6 Steps to Business Growth through Community Connections

Community involvement is crucial for small business owners to network and meet new clients. Before you even start your business, your community connections are a valuable resource for discovering which goods or services your community is lacking.

I was able to break into the shade structure industry 11 years ago from a background in political consulting because I realized that businesses offering high-end, aesthetically pleasing shade structures were practically nonexistent in my community despite a high demand. From personal experience and my interactions with neighbors, clients and community members, I knew that sun safety was a pertinent issue in Miami but noticed that many public areas and outdoor businesses were not adequately shaded.

My business, ShadeFLA, was founded with the goal of filling my community’s need. Below, I offer some tips on how understanding your community can help you grow your business.
1)Know your community. Every community is different depending on location, climate, and demographics. Involvement in neighborhood or homeowner organizations, school PTA groups, local business councils and other groups allows you to meet people and find out what they are looking to improve in their neighborhoods or their own lives.

2)Know your community’s needs. As you get to know your community, you will discover its unique needs and perhaps notice where they are not being met. In the early 2000s, I found that although many tourists and residents were attracted to Miami for its sunny weather, unbearable heat and sudden storms often put a damper on outdoor living. Playgrounds, outdoor restaurants, pool decks, and schools needed shade and rain protection. In a community where tourism is a cornerstone of the local economy, the lack of shade struck me as a lost opportunity. Connections with with local business owners, parents, and community leaders gave me insight into what my community was lacking.

 3)Offer a high quality product or service. Identifying an unmet need in your community gives you a powerful competitive edge in the market. You want to offer such a high quality product that no one will be tempted to start a competing business that can “do it better.” Further, you want your clients to be so excited about your product or service that they eagerly recommend you their friends and associates. I sourced my first products from Australia, which is in industry leader in tension shade sails. By distributing a product that already had a proven track record of quality, I was able to impress clients from the very beginning.

4)Stay exclusive. Once others see how successful your business idea is, they may try to emulate you and steal away business. One way you can avoid this is by becoming the exclusive regional dealer of a particular product. My company is the exclusive U.S. retailer of the Sun Square retractable sail, in addition to selling other shade products. Offering an exclusive product has allowed my company to stand out from the competition for over a decade.

5)Follow trends. Perhaps you are already meeting your community’s needs, have the exclusive rights to a product or service, and your sales are increasing rapidly - great! But communities change, and so do their needs or the way that they seek to fill those needs. I am constantly on the lookout for new products and services that I think would appeal to my current and potential clients. In 2011, I began offering a retractable roof system with both sun and rain protection, a particularly good fit for hotels and restaurants that need to cover a large outdoor space. As this product becomes more and more popular, I have been able to continue to expand my business.

6)Use referrals and community connections to reach new clients. This is common sense to any small business owner, but it bears repeating! Every social or community gathering is an opportunity to network and share what your business is doing.

From startup to expansion, community involvement will allow you to get the information and make the connections you need to grow your small business.

Former CIA Chief Smacks Down Donald Trump In Clinton Endorsement

Michael Morell says Trump’s a self-aggrandizing agent of Vladimir Putin who’s guilty of “routine carelessness with the facts"


Michael Morell says he found Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “prepared, detail-oriented, thoughtful and inquisitive” when she was secretary of state.
 
Michael Morell ripped Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for his lack of experience and relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a New York Times op-ed Friday.
Morell held leadership roles at the CIA for over three years, serving as the agency’s acting director on two occasions during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. He lauded Clinton in the opinion piece for being “prepared, detail-oriented, thoughtful, inquisitive and willing to change her mind if presented with a compelling argument” during their shared time in the Situation Room.
Trump, on the other hand, exudes traits that “suggest he would be a poor, even dangerous, commander in chief,” Morell wrote.

These traits include his obvious need for self-aggrandizement, his overreaction to perceived slights, his tendency to make decisions based on intuition, his refusal to change his views based on new information, his routine carelessness with the facts, his unwillingness to listen to others and his lack of respect for the rule of law.
The dangers that flow from Mr. Trump’s character are not just risks that would emerge if he became president. It is already damaging our national security.

