Happy as You Want to Be

Almost everyone has heard the hit single ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ by Bobby McFerrin. The song has a very catchy way of conveying its message of being happy to everyone..

Living a happy, resilient and optimistic life is wonderful, and is also very good for your health. Being happy actually protects you from the damaging effects that stress unleashes at us. Stress is actually linked to top causes of death such as heart disease, cancer and stroke.

To be happy is relatively easy, just decide to be a happy person. Abraham Lincoln observed that most people for most of the time can choose how happy or stressed, how relaxed or troubled, how bright or dull their outlook to be. The choice is simple really, choose to be happy.

There are several ways by which you can do this.

Being grateful for what you have is essential.  We have so much to be thankful for. Thank the taxi driver for bringing you home safely, thank the cook for a wonderful dinner and thank the guy who cleans your windows. Also thank the mailman for bringing you your mail, thank the policeman for making your place safe and thank God for being alive.

Watching or listening to the News is often extremely stressful. Get less of it. Some people just can’t start their day without their daily dose of news. Try and think about it, 99% of the news we hear or read is bad news. Starting or ending the day with bad news does not seem to be a sensible thing to do.

A religious connection is also recommended. Being part of a religious group with its singing, sacraments, chanting, prayers and meditations foster inner peace.

Manage your time. Time is invaluable and too important to waste. Time management can be viewed  as a list of rules that involves scheduling, setting goals, planning, creating lists of things to do and prioritizing. These basic skills once mastered will give you that extra reserve to achieve the results you desire.

Laugh and laugh heartily everyday.  Heard a good joke? Tell your friends or family about it. As they also say -’Laughter is the best medicine’.

Express your feelings, affections, friendship and passion to people around you. They will most likely reciprocate your actions. Try not to keep pent up anger as this is quite harmful to your health. Instead find ways of expressing your anger in a way that will not cause more injury or hurt to yourself or anyone else.

Working hard brings tremendous personal satisfaction. It gives a feeling of being competent in finishing our tasks. Accomplishments are necessary for all of us, they give us a sense of value. Work on things that you feel worthy of your time.

Learning is a joyful exercise. Try and learn something new everyday.  Learning also makes us expand and broaden our horizons. And could also give us more opportunities in the future.

Run, jog, walk and do other things that your body was made for. Feel alive.

Avoid exposure to negative elements like loud noises, toxins and hazardous places.

These are the few simple things you can do everyday to be happy.

And always remember the quote from Abraham Lincoln, he says that, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

Frugal Marketing for Entrepreneurs

How many e-mail messages do you send everyday? You’re probable missing out on a simple, inexpensive marketing tool. Seize the opportunity to promote your business to a highly targeted market without spending a dime by utilizing your e-mail signature line.

If your email signature line only contains your name and contact information, you’re missing out on advertising to e-mail recipients that have opted for communications from you.

These people are key members of your unofficial marketing network. They are your prospects, clients, press contacts and colleagues and your signature line is the perfect, unobtrusive space for a unique promotional pitch.

Try these tactics to turn your “sign-offs” into sales:
* Highlight what your company offers.
* Offer an incentive for recipients taken a specified action.
* Use the associated web address for the incentive, if it’s also on your site.
* Give better visual positioning to the promotion rather than contact info.
* Play with eye-catching fonts and colors.
* Use less than 64 characters/line so that words don’t wrap to a new line.
* Write a “signature” for different categories of recipients.
* Change your signature copy frequently.
* Never miss a chance to get your product or company noticed.

Another thing that many entrepreneurs don’t think about is the letters they send out. They are merely accepted as solving a problem or answering a need, when you can carry the e-mail idea over into every piece of mail you generate.

On the company letterhead simply add a line at the bottom of page 1. It could be a “tag line” of sorts made up of a slogan that “brands” your services or business. Try to come up with something unique so that every time it’s heard the prospect thinks of you.

Examples of this would be, “Good to the last drop,” which of course is Maxwell House Coffee. “Finger-lickin’ good,” which is KFC chicken, and so on. You get the message of what I’m saying. Play around with this until you come up with a pearl that is uniquely you.

If your business/service does not lend itself to this idea, then focus on increasing your credibility by using a “membership” tag line. For instance a funeral home would be less than tasteful using the line, “Our clients are dying to visit us;” but they COULD use the line “Members of Undertakers Assoc. of America” at the foot of their letterhead. This establishes immediate credibility in the mind of the recipient, even if the letter they received was a direct mail advertising letter.

When you’re an entrepreneur in today’s marketplace you have to be inventive and creative to buck the “big boys” on the block. I suggest that every entrepreneur read about the life of P.T. Barnum to get a better understanding of a truly great entrepreneur.

It isn’t always the almighty dollar that gets the best advertising for our business; it’s the best IDEA that makes you stand out in the crowd.

Gas Prices Got Your Bottom Line?

If you’re a small business or entrepreneur you can bet your bottom dollar that the high gas prices are affecting you. It probably will be your “bottom dollar” too!

Regardless of what the politicians are telling us, and regardless whether you deliver your products to the client or not the price of fuel is affecting you. It’s affecting your business because it’s affecting the consumer – your consumers.

In a recent survey done by the National Retail Federation they state, “Whether gas prices pose a fiscal or psychological concern consumers are affected regardless of income.”

