BBB Starts Rating Businesses With Letter Grades

The Better Business Bureau has switch to a letter grading system like thosed used in schools.  This replaces the rather vague older system of a business being either satisfactory or unsatisfactory.  

The new system takes into account sixteen variables of a business. How old the business is, the breakdown of complaints (Solved, not solved, unanswered, etc.) and many other details of the business not available before.

This new system will make it a lot easier for everyone to tell the quality of a business before we work with that business.  With the economy the way it is, this extra level of protection is appreciated and helpful.

Visit the BBB at us.bbb.org

Read the Consumerist Article about this change

Snow News: You Can't Beet the Garlic Road

Who would of thought of using garlic salt on snowy ice encased roads.  Seems road crews in Ankeny Iowa recieved a donation of 18,000 pounds of this savory seasoning.  Mixed with normal road salt, the garlic salt works just fine.

Garlic salt isn't the only food making its way onto snowy roads.  In Cincinnatti Ohio they have started using beet juice in their road de-icer mix.  Beet juice has a low freezing temperature, and doesn't harm the enviroment, the road or cars.  It's catching-on in many parts of the mid-west and seems like a good use for beets to me!

Drive safe in the snow!

photo by brungrrl (flickr)

Business: Be Different or Die!

Jonathan Fields over at the Small Business Trends blog reminded me of a simple point when running your business during a down economy. Be different or die.

It's easy to coast when everyone has money and people are spending freely. As soon as the economy goes bad, people get really tight with money. People start looking for value and uniqueness in what they are purchasing.

Is your product or service unique enough to get people to part with their money? Is what you do different enough from your competitors? Do you potential customers know the difference? These become critical questions to answer. If the answer to any of these question is less than a solid yes, you have some work to do in shoring up the foundations of your business.
picture by Jesus Solana

For help with surviving a down economy checkout our business boot camps starting in January!

Moving Day!

Community Education is moving into their new digs today. After six months of planning, a remodel, and hours of packing and cleaning, the move has started.

Like all moves, it will take us a few days to get organized again. If you call and don't get an immediate answer, leave a message! We only have a couple phones hooked up at this point.

We are now in the Foundation building behind Cruisen Coffee on the south end of the campus. Watch for our open house in January!

Computer: Whatcom's Cyber Team Conquers Bigger Schools

There is no better feeling than being a little team from a small school who out shines some of the biggest teams in the State. In April, our IT Professionals of Tomorrow team went to the first annual Pacific Rim Cyber-defense Competition taking third place beating teams from the UW and other 4-year colleges.

The competition was to see which team was better at protecting a computer network from a series of hacker attacks. Seems Corrine Sande and crew do a pretty good job of teaching students cyber-defense.

UWTV just released a short 20 minute documentary of the event. Use the link below to view. Go Orcas!
picture by Giopuo (flikr)

http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.aspx?rID=27982