This past week, we hosted our Annual Rosabella Tea and Cookies community celebration in honor and memory of our namesake’s birthday. I love everything about this tradition. Particularly the fact that it helps keep me grounded and connected to the source of inspiration that has led me down this path. I am also a big fan of Rosabella Tea, the scent of chamomile, spearmint and rose buds is so refreshing and calming. For five years now, we’ve been making and gifting Rosabella Tea

The recipients are listed below, with a brief writeup of what they were selected for. Recipients will be recognized at the Fort Collins High School Spring Assembly, where they will be presented with their awards. Global Award – Suzanne Miller, Do a Liz Thing Suzanne Miller suffered an un-imaginable loss when her daughter, Liz, passed away in 2008. She turned her grief into inspiration to honor Liz’s legacy. Liz was a vibrant, beautiful young woman with a big smile, booming la

Sales and marketing are often approached as two different things but really they go hand-in-hand.  Marketing is about getting people’s attention and building awareness of your business.  Whereas sales is traditionally what happens when you turn their interest into a purchase.  These are essentially both business development activities. Reflection Questions In what ways does your business connect on a personal level with your customers? What stories from your entrepreneurial e

Check out The Gists! Here’s a synopsis of what we discussed: We applied the concepts from the two recommended readings, Contagious and Unlabel, in response to the many concerns and challenges expressed by participants. These are the 7 takeaways from the discussion to Build Your Brand, Build Your Business. Start by Being Authentic– Should be easy, no? But it isn’t always. Feeling confident in your authenticity can be a big challenge. To help you be more authentic (thereby elim

Would you like to capitalize on word-of-mouth or social media marketing? Do you want your brand to be well known and easily recognizable? Building and conveying an enticing yet authentic brand is of the utmost importance for establishing and growing a reputable business these days. This month in EntrepreNerds we’ll empower to Build Your Brand and Build Your Business by discussing: Tips for Creating an Authentic Brand Steps for Crafting a Story that Spreads Ways to Leverage Yo

I’ve been working a lot this year on improving my workflow process. As part of my overall effort I recently bought a folio to help me stay organized. I didn’t want just another P.O.S. made in China though. I wanted something that fit my style yet was practical. That meant that everything for sale at Office Max was out of the question. My new folio, isn’t she great! Actually, there were no options I could find locally that fit my needs or style. So I took to the web, and I fin

Everyone has at least one hot-button issue. A boss from an old job of mine used to say, “Everything’s sales!” Not surprisingly, I was in a sales position at the time.  His was a philosophy I didn’t much care for as it felt kind of… shallow. When I think of Community I think of the Farmers Market as a great visual! On the other-hand, one of my personal hot-button issues is community. For me everything in business and life personally, is about building, nurturing and sustaining

I recently worked on the 5 Year Strategic Plan for Be Local Northern Colorado and one of the things that came up a number of times was the importance of encouraging more people and businesses to shop locally.  You see, by supporting, local, independently owned businesses, you are contributing to a thriving community, creating local jobs and supporting the unique businesses that make where you live special.  But what does it look like to shop locally? Our Handmade Client Appre

Decision making is a quintessential skill for entrepreneurs and managers in two key ways.  First, business owners must make many many decisions on any given day, about lots of different things like how to operate their company, what products to carry, where to manufacture products, what to do about a problem employee, etc.  Second, your customers are all making decisions too and as an entrepreneur, you typically want them to decide to use your product or service…..right? For