Category: Information

4th Annual Millennial Summit – A Success

Wilmington, DE – T​he 4th Annual Millennial Summit (#MILLSUMMIT) took on a new feature this past week by going 100% virtual and expanding to a three day conference!

The theme for this year’s conference was ​Your 20/20 Vision​. Even though the “vision” of the 2020 #MILLSUMMIT adjusted due to the pandemic, the determination of the Planning Committee to pull together its annual one-of-a-kind, interdisciplinary conference for young professionals, rising stars, innovators, and industry leaders to connect and grow was still there. Keynote and CEO of REACH Riverside, Logan Herring, Sr. said it best, “We don’t make excuses. We make things happen.”

The #MILLSUMMIT took place online over August 3 – 5, 2020, and featured more than 75 local, regional, and national experts who provided more than 30 hours of content to attendees to watch in real-time or on demand. The 700+ unique attendees at this year’s event zoomed in from 30 different states and abroad, including the United Kingdom and Greece. Thanks to the #MILLSUMMIT app, attendees could connect with each other and the many mentors, speakers, and business coaches who participated this year. Attendees maintain access to the recorded sessions until August 14, 2020.

The user experience was exceptional and created opportunities for networking digitally thanks from the speakers and the dynamically focused panel discussions. Attendee Joshua Fournier, who participated from Massachusetts, agreed: “For doing [#MILLSUMMIT] virtually, it was awesome!”
“In May, our Planning Committee announced the difficult but necessary decision to move this year’s #MILLSUMMIT to a 100% virtual experience” commented Charlie Vincent, Executive Director of Spur Impact, the nonprofit which manages and organizes the #MILLSUMMIT. “We learned a lot over the past few weeks, and in the end provided a meaningful and unique opportunity for hundreds of young and seasoned professionals from around the country to connect over a variety of unfiltered and timely discussions about entrepreneurship, leadership, nonprofits, and other critical economic development topics, including many related to COVID, Black Lives Matter, homelessness, and food insecurity. Most importantly, the attendees learned what steps they can do to take meaningful action, and make a bigger local impact in their career and community.”

Glenn Jackson, Senior VP of M&T Bank spoke about how, ‘If you’re comfortable, you’re not growing.’ in one of the sessions on Tuesday. Sarah Fulton, Development Director at Spur Impact added, “Being forced to move virtually has positioned the Millennial Summit team and Spur Impact to make even more of an impact among the local young professional community in the coming months. Our team is full of Zoom experts, and we effectively eliminated travel barriers to our conference – which we think is especially important given the upcoming I-95 renovations that we’ve been dreading for next year. With our redesigned digital infrastructure, we have an amazing opportunity to continue to connect with young professionals and industry leaders both here in Delaware and across the country.”

The featured keynotes for the 2020 #MILLSUMMIT were:

● John Henry​, an Entrepreneur, Investor,
Co-Founder, Partner Harlem Capital,
Former Host, VICE TV’s ‘Hustle’, and Forbes 30 under 30

● Kimmi Wernli​, Owner and President of Crazy Richard’s Peanut Butter

● Logan Herring​, CEO of REACH Riverside

The 2020 #MILLSUMMIT was supported in part by:
● Capital One, Title Sponsor
● M&T Bank
● Wilmington Trust
● JPMorgan Chase & Co.
● New Castle County Government
● AARP Delaware
● Barclays Bank
● Cooperative Credit Union Association
● ChristianaCare
● Delaware Prosperity Partnership

Stay tuned for expanded coverage of #MILLSUMMIT to be announced in the coming weeks at millsummit.com​ or follow @MillSummit on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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#MILLSUMMIT is the region’s one of a kind event that gathers hundreds of professionals of all ages and backgrounds; connecting professionals, difference makers, rising stars, and other leaders who want to make an impact in their community.

#MILLSUMMIT aims to inspire everyone who attends to speak up and get involved, grow professionally, meet visionaries and innovators trying to move the needle, and to take a seat at the table and start making a difference.

