May 2011 Articles (86)

Geralin, I think I may be a hoarder

I recently posted a conversation I had with Isaac, a viewer of the A&E Television Networks series "Hoarders" who saw similarities between his wife's behavior and the participants featured on the show.

This week I'm going to share a blog conversation I had with Luann, whose experience watching "Hoarders" helped open her eyes to her own… Read More

Added by Geralin Thomas on May 25, 2011 at 8:30am — 2 Comments

Building Your Financial House - From Bricks Not Straw

On my previous post, the metaphor of building a great financial plan is like building a house, starting with a solid foundation. This post is to expand on the topic and help you understand that the kind of knowledge you have about finances is the material you will use to build your successful house.

Is your house made of Straw or Bricks?

Remember the story of the 3 little pigs? Each made their houses with… Read More

Added by Remy Heskett on May 24, 2011 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Selling vs. Marketing: What's The Difference?

Let’s draw a distinction that seems to come up fairly often in sales — between selling and marketing. I asked a young salesperson to tell me the difference recently, and she answered: “Marketing is like advertising, and selling is when you actually call on people.”

I asked a veteran salesperson the same question, and he answered: “Marketing is selling from a distance.”

As I thought about that, it occurred to me that the veteran was on the right track, but… Read More

Added by David M. Fellman on May 24, 2011 at 3:43pm — No Comments

Day 6 – Inside 919 Adventure - Referral Partners

I am working my way down the list. I have done most of the things to my page. I have been blogging and commenting on blogs. People have been very nice and I've enjoyed it. So what's next?

Ah referral partners . . . I checked using search for people who listed a web professional as a referral partner. Wow I was impressed there were pages and pages of them. This will take a while to search through. But this is exciting. Is there someone who knows some good criteria for sorting this… Read More

Added by Pepper P Oldziey on May 24, 2011 at 1:27am — 1 Comment

Handling 4 of Forbes Magazine's Top 10 Risks to Businesses

"Did You Know"

Forbes Magazine asserts that 4 of the top 10 risks to businesses are:

>Law Suits

>Regulatory

>Idea Rip-offs

>Operational Hiccups

Law suits can be due to compromised data, faulty products, and hazardous working conditions among others.

Data theft is rising at an alarming rate and the government estimates next year about 60% of Americans will have experience it in some fashion.

Most business owners know one bad… Read More

Added by David Newton on May 23, 2011 at 8:29pm — 1 Comment

Good article on SEO vs. "Google Gaming"

This is a good overview of what true SEO is - as opposed to "black hat" or "gray hat" SEO.

http://level343.com/article_archive/2011/05/23/seo-focused-marketing/

Added by Dave Baldwin on May 23, 2011 at 6:00pm — 1 Comment

Collaboration: Are You Ready?

There are two schools of thought when looking at our business connections:

1) Thought 1: " I have fifty cents, what can I do with 50 cents?"

2) Thought 2: "Who else do I know that has 50 cents, so together we can have $1?"…

Added by Martin Brossman on May 23, 2011 at 12:30pm — 2 Comments

Day 5 — Inside 919 Adventure - My List

Here are my notes, in list form, from attending the class by Pat Howlett and Martin Brossman. I am following this list step by step for 30 days to try out each thing I can and form a habit of posting on Inside 919. So far I've worked on my page and blogging. Feel free to print this list out and try it for yourself. It is not the official list, go to Pat and Martin for that. I just like to make things simple and digestible.

My Top Tips for Inside… Read More

Added by Pepper P Oldziey on May 23, 2011 at 11:31am — 1 Comment

When Passion Turns Into Fear

The majority of my clients up until now have contacted me wanting me to come by and show them some "tips and tricks" in QuickBooks. They have self-taught themselves (or their wife, husband, brother, sister, etc . . . ) to save money - after all, when they first started their business, there were no funds to pay for or support a bookkeeper. Is this a good move? Let’s take a look . . .

When the business is started, there is a passion that fuels it. Business cards…

Added by Melanie L. Paul on May 22, 2011 at 10:00am — 3 Comments

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

“Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?” ~~Walt Whitman

Networking is all about fostering relationships, sharing resources, and improving someone else’s life. Based on that is there ever a time when networking is not appropriate? If you stay true to the spirit then the short answer is no. Certainly different venues introduce different degrees but the opportunity to… Read More

Added by Steve Hand on May 22, 2011 at 8:59am — No Comments

My Online Zoo - Spiders, Gorillas and Hedgehogs, Oh My!

