Entrepreneurs pay a lot of attention to the mechanics of marketing. They take workshops, read books, and hire consultants to find out how to do the best job they possibly can. With my own clients, I often discover that their knowledge of marketing techniques is quite good already. What they might lack is the right kind of marketing attitude.
 
Do any of the attitudes described below sound familiar? If so, you may be sabotaging your own marketing efforts. Read on for some possible solutions.
 
1. "I shouldn't have to market." If you are good enough at what you do, you tell yourself, clients should just come to you. Marketing is for products, not professionals. You have years of training and experience in your specialty, why should you have to spend your precious time on marketing?
 
This perception is extremely common among consultants and professionals, although many won't admit it. The fact is that successful marketing is a necessary part of business ownership. If you could get all the paying work you wanted without having to market, why wouldn't everyone be self-employed?
 
If you perceive marketing as a dirty business, try thinking of it as the diapers you need to change in order to have the joys of being a parent. But instead of focusing on what you dislike, tie your marketing chores to your vision of a successful business.
 
Visualize checks arriving in the mail when it's time to make a cold call, or picture a signed contract when preparing for a presentation. Post visual reminders (e.g. photos or clippings) at your desk of the reasons you became self-employed in the first place. Parents don't remember all the diapers when they're looking at the baby photos.
 
2. "I don't have time for marketing." There are only two situations where this can really be true: you're too busy doing the client work you already have, or you have other important responsibilities (e.g. an outside job or young children) taking up your time.
 
It's easy to believe that doing client work already contracted for is more important than marketing, especially when deadlines are tight. But if you always follow this policy, you will be locked into a feast or famine cycle, with no new clients waiting for you when the work is finished.
 
Whether your responsibilities preventing you from marketing are within the business or outside it, you need to allocate a minimum amount of time each week, no matter what. Even two hours per week can make a significant difference, if you consistently use that time for marketing.
 
Imagine that you have overslept, and are late for an appointment. You might skip breakfast, but would you leave the house without brushing your teeth? Of course not. If you are going to be successful in business, that's how automatic marketing needs to become for you.
 
3. "My marketing isn't working." It's true that there may be something wrong with your marketing. Perhaps your message is unclear or the tactics you're using are inappropriate for the audience. I find, though, that for the majority of business owners who say this, the real problem is not that their marketing isn't working but that they aren't working their marketing.
 
Let's say your business needs two new clients a month, on average. If, in your experience, you must make a detailed presentation, proposal, or initial consultation to three potential clients for one to say yes, you will need to make six of these presentations per month.
 
Now how many prospects do you need to have contact with for one to be interested in a presentation? Ten, maybe? That means you need to make contact with 60 prospects each month to land your two new clients. If you do this math for yourself, you may quickly find that the only thing wrong with your marketing is that there hasn't been enough of it.
 
C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of "Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You'll Ever Need" at http://www.getclientsnow.com

     Medyo mabagal akong mag type ngayon dahil alam kong mabagal kang magbasa.  Nandito na kami sa probinsya para tirahan ang bagong bili na bahay.  Pero hindi ko maibigay sa iyo ang address dahil dinala ng dating nakatira ang number para daw hindi na sila magpapalit ng address.  Maganda ang lugar na ito at malayo sa Manila. Dalawang beses langumulan sa linggong ito, tatlong araw noong una at apat na araw noong pangalawa.  Nakakainis lang ang mga paninda dito katulad nung nabili ko na shampoo, ayaw bumula. Nakasulat FOR DRY HAIR kaya hindi ko binabasa ang buhok ko pag ginagamit ko. Mamaya ay ibabalik ko sa tindahan at magrereklamo ako.

     Noong isang araw naman ay hindi ako makapasok sa bahay dahil ayaw bumukas ng padlock. Nakasulat kasi ay YALE, eh aba namalat na ako sa kasisigaw ay hindi pa din bumubukas. Magrereklamo din ako sa nagbenta ng bahay, akala nila hindi ko alam na SIGAW ang tagalog ng YALE, wise yata ito!  Mayroon nga pala akong nabili na magandang jacket at tiyak na magugustuhan mo. Ipinadala ko na sa iyo sa dahil medyo mahal daw dahil mabigat ang mga botones kaya ang ginawa ko ay tinanggal ko na lang ang mga botones at inilagay ko na lang sa bulsa ng jacket. Ikabit mo na lang pag dating diyan. Nagpadala rin ako ng tseke para sa mga nasalanta ng bagyo, hindi ko na pinirmahan dahil gusto ko na maging anonymous donor.  Ang kapatid mo palang si Jhun ay may trabaho na dito, mayroon siyang 500 na tao na under sa kanya. Nag-gugupit siya ngayon ng damo sa memorial park, okey naman ang kita above minimum ang sahod. Nakapanganak na rin pala ang ate baby mo, hindi ko pa alam kung babae o lalake kaya hindi ko pa masasabi na kung ikaw ay bagong uncle or auntie. Isa pa nga pala, babalik ako diyan sa Oktubre pero naguguluhan ako. Diba yung Victory Liner, BLTB Liner, Pascual Liner at Alfonso Liner ay mga pampasaherong bus. Yung Panty Liner, bus din ba yun? Saan ba angTerminal nila?

