Exploring North Portland

Gloria and I went out on an adventure after school yesterday. We got off the 5 on Rosa Parks Way and stopped by the Peninsula City Park that was overflowing with young families. After we had made two new best friends we decided it was time to continue our adventure.

Just down the street from the park, in a charming neighborhood filled with vintage homes, we saw an open house and decided to stop in. We were greeted by stunning details, gorgeous hardwoods, and a friendly sales representative with fresh cookies. Gloria loved the home, especially the attic! I loved the fact that this new home had such a classic and authentic vintage look--when I first saw it I thought it was a remodel because it blends so well with the rest of the neighborhood. The home was oozing with charm and with the upstairs laundry it is really perfect for the modern family! If you are looking for new homes Portland Oregon you should definitely stop by!

After snacking on cookies and exploring all four levels of that gorgeous vintage home we decided to explore more of North Portland. We saw the sign for Eddie's Flat Iron Pizza and decided that sounded like something worth trying. The biggest problem at Eddie's is deciding what to order ... we decided on cheese pizza and some of their fresh bread and we were not disappointed!

What neighborhood should we explore next?

Save Money: 10 Hot Tips

The stock market is on the rise, the unemployment rates are falling .... Hooray! All the reports are saying the last people to see the effects of the improvements in our economy, however, are the small business owners. With that in mind I did some research and found 10 things that I thought could help myself and other small business owners save money.

1. Have a Plan! I think making a plan is the most important way to save money. When you are on a budget you would not go to a store without a list, running your business shouldn't be any different. There are a variety of resources available to small business owners to help create the most effective business plan.

• Find a Mentor. Locally, there is SCORE Vancouver which is a free resource for business support that will match you with a successful business owner.
  
• Take Advantage of Great Online Resources. The Small Business Association has an abundance of resources.
• Hire a Marketing Agency. For some great tips on how to find an agency that works for your needs check out THIS link.
  

2. Go Green! Not just to tap into one of the hottest trends in business right now. Not just to improve your bottom line. Not just to improve the environment. Going green is good for you and for your business for all those reasons. Energy-efficient technology will save you money over the life span of your computers, phone systems and other tech tools. There are often tax benefits to green technology, too. Not to mention it'll help out the environment.

• Turn off lights & equipment that you aren't using.
• Use a laptop, not only do they use 90% less energy but you can take your work on the road with you.
• Buy recycled ink cartridges and enjoy the same quality printing as the more expensive version.

3. Travel Less! Not only will you put less miles on your car, but you will save time and money by setting up online meetings. Join Me has a great free version that will work for many of your business needs.

4. Redecorate Your Office! This may surprise you, but giving your office a fresh look with a lighter color of paint will save you money in the long run because you will use fewer lights. Add motion sensors to your remodel and save even more on your light bill.

5. Hire a Freelancer! With modern technology there are possible freelancers for just about every position ranging from accounting to graphic design. Freelance workers bill by the hour so you don't wind up paying them for 40 hour work weeks when your business load is lighter. Save money on overhead by hiring a quality freelancer.

6. Barter! The days of trade are not behind us. Many people are willing to barter services, it is a great way to save on the bottom line as well as get your name out there in ways you might not have. Some of my best clients started out as a barter situation!

7. Membership Rewards! Maximize your rewards points by double-dipping on programs for many of your office and electronics purchases. You can get points from your credit card provider as well as stores like Best Buy and Office Max.

8. Clean Up Your Mailing List. The U.S. Postal Service will clean up your mailing list for free, correcting addresses, noting incomplete addresses and adding ZIP+4 numbers so you'll be eligible for bar-code discounts.

9. Take Advantage of FREE Advertising! In an age of multi-media marketing there are many ways to advertise your business at no cost to you:

• Start a blog. You can advertise, review your offerings and give free tips as often as you’d like without worrying about running up your budget.
• Use YouTube. YouTube is a great free way for you to get the word out about your business. Note: Video searches come up higher than text or images in search engines.
• Communicate on online forums and message boards. You’ll interact with potential clients and customers — for free.
• Use email. Similar to the newsletter, email marketing campaigns will let you interact with specific customers about new products that might interest them.

