I jumped into blogging for business a wee bit early.

My most creative energy and writing are needed with my primary business and my clients, so this blog has suffered neglect. I will maintain a web presence, in 140 characters or less, via Twitter.

The name is still EconGrrl, and the topic still good common sense economics & business sense for everyone. Follow me, or just check in from time to time, I’d love to hear from you.

Yours,
EconGrrl

Here’s one can’t-miss event for those of you interested in food (and really, who isn’t, right?)  Houston’s own Pam Walker will be gracing Brazos Bookstore on August 23^rd from 4-6 pm for release of her new book, Growing Good Things to Eat in Texas:  Profiles of Organic Farmers and Ranchers across the State.

As if that wasn’t fun enough, there will be food, glorious food from such renowned Chefs as Randy Evans, Ryan Pera of The Grove and Randy Ruckner of Rainbow Lodge as they give demonstrations. To represent the other end of the food cycle, local farmers will be attending, including two of the eleven featured in Pam’s book. The Houston Farmers’ Market and Slow Food Houston are also participating and St. Arnold is generously providing beer and root beer. Sounds delicious!

Here’s what a few readers are saying about Growing Good Things to Eat in Texas: Profiles of Organic Farmers and Ranchers across the State :

“Pamela Walker shows that good food comes from good people who’re willing to work together to build a viable, grassroots alternative to industrialized, corporatized, globalized ‘food.’”-Jim Hightower, editor, Hightower Lowdown

“. . . an important, timely, and beautiful book. . . tells a new and hopeful story.”-Peter Brown, photographer

“Walker gives ’sustainable’ and ‘organic’ agriculture a regional and personal face. . .”-Cheryl Hazeltine, co-author, The Central Texas Gardener

Come join us at Brazos Bookstore for a must-read for everyone concerned about the quality and production of our food now and in the future!

I’ve been doing a lot more reading than writing lately, chalk it up to taking the old addage of two eyes:one mouth and applying it to ‘new media’.  One of the blogs I’m really excited about is The Happiness Project.  Gretchen Rubin spent a year experimenting with doing what all the research, old wives’ tales, and wisdom of your Aunt Bertha have to share about what makes us humans happy.

She has continued to blog about her trials, successes, and life.  Since EconGrrl is all about living your values, Ms. Rubin has a lot to share with us.  I especially like today’s post about asking for help.  Ask!  It gives your community a sure fire way to demonstrate connection and love with you.  Community connections coupled with a strong sense of self is a key to EconGrrl’s happiness.

So, check out the Happiness Project, and leave your comments here as to what are the keys to your happiness.

Ciao!

Sometimes a concept takes a long time to percolate into it’s ‘home base’ in your brain.

My partner and I have been working with a tighter than usual budget lately and rooting out the cause was becoming a near obsession for me.  We are settling into a new routine, trying to keep ‘good enough’ records without following a “Your Money or Your Life” level of detail.  I get stressed, because I am the detail partner.

Through several of these discussions, he has, less than helpfully, stated that when we move he is going to look for a lower rent.  Finally today, I was eating lunch, when it struck me that just $250 more per month really would grease the gears of our spending plan.  We are meeting our needs; it is just taking more attention than I would like.

Well, we have been in our current house for five months now.  Our current fixed costs (house related) are $400 higher than our last house.  OF COURSE my partner wants to change that when our lease is up.  I just couldn’t see the connection, because the spending plan change didn’t ache until these past two months.

I derive two life.hacks from this situation: PATIENCE with my process and my husband’s different process and two REMEMBER TO ENJOY my newer, brighter, bigger space.  I chose to spend a significantly bigger portion of my monthly money on our physical space.  I just have to remember that when I am turning down invitations out at the end of the month.

Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used by Peter Block

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I had a newer copy and found it invaluable to my practice. I lent it out two years ago and have only just replaced it with this score from Amazon’s marketplace. I am looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with this book!


View all my reviews.

My partner is rereading the classic Desert Solitaire. I was surprised to find among Abbey’s commentaries insights that speak to our current economy. I suppose that is what makes it a classic, but still:

“An economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.”

The economic situation of the US is such a huge mess; it cries out for commentary, but there are so many issues, I don’t know where to start. This line from Abbey speaks to one of the fundamental flaws of our current operating system.

Hello EconGrrls & EconGents!

I have hesitated to write about the economy.  All my economics and sustainability mindset have screamed for a ‘market correction’, but they are just painful.  I was waiting to have solutions, or at least hopeful bits, to share before wading into the conversation on what we have going on in the US economy-wise.

Thank you Green America (formerly Co-op America) for giving us a starting place with topic:

Solutions from the Green Economy
January 15, 2008

Everyone now understands that the economy is broken.

While many name the mortgage and credit-default-swap crises as culprits, they are only the most recent indicators of an economy with fatal design flaws. Our economy has long been based on what economist Herman Daly calls “uneconomic growth” where increases in the GDP come at an expense in resources and well-being that is worth more than the goods and services provided.  When GNP growth exacerbates social and environmental problems—from sweatshop labor to manufacturing toxic chemicals—every dollar of GNP growth reduces well-being for people and the planet, and we’re all worse off.

