small business

Wisconsin Women are Go-Getters

I’m always proud to be a Wisconsin woman. However, this month my heart swells even more as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. On June 10, 1919, Wisconsin—movin’ people that we are— was the first state to take such action. We even beat the U.S. Congress, which didn’t ratify the amendment until the next year.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has a great exhibit on display in our beautiful State Capitol Rotunda all the way through November. My pictures don’t do it justice so definitely take time to see it for yourselves.

Certainly, a tip of the hat is due to those progressive thinkers of Wisconsin’s legislature. But the real heroes are the women who fought more than 70 years to bring the 19th amendment to fruition, women like these Wisconsin demigoddesses.

Women’s rights groups began forming in Wisconsin in the 1860s and they rallied for an array of social reforms such as anti-slavery, temperance, education, health, and married women’s property rights. The Wisconsin Women’s Suffrage Association (WWSA) was started in 1869. Besides campaigning for suffrage, these ladies fought to improve public schools. By 1869 they were running for school boards and by 1886 women could vote for issues “pertaining to school matters,” according to the Wisconsin Women Suffrage in School Matters Referendum.

Notice a whole lot of nurturing going on here?

“Bitches get stuff done.” — Tina Fey

When women rise up, they by nature don’t do so with self-serving ambitions. If we examine the motives behind what some label as “women being bitches,” we see they’re most often raising their voices for the welfare of others; family, children, the sick, the poor. Even 19th-century women’s quest for rights to their property was done with their children in mind; to prevent a drunken husband from taking a mother’s earnings or to will a woman’s inherited land to her own children rather than those of her husband’s second wife. Sometimes women being bitchy is the only way people listen.

Today I’m admiring…

These days inspiring Wisconsin women continue to stand up for the good of others. I’m thinking of several in my world alone, caring women who have dedicated time out of their busy lives to basically make things better in Wisconsin. Women like:

Be a Wisconsin Woman

Wisconsin women are gutsy go-getters. They get things done. But really, you don’t have to live in my beloved Badger state to be so emboldened. Just get up and go wherever you are.

And don’t forget to vote!

Yesteryear’s Brewery: Today’s Small Business

While enjoying last year’s Octoberfest Brewery Tour, I came across the book Badger Breweries, Past and Present. Definitely on the rare list, it’s a detailed account of all the breweries known to have existed in Wisconsin. Look at how many it shows for my small town alone.

Badger Breweries: Past and Present

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, nearly every town in the 1800s had its own brewery. A town’s brewery was its heart, providing steady employment, commerce and togetherness. It was also its fingerprint, each with a unique history and terroir.

While most of these breweries have died long ago, we’re now savoring a renaissance with the craft beer movement. These new breweries—most of them small and independently owned—strengthen communities just like the old days. But like an egg in our beer, their innovative owners have been bestowing neighborhoods with food venues, tourism and charitable causes.

As interesting as beer history is, what I really want to talk about are small businesses. This week is National Small Business Week and in the same way those small, 19th century breweries were the lifeblood a community, so small, locally owned businesses are today.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.

Maybe you want to become one of those owners! Maybe you want impress your fingerprint into the community. The SBA has great information online to get you started, everything from funding to launching your business.

And if you’re looking for help branding and marketing your new business, please keep me in mind!

Earth Day and Double Duty Composting

Today, on Earth Day 2019, I’m thinking back to the roundtable discussion I was honored to lead at the MOSES Organic Conference. It was on marketing and it overflowed with interesting conversation. Today though, two particular points come to mind: composting and responsibility.

As we discussed innovative ideas to promote our farms, a woman whose name I missed (someone help me, please, I’d love to contact her) mentioned the composting campaign they’re doing for their CSA farm. They give buckets to their members and encourage them to bring food scrap compost to the farm each week where it will help to create fertile ground for next years’ crops. And I, whose marketing brain spins 24/7, suggested she be sure to put her farm name and website on the buckets.

