The affluent community of Flossmoor, Ill. — a village 30 miles south of downtown Chicago — has an abundance of high-end beauty salons and spas. But one in particular stands out when it comes to embracing green business practices.

Jonathan Kane Salon & Spa is not only one of the trendiest places to get pampered in Chicagoland, but also one of the most environmentally conscious competitors in its category.

“We had gone through a sustainability study here at the salon and then we did a zero waste audit where we audited all of our waste,” reveals Larry Kane, who owns and operates the salon with his wife, Kathy Kane. “We’re working to become a zero waste salon.”

So far, the effort is yielding stellar results. Since starting the company, Kane says, the salon has reduced its garbage to the dumpster by 75%.

“We’re concentrating on the environment and really trying to reduce our carbon footprint,” Kane asserts. “That’s always been important to the mission.”

So is projecting the right image to its upscale clientele. “My middle name is Jonathan,” he explains. “Larry is not easy to market: Larry drinks beer. Jonathan drinks wine.”

Opened in February 2010, Jonathan Kane Salon & Spa caters to customers who appreciate its high-quality services and its commitment to all things cutting-edge and eco-friendly in the beauty business.

“I’ve been a hairdresser since 1979,” Kane says. “I was behind the chair for about 10 years and then got into management of salons. Eventually, I found myself with a company that got sold to Procter & Gamble. We were out in Connecticut. I decided to move back to Chicago with my wife and family.

“When we landed here,” he recalls, “I said, ‘You know what, let’s not ever have to move again. Let’s try to find something and call it our own.’ And so I started looking around to buy an existing salon. I befriended the owner of the building that I eventually bought. He had a price about seven years ago that was out of the question. In 2009, he approached me and said, ‘I think I have a price that you and the bank are going to like.’ So, we started moving forward, and in 2010 we bought the building, the furniture, fixtures, and equipment. And we inherited seven staff members.”

Three years later, business is booming. “We have tripled the staff and doubled the revenue,” Kane boasts.

But, as with any thriving enterprise, it’s essential to consider the future. Kane says he constantly strives to improve his offerings. To that end, he submitted a heartfelt wish to Intuit’s Small Business Growing Strong campaign.

“We have a wonderful team of co-workers that have embraced our efforts to be the best salon and spa in the area,” Kane wrote, explaining that his wish was for “new eco-friendly styling chairs and stations” and “more comfortable shampoo bowls.”

He added: “Secondly, I would build on our efforts to be a zero-waste salon and spend the remaining money to do what it takes to get closer to that goal. We live in an outstanding and diverse community that has supported and grown with us for three years. This would be a great way to pay them back for that support.”

In the end, the environmentally savvy hairdresser’s wish made the cut. “This is so exciting,” Kane says. “I can’t wait to tell the staff. If I wasn’t in my office, I would probably be up in the salon screaming. This is amazing. Thank you!

“Being in an image-based business, staying current with color palettes, furniture, and equipment always makes people realize that you’re evolving and not just staying put,” he says. “We will have furniture that’s as eco-friendly as possible, but it will also show our clientele that we’re staying on top of the way things look.”

Intuit’s Small Business Growing Strong campaign is announcing one winner a day through May 24, 2013. Check out the list of current winners and find out whether we’ve granted your wish.

The Affordable Care Act will soon be the law of the land. Take this short quiz to build up your health law knowledge. (Don’t peek — answers are at the bottom of the page!)

1. When will the Affordable Care Act go into effect?

A. March 1, 2010
B. October 1, 2013
C. January 1, 2014
D. Never

2. Who is “required” to get health insurance under the new law?

A. Every American, with a few exceptions
B. Employees who work for large businesses
C. Every U.S. citizen
D. Nobody

3. What is the tax penalty if you don’t have health insurance in 2014?

A. 5% of individual income
B. Greater of $95 per adult ($285 per family) or 1% of family income
C. $0
D. $695

4. Which employers are required to provide health insurance to their employees?

A. All employers
B. Employers with 100 or more employees
C. No employers
D. Employers with 50 or more full-time employees

5. What is the definition of a full-time employee?

A. W-2 employees who work 30 hours or more per week
B. W-2 employees who work 40 hours or more per week
C. Salaried W-2 employees
D. 1099 contractors

To find out more about the new health law and what it means for your employees, visit Intuit’s page on affordable health benefits.

Correct answers:

1C, 2A, 3B, 4D, 5A

There’s a curious paradox at the heart of any productive brainstorming session: The goal is to let imaginations run free and generate all kinds of “out of the box” thinking. But in order for brainstorming to work, it’s necessary to follow a few rules. Otherwise, you get more of a brain dump than a brainstorm.

