Ladies Who Launch

Sustainable Practice – Keeping it Green and Keeping it Real

From Portland Incubator Member Kristin Sulis, of Mt Tabor Veterinary Care.

I’ve known since the age of 4 that I wanted to be a veterinarian. I’ve known since my senior year in veterinary college that I wanted to be a practice owner. But it wasn’t until I was steeped in the culture of Portland and had joined Ladies Who Launch that I knew I wanted a Sustainable Practice.

Portland is nothing if not green. The environment is so beautiful and conducive to being outdoors that you can’t help but love nature in Oregon. You get the hiking bug as soon as you move here and before I knew it I was not only a hiker but a kayaker, camper, birder,  snowshoer (can’t give up the outdoors just because it’s winter), and now a rock climber. And as you spend more time outdoors you learn more and more about the importance of stewardship. I’ve joined Sierra Club, Audubon, and Nature Conservancy. And the thought of throwing away an aluminum can or glass bottle actually makes me ill. In a time of media bombardment about global climate change, I was already ahead of the curve but it was Ladies Who Launch that taught me that sustainability was not just green practice and taking care of the environment, it’s about taking care of myself.

I attended my Incubator in September 2007 with the intention of finding the perfect name for my new veterinary practice. Well, I left with the same name I went in with but I really became clear on what I wanted my practice to be for pets, clients, employees and, really, for myself - sustainable. Could I have a sustainable practice with the budget I allowed? I found a lease space 8 blocks from my house which means that I will bike commute or walk (and not drive 30 minutes each way to work). The space is in my neighborhood and my target clients and patients live here in SE Portland, so their travel will also be short. There are beautiful skylights in the building and we took advantage in our design of the natural light and left many of the rooms open without ceilings to create an aesthetic sense and to provide our staff and myself with a picture of what was happening outdoors. Throughout the buildout we’ve looked for sustainable alternatives. We have a tankless waterheater that saves energy as well as space (and comes with a tax break!) We purchased steel cabinets and stainless steel wet tables that will never age and can be transferred to our next practice if we move. We are using nitrogen instead of a compressor to power our dental tools (quieter for the pets and for us and very inexpensive). We finished the concrete floor that was already in the space to be friendly to dogs – a gripable surface and to use what was in the space already. For finish materials we looked for environmentally friendly alternatives. We purchased salvaged redwood railroad ties for shelves and recycled Paperstone for our counters and we found wheat core doors for our rooms – all at a price the same or only slightly higher than a non sustainable option.

Gearing Up For Tax Filing

From Nichelle Stephens, member of the New York Incubator and Founder of Keeping Nickels.

Income Tax deadline is only 21 days away!

If you are getting organized for tax filing, don’t get stressed out! Keep it simple. Close your eyes and think of a wave on a beach.  Your money is a wave, and you have to keep track of inflows (income) and outflows (expenses).

The money you earn is income. That will come from sales income from your business, paycheck from a job, or payment for services you performed.  Unless you stuff all your money under a mattress (I don't judge), then all your income has been deposited into one of your bank accounts.  Make sure you have the W-2s and 1099s for the work/services performed as well.

For income taxes, the focus is more or your outflows, since deductible expenses reduce your taxable income so that you get a refund or pay less back to the government.

Your money is coming out of four main places: business bank accounts, business credit cards, cash, or personal accounts. Get an inventory of what statements you have and then contact your bank to get if statements are missing. [You may be able to download statements, but for some banks, snail mail is the only option for bank/credit card statements older than six months.]

Here’s a basic checklist of what you need.

Bank Accounts: Collect bank statements from your business checking account from last year. You will need January 2008 if your December bank statement doesn’t include through December 31, 2007.

Credit Card: Gather all credit card statements business account from last year. You will need January 2008 if your December statement doesn’t include through December 31, 2007.

