Spotlight-Strategies (parent entity of Franklin Printing and The Stitch Smith) would like to recognize a special customer, Haven and challenge you to give of your HEART this Holiday Season.

The holiday season is upon us and for most it brings comfort, warmth, abundance and the love and support of family. But for many single women it is marked with reminders of all that was lost, and or lacking and a life of struggling is magnified.

Recent studies indicate the fastest growing demographic of homelessness in the U.S. is single women with children. A startling statistic that hits close to home considering, in 2006 alone, 32% of babies born in Johnson County are born to single mothers.

Ask any of these single women what they need most and the response would be, not judgment, pity or a hand-out. Empowerment, encouragement and enrichment, an opportunity to create for themselves, and their children, a life of hope and promise represents their heart’s desire.

Finding yourself single and or single-with-children can be devastating as well as paralyzing. But with a little help the lives of women and children can be transformed. Enter in Haven, A Sanctuary for Women.

Haven’s unique mission and vision is to enable single women to form a healthy relationship with Christ and their community while actively using their gifts to benefit others. It bridges generations and does not discriminate with regard to age, race or socioeconomic status thereby delivering care and support to the women who need it most. Haven plans to build a community to help get these women back on their feet. With the support of our staff, volunteers, and each other, women will regain hope and the ability to see a renewed future!

Consider ways to Give your heart away this season to impact lives throughout the year.

Action steps you can take now:
Go to havenwomensministry.org to learn more about the needs of this unique ministry.
Choose to make an impact here in your community:
Give financially. (Haven has identified land to purchase, an architect with housing plans for the community, and a builder.)
Give your time. Volunteer opportunities are plenty.
Give your resources. Do you have gifts and abilities and or resources that would enrich the lives of other women?
Link arms with a friend or friends to volunteer and multiply the impact. Spread the word.

Choose now to Give your heart and assist in the transformation of the lives of the women of Haven.

Indianapolis, September 25, 2009 – Erin Smith, owner of The Stitch Smith in Greenwood, has been chosen for Indy’s Best and Brightest in Retail, Manufacturing & Services.  On September 23, 2009, Indy’s Best & Brightest honored 100 of Central Indiana’s outstanding young professionals who are making their mark in and around Indianapolis.

 As winner of the Retail, Services & Manufacturing category, Smith will receive enrollment in the Lacy Leadership LEAD program and participation in a partnership with the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC). More at: http://www.indysbestandbrightest.com.

 Erin Smith has been part of the commercial embroidery industry for over eight years. Before starting her own company, she spent eight years in the competitive health care industry, eventually becoming director of a health-care facility. In addition to her professional accomplishments, Smith is a board member for Greater Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, NAWBO, Johnson County’s long-term disaster recovery program and the Johnson County council of the Builder’s Association of Greater Indianapolis.

 She is a passionate volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and also serves as an editorial advisory board member for EMB magazine and as an advisory board member for the Embroidery Trade Association.  Because of her experiences when she first started her business, she is emphatic about taking the time to mentor and educate small business owners.  Earlier this year, she was a finalist for the Indiana Commission for Women Torchbearer Award for Entrepreneurship.  She lives in Greenwood with her husband Trey Smith and their two sons Bailey and Benjamin.

 Junior Achievement of Central Indiana, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in affiliation with Junior Achievement Worldwide.  Its purpose is to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business, and economics to improve the quality of their lives. More at:  http://www.jaindy.org/

Think again!

On September 30th spotlight-strategies.com orchestrated a unique “thank you” party to honor our current customers and create buzz to solicit new ones!

Over 75 of our customers were on hand mingling with one another and drinking sweet libations from Mallow Run Winery.

A big thank you to our PR Chick, Jill Bode who gathered video testimonials! These will be launched on our new website shortly. We found the testimonials to be entertaining and informational. Why exactly do you choose to use Franklin Printing and The Stitch Smith (creators of spotlight-strategies.com)? Most of our guests treasured our ability to listen and recommend products and services that will put them in the “spotlight with their customers”! That’s right, our genuine concern to make THEM standout was a highlight as well as our unique ability to make ordering easy and fun!

If you are a current customer reading and didn’t get a chance to stop by our Thank you Event, please let us know why you choose to do business with us!

WHEN SARAH PACE, the founder of Brooklyn, N.Y.,-based caterer Rabbit Mafia, wanted to devise a dining concept that would appeal to hungry, cash-strapped New Yorkers, she knew she’d need help. Pace’s plan was to revive the supper club, a Depression-era tradition that draws on chefs, bar tenders, musicians, promoters and a critical mass of popularity to gain traction in the community. Fortunately for Pace, the idea appealed to a lot of her friends, too.

