Yvonne DiVita is the author of Dick*less Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online, a book about getting those baby boomer icons Dick and Jane to buy at your website. She is also the president and founder of Windsor Media Enterprises, LLC which specializes in business blog building, social media strategy and print-on-demand publishing.

Yvonne's background stretches to those bygone days of the early Internet, where she was a web content writer and worked in several technology start-ups. Yvonne started her first blog, Lip-sticking, back in March of 2004 shortly after publishing her first book. Yvonne has been preparing an extension of the Lip-sticking brand with the launch of The Lip-Sticking Society, which will be a new website that will house the Lip-sticking blog in hopes to better serve her readers.

Some of Yvonne's other blogs include: Books, Blogs, and Beyond, a blog about publishing in a changing world, Scratchings and Sniffings, a petblog sponsored by Nestlé Purina, and a pet health insurance blog for Purina: PurinaCare. She has also been listed as one of 2009's Smartest People in Social Media.

We all get so much bad news; it’s great to read the good.  And, Global Hope Network International shares much good news.  No matter how dire the situation, things are improving here and there.  People can accomplish incredible things with just a little help.

For example, a group of women have formed a sewing enterprise in Indonesia. From the news report:

These women are amazing! Their sewing enterprises have taken off, and they’re so proud of the progress they’re making in their TCD Income Generation program.

There are two sewing groups: the beginners group and the advanced group. The beginners group is using this month to practice sewing on old rags and pieces of clothes, and the advanced group has already begun to make beautiful aprons to sell. The money generated from the sales of these aprons will help the women pay back the investment for the new sewing machines. Once they have made a certain amount of aprons, they will own their own machine.

That’s the “new” machine there. I think my grandmother had one just like it.

And, here’s Tiffany, one of GHNI’s trainers with some of the women.

Like I’ve said before. It doesn’t take much to make a big difference.

This is for my daughters, my granddaughters, my friends, and everyone who has ever worked hard through discrimination.

It’s the first anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Act where President Obama went to bat for women and equal pay. This video is of Lilly, herself, talking about her story, sharing what brought her to this purpose and showing us all that we need to continue standing up for women to make changes in how business and politics look at us, how they treat us, and how they view us as human beings.

As a woman who understands this issue – and too many of us do – I cannot stress the importance of getting behind this story and sharing with everyone you know. It’s not a party issue. It’s a people issue.

This isn’t a story that is hard to watch or hard to hear. It’s a story that is uplifting and encouraging. Despite the setbacks and the long enduring timeframe needed to make this happen, Lilly shows all of us that change is possible and that never giving up makes a difference. I hope you’ll share the Lilly Ledbetter story with others and spread the word.

This link goes to President Obama and his words on the Fair Pay Act and Equal Pay For All Workers video. Another video worth watching and sharing.

Time to go shopping. Time to get groceries or birthday gifts or home goods. I search the ads in the Sunday paper (yes, we still get the Sunday paper), I look at my email and check the incoming from my favorite stores and… I sigh.

Bigger is not always better.

That’s what I think. When ready to shop, I seldom – almost NEVER – go to Walmart. I call people who shop at Walmart ‘walmartians’… and if you’re one, I apologize but…seriously, do you know what you’re doing? You’re supporting big business when small business really needs your help.

While Walmart is the favored place to shop, with Targee’ (fancy spelling of Target) a close second, I think, it wasn’t always so. Back in the day, when I was a kid, we shopped for groceries and some home goods at the A&P – the Great Atlantic & Pactific Tea Co. They gave out green stamps - not loyalty cards. You licked the stamps and put them in books and when you had enough, you could get free stuff. It was our job, we being the kids, to lick the stamps and put them in the books. You had to have LOTS to get anything. Much like the loyalty points on my bank account… I have about 10,000 but it gets me little or nothing. I need 100,000 to get anything that’s worthwhile.

My dislike of Walmart and my growing dislike of Target stem from the belief that these two giants think they own the world, and by virtue of that, they own me. I am limited, they believe, in where I can go to get good stuff at good prices. Of my weekly budget, they expect me to shop at one of their stores and ‘save’ money. Because they say I will save money.

