Square to the rescue.

How to handle credit card transactions is always a problem for businesses at remote locations. To prepare for the the SJ Made festival, we signed up for a Square account. We had downloaded the app but unfortunately our card reader did not arrive in time for the fair. We were talking about this to someone at the show and they reached into their pocket and handed us their old Square card reader.

Source: http://andrew.jorgensenfamily.us/2010/11/square/

They did not need it anymore because they have a different account now with Square. We put the Square reader into our phone and it instantly started working. It is amazing what can happen when the hardware becomes disposable.

Special thanks for giving us your reader.

The new alchemy

Alchemy is the transformation of lead into gold.  While the ancient Alchemists where not successful, Goodjoe, www.goodjoe.com is successfully transforming creative energy into revenue for non-profits using a crowdsourcing model.  Each week, Goodjoe works with a non profit to sponsor a t-shirt contest around a specific theme chosen by the non-profit.  Artists upload designs related to the topic and then the community votes on their favorite designs.  

Our very own island

The theme for this shirt was animals and helped benefit animal rights organizations.  

At the end of the contest, the top designs are printed and purchased by the community.  The artists receive compensation for their work, the non-profit receives revenue to help fund their mission and Goodjoe handles all of the printing, mailing and inventory.

In addition to giving artists the opportunity to show show off their talent, Goodjoe allows non-profits to reach out to their base in a creative engaging way.  The contests creates new imagery about how the work of the non-profit impacts peoples lives furthering the discussion within the community.

To see how raw creativity is being transformed into good, head on over to Goodjoe.

www.goodjoe.com

All pictures from Goodjoe website www.goodjoe.com

How do you express yourself through the ages?

Whenever I talk about Evozip, I ask people what kind of t-shirts that they own and how often they wear those shirts.   After a certain age, the t-shirt is less and less a wardrobe necessity.  As such, you would think that an Evozip bag is not appealing.  However people do say that they still have an interest in the concept of t-shirt as a form of self expression.  The Evozip bag allows people to still show their interests in a more sophisticated manner.

Here is a quick review of the media that people use to express themselves through the ages.

• Birth – Dressed by parents in Onesies
• Grade School – Lunch Box
• Middle School – Hand decorated Trapper Keepers and Book Covers
• High School – Hair, Backpacks, t-shirt
• College, Post High school – relationships, buttons, tattoos
• 20s – Bags, Shoes, apartment location, Job ID badge
• 30s – Stock portfolios, home crafted beer, travel photos
• 40s – House entrance ways, kids science projects
• 50s – Children’s college bumper sticker on car, boat names, wine collection
• 60s – Hats from golf tournaments / fishing lodges, dedications
• 70s - Customized health aids, licence plate frames
• 80s  and up - Tombstones

If you can think of other ways people express themselves through the ages, please share them on the Evozip Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Evozip/187569554621271#!/