We're very happy to announce that cutting edge thinker, Michael Shuman, has agreed to be on our board of advisors. He is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur. Michael is the BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) research and public policy director. If you've never heard of BALLE, I encourage you to check them out. BALLE believes in the power of local businesses to transform communities for the better by working cooperatively toward a shared vision. And of course, we here at PosiPair couldn't agree more. Michael has authored, coauthored, or edited seven books, including The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006) and (Free Press, 1998).

We video taped Michael recently in Madison, WI at the Future Cities 2009 Conference organized by PosiPair co-founder Ben Manski, and will post those sessions soon.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009
By, Eileen Schnabel

Never Eat Alone, The Simple Dollar, PosiPair, and Building Your/My Company.

For awhile now I've subscribed via email to the free newsletter called "The Simple Dollar". The author Trent Hamm is, as I am, learning constantly about how to live on less, what in life is most important, and how to write well. You can see why I find his site helpful.

He's also done a series of book reviews that I've found really useful. His most recent, "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi sparked my interest enough to get the book from the library. The main point of the book is that people are your main source of success, whether personal, professional, community, family, or other. And the larger the network (the sincere type, not the sleazy type) you can create, the more success you will have.

I heard this echoed in person today, when the CEO of PosiPair, Sarah Manski, agreed to meet me for an hour at Ancora to discuss my business idea, which started as the nightlight and has grown to create a portal for dual use educational products. She was a MAJOR help in the next set of steps I should take. She is launching an internet company, an online marketplace for the green economy, and is about a year ahead of me, so I'm able to sort of walk in her footsteps.

We first met because she wanted feed back from potential customers about her idea. I told her everything I could from my perspective, then came home more excited than ever to start my own business. About the same time I attended the All Things Life Sciences venture capital forum and decided to take the leap.

Let me share with you some of Sarah's advice to me today in the hopes it might also help those of you who are starting a business this year. These are the ideas she suggested.

1. For the past year, much of her work has been building a network of business owners, investors, potential customers, etc. She has set a goal of three one hour meetings a day and says nothing else she has done could match how helpful that's been. She gets new ideas from each contact. She suggested I make a list of people that might help, such as some of the baby/learning stores in the area and ask the owners what sells, what doesn't, and what some of the voids are in the market.

2. I should consider entering the Governor's Business Plan competition, for which she was a finalist last year and got free office space as her award. The initial entries, just 500 words, is due in December, so I am going to look into that. Many states have something similar so even if you're not from Wisconsin, a quick google search can give you some leads.

3. I need to get a URL with some sort of .com address soon. I'm still stuck on a the perfect name - suggestions?

4. I should be CEO (which was my plan) because there are many CEO breakfasts that are networking events that only CEO's can go to. She also said when you call someplace and identify yourself as a CEO, you're much better positioned to talk to the CEO of that company.

5. There is an early stage company symposium coming up that will have a number of venture capitalists. She suggested I have business cards by then and try to attend.

6. I already have enough to submit my application to the mentor program. She said they don't expect a full out business plan and the a 500 word summary is enough. There are lots of these mentoring programs, so look into this if you haven't already. Two heads are better than one, and if one has already built a successful company, that's like having three or more heads;-). SCORE has a lot of mentor programs and the Small Business Administration can be a great source as well. So I will have this sent off by next Tuesday

7. Starting a website can run around $2,000 for a basic website with a shopping cart, but to start getting custom work gets into numbers like $20,000 to $100,000. And even the $20,000 would not include user testing and scalability if you need to be able to have hundreds of thousands of people checking your site after an article in The New York Times comes out.

8. I should build the website using drupal as it has a good security track record and most of the programmers I might eventually hire would be familiar with it. It's also very standardized. She mentioned Obama may be switching many government programs to this system.

9. I should have a media tab on my site- so I can do press released on anything from the launch to any grants or presentations or other news. She highly recommended getting a media list to email all the press releases to. She's been on television and radio and she said much of this was having a well-put together story that makes it easy for media to slot you in.

10. I will need to do a lot of consumer research and ask parents what they want to see in the the dual use educational market, what they would buy and what they wouldn't and why.

11. The hardest part is to get people to come to your site. What else do you offer other than buying the product? Here there could be educational news, interviews, blogs, early childhood studies, etc.

So in closing, I have a lot of homework for the next few weeks. Thanks Sarah from Posi-Pair for all your time and suggestions. And thanks Trent for the book review, which helped me find a book I probably would never have otherwise.

Best wishes! Eileen
Posted by The Frugal Millionairess

Link: http://thefrugalmillionairess.blogspot.com/2009/10/never-eat-alone-simpl...

