Social Media Trends For 2011

Social media is one of the most important aspects of advertising and marketing in the technology age so following the trends fr the upcoming year is pretty much something we all should look at.

After a year of high profits sit back and enjoy a couple arturo fuente cigars and see what the year has in store a head.

You think you have Twitter, Facebook, and everything else down to a science? What is next in the upcoming year? What trends are you going to have to get used to? Here are 10 Social Media Trends of 2011 to watch out for.

Entrepreneur's 32nd Annual Franchise 500

Entrepreneur magazine is one of the most read small business and entrepreneurial magazines in the U.S. With the internet they are one of the best websites out there on the subject. Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 is the world's first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking based on objective, quantifiable measures of success. There's no better place to start a franchise search.

Their top 10 this year is:

1. Hampton Hotels
2. ambm (gas stations)
3. McDonald's
4. 7-Eleven (surprising to me as most in my area have closed)
5. Supercuts (lean times, cheap haircuts...lol)
6. Day's Inn
7. Vanguard Cleaning Systems (Commercial cleaning)
8. Servpro (insurance disaster cleaning)
9. Subway
10. Denny's Restaurant

While none of these places will need much in the help of getting a website directory submission due to how big they are it is an interesting list at the top. Two cleaning companies. One for normal commercial cleaning and one for disaster such as fire in Servpro. 7-Eleven and Denny's are a bit of a surprise to me as both franchises have pretty much closed out in my area of West Michigan. 7-11 is almost completely gone. At least half of them are. Denny's has closed twice in my town only to re-open again recently.

Holliday Gift Season For Employees

While a lot of employers give out gifts to their employees around Christmas, does anyone actually give gifts that people want?

I've always found that getting a bonus check of even $50 was the best gift. Cash always wins. If not I always liked getting a gift card. Not a specific store card, but just an overall Visa card, or something similar. Again, being able to do with it what I want.

I've worked at some places that are a bit creative, but most tend to just give something like a free turkey, or ham around Christmas. While not a bad thing, when 4-5 other people in your family get the same thing at their jobs it is a bit much to have that many in the freezer.

With the gift cards you can get anything. If it fits into the accounting books I always like the idea. Women can pick up some nice women's sweaters, buy some stuff for the kids, or you can even use it for something you have to have like groceries. Most people that work and get small gift cards could use an extra 50 bucks just to pay their bills, but it also helps for buying gifts.

Help Finding Those With Influence Online

I don't care who you are. You likely don't know everything there is to know about how business on the internet works. You may not be able to code, you may have no idea how to market, and you may not even know the most effective ways to network. There is always something you have to look out for on the internet with business. A lot of aspects that many of us who grew up without it have to either learn on our own, or find someone else that already knows it to get help from.

Over the past five years, connecting on social networking sites has rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages millions of Internet users. In fact, “member communities” are now visited by more than two-thirds (67 percent) of the global online population, including social networks and blogs, according to The Nielsen Company, a global research firm.

In today's networking space, you need to be efficient with your time and even more effective with whom you choose to connect with. There are two types of networkers online: the posters and the seekers. Your business is a poster, which means you actively post valuable information, resources, tips and offers. The seekers are your customers. They're actively seeking your products and/or services. You'll find seekers in discussion areas, forums, groups and engaging on fan pages.

How do you better connect with these seekers? Someone out there you don't know yet, or doesn't know you wants your non slip solution. How do you reach them? The age old question.

You probably know most of the major social networking players like Facebook and LinkedIn, but look here to see how to utilize them better.

Is Word Of Mouth Nature, or Nurture?

Many, many salespeople, and anyone that could benefit from referrals believes that word of mouth is something that comes with just doing a great job at what you do. Being bad at what you do, or even mediocre certainly isn't going to give you good word of mouth business, but you aren't exactly going to be turning customers away at the door if you just rely on your work being what brings people in the door.

That is why there is a need to nurture the paths that lead referrals to your door. Waiting for them to come to you rarely works. You need a plan to get that business with referrals, or someone else that makes the effort to nurture the referral angle is going to steal them away from you. After all, you probably aren't the only one in your industry that does an above average job with the work you do. You need to inject a little hgh into the system.

A good reminder on why word of mouth is not just important, but why it must be worked on by YOU can be read here.

What Color Are Your Products, and Does It Matter?

Everything matters when it comes to the impressions you want to make with your products. Labels, packaging, and even the color of the product itself. How much does it matter? It all depends.

Ten years ago, Heinz unveiled a new type of ketchup that became an immediate success. It sold seven million bottles in its first seven months and gained international attention. It became so popular that when it sold out of some supermarkets, people actually auctioned it off on eBay.

On the flip side, Crystal Pepsi was a colossal failure. Why? Even though it tasted exactly like Pepsi, consumers didn't like the idea of drinking a clear colored cola. The sales were atrocious, and it was discontinued.

So I would guess that some ugly brown, or green color for something that would be used to show how to lose weight quick wouldn't exactly work. Well..maybe it would...

So...Learn how to choose your color and make millions.

Gift Card Sales to Exceed $90 Billion This Year; Double Your Gift Card Sales and Win Big

I don't think anyone would be surprised to know that a few people never use a gift card that comes into their possession. Especially those small $5-10 ones that sit there and won't exactly pay the entire bill for whatever store the user would use it at. OF course it may not be as high as one would expect. It is projected that it will be about 3.1% this year, but that is still $2.5 Billion of the entire market. This is lower in part due to increased consumer protection under Title IV of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009, which severely restricts expiration and nuisance fees for gift cards, a subset of prepaid debit cards.

While unused cards seem like they would be a good thing for most businesses as it is literally "free money" the unused cards probably cost them money overall due to what was described above. Those cards of very little cost like $5 typically forces consumers to spend their own money to cover the rest, but they probably wouldn't even be at the shop if they didn't have the card.

With all that said Gift Cards are a huge boon for most businesses. Spending almost $24 Billion last year on cards just during the holiday season alone, and it is only going up this year. Annual projections for gift cards are in the $90 Billion range. That's a lot of cleanse colon.

How do you get a bigger piece of this pie with your business? There are lots of ideas out there, but this article claims they can help you DOUBLE your gift card sales. Take a look.

Some New and Old Cheap and Tested Marketing Ideas

The technology age changed marketing a bit. While a lot of the principles remain unchanged, and many of the old techniques still work, there are a lot of new ideas out there. A lot of ideas that cost very little, and take very little effort. Things that you can do to give yourself a boost with just a couple minutes of thought.

Marketing is one of my favorite subjects because it allows us to think constructively and creatively. Marketing ideas are really only limited by our own imaginations. For me bouncing ideas around is fun. Testing them not so much, but if you like your idea enough it isn't quite as hard to test as most other projects. Especially now with so much instant gratification tech to play with. No down and dirty scrubs uniforms for most of it. Just a little tinkering.

Small changes to your marketing mix can have a big impact -- especially if you tap the wealth of low-cost tools available to you online.

Here are seven small marketing changes that you can make now to boost your sales in 2011.

Test-Drive Your Dream Business

Starting a business is pretty scary. Having an idea and then going through EVERYTHING you need to decide you can even do what it takes to succeed with it are a big job. There are all kinds of idea men. Anyone can have an idea, but very few of them can take that idea and make it into a reality. Many try. Many fail. They fail because they have no idea what they are getting into, their idea stinks, or any other excuse you can come up with.

What about working paycheck to paycheck and taking out payday advance loans just to get by wondering if your idea works, or the business you want to run could actually be right for you? Maybe you need to take a test-drive....

Here's an interesting idea. VocationVacations, a company that exposes people to alternative careers in one-, two- and three-day getaways. Brian Kurth founded the service in 2004 and has steadily expanded his network of vocational mentors to 30 states. The mentors -- all working professionals -- offer one-on-one training in 185 careers, from archeology to sports play-by-play announcing. Clients learn directly from brewmasters, make-up artists and television script writers -- a few of the most popular choices, Kurth says. The more adventurous step far beyond the 9-to-5 world to try bison ranching and guiding white-water rafting tours.

