Indie Business Blog

New Indie Beauty Website Launch!!

A New Indie Beauty Is Born!

I launched the Indie Beauty Network in January 2000. Since then, it has grown to well over 700 members. As the organization has expanded, it has been given life through the most creative, fun-loving, tenacious and hard working entrepreneurs in the world, the members of the Indie Beauty Network. Several months ago, I initiated discussions with one of my advisors about how to better share the energy and vitality of IBn members with the world. Today's website launch is our answer to that question. Please click the picture to watch the video and enjoy some of my Indie Beauties in action.

The new website is designed to showcase Indie Beauty Network members in a fun, informative, engaging and entertaining way. Anyone can join the site as a Visitor. The only requirements are that a first and last name be used and that a photograph be included. Visitors can display photos and interact with other visitors and IBN members. But only members of the Indie Beauty Network can join an exclusive Private Discussion Area, and only IBN members can launch their own Indie Branded Community Areas (like this one set up by Valana Minerals), where they can house their media kits, initiate discussions and connect with friends, customers, clients, the media and other stakeholders. Within 24 hours of our soft launch Friday evening, over 100 people had joined as Visitors and as I prepare this post, there are 25 Indie Brands featured at the site.

Please note that all of the content at the flagship IBN site is still alive and well and full of activity as members enjoy exclusive online training and also enjoy nearly 9 years of our Indie Experience Newsletter!

We are in the process of updating the links at our flagship site with the new address of Indie Beauty Network.com, so please be patient if some links don't work properly as we finalize the transition. For those wondering, here are the most popular links at the flagship site:

• Indie Beauty Network member home page
• Join the Indie Beauty Network
• Visit our Members Only Business Resource Center
• Renew your products liability insurance and membership
• Listen to the Group Coaching and Expert Audio Recordings
• Change your directory listings
• Enjoy the Indie Experience Newsletter

What do you think?

Well, this has been a very long weekend. Thanks to all of the Indie Beauty Network members who are making suggestions for how to improve the site and make it more useful for you. Keep your suggestions coming!! Please take a moment to tell me what you think of the new site!

Support Indie Businesses - Stop This Bail Out!

Join Me and the American Small Business League!

In a phone conversation a few minutes ago with a representative of the American Small Business League, I was given permission to post this information. While the ASBL serves companies with up to 500 employees, far more employees than Indie Business Owners have, their interests are similar to ours in some ways. ASBL's review of the new Emergency (it's not an emergency) Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 reveals a provision that give unfettered discretion to the federal government to waive set-aside provisions that benefit small, woman-owned and minority-owed businesses.

      

Indies, I know that some large businesses have acted unfairly to take advantage of some of the SBA's set-aside programs. I am personally disgusted with how programs that were originally designed for real small businesses have been intentionally ignored by companies that find a way to benefit simply by having attorneys walk through loopholes and publicists to "spin" everything once they've made millions of dollars by employing unethical and illegal practices. I fear from a policy perspective that this will only get worse if the government can use this new law to waive, at its discretion, provisions protecting traditional small businesses. Just imagine where that leaves Indies! Please review ASBL's overview below and decide for yourself whether you agree that the law should not pass with this provision. If so, act now using the easy to use templates and links below.

Bail Your Own Self Out

The Economic Message of the Century: Bail Yourself Out

Yesterday, I posted an in depth analysis of how the Emergency (which really isn't an emergency) Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is affecting "real" small businesses. After yesterday's failed vote on the Act, and after listening to President Bush speak a few minutes ago, the post is even more relevant today. Together, the Act, the vote and the President's morning message point inevitably to one conclusion: you can and should bail yourself out.

       

Neither you nor I can expect the federal government alone to protect and defend our economic interests. That's true now, just as it has always been. Each one of us must climb his or her own group of stairs, pause at the top and begin to fly under the power of our own economic potential. Here's why you are your own best bail out plan, and what you can do now to start soaring.

Bad Bailout!!

How the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Affects "Real" Small Businesses

Yesterday, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services released the text of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. I spent a few hours reading through it and I have some thoughts. In a nutshell, the Act allows the United States Secretary of the Treasury to establish a Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) pursuant to which it can purchase the "troubled assets" of certain financial institutions. It also creates a new regulatory body, the Office of Financial Stability, within the Treasury Department, the purpose of which is to implement TARP. You can view a section-by-section summary of the Act here. (PDF)

      

While I am glad to see that, under the Act, the actions of regulators would be subject to review by federal courts, and also that the Act includes some provisions to help home buyers and (on paper anyway) prevent the corporate elite who started all of these problems from enjoying windfall profits, I can't help but note that this is not really an emergency. An emergency is unforeseen, yet we've been watching this happen for years. And lawmakers have done nothing until now. Calling it am "emergency" does not excuse any of them, or the millionaires who are at the heart of this debacle, from the consequences they should (but will not likely) face. Regardless of whether we "must" act now, and in this way, I am very troubled by this piece of legislation from a policy perspective, particularly as it affects Indie Business owners. Here's why.

