Holiday Sale for Shop Local Champions

Welcome back!

Now you can include in your “shop local” list – New Urban Mom sponsors! Well that is if you’re buying for babies or toddlers in your circle of family and friends.

One of our site sponsors, Ambajam, is offering a 25% discount off of their ENTIRE collection (items already on sale are excluded).

So if you plan on lining up at your “local” or “regionally” owned business to support your local market that is FANTASTIC! If you are also planning on shopping online to get some of the best deals you can find from companies that support your favorite “live green, shop local” sites, then I hope you’ll take a look at the really lovely children’s wear that Ambajam is offering.

Designed to spark the curiosity and imagination of children through the use of textures, colors, shapes and patterns, Ambajam has received rave reviews in numerous parent magazines and “mommy” sites.  From play gear to the most adorable blankets in the softest materials with engaging appliques, Ambajam really does offer something different and so cuddly in children’s clothing.

To get the 25% discount you’ll need to provide the following code: BF25.

The sale runs from November 28 to Sunday, November 30.

Thanksgiving Day Greetings, Black Friday Tip

I hope you are having a peaceful and enjoyable day preparing for a good meal and conversation with some of the people who mean the most to you…or even just really good friends.

My daughter is home from college, and I’m thrilled. I asked her if any of the students were staying back in residence and was told that a few were staying back.  I wondered how these poor kids were going to eat when the residence dining hall was closed for the holidays.

No surprise that the spirit of community thrives on campuses everywhere.  Plans were already made for students to join in at a residence where cooking facilities were located and food stocked for those wishing to eat together on Turkey day.

I pray for all the folks around the world who are not with their families, and in particular those suffering today like the thousands in Mumbai who were affected by an attack on their city yesterday.  I’m sure many of us are thinking about those people and while that doesn’t feel like much of a response, the more we think and talk about our hopes for all people, the better off I believe things will be.  In the meantime contact your local Red Cross and find out if there is a way you can help.

Finally, for those of you who are gearing up to shop come dawn (or sooner) on Black Friday….we’ve got our own little special going on here at New Urban Mom thanks to our advertiser Ambajam.  The best part of this shopping tip is that you won’t have to leave your cozy home to get the deal!

Ambajam produces adorable baby and toddler clothes that you simply have to click over to their site to view.  If this is the kind of clothes you’re looking for then take down this code:  BF25.  This is the code you’ll need to get 25% off the ENTIRE Ambajam collection (sale items excluded).

The sale starts tomorrow, November 28 and concludes on Sunday, November 30.

Grant Program Awards Ingenuity in Fastest Growing Sector

A few months back we announced on the site a national grant program for women entrepreneurs that Carolyn Kepcher (remember Donald Trump’s right hand woman in “The Apprentice”) and Yahoo were sponsoring for women entrepreneurs.  I recently received a press release announcing the winners.  Here it is.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov 25, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — In spite of the struggling economy, entrepreneurship in America has the potential to flourish as people seek new career opportunities or additional revenue streams. As the fastest-growing sector of new small business owners in the country, women, are creating new jobs for themselves and are taking advantage of resources available to them to bring their business ideas into reality. Today, Yahoo! Small Business and Carolyn Kepcher of “The Apprentice” fame and creator of fwm(TM) (Finding What Matters), a network of career/life experts and resources for women, named Dana Rubinstein, founder of the small business Dapple, winner of the national grant program, “Seeds for Success: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs.” The program was launched in April to promote women’s entrepreneurship enabled by the Internet.

Rubinstein’s commitment as a mother to only use organic and environmentally-friendly baby products inspired her to start Dapple, a company that creates natural and safe baby-specific cleaning products, with partner Tamar Rosenthal. Since the beginning of the Seeds for Success program, Dapple has made exceptional progress, developing an e-commerce site with Yahoo! Small Business, launching two new patent-pending product lines, securing distribution in more than 45 boutique stores and two major retailers, and winning an iParenting Media Award, a prestigious consumer accolade that determines best products in the marketplace. In less than six months, Dapple has sold 25,000 units, with sales increasing 43 percent in the third quarter and more than 500 percent in the fourth quarter to date.

The expert guidance, consulting services and monetary grant Dapple received from Yahoo! Small Business and fwm made this contest invaluable to the strength of our company and the speed at which it has taken off. The full package has enabled us to make smarter business decisions that have accelerated our success in a very short period of time,” said Rubinstein. “Through this program, I’ve been empowered to turn my small business dream into a reality. I am excited to continue to build Dapple, and I hope to be a role model for other women who are considering launching businesses online.”