 Putin preyed on Trump’s “vulnerabilities,” currying the businessman’s favor simply by complimenting him, Morell said. Trump’s adoration of Putin, a leader with a reckless and dangerous track record, makes him “an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation,” Morell added. He also hit Trump for his proposed ban on Muslims, saying it directly contradicts American values and undermines security.
“My training as an intelligence officer taught me to call it as I see it. This is what I did for the C.I.A. This is what I am doing now,” Morell said in the op-ed. “Our nation will be much safer with Hillary Clinton as president.”
Morell said that he isn’t a registered Democrat or Republican and that this is the first time he has come out in favor of a candidate.
“Between now and [Election Day], I will do everything I can to ensure that she is elected as our 45th president,” he wrote.
Read the op-ed here.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.

Kim Kardashian Hasn’t Had The Best Luck With Pets

Kim Kardashian and dog Dolce pose with sister Kendall Jenner and dog Bella during a photo shoot on Jul. 7, 2009, in Los Angeles, CA.
 
Despite once landing the cover of K9 magazine with a frightened-looking chihuahua, Kimberly Noel Kardashian isn’t really an animal person.
The 35-year-old reality star opened up about her furry feelings (or lack thereof) in a post on her app called “Our Family Pets.”
“My fam has had SO many pets over the years, from dogs to rabbits and even a peacock named Peter Pan, LOL,” Kardashian wrote. “The funniest thing is, I’m not the biggest animal person; sure, I love cute fluffy kittens but I don’t die to constantly have a pet.”


K9
Will someone please rescue that dog? 
 On her app, Kim brings up one of her pets that did die ― a little chihuahua named Dolce, who was “tragically killed by a coyote in the neighborhood.”
Fans might remember another of Kim’s pets ― a kitten named Mercy, gifted to her from Kanye ― who died of a cancer-like virus at just four months old.


KKW
Pets old and new. 
Instead of dwelling on death, Kardashian also reminisced about a few of her family’s pets, including Khloe’s former peacock, Peter Pan.
“I didn’t even know you could have a peacock for a pet, LOL!” Kim wrote. “He still lives at her old house with its new owners.”
We’re not quite sure how Kim handled hanging out with Peter the peacock, but as we can predict based on past experiences with exotic animals ― probably not well.




These days, Kim says she doesn’t have any pets other than a few fish. But if it’s up to North, the family is going to get a dog really soon. We can’t wait to see which Kanye song they name the pup.

Pope Francis Refuses To Associate Islam With Violence

According to German, Nazi-era thinker Carl Schmitt, the function of the Catholic church and the papacy is to slow down the arrival of the Antichrist and the end of days. On his visit to Poland from July 27 to 31, Pope Francis made it clear that he is trying to keep a third World War from emerging — in the shape of a war between religions. Among his remarks, he said that the characterization of Islam as violent is misguided. 

Despite repeated attempts to get the pope to create an armed church — by those who do not dare to demand a response to the terrorist phenomenon from politicians — Francis is not alone in rejecting the military-theology option.

Paradoxically, the few churchmen and the even fewer columnists who attempt to blackmail the church with the idea of an armed papacy are the same ones who chastise Francis for not following in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II.

But it’s clear that Francis’s refusal to enter the church and the gospel in a “clash of civilizations 2.0” follows in the path set by John Paul II. (The current cultural and religious war is considerably different from the clash of civilizations predicted roughly 20 years ago by the Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington.
 It’s also clear that he’s carrying out the church’s commitment to peace. It was almost a century ago, on August 1, 1917, when Pope Benedict XV described war as “useless massacre.”



“Anyone who asks Pope Francis to issue a theological sanction on Islam, in the form of a declaration of a war of religions, is making a desperate attempt to simplify the landscape we’re all facing.



Francis is a profoundly anti-ideological pope who has learned a great deal from the clash between the church and political ideologies. He has experienced the full complexity and paradoxes inherent to life as a Catholic in a democratic, pluralistic society.

In 1989, John Paul II was celebrated as the undisputed victor of the battle between ideologies; for Jorge Mario Bergoglio, it was far more difficult to extricate himself from the historical and theological conflict between church and state in Argentina.

The battle is even harder for Francis as the bishop of Rome. He faces neo-liberal secularists who are enamored by the idea of a war between religions, narcissists who see in the assassins of Rouen what they believe to be the true version of Islam, and whom they want the church to fight in their stead.

But the pope is also dealing with those who are expecting him to condemn Islam at large. They expect him to make a theological judgment on the basis of such crazy factions who do not comply with any of the doctrinal, spiritual, social or political expressions of global Islam.

