Deliver An Elevator Speech That Grabs Attention and Has Them Begging For More
An elevator speech is a short verbal snippet that clearly and memorably introduces you. It highlights your uniqueness and focuses on the benefits you provide.Imagine ... you step onto an elevator and there is a lone occupant waiting to travel with you to another floor.You are together for less than a minute, but long enough to make polite conversation.What you don't know is this person is your ideal client. She has a problem you can solve.She cuts through the awkward silence and says, "I see you're attending the networking event as well. What do you do?"Here it is! Your chance to make an impression and secure a new client.After a short stammer, you answer with, "I'm a coach and a copywriter. I hold a Masters in Business Administration and have been running my own home-based business for ten years."With only a few seconds left, the elevator doors open. She politely responds with a smile, then steps off the elevator, gone ... forever.After you finish banging your head against the button panel, you realize you not only blew it, but you now have an indentation of the twenty-first floor button on your forehead.What if instead you had answered with:"I help women entrepreneurs get more clients than they know what to do with and triple their profits in six months."If she were your target client, do you think the second response would have sparked her interest and kept her on that elevator a little bit longer?We all ask ourselves, "What's in it for me?" when engaged in any type of communication, whether written or spoken.You want to take something of value from a conversation, learn something new, create a certain feeling, or receive information that will help you solve a problem or meet a need.If you spend the first 30 seconds labeling yourself and listing your credentials, or going into a technical spiel of your product or service, you will be met with nothing more than a big fat yawn, a glazed-over look or even worse, "Excuse me, I have to make a call" and a quick exit.Take the time to develop a benefit-rich, passionate elevator

Weeding Out The Old, Making Way For The New
The annual panic about what to buy for Aunt Sarah is over for another year. Now you have to face a new problem! Not only do you have to find space to put the holiday decorations away, but also room for the new computer and exercise equipment.This is a great time of year to take a look at all the possessions you are accumulating, and find an alternative to stuffed closets and overflowing drawers.One of the basic principles of organization I call “Hemphill’s Principle:” "If you don't know you have it or can't find it, it is of no value to you." So before you begin to put away all those new clothes, for example, look at what is already there. As you do so, begin applying another basic organizing principle: "Put all like things together."When all the suits are hung together, and you discover there are 34, ask yourself these questions: How many of these suits do I really wear? Do I want to use this much of my closet space for suits? Is there someone else who would benefit from them more than I do? And finally, how do they make me feel? If the answer is anything negative -- guilty, fat, uncomfortable, frustrated – give them away to someone else who will use and love them! I donate business suits to a women’s detention center in my community where newly released prisoners need clothing for job interviews.Start your weeding out project by getting several large boxes. Label them boldly with categories such as “Consignment Shop”, “Garage Sale”, or “Give Away.” Put those running shoes you haven't worn in years -- and no one else would want to wear them either -- in the trash!If there are children in your family, undoubtedly one of the problems will be what to do with all the toys. In the case of young children, give serious consideration to temporarily putting away some of the holiday haul. In April, when the kids are bored with old routines, the old will suddenly seem new again!With older children, discuss options. Provide encouragement and assistance in organizing their belongings and sorting. Introduce them to the joy of making money by taking items they no longer use to a resale sho

Closing A Business- When Is The Time Right?
All businesses start off losing money with all of the high start up costs involved and the marketing that has to be done in order to get the business out to the public. Due to the fact that all businesses start off losing money it is sometimes hard for a business owner to understand when it is time to give up and close the business down.I was in this situation before and it was difficult to determine what to do. I did not know whether to keep the business going or give up and move on to a more promising venture. Their were several things that decision to close down an easy and smart choice.One of the first things that helped me decide to close the business was a lack of financing. I had the good credit to obtain financing if I would have like to but one of my goals was to self finance the venture. In addition I would have needed around $20,000 which is more than I would have like to receive at the time. Another issue was the fact that I had several ideas that were less expensive to do and had shorter break even points.

