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URBaCS Launches NewFocusHR.com for Kristen Shingleton

We recently launched a new website for our client at NewFocusHR.com. New Focus HR, LLC is a human resource solutions company that provides consulting, training and speaking services to businesses in the great state of Indiana. The company uses its experience to help organizations attract, motivate, retrain and retain the best employees.

New Focus HR is owned and managed by Kristen Shingleton. Kristen has over 20 years of experience in the HR field and has worked with clients of all shapes and sizes, including Cathedral High School, Richmond Power and Light and the Rochestor Telephone Company.

We’d love to hear your feedback about our newest website design.

newfocushr

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By Jayson Manship – January 27, 2010

Kori Brown - Her Inspiring Story on ABC’s Extreme Makeover Tonight!

File from Wikicommons

File from Wikicommons

ABC aired Kori Brown’s story on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition tonight (Jan 10, 2010) at 8pm EST. Hallmark Homes built a new home for Kori and her family with the help of thousands of volunteers, including celebrity designers Ty Pennington, Paul DiMeo, Didiayer Snyder, Xzibit and David Cook.

We were fortunate to be a small part of this incredible week-long journey. We managed the website, HallmarkExtreme.com, coordinated teams of students from Ball State University as they created content for HallmarkBlogs.com, worked with a team of students from Anderson University on social media initiatives, handled media requests, and managed communication with volunteers, sponsors and spectators using MailChimp for email and CellTrust for SMS.

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By Jayson Manship – January 10, 2010

Extreme Makeover set to destroy Andy and Heather Cowan’s home.

A small Miami County community is set for some excitement today as ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition prepares to destroy Andy and Heather Cowan’s old home.

Demolishing the old home is the first step in the 106 hour marathon to build the Cowan family a new dream home. Hallmark Homes, the Anderson based home builder, with the help of an army of blue clad volunteers  is going spend most of today clearing away the old home. Later this evening construction will start on the new home.

The destruction of the old home will start around 11:00 am this morning. Builders from other Extreme projects have found unique and interesting ways to get rid of the old home. Blowing up, dropping a wrecking ball from a helicopter, destroyed by monster truck, and the always popular destroyed by crane. How the team will knock the Cowans home down will be a mystery for a little while longer.

To learn more about the Extreme build visit HallmarkExtreme.com

To learn more about the Cowan-Brown family visit HallmarkExtreme.com/family

If you would like to help the Cowan-Brown family visit the site to Donate.

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By Jayson Manship – October 22, 2009

Andy and Heather Cowan to receive Extreme Makeover Home

URBaCS has joined Hallmark Homes and ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to help build a new home for Andy and Heather Cowan.

Hallmark Homes released the following information on their website Hallmarkextreme.com this morning.

Good Morning Cowan-Brown Family

“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will rebuild the home of the Andy and Heather Cowan, factory workers who struggle to support their four children Ryan, 16, Trevor, 13, Mason, 8, and their daughter Kori, 12, who is battling a congenital blood disease.

At six-years-old, Kori Cowan was diagnosed with a congenital blood disease affecting her immune system. Kori has developed polyps in her nasal cavity and behind her eyes. She has already endured 17 operations as a result of these painful growths, which must be surgically removed. Doctors believe these polyps may be the result of environmental issues facing the family’s home, including an extreme mold infestation. Ryan, Andy and Heather’s oldest son, has also fallen ill and has gone to live with his biological father – tearing this close-knit family apart.

Despite the daily struggles Kori faces, she has not let her disease slow her down. During one of her stays at the blood clinic, Kori was inspired by a little girl with whom she shared a room and who remains one of her best friends. Kori has raised over $35,000 for the American Cancer Society in honor of her friend while being restricted to the upstairs of her family’s deteriorating home. Now, it’s up to “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” to build Kori and her family a safe, new home that will allow her to not just fight her own disease, but continue to fight cancer as well.

The family will go on vacation to Disneyland while “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team leader Ty Pennington, designers Paul DiMeo, Didiayer Snyder, and Xzibit, celebrity volunteer Platinum selling artist David Cook, local builder Hallmark Homes, and community volunteers rebuild their home.

Hallmark Homes invites all Hoosiers to show their support of this Extreme Makeover: Home Edition by visiting the site and following the build on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. For more information, visit www.hallmarkextreme.com/connect.

