US Finance World

Courtesy of True Body Products Janice Shade: “I want my business to grow.”

True Body Products of Richmond, Vt., makes all-natural, affordable, and — for now — unscented soaps. True Body president Janice Shade co-founded the company in 2007 and is its sole employee. The soaps, which are sold at Whole Foods’ 45 stores in the North Atlantic and Northeast regions, Fred Meyer in the Northwest, household product marketplace alice.com, and at independent cooperatives and natural food stores, are made under contract with a Vermont manufacturer. True Body began shipping in September, 2008, and had 2009 sales of about $45,000.

The Challenge: Should True Body, which has built a reputation as a seller of unscented soaps, add a line of scented products?

The Background: Last summer, True Body’s Whole Foods buyer started pushing for a scented product. She said it

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Considering how difficult and hard it is to be in debt right now, the last thing that you want to do is get out of debts and end up right back in it again. Therefore, individuals go to various commercial institutions for Debt Consolidation Advice that may help them pay off their current debts through debt consolidation method, but also give them the advices they need to stay out of the debt trouble. For, the lending authority has come up with the solution of debt consolidation advice UK to those individuals having in head to ear in debts.

Valued collateral such as real estate, vehicles or any other property should be available to put up against a loan. The more valued the collateral, the lower the interest rates that are available. It is best to shop around for the best interest rates and terms for a loan and ask for several quotes. According to conventional debt consolidation advice UK, it is difficult to qualify for a loan with poor credit because lenders do not want to take on a credit risk.

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Photo Credit DjCodin from www.freedigitalphotos.net

I mentioned last week that I’m going to try to advance my debt progress faster by dividing my last remaining snowball of $10,000 into two smaller debts of $5,000. I confessed that yes, I know it’s a silly mind game, and that I, in my rational adult self know that I cannot borrow my way out of debt.

But….

Somewhere deep inside I’m still an emotional child and I just really, really need to see some reward (progress towards paying off my debt) for the hard work and sacrifice. (“Now!” she shouts while turning red and stomping her foot).

So I did it.

I divided my seemingly gigantic $10,000 last debt into two debts of $5,000 each. I also employed the “make it easy” mind trick and added online payments to these accounts. And wouldn’t yo

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WinWeb’s Pitch of the Week winner this week is Kat Waring, the owner of Lily Waring Intimates. Kat started her own business in 2007, after many years of dreaming about running her own company. Lily Waring Intimates is an online store selling lingerie, with free UK deilvery

Read more about Kat’s small business story here, and if you would like to enter WinWeb’s Pitch of the Week competition visit our Facebook page for more information – you could win superb free publicity for your small business!

I’m not sure why I’m telling this story, but here goes: When we moved into our new shop in 2002, we quadrupled our square footage. So I knew overhead expenses would be going up considerably. Some of that increase was easy to predict, like more rent. Some was not so easy, like how much our electric bill would rise. Before the move, my bill was about $2,000 a month (we have some big machines). Afterward it ended up being about $6,000 a month. That didn’t surprise me much — quadruple space, quadruple lights, quadruple heat, more guys, more machines, etc., etc.

One of the new machines we added when we moved was a very fancy German air compressor. If you don’t know much about woodworking machines, it may come as a surprise that many of them have both electric motors and compressed air power functions. Usually the electric motor drives the cutting or sanding part of the tool, and the compressed air operates pressure cylinders that keep various parts aligned or move some bits in and out of position. Our compl

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