Some interesting stats show that from the number of adults nationwide16.4% delayed a major purchase such as cars, TV, or furniture. Dining out has been reduced by 25.2%, 31.2% decreased vacation travel plans, 17.3% are spending less on groceries, and 23.7% are spending less on clothing.

That equates to the fact that restaurants, travel agencies, motel/hotels, car dealers, furniture stores, and retail clothing stores are all going to be affected by gas prices. If any one of those listed is the business you’re doing, then your bottom line of profits is definitely affected. The interesting part of all that is that it didn’t matter if those polled were in the $50K+ income bracket or less than $50K, the results were the same.

The only distinction seemed to be that adults in the age bracket of 45-54 years of age had the highest percentages but with the same outcome. For instance of the 25.2% of adults that reduced dining out, 28.6% of them were in that age bracket, and so on down the line. The survey also noted that 70% of the consumers of that age group were impacted by higher gas prices.

As you might have guessed, when these survey figures were broken down by region the West was higher in all categories than the NE, Mid-West, or Southern regions. Still only 5.7% of us have increased carpooling.

It’s a fact, whether we like it or not, that every penny spent on gasoline is a penny kept from retailers. Looking beyond just the retail industry, what about the service business. The cost of doing business for a repairman is going to increase as the expense for gasoline increases, and ultimately his prices will reflect that increase. It doesn’t matter whether he’s doing electrical, roofing, renovating, plumbing, whatever service drives up to your home is going to cost more in the long run.

Ultimately, as the domino effect goes into play, those who can least afford price increases will be the hardest hit. Seniors and retirees on fixed incomes just have to suck it up and bear the price increases. As the survey pollsters have said income levels didn’t vary results of choices, it still varies the ability to handle the domino effects. If income remains stationery but prices rise, there’s definitely an affect on those with fixed incomes.

For the entrepreneur to overcome the situation it requires some really extreme methods. Following are some tips to keep your expenses down:

* Order supplies online, anticipating a price increase, and have them delivered to you.
* Research your competitors online and save the gas.
* Group doing an errand or two when they’re in the vicinity of a scheduled client meeting.
* Do more of your business by mail, email, or on the internet. You can do just about anything from paying a vendor to transferring funds from one bank account to another on the internet, and you don’t use any gas. The only time you have to go to the bank is to make a deposit.
* If you conduct business at Trade Shows and have to travel find ways to cut corners. Carpool to the airport with a colleague or even a nearby competitor. (You’re both going to be doing business at the same show anyway.) Perhaps, you can combine two trips with only one return home after the second trip. Perhaps putting an ad in the Trade Show program can save you making a trip. (You could use that plan for the less important trade show.)
* Consider whether media advertising for your business would be cheaper than what you’ve been doing in person considering gas prices.

That’s just a few ideas to get those little gray cells working. After all, as an entrepreneur you’ve done marketing on a shoestring before. I’m sure you can come up with at least ten more ideas than I’ve given you. You might also want to check out the web site: http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?=(put in your zip code)

At that site you can find the cheapest gas prices in your area. I’d venture to say that these rankings change daily, so check it out when you need gas.

Best Regards,

Matt LaClear

Writing A Press Release

The word “Press Release” seems to scare most people to death. On top of that not many people take the time to even think of writing their own Press Release. I hope this brief article will help clear up some of the mystery’s surrounding this simple form of marketing.

The first thing you have to remember is that a Press Release is a “news” item. It needs to “inform” people, NOT sell them something. For example, you are reading this report because you want to learn something that will BENEFIT YOU. You aren’t reading it just so you can buy something else. If money is the deriving force in your business – you won’t go too far. Your main goals should be in pleasing customers, providing them with a high-quality product and more than their money’s worth. The trick is to do all this while still making money. People don’t care what mountains you had to climb, what seas you had to cross or what tribe of people you had to learn the ways of just to find a secret formula. Instead – they want to know WHAT the secret formula is.

The sales circulars you print and mail sell your product. A Press Release informs others about your product. Instead of your main objective being to sell the product and have the customer send in an order immediately, a Press Release informs the customer exactly how your product will benefit their lives. This must be conveyed in the form of a “newsworthy” Press Release. If you have a sales circular to sell a product, you can easily turn it into a Press Release without much difficulty. It’s just a new marketing angle of presenting your product to the public.

Here’s a great test for a real press release. Since your final sales pitch is included in the last paragraph – read the Press Release aloud. Would it still be worth reading WITHOUT your sales pitch? If so, it’s probably a Press Release.

Press Releases come in many forms due to the product or service you are writing about. However, the basic rule of thumb still applies. If you’ve never wrote one before – it may be a little difficult. Don’t despair. Grab the latest daily newspaper and read some of their informational articles. Notice how each article is written and pattern yours after the same format. After you do a few of them – you’ll be able to “get the picture.”

When your Press Release is written to your satisfaction, the proper way to submit it to a publisher is:

• Be sure and type it on a typewriter or computer.
• Standard format is double-spaced and not longer than two 8 1/2×11 pages.
• Be sure and put your name, address and page number at the top of each page.
• Write the note: “For Immediate Release.” at the top. If you are only sending the press release to one publication – tell them it’s a “first run.”

Good luck and happy writing! If you need any help writing your press release you can call me directly at 877-899-2346 for some free advice.

Best Regards,

Matt LaClear