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The key is to establish a relationship before you need it. And this is why I’d like to provide the art of schmoozing.

1. Understand the goal. Darcy Rezac in his book, The Frog and the Prince, wrote the world’s best definition of schmoozing: “Discovering what you can do for someone else.” Herein lies eighty percent of the battle: great schmoozers want to know what they can do for you, not what the you can do for them. If you understand this, the rest is just mechanics.
2. Get out. Schmoozing is an analog, contact sport. You can’t do it alone from your office on the phone or via a computer. You may hate them but force yourself to go to tradeshows, conventions, and seminars. It’s unlikely that you’ll be closing a big order with someone you met online at MySpace or via Skype. Get out there and press flesh.
3. Ask good questions, then shut up. The mark of a good conversationalist is not that you can talk a lot. The mark is that you can get others to talk a lot. Thus, good schmoozers are good listeners, not good talkers. Ask softball questions like, “What do you do?” “Where are you from?” “What brings you to this event?” Then listen. Ironically, you’ll be remembered as an interesting person.
4. Unveil your passions. Only talking about business is boring. Good schmoozers unveil their passions after they get to know you. Great schmoozers lead off with their passions. Your passions make you an interesting person–you’ll stick out because you’re the only person not talking about 802.11 chipsets at the wireless conference. Personally, my passions are children, Macintosh, Breitling watches, digital photography, and hockey if you ever meet me.
5. Read voraciously. In order to be a good schmoozer, you need to read voraciously–and not just the EE Times, PC Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. You need a broad base of knowledge so that you can access a vast array of information during conversations. Even if you are a pathetic passionless person, you can at least be a well-read one who can talk about a variety of topics.
6. Follow up. Over the course of my career, I’ve given away thousands of business cards. At one point, I thought I was nuts because if all those people called or emailed me, I’d never get anything done. Funny thing: hardly anyone ever follows up. Frankly, I don’t know why people bother asking for a business card if they’re not going to follow up. Great schmoozers follow up within twenty-four hours–just a short email will do: “Nice to meet you. I hope we can do something together. Hope your blog is doing well. I loved your Breitling watch. I have two tickets to the Stanley Cup Finals if you want to attend.” Include at least one thing to show the recipient that she isn’t getting a canned email.
7. Make it easy to get in touch. Many people who want to be great schmoozers, ironically, don’t make it easy to get in touch with them. They don’t carry business cards, or their business cards don’t have phone numbers and email addresses. Even if they provide this information, it’s in grey six-point type. This is great if you’re schmoozing teenagers, but if you want old, rich, famous, and powerful people to call or email, you’d better use a twelve-point font. (These are the same folks that need the thirty-point font vis-a-vis the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint.)
8. Give favors. One of my great pleasures in life is helping other people; I believe there’s a big Karmic scoreboard in the sky. God is keeping track of the good that you do, and She is particularly pleased when you give favors without the expectation of return from the recipient. The scoreboard always pays back. You can also guess that I strongly believe in returning favors for people who have helped you.
9. Ask for the return of favors. Good schmoozers give favors. Good schmoozers also return favors. However, great schmoozers ask for the return of favors. You may find this puzzling: Isn’t it better to keep someone indebted to you? The answer is no, and this is because keeping someone indebted to you puts undue pressure on your relationship. Any decent person feels guilty and indebted. By asking for, and receiving, a return favor, you clear the decks, relieve the pressure, and set up for a whole new round of give and take. After a few rounds of give and take, you’re best friends, and you have mastered the art of schmoozing.

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the_art_of_schm.html

There is a fable that tells about a captain coming ashore to conquer a new land and finding his forces outnumbered 10-1. Seeing this a sergeant asked what they should do, to which the captain replied, “burn the boats.”

• If you want to create a new product - buy an ad for it in a magazine that publishes in 3 months
• If you want to get into public speaking - offer to speak for free everywhere you can
• If you want to hold a teleseminar training course - start promoting the dates now
• If you need to ramp up sales - place an ad for a salesperson today
• If you want to start you own business - start getting clients now
• If you want to get in shape - enter a 10K coming up (that was a bonus one!)

Years ago I received a call from someone wanting to buy a product I hadn’t actually created, but I had always intended to. So, I sold her one - and then I had to create it! Funny how your priorities can change when you have no choice. Don’t be afraid to succeed.

