What are you doing tomorrow?

Can you believe we are almost a quarter of the way through 2008?! Before you know it, we will be ringing in 2009! Time waits for no one, which is why YOU as a business owner MUST make the most of each and every day. The beauty about news is that you get a fresh opportunity to become NEWSWORTHY with each passing day. Yesterday’s news is old news, passé, BORING. NO ONE wants old, boring news.

So now with just a few days left of the first quarter of 2008, I have to ask you a question. Have your made your first quarter goals? What have you done to make your product, service or idea stand out from all the rest? Did you come up with a creative idea that led to free publicity on your local news station or in your local newspaper? Did you make your business matter to your customers? Because by now, you should know that people won’t support something they don’t believe in…something that doesn’t matter to them. If you didn’t reach your goals, how can you turn it around in the second quarter?

Che Brown is the President of Partners In Learning, a Washington DC based sales training and professional development firm (www.partnerslearning.com). Brown offers some great advice in this area. He says each day is an opportunity to get back on track. “You are only one day away from reaching your goals”, he says.

So, if you didn’t get a chance to put your business on the publicity map in the first quarter, you have three more quarters to make it happen. You don’t even have to wait until April 1st to begin. It can all start tomorrow. So.....what will you be doing?

Time for some Spring Cleaning!

Thursday, March 20th, marks the first day of spring. Hallelujah! I am so glad I will be finally able to pack away my bulky winter coats for at least another 9 months or so! Me and cold, wintry weather just don’t get along!

With springtime comes a whole new season of renewal and refreshing possibilities. This is the time of year when people start clearing out their homes, dusting off their furniture and rolling up their sleeves for that much needed spring-cleaning. Out with the old and in with the new!

That rule doesn’t just apply to homeowners, you know. If you own a business, you too could benefit from a little sprucing up. The arrival of springtime could mean spring-cleaning for businesses as well, a chance to breathe some fresh air into a stale PR plan. You can start by asking yourself the following questions:

(1) Is it time to blow the dust off your current pr strategy for your product, service or company? What’s working for you? More importantly, what’s not working?
(2) Are all the numbers and email addresses of your media contacts in your Rolodex up to date? Who should you add…who should you delete?
(3) How can you maximize your resources and fresh new ideas to secure yourself some free publicity?

A change of seasons could be the fresh start your business is looking for. Spring into the possibilities and seize the opportunity!

What's Buzzing You

Sixty three thousand jobs were lost in the month of February. That's more than any other month in the past five years. If you were one of the lucky ones whose job was spared, chances are you know someone who wasn’t so lucky. Employers are rightsizing, downsizing, upsizing or just plain firing people all over the country. When there are no jobs, there is no spending. So in these tight times, how are businesses attracting customers?. Let’s face it, people just aren’t spending as much money as they used to. Just turn on the news tonight and see for yourself. The buzz words you’ll hear are: Recession, Downsizing, Cautious, Fearful, and Slowing Economy...just to name a few. The list could go on and on. But if you are a business owner looking to squeeze through these tight times, those same buzz words could be the basis of your publicity campaign. Remember, the key to successful public relations is to offer a useful solution to a problem, a problem many people can relate to. If you can find a way to build your company’s pr campaign around a cost saving measure, a way penny pinching consumers can purchase your products without blowing their budget, you can kill two birds with one stone. You’ll entice more customers to your business by offering cost saving solutions and you’ll be protecting (maybe even building) your bottom line. They key is to listen to the buzz words!6:47 pm est