I woke up to a very nice surprise in my in box yesterday. About a month ago, I entered Prevail PR into the “Jumpstart Your Business” contest held by b5media. We didn’t win the grand prize, but we did come in third place and will receive a very nice package of gifts that will help us make an even better blog for your needs.

In addition to being recognized as an innovative marketing company, a major prize in itself for me, we will also be receiving:

• A subscription to Entrepreneur magazine, courtesy of Entrepreneur.com
• A Business Developer host package for one year (consists of 3 domains, 200 subdomains and 100 host external domains; 250 GB web space 2,500 monthly transfer volume and 25 ftp accounts; 2,500 email accounts and 2 GB mailbox space; $250 of vouchers to get the second runner up started with Microsoft adCenter, Google AdWords, Yahoo Search marketing and Citisearch; 10 free blogs and more), courtesy of 1and1.com
• A copy of Phil Gerbyshak’s book, 10 Ways to Make it Great, courtesy of SlackerManager.com
• Free consulting advice from two of b5media’s experts of the second runner up’s choosing
• and 1-year subscription to Freshbooks web-based invoicing.

I’m looking forward to hearing some critical consulting advice to improve some of the areas we are slacking in. I know of a few areas right off the top of my head we could improve on, but I’m always open to outside advice. I’m also looking forward to reading Phil’s book. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, but sadly have a huge queue of books in front of that one. Winning it will definitely move it up in line though, so hopefully I will learn some new ideas to share with you all.