Our fatally flawed economy creates economic injustice, poverty, and environmental crises. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can create a green economy: one that serves people and the planet and offers antidotes to the current breakdown.
Here are six green-economy solutions to today’s economic mess.

1. Green Energy—Green Jobs
A crucial starting place to rejuvenate our economy is to focus on energy. It’s time to call in the superheroes of the green energy revolution—energy efficiency, solar and wind power, and plug-in hybrids—and put their synergies to work with rapid, large-scale deployment. This is a powerful way to jumpstart the economy, spur job creation (with jobs that can’t be outsourced), declare energy independence, and claim victory over the climate crisis.

2. Clean Energy Victory Bonds
How are we going to pay for this green energy revolution? We at Green America propose Clean Energy Victory Bonds. Modeled after victory bonds in World War II, Americans would buy these bonds from the federal government to invest in large-scale deployment of green energy projects, with particular emphasis in low-income communities hardest hit by the broken economy. These would be long-term bonds, paying an annual interest rate, based in part on the energy and energy savings that the bonds generate. During WWII, 85 million Americans bought over $185 billion in bonds—that would be almost $2 trillion in today’s dollars.

3. Reduce, Reuse, Rethink
Living lightly on the Earth, saving resources and money, and sharing (jobs, property, ideas, and opportunities) are crucial principles for restructuring our economy. This economic breakdown is, in part, due to living beyond our means—as a nation and as individuals. With the enormous national and consumer debt weighing us down, we won’t be able to spend our way out of this economic problem. Ultimately, we need an economy that’s not dependent on unsustainable growth and consumerism. So it’s time to rethink our over-consumptive lifestyles, and turn to the principles of elegant simplicity, such as planting gardens, conserving energy, and working cooperatively with our neighbors to share resources and build resilient communities.

4. Go Green and Local
When we do buy, it is essential that those purchases benefit the green and local economy—so that every dollar helps solve social and environmental problems, not create them. Our spending choices matter. We can support our local communities by moving dollars away from conventional agribusiness and big-box stores and toward supporting local workers, businesses, and organic farmers.

5. Community Investing
All over the country, community investing banks, credit unions, and loan funds that serve hard-hit communities are strong, while the biggest banks required bailouts. The basic principles of community investing keep such institutions strong: Lenders and borrowers know each other. Lenders invest in the success of their borrowers—with training and technical assistance along with loans. And the people who provide the capital to the lenders expect reasonable, not speculative, returns. If all banks followed these principles, the economy wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in today.

6. Shareowner Activism
When you own stock, you have the right and responsibility to advise management to clean up its act. Had GM listened to shareholders warning that relying on SUVs would be its downfall, it would have invested in greener technologies, and would not have needed a bailout. Had CitiGroup listened to its shareowners, it would have avoided the faulty mortgage practices that brought it to its knees. Engaged shareholders are key to reforming conventional companies for the transition to this new economy – the green economy that we are building together.

It’s time to move from greed to green.

–Alisa Gravitz

Usually I don’t directly promote my business on this blog, but I do promote taking care of your details so you can get to the good stuff in your day, so here is the letter I sent to my clients today:

Greetings friends & clients!

How’s business?  Have you gotten your tax information together yet for 2008?

If you paid any contract labor, helpers, or business coaches at least $600 in 2008, or lawyers any money at all, you have a deadline next Friday!  You need to send out 1099s to all people who worked for you so they have the tools to get their taxes together in a timely way.

The IRS lets you wait another month to send them their copy, but you may be fined if they find out that you missed the Jan 31^st deadline for notifying your helpers.  If you have already taken care of your 1099s, give yourself a pat on the back!  If not there is still time.

In fact, I have just installed a software package to make it simple and quick to print out official and professional 1099s and W-2s.  I needed to get this to serve another client, but I am happy to take an hour or so to help your business as well.  Call or email me to schedule a convenient time to get this detail taken care of.

The first three entrepreneurs to take me up on this offer get a 50% discount (one business per person for the discount, you know who you are) for the 1099 service.

I hope you are having a beautiful and prosperous day, doing work you love!

The Project for Public Spaces is an amazing organization in the field helping local communities rebuild, or initiate the creation of commons spaces.  Often this includes crafts and farmers markets.   I have excerpted their article on buying local.  If you like what you read, or you want more information on how we got into our current situation, follow the link below to the full article.

–> How Public Markets can Rebuild Local Economies
Reviving local food traditions and economies does not mean junking the existing food system, but embracing new goals beyond just cheap prices and a steady supply. This is plain common sense in a time when economic uncertainty and fluctuating energy costs could mean a sudden drop in food shipped from afar or a huge jump in prices.

Changes in food distribution are already underway and this is evident in the exponential increase of farmers markets, the rebirth of public markets in many places, and the rapid emergence of the local food movement. Consumers increasingly want to know where their food comes from for reasons of nutrition and taste. They also see the benefits of investing in the local economy, rather than distant suppliers. And there’s growing awareness that the lack of fresh, healthy food in low-income communities heightens many of the problems associated with poverty.

Local economic revival goes farther than food. Through the Project for Public Spaces…