And the winner is....

<em> </em><p><em>Please welcome back&nbsp;</em><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.findingwhatmatters.com/"><em><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Carolyn Kepcher</span></em></a><em>, who is here with the announcement of the <strong>Grand Prize Winner</strong>! Our </em><a rel="nofollow" href="http://seedsforsuccess.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/index.php"><em><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Seeds for Success</span></em></a><em> winner will receive an additional $10,000 and additional mentoring and web hosting resources. <br><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dapplebaby.com/" target="_blank"></a></em></p><em></em> <p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dapplebaby.com" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="http://a323.yahoofs.com/phugc/I8RBLfI_nVdv/photos/e03958c474cc9b9975748fa369820e45/ori_1fe84e79b283f0.jpg?ug_____DB5knuhgy" align="left" width="159" height="87"></a>Wow! What a fantastic ride the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://seedsforsuccess.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/index.php"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Seeds for Success</span></a> grants progr<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dapplebaby.com/" target="_blank"></a>am has been…for all involved! This grants program, designed to benefit women entrepreneurs, kicked off several months ago, when we began to review the 5500+ business plans submitted. Through an intense judging process, we selected our three finalists, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dapplebaby.com/"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Dana Rubinstein of Dapple</span></a> , <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.redkoala.com/"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Abby Port of Red Koala Canvas Co</span></a> ., and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.head2toepub.com/"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Karla Duncan of Head 2 Toe Publications.</span></a> </p> <p>All three finalists have done an outstanding job in using the resources that have been given to them by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Yahoo! Small Business</span></a> and my fantastic team at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://shine.yahoo.com/write/314423/www.findingwhatmatters.com"><em><span style="text-decoration:underline;">fwm</span></em></a> . The grant included $20,000 per finalist, up to $5,000 in free technical services from a Yahoo! Small Business partner to build a company web site, free Yahoo! Web hosting for two years, and promotional support from fwm and Yahoo!</p><strong></strong> <p>Abby, Karla, and Dana have an essential quality in common – all three are very passionate about their businesses. I’ve always said that passion is first in starting your own business, so <strong>thank you </strong>all for confirming for me that we made the right selections when we chose you! </p> <p>Our finalists spent six months growing their businesses, with the help of our expert team of <a rel="nofollow" href="http://seedsforsuccess.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/mentors.php"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">mentors/advisors</span></a> . Our mentors weighed in, along with the original <a rel="nofollow" href="http://blog.findingwhatmatters.com/"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">fwm</span></a> and Yahoo! Small Business judges, on the finalists’ progress. They were judged in areas such as marketing, partnerships, distribution, sales, and utilization of the Seeds for Success grant. </p> <p>We also received invaluable help from the voting public, who cast over <strong>650,000 </strong>votes on our website! What a response! </p> <p>When all of the votes were tallied and the judging criteria was weighed, a clear choice was made:</p> <p>Heartfelt congratulations to our winner, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dapplebaby.com/"><em><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Dana Rubinstein</span></em></a><em> !! </em>Her company, <strong>Dapple</strong>, which sells a line of natural-based, baby-safe cleaning products ; is on a highway to great success. Dana and her partner have looked at their company from all angles and because of that, they have found numerous unique opportunities to get the word out about Dapple. Their creativity in this area is unmatched. </p> <p>To our two splendid runners-up, we express our admiration and thanks for a job well done. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.redkoala.com/"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Abby</span></a> , a great lady with a great idea! After speaking with her I was immediately envisioning customized canvas art in my kids’ rooms – she had me sold. She, too, has the potential to take her business to a new level – and my advice to her is to think realistically and never skew from her initial passion. </p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"> <p></p></span><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.head2toepub.com/"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Karla</span></a> has embraced this program for everything that it has to offer and I admire that immensely! <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Every</span> mentor has taken the time to contact me to let me know how efficiently she has taken advantage of all the resources that have been made available. I see nothing but great success ahead for you, Karla. Your passion is overwhelming and your focus is second to none. <p>To all those who have been following Seeds For Success, we hope that from our mentors’ advice and our finalists’ progress you were able to draw out some vital ingredients to help you to start and grow <em>your </em>idea into a thriving business. Help is always available from <a rel="nofollow" href="http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Yahoo! Small Business</span></a> , <em>the</em> best place on the web to build a web site quickly and easily, and without prior technical knowledge. We also look forward to hearing from you on FindingWhatMatters.com, whenever you need advice from the experts.</p> <p>I intend to keep tabs on all three of these women…I predict that we’ll be seeing great things from all of them in the years to come.</p> <p></p>