What’s Inside Moms Vote Matters Action Alerts
What Members Are Blogging About…
What Are You Thinking? Latest Polls
3 Simple Ways to Organize Your Office in 15 Minutes or Less by Brenda Prinzavalli – BalOrg.com
What Is Net Neutrality? And Why Does It Matter?
Why Women Will In the Money Game
About Our Contributors Paul Petillo, is the Editor of The BlueCollar Dollar and author of Building Wealth in a Paycheck to Paycheck World, Investing for the Utterly Confused, and Mutual Funds for the Utterly Confused. Allowing a series of interesting events to take its course, Paul found himself beginning the BlueCollarDollar.com in 1998 officially launching it live online in 1999. He has focused much of his spare time – often rising hours before the rest of the family, to work on his writing and his website. He dedicated his work to free and unbiased information about a finances for the average person, using a common sense approach to money, retirement planning and financial well being. Paul offers practical remedies to get to the retirement you want. Paul is also the contributing expert for Moms Making a Million and appears on their radio show weekly. Visit Paul at www.Target2025.com
by Paul Petillo – Target2025.com
Take A Cue From Elizabeth Edwards Be Passionate About Christmas: Celebrate As If This Was Your Last by Francine Larson
To Submit Articles and More Contact: National Associatoin For Moms In Business Eugenia Jarrett EJ@mibn.org For Information On Advertising Gina Robison-Billups Gina@mibn.org
Copyright 2010, © International Association For Moms In Business. See www.mibn.org for full copyright page. All Rights Reserved.
Francine Larson: Co-Author of Character Keys to a Bright Future. She is a freelance writer and also writes for The Highlands at Scotland Yards. She writes poetry and short stories.
Brenda Prinzavalli is a writer, consultant, speaker, seminar developer and business owner. She has a passion for helping others achieve greater balance in their busy lives. Brenda appears as the Dream Team Organization Editor for the FOX show MORE! on KVVU FOX 5 Las Vegas. And she is the co-author of the Accomplishment Series of Journals to help busy women become more effective. Visit Brenda at www.balorg.com or www.accomplishmentjournal.com
Here's the calendar: The Newsletter • • • •
W
elcome to another exciting year and
the 2011 format of the National Association Forr Moms In Business’ newsletter. Many of our members have been with us a long time – we’re coming up on eight years now, and you’ve seen us grow, succeed and fail. We’ve stuck by you, and you’ve stuck by us! Thank you. We’ve been the organization that was always two steps ahead, and now rather than being frustrated with it, I am embracing it. People didn’t understand what we were about or why we mattered for a long time. Now they do. People didn’t understand our programs and their value. Now they do. Many people didn’t understand why I wanted to lessen the frequency of our emails. That is considered crazy talk in world of internet marketing, but I know you will appreciate this decision and others will see the value in it. We know you get a lot of emails and quite frankly, you probably hit the "delete" button without reading many of the emails you receive. We don't want to be on that list of "too many to read". We believe that sometimes less is definitely more. In light of that, and the fact that we are all busy moms, here is the NAFMIB editorial calendar.
The newsletter is filled with rich story content and news that effect you both personally and professionally. Issued on 3rd Monday of the Month: Submission deadline: 1st Monday of each month. Email us at moms in business @ gmail dot com for information on how you can submit articles or become the featured mom with you on the cover!
Upcoming Events •
• •
•
Featuring events coming up in the next month - everything is covered from great networking events to national conferences. Issued on 4th Monday of each Month: Submission deadline: 3rd Monday of each month. Submit events with graphics to: momsinbusiness @ gmail dot com Only members of the National Association For Moms In Business can submit events.
Sales, Discounts & Giveaways •
• • •
Our members and partners regularly offer sales, discounts and giveaways, and we know our members love saving money! Issued on 1st Monday of each Month: Submission deadline: 4th Monday of each month. Only members of the National Association For Moms In Business can submit content.
This is great news for you for TWO reasons: 1. You can look forward with excited anticipation to our emails coming because they are fun to read and they don't come so often that they are annoying. 2. You can schedule your own promotions around our content calendar so that your events, member news, sales, discounts and more can be featured.
NOTE: MEMBER ALERTS will come as reminders to you of important upcoming information - like action alerts, submission into the ecoupon book, reminders of upcoming newsletters to submit your content for, or special members-only time-sensitive information. Click here to read more
Action Alerts
Call Your Representative on The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (Dec 14, 2010 at 1:35 PM) - The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act, which passed unanimously in the Senate on December 1st, will be up for a vote in the House of Representatives tomorrow, Wednesday December 15th. To pass the bill, we need your help. Please call your Representative by noon tomorrow, and ask for strong support for passage of the bill.
