Fresh Contests and Awards for Small Businesses |  |
| Fresh Contests and Awards for Small Businesses Posted: 21 Jul 2012 04:24 PM PDT Applying for an award or contest can bring your business added recognition and publicity. Awards also fire up your employees! Customers pay attention to awards, too. Winning awards or contest won’t happen by chance. It’s up to you to take action. Here’s a list of awards and competitions we recommend checking out: -
DYMO Endicia has partnered with ecommerce and business experts Marsha Collier and John Lawson to bring small business owners the chance of a lifetime: Two lucky business owners will win a 1-hour phone consultation with either Marsha or John. Ask your burning business questions, get expert advice, and discuss your management strategies with online sales and marketing gurus.
Dell has launched a $100 million Innovators Credit Fund, with the purpose of helping entrepreneurs "maximize potential for innovation, speed to market and job creation." The credit fund will offer both funding and technology resources with IT support, depending on what each start-up needs. To be eligible, you must have already received some angel funding or venture capital before you can apply. Start-ups can get up to 10% of its current funding or up to $150,000 with limited credit terms. See website for details and application.
Enter Staples’ Design Your Dream Office Sweepstakes on Facebook and you could win $5,000 worth of your dream Staples products, plus a $500 shopping spree at Staples.
Join BizSugar.com for the Rock Your Biz Blogging Competition through July 30, 2012, to learn some great tips on how to take your business to the next level with online networking, blogging, or social media. Gain exposure for your company and a chance to win some cool prizes including an iPad3 from Grafton Media, incorporation or LLC filings from Corpnet.com, mind mapping subscriptions from MindMaple, Amazon gift cards, and credits from JustRetweet. To enter, simply write and publish a blog post on your blog, sharing tips or advice on how to use online networking, blogging, or social media in a small business. Then submit it for voting at BizSugar under the “Rock Your Biz” category.
The 2012 “Start Small, Go Big” contest, sponsored for the third year in a row by Ink(SM) from Chase, includes mentors from some of the biggest names in fashion, home, beauty and food including Rebecca Minkoff, Jonathan Adler, Lauren Moffatt, Christiane Lemieux of DwellStudio, Lev Glazman & Alina Roytberg of Fresh, Alison Pincus and Susan Feldman of One Kings Lane, and more. Categories for entry include Fashion, Home, Food & Drink, Health & Beauty, and Digital & Tech. See website for entry details.
Win an Office Assistant To celebrate the launch of high-tech recruitment company TeleworkingExpatsForHire.com, business owners can win the services of a teleworking office assistant for two months worth $4,800.
The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is an annual international business plan competition in Michigan. The event is the world's largest business plan competition with more than $1 million in prizes. The goals of the competition are to promote Michigan as a venue for innovation and opportunity and stimulate job creation.
Upload a short video telling how the connections you make through travel help your business soar – and you might win up to 80 round-trip tickets for your company and exposure to thousands of potential customers.
The New York Times Make Your Pitch Contest Submit your pitch on video, telling about your product or service, your marketing plans, your customer base. Tell what makes your business different — why it is one to watch? Do you need capital? If so, how much and what for? Most important, how are you going to make money? All video pitches that meet the submission guidelines will be featured on The New York Times small-business Facebook page and selected pitches will be featured on the New York Times You’re the Boss Blog.
After hosting the successful 5th Annual PITCH 2012 in the Silicon Valley, Women 2.0 is excited to launch the inaugural PITCH NYC Conference & Competition 2012 (PITCH NYC 2012). Open to early-stage high-growth ventures around the world, PITCH NYC 2012 invites companies with at least one female in the founding team to apply. Applying companies must be in beta stage and have received less than a million in funding. They are looking for the most disruptive web/mobile ventures, connected device companies, double and triple bottom line ventures, etc. Prizes include $25k cash, services and more. See website for entry rules (you have to send in your business plan on a napkin!)