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2007/07/24/sometimes-youve-got-to-burn-the-boats/

In blog sites like this, older content can easily get buried and never see the light of day again. So I thought I would pull the movie out of the archives and highlight it for you once more. Even though it’s a year old, the movie is still quite relevant — it focuses on long-term business trends, not short term fads.

It also gives you, the business owner, pointers on how you can identify trends to take advantage of them in your business. Click on the image to launch the movie:

Small Business Trends Movie

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

http://www.smallbiztrends.com/2007/11/dawn-a-small-business-trends-movie.html

With a little tinkering, I’ve put together an AppleScript to let FlexTime use the Growl system to gently remind you when a new activity starts, such as when to work and when to play. I call the script, FlexTimeGrowl. (Imaginative, huh?)

Here’s how to use it:

Set up

Assuming you have FlexTime and Growl already installed, here’s how to set up the FlexTimeGrowl script:

1. Download the script here:
   FlexTimeGrowl script
2. Create activities for work and play
   Click the plus icon on the upper left corner of the window to create a new activity. Under “Activity Schedule”, a new item will appear. Create two activities: one titled “Get back to work!” with a duration of 10 minutes, and one titled “Time for play!” with a duration of 2 minutes.
3. Set up cues to run the FlexTimeGrowl script
   Next to “At Start” choose “Run Script”. To the right of that, there’s a pulldown. Use it to choose the FlexTimeGrowl script you just downloaded.
4. Save
   Save your routine, and press play.

All done! When an activity starts, Growl will gently notify you with an alert that pops up, stays for a couple seconds, then goes away on its on. With Growl’s “Music Video” style notifications, it looks like this (you can adjust the speed in Growl’s preferences):

Growl uses the filename of the routine as the alert’s heading and the name of the activity as the message. So, if your FlexTime routine is saved as “Procrastination Hack” and your work activity is titled “Get back to work!”, it will look like this:

To change the titles, just rename your routine and activities.

Note: Small bug as of version 1.01: For some reason, FlexTime won’t run AppleScripts until the first activity that plays finishes. This means Growl notifications won’t start working until the end of the first activity. Once the next activity in the routine starts, notifications appear as expected.

Why use Growl’s notification system?

1. It’s gentle
   If you’ve set up FlexTime to show a text message when an activity starts, you have click the message to make it go away. With Growl, notifications appear and disappear gently without you having to do anything.
2. More style
   Growl allows you to customize the appearance of notifications, and comes with a few customizable styles to choose from. My favorite is the “Music Video” style shown in the example above.

Caveats

My knowledge of AppleScript is very rudimentary. The script I made is hacked together from samples on the Growl and Flextime websites. Sources:

• FlexTime AppleScript example
• Growl AppleScript example

If you see a better and cleaner way to do this, please let us know!

http://www.lifeclever.com/flextime-growl-a-gentle-way-to-end-procrastination/

Comcast has done some really clever commercials this year and I hope it’s just the beginning.

They really have been comcastic. I must also say that I’m a Comcast customer that has the Internet, TV and Digital Phone. The digital phone has some issues but getting one bill at a fair price is a nice deal.

The speeds (although I don’t think they have a hidden facility making a super fast concoction) seem way better and far more reliable than my previous cable company, TimeWarner.

http://www.dhadm.com/content/comcast-labs/

• How are market trends impacting my business?

• How does our target market make buying decisions?

• What is our market share and how can we increase it?

• How does customer satisfaction with our products or services measure up to that of the competition?

• How will our existing customers respond to a new product or service?

• How can we attract new customer segments?

• What marketing strategies will work best?

In order to get answers to these questions, companies conduct marketing research using a variety of methods. This article will outline some of these methods and illustrate how they can benefit a small business. All have some value, but it is important to know the limitations of each technique.

