eLYK innovation - July eNEWS

July 2007 eNEWS

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In this Issue

New Policy for Website Updates
Important topic concerning small business in Jacksonville

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How to increase sales 30% annually
Elyk Starts a Bonfire!
2007 SBLY award

Beginning August 1st 2007 we would like all clients sending requests for updates to email them to updates@elykinnovation.com

This will allow everyone on our team immediate access to your request and will allow us to serve you better.

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Important topic concerning small business
in Jacksonville

Reprinted with permission, originally Posted on a Blog:
http://smallbizsuccessbestkeptsecret.blogspot.com

The current catch-phrase in economic development is "gardening," referring to a community's efforts to foster budding small businesses, creating home-grown economic development. It’s a story those of us involved in small business have known—-and been proud of-—for some time.

But now two economic green thumbs for Florida, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UNF and its Small Business Resource Network (SBRN) are being strangled by the weeds of property tax politics.

While these two organizations have been walking the talk of “gardening” for decades (and are certainly two of the reasons Jacksonville is No. 8 in the nation for entrepreneurship), their city public service grants (which are needed to gain matching federal dollars for even more impact) were just cut from Mayor John Peyton's proposed budget.

In short, Jacksonville's been saddled with South Florida’s property tax problem. None of us likes high taxes, but an onerous property tax is not our issue. City leaders must now show the courage to keep it that way. And if leaders need a dose of fertilizer to gain that courage, the thousands of area (actually, now statewide) small businesses who've benefited from the SBRN-SBDC Team need to grab our shovels and plant ourselves in City Hall.

Many of us purposely chose Jacksonville over South Florida because of its higher quality of life. From JCCI to The Better Jacksonville Plan, our city holds a rich tradition of defining quality of life goals—-and then doing what’s necessary to make those objectives reality.

But no “Blueprint for Prosperity” will ever be more than ink on paper if city leaders aren’t willing to invest in continued economic development through organizations such as the SBDC and SBRN.

If City Council can’t figure how to keep growing our flowering garden of small businesses under the new property tax constraints, it should invoke the “opt out” clause of the new law to keep Jacksonville moving forward.

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It is no secret that part of our success has been our involvement with the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce. In the 3 years we have been members, our revenue has increased an average of 30 % each year…and most of our business comes from contacts or referrals from other Chamber members. If you receive this enews and are not currently a member, I encourage you to call me today and I can connect you with a chamber account manager. Chamber membership is the best investment you can make in your business.

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Start a Bonfire!

In February we launched our latest product called Bonfire. Bonfire is an easy-to-use tool that lets you track the status of ongoing projects on a wide range of dimensions from any internet connection. When you login you will instantly see which projects are on schedule and which are behind. You can monitor all related "Todos" and filter by project, employees or status.

Any business that has more than 1 client can use Bonfire.

Many web based project management solutions force users to adopt new, unfamiliar processes that cause users more work. Bonfire is designed as a fast, easy to use solution to enhance and improve any processes that you already have. Team productivity will skyrocket in a collaborative environment that is customized to your unique work process.

It doesn’t matter if you a have formal process in place, or you're starting for the first time, Bonfire can provide you and your team with the tools you need to complete projects on time and under budget.

Why Bonfire???


	It's easy to use, customized to your specific needs... with all the powerful functionality you would expect from a more expensive program. Other project management tools have features that rarely get used and get in the way of effective collaboration. We know the most important feature is simplicity. We've “burned” the complicated stuff that gets in the way of effective project management. Access information 24 hours a day from any internet connection. Give different levels of access to users based on their roles in the project.

There's NO software to load!

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Thank you Jacksonville Regional
Chamber of Commerce!!!

Joe Lemire - 2007 Small Business Leader of the Year On Thursday January 11th our team was recognized as the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Small Business Leader of the Year!

It was an exciting evening and we look forward to an event filled 2007.

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