Selling An Ebook?

You asked: What you haven't mentioned is how you are going to let people know  that the book is available for sale.

My answer is, don't really know. My thinking was a web site and e-bay.  I thought ebay would send them to my web site.  I don't have a web site I would need to build one.  Also my thinking was if I built a web site that I'd advertise my web site address on my truck as I drive 110 miles a day round trip too and from work and I am on 2 (two) major freeways in the Dallas TX area.

Do you write and sale ebooks?

Also my computer is an 80's model, can't write to a CD.

I do sell an Ebook about how to add music to your website.  I also do tarot readings by email so in a way that is an Ebook too. 

You don't need a CD-RW to sell an ebook.

Depending on what your ebook is about you first should define your target market which is who is mostly likely to buy your ebook?  Then you market/go to where they are.  You can do this offline as well as online but online you will reach more potential customers.

Grants for Daycare - Don't let anyone tell you that there are none available!

A church in Chicago that provides daycare received  a total of $99,000.00 in grant monies!  Part of that came from foundations and a private bequest.  In past years this same church has received grant money for equipment, remodeling and to help with start-up costs!

The daycare service was started because of the need to help students finish their high school education.  Both the church and the schools saw a need for this.  The church has since added more services and programs to their schedule thus providing them with more grant funding resources.

In one area, the need was so great for child care that the municipality accepted subcontractors who were relatives, residents and those who provided daycare in their home.  So what this means to someone looking for funding for their daycare facility - whether it be in their home or not should really look into their own local community. As noted above there was a very big need to provide childcare services and in order to help fill this need the community subcontracted with those that provide (or are willing to provide) daycare services.

Grants and Farms...

A lot has been discussed on this blog about grants and starting a business.  But what about the businesses that have already been running for a while?  They are also eligible for some government grants as well.

The problem is that a lot of people seem to think that grants are only available to non-profits.  While there are more grant programs for non-profits, there are still grant programs available for businesses that are for-profit.    Some for-profit businesses have managed to tap that fine line of qualifying for a grant.

A grant of more than $500,000 was given to two farms in the NY area.  The purpose of the grant was to help the farms move to a more economical way of using electricity by using cow manure (that's right I said cow manure) as an electricity source.

Can a Pharmacist Work at Home?

Of course the answer is "Yes".  The real question comes to be "What kind of work can a pharmacist do at home?"  Of course a lot will depend on how much experience the pharmacist has.

A pharmacist could work at home as a consultant - having a website with their general contact information.  What could they give consultations on?  Well they can help headhunt for employers that are looking for pharmacists.  That means that the pharmacist could keep a database of other pharmacists looking for work and help employers who need pharmacists.  The pharmacist could provide this service for free or he could charge for the service.

Another option is writing an online column.  With a simple knowledge of html or by hiring a webpage designer a pharmacist can write on things that they know about and even popular topics in the news such as all the news about people ordering prescriptions online and the pharmacist's opinions about this and other related news.  Advertising could be added and charged for.  Depending on how popular the pages/business is other related work could follow like speaking engagements, offers to write articles and much more.  And all of this can be done using your home as a work base.

One source of overlooked funding that teachers should be looking at are....

One of the sources that provide funding that teachers should be looking into are the contests award cash prizes for student entries.  Some of these contests offer as much as $25,000 in cash awards!  There are many topics that are represented by these contests.  Patriotic themes, art related subjects and even essays are some of the entry requirements.  These contests are sponsored from all types of organizations and businesses and even magazines!

Daycare Grant Recipient

I'm going to post another example of a daycare that received grant money.

In Madison a daycare center received $8,515 federal grant and an additional $5,000 grant from the state and an additional $1,967 in local funds to cover the purchase of $15,000 in equipment. Amongst other things the grant money was used to purchase a fire alarm system, refrigerator and other needed items.

The county in which this daycare center is located needed a licensed care center so badly because the others that provided daycare were unlicensed which meant that the lower incomed people could not take advantage of the benefits that a licensed facility gets - namely grants and being able to provide child care to lower incomed people.

There's also a section that talks about how a scholarship program was given to those who train to work in the center but since the main topic here is child care.  Here is another childcare grant recipient.

