For most of us, going into business for ourselves is one of the most rewarding choices we have made (at least most of the time) My business is one of my passions; I love what I do, and I derive a great deal of satisfaction from making my clients happy and accomplishing the goals that I set out to achieve. Being in a deadline driven business it can often time get stressful and yes, at time, long hours are part of the deal. As business owners, If we are not careful; the occasion “long day” can turn into a way of life and before we know it we are all work and no play.

Recently, I have been on a mission to achieve a greater balance between work and my home-life. Last summer, a series of unfortunate events seemed to plague my life, and at the time my frustration did not allow me to see that these things were happening for a reason. One of the major lessons that I learned the hard way is that we must have balance in our lives. When we are so focused on only one aspect of our life (in my case it was my business) the other parts of our lives suffer as a result. Family, friends, our health, and our homes all suffer if we are too focused on our business and before we know it, we have become “slaves to our business” and find ourselves tired, stressed, unhappy and wondering why we chose to be in business for ourselves in the first place.

Along with learning this valuable lesson of just how important balance is in our lives, I have also learned that it is not an easy task to achieve and it requires constant attention to maintain.

Here are a 7 tips from Janet Attard founder of Business Know-How  to help you maintain balance and to keep you from becoming a Slave to your Small Business.

1. Send your ego out for a long hike. When you grow a business from the ground up, it’s easy to believe you’re the only one who can do what you do. But even if your business relies on some unique skill or talent only you possess, there will still be things you routinely spend time on that someone else could do or be taught to do. You can work less and spend more time growing your business by delegating or outsourcing work to someone else.
2. Keep a time log for at least a week. Write down each task you do. Be sure to note each time you start and stop each task. At the end of the week, analyze the log. Make a list of each activity you performed, how long it took, and how often you got interrupted. Your analysis will help you identify the specific tasks that could be delegated and also help you identify the leading time-wasting activities in your week.
3. Eliminate time-wasters. Do your employees ask you questions or chit chat when you’re trying to get things done? Have them save up their questions and bring them to you all at once at a set time in the day to reduce interruptions. Do you have customers or friends who frequently interrupt your work day to talk about non-important matters? If you have employees, have one of them answer all incoming calls and screen out those calls you don’t want to take or don’t need to take right away. If you don’t have employees, use caller ID and screen calls. Better yet, set a specific time of the day to handle most of your calls, and let calls at other times of the day go to voice mail.
4. Train someone else to do all or part of what you do. If you can train someone to do all or part of what you do, you can spend more time planning and marketing the business. In addition, if you should have an accident or get sick, the business won’t fall apart. There’ll be someone else who can take over for you until you recover.
5. Manage customer expectations. Let your customers know what your hours of operation are, when they can expect to receive their order (or how long their project should take to complete). This information can be provided on your website, in your sales literature,  in contracts or letters of agreement, or at the time of order if orders are taken on the phone or in person.
6. Limit the number of times you read your email each day. Stopping to read email every 5 or 10 minutes distracts you from other activities and wastes time. For most business owners there shouldn’t be any email that’s so important that it can’t wait for three or four hours to be read and answered (if a response is even needed.) Set a specific time (and time limit) for reading email, and stick to it. You’ll get a lot more done the rest of the day.
7. Stop micromanaging your employees. If you have employees, don’t scrutinize every little thing they do or how they do it. Give them the instructions and guidelines they need, and then stop looking over their shoulder every 10 minutes. Once they’ve been working for you long enough to know the job, let them handle routine problems on their own, too. If a customer has a question or complaint, the employee should be able to take care of it without having to get your input on the situation.

Original article can be found here:

Are You a Slave to Your Small Business? by Janet Attard

Image via Wikipedia

This is one of the best marketing ideas I have seen in a long time! Coca- Cola is taking it to the streets with their Happiness Truck and vending machines. They aren’t just handing out free soda as you might expect; they are also dispensing soccer balls,  roses, sandwiches, pizza, surf boards, toys, and other fun stuff!

