Horsepower Inc. - Putting the Idea Cafe grant win to work!

Editor Note: As a rule, all Idea Cafe grant winners provide monthly reports on how their business is doing since winning Idea Cafe's Grant. Here is the first update from Laura Ray, the owner of Horsepower Inc. Enjoy reading, and don't miss out on the opportunity to be inspired by her entrepreneurial spirit and business wisdom. In a six-month period she will share thoughts on how she uses the grant money in the best possible way in order to take her business to the next level.

Hello everyone. This is my first of many blog entries in the next few months. I would like to start off by thanking the Idea Café for the opportunity to receive this grant. I was so excited to hear that we won and I can’t wait to share with you all how we put the money to good use!

Our greatest accomplishment this past month would have to be winning this grant.  I stumbled across the grant simply by searching Google. I had never applied for a grant before so it was all new to me, as was the Idea Café website. Let me tell you, that site has opened my eyes to many possibilities in the business world. They have everything on that site from grants, to business ideas, business financing, marketing ideas, etc.  It’s a great site for anyone currently in business or anyone even thinking about starting a business.  I advise everyone to check it out and share the link with friends.

Once we won the first round of the grant in August, I was determined to go all the way!  I sent out emails to everyone in my contact list, posted the links on our company Facebook page, and embedded the voting link into our website.  With a little hard work, positive thinking, and determination anything is possible. I earned my first business grant and it felt great to achieve that goal. It has given me hope for more opportunities out there.  

My goal for the next upcoming month is to focus on marketing. Thanksgiving isn’t too far off, which means Christmas isn’t too far off either.  Everyone is searching for those great sales, so we too plan to get some ideas together to market some great sale specials during this month for our customers.