#MILLSUMMIT offers opportunities to learn about leadership, professional development, nonprofit and community service, government and public service, the arts, personal development and wellness, entrepreneurship, finance, and more.

Is your Instagram Optimized for Search?

By making a few changes within your Instagram Account and posts will assist in people finding you and attract new followers. Ones that are looking for you, your services and branding.

1) Have a Searchable User Name
Let your user name tell people what you are about. What you do. I have an Instagram account for my photography and I have photographer as part of my user name.

Are you working in a Wellness Industry and are a Yoga Instructor? Wellness and Yoga are two of your keywords and either would be great to use as part of your User Name.

Regardless have your username as one that is searchable. Don’t use irrelevant symbols or made-up words.

2) Have a primary keyword in your display name
You have 30 letters in your display name, add a keyword.

3) Have Keywords in your Bio.
You do want your Bio to read well, but don’t be afraid to let people know what you do.

4) Think of your hashtags as keywords
Hashtags are one of the ways that non-followers will find your content. Don’t feel overwhelmed when you create hashtags. You don’t want to create one hashtag set and always use it. It’s better to create different sets for each different topic.

5) Use Image Alt Text
Did you even know you could add these in Instagram? This is part of an Accessibilty feature of Instagram.

How to edit your alt text
• Before you share your photo, click on the advanced settings tab at the bottom.
• Scroll to the bottom and tap on “write your alt text.”
• Add your image description, save it and share your image.

Other options in the Advance Settings include:
• Turn Off Commenting
• Share Posts to Facebook
• Branded Content

6) Your Image Captions are also Title Tags
When you post, Instagram creates a unique URL. They use the photo’s caption as the title tag. Google will only use the first 60 character so you’ll want to use any relevant keywords at the beginning of the caption.

By making a few changes to the way you use Instagram you can increase your chances of having your target follower/Audience to find your account and posts.

Follow me on Instagram at:
SGAtkinson_Photographer or ShoreToBeFun

Scheduling Your Time To Get Tasks Completed

Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I’m a procrastinator. If I don’t push myself I will often wait until the last minute to do a project. And my To Do list will often grow with things I want to do, but always seem to find a reason to put it off.

We all know that it seems as if the amount of time that we allocate to a project is the amount of time that it takes to finish it.

Have you ever set a deadline to complete a project, one that may only takes a few hours, a month away only to wait until the last minute to start? I have. I’m sure that we all have at one time.

When I schedule an allotment of time to finish a task, it usually gets done in that allotment.

Here’s one tip I have heard a couple of different times to help time manage your projects.

1) When you begin your work week look at your To-Do, add anything that’s not one it. This could also be each morning.

2) From that list pick the three most important things.

3) Decide which of these either the one you have to get done, or the one that would give you the greatest pleasure when it’s done. It could be the the one that impacts your business the most.

4) Block the time you think it’ll take to finish. You don’t need for it to be a continuous block. You’ll want to take breaks as needed. And there may be other items on your schedule that you’ll want to work around such as checking emails, attending a scheduled meeting, and lunch.

5) During that time you have allocated you’ll want to eliminate all distractions. Turn off the notifications on your phone. Close your email. Concentrate on finishing that task.

6) When you are done, do the second most important, then that last one. After these three are done, go back to your To-Do list and begin the process again.

Steve Atkinson
Personal Brand Photographer & Consultant
SteveAtkinson.com

SBA Provided $20 Billion to Small Businesses and Non-Profits Through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance Program

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced the conclusion and success of the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Advance program, which provided U.S. small businesses, non-profits and agricultural businesses a total of $20 billion in emergency funding. In order to assist the greatest number of small businesses, the EIDL Advance provided $1,000 per employee up to a maximum of $10,000. Recipients did not have to be approved for a loan to receive the Advance, and the Advance provided an interim but vital source of funds while applicants awaited a decision on their loan application.

“Following the enactment of COVID-19 emergency legislation, the SBA provided nearly six million small businesses employing 30.5 million people with $20 billion through the unprecedented EIDL Advance program,” Administrator Jovita Carranza said. “This program, built from the ground up in less than two weeks, assisted millions of small businesses, including non-profit organizations, sole proprietors and independent contractors, from a wide array of industries and business sectors.”

