5 Keys to Business Growth TODAY!

By Ashlei Jackson, This Is My Town USA

Many may think these are five radical ideas but they are five changes you can make -  professionally and personally. The ideas fit whether you are in business or just promoting yourself in life. While you may not be comfortable trying them all - why not test one of them out. Start enjoying a more productive and profitable year.
1. Stop Branding Your Product: There are several world-class brands that everyone recognizes:  McDonald’s, Disney, Microsoft, Apple, etc. Unless you have access to a warehouse full of cash, you won’t be able to brand your product as effectively.
 There is something you can do to build a great reputation in your market without breaking your budget—brand yourself! People buy from people, and buyers want to know who you are before they buy. It’s your values, personality, and dedication that will help you sell your product. You can successfully brand yourself with blogs, social media, community involvement, events, and more to share your message.
2. Give Away Your Secrets: You have “secret” ways of running your business. You are an expert in your field. Most business owners horde these trade secrets but doing the opposite can have an incredible impact on your bottom line. Offer a free “How TO” report. Most people would gladly provide their email address for that kind of information, giving you an appreciative prospect who now respects you, trusts you, and will come to you when they need your product or service. You become the trusted expert.

3. Forget the Big Picture: Every motivational speech you’ve ever heard has probably emphasized the importance of having a vision of where you are headed. There’s nothing wrong with that – but if you don’t start thinking smaller, you’ll never live large.

While you shouldn’t lose sight of your ultimate goals, you should focus on what is directly in front of you. What do you need to do today to accomplish your goals? Give yourself manageable (and trackable) goals. Break it down so you know what you have to do in the next 10 minutes to be successful.
4. Don’t Lower your prices: When times get tough, business owners tend to lower prices in an attempt to attract and keep customers. But if a lack of money is keeping your customer from buying, it’s because they’ve decided they can do without your product or service. Lowering your price does not put more money in their pocket. It just gives your other customers – the ones that still want your service or product – a nice break. As John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing says, “There’s always someone that’s willing to go out of business before you.” So avoid the poor economy panic and stick to your guns.
 Focus your energy instead on creating products and/or services that have unquestionable value. If the value is there, your most loyal and even new customers will be willing to pay for it.
5. Realize the customer isn’t always right: We’ve all got them…customers who will never be happy no matter how much you do for them. They complain. They demand refunds. And they eat up all your time. If you’ve got customers like that, it’s time you fired them.

 If you’re spending a large chunk of time on a single customer, cut your losses. All of your customers deserve your attention. By firing your bad customers, you can concentrate your efforts on the ones who will make the biggest difference to your bottom line. Your best customers know your value, they pay you for it, and they send their friends your way. Spend more of your time finding those who love what you do and become your advocate.

New Baby Faces in Meadow Vista

Babies Don’t Come With Cavities

By Dr. Scott Thompson, DDS, Winning With Smiles

We don't inherit “soft teeth” from our parents and babies don’t come with cavities.

Cavities are caused by a bacterial disease called “caries.” We catch this disease from our close family and friends. Like any other contagious disease, how we take care of ourselves determines how our body will handle the disease. How the family takes care of oral health will affect the cavity rate of the infant and toddler. Correct family oral care will limit the contagion of the disease. Correct oral care for the infant and toddler will limit the survival of the bacteria that cause cavities. Diet and beverage patterns for infants and toddlers will either limit or support the cavity causing bacteria. The disease, “caries,” establishes its lifetime pattern while the baby teeth are emerging from age 6 months to 30 months old.
 Establishing a dental home with a dental office that offers well baby exams will give you the information you need to create a lifetime of dental health for your baby. Other advantages of establishing an early dental home with your family dentist or pediatric dentist are:
 1) Money savings. Children who visit the dentist before their fast birthday have an average 40 % lower dental cost during their first 5 years. These savings will continue through life.
 2) Enamel defects, if addressed early, can be remedied with simple techniques to prevent tooth deterioration.

