Okay...I coming out..Im outing myself...(this is not what you are thinking). But who am I, I ask....My answer: I am what I do. What do I do? What do I love doing? What would I do without being paid? Writing. I like the feel of writing flowing through my fingers, the feel of the wind in my sail. Okay, that said. Heres whats coming out. By odd circumstances, I find myself the President of Coffee News of Central Virginia, a weekly publication you have probably seen in restaurants and businesses. But there is no writing involved in that for the franchise writes the puzzles and novel notes each week. I call it an antidote for the bored mind. So I created southsidecoffeebean as an additional sail to add value to the ads in Coffee News. I thought it could be a free art gallery for local artists. But the price of ads was too high and few artists and ads came forth. Coffee News was dead in the water. But the wind changed...so Im tacking. Since I had a monetary investment in Coffee News, I had an interest in finding some wind if I wanted to get my money back. But, not to digress, what the wind steers me to is the awakening of my sleeping passion that I once had for writing stories about Southside Virginia in the Courier Record. Since I left in 1996, I have not written about the area, other than write my own story here on Facebook. But Im tired of me. I want to write about people again, business people. Businesses, especially small businesses are people too. The Coffee Bean, both the website and this page, are going to be the southside business outlet for the personal stories of our local entrepreneurs who dare to compete with the Goliaths of Wal-Mart and Amazon. How can these Davids compete with these giants? What do they have that a corporation doesnt have? We need to make small businesses like Godzilla. Small is big when united. A small business is an expressions of the owners personality, and a personality is communicated through a story that has feeling, that one can recognize and identify with because it is personal and human. A personal story has feeling. Corporations are impersonal. They dont know your name, but a small business owner does. And something else is coming out, in this area around Blackstone thanks to Fort Picket. FASTC, a huge training center of embassy personnel—and I hear about 1500 employees, not to mention the people coming for training—is coming soon. The small business community certainly needs sails to catch this wind and get their name and story onto Facebook and the social networks that people now access for relationship and community. Coffee News and Bean can create that sail. To make membership in the Coffee News/Bean networks affordable for small business Ive reduced the rate to bare minimum. For the price of a weekly service ad in just one local newspaper, you can have a profession business story written, a print ad in Coffee News and unlimited access to the Coffee Bean portal that covers the Southside area 24/7. Membership is for three months, six months, and the lowest price, $50 a month, is for a year. A one-time Coffee News design fee is $25. Message me to show interest, and Ill come by your business with my camera, tape recorder and visa swipe, and craft a story sail this will fit your business and personality. When I was writing for the Courier-Record, I remember being frustrated because I couldnt write the wonderful stories of small businesses because of advertising conflicts. I feel liberated now and a whole new field of stories is opening up. Lets face it; the people who are exciting, creative, and courageous are the people who dare to open up their own business and set sail on the great commerce ocean that is America. Lets create some sails to catch the changing wind..... Thank you, Ed Conley, President of Coffee News of Central Virginia.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 15:25:49 +0000
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