"You can be a total novice in whatever it is," says Kurth, who took a circuitous route to forming the company. He left his Chicago marketing job, got laid off from a dotcom, and traveled by car for six months, mainly in Colorado and on the West Coast, asking people about their careers. After finally settling in Portland, Ore., he went into marketing for the wine industry. He also launched VocationVacations, a moonlighting business based online. The concept proved so popular and rewarding that after a year he gave up the wine job.

Online Marketing Budgets: Skip Social Media?

I know that I'm doing a lot of badmouthing social media today, but a lot of this stuff should be thought about at least by those that use it a lot for their businesses. Knowing the downsides of things is usually the best way to decide if the upsides are worth the hassle right?

Is social media the right choice for an online business? Most people believe it is great, but where is all the money coming from? Probably e-mail marketing, which has been around for over a decade. Someone that bought your weight loss drinks probably wouldn't be upset if you sent them an e-mail about your weight loss bars. Some of the cross-marketing of e-mails for people that don't immediately mark them as spam has always been very effective marketing.

Social media may get all the ink, but it is not getting most of the dollars – at least not from small businesses, says a new report.

The majority of small companies will plow most of their marketing funds into traditional websites and e-mail, says a report by online survey firm Zoomerang and GrowBiz media. The report surveyed 751 small firms, nearly all (89 percent) of which had fewer than 25 employees. more

Is Too Much Social Media a Bad Thing For Business?

Business owners love all the social networks. It's free advertising in the simplest form. You can connect many social networking accounts like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. and update them all to keep your customers informed about what is going on, sales, and anything else. Is it possible there is too much, or it can hurt you? Of course, but is there any reason NOT to use them?

For some business owners all these social networks are more time than they are worth. We actually have to spend time updating this stuff, and thinking abut what we are going to be posting on it don't we after all? What if none of these things really drive you business? What if they waste too much time? Maybe you should think about pulling back and focusing on what does. After all, are you going to sell a metal building on Twitter?

For two days this past summer, online men's clothing retailer Blank Label's social media presence went dark -- 48 hours without a new Twitter post or fresh Facebook posting. This was no technical hiccup, but rather a deliberate experimental maneuver by company cofounder Danny Wong and his partners to adjust the custom shirt design venture's social media strategy on the fly. Because from a revenue standpoint, they could no longer justify spending as much time and money on generating and updating content for networks such as Facebook and Twitter. more

Do You Overthing Social Network Marketing? Some Easy Tips

Today I'm going to post a couple things on social networking. You know, sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. that we all love because they are free and we can reach millions of people for not much effort. Usually.

Sometimes we over think these mediums and spend too much time on them. These things aren't brain surgery to use, and many think way too long and hard about what they use them for, and how they go about it rather than spending time on something more important like the side effects of diet pills.

In the rush to gain subject matter credibility in the eyes of anyone who's paying attention, PR firms, advertising agencies, marketing organizations, application service providers, and consultants and consultancies in nearly every business vertical are all publishing reports, studies, white papers and more about social media-related marketing. But in nearly every case, they're either repeating what someone else has already said or, worse yet, they're wasting everyone's time by pointing out the obvious. more

10 Tips For That Killer Speech

The #1 ear for most people is public speaking. Too bad for you that you have no choice in the matter. You have to get up in front of that crowd and wow them. Want some tips? Well...besides making sure you take care of the blackheads on nose problem you have?

Giving a speech is very nerving. Both getting ready for it, and giving it. Leading up to it you feel like you are gonna blow it probably. IF you ever have to give one I bet you watch other people give them and try to see what they do wrong instead of what they are doing right. That may help you some for sure, but obviously it also makes you think of all the negatives that can come while you give yours!

The better part of a million dollars was on the line. Every year the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge in Amsterdam gives away 500,000 Euros for the best idea for a green product or service. In 2008, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre presented their alternative to synthetic building materials.

"In terms of a high pressure talk, that was probably the hardest in my memory," Bayer says. He practiced the talk out loud in front of his computer, making changes to his slides as he went. In the end the talk was a success. Bayer's team won the coveted check. 10 Tips on Speeches

Designing an "About Us" Page?

How much thought have you ever put into this page for your website? For many of my sites I don't think about it at all. I spend maybe 5 minutes of improvising some speel and call it a day. Of course most of those sites aren't really that important that you need to know "about Us", but many of your sites probably do need that information. You need a little trust don't you if you are gonna sell yme your how to remove pimples products right?

It's one of the most important elements on a company's website and also one of the most undervalued: the ubiquitous "About Us" page—that section on your site that has been collecting virtual dust because you haven't bothered to read it since, well, you first wrote it. more

How To Pay Yourself From the Beginning to Maturity

Business accounting probably isn't your biggest strong suit. Sure you understand numbers and probably picked up a few things about how you should consider your own salary, but that is what you pay other people to decide for you right? Of course figuring it out for yourself probably saves you a bit more and allows you better options.

If you want to do it yourself and worry about eye wrinkle creams because of the stress you need to figure it out. Want some help for free? Take a look at How Much To Pay Yourself and figure out where you are at the start-up phase, and beyond.

Free Advice From Pros

One of the most valuable tools in the business world is getting advice from people that are already where you are trying to go. You could go out and hire, or just flat out pay for it, but getting it for free is so much sweeter. This doesn't mean spying over walls with binoculars, or breaking into corporate computer systems. It is much less illegal than that :).

If all it costs him are some body bruises, facial nicks and the occasional fat lip, Matt Whitteker says he's happy to absorb the punishment his executive sparring partners dish out, as long as they keep feeding him valuable -- and free -- consulting advice once they step out of the ring. 4 Rules To Free Advice

Identify Your Most Valuable Customers

There is nothing more important to a business in the business of selling something to know who your best and most profitable customers are. You clearly need to understand these people as much as possible to keep them happy. If you have never thought about who the best are, you may want to think a little bit about it rather than just saying "the ones that pay".

Let's face it. We all have our favorite customers -- the ones who pay promptly, handle problems respectfully and, most important, give us repeat business. So why waste our time on any other kind?

It's impossible, of course, to avoid every problem customer. The first step is to identify your best customers (if you don't already know) -- and then devote yourself to keeping them utterly delighted with your goods or services. Over time, this will help grow your business. They are much more likely to give great reviews for your products such as hydroxycut review.

"This is hugely important," says Wendy Rogers, who with her husband, Hal Kunnen, owns the HouseMaster home and termite inspection franchise in Phoenix, Arizona. "You've already showcased your goods and services to your best customers. In a sense, they're already sold on you. You should work doubly hard to keep them happy because it's much more difficult to get new business
than it is to keep old business." more

Having Fun At Work

Not everyone does what they love. Either they don't know what they love, or they aren't in position to do what they love. Certainly not everyone loves to work. Myself is very much included in that latter statement. I am more like the guy in Office Space that has a dream of doing "nothing" than I am anything else. I'd rather talk about reducing stretch marks than working and I'm a male.

Find out how you can pump up the fun in your office in 5 easy steps:

Q: How can I make my office a fun place to work?

A: If you're serious about it, so to speak, be prepared to put in some effort. Most people aren't used to having fun at work, so you'll need to set an example -- even if it means sporting a peg leg, all by your lonesome, during the office's first "Talk Like a Pirate Day." more

7 Commn Sales Mistakes

Are you a sales failure? Well...probably. We all are. As salesmen we know that we fail more than any other profession. Repeatedly. All day. Every day. What makes up for it is when we land the whale and when that final signature gets through the barcode scanner we rake a huge commission and feel like we are Gordon Gekko from Wall Street. We are the king for the day and we are partying our butts off that weekend.

We also realize that we need to try and decrease the failure percentage as much as possible and we try so many different tactics to increase our success rate that we probably have 500 self-help books in our closet. We've tried it all. Even if we are actually born salesmen.

