Planning is the key to making life changes

I am often inspired and challenged to check my thinking through my participation on forums and email lists. Recently a forum featured a conversation about the challenges of working women. This was particularly interesting to me as I truly believe that women (and men) have the opportunity to do what they want as far as career and lifestyle go.

One poster stated that while she agreed to this in theory, that there were circumstance that make this difficult to achieve in reality. A single mom on a fixed income might find that she doesn't have the financial or educational base to live out her dreams. She stated that it can be difficult to find the resources needed because it can be hard to know where to look.

I don't think this is true.

I think anyone with the desire can start to build towards the life they want. Resources are readily available and there are thousands of potential mentors who are more than willing to take the time to guide newcomers. The only barriers I see are largely internal.

It costs less than $20 to start an online business in financial terms. That investment combined with time spent getting educated through reliable, reputable sources can put anyone on the path towards living their dreams. It's not hard, it's not complicated and it's by no means out of reach for the average person.

Now that's not to say it will be easy. The path will not be free of stress or sacrifice. It's not about experiencing a free ride to prosperity. The old saying that "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is", is as true today as it always was.

There will be bumps along the way. Most people will have to study hard and apply new knowledge slowly and steadily. There are no overnight gimmicks or quick fixes that will change things in a blink of an eye. Life, and business, simply doesn't work that way.

Still, if you want the life you dream about it's worth the journey. Isn't it worth the hard work and patience to be on the path towards realizing your dreams?

It all begins with a simple plan and a commitment to work that plan.

Five years from now, you will be five years older. You can choose to be five years older and working towards achieving your personal vision for the future or you can still be doing the same old thing and getting the same results.

So what's holding you back? Really?

Streamlining for Productivity

It's that time of year when everyone is looking back on the year that was and gearing up with fresh plans for the year to come. It seems that this year the big buzz is all about streamlining and cutting out clutter (in business and in daily life).

Lynette Chandler (of Tech Based Marketing) just posted about the 15 most used computer applications in her business life. She compiled the list while going through her computer dumping programs that were just taking up space. As she mentioned, it's a great time of year to be doing that.

Personally, I only use four of the 15 from her list. Firefox, Filezilla, OpenOffice and I just picked up Camtasia recently.

I'd have to add Audacity and Audio Acrobat to the list of programs I use on a regular basis.

I'm also becoming a big fan of my Post It Notes. I love being able to add notes to my daily plans without having to open up a whole file, and I love the alarm feature - so that I can stay on track with appointments and commitments.

So, what's on your indispensable list?

Tangible Goals

I'm not usually one to get caught up with New Year's Resolutions, but maybe that's why 2008 already feels different to me than previous years. I'm excited about the future and I do feel like getting on the bandwagon and making resolutions. Maybe it is because 2007 really was just an all around stinky year in this house. Oh business went well enough and I made some strides and found some clarity and direction. It's the other stuff, the stuff you can't anticipate or plan for, that made 2007 the year I wish I could forget, but know I never will.

I just feel like I'm on the brink of really getting where I want to go. I don't have huge lofty goals - I don't need to make a zillion dollars in a nano-second, and I don't expect to. What I do expect to do is reach my goals in a reasonable amount of time because I know they are based in sound principles.

I feel confident. It's been a while since I remember feeling this way. For the first time in nearly a year, our budget seems stable and manageable once again. That in turn helps me to be more creative in business, because I don't have to expend the energy trying to wring every dollar out to it's last penny and beyond. I'm still keeping an eye on things, don't get me wrong - but knowing that I don't have to worry about juggling too many bills with too little income relieves a lot of stress.

It's so nice to have tangible goals with reasonable deadlines that I believe in - instead of writing down a whole bunch of nice ideas that I know that I'm never going to work towards, let alone achieve.

I am so ready for 2007 to be over and 2008 to start!

Emerging from the Christmas Fog

In the Korchinski house, Christmas 2007 will forever be remembered as "Guitar Christmas". The eldest son received an electric guitar, the middle an acoustic guitar and the youngest received Guitar Hero III for the PC.

I should have checked the box for requirements before I bought the computer game, because it does not work with the video cards of any of our newer machines. That put a real damper on Christmas morning. I figured it would just be plug and play like everything else I've bought in the last couple of years and if I'd known there might be an issue I would've bought the Wii version instead. As it is, I'm still trying to figure out what we need and how to get it without breaking the bank.

Other than that glitch, Christmas was a wonderful celebration filled with the usual feast with family.

As always, it's over so quick!

I started back to work today. There's not much going on with sales - many retailers are closed until tomorrow and some are closed down till the 2nd. So I've been spending some serious time planning. It's a wonderful way to gear up for the New Year and reflect on the year that was.

