Happy Fourth of July!

Have a great holiday! Here are some interesting facts from the U.S Census Bureau:

2.5 million
In July 1776, the estimated number of people living in the newly independent nation.

304 million
The nation's population on this July Fourth.

6.8 billion pounds
Total production of cattle and calves in Texas in 2007. Chances are good that the beef hot dogs, steaks and burgers on your backyard grill came from the Lone Star State, which accounted for about one-sixth of the nation's total production. And if the beef did not come from Texas, it very well may have come from Nebraska (4.7 billion pounds) or Kansas (4.1 billion pounds).

About 4 in 10
The odds that your side dish of baked beans originated from North Dakota, which produced 42% of the nation's dry, edible beans in 2007. Another popular Fourth of July side dish is corn on the cob. Florida, California, Georgia and New York together accounted for 60% of the sweet corn produced nationally in 2007.

$207 million
The value of fireworks imported from China in 2007, representing the bulk of all U.S. fireworks imported ($217 million). U.S. exports of fireworks, by comparison, came to just $14.9 million in 2007, with Japan purchasing more than any other country ($3.8 million).

$4.7 million
In 2007, the dollar value of U.S. imports of American flags. The vast majority of this amount ($4.3 million) was for U.S. flags made in China.


Read more of these facts here.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

In an economic downturn we are forced to examine businesses in a different light. To help you stay ahead of the curve, Keith McFarland from BusinessWeek offers three tips on how to deal with this downturn and even prosper in it.

1. Get rid of deadwood. Make your business efficient by keeping the people who help it and pruning those who do not.
2. Focus your resources. This is your opportunity to look at the activities or endeavors that add the least to your business and cut them out. Focus your resources on the things that add the most. I thoroughly agree with this tip, too often businesses take on too much and lose their focus. See this slow-down as an opportunity.
3. Go Shopping. Look for the deals, often in a downturn you can find deals on business services, facilities and equipment. You may also find bargains in great employees who are in businesses not as equipped as yours.

My point in this post is to motivate. There are ways to succeed and prosper in this tough time, you just have to find the right fit for your business and allow your peers who have experienced it help you.

Last Chance to Apply for the 50 Fastest!

APPLY TODAY! Deadline Approaching!
CLICK HERE to apply for the 50 Fastest™!

Entrepreneur magazine, in partnership with the Women Presidents' Organization (WPO), is launching the 2nd annual list of the 50 fastest-growing women-led companies across the nation and Canada. To be eligible for the ranking, the 50 Fastest businesses are required to be

Privately held, woman-led companies in the U.S. or Canada
Companies must have reached revenue of at least $100,000 in 2003
Companies must have reached revenue of at least $1 million in 2007

The deadline for applications is July 1, 2008, and the winners will be published in the November issue of Entrepreneur.

All eligible companies are ranked according to a sales growth formula that combined percentage and absolute growth. From this list, the 50 Fastest are selected.

Apply by clicking here!

Social Media Catering to Women

How many of you have accounts on MySpace? According to an article recently published on businessweek.com women between the ages of 35 and 50 are the fastest-growing segment on social media networks, especially MySpace.

The article explains that social media of the future will be focused on women and that any websites that hope to be successful will know to target women. A study by Rapleaf examined over 13 million people and found that women far outpace men in using social media.

What does the future hold? The article predicts that there will be a rise in females hired in the social media realm. With the focus on women, male audiences will be seen as less valuable than female ones. Read the article here.

Again, I invite your thoughts. Are you active on social media sites? Does using social media (i.e. Facebook) piggy back on reputation management?

Managing Your Reputation

A new reputation management industry is offering businesses help countering negative search results on the web. The aim is to defend clients against any unfavorable or damaging information on the web that could ultimately mean lost business.

They work by tracking what is written about your company and then promote the positive pages that are revealed from a search and create other sites that push the damaging references off the page. Yet another tool to add to your marketing/PR toolkit.

Currently, there is little agreement on where the line should be drawn on this and whether the newly created sites are unfairly spinning search results.

What do you as small business owners think? Is your reputation your business?

Managing your reputation may be helpful but will not repair a business.

Entrepreneur Magazine and The WPO Search for the 50 Fastest!

Entrepreneur Magazine and the Women Presidents' Organization have launched a search for the 50 Fastest-growing women-owned or women-led companies in North America!

2008 marks the 2nd Annual WPO and Entrepreneur Magazine competition to find the 50 Fastest™ women-owned/women-led companies in North America. Companies will be ranked according to revenue growth from 2003 to 2007. The Top 50 fastest-growing companies will be publicized in the November 2008 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.

To be eligible, companies must be…
privately-owned
women-owned/led
must have generated $100,000 in annual revenue by the first week of 2003
must have reached revenues of $1 million by year-end 2007

To apply, download the application form and fax to 212.688.4766 or email to fastgrowth@womenpresidentsorg.com by July 1, 2008. There is no charge to apply.

Grow Great, Innovate III

As you can see, our panelists for the conference are a group of extraordinary women. Last but certainly not least is panelist Diane Hessan.

Diane Hessan is President and CEO of Communispace, one of the fastest growing social networking companies in the country. A pioneer in creating online communities to help marketers deeply engage customers, Diane helped found Communispace in 1999.

Diane leads Communispace’s employees in building and managing the more than 275 private online customer communities the company has created for a marquee list of Fortune 500 companies. Communispace has received a number of awards and citations over the last several years including the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s Best Social Media Company of the Year, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Award for Business Excellence as well as one of the Inc. 500’s fastest growing privately-held companies.

Diane has spent her 30-year career helping companies become customer-focused – as a Forum Corporation executive, co-author of the best selling book Customer-Centered Growth: Five Strategies for Building Competitive Advantage, and Real World Consulting CEO. She has received many awards and citations for her leadership and workplace innovation, including Entrepreneur of the Year from Women’s Business Boston and “Best Boss” from Winning Workplaces / Fortune Small Business.

For more information about the conference, click here.

The Inc. 5,000 has launched the 2008 search for the the fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S.

The deadline for preliminary applications is April 30, 2007.

The Inc. 5,000 also recognizes the 100 fastest-growing companies in every major metro area, along with the top companies in several other categories, enabling fast-growing companies from all over the country to be featured in a nationally distributed publication.

To be eligible, companies must be U.S.-based, privately held, independent, and have started generating revenue by the first week of 2004 at the latest. Companies will be ranked according to revenue growth from 2004 to 2007. Companies must apply to be considered for the list.

To apply, visit http://www.inc5000.com. There is no charge to apply.

If you have not yet applied, we strongly encourage you to -- we want to see more WPO members on that list!