There is a well known children's story - "Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!" I have a friend who makes totaly adorable ceramic animals and markets them with that line, so that's how I know.

Somehow I seem to have collected quite an online zoo recently . . . let me tell you about it.

Spiders

I frequently present talks about web design and SEO to the chapters of "Women's Power Networking". My talks…

Added by Pepper P Oldziey on May 21, 2011 at 11:37am — 2 Comments

Day 4 - Inside 919 Adventure

Thanks Martin!! He says: "Add your business name. To the upper right of your picture when you are on “My Page” you can click and change that text to the name of your business. Make sure you have your actual name and photo of you for the photo. This is because inSide919 focuses on the personal advantage a small business has and is why personal photos of people are required in the photo area."

Somehow I missed this one in the class. Perfect. Well there I am - business name on page now.… Read More

Added by Pepper P Oldziey on May 21, 2011 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

Day 3 - Inside 919 Adventure

Ok folks I'm sold. I am now into these blog conversations and loving it. I wholeheartedly advocate this pursuit. Now I have a long list of techniques for Inside 919 success and I have spent three days on the first one, but it has captured my passions. I love it. I am surprised that the topics here are really deep, pleasantly surprised how far it goes beyond events and marketing one's products.

Next technique, reorganizing my page. (1) putting the latest activity to the bottom, (2)… Read More

Added by Pepper P Oldziey on May 21, 2011 at 12:05am — No Comments

Painting Your Financial Picture

While sitting here on my work computer, it hit me like a brick to the head. People need to understand the importance of their financial foundation, but me saying it a million times isn't going to do much. How can I get the point across where people can understand and have their "Ah ha!" moment.

Let me paint a picture for you:

Your financial plan for life is like building a house and the most important part of the house is the foundation. If you have a weak foundation, or if you… Read More

Added by Remy Heskett on May 20, 2011 at 1:30pm — 4 Comments

A quote to inspire you

See your down times as necessary reprieves that are allowing the Universe to shuffle around the players & events of your life in order to make some of your dreams come true. Don't dwell on these lulls, don't lose faith, don't lower your standards, don't get discouraged &, most importantly, don't dwell on the apparent lack of progress you may seem to be making.

-Mike Dooley, Infinite… Read More

Added by Phoenix - Operations Assistant on May 20, 2011 at 12:32pm — 3 Comments

Be Safe…No Rare Hamburger for You in NC

Growing up in the suburbs of Northern Virginia, my parents were extremely safety conscious: we kids always wore our SPF 30 and hats, we biked on the sidewalk, wore our seatbelts, but when it came to meat, my mom liked to run a little on the wild side. Although we never ate a rare steak or hamburger, we sure used a lot of napkins and that wasn’t because of the A1 Sauce (my mother abhorred A1). I remember my mom’s cutting board brimming with the steak’s red juice… Read More

Added by Alice Osborn, Writer & Editor on May 20, 2011 at 12:59am — No Comments

You Don't Have to be Psychic

With all the buzz around the iPad, you don't need to be psychic to predict that Amazon would sooner or later develop a comparable color screen tablet device.

Well the sooner is here. Amazon is now accepting iPads and… Read More

Added by Anthony S. Policastro on May 19, 2011 at 11:21pm — No Comments

Day 2 — Inside919 Adventure

Well i thought I might connect with one or two people because of my post. I was really surprised that quite a few people i knew commented so kindly on my post and greeted me. And the people who had posts that I commented on not only answered me but engaged me in online conversation of substance. This actually felt like connection, much warmer and more sincere than the surface comments I have experienced on facebook. There is really something to this. So now that my three comments and one post… Read More

Added by Pepper P Oldziey on May 19, 2011 at 11:00pm — No Comments

What's Wrong With This Picture?

A man told his 81-year-old father that Twitter was a search engine and set up an account for him. Everything that he was trying to search is now open to the public!

http://twitter.com/#!/oldmansearch

Is that wrong?

Added by Dave Baldwin on May 19, 2011 at 7:46pm — No Comments

3 Best Strategies for Rapidly Growing Your Small Business

More than 500 small business owners have completed the 100 Days to Abundance course. They come from all different industries, some are companies, and some are solo professionals.

Across the board, in working with these talented and innovative business people, I have identified three of the most effective opportunities for business growth.

In this post, I'm going to outline the three areas in which you can experience the most growth in your small business, and give you a… Read More

Added by Bill Davis on May 19, 2011 at 6:26pm — 7 Comments