There are currently many issues and questions surrounding the geopolitical and cultural stance of Catholicism, including: The return of nationalism and the risks facing democracy in the West; the issue of the domination of a technocratic paradigm that brings about social inequality, the biopolitical question (which certainly hasn’t disappeared from the horizon — just ask any Western countries in which euthanasia has become an increasingly common practice); and the issue of global terrorism, which has marked our lives over the past 15,  and for which no short term solutions can be seen.



“With his words, Francis keeps the church, and the entire Western world, safe from the abyss that would open up in the event of a theological retaliation on global Islam.



Overall, redefinition of ideological and religious alignments can be seen clearly in the United States, where the white nationalism of Donald Trump’s Republican party has momentarily overshadowed — but has not entirely eliminated — the pro-life and pro-choice issues surrounding abortion, marking a major shift compared to the last 40 years of U.S. politics.

Anyone who asks Pope Francis to issue a theological sanction on Islam, in the form of a declaration of a war of religions, is making a desperate attempt to simplify the landscape we’re all facing. They are under the mistaken impression that the issue is purely theological, or better yet, heresy-ological. It is as if a theological condemnation of Islam would be enough to resolve the massive, complex puzzle of issues that the whole world is grappling with today.

The genius of Catholicism, and the Roman papacy in particular, is the ability to scrutinize the “signs of the time,” to avoid the temptation to take shortcuts. The papal magisterium witnessed this with the 1963 Pacem in Terris encyclical, the spiritual testament of John XXIII, and with the inter-religious encounters in Assisi organized by John Paul II (as a way to combat skepticism and opposition coming in from almost all sides) in 1986, 15 years before the events of September 11, 2001.

On his way back from Poland, Pope Francis said that it is wrong to equate violence and terrorism with Islam. With his words, Francis keeps the church, and the entire Western world, safe from the abyss that would open up in the event of a theological retaliation on global Islam — which remains to be the primary victim of terrorism worldwide.

This post first appeared on HuffPost Italy. It has been translated into English and edited for clarity.

Donald Trump Just Had Another Very Bad Polling Day

Two new surveys show him with less than 40 percent of the vote against Hillary Clinton.


One poll released Thursday shows Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with a 15-point lead over Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Fresh off of a post-convention bounce, Hillary Clinton is continuing to grow her lead over Donald Trump, according to new national polling released Thursday evening.
Clinton leads Trump by 9 points, 47 percent to 38 percent, in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey. While both candidates remain unpopular, the survey finds, Clinton’s image has improved “modestly.” A majority of voters say they have more trust in her to handle a crisis and to deal with foreign policy.
A McClatchy-Marist poll gives Clinton an even wider 15-point lead against Trump, 48 percent to 33 percent. The survey finds Trump ceding ground among traditionally GOP demographics, losing men to Clinton by 8 points and holding just a 2-point edge among white voters.
Among other groups, he fares far more poorly. The NBC/WSJ and McClatchy-Marist surveys give Trump just 1 percent and 2 percent of the vote, respectively, among African-American voters.
“This is coming off the Democratic convention, where a bounce [for Clinton] is expected,” Marist polling director Lee Miringoff told McClatchy about Trump’s prospects. “What you don’t want is to have the worst week of your campaign.”
At the state level, new polling in traditional battlegrounds also showed Clinton with a significant edge over Trump. New surveys released Thursday gave her a 15-point lead in New Hampshire, a 9-point lead in Michigan, an 11-point lead in Pennsylvania and a 6-point lead in Florida.
The results suggest that Trump’s problems have worsened since the end of the parties’ back-to-back conventions, thanks to a brutal news cycle dominated by party infighting and Trump’s ongoing feud with the family of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq.
HuffPost Pollster’s model, which aggregates publicly available polling, gives Clinton a lead of 7.5 percentage points over Trump nationally. The model also includes several recent polls with less overwhelming leads for Clinton, including online Ipsos/Reuters and UPI/CVoter tracking polls, which show her up by 4 and 6 points respectively.
In a three-way race with Gary Johnson, Clinton leads Trump 44 percent to 36 percent, according to the HuffPost Pollster model, with Johnson taking 8 percent. The surveys suggest that third-party candidates such as Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are drawing support from both major-party candidates.
Those national margins are substantially wider than
Barack Obama’s lead over Mitt Romney during any point in 2012, and, if they hold, would denote a historic win for Clinton.
But with months to go, there’s still ample time for the possibility of a narrower race, especially if Trump can manage to win over some of the Republican voters not yet in his camp.
“Do I think Trump is a damaged candidate running a terrible campaign? Absolutely. Do I think that he has zero chance to win and has effectively lost the race in August? No,” Amy Walter wrote Wednesday in the Cook Political Report. “[S]he has more options to get to 270 than he does. She is clearly the favorite. But, this race is not over.”
The NBC/WSJ poll surveyed 800 registered voters between July 31 and Aug. 3, while the McClatchy-Marist poll surveyed 983 registered voters between Aug. 1-3. Both used live interviewers to reach landlines and cell phones.