Grants and Beauty Parlors

Grant programs and grant awards can not be lumped into one category because they are not all the same. You said that you assumed that most individually owned beauty parlors would not qualify for a grant. Does that mean that there are at least some that might qualify for a government grant?I had a chance to see the "minutes" from a social services meeting in Orange County. Included in the minutes was the fact that the county used a beauty parlor's services for their elderly residents.The original poster specifically mentioned customer service. In Ohio, outreach workers partnered with beauty parlors to better help the community be aware of the community services that were available to them as residents of the community. Now what this "partnership" specifically involved wasn't mentioned.In Louisiana an orientation luncheon was given to introduce an awareness program to beauty salon owners who expressed interest in participating. In fact, some are actively trying to recruit other salon owners they know to participate as well. The beauty parlor owners will be provided with packets they can distribute to their customers. These packets will contain risk assessment forms, as well as education materials on prevention and early detection. Some salons are even being equipped with televisions and VCRs so that clients can view informational videos while they wait.I have not even scratched the surface of where the original poster's beauty parlor is located or researched more programs like the ones that I posted above. But you just make it sound like there are absolutely no possiblity at all and that they shouldn't even look into any of the possibilities.

Getting A Grant for Daycare - An email

Can you help me get a grant at starting up a daycare center which will be for 24 hours a day, because the area i am in there isnt about 1 or 2 centers that are open on 2nd shift there all for 1st and people around here need 2nd and 3rd shift daycare centers

I have often mentioned about a daycare center that received a big grant amount of over $50,000 because they offered 24 hour daycare services.  If you qualify for this program - meaning you fit their eligibility requirements then this is one grant program that you can apply for.

However you have to realize that qualifying for any grant program will depend on the grant program itself.  There are no "one size fits all" grant programs - even for daycare.  There are many different grant programs and their eligibility requirements are not all the same.  You will have to go over each grant program that you are eligible for (or can become eligible for) one at a time.  You are also not limited to applying for just one grant program either.  You can apply for as many as you are eligible for.

Which career?

I found this interesting little quiz and thought that I would take it just to see what results I got.

Your Career Type: Investigative

You are precise, scientific, and intellectual.

Your talents lie in understanding and solving math and science problems.

You would make an excellent:

Architect - Biologist - Chemist

Dentist - Electrical Technician - Mathematician

Medical Technician - Meteorologist - Pharmacist

Phsyician - Surveyor - Veterinarian

The worst career options for your are enterprising careers, like lawyer or real estate agent

What's Your Ideal Career?

Grants and Daycare - Let's get a few things straight

This is in response to the numerous posts that ask for grants for their daycare.  First of all it would help if you knew a few basic things about the whole "grant" process.
First of all when you post here and ask for grants you leave so much out.  Usually its just the comment "I need a grant for my daycare in - fill in whatever city and state you want here - and that's all that is posted.  Getting a grant (or grants) will depend on just too many variables.  You have to realize that applying for a grant, any grant is a process and that process begins with information.  Both information about whatever endeavor it is you are trying to start (or maintain or grow) and information about the grant program that you think will help you.  A lot of the bigger grant recipients like schools and municipalities have either grantwriters on staff or hire them on a freelance basis.  A lot of smaller grant recipients - including teachers - have applied for the grant(s) on their own meaning they did all the grunt work theirselves.  And the term "grunt" is used here for a reason.  Grantwriters will tell you that it is this grunt work that has to be done.  Grantwriters (on the whole) don't have secret access to the majority of grant funding programs - indeed if its a government program that information has to made publicly accessible to the public.  Someone sent me an email saying that they couldn't get any information about foundations with funding/grant programs because the information couldn't be accessed.  This is so wrong.  Not only is it accessible a lot of these programs let you apply online!

Grants - Church Remodeling

Rose, My husband and I have been trying to seek grant money to remodel our church  in New Jersey. We also want to expand so that we can start community programs for the youth and elderly in the community. We need to get the church repaired and it has been a long project with funding. We have a small membership mainly of older members. If you can point us in the direction of finding grant money, please respond to this e-mail.