Back in the day, A&P thought the same, I guess. According to a book on the subject, Marc Levinson’s The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America, “In the 1920s, Levinson notes, the average urban family spent a third of its income on food, traipsing from dry-goods store to butcher shop to produce vendor in order to find what was needed to put together a meal. What that family got was often lacking in nutrition — without refrigeration, retailers found it difficult to keep milk, poultry and produce fresh and in stock. (NOTE: book is an affilate link)

“As A&P built increasingly larger and more diverse stores, leveraged its buying power and took advantage of advancements in refrigeration and mass canning techniques, it made shopping faster, easier and cheaper. By 1951, the average American family was devoting only 21 percent of its income to groceries and beverages. A decade later, it was just 17 percent.” 

On the surface, then, it’s true. Shopping at an A&P (yes they are still in business in several states) or Walmart or Target, can save you money. You won’t REALLY know if you’re getting inferior goods, will you? The last time I shopped at Target, well… it wasn’t a pleasant experience and the food we bought wasn’t worth my ever going back there for any sort of consumable, again. Bigger is not always better, as I started to say way back in the beginning of this note.

The reality that bigger is not always better goes across industries. Grocery stores and big chain restaurants aren’t always the best places to get the best products or food. I do frequent chain restaurants, like Red Lobster and Olive Garden and Chilis, but I also like a change of pace from their average, ordinary fare – and when I step out of that comfort zone to eat at a local restaurant, I discover what good food really tastes like. Just saying.

Here’s what I think and you are free to write in and disagree – I think local, small shops are better for us than big chain stores. I think little has a lot to offer and even if the pricing is higher, when you buy local, when you support a store that offers more unique products and has honest to goodness customer service, you’re supporting the future of your children.

It may mean you buy LESS because goods are priced a bit higher than the big chain stores. But, shouldn’t we all be learning to do more with less? I mean, for the environment and more? You may not find exactly what you were looking for (being in the habit of buying ‘this’ or ‘that’), but you will surely find extraordinary goods that may surprise and delight you.

In the end, I shop at our local grocery chain which, in essence, is a big box store of its own, I know. But, I also know they get their produce locally and they they support local businesses and they have pleasant, fun, happy people who check me out.

Bigger isn’t better when bigger exists only to pick your pocket. That’s what I think… Walmart and Target are in the business of picking pockets. That’s my rant for the day. Learn more about A&P here. Study them – there is much to learn about business in general from their rise and fall.

by Yvonne DeVita

For anyone that is a true football fan, last Sunday was by far one of the most exciting NFL conference championship game days you can have. Yes, it will take a while for Raven fans to get over the missed chip-shot field goal and the 49er’s to wonder what if they didn’t turn over the ball in overtime. We’re now moving on to Super Bowl XLVI with a big rematch between the Patriots and the Giants. As I said in my last post, I’m betting on Eli Manning and the New York Giants to be this year’s champions.

The Super Bowl has now become the most active topic of the millions of us who write blogs posts and updates on Facebook, Twitter and now, Google+. In 2011, the only Facebook status update topic in the world, amongst 800 million users at the time that beat out the Packers winning Super Bowl 45 was the death of Osama bin Laden. Since many of these tweets and Facebook updates come via a mobile phone, this year General Motors and Chevrolet is adding mobile to their mix to capitalize off this.

If you want to watch the Super Bowl on February 5th on your smartphone or tablet, Chevy’s got an app for that. The Chevy Game Time app is now available in the Android Market, Apple’s App Store and at chevy.com/gametime. The app will ask viewers trivia and poll questions on subjects including the game, teams and commercials. Participants who answer trivia correctly or choose the most-common poll answer will be entered into the Chevrolet Game Time Sweepstakes drawing. The sweepstakes is awarding thousands of prizes including some instant Win Prizes from Bridgestone, Motorola, the NFL and NFLShop.com, Papa John’s Pizza and Sirius XM Radio.

Chevrolet will be running several ads during NBC’s Super Bowl broadcast. When someone downloads the app, they receive a unique “license plate” number and if anyone’s numbers match any plate in Chevy’s Super Bowl spots, they will win one of 20 Chevy’s. There is also an alternate means of entry in which someone that does not want to download the app can register for the sweepstakes by visiting chevy.com/gametime.

So I just downloaded the app and will try it out. I don’t have a tablet yet, so I will be experiencing it off my Droid Incredible phone. Should be interesting. In the meantime we all now have to go a whole weekend with no football! Let the fun begin.

by Donna DeClemente

This is a quote from the Global Hope Network International’s web site about a village in Afghanistan the group is helping become self-sustaining.  

Qala e Nadar is a small village framed by rugged mountains on one side and less than fifteen kilometers from Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan on the other.