Diners at Pace’s parties, which are held at least once a month at various Brooklyn eateries and event spaces, typically pay about $26 to $30 for a seat at her giant table. “It’s kind of like Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of people you don’t know,” she says.

It might be more expensive, too. Feeding roughly 30 people three courses and plying them with cocktails, as well as entertainment for an entire evening, isn’t cheap. In the interest of keeping the entry fee low, Pace tapped into her network of friends and business contacts.

For help in the kitchen, Pace lassoed Suzanne Barr, a chef and the founder of Brooklyn’s Sweet Potato Bakery. She also regularly drafts a musician friend — preferably one with an album to promote. At Pace’s most recent event, which took place last week, the Brooklyn-based business incubator and event space Green Spaces offered to host the club at in its offices for free. A friend helped out with marketing. Vodka maker 44° North volunteered to prepare cocktails.

Rabbit Mafia’s Sarah Pace (pictured right) and Suzanne Barr from Brooklyn’s Sweet Potato Bakery team-up to cater a recent supper club. (Photo by T.I. Williams)
Teaming up is not a foreign concept to start-up business owners like Pace, who often have less capital and fewer resources than larger, more established firms. However, as the economy continues to soften, many small businesses — even those that have been around for decades — are not only trading services, but also combining forces, says Jeffrey Carr, the executive director of New York University’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

According to the National Small Business Association’s mid-year Economic Report released in July, 27% of business owners surveyed said that they’re planning to use strategic alliances to expand their businesses over the next year.

That’s the idea behind Denver web technology company Akavit’s recent business trade-off. Rather than funneling thousands of dollars into an advertising agency for re-branding and a public relations firm to peddle its name, Akavit worked out bartering deals with its ad and PR firms, in which it will build their web sites in exchange for their services. Building a single web site can cost Akavit roughly $30,000 and take the firm as long as six months, but Akavit president and founder Rob Davis says the exchange is worth the company resources. “What we have them doing for us, we would have to pay an outside agency to do or hire someone to do it internally,” he says. “We are proactively helping grow business for ourselves by developing our brand without incurring the added costs.”

For other business owners, collaborating is more a matter of playing to their strengths. After witnessing a 50% drop in January sales this year, Erin Smith, the founder of the Stitch Smith, a custom embroidery and screen print apparel company in Greenwood, Ind., teamed-up with Susan McCarty, the founder of Franklin Printing, a nearby print shop with troubles of its own. Their plan included co-branding their companies and combining their manpower. Both firms continue to keep separate books. However, Susan now supplies the operational muscle behind both businesses while Erin hunts down sales. Together, the two owners were able to hire back a worker who had been laid off, and they’re on pace to increase their combined annual revenues by 15%, Smith says.

Similarly, last December, Kelly Elizondo, the founder of Sara Langley Designs, an accessories and handbag designer in Rome, N.Y., teamed up with graphic designer Jill Lenzi-Davis, the founder of Lemons & Limes, a paper shop in Fayetteville, N.Y., to jointly produce a line of stationery products. Under their pact, Lenzi-Davis designs the graphics, while Elizondo handles marketing and relationships with their wholesale clients.

Of course, efficiencies spring from sticking to what you do best. But saving on costs is the biggest reason for teaming up, Carr says. “Everyone is looking for more and more ways to get the most out of their limited resources,” he says.

To that end, Elizondo and Lenzi-Davis are also planning to share the costs of attending the National Stationery Show in New York City next spring. “It can be lonely forging ahead as an entrepreneur,” Elizondo says. “This joint venture has provided us with a way to not only manage costs and expenses but also bounce things off one another and tackle challenges together.”

Drew and Susan McCarty like being entrepreneurs more and more as the years go by. Their Franklin Printing Co. continues to grow, thanks to a strong referral business, some direct mail, an outside salesman and a commitment to sticking with what works.

“We don’t try to do what we can’t do,” Susan says.

That commitment to doing both what’s best for the company and its customers comes from experience. Back in 1994, Drew and Susan McCarty had to choose between growing their startup business or selling it. They had young children at home, and Drew had a good job at the General Motors plant in downtown Indianapolis, so they opted to take the money and run.

A few years later, Drew had tired of his job and Susan had an idea for a new business: printing. Her father, real estate consultant and author George Allen, needed a printer to produce forms and other materials for his business. The couple set some small presses in their garage and Printers Ink was born.

Business grew steadily and, in 2000, they purchased Franklin Printing, which had served the local businesses since 1947.

Franklin Printing specializes in business forms and the like, three-color work up to 30,000 copies or so. Bigger jobs are farmed out to other shops better equipped to handle them. The McCartys limited their equipment purchases largely to the pre-press end of the business, rather than tying up money on bigger newer presses to run the big jobs. They consolidated the entire operation under one roof.