3) Early dental cavities can be healed rather than filled if detected early enough and addressed at home with proper information and prevention. Infants don't come with cavities. Creating a no cavity environment for your baby can lead to a no cavity environment for a lifetime.
The first tooth deserves a dental home.

Meadow Vista Community Center Update

Creating Effective Passwords

By Greg Luther, Computer Shoppe

If you have a computer then you have most likely created a few passwords.  If you are like most, you have created a password that is simple so you can remember it.  Or you have written it down somewhere, but it is not secure if others can see it or easily guess it.  So, how do you create a password that is easy to remember yet very difficult to crack?  Here are some basic rules to follow.  First, you want your passwords to be at least eight characters in length, and if possible, more characters are even better.  Second, you want a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters, e.g., %, *, @.  Using a combination of these characters make it very difficult to crack; however,  it also is more difficult to remember because of all the combinations of different characters.  Here is an example of how you can turn a password that is easy to remember but  not a good password into a password that is easy to remember and a great password.  Lets say your password is the name of your pet, and the name is Lassie.  Terrible password, but that can be changed into a good password by substituting the characters in the name with other similar characters.  Lassie can be converted into l@SSi3.  L becomes l, a becomes @, ss becomes SS, and e becomes the mirror image of E which 3.  This password is getting better, but it is still too short.  So, you could combine the name of two pets. So, if your other pet is named Garfield, you could join the two names with && between the two names, and your new password could become l@SSi3&&g@rfi3lD.  Now the password is easy to remember but impossible to crack.  So use substitutions that make sense to you and be creative.

Travel Stories: Home From China

By Linnie O’Flanagan, L.Ac., One River Medicine

My recent trip to China was exciting, educational and a little disappointing. In Beijing, skyscrapers are erupting at every turn, along with freeways to accommodate the 22 million and rapidly growing population. The consumption of steel and concrete is mind-boggling. It's a life-risking adventure to ride in a vehicle, but even more so to cross a street on foot (cars have the right of way). We took the subway a number of times, which was clean and efficient.  Despite having no personal space, it was refreshing to be in such a crowded place where everyone behaved civilly.
 The best part was the herb tour. We now have more confidence than ever about the herbs we are buying. China realizes that their herbal medicine is unmatched in the world, and to meet the concerns of the world market, they have developed strict standards for the growing and processing of medicinal herbs. There are people trained in university programs and hired by the government to ensure that farmers are growing the herbs properly. Then, at the processing and packaging facility that we toured, the herbs undergo several tests for correct species, and contamination by pesticides, sulfur, heavy metals, and microbes, before they are brought into the facility. They are then sliced, chopped, and processed according to reference standards before vacuumed packaged. This is all done in carefully controlled clean environments which meet the GMP standards for pharmaceuticals (more stringent than the standards for supplements). We were very impressed!

The disappointing part was actually seeing the modern version of Chinese medicine as it is practiced for the masses in Beijing. The doctors in the hospital are low paid government employees working as fast as they can, trying to keep up with the demand. People wait for hours, even all day, to see the doctor, as there are no appointments. During the herbal consults and acupuncture treatments there is no privacy at all. The good part? The cost to the patient is about $2 USD, and it's still effective (albeit not as good as it could be). Certainly not how I would want to treat or be treated!
 Prior to the 1950's, Chinese medicine was taught and practiced entirely differently. It was passed down thru family lines and mentorships. Different theories and styles developed over thousands of years and throughout various regions of this vast country. It was a truly holistic medicine, encompassing five branches: acupuncture, herbs, diet, manual therapies, and qi exercises. After a tumultuous time under Mao's influence, Chinese medicine survived the Cultural Revolution, and is now taught alongside Western medicine in universities, and has become integrated with Western medicine in both in- and out-patient hospitals.  Hopefully as China embraces modernization, they will use their wealth to train more doctors and return to a more holistic and humanitarian approach, giving us a better model to work towards. Or maybe we have to create it on our own.

