Nell Merlino is on vacation with her family and will be back to blogging on Monday, August 10th.  Until then, please enjoy guest blogging from a few of Count Me In’s experts, community members and staff.  Today’s entry is from Kris Wittenberg, M3 Racer and Make Mine A Million Awardee from 2006.

How often have you found yourself wanting to do something more meaningful?  For me, no matter how much I loved running my promotions company,SayNoMore! Promotions, I was struggling with this dull nagging in the back of my mind that putting logos on products – no matter how great we are at doing it – does not really “matter” in the grand scheme of things.  I tried to reassure myself…we are really good at what we do, and help our clients’ brands be remembered and that is a good thing, right?  I mean, we don’t try to sell things just to sell them – we really think about who the products are going to and make sure the recipients will truly appreciate them, and don’t just toss them in a can on its way to the landfill. That gives our clients a great return on their ever more precious marketing dollars.  So it’s all relative.  But does it really make an impact on people? Does it change the world?  Not so much. 

I don’t remember exactly what happened last spring, but someone was really rude to me when I was out running errands at lunch. I distinctly remember coming back to my office extremely disheartened.  I stood in the middle of the office and yelled, “Why can’t people just be good to people?!”  Then, being entrepreneurial-minded, not to mention logo’d product-minded, I thought, “Be Good to People…that should be a T-shirt!”  I went back to my office and did a search for the URL.  To my amazement, begoodtopeople.com was available.  I took that as a “sign” that I was meant to put Be Good to People on a t-shirt. I secured the URL that day and quickly created a logo.  In true entrepreneurial fashion, my mind began racing with the possibilities…I researched the trademark (it was available!), started choosing the types of tees I wanted to put it on and envisioned this great new company that I was going to start. I knew that I had a head start with the help of my Make Mine a Million $ Business community, having won that award for SayNoMore! Promotions in 2006.  I was confident that my girls would help me pull this thing together with all of their brilliant input.

I was ramping up, but then I shelved Be Good to People because I realized that starting a new business at that time was just going to be too much for me.  Already I was working crazy hours and not spending nearly enough time with my family. Moreover, it would require a completely new learning curve being a product-based business instead of service-based.  I decided to focus on my core business, SayNoMore! Promotions.

In February of this year however, I was compelled to pick up Be Good to People and run with it again. A personal issue motivated me to create a mock up of the shirt and wear it to a meeting where I felt it was imperative the message be communicated. Well the meeting itself went horribly, but three people asked me where I got my shirt.  My staff encouraged me to move forward with BGTP; we all felt it was the right time based on the state of our country and world. And so, Be Good to People was born…and I embarked on an adventure that is proving to be one of my most challenging, and rewarding.

Courtesy of Kris Wittenberg

Although Be Good to People is still in its infancy, it has experienced all kinds of challenges. I thank God for putting the Make Mine a Million $ Business Program in my life.  Without the brilliant and experienced minds of the women in the M3 community I would not have made it this far.  I received great insight on which type of business structure to move forward with from my friends Romy at Psi Bands and Bill at The Coach Connection. My girl Linda at Mugshots pointed me in the right direction for our SBA loan, Miracle at HipUndies guided me on ecommerce, Cindy at Staged4More and Julie at ActivePort inspired me with their social media expertise while Julie, founder of SmartsCo has walked and is still walking me through selling to retailers. And throughout the entire process I have leaned on my dear friend Maureen at Creative Display Solutions, the M3 RACE web site and the invaluable resources of American Express OPEN. Without their Plum Card I would have been in big trouble. 

Recently we had a school teacher in Colorado contact us about using Be Good to People.™ as a theme for her kindergarten class this upcoming school year. She will be recognizing and rewarding her students’ Good efforts by giving them BGTP gear like pens, magnets and wrist bands. Her class will also be journaling about what being Good to people means to them and how they can be Good-doers in their everyday life.  We hope that other schools and teachers see how positive and meaningful a program like this could be and will want to participate. BGTP also has a fundraising program for schools, religious organizations, and other groups that are interested in Spreading the Good and raising money for their cause.  BGTP has the ability to place the organization’s name and logo on all the shirts in order to increase visibility for those organizations’ fundraising efforts.  If anyone is interested in the fundraising element they can email us at info@begoodtopeople.com

Courtesy of Kris Wittenberg

We are excited to be part of the social media scene and connecting with people via our newly created Be Good to People.™  Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account, @begoodtopeople. In 2 ½  weeks we already have more than 800 fans of our Facebook page and we are excited to be Tweeting and connecting with people all over the world.  

Our first retailer sold out of all of their BGTP merchandise on the first day it was on the shelves. Not only are we excited but also the retailer could not wait to order more.  Because of our 25+ years of experience with manufacturing and promotional products BGTP has the capability to grow our product base and create fun and trendy products that make Spreading the Good even more exciting. Our hope is with this ability BGTP can create even more products that appeal to retail gift shops and clothing stores across the county.  

BGTP is simple, it’s black and white and we want our marketing efforts to reflect that.  We have taken on a more viral approach in an effort to really get to know our audience and connect them to each other in an effort to spread the Good one person, one kind act positive and one story at a time.