sta.rtUp.biz provides a variety of other useful resources, including daily articles right on their front page which come from top industry magazines like Entrepreneur, Inc, BusinessWeek, FSB, Forbes, Fast Company and Fortune.

If video is more your thing, you can also check out motivational video clips from well known speakers like Zig Ziglar. If you register, you can even upload your own inspirational photos or videos, or add the embed code from video hosting sites like YouTube, to make your video a part of the Sta.rtUp.biz video library.

I finally got around to setting up a Sta.rtUp.biz profile this week, and I wasn’t surprised to see that several of my friends from other social networking sites had already beat me there. Right now, the site’s membership is relatively small, but I can see it taking off, particularly with the current push to “be everywhere” in social media and social networking.

So, head on over to Sta.rtUp.biz , and check it out. While you’re there, add me as a friend.

Multi-Level Marketing & Rebuttals Against FTC Rule with MLM Debunker Jon Taylor

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

In this Podcast Episode

Jon TaylorRob McNealy interviews one of his most popular guests, multi-level marketing scam expert Jon Taylor, about the dangers lurking behind an MLM exemption in the Business Opportunity Rule. If the rule goes into effect in it’s current form, it would exempt MLM companies from having to provide basic information to consumers that would help them determine the legitimacy of a company. Current commentary about the rule can be found here. Rob and Jon strongly urge listeners submit rebuttal comments to the FTC by July 1st!

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More on the Business Opportunity Rule from Jon Taylor

According to Jon,

My big concern is the FTC proposal for a Business Opportunity Rule that would require promoters to reveal minimal information to protect consumers from scams. The MLM lobby screamed bloody murder and got 17,000 of their pyramid participants to write in and protest including MLM in the rule. They also got over 80 Senators and Congressmen to write in – for whatever political favors they had to offer – mostly money.

My position is that by excluding MLM the Rule would be more negative than positive because it would give MLM the excuse to say they the reason they were excluded is that they are legitimate businesses, etc.

Again, rebuttals can be submitted on the FTC website. Note that rebuttals can only be written in response to comments that have already been submitted. If you’re looking for a particular comment to rebut, check out this comment from the Direct Selling Association. The window for original comments is closed, and rebuttals must be submitted no later than June 16th!