If you have a business, and are thinking about tweeting, try the steps below.

1) Open an account.

Simply open an account under your business’s real name. Upload your logo to use as an icon. If your personal identity is tied into your business, use your real, full name and a headshot. Start tweeting.

2) Find people to follow.

Image: CC Chapman/Flickr

Once you’ve tweeted a few times, start finding people to follow. Follow people in your industry, competitors, friends, colleagues, and people you admire (for business purposes). You can use one of many Twitter apps to find people by topic. Twellow—the Yellow Pages for Twitter—is an example. With time, people will start following you, too.

Note: Some followers are spammers. Whenever someone unfamiliar signs up to follow you, flag them for further investigation. Are they using a real name? What do their tweets look like? Avoid them if they only tweet spam.

3) Tweet away.

As a business, your tweets will look slightly different from the life updates that most individuals share. Although life updates keep your tweets interesting, keep them business-related. For example, thank individuals for their help. Recommend people. Ask questions.

In addition, follow the tweet subjects below to maximize Twitter’s business utility:

–Link to news about your industry, sports, etc.

–Link to new deals and promos. Be sure to include the occasional Twitter-only promo. An easy way to do this is to offer free drinks to Twitter followers. Name the drink something unique that only your Twitter followers will be able to read. Then, when they come in, they can request the special drink by name—and get it free. You can also tweet contests—guess the winning team and get a free beer—or special codes that people can show on their cell phones.

–Ask your followers for feedback on their experience with your product, new ideas you have for events/ promos, etc.

–Job postings. Post short descriptions and a link to where followers can learn more.

–Live event feeds. For example, if you host a contest at the bar/restaurant, have someone tweet it live.

–Customer service. Encourage customers to tweet with questions, feedback, etc.

–PR firefighting. If something happens that could damage your reputation, post your defense on Twitter. Big companies do this all the time when faced with something potentially damaging.

–Reply to people’s tweets. Get in touch with them personally.

–Retweet. Show others whose tweets you’re interested in.

4) Monitor your reputation.

Image: DollAddiction

Periodically search for who’s talking about you using #hashtag searches. For example, search #yourbusinessname to see who is talking about you. Use other hashtag searches to follow industry news.

5) Promote yourself.

Image: BlogsDNA

Make sure people know you’re on Twitter. Promote your Twitter profile on your website, email (footer), in your store, on your business cards, ads, and other social networking sites. Make your Twitter profile visible and clickable. The easier you are to find on Twitter, the more people will find you.

Campbell, CA-based Psycho Donuts might be the only place in the country where you can buy donuts with names like Bipolar, Manic Malt, or Psycho. It also entertains customers with a padded cell and servers dressed as nurses.

It’s a neat novelty idea–or so the owners thought. However, soon after the store opened, people started protesting, claiming that the donut shop was aggrevating the sense of shame and stigma mental health patients already expreience. They gave the shop bad reviews on Yelp.com, and staged regular protests in front of the store.

Recently, Psycho Donuts co-owner Kipp Berdiansky appeared on TV to debate mental-health advocate Oscar Wright, who is the CEO of the nonprofit United Advocates for Children and Families.

Wright said that the country’s mental health crisis–1 million kids are diagnosed with mental illness annually–involves shame about coming forward and accessing services. Psycho Donuts only accentuates the stigma by playing on mental health terminology. “The message that mental illness can be a joke causes a serious problem,” Wright said in the interview (featured above). “Kids have very impressionable minds. The images and ideas that they see at an early age influence them later in life.”

Berdiansky states his point in the Psycho Donuts blog:

It’s a shame that there are a handful of folks out there who do not have a sense of humor. Follow me here – if our donuts are crazy, does that make us insensitive to the mental health community? Is El Pollo Loco insensitive to Crazy Chickens? Was Patsy Cline being hurtful when she wrote the song Crazy? Is it insensitive to call a donut bipolar? …let’s agree on one thing: donuts are not people; and the names of our donuts do not correspond to any opinion or pre-conceived notion about people.

In this day and age, all of us are a little crazy. 25% of Americans have some clinical form of mental health challenge – and our take is that the rest of us just haven’t been clinically diagnosed yet! I might add that Psycho Donuts contributes to NARSAD (www.narsad.org) – which is a mental health research organization. We might make light of the topic in our store, but we aim to be a positive contributor to positive mental health. Psycho Donuts is a testament to the human condition, and a place where we can all accept our individual faults. If people can leave our store with a smile on their face, then we’ve done our part contributing to people’s positive mental health.