Seriously though, isn’t a composting campaign a great idea in so many ways?

Full Circle of Sustainability

This year’s Earth Day theme is Protect Our Species and from bees to trees, good soil is vital for sustaining all of God’s creation. Composting is a small way to make a big impact on the enrichment of our soil. When we return scraps of food to the very soil from which it was taken, we complete a full circle of sustainability.

How cool is that for CSA members to participate in this full circle!

Responsibility + Ownership = Good Marketing

Marketing gurus tell us that allowing customers a sense of “ownership” is proven for building customer loyalty. We discussed this in our roundtable and how responsibility enables that sense of ownership.

The CSA farm’s composting campaign allows members to share in the responsibility of improving its soil for more nutrient-based produce. The result? These members become proud owners of the vegetables they helped to grow and they talk about them with their friends. Word of mouth marketing at its best!

What About You?

I’ve been composting for years and, gee, it’s such an easy way to put food waste to good use. Now, after touring the facilities of my newest customer, The Farmory, I’m inspired even further—maybe composting with worms?

What about you? Are you a business looking to heat up your environmental stewardship? Or a gardener wanting healthier soil? Earth Day is a great time to start composting—actually Earth Day celebrations last all week so you have time to find yourself a bucket.

So let’s get going and may the joyous rotting begin!

Want to learn more?
Soil health is a big conversation these days. Two recent and interesting articles are Compost, like the Earth Depends On It, from the Willy Street Co-op Reader and the Dirt Issue (Spring 2019) of Yes!

Successful Entrepreneurship Takes a Village

What do FedEx, AirBnB, and Evernote have in common? We can all agree they are hugely successful companies. They’re also companies from which most of us benefit on a regular basis. Interestingly, all three also were once startups on the verge of collapse when they were saved by investors who cared enough to lend a hand. So when I heard one of my favorite specialty cheesemakers, Landmark Creamery, needed a hand, I immediately donated to Go Fund Me and I then went shopping for three of its cheeses.

Landmark Creamery is a labor of love for Anna Landmark and Anna Thomas Bates. Since 2014, “the Anna’s,” as they’re known, have been churning, and rubbing, and aging small batches of cheese made from local, small, family-owned dairy farms. You can find their products online, and at Madison area specialty stores, co-ops and restaurants. Two years ago they opened their own retail shop in the quaint village of Paoli, where they sell not only their own cheeses but also those of other Wisconsin cheesemakers. Coincidentally, in the next few weeks you can find them featured on PBS’s Wisconsin Foodie.

So, it seems Landmark Creamery has recently found itself in a bit of a bind. According to the Go Fund Me page, the ladies lost over 1,000 pounds of cheese after their cold storage company threw it out. The Anna’s had fallen behind on payments and owed the company $1,000. According to the page, they told the company owner they would pay as soon as possible, but the owner declared the space abandoned and threw away the cheese. The cheese, valued at $20,000, is a hand-crafted product needing six months to age, so it’s not easily replaced.

Seeing Both Sides of the Cheese Wheel

As a small business owner, I understand the importance of being paid. The storage facility provided a necessary service to Landmark Creamery and it was right to expect the agreed-upon compensation. You bet I’m all about responsibilities and holding up one’s end of the bargain.

But I also remember those startup days, struggling to succeed and stretching money to pay the bills. I appreciate all the help I received back then (my husband’s support was and still is a necessary component to me staying in business). I firmly believe when we uphold one another, we all stand stronger; that supportive action today generates positive reactions tomorrow. Kudos to the Culinary Ladies Collective for setting up the Go Fund Me for Landmark Creamery. This network of female chefs, food and beverage producers, growers and artisans is an example of how we go far when we go together.

