According to the paper industry, Americans consumed an estimated 23 billion paper coffee cups in 2010."

That is 23,000,000,000.  In one country.  In one year.

Many of these cups are made from recycled materials, however, most recycled paper products only contain 10% post consumer materials.  That still leaves us with nearly 21 billion cups made from new material. 

During his Ted Talk in 2008, Chris Jordan gave some staggering numbers regarding the paper cup consumption in ...

The Board of Directors of The Greater Issaquah Chamber of Commerce has elected Richard Gabel to be the Treaurer of the Chamber this coming year.  As Treasurer he will be a member of the Executive Committee of the Board.  Gabel is serving his second 3-year term as a Director.  He has also served previously as the Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee and Co-Chair of the Membership Committee.

We encourage all of you to join your local Chambers of Commerce.  If you are interested in joi...

If you're reading this blog, chances are this is old news to you, but Meadow Creek Business Center has a new website.  The site was built by the good people at Binary Anvil.  John Kraft, founder at Binary Anvil, is a client at Meadow Creek.  If you like what you see and want Binary Anvil to build your new site, I'd be happy to put you in touch with John.  You can also just call (425) 557-3649.

We would appreciate you feedback on the site.  Tell us what you think, what y...

Meadow Creek is now sporting a new and faster than greased lightening internet service. Friday evening with the help of Meadow Creek's IT consultant, Loren Campbell, owner of BCCNW, we made the final cut-over to Comcast service. New internet download speeds of 100 mbps will be a big improvement. Our two 15 mbps ADSL lines from SpeakEasy were great until the train wreck that occurred when they were acquired by MegaPath. Thanks to everyone for their patience as we suffered through the ...

If it's so darn important for the state to have a monopoly on retail liquor sales to protect our children, why is it that any stoner can open up a "medical marijuana dispensary?"  The gumbas running this state need a reality check.

I've been working with Receivable Consultants International for over six-months now and the're unlike any credit and collections company I've ever worked with.  In the past, turning an account over to collections was like writing it off.  They'd make one call and if the other party didn't respond, that was the end of that.  I understand the accounts I was working with weren't that large, but they were certainly worth a couple of calls. My business is small and a $10,000 uncollecte...

I've heard Microsoft is going to be leaving its Issaquah office in a consolidation move.  If this is correct, that's bad news for Issaquah.  My understanding was that this was primarilly an incubator for software developers working on third party applications.

If anyone knows more about this, please leave a comment.

No matter if you are an entrepreneur, small business owner or an executive of a large corporation, you should be a member of your local chamber of commerce.  Chambers of commerce are advocates for business in a community, they partner with local and state government to promote economic growth and job creation and they create opportunities for businesses to network, learn and benefit from being a member of a larger group of individuals with common interests and needs.

All businesses need to...

I was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on a business trip for a staff meeting.  I watched as the second plane hit the tower on a TV in the lobby of the Embassy Suites.  We started our staff meeting and the Group President came to the conference room and told us we should leave, there was a plane somewhere in the area that had been hijacked.  My boss continued the meeting for a while and then we made plans to get home. 

We tried to return rental cars at the airport and the...