Four times each year, 30 aspiring entrepreneurs in the Washington Community Alliance for Self Help (CASH) program set out to learn the basics so they can fulfill their dreams to start their own businesses.

They come from every corner of Kitsap County for the eight-weeks of intense business training. Many come from WorkSource to take advantage of the Self Employment Assistance Program (SEAP) that lets them continue to collect unemployment benefits and not have to look for work while they develop their business. read more »

During the past ten years, I’ve been lucky enough to help mentor and launch nearly 1,000 new business start-ups, in my private consulting practice, and through my involvement with the Washington Community Alliance for Self Help (CASH) program.

Nearly one thousand times someone has looked up from a nascent business plan, or with a look of steely determination and said. “I want to start my own business.” Those seven words always get my attention.

One of the many lessons from Washington CASH is that every single one of these entrepreneurs needs a mentor. read more »

If you’ve never thought about a bucket list or are too young or too engaged in your career, you may want to come back to this article in a year, or 10.

But for those who are in their twilight years, or have seen their ranks diminished by the timely, or untimely, loss of friends, making a bucket list may have crossed your mind. If so, let me share an experience gained while drifting into my 70s.

I made a conventional bucket list a few years ago, from taking my grandchildren to Washington, D.C., to getting to the base camp of Mt. Everest, to hiking in the Alps to publishing a book of poems. I took off a climb of Mt. McKinley, but maintain a hike of Bailey Range. read more »

Working at home. Did I read that one-half of American businesses are run from a desk in the family room, a work area in the garage, from an upstairs bedroom, a backyard office?

Millions of other Americans are tele-commuting, from home, a few days or a few weeks a month.

When I first began to operate my free lance broadcast production business from my home, it was a novelty. When I launched my first home-based business, I had two small children at home and my clients were not impressed to hear a crying child or to think I had a day care operating in my back yard. read more »

She stood up, alone in a group of strangers, walked to the front of the classroom, took an obvious deep breath and said in a soft but firm voice, “My name is Eve King-Hill and I want to start a psychotherapy practice in Poulsbo.”

Eight weeks later, Eve and 25 other entrepreneurs graduated from what she described as an ‘intense’ Business Development Training Class offered by the Washington Community Alliance for Self Help (CASH).

In the class, Eve worked on her business and when it appeared to be a feasible idea, she began to develop a formal business plan. read more »

Every business needs a memorable, top of category brand name. When your customer and prospects think of a business, you want them to think of you first. Some call this TOMA — top of mind awareness, so when someone thinks of floor covering, for example, your company name — your brand name — pops up in their mind.

Category leaders, from car repair to insurance agents, generally are the most successful businesses. More people remember their name and they ‘win’ in the battle for share of market. read more »

One of the great rewards of your business or public service life may be your service on the board of a nonprofit organization.

At its best, serving on a nonprofit board can be satisfying and enriching, where the work you do has a measurable outcome, where the board’s support of management is positive and productive, where goals are set and met, everyone working as a team, sharing a common vision.

When you are engaged at that level, you leave board meetings with a sense of real satisfaction, of having contributed and made a difference; you leave talking-up the board and the organization, spreading the word, infectious in your enthusiasm and proselytizing at every opportunity. read more »

If you serve on a nonprofit board, work for or direct one, you probably don’t need to be reminded that funding is tight, stakeholder loyalty under attack, technology changing everything and now those of us in Washington State must face the demands for assistance from tens of thousands about to lose services formerly provided by the state, Basic Health Plan, community clinics, disability providers.

Add to this the cries that every nonprofit should have active involvement in social marketing, Tweet hourly and now, the new buzz, have an ‘affiliate’ program. And, of course you need an active ‘donate here’ button to click on your website home page. Grantors are looking for measurable results — they want to invest, not just donate. read more »

Given the choice to write on a Facebook wall, follow along on Twitter or sit down to write a personal thank you card to a loyal customer, the choice seems easy.

In hundreds of workshops with small business owners, we ask everyone to write a personal thank you card to a loyal customer, a dependable supplier, a staff or family member who supports the business.

Standing in front of the rooms of people writing these cards, there is often a moment when we see the card writers stop and you can almost see them imagining the moment the cards are discovered in a real U.S. mail box. read more »