Good Works Grapevine

For those of you who don’t know, I’m on a corporate retreat with myself this week…what I’m calling my “me-treat”. I blogged about my plan for my “me-treat” on the Women Grow Business blog.

Next week I’ll write a follow-up post for Women Grow Business on what I was able to accomplish! Wish me luck!

I recently heard a fantastic story about how Google Earth helped scientists uncover an undiscovered rainforest high atop a mountain in Mozambique. Scientists noticed this natural wonder when they saw a big green smudge on the Google Earth satellite image over Southern Africa. Upon checking it out, they found a pristine, untouched rainforest with several animal species that no one has ever classified before. Amazing!

I guess consumer mapping and satellite technology has come a long way. Except when you need it to get from your house to the grocery store.

Here in the good ol’ U.S., I recently mapped out a trip into our nation’s capital using Google Maps. I was on my way to the American Independent Writers conference at the George Washington University’s Cloyd Heck Marvin Convention Center at 800 21st NW. My route began in Front Royal, VA. Simple enough, right? 60-some odd miles up I-66 then, according to Google Maps, “Take left at 23rd St. NW.” So with plenty of travel time, I made my way to my destination.

I arrived in DC with 20 minutes to spare. 23rd is the first numbered street that you can reach from Constitution Ave., so I thought I should have plenty of time to get to the  location, park and find my conference room. I just had to make a left on 23rd St., right? WRONG. NO LEFT ON 23rd. Huh? Google Maps you lead my astray. And in Washington D.C. no doubt.

If you’ve ever driven in Washington D.C. you  know that most roads are one-way and many lead to dead ends. So my 20 minutes of stress free driving turned into 20 minutes of sheer aggravation. Stuck on dead end streets and missed service roads, I finally found the GW campus and eventually the convention center and parking.

Don’t get me wrong. Google Maps is a vast improvement over MapQuest which would consistently take me on routes totally out of the way or through bad neighborhoods (my personal fave). I’m sure that it’s difficult to give the correct directions all of the time as signs change and roads open and close. But, Google Maps, I was depending on you, Saturday. <sniffle>

So, for extra credit, Google Maps – can you accurately map my way from Front Royal, VA to a tropical rainforest in Mozambique?

Sorry folks, but I have to vent a little to day. I have been an American Express card holder since 2001. I have 2 personal cards and 3 business cards that I use regularly and pay on time. I will admit that I have been a day or two late here and there but, I always pay the bill in full (which is usually several thousand dollars). Over the past year, we have seen our balances incrementally decreased randomly by American Express for no discernible reason. About eight months ago, they did a “credit review” to make sure that I still had “good credit”. All of my calls were directed overseas only to deal with people who were rude, uncommunicative and unprofessional. And after all was said and done,  Amex deemed my credit to be fine. Then they immediately started decreasing my limits. Today, they decreased it to the balance on the flexible spending part of my gold charge card leaving me with $116 credit left…and I just paid a $3000 bill on Saturday. I guess as I pay down the flexible balance (that they gave me and I pay on time), they’ll keep lowering my limit until there is nothing left.

I’ve done enough research to know that this is happening to everyone, but it doesn’t make it any less aggravating and is just plain rude. If I were a deadbeat, I would get it. But, I am a self-employed, bill paying, hard working U.S. citizen who needs Amex to get off my back. I guess that they just want me to go away and that’s what I plan to do. I used to sing the praises of American Express and couldn’t believe that my colleagues didn’t use them. I guess that now I know better.

At a time when consumers are desperately looking for trust in big business and brand names, it’s a shame that Amex has decided to treat their customers like garbage. Shame on you, Amex.

Stay far away from American Express, unless you want to get kicked in the butt for doing what’s right.

One note – if you decide to pay off your balance and Amex doesn’t immediately cancel your card, leave it open. Canceling your card decreases your open credit and can screw up your credit report. Just stop using your card. Cut it up and let Amex pick on other consumers and business folks who need credit to survive.

Thanks for lending a sympathetic ear this morning. It’s much appreciated. Feel free to tell me that I’m whiny or share your gripe.

Now, on to a busy week.