Having allocated the full $20 billion that was appropriated by Congress, SBA will discontinue making EIDL Advances to new applicants. By law, the SBA is not permitted to issue new EIDL Advances once all program funding has been obligated.

EIDL loan applications will still be processed even though the Advance is no longer available. As a reminder, the loan portion of the EIDL program continues to have funds available at very affordable terms, including a 3.75% interest rate for small businesses and 2.75% for non-profit organizations, a 30-year maturity, and an automatic deferment of one year before monthly payments begin. Every eligible small business and non-profit is encouraged to apply to get the resources they need.

Learn more about SBA’s disaster assistance

3 Months In

Last week as the Month of May was ending I was reviewing my goals, successes and even the shortcomings of the month. In all it was a good month.

This morning I realized that I began Eastern Shore Connect three months ago at the end of February. The world was much different. Covid-19 was being talked about, but we were still pretty much going on with our lives as usual.

I was attending live networking events where I announced the creation of Eastern Shore Connect. My goal was to have a place where businesspersons on Maryland’s Eastern Shore could come together to share ideas.

In person Networking events throughout the region was one of those goals. That quickly changed in Mid-March. We were asked to stay at home unless our work outside of the house was essential. In person meetings of just about every type came to a halt.

On the Facebook group shortly after it opened, but before the Stay-in-Place request, I was asked if I would be doing Video Meetings. It really wasn’t in my original plans, but a seed was planted.

All of a sudden that seed began to grow and I began the Weekly Eastern Shore Zoom on Thursday at Noon around the first of April. These have been successful and will continue.

During those first few weeks of Covid-19 Stay-in-Place I passed along business information that I received. I wrote a couple of pieces and posted here. Articles for Networking and Marketing was always in the plan, but it got pushed aside.

Here we are. The first week of June. The associated Facebook group has been doing well. I know that many don’t use facebook, nor social media in general. That’s ok. It was part of the reason I created this site. But after the initial first few week I began to focus more on Facebook and less here. In short I neglected the site.

One of my goals is expand the site. One of those is to post at least one piece of information per week. To make Eastern Shore Connect a site that is a useful place for business on MD Eastern Shore and its surrounds (Delaware, Annapolis etc) to follow.

I am open to ideas, so if you have any please let me know at ESConnect@ShoreToBeFun.com.

Thank You
Steve Atkinson

What do Your Visitors See?

When a visitor lands on your Facebook page, How Long do you think it takes for them to form an opinion of you?

According to Missouri University of Science and Technology, it takes less than two-tenths of a second for a visitor to form that first opinion. And just another 2.6 seconds for that viewer’s eyes to concentrate in a way that reinforces that first impression.

In less than 3 seconds your online visitor has decided whether they are going to click away or stay to look further.

Your primary pages are your Web site Landing Page, your Facebook Business Page and your Linkedin page.

Many times you don’t have much control on your Web site so for now we’ll talk about Facebook and Linkedin. On both of these there are two (2) key elements that you should have.

1) Your profile picture.

On LinkedIn, since this is Your personal page and not the company you’ll want a good quality headshot. On facebook it should be a good quality photo, but the photo depends on how the page is used for your business. You may want to use the company logo, or a team photo. If you are the face of the company then you’ll want that same type of quality headshot that you used on your LinkedIn page. You will want to use a more businesslike headshot on your LinkedIn page, but the one on Facebook can be a bit more casual.

2) Your cover picture

On both Facebook and LinkedIn you’ll want a quality branded picture or a picture with a short defining statement. It should clearly communicate what your service or product and should resonate with your visitors right away.

On Facebook you’ll want to include these as well.

– Call to Action Button

This is the button on the Right side of the page under the cover picture. This is the action you want them to do when leaving your page. It can be “Call now”, “Learn More”, “Contact Us”, “Send message”, “Visit group”. There are others as well.

– Your business description and contact information

Your “About” name will appear just under your profile picture). Make sure that everything is up-to-date and specifies the area you serve.