The three “Seeds for Success” finalists were selected from 5,500 applicants and each awarded a $20,000 grant; $5,000 in Web site consulting from Yahoo! partners Exclusive Concepts, Fast Pivot, and EY Studios; and two years of complimentary Yahoo! Small Business services. fwm also matched the finalists with free one-on-one mentoring by a team of business leaders, including Kepcher; Bobbi Brown, founder and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics; and Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines.

As the grand prize winner, Rubinstein receives an additional grant of $10,000, promotional support, and additional mentoring from Kepcher. She was selected by a panel of judges and mentors who weighed the finalists’ performance against a number of milestones including Web site development, sales, partnerships, public relations and marketing, among others. There was also an online voting portion that attracted nearly 660,000 votes.

At the outset of the program, Rubinstein’s goals were to build nationwide awareness for Dapple, communicate the company’s brand as synonymous with safe, natural baby-cleaning products, and launch new products. Dana’s technology mentor, Scott Smigler from Web design firm Exclusive Concepts, helped her to “make over” her Web site and establish a strong online strategy. The new Dapple Web site is professional, optimized for search engines and complete with Yahoo! Merchant Solutions’ e-commerce functionality.

“Entrepreneurs play a critical role in developing a healthy economy, and strategic use of the Internet is crucial in driving the success of small businesses,” said Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing, Yahoo! Small Business. “In the case of our Seeds for Success finalists, Yahoo!’s tech mentors worked closely with each one to help design and launch Web sites that met their product and marketing needs and the work is paying off. Yahoo! Small Business wants to foster continued online innovation, so we hope this program inspires other women entrepreneurs to turn their passion into a profitable business.”

Carolyn Kepcher added, “When the economy is unstable, people turn to entrepreneurship as an avenue for change. By tapping into the contributing experts of fwm, we were able to provide resources to create a truly unique and personalized learning experience for the three finalists, helping them achieve dramatic growth within a short time frame despite a down economy.”

Other program finalists included Karla Duncan, founder of Head 2 Toe Publications, an innovative publishing company that develops products for parents and therapists to assist special needs children up to age 13, and Abby Port, creator of Red Koala, a company that produces online customizable art for nurseries and children’s rooms.

Starting and Minding a Business in a Tough Economy

One of the things I have always done, whether I was at home raising kids, or at a company working 9-5 ( really 8-7) is mind my “own business.”  Running a business at night and in the wee morning hours has served me well in recent years.  Given discussions I’ve had about the economy and job uncertainty with friends and family recently, I think it wise for more us to consider moonlighting or entrepreneurism as a smart way to equip oneself for what may lie ahead in this economy.

Here’s how I “minded my business” through the years.

I’ve had the entrepreneurial bug since I was a child, but never had the guts to strike out on my own, full-time as a young adult. I’ll blame my stable, government/university employed and pensioned parents for that personality trait.

However, creative ADD person that I am, I found a solution to feed my entrepreneurial appetite and that was to start a business at home.

When my first born came along, I resigned from my job, took the favorite parts of my position and started a freelance meeting planning service. My first contract was to handle the logistics for the planning of a conference around human rights violations in Africa.  That was so interesting and gratifying.  I have fond memories of taking my 4 month old daughter with me to meetings.  Note: In the non-profit sector you’ll find a lot more people willing to accommodate contractors who have “unique” situations like a baby appendage

I followed that up with a few more contracts putting on seminars and conferences in my city.

Then my second child came along and we needed to beef up our family earnings. I actually took a job working nights in a law firm so that I could continue to stay home with my children and meet our financial obligations.

I eventually went back to work but continued to run my writing/PR business intermittently from home. Eventually in 2007 I found a way to really make this business more than an intermittent mad-money venture and actually turn it into a real business.  I did this by joining the mentorship/professional development group for women with online businesses called  Mom Masterminds.

The decisions that really made a difference to my business were the creation of a website for my company and the retooling of my marketing strategy to target online business owners.  Thank you, thank you to the mentors and colleagues that I met at Mom Masterminds – I would have never made the successful transition to becoming an online business owner without their help.

The point of this post is to hopefully give some encouragement to any of you facing financial uncertainty due to this economy or other changes in your life.  Look carefully at your skills and interests – there may be more opportunities available to you than you realize. Then find an established mentorship or networking group where you can learn from members who are successfully doing what you want to do.

Good or bad  economy – having a plan that helps you to generate your own income, independent of an employer, is probablly a good strategy for our times.

Autumn in New York via the Internet

This morning I woke up to a voice that brought to mind all the perceptions and ideals that I have around the city of New York.  My husband was listening to an audio visual presentation that was part of this morning’s Internet issue of the New York Times. It was another great clip from “On the Street” with New York Times photographer, Bill Cunningham.

