Tiffanie Kellog has been in the promotional item industry for over 5 years, and has seen a number of the same mistakes. Here are a few of her tips, in the hope that you avoid them. Visit her at www.tiffaniekellog.com for more great advice on marketing using promo items.

At the top of the list of things not to do when picking a promotional item is

DO NOT PICK THE CHEAPEST PROMOTIONAL ITEM.

DO NOT OVERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A PROMOTIONAL ITEM!

DO NOT PICK JUST WHAT’S TRENDY

DO NOT WAIT TILL THE LAST MINUTE.

Promotional items can be a great way to grow your business, if you avoid these 4 common mistakes.

Somehow 2010 has snuck up on us and taken hold. We’re a dozen days into a brand new year and a brand new decade. Do things feel different in your business or in your life? Are you full of renewed energy and passion for what the future might hold? If not, this post is for you.

Over the past six weeks I’ve spent a significant chunk of my harry holiday schedule in Director’s Training for BNI (For those of you who don’t know, BNI (or Business Networking International) is a phenomenal networking organization that I owe much of my success to). On the first day we were given a quote from Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth that has lived with me going into the new year and continues to remind me why we make commitments to improve ourselves each January. Gerber reminds us that,

The work we do is a reflection of who we are. If we’re sloppy at it, it’s because we’re sloppy

inside. . . If we’re bored by it, it’s because we’re bored inside, with ourselves, not with the work.

The work can be a piece of art when done by an artist. So the job here is not outside…but inside

ourselves. How we do our work becomes a mirror of how we are inside.

If you, after just a dozen days, feel like you’re pace is no longer strong or if you have yet to really define what 2010 will look like I am challenging you to step back RIGHT NOW and ask yourself, “What am I doing right now, today, and every day going forward to make sure I’m not sloppy inside?”

2010 is just six weeks away. Take these six steps to make sure your ready to make 2010 a perfect 10!

1. Set goals for the new year. What do you want to make in 2010? Back this annual goal out into quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
2. Put a tracking system in place. Put a simple system for tracking your progress in place and decide now on rewards for achieving each milestone. By preparing now it will be easier to keep it going all year because the benchmarks are already there.
3. Outsource two non-essential tasks. Use a virtual assistant, bookkeeper, or other professional to outsource at least two tasks that eat up your time. By starting now you will have worked out most of the kinks before the new year which will allow for smooth sailing in the new year.
4. Fine-tune your marketing strategy. Lay out and plan your marketing budget for 2010 now. This should include monetary outputs for advertising or promotional products and time outputs for networking activities. Doing this will help you to be more clear and productive in the new year.
5. Evaluate your pricing strategy. The new year is the easiest time to change prices so stop for a few hours and take a look at your spreads. If a price increase is needed start preparing your clients for it to take effect January 1.
6. Enlist a partner. This is the perfect time to start working with a business coach. A coach will help you work through these six steps so you are running on all cylinders for the new year. Many people think waiting until January makes the most since, but it means your starting the new year behind. Take the steps now and be ready for phenomenal results from January 1 through the whole year.

Building trust and confidence, whether with your business or with your products/services, is about painting a picture of how you benefit the client and having passion for what you are doing. By answering certain questions about your products and/or services, you become clear about how to paint the right picture. Consider the following:

• What do you sell? What service do you provide?
• Who is most likely to buy it?
• How does it benefit my clients?
• How does each product/service benefit my company?
• Why am I excited to sell each product/service?

Many of my clients are intrigued by the emergence of social media tactics in advertising but are unsure how these strategies work for companies not selling on the Internet (ie. trades, accounting, etc.). The rise of Twitter Businesses often leaves a bad taste in the mouth of companies trying to build a legitimate local presence online. So how do you build LOCAL buzz effectively with social media? Think of your connections as a funnel that looks something like this:

Connect with local friends, clients, network partners

gain access to their network of contacts

make contact through info strategies

begin to build like-ability online

meet in by phone/in person

you have a new contact!

So what strategies can you employee to do this? First, enlist the help of your exhisting network. Can they “share” your Fan Page, blog posts, and tweets with their network? Recommend your mailing list to others they know? These are the first steps to building your local presence through social media.

Remember, the goal of using programs like Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, etc. is not to have 3,000 contacts; but instead, to turn virtual “buddies” into real life partners and clients.