Obama Can't Believe Trump Thinks The Election Will Be "Rigged"

"Of course the election will not be rigged! What does that mean?!”

WASHINGTON ― President Barack Obama on Thursday appeared half amused and half stunned by Donald Trump’s latest conspiracy theory, that the election will be “rigged” against him, failing to hide his disbelief when asked about the GOP presidential nominee’s claim at a news conference.
“I don’t even really know where to start on answering this question,” he said. “Of course the election will not be rigged! What does that mean?!”





Obama explained that states and municipalities control the voting process, and even though several GOP-led states have passed laws restricting voter rights, to suggest the entire election is “rigged” is “ridiculous.”

 “If Mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a conspiracy theory that is being propagated across the country, including in places like Texas, where typically it’s not Democrats who are in charge of voting booths, that’s ridiculous,” he said. “That doesn’t make any sense, and I don’t think anybody would take that seriously.”
He emphasized that instead, it is “our responsibility to monitor and preserve the integrity of the voting process,” citing problems with voting machines and efforts to disenfranchise minority voters, issues that have plagued elections in the past.
“If we see signs that a voting machine or a system is vulnerable to hacking, then we inform those local authorities who are running the elections that they need to be careful,” he said. “If we see jurisdictions that are violating federal laws, in terms of equal access and aren’t providing ramps for disabled voters, or are discriminating in some fashion or are otherwise violating civil rights laws, then the Justice Department will come in and take care of that.”
“But this will be an election like every other election,” he continued.
Obama also had some simple advice for Trump: stop complaining and try to run his campaign.
“I’ve never heard of somebody complaining about being cheated before the game was over, or before the score is even tallied,” Obama said. “So my suggestion would be, you know, go out there and try to win the election. If Mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on Election Day and ends up losing, then maybe he can raise some questions. That doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering

New Order add orchestra for their Vivid Live performance after returning to their dance sound

IT is surely no coincidence that New Order’s first new studio recordings in a decade returned to the classic synth dance music which defined their 1980s heyday.

Last year’s Music Complete also marked the return of keyboardist Gillian Gilbert to the studio after she rejoined their ranks to tour in 2011.

Before that record, and in her absence, New Order had sounded far more guitar-driven.

“Oh god, yes, it was all me,” she says, laughing heartily.

“I think it’s just a happy coincidence but yes, I would rather do electronic music.”

The album sessions — and rehearsals for their upcoming concerts for the Vivid Live winter festival in Sydney — took place in the “barn” at the home Gilbert and her husband, New Order drummer Stephen Morris have shared for more than two decades.

Their farm just outside of Macclesfield has been a retreat from the road, a creative space and home to the family which includes daughters Tilly and Grace.

Gilbert left the band 15 years ago as they began recording the 2001 album Get Ready. She knew they would follow its release with a tour and the thought of dragging toddlers around the world horrified her.

New Order are back and here in Sydney for Vivid Live this year.Source:Supplied

Grace was also diagnosed with a neurological disorder Transverse Myelitis, a frightening, rare disease which can paralyse its victims.

“I will never doubt my reason for leaving the band when I did. I think I was very lucky in a way that I was getting paid (via royalties) and having time off,” she says.

“I knew during the recording of Get Ready that we were going to tour and part of me didn’t want to do that even though I loved being in New Order. I didn’t want to leave my kids at home with a nanny and I remember Hooky (former bassist Peter Hook) saying ‘Never mind love, you can get a tutor on tour’.

“Kids love being at home; I remember taking them to video shoots when they were two or three and they screamed the place down.”

Navigating a marriage as musicians became “slightly better” when New Order enjoyed a hiatus, first in the 1990s and then another one in the mid 2000s.

She said the current line-up of New Order, which features founding member and frontman Bernard Sumner, Phil Cunningham who took over from her in 2001 and Tom Chapman who replaced Hook after his acrimonious departure, is a happier entity.

New Order have returned to their dance sound. Picture: Nick WilsonSource:Supplied

“I think with this new line-up, in a way I am treated as a separate person from Stephen because I had the break. And now I know what I want and it’s easier to talk about it,” she says.