They are marketing their brand by giving people an experience that they will tell their friends and family about for sure! (which in turn spreads the word about Coca-Cola.)  They also showed that spreading the word about their product through engaging people in “happiness” can work anywhere, no mater what country, race, age or gender- Happiness is contagious and the marketing concept is brilliant. What a great way to get people talking about your product and brand!

Check out the videos of Coca-Colas “Happiness Anywhere” campaign below:

Yes this really was my shopping cart

As a designer / marketer, I am always keeping my eye on industry and design trends so that I can give my clients targeted and effective advertising. Being a creative person, I tend to find humor in the little things in life…

i.e.. toilet paper stuck to the wheel of my shopping cart (yes that’s really my cart) I find that some of my favorite advertisements are the ones that are funny or clever. The following video gives some interesting statistics on what type of advertising consumers would like to see,
I was happy to see that my sense of humor is shared by so many!

This got me wondering, do you think these statistics are right? What type of advertising works best for  you when it comes to your favorite brands and products? Do you think humorous ads are more accepted in certain types of business or do you think it can it benefit most brands to show their fun side? My personal opinion (speaking from the consumer side, not the marketing / designer side now) is that I would rather spend my money on a brand that can have a little fun from time to time, as opposed to a brand that targets only our serious side. I think this is consistent with the trends that are happening across the board in new media marketing- Consumers want to get to know the “personal side” of the brands they love. It helps us connect to the companies on a more personal level and helps provide a comfort and trust level as a result.

When discussing social media with business executives, I’m frequently reminded of the fable of the elephant and the blind men. In the story, six blind men, hearing that an elephant has been brought to their village (and having no idea what an elephant is), go to the village square to investigate. One feels the elephant’s side and proclaims that an elephant is like a wall. A second, feeling one of the elephant’s legs, says it is like a pillar. A third, touching the tusk, describes the animal as being like a solid pipe.

Although each man’s description was accurate, each perceived only part of the elephant; none had a perspective of the entire beast.

It’s the same with many business executives and their views of social media:

• “Social media? Twitter isn’t appropriate for our market.”
• “Our company already has a Facebook page!”
• “We don’t have time to maintain a blog.”
• “Several of our people use LinkedIn.”

Such statements reflect perceptions of “parts of the beast”—components (tools) of social media. But using one or more of those tools, with no clear objectives for benefiting the company, doesn’t constitute a strategy.

Here is a four-phase adoption model designed to reveal the entire elephant that is social media.

Phase I: Observation

As Yogi Berra famously noted, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” A bit of research and observation up front will make your participation later much more productive and prevent false starts and missteps.

Some of the questions to answer in this phase:

• Where are people talking about our company, industry, and competitors? Which social media platforms do they congregate on?
• What are they saying? What are the hot topics?
• Who’s doing the talking? Which voices seem to have the most influence?
• What opportunities do we have to respond and participate? What kind of content seems to be most popular?
• What questions are people asking that we can answer?

Social media monitoring tools are very helpful in answering those questions. Among free tools are Social Mention and Alterian’s trial version of SM2. A wide range of tools is available with differing levels of cost and sophistication.

Phase II: Preparation

Every company with more than a handful of employees is already involved in social media—whether those running the company know it or not. That’s because nearly half of all Americans are now active on at least one social network, including two-thirds of 25-34 year-olds. And though employees may be using these networks primarily to share pictures of the kids or to plan which clubs to hit next weekend, most will bring up the workplace at some point:

• “Our new CEO, John Doe, is an incompetent jerk.”
  
• “I sure hope our new product works because we’ve really skimped on the testing.”
• “If I owned any stock in this company, I’d dump it now before the earnings announcement next week. Last quarter was a bust.”

Though employees may share positive thoughts about your company with their friends, family, and followers, they may also post comments like those above, leading to bad PR, reduced sales, and even legal action.

One common objection voiced by executives about social media is that it can’t be controlled. That’s true, but when it comes to what a company’s employees are saying, it can, at least, be guided. Developing a social media policy is a crucial first step toward making social media a constructive, rather than dangerous, communication channel.