Pioneer Day: Doc's Kids Fun Zone

Home Mortgage: Make an Educated Decision

By Toni Ryan, First Priority Financial

Over 28% of American homeowners are “underwater” on their homes meaning they owe more than the home is worth.  Should you sell for less than it's worth?  Is foreclosure an option?  But you love your home and want to stay  how can you take advantage of the low interest rates and get some relief to wait out the economy?
 To understand the options available for getting help with your mortgage  including the federal Making Home Affordable Refinance Program  it is important for you to know who owns your loan.  Most home loans are owned by Fannie Mae (FNMA) or Freddie Mac (FHMC).  These companies are privately held, government sponsored enterprises who purchase home mortgages from lenders. Approximately 80% of conventional mortgages are owned by these two giants.
 If your loan is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, there are programs available to refinance your loan even if you owe up to 125% of the home's value.
 Simply go to the secure websites  listed below and enter your property address, zip code, etc. and find out.  This is the first step to knowing your options. Always double check that you have entered your address and other info correctly.
Http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/   &   https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/
 A mortgage professional can help you access these programs and give you the options available.  With rates so low, you may be able to reduce your monthly payment to allow you to better weather these stressful economic times.

Tax Man News

By J.C. Harrison, Simplified Business & Tax

Be sure to fine-tune your estimated tax payments and withholding for 2011 if you owed a lot of tax for 2010 or you expect you'll be short for this year. You need to adjust estimated tax payments now. But you can wait until year-end to boost withholding, because withheld tax is treated as if paid evenly over the year. Additional income tax can be withheld from a Dec. IRA payout, for example. You needn't prepay all the tax you might owe for 2011, just an amount equal to 90% of it, or 100% of your 2010 tax bill (110% if your AGI exceeded $150,000 in 2010). Doing so avoids the underpayment penalty, even if you end up owing IRS a lot of tax.
 Self-employeds can amend prior year returns to deduct Medicare premiums as part of their income tax deduction for health insurance on Form 1040, IRS says in Pub. 535. Many didn't write off the premiums in pre-2010 years because the instructions for those prior years said the amounts were not deductible. Pub. 535 and the 1040 instructions for 2010 now expressly allow this write-off.

Pioneer Day Schedule 2011

2011 Meadow Vista Community Service Award Recipient

Submitted by Meadow Vista MAC

Each year, the Meadow Vista MAC recognizes one of the community's special individuals with a Community Service Award.

Fred Eichenhofer has been selected as the 2011 Meadow Vista Community Services Award Recipient. 
 Fred's service to the community has been diversified.   Since 2005 Fred has sponsored Oktoberfest, a large community event. He pays for everything that isn't donated and puts in his own time and labor to make sure the event is successful.  Fred chose the Meadow Vista Community Center to be the recipient of this successful fundraiser.

Fred joined the Community Center board several years ago and has recently filled the position of co-chairman of the board.   He devotes many hours to this organization.
 Fred is also a member of the Meadow Vista Merchants Association and the Meadow Vista Lions.  He attends meetings of both groups and helps out with their projects.
 During the summer months, “Movie Night Under the Stars” produces funds that go directly to the MV Pool project.  Fred purchased a projector, speakers and concession stand materials to facilitate the events.   Funds from a Gingerbread Decorating Event and previous movie nights at The Beda Place went to the MV Pool Project also. 
 Fred built the stage in the lot next to our post office and lets other community groups use it free of charge.  He installed water and electrical to the empty field to help facilitate functions, all at his own cost.  Fred also donates all of his notary fees, free of charge asking the client if they would like to make a tax deductible donation to the community center in the amount of their choice.
 It is certain the community will continue to benefit from his efforts and generous financial donations for many years to come.

At the Meadow Vista MAC Meeting, June 1, at 6 PM, Placer Hills School, the award will be presented by Placer County Supervisor, Jennifer Montgomery.  A tree will be planted in Fred's honor in Meadow Vista Park.  Fred and recipients of the award in previous years will be invited to ride in the Pioneer Parade.

