by Kimberly | Oct 16, 2008 | Blog, Internet Marketing, Marketing, small business, Social Media
While twittering today, I clicked through on a link to where I could download a free version of Seth Godin’s latest and greatest book, “Tribes.” In his blog Seth writes that he originally set out to write a book leadership but it ended up being a marketing book. He describes the basic premise as, “the next frontier of marketing is in leading groups of people who are working together to get somewhere.” It’s a concept that’s been around since the beginning of time. Using the web to create your tribe with a purpose and a goal is much easier now with Web 2.0. Networks like Twitter and Facebook are prime examples of how this is taking place. It’s just a matter of identifying who the leader is or becoming the leader yourself. Twitter is based on who’s following who, but in reality, there are leaders embedded into that whole premise. Inevitably and not surprisingly, there are those within each industry who simply must be followed if you want to know the very latest of what they are saying and doing. Which will you be– are you a leader or a follower? How will you build your tribe to get your message out and your goals...
by Kimberly | Sep 23, 2008 | Blog, small business, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant
My son found a rock in the parking lot the other day…actually it was more like a large piece of gravel. Nothing particularly outstanding about this rock. It wasn’t smooth or a pretty color or even remarkable in any way. But suddenly, this rock became an almost animate object to my son. He gave it personality. He gave it a name. (Ok, the name was “Rock” but that’s not the point.) He built it a house and he played with it just like it was a toy or a stuffed animal. He never thought twice about the fact that this was really just a non-descript, dirty, random piece of gravel. His vivid imagination brought this rock to life. He is a sensitive and caring soul and has an amazing capacity for believing that everything in the world has feelings and wants to be happy…even a rock. And, if we stop to think about that, it’s a philosophy that we’d all be better off living by. Watching him bring this rock to life made me think about the awesome power of the imagination. We all have it, but sometimes I think we sort of loose the ability to use it to it’s full capacity. Using your imagination to imagine greatness and success in your own life can be a powerful (and inexpensive) tool that we should all be taking advantage of everyday. For those of us who are small business owners or solo entrepreneurs, we are where we are because we imagined it could happen and it did. We imagined that we could be successful and we are or we...
by Kimberly | Sep 7, 2008 | Blog, small business, Virtual Assistant
My son started Kindergarten this week. He was so excited to be starting school. He was asking all sorts of questions, wanted to meet his teacher right away and just couldn’t wait to get started on the learning process. On the morning of the first day, when the moment came for me to leave him, I could see little tears start to well up in his eyes. It seemed no matter how excited he was to venture off in Kindergarten, he was still a little nervous and scared at something so big and so new. He was fine after some reassurance and once the classroom activities actually started, he was the first to join in. All in all, he dove right in and he was excited to go back the next day. Eager once more to begin learning and making new friends. Still a little nervous, but not quite so much as the first day. The whole experience has made me think about how young children have such a unique capability to have such wonder and excitement about the world around them and about new experiences. Somewhere in the process of growing up, we seem to lose this carefree ability and start becoming more reserved in our excitement and are not so eager to jump out and try new things. Sure, young children can get nervous and scared, but yet it seems the desire to try something new wins out over that fear. As a business owner or solo entrepreneur perhaps you find that you’d like to try something new and innovative that might just be the thing that...
by Kimberly | Aug 26, 2008 | Blog, small business, Virtual Assistant
During times of an economic downtown, everyone seems to tighten their spending belt in one way or another. Hiring or even continuing to employ an administrative assistant can often be moved to the bottom of the list of must-have resources, especially for a small business owner and probably even more so for a solo entrepreneur. Partnering with a Virtual Assistant for assistance with your administrative, business or office support needs can be a cost-efficient option for surviving and possibly thriving during a recession. A Virtual Assistant is a skilled administrative professional and entrepreneur who provides off-site administrative assistance and specialized business services from their home office. Because Virtual Assistants are contracted services providers then there are no extra employee related expenses, no benefits to pay for, and no overhead cost such as those associated with having an in-house employee. It is estimated that small business owners spend as much as 40-60% of their time on administrative tasks. Working with a Virtual Assistant is one way that small business owners can minimize the costs of their administrative overhead while not sacrificing service or compromising their business. A Virtual Assistant can keep your business running efficiently and effectively while creating more time for you to focus your core business tasks and income generating activities. Continuing to market and advertise your business during a recession will be the key to staying connected with your customer base. Business analysts often recommend that companies not reduce their marketing or advertising activities during an economic downturn. However, you may want need to consider lower cost alternatives for your marketing and this is where a Virtual...
