business

How One Business Recognizes Military Appreciation Month and RED Friday

May 5, 2016 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Military Appreciation Month

The United States Military is a vital part of our countries defense and the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces sacrifice on a daily basis with their time, health and many times their lives. Military families, wives, children and parents worry about their safety at home and abroad. It is a duty often overlooked, but one business is going the extra step and making sure their military employees and customers are recognized and honored.

Jefferson Bank decided to use RED Friday on May 6th, the official Military Spouse Appreciation day, to kick off Military Appreciation Month.

I learned about this story when I received an email from the bank Vice President who wanted to purchase a very large order of buttons. Naturally I was curious, being a Marine Mom I designed this button with the hope that it would inspire people to wear it on Fridays and show their support of the military. I have had a son deployed in the USMC to Afghanistan and will most likely have another, since I have three Marines. When I found out more I just had to write about it and share.

RED Friday Button to Remember Everyone Deployed

The R.E.D. Friday buttons are a reminder to Remember Everyone Deployed and has become a national movement in the military community.

How Jefferson Bank Supports the Military

I found out that an employee, who is a military spouse, first brought RED Friday to the attention of her fellow employees. They wore RED shirts to Friday softball games and it became a tradition. The bank is located in an area with a strong military presence and several employees are either military, military spouses, veterans, or have family serving in the military.

But the bank wanted to do more, so the buttons were one step. There are many activities planned for the month, but one of the things they did was purchase RED Friday buttons for all of their employees and provide to their customers. Each Friday in May they will pay tribute to the individual employees who will tell their military story. Please, if you are in the area come into one of their branches, pick up a button and tell them thank you for their support.

Jefferson Bank, has eleven locations in the Houston area and is an independent, family owned bank going back three generations. How often do you hear of a family owned bank anymore. They sincerely care about not only their employees, but their customers, and it shows by their Facebook page.

It is nice to see a company adopting RED Friday of recognizing our soldiers, Marines, sailors and airman and I hope the trend continues throughout the year. I salute Jefferson Bank on this initiative and hope it becomes an annual tradition. I also challenge other businesses to show your support of the military, not only during Military Appreciation Month, but all year.

All it takes is a little button. Imagine if your waitress, or flight attendant on Southwest Airlines wore a simple RED Button and it started a conversation, a dialogue, and an appreciation of our military families nationwide?

Send your friends to the Jefferson Bank Facebook page and tell them thank you. Spread the news and let’s show everyone we love, honor, respect, and support our troops.

Origins of RED Friday

It is said that R.E.D Friday started in 2006 by two wives of Canadian servicemen as a way of showing solidarity to our troops deployed in Afghanistan. But many military wives have been wearing RED shirts for many years before the “movement” was announced. RED also in remembrance of the American Legion Red Poppy Campaign.

It is a small way to let military families know we are thinking of them and salute their service to our country. Although it is mainly a red shirt tradition people who have company dress codes choose to wear ribbons or buttons. If you would like to be a part of the RED Friday movement I have several shirts, buttons and items in my Zazzle Store. Let’s spread the word and get more companies on board.

Ask Me Why I Wear Red Shirt Wear Red on Friday T-shirt Red Friday Necklace Wear RED on Friday Button RED Friday Patriotic Flag T-shirt

Learn More About R.E.D. Friday

Red Shirt Fridays | Support Our Troops

Recent Articles. Red Friday · Forget Not One · Pasco County Veterans and Troop Supporters. FOX NEWS. ‘Remembering Everyone Deployed’ Fridays: Let’s …

Support our troops – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Support our troops is a slogan commonly used in the United States and Canada in reference to … Groups have advocated the wearing of red on Fridays, in an event known as Red Friday, to show their support for all members of the armed …

Soldiers’ Angels – Where Did R.E.D. Friday Come From?

Dec 23, 2014 … If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter you know that every Friday we celebrate R.E.D. Friday. You most likely see lots of images like the one …

A Story on the meaning of Red Friday

… saluting the casket as it was brought off the plane, and his action made me realize that I am proud to be an American. A Story on the meaning of Red Friday.

‘Remembering Everyone Deployed’ Fridays: Let’s wear red America …

Apr 24, 2015 … With the wearing of red attire on R.E.D. Friday, it’s a common and unified acknowledgement of our service members to let them all know that we …

Red Friday Frisco | FC Dallas

Red Friday Frisco is an FC Dallas community initiative designed to benefit the residents of Frisco. On Fridays preceding a weekend home match (14 Fridays in …

Yearly Goals and Accomplishments

January 4, 2014 by info@3QuartersToday.com

I feel it’s important to set goals in life, no matter if they are personal or business goals. During the past year I finished a private online experiment to see if making money or a residual income on the internet is feasible. Was it successful? I would say yes. Did I get rich? No, but I by the end of the year to pay for my monthly gas bill to drive to my regular full time job at Hamilton Color Lab.

It was successful enough that I have decided to take it to the next level and set a more ambitious goal for this year.