Here are some guidelines for getting more from your brainstorming sessions.

Brainstorm Prep

Before the brainstorming session begins, determine what the central issue or question is. Do you want to come up with a different way to market an existing product? Are you seeking a dramatically new type of service compared with what your business currently provides? Share the specific problem with the group to put people in the right frame of mind.

The most productive sessions generally take place off-site. Why? In a “safe” and relaxed environment, people feel freer to speak up than, say, in the conference room right next to the owner’s office. Holding the meeting elsewhere gives it more of a special feel, too.

Be mindful of the session’s length, too. You’re looking to come up with as many ideas as possible within a prescribed amount of time. The best sessions last between 15 and 45 minutes, with 30 minutes usually being the sweet spot.

Group Mechanics

Brainstorming veterans contend that the ideal size for a group is between four and seven people. Their logic: Fewer than four people are unlikely to produce much of creative value; more than seven can border on chaos.

A group leader or facilitator is essential to keeping the discussion moving. This person’s job is to stimulate ideas and get everyone to speak up. Everyone means just that. The leader starts by inviting each person at the table to contribute in turn and then lets the discussion flow. The facilitator is also responsible for ensuring that no one or two people dominate the conversation.

Most importantly, the group leader strives to generate a fun, upbeat experience. This should translate into a wave of ideas (from silly to profound), plenty of laughter, and some playful competition. Nothing good ever comes out of a tense or fearful environment.

Group Dynamics

Brainstorming depends on group energy. A high-voltage session gets everyone pumped up and mentally agile, paving the way for all kinds of freewheeling ideas. The facilitator can use encouragement, motion, props, and other tools to keep the energy level high. As for the ideas themselves, nothing is too wild or off-limits. No one gets to say, “That’ll never work!” In the initial stage, what you want is quantity vs. quality. Who can predict which pie-in-the-sky idea may end up boosting your small-business revenues?

Another helpful technique to build on someone’s idea. One participant’s suggestion can trigger a complementary thought from someone else, and so on. From time to time, people may start discussing the implications of a particular suggestion. This is fine, as long as the facilitator keeps the discussion short, brings the group back to the problem at hand, and keeps the brainstorming going.

Note-Taking

What good is a brainstorming session if nobody captures all of its wacky — and potentially brilliant — ideas? Appoint someone to serve as the meeting’s recorder. Use a flip chart or a whiteboard to jot down the group’s suggestions. Have these notes transcribed and distributed to support future discussions.

Evaluation

When the brainstorming session is over, it’s time to filter and evaluate the fruits of the group’s efforts. Sometimes it’s beneficial to enlist a second group of people to review the ideas and assess their relative usefulness. That way, you clear out any residual ego or emotional involvement from the original participants.

Ideo, an innovation and design firm, captures the flow of ideas on easel-sized Post-it Notes. One brainstorming session yielded the idea for Jumperoo by Fisher-Price, which resembles a doorway jumper for toddlers but comes with a freestanding base. Ideo partner Brendan Boyle wanted to resolve an issue with the original jumper because it “blocked key passageways and [moms] were scared it would fall down.” From the brainstorming session came a sketch for the prototype Ideo designed for the Jumperoo, which now sells some one million units a year and has become a minor YouTube sensation.

In November 2011, Melanie Fremont-Weatherstone poured her 35 years of experience in the food-service industry into starting her own business in Gillette, Wyo.

“I had only lived in the Gillette community, which is a big mining town, for about seven years,” says Weatherstone, who has worked in cafes, restaurants, and food stores since the age of 14. “And we either have two choices of food — fast food, which is definitely not good for you, or the ‘big house’ or buffet-style [restaurant]. There’s no good alternative for any kind of good eating.”

Inspired to provide a healthy dining option, Weatherstone created the Mufa Cafe. The cafe’s name and overall concept stems from her awareness of the myriad health benefits associated with consuming foods that are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). Jokingly, Weatherstone often quips that Mufa stands for “Melanie’s Unadulterated Food Acquisition.” What isn’t a joke, of course, are the well-known heath benefits of consuming “good fats.”

“These fats happen to be the fats that are good for you,” she explains on the cafe’s website. Eating foods high in these “good fats” is conducive to a healthier heart, more energy, improved metabolism, and a “step in right direction to a longer life with a sharper mind and more zip in your step,” Weatherstone says.

Consequently, almost every item on the menu is made from scratch — and 80 percent of the dishes served are gluten-free, too.

“People [in Gillette] who are thinking about their health have an alternative or a different route to go,” Weatherstone says. She’s certain that more local diners would enjoy her healthy and delicious menu, if only they knew about the cafe.

