By Yaz - The Yasmeen Dillard Collection - Winter 2010

Hamilton Business Partners (HBP) and NottHeads are helping entrepreneurs grow in a tough economic environment.  HBP and NottHeads recently did a product shoot with photographer John Washington for: Healthy Baked Goods, Bumps Cookies, The Chocolate Box, and By Yaz Clothing.  The photographs will be used for marketing, product catalogs, and web development.

• Healthy Baked Goods owner Dwain Perkins
• Bumps Cookies owner Fran Sobers
• The Chocolate Box owner Daisy Latimore
• By Yaz owner Yasmeen Dillard

Hamilton Business Partners and NottHeads are business consultants that assist organizations in effectively developing strategies that can be applied to the web to make money.  The shoot lasted 6 hours, the biggest challenges were transitions between businesses; where 3 of the clients were food and the other was clothing.  The goal was to capture the essence of each client’s products, think about the application potential for the photos and the target audience.

Hamilton Business Partners (www.hbpartners.biz) – we make art from bits and pieces

NottHeads (www.nottheads.com) – fresh everyday!

Attributes of a Good Consultant

Consultants often get bad press or are perceived to be an expensive resource brought in by senior management (and resented by their team), bringing little value. I've put together a collection of attributes that I think a good consultant needs to have or bring to the table which will hopefully go towards reversing these perceptions.

• Business Benefits: the bottom line is that consultants should make their clients money. It may not always seem that way, but the end goal is to better the business, whether that’s speeding up a process, providing better quality or making cost savings, it’s all about improving the bottom line, whether it be in the short, medium or long term.

Read more: Attributes of Good Consultant

Written by Bonnie Glover

by Bonnie J. Glover, author of Going Down South: A Novel

Since 2005 when my first book, The Middle Sister, was published, I’ve been asked to speak at various public schools, ranging from grade schools to colleges in Florida where I’m currently a resident. Each event has left me wanting to participate more in book discussions with young adults and I’m glad that now I’m receiving invitations to speak in schools as far away as Missouri.

When I speak to these school age kids we discuss our journeys through life and both of my novels, including my latest work, Going Down South. And, of course, there are always at least a few questions regarding my personal writing process and how to get published. When I speak to adults, they tend to ask about book deals and money. Kids are different. They ask about what’s fair game—is it all right to tell a story about something that really happened? And, young people often ask about inspiration. That’s a great subject. We also discuss reading and my personal belief that a person can never become a successful writer without being a successful reader first.

With the publication of Going Down South, I am finding more and more of my readership among the Young Adult (YA) population due to the novel’s focus on teenage pregnancy. The protagonist, Olivia Jean Stone, is fifteen years old and in “trouble,” —the dated euphemism for pregnancy in that era. Although the book is set on the cusp of 1959 and 1960, it strikes a chord with today’s teen audience and their educators. Suddenly, I’m in demand as a speaker and school personnel, and administrators contact me to come to them and talk to their students.

Written by Yvonne Padgett - ReferMyHomeBiz.com

Have you heard about Meetup.com and what they have to offer ? I've talked about networking groups in another blog, but this one is unique for a few reasons so I wanted to blog about it separately.

The land of Meetup.com can offer you specialty groups for anything you are into as well as groups to help you with your business.

I'm involved in several. Some are purely social lunches once a month (15 women in the back room of Mimi's restaurant) to networking lunches where we all go around the table and talk about our businesses as well as pass out business cards, to meeting at Chick-Fil-A where there is a playland for the kids so Mom's can get together to network. Whatever the venue it's a great way to connect with other like minded people.

If there is not a meetup in your area, you can start one! There is a small cost to being an organizer so feel free to charge what you need to cover the cost or the cost of a restaurant meeting room if necessary. For most members that works out to be $1 - $5.

Just keep in mind that if you want to meet with stay-at-home Mom's during the middle of the day, there needs to be a playland for kids. And in that case, it's best to only have 5-6 in attendance so everyone gets a chance to talk and share and get to know each other a little bit. These are not about large groups, but small groups that really get an opportunity to connect with each other.