CafePress is my most successful income stream in the past year. Since both my sons are US Marines I started designing Marine Corps items in Photoshop I created to sell my Marine and military themed apparel and gifts. (click on the image below to go to my store)

My YouTube account is still generating a change (ok a few dollars, two months of gas) not as much as 2012 but then again I don’t have any new Marine Corps videos. The demographics are males between the age of 18-27, you can imagine who is watching. I also started writing for Squidoo, which is another blogging site. Squidoo shares the click through Adwords income with their successful writers and any Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Zazzle or CafePress purchases generates a commission. (You can sign up for Squidoo here)

My biggest social media accomplishment was growing my @3Quarters2Day Twitter account from about 1,800 followers in the spring to 20,000 in less than nine month. Yes, I have ~~20,000~~ 30,000 people who follow me at @3Quarters2day and it’s been a lot of work to get it there.

Many hours spent on my Twitter phone app following people, responding to tweets and being real. It has paid off though, Twitter is responsible for over 60% of my referral on my internet platforms. (Pinterest is a close second.)

I have learned a lot about Twitter, how to write tweets that get responses, how to use #hashtags successfully, and how to free up my time for responding to followers by using paid social media tools such as SocialOomph and JustUnfollow

In addition I have learned more about Photoshop, shortcuts, design, layout and multiple other tips and tricks that have helped with creating templates and military designs for CafePress.

This year I also started doing some free-lance graphic design and marketing for a few clients. One of which is for a jazz musician, Steve Raybine and 2014 holds a lot of promise on a new venture of Music Motivational posters. We are currently looking for nationwide distributorship in the music industry. Currently the designs are for sale on Fine Art America where I also have a small presence selling my photography. (I didn’t do much with my own photography this past year, however that will soon change.)

As with anything marketing and developing an audience and following takes time and although my income curve is definitely on an upward trend I spend many hours a week nurturing the various channels. In fifteen years I would like to retire, travel around the country (or world) in an RV and generate enough online income to live comfortable and enjoy life sitting on a beach chair with my laptop.

2014 Yearly Goals

(I refuse to call them resolutions)

Increase @3QuartersImages Twitter followers to 5,000
Increase @PetsNCritters Twitter followers 10,000
Create a Military Pride store on Zazzle (mirror CafePress to a point)
Write an average of one Squidoo lens (article) per week
Increase backlinks from WordPress to Squidoo
Increase Twitter feed on SocialOomph to reflect WordPress content
Move to WordPress.org and add affiliate partners (DONE)
Use the WordPress scheduler to post on a regular basis (at least twice a month)
Increase monthly revenue stream an 50% by the end of the year

Are these goals achievable? I tried to make them S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, attainable, reachable, and trackable) and although I haven’t written out how they will be achieved I know where I’m heading.

Have you created goals for your personal or business life? It helps to become accountable by either writing them down or telling them to someone. My co-worker was my accountability partner this past year and my pocket book, the empty one with dust bunnies, reminded me to stay on track.

Part of the WordPress journey will be providing updates on the goals, how the social media platforms function, and continued photography posts with more Photoshop tips and tricks. I may even learn how to video the steps and create a YouTube channel. Notice I didn’t put that on my goal. I’m staying realistic. Who knows what the year will bring!

CafePress income for the year — CafePress monthly revenue.

Above are monthly revuneu graphs of income streams from two of my internet platforms. As you can see, I’m not getting rich. The number of hours to maintain this growth I can’t even begin to count. For example just today (Saturday) I’ve been on the computer for ten hours photo editing, creating reoccuring tweets, creating new Squidoo backlinks, creating the graphic for this article, writing this blog and gathering the links.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask, I’ve received a lot of advice and it’s my turn to pay it back.

Related Articles

Jazz Hipster (http://3quarterstoday.com/2013/03/28/jazz-hipster/)
My 19 Years in Social Media
365 Photo Challenge (what started my WordPress journey)

A Business Card Makes if Official

November 20, 2012 by info@3QuartersToday.com

So if a business card makes your business official, then I guess I’ve taken the leap. I’m not changing jobs, I love working at Hamilton Color Lab, but I am filling in some of the gaps in the cash flow side while supporting and partnering with my place of employment.

Our primary business at Hamilton is professional printing for photographers and commercial graphics for trade shows and displays. When we have time we will edit images and do graphic design, but it’s not our core business. That’s where I can help in the “off hours”.

The same is true of scanning and restoration. Hamilton Color Lab specializes in museum quality scanning and large format reproductions. Often customers call and have many photos they want scanned and digitized, upwards in the hundreds. While the Eversmart scanner at work is amazing in it’s clarity and density reading it’s overkill, and expensive, for someone who just wants digital images to share or wants to print a 4×6.

I love the post production side, as anyone reading this blog can tell. So this Saturday, November 24th, I’m setting up a table at the Holiday Extravaganza Craft show in Elmwood Nebraska.

I will be offering the following services and products:

Photo Cards (area photographs, including “The Barn”)
Senior Photo printing (die-cut rounded corner wallets)
Photo Restoration
Shoebox Scanning
Professional Printing (through Hamilton Color, bring your USB, CD etc)
Collage Wall Designs
Galery Wrapped Photo Canvas
Decorative Wall Groupings
Christmas card designs
Graduation announcement
Senior Collages
How to turn your photos into art

If the initial response has been any indication of success this might just work. I have had two jobs and two people set up a meeting with me next week for a canvas layout, just by announcing this on my personal Facebook page.