Saying Goodbye Gracefully: How to Leave Your Job with Class
When planning to leave your current job remember this one rule: “how you finish is just as important as how you start”, therefore finish well and exit gracefully. They say that first impressions count, we should also add that final impressions are lasting. While employed we tend to focus on all the factors that will win us respect, influence, favor, power, acceptance and inclusion with others. These factors are important and helpful when starting a new job, a project, networking, or selling. But what happens when the project is over or you are ready to leave a job. How do you make your exit work to your benefit? Your exit can be beneficial in many ways such as a a good character reference; a door opener for another project; easing transitions from one job to another; winning you instant respect and creditability; landing a new client; leaving a legacy of your contributions. We can exit gracefully from a job or volunteer organization by doing some preparations that will make our exit smooth and impressions last. The following are some ways to exit anything job or project with grace.Let people know they mattered by remembering to say thank you. If the organization or project has a small number of people consider giving out thank you cards that are personally addressed to everyone that you have worked with. In the card say at least one way that person has positively impacted your life or work. If you are not coming up with any positive impact, then share with them a positive characteristic you admire about them. Try not to be superficial or repetitive because your co-workers may share the card with one another after. If the organization is large then you may send one card or letter with a general but meaningful, well thought-out, even inspiring thank you. Feel free to use poetry (remember to cite the author) or quotes to make it inspirational.When possible leave projects or task completed. Getting someone else to understand your thinking or style of work after you have left is difficult. Therefore as much as possible compl

Own Up and It Won't Explode
It seems that, almost every day, some politician, talk-show host, high-visibility CEO, athlete, or celebrity says something or is caught doing something that is embarrassing, damages their reputation, or can even end a career. I could easily name the names here of people who have found themselves in these difficult circumstances in the past few months but I’d quickly run out of my allotted space for this column and it wouldn’t serve any positive purpose. In most cases the problem gets worse, usually much worse, when the person attempts to deny the allegations. When that happens, and the cover-up is discovered, it really hits the proverbial fan. Self-preservation is human nature and, for many people, a natural “damage control” defense is to deny, offer a smoke-screen, point a finger elsewhere, or otherwise try to squirm out of a difficult situation, but inevitably that evading activity seems to explode the issue into much larger and more dangerous proportions.Things rarely explode when the person takes a more courageous stance. Instead of a cover-up they offer the acceptance of responsibility, issue a sincere apology, and work to make amends. While this does not defuse all situations, it usually lessens negative outcomes if the damaged party is satisfied enough not to pursue it to the ends of the earth.There is a lesson here for the local, small business having to deal with a disgruntled customer or employee who, typically, feels the need to vent anger. Realizing that the deed was done and that good “damage control” can minimize negative impact, defuse an irate person and get things back to normal without the situation exploding into a media event.I recently ordered a customized product but when it came I found it was the wrong color. I called, prepared for an unpleasant experience yet I was shocked when the person pleasantly said, “Thanks for bring this to my attention.” I almost dropped the phone!They immediately remade the item, delivering it in two days. They didn’t deny, cover up, point fingers, or squirm. They handled the situation in the best possible manner and it didn’t explode. I’ll

My Experiences in DIY SEO
Or ‘why it is easier to pay for it, but not necessarily as satisfying as doing it on your own’Oct – I had an idea for a business venture and having had some successes with the main element of it, namely sourcing hard to find, unusual or just urgent building materials, I decided to go for it and progress it further.To start I needed an internet presence, promptly purchase the domain source4me and sourceforme, amongst others.Great, a friend of mine is a computer programmer for Sky he will be able to offer up some advice, err No! apparently computer programming and html are like not the same thing? This was news to me and I am already giving away my ignorance.I only had Frontpage on my machine so that had to be my starting point.My first attempt can still be found on free web pages (of which more later). If you know enough to view the source code you already know more than I did when I made these pages. No alt tags, no meta tags, no keywords, wording not optimised etc.Then the real blow – my brother thought it looked amateurish. Aargh my poor ego, I’d spent a month of evenings on it. Since then, more research.So we lose the freebie web page as the search engines don’t like them and purchase a hosting package.Dec – Having secured my father as my partner in this venture, I work on optimising the pages (all 6 of them). Keywords, alt tags etc, we are crawled a lot but still not indexed. Yes I did submit the URL to the major players (which some schools of thought think is a bad idea).So we have cost per click with Google! A week later I realise that this will cost more than our combined mortgages, not very realistic.Feb – Limited indexing success, but showing up for all the wrong search terms. More research required.Work on wording within pages to optimise with keywords and phrases.March – Some unique content at last and more indexing (we have a page rank of 1 no less). I’ve added some calculators to the site, of which I am quite proud and yes they do seem to work as I h