10. Love Thy Neighbor! Well at least get to know your neighbor businesses. They might be interested in forming a co-op to save on things like advertising and insurance.

Happy Tuesday . . . Now Make it Monday!

Portland Cardiologist and Author of the new book The Flex Diet, Dr. James Beckerman, has a motto that "Today is Always Monday" when it comes to your New Year's Resolutions. Of course, he is talking about your diet & health goals, but I was thinking this can easily apply to your business practices as well.

Did you forget to enter your receipt into QuickBooks right away? Did you put off filing the paperwork and it is piling up on your desk? Are you behind on your blog entries? Don't worry about it ... make today your new Monday and start fresh. Each day as a small business owner we take on so much I feel it is important not to be too hard on ourselves regarding the small things, but to keep trying to constantly improve ourselves and our business practices.

See Dr. Beckerman on KGW Portland!

Tips For Successful Printing

Image Quality: When providing images whether they be print ready files, photos for a postcard design, or your company logo it is important to understand what will provide a quality final product.

“The image looks fine on my computer monitor so it must be just fine for printing.” This statement seems logical, but is wrong. Requirements for printing and your monitor are very different and for the highest quality of results in your printing it is important to adhere to printing standards.

When designing digital files intended for commercial printing, it is essential that all of the photographs and images in your in files are high resolution (300 DPI or Dots Per Inch). If you have ever seen printed material that contains blurry or blocky images which often provides a bad presentation, it was likely caused by incorporating low resolution images. Ensuring a high quality printed job is as simple as making sure all photos and images in your digital files are all high resolution.

Color mode is another factor important to printing. RGB is the ideal mode for the web, however, when printing it is ideal to have the full gamut of colors available through CMYK mode. If you are not sure how to convert your RGB image to CMYK this is something we can do for you.

Image Size: Aside from resolution, color mode, and image size how you save the file is also important. Ultimately any file that meets requirements as detailed above will work, however to improve the quality of your final product please note that logos are best as (.eps, .ai, .psd, or if you don’t have those formats available .jpg, .pdf) and photos are best saved as (.jpg or .pdf).

All layouts need to include a bleed in order to print properly. This means if you have a 4”x6” postcard the final print ready size should be 4.125”x6.125” in order t have the color go all the way to the edges.

If you have any questions about resolution, color mode, or image size don’t hesitate to ask. I am always glad to help because we want you to have the best final result possible.

*Unlike DPI image size will vary based on actual size and components of your image. Image size shown to illustrate the difference between the two.

The Year of Honeysuckle: 2011 Color of the Year

Pantone has selected the bold, reddish-pink Honeysuckle as its 2011 Color of the Year, calling it "a brave new color for a brave new world."

While Turquoise, 2010's Color of the Year, served as an escape of sorts, Honeysuckle confidently goes a step further to encourage and uplift, according to Pantone Color Guru Leatrice (Lee) Eiseman. It's a hue that's meant to scream, Recession be damned! We will prevail!

"In times of stress, we need something to lift our spirits," said Eiseman. "Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going – perfect to ward off the blues."

Fashion designer James Mischka, half of the famed Badgley Mischka duo, is already incorporating Honeysuckle into his spring collection and told the Associated Press he hopes it does, in fact, provide a sense of hope and renewal in the year ahead.

"It's a positive, strong, affirmative color, and I think that's what hopefully everyone's attitude is going into [2011]."

While Honeysuckle may help ward off the blues, it isn't trying to ward off the beautiful blue-green that is turquoise. Eiseman said turquoise isn't going anywhere anytime soon, just like Mimosa didn't suddenly disappear last year.