     At saka nga pala, me nag-interview sa akin diyan at nakalimutan kong banggitin sa iyo taga Magandang Umaga Bayan daw siya at nakunan ako sa TV ang tanong sa akin ay ano raw sa salitang english ang Kulangot. Di ko nasagot... ikaw anak, alam mo? Wala na akong masyadong balita. Sumulat ka na lang ng madalas ha.

Love,

Tatay

P.S. Maglalagay sana ako ng pera kaya lang ay naisara ko na ang envelope.  Next time na lang ha.

RAM Woman:
She forgets about you, the moment you turn her off.

WINDOWS Woman:
Everyone knows that she can't do a thing right, but no one can live without her.

EXCEL Woman:
They say she can do a lot of things but you mostly use her for your four basic needs.

SCREENSAVER Woman:
She is good for nothing but at least she is fun!

INTERNET Woman:
Difficult to access.

SERVER Woman:
Always busy when you need her.

MULTIMEDIA Woman:
She makes horrible things look beautiful.

CD-ROM Woman:
She is always faster and faster.

E-MAIL Woman:
Every ten things she says, eight are nonsense.

VIRUS Woman:
Also known as "WIFE"; when you are not expecting her, she comes, installs herself and uses all your resources.  If you try to uninstall her you will lose something,  if you don't try to uninstall her you will lose everything............

THE POLICE said they had busted the distribution arm of a group that had "almost perfected" the printing of fake P500 bills.  The group sold counterfeit P500, P200 and P50 bills mostly to taxi drivers, according to Supt. William Macavinta, chief of the Nothern Police District's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

"This group has almost perfected the printing of fake P500 bills," Macavinta said. Only very close and careful scrutiny revealed the bills were fake.  The CIDG arrested on Thursday in Barangay Bitik in Valenzuela City Tony Espeleta, 42, and Jabiguero Rodolfo, 49.

The suspects, who were presented to the media in Camp Crame yesterday, reportedly yielded 40 pieces of counterfeit P500, 45 fake P50 and 20 fake P200 bills when nabbed.  The fake P500 bills had watermarks and fine security prints-signs of sophisticated printing.   "Even the quality of paper used is very good," said National Capital Region-CIDG deputy chief Supt. Manuel Pinera.

"But the numbers 500 in the security mark are a little obvious, unlike those in a real bill that are almost imperceptible," Pinera said.  Espeleta and Rodolfo did not print the bills themselves, the police said. The fake bills were only brought to Espeleta's home.  One of the suspects got away, Macavinta said.

The police said Espeleta and Rodrigo were distributors of a group that had expanded its operations to Cavite and Laguna.  The two suspects told the Inquirer that a P500 bill was sold for P150 to P200, a P200 bill for P75 to P100 and a P50 bill, P20 to P25.

The police said the group sold most bills to taxi drivers, who would switch them for real money from unwary passengers. Macavinta said, "If a passenger gives (a taxi driver) a P500 bill, (he) would get it, replace it with a counterfeit, which he gives to the passenger, saying he does not have change."

©2005 www.inq7.net all rights reserved

Also, sometimes I would just type away and let my hands do the talking to express what I am thinking at that very moment...I don't care if YOU, the reader, would be affected or not...it's just simply me expressing...through blogging...entiende?

Vision

Skype is the Global P2P Telephony Company™ that is changing the telecommunications world by offering consumers free, superior-quality calling worldwide.

“I knew it was over when I downloaded Skype,” Michael Powell, chairman, Federal Communications Commission, explained. “When the inventors of KaZaA are distributing for free a little program that you can use to talk to anybody else, and the quality is fantastic, and it’s free – it’s over. The world will change now inevitably.”

Fortune Magazine, February 16, 2004

“The idea of charging for calls belongs to the last century. Skype software gives people new power to affordably stay in touch with their friends and family by taking advantage of their technology and connectivity investments.”

Niklas Zennström, CEO & Co-founder of Skype

Skype — the Global Telephony Company

Skype aims to delight you by offering free global telephony, to make unlimited, superior quality voice calls via its next-generation peer-to-peer software. Skype’s mission is providing a simple, reliable and friendly communications tool that just works. We aim for people to communicate with friends, families, and colleagues more flexibly, more cost effectively, and with better sound quality than ever previously imagined.