I wanted to give a little shout out to FreshBooks today. For those of you who are not familiar, FreshBooks is a fantastic online billing/accounting application that enables you to easily track revenue, projects, billing and staff timesheets. The team at FreshBooks is always making upgrades and improvements to the system that just pop up as a wonderful surprise. They offer an iPhone app that allows you to track and book time to projects through your phone which is handy for client meetings and work sessions.

I used to use QuickBooks and was always frustrated that there was way more functionality than I needed making the entire process overwhelming. FreshBooks does a great job making the boring, often painful, job of billing easy. I recently passed on the billing duties to my assistant and she picked up on the process in no time. And, because it’s online, she can login from wherever she might be.

The system integrates seamlessly with PayPal so my clients can easily pay their bills online. As a bonus, FreshBooks integrates with my MailChimp account so it’s easy to import my client contacts into my newsletter list. There are a bunch of other add-ons for other cool applications.

Oh, and did I mention that all of this is cheap? I pay $14/month for unlimited access and plenty of room for my client list.

I need to do what I can to ensure that my time is spent working on growing my business; not doing administrative work. FreshBooks makes it easy to do an unexciting task with ease and accuracy. Kudos, FreshBooks!

As many of you know, I moved to a new town recently. I ended up with the flu and needed to find a new doctor. My blood pressure has always been a little higher than normal and I had just come off three weeks of pumping myself full of cold medicine. My new doctor (who was 30, looked 20 and reminded me of Doogie Howser) proceeded to go through all of the horrible things that could happen to me from having high blood pressure and recommended that I go on medication. I am only 36 and a little over weight. I could get off my butt and start working out and leaving the cookie after dinner behind. But I was a little hesitant to start taking blood pressure meds with no other tests. When I expressed this to my doctor, he simply said “Google it.” (meaning high blood pressure meds).

Google it? He wanted me to Google my health issues? Yeah, I do use WebMD to self-diagnose from time-to-time, but Googling my high blood pressure? That just seemed wrong.

I told this story to several friends and they were just as surprised as I was. But, as we conversed about other topics, I couldn’t believe how many times I heard (or said) “I Googled it and found out….”.

Are we becoming a society that is so lazy we are relying on Google for all answers? Do we believe everything that we read on the Internet? Do we find ourselves Googling everyday? Am I blowing this out of proportion?

I’d love to hear other opinions on “Googling it”.

I’ll be taking some much needed time off for the next few days to enjoy time with my best friend from high school, Jenn Shannon. She and her husband, John, are flying in from Florida to hang with us out here in the country. I will try to tweet and send photos when I can. I’m looking forward to good times and fabulous company. If I don’t catch up with you until Wednesday, please talk amongst yourselves or better yet…take some time off! Enjoy life! You only get one!

I wanted to take a minute today to give some love  to my friends at TechSoup. I received my Spring 2009 Product Catalog yesterday and have been making some purchasing decisions for GoodDogz.org. Software is so expensive, but so vital to nonprofits and TechSoup has made it so easy to get what you need at vastly discounted prices. You can even purchase computers and computer equipment. They also offer a myriad of online resources to help NPOs better utilize the technology that’s available.

In return, TechSoup needs your support. Get involved. Participate in their forums, Facebook and Second Life.

Check out TechSoup Global, TechSoup’s latest initiative to help ensure that changents all over the globe have the technical tools that they need. Also, take a look at NetSquared, another program from TechSoup. NetSquared believes that the social Web is the key to change.

Tell your friends about TechSoup – they are here to help your NPO succeed!

OK, so this is a little off-topic today, but I am in the process of trying to find a new office chair and I have to say that its been pretty painful. My husband decided to take my chair for his home office so I would have an excuse to get a new chair. But it’s been several days now and I have been working from the couch…and I can’t find a chair that I like. Has anyone else been through this? Who knew that it would be this difficult?

First of all, office chairs are expensive. I’ve had my current chair for over 10 years so I had no idea that a “good” chair was so darn pricey. I sat on every chair in Staples and I didn’t like any of them. I’ve searched online for days and found a few contenders. While I’d love to have an Aeron®, I can’t stomach spending that much on an office chair. So, here’s my list…

Tye High Back Tilter Chair (my husband has this in his office and loves it)

Space 55403 with Memory Foam Chair (I kind of like the idea of my seat remembering the shape of my cheeks)

E-Chair (looks like its got a butterfly in the middle)

@OfficeChairGuy sent me this great post on how to choose an ergonomic chair.