CALL TO ACTION: TELL CONGRESS TO REPEAL NEW 1099 REPORTING REQUIREMENT (Dec 14, 2010 at 9:41 AM) - Unless Congress acts to repeal the new 1099 MISC reporting requirement starting 2012, small business will be saddled with an onerous and burdensome tax reporting requirement. WIPP is launching an Action Alert, urging the small business community to contact members of Congress to repeal the expanded 1099 reporting requirement.
ACTION ALERT: Ask FCC Commissioners Copps and Clyburn to Support Proposed Common Sense Solution on Net Neutrality Rules (Dec 14, 2010 at 9:18 AM) - ACTION ALERT: Ask FCC Commissioners Copps and Clyburn to Support Proposed Common Sense Solution on Net Neutrality Rules Recently, the FCC released a common sense proposal regarding the Internet that would restore certainty in the broadband market and allow the Commission to move on to other important objectives.
What Members Are Blogging About‌ Inventory Your Stuff! TRENCHANT Name: GINA RUSSO City: LAS VEGAS State: NV Country: US Company: TRENCHANT INSURANCE
S
o you have your home, renters or condo
insurance in place but do you have an inventory showing what you own? If you added up your personal property: furniture, clothing, appliances, tv, stereo, dvd's, cd's, decor etc., what would that add up to? Can you prove what you owned if everything was lost in a fire?
If not, my suggestion would be to take pictures or video with a digital camera and store those pictures on a website, such as AOL pictures or Shutterfly (I do not specifically endorse either of them and there are plenty others to choose from). You don't want pictures stored on the hard drive of your computer to later be lost in the fire. You could store a CD of pictures in a safe deposit box but then you have to worry about a fire there and simply, access. You could very easily log onto your account with one of these website and email your pictures to a claims adjuster from any computer. Further, if you lost everything in a fire; it would be a frightening and devastating experience. It may be difficult for you to remember all that you owned. Having an inventory in place could alleviate the temporary memory loss enduced by stress. However you prefer to do it, take your pictures or video and safely store it!!
What Are You Thinking? Here are the results from one of our recent polls. If you haven’t voiced your opinion, log in and speak up.
Q:
As a Mom Business Owner or Mom Executive, what is your greatest business challenge? 273 total responses.
To return to the Quick Poll section click here.
3 Simple Ways to Organize Your Office in 15 Minutes or Less by Brenda Prinzavalli
E
mails
Many websites that have e-cards allow you to set them up for future delivery on a specific date. At the beginning of each month, set up ecards for the birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions for the coming month. On the day that the ecard is delivered, you will receive an email announcing that the card has been delivered which also serves as a reminder to pick up the phone and send your wishes in person!
P
ersonal Files
Keeping personal files organized is easy if you have a good system in place. Find a good file cabinet, drawer or box and use hanging file folders. One easy thing to do is to color code files that are in the same category. For example, make all insurance related files one color. When you put the tab on, label them with noun first, then description For example: Insurance Health, Policy Insurance Health, Statements Insurance Auto, Policy Insurance Auto, Statements Insurance Life, Policy Insurance Life, Statements
If papers tend to pile up even though you have a filing system in place, set aside time to File the Pile! If you do a little each day or each week, then it wont become a huge project.
I
ncoming mail and paper
Paper can accumulate very quickly in our homes these days so make sure you pick up and process your mail everyday. Create an organized mail processing location at your home or business. Have the tools there to make it fast and productive such as a letter opener, trash can, shredder, stamps/return address labels, checkbook, computer if you pay bills online, pending file system, and a business card holder.
What is Net Neutrality? And Why Does It Matter?
F
or the past five years, a debate over the future of the Internet has been raging in the halls of
Washington and in tech circles throughout the country. The issue at the center of this hotly contested debate is Network Neutrality, also known as Net Neutrality, which is the idea that all data transmitted over the Internet should be treated equally by Internet Service Providers. Net Neutrality is a contentious issue for a variety of reasons, but one of the primary concerns in this debate is its potential to dramatically impact broadband policy and efforts to increase access to and adoption of high-speed Internet service. Before addressing the current condition of the Net Neutrality debate and its potential to impact broadband policy, it’s helpful to examine the history of the issue and how it came to dominate tech policy conversations during the last year.
