The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has partnered with Prosper Inc in a special televised commercial that will air for two weeks on KUTV/CBS and KSL/NBC. The commercial promotes credibility and reliability with businesses in this economic environment. BBB Accredited businesses must meet certain standards to qualify for accredited business status and to remain an accredited business. Prosper Inc, is proud to have earned an A rating with the BBB and has been an Accredited business member since July 2009. Prosper Inc began operations in September 2001 and has rapidly become the most trusted name in one-on-one distance education.

Prosper’s mission is “Helping People Prosper”. For this New Year, we have recommitted ourselves to helping more people prosper than ever before. We have devised a three-fold mission to help us accomplish this initiative. Everything we do in 2010 will be aimed at addressing one of these missions: Students, Employees, and the Community.

Students
Prosper provides executive-level coaching for individuals. Our mission is to provide our students with the education and hands-on experiences they need to achieve their personal and professional goals. We strive to make the road to personal achievement meaningful, rewarding, and enjoyable.
Since 1999, more than 70,000 students in 76 countries have enrolled in a Prosper educational program. Students learn from educational courses written by: Donald Trump, David Bach, Robert Allen, John Cummuta, Kevin Hall, Joe Vitale, and others.
Prosper’s students routinely send in updates regarding their success. In 2010, we will better communicate these success stories using all aspects of the media.

Employee
We are a professional organization built on employees who focus on relationships, doing the right thing, focusing on solutions, and keeping promises. We value our employees here. We want everyone to succeed and enjoy the life they have. This year we will increase our efforts to recognize deserving individuals, promote personal growth and highlight the good deeds done by our employees.
One individual we are proud to call our own is Lorin Hardy. He is representing Prosper in our Haitian Relief Program by serving for six weeks in a rebuilding effort in Haiti. We will communicate more of his trek in the weeks to come!

Community
Prosper makes an active contribution to the local community.  We routinely participate with local and national charities like: Unitus, United Way, Red Cross, A Child’s Hope Foundation, and our own Haiti Relief fund. This year, we will continue to be actively engaged in helping the community. Readers will be able to follow along more closely as we report on all our service efforts.

Occasionally, Prosper’s service impact reaches beyond our community. Currently, Prosper is the proud sponsor of Olympic athlete Zach Lund. Zach is representing the United States of America at the 2010 Winter Olympics in the Skeleton competition. The Prosper family is cheering him on in his quest for his first Olympic metal!

Giving service to our community is very important to Prosper. We regularly participate and ask employees to participate in various charities. Here are some of the recent community-building activities Prosper has participated in.

The Holiday season went very well at Prosper. Together we raised close to $3,500 from our various events (including the November food drive for Utah Food Bank); donated to help Prosper employee Nate Stoddard’s daughter Whitnee (provided Spa covering for her ongoing medical treatment), worked with Sub-For-Santa and provided Christmas presents to 5 families in need, and donated over 20 units of healthy blood to local hospitals through the Red Cross.

Employee Foundation: Nate Stoddard family

Nate’s thank you note for the entire company:

My wife and I wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone at Prosper, We are so grateful for such good friends. You all have such big hearts. Your contributions will help us provide Whitnee with better tools to help her become stronger and have a better chance for survival and a better sense of independence. Our hearts are full. Thank you again.
–The Stoddard Family

Watch a thank you video here.
Visit their blog for more information on Whitnee here.

Blood Drive: 23 pints of blood collected & $575 raised

Donating blood is an action to accomplish one thing: HOPE. A simple word yet it means so much to someone in need. And donating blood is a simple act that helps save lives. Every two seconds someone in America needs blood.
Prosper participated in a very successful Blood Drive at the Corporate Office. The Red Cross called the Human Resources department personally to give praise on the tremendous outpouring of service we gave to those in need. Because of our donations, we have improved the lives of several local neighbors in need and helped raise money in the process through charitable donations.

Sorry it’s taken awhile to sit down and send you an email to update you on how my trades are going…but I guess since it’s been going so well that is my excuse; I’ve been a little busy!! I email Lili everyday and discuss trades. I have also convinced my brother to start trading; he’s making big money too! Even though I took a little break around Christmas, I’ve had some great success in my trades since the beginning of this year. What have I done?

SWHC: bought and sold stocks & options: $25,231.16 profit
FAS: bought and sold just stock: $ 1,519.93 profit
BX: bought and sold just stock: $ 2,399.95 profit
C: bought and sold just stock: $ 5,889.95 profit
FIG: bought and sold just stock: $ 5,099.79 profit
BAC: bought and sold stocks & options: $27,368.74 profit

Total profits since 1/28/09: $68,571.39

Joyce C.
Anchorage, AK

In the past two weeks, starting with just $1,500 dollars, I’ve made almost $900. I know more about the stock market than anyone I know and can independently research, evaluate, and come to conclusions about the market as a whole, or stocks individually. I understand numerous indicators and their place in trades and have, overall, a tremendous grasp on the collective market. I continue to make correct plays with both call and put options and can fundamentally screen for stocks that I feel comfortable following without relying on someone else’s opinion or recommendation. I also feel that I can very confidently measure professionals’ opinions and come to solid conclusions about those picks on my own, which feels phenomenal.