Have a project in mind? Send me a message, or drop me an email.

Proof: Higher Gas Prices Cause Businesses to Close

October 27, 2012 by info@3QuartersToday.com

A popular running line in this years presidential race is gas was $1.85 four years ago and is now $4.00. Various people have challenged this statement and I thought somewhere I would find a chart of monthly gas prices. But, I have one better. A photo I took in December of 2008 when I paid $1.67 for gas.

Gas price, December of 2008 in Omaha Nebraska

I specifically remember this because the price had gone below $2.00 and I wanted to capture it for posterity. My daughter and her friend also teased me about taking the photo, which wasn’t unusual. We were heading to the theater to see the Twilight movie and they had more important things on their mind.

President Obama’s statement stating low gas prices are a sign of a recession is absurd. I can say around here high gas prices are the cause of a recession and the loss of jobs and the closing of small businesses. How can this be? Easy. When gas prices increase the family budget shifts and non essential items such as entertainment is decreased or even eliminated.

In our rural area a thriving tumbling/gymnastics gym was forced to close due to the decrease in students. For more than fifteen years the average enrollment was over 100 students. My kids tumbled when they were little, up until 4th or 5th grade, the cost was $90 a month.

It was big news when Amy decided to close. Enrollment had dropped to less than 40 students, she could no longer maintain class size nor afford to remain open. So many people remember bringing their kids, sitting on the bleachers watching their children exercise, develop physically, learn coordination, gain strength, all while having a good time. Family fuel costs per month were increasing over $100 per month and there wasn’t an extra $100 coming in to cover the costs.

How many other small business and entrepreneurs such as Platte Valley Tumbling have closed due to high gas prices? It’s a hidden number and another victim.

During the 2012 Presidential debate, when the “gas price and recession” comparison was made, prices were hovering around $3.89 in Nebraska and over $4.00 on the coasts. I did a little calculating. Based on filling up the tank once a week, driving to work it cost me the following:

$345 more per month ($3.87 vs $1.67)
$254.45 more per month ($3.29 vs $1.67)

The question I ask, am I making more per month? No. So where in my budget is this money? It’s being taken from entertainment and dining. We no longer go to the movies on a regular basis and even eating out at McDonalds was eliminated. Grocery shopping became a challenge and a common topic still remains where are the sales on meat?

Just driving six miles between the Elmwood and Murdock schools became a topic of daily conversation. We used to think nothing of making 3-4 trips a day, morning, after school, practice runs for sports. That changed quickly when the cost became $2.00/trip, parents started car pooling, waiting the hour and a half for students to finish. This change is not necessarily a bad thing we adapted and students also changed their driving habits. My sons carpooled and got rides when they could, they were broke most of the time and didn’t have gas money.

However my daughter works a part time job and has no choice, she has to drive and just the miles to school (6 miles) and work (4 miles from school) costs her $100/month. She is learning a hard lesson in reality. The value in having a part time job is enormous and you can’t take that away, but I can’t afford to pay for her gas either due to my gas costs are taking an enormous chunk out of the budget.

So tell me again how low gas prices are a result of a recession?

This subject is huge in scope, I could go on how we should be using North American fuels, using the technology to tap into the oil reserves we have capped all over this country. But then this article would never end. I just know how it’s affected my family and my friends. We talk about it all the time.

How has gas prices affected you? What effects have you seen on businesses in your area due to high gas prices?

Experts question Obama’s claim that gas prices tied to recession, recovery (conservativebyte.com)
Dismal Winter Gas Prices May Be Coming (personalliberty.com)
THE OBAMANOMICS OF GAS PRICES: This was the dumbest comment I’ve ever heard out of anybody, anywhe… (pjmedia.com)
Editorial: Case study in truthiness: Romney on gas prices (suntimes.com)

Taking the Leap, I Have a Logo

October 25, 2012 by info@3QuartersToday.com

3 Quarters Images, is now an offshoot of my photography and editing passion. I’m taking the leap and going to launch a side business as a secondary stream of income. This is in addition to being surrounded by photographs where I work at Hamilton Color Lab in Omaha.

Although I love taking photos, I enjoy the post production side even more. I will be concentrating on helping people make the most of the images they take themselves through digital darkroom techniques. This could be using Lightroom 4, Photoshop, Portrait Professional, or other various editing and enhancing tools.

Some of my services will include scanning, restoration, design services for senior announcements, collages, anniversary gifts and wall groupings. Prints, canvases and prints will, of course, be provided from Hamilton Color Lab.

The official launch of 3 Quarters Images will be at the Elmwood Nebraska craft show, Saturday November 24th at the Josoff Social Hall. I will have examples restoration work, greeting cards for sale, and will be taking submissions for projects.

My dream? To create and generate a stream of income I can continue while I am retired and traveling the United States. Oh to sit on a deck, overlooking a beach and work at something I love. Yup, that’s my dream.

Stay tuned for more and if you have an idea, or want to learn more please feel free to ask.