Fortunately, there’s no need to start from scratch, as there are dozens of social media policies from major companies available online to serve as examples. Outlines vary greatly, but here are a few of the essential elements:

• The company’s approach to social media. What are the goals, limits, and rules? A small restaurant will use social media much differently than a heavily regulated financial services company.
• Guidelines. What’s acceptable and what’s not? Don’t rely on “common sense.” Spell it out.
• Consequences and questions. Let employees know what will happen if guidelines are violated, and point them to someone who can answer questions for any “gray area” issues.

Once the decision is made to embrace social media, companies need to establish plans. Based on the research conducted in the Observation phase, the plan should address issues such as these:

• What are the objectives?
• Who will be involved?
• Which social media platforms will be used?
• How will results be measured?
• What types of content will be produced?
• Who will create the content?
• How will content be optimized across platforms? (e.g., executive profiles on LinkedIn link to the company blog; blog posts are tweeted and posted to LinkedIn Groups)

Phase III: Participation

With the groundwork laid, monitoring in place, and plans developed and approved, the company can begin “officially” participating in social media—or, more likely, reassessing initiatives already in place, as many firms have already jumped into the social media fray without proper planning.

Less than one-third of companies in the Americas have a social media policy in place, and only half have a formal strategic plan.

Participation can take a variety of forms, from simple monitoring of and responding to brand mentions to actively creating thought-leadership, informative or entertaining content, and promoting across social media venues.

For companies that produce content, a blog is often at the center of the effort. More than half of B2C firms and nearly three-quarters of B2B vendors maintain company blogs. But blogs aren’t the only option for sharing content through social media; among the content types are video on YouTube or Vimeo, presentations on SlideShare or myBrainshark, photos (Flickr, Photobucket), and PDF documents (Scribd, Docstoc).

Once posted, content can be promoted through microblogging sites (Twitter, Jaiku, Identi.ca), social-networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, and social-bookmarking sites such as Digg, Mixx, and Reddit.

The key to successful social media participation is engagement. Sharing content shouldn’t be viewed as broadcasting to the market but rather as seeking to start conversations. The point is to draw in interested parties, key influencers, and ultimately sales prospects by engaging them in discussions and building business relationships.

Phase IV: Integration

Most companies think of social media first in terms of marketing and PR activities, and they begin their social media efforts in those areas. But those at the highest level of social media maturity and integration are using social media for a variety of purposes across the organization.

Just as it would make no sense to provide telephones only for the sales force, or email access only to accounting, there’s no need to limit social media interaction to the marketing department.

At this advanced stage, companies may be using social media not only in marketing and PR but also in a variety of other areas, including the following:

• Human Resources. HR departments use social media to recruit and prescreen candidates, improving new hire quality while reducing recruitment time and cost. Three-quarters of US corporations already use LinkedIn to conduct background checks, and nearly half do so on Facebook.
• Customer Service. While no organization should overly rely on social media to resolve customer-service issues, it can shorten the “time to answer” some customer queries and reduce costs. Large enterprises that have incorporated social media into their customer service options include Verizon, Intel, Best Buy and Dell.
• Sales. Social media has changed the buying cycle. Prospects are now much more informed before they even begin a dialogue with sales; they’ve researched alternatives, developed a short list of vendors, and know what key features they’re after. The ability of buyers to do all of this before ever contacting a vendor has increased their expectations of salespeople as well; they expect sales pros to know what their company does and what challenges their industry confronts. Social media is valuable to the sales force not only for prospect research but also for generating leads and building credibility.
• Product Development. Whose input could be more valuable to product development efforts than your customers’ and prospects’? The Wall Street Journal has described social networks as the new focus groups because of the high value and relatively low cost of use. Because of potential legal issues involved in using someone else’s ideas, firms often use public networks for basic research and rely on their own branded online networks, with clear rules spelled out, for more direct suggestions.