Cash Receipts: Collect all CASH receipts (taxi, lunch, delivery).  If you have not already done so, separate the business receipts from the personal receipts. Your CPA will love you for that! Separate the cash receipts from credit/debit receipts. If you paid via credit card or debit card, then it is already listed on a monthly statement. Going forward, try to pay for most business-related via debit or credit card so those pesky little receipts don’t pile up. [BTW, Shoeboxed is a new service that will scan receipts and export into Quicken.]

Personal: If you made purchases or paid business expenses via a personal checking or personal credit card, then go through your personal statements and check off every business expense so that they can be included as deductible expenses.

If you're in doubt about whether something is deductible business expense, you can look at the Schedule C for the general categories or ask you CPA.

Now, open your eyes and get ready for some deep navel gazing at your finances, but don't forget to breathe. :)

Launching without a Business Plan

From Carrie Sommer of Sommer Designs  Email info@sommerdesigns.com

I didn't necessarily *plan* to launch a business without a plan, it's just the way it happened. I'm of the firm belief that you should go with your passions. My business started as a fluke. I began the business 8 years ago in another capacity, and it just snowballed and grew through word of mouth. When I transitioned to its' current incarnation, the same thing essentially happened: I made a bag for someone, immediately had requests for more and through word of mouth, made the transition to what it is today. I've always put everything back into the business, and since I don't really have to support myself, it has never been an issue. As I've grown, however, I could see how an actual business plan might have served to keep me focused through the years. Last summer I was thinking about seeking funding and finally took the steps to write a business plan. Even with helpful software though, I ended up throwing in the towel, and still operate without one! I believe in going where my heart leads me, and doing what I love. I love how my business has changed with my circumstances and lifestyle over the last 8 years, and I don't believe that's something I could plan.

Spring into More Space By Reducing Clutter

Happy Spring! Now is the time to get do some serious spring cleaning and get rid the clutter.
Here's some things you can do.

• Clean out your closets and organize a clothing swap with friends.
• Anything leftover from the swap, you can take to your local church, nonprofit or the Salvation Army.
• Evaluate your Storage. Many New Yorkers have storage units full of stuff they don't use and don't miss.  Get rid of it and stop paying monthly storage fees.
• Evaluate your garage.  If you live in a house and have a garage, but you can't fit your car inside, then you may have a clutter problem.  Have a garage sale, put stuff on eBay or just trash it.
• Get  organized.  New York Incubator member Erica Ecker, The Spacialist, is teaching a workshop next week at In Good Company on March 27. If you don't live in New York, check out her site and sign for Erica's newsletter.

Easy SEO Technique to Bring Traffic: Google Images

by Fashionmista aka That IT Girl, Spammy Scammers, and Katie James

Hi Ladies:

A quick and easy way to bring in traffic while you sleep: use images in your web posts or pages, set their alt attributes, and link them to something if possible. This might get your image, and your website, found in Google Images. What does that mean? It means that if you are going to blog about something, include a picture, fill in its alt attribute, and write your post with your keyword phrases woven in. Let's break down this image recommendation:

1. You want to blog about the super cute rolling shoes that kids roll around on, but you want them for adults. You will create a "post" about this (aka web page, but if it's in blogging software, it's sometimes called a blog post), titling the post something like "Super Cute Heely Roller Shoes for Adults". I did not keyword research that, and guessed, but I do know from my own website stats that "heely roller shoe" is a searched for term.

2. You need a picture of a heely roller shoe. If you are not blogging on your own products, and you need to find the image, especially if it's a product, go to Amazon.com. Do a search for the shoe, right click on the image you want (Mac users: hold down your "ctrl" key next to the space bar and then click), and select Save to Desktop, or something simular. This sucks the image down onto your computer. Most likely, the file name is something like 2349875thiefuodjrw8.jpg, which makes no sense. Rename it to heely-roller-shoe-pink.jpg. This may or may not help in search engines rankings, but it can't hurt. Now you can upload it via your blogging software (Blogger lets you do this, or Flickr) or upload it to your host. Remember, if you are wanting to use an image from a small company, or a content based organization, you should ask permission and state your use of the image before you do this. It's a good idea to offer to link to that company or organization in your citation. Even with Amazon, it's just polite to link to them if you use their image.