“The business was established where I found a little cafe that had just totally been a dive,” she admits. “Even after a year people still come in and say, ‘Wow, we didn’t even realize that it had changed hands.’ So that’s part of the reason for our need for advertising. We need to let them know we’re not on the main drag of the road, but we are definitely a great place to eat.”

Looking to pay for the local advertising Mufa Cafe desperately needs, Weatherstone entered Intuit’s Small Business Growing Strong campaign.

“Our location is less than ideal, and people don’t simply find us by driving by,” she wrote in her wish entry requesting funds to help spread the word.

This week, the small-business owner learned that Intuit is granting the wish. “Thank you so very much!” Weatherstone says. “I’m thinking this will help me phenomenally.”

Intuit’s Small Business Growing Strong campaign is announcing one winner a day through May 24, 2013. Check out the list of current winners and find out whether we’ve granted your wish!

It’s nearly every small-business owner’s nightmare and dream: to provide key employees with equity.

The idea of diluting your ownership may feel somewhat like giving away your firstborn. But when your company’s future prospects look better than its current bank balance, offering a piece of the business and/or a chance to obtain warrants (often called “stock options”) is an attractive way to reward and incentivize people without spending a penny today.

If you’re thinking about giving equity to your staff, here are some factors to consider before you take the plunge.

Types of Equity

As you probably know, equity (ownership) in an incorporated small business generally gets broken down into:

• Common stock – the most common type of equity, each share confers ownership of a small portion of the business
• Preferred stock – also confers ownership, but receives its dividends before common stock
• Issuing shares – common stock given for free to key people, usually when the company is first starting
• Warrants (often called “stock options”) – do not immediately confer ownership, but confer the right to buy shares of the company’s stock, usually during a specified time period (often beginning several years in the future) at a specified price (often a share’s market price at the time the warrants are granted)

Your company can be owned through shares of stock without having those shares traded on the public stock markets. Regardless, transferring any of these financial instruments is a highly complex, thoroughly regulated activity. Don’t try it without an expert lawyer to advise you.

One attractive attribute about warrants (stock options) is that they can increase in value without costing a dime.

For example, if you give warrants to buy 1,000 shares of your company’s stock at $10, and those shares reach $15 in value, each of those warrants is intrinsically worth $5 — free money to whoever holds those warrants.

How Much to Offer

There’s no simple guide to offering warrants/stock options, but there are some basic parameters. Advocates of offering equity (in the form of warrants/stock options) suggest that an executive or a key first-stage hire can easily deserve up to 2 percent of the company after all options are exercised.

In deciding how much to offer, bear in mind that the financial incentive of each stock option can be huge. If your company does well and the stock value soars, early-stage option owners can easily see the underlying share price climb well above their options’ exercise price.

And of course, there’s no upper limit to your company’s stock price.

What’s more, options can gain intrinsic value without being exercised, and the employee does not pay tax on that value until he or she actually sells the options or the stock purchased with them. As a result, your employee feels rewarded, and his or her net worth climbs, without incurring a tax bill.

Even better, if employees hold the stock for a full year or longer before selling, they pay tax on the profits not as income but at the lower capital-gains rate.

Vesting Terms

Again, there are no cut-and-dried standards, but most small companies require an employee to remain on the job for a least a year before vesting (ownership) in his or her stock options begins to ramp up. You can create the warrants so that, after the initial wait, the employee vests in them a little at a time — perhaps a few percentage points each month, quarter, or year.

Generally, you’ll want your employees to become fully vested in the warrants after four or five years.

Although that may seem like a long time, the waiting period helps you to retain key employees, and because the warrants lock in the share price at the time they are granted, a longer vesting period actually gives the share price more time to increase.

Business Benefits

Stock options have little reward or motivational value for employees who don’t understand what they are or how they work. But when they do understand them as a variation on “good wages,” they rank very high as a motivator. That’s why it’s good business to make sure your employees understand the warrants you are offering.

Employees who receive this kind of equity opportunity are likely to feel a need to work harder toward the success of the company. And, as partial owners of the business, they stand to gain both financial and emotional rewards.

In addition, this kind of equity offer can provide you with a broader basis for judging your company’s financial outlook: If potential recruits are unmotivated by your offer of stock options, it’s fair to wonder what problems or potential pitfalls they foresee — issues that you as a business owner may be overlooking.

As a small-business owner, your success depends on overcoming myriad challenges — market forces, limited resources, and time constraints to name just a few. But frequently the biggest obstacle is your own lack of confidence in your abilities.