Amen to that. Psycho Donuts’ ability to bring levity to the mental health epidemic reminds me of something I read recently in a book called Creating Mental Illness. In it, author Allan Horwitz claims that although the DSM-IV contains about 400 different diagnoses, the real diseases among them–psychotic disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder–make up only a small portion of the list.

Many of the other diagnoses attempt to medicalize conditions without taking cultural factors, stressful life events, or social deviance. Professionals have a tendency both to pathologize and overestimate the prevalance of mental disorders.

A medicalized, pill-popping society is the result. According to NIMH, “26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.” That’s almost 58 million people. Many are diagnosed with more than one mental disorder.

Who benefits? Pharmaceutical companies, for one. Professionals such as psychiatrists and therapists. The media. Anyone who can use the industry to their advantage.

It’s hard to say how many patients (outside of those with serious disorders) benefit from identifying their condition with a pathological cause. Perhaps names give people comfort. Perhaps experts and pills are just a modern replacement for the priests, shamans, and tribal elders of yore. As long as we search for medical names for our anxieties, fears, and obsessions, and find comfort in customized medication, the industry will continue to thrive.

Back to Oscar Wright, the mental health advocate in the debate. To me, part of his message says “stop stigmatizing these poor, victimized people who feel shamed as a result of the labels an overly pathologized system has given them!” By “protecting” people–I still don’t think the donuts are that serious–he is supporting the sense of insecurity and shame that keeps people with vague problems in the grip of the medical industry in the first place.

Instead of targeting a tongue-in-cheek donut shop, Wright should be focusing on the advertisers who try to convince people that they have problems, or the drug companies who keep coming up with new uses for their psychotropics (like the anti-kleptomania pill). This country needs innovative, community solutions to mental health “issues,” not attacks on a satirical small business.

Like Berdiansky said, if you don’t like the donut shop, don’t go there.

Key Bank has created a program to help women get critical access to capital to finance existing or fledgling businesses. Through the Key4Women program, they’ve shown a committment to helping women overcome the distinct challenges they face when it comes to accessing capital.  Data collected by the Center for Women’s Business Research indicates that, relative to their male counterparts, women business owners (WOBs) have a more difficult time raising business funds.

Maria Coyne, KeyBank EVP and Founder of Key4Women was kind enough to answer a few questions about the program and its purpose.

What was the motivation to start a special program just for women, Key4Women?  

MC: Women rely more heavily upon networking and find great strength and inspiration from engaging with and receiving advice from other women.  KeyBank had been lending concertedly to women for quite some time, but officially launched its Key4Women program in 2005, designing it to directly address WOB challenges, providing female entrepreneurs with access to capital, financial solutions, educational offerings, and networking opportunities.

Do women business owners face unique challenges in a down economy?  

MC:  We just learned from the Key4Women Confidence Index, which was done in conjunction with the Center for Women’s Business Research and surveyed women business owners around the country, that the current challenging economic climate has had a significant negative impact on their businesses.  More than half (56 percent) reported lower net earnings and 18 percent decreased employment in the first quarter of this year.  

However, 90 percent of the respondents thought the economy has at least hit bottom and will either remain the same or improve in the next six months.

Women business owners have been taking actions to bootstrap in this environment:  two-thirds of respondents said they are watching their cash flow much more carefully over the past six months, and 42 percent said they are collecting receivables more aggressively.  

The survey results were announced on May 27, 2009, and the full survey report can be accessed at www.cfwbr.org.  We’re interested in what women business owners think about the results and what their own experiences have been.  We encourage business owners to comment on the survey’s findings by posting a comment on the blog at www.mariaonmoney.com.

Are women at a disadvantage when it comes to raising larger sums of money – venture capital for example?  

MC:  Traditionally, women have received only a small fraction of venture capital funds and have historically not accessed bank financing as men do, but that is changing. In 2006, the Center for Women’s Business Research found that 70 percent of women business owners polled were satisfied in their efforts to get credit, compared with only 50 percent ten years earlier. Key is making sure women have access to capital, we have pledged to lend $3 billion to qualified women owned businesses by the 2012, which will also be important to our country’s economic recovery. This new commitment comes on top of lending more than $3 billion to women-owned businesses since 2005. 