Gilbert was a founding member of New Order, invited to join Sumner, Hook and Morris when their band Joy Division dissolved in the wake of the suicide of its frontman Ian Curtis.

Yet there were some in the famed Factory Records and nightclub scene in Manchester who would dismiss her contributions or opinions.

“It sounds bad now but a lot of men didn’t take much notice of the women. What would they know?” she says.

“The men could have the band and children because they had a wife at home to take care of all of that.

“I was trying to make everybody happy and you can’t.

“It’s much better now, we talk about everything and everything is very jolly. We have even had a hug or two after a gig! We’ve gelled as a little group and people have accepted it even though we had no idea how they would without Hooky.”

Early days ... New Order out of Joy Division. Picture: Supplied.Source:Supplied

Going solo ... Original bassist Peter Hook left the band almost a decade ago. Picture: Supplied.Source:Supplied

Gilbert and her bandmates are also energised by the prospect of New Order performing with an orchestra for the first time in their career.

As well as playing two shows on their own for Vivid, they will also join with the Australian Chamber Orchestra for another two Concert Hall productions.

“I think we are only going to have three hours rehearsal with the strings when we get there,” Gilbert says.

“I’m not classically trained at all, I just play as I can really. I don’t think I have even been to a classical concert but I cannot wait to hear us do one.”

How long this latest New Order reunion lasts is still up in the air.

Gilbert says she is “right up until Christmas” and then she will see.

If the music sirens don’t keep calling her, she will indulge her love of dog training.

“I have got a little dog I do obedience and agility training with and I would love a house full of dogs if I wasn’t in the band. I would be a dog woman.”

• New Order play the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. June 1, 2, 4 & 5.

Bon Iver slays Opera House

• MAY 28, 201612:24AM

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver during a 2012 performance at the Sydney Opera House. Picture: Getty

• Kathy McCabe
• News Corp Australia Network

AS BRILLIANT colours and patterns swept across the Sydney Opera House sails to signal the opening of Vivid Sydney 2016, Bon Iver painted the Concert Hall inside with a rich palette of voice and instruments.

The first of four much anticipated bespoke performances by the revered American sonic architect Justin Vernon and his band drew an audience of true believers and the curious for his sold out Cercle show.

Bon Iver plays at the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Constructed in the round, the concert included the choir seats at the back of the hall which are often obscured by production for the rock performances granted entrance to one of the world’s most iconic venues.

Bon Iver’s frontman and creative force Vernon opened solo with Woods under a solid spotlight, looping layers of his distinctive voice to build the song into a cacophonous choir.

The band and his guest English female trio The Staves formed a circle around Vernon for most of the concert, caught in a beautiful cage of lights, often cast as spaceship tractor beams, and a fringe which hung like fine jellyfish tentacles from the ceiling.

Bon Iver plays at the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

The band configuration ebbed and flowed around the frontman as Vernon reinvented the familiar and added songs he said they had never played before from across his acclaimed albums including the breakthrough debut For Emma, Forever Ago, hisBlood Bank EP and self-titled second record.

Often the instrumentation was almost incidental in creating the mood of the night when Vernon held you enthralled with the purity of his voice and its viscerally emotional range.

One of the highlights of the night was surely the first indie Billy versus Elton moment when Vernon and his “piano partner in crime” Sean Carey played and sang opposite each other for I Can’t Make You Love Me. It was compelling as a male duet.

Justin Vernon and his “piano partner in crime” Sean Carey. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Vernon chooses his gigs now and was excited about the opportunity to fashion a concert for Vivid in a city and country he loves to visit.

Songs have been inspired here, including Beach Baby which he introduced with “there’s no shark attacks in this one.”

He was a generous host, thanking the crowd lucky enough to procure the sought-after tickets and declaring “you guys have the best white wine in the world” before playing Michicant.

Those songs which have struck a resounding chord with fans across the world were given their due to loud appreciation from the crowd, includingRoslyn, WA, Blood Bank, Holocene and Skinny Love.

Bon Iver slays the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

While Bon Iver slew the Concert Hall, Vivid Live opened with another Vheadliner Anonhi, the transgender artist who formerly fronted Antony and the Johnsons, next door in the Joan Sutherland Theatre and the Goodgod Super Club, a pop-up nightclub housed in the building Studio basement space.

The music and the lights dazzling Sydney for another winter’s festival.

Bon Iver presents Cercle at the Concert Hall again on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.