[nABEntre] A few questions

[Amanda Matheny]

Hello all,

I have a few questions I would like some advice/recommendations on,
especially if you have had good experiences personally with some of
these things.

1. My email address. I find it very important to have a professional
email address, mine being amanda.matheny at accesswiseconsulting.com. I
don't consider it particularly professional to have an @gmail.com
address, even though I see people with them everywhere. However, my
email provider, which is partnered with my hosting provider, is of
limited accessibility. I can use it, technically, but it's a little
clunky and takes longer to do the same tasks. I'd like to switch to
Gmail Pro, as I know that it is accessible, but when I attempted to do
this before, it wouldn't let me get past the part about verifying
ownership of the website, even though I followed the instructions to
the letter. My question is one of two things. Either do you know how
to get around this issue or someone who could help me with that or, as
an alternative, do you know another email provider I could switch my
amanda.matheny at accesswiseconsulting address to that is at least as
accessible as Gmail, if not more. Thanks in advance.

2. Question number 2 is about graphic design. I had my mom help me
with my logo, the words Access Wise Consulting in dark blue all caps
with a light green arrow pointing to the right, representing forward
or progress. However, I need to create badges for posting on my
website, and if my clients wish, on theirs, for those who do
especially well in their evaluations. I have an idea of pretty much
what I want, so I don't need someone to come up with an idea from
scratch, just need someone who can put my mental picture into an
actual badge design. Any suggestions for someone that will do
this without being insanely expensive? I did get a recommendation from
someone on this list before and will contact them for a quote. Just
wondering if anyone else has recommendations.

3. Legal document review. I have modified templates for terms of
service, privacy policy, and service contract, and intend to review
them myself to make absolutely sure they meet all of my requirements,
but wondering if anyone can recommend someone to do legal document
review only, rather than writing from scratch. This would be a ton
cheaper than having them craft it from scratch anyway. I was thinking
of looking on Avvo to find someone specific to my state, but if anyone
has any better suggestions , I am open to them.

4. Funding. I'm wondering how/where you got your funding. So far I am
self funded, and I don't have a ton of overhead for what I do, and I
don't really want to go for a loan when there are other options out
there. I've researched grants, and will continue doing so, but any
suggestions are appreciated as well. Also, have any of you ever
reached out to local businesses to inquire if they're interested in
supporting you? If so, how did you go about it and what were the
results? I know sometimes you can get sponsorships by other companies,
but from what I have read, those usually involve being able to
reciprocate in some way. Since my work is all online and my primary
service is consulting services in a very specific industry,
I'm not sure what I could offer a potential sponsor, other than a
backlink on a page where I recognize them, but I think that would have
limited usefulness for SEO purposes and wouldn't be worthwhile for
them. Any suggestions in that department?

Thanks in advanced for any and all suggestions.

Warm Regards,
Amanda Matheny