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My husband and I have our 22nd wedding anniversary coming up in about a month. My poor husband always agonizes over gifts to make sure he buys something I’ll like. Invariably, one of the several gifts he buys involves the local florist arriving with flowers delivery service. I always love unwrapping to see what he picked out this time. He’s got good taste, I’ll give him that. He’s also not above spending extra time grilling the florist to put together the most beautiful arrangement.

One of our local florists is closing up shop, so I’m a little bummed about this. I love browsing through her shop and talking to her about growing flowers. Not only is she a full service florist, but she also has an attached garden center with beautiful plants for both indoors and outdoors.

Do you have a local florist that you enjoy? They really are artisans of their craft, don’t you think? Not everyone can put together breathtaking floral displays and pull them off. I know I usually can’t without a little help and inspiration from someone who knows what they are doing.

Hey business owners! How about a tip today?

I’ve found a web site that can be an essential tool to assist entrepreneurs locate and apply for legitimate business grants. Sound good?

Do you have any idea how much assistance is out there just waiting for business owners like you to come along and grab it? You have to know where to look, though, and that can be tricky or time consuming.

Why not simplify the process and use a website that does the leg work for you? How about tapping into a comprehensive list of all the lucrative and worthwhile organizations that have foundations in place for extending resources to small businesses?

Along with this list, you can educate yourself about the grant process so you approach it from a position of understanding. You can find basic information as well as relevant tips about exactly how to apply for grants. Let’s face it, grants are extremely competitive, right? Wouldn’t it make sense to make every application count?

Once you educate yourself and make a plan, you can get busy applying for and getting those funds you need to make your business succeed.

Guest Post by Mila Sanders

If you’re enthusiastic about online shopping, bargain hunting, and couponing, then Clarus Marketing Group is likely a name you’ve heard of before. If you haven’t heard about any of their services yet, then that’s all the more reason for you to read this article. I wanted to make sure to create a post about the company, because I sometimes hear complaints from people that so many of the reward programs offered online seem to be the same lady in different clothing. If there is one thing Internet coupon enthusiasts long for, it is a deal that can offer something that is both new and exciting but also practical and useful. Too much of what we see online is gimmicky and has little to offer in the way of real savings.

The first thing to know about Clarus Marketing that makes them stand out against a backdrop of homogeneity is that they are in fact not a buying club or typical rewards program like those referenced above. What they actually provide are subscription services that offer benefits to online shoppers for things like free shipping and cash back rebates for online purchases. What is unique about a subscription service as opposed to, say, a buying club is the luxury of choice that customers are afforded. With a buying club, you sign up and are then billed monthly for merchandise that you generally have little control over. A subscription service works differently because it is designed around an entirely different set of concepts and approach to the rewards industry. So, for one thing, you will never have to buy a product you don’t want – a clear advantage over a buying club.

Clarus Marketing has been working in the promotional industry for over a decade, and so they’ve fostered positive relationships with quite literally thousands of online vendors. This is one of the crucial components to the subscription service they are able to offer. By signing up for one of their services and paying the annual fee, you are essentially winning the right to be associated with a powerhouse name in the ecommerce world. So now when you go into that world to do your shopping, the vendors who otherwise would look at you as another face in a crowd now have an incentive to treat you special. That incentive comes from your membership and association with Clarus Marketing Group and their quality shopping program.

No question about it. Smokers are becoming more and more outcasted as municipalities systematically shut them out in the cold. As a non-smoker, I can’t say that I really object to this. I don’t like cigarette smoke and I don’t want me or my family subjected to its harmful vapors.

Those electronic cigarettes like blucigs can be something useful for smokers who are trying to exist in a nonsmoking world.

These battery-operated gadgets look like real cigarettes, they operate much like a real cigarette, but they do not produce the same smoke and health risks of real cigarettes. In fact, you can probably even smoke one of these electronic cigarettes in restricted areas where it is unlawful to smoke. Of course, you should always check first before using an electronic cigarette, or the management may confront you about smoking. The cool thing is that you will actually see a smoke-like vapor coming off the end of the electronic cigarette and it lights up just like a real cigarette, but the vapor disappears in seconds without even producing a detectable odor. Pretty cool, huh?

Thanks for the guest post by Jonathan Curtis

Being the new kid at the office means I’ve got to do all the grunt work which is really a pain in the butt, if we’re being honest. I know I’m lucky to have a job in this economy but all I do all day is look up Texas electricity rates and providers and go pick up my boss’ dry cleaning, not exactly the reason I got my college degree. I think that once this recession’s on the upswing I’m going to look for a new job but the fact that I don’t make much money AND I’m unhappy her leads me to believe I should work harder to get something else in the pipeline. I know that if I put my mind to it I could really find a great job but that takes effort and when I get home from the office at night I’m so mentally exhausted all I want to do is crawl into bed and not have to think until morning!