Here are 7 Common Sales mistakes that you may want to avoid.

Free Wi-Fi and Hackers

So...you like to sit in Starbucks and work? So do hackers. Most people don't consider that hackers are all over the place, and there is no easier way to hack into a network than there is at a free Wi-Fi access point.

Unless you are just researching diet pills that work at your local Wi-Fi hotspot, you may want to take a few measures to ensure your security for your precious business files.

So for an entrepreneur who considers Starbucks -- or any other coffee shop for that matter -- his home office, what options are available to ensure the privacy and security of his or her data when accessing the internet on a free Wi-Fi connection? more

Getting a New Product to Market

Everyone has ideas about something that would "make millions" don't they? I know I do. Daily. Other than just pure laziness that I have the disease of holding me back, what else holds back your genius idea? I'm sure it isn't that upcoming colon cleanser you plan to do.

On one side of the hall at this year's National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, a first-time inventor was displaying a handsome menu folder that subtly lights up, letting diners read what's on order without destroying the dark-and-moody ambience. On the other side of the hall, another first-time inventor was proudly showing a check folder that, yes, lights up when diners are ready to pay the bill. read more

Non-Profit Success Stories

You don't wnat to pay any taxes do you? DO YOU!? Of course you don't. Have yo ever looked at a non-profit and wondered how they are able to get all this money and never have to worry about paying it out to the government? Well look no more. Finding a successful non-profit is right around the corner. At least finding someone ELSE that has one is right around the corner. You can keep worrying about fat burning supplements yourself.

Here are a couple sisters that run a Bee company and do pretty well for themselves and the people they work to help.

When their grandfather died of esophageal cancer in 2003, sisters Molly and Carly Houlahan wanted to do something significant that would both honor his memory and help fund the search for a cancer cure.

"He was our best friend and role model," Molly says. "It was the first time we had lost someone, and you recognize how precious life is."

So Molly, now 18, and Carly, 16, put a family hobby to work and formed Hives for Lives. The Devon, Penn.-based company harvests, filters, bottles, labels and sells its own honey, and all profits are donated to fund cancer research.

Who Should You Hound For Money?

Finding start up cash is one of the more exciting things in business. Did I say exciting? I meant scariest. Finding someone to believe in you and give you some dough is a lot of pressure after you actually get the cahs, but how do you go about it in the first place?

Take some Strong diet pills and check out this article on how to get people to pony up some dough so you can realize your dream of becoming the next business mogul.

Top Entrepreneur Schools 2010

Entrepreneurs typically like to claim that they never needed college. Most of them really didn't. College probably helped in many aspects if they did go, but a lot of business owners are more "street smart" than book smart so college was probably a bit of a struggle. At the very least we learned some new fat burning exercises in our Phys-Ed REQUIRED classes we had to take right?

BUT, there is a lot of value and things that can be learned in business school regardless. Here are the top small business schools for entrepreneur's for 2010.

Being a Small Business Owner Is Great

Don't you love waking up everyday and knowing you have nobody to answer to? I know I do. I barely get any work done most days though because I'm pretty lazy. It takes a bit to get me rolling in the morning, but once I do I am really pumped to be at homes with nobody hounding me every second of the day. After wasting my morning reading news, watching Youtube videos, and readins aobut stuff like glucosamine sulphate I actually crack the whip on myself. Kinky huh?

I am one of those that needs a deadline to work faster I think. I need to go down to the wire and figure out if I can beat the clock.This is a blessing, and a HUGE curse at times I guess, but I know one thing: I am CLUTCH.

The New Twitter and You

Do you use Twitter for your business as a tool to market yourself? I certainly do for anything I run online as it is a great way to get some keywords pumped into the world wide web that others will see pop up when they browse Twitter.

Twitter has announced that it will start rolling out a new interface in the coming days. The updated version will include photo and video sharing capabilities integrated directly into users' streams.

Check out their new ad campaign:



Twitter is also a great way to look and find gifts. With the new Twitter being more accessible to merchants all over the place finding the perfect gift is even easier than ever. No longer do you have to search everywhere to find redenvelope birthday gift ideas for women. Just start up a conversation on Twitter and millions will share their gift ideas in one stream so you know exactly what to get. Of course discussing your gift ideas for her on Twitter probably isn't the BEST idea if you aren't smart enough to use an alternate account :).

5 Best Small Businesses To Work For 2010

When most people think about who they are going to work for they typically think of corporations in a big steel building. Big corporations are well known, and usually have the resources to offer employees a lot more monetarily, as well as other financial perks like insurance and retirements plans. Small companies tend to treat employees a little better than most would think, however.

Working for a smaller company is a bit more like a family. If they aren't too big you probably know everyone that works there, and you may even have face time with the owners on occasion. These environments almost always feel like more of a team since your work is very important to the success of this business.

So what makes a small business a great place to work for? Take a look at Entrepreneur's top 5 small companies to work for and see what they all do to make their employees love them.

Why Business Owners Head Back to School

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize that the everchanging business environment needs to be followed. You can't possibly know all the new tactics involved in running a business, and continuing education is probably something you need to invest a little time in at least. As important as getting life insurance quotes for business partners it is just as important to keep up with the trends of running a business.

There's no substitute for the education entrepreneurs get in the competitive trenches, starting and running their own business. But there are cases in which a return to the classroom is the best--if not the only--way to get ahead. Some seek the type of immediate and tangible returns that come from learning a new language or skill, while others are searching for long-term solutions to jump-start stagnant businesses. And no matter their motivation for hitting the books, they're also challenged with keeping their companies afloat while they do it. These entrepreneurs are taking the leap--making a return trip to academia in search of the expertise they can't get on the job.

Billion Dollar Retail Industry I Have Never Heard Of

Let's preface this by saying I'm male first and foremost and that should probably explain everything. That's right I don't "bargain shop". If I want something I just go buy it because I instinctively know if it is a good price, or not, and what that widget should sell for and the value it has in money. Except maybe stuff like say pedestal sinks.

So...I wasn't really surprised that there were membership-only, sample-sale websites that bring the excitement of a door-buster sale online, with prices as much as 80 percent off. What did surprise me is that some guy introduced one in November 2007 and has $1 Billion in sales already. Take a look.

20 Something Millionaires Made It Online

If you have an idea that you think a lot of people are willing to pay money for there is no more cost-efficient way to get started than to do it online. Almost anyone with a search engine and internet access can learn, or find all the information they need to get started. You just have to have the idea, and the desire to work, rather than sitting in your dorm room playing xbox 360 all night.

For a little inspiration it makes a lot of sense to see a few people that have done it before and done it right. It isn't all just having what people want and slopping together a website. There are plenty of other things you will need to learn, and you need to know how to make it all work. Take a look at 3 booming ideas that took off for these owners online when they were just hitting adulthood.

Time Saving Tech

What good is tech for business if it doesn't save you a lot of time? Certainly that IS what you use it for right, and not just so you can set up a LAN game of your favorite FPS in the office to play with other people in the office? *cough*

Tech is unavoidable, and even the least tech savvy these days has to learn at least some of it just to get by. Computers are becoming more and more user friendly and dummy proof for basic office functions and a 10 minute tutorial. As easy as tying your designer ties. What about all the gadgets that we entrepreneurs love to use to save us time?

Connectivity is probably the most important aspect of business tech. With the smartphones, laptops, and all sorts of handheld devices we can take off froom the office and still get things done. Here are some of the better time saving tech for business.

Doing Business Outside the U.S. Isn't the Same Everywhere

It may seem like common sense to many, but there are a lot of business owners that think they can just jump right into a market outside the U.S. without having to do much different. They find out the hard way that they had no idea what they were getting into because they had no idea what that market required. Just because you have a nifty yakima rack that sells one way to Americans, you may not be able to get anyone in China, or Germany, or Poland to buy them.

There are many reasons why you can't do things the same in all place, but here are a few general guidelines to the mistakes most people make.