A History Lesson: The Evolution of the Net Neutrality Debate
As initially outlined in the Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the new fifth and sixth principles would stipulate that: •
Subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service must treat lawful content, applications, and services in a nondiscriminatory manner.
•
Subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service must disclose such information concerning network management and other practices as is reasonably required for users and content, application, and service providers to enjoy the protections specified in this part.
In 2005, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a policy statement that delineated the basic principles of Network Neutrality. These principles state that consumers are entitled to: • access the lawful Internet content of their choice; • run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement; • connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network; and • competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers. Each of these principles was dependent on reasonable network management, which meant that Internet Services Providers were to uphold these principles, but they also retained the ability to manage data traffic on their networks. Reasonable network management is necessary because it allows companies to provide customers with a quality Internet experience by managing network congestion, protecting data security and enabling quality-sensitive services and applications.
Furthermore, the Open Internet proceeding also proposed that the six proposed principles should apply to all platforms for broadband Internet access, including wireless networks. While up to this point, there had been a general acceptance of the four initial principles as applied to wired broadband networks, the Commission’s Open Internet proceeding and the Court’s decision in the Comcast case incited a broader debate regarding the regulatory approach to broadband and the future of broadband policy. Why Broadband Matters
Since the adoption of these four principles in 2005, there has been only one alleged violation of these four principles. In 2007, the FCC investigated Comcast’s network management of peer-to-peer traffic using the file-sharing service, BitTorrent, and ultimately censured Comcast for its behavior in this instance. However, immediately following the FCC’s decision, Comcast appealed the decision, and in May of this year, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the FCC’s decision. Moreover, the court found that the FCC lacked the proper authority to enforce the principles of Net Neutrality. The FCC, however, did not sit idly by during the appeal process – instead, the Commission began a rulemaking procedure in October of 2009 to formalize the four principles and add two new principles focused on nondiscrimination and transparency of broadband service providers.
Over the past decade, Internet access has evolved from a service that required a dial-up connection over a phone line to a high-speed broadband connection that you can access from almost anywhere. In fact, according to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recent Internet Access Services report, as of June 2009, 113 million homes and businesses had Internet access. Of those 113 million reportable connections, 78 million homes and businesses had fixed-location access and 35 million had mobile devices (i.e. laptops and smartphones) with data plans for full Internet access. As the technology has evolved rapidly, adoption has increased dramatically. Recent analysis of Census data by the Department of Commerce found that 63.5 percent of U.S. households use
broadband, which represents a remarkable increase from 2001 when only 9.2 percent had home-based broadband connections. While these adoption trends are very encouraging, the 38 percent of households who have yet to adopt broadband technology represent a significant digital divide. Both opponents and proponents of Net Neutrality agree that broadband is one of the most transformative technologies in our society and that every American should have the opportunity to access the life-changing benefits of broadband. From healthcare and education to job creation and economic growth, access to broadband has and will continue to transform our nation into a digital society. Furthermore, while broadband offers countless consumer benefits, its greatest promise may be the technology’s ability to facilitate economic growth and stimulate job creation throughout the country during these tough economic times. According to study from the Brookings Institute, for every one percentage point increase in broadband penetration in a state, employment is projected to increase by 0.2 to 0.3 percent per year. Small businesses and early-stage companies are widely acknowledged to be an engine of economic growth. More than half of America’s private sector workers are employed by small and mediums size businesses, which are also the source of roughly 64 percent of net new private sector jobs each year according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Moreover, home-based businesses and entrepreneurs are another important source of economic growth, employing more than 13 million people in the United States in 2008. Broadband is beneficial for businesses of all sizes, but for smaller companies, broadband is a critical resource that can help them stay competitive with their larger counterparts in the digital economy. Broadband-enabled tools and applications help small businesses reduce costs while increasing efficiency. In fact, a global survey by McKinsey, a management consulting firm, found that by using Web-based technology tools, “68% of businesses surveyed boosted the speed of their access to knowledge, 54% saw reduced communications costs and 52% saw increased marketing effectiveness.”
Net Neutrality Facts The Comcast-BitTorrent case is the only alleged violation of the FCC’s Net Neutrality principles. Net Neutrality, Investment & Jobs: Assessing the Potential Impacts of the FCC’s Proposed Net Neutrality Rules on the Broadband Ecosystem, June 2010
87 percent of surveyed women business owners monitor technology developments and innovations in order to incorporate them into their companies. Women Impacting Public Policy Survey
Two-thirds of survey respondents believe that network providers should to manage their own network traffic. Women Impacting Public Policy Survey
Net neutrality could represent anywhere from a $20 billion to $100 billion reduction in revenue to the networked services market by 2015. Jude, Mike. "Net Neutrality: Impact on the Consumer and Economic Growth." Stratecast (Frost & Sullivan), May 2010.
