Video Professor

You know that time of the year. Time to take out the red ribbons, the mistletoe and the plastic Christmas tree and decorate the home and office. As the lights twinkle around the receptionist’s desk and the cards begin to pile up from other companies, did you remember to send yours out? Business Christmas cards are not like family Christmas cards. You aren’t required to send some over-smiley portrait of you and your office staff, but if you want to build good business relationships, business Christmas cards do require a little bit of thought and a nice note.

Whether you are trying to build a relationship with your clients and future business partners or you have some longstanding business contacts in your Rolodex, business Christmas cards will convey to the recipients that you took time out of your day to acknowledge them personally. And really, all that time and effort goes a long way!

When sending them out, remember not to go too far overboard with glittery and fancy cards or labels, stickers and messages. You needn’t spend the time writing out the addresses or the return labels by hand because really, everyone knows you have an office to run. If you really want that handwritten effect, talk to your assistant or secretary.

In all of the business Christmas cards you send out, make sure to include your business card. Never underestimate the number of Johns people know, and just because you think you are 100 percent memorable, everyone else might not. As well as sending your business card, write the name of your company underneath your signature in case the business card gets lost somewhere after opening.

While the envelope may have labels, make sure that the note inside the business Christmas cards is handwritten. Keep it short, keep it sweet and make sure to spell the recipient’s first and last name and company name correctly. You can imagine how it would feel to send out all your business Christmas cards and realize that you spelled some of the recipients’ names wrong, embarrassing. A note along the lines of, “Happy holidays and all the best in the New Year, John!” is perfect. It’s not too long, it’s not too short, and you include their name. This being said, be aware of the recipient’s religious beliefs. Not everyone celebrates Christmas. If you know that a client or customer has different religious beliefs, choose and send a holiday card appropriate to the client’s beliefs, or choose and send a holiday card with a more generic holiday theme and message, such as “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings”.

Finally, make sure to send the business Christmas cards in time to arrive during the holiday season. For cards that are being sent locally or nationally, Dec. 15 is a convenient cut-off date for having your cards in the mail. If you’re sending business Christmas cards internationally, they’ll have to be in the mail much sooner.

Ask anyone who has ever started their own business, and they will tell you that perhaps the most important step they took was writing their business plan. And while some may not enjoy the business plan writing process, they are an essential part of any start-up business.

For those of you new to the entrepreneurial world, the importance of a solid business plan cannot be stressed enough. No successful product was launched or service provided without first starting its life as an idea translated into a business plan. The process may intimidate some of you, but there is no reason to put off writing your business plan due to intimidation. As you will find, writing a business plan does not have to be a painful task.

So why write a business plan? As every entrepreneur knows, an idea only goes so far. Unless it is fleshed out and thoroughly examined, there is no way to know if the idea is strong. By writing a business plan, you will know beyond a doubt if your idea is worth building a business around. The business plan will expose the idea’s weaknesses and highlight its strengths.

The first step in writing a business plan is to decide what type of business plan you are going to write. To do this, you need to identify what you want your business plan to accomplish. Are you looking for investors, or are you already funded? Are you launching a service, or selling a product that will need to be manufactured? Will you operate out of a storefront, or is the business online? Is the business plan going to be read by a large audience, or is it an internal document? Answering those simple questions will help determine the scope of your business plan. If you are looking for capital and investors, your plan needs to detail every facet of your business. If the business plan will serve as an internal document that will provide guidance as your business grows, then you can bypass some of the discussion points laid out in a more formal business plan. However, every business plan must include the business objective and strategy for implementation, target market, company mission, development stages and leadership roles.

The second and perhaps most time consuming part of writing your business plan involves doing your research. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to thoroughly research your target, competition and industry. Too many businesses fail because they did not do their homework. You may think your product is perfect for your market, but what happens when your research shows that you were wrong? Better to find out early than to find out after you’ve spent your time and money launching a product that stood no chance of succeeding.

