March 2006 Update

Major Accomplishments
The biggest news is our TV and Radio spots for OPEN have hit the air. This was quite a fun project for us and while you may not see much of us, it involved 3 nights of filming all over San Francisco (apparently in the film world they shoot tons more than actually makes it on screen). It was fun being TV stars for a few days. Our other major accomplishments include release of two new products - our WinePassports to France and Bubbly. These guys are packed with great information on the regions and are quite handy for all sorts of trips - from the liquor store to the Burgundy region of France. We're also busy developing marketing partnerships with companies such as ZipCar and ChefsLine (a new woman-owned business providing phone and other advice for home chefs) where we offer fun games and product discounts to their members.

3M Support
We're thrilled that the Make Mine a $Million conference and awards will be held in San Francisco on June 1st & 2nd, and we've had a lot of opportunity to see everyone's beloved Nell and to get involved in marketing the program. We're looking forward to seeing everyone in June and getting caught up on all the exciting news that's going on. I think we are yet again at a crossroads for our business, and we're at a point in finding new and creative ways to spur our growth into new sectors and channels. We continue to have challenges with our identity, but thanks to our mentor, Vivian, and some of her colleagues, we're getting closer to really understanding our strenghts and where we can get some help.

PR & Promotions
In addition to the TV and radio spots for our friends at American Express, we've been featured in their employee magazine (along with Denise, Cynthia and Saundra), Play Things Magazine, Inside Magazines, Gifts and Decorative Accessories, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In addition, one of our writers, mentioned us on her blog, which drove a ton of traffic to our website. If you're looking to increase your web traffic, hitting up top bloggers, MySpace.com users, and other online writers is a great and cheap way to go and can really generate lots of traffic to your website.