It's the time of year when calendars crowd out the books and magazines in bookstores and are even on sale at reduced prices. But there's a special kind of calendar that all good public relations professionals use - the editorial calendar. According to Shannon Cherry, using editorial calendars is one of the most effective, yet most overlooked tool in a publicist's toolkit. "Most people avoid using editorial calendars because it takes some time to...more
Ok, you say, I know I need a budget, but how do I prepare one? The most common budget period is one year, but this can vary depending on whether or not your business has seasonal or cyclical fluctuations. For example if you run a Christmas decorations shop, or a costume shop your business is going to peak during certain times of the year. The budgeting process usually begins with the collection of accounting data. In order to prepare a strong and...more
For those of you who were not psychology majors the "psyche" is someone's mind. What motivates them. What are they thinking. How can you better understand them. All of which is important to those of us in lease purchasing. In fact, it is important to any business person. The ability to know what motivates your customer, how your customer thinks, and tapping into their "psyche" is what makes some businesses successful and why others fail. For those of us in lease purchasing when we make our calls we find out what motivates our sellers. We ask pointed questions to determine why they are selling their home. We build rapport with that seller. By the end of our telephone call we have an insight into what that particular sellers' wants and needs are. Sometimes you need to educate the seller. For those of us in lease purchasing we can explain the various advantages of lease purchasing. The advantages we emphasize will be determined by that particular sellers' psyche. We can find out what is in a seller's psyche by how she or he has answered the questions that we have asked them. Their answers to our questions is what gives us a pretty good feel for that seller. In general, of course, a...more
Got a huge need for publicity and a tiny publicity budget? You don't need to have a Madison Avenue-sized advertising budget to make your name known. Here are five ideas to help you promote your company:1. Write a column. Go to a local paper, no matter how small, and offer to write a column on your area of expertise or on business in general. Don't...more
Are you ever frustrated or hesitant when you talk to prospective customers because you can't readily explain why they should come to you rather than go to your competitors? Sure, you might have your 30-second elevator speech, but then they ask you that dreaded question, "So what makes you different?" Then, all those self-doubts creep in, and you...more
What is a portfolio and do I really need one? A portfolio is simply a group of investments held by an investor. It's a very carefully chosen selection of businesses and generally, yes; it's a good idea to have one. Let look at it this way. Imagine that you owned an umbrella shop. If it didn't rain for several weeks, you would make no sales at all and therefore, you would make no money. If your shop sold umbrellas as well as wellington boots, raincoats, ponchos, sun hats, sun cream, sun glasses, ski shoes, hats, coats and scarves, chances are, you would make a sale whatever the weather was. When it comes to starting business as an Internet Marketer, you actually have a lot of choice. If you are good at spotting a niches and if you are skilled enough to create a product then you have this as an option available to you. Alternatively, allow other people to create the product and all you have to do is market the product as an affiliate. If the nature of the business allows it, you can build networks of marketers and/or customers and grow your business this way. Whatever route you chose to go, you will ultimately be in business to sell a product or service. The not so good news is this:...more
If you don't have much Blackjack experience, it can be daunting stepping up to the tables for a game. You can, however, hide the fact of your inexperience very simply by remembering these straightforward rules. (Note - the rules of BlackJack will...more
Investing in the stock market is not purchasing a stock at 25 dollars a share, hoping it will go to 35 so you can sell it, then hoping it will drop back to 25 so you can buy it back, so that you can sell it again at 35, and so on and so forth. In my...more
Part One in a Five Part SeriesImagine what a professional football team would be like without a regimen of practice drills? Now take away their playbook and player statistics. What you have in this extreme scenario are highly talented (and perhaps...more
No more working for the same company for fifty years. Freelance work is becoming more and more prominent. On-line you can find work or someone to do a job. Check out www.guru.comThe world sure is changing, and if you look at job employment you will...more
One of the first lessons that "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" teaches is about understanding and controlling fear and greed. Many people go to work and work hard not to learn more and to grow, but out of fear that they won't have enough money to pay their...more
Public relations changes minds in the process of delivering what business, non-profit and association managers need more than almost anything else - the kind of key stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving their managerial...more