What are some of the ‘key’ differences you perceive between men and women when it comes to financing their businesses?  

MC:  Through Key’s focus on developing trusted client relationships we know that women business owners also focus on relationships. While all business owners have the need for financial products that are right for their business, women place a higher priority on how their bank treats them. According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, more than two-thirds of women business owners choose financial products and services based on their relationship and experience with a lender.
 
Research indicates that, women owned business are still less likely than businesses with comparable revenue owned by men to use business credit or equity financing. Our message is: “It’s okay to borrow strategically,” and Key4Women is designed to make sure women business owners can get the financing they need. 

For women business owners reading this – what are your top three pieces of advice?

 1) Pay attention to all aspects of your business, seek ways to maximize efficiencies and eliminate wasted time and money. Look for ways to do more business operations online, eliminate redundancies, and be judicious about how you spend your own time.
 
2) Recession-proof your business by expanding into new markets or introducing new products that fill needs today. Seek ways to be innovative, take suggestions from employees and customers about how to improve value and contain costs.

3)  Manage the numbers:  Business owners who come to their bankers with realistic business plans, and who know how to quickly adjust the levers that drive their revenue and cash flow always have an advantage.  When making projections, talking to your banker before small concerns become big crises is always the best way to get their help.  

Thanks to Maria Coyne and KeyBank for the education. If you would like to find out more about Key4Women, check out Maria’s blog, www.mariaonmoney.com.

Thanks also to Marylee A. Gotch, Vice President, Public Affairs Manager, for arranging this interview.

Image Credit: JMRosenfeld, Flickr

A man in Ballymoney, Ireland found a whole dead mouse inside a loaf of bread in late 2007. Now, a court has fined the bakery £1,000 plus additional fines. The BBC has more:

North Antrim Magistrates Court heard how a man purchased a Hyndman’s malt loaf from a supermarket in the Ballymoney area before Christmas 2007. When he unwrapped the loaf he discovered the small lifeless mammal embedded in the base of the bread. The judge fined the company, D Hyndman and Son Ltd, Maghera, £1,000 plus costs for placing unsafe food on the market.

The defence lawyer said an “onerous inspection” is held at the bakery every six weeks and that two field biologists attend each year. There are 131 bait stations in the premises at present, he said. Staff carry out daily inspections and two full-time cleaners are employed at the bakery who both work eight hours per day. In imposing the fine, the judge said he had considered public concern but also the steps taken by the company to ensure proper hygiene.

Finding mice in bread isn’t unheard of. Baby mice appeared in British bread in 2005; a man supposedly found a mouse baked into a hot dog bun in North Carolina last December.

Advanta, formerly one of the country’s biggest credit card issuers, will be closing all of its customers’ credit cards on May 30. Yep, that’s this Saturday. Consumerist has one customer’s story:

(Advanta) told me that notices had been sent out to all cardholders, but due to “postal problems” we will not get them until the end of the month. That gives cardholders just 10 days to get new credit cards for their employees and make changes to any automatic payments which may be attached their Advanta cards. I suggested they post a notice on the website, but was told they don’t plan on doing that because they are not required by law to do so. My business isn’t carrying a balance, and this is only a small inconvenience for me, but it’s just bad business to leave their customers in the dark until the very last minute.

Unfortunately, that kind of bad business seems to be a new standard among fearful credit card companies. Wikipedia has a copy of the full notice:

Dear Customer,

Sincerely,

Chrysler LLC will close down 789 dealerships, or roughly 25% of the current number, according to a plan filed in bankruptcy court Thursday.

In ordinary circumstances, automakers’ efforts to close dealerships have been stymied by state laws that protect franchisees. Bankruptcy court judges, however, can override such laws.

Below is Chrysler’s full list of dealers to be closed (via NYT/Dealbook):

List of Chrysler Dealers to be Closed

“All of our money is backed by nothing. That’s what we have our faith in,” said Shelley Buonaiuto, a Fayetteville artist. “Money’s not real wealth. The real wealth is our resources and our community interdependence.”

And before you go making jokes about Arkansas, they’re not unique. Groups around the country are printing currency in an attempt to help small businesses withstand the recession. The currency’s value is generally base on labor. In some towns $10 in local money is worth an hour of labor. Other places trade ‘real’ cash for the local currency, often at a discount.

