On their website (address below) you can sight up to as a nominee or vote for your favorite local business. Powered by Google Maps, the site quickly displays the results for your area.

For each vote your local small business receives, you receive a “raffle ticket” giving you a chance to win one of three grants award each month worth $5,000.

The Intuit judges will also award one lucky small business a $30,000 grant in June, 2010.

Google is giving away a $100 grant to use in Adwords just for signing your business up.

Intuit says to be as creative as possible with your entry.

Some recent grant winners include:

Julies Tax Service of Overland Park, KS who build her practice on one statement, “Working hard to save my clients tax dollars as well as preparation fees!”

Tracey from Integrative Massage Solutions, Raleigh, NC. One voter said, “Tracey knows her stuff! Whatever I have going on muscularly, I know I’m in good hands the minute I walk into her office.”

Also on the same site you can get more information about other specialized small business grants that Intuit is pointing you towards. These include grants for green businesses, energy saving businesses, teen girls, women and young or urban entrepreneurs.

It is also worth visiting the Intuit site that matches your business type. For example, there are specific information and product sites to do with accounting, developers, enterprise, financial institutions, health care, real estate and retailers.

Intuit’s main corporate site is http://www.intuit.com/

Grant Award Site: http://lovealocalbusiness.intuit.com/

Michelle Boufford, HowToMarketYourBusinessNow.com

“The message is continuing progress for the economy, if not as fast as hoped,” said Pierre Ellis, a senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.

Despite the unemployment figure edging up 9.8% people are still spending.

What are they buying?

Deb Riechmann of the Associated Press reports “sales of chocolate and running shoes are up. Wine drinkers haven’t stopped sipping; they just seem to be choosing cheaper vintages. Gold coins are selling like hot cakes. So are gardening seeds. Tanning products are piling up in shopping carts; maybe more people are finding color in a bottle than from sun-worshipping on a faraway beach. Strong sales of Spam, Dinty Moore stew and chili helped Hormel Foods Corp. post a 6% increase in first quarter sales in its grocery products unit.”

Riechmann also says “consumers have trimmed household budgets and postponed buying cars, major appliances and other big-ticket items. Yet they still are willing to shell out for small indulgences and goods that make life more comfortable at home, where they are spending more time.”

How can you as a business owner take advantage of the economic situation?

“Start-ups which focus on selling aspirins to either market do far better than those attempting to sell vitamins.” Says startupjunkies.org author Clayton Christensen.

Clayton continues saying people will gladly pay you to make their problems disappear in any economy.

Shane Ducan, Assistant Editor, HowToMarketYourBusinessNow.com

In a new ad campaign, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s are publicizing their plans to lend $10 billion to small businesses such as yours this year.

Other banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Huntington Bancshares Inc., are also saying they are more open to small-business loans.

Banks are keeping the info close to heart not advertising on their websites. Instead, the banks are keeping the public posted on how their loan programs will remain. That means they get to tell us what information they want, when they want and filtered the way they want.

One other problem is the banks are also defining what a small business is since there isn’t a universal standard. This may prevent certain businesses from receiving a benefit from this temporary lift on loans.

“(The banks) get to pick and choose what numbers they tell us without having to give any context,” says James Kwak, who writes for the financial and economics blog The Baseline Scenario. “It doesn’t mean they are sinister, but their numbers will be hard to verify.”

Small businesses are very hard hit by the credit tightening over the last two years. Banks dramatically slowed loans to startups and put a stop to anyone that is losing money or anyone with risks in their business profile. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo see small businesses as revenues of under $20 million, but Huntington Bancshares’ stops at $15 million.

Either way, it may be the best time to look for that expansion loan for your small business with the hold temporarily off the banks bills.

By Michelle Bouffard, HowToMarketYourBusinessNow.com

On the website http://www.grants.gov/ you can find resources to help you figure out what type of grant to apply for including small business start-up loans, apply for a grant and track the progress of that grant.

For example, the Rural Business Opportunity Grant Program “promotes sustainable economic development in rural communities with exceptional needs through provision of training and technical assistance for business development, entrepreneurs, and economic development officials and to assist with economic development planning.”

Another example is the Recovery Act – Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative which is seeking applications for grants supporting the construction (including production capacity increase of current plants), of U.S. based manufacturing plants to produce batteries and electric drive components.

To search a complete list of grants you or your business may be eligible for, visit http://www.grants.gov/

Be sure to subscribe to their feeds or newsletters in order to receive new government grant information that can help your small business.

Author: Michelle Bouffard: HowToMarketYourBusinessNow.com

The report also shows the rate of year-over-year decline in card sales decreased from the four quarter of 2009, reversing the declines in year-over-year sales for the past two years.

“While we are heartened that the rate of year-over-year card sales decline slowed in Q4 2009, the economy continues to punish America’s Main Street businesses,” said Glenn Goldman, CAN’s President and CEO.

He continues, “We are continually impressed by the resiliency of Main Street’s merchants.  Most have no doubt adjusted their business models to account for lower card spend in their stores. We look forward to monitoring their progress in 2010.”

Report Highlights

1. Overall, year-over-year Q4 2009 same store credit and debit card sales continue to decline, showing a 12.15% drop from Q4 2008. This reflects a decrease in the rate of decline reported in Q3 2009 versus Q3 2008 results of 14.84%. Q4 2009 was the ninth consecutive quarter in which overall year-over-year same store card sales showed a decline.

2. While all MSA have experienced declining same store credit sales, smaller cities continue to show lesser rates of decline than more populous MSAs. Comparing Q4 2009 with Q4 2008, those areas with populations of less than 100,000 and those with between 100,000 and 249,999 reported declines of 8.26% and 6.49%, respectively. Those MSAs with populations between 249,999 and 999,999 and those with populations of more than 1 million reported declines between Q4 2009 and Q4 2008 of 12.15% and 13.54%, respectively.

3. Both Restaurants and Retail (which includes service providers) slowed the rate of year-over-year decline in Q4 2009, with decreases in credit sales of 8.67% and 15.16%, respectively, over Q4 2008 levels. In Q3 2009 compared to Q3 2008, those categories reported declines of 11.06% and 18.46%, respectively.

One interesting point is restaurants with an average ticket of less than $25 continue to perform better than more expensive restaurants.

4. In Q4 2009, all regions continued to show a year-over-year quarterly decline in same store credit sales. On a year-over-year basis, the Plains Region dramatically slowed its rate of decline to 2.43% compared to 14.54% in Q3 2009 while the Southwest Region increased its rate of decline to 16.88% compared to 15.92% in Q3 2009.

You can learn more at www.CapitalAccessNetwork.com.

Bryce Ryerson, Contributing Author, HowToMarketYourBusinessNow.com