Each Day Presents Us With New Opportunities and Infinite Possibilities

Go out and enjoy what the world has to offer, then use your knowledge to share it with others.
Have a Great Day!

Cheers,

Toni

7 Tips to Promote your Business

Invest in your success

1.       Print Advertising

Yes you got it! That forgotten form of advertising that is still one of the best ways to reach your customers by using your company Logo & Name and attaching it to everything you can think of. This is the beginning step in the Branding of your business.
Flyers, Brochures, Business Cards, Magnets, Gadgets, Postcards, Newsletters, Posters, Calendars, Window Cling, Car Wraps, etc…

2.       Trade Shows

Attend as many trade shows as you can handle in one year. This is a great opportunity to mix and mingle with a large volume of people, most trade shows have events that you can sponsor or may give you the opportunity to be a guest speaker on a topic related to the event, you may even be able offer a service right at your booth. Trade shows have a way of getting your name out to a whole new audience.

3.       Build a Website

Social Media today is a thriving and a challenging place to publicize or even get your name out, so it would be almost unthinkable that even a local café or pet store will not have at least one website with the operational details such as location and hours. Not having a website means not having a point of contact for the growing number of people who Google everything first, map it second and then decide on their options to buy a service or product, based on the website details and its overall appearance. Having a strong but easy to maneuver website is crucial.

4.       Start a Blog

Be the expert in your field, it can give great value to your service or product if you talk about it. This is also a great portal to gain an audience of followers who love to read reviews about products or who want to hear what you have to say. Give your business value by knowing in depth your products and services. Then go out and blog about them! Have the confidence it takes to put yourself in the spotlight for others to get to know. 

5.       Tweet

I know not everyone enjoys twitter but the truth is it can be just another way for you to create clients. Go slow and target your market, find your niche and then tweet facts or info that matter to you. It’s not about the number of followers you gain but the knowledge that you share about your products and services. Tweet at least one thing each and every day, the results may not be large but what you will do is put your business name out to millions of readers and that alone is enough for me, and oh yeah it’s Free!

6.       Facebook

Your business must have a Facebook page, yes it must. Facebook has the biggest audience out there and if you are not using it then you are limiting the growth of your business. Facebook is not the place to sell your products or services, it is the tool to give product knowledge and promote upcoming specials. Facebook fans love quick info with great pictures and quotes or ideas. Don’t use this site for the hard sell; use it like a friend you share great opportunities with. It’s free!

7.       Pin It

The latest and hottest growing craze right now is Pinterest. People are pinning like mad out there and enjoying every minute of it. Pinterest is a social media site that is taking the idea of picture sharing to an all-time new level. For most it is a quick and easy way to peruse all of their interests in one location and gain ideas while sharing their passions with others. Just hop onto their site and sign up for a business account, upload all of your info including your verified website and you are ready to start, but be careful this site can turn ten minutes of pinning into two hours gone before you know it. Did I mention it's free!

The fact of the matter is this; the return on a marketing investment is very low. We live in a trust and verify world out there and consumers want to know you have the best product or service for them. They also want to be sure that your services are consistent and that your business has longevity with the ability to adapt your business in a fast changing economy and are able to stay on top of the latest and greatest, whatever that may be.

So here is my advice: Be the best, be consistent and have a long term plan, your customers and clients will then become your best marketing campaign.

Word of Mouth, would that then be number 8?

Cheers,

Toni

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?

International Women's Day has been around since 1908 during a time of abundant growth in the industrial world, during this time we saw a booming population growth and the rise of different philosophies, amongst those was a need for a the female voice to challenge current ideas and begin a campaign for change.

So what does International Women’s Day mean to you? Do you see it as a day to champion your fellow females or do you see it as a day to give rise to ideas that you have been thinking about. Maybe today you just want to make it a day to support a service that assists other women less fortunate than yourself. To some it is to recognize international abuses taken against women suffering in the world. To others it is the day to celebrate the freedom of choice or maybe the right to life. To some of the women I speak to it is the day to reflect on those women who are suffering unexplained discrimination.  