In the Berkshires region of Massachusetts, for example, people trade $9 of U.S. currency for $10 worth of the local currency “Berkshares” at local credit unions, essentially providing a 10-percent discount when the money is spent.

The currency also helps barterers without direct trades to exchange the widely recognized currency for future trades. I suspect the IRS might not like this. Remember, bartering income is taxable.

The concept works well in Ithaca, New York, where they’ve been using “Ithaca Hours” since 1991.

“We have significantly affected shopping habits so people are more able to rely on one another in the community than automatically going to the mall,” said Ithica’s mayor.

The success of local currency is sketchy and anecdotal at best. As someone who grew up near the Canadian border and lived in a ‘multi-currency’ economy, I get that there are incentives when the values differ, but I’m not sure anyone needs another layer of complexity in the financial realm these days.

What’s your take on local currency?

Image Credit: Christina Snyder, Flickr

The beauty of going green is that it’s usually cheap. Buying used stuff, recycling, and driving less also happen to save you a lot of money. Solar panels do not, but then again, you don’t need those for your home office.

Below are three bare-bones steps to setting up a green home office for $1,000 or less. Note that the prices listed are estimations of how much you need to spend for decent-quality goods. You can always go cheaper or free, depending on how thrifty, patient, and lucky you are:

Step 1: Buy used furniture.

Many cities have office liquidation outlets (I found this one near Denver). You can find a good used office chair for around $70, a clean used desk for $100–IKEA offers new ones for less–and a filing cabinet at the thrift store for $10.

Total cost: $180

Step 2: Buy a refurbished laptop.

You can purchase a good refurbished laptop for as little as 400. I found a Dell Latitude Core Duo for $419. Look around, and don’t be afraid to go used.

Total cost: $420

Step 3: Purchase an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax.

We’ve been touting the HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One as a good example of the kind of office machine that will save you waste and money. The HP, and devices like it, save you from either buying separate machines, or making endless trips to the copy shop. Buy used if your budget is very tight.

Total cost: $400 (or less–see below)

After completing these three steps, you’ll have the basics. You probably already own a cell phone and minor office supplies like pens and paper. Chances are, you’re already paying for an Internet connection, too.

You can build on your basic, green home office over time by adding more plants, replacing your light bulbs with energy-efficient CFLs, buying space heaters/fans, and making or buying green cleaning supplies.

Note that going green on the cheap might not be the same as going ergonomic. You might require more expensive, back-friendly chairs and raised computer monitors, which could set you back another $500 if you go used. Assess your needs in advance so that you save time, money, and effort buy buying your goods right the first time around.

Note to readers: HP has arranged a special offer for our readers to save 20% ($80) on the new HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One. Go here for the coupon code and terms and conditions. Visit here for more product information.

The folks at Inc. asked me to help reach out to business owners–hopefully, that’s you–so that they can find good applicants for their list. If you’ve been generating revenue since 2005, and have made at least $2 million in revenue in 2008, read on.

A shout out on Inc.’s list is not only excellent PR, but helps give a much-needed national voice to small- and medium-sized businesses. I support what Inc. is accomplishing, and encourage you to take a look at the awards.

Here are some excerpts from their description. Note that the deadline is May 1:

For those who make the list, the Inc. 500|5000 award is a validation of your innovative thinking and relentless hard work—not to mention an extraordinary promotional opportunity for your company. You’ll be featured in Inc. magazine and/or on Inc.com, be honored at one of the most elite gatherings of entrepreneurs in the nation, and have access to year-round networking, promotional, and educational opportunities through the Inc. network.


To be eligible for the 2009 Inc. 500|5000, your company must meet these criteria:
1. Your company must be privately held, for profit, and independent (not a subsidiary or a division of a larger company with other revenue-generating operations).
2. Your company must be based in the United States.
3. Your company must have been generating revenue by the first week of 2005 at the latest.
4. Your company’s revenue must have been at least $200,000 in 2005.
5. Your company’s revenue must have been at least $2 million in 2008.

Bonus: No points against you if your company’s revenue took a hit last year.

Apply at http://www.apply5000list.com. Or click the button below.

Like working in your pajamas, greening your home office combines the best of both worlds. You can build an energy-efficient home in a setting that allows for tax writeoffs, equipment sharing, and upgrades that serve you away from the desk, too. Here are 12 ways to create an energy-efficient, eco-friendly home office:

1. Put Your Machines to Sleep

A large copy machine takes as many as 1,400 watts of electricity to operate. Printers, fax machines, desktop computers, and monitors also suck up energy. Turning machines off when you’re not using them use saves energy. Setting your computer to automatically sleep after a short period of time—say, 2 minutes instead of 10—also helps you conserve.