Ideally, companies at the integration stage not only use social media across departments but also ensure that efforts and information are coordinated. For example, HR should be communicating the same value proposition to recruits that Marketing uses with prospective customers. Product designers should understand customer-service issues to help improve products or make them easier to use. Sales and Marketing should align social media activities to avoid duplicated efforts or inconsistent messages.

When it comes to cross-organizational alignment of social-media use, perfection can’t be achieved. But as Lexus constantly reminds us, it can be pursued.

Article Source: marketingprofs.com

twitter,how to’s,social media

Bit Rebels wrote:

5 Things To Consider Before Diving Into Twitter

Twitter is here to stay. In the beginning, some people thought it was a fad that people would lose interest in within a couple of months. When I started to use the social media platform two years ago, I didn’t know how to use it effectively. I was just lucky enough to meet people who have taken the time to teach me and show me how I can truly benefit from using the site.

I know some people still do not see the benefits of using Twitter. To them, it’s a waste of time, others think it’s just something that people do because they are bored or don’t have anything better to do. We all have our opinions. Those who have benefited a lot by learning and connecting with people from all over the world and sharing views and opinions know that Twitter is a great tool to accomplish that.

If you are; however, new to Twitter, and if you would like to try it out, may I suggest some things that you might want to consider before your dive into it?  I hope the tips here will allow you to be more efficient as well as allow you to have fun.

1. Time Management – Twitter can be addictive, I know some people who lose sleep because they would rather tweet. Others tweet only once in awhile. We all have our own objectives for using Twitter. What is important here is balance. It is ideal to be around. People follow you for a reason. They like listening to you, or in this case, reading your tweets. However, try not to over do it. Don’t lose your job because you can’t stop when you need to.

2. The 80 – 20 Rule – Share links and engage.  Again, the emphasis here is balance. There are so many things you can share on Twitter, but consider your audience when you tweet. You can share almost anything including music, photos, quotes that will inspire and information that will teach and entertain.

3. Follow The Right People – It is your call regarding who you want to follow on Twitter. Some people only follow their friends and family, while others, like me, follow different people from all walks of life. There are a host of people that you can follow based on your interests. There are brand builders, teachers, designers, chefs, musicians, celebrities, etc… Following the people who you feel you can learn from and engage with will not only widen your knowledge, but will also allow you to create connections and build friendships.

4. Retweeting Is Good – Retweeting is a great ice breaker on Twitter. Maybe you are following someone you want to get to know better, but you are intimidated to speak to that person directly. By retweeting their links, you open the lines of communication. It is also a great way for you to share new found information with your followers.

5. Respects Begets Respect – Just like in real life, respect the people you tweet. Respect begets respect. It is better, I believe, for someone to just unfollow another person if he or she feels that what is being shared is not important to them. Never bully anyone. Remember that the people you tweet are humans that, just like you, want to communicate and discover the online world.

12 Simple Steps Business Owners Can Take to Avoid Burnout

by Susan Martin

Many people experience burnout at some point in their lives. Business owners and the self-employed are even more likely to fall prey to burnout because the buck stops with them. If you feel as if you’re starting to burn out here are some things you can do to avoid it.

1. Take care of #1. If you’re run down, you’ll burn out faster. Make sure you get enough sleep, eat right, exercise and de-stress on a regular basis.

2. Make the time to do nothing! We all need to take time to relax, refresh and replenish. Don’t keep pushing yourself. Keep regular business hours and take breaks during your work day. Make sure to schedule in time off and vacations on a regular basis. You’ll come back with a fresh outlook and perspective.

3. Get back in touch with the things you value. Is your work fulfilling and meaningful for you? If not, check in with your values. What’s missing? Where are you compromising? What needs to be eliminated? What are you merely tolerating? Re-assess and re-adjust your priorities as needed. If you work for yourself, you’re in control. Make the choices you want to make by honoring what’s important for you.

4. Think out of the box and challenge yourself consistently. If work has become a chore or you’re in a rut, try spicing things up a bit! Find innovative ways to do mundane tasks, create new products or services to add to your offering, improve performance, or tweak what you do best and make it even better.

