Eddie - Hi Nicole, how are you?

Nicole Uveges- Bartolozzi – Hi Eddie! I am doing great, enjoying our warm weather, How about you?

Eddie – Gotta love the heat, here in Canada don’t know what that means! But I am very well; thank you. We are very excited about your contest. Tell us a bit more, what is this all about?

Nicole Uveges- Bartolozzi - Chase and Living Social have come together to offer 12 Small Business Grants! Each grant will be $250,000 which is amazing for any small business! To be eligible you must answer their essay questions about –

• Why your business is unique?
• What your intentions for using the grant will be?
• How you serve the community?
• How you will handle setbacks?
• Describing your team and what makes everyone work so well together?

Once that is submitted the race is on to get 250 votes via Facebook in support of your mission. On June 30th, all applicants who have reached 250 votes will have their essays reviewed and 12 grants will be awarded!

Nicole Uveges- Bartolozzi

Eddie - This is a wonderful concept and certainly a smart way to help small businesses be recognized and grow. Tell us a bit about why does the ‘Moments by Cole Photography’ deserve this grant?

Nicole Uveges- Bartolozzi - Because we really, really want it! Just Kidding! We do want it but for reasons that probably wouldn’t come to mind first for most. We have been in business for a little over 4 years now and unlike many startup businesses; we didn’t have the benefit of starting capital.

I worked with a studio and saved every penny to buy my first camera and have pieced together our equipment as we have moved forward. We’ve always been safe and reserved in our spending and we realize that is a lot of the reason why we are still smaller than we hope to become.

This grant would allow us to purchase and upgrade our equipment to offer more options to our clients, as well as giving our business the opportunity of a permanent home. We have been very blessed over the last four years and personally the last 7 I have encountered more love and blessings than I sometimes feel I deserve.

I am a big fan of paying it forward and we have always gone out of our way to try and help organizations that are in need. As much as we love helping these organizations and individuals our donated work has at times hindered us from financial milestones that we need to be hitting. This grant would allow us to hit these milestones to obtain the equipment needed while still allowing us to help those who need it.

Eddie – Certainly, to help others you need to be able to first take care of yourselves as individuals and business. Can you please share a bit more about how ‘Moments by Cole Photography’ helped the community?

Nicole Uveges- Bartolozzi - Since 2008 we have played an active role in various fundraisers either by sponsorships or donated services to benefit The Emergency Assistance Center, The March of Dimes, St. Barnabas Schools, Goodwill Inc, & The Nordonia YMCA, to name a few. We have also stepped in for events such as a cut-a-thon that benefitted a local firefighter who had been diagnosed with cancer, or the Ladies night out which benefitted a local business owner who had just lost her husband unexpectedly.

We’ve also gone out of our way to help various professionals, meeting with several for coffee to chat about their business and to help them brainstorm or offer the benefit of our experience. In 2010 we also started a FREE bi-monthly networking event to help professionals make the much needed connections for their businesses.

But probably our biggest contribution is our annual Mommy-2-Bee Brunch. This event is centered on expectant mothers and their bundles of joy. Letting women know about the opportunities, resources, and options that they have available to them. We have speakers come and discuss nutrition, exercise, sanity savers, and more. All attendees get goodie bags full of coupons and much desired information. It truly has been an amazing event now 2 years running!

Eddie - That is certainly the signs of a business that not only supports the community but also understands the real needs and effectively delivers a genuine service that brings the businesses, the community and a better society in one place. Well Done!

And I have to ask – once you win the grant, fingers, legs – all crossed, how do you plan to utilize it?

Nicole Uveges- Bartolozzi - We all have everything crossed on this end as well, even my kids have crossed their fingers! This grant would be used in so many ways; $250,000 goes a LOOOONG when you use it wisely! To keep it brief out top goals are

1. Tto get some standardized training for our staff, they are all very talented and come from various backgrounds, it would be nice to see them all benefit from growing together (myself included).
2. To upgrade/ expand some of our equipment. Our team has grown a lot over the past 2 years specifically and currently based on schedules we share a lot of the resources which sometimes causes conflicts and delays which is not OK by any of our standards. It would be nice for us to have a realistic amount of resources to keep our work efficient and timely.
3. Currently we are a residential studio and this grant would allow up the opportunity to explore a permanent home in a retail space. We would be able to research the options of renting versus owning a space and could then choose the wisest investment which many businesses don’t ever get as an option.
4. A large portion of this money would be put away, for down the road’s unforeseeable events. I agree that a failure to plan is a plan to fail and we want to ensure that we are prepared for whatever may come our way.

Eddie – Smart thinking; and to make it happen, how can people help?

Nicole Uveges- Bartolozzi- Well, I just checked and we are just shy of 100 of the needed 250 votes so GO OUT AND VOTE! Voting only takes 30 seconds, and to share a post on your wall takes maybe 2 minutes at the most.

Here’s how to vote:

Click on the link https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/

Click the “log in and support” icon on the lower right side Sign in through Facebook Type in “Moments by Cole Photography” in “Northfield, Ohio” and click the VOTE icon

I have been blown away by the outpouring of support and am grateful from the bottom of my heart!

Eddie - Our best wishes are with you and we’ll spread the word best we can, keep up the good work and thank you so much for interview on this short notice!

All the best from 3S1, Inc team.

Don’t forget to check their Facebook Page – just click the banner below -

or checkout their website at - 

www.MomentsByColePhoto.com 

You might also get to see ‘the Almost Naked CEO’ -

FULLY NAKED – find out HOW! 

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