The more than 6,000 women-owned businesses in the telecom sector generated revenues of more than $7 billion in 2002, which worked out to be $1.1 million in revenues per business as compared to the $145,000 in revenues per women-owned business in the economy overall. U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, Women-Owned Firms: 2002
The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that jobs depending on broadband and information and communication technologies will grow by 25 percent from 2008 to 2018 – 2.5 times faster than the average across all occupations and industries. Small businesses currently hire roughly 40% of all high-tech workers. Verizon and Verizon Wireless Comments in response to the National Broadband Plan Public Notice
Small businesses account for a majority of the more than 1.2 million new jobs generated by the growth of the Internet during the last 10-15 years. Maija Renko & Paul Reynolds, Profiling the Growth Oriented Nascent Entrepreneur in the US
While most everyone supports the objectives of universal broadband and believes in the benefits of high-speed Internet access for social and economic good, much of the conflict in the Net Neutrality debate stems from the discussion about what policies will best enable our nation to achieve 100 percent broadband. Some proponents of Net Neutrality claim that a rigid framework of regulations is necessary to move forward with strategies outlined in the National Broadband Plan; however these claims are mostly grounded in rhetoric rather than concrete evidence. One fact that is grounded in hard data is that the cost associated with achieving universal broadband and the National Broadband Plan objectives will be high. According the FCC, it could cost as much as $350 billion. The high cost is not a huge surprise considering the fact that universal broadband is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest infrastructure challenges of the twenty-first century. Moreover, while the federal government has allocated roughly $7 billion in stimulus funds to get more Americans online, private investors will have to foot the remainder of the bill. Again, the question of how to best encourage private investment in broadband technology is central to the Net Neutrality debate. Some net neutrality advocates claim that an extreme interpretation of Net Neutrality policy will encourage job growth and investment, but a number of studies show that the adoption of extreme policies could actually discourage economic growth and private investment in broadband networks. In fact, a New York Law School study released in June of this year found that the implementation of the FCC’s initial network neutrality proposal could potentially result in 604,000 jobs lost across the broadband ecosystem and over $80 billion in GDP losses per year. Moreover, if the net neutrality regulations are adopted, it could have disastrous repercussions for small businesses. As the U.S. Small Business Administration has stated in study of the impact of regulatory costs on small firms, “In the face of higher costs of federal regulations, the research shows that small businesses continue to bear a disproportionate share of the federal regulatory burden.”
Because larger businesses have the benefit of economies of scale, the cost to address any change in regulation could be detrimental for smaller companies. Additionally, beyond the regulatory cost burden, many experts predict that if onerous net neutrality proposals are adopted, investment in broadband will decrease dramatically – which could stifle technological innovations that have resulted in the same benefits that businesses and consumers rely upon in a digital society. Thankfully, developments over the past few months suggest that our nation’s policymakers are not in favor of heading down a path of extreme regulation. In reality, it seems that most of the interested parties in the Net Neutrality debate have reached a general consensus regarding several important aspects of the debate.
Status of the Debate Today Throughout discussions during the past few months, it has become clear that most interested parties in the Net Neutrality debate want to find closure to this issue. What has also become increasingly evident is that almost all the parties support the application of the FCC’s four original principles for wired broadband networks. Whether these developments will result in congressional legislation or FCC regulation is still unknown – especially in light of the results of the recent election. There’s no question that Net Neutrality is a complex issue – however, at this time, policymakers’ focus should be on achieving the key objective of the National Broadband Plan – universal broadband access. Achieving this goal will help ensure that working mothers across the country can benefit at home and at work
By Paul Petillo
A
s we get closer to the end of the year, a
time when the holiday season and all of its trappings take precedent over the problems that the rest of the year tossed our way, it might be a good time to take a look at the differences between men and women - one last time in 2010. Shopping is the main difference and because of it, this is why women will win the money game - eventually. I believe it was Bo Derek who once said: "Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping." This might be truer if it suggested, "happiness in shopping is only achieved by those who know how to do it and can appreciate when they do it well." And no one does it better than women.