5. Establish realistic expectations for what you can and cannot accomplish. If you find that you’re driving yourself or your employees too hard it may be time to let go of unrealistic expectations and readjust. Shorten your to-do list, give yourself some slack when needed and know when to let up on yourself and others.

6. Learn how to communicate clearly. Resolve conflicts, don’t run from them. Let people know what you expect from them, and ask them what they expect from you. Be clear and concise with what you say, and how you say it. Listen closely to the people around you, it will teach them to listen closely to you.

7. Manage your time. Poor time management is another thing we do that leads to burnout. Set regular business hours. Make appointments with yourself to get things done – and keep them! Being on time counts, show up promptly for appointments and expect others to do the same.

8. Stop blaming yourself or others. If you’re playing the “woulda, coulda, shoulda” game, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate your attitude. Blaming yourself or others for things that have gone wrong doesn’t help. What does? Learn from your experiences and make changes to ensure that you get the results you want the next time.

9. Value yourself by establishing boundaries and limits. Learn how to do it in a way that clear and consistent. Don’t give away too much of your time. Let people know your policies and procedures. Be upfront with what’s acceptable and what’s not. Learn how to say no.

10. Deal with your emotions. Keeping your feelings inside usually leads to trouble. If you are feeling any kind of negative emotion, don’t deny it. Instead, learn how to acknowledge your feelings, be up front with them; and deal with the underlying causes.

11. Laugh, smile and enjoy the ride! Life is too short to worry and be serious all the time. Find ways to make your work fun and enjoyable.

12. Don’t feel embarrassed to ask for help. Everybody needs a little help once in a while. You can’t do everything yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask friends or associates for help, or hire a professional when needed.

Original Article can be found Here

Leave it to Nike to come up with a shoe that can create music. I love how innovative they are, who thinks of this stuff?

Ok, so recently I have noticed a trend in brands using humor in their advertising. These are the kind of ad campaigns I love and remember the most, because they set themselves apart from the thousands of marketing methods that are thrown at us on a daily basis. If you want to be remembered, do something to set yourself above of the crowd! Here are two commercials on t.v. right now that make me laugh and that I will remember for that very reason.

Boost Mobile – Talking Dog Commercial

Sears Blue Lawn & Garden Crew: Tiny Tractor

What are some of your favorites ad campaigns happening right now? Leave us your feedback!

We need help! We are looking for some dynamic people to ad to our Infinite Horizons Team.

We have the following postitions available that we would like to fill immediately:

Marketing and Sales Executive

Full time position

Hours: M-F 9-6pm

Pay Type: Commission with Bonus

Experience: Strong Selling and Communication skills a must, Marketing and Advertising experience preferred.

Graphic Designer

Full time position

Hours M-F 9-6pm

Pay Type: Hourly / Salary

Experience: Strong Communication skills a must, Experienced in graphic design and project execution from start to finish, Fluent in all Adobe CS4 programs, Team player, Creative and Forward thinker, Ability to work independently and problem solve, Web experience a plus.

Marketing Intern

Part time position

Hours TBD / Flexible

Pay Type: For-credit / Credit Internship

Experience:

1. High school diploma or equivalency. Field of study: journalism, business, marketing
2. Excellent interpersonal communication skills, positive attitude, responsible / reliable.
3. Proficiency with computers, especially Word, Excel and Windows software. Minimum typing speed of 60 wpm.
4. Good organizational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities.

If you or some one you know are interested in any of the positions mentioned above please email your resume and digital portfolio (graphic design position) to jparness@infinitehorizonsdesign.com or call Jennifer at 815-980-8342 for more information.We are looking to fill these positions immediately!

We need your help! We are working on a case study and your feedback is important to us.

Out of the two Phone book ads which would you call the first or the second ad?

Don’t forget to Click here to give us your answers!

YellowPage Ad#1

YellowPages Ad #2

If you where looking in the phone book for a service and had to make a chose on who to call based on the two ads above which one would it be?

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