George Steinbrenner's Business Lessons

"The Boss", George Steinbrenner may have been the most hated man in baseball by everyone who wasn't a Yankee fan, and maybe by a few that are. One thing that can't be argued, however is that he was incredibly successful as a businessman.

He died earlier this week at the age of 80, but will be remembered for his legacy as the owner of baseball's New York Yankees. Arguable the most recognized sports team on Earth. Didn't matter that he was probably in need of wrinkle cream reviews in his later years to stay looking sharp. He was still pulling the strings no matter how he was doing. Not to mention how he likely pulled the strings for the Yankees even when suspended by the league several times for as long as 2 years.

What made him so special? Take a look at what he taught us.

The Early Bird Catches the Worm

Probably one of the oldest sayings you can remember. Everyone has heard it. In fact this has been around since the 1600s. This is first recorded in John Ray's A collection of English proverbs 1670, 1678. It's still as true today as it was the first time you heard it. For humans and birds.

Studies show that morning people are more likely to succeed. Even if other studies show that night people are more creative, funny, and smarter. Clearly it is up for debate.

Christoph Randler, a biology professor at the University of Education in Heidelberg, Germany says a mornign person that gets up about the same time everyday be it a day on, or off.

"When it comes to business success, morning people hold the important cards," Randler told the Harvard Business Review of his research, some of which originally appeared in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. "[T]hey tend to get better grades in school, which gets them into better colleges, which then leads to better job opportunities. Morning people also anticipate problems and try to minimize them. They're proactive."

They are probably more likely to be healthier and eat food that burns fat rather than junk from being behind all the time. Waking up late for most businesses probably isn't the way to go as the rest of the world isn't working anymore. read more

Old Spice Blows Up Marketing With Social Networking

If you haven't figured out by now that social networking probably the greatest free form of marketing out there, you should now. After Old Spice and it's hero Old SPice Man proved it beyond a reasonable doubt this past month.

What did they prove? That virtually anyone with a strong enough character, or idea can reach anyone, and get their backing. If you had a good enough marketing idea for guaranteed life insurance even you could probably get world renown celebrities in your corner if you played it right.

Just take a look at how Old Spice Man became an overnight internet viral marketing sensation. He's everywhere. Everywhere I have looked at small business news, and business news in general I have seen this campaign discussed.

Raise Capital For Your Business By Not Wasting It

Using money in a business for things you absolutely don't need seems to be a problem for many a business owner. Then they are left scrambling for some capital, when they probably have much of it available all along.

What's the biggest trap many entrepreneurs fall into? The old adage "Fake it until you make it." comes shining through for many of them. They try to appear successful, and spend a pretty penny trying to accomplish that lie. Spending ridiculous amounts of money on cosmetic things when the business doesn't even need it. Trying to dress like a Fortune 500 CEO, or just plain live like one when you can barely keep your doors open probably isn't a wise use of your cash. There is a time and place for all of that, but certainly not for MOST business owners when they are getting started. It's not like you are running an apidexin scam and need to look like an upstanding citizen are you?

Here are 10 ways that Entrepreneurs waste money.

Making a Marketing Plan

For a lot of us business guys we see marketing as common sense most of the time. We are all pretty creative thinkers so we can think of neat ways to get some exposure and find ways to draw people in. Of course we sometimes just go about it completely the wrong way and don't formulate a direct plan. Instead trying things out that we "think" might work, but we haven't really given a lot of in depth thought.

Of course when you go into detail and formulate a marketing plan with all aspects of your business in mind things start to become a bit more clear and concise. Things just work better if you plan them out more. Doesn't matter if you are hawking prototype 37c, or you are a service company.

Here is a How-To Guide to Writing a Marketing Plan that should be a bit of help to become more organized in this area.

Selecting the Right Retirement Benefits For Your Business

While it may seem that there is a sea of options for retirement benefits for employees and your business there really aren't that many. Most of the time they are obvious as to what fits best for your type of business and how you want to run a retirement program for it. The major problem usually is the guy that comes in and tries to set you up with the wrong retirement package because, for lack of a better term, they are greedy.

You see, different retirement plans have different sorts of fees involved with them. The agent that runs your plan gets paid a bit differently depending on how it is set up. Either a large admin fee every year, or a little cut on the money being put in, or both. Some of these cost you a little more than others, and may not even be the best for your business. Any agent worth a damn knows he is going to make money on these plans anyways so if they aren't finding the most logical one for you they are dirt. You aren't looking for a bargain here by any means like you would for say cheap adipex, but you need to at least know your options.

So...it may do you a bit of good to at least familiarize yourself with the basics so you have a slight plan before going into the meeting with an advsior. Know the questions you want to ask, or the questions you want answered for the plan going in. Here's a good primer for different plans that will help you get rolling.

Climbing Rate of Sexual Harassment Claims From Men?

When you think of sexual harassment you rarely think of it being directed towards men do you? I guess most of us men don't consider ANYTHING sexual harassment. Just flirting :). Of course things are a lot different when you are married, or in a serious relationship. While it is nice to get offers it certainly isn't alright when you clearly aren't interested and it can hamper your career (yes...men actually aren't interested sometimes).

It doesn't happen as often as it does to women, but it DOES happen. Men being sexually harassed at work isn't unheard of, and it seems that claims by men is on the rise. In fact it has doubled in the last couple years. Maybe that female boss at your scanning software company wants you to stay late one night, or FIRE YOU. What are you gonna do when you have a wife and kids at home?

During fiscal year 2009, 16.0 percent of all sexual harassment cases were filed by men in the U.S., the highest percentage ever, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That comes fresh on the heels of the record number of such complaints filed by men (more than 2,200) set in 2008. The rise is despite the fact that the overall number of sexual harassment complaints has declined.

How do you put a stop to it in your business, or prevent it in the first place? Take a few tips from Inc.com.

What's a Chief Cultural Officer?

While I have always found it important to be "in touch" with current trends and what is going on in our culture as someone in business, I have never looked at it from this perspective before. That perspective is that of an anthropologist who studies not ancient civilizations, but modern culture and how it evolves, or even forms. Looking at not only short-term fads, but long-term culture that transforms much slower than quick fads.

This is what gets cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken invitations to help companies tap into what makes people really latch onto products. In an interview with Entrepreneur.com, McCracken discusses these differences as well as his book Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation.

You can see more aobut McCracken's ideas on his culture blog CultureBy.

Business and Repairing Your Credit Rating

When you first set out on the business track your credit rating may be superb. It probably had to be. As things get rolling you may hit some snags along the way and your personal credit may start taking hits just to help your business take off. I know my credit was ugly when I opened my doors at first because I had to buy all kinds of office stuff, equipment, and whatever else out of my own pocket while I had little time to bring in the income to pay for it. I certainly didn't need any phentermine to lose weight with the stress I was under.

If you need to get some credit for your business you better pay attention to your personal credit first. No new business is going to get squat from a bank if the owner has terrible credit because the business has no history. Here are some tips to spruce up the personal side of your credit to make your business more stable.

John Wooden's Pyramid of Success

You may not know who John Wooden is if you aren't a sports fan. He died this week at the ripe old age of 99 so you can probably guess that he had a lasting influence to a lot of people. Looking back on Wooden's life I saw an old article that caught my eye on his Pyramid of Success. This is what we will share today, but just realize that this man was one of the greatest basketball coaches of all-time. Maybe even the best. Just search Wooden UCLA if you want to know more, or take a look at the best weight loss supplement if you don't.

This is from an article on Entrepreneur.com from 2007:

At the age of 96, living in Encino, California and making 20 to 30 speeches a year, former UCLA coach John Wooden still keeps in touch with more players than he could name in one breath, including Bill Walton, Andy Hill, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Keith Erickson, Keith Wilkes, Mike Warren, Kenny Washington and John Vallely. And those are just the ones he has breakfast with on a regular basis. But that only seems natural for a leader whose "Pyramid of Success" includes friendship, loyalty and team spirit as three of its 15 blocks.