I. SECONDARY RESEARCH

This type of research involves looking at information that has already been conducted and published, by exploring a few different types of resources:

1. Demographics and Statistics

This information can be helpful to businesses when trying to learn more about the geographic areas in which they operate, or those into which it would make sense to expand. Where are other people like my current customers? Where are there people who are a little different from my customer base but might find my product valuable? I’m introducing a new product to an entirely new market — where do these prospects live? Is the size of the potential market big enough to make the investment into a new product worthwhile?Similarly, type this of research, called statistical profiling, also benefits business to business marketers. For example, if you are selling to businesses locally, you can expand your base by finding other areas where there is a high concentration of similar businesses. Or, you may have been selling to one type of industry, but you think companies in a different industry will also buy your product.Here are some free online resources that can help you find these businesses and get relevant statistics:Bureau of Labor Statistics
Internet Public Library
Fed Stats
American Marketing Association - Demographic Statistics
Demographic data by zip code for every U.S. state

2. Existing Research Reports

Often, businesses have questions that involve trends in their markets. For example, which customers are adapting the lastest technology? How is internet usage changing among mature adults?There may already be a report that was conducted that can give you some general information into your industry and specific market. By doing a search on “online research reports,” you can find a listing of companies that provide these reports. Usually they do come at a cost, but may be less expensive than doing a study from scratch. A good idea is to first peruse the table of contents that often comes with these reports before buying, in order to get an idea as to whether the purchase would be justified.

3. Marketing Researcher tools

Why not go where the pros do? By utilizing these sites, you can ask questions of marketing professionals and use the tools they do. There are some excellent resources available, again some of which require a fee, but others do not.Marketing Sherpa
@ResearchInfo.com
MarketingProfs.com

Continue Reading About Marketing Research:

II. PRIMARY RESEARCH

At some point, all businesses need to ask specific questions of their customers, as well as those individuals who are not their customers, in order to make decisions regarding their business and marketing strategy. This is where research can get expensive, though. Many small businesses do not have resources required for studies that deliver the most unbiased, accurate data. However, there are ways that companies can get guidance and direction for marketing strategy, based on customer feedback.

1. Talk to Your Customers

Is there any more direct, less expensive way to go? Ask your customers questions when they purchase from you, if you can do so in a way that is not cumbersome for them and doesn’t take a lot of their time. What made them purchase from you? How did they hear about you? Make it worth their time to give you feedback — perhaps a discount on their next order. And let them know that their feedback will help you serve them better in the future — which it should. And many small businesses overlook or discount input from their direct salesforce, a resource that can generate some of the best ideas for new products due to close customer contact.

2. Web Logs or Blogs

This is a great way to get customer feedback. Start a blog on your company website, tell your customers about it, and post information about your products and services. I know what you’re thinking, though – what if my customers have negative reactions about what I post? Won’t my warts be available for all to see? Marketing diva, Toby Bloomberg, recently had a post on her own blog about just this issue. As she points out, your customers talk anyway — isn’t it better to see what they’re saying so you can respond? And Toby makes a great point — negative comments are an excellent way of showing how you respond to customer concerns.

3. Yahoo Groups

Start a group for your customers. This is a great way for them to talk to each other and exchange information. At the same time, you get to see what they’re saying without them necessarily knowing that you’re peeking. Additionally, some customers can start conversations that allow you to get insights into their interests — more valuable information that can help you in your product/service development efforts. These groups can also exchange tips about using the product or service – some which may have never occurred to you.

4. In-person forums/ conferences

This is a great way to educate and entertain your customers and provide them value for their attendance at an offline function. While the methods above can often limit the amount of information you get from your customers, these forums and conferences allow you to explore various issues in a more in-depth way. User conferences also can give you a great opportunity to introduce your customers to new uses for your product or service, by highlighting customer success stories and case studies for presentation.

However, as noted above, these resources usually do not provide completely accurate and unbiased information, and to get this type of customer data, you’ll need to use more structured and traditional methods. Unbiased, quantifiable information can be very powerful in planning your marketing strategy. And every successful business needs to, and will get to this stage at some point. The trick is not to wait very long, because your competitors can start getting the answers before you do.

In general, there are two main types of traditional primary research studies, each with its own benefits:

5. Qualitative

These studies, also often called exploratory research, allow you to research issues with customers in an in-depth manner. While qualitative studies usually aren’t designed to give you precise answers, they can give you great insight into the behavior of your customers, their rationale for making decisions, and factors that can motivate them to purchase. There are various forms of qualitative studies, including focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and newer techniques called ethnography. What sets these apart from the user conferences mentioned above, are several factors:

• They are typically led by an objective moderator, so participants often will provide more honest and less biased feedback.