More than just a psychological scourge, self-doubt can have tangible effects on your business, compromising your ability to lead, grow your brand, and surmount those other challenges [PDF] we mentioned above.

Here are five tips for overcoming your self-doubt:

1. Remember your successes. The fear of failure probably plagues small-business owners more than any other fear. Fear can be a motivator — if it’s attached to an identifiable challenge and it spurs you to positive action. But more often it takes the form of a vaguely defined threat that you fixate on endlessly. When that’s the case, rather than ruminating, put that mental energy into revisiting past business successes and personal accomplishments. When you understand how you achieved them, you’ll feel more confident facing whatever challenges lie ahead.

2. Take action. Self-doubt keeps you stuck. It makes you question everything, impairs your problem-solving abilities, and makes it nearly impossible to make decisions. Acting decisively — even taking a small step toward a goal — is the surest way to break free of those mental handcuffs and move forward.

3. Face your fears. “Feel the fear and do it anyway,” “fake it till you make it” — however you phrase it, there’s something to be said for just walking into your fear. Confront your doubts head on and you’ll likely find the outcome isn’t half as bad as you imagined.

4. Monitor your self-talk. Your internal dialogue has incredible power over your attitude and performance. If you constantly put yourself down, question your decisions, and indulge in self-defeating thoughts, you’ll quickly get demoralized. Be aware of your self-talk and make sure it’s validating your abilities.

5. Join a small-business group. Fear shrinks your perspective. Participating in an entrepreneurial meetup, a mastermind group, or any other gathering of small-business owners gives you access to ideas and experience beyond your own. This is just what you need to refocus on the big picture. Plus, you’ll discover you’re not alone, which itself can go a long way toward vanquishing your fears.

About 100 miles southeast of Atlanta is the charming town of Milledgeville.

“It’s a very tight-knit, traditional southern community that’s been hit really hard [economically] over the last 10 years. There was a lot of industry here,” says small-business owner Shane Bridges. “But because of that sense of community a lot of people here have pulled together and stepped up to help one another and try to get through these difficult times.”

A little more than three years ago, Bridges personally experienced the impact of the economic downturn. “I had been let go of my job after almost five years working for one of the country’s best luxury real estate developers. I worked in commercial real estate. I really had no idea what I was going to do,” he says.

“But I met a really great girl, and her family was in the dry-cleaning and laundry industry since 1969. My options were to stay local or move to a big city to find a job. I really didn’t want to [move]. So, reluctantly, I agreed to start a medical linen service with my father-in-law. He had the building and the equipment. I had the background in starting businesses, and it seemed like it could be viable.”

In 2009, Shane and his wife, Casie, launched a medical linen service called MedLaundry. With the expert guidance of Shane’s father-in-law, Steve Chambers, and the invaluable assistance of longtime family friend Charles Preston, the four-person operation set out to challenge the giant national companies that largely controlled the local markets.

“Almost three years later,” Bridges says, “we’re dominating two of the local markets here. It’s been a really interesting ride. In fact, we win businesses over almost strictly on the fact that we are a small, family-owned and -operated business. That’s allowed us to compete with the national guys. Now it looks like we’ve got a really bright future ahead of us.”

However, although MedLaundry’s client base has grown substantially over the past three years, it’s running out of production capacity, Bridges says. He explains that MedLaundry’s expansion into new markets will be virtually impossible without a key equipment upgrade.

“One of the very important elements is having appropriately hot water in order to sanitize the linens,” he says. “That’s kind of where we’re at right now. It would greatly help to get a new water heater.”

To that end, Bridges recently entered Intuit’s Small Business Growing Strong campaign.

“We bought a used one [a water heater] to get started, and it’s on its last leg,” Bridges noted in his wish entry. “Getting water to the proper temp is critical, because we are sanitizing linens that might be used by our parents, grandparents, children, and friends. Please help us in our battle of local vs. the big guys.”

Thanks to Intuit, MedLaundry’s future sales may get just as hot as its linens being sanitized. “I don’t even know what to say right now. Thank you so much! This is a total, complete shock,” Bridges said upon learning that his wish is being granted.

“Our goal is to become the most dominant provider in our niche market,” he says. “We would really like to see ourselves expand into the Atlanta area. We’ve had to turn that down for the last few years because of limitations in equipment. This is going to help us get to that goal a lot faster. Now we can shift some of our funds around and buy a delivery vehicle in addition to a hot water heater.”

Intuit’s Small Business Growing Strong campaign is announcing one winner a day through May 24, 2013. Check out the list of current winners and find out whether we’ve granted your wish!

I’ve never had a particularly positive view of consultants. That’s probably because I’ve mostly seen big companies use them poorly.