"As I always say to my students and audiences, the color of the year for this year does not fall off the ends of the earth at the end of the year — it is simply combined in with other colors where the 'newest' color of the year becomes more dominant," she said. " As I demonstrate in all of my books, there is a 'pecking' order of color: dominance, subordination and then accent or touch."

So turquoise becomes the subordinate to Honeysuckle, and yellow the accent.

Alone and paired with other colors, Honeysuckle has a bit of a retro vibe to it even as it inspires a new beginning.

"All colors travel in waves and cycles [and] there is truly nothing 'new' in color," said Eiseman, adding that it's all about how it's combined with other colors. " That seems fresh and new, but there is still a feel of nostalgia and retro that is somewhat reassuring to people in difficult times such as these."

Just as Turquoise enveloped the design world last year, from scarves and bar stools to product packaging and websites, expect to see Honeysuckle popping up vibrantly not only in fashion but also home décor, print ads and web design.

We talked to a couple of web designers who are currently using Honeysuckle in their designs about why they chose this particular shade of pink. Plus, a look at some of Badgley Mischka's Honeysuckle-inspired pieces for spring.

Read more from Lee Eiseman on her website www.colorexpert.com and her blog http://Eisemancolorblog.com.

New Years Resolution: Bringing My Work HOME ....

My resolution for the New Year .... Bring My Work Home!

Yep, you read that right. Now, let me clarify. As a project manager I have always had a very efficient system in place for work. Everything organized and done in a timely fashion. On the flip side, when I look at my life I see chaos and a bunch of open projects that don't get done ... at least not on time. So this year I decided to apply the same approach to my home & family life.

The first thing I had to do sounded simple, but I spent the better part of January 2nd making a schedule of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. I detailed out the time and days I would do just about everything ranging from things like cleaning the house and paying the bills to volunteering at my daughter's school and pedicures.

Then, I figured out my meal plan for the upcoming week. (This on my schedule for something I will do every Monday.) I have made meal plans in the past because it is a great way to save money, limit trips to the store, and eat healthier. . . If you have a healthy meal planned out and shopped for you really are less likely do opt for the quick/greasy fix.

As someone who works from home I found it was also important to schedule my work hours. I have threatened to do this for the past few years, but never really sat down and done it. Now with my schedule in place it will afford me the opportunity to have a better work life balance and not spend every night in the office on the computer. Yes, tonight was on the schedule!

I would love to hear about your resolutions for work & for home!

Where Do You Work?

You are called many things: Entrepreneur, Freelancer, Work From Home Parent, Telecommuter, and even a Green Office. One thing we can all agree on, if you have chosen this line of work you are dedicated to working despite the noise and distractions .... working from home there definitely can be a lot of them!

So the question I am posing today is: Where do you work? When you need to meet a client or just need to get out of the four walls you call home, where do you go?

Walk into any Starbucks and that seems like the obvious answer. Looking around you are pretty much guaranteed to see at least one person pecking away on their laptop, plus that woman in a track suit chatting on her cell phone ... well she just might be closing a $30,000 deal. I try to avoid Starbucks because they are crowded, but there are so many it does make a convenient meeting space.

In my quest to find the greatest escape from my home office I found the following places:

1) Main Street Coffee House in Vancouver, WA

Main Street Coffee is a great place to work, meet with a client, or simply enjoy some amazing fresh baked cookies. They have a great loft area above the hustle and bustle of the day to day business where you can easily get a great deal of work accomplished. An added bonus for me is that they are owned by a sweet married couple I met back when I was only 21 years old, it was a happy accident the first day I walked into the Coffee House and found them behind the counter!

2) Farrar's Bistro in Vancouver, WA

Farrar's is another favorite of mine, not just because they are less than half a mile from my house. But they have good food and a charming staff. The bistro can get quite crowded, but when I need some quiet I seek out their patio.

3) Corner Office, Inc.

This is not a service I have used, but I am researching it. They offer a conference room, discounted administrative services, and the use of physical address that is not your home all for a small monthly fee.

If you work remotely let me know where you go!