URBaCS is assisting the build by managing the HallmarkExtreme.com website, Communicating with sponsors and volunteers through CellTrust’s mobile text messaging system,  and quarterbacking the social media campaign.

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By Jayson Manship – October 21, 2009

URBaCS Featured on MobileMarketer.com

mobilemarketerURBaCS and CellTrust have been featured on MobileMarketer.com for our collective work to integrate SMS into the Extreme Makeover home build in Central Indiana.

Thanks to Chris Harnick and the team at Mobile Marketer for picking up on the press release we issued.

Read the full article at:  http://www.mobilemarketer.com

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By Jayson Manship – October 13, 2009

CellTrust and URBaCS Join ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition and Hallmark Homes to Build a Home for a Family in Need

CellTrust and URBaCS Provide SMS Text Messaging Application to Coordinate Volunteers and Raise Funding

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. & NOBLESVILLE, Ind.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CellTrust Corporation, an Arizona based provider of leading edge-edge secure mobile messaging and applications (www.celltrust.com), and URBaCS, Central Indiana’s leader in innovative ideas for small businesses (www.urbacs.com), announced today that they are joining ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition and Hallmark Homes to help build a new home for a deserving local family. URBaCS will be using CellTrust’s Global SMS Gateway and text messaging application to help coordinate and notify volunteers for the project. CellTrust’s secure system will also be used to assist the team in fundraising for the families. The new home build is scheduled to begin October 21, 2009.

“Our team is excited about teaming up with CellTrust and ABC to help a deserving Central Indiana Family,” said Rob Wagoner, President of URBaCS. “We found the first Extreme Makeover project we were involved in so rewarding that when Hallmark Homes asked, we jumped at the chance to help again.”

“SMS has demonstrated over and over how it can move communities into action,” said Sean Moshir, Chairman and CEO of CellTrust. “We are pleased to join URBaCS and ABC as part of this meaningful initiative.”

About URBaCS

URBaCS has been providing innovative solutions for small business since 2006. Locally owned and operated, URBaCS provides custom software applications to help connect businesses with their customers effectively and affordably. URBaCS “one-on-one” marketing solutions, such as Lead Builder are powered using CellTrust SMS Gateway and text messaging technology. For more information visit: www.urbacs.com

About CellTrust Corporation

CellTrust is a leading provider of secure mobile messaging and applications. CellTrust’s patent pending Secure SMS Gateway™ featuring Secure SMS and a suite of mobile applications provide advanced secure mobile messaging and information management across 200+ countries and over 700 carriers. CellTrust ensures the secure and trusted exchange of information on mobile devices to the financial services, healthcare, government, education, energy, information technology, marketing, and travel, among other global industries. For more information about CellTrust’s Global, African, North American and Australian operations: www.celltrust.com www.africa.celltrust.comwww.celltrust.com.au

About ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition

Now in its sixth season, Extreme Makeover Home Edition has won back-to-back Emmy Awards as Best Reality Program (non competitive). The program is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. Anthony Dominici is the executive producer, and David Goldburg is the President of Endemol USA. The show airs on Sundays (7:00-8:00 CST), on the ABC Television Network. For more information about ABC Extreme Makeover Home Edition: www.abc.go.com/primetime/extremehome

Contacts

Global Results Comms (GRC) for CellTrust
Lora Friedrichsen or Yasmin Ezaby
949-608-0276
celltrust@globalresultspr.com
or
URBaCS
Jayson Manship
317-723-6155
jayson@urbacs.com

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By Jayson Manship – October 12, 2009

URBaCS to assist with Extreme Home

URBaCS joins ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Hallmark Homes to build a home for a deserving central Indiana family

Noblesville, Indiana - October 7, 2008 – URBaCS, Central Indiana’s leader in innovative ideas for small business announced today that they are joining ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Hallmark Homes to help build a new home for a deserving local family. URBaCS is assisting the team by spearheading a social media marketing effort to raise awareness of the project. URBaCS will be building a SMS text messaging application, powered by CellTrust Corporation to coordinate and notify volunteers for the project. The new home build is scheduled to begin October 21, 2009.

Rob Wagoner, President of URBaCS says, “ Our team is excited about helping a deserving Central Indiana family. This is the second Extreme Makeover project we have been involved with. Our first experience was back in March of 2008 when we provided social media support for Bernard McFarland’s family. We found that project so rewarding that when Hallmark Homes asked, we jumped at the chance to help again.