The Millionaire Club. From Web to TV

10 years ago a woman had an idea. Match millionaires up with dates. Yeah...it wasn't that simple, but you get the idea. A lot of people go looking for the whales, but usually they find that quantity is the only way they can get the numbers. Whales are tough to get usually if you have any competition and cause you more time looking at treatment for high cholesterol. What if you don't, and have a great idea? Go for the whales.

Patti Stanger wasn't always a reality television star. Before she landed The Millionaire Matchmaker series on Bravo, which recently wrapped up its third, and highest-rated season to date, she was just an entrepreneur with a great idea.

She founded the Los Angeles-based Millionaire's Club in 2000, an exclusive and private matchmaking service that introduces busy, successful (and rich) entrepreneurs and CEOs to men and women handpicked by Stanger and her staff. The show, which debuted in 2008, chronicles the personal transformations each millionaire receives to help them succeed in love. In some cases, that means giving the love-starved participant a wardrobe makeover, but in others, the transformation could call for psychological therapy. It's not unusual, says Stanger, for those who are used to being in control to buck these changes. That's when they meet Stanger's characteristic loud mouth and hard-line attitude.

Make Your Business More Attractive To Investors

No investors you say? Why not get some? Make your business more attractive to investors is certainly something to look into at least. The decision to bring outside investors into your company will be one of the most important decisions of your life. Raising money through angel investors, private equity, or venture capital can put you on a path to great expansion and market share. Against that, you must weigh the loss of control you will incur, and the increase in oversight you will most certainly experience.

After you get done with your hcg diet plan meal take a look at 9 ways to make your business attractive to investors. You might be surprised how easy it is to apply some of these tips, or how important investors can be to your future.

Best Startup Industries?

It's always good to look at trends. Even if you have a business you probably have the mind to follow trends don't you? I know a lot of us business owner types are always looking at how you could make money in various areas. Sometimes it draws us away from what we are currently doing and pushing us towards a completely different type of business. It's sort of a thing we can't control. Always thinking about how we can fill a need, and to think about how that need would make us money.

Trends are usually something we pay attention to. Not because we actually think we want to get into that particular market, but how we can make money on an offshoot of an exploding market. Yeah...we like to be in the exploding market too if it makes sense, but a lot of times we aren't in on the ground floor so we may just have to take the runoff. If the best wrinkle creams were the new hot thing we may not get into that business, but we may decide that we have the best new cream applicator ever and that we could make more money on that. Just an example. Here are the Inc.com startup trends.

Stopping Cyber Criminals

Apparently, cyber crimes cost the economy over $1 Trillion a year. Clearly a problem. Are you someone that could be threatened by a cyber crime? Many of these crimes aren't against big corporate accounts, but small businesses. Gone are the days where crooks are just taking a shipping box off the back steps of your business. Now they are hidden on the other side of the world behind their computers.

It makes sense that they go after small businesses. There is money there, and the security is often pretty lax.

The truth is that small businesses are increasingly becoming some of the most attractive targets today for enterprising cyberthieves. Take Support.com, for instance. The relatively small remote technical-support provider of about 600 employees finds its website under constant attack, says Mazdak Hashemi, head of technical operations at the company.

"Even though we're a small player, we're getting attacks from all over the world," Hashemi says. "We're not a big name that people hear about all the time, but apparently we have some interesting stuff that people are interested in stealing or abusing."

Procrastination and You

Nothing worse than feeling anxious, stressed out, and even depressed because you procrastinate. The more you procrastinate the worse you feel, and it leads to more procrastination. It happens in all phases of our lives from work to something as simple as picking up your Father's day gifts. Putting things off is one of the easiest stress producers to avoid, however. So how can you do it? How can you make up for it?

This article is sort of odd in that it doesn't necessarily talk about how to avoid procrastinating, but what to do if you get caught up in it. At least how to realize if you can hack it by being a procrastinator. Some people excel with deadlines. Others just fold under the pressure. Which one are you?

Customer Loyalty, and You

You know as well as I do that customer loyalty kicks major butt. If you do great at customer service, which is something I have always prided myself on, you get their loyalty. Well..that and giving them the best deal, or advice. Treating people right, and hooking them up for their loyalty is always good business. You market may be competitive and offer little wiggle room in pricing, but that is where the customer loyalty sets you a part from your competition.

Most businesses aren't niche markets like say being a maker of designer ties that nobody else can sell. They are in competitive industries that may just have found an area that needed the service. As the demand was there and the supply was lacking, you filled a void. It may not last forever when people see that you have the right idea. That is when the competition heats up and you NEED your loyalty to win the war. Here are 6 ways to create more customer loyalty.

Employees With Blogs

In this day of instant information, many of your employees have all kinds of online activities, and can share with the world all kinds of information. Not just on Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter, but they might even go in to great detail by starting up a blog to share their thoughts. This isn't always just something like weight loss success stories either.

So how do businesses deal with employee blogging? First they have to decide whether they NEED to do anything about it, but if they do when should they decide on creating some sort of policy for this? As a person of insane love for freedom of speech I find a lot of this conversation to be rather angering. Of course I can see the need for it in some instances.

Maybe this guy will be able to look at it in a reasonable manner with his advice. I know I can't.

60 Day Productivity Boot Camp

Entrepreneur.com is always geving you advice on how to more efficiently run your small business. Be it new technology, strategies with employees, or just plain advice on coping with running a business. So it was no surprise when I ran a crossed their idea to create a productivity series.

This series is over 60 days, and lists 200 tips to becoming more productive. They are only in the 30s right now so it is a good time to jump on board and see what they can give you. You are still right in the beginning so you may as well play a little catch up before it is too late, and you need hgh pills to get into shape. Take a look.

Are iIPads Even Worth Buying For Your Business?

I'm sure you have read in quite a few places that this first generation of iPad isn't really ready to be anything. It's just really cool in concept and you just want one because it is cool tech. At least this is what most people say. Of course we know that there are probably some applications eventually that will make it a business necessity, but are there any reasons to buy one yet other than surfing the web for apidexin reviews?

Scott Steinberg seems to think so. HE gives 5 reasons why to buy an iPad for your business.

The Impostor Syndrome

Any time you are in a position of teaching, giving advice, or offering a service that is supposed to increase someone else's business there can be the fear. The fear that you are unqualified to tell this guy what he should be doing. That you really don't know as much as you should, and that this guy is going to see right through you as an impostor. This is The Impostor Syndrome.

This is a very common fear among us that have been advice givers. No need to carry around wrinkle cream as this happens to everyone. I have definitely felt it before when I worked with much older clients that have been around for a while. Hearing "fake it til you make it" from other co-workers constantly as the theme of the day. Like they look at my youth and think to themselves that this guy has no idea what he is talking about. Actually, sometimes I didn't know as much as I thought, but I knew more than he did, and I knew how to find the info I needed anyways. Here's some advice.

4 Day Work Weeks?

When I used to work in manufacturing the greatest way to work was the 4 day work week. 4 shifts of 10 hours and then a 3 day weekend was the best. It felt like a much shorter week, and it felt like a much more open weekend where I had more opportunity to go somewhere without the stress, or the need for hair loss prevention.

Are there real benefits as an employer for the 4 day work week? Employees love it of course, but what are the drawback, and how do you avoid them? It will take a lot of thinking on the subject that's for sure, but have you ever considered it? Take a look at how to implement a 4 day work week.

5 Ways To Get Your Website Daily Traffic

Traffic drives just about all of your website profits. Without it, there is nobody to buy your products, or click on your ads. Getting them there may be easy in many cases, but then getting them to buy what you have is another matter. If you have figured out how to convert your traffic already, you may want some tips on keeping them coming back.

Whether you use social networking ideas, or you pop up new curvatrim reviews everyday for diet pill customers, getting them coming back is a must just like any business. Repeat business is always good.

Here are 5 Simple Methods For Daily Traffic that should help.