Meadow Vista Town History: First Parade & Picnic

Re-publishing original article written by George Lay published on June 6 ,1999

Although the department was started in the summer of 1949, the first annual picnic and parade was July 4, 1959.  Bob de Caro, the local gunsmith and fireman started talking about having a parade downtown.  The fire chief was Cliff Ramos (grocery storeowner and Meadow Vista's first Postmaster).  A committee was formed and all the volunteer firemen along with their wives organized the event.
 It was decided to serve German sausage, sauerkraut, wieners, chili beans, coffee and punch.  Tickets were $1.00, which included the dinner.
 The first fire department queen contest required each girl to sell tickets at 25 cents each with all proceeds going to the fire department for equipment.  The local merchants assisted by sponsoring the following girls:  Marles Halstead--Meadow Vista Lunch; Sandra DavisPenny's Beauty Shop Clipper Gap; Judy OglesbeeCoy's Service Station or Jean's Beauty Shop; Beverly LumanDick's Meat Market; Geraldine WegmannMeadow Vista Grocery; Pat SmithMeadow Vista Variety and Gun Shop.

 The parade started at 10:00 am at Meadow Vista Road and proceeded up Placer Hills Road.  The festivities were at the original Recreation Park on the north side of Meadow Lane, beginning at 11:00 with the dinner.  The $1.00 ticket also included games such as baseball, horseshoes and swimming.  Booths were set up to sell ice cream bars, soft drinks, hot dogs and ice cold watermelon.  Also included for the dollar ticket were prizes such as a 21” black and white TV set, coffee maker, merchandise orders, gasoline, horse bridle, hair-dos and more  all donated by local merchants from Auburn to Colfax.
 The following is a great account of the event as written by Ann Oglesbee who at that time was the pen behind the Meadow Vista Versions column.  And yes, it was her daughter who was the Queen and is still in the area:
 “The Fourth of July festivities sponsored by the local fire department were quite successful and everyone attending had a gay time.  The celebration started with the crowning of the queen on Friday evening and ended on Saturday evening after a day of feasting, games and social time.
 Judy Oglesbee won the queen contest with Geraldine Wegmann and Beverly Luman as close runners-up.  The latter two girls served as princesses.  Judy was crowned by her father, Jim Oglesbee, and presented with a lovely watch by Fire Chief Cliff Ramos.  All the girls were given a set of jewelry as a token of appreciation from the fire department.  Master of ceremonies for this event was Bob de Caro, general chairman.
 Saturday morning the fun started with a parade which formed at Meadow Vista Road and progressed to Placer Hills Road and then to the Fire House.  It was led by Donna Maize on her horse who served as flag bearer and after the flag came the big fire truck driven by Sandy Chamberlain.  The queen and princesses rode on the truck, as did little Denise Moore who was dressed in a patriotic red, white and blue costume.
 After this came a Stanley Steamer puffing along, causing a burst of steam every now and then and adding much to the enjoyment of all.  On the back of the truck sat a man petting a skunk.  Also adding to the fun were the Paddy Wagon, George Lay as a prospector with his mule, an ancient red vehicle, covered wagon, and several other entries besides many beautiful horses and their riders.
 We feel this was a parade to be proud of and we hope that the years to come will bring bigger and better ones.  Jim Hills and his P.A. system did much to help the parade and also furnished music throughout the day at the picnic.
The fire department would like to thank all the merchants who donated prizes for the drawings and games, and the people outside the department who so generously helped with time and labor, sheriff deputies George Struble and Robert Murray, the Recreation Department and Placer Hills School for their cooperation.
 Winners of the parade entries will be in the column next week.  One of the things we noticed
About this whole affair was the fun and good humor of everyone attending, including the men who worked in the hot sun part of the day serving the dinner and seeing that things went smoothly.  We think these men and the women who helped them deserve a pat on the back.  Many hours have been spent by a small group to plan and carry out this project and we think they did.