Crazy End Of 2011/Start Of 2012

It was a crazy end of the year for me. A great opportunity came up for Military Spouse Business Association, MSBA, which meant that our holiday time off was not possible. MSBA was invited to be a vendor or have an exhibit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes, Military Spouse Career Forum in D.C. This event happened in January.

The Board Members worked full time days to prepare for this event; gathering promotional materials from MSBA members, creating a theme both for our booth display and for the marketing materials, figuring out our display, ordering trade-show materials, designing trade-show materials, generating newsletters and e-mails, creating a press release and on and on.

I managed to also find some time to update the products and the inventory on the website. I needed to do this as it hadn't been done in a year. The other thing is All In One Desktops is listed in the Red, White & Blue Pages™ of the MSBA website. One of MSBA's goals at the Career Fair was to also promote the Red, White & Blue Pages™. It would have looked silly if people were checking out the company and I didn't even make sure that the customization options were up to date.

The second part of the Military Spouse Career Forum was an announcement of an "Alliance." "The Alliance" is 10 non-profit organizations committing to helping military spouses finding employment or needing guidance in self-employment. MSBA was asked to be a part of the "Alliance" and we accepted.

The event was wonderful! We were surprised to hear and see how many military spouses either operated or were interested in starting their own business. Some knew who we are and some didn't. For more details about the January event you can read MSBA's January Newsletter here. You can also read MSBA's Press Release.

Follow through from that event kept us busy for a while.

February was here before we even realized and it is also tax time for businesses. For the last two weeks I worked on All In One Desktops taxes. The business didn't made a profit this year. Five years running and I am starting to wonder what we are doing. I know there are some things that we need to work on and I am trying to do that. Expanding our product line is one thing. If you know of any companies or businesses that sell an all-in-one computer/PC would you let us know? I would be interested in networking with them.

Anyway back to taxes. I really dislike the stress that tax time puts on me for the two weeks. To me it is just a nerve racking time. It makes me nervous. I am nearly ready to mail them off so I will be able to relax a little more.

However beside taxes MSBA was invited to take part in the National Credentialing Summit held in D.C. and, hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and The American Legion. MSBA was honored and thrilled to be placed in a panel with fellow "Alliance" members. You can read more about Panel 10 here.

In a very short summary that is what I have been doing since October.

Page Rank to 3!

I am working on link exchange requests tonight. I try to go through link exchange requests about once a week. When verifying if our link was placed on a website as the e-mail stated. I noticed that the page rank for the website increased to three. WOOHOO!! I know this seems weird but since I have had more time to focus on the business this was a goal. The page rank for the website had been sitting at 2 for almost 3 years. Yes we did get up to 2 pretty quickly but when I switched gears and had to focus on other things, getting or maintaining the website's presence per say fell to the back burner.

I did notice yesterday, when I check the backend website stats, that our monthly visits had increased. I assumed that the change was because we are approaching the holiday season. Hopefully the change is also because our page rank has changed as well. Not sure but will keep an eye on it.

Joining Forces Community Challenge Award

This last month I have been working with the MSBA Board of Directors on putting together a submission for the Joining Forces Community Challenge Award. Last night the Board Members were nice enough to stay up late or during their supper time (depending on which time zone they were in) to work with me on finalizing the submission.

Our goal was to finish the submission before the end of the month of September which also worked out in regards to our moving from the West Coast back to the East Coast. The movers were here to pack boxes today so the last night session allowed me to add the information onto the MSBA website before I went to bed last night.

If you are interested in learning more about the Joining Forces Community Challenge go here: http://joiningforces.challenge.gov/

Pro Bono Grant Writer?

In conducting interviews for MSBA I see that I am spending money that MSBA is pretty darn close to running out on now. I start trying to research online to find a pro bono grant writer. I didn't realize that pro bono grant writers really don't exist. MSBA does have posted a Grant Writer volunteer position however we haven't had too many calls/e-mails from people interested in filling that position.

Realizing that we need money sooner rather than later I am trying to fill this position or find a pro bono grant writer as soon as possible.

If there is anyone out there interested in helping us with this project I would appreciate it :) Please contact me. Thank You!

GoDaddy Path Directory UnWriteable

For the last couple of days I have been trying to update the Community Builder component on the MSBA website. The update failed to install and Akeeba Backup installed an older version of Community Builder when that happened. I was receiving a message about a file couldn't be moved. I checked the Community Builder forum and the source of the problem as to be with directory permissions.

I spent some time on the phone with GoDaddy support to try and figure out why some directories were unwriteable. I was able to fix the problem due to there help. With the unwriteable directory now writeable I tried to install the update to the Community Builder. I was receiving the same message. But none of the other directories were unwriteable.

Through the process of elimination and after my GoDaddy phone call I tweaked the settings on another directory. The file was still writeable. I tried to install the Community Builder update again and success. Not sure what happened within GoDaddy for the path to two directories to change suddenly but the problem is solved and all is well.

MSBA Gathering

This is attempt number two in trying to have a gathering of fellow Military Spouse Business owners. I tried to get together with other Military Spouse Business owners in Norfolk, VA but didn't have much luck. I am hoping this one will work out.

The gathering will be here at my house on Saturday August 13th. I will make pizzas and asked that anyone coming please bring a side or dessert to share. Business cards and any questions they have will also be needed. I am hoping we can talk about operating a business in CA and any MSBA questions they might have.

It is funny because technically I haven't done much of anything with my business in the two years we lived here in California.

Notary For Business Paperwork

Did you know that UPS is able to do notaries? I didn't know that until I researched it the other day: http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/locations/store/. I am very late it notarizing the annual shareholder meeting paperwork for the business for 2010 so I finally put in on the agenda of things that needed to be accomplished. I got it done today while I was doing some other errands. Thank You UPS for making that convenient for me!

*A little side note. A notary here in California also requires a thumbprint.