Overlooked and forgotten, Qala e Nadar is small and too close to the city to merit help. Thirty years ago, the traditionally nomadic community settled on this dry, arid and barren plain. There is no accessible school, no local bazaar, no immediate health care, no electricity, no running water, and no literate adult. The community is sustained by some of the men and teenage boys who get periodic work in nearby brickworks…

“Teach us,” is the cry of the women of Qala e Nadar. A start has been made.

Of course, there are many women who need help – throughout the world.  So many, in fact, it’s totally overwhelming.  And, in a google search there were about 191,000 results for “adopt a village.”  What’s so special about GHNI’s program?  

Here’s what’s special.  Good old-fashioned face-to-face connection.  Mine with Jeff Power, US Partnership Director. (That’s his smiling face on the left.) That of village adopters with the villagers, through trips as well as blogs and video conferences.  People talking to people. What a concept! 

I met Jeff at SOBCon Northwest last fall. He gave a great presentation about how GHNI helps the poorest of the poor, by giving them a hand up NOT a hand out.  

As he and I discussed, many “do gooder” organizations actually don’t do much good.  Lots of money gets thrown around. Well-meaning people fly in and out. Food sits rotting on docks (or is sold on the black market.)  The white folks swoop in to give patronizing, boilerplate advice (Kinda like big-timus consultants do to big corporations. I can relate.)  

GHNI does it differently.  They hire locals and focus on solving the root causes of the problem(s).  Since I’m a problem-solver by nature, this approach really excited me. Instead of simply asking for donations, GHNI asks people to get involved and to build relationships.  And, they make it pretty easy to do so. You can take a trip, adopt a village…or, yes, “simply” make a donation (money is always welcome.) It’s a great organization and support is encouraged.

by Mary Schmidt

Professional Facebook expert, Mari Smith, shares insight into the way businesses can use Facebook Places. Do you use this tool? How is it working for you?

Life is not a box of chocolates, it’s a series of habits. You learn what works and what doesn’t and, as a human being, you lean towards what works over and over until it becomes… automatic. For instance, as a child you learn that crying gets you attention, good or bad, it doesn’t always matter. The older you grow, the more you understand that crying isn’t the best attention getter in your arsenal. (laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone) A plaque on the wall near my desk reminds me daily:

Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Choose your words wisely, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Notice that habits are part of ‘activity.’ You are what you do. You do what you are comfortable with. You’re comfortable doing things that are…easy. Over on Oprah, this article talks about breaking bad habits and it hits things squarely in the nose – me, I probably would have failed the chocolate test. Rieva Lesonsky suggests 7 Bad Business Habits to Break This Year, and I have to agree with her choices. Here are 3 of them, with my thoughts. I encourage you to hop over and read the other four, also.

Bad Business Habit No. 1: Putting your data at risk Forty percent of small and midsize companies have had their data security breached as a result of employees visiting outside companies, according to a survey by GFI Software. Yet a separate study by Carbonite found 57 percent of small businesses have no plan in place for dealing with a data disaster. Don’t keep your head in the sand when it comes to protecting your (and your customers’) data. Create a plan to back up your data regularly, set policies for employee use of social media and the Internet, and install software to monitor and protect your network. You can also use a cyber planner to create a customized cyber-security plan for your business.

Bad Business Habit No. 2: Being disorganized In a recent study by Oasys, more than one-third of employees admitted they waste up to two hours a day searching for emails. Sound familiar? On an individual level, disorganization causes confusion and hurts productivity. On a business level, failing to create systems and procedures means your business isn’t scalable. Use online project management tools like Basecamp or Zoho Projects to get everyone — even independent contractors and remote employees — on the same page. And take the time to develop and document procedures in operations manuals and employee handbooks.

Bad Business Habit No. 7: Thinking short term It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day duties of running your business. As small-business owners, we’re constantly busy putting out fires. But if you don’t set aside time to sit, think and plan for your business’s future, that planning simply won’t happen. Schedule some time every week, even if it’s only an hour, to review your business’s progress and your goals. And make time once a quarter (at minimum) to get out of the office for an uninterrupted, in-depth strategy session with your key people. The only tool you need for this one is your brain.

Kelley Connors from KC Health is focused on women and mid-life in this video – something that is certainly close to many a woman’s heart. I like the way Kelley uses the word ‘designing’ here. The act of designing your life resonates with me.