The Evolution of Green in Business

"Green" business has been around for about 40 years officially. Right now it has become not just a niche, but a huge marketing need, and even a necessity to keep up with competitors.

The evolution of green into business has come a long ways. Back before 1970, factories actually dumped their waste legally into the water, and pumped toxic fumes into the air with no thought about it. Probably even got a bonus for doing it, or a some nice coach gifts for the skipper. April 22, 1970, when Senator Gaylord Nelson put out a call to Americans to start a grass-roots effort to protest the pollution generated by industry. That first Earth Day, some 20,000 people demonstrated in cities across the country. Six months later, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was founded to regulate business practices that harmed the environment.

While many regulations over the years have focused on pollution on a mass scale from factories, we have moved on to a bit of a different style of green. Conservation has become the new theme for most, while still being environmentally safe. This is good for consumers as well since we are more likely to want sustainability from our products. They last longer, and use less energy, which saves us more money.

So...take a look at how to get yourself on the right track by reading about how the green evolution ahs become standard business practice.

Moving Your Home Business Out of the House

If you are successful enough, and you are growing too fast, you will have to make a decision about moving your home business out of the house. Making the decision could be the biggest of your business life, and needs to be considered carefully.

Getting too big for your house has plenty of issues that may make the move prudent. Higher shipping costs as a residential area, felling like you live in a warehouse, and most importantly the inability to keep up with demand because you don't have a fast enough setup.

Doesn't matter how fancy all your tech is at the house with PDAs, computers, or manufacturing equipment, this stuff starts to get too big, and the storage becomes impossible to find. Sleeping on a mattress that is on top of boxes of inventory probably is a sign you need more room.

Here's a look at a candle manufacturer that found herself pretty cramped. It gives her story on how she made the leap, as well as some tips to get the move on yourself.

Genetic Predisposition to Entrepreneurship

Could I have worded that title any better to make it more of a mouthful? Probably not. I did try though.

So are we predisposed genetically to being a business owner? It makes sense of course, as there are a lot of us that just have the need to do it ourselves, or we see ideas in many things that we believe will make money. While we don't all have the ability to get it done, a lot of people do have the mind that can conceive it.

Here is an in depth study that looks at the issue for any interested. It is a pretty good read. Much more interesting than my chore right now of finding some cheap car insurance. for my ride.

15 Years of Craigslist

Hard to believe that this site has been around this long. Man am I getting old. The internet has been around in mass use for so long now that I can't even comprehend it. Anyways, with 15 years under their belts selling everything from a life insurance policy, to women, to used mattresses to anyone and everyone who will buy them let's take a look at how they are doing.

The founder, Craig Newmark talks about how things have changed at the internet's oldest open marketplace--and how they haven't. I must admit that I have never trusted this site. Ever. The same way I don't trust anyone that puts stuff in the newspaper. I basically don't want to meet any of these people for the most part...lol

Health Care and Small Business

With the new health care reform springing up on us all it is probably no surprise that most of us aren't all that up on how it will actually work for , or against our businesses. I am ashamed to say that I haven't took as much time as I should have to look deeper into the whole thing, and was probably as surprised at anyone that anything actually got done. I have a hard enough time keeping up with my best weight loss supplements.

So...I won't even try to break it down for you in how it relates to businesses because this guy has already given his interpretations of it himself. Even though most of the things won't kick in until 2014, it is probably best to get on this now and figure out if you want to start making some noise :D.

Facebook Tops Google News For Advertising?

Recent research has suggested that users are more loyal to Facebook than they are to Google News. What that means is that if you want to advertise on the internet, the Ad giant Google Adwords may not be the best place to go anymore. Advertising on Facebook has become a great place to spend your advertising dollar.

Earlier this month the social networking site topped Google to win the title of most visited site in the U.S. Yes, that was just one week in March (for the record, the second week). But now the social networking site has added another medal to its haul: Facebook's news readers are more loyal than those of Google News, says research firm Hitwise.

This just shows that people want to do more than just read the news when they go online. Facebook offers a lot more of a one stop shop than Google news does for easy communication with other people, news, and probably even stuff like jenny craig reviews. Shocking that Google doesn't have their own launch of the next Facebook yet now that I think of it.

How Are the Online Television Sites Doing?

All of us spend a good amount of time on the internet. We can get virtually all forms of entertainment we desire simply by going to a website, downloading a torrent file, or buying music from a place like iTunes. More and more of us are actually watching all of our television online as it is just easier to do. We can watch it whenever we want. We don't have to remember to DVR it, and the commercials are less than watching live.

Instead of waking up everyday with dark circle under our eyes because we wanted to watch the Daily Show at 11 PM, we can watch it at lunch. There are 4 major TV sites right now that get all the traffic. I'm sure you have heard of Hulu.com, but what others are there, and how do they stack up? Take a look at 4 Hulu alternatives.

The Green Bubble?

Remember the Tech Boom, and the following Tech Bubble Burst in early 2000? While the economy is nowhere near where it was then, in fact it hasn't even moved back to the heights of that level since, many wonder if the lack of results in "Green" are headed for the same fate. Sweating the debts, and lack of results for all the clamoring of green technologies, I'm sure many are plowing through their acne medicine.

At a time when most startups can't get funding and even government-backed small-business loans are scarce, there is seemingly endless enthusiasm for cleantech--that is, young companies that create energy out of renewable sources such as wind or sunlight, or make vehicles powered by something other than fossil fuel.

Cleantech is "the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century, says Ira Ehrenpreis, board member of the National Venture Capital Association and general partner with Technology Partners, in Palo Alto, Calif. It is the only sector, he points out, that combines bipartisan political agreement, corporate and Wall Street support and a transformational issue--saving the earth's energy and water resources. "The green of the environment and the green of economic and financial returns go hand in hand, he says.

Unpaid Interns? Should You Use Them?

Hey...if people are willing to work for free, how can you turn it down? The old addage "You get what you pay for" obviously comes to mind, but what do you think about unpaid interns?

Sometimes the unpaid intern can be a nightmare, but many times t may become your greatest employee. Interns are typically young, and hungry to succeed. They obviously wouldn't work for free if they weren't now would they? Being an intern is better experience many times if they are willing to take the risk, than to maybe be a busboy and waste their time getting no experience. Take a look at a start up that has hired 6 of their interns already. A style site that posts articles and information on fashion, beauty trends, and anything else like best acne treatment.

The article also goes into being an intern, as well as how, and why you would want one for your business. Mainly because you can't afford to pay someone for the same work. While it may not be easy to do in many businesses, there are plenty of people out there that want good experience for the future and are willing to do the work.

A Year After The Stimulus Plan: What About Small Businesses?

You would have to live under a rock to not have heard about the stimulus plan from last year, and the Billions of Dollars that was given to huge corporations. $787 Billion to be precise.

So...what of the little guy? What kind of help did the small business sectors end up with in this whole thing? The simple answer is: Little to nothing.

Entrepreneur.com interviewed a small businesses that has done a lot of government contracts over the years and asked how much of that money they ahve seen.

Veronica Rose, founder and CEO of Aurora Electric, a Jamaica, N.Y., electrical contracting company, has spent nearly 20 years successfully bidding on government contracts. She says about the stimulus money:

"We haven't seen any of it," Rose says. "The stimulus money went to the big infrastructure companies that build highways and bridges--the bigger, deeper, heavier part of our industry where you have to be a big company in order to compete."

Apparently, she is not alone in being held out of the prize pool. A year after the government rolled out the biggest economic stimulus plan in history, small businesses like Rose's are wondering where the money went and why so little of it came their way. While VC-backed startups like Tesla Motors, the Palo Alto, Calif., company that makes electric cars, got a $465 million taxpayer loan, most of the stimulus dollars have ended up in the pockets of big companies that employ thousands of workers, not the millions of small businesses like Rose's that each employ only a handful. In fact, much of the stimulus money has gone to government agencies, bypassing the private sector completely.