2. Replace Energy Hogs

If you haven’t updated your office equipment in a number of years, you’re probably using energy hogs. They include everything from laser printers, whose quality printouts can be matched by some new inkjet printers, to traditional light bulbs, which lose 95% of their energy through heat. Look for equipment with EnergyStar ratings. Here are a couple of examples:

Energy hog: Incandescent lights.
Replace with: Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

Energy hog: Laser printer, fax machine, copy machine.
Replace with: An all-in-one printer/fax/scanner/copier designed to create high-quality prints, such as the HP Officejet Pro 8500.

Energy hog: Traditional printer paper.
Replace with: Paper that contains post-consumer recycled waste.

3. Lease or Share Equipment

Renting or sharing equipment with other professionals helps you get the best use—and bang for your buck—out of potential energy hogs like printers, copiers, and computer monitors. You don’t have to repair leased equipment yourself, which saves you money. Sharing equipment, on the other hand, lets you split energy costs with a partner.

4. Bundle

Bundling your purchases can save you money upfront as well as cut down on waste. Buying software bundles, such as the MacHeist or the Windows 7 Enterprise Bundle, will save you the time, gas, money, and waste it takes to buy software piecemeal. Moreover, bundles offer discounted upgrades, saving you money in the future, too.

Other useful bundles include Internet-cable-telephone bundles and all-in-one printers.

5. Go Paperless

Paper and packaging are still produce exorbitant amounts of landfill waste. Luckily, going paperless is easy. Electronically sign and file your important documents. Print and photocopy on both sides of the paper. Print drafts, notes, and memos on scrap paper. When you must print, purchase printer paper made of post-consumer waste, available online and at chain retailers like OfficeMax. Recycle the paper you waste.

6. Recycle

This includes recycling plastic, cans, paper, ink cartridges, batteries, used equipment, and even composting. Some items, like ink cartridges, require special disposal methods. Devise a system that makes it easy to recycle everything. Put your can/paper/plastic recycling bins in an easily accessible place. Leave the recycling bags that come with ink cartridges in an accessible place, so that you’re ready to mail in cartridges once they run out. Print out this chart on a piece of scrap paper to remind you where to dispose of batteries. Set up a composting in a ceramic compost pot indoors or in a bin outside.

7. Green Your Cleaning Supplies

Swap out traditional toxic cleaning supplies for green ones. Most supermarkets sell brands like Clorox Greenworks http://www.clorox.com/products/overview.php?prod_id=gw, Simple Green, and Seventh Generation. For quick desktop jobs, green cleaners perform about as well as traditional ones.

8. Audit Your Energy Usage

Audit your home yourself, or call your utilities company for a professional—usually free—one. Fixing and upgrading air leaks, insulation problems, old light bulbs, and old appliances will shrink energy costs.

9. Weatherize

This usually comes after an energy audit. Seal your windows during winter. Open them during summer. Consider installing energy-efficient ceiling fans instead of using your air conditioner. Upgrade your insulation. Buy EnergyStar windows for a tax credit of up to $1,500. Read here for more weatherizing tips.

10. Sign Up for Sustainable Energy Sources

Renewable energy credits, wind energy, and home solar systems are a few ways that you can use sustainable energy sources in your own home. Most major utilities companies have renewable energy programs; see your company’s website for more information. Some alternatives may be costly, but they can reduce your carbon impact by as much as 60%.

11. Maintain Your Equipment

It takes little effort to keep home equipment clean and maintained. Cleaning your computer, printer, and even your portable devices every 6 months will keep the machines running smoothly and save you the possible headache of replacing a fried hard drive. At home, minor tasks like replacing your furnace filter and cleaning the lint out of your dryer will stop machines from consuming more energy than they need.

12. Take Advantage of Natural Light

Move your home office to a space with lots of natural light. This diminishes the need for lamps. Add houseplants, which naturally clean air, to the mix, and your home office will feel like a green mini-retreat.

Note to readers: HP has arranged a special offer for our readers to save 20% ($80) on the new HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One. Go here for the coupon code and terms and conditions. Visit here for more product information.