Finally, you need to sit down and write. Take your time, but don’t feel like everything has to be perfect. Find a few people you trust and have them read and edit your business plan. Once you feel like your plan is done, take a breath and relax, the easy part is over! But remember, your business plan is a dynamic living, breathing document. As your business changes, so can your business plan.

We small business owners know firsthand the difficulties of funding our big ideas. Talk to any entrepreneur, and they will tell you that getting the money to get their business up and running was perhaps the most difficult and time-consuming roadblock standing in the way of realizing their small business goals. However, thanks to a number of state government programs, it is possible for small businesses to receive business grants.

Grants versus Loans?

So how does a grant differ from a loan? Generally a grant does not have to be paid back whereas a loan does. However, competition for certain grants is rigorous, and there may be defined obligations that the winner must meet.

Where is the money?

While the United States government does not award small business grants, many state and local governments do. So where do you find the information? The obvious first choice is to consult the Internet. Online you’ll find a number of different links to small business resources that cover grants and more. And while you will find more information that you can digest, you will find links to your state’s small business administration web site. The Small Business Administration is perhaps one of the best sources for small business information and funding. There you will find information on small business grants and other financing options.

Eliminate the Hype

While you’ll find an abundance of organizations, services lenders touting the small business grant, it is important to do your research before jumping in to any type of financial commitment. Not all financing is equal, and it is important to note that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Additionally, there are many companies out there who prey upon aspiring small business owners by getting them to subscribe to business grant information services or by offering free CDs that contain the desired information. Sounds great, right? Sadly, there is no such thing as a free lunch. They ask for your credit card to process your shipping fee, but unbeknownst to those who do not read the fine print, they also charge you as much as $40 per month to access their information online.

If you have any questions regarding the integrity of grant offers you come across, make sure to visit the Better Business Bureau’s web site to do some research. Starting a small business is an exciting process that should be enjoyed. By being mindful of your financing options, you can ensure that your small business is up and running for years to come.

Last week, I started discussing and recapping an article I read on www.alltipsandtricks.com called “All For Time and Time For All: The 10 Commandments of Time Management”. This week I will continue sharing the lessons from this inspiring article about how you can manage your time stress and guilt free.

4. Don’t point blame, look for solutions.

When things get out of control, don’t blame anybody (including yourself), but look for solutions. No matter how much we like to think that we are in control, there are times in life when things take an unexpected course. It is very easy to screw up a project, or a marriage or a trip. A lot of people try to seek out the guilty, wasting time to collect evidence, to playback the failure over and over, to match the punishment with the guilt. If you recognize yourself in these words, at least for once in your life, please try to leave behind all this guilt-punishment mechanism, and focus your energy on what to do next. Seek for solutions. Think for the future, not for the past. Think “how?” instead of “why?” Don’t you see how much more constructive this approach can be? It can save you a lot of time. Not to mention that your peers will love you for that. 

5. Know when to quit.

Don’t continue doing something just because you started it. Life is not a competition. If you don’t find a reason anymore, just quit and start something new, be it a career or a hobby. Lengthening your misery will not benefit anyone. In fact, it will only leave you with more regret and resentfulness.

6. Don’t look back in anger.

We all know someone who spends way too much of their time thinking of the past, re-playing all the sad moments over and over. This is truly the ultimate waste of time. Time is much too valuable to let it all slip and waste away digging up the defeats of the past.

7. If you delegate things, assume the outcome may not be what you imagined.

There aren’t two identical people in the world. Then, why would you pretend that somebody thinks and acts exactly your way? If we are partners and you ask me to redecorate the office by myself because you are busy, please don’t come later to tell me that you hate the outcome. If redecoration was so important to you, you should have come with me and had your say then. Why do you come now and ask me to call the plumber again because you would have liked the sink to be mounted two inches lower? Of course I won’t move a finger, so you’ll have to do it by yourself, and you’ll waste your time doing again things for which I’ve also spent my time on. If you are a detailed person, at least look more closely at who you delegate for what task.