NOTE: it is not advisable to post the image in your website using the other website's code. This is a lazier way of doing it, and does not require that you host the image on your own site. However, doing this is called "hotlinking" and it is theft of bandwidth. You are stealing their bandwidth. Therefore, it is advisable to ask a website if you can use their images first. I wrote a whole article on hotlinking here. This is also not advisable because if that website removes those images, you will have an error graphic where the image once was.

2. You will increase the image's chances of getting listed in the first pages of Google Images for the specific keyword term if you fill in the alt attribute. This was created to help the blind know what the image is, so it's really a descriptive term of what the image is. It will not show up on your live website page. In the code, the alt attribute looks like this: alt="descriptive term here"

If you have to go into the code, vs your CMS or blogging software letting you access it a different way, the code for the image and alt attribute would look like this:
<img src="http://www.fashionmista.com/images/heely-roller-shoe-pink.jpg" alt="pink heely roller shoe">
I only bolded it to show you where it is. It won't be bolded in real life.

3. For your copy, get the actual keyword word as close to the image as possible. Google will read the copy on your page and show the image that is closest to it in Google Images.

That should be it! Pay close attention to your website stats to see what is working and not working, making adjustments all of the time. Good website stat programs are Google Analytics and Statcounter. Google Analytics will keep a history of your stats, but Statcounter will only keep it for 100 hits at a time. Each have their benefits, like how Statcounter gives you real time results in a consice way, whereas you have to wait a day before Google's presents the full results.

Any questions, just ask in the comments.

 

Good luck!

Frightening Food Facts: What you don’t want to know (but probably should) about what you are eating.

By Coach Joelle Prochera, professional life coach and fellow launcher!  To hear more from Coach Joelle subscribe to the Livloud! Newsletter or read the coach joelle blog.   

Last weekend I had the delight of hanging out with my loved ones in Arizona. Beyond the 7:30 am poolside gyrotonics and the hours of backyard lounging with dear friends (YAY!), perhaps the most significant impact of my days in the sun came from the books I found lying around my friend’s house.

One book in particular caught my attention.  I had previously flipped through it at the local book store as I was perusing for information on creating a non-toxic, organic pregnancy experience (my husband and I are gearing up to start a family at the end of the month).   At a glance, I remember seeing all sorts of stuff that I never wanted to know (but am now glad I do) about what is in our food.

The book is called Skinny Bitch and little did I know, when I picked it up for some poolside reading, that it would provide the definitive motivation for me to go vegetarian.

Warning: first of all, if you choose to read this book be forewarned, the authors speak with a potty mouth,  which, while funny at some times, at other times seemed to be somewhat superfluous and no doubt for some would be offensive. 

If you can get past the language you will see that the book is less about being skinny (though if you talk to your skinny friends, I am sure they will tell you they follow much of what is written here) and more about being healthy in a world where our crops are being genetically modified and sprayed with carcinogens and our livestock is being shot full of antibiotics and growth hormones.

For some time now, my husband has been demanding we do our shopping at Whole Foods.  He has provided a wealth of information on the reasons to go organic, the junk in our food supply and the toxic chemicals found in the typical shampoo or body wash.  Despite all the information I had previously accumulated, it was this book which took my education to the next level in a stark and direct way that left me transformed.

While the information in the book ranges from startling facts like…

- %50 of the antibiotics manufactured in the US are used on livestock ( I had sworn off antibiotics years ago and got myself off the birth control pill after reading a little book called The Body Ecology Diet and learning about a nasty little yeasty called Candida.)

- to the sad and frankly disgusting description of how cows who would normally produce 10 lbs of milk a day are provoked to provide 100 lbs of milk a day along with a description of the hard metal machines used to milk the sensitive udders ( they actually say something about “puss“ that  has pretty much removed milk from my diet. )

But nothing had a bigger impact on me than a chapter that hits you mid-book about the factory farming industry and the incidents of animal abuse that are prevalent in these facilities.

