Help Coilhouse Win a Small-Business Grant!

Esteemed Coilhaüsers, we need your help. Each and every one of you. It’s important. We’ve entered Coilhouse into a competition for small businesses. The winning prize is a $100,000 grant, and we need your vote. We’re pretty pragmatic when it comes to any sort of contests or sweepstakes, but in the off chance that we win this thing, it would enable us to do things with this magazine that we’ve only dreamed about. We’re already imagining some responsible ways we could spend that money… such as making every subsequent issue of Coilhouse scratch-and-sniff.

The competition is called Shine a Light, and it’s sponsored by American Express and NBC. The goal of the competition is to “recognize an inspiring small business.” We feel that Coilhouse deserves to win, and in order to make that happen, we need your vote. Your support matters!

In order to help us, you need to take two short steps.  Both steps can be completed in under 60 seconds (promise – we timed it). Register (they won’t spam you) and vote (it takes 1 click).

  • STEP ONE: click here to register as a voter on the site. We know, registration is super-annoying. This one’s petty painless, actually. Just a few fields.  Don’t worry about spam – they explicitly say “we will not solicit your email for special offers, product news or other communications.”
  • STEP TWO: click here to view our entry on the site. On this site, click on the blue button on the left sidebar with the words “Support This Story, ENDORSE NOW.” And that’s it. You’re done!

NOTE: We just discovered that there’s no way that people from another country can enter. So for you guys, we introduce the bonus step (can be followed by Americans as well).

  • BONUS ROUND: If you really, REALLY want to support us and take one extra step, get the word out! Let people know we need support. Post this link on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or whatever: http://coilhouse.net/2009/09/help-coilhouse-win-a-small-business-grant/

The 60 seconds you take to support Coilhouse will make a world of difference to us. Suggestions for our first scratch-and-sniff issue flavor are welcome in the comments.

Thank you, guys. For this and everything else.

27 Responses to “Help Coilhouse Win a Small-Business Grant!”

  1. Tequila Says:

    Only took me 41 sec! That means I win something right?

    Happy to vote, you gals and all involved deserve to go to that next level. I’m guessing that includes some sort of pseudo-paramilitary organization like Public Enemy had back in the day.

  2. Veronika von Volkova Says:

    Poo. US only. An excerpt from the rules:

    “Who can register, endorse and vote

    Any legal resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, at least 18 years of age with a valid email address can register, endorse a Nomination and vote for the winning Nomination.”

    Good luck though!

  3. keldriauk Says:

    Would like to vote, but I’m from Europe. Very best luck to you though :)

  4. Simon Lagoarde Says:

    Done !

    Good luck !

  5. Charlotte Says:

    …er…tacky question, but if you guys win this, will the cost of the magazines go down? I’m too poor for such awesomeness.

    You’ve only got until 11:59pm tonight for people to do this.

  6. Samantha Says:

    Unfortunately I’m in Australia but I’ll see what I can get my US friends to do!

  7. Martin E. Rosenberg Says:

    Let’s get this done.

  8. James Paterson Says:

    I wish I could help but I’m from Europe too. Good luck with the grant!

  9. badluckshadow13 Says:

    Argh! I didn’t know you guys were doing Shine A Light and I threw in my lot with Slave Labor Graphics! Jhonen tempted us with promises of Nny toys! I’m sorry!

  10. Jessica Says:

    You got it…I’ll help spread the word! Two Joslin endorsements so far…

  11. Gekko Says:

    Bonjour from France! I couldn’t register alas! But I’ve posted the link on my facebook page so my American mates can help.
    Best of luck!

  12. Alice Says:

    As others have said, it would have been good if you’d mentioned it was US only. There are lots of us who read you from other countries. Best of luck though.

  13. stephanie Says:

    good luck ladies! i hope you get it. just voted right now.

  14. drew Says:

    done! gl!

  15. Myke Amend Says:

    You got my vote today. The very best of luck to you ^_^

  16. janeyD Says:

    Done and done. Good luck!

  17. Nadya Says:

    Guys, I sincerely apologize that I didn’t make it clear that only US residents could cast a vote. I didn’t realize that myself when I made this post. My bad!

    Thank you, all, for your continued support on this. We’re at almost 300 votes, and slowly but surely making our way to the Top 10 spotlighted businesses the site! Your support – on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and beyond – has been overwhelming.

    We’ll keep everybody posted on the total. For now, I just want to say thank you again.

  18. Paul Komoda Says:

    i cast my vote last night!

  19. Miss Twist Says:

    International no vote is poo.

    GOOD LUCK!!!

  20. badluckshadow13 Says:

    @Nadya well since SLG stole away my vote… I think you guys oughta have Zoe and Jhonen fight to the death!
    :D now THAT would get some publicity!

  21. JoAsakura Says:

    did my part and pimped you on facebook folks. This has truly become one of my favourite sites EVER.

  22. Nadya Says:

    @badluckshadow13 Huh, we weren’t aware that SLG was in this competition. Whoops! I’ll have to email Jen.

    Below is a link to SLG’s entry. If you’re reading this, chances are you already cast a vote for CH. However, to spread the word, here is the entry for SLG publishing:

    Shine a Light on SLG Publishing

  23. badluckshadow13 Says:

    @Nadya Yeah if I wasn’t following Jhonen on twitter I wouldn’t have known either… actually linking to the the SLG Shine a Light page was probably the most coherent tweet he’s ever posted…

  24. RobertD Says:

    Aww, US only – I’m in Aus. Best of luck!

  25. leylaE Says:

    Done and tweeted.. love <3

  26. Brock McCoy Says:

    <3

    I think we all know what the first smell will be:

    BACON

    And none of that turkey bacon bullshit. Maybe add blood.

  27. Yuri Lev Says:

    Congratulations – TOP TEN!!!!!!!!!!