To be continued …

Maya S

Online shopping is here to stay. More and more people buy items online all the time and a more diverse array of products are available. Any major store gives you the option of shopping online and many independently owned stores with net savvy are increasing their business by selling items online. It is simply smart business planning. You can either join the online community or let its benefits pass you by. As a consumer you can chose to go the old-fashioned route and do your shopping by leaving the house. But if you are short on time, have limited transportation options or any other reason to look into shopping online, then do so. Online shopping can provide you with another level of convenience and a larger selection, but do so with a little caution. Shopping on the Internet is a relatively safe venture, but it still offers a window for online criminals to access your financial information if you are not careful. So take the time to read over some of these tips for shopping safely online and seek out some extra security measures if you shop online frequently.

One of the biggest steps you can take is keeping your browser up to date because online criminals will try to exploit weaknesses they are aware of. Installing patches and keeping everything else up to date will lessen the chances that your browser will have the weaknesses that online thieves are aware of and can exploit. If you can, set your browser up so that it can receive automatic updates for problems like this.

Other aspects to keep up to date are your anti-virus software, anti-spyware software and a firewall. A virus can give someone access to your computer and information while also causing damage within your computer, so make sure to have a reliable anti-virus program and keep it updated because viruses are constantly evolving.

You can also adjust the security settings within your e-mail provider and browser. It is important that you walk the line between security and functionality when working with these settings. The default settings for most of these programs allow for maximum functionality, but this setting can make your e-mail or Internet more vulnerable to attacks. So take some time to investigate these security settings and find the maximum security level that still allows you to perform all the tasks that you want to do.

Make sure that you are buying from a reputable business and that you are creating secure passwords. Check on physical addresses or phone numbers if the business has a physical location as well. Look for misspellings or poor web site functionality. The better the business takes care of its web site, the more serious and trustworthy they are likely to be. Don’t use obvious passwords like a birthday, address or pet’s name. Make it something you can remember, but also something that is very hard to guess. Combinations with numbers and symbols are best for sites that allow for this in passwords.

Online shopping can be very convenient and, more often than not, it is safe as long as you show a little bit of caution. 

I was recently cruising around the Net, utilizing my favorite search engine, Google™, for information on personal development. The amount of available information is amazing, both from experts and people with good ideas on making life more manageable. I saw a link entitled “All For Time and Time For All: The 10 Commandments of Time Management” on the terrific web site www.alltipsandtricks.com. Hmmmm, that topic sounds interesting to me. It seems that in a time when everything is more convenient than ever, we should have more time on our hands, but quite the contrary, we just put more on our plate. These tips are quite helpful for getting things done while maintaining your sanity. Here is my take on the first three “commandments”.

1. Don’t wait until things become urgent.

Sometimes when things become urgent and need to be done, we go a little nutty. The problem is not just that we have so much to do, but that we view it as we have so much to do and not enough time. Perspective is everything. The truth is usually that we don’t need more physical time, we simply need to believe that the time we have is enough for everything that needs doing. Wrap your mind around that!

2. Make a to-do list.

Forgetfulness is human nature, and spending your whole day running everything you need to do through your head is just exhausting. If you spend no more than 10 minutes every other hour thinking of what the things are that need to be done, by the end of the day you’ve had spent about one hour on the planning process. Try this instead. Every morning sit down for a minute and think your day ahead. Write down the things you wish/need/think to do that day. Your brain will kiss you for that. The longest to-do list can be done in less than 10 minutes.

3. Dare to break the to-do list.

Inflexibility leads to stress so be flexible during the course of your day. If by midday, your list is antiquated, simply change it … no big deal. Priorities can and often will change as the day goes on, just like as life goes on. Change and evolve with them. If there are things on your list that are based on mood, you can always take them off. If you have working out at the gym on your list, but don’t have it in you physically, then move it onto tomorrow’s list. Doing things when you are in the mood saves you a lot of time.

To be continued…

Maya S.

