The new year always brings a variety of feelings. For some, 08 has been a difficult year, so they are looking forward to putting that year behind them. For others, 08 has been a good year. They may be wondering what 09 will bring.

Many politicians are starting new positions. They have agendas to accomplish and hopefully promises to keep.

This year I am hearing many people who are uncertain about 09. What will happen with my financial portfolio? Will I be looking for a new job? If I loose my job, do I stay in Portland or move somewhere else? Many others just have a sense of uncertainty.

NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC!!! IT TIME TO PLAN!!!!!! Hopefully you have been making plans for making your life and business better in 09. There are still wonderful opportunities available.

Ed and I are expecting great things for 09. We know that this site will become a large asset for the business who participate. We have both seen marked increases to our individual websites. That is the purpose for offering this service. We will all win!

We all need to research new opportunities for revenue this year. Some will work and others will fail. Personally, I am going to participate in the Oregon Pike Minnow program. The State will pay me to catch these fish. Last years participants made a few hundred dollars, all the way up to $50K. It will mean more effort on my part but it should be worth it. I have also decided to add Sturgeon fishing to my services.

For some of the larger businesses, Motivation will be a challenge. You will need to support activities, which will relieve stress and provide a level of fun in your work place. Having employees who know that management is concerned and cares about them will make a huge difference in productivity.

So let’s go into 09 with our eyes and minds open. We can have a very good year!

I encourage you to respond with comments to this post.

Ken Bear Cole

Fishing with Bear LLC

Coach Charles Powell, MCC

Benefits of Coaching

Take charge of you destiny. If you don’t who will? If not now, when?

What are the benefits of having a coach?

Coaching works best for people who are ready to take charge of their destiny. People who want to grow and are willing to let go of their limiting past.

Here are the types of people that I feel I can most help right now.

? Person who is ready to move up to the next performance level in their work and get what they really want from life.
? Person is starting a new business and could use some support and creative ideas to become even more successful.
? Person who recognizes the potential of coaching and is interested in becoming a coach themselves.

Working with a coach can increase your chances of success dramatically. With coaching you accelerate your progress. However, you always remain in charge. You set your own agenda and establish your own goals and pace.

Coach   Email: bizcoach@bigfoot.com
Coaching at its Best, International

Happy Monday All,

Christmas is over and there are only three days left in 2008, have you already made your plans for 2009? If your New Year’s Business Resolutions do not include blogging for business, then you MAY want to review you annual plan.  Here is a link to an article published in Business Week entitled Social Media Will Change Your Business

Retail business is WAY down.  We all are expecting massive lay offs in the coming months.  The government can not seem to stop giving our tax dollars away to mis-managed business comgloments.  All of that, however, is totally out of our control.  We can only control that which is with-in our reach.

What are you going to do different in 2009?

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

Here is a link to a new page we are creating on Business Blogging, Social Marketing and Personality Based Marketing. It is still under development, but your comments are welcome.

So you want to write for a blog.  By Coach Charles

You have heard about blogs, maybe even commented on the content, and perhaps contributed. But you are still unsure how you do. Is it interesting, valuable and challenging? Just how do you get what you write to win hearers and supporters?

Well, here is a bit of advice. Writing in a way that communicates, requires an understanding ot the reader. To whom are you writing? What do they do, like and read? Do you have something that will be informative and helpful. It always helps to know the reader, or as much as you can. Certainly the reader can be uninformed, but it helps to recognize this before putting it into print. The more specific you are at this point, the higher the level of communication.

So why are you reading this? Well, I assume that you are intelligent about what you want to say and how you hope it will be received.

The first question to answer after deciding the profile of your reader is what the exact purpose of the article is. For instance this is an article on writing and it does extend, in principle, beyond blogging. However, it is on a blog, and you are reading it, indicating that you read blogs. It assumes that you may want to write an article for this blog.

My approach to writing is to keep is straight forward, simple enough for a forth grader to be able to read it and interesting enough that the reader takes something away. It is important that every sentence count in reaching your purpose for writing. I use a simple process to write anything. Essentially, I use action words, in first person with relatively few passive sentences. I usually fail miserably, but try to write short sentences.  Write in such a way that anybody can understand. You need to avoid complex words, and to make every thing simple, concrete and familiar.

That old saying is pertinent here: tell them what you are going to say, say it and tell them what you said.

Keep the formatting simple, as you try to communicate, not merely entertain.