A lot will depend on more specifics.  If your church is historic in nature there are restoration grants. A church was given a grant to remodel their kitchen to better conform to the health codes.  There are grant programs relating to the Episcopal church.  There are church-related grants that depend on the area that the church is located.  So there is no one place to go to apply for church-related grant funding.  It will depend on the specifics of your church.

Grant program funding abounds for community related projects and the elderly related projects provide yet more funding.  But since you want to concentrate on the remodeling first the above mentioned information has to show you that it will depend on the specifics of your church.

If you don't think that there are any church-related remodeling grants here are a few excerpts:

"It's not often a church receives a single donation of $22,000. It's even more rare to find the money coming from the government.   
First Christian Church, however, recently received such a gift from the city of Corvallis.

The funds were combined with another $238,000 in private grants and church members' donations and pledges, and now the church is remodeling its kitchen where Stone Soup meals are served each weekend to the homeless and low-income families."

"A Lutheran Church in Hillman, Minn. received a three-year grant to help pay the salary of Pastor Rhodes."  I should point out that this church had a 70% elderly congregation and it was determined that it would cost too much to renovate the church so a NEW one was built!

So as you can see it will depend on the specifics of your church.  Once you know that then you can start finding the appropriate grant programs.

In New Jersey church related grants included a synagogue in Westfield, New Jersey

Grant Recipients - Teachers

"I want to apply for my first grant this year, however, I'm concerned about whether mine will be soemthing they would want to give a grant for.  So I'm curious what you all have received grants for.  This will be for my entire grade level...not just my classroom."

Four teachers were recently (April 2005) awarded grants.
One was a Sandra Ingram of Eastern Senior High in Washington, DC who teaches junior and senior French.  She started a program where her students corresponded (in French) with pen pals from another country.  Another teacher used her grant award to start an after school tutoring program to help students improve their math.  Another teacher who teaches Native American students was among the grant recipients and used the grant to help her students improve their reading and writing skills.

  Another 200 teachers have also been announced as recipients and now the foundation that awards these grants are accepting applications for next year.  So far this grant program has awarded 400 grant awards totaling $1 million dollars and it is a nationwide grant program.

One thing that you have to understand about grants - especially about those that receive them is that they are more inclined not to discuss it because they stand a better chance of receiving the grant when there is less competition.  In my own area the city's ballet company has received over $1 million dollars in grant monies but they declined to be interviewed about it.

As for you specific post - while you may not want to discusss exactly what you are seeking the grant for - I hope that the above information shows you that if you are attempting to help your students improve their skills then there is probably a grant program that you can apply for.

Grant Programs Available for gay and/or lesbian issues..

Someone was recently looking for information about the possibility of there being any grant programs available for gay/lesbian issues.  Apparently they couldn't find what they were looking for but I was surprised to see that there were some grant resources available.  One in particular helped to fund the Gay Olympics and another grant program was available to filmmakers who had made films with a gay/lesbian topic.  This one foundation also has scholarship, fellowship and other funding programs available as well.

Another example of a for-profit business receiving grant funding.......

is a Wellness Center that wants to "give back to the community" by providing informational and educational services as well as providing free services to those that could otherwise not pay for their services - in this case they provide services to cancer patients who could otherwise not afford to pay for the service.

Just another example of a for-profit business that has managed to get grant funding..................

They all can't be called "grant" programs........

There was a program that provided monthly "grants" (their words) to help women start their own online business.  However it seems to be more of a competition than an actual "grant" program.  It seems that some people are particular as to what constitutes an actual "grant" program.

To be eligible for this program you have to become a member of their organization but membership is free.  Submitting a business plan was part of the application process as well.  The highest amount of the award was $3,000 but there is also a second and third place award.

This program was last check December of 2004 and I'm awaiting email confirmation as to whether or not this program is still current.

Memories - My Very First Ebay Auction Experience

Of course this was some time ago but something made me think of it and hopefully it will help others who are thinking about selling on Ebay.

Of course I was nervous and I did a LOT of research and reading and just plain lurking around before I did anything.  Ebay has message boards where you can ask and answer questions and lots of tutorials are available in some of the posts - even for newbies - like I was at the time.