Read Part Two Here

I remember when business started going online. You could almost feel the buzz and the impending shift. At first it was a special feature for a business to have a web site, then it was commonplace for a company to have a web site, and now, it is almost an absolute necessity. Online business is where it is at, whether you are a major corporation like Microsoft® or Exxon, or you are selling homemade salsa or purses, you almost need to be online. Not to mention all the major industries that are solely online businesses that have erupted beyond belief, such as Amazon.com and Google.com.

Even newspapers have pumped up their online editions to the point that the paper editions have been moved to the back burner. I know this from working in the newspaper industry for years. Paper is floundering and the paperless world is thriving. The news is a powerful business and with it becoming such a strong online business, I believe it creates an environment that is beneficial for the general public. Generally with printed editions, people only get access to the information that the editors have deemed important enough for them to run in that day’s paper, but with newspapers as an online business, all the news that is available is just about available to you. There are even web sites that specialize in particular types of news and particular angles on news, whether you are interested in celebrity news or in liberal perspectives to national and international news, it is all possible now with the online business of newspapers.

But that is just a drop in the bucket of what online business has done to our lifestyles. Think about shopping. Nothing for me has changed from the online business boom as much as the way that I shop has. Christmas shopping has literally become so much less annoying because I never have to step foot into a mall anymore. And there is no more going from shop to shop hunting for the right product because this branch doesn’t have it, but that branch has it. Online stores will show you every product available, and if you don’t live near where the present needs to end up, you can have it delivered directly to its destination without you having to take an extra trip to the post office or package carrier. And these companies will often gift wrap the present for you, too! Not to mention that shopping online creates competition, which allows you, the consumer, to find the best deal on whatever you are trying to buy.

Online business has revolutionized the way we live our lives. Just about every time you log on to the Web, you are supporting online businesses and making the trend what it is. I think it is a great way to give people the ability to control what they want and what they are interested in learning about. Online businesses give the power back to the people more than ever before.

Women’s business suits used to come with the stigma of emasculating the women wearing them. Today however, things are shaping up and giving women a better shape. Dressing for work doesn’t have to mean sacrificing your sense of style or femininity. Before going out to the store and looking through all the women’s business suits, first decide what kind of suit you are interested in buying. Do you want skirts, pants or both? Both choices are suitable business attire. So, with that it mind, let’s get to it and talk a little about women’s business suits that are skirts.

 Skirts

 A classic skirted business suit is one of the best choices for women when going on an interview. The traditional skirt suit is most often appropriate in such formal business settings. Try to avoid trendy or inappropriate styles, bright colors and patterned fabrics. Keep the skirt knee-length or longer,  a rule of thumb to follow is: When you sit, the skirt should cover your thighs.

In business, the way you present yourself is how people percieve you. With this in mind, remember what type of image you want to convey when choosing your suit. Pay attention to the fabric of the suit, see if it wrinkles by crumpling it in your hand. If it stays scrunched or wrinkled, it’s not the suit for you because it will do the same when you wear it and when you are sitting all day. Avoid fabrics that will look rumpled half way through your day. Avoid high polyester blends when possible. Consider instead: high-quality worsted wool, wool blend or linen.

Pants

 Women’s business suits are also available as pant suits. When choosing a pant suit, consider the following pant styles: pleated, flat-front and cuffed. Pleated pants are more dressy, they have pleats running up the legs and do require a little maintenance and work with an iron before dressing. Flat-front pants will make you legs look longer and give you an overall slimming effect. Cuffed pants are a more formal look and are appropraite for meetings, interviews etc. Women’s business suits need to fit well. You could buy great pants, but if they don’t fit well, you will not look put together. When looking through women’s business suits make sure someone can help you get the perfect fit, and if you can’t find that fit in the store, alter the garments to fit your body.

Fit

 How should women’s business suits fit? When you try on the jacket for a business suit, be sure it fits properly. To many, poor fitting clothes translate as  sloppy and unkempt. Note that the collar of the jacket should lay flat against the back of your neck. The shoulders should not look too boxy or sloped, meaning no large shoulder pads, and the sleeve length should come to rest about 5 inches above the tip of your thumb.