There are many things you’ll want to make sure you have on your LinkedIn page. Two of the most important are your Headline and Your Services.

Your services are controlled by LinkedIn and may not have your exact services and have to pick a few.

The Headline is one of the fields LinkedIn uses for searches and you will want to be more specific. Example: if you are a photographer that specializes in destination Weddings, you’ll want to not just say Photographer.

Maryland’s Comptroller Urges Businesses To Use TeleFile To Report Zero Taxes Due


Automated 24/7 access will satisfy filing requirements

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Businesses temporarily closed due to COVID-19 are encouraged to take advantage of the Comptroller of Maryland’s Business TeleFile system. This automated system is available 24 hours per day, seven days a week and streamlines the filing of sales and use tax, as well as withholding taxes when no taxes are owed for a filing period.

One phone call, placed at the convenience of the filer, prevents unnecessary delinquent notices and keeps them focused on operations and sales.

“Businesses have been hit hard by this pandemic and they don’t need any undue burden placed upon them,” Comptroller Franchot said. “Business TeleFile is the fastest, easiest way to meet filing requirements, while allowing owners to focus on re-opening their businesses and keep Maryland’s economy going.”

The process is straightforward. Businesses simply need their 8-digit Maryland central registration number when they call 410-260-7225 to file zero tax due employer withholding or sales and use tax reports by telephone.

For more information contact us at taxhelp@marylandtaxes.gov or visit our website:
https://www.marylandtaxes.gov/business/income/filing-information.php

Maryland Department of Commerce Back to Business Site

The Maryland Department of Commerce is sharing guidance and best practices for Maryland’s companies at: open.maryland.gov/backtobusiness.

Leaders across Maryland’s business community have assisted in developing these best practices to help companies across the state as we enter this new era. The Back to Business page provides general and industry-specific best practices, and a Maryland Strong: Back to Business Pledge that we are encouraging all Maryland business owners to print and display.

An Update on What’s Happening – May 15, 2020

I haven’t been posting much on the Web site, however the Facebook Group has been active.

New members are arriving and participating.

Each Thursday at Noon I am hosting a Virtual Networking Event via Zoom. While the attendance has been on the small size, it’s been steady with attendees coming from various parts of the region. This past Thursday we had business leaders from the Western Shore, Delaware and on the Eastern Shore from Chestertown to Salisbury.

To get a notification of the weekly Networking event and others throughout the region, sign-up on the email list. Presently there is only one email a week, and that’s on Monday Afternoon.

Restrictions are easing. Maryland has announced that Phase 1 of the Recovery Plan goes into effect at 5PM, Friday May 15, 2020. I have not heard of any of the Eastern Shore counties are putting on any restriction to that plan, such as the counties on the 95 Corridor. Although I haven’t seen anything from Wicomico County.

Ocean City now is allowing rental property to open, and the beach and boardwalk are open and following the Maryland Plan.

Delaware has not lifted their 14 Day self-quarantine for those entering the State, but the beaches are open to residents.

The govenor of Virgina while lifting restrictions in some areas of the State still has Accomack County as restricted from opening. Chincoteague is still closed for business.

May 15, 2020 – 1pm EDT

6 Things to Consider: Google My Business

These tips are for those if you are already on Google my Business. If you aren’t the first tip would be GET ON.

1) Be Certain your business is Verified.
Google says, “Verification helps ensure the accuracy of your business information across Google. Verified businesses are twice as likely to be considered reputable by users. Verification also protects you from anyone who might otherwise pose as a representative of your business.”

2) Be Consistent
It is best to have your business name, address and phone number the same that is on your business Web site and other places where it is available to be seen on the Internet. Unfortunately Google My Business doesn’t allow for non-physical addresses, such as PO Boxes.

3) Choose the Correct Category

4) Be certain you have the correct Business Description

5) Is Eveverthing completed?
These would include: Your Business Hours, Product and Services and proper URL since as an Appointment URL, if you have one.

6) Add Photos
Actually you need to think about using photos everywhere, but often one doesn’t think about adding photos to their Google My Business.