I am not going to list the transgressions that I read, I will only say that while reading of chemicals, and hormones and other miscellaneous junk that could impact my health had only a moderate impact on the choices I was making and the lifestyle I chose, this chapter made my daily meals a moral and ethical dilemma that has left me no choice but to

a) find a local farm where I know the animals are being treated humanely

or

b) go vegetarian.

At this moment I have chosen to go vegetarian and I am about 1 week into this adventure. It was not a decision I made lightly and at the same time, there was really no contest.

I share this because the book had a lot of information that most of us don’t know and if we don’t know, how can we make informed decisions.

If you have an interest in your health, the planet or animal welfare, I invite you to read the book Skinny Bitch .

If you want to hear more about my experience I invite you to read the blog article I wrote moments after reading the chapter I reference click here.

Thank you for letting me share ladies.

To your health my friends,

Coach Joelle

SHARE YOUR SELF IN THE COMMENTS BELOW: Have you read the book or do you have your own opinions about vegetarianism, veganism, eating organic?  We would love to hear from you!

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR COACH JOELLE?:  I am looking for the opportunity to fully serve each of you on your personal adventure.  If you have a life or business challenge that you would like a coaching perspective on, please share your comments below or email me at Joelle@coachjoelle.com.
Make your life a work of art a joyful dance a grand adventure

Rocket Launchers: Ladies Who Launch In The News

Los Angeles incubator member Kira Morris, founder of Joe's Pila-T-Shop, is featured in two big publications this month for her Pilates inspired T-shirts--the March issue of Shape magazine (pg. 98) and the Jan/Feb '08 issue of Pilates Style magazine(pg. 45-49) http://shop.joespila-t-shop.com

New York Incubator members Galia Gichon, founder of Down-to-Earth Finance , and Amy Abrahms, co-founder of In Good Company (www.ingoodcompanyworkplaces.com/), are featured in The New York Times for their involvement with In Good Company, a new kind of shared workspace that caters to driven women entrepreneurs. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/business/smallbusiness/28sbiz.html

•  New Haven Incubator member Leslie Jacobs, founder of LesMess, was on CNBC's "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" on February 25. Leslie was part of the segment called "Do I have a million dollar name?" Donny's feedback was that yes, it's almost a million dollar name and suggested Leslie get a cartoon character on the front of her card box. http://www.cnbc.com/id/23341264

•  Portland Incubator member Lindy Bartell, founder of Smarty Parents Inc.: Making Mealtime Matter, was honored by the local FOX News affiliate(KPTV 12) as being their first featured "It Mom." http://www.kptv.com/moregdo/index.html

•     Palo Alto Incubator member Lauren Mayer, Psycho Super Mom, just appeared on the San Francisco-area talk show, "The View From the Bay" (KGO-TV, an ABC affiliate). As a comedian/writer, Lauren spoke on Motherhood - The Good, The Bad, and the Funny. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/arts_entertainment&id=5973596

•  Los Angeles Incubator member Claudia Endler, jewelry expert, designer, and founder of Claudia Endler Designs, is receiving great press for her creations. The February issue of Muscle and Body magazine includes Apolo Ohno showing off jewels by CED; the February issue of Jewelry Artist magazine's "Trend" section reports on CED pieces; and the February issue of IN Design magazine features and reports on a CED hematite pendant. http://www.claudiaendlerdesigns.com/pdfs/press2003-mod-j.pdf

• New York Incubator member Kathlin Argiro, designer and founder of the Kathlin Argiro label , is featured in The Knot this month. Under the Bridesmaid Style Guide (p. 77), her designs are hailed as a chic alternative to the traditional color block mold usually worn by bridesmaids. http://www.kathlinargiro.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/the-knot-spring-2008-issue.jpg

•   New York Incubator member Kim Gledhill, freelance textile designer for the handbag company Freddy and Ma, just had two of her designs featured in this month's issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray in the "Everyday Faves" section. http://www.freddyandma.blogs.com/

•   New York Incubator member Kim Ima and her Treats Truck have been nominated for a 2008 Readers' Choice Eat Out Award from Time Out New York for "best mobile food."