Man shopping is just as well studied as the shopping habits of women. Although many of the studies done on how women approach the money issue tend to be condescending, as if they could learn a thing or two from their men folk, this couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, how women spend, how they shop and how they approach savings will give them a much greater advantage over the how much money is left at the end of the day. Man shopping, if you have ever seen a man shop when you are not with one of your own, is like watching a spree. Once they get to what they need - be it clothing, electronics or sporting goods - there is very little in the way of comparison-shopping. They may equate the effort of "shopping around" as a supreme waste of time. Whereas women see shopping as something worth taking their time doing. Retailers know this and play to those differences. They know that women buy clothes and men are more likely to whip out their card for a restaurant, audio-visual equipment or transportation.
Dr. Gary Edwards, EVP of Client Services with Empathica, a research group that studies how we shop for a large group of retailers points out "When examining consumer spending during hard economic times, retailers would be smart to note that women and men not only spend differently, but have different motivations for spending." What they found out is that women are motivated by coupons while men are less inclined to buy something based upon the coupon savings alone.
the woman a safer investor and as a result, they will eventually win this shopping experience as well. Men as H.L. Mencken once wrote: "The essential traits and qualities of the male are at the same time the hall-marks of the numskull. ... Women, in fact, are the supreme realists of the race." And as women begin to win the pay race,
The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that women don't spend more than men - men spend more on larger ticket items. Men are more likely to reason that a couple more inches on a television screen will improve the viewing experience or more RAM will make their computing more efficient. Women on the other hand understand product obsolescence and buy what they need, not what they might need. The BLS stats also point to more women with some credit card debt and that men have higher credit card balances month to month than women. If this holiday season shows an increase in the use of cash for gifts, it will be more than likely the women using it. Man shopping also falls into the investment arena as well. University of Oregon professor Ellen Peters wondered if riskier investments were mostly by men. She began her research based on the fact that men were behind the financial disaster we just and are still going through. As Jason Zweig of the Wall Street Journal suggested earlier this year: "in the testosterone-poisoned sandbox of the male investor, the most important thing is beating the other guy; the second most important: bragging about it." Professor Peters found that women don't take risks the way men do. Only one in forty women make risky investments while their male counter parts revealed a one in eight took an outsized risk. This caution or pessimism or realism makes
everyone will benefit - the men in their lives, who are probably more financially solvent because a woman has made the tough economic choices in the household - or should have, the people who depend on her, and those that benefit from her money savvy ways. On behalf of the men in the world, I want to wish the women in our lives a happy holiday and to my wife, I know I wouldn't be the (financially solvent) man I am today without you.
Take A Cue From Elizabeth EdwardsBe Passionate About Christmas: Celebrate As If This Was Your Last by Fran Larson
I can’t seem to stop thinking about Elizabeth Edwards, even though I did not personally know her. According to all reports, not only did she die bravely and unafraid, she prepared her children for Christmas. How many people who are breathing their last breath would think about Christmas - a Christmas which they would not even be there? From all reports, Elizabeth Edwards was a loving Mom and cared deeply about her children. When Cate Edwards, the oldest child of John and Elizabeth Edwards eugolized her Mother just yesterday (December 11th) in Raleigh, North Carolina, Cate said this: “She was way more worried about us than we were about her.She’s been a lighthouse to all of us - a point of guidance when we all feel lost.” Cate also read from a passage from a letter her mother spent years preparing so that her children would be comforted after her death. The passage said “I’ve loved you in the best ways I’ve known how. All I ever needed was you, your lov, your presence to make my life complete.” So much did she care for her children that even as she was drawing her last breaths and could hardly speak, she kept telling Jack and Emma Claire that she was “OK”
Hargrave McElroy, a longtime friend of Elizabeth Edwards stated that she loved Christmas and just last Tuesday had helped the children decorate the Christmas Tree. This was only 3 days before her death. Elizabeth Edwards was passionate about Christmas and prepared her children for a first Christmas without her. She helped the children prepare the house for Christmas by decorating their home. She realized because of Christmas and our Savior’s birth, she would be holding her son, Wade soon. May Cate, Jack and Emma Claire feel the presence of the Almighty’s arms and love, as they celebrate in their home that is decorated and ready to receive the gift of Christmas
Francine Larson: Co-Author of Character Keys to a Bright Future. She is a freelance writer and also writes for The Highlands at Scotland Yards. She writes poetry and short stories. Originally published on SearchWarp.com for Fran Larson Sunday, December 12, 2010 Article Source: Take A Cue From Elizabeth Edwards-Be Passionate About Christmas: Celebrate As If This Was Your Last