To learn more about building local buzz through social media join Renia September 16, 2009 from 5:30-8 p.m. for an interactive workshop

I’ve spent too much time watching people I love suffer and have decided to take on a challenge to do my part to find a cure. On October 30-November 1, I’ll be walking 60 miles over the course of three days, camping out at night with thousands of other women and men taking this journey with me. It’s for an event called the Breast Cancer 3-Day, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund. Every advancement in breast cancer research, treatment, education and prevention in the last 25 years has been touched by a Komen for the Cure grant. They are working hard to build a future without breast cancer, and I plan on raising $5,000.00 to help bring us closer to that goal.

Please consider making a donation of $50. If you can’t give this amount all at once, you can spread it out over four months, using the payment plan option, if you donate online at http://www.tinyurl.com/nagt2t. Please also ask your employer if they will double your donation with a matching gift.

Without a cure, one in eight women in the U.S. will continue to be diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s why I’m walking in the 3-Day. To make a donation, go to http://www.the3day.org/. Click on Donate Now.

I would like to reach my fundraising goal by August 31, so don’t delay!

Author Ken Donaldson knows about changing lives, as he’s impacted thousands in his 20+ years as a psychotherapist, teacher and life coach.  Ken has a huge vision and goal: Sell 1 million books, raise $1 million for charitable organizations and donate another 1 million books to various programs.

He calls it 1 Million Times Three, or The 1MX3 Project.
Every time a book is sold, Ken will donate 25% of the proceeds to a specific partner organization,
plus will donate a copy of Marry YourSelf First! to another organization.
One book, therefore, changes many, many lives. Marry YourSelf First! is now more than just a
book; it’s a movement, a cause and a project.

Join Ken Donaldson and the Marry YourSelf First! project on Saturday, August 1st at Sweet
Sage Café as he’ll be signing books there from 12 to 2 p.m. Sweet Sage Café, commonly referred
to as “the best kept secret on North Redington Beach”, is located at 16725 Gulf Blvd., North
Redington Beach, FL 33708, and their phone is (727) 391-0453.

25% from all books sold at this event will be donated to PARC, Pinellas Association for Retarded
Children. PARC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide opportunities for
individuals with disabilities to exercise their independence, enjoy an enhanced quality of life and
experience life to the fullest. PARC’s perfectly stated motto is, “Turning Disabilities Into
Capabilities Since 1953.” Ken will also be donating an equal number of books sold from this event to the local YWCA and Goodwill programs.

Visit http://www.KenDonaldson.com or http://www.marryUfirst.com for more information.

The practice of gratitude as a tool for happiness has been in the mainstream for years. Long-term studies support gratitude’s effectiveness, suggesting that a positive, appreciative attitude contributes to greater success in work, greater health, peak performance in sports and business, a higher sense of well-being, and a faster rate of recovery from surgery.

But while we may acknowledge gratitude’s many benefits, it still can be difficult to sustain. So many of us are trained to notice what is broken, undone or lacking in our lives. And for gratitude to meet its full healing potential in our lives, it needs to become more than just a Thanksgiving word. We have to learn a new way of looking at things, a new habit. And that can take some time.

That’s why practicing gratitude makes so much sense. When we practice giving thanks for all we have, instead of complaining about what we lack, we give ourselves the chance to see all of life as an opportunity and a blessing.

Remember that gratitude isn’t a blindly optimistic approach in which the bad things in life are whitewashed or ignored. It’s more a matter of where we put our focus and attention. Pain and injustice exist in this world, but when we focus on the gifts of life, we gain a feeling of well-being. Gratitude balances us and gives us hope.

There are many things to be grateful for: colorful autumn leaves, legs that work, friends who listen and really hear, chocolate, fresh eggs, warm jackets, tomatoes, the ability to read, roses, our health, butterflies. What’s on your list?

Some Ways to Practice Gratitude

•  Keep a gratitude journal in which you list things for which you are thankful. You can make daily, weekly or monthly lists. Greater frequency may be better for creating a new habit, but just keeping that journal where you can see it will remind you to think in a grateful way.

•  Make a gratitude collage by drawing or pasting pictures.

•  Practice gratitude around the dinner table or make it part of your nighttime routine.

•  Make a game of finding the hidden blessing in a challenging situation.