Logically, you can't really argue with money going to companies that employ thousands of people. It just has a bigger impact on more people than a small business in most cases. The government institutions raking in cash is a bit unnerving I guess. Never know where that went. Probably for a new dream gym full of high end fitness equipment, or 424234 iPhones sitting in boxes int eh basement.

According to a recent analysis by The Wall Street Journal, $112 billion of the $179 billion in stimulus funds shelled out last year went to state governments to plug the gaps in education, Medicaid and unemployment benefits budgets or to boost funding for food stamps and other social services programs. An additional $700 million was spent on administration, and about $47 billion went toward transfer payments, such as $250 checks for Social Security recipients. Some $70 billion in social spending is in the pipeline already, the Journal reported, including grants for local organizations conducting job training programs.

Working At home? Here Are a Few Rules

Working at home is brilliant. What a great way to spend the day. Wearng a comfortable beat up t-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts while you sit at the PC and type away all day :D.

Oh wait...I just got a new Bioshock 2 game...hmm...I think I will play that for a couple hours. Heh...time to eat. I guess I will watch this movie while I do that. Done eating? Gotta watch the rest of this movie I guess. Ahhh...let's take a nap :D.

So many distractions at home, but working at home is amazing. You just have to figure out how to keep the distractions to a minimum and keep the work flowing. Unless you are like me and you put it off to the last minute and then cram like you never crammed before almost every week ;). For some reason i am one of those people that needs to be up against a deadline to produce. Odd I know. Maybe I can find a weight loss product that tells me if I don't get that weight off by such and such a day that I am going to get put in jail :).

8 Work At home Rules for you to learn ;)

Regulation and You: Drowning in Red Tape

Believe me when I say I know what it feels like to spend half the day filling out ridiculous forms, and doing it in a way that is incredibly inefficient. Yes, I used to work in the finance industry and the SEC was not a friend of technology. Paper, paper, and more paper were filling hundreds of file cabinets in my office. Every client had a phonebook sized file full of documents and forms that would kill 6 trees.

Every single day my partner and I would be insanely annoyed at the arcane way all these files had to be kept. It wasn't kept this way by our choice. We certainly would have loved to store our hundreds of clients on ONE little flash drive with 50 back ups on 50 other flash drives We could literally save 1000 square feet of space alone with our 50 flash drives of info. A nice 4 GB flash drive would be enough to last us until we retired, literally. IT would save us thousands of dollars a year, and thousands of hours of meaningless paperwork. Time that could be spent doing much more important things like expanding our business, or even as silly as looking through phosphacore reviews.

Fortunately many business owners have the option to "Let Someone Else Do it!" (Homer Simpson's campaign slogan for Sanitation Commissioner is brilliant). Here are some ways to get this done.

Astrology and Your Business

Sometimes it gets a little boring reading about serious stuff all the time. As a business owner you likely don't buy into any supernatural crap, or crazy astrology ideas, but I thought it was entertaining to see what this author came up with.

This by no means is an actual astrological article with all the crazy luck and fate things you would get with a cheesy newspaper horoscope. This is just a neat little way to express some points that the author wanted to express while using a well known idea. The whole thing is written as a horoscope, but is there because it wants to talk about trying to predict the future of your business. Foreseeing the possible problems, taking advantage of insight, a better exposed acne treatment to look better, and anything else.

Finding a Mentor

You want to be Bill Gates? Well good luck. He claims his mentor is Warren Buffet. The two richest men in history together. Do you want a mentor, and how do you even go about finding one?

One thing I have always noticed is that I always have questions about something. That isn't just reserved for little kids. We always have something to learn and there is usually someone that knows a lot more about it than we do. It is only natural to seek out like minded people with more experience in the areas you are interested in for help. Of course finding someone willing to help you may be a completely different matter. It is a bit difficult to connect with someone on that level. IT takes dedication from both the mentor and you as well. Just because you both like arcona doesn't mean you are a great match. Your philosophies may not be in line. Your ethics off. Maybe you change yours because of them.

Well...I am no expert in finding a mentor, but I did read a pretty good article about such a task earlier today. Check out How to find a Business Mentor and let me know if it helps.

ARe the Yellow Pages Dead? Should You Use Them To Advertise?

If you think about the Yellow Pages in your phone book, do you automatically just assume that a lot less people use them than they have before? My first inclination when I think of them trends that way, but then I step back and realize that I use them all the time. I mean I spend the majority of my day on the internet while in the office, yet I still pull that phone book out when I want to find something. IT is actually easier than finding it online in most cases I have found.

Why is that? It just becomes way too much work to find a legit online yellow pages for my area. While it should be easier I never seem to find a standard site that helps me as fast as just looking in a book that is alphabetized and categorized already. I don't know if I will ever use the net to find a local phone number. It's way easier to use the book.

So...you use the Yellow Pages to advertise? Well...let me tell you from a person that uses the internet AT LEAST 8 hours a day that I still use it. Now if I want to find weight loss products I may go online, but if I want to find a Lawyer, Doctor, or copy store in my area I am not looking online for it.

Even with just Yellow Pages advertising there are many extras that these places offer now as well. The high-tech changes came about partially out of necessity, admits Bob Mueller, executive director of business operations for AT&T Advertising Solutions.

"There's definitely a transition going on in the marketplace and in local search," he says. "The print usage of Yellow Pages has declined, but only slightly. Not as much as some people would think, but there's no doubt that consumers are going to [more varied] platforms for their local business search information. Local search is not a zero sum game. For an advertiser to have access to all those places the eyeballs are going, they need to have a presence in each of those places."

Business Struggling With Debt? Here Are Some Tips

If your business doesn't have debt you must not be doing a hell of a lot to maximize your return, or trying to expand. One of the greatest gifts to a smart business man is his ability to use other peoples' money to buy what he needs and play them back after he rakes in a healthy profit on their money.

Of course there are times when the debt becomes a bit troublesome. Sometimes you need to step back and take a look at what hell you are doing a bit more closely. Maybe you lost touch when you were more busy thinking about what prenatal vitamins to buy your wife, or you just felt like going on a drunken bender. It's OK. Life has more than just work doesn't it? Yes. That shouldn't have been rhetorical.

If you are having issues with business debt here is a good article about getting back in the black.

Multimedia Marketing and Business

I love to talk about marketing. It is just so much common sense stuffed into so many opportunities to me, but doing it correctly seems to be a mystery to most. I've never really had a problem coming up with marketing ideas, or how to make them work effectively. My problem has always been what to do with the traffic, or how to close the sale. A pretty common problem, but why a lot of times these are all split into different sectors of a business.

I don't know how many salesmen I have worked with over the years that were jsut terrible marketers. They were great in those one on one meeting where they could sell their asses off to a couple, or a business owner, but getting that foot in the door seemed to be the big problem. They just couldn't get enough faces in front of them to use their personal charms and make sales.

With the technology age giving every person with any extra cash in their pockets, there are electronics everywhere you go. People are so connected online that the various social networking sites, and media sites available make it so you can reach millions of people with very little cost. Sometimes very little effort as well. That doesn't mean it is completely easy to do.

Take for example this article about Using Multimedia for Business. This is a GREAT article to give you ideas about what multimedia and social avenues to market, but there is one sentence in this that I take exception to:

"However, your company's chances of going viral are left more to fate than skill, but that's no reason to discount the importance of multimedia for your business."

While this may be true for those that are just taking shots in the dark, it isn't true for the most part. It is a cop out. There are methods to this madness of marketing. Every single place to market has different rules. You can't brush a broad stroke over marketing and expect it to work 100% of the time for every medium. The author of that article doesn't actually do this either, which is why I felt the comment was off base, and shouldn't have been used.

If you want to market on Twitter you need to study how to market on Twitter, NOT just marketing. People have already tested it, and found what works. Don't try and re-invent the wheel(This is one of the truest expressions in business you will ever hear.). Don't try to act like you know it all either. It isn't the same as marketing offline, and it certainly isn't the same is it would be to market on television, or other media.