Being Well Is Not The Absence Of Illness

From Felice Rhiannon of the Los Angeles Incubator.

Every day we automatically assess our well-being. Does my back ache? Did I catch a cold from my office-mate? Has yesterday’s computer headache dissipated? How are my hamstrings today?

Most of us, most of the time, can easily respond to those questions. But many people know their illness will not go away with an ibuprofen or a visit to the chiropractor or acupuncturist. They’ve seen all the wonderful healers, and countless doctors. They live with invisible illness or chronic conditions that won’t go away. And lots of them are well.

How can that be? If you’ve got an illness, invisible or not, how can you be well at the same time? Easy. Wellness is not synonymous with the absence of illness. Wellness is synonymous with manifesting our being-ness and manifesting it well.

Being well is about the quality of how we are, not the state of our body. To be well is to live life to the fullest extent possible, whatever that extent might be. It is to be in the present moment, rather than living as if the past or future were present now. We might ask ourselves is “How well am I being, right here, right now?”

 

Being well is about uncovering our true self. That self does not change when we’re ill. However, when we are in dis-ease we are separated from our true self, whether ill or not. Dis-ease is not the same as living with an illness. Being well is the first step to being our self.

Being well demands rigorous work, internal work. Finding the willingness to look inside, to see all the wonders and all the ugliness, is not always easy. Nor is it always a pleasant task to deal with what lies within. But, oh, how it changes our ability to be and to be well. While actually living in the present we relax into whatever we are creating. We focus fully on the moment, whether we are working or making love, taking a stroll on the shore or sitting in grid-lock.

Being well creates joy, even in a body that might not function optimally. We have equated well-being with the results of blood tests, MRIs, electrocardiograms and blood pressure readings. While these indicators give us valuable information, they are not a measure of how well we are. Joy at seeing a child light up with wonder, or hearing bird song, or loving for its own sake are hallmarks of well- being. Our ability to respond with an openhearted caring tells us we are well.

Having lived an entire year lying in bed or on the couch, I marked the beginning of my wellness not from the first yoga pose I joyfully practiced, but from the moment I stopped thinking about my condition and truly listened to another person. I knew I was well again though it took another six months to become physically able.

While I was ill I counted it a good day when I washed the dishes. On a bad day I crawled to the restroom. Somewhere, in the stillness of my mind, a small voice spoke to me and told me I could be well exactly as I was. I smiled and the healing began. While I was ill I learned some things about being well.

 

• Sing, chant or listen to music daily

• Say “I love you” at least once a day, to yourself or someone else

• Move your body as much and as often as you can

• Eat delicious food

• Laugh as much and as often as you can

• Love the little ones inside

• Play as much and as often as you can

• Listen to your still, small voice every day

• Do what it tells you 

It was a glorious day when my inner wellness took me to a spotless tattoo parlor to have my nose pierced! After all the cleansing and twirling I inserted a diamond. Now, every time I look in the mirror I see it sparkle and remember to be well in each moment. It is the only time I have.

Women Entrepreneurs Keep A Close Eye On Candidates' Health Care Proposal

By Jen Schonborn, www.ladieswholaunch.com

Katie McCaskey, owner of graphic design company Bee Cre8tive, has what she likes to call "CYF" health insurance--as in, "Cross Your Fingers." It was a great plan for Katie. As she explains, "The most serious medical situation in our household thus far was on a trip to Cincinnati, when my boyfriend was bitten by a police-mounted horse."

But we all know what happens eventually with the CYF plan. In Katie's case, her luck ran out when she suddenly lost her vision. And while her condition ended up being temporary, her trip to the emergency clinic left her with a daunting pile of out-of-pocket medical bills.

