I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving Day!  Our family doesn’t celebrate it until today, so I still have some baking to do.  I’d be interested if any of you tried Kim’s dressing recipe or G’Ma’s pumpkin pie?  Let us know by posting it on the FORUM under “General”.

Today’s called “black Friday”!  I guess that’s because it puts a TON of merchants in black ink for the holiday season.  For those who do brave the crowds to take advantage of sales, etc., it might be called “red Friday”!  Because it puts our pocketbook in “red ink”!

For those who stay at home, I’ve compiled some interesting information via links that you can visit at your leisure. 

With year-end planning, especially the dreaded “tax planning” rapidly approaching (if not already here), I’ve included a couple of links to our accounting company’s e-letter.  Some interesting info.  Here’s the first of Friday’s tips & tidbits:  http://www.bizactions.com/index.cfm/ba/e116/en/72913845G1620J1879808/

http://www.bizactions.com/index.cfm/ba/e105/fa/73341683G1620J1879808P0P10064890T0/

First time I’ve tried this, so hope it works!  Let me know if it doesn’t.

I’ve also included some upcoming information from AWP member Lorraine Ball of Roundpeg (www.roundpeg.biz).  Lorraine is a well-recognized, highly energetic marketing guru in the Indianapolis area.  She is on the team that is presenting the MBO (Master’s of Business Online) conference in Indy on December 7.  For those of you out of the area, this won’t mean much, but for those of you in driving distance of downtown Indy - this would be worth your time and a little cash.  Learn more by visiting (http://www.getyourmbo.com).  Lorraine also has her own workshop series coming up on December 10, so I’ve included her info as well:  http://www.roundpeg.biz/
        Business Map 
        Are you on the Road to Success?  
       Greetings!  Are you getting the results you   want from your business?  Do you have a roadmap to your business goals? Without one it is likely you will get lost, fail to meet your objectives, or fail completely.  As a small-business owner, you need a map - a Business Map! Without it, you are traveling blind.  Business Map Seminar - Monday, December 10 8:00 - 11.00.  Lorraine Ball!

Check out Lorraine’s website to learn more.  She does have the workbook and a CD I think it is that can be purchased very inexpensively!

WOW!  I almost forgot to share some exciting, GOOD news!  A Women’s Place NOW has it’s own group on LinkedIn (http://linkedin.com/).  For some odd reason, it’s not yet showing in the “Groups Directory”.  If you are a current member of my network at LinkedIn, watch your inbox for an invitation to join the A Women’s Place LinkedIn Group!  It’s our exciting alternative for community networking until our expanded profiles are ready and uploaded to awomensplace.org.  We are excited about this!

 If you haven’t joined my network at LinkedIn, let me know.  I’ve invited all our members, but if I inadvertently didn’t get to you with an invite - please let me know at linda@awomensplace.org!

For those of you who are looking for something inspirational to start your day and want it from the Christian perspective, I recommend subscribing to Streaming Faith Daily Devotionals.  I get it every a.m., but don’t always get to read it at ‘first light’.  For the most part, find it great to read anytime.  In fact, that’s how I connected with one of our AWP members!  She had a daily devotional at Streaming Faith and I was so impressed I wrote to compliment her.  Personally, I find the ones written by us female ‘lay’ folk better, for the most part, than those written by ordained clergy!  I’m sorry I can’t put the link in here as it simply won’t take you where you need to go to subscribe.  HOWEVER, if you want to do so, write me at linda@awomensplace.org, and I’ll send the information for you to subscribe!

Finally, for Friday!  I get eBiz Insider (www.ebizinsider.com) in hard copy on a regular basis.  Great stuff published by Solid Cactus.  A recent copy had an article on “Saving on Software” with links to open source (usually free or at least very inexpensive) software alternatives to the expensive stuff (Microsoft and Adobe, etc.).  Here’s just a few you can check out if you’re doing or preparing to do business online:  “Star Office” (http://sun.com/staroffice) is a suite similar to MS Office.  In addition to all you want from a word processing suite, it can open files from and save files as Word, Excel, Access and Powerpoint.  Another, called “Gimp” (http://gimp.org) is a free image editing and manipulation program with many of the functions of Adobe Photoshop.

If you’re savvy in webdevelopment and design, but don’t want the expense of Dreamweaver, look at TopStylePro (http://newsgator.com/Individuals/TopStyle/) for your mark-up programming needs. 

These may not be of interest to you, but I’ve learned that it doesn’t take much to get a wee-bit tech savvy - at least enough to save yourself some money when it comes to web design and development.  As I’ve learned from Glenn and Kathy Bregulla, one of our AWP members, open source software can be just as useable as the costly programs and save loads of cost at startup and when adding aspects to a current site.

Okay - that’s it for today!  Dont’ know if these “tips and tidbits” have been helpful or not, but they caught my eye!

Have an awesome day with much love and many blessings!

  Linda