Ah the age of technology. Perusing the morning paper has become clicking onto the morning a/v clip.

Photo credit: Bill Cunningham, New York Times:

Click here to listen to the audio visual presentation – you really do need that precious New York accent to accompany the photography. Enjoy your visit to New York – it is as close as I’ll get to the Big Apple for a while!

An Urban President from Chicago

Yesterday I listened to the Mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, say something about President-elect, Barack Obama, that I think is reason to cheer.

His comment essentially said we now have a President who understands urban issues.  That’s almost an understatement given that Mr. Obama is from one granddaddy of a city – Chicago.

Now at first I thought to myself that this might prove alienating to citizens of rural communities and those that still do not consider themselves urban residents (e.g. people who live in the suburbs (my neighbors) who for some reason think where they live is not “urban”).

Then I thought again and these points came to mind.

• What happens in urban communities has tremendous impact on the whole country because of the percentage of the population that are in urban centers and because of the great combustion of ideas and activity that happens when people of varying talents, energies and backgrounds live and work together as they do in urban centers.  To give a different spin on a popular current phrase…what happens in the city doesn’t necessarily stay in the city and that includes the good things that help to drive an economy. What benefits a city on the east coast could turn into jobs for a small southern town….
• The definition of urban is likely different for many people. Typically an urban area is defined as any  town/city with a population of 50,000 or more and any area outside an urban city with a population of 2,500 or more.  Okay, so that definition alone takes in most of the country.

With those few points in mind, it seems to me a president from an urban community comes is (perhaps) ideally suite to address some of the challenges of our time – from unemployment to pollution and everywhere else in between.

Even international media have praised President-elect Obama’s home town for its forward thinking, green, new urbanist ways.

Here’s what the Toronto Star said in August, 2008:

“This city has worn many monikers throughout the years – Chi Town, The Windy City, Second City.

But the one it has worked hardest to earn might be the Emerald City.  Turns out that the lakeside city built – at least anecdotally – on mob connections and industry has been busily greening up its act.

While the city lagged behind other progressive cities in such eco-basics as household recycling (it only created an effective program in 2007), for the eco-minded tourist, Chicago is veritably verdant.

This green revolution is coming from top down, led by the city’s well-loved Mayor Richard Daley, whose love of trees (he was, after all, born on Arbor Day, 1942) spawned a plan to revitalize the city economically by regenerating it environmentally.  This greening of the city has clearly worked, rooted in a $9-billion-a-year tourism industry and branching into many other eco-initiatives.”

I hope Chicogoans are celebrating not only the fact that one of their own will be the next President, but also the fact that this current place on the national stage will give them an opportunity to promote the great steps they have taken to adopt new urbanism.  Sure it’s cool and current, but a better reason for making more people aware of Chicago’s “greening” success is the impact it can have on helping more people/communities to make the “changes” necessary for our collective environmental and economic health.

Show 16 – Family, Sacrifice, Service and Community

Where would many of us be without family close by or familiar friends to lean on during important or emotional times in our lives?

Can you imagine then what it must be like for many military spouses who move where they’re asked to move, often to new parts of the country, hundreds of miles away from family and friends?

Can you imagine what it would be like to know that your husband, in service to his country, could possibly be in harm’s way thousands of miles away from you and your children, for months at a time, if not years?

This is when community really makes a difference and why Military communities are so important.  Join us for an interview with  mom, military wife and podcast/multimedia diva, Tammy Munson.  You’ll be glad you listened in to hear about the kind of sacrifice and commitment of these men, women and children who are giving so much to our country.

Community Schools…An Old Concept Come Anew

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a conference that really left me with the feeling that this wasn’t going to be yet another conference program that I’d drop in a file.  Change is happening.  I guess it’s been a week for change in our world.

During the conference we talked about ways to make public schools in every community the center for life in the community.  We focused on how to make better use of the financial and intellectual resources we have at the local level so as to make this “ideal” a reality.

The community school concept is a historical model that came back into vogue about ten years ago I believe.  Though this model may never have left some small towns, it is a model that makes sense today on a broader sense- especially in new urban communities where “smart, multi-purpose, thinking for the benefit of people” is very vogue.

There really is no reason why a school shouldn’t serve an important, central role for the broadest cross section of the community — and I’m talking beyond its intended and often standard optional uses (e.g., facility for scouts and girl guide meetings etc.).  What about a place for seniors to gather, a fitness place for individuals on the weekend, a facility for residents to come meet and have dinner together as a large group one night during the week, etc.)?

With the national and global economy being in tatters, we’re going to be seeing more initiatives that will be based on practical and creative ideas that allow us to do more with less.  Perhaps it’s about time we dig deep for solutions for our most vulnerable public schools.