I’m also a believer in communication. In Adunate’s 14-year running, I’ve only had a few clients fail to pay me on a timely basis. Those who respected me enough to talk to me about it are still my clients today. Those who ghosted me, well, you can bet I now refuse to work with them. According to the Go Fund Me page, Landmark Creamery had just made a payment on the balance and had communicated with the storage facility they would pay the rest as soon as possible. If this was the case, I just can’t see how destroying $20,000 of product for a $1,000 bill was beneficial to anyone, including the owner of the storage facility.

Be Part of the Village

Folks, if you’re a fan of small businesses and local foods, if you love Wisconsin specialty cheese, if you have a minute and a few extra dollars, please consider supporting Landmark Creamery. You may very well be benefiting more people than you know, not to mention keeping some fantastic cheese in production!


A Wolf Moon Welcome

Happy upcoming first full moon of the year!

Interestingly, not only will this be the Wolf Moon, it’s a Super Wolf Blood Moon. Super Moon, in that it’s closest to the earth in its elliptical orbit; Wolf Moon, because that’s the name given to January’s moon; and Blood Moon because of the reddish tint that’s going to appear when, yes, a lunar eclipse occurs. 

Barring cloudy skies, here in Wisconsin this stargazer’s phenomenon should appear this Sunday, January 20, between 10:41 and 11:12 p.m. You can bet I’ll be outside watching for it!

Back when people named moons according to the seasons, our northern ancestors hunkered themselves inside near a fire while wolves howled distantly in the January cold. Wolves are a common metaphor for hunger, yet families kept this wolf—hunger, that is—from their door with the food they’d put up earlier in autumn. 

These days, while in the cozy warmth of our homes, we’re browsing garden catalogs and dreaming of the spring months ahead when we can plant those first seedlings. The plans we make now shape the crops we grow in summer and the food we put up in fall, which in turn keeps “the wolves from our door” next winter. 

Preparedness: It’s ongoing through the seasons

For self-employed farm entrepreneurs, winter is time to plan your seed purchases. It’s also time to promote your farm and sign up members for the upcoming growing season. 

Next month is the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Conference and I’m presenting a workshop that offers great ideas for promoting your farm. The workshop is Marketing & Branding 101 and will be Saturday, February 23, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We’ll talk branding, because you have to brand yourself before you can market. We’ll then discuss marketing and how social media has become the easiest and most cost effective way to promote your small business. 

Hope to see you next month in La Crosse!

Pantone’s Color of the Year and Its Affect on Your Business

As the rest of us hunker down into the winter solstice—that cold, grey and shortest day of the year—the Pantone Color Institute just threw a splash of a party by announcing Living Coral as it’s 2019 Color of the Year. My Christmas cactus hits the tone perfectly (although this year it did Thanksgiving so we’ll have to nix the “living” part).

Quote by Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute

Pantone is a standardized color matching system. It originated specifically for the graphics industry but now you find it everywhere from fashion to furnishings. Each December, after extensive research, the Pantone Color Institute forecasts what color will bombard us in the upcoming year. They’re usually spot on.

As a designer, I find Pantone’s Color Intelligence invaluable. While I’m certainly not trendy in a fickle sense—after all, communicating my clients should not be based solely on the next 365 days—I do need to be aware of color and how it permeates our human thinking. For example, in 2016 I did a logo and website for The Blogging Bee, a one-time workshop for quilters. Research told me the average quilter is female and regularly updates her already extensive stash of fabric. Of course, she’s on top of color trends. So, of course, I used Pantone’s 2016 Color of the Year.

More recently I did an advertisement for The Cider Farm and it’s release of its 5-year-aged apple brandy. With 14,000 trees growing organically on 160 acres of Wisconsin farmland, you can bet no one’s thinking about colors of the year. Co-owner Deirdre Birmingham described their business as authentic, sophisticated and consistent. Their standards are inspired by European and American traditions. Given this, the strong, earthy tones of their brand are a perfect choice.

There’s a reason the Pantone Color Institute and designers put so much thought into color. Color affects our emotions, responses, behaviors…goodness, it even evokes perceptions to the taste of our food!

As you brand your business, what are your color ideas? Give me a jingle if you need some help!