Press Releases Deliver Return on Investment

Often considered an add on to other marketing efforts, the press release is often misunderstood and mis-used. However, as a study on Marketing Experiments revealed there are clear benefits to adding press release writing and distribution to your marketing mix. The study itself is a couple of years old according to it's dateline, but it's the first I've come across it.

I've experienced press releases through my work, but never went through the process of testing and tracking with the detail that this study provides.

The study showed some great PR Practices.

Repetition was utilized. They did not just send out one press release and stop. This is a common mistake that many businesses make. They start a PR campaign and then become sidetracked or complacent and stop submitting.

Each release was newsworthy. Some releases highlighted had wider appeal than the others, but none of them were sales hype. It's really important that press releases provide something of value to the media outlet and their end consumer.

Charity work was integrated to boost results. Everyone loves a good cause and by integrating charity work into the last two releases increased interest in this experiment.

I love that this study shows a clear connection between press release distribution and results. If you have a chance, do click the link to check it out for yourself. There are some great hints there on what you can do to make your press release successful.

Looking back on an open door

A couple of weeks back I did something stupid and potentially dangerous. I opened the door without double checking to see who was behind the door. In my defense it was extremely early in the morning and in the fog of waking up when I heard the knocking at the door I thought it was my husband having forgotten his keys (which was a really silly thought because how could he have driven home from work without his keys?!)

It was not my husband and I ended up calling the police who ended up taking the drunk, distressed and confused girl away. I spent the rest of the day kicking myself for opening the door in the first place, but it did get me to thinking...

How much of what we do is automatic? Even though we've been taught against doing certain things, even though it's been drilled into our heads over and over again...even though we know better.

I'm not just talking about opening the door to strangers. I'm talking about things like

• not planning for our business
• not taking the time to identify and speak directly to our target market
• not creating campaigns that complement each other
• ordering umteem books and resources and never using them
• working longer hours rather than outsourcing or saying "no" when we're overwhelmed

We know we're supposed to do these things. We know that they will save us time and money...and yet too many of us ignore what we know is right and do what we've always done.

I know it's not just me. I know there are tons of small business and home business owners doing the exact same thing. Learning the information and not applying it for whatever reason. There's always good reasons and that's part of the problem.

This little incident was eye-opening in more ways than one. I've taken the last little while to see where I'm not applying the lessons I've learned. Of course, it always seems like I'm doing that. But every time I do, I improve a little - hopefully one day I'll really get it all working together like a well oiled machine and won't have to keep re-tooling.

Until then, I'll keep plugging away until the lessons stick.

New Marketing Sounds Like Old Marketing to Me

Since I'm not feeling well and have spent the day in bed and because I didn't have the energy to continue trying to write articles through the cold medication induced fog, I started to read the blogs that have been backing up in my reader. I am so bad about actually going back and read the blogs that I've set up that it takes a day like this to actually go back and get caught up again.

Anyway so I was reading this post about Customer Service being the New Marketing and I was confused. It could be the aforementioned medication that is making me a little thick, but I don't understand why it is being hyped as "new".

As you may know if you read my post at Internet Based Moms a couple of weeks ago I love reading old books.

Customer Service has always, as far as I can tell, been stressed as being part of the marketing paradigm. It's not a separate entity that's suddenly coming into it's own. So I really don't get how it's being played out as being something new.

Sure, we have quicker methods to spread the word. Whether we are praising our favorites or dishing the dirt on the disappointments we now have the ability to post on a favorite forum, make a quick blog post or twitter about it.

But the only difference between now and then is the speed at which word travels.

The importance of customer service as part of the marketing umbrella though, that hasn't changed. It's always been an important factor for customer that aren't buying based on the lowest price. There are few times when customer service doesn't enter into the buying equation - for me it's when buying things like light bulbs. I'm willing to go into the low-priced department store and pick up what I need knowing full well that I'll get no service.

From the business perspective, great customer service is pretty much essential to attracting repeat customers. It always has been and in all likelihood it always will be.

So how come old-fashioned customer service is considered new marketing.

I think I need someone to explain it to me - that or perhaps I just need a nap.

Playing with Podcast Commercials

I woke up feeling sick and achy. So I scratched the plans I originally had for today and curled up with my laptop in bed instead. It gave me the chance to write a couple of articles on podcast advertising and commercials.

The first one I wrote was very general. There are so many people that don't know that podcast commercials are an option. So I want to make sure I get the word out that advertising on an existing podcast is a great alternative to starting your own podcast if you don't have the time or energy to put into producing your own.

The other was about the different types of production that are typically available because presentation is as important as choosing the right words and finding the right podcast.

I wish there was a faster way to get the word out about all this information in my head.

Writing comes easily to me, but it still takes a long time for me to get articles written. It's even more of a challenge when I'm feeling under the weather.

Still at least it gives me the feeling I've accomplished something even if I didn't get out of bed.
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