Other Things:
• Use a good dictionary. If you are not sure, check it in the dictionary
• Read the first draft through and then have someone else read it.
• If you can, use a spell check.

P. S. I don’t always do this.

Coach Charles                                    Email bizcoach@bigfoot.com
Coaching at its Best                         Website: www.coach-charles.com

Encouragement in Trying Times

Well.. this economy certainly is ‘interesting’, isn’t it?  I’ve seen in life that many things sometimes appear to be something we cannot do anything about. Yet, I’ve learned in life that at times… such as these… in the face of the impossible, the insurmountable… there is indeed something can do. And, it’s much more than just ‘riding it out’.  It is a much less passive approach, and the results can be quite impacting.

We have one time around in this life.  And, we want to make it count. If we want to make a greater difference in our world and in the world of others, if we want to make a greater social significance, if we want something to change… but we change nothing… especially during times such as these… measure the cost of inaction.

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.

Stay positive,
Steve

For our business, referrals are the way we derive the majority of our new patients.   Asking for referrals is so much easier and productive for getting patient referrals.  The patient referrals come most often from the establishment of a good relationship with other physicians or with our existing patients.  When we get a new patient referral we send a thank you note to the referring party to give our appreciation.

In our business, we do our very best to meet the patients every expectation.  I’m sure you do also and I would make the assumption that your patient/client/customer has a level of appreciation for the benefit and value that you supply for them.  You have developed a relationship with them that when asked for almost anything they would respond positively.  So when asked for a referral, they might respond immediately or later down the road.

An advantage which I think can come from asking for referrals, and there may be others, include that it takes less effort.  If it takes less effort, you probably save time.  With the saving of time and effort usually comes spending less money.  And then you are making more money because you’re spending less and you have referrals which add positively to the bottom line.  The other bottom line feature is that you will be helping more people.

Referrals are the EASY way to get a “yes” because they were referred by someone who gives that third party credibility.  Their thought maybe, “the person who told me about you must have good reason for suggesting that I come here.  A friend wouldn’t lead me astray, would they?”

Another way to get referrals besides asking includes planting a seed.  Incentives are good.  A coupon that has some value for referring someone can be use.  Simple tools provided the opportunity for people who know you to pass along things like samples, business cards, brochures, etc.

Conclusion – It’s a good thing!  Ask for referrals.  Find ways that work for you to generate referral business.

John Wade

Center for Environmental Medicine

It still is who you know.

This adage has been around for along time.  Essentially it says that “it’s who you know, not what you know that gives you and advantage.”  It still works today in our present business environment.   So what is important about having two thousand contacts in you data base, if you never communicate with most of them?    It is really not how big a collection of names you have.  It is do you have the right names to grow your business?  In other word, the focus should be on the quality of those on your list, rather than the quantity of them. 

So, what to do?  Well, maybe take a fellow business colleague out for lunch and ask opinions on the topics of importance to you.  Know what you have been thinking about and engage them on the level of what they think will work.  You may find new products, or companies who could become clients or customers.  What you are looking for is different ideas, innovative ideas, exciting ideas.  Seeking out professionals different than yours and find out what they do.  Get to know your banker by name, talk to your accountant, not just over your finances, but about your business.  If you are like most of us, we need all the help we can get and thinking we know it all will not get the help you need.  Become a center of influence.  Know who does what best.  Refer them to every one.  Everybody has a different perspective, different experiences, attitudes, and a unique answer to your development.  All it might cost you is lunch.  What a deal.

Coach Charles

Coaching at its Best

Blog

Ongoing evaluations are needed to keep our businesses on track. It’s time to look back and see how the year turned out. Here are some thought provoking questions you may ask:

1. What was learned from last year?
2. Which marketing technique worked best last year? Will it work again in 09?
3. What were the greatest challenges of 08?
4. What new changes are planned for 09?

Please share some of the information with the rest of us, without compromising your competitive edge.

Ken Bear Cole

Fishing with Bear LLC

Here in Portland, we are blessed by our beautiful surroundings and clean air. the recent cold snap has added natural flocking to our roads and trees, which makes it more challenging to get around. I was downtown today, finishing up some shopping. The crowds were light in the stores and malls. Many are saying this  Christmas will be quite different. How will it be different or the same fore you?

Bear

Fishing with Bear LLC

Social marketing is a real business strategy and many of us use it every week when we attend the local chamber of commerce or business forum.  Before diving into discovering the validity of Online Social Marketing, lets examine a few of the reasons why we market in other social arenas.

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