My very first auction was some coins that my brother had sent me from Germany and I wanted to test the Ebay site out.  (I have since come to find out that Ebay also has "test" auctions as well).  Now remember I said that I was a newbie and I was still quite nervous about actually auctioning anything but I finally did.  Since I was testing I decided to auction one coin (remember I said I was a newbie at this - LOL!) and of course I fumbled through typing a description and deciding how it would look and getting a picture of the coin to add to my auction page.  I used my webcam to take a picture of the coin.   Well I had a seven day auction and for like the first 3 days I didn't get any bids.  However soon after that I got a nibble and then by the time the auction ended I had had about seven bids and the winning bid was for more than the coin was worth (which someone had emailed me and told me that it was selling in a shop for like 10 for a dollar).  Remember this was a test auction kind of thing for me and I really didn't expect to get a whole lot for the coin.  But I did get more than its value and I have been hooked ever since!

Daycare and running a profitable business

One of the most popular suggestions for starting one's own business is to start a daycare business.  Why?  Because this is a service that is always in demand.  Why?  Because people need this kind of service.  There are children on waiting lists for daycare and this is just another example of finding a need and filling.

While you have more resources if you operate as a non-profit that doesn't mean that there are no resources if you are operating as a for-profit.  Also there's the added benefit of you having greater control and freedom if you are operating as a for-profit.  But there are funding resources that exist.  I have even read articles where the owner made so much in profit with their daycare business that they were able to open another daycare business and yet still another.

There is always going to be a need for daycare services and if you can fill that need that would be a good business for you to start.

Still think there are no grants for for-profits?

"Last year a wealthy philanthropist shook up the philanthropic world by converting his foundation that he and his wife started in 1998 into a Network, which will direct money not only to traditional nonprofits, but to profitmaking businesses as well—as long as those enterprises create what founder calls "positive social impact."

Can African American Women get scholarship?

Of course they can!  In fact there are some scholarships that are minority specific.  No one place has all the information there is about available scholarships but a good place to start would be the Internet, your local library and your local bookstore.

"Finding grant money without buying anything"

This is a very interesting search that someone recently did.  Unfortunately the answer is not interesting.  The answer is work.  Plain and simple.  Over 90% of all grant related information that I have gotten has been online.  Offline I have even found grant information in my local paper! 

So the way to finding grant money without buying anything is to do the "finding" yourself.

Recent Email - contacting me

Hi Rose,

How does a person consult with you? I visited your site but could not find a way to reach you. ....(personal information deleted)............Can you help me at all? I saw lots of references on your pages, but no direct source information, and so much of the foundation center stuff is not accessible. Thanks for even reading all of this..

Thank you for your email.

First of all contacting me can be had by snail mail, fax# & voice # and email. For all consultation sessions they must be paid in advance via Western Union and the consultation sessions are one on one chat sessions.

All the information about contacting me can be found on both my

payment information page at http://members.aol.com/Roseb441702/payinfo.htm

and my consultation page athttp://members.aol.com/Roseb441702/consult.htm

As a person that has done fundraising then you should be very well aware of funding programs for the disabled plus you can add to that the work that you are doing which includes helping others that are disabled which increases your funding resources.

You are wrong when you say the foundation "stuff" is not accessible. Every foundation funding program that I have had access to has been freely available on line or either had by doing regular grunt work to find it.

Daycare and Grants - Please learn the basics!

A question that I am seeing a lot is "Where can I get a grant for my daycare business?"  The answer to that is it depends.  There is no one place that you can apply to.  When you're talking about daycare the questions start to mount.  Is this a new daycare or has it already been in operation and if so for how long has it been operating?  Is your daycare a non-profit or a for-profit (or a combination of both?).  Is it being operated out of your home or is it at a separate facility?  How much grant money will you need and for what will you need it for?  Do you have the information written out as to exactly what you are going to need the funding for?  I have seen daycare facilities that have gotten as much as $100,000 for their daycare!

As far as funding programs for daycare is concerned there are resources and programs out there.  Specific funding programs are even available from the government not to mention all the other funding resources from foundations and organizations.

This information is not in some secret book!  As far as the government grant programs go the information has to be made publicly accessible and there is no secret to getting it - it HAS to be there.  No matter how much you can't find or say you can't find the information the fact of the matter is that grantwriters and those that do this kind of work know that there is no secret to finding this information.  What it takes to find this information is work.