We are happy to announce that PosiPair was awarded another grant from the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network! We will receive a $3K grant to hire a grant writing consultant to help us write an SBIR grant. We're applying for a $150K Phase I SBIR from the National Science Foundation. It's due at the beginning of December, so we have a lot of work to do in the next month.

Great news! As a finalist in the Governor's Business Plan Contest, CEO Sarah Manski, won a year's free rent for the PosiPair office. That means PosiPair will be moving from 122 State Street to the new Metro Innovation Center at 1245 East Washington Ave. The Metro Innovation Center was formerly the home of Marquip, which made high-tech equipment for corrugated cardboard container manufacturers. Now it hosts a sleek set of 10 suites equipped with the latest voice and data technology as well as two conference rooms and a small kitchen.

"We're honored and excited to be chosen as one of the state's top companies, and we're looking forward to sharing office space with other innovative start-ups in the fields of information technology, computer science, engineering and medical devices." says Sarah Manski

We just finished setting up the PosiPair exhibit at this weekend's Wisconsin Going Green Expo. We're partnering with Madison Magazine and organizing the first ever Green Business Awards at the expo.

The three awards are:

• The 100% Award, given to the greenest overall business.
• The Transformation Award, given to the business that's made the biggest industry-changing breakthrough.
• The Community Award, given to the business that has demonstrated the greatest social & community responsibility.

Almost 10,000 people are expected to attend this year's expo. PosiPair will have a computer voting station at their exhibit where attendees can vote for their favorite green business picks.

In keeping with the expo and PosiPair's vision for a sustainable future, the three awards plaques will be made by Total Awards & Promotions, Inc. from recycled and reclaimed materials, like old newspapers and sunflower seed shells. There will even be prizes for those who vote. Some of these prizes include: $150 Gift Certificate toward Private Pilates & Bodywork Sessions from 4Pillars4Health EcoSpace, LLC, $130 plus a gift certificate from The Kitchen Gallery, LLC, and a gift basket of toys from Bad Dog Frida.

If you're attending the expo please stop by and say hello.

Things just keep getting better in the PosiPair universe. I am happy to report we were awarded a $3,000 Early Planning Grant from the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network (WEN) & the Wisconsin Department of Commerce!

I've been recognized as an "outstanding entrepreneur" by the University Research Park and invited to have a table at the Metro Innovation Center Community Reception on Thursday, April 2. - Cool.

Please join us and stop by the PosiPair table to say hi.

The event's goals are to introduce to the public to a new facility that the University Research Park is opening on East Washington. They will be featuring UW student and alumni entrepreneurs giving guests an opportunity to see the new and exciting endeavors that Madison is experiencing. The guests will also include key business decision makers, Chancellor Biddy Martin, UW System staff, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and other government officials.

The event will be at 1245 East Washington at the new Metro Innovation Center from 3p-6p.

Link to the New Urban Research Park article.

Yesterday I attended the Governor's Business Plan Contest Boot Camp in Milwaukee, WI. As I walked in, Liz Schrum handed me a green plastic lightbulb and shook my hand. Jack Orton from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel snapped a photo.

Here's an excerpt:

Boot camp participants dove into networking and an experiment with an opening exercise that had them sharpening pencils in others' light bulb-shaped sharpeners while each tried to give a 90-second business plan summary.

Having to give the summary right out of the gate provided immediate, constructive feedback, said Sarah Manski, chief executive of PosiPair.com, a Madison company that is developing a Web site where environmentally friendly local businesses can post profiles and sell products.

Other speakers included: Tim Keane, who runs the Marquette Golden Angels investing network; Janet Phillips, CEO of Vector Surgical, an Oconomowoc company that makes tools to help surgeons operate more quickly and accurately; and several lawyers from the Milwaukee office of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, where the boot camp was held.

Here's the link - Entrepreneurs compete at business plan contest.

I encourage you to read the uplifting article in Mother Jones Magazine about how the new stimulus package is going to help grow a sustainable green economy. Hurray!

Here's an excerpt:

"Roughly $60 billion of the $789 billion package will be devoted to spending on clean energy, environmental projects, and scientific research...The conference bill's near-final numbers contain $11 billion for the creation of a smart energy grid; $8.4 billion for public transit; $6.3 billion for state and local energy efficiency grants; $6 billion for the cleanup of contaminated Department of Defense sites; $4.5 billion to green federal buildings; and $1.2 billion for the EPA's cleanup programs. Loan guarantees for nuclear and so-called clean coal technology development—included in the Senate bill—were cut. Tax credit programs, incentivizing research and investment in clean renewable energy, will add further to the bill's green tally."

Read the whole thing . . .