•  When you feel like complaining, make a gratitude list instead. You may be amazed by how much better you feel.

•  Notice how gratitude is impacting your life. Write about it, sing about it, express thanks for gratitude.

As you practice, an inner shift begins to occur, and you may be delighted to discover how content and hopeful you are feeling. That sense of fulfillment is gratitude at work.

Yesterday afternoon I (along with about 60 of my friends, family, prospects, and clients) held a virtual launch for my new book, One Man, One Show: 21 Weeks to Profitable Self-Employment, that really tested the limits of my social media savvy. While running a tele-seminar, webinar, tweets, and Facebook chat I learned a few great lessons about the does and don’t’s in terms of virtual get-togethers. Here are my thoughts:

1. Do use visuals such as slide shows. Tele-seminars can sometimes be difficult to follow. It helps the participants gain traction if they have something visual to fall back on. The portions I did via webinar went much smoother than the portions that were not.
2. Don’t be overly ambitious. In retrospect, 4 hours was hugely ambitious and by the end I was exhausted. If you want to do a big event like that, enlist some other speakers and pepper them throughout the program.
3. Do spend tones of time promoting the event in different circles. Over the course of about 6 weeks I sent out emails, facebook posts, tweets, and personal notes to over 1,200 people (not including the in-person promotion I did at my Chamber of Commerce and BNI). This resulted in 60 people participating in the event at various times. In terms of Web 2.0, you’ll have to touch a lot of people to get a few participants.
4. Don’t wait until the last minute to test your tools. I finally decided that webinar was the way to go about 2 days before the event. This meant, I was testing, learning, and discovering right up until and in some cases, through the event. Just as in other areas of life, test your tools before you have to give the show!
5. Do realize everything won’t go according to plan. Over the past year I’ve participated in over 100 webinars, teleseminars, and virtual events. None of them (even the ones with big names that have big budgets) ever go completely smoothly. Recognize that your technology might hick-up and be prepared for it.
6. Don’t forget to come up with creative ways to engage your audience. In my workshops and client events I always carefully plan out thoughtful and engaging ways to bring my clients/participants into the conversation. Looking back at yesterday’s events this was one of it’s failures. I didn’t do a great job of strategically planning ways to involve the audience and the end result was little involvement.
7. Do enlist your partners to help host the event. As mentioned above, it’s exhausting to talk for a couple of hours in a virtual format. Give your referral sources/strategic partners some publicity and invite them to do a presentation during your event. Another advantage of this is that they are likely to promote your event to their network.
8. Don’t be late by even one minute. A few people mentioned to me after the event that when coming back on after a break it was jarring to hear silence and made them think maybe they were in the wrong place. If your hosting a virtual event show up 5-10 minutes early and chat with your early birds.
9. Do set goals for intended results. When planning for the event I knew exactly what the intended result was. My goal was to sell 30 copies of my book during the event and I came pretty close (22 copies).
10. Don’t forget to have a great time! Enjoy the ability to give a professional presentation in your PJ’s (no I wasn’t in mine for those of you that are wondering). This new way of doing business is a great opportunity for companies looking to reach a wide audience in a low-cost way.

Armed with these do’s and don’t I plan to take on another virtual event again soon. I can’t wait to see all of you there (and I’d love to participate in yours).

As the job market gets tougher, more and more people are trying their hand at the self-employment lifestyle. This is exciting and empowering, but can be stressful. Take these steps to ensure a smooth transition:

1. Take an honest look at yourself. What are your strengths, weaknesses, skills? How did those influence—positively or negatively—your transition?

2. Step up your self-care. Major changes are physically and emotionally taxing. You need self-care now more than ever.

3. Engage your curiosity. What went wrong, or right? What could you have done better? What worked really well?

4. Focus on what you want, and less on what you don’t want. Keep your eye on the prize.

5. Find support. Since your transition affects your family as well, it may be better to seek the outside support of friends or professionals.

6. Work on your thoughts. Calm your fears and reinforce your sense of hope and happiness.

7. Reassure (or avoid) those who are threatened by, or jealous of, the change.

8. Create your own rite of passage. Ceremony and ritual help with all transitions.

9. Let go of how things were “supposed to be” and accept “how things are.” Find appreciation for what is.

10. Keep things in perspective. Or try on a new perspective. Don’t get stuck. Remember, the only constant is change.