To me it means opportunity. A world where opportunities are endless and women have the ability to explore them, challenge them and change them.

Don’t get me wrong I am not a feminist, I am an opportunist. Let’s repeat this one more time. I am not a feminist!  I do however want the same opportunities that are available to men to be available to women. I want to explore all the possibilities available and know that I have the same opportunity to achieve them as any other person out there looking at the same possibilities.

Opportunity is having the same options available to me as to any other person walking through the door. Whether I decide that I want to be a CEO of a high tech company or I decide that a career in War Correspondence is my destiny. I want a world where I know my daughter can decide to be whatever she wants to be. My idea of International Women’s Day is this.

~ If she can Dream it: Then she can achieve it~

Cheers,

Toni

Women In Gear: What does International Women’s Day mean to you? womeningear.blogspot.com/2013/03/what-d…

— Women in Gear (@womeningear) March 8, 2013

What is your True North and how do you find it?

Webster’s Online Dictionary Says: Finding True North is essential for accurate navigation.

Hence the metaphor: “In life's journey we are often uncertain where we stand, where we are going and what is the right path for us personally. Knowing our True North would enable us to follow the right path.”

No one can show you the route to discovering the pathway to your own True North, we each must develop our sense of self and use our internal radar to help us navigate our way to that place where we know we must stand, where we might be going and what path we really want to be on.

The challenge to each of us is too look within ourselves, use our inner senses to extract the information we need to begin the process to discover what is most important to us, what we value, what drives us and what sparks our passionate self. Using our internal compass to gauge our actions we can determine where we are at any given time and define that truth we each possess, our personal integrity that guides us through our daily decision making process. That which we believe is just us-being-us is really the process of discovering our true north.

Take this process, find the patterns and map out the accurate navigational route, that which is your True North.

Live it! Breathe it! Enjoy it!

Cheers...

Toni

What are your thoughts about Marissa Mayer CEO of Yahoo and her restriction on telework?

In February, Mayer oversaw a major personnel policy change at Yahoo, stating “that all remote-working employees must convert to in-office roles, or leave the company”. Mayer worked from home during her own pregnancy in 2012 then built a personal nursery next to her office, not long after she made the decision to ban teleworking for all Yahoo employees.

After hearing the news of Marissa Mayer and her ban on teleworking I decided to evaluate my own work from home approach. To think about how productive am I and do I get the work done? How successful am I and do I see results? What challenges do I have and could I overcome them? What are the benefits and would I prefer to be in an office surrounded by co-workers or not?

I currently love working from home, I set up my workspace in a variety of places during the week and none of them are at a desk, more often than not it’s my comfy couch, my livingroom chair or my kitchen table. It is my own personal belief that I get a wealth of work done each and every day but then again I don’t actually have a daily quota to meet so who is to say. My success is based on the number of hits my site receives each month and that number appears to be growing, and if I had to pick a daily challenge it would be that time sails by much too quickly and I tend to miss lunch. I would think my ultimate benefit is my wonderful little dog that I get to be with all day long we enjoy a wonderful camaraderie and when it’s time for his daily walk he somehow never lets me forget. I do miss co-workers but then again I get easily distracted by things going on around me so it’s best if I save my social time for dinner and drinks with friends. I would have to say that teleworking is a huge success for me.

Marissa Mayer on the other hand appears to want to put her stamp on her position as CEO in her new company and is attempting to put her own touch on Yahoo’s success right out of the gate. Her decision I can only assume is based on an extensive look at her company and why it seems to always fall behind the success of Google, her new competitor and old employer. Her approach seems to have upset the apples in the cart but maybe it will be the trigger that brings around some new energy. Whether you agree with her decision or not the message is clear, Marissa Mayer is paving her own way in this company and shaking up the system seems to be her approach.

Cheers

Toni