Many people tell me that they have trouble talking to others about their businesses. But many other people have the problem of not knowing when to stop. We`re probably all guilty of this now and then--I know I catch myself sometimes--but if it`s a habit it is costing you customers. Telling too much ...

Advertising will make or break your business. It is crucial to your success that you learn to write great ad copy. Here are a few simple concepts to get you there. 1. The Headline This is THE most important part of your ad, especially when using online advertising. The point of the headline is to g...

Commandment 1 Love When we choose to simply love, our giving and receiving becomes unconditional. We can listen and not be caught up in the vicious cycle of judgment. We can also watch people and suspend judgment because we are learning to understand that our perception of an individual?s behavior ...

Why did you start your business? You must have a very strong reason for being in business. A why that will keep you going in the face of fear, and keep you motivated during the trying times in your business. The more powerful your why, the more of a motivating factor it will be. Many times, I hear p...

Corporate management positions offer considerable money, benefits and security, but the downside of the corporate lifestyle can drive some managers to head for the nearest exit. Managers leave companies for all kinds of reasons: better opportunities elsewhere, burnout, personality conflicts, incompe...

More and more people are calling it quits to successful careers to create some personal leisure time or to pursue another career. This trend is becoming more popular and common. Years ago few people voluntarily quit a job midway through their careers, no matter how unhappy they were. It was not a...

Unless you are among the luckiest people in the world, or you are totally free of all relationships in the real world, you have to cope with difficult people in the course of your work. Difficult people are everywhere. Some are habitually late for work. Customers are often rude. Co-workers can b...

The Key to Great PR is Perseverance By Paula Gardner of Do Your Own PR I regularly seem to come across businesses that have pinned their hopes on one press release. They tell me how they sent it out with excitement in the pits of their stomachs and then felt the hard cold flop of disappointment when...

There`s a saying that half of all marketing efforts are wasted, but it`s impossible to tell which half! I know from hard won experience how easy it is to waste money on marketing. When I first set up my own business in 1998, I spent tens of thousands of dollars employing the best graphic designer an...

Part One I am often reminded of a short, but valuable story I read years ago that goes as follows: ?THE POWER OF WORDS? by Author Unkown A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the ...

I love the excitement of starting up a new home based business. I enjoy trying out new ideas and approaches with the new venture. I dream the big dreams and hope to obtain some of them (if not all of them). I am sure you have those same feelings as well. Organization is imperative when starting any ...

Have you been spending money on countless job boards, only to find that they don?t offer the types of candidates you need? If the answer is yes, don?t fret any longer, you?re about to learn crafty techniques to help you find free resumes on the net. There are numerous free resources online that of...

It hangs from the ceiling above your bed while you toss through the night hours. It waits inside the door of every employment office you enter. It dogs your footsteps as you pound the job search pavement. It lounges in an empty chair as you crawl through another desultory interview. It sits on your ...

A couple of years ago I was having a bad time. Sales were down. Business was non-existent. The wind had gone out of my sails. I had a sinking feeling, like I was going down for the third time . . . and I couldn?t even recall the first two. Yet, each time someone asked me, ?How?s business,? I would r...

?Hello. I`m looking for Sharon Morgen??
?Sharon DREW Morgen.?
?What? Sharon Morgen??
?No. Sharon DREW?
?Um. Hello. Are you Mrs. Drew??
?Ms. Morgen. That`s me. Is this a sales call??
?Um. Hello. No. I`m with XYZ bank and I`m giving you a service call.?
?Regarding what? I d...

One of the greatest time wasters of all are unnecessary or poorly run meetings. If you want to dramatically improve your time management skills, then learn how to have productive meetings. "Brian" is the Operations Manager in a large corporation. Every Monday morning, his CEO has a managers` meeting...

Following the fallout from major corporate crashes such as Enron and Worldcom, stricter compliance legislation has been introduced around the world to ensure that business managers and principals are more accountable for their actions. The latest compliance standards focus on greater accountability ...

How Much Is Your Popcorn Worth?: Powerful Lessons In Marketing & The Psychology Of Selling - Part 5 Let`s continue to discuss the various marketing principles that are involved in "popcorn marketing": 6. Exclusivity During the few hours that you`re in the theatre, they have the market cornered by be...

Microsoft Great Plains, former Great Plains Dynamics is excellent fit for service oriented business and in this small article we?ll give you magazine publisher and advertiser implementation and reporting scenarios. The system we describe is not real, we are putting together industry specifics, base...

We were impressed with South Western Colorado as a good place to hang your hat and a pretty good place to run a business. Great labor supply, good transportation and excellent tourist flows. The town is growing in Cortez and up the hill in Durango as well. Their nearest trading partners Montrose and...

Yes, that?s what public relations really is when it tracks important external audience perceptions and follow on behaviors. And again when it does something about those perceptions and behaviors by reaching, persuading and moving to actions you desire, those people whose behaviors affect your organi...

Some things are simply a mystery and so goes the perceived role and importance that the Critical Care Transport (CCT) RN plays in the healthcare field. Other professionals seem to view us like mutts - a little bit of everything but certainly not a thoroughbred in anything. I once heard a co-worker d...

After creating the perfect resume, you then need to distribute it. You`ll likely be sending some professionally printed hard copies, especially to "A list" companies or organizations you`ve set your sights on. But just as likely, you`ll be distributing other copies electronically. Presuming you`ve w...

After 128 years of business, a household word, Montgomery Wards, Inc., closed their doors forever and filed bankruptcy. With 258 stores and 28,000 employees in 30 states, Wards fell victim to competition from service-driven retailers like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Circuit City. Wards claimed a "poor ...