Katie's story, of course, isn't unique--we all know someone like her. Which is why it's perhaps not surprising that, in a survey of Ladies Who Launch members, 93 percent of respondents said that they believe there is a health-care crisis in this country. And 84 percent of our members said they're paying attention to the presidential candidates' stances on health care because of it.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain may want to take note of what these entrepreneurs have to say on this issue, given that 99.7 percent of all employers in the U.S. are small businesses, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and that women are starting businesses in this country at twice the rate of men, according to the Center for Women's Business Research. Many of these women are the employers that workers turn to in hopes of getting health insurance--but our survey showed that 76 percent of respondents don't provide coverage to their employees, primarily due to the prohibitive cost. Fourteen percent don't even have insurance for themselves.

"Working in the spa industry over the last 10 years I have been offered health care once. Once!" says Sarah Russell, owner of the Simply Esthetics spa in Cleveland. "When I started my business, health care was a non-issue for me. After all, other salons and spas didn't offer it. But now that I approach 31 my relaxed attitude about health insurance has tightened up a bit and I no longer feel safe without it. I am closely watching the candidates and my vote will in part be determined by the health-care issues."

86 percent of respondents feel that the process of finding health insurance is either difficult or impossible. No wonder, then, that 47 percent believe that a new government policy on health care might help their business. It might even help them grow -- 25 percent said that the cost of health insurance has prevented them from either hiring more people or has forced them to hire only freelancers whom they don't have to insure.

"I'm mad at the health-care industry right now," says Leslie Jacobs, professional organizer and creator of Les Mess Organizing Cards. "I could quit my full-time job and work at something I love called my own business if I had access to the quality health care I receive at my full-time job." Leslie isn't alone: 45 percent of our members who would like to start their own businesses stay at their old corporate jobs just for the insurance.

Many other women end up having to depend on the men in their lives for health-care coverage. Thirty-one percent of the women we surveyed who do have insurance are covered through their husbands. Others can only wish for such an arrangement.

"Health insurance has forced me to request a shotgun wedding of my fiance, who is insured with the Directors Guild of America," says Katie Hellmuth, a Web site and accessories designer in New York. "My fiance politely declined my request to visit the justice of the peace, and my mother almost fainted."

So come November, if a candidate with a proposal for sweeping change in the health-care industry is voted in, perhaps we'll see a lot more ladies launching, and more jobs that come with full benefits. But perhaps most importantly--fewer swooning mothers.

Making Wellness And Self-Care A Priority

As we move into Women's History Month, we get great information from  New York Incubator member Yolanda Smith.  You can find her at her website, Self Care Just For Me and her email is Holisticself–care@ix.netcom.com

As women we are excellent care providers, we are dedicated, committed, compassionate, determined, and conscientious while giving care to our friends, family, children, colleagues, significant others but find it extremely difficult to give the same loving unconditional care to ourselves. Women often take care of the needs of others at their own expense. We are constantly putting the oxygen mask on others while leaving ourselves deprived of vital energy thereby not having enough energy to holistically care for ourselves – mind – body & soul/spirit. It is considered altruistic when caring for others and selfish when taking care of you first. 

I was forced to make a decision to start taking better care of myself when my mind body & spirit “Stopped Me” and said “I cannot allow you to continue this day”.  It was August 6, 2004 when my life all changed in a flash!  While teaching a Critical Thinking Workshop with 25 nurses and role playing – I became acutely confused, disoriented with a subsequent loss of memory. I was emergently hospitalized at the facility I was lecturing. After four days of extensive neurological testing, laboratory work, medication therapy and sleep – I was diagnosed with sensory overload. All the testing results were negative. While growing my first business (YGS Medical–Legal Consulting) – I did not have balance in my life. I was working 15-hours days – six days per week. I focused my attention on fulfilling the needs of others and running my successful business – ultimately losing my identity to my business. I did not practice self–care activities nor nurture – cherish & love myself first.