Michelle Obama Inspires a Cooperative Spirit

Let me preface this by saying no matter which way you lean, you can still read this post. I say this because if you have even an inkling of objectivity—no matter your politics—you have to admit Michelle Obama is one classy lady. And this post is about her.

This post is not about politics (to prove my sincerity, I also admire Barbara and Laura Bush).

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk Michelle Obama and her recent open letter.

“Failure is a feeling long before it is an actual result. It’s vulnerability that breeds with self-doubt and then is escalated, often deliberately, by fear.”

In preparation for the release of her memoir, Becoming, the former first lady recently addressed an open letter to the readers of the Chicago Defender, a newspaper heralded as the “national voice for black Americans.” Of course, I admire that she hasn’t forgotten her roots in Chicago’s South Side. And I love that she credits who she is today to her parents, the teachers who taught her, and the neighbors who looked out for her. But what I find most compelling is her message of hope and cooperative spirit in the face of fear and negativity. She encourages hope not just for a select group of people, but for the whole community—a community working together for the good of all.

“It’s why teachers stayed up late grading papers and summer-camp organizers dedicated themselves to kids all across South Shore. And it’s why my parents invested themselves so deeply into my older brother Craig and me. My mother became one of the most active members of the PTA at Bryn Mawr, raising money for new equipment, throwing teacher-appreciation dinners, and lobbying for classes and strategies that would better serve the neighborhood’s children.” —Michelle Obama

Sharing the Cooperative Spirit

Michelle Obama’s open letter is truly inspiring. When we stand up together, we can push aside fear. When we work together for everyone’s benefit, amazing things can happen.

Next Tuesday, November 27, is Giving Tuesday. It’s also the day I open my mailbox for pro-bono applications. Each year Adunate accepts two pro bono projects for greatly reduced or no cost. These are projects I strongly support and believe will positively impact God’s creation, his people, or his ministry.

My interests include, but aren’t limited to:

  • Agriculture & Animals
  • Architecture
  • Arts
  • Children
  • Environment
  • Faith
  • History
  • Humanity
  • Food & Drink
  • Sustainability

If your organization needs creative support in the coming year, click here for an application. Then, to guarantee your project’s success, be sure to click here!

My deadline for submissions is December 31, 2018. I will let applicants know of my decision in January.

Branding or Marketing: Which Comes First?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? We’ve debated this question for generations, have we not? Thankfully, when it comes to branding vs. marketing, the answer is much less scrambled (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Regardless of size or industry, successful businesses practice both branding and marketing. But it’s the order in which they approach them that really matters.

Branding first. Marketing second.

Branding and marketing are often interchanged but in truth they’re completely separate entities. Branding is determining who you are. Marketing is telling who you are. You must know who you are first, then you can tell who you are.

But what is a brand?

Your brand is not your product. It’s not even your name or logo specifically (although those develop through branding). Your brand is the whole of who you are, what makes your business (product or service) what it is. It’s the image of your business in the eyes of your customer.

In the third (episode 61) of our In Her Boots podcast series, Lisa Kivirist and I discuss the elements of branding, namely the Five W’s and an H—who, what, when, where, why and how. What is your business? Who is your target market? How do you want to be perceived? Answering these questions and more lays the foundation for your brand. They convey who you are.

Once you’ve examined yourself and determined your brand, you can then go forth and visually present your business. You can create your logo. Hang your sign. Begin your marketing!

Those Five W’s and an H

In the corporate world, much time and expense is used for brand strategizing. Small businesses commonly don’t have that luxury, but we can build a brand nonetheless. I’ve come up with a fun questionnaire to get you started. These are the same Five W’s and an H questions I ask new clients in our initial interview.

Once you complete the front side, flip the sheet over and continue asking and answering your own questions. Your goal should be 50 questions minimum! The more you brainstorm, the more questions come to mind, and the clearer you see your business!

Check out my questionnaire. It’s Free!