DESIGN & BUSINESS

• Good Investing by Design (article by Daniel H. Pink on Yahoo Finance)
• 99 Tips for Direct-Mail Marketing (article from Entrepreneur.com)
• FastCompany.com – Design Resources
• BusinessWeek.com – Innovation & Design
• Design Council
  design business resource from the UK

SMALL BUSINESS

• Crain’s Chicago Business – Small Talk
  Weekly tips for entrepreneurs and small business owners
• IRS Small Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource
• City of Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Licensing
  Workshops and seminars on topics of financing, business plans, copyright/trademark, benefits
• IRS e-News for Small Businesses (www.irs.gov)
  Weekly e-newsletter with information for small business owners/self-employed individuals
• Small businesses publications (www.irs.gov)

MARKETING & SELF-PROMOTION

• Maria Piscopo (Creative Services Consultant) – Business Tips
• Marketing Mentor – Quick Tips

DESIGN SOFTWARE TIPS

• QuarkXpress Resource Center (Quark.com)
• DesignGeek Central (Seneca Design & Training)
  Tips and techniques for digital designers

GREEN/ENVIRONMENTAL
Lidia Varesco Design incorporates many green policies such as reusing paper and using recycled paper, donating unneeded paper samples (see Creative Pitch below), refilling/recycling printer cartridges and using junk mail/scraps as note paper. And of course, working in a home office reduces auto emissions (no commuting!) We offer these tips to encourage everyone to put green policies into practice in their own offices:

• General Information / Articles
  • Local Recycling Centers/Conservation Tips (Earth911.org)
  • TreeHugger.com
  • Reducing Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and Email (Federal Trade Commission)
  • NEW! CatalogChoice – Eliminate unwanted catalogs
  • "It's Not Easy Being Green" (Constance J. Sidles on HowDesign.com)
    Tips on being an environmentally conscious designer
    
• Non-Toxic Household/Cleaning Products:
  • Method Home (available at Target)
  • Mrs. Meyers (available at Whole Foods)
  • Seventh Generation (available at Whole Foods/Wild Oats)
  • Greener Cleaner – natural dry cleaning (Chicago and nearby suburbs)
• Where to Recycle Used Office Supplies:
  • Lexmark – toner cartridges
  • Office Depot/Office Max – ink cartridges
  • Cartridge World– inkjet cartridges
  • Centralized Office Supply – toner, ink cartridges, cell phones
    
• Environmentally-friendly Office Supplies
  • NEW! The Green Office
  • NEW! Sustainable Group: recycled binders, notebooks, folders
  • NEW! CFL bulb discounts (ComEd Chicago)
  • Buy Green at Office Depot
• Eco-friendly Paper & Envelopes: papers that are FSC-certified and/or recycled
  • Domtar EarthChoice®
  • Neenah Green®
  • Wausau Paper (also check out the Eco Calculator)
  • Mohawk Paper (see Environment section)
  • West Linn Paper Co.
  • The Paper Mill Store
    

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

• Creative Pitch
  Chicago organization that donates art supplies to local art teachers & students
  Lidia Varesco Design is proud to be a participant of Creative Pitch

PHOTOGRAPHERS

• Christina Frances Photography (Chicago, IL)

WELLNESS AT WORK

• RX: Yoga
  Yoga DVDs for computer users (and others at risk for RSIs)

ART & ARCHITECTURE

• AudioSnacks
  Podcast and MP3 Audio Tours for Travel, Museums and More!

ARTSY STUFF

• Laurageorge’s etsy.com shop
  Paintings, prints and plush