Enter to Be Startupnation's Home-Based Business of the Year!

You Owe It to Your Business to Enter!

In late 2002, I received a phone call from someone saying they wanted to nominate me as one of the US Small Business Administration's Home-Based Business Advocate of the Year. I had only been leading the Indie Beauty Network for two years at the time, and I wondered why anyone would consider me a worthy candidate for an award. I answered her questions and submitted a package of information by the deadline. A few months later, I was walking (really, waddling since I was several months pregnant at the time) across a stage accepting the award for the SBA Washington, DC office Home-Based Business Advocate of the Year.

       

Through that experience, I learned that, no matter how unqualified you think you may be for an award or honor, you have nothing to lose by applying for it anyway and putting your best foot forward. In fact, one could say you owe it to your business to give it your best shot. And like they say, there's no time like the present, right?

Why I "Support" Sarah Palin

From One Career Mom To Another, You Go Girl!

The news has been out for over a week now. The shock is starting to wear off. But the insults continue, and I guess that's OK. That's how it is in politics. Yet I feel constrained to put my .02 cents in on the topic of Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, and not about her politics either. In fact, I know little about her political views except that she's against abortion, that she favors drilling in Alaska and that she doesn't seem to be particularly pro-small business. I don't like that.

      

Not only that, I think she took lousy, repulsive, cheap, underhanded and unprofessional shots at Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, in particular by characterizing his community organizing work as anything less than a valuable and noble example of what all Americans should do. I don't like that either.

In Honor of a King

This is the second in a series of posts inspired by my post about how blogging on a schedule can help you keep blogging quick and painless. I suggested a "holiday post" on Tuesdays, so here's my holiday post, which actually makes more sense to categorize here under "current events". To call the time frame 40 years ago during which the nation (well, some of the nation) mourned the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a "holiday" is quite a misnomer.

          

One of the areas of the country that was hit hardest with riots after Dr. King was killed was the intersection of 14th & U Streets, a few miles from the 16th Street home where I grew up and where my mother still lives. Of course, I was far too young at the time to comprehend the national race war, so I don't remember what I was doing or where I was when the news flashes started. But I do remember the day of Dr. King's funeral.

Hillary's Tears: I Liked 'Em

She Cares And Is Not Afraid To Show It

Yesterday, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton choked up at a press conference. In case you didn't see one of the billion replays of the event, you can see it here.

   

Tears Are Real

When I lived in Washington, DC, two men who became known as the "DC Snipers" (even though not a single sniper attack occurred in the city) terrorized the area shooting people at random. When they shot a child in front of a junior high school, Chief Charles Moose, the chief of police in the Maryland county where most of the shootings took place, choked up at a press conference as he expressed his rage that anyone would shoot a child in front of a school.

Some gave him flack for being weak. I gave him kudos for being real.

Real Is Good

As Indie Business owners, we can take a tip from Hillary and the chief. Be real. Be who you are. Everyone won't like it, but you can't be concerned with that. Tell the truth. Live the truth. Be the truth. That's what really matters.

What Do You Think?

Did Hillary blow it? Does an empowered woman become less empowered when her passion moves her to tears? Or do her tears instead reflect her power and demonstrate that she is confident enough in her abilities to wear her heart on her sleeve now and then?

Striking Writers Give Hollywood The Business

Soon-To-Be Indies Poised To Cross The Ultimate Picket Line

Last month, I shared my thoughts on the Hollywood writer's strike. The focus of the post was how we could all stand to turn off the television so we could devote more attention to using our businesses to build wealth instead of just dreaming about all the possibilties.

            

My post ended saying, "Didn't anyone see this coming? I am all for standing in solidarity with union brothers and sisters to fight for what is right. But I hope that some of the striking writers are also using some of their new free time to explore how their God given talent can be used to generate income on their own terms so they never have to strike again."

Writer's Strike Could Change Your Life

... For The Better

It finally happened. Television writers across America did something about the fact that they are not fairly paid for their work. The result? They are on strike, and with them goes the writing that sustains late night television shows like Letterman and Leno, daytime soap operas and prime time sitcoms.

          

What does this mean for tv addicts? More time to invest in your business so you don't ever have to go on strike to force anyone to pay you what you're worth.