The best advice anyone can give when looking at places to market is to study the actual market and the people in it. Read what other people have written about marketing in THAT MEDIA. "Marketing on Twitter" isn't the same as "Marketing Online". You can't study a broad spectrum of online marketing and try to fit Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Digg.com, search engines like Google, etc. into the same bowl. They ARE NOT THE SAME. Study them individually. Getting ideas about WHERE to market isn't a bad idea, but using that medium correctly needs to be taken on a case by case basis.

One other thing. You aren't going to do it right the first time in most cases. This is why you need to study the medium. You really don't want yourself out there with tons of failed marketing experiments do you? Using sites like Twitter, Digg, etc. get your name out there even if they don't draw a lot of immediate reaction. How? These sites are VERY strong in Google search listings. If your company is on these sites looking stupid, odds are that your company will show up pretty high in a Google search for your company. Probably above your good results since they are older. So...just keep that in mind as well before you just start throwing crap against the wall.

iPad a New Must Have Business Tool?

At this point? Not at all. Like all new tech devices that show up on the market there is a brief time period where they are nothing more than shiny new toys. The iPad seems to be in this mode as we speak. Of course that doesn't stop us from looking at the potential of it as a brand new wave of awesomeness for business owners to use, but also for entrepreneurs to pop in with some new ideas for it.

Whether you are trying to hawk mechanical breakdown insurance, or just throw a few games together to hook into the iTunes app store you can't deny that the opportunity is there to move some product, or get some easy cash out of the deal with the right knowledge. Th iPad seems to have all the tools available as well to make business a much easier task.

At surface value, the iPad--a 9.7-inch LED touchscreen-equipped computer that offers multi-touch input, Wi-Fi/wireless broadband access and user-friendly multimedia storage, shopping and playback--promises power on par with a mid-range notebook PC. Debuting in late March in multiple configurations starting at $499 and up and ranging in size from 16GB to 64GB (3G high-speed cellular connectivity optional), Apple sees it spearheading a new category of mobile computing device. It sits somewhere between a smartphone and laptop in power and cost, and offering a 1Ghz Apple A4 chip that promises more advanced processing and graphics power than the iPhone. Consider, though: There's no telling yet whether this potential vertical exists. more

Making Your Website A Better Salesman

It's easy to get people to show up at your website. There are a number of ways to ADVERTISE on the internet to get yourself some traffic. It isn't really a difficult proposition to get the traffic, but the major problem most face is converting that traffic to sales. The saying "It's not just traffic that counts, it's what you do with it once it gets there." is the perfect way to approach a website.

With website advertisements so plentiful, and pretty much overlooked by veteran internet surfers, you need to figure out ways to get some to actually buy what you are selling. If nobody is buying your services/products, you are just spinning your wheels and wasting the opportunity to make some money.

If you aren't a big time online retailer with a loyal following like Amazon, Buy.com, or a brick and mortar that uses the internet for more sales, you might feel like a lost puppy in the middle of New York City. You may have a great product, or srvice, but you just aren't converting them. Just because you offer acne scar removal, that someone who searched for it on Google specifically came to buy, it doesn't mean that you are guaranteed a sale. IT could be any number of reasons. Site doesn't function well, site looks terrible, or cheaply made (This really is a big deal. If a site looks horrible, why would I trust the company enough to give them money?). Could even be that your prices are way out of line, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't sell either.

Take a look at another online money maker to see just how they have tried to implement ideas to make their sales higher.

Comprehensive Guide To Outsourcing

While spending the cash to have someone else do it isn't fun, you certainly don't have the time to do it all as a business owner. It may hurt to fork over the money, but it may also be the best possible way to get something done. Sometimes you just have to let something go to get it done the most efficient way. Other things you should feel relived you don't have to do anymore because those things detract from your mood, and your personal efficiency. Doing it all just isn't healthy, and it might even negatively affect your business if you can't let some things go. Get some joint pain relief for the back breaking tasks you don't want to do.

Knowing, when, how, or who to use for outsourcing are the dilemmas, however. Take a look at this comprehensive guide to outsourcing to help you decide the how's, why's, and when's of hiring independent contractors.

21 Point System For Evaluating Your Invention

Many of us have ideas about what we can create. A product, or idea that we think is brilliant. Most of these ideas stop at the idea stage, as most people don't have the drive to continue forward with anything more than just the idea. Some decide that they love the idea enough to start taking steps to see it become a reality. The same people that actually go out and try to get rid of stomach fat when they decide that their New Year's resolution is to lose weight.

So...where do you start when you have a new idea/invention? First, you have to look into all aspects of the idea just to see if it has any legs. Entrepreneur.com has come up with a nice little system to help you get off on the right foot. Take a look at this 21 Point Invention Evaluation System and see where you stand.

Twitter Undignified?

Reading a recent article about how Ricky Gervais (He's a comedian, and starred on the ORIGINAL "The Office" on BBC.) said he thinks Twitter, and Tweeting is pointless it made me think about how, or why businesses use it at all as a way to talk with customers.

Gervais called the site being used by adults to be "Undignified". A total waste of time when you have many other ways to communicate, and more clearly.

While my own personal opinion on Twitter is very close to that of Mr. Gervais, am I missing the point from a business perspective? Clearly a lot of people use Twitter, and where there are a lot of people, there are a a lot of potential customers, readers, people to scam (whoops did I just say that?)...

While I can see the benefit of using it for certain business ventures, such as websites, communities, bands, celebs, posting torrents, etc. does it really have much value for a real world brick and mortar shop with tangible products?

That depends I suppose. I don't think that General Motors should be Tweeting. It WOULD be undignified for them to do such a thing in my humble opinion. What about someone who sells an all natural fat burner? Clearly this would be part of their target audience wouldn't it? People that care about appearances?

Twitter seems more or less like entertainment, but for business it is a way to mass market for absolutely free, to a ton of people that don't have anything better to do than slop up spam :D. Twitter is the easiest way today to SPAM. Bar None.

10 Emerging Financial Destinations

With the world financial markets in a free fall for the last decade it seems almost, things are starting to change at the top. New York and London being the big financial centers may be taking a bit of a turn as new markets start to emerge.

You can still get cheap hotels in orlando if you were worried about them making the list, but a few new ones are starting to creep up that you may have heard of before.

Of course, New York, London and other leaders aren't going away anytime soon. But as Western power declines, banks could increasingly favor Hong Kong and Sao Paulo, say, for their operations and investments.

These are in no particular order it appears, but here are 10 emerging financial centers.

9 Businesses You Can Start From Home

Who really wants to go to work everyday anymore? I know I don't. Other than getting something like health insurance, or even a 401 (k) you can probably do just as well at home. If not better. Doing less work, dealing with less people that annoy you, and answering to no one except your spouse :).

OK...that sounds like a sales pitch, but I completely believe it, and I have nothing to sell. It is simply food for thought. The way the world is now it is almost a certainty that you can't keep a job for more than 5 years in the same place. It changes too fast. You don't have to be going through a disability appeal, or be stuck at home to add to your income.

Even if you want to keep your job there are ways to add a few hundred dollars to your income by doing little to nothing with a bit of research.

Anyways, take a look at the businesses Inc.com says you can start from home.

Testing the Waters With a New Franchise

Unlike having the ability to get many a instant life insurance quote and compare, starting a newly formed franchise for the first time doesn't have such reliability.

Assessing the risk with a new franchise is harder, too: Much of the information about a franchise usually comes from existing franchisees, and with a new one, of course, that's hard to come by. On top of that, there are more new franchisors out there than ever before. In recent years, the number boomed, partly because of the growth of franchisor-packaging firms that help companies become franchise operations. In 2007, the trend's peak year so far, the International Franchise Association added 106 new franchisors.

How can you tell if you're looking at a great ground-floor opportunity or a shaky foundation? By doing much more research than you'd ever do on an established franchise. Here is what Libava and Gordon Dupries, a San Francisco franchise consultant with FranNet, would examine closely.