• A trained professional can also handle different types of respondents, from those who tend to be very vocal to those who are less likely to speak.

• They are in a controlled setting, and the moderator has a pre-defined script so that the most important issues at hand are addressed.

• A variety of techniques can be used, in order to get at the thinking behind customer discussions and behavior.

These studies can be done both on the internet and in person. A qualified professional can help you to determine the right method to use, and the costs for your particular situation.

6. Quantitative

Often businesses need guidance on a set of marketing issues that require clearly defined measures, for example, advertising spending, distribution channel usage, pricing decisions, segmentation sizes, and the product or service message that should be launched first.Surveys and questionnaires can give you a great deal of accuracy when asking marketing questions that require this level of detail for sound decision-making. For example, which product will generate the highest level of interest? Are there differences between different segments and how are these differences are best defined? What price should you set? How often will people purchase? There are some great online tools you can use to develop your own surveys — here are just a few that offer free versions:Survey Monkey
Zoomerang
Cool SurveysHowever, it is important to note that according to the Small Business Administration website, much primary research, particularly “… surveys, interviews, and questionnaires, is best left to marketing professionals, as they can usually get more objective and sophisticated results.”

CONCLUSION

Every organization needs to conduct research, and small budgets are no excuse for lack of a research plan. By starting out with some easily accessible resources, you can begin to develop better marketing strategies that can position you for market growth.

About the Author: Joy Levin is the President of Allium Research and Analytics, a marketing research consulting firm. With 14 years of experience, she works with companies of all sizes in various industries to develop and implement research solutions that give them answers to their marketing challenges and provide strategic direction.

http://www.smallbiztrends.com/2006/01/how-marketing-research-can-benefit-a-small-business.html

You know you need to get your story told in the media, but you can’t seem to get anyone interested. The problem is you need to look at journalists as a target market - you need to get them to know, like and trust you just like you would a customer.

Now, would you send a customer a one page flyer and then follow-up with a phone call asking them when they planned to write a story about your company, I mean buy from you. No, of course not.

Here’s how you get journalists to know, like and trust you.

1. Build a list of journalists that you think might care your story.
2. Read everything they write (use a Google News search by their name and subscribe to the email alert or RSS feed - you can follow a lot of journalists this way.)
3. Find their blog and subscribe to, comment on and write relevant trackbacks to it. (Most journalists have one now)
4. Set up a routine of sending relevant content to them that is related to articles they right.
5. Don’t push for any stories (unless they are truly news) until you’ve done this for weeks

Here’s the thing, if you can prove yourself a reliable resource for a journalist you will be looked upon as a friend, until then, you’re just a pest to an overworked, often underpaid, reporter.

By following what a journalist writes you will often find clues to the kinds of things they really care about, how you might pitch them and what they might write about in the future. I read an article by a journalist that I was following that stated he just started using Facebook. I connected with him through Facebook and the next you know I had scheduled an interview. My guess is that he would have ignored an email directly from me.

So, it takes a little work to earn media mentions, but it can be well worth the time spent.

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2007/10/07/the-proper-way-to-stalk-a-journalist/

In fact, your lunch hour should be the least “productive” moment in your day. Lunch is a micro-vacation from work. It should be relaxed, pleasurable, and enjoyable.

If your lunch hour only lasts a mere 20 minutes—or just doesn’t exist anymore—here’s how to turn it around and make it joyful:

1. Put it on your calendar
   To avoid getting stuck in back-to-back meetings all day, schedule your lunch as if it’s a meeting in itself. On shared calendar systems like MeetingMaker or iCal, make sure the office can see that you’re booked at this time. Your lunch is sacred, so don’t allow anyone to book meetings with you during this time.
2. Eat lunch at the same time everyday
   Once it’s on your calendar, eat lunch consistently everyday at the same time. This keeps your body in a rhythm, but it also trains your office to know when you’re unavailable.
3. Go an hour later or earlier
   Beat the long lines, by going to lunch during off-peak times, such as 11am-noon or 1–2pm. You’ll get speedier service and no stress-inducing crowds. Since you’ll be in the office while everyone else is eating, you’ll also get fewer interruptions and more time to work.
4. Automate lunch choices with the Wheel of Food
   Stop wasting time deciding where to eat. Spin the Wheel of Food, and let it pick for you.
5. Yelp it
   Once you land on a restaurant, use review sites such as Yelp to research it. Keep an eye out for reports of stuck-up waitresses, disgusting food, and breeding cockroaches.
6. Map it
   Avoid spending your lunch time getting lost while trying to find the restaurant. Use Google Maps or Yahoo Maps to get directions before heading out.
7. Ditch your phone
   Eliminate interruptions and compulsive text-messaging by leaving your mobile phone at work. I admit, this is my worst habit. It takes away time from truly enjoying a delicious meal. And when other people are with me, it’s just plain rude.
8. Don’t bring work to lunch
   Laptops, work files, and meeting notes should also remain at the office. Don’t work, eat!
9. Eat away from your desk
   To fully separate work from lunch, eat away from your desk. You’ll avoid the temptation to check email, take phone calls, or browse gossip sites. Plus, it keeps your desk clean and free of crumbs.
10. Don’t overeat
    You must enjoy the pleasure of eating, but be careful about overstuffing yourself. If you get too full at lunch, you’ll enter a food coma when you return to work. So instead of being alert and more efficient, you’ll just be drowsy and unproductive.
11. Eat slower
    It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register when you’re full. So to avoid overeating, eat slowly for 20 minutes before deciding if you’re still hungry. This helps you avoid unpleasant food comas. And according to scientists in fancy lab coats, it also helps you lose weight.
12. Take the full lunch break
    Done eating before your lunch hour is up? Don’t rush back to the office. Take the rest of your break to take a walk, read a book, or twirl under the sun. Do anything, except work.
13. Pack your lunch
    To make more time available for relaxation during your lunch hour, pack unch ahead of time. You’ll avoid the hassle of dealing with restaurants, and it’ll save you money.
14. Get a frequent diner card
    If you visit the same restaurant often, ask for a frequent diner’s card. Besides saving you a little bit of money, you’ll get treated better as a regular customer.
15. Make lunch dates
    Make your lunch more enjoyable and social by going with friends. Just try not to talk about work.

http://www.lifeclever.com/15-ways-to-maximize-your-lunch-hour/

“Who hasn’t fantasized about quitting their job and striking out on their own? The desire is perhaps especially strong for Americans, since doing it yourself and creating your own successes are so ingrained in our value system.”

Here are her five, which you can click through to read more about. Then, let’s take a look at mine.

From Personal Finance Advice:

• Myth #6: Being self-employed will make my life easier
• Myth #5: I’ll get to be my own boss–I won’t have anyone breathing down my neck anymore
• Myth #4: I’ll have more vacation time and get to set my own schedule
• Myth #3: I’ll save money on taxes by starting my own business and incorporating
• Myth #2: I’ll get to keep more of the company’s income if I start my own business
• Myth #1: I’ll earn more money if I start my own business

Not bad. I may have a problem with Myth #3 because a lot depends on the type of business and the number of employees you’ve started, however altogether it’s a good primer.

Here are some additional points that I thought I’d forum. Like Amy, I too will list these as myths:

• Your family & friends will always understand the time commitment, even when no money is coming in.
• Your friends’ constructive criticism is never out of jealousy
• Your college degree is all you need to secure the knowledge entrepreneurship requires
• Your lack of a college degree will ensure your business fails
• Anyone that has tried and failed automatically must be trusted because “they’ve done it”.
• If the majority of your peers call the idea silly, it probably is.
• You have to spend money to make money (this one is borderline, but a lot can be earned by charging people for your knowledge on something)
• Risk is always bad.
• You should liquidate all of your possessions to start a business because you believe in it so strongly.
• No competition today equals no competition tomorrow.
• Distributors, lawyers, manufactures or other vendors will always keep your trade secrets confidential (see how to get a provisional patent).
• Your co-founder will always have the same objectives and is as ethical as you.
• Having a well written business plan guarantees a lender or inventor will supply you with capital.

I am positive that there are other pitfalls to watch for. The intent is not to scare a would-be entrepreneur into staying at their day job. For that matter, we are also not trying to force you to analyze everything to the point of not starting a business. However, the more you know on the way in, the more prepared you will be.

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/03/myths-of-starting-business.html

http://www.behance.com/Featured/Articles/Tip-Laying-Your-Energy-Line/5516