About URBaCS
URBaCS has been providing innovative solutions for small business since 2006. This locally owned and operated company provides custom software applications to help connect business with their customers effectively and affordably. URBaCS provides “one-on-one” marketing solutions to small businesses including email marketing and text messaging services that offer marketing power usually only available to large companies. To learn more or see how we can help with your next Big Idea visit: www.urbacs.com

About ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Now in its sixth season. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has won back-to-back Emmy Awards as Best Reality Program (non-competitive). The program is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. Anthony Dominici is the executive producer, and David Goldburg is the President of Endemol USA. The show airs on Sundays (7:00-8:00 CST), on the ABC Television Network.

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By Jayson Manship – October 7, 2009

Small Business Tools - Basecamp for Project Management

37Signals is a small Chicago based design and development company that creates Software as a Service applications for small business. We’ve been following their blog and product blog for years now and would recommend you do the same for insights and opinions from some of the smartest people we’ve come across online. They have made a conscience decision to focus on what they do and do it as well as possible. And because of this they have created some truly awesome apps to offer the world.

Basecamp

We use Basecamp to manage our many projects and products. It gives our small team the ability to share documents, messages, images and to-do lists in a simple and efficient way. This allows each of us to stay in touch with everyone else without taking anyone away from our own area of expertise. We also use Basecamp to create milestones to ensure we hit internal and client deadlines. I could write a novel about how great Basecamp and 37Signals are, but I’ll follow their lead and stay focused.

At a minimum, you need to read their book, Getting Real. You can download a pdf for under $20 and you can read it online for free.

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By Jayson Manship – September 21, 2009

Small Business Tools - Freshbooks for Invoicing

freshbooksAt URBaCS we use Freshbooks to invoice our clients. The service is easy to use and has a very clean interface. Basic accounts (up to 3 clients) are completely free. But the most important reason we feel compelled to recommend Freshbooks is because it makes our life simpler.

When we invoice a client the system automatically sends a formatted email to our client with their own login credentials. They can then log in to our branded invoicing site and see their account history and pay their bill instantly with their credit card. We can automatically send a reminder invoice if the payment is past due and we have the ability to auto-bill clients on a recurring schedule. We’ve added our colors and logo to the system so all invoices carry a very professional look and feel.

We use PayPal with Freshbooks to give our customers the ability to pay instantly with a credit card. PayPal charges $0.30 and 2.9% for all credit card transactions, but it’s a great way to give our clients an option to pay quickly and removes the hassle of going to the bank to deposit the checks. We also have the flexibility to disable the PayPal feature for every invoice we send. Sometimes it doesn’t make business sense to pay 2.9% on large transactions.

Another feature we love about Freshbooks
If a client hasn’t caught up with the technology we can simply print a pdf of their invoice and mail it out. Or we can use a feature provided by Freshbooks to have them print, fold, stamp and send your invoice for us ($1.79/invoice). We’ve used this feature for an out of state client that doesn’t use email and I would recommend it to anyone that is looking to save time and maintain focus. I love knowing that I can simply click one button and know that my invoice will be delivered to my client in the way that they prefer to receive it.

We use Freshbooks to get paid faster, look professional and help us stay focused on what we do best.

Give Freshbooks a try today and see if it works as well for you as it does for us. It’s completely free to try.

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By Jayson Manship – September 15, 2009

Text Messaging Awareness Campaign

kids-dart-signRiley Hospital for Children has launched a campaign to bring awareness to child safety called Kids Dart. Drive Smart. They are encouraging safe driving to protect child pedestrians. We were approached to help get the message out using text messaging and social media.

In less than a day we registered the domain KidsDart.net, built a send-to-friend email function and pushed a text message out to an opt-in list they provided.

The goal of the campaign was to drive users to the Kids Dart Facebook page. When the text message was pushed out we were working to get our first 100 members, and as of this writing the group has 1,037 members.

We certainly can’t take much credit for the growth of the campaign. Clarian Health and A Call to Change have worked hard to get the message out in Central Indiana. We’re just happy to be a small part of a great initiative.

BTW Dont Text and Drive TYVM

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By Jayson Manship – September 5, 2009