Time and time again, the result was the same: The firms wasted money by getting outsiders to tackle unnecessary tasks and by channeling internal resources toward helping them instead of having employees do their own work. That said, there are excellent uses for consultants, such as complex IT integrations or special projects that lie outside of a company’s core expertise (like a merger).

So, I recently started to consider whether it might make sense to use a consultant at Cranky Concierge. My interest isn’t in finding a consultant to help us with strategy, marketing, etc. Rather, if I’m going to hire a consultant, it will be to take on specific projects that we can’t handle ourselves. Right now, the projects that come to mind are the ones I wrote about last week: email migration, customer database creation, and phone system migration.

There are plenty of people who could handle email migration. But we aren’t that big, and I’ve done a migration myself before. Thus, it seems that it would take longer to find the right consultant and explain what we need than to just do the job myself over a weekend. I feel pretty much the same way about phone system migration. Neither of those projects should really be that hard.

However, when it comes to creating a customer database, we might benefit from seeking outside help. Not only am I unfamiliar with exactly which system would be best for us, but I also don’t know how to install or customize the software. When the time comes, I will probably poke around a little to see how difficult it might be. But I’m just guessing that the job may be too much for me to handle, because I’m just not familiar with these systems and their capabilities.

I’ll have to find the right consultant to help with the job. Any suggestions?

Need another reason to use LinkedIn company pages to promote your business? Here you go: A recent LinkedIn study found that half of its members are more likely to purchase from a business that they engage with on the site.

Company pages offer a wealth of free and premium tools to help businesses market themselves to potential employees, customers, and partners. Here are five tips for getting the most out of these features — and making an impact with your page.

1. Use keywords. Companies on LinkedIn are found the same way as individuals — via search — so create your page with SEO in mind. Research and identify keywords that potential customers and job seekers might look for and incorporate them into your descriptions of your company, its specialties, its products and services, and any other text.

2. Socialize. Company pages now have social media features, such as the ability to post status updates, gain followers, and share content. Use these to engage current and potential customers, share your industry expertise, and establish thought leadership. Remember to keep all “social” communiqués professional.

3. Think locally. If your business is a service provider, most of your customers will come from your geographic area. To ensure they can find you, include your location — LinkedIn lets you add up to five — so your business pops up in ZIP code searches.

4. Add banner images. Following Facebook’s introduction of cover photos, LinkedIn added banner image options to its company pages. You can add these to each section of your company’s profile, including three photos on your products page. Take advantage of these opportunities to enliven your presence and tell your brand story through imagery.

5. Remember your logo. Your logo is the visual representation of your business and probably the most important component of your branding. Don’t forget to include it on your company page. You’ll need two versions: a standard logo for the profile page and a square one that will function as your icon when followers see your status updates.

When Kirsten Bassion received a master’s degree in ceramics from the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2004, she knew she wanted to give back to her community through education. Two years later, with friend and fellow potter Doreen Mastandrea, Bassion opened a small studio in Lynn, Mass., that would later become the Clay School.

“We started out really small,” Bassion says of the business, which is located 30 minutes north of Boston. “Now we have five classes of adult students. We teach inner-city kids. We have workshops and teach kids all summer. We basically run what we consider a small, professional college program that is very much associated with the community.”

Since its launch, the Clay School has received widespread praise for the quality of instruction that students receive. Bassion and three other teachers — all accomplished artists — offer courses.

“[My colleagues] have tons of experience,” Bassion boasts. “We’re all in different museums and galleries nationwide. The quality of the teaching is really good, which means the students who come in get so much. They are getting a college education in ceramics.”

The Clay School’s open studio policy and flexible hours are designed to support aspiring and established artists alike, she says.

“If you’re a teacher and can only get here at 5 a.m., then you are welcome,” Bassion explains. “So, it’s like a very self-directed graduate studio setup. But because of that, we put in a lot of work. Between myself and my one tech, we are there every other day loading two kilns. And those are the only two kilns we have. We are at capacity. The only way we’re going to be able to grow is if we get another kiln.”

Bassion recently entered Intuit’s Small Business Growing Strong campaign in the hopes of getting funding for a third kiln. “We have outgrown our two electric kilns and are in desperate need of a new one,” she noted in her wish entry.

This week, she received the call she had been hoping for: Intuit will grant the Clay School’s wish for a new kiln.

“This is so incredible!” Bassion says. “This means we will be able to offer more classes to the community and get more work out. It’s going to take the pressure off all of the professional artists in the studio and the teachers.”

Intuit’s Small Business Growing Strong campaign is announcing one winner a day through May 24, 2013. Check out the list of current winners and find out whether we’ve granted your wish!