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Well…Colorado is the first state to drop it’s minimum wage by 3 cents per hour.  It’s minimum wage was set last year at $7.28 and will be reduced to $7.25 this week.  Colorado is one of ten states that the minimum wage is directly tied to state inflation and the goal was to protect low income workers from getting hit on their paychecks as cost of living rises. 

But this change in minimum wages has some side effects…such as the this would allow state wide wage decreases.  Many people that are unemployed or have been working part time jobs to make ends meet have already been struggling on a daily basis. 

There are 13 states including Alaska that offer higher minimum wages than the federal minimum wage.  We have attached a couple of links to help you take a closer look at your wages in comparison to other states. 

Fact Sheet on Fair Wage Act 2007 – http://www.vtlivablewage.org/Fact_Sheet-FEDMINWAGE.pdf

Overview of Minimum Wages – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_the_United_States

Salary Comparison – http://www.salary.com/

PayScale – http://www.payscale.com/

Cost of Living Calculator – http://www.bestplaces.net/COL/

We hope that this information is helpful and useful. 

Ok…so you have a great new product and no way to get it out in the market place. Here are few helpful hints that might help generate some new BUZZ for your product.

• New Trends – Often times you will find that retailers like to be trendy.  It’s a higher risk to invest in a product that you know is trendy and that at any given time the fad can come to an immediate stop.  But the rewards or the ROI is extremely good and typically trendy products sell well during their phase.
• Extensions – Most new products really focus on servicing as an extension of the functionality of the original product they are trying to replace.  Usually products that try to replace the same existing product, tend to fail in marketing themselves…it’s better to try to enhance the functionality and use that to distinguish your products.
• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – Actually just keeping your product in front of your target market is much better.  Remember to position your product in front of the pack…also make sure you have a creative packaging designed to be noticed when placed on a shelf. 
• The Pro’s have it – So you are trying to do everything yourself huh?  Ok…that might not be one of your best ideas…try seeking expert advice…especially from marketing specialist. 

Well I hope these little hints or bits of info help you find the right interest in your product.   Good Luck and success!

Still not convinced about Social Networking?  Wondering if there really could be any benefit to having a blog or is this just another media hype?  We have be wondering the same thing but our research showed that there are several key advantages to developing a blog and updating the world on your business.   Here are a few advantages I think you could find interesting….take a look.

• Creating a global business presence.  Thats correct…the Internet brings the world closer and closer to one another that you will find people in China reading about people in Mexico.   This intertwining connection gives small companies the same advantage that large companies have to market there products across the world.
• Collaboration.  Yes it’s true…through your blog, open forums, and discussions you can find experts in almost any subject matter.  (And just between us…we have been listening and asking and evolving through help from others)
• A Recruitment Tool.  Although this one is still relatively new…many HR professionals are using social blogs to discover and recruit unseen talent.  Thats right!  Tapping into new markets and talents to help create recruitment strategies.
• And the most important.  Cheap Marketing!  Yeah we said it.  Cheap marketing.  No longer do small and mid size companies have to empty bank accounts to afford marketing and advertising campaigns like the big boys.  In fact we are a prime example….we don’t have the heavy budgets like other social blogs…and guess what?  We are fine with that! 

Well we have given you 4 top reasons to change your method of doing business and to evolve with everyone else…but the final decision is yours. 

The U.S. Small Business Administration said Wednesday it launched its own channel at video sharing site YouTube to broaden its audience promoting the agency’s programs.

SBA is using the channel, online at www.youtube.com/sba, to post informational videos, starting with an overview of programs and services available to help small-business owners growing their companies.. The channel also features a 10-part “Delivering Success” series, which was co-produced with the U.S. Postal Service.

SBA said it plans to produce more in-depth videos about its programs to assist entrepreneurs, including government contracting, taking advantage of loan programs and counseling.

E-mail João-Pierre Ruth at jpruth@njbiz.com

Starting Out

We recently had the pleasure of attending a local job fair and noticed the magnitude of applicants looking for employment.   Some I would have to say have been displaced by former employers, others were seeking career changes, and others were simply there to observe current market conditions. 

As we continued to observe the event, we noticed several resumes that were perhaps not at correct par levels.  In other words, there were certain resumes that need to have a spell checker, a correction in indention, or just a simple review of the format. 

 We recently placed an outline of various types of formats currently being used to create your resume in a professional manner.  Please take a moment to review:

• Chronological – this type of resume starts with you work history and lists previous employment in reverse order.
• Functional – this resume reviews your skill set and work experience rather than listing previous employment.
• Combination – uses a combination of skills and experiences as well as a list of previous employment history.
• Targeted – a targeted resume is designed specifically to highlight your work experience and skill set to the type of job you are currently seeking.

We hope this information helps you in selecting the type of resume you would like to use and we always recommend that you use a spell checker and review your margins to ensure a quality resume.

How do you analyze and improve on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy?  One method of improving and increasing your effectiveness in your marketing strategy is by developing metrics.  Marketing metrics help to justify budgets by demonstrating value and ROI on marketing campaigns to an organization.

To create metrics, marketers first brainstorm on the business outcome that they are trying to impact. After determining what data is needed, marketers need to search for this data, and determine the decisions and actions that must to be enforced as a result of this data mining.

One of the most common methods is through numerical counting, reporting, and graphing.  This method demonstrates the outcomes such as marketing’s impact on share of preference, rate of customer acquisition, average order value, rate of new product and service adoptions, growth in customer buying frequency, volume and share of business, net advocacy and loyalty, rate of growth compared to competition and the market, margin, and customer engagement.