I’ve learned so much in the past 2.5 months, it’s remarkable. Currently in college, I feel I have authority to say that this experience is more rewarding, more fun, more efficient and more beneficial than any class, semester or academic year I’ve spent at a university. I also rate my successful trades as extreme successes. 

I love everything about this program. I will recommend with the highest regard this program to those that are committed, serious and extremely professional about their desire to enter the stock market.

I really cannot think of a single improvement that I would make to this program—it’s all been so beneficial and has truly captured what I think every educational experience should be like.

Tyler O.
Louisville, KY

I love selling on-line and find it an extremely enjoyable way to make money. I really enjoy working with you and learning how to build and tweak my website. At this point my website, http://makegreatconversation.com, has brought in about $830 on 13 sales. It is great to be able to open my PayPal account and see the sales and money adding up.

With Prosper, it is great to have someone looking over my shoulder, who knows what to do and can direct me, instead of just stumbling along by myself. I am looking forward to having my website beginning to really produce and to setting up a second and third website very soon. 

Joe C.
Everett, WA

Reid Hoffman is the founder of LinkedIn and has been involved with PayPal and has invested in other startups. He was on the Charlie Rose Show on March 4th, and part of his comments were focused on the role of the entrepreneur.

You can view the interview (54 minutes worth) here.

Among the compelling things Hoffman said are:

I actually think every individual is now an entrepreneur, whether they recognize it or not. . . . Average job length is two to four years. That makes you a small business. . . . You are the entrepreneur of your own small business.

But I think that one of the key things — the reason why I think risk tolerance is important is because what happens is people delude themselves they’re not taking risks. They say, oh, I’m going to get a job at, you know, Hewlett-Packard or I’m going to get a job — and that’s not risky. Well, look at current economic climates. Everything in life has some risk, and what you have to actually learn to do is how to navigate it. And people who take risk intelligently can usually actually make a lot more progress than people who don’t.

Regarding the current economic crisis, Hoffman said,

I’m a huge believer in the way that you actually get out of these economic downturns is through entrepreneurship, because that creates new kinds of jobs that actually have longevity and strength to them.

I have a modest hope — this is back to the change-the-world stuff — because I think entrepreneurship is really what has a chance of accelerating us through the recession, that LinkedIn kind of providing the tools for entrepreneurs will help with that.

We purchased a foreclosure property in Falmouth on December 10, 2008, for a purchase price of $185,000. We used a hard money lender, which everyone thought we were crazy to do, but he financed 100% for us (unusual). We started to rehab the property, replace windows, siding, flooring, kitchen and baths.

While talking to our friends we came across a buyer. We showed them the property on December 21, 2008, and on Christmas Eve we agreed on a sales price and had them sign a purchase & sale with an earnest deposit, and a closing within 30 days. What a way to start our new future with investing in real estate.

We bought the property for $185,000 and sold it for $295,000. Once everything is finished, paying the investor and finishing the project, we’ll have profited between $35,000 – $40,000. Not bad for our first flip! Now we’re off to try another.

Thanks for everything!

Sean and Kim W.
East Falmouth, MA

“When you pay just 10% or 20% too much for the products and services you use every day, you will have to work 10 to 20 extra years before you can retire.  Or, to put it another way, if you let yourself be overcharged by 10% to 20% for the things you buy, you are in effect spending one or two months a year working without pay for the companies that rip you off.  And trust me—until you fight for your money, you will overpay for almost everything you buy.”

— David Bach 

Fight For Your Money is the latest book from author David Bach, one of Prosper’s partners. This timely release helps readers identify ways they can stop financial leaks they don’t know about and hang on to more of their money—which is more important now than ever.

Bach’s book includes tips on saving money, from car-loan insurance and life insurance to air travel and cell phones.

Fight For Your Money  is on sale now. Throuugh March 9th, everyone who orders the book will also receive $500 in free downloads. Prosper is proud to offer Bach’s wisdom in its one-to-one coaching programs.

Randy Garn, Mark Eaton, and Ethan Willis

Mark Eaton, who went from auto mechanic to NBA All Star, visited with Randy Garn, Prosper’s Executive Vice President of New Business Development.

Since wrapping up a 12-year NBA career with the Utah Jazz, Mark has opened two successful Salt Lake City restaurants, Tuscany and Francks. More recently, Mark has become a corporate trainer and business speaker.