The rapid proliferation of broadband, plus Skype, gives anyone around the world real choice in communications. No longer beholden to one company, choice allows pioneers the option to make free, unlimited calls using an Internet connection. The power of the Skype network increases with the numbers of Skype users making free calls over the Internet. Once you download our free software, tell your friends.

Skype is promoting further adoption of high-quality connectivity, and works with world class telecommunications companies that share the vision to provide better ways for people to communicate. Skype is working hard and expanding to new platforms, including mobile devices and handsets. Soon you’ll be Skyping at home, in the office and on the road.

Skype calls require a PC microphone and speakers, or an affordable PC headset available at electronics retailers worldwide. Skype is simple to install regardless of your PC environment and will set up with no server or workstation configuration. Skype works behind most firewalls and gateways without providing new security risks. Skype calls are encrypted for your security, and we maintain a strict privacy policy.

Internet telephony is in its infancy and Skype will lead the innovations forward — beyond what we can imagine today.

By Linda Carroll
Special to MSN

Most days, Mike Stepler wolfs down his lunch in less than 10 minutes. And most days, Stepler, a surveyor from Elsinboro, N.J., ends up with heartburn.

Stepler wonders if it's what he's eating. Sometimes the lunch he chooses is very spicy. But his girlfriend thinks it has more to do with the pace at which the 20-year-old gobbles his food.

His girlfriend may be on the right track. A recent study shows that, even among people who rarely experience heartburn, acid reflux — digestive juices moving backward from the stomach into the esophagus — is more common if meals are hastily eaten.

The study, published in the September issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology, followed 20 healthy volunteers who were fed a meal researchers thought was likely to trigger a little heartburn: a turkey burger, french fries and a Coke.

"We had them come in on two different days," says study co-author Dr. Donald O. Castell, a professor of medicine and director of the esophageal disorders program at Digestive Disease Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. "And we randomly assigned them to eat the meal in either five minutes or in 30 minutes."

So, people who ate in five minutes one day, ate in 30 the next and vice versa, Castell explains.

Each of the volunteers was fitted with a probe that could detect acid reflux into the esophagus. Researchers found that reflux was much more common when people ate quickly.

Castell says he and his colleagues decided to study fast eating after they noticed that medical students who gobbled down meals tended to have a lot of heartburn. "Over the years, many of them told us that they got indigestion if they ate too fast," Castell says.

Food for thought
So, what is it about fast eating that leads to reflux?

If you eat too fast, your stomach fills up too quickly, says Dr. David Metz, a professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology, director of the acid peptic disorders program and co-director of the GI physiology laboratory, all at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

When the upper part of the stomach stretches, it causes the vagus nerve to send a message to the brain, which then tells the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to relax, Metz explains.

The LES is a mostly one-way valve that allows food to pass from the esophagus into the stomach. When it opens the opposite way — from the stomach into the esophagus — acid can seep up, leading to that familiar burning sensation in the chest that we know as heartburn.

If you eat more slowly, the upper part of the stomach has more time to move the food along through the digestive tract, Metz says.

The purpose of these transient relaxations of the LES is probably to allow people to belch when there's too much air in the stomach, Castell says.

Creatures of habit
What the study doesn't show, according to the experts, is whether slower eating would be a big benefit to people who regularly suffer heartburn. "We don't know whether it would be a 1 percent or a 40 percent contribution," says Dr. Bennett E. Roth, chief of clinical gastroenterology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the UCLA. Besides, says Roth, the habit of bolting down food can be difficult to break.

And these days, most people who come in with heartburn symptoms don't want to make drastic changes in the way they live, Roth says. "To be frank, they'd rather get a pill than have to turn their whole lives upside down with lifestyle modifications," he adds.

Still, Metz says he'd like to see a study that looked at the impact of slower eating in people with frequent heartburn.

But, even if it's proven that slow eating can relieve a lot of symptoms, that won't help people like Stepler, who says he only has about 10 minutes to eat lunch — which can range anywhere from three tacos to an 8-inch sub — when he's working out of the office. "I just eat and I'm on my way," Stepler says.

Linda Carroll is a health and science writer based in New Jersey

]]> http://christianjose.i.ph/blogs/christianjose/?p=4 http://christianjose.i.ph/blogs/christianjose/?p=4#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2005 20:27:29 +0000 christianjose http://christianjose.i.ph/blogs/christianjose/?p=4 ...very soon I will FORMALLY enter into the realms of the artsy fartsy...