The 2012-2013 MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneurs Series (MUES) business plan competition is now open and accepting entries. Since 1999, MillerCoors has invested more than $1.7 million in the dreams of entrepreneurs. This year brings new opportunities for entrepreneurs like you. Enter your business plan for a chance to vie for a $50,000 business grant and potentially become a MillerCoors supplier.
?Do you have a great idea for an Infusionsoft App, integration or plug-in that will enhance the Infusionsoft user experience? Then you have a shot at being crowned the Kick Apps Champion in the Battle of the Apps 2013. First prize is $10,000. See website for details.
The list of awards and competitions is brought to you by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com. To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar. Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award. From Small Business Trends |
| Navigating Social Media Legal Risks: Keeping Your Marketing Legally Safe Posted: 21 Jul 2012 05:00 AM PDT
This is one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, one that speaks to a punishment coming no matter where the bad guys go. Most social media users aren't bad guys, but disagreement on behavior and expectations can make the Internet feel like the wild wild west, with inadvertent "ramblers" who tweet the wrong tweet or "gamblers" who ignore the legal consequences of a promotion. Moreover traditional legal perspectives are struggling to keep up with nascent social media behavior and technological advances. I can say for analytics the concerns of Do Not Track has forced many advertisers to consider actions to address current legislation that can easily misconstrue analysis intent. A legal expert has now captured the best of legal interpretations of social media. Navigating Social Media Legal Risks: Safeguarding Your Business, by Robert McHale, ESQ (@rmchalelaw) with Eric Garulay, will keep you from becoming the social media "gambler." The book examines how social media behavior is shaping the legal world, and what your business should do to protect itself. McHale, a founding partner of an IT and intellectual property law firm, brings expertise to full bear in clear language. I requested a review copy from the publisher Pearson when I saw a flier at a Barnes and Noble. The 12 chapters are worth the read for anyone seeking a grounded real-world perspective on social media. Putting Legal Language on Everyone's Social Tongue McHale's approach in Navigating works because he operated outside of the advertising world, an environment that has been hyper-stimulated with new tools and applications at every turn. The book offers 12 chapters on varied business uses of social media (all with U.S. interpretation of the law). Each chapter can stand alone for a quick reference and contains easy language that avoids getting too specific while never talking down the reader The result is an actionable book. A good fit for the cautious small business owner willing to jump into social media waters but desiring to know what Internet seas contain potentially rough waves from a legal perspective. You'll learn the cases and interpretations surrounding policies such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protect Act, with useful notes and insights abound in each chapter. The key chapters which small business owners will find particularly useful revolve around advertising and employee conduct:
According to McHale, people use the words sweepstakes and contest interchangeably, but there is a difference. McHale explains that difference, and potential result from implying an ongoing promotion:
"Disclosure" is the definitive word in this chapter, as FTC guidelines seek to establish a connection between those paid to endorse and the sponsor of the program.
Companies need to ensure that background information is not collected in violation of the FCRA. McHale provides an example of a case of 6 mobile background screening apps that received a warning from the FTC. Most notable for those with Facebook concerns is how friending can be questionable:
There's not a deep examination of Do Not Track – the debates center on technical uses of browsers – but Chapter 7's coverage of Social Advertising reminds one of the range of the FTC. CAN-SPAM and the specter of personal identifiable information is explained. You'll have a better discussion with an analytics specialist when examining the impact of tags and analytic solutions. McHale does an excellent job to enlighten overlooked details without scaring you away from social media. The thoroughness is superb, including notes from cases and a thoughtful do/don't chart in the chapters. We learn so much from one another online, but sometimes forget to ask about real world safeguards when it comes to creating online activity such as sweepstakes and establishing internet communities. After reading Navigating Social Media Legal Risks, you'll come away with a more pragmatic view of how to work with people on the Web. It'll be a terrific view, because you'll be well equipped to form solid questions that need answers – answers that make a good idea a great one. From Small Business Trends |
“Go tell that long tongue liar, go and tell that midnight rider, tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter. Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down. Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down.” ~ Johnny Cash in God's Gonna Cut You Down| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business News, Tips, Advice - Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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