Mark Graham

Jeff Solomon, MAS is the creator of FreePromoTips.com, the industry's most popular business resource program. Jeff’s Rant will touch on topics with his straightforward approach to life and business.

Inspiration for this piece came from a recent journey that made me realize I needed to stop and salute our Industry's Heroes—those road warriors that spend time away from home to help us.

Starting a business to bring a traditionally offline industry online can be a challenge, and Mark Graham knows that better than anyone.

The founder of promotional design agency Rightsleeve is firmly entrenched in the promotional products industry, and started his Toronto-based company in 2000. So when he launched his latest business, Commonsku, an enterprise management system for promotional products companies, he knew the clients he was selling to better than anyone.

Commonsku was inspired by Graham's search for a way to manage internal communications and order management, back in 2008 when internal social networks like Yammer didn't exist.

I'm just wrapping up my part in this year's Buyer's Guide (if you guys ever want you have a lot of fun, try proofreading a phonebook), and am just starting to get into the meat of our December issue, so this week I thought a nice, simple link roundup might be a good post for this week.

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc. announced Toronto-based RIGHTSLEEVE as the Canadian national winner of the Dell Small Business Excellence Award. RIGHTSLEEVE will receive $25,000 in Dell products and services, a day of best-practice sharing with Dell experts and time with Dell Inc. chairman and CEO Michael Dell.

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