Nothing saddens me more than when I hear about all the failed levies for local schools.  When community citizens turn these revenue generating options for schools down that’s a death knell for a lot of school programs that will have a detrimental effect on the quality of education delivered to students in that community.  Of course communities that turn down levies for their local schools are usually those that need the resources for kids the most.

I guess those residents without children don’t really care about that, or they share the other popular sentiment – school board staff aren’t able to allocate and manage resources effectively so they aren’t going to direct any more dollars their way.

Wherever the blame lies, the reality is the kids pay for it.

Nothing makes a conference more enjoyable than when the focus isn’t just on talking about the problems but on finding solutions and that’s what we did yesterday.

We talked about making the school relevant to the whole community.

We’re an aging population. In my region more than 70% of residents DO NOT have children in school – and that’s a statistic that is close to a nationwide trend.  So to continue to make our schools the center of community attention and support we have to find ways to make the community feel they have some demonstrable ownership for schools (since they in fact do as taxpayers).

What we don’t want is the scary reality that we see appearing in places like Arizona and Florida (see my review of Leisureville).  Age segregation benefits no one – especially those who are aging.  Our children are the ones that will be making decisions in the future that impact our care. Why would we want to alienate them by sequestering ourselves in age restricted settings?

But self interests aside, when we all can be confident that even the most vulnerable of high-risk children are being educated adequately and compassioinately in our public schools, doesn’t that make us feel good? As much as some folks think they can continue to live in silos or in segregated havens, it never stays that way.  We are a community whether we acknowledge it or not.  That makes me smile

A New Generation Coming of Age

The 2008 U.S. Presidential election was the first opportunity my teen daughter had to exercise her right to vote.  She had been accompanying me to the voting booth since she was a toddler.  It was important for me to take her so that she could see me taking seriously my own to right to vote.

I don’t think during those early years she really understood the significance of going to our local school to fill in our ballots, but this year, her 18th year she not only understood it she really felt the power of her vote.

On November 4, when the new President-elect for the U.S. was announced I called her quickly on her cell phone.  There was pandemonium at her residence hall during the midnight hour of that unbelievable evening.

She quickly told me that there were hundreds and hundreds of students running and screaming with joy outside at the news that Sen. Barack Obama had been elected the next President of the United States.  At that moment she felt the importance and effect of the vote she had cast a few weeks ago.

What I took from her comments and the reactions of the thousands of students on her campus, not just on election night but in the weeks leading up to it, was that this generation of x Box users was coming of age.

I listened to conversations in my own children’s circles and I’ve read the commentary in media across the country and I have to say that I think this generation – the Millennials – believe that they can have an impact on the direction of their country and through their vote I’d say they did.

Of course not everyone voted for President-elect Obama and those 60 million votes for Sen. McCain are just as important in this process.  The good thing is those 60 million voters care about their country and the more important thing is that their concerns and priorities will be given every bit of consideration as those votes from the majority who elected Mr. Obama.

That’s the promise we got from both candidates and I look forward to seeing that realized.

Experiencing this election through the eyes of my daughter, for the first time ever, I find I’m fixated on how this election has served as a positive influence on the shaping of the mindset of this generation.

It feels like this is the first time, in a long time, that the election was more about the future of a united nation and less about the few special interests of the most powerful.  My daughter and her friends truly feel a sense of empowerment and I’m grateful for that.

I didn’t experience that sense of urgency and importance about my role in the world during my early years in college.  We were the generation that one professor called the most “self-centered” he’d ever seen (the greedy 80′s).  We cared about our marks and employment in hot centers of commerce. I’m generalizing but not overly so.

I do remember my friends and I feeling so disheartened at his statements, but at the same time we couldn’t help but to agree.  We just did not feel as impassioned about our impact on problems in the world as those who had come before us in the 70′s and 60′s.

Environmental advocacy, living a green lifestyle, revitalizing our urban cores, protecting pristine lands, local and international volunteer service and community building–these are just a few of the priorities that our young people feel passionate about today and that gives me such hope.

Here we have a generation showing signs that their not only ready but commited to addressing the multitude of challenges that we’ve left for them.  Maybe we (boomer/post boomer generation) did in fact do a few things right.

The Joys of Urban Life

There are days when I enjoy having the countryside nearby and the quietness of suburban life.  There are other days when I miss the years my husband and I lived smack dab in the center of a large urban city.  Luckily I have a foot in both worlds right now.

“This city is what it is because our citizens are what they are.”

Plato

I thought it would be fun to have a look at what “citizens” have done to make an urban lifestyle wonderful to see and experience. Join me on a visual tour of just a few great cities.