I was listening to my professor, internationally famous management guru, Peter F. Drucker, talk about entrepreneurship, when suddenly he made a stark statement: ?If your marketing is good enough, then selling becomes unnecessary.? He meant when you have devised the right product, at the right price,...

As if making sure your company runs smoothly on an operational level isn?t responsibility enough, as a business owner, you?re probably overseeing all aspects of your company?s public relations program, as well. PR can keep a company above water when times are tough and help the business soar durin...

`Fax broadcast` is one of my favorite marketing strategies. Especially when you`re marketing to businesses. Fax Broadcasting is sending out a fax to your target market - all at the same time. Hence the word `broadcast`. So if...

Most of us remember the commercial that said, ?I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and??, well you get the picture. This commercial, which represented Breck Hair Shampoo, ran so many times that even I remember who the commercial represented. The reason I mention this...

One of my favorite quotes is often used to describe goal-setting -- but it applies equally well to your marketing efforts. We start with Alice lost in the woods in Wonderland, where she comes upon the Cheshire-Cat... "Cheshire-Puss," she began rather timidly, "Would you tell me, please, which way I ...

Have you ever hired someone who did not live up to expectations? I?m sure many of us have at one time. The purpose of the interview is to obtain good information about an applicant to make a wise selection decision. It may sound simple but then why are there so many poor hires? The reason is tha...

"If you do anything foolish or try to get out of the car we will shoot you" were the terse words which hung in the air like a bad smell. The small car was being driven at over 120 KPH down the dark roads and highways. Beside me - at the wheel of the car, was one man. Behind me, sat his partner, with...

So, you just bought your first thermal transfer printer and now you have to find the perfect label for your printing application. Thermal printers are great for printing shipping labels, warehouse rack labels, barcode labels, asset labels and produc...

Let?s begin easing you out of the pits. I mean, comfort zone! I?m going to slowly and methodically give you as many little sparks and insights to the relatively simple ways that ordinary people use real estate to achieve extraordinary results. Stories are the best spark plugs. They let you casual...

The easiest way to meet city council members is to meet them at an event. Usually city council members have a phone number that is listed. Many will not ever answer the phone, but events they must be cordial and open to all. Explain who you are and your business and thank them for some endeavor th...

All closes are not created equal. Top producers realize every homeowner has specific needs and every situation demands its own close. While you may have found a close that works better for you than others, it shouldn`t deter you from using a variety of closes depending on the situation. By learning ...

Mining Gold is hard work you know? There are many people in the US to this day who still mine for gold. Did you know that in many countries people have protested mines, gold and silver are easy ones to protest because it is associated with greed as those minerals are also considered legal tender. A ...

Pay per click marketing is one of the simplest and fastest ways of sending targeted traffic to any website. Whether you are trying to send visitors to your own website, sell a product online, or build an opt in email list, pay per click marketing has been a guaranteed way to see instant traffic res...

The game of chess has been applauded and taught in business school as a game that gingers creative intelligence. Chess is a game involving kings, queens, bishops, knights, castles, and pawns like a real life. The pawns (also called soldiers) advance first, lead or supported by officers all to fight ...

Are you involved in projects that seem to go nowhere in a hurry? Change usually happens in an organization through projects, which can take many forms, and may not always be called projects. The easiest to recognize is the traditional type, with a beginning, middle and end, such as the launch of a n...

This article will show you how to cut your printing costs to a penny and have your postcards addressed for free without doing it all yourself, reducing the time you invest in your mailing to almost nothing. So, you have a list of hot prospects in hand; you need a way to get your marketing message in...

Tracking is one of the most important tools you can use to discover exactly what`s happening to anything you do on the internet! Tracking gives you vital information about your links clicked, website pages visited and ebook downloads. And...which of your ads give you the best response, sales and pro...

One of the most common mistakes in marketing is making decisions based on assumptions rather than fact. You think of an idea for a marketing piece and believe that it is a great idea. You start using the idea with no tracking mechanism that would allow you to measure the results of that piece. Then...

?When I was a child, I always thought the world was mine, A stomping ground for me, full of opportunities. I always had this attitude that I was going to go out into the world and do all the things I wanted to do." ?Madonna So, what happens to the diva or Adonis in us? What happens to the girl or bo...

Simply moving messages from one point to another using tactics like press releases, special events, brochures and broadcast plugs? Good gosh, I hope not! Not when many business, non-profit, government agency and association managers badly need to do something both positive and meaningful about...

The foreign exchange market (FOREX) offers many advantages to investors. But you need to know where to begin. This short guide will give you the FOREX basics, so you can quickly start participating in this fast growing market. In the past, foreign exchange trading was limited to large players ...

You know, this would be a great business if it weren?t for having to deal with people all the time? OK, so maybe I?ve exaggerated things a bit, but we?ve all certainly heard that saying before. Why does that sentiment ring true for so many folks? Obviously it?s because of all the people challeng...

Anyone considering Bankruptcy may have experienced fear after reading an article written in The Mail on Sunday with the headline ?Bankruptcy cheats face crackdown?. But, how much of what was written was in context of the reality of Bankruptcy as it is today? The article implied that since The Ent...

Recently my fourteen-year old son Matt dressed up as Santa Claus and attended a Christmas caroling event for one of my professional organizations. Was my son excited about the idea of spending one of his evenings singing to seniors instead of being with his friends? Not really. Then how did I get...

"Menis - the author translates as "indignant rage" - It is the kind of rage arising from social betrayal that impairs a person`s dignity through violation of "what`s right." (p21), Achilles In Viet Nam - Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character, Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph D. "The vulnerable relation...

During the job hunter`s market of the 1990`s, employers were settling for less than qualified candidates because the candidate pool was so small. Job hunters were able to name their price and employers were meeting their demands. The job climate is much different today than it was a few years ago...