Selling Sunshine Is A Candidate for 800-CEO-READ Award

(Milwaukee, WI, December 19, 2011) Milwaukee company 800-CEO-READ, one of the leading national book suppliers and business information providers, has announced the candidates of its fifth annual Business Book Awards, which aims to recognize the best business books and authors of 2011.

Candidates from the following categories: Marketing and Sales, General Business, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Finance and Economics, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, Management, and Personal Development, will be posted daily this week at: http://blog.800ceoread.com

The winning books, authors, and publishers from each category will be announced in January 2012. Selling Sunshine: 75 Tips, Tools, and Tactics for Becoming a Wildly Successful Entrepreneur, by Tony Hartl, has been named as one of the nominees.

800-CEO-READ’s founder and president Jack Covert says the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards offer a great opportunity to review and distinguish the top titles of the year. “We want to thank the nominees and everyone who participated in this year’s awards. For the past twenty-seven years, we’ve been the only bookseller in the country focused exclusively on the business audience. This experience has put us in the unique position to highlight the best of the genre,” says Covert.

ABOUT 800-CEO-READ:
800-CEO-READ has concentrated on selling business books via their customer service phone number (800-236-7323) and website (www.800ceoread.com) while also spreading great business ideas via its daily weblog, its monthly newsletter, The Keen Thinker, the monthly publication of essays on ChangeThis, its annual Business Book Awards, its review of books called Jack Covert Selects, and the yearly magazine, In The Books. In 2010, 800-CEO-READ began a partnership with Inc. to publish and promote its bestseller list.

Contact: Erin Kirby
917-592-2267
erinkirby@elizabethcosette.com

Inspire and educate: that’s the reason Dallas entrepreneur and author Tony Hartl wrote his first book, and it’s the reason he donated his first $10,000 of book profits to The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) this week: a wonderful early Christmas gift for at-risk youth!

Hartl’s book, Selling Sunshine: 75 Tips, Tools, and Tactics for Becoming a Wildly Successful Entrepreneur, was released last January and has since won the coveted Axiom Bronze Award for Entrepreneurship for 2011, has received rave reviews from many publications including DCEO Magazine, and was recently recommended by the Pittsburgh Business Times. Hartl plans to ultimately donate 100 percent of the proceeds from Selling Sunshine to NFTE.

Tony Hartl, founder and former CEO of Planet Tan, has always been dedicated to social entrepreneurship. Hartl wants “to provide programs that inspire young people from low-income communities to stay in school, to recognize business opportunities and to plan for successful futures.” And NFTE does just that. NFTE’s mission is to teach at-risk students about entrepreneurship; helping them summit the most difficult peaks in their own lives and preparing them for the future.

In addition to his support for NFTE and his role as a socially-conscious entrepreneur, Hartl is also an avid athlete and mountain climber currently training for a Mount Everest climb. In 2011 Tony climbed Grand Teton in Jackson, Wyoming, cycled 750 miles through Central Italy, and sailed around Greece all while doing his daily runs.

With this $10,000 check to NFTE, Hartl hopes to help future and aspiring entrepreneurs climb the mountains ahead in their own lives and live up to his own motto: “Work Hard. Have Fun. Make History.”

Tony, along with Jason Fraser and the S.M. Wright Foundation, are involved in a wonderful charity — giving beds to families in need to ensure that kids have a comfortable, reliable place to sleep at night!

Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail the wonderful folks at the S.M. Wright Foundation sent out earlier today:

In South Dallas, too many children lack proper beds in which to sleep. Some are lucky enough to sleep on the family couch; others must sleep on the floor. To alleviate this problem, The S.M. Wright Foundation established the “Beds for Needy Kids Program” in early 2010. The objective of the program is to give disadvantaged children the opportunity to get a good night’s sleep by providing new twin bed sets.

To qualify, a family must complete an application and show proof of income and residency, provide a valid social security card and birth certificate for each family member, and meet Texas Commodity Assistance Program (TEXCAP) income requirements. After the application has been processed, a Foundation staff member visits the family’s residence to verify the need for a bed. Upon approval, the family can pick up the bed from the Foundation’s warehouse. Approximately one month after the bed is received, the Foundation staff member visits again to make sure the bed is being put to good use and to inform the family about other Foundation resources.

You can find more information or donate your time or money right here: http://www.smwrightfoundation.org/. It’s a wonderful program, to please take the time to check out the good work they’re doing!