Help me out here folks. What makes a good office chair? Which are your favorites?

GoodDogz.org helped host the annual Reston Pet Fiesta last Saturday, May 2, at the Reston Town Center in Reston, VA. Despite the threat of rain and overcast skies, the event was a huge success. We are still compiling the numbers, but we know that one dog rescue organization alone, K9 Lifesavers, found forever homes for 26 dogs of the 40 dogs that they brought to the event. That’s 26 homeless dogs that slept in a warm bed with a new family on Saturday night.

We also made some interesting observations about giving. We made more money in “impulse” donations than ever before – almost $700 cash from folks throwing their bills in the bucket. We had leftover t-shirts so we gave them away with a donation and folks were scampering to get a shirt. We also made more money on our dog walk than in previous years with over 100 folks pre-registered and about 25-30 more signing up the day of (in the rain).

We had an overall steady flow of traffic all day; there was never a lull in the action. And I would approximate that we saw about 8K- 9K folks stroll through our thoroughfare.

Our vendors also seemed to be doing well with a steady stream of sales throughout the six hour event.

What does this tell us?

• People are looking for inexpensive, fun ways to spend the day with their family.
• It is easier to throw a $20 bill in the bucket than to stick a check in the mail.
• People like to get something for their donation – even something as simple as a leftover dog walk t-shirt.
• Overcast days work in your favor if you are hosting an outdoor event.
• Qgiv (our registration service) makes it incredibly easy to manage a dog walk.
• People are spending more time at home and adding a pet to the household keeps the family on their toes.
• Our volunteers were much more engaged and we know of several folks who want to volunteer with us on a regular basis.

The money that we made at the Pet Fiesta will go enable us to host our Home 4 the Holidays super pet adoption event on November 7. More to come on that! Many thanks to our volunteers, rescues, vendors and organizers. The event was a huge success and we look forward to next year!

I realized today that my friends, most of which are not in the social media space, are a tremendous amount of inspiration and support. Every day I get emails and tweets from friends who have run across an article, link or event that might be helpful to me or fodder for my blog. There is so much information out there that it’s so great to have a handful of folks who throw gems my way everyday. So, this Friday, this is my little shout out to my peeps! Thanks gals and guy!

Liz Esposito - Liz was a web project manager who likes to bake in her free time. I’m so psyched that she followed her life dream and started her own bakery, Cookies to Cocktails. She now creates sugary, wonderful masterpieces that look too good to eat (and taste amazing!) Liz sends me articles about industry trends and real-life examples of social media marketing. She is one of my favorite peeps and a wonderful friend.

Heidi Weiss – I’ve known Heidi for about 10 years and she never ceases to amaze me. An event planner by trade, Heidi is always on top of what’s happening in the world of fundraising and nonprofits and is my savior when it comes to knowing about great nonprofit and social media events. She sends me great resources and is often the sole reason that I make it to many events! Heidi, you rock more than you know.

Megan Keane – Megan is a community manager at TechSoup Global, an organizer for Second Life’s Nonprofit Commons and a great friend and colleague. Although Megan and I have never met in person, she sends me great information on education and nonprofits in virtual worlds – an area where I am truly a novice.  Hoping to meet you face-to-face soon, Megan!

Mark Bates – I have to give a huge shout out to my wonderful, patient, encouraging husband who constantly forces me to “write it down” as I blow through ideas at the dinner table. Love ya, honey.

Whitney McKim – Last, but certainly not least, I have to thank my supportive, insightful and all-around fabulous assistant, Whitney, who keeps me on track and sends me the best stuff! I say “stuff” because there is no limit to the cool info that she sends – articles, tweets, Facebook links, podcasts. She is also the detailed researcher that finds most of the great resources offered in this blog. Whitney, what would I do without you? You da bomb. =)

So remember, no matter what you do in life, you always need friends. Appreciate them, respect them and give them their props when you can.