Know which body type you are, petite, misses, tall or plus size, and think about creating a wardrope rather than just buying random pieces. If you buy different women’s business suits that compliment each other, you will have a wider array of clothing to choose from. 

So, good luck shopping ladies, keep this information in mind and remember to have fun with the process!

The word “free” gets thrown around a lot these days. Buy one, get one free, free ice cream, free weight loss pills, free air, and with so many free offers we often become skeptics. So, what makes the idea of free business cards any different? Rather than getting a free diet pill in the mail or another buy one get one free deal, getting free business cards is actually advantageous to your life!

One For You and One For Me

Handing out business cards can be fun and helpful to your career. When you meet someone new, it is always a great idea to give him or her a card. This is helpful in a few ways. On one hand they will help remind the receiver of you after you have parted ways and they make a statement about who you are. When trying to make a first impression, a business card will act as a representative and help you to build contacts in your personal and professional life.

Business cards, in general, are not expensive. They certainly can be, depending on how you design them, but getting free business cards makes the whole process a lot more fun and easier on your wallet.

Where Can I Get Free Business Cards?

Where is the one place you can get anything in this world? The Internet. Go online and search free business cards and you will see hundreds of web sites appear from the search engine. Many people might think that because they are free, they are bad, cheap, or will come with typos, however, this isn’t the case. Free business cards will not give you the fancy graphic designs that paying for them will get you, but if you are interested in a basic card with your name and contact information, then you will be sure to find the perfect card for you.

And creating a business card isn’t difficult. Simply fill out the form with your name, address, phone number, e-mail, title and voila, your business card is done. Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for your free business cards to arrive in the mail.

The Arrival and Departure

Generally speaking, when we order things we don’t expect to get rid of them quickly. Business cards however, are meant to be given away. Once your free business cards arrive, it’s time to get started giving them away. Make contacts that will last you a lifetime because in business, it really is who you know and who knows you. 

Everything in the business world is about first impressions. This being said, what does your business card say about you? Did you know that a business card is one of the main channels for introductions and keeping an impression with someone you otherwise might not be familiar with. Many people think that a business card is only for top-executives; this is not true. When I went on my first interviews I made business cards for myself that simply had my name and contact information and received praise for having done so. Because business cards are associated with people in the business world, displaying yourself as someone interested, interesting and willing to go the extra mile by showing your discipline and drive will make an impression when perhaps your resume isn’t loaded with past jobs and accomplishments at work. I entered the interview with a notepad, pen and smile and a business card with my resume. The business card was just another way for my interviewer to know who I was and another way for them to keep me on file.

Where To Get Business Cards

Since I didn’t have an employer to make business cards for me, I went online and found a site who will make them for you. It is a huge business and there are literally hundreds of web sites online that will make you your very own business card. They are easy to design and can be showy or plain. Now maybe you are thinking, “this just seems like an unnecessary expense.” Well, truth be told, a few hundred business cards will run you around $10, so really, you should be thinking, “how far am I willing to go to get where I want to be?” If you are at a loss for what to say on your card, stick to the basics, sometimes saying less is more. If you are pursuing a career in like writing or marketing, make up something for yourself, creativity and humor are also great ways to make an impression.

 
Making A Name For Yourself

A business card is, like I said before, a way for people to remember you. If you are ever at an event or conference, make sure to bring a bunch of them. Whenever you meet someone new, get their business card and give them one of yours. In the long run, the more contacts you have, the better. In the business world, the more people you know, the better off you are. In our world, it is still about who you know and who knows you, so don’t feel nervous about putting yourself out there. You never know, the next person you hand your business card to could help jump start a new career for you! Make it a point to advertise yourself. The job market is competitive and only getting worse. More and more people are getting college degrees and an undergraduate degree does not hold the value it once did. Anything you can do to make a memorable impression will only help you.