| EDC receives $109,000 grant for small business loans
Being a small business in Morgan County just got a little easier - if you need a little money, that is. On Tuesday the United States Dept. of Agriculture Rural Development awarded the Morgan County Economic Development Corp. a $109,000 grant to assist small businesses. The grant comes at a good time as small businesses in the county have had few alternative options to traditional bank financing, Robert White, USDA rural development state director said in a press release. The USDA Rural Business Enterprise grant will be used to establish a revolving loan fund to provide incentives for business expansion, job creation and private investment in the county's rural areas. Dean Edwards, director of business programs and cooperative services, and Mark Beckman, business program specialist at the USDA, presented the check Tuesday to John Taylor, executive director, and Jeff Pipkin, deputy director, of the EDC at Martinsville City Hall.
How to brand like the big guys
Scott Jungles is the owner of the PRstore (www.prstore.com) in Wilmington, a full-service marketing store offering advice and creative services to help small business owners establish and communicate their message and increase their sales. Contact him at (302)995-1944.Branding: why small businesses should act like big businessesMost of us recognize brands we use everyday. Picking coffee at Starbucks, visiting Trader Joe's for groceries or stopping by Home Depot for materials for the weekend home improvement project are things we often do without thinking.Yet the reason we buy something, visit a store or contribute to a particular effort is based on how we know about it, how we understand it, and how we value it — its brand. Even paying attention to something we know nothing about is a conscious decision and could be a rejection of known brands.Most brands we easily identify and use tend to be large, national companies.
Integral and Jasper Issue Update on ElectriPlast(TM) Product and Development
BELLINGHAM, Wash., BUSINESS WIRE -- Integral Technologies, Inc.'s (OTCBB:ITKG) ("Integral") and Jasper Rubber Products, Inc. ("Jasper" or "Jasper Rubber"), through their CEO's William Robinson and Douglas Mathias respectively, today made the following comments relating to Integral's ElectriPlast(TM) product and the commercialization progress which has been made since Jasper became Integral's manufacturing partner. From Integral; Since our last statement to the Company's shareholders we have continued on our path to 1/ advance our product, ElectriPlast(TM), both technically and in its manufacturability, so as to be able to deliver a world class product to a growing and varied customer base for a variety of applications, 2/ we have achieved this by securing a manufacturer of ElectriPlast(TM) pellets, Jasper Rubber (www.jasperrubber.com), 3/ protect our intellectual property surrounding our ElectriPlast(TM) technology by obtaining patent approvals and 4/ file new patents on applications as they are discovered.
Dialing up ‘smart’ phones
Apple Inc.'s iPhone has shaken up the “smart phone" business and set other manufacturers scrambling to add features and make it easier to get e-mail, surf the Web and enjoy music and movies on a cell phone. Prices also have come down to the point where some of these feature-packed models cost little more than “dumb" phones. Sizes have come down too — gone are the days when carrying a smart phone was a workout. Remember, though, that you need a data plan to get the most out of a smart phone, which usually adds about $20 to the monthly cost. (Prices below are with two-year carrier contracts unless noted.) The top contenders of this holiday season (and a few to avoid): Apple iPhone (AT&T) This is the star of the field, despite a number of shortcomings.
OmBelt Solutions Releases "Export Table to SQL for Paradox" Utility
How can you copy data to a database that you can't connect directly? The simplest way is to create a set of SQL statements, deliver it to remote server or database and to run the script. OmBelt Solutions releases Export table to SQL tool for Paradox. This handy utility helps users, database developers or administrators to create the script with INSERT statements for any table within seconds. The program has easy to learn and to use "wizard" user interface. Command line support in Professional version of the tool allows user to automate or to schedule export table operations. Export table to SQL tool for Access is distributed electronically over the Internet; free demo version is available at http://www.ombelt.com/exporttable/sql/paradox/ for evaluation. OmBelt Solutions is a small software company specializing in developing database processing and reporting utilities.
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