Sales & Marketing Advice | Both Sides of The Table I’m going to increase my writing about sales & marketing in the near future. I put a few posts up front that I have already covered in the Startup Series. But I will soon begin a discussion about sales methodologies. Stay tuned. 10 Marketing Tips for Startups Some Other Thoughts on Sales & Marketing 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Sales Methodology (PUCCKA) Why a methodology in the first place? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. More Thoughts on Sales 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Facebook Offers: Why you could soon be buying from your favorite brands in your News Feed In the past 24 hours, coverage has spread across the Internet of the launch of a new feature by Facebook, one that allows businesses and brands to utilise an ‘Offers’ feature that delivers daily deals to a brand’s Page and a user’s News Feed. The new service is a twist on the traditional Daily Deals market, particularly because it allows Facebook users to remain in direct control over the offers they see. Instead of functioning as a dedicated website like Groupon, LivingSocial and AmazonOffers, Facebook has the ability to drop targeted deals into a user’s News Feed in line with status updates, photo posts, location checkins and other more social features. To some, it may be puzzling as to why it has been reported that Facebook launched Offers over the past couple of days. The truth is, it didn’t. Offers are a free new way for businesses to share discounts and promotions directly from a Facebook Page. What makes it different from Groupon et al? Won’t it pollute the News Feed? Will it work?
How To Increase Your Productivity 500% Altucher Confidential Posted by James Altucher I missed investing in Google. I missed investing in Foursquare. I made fun of the guy who started Lycos. I missed, I lost, I suffered, I cried. I want to be productive, healthy, and happy.When you spend even two minutes mentally debating the worst people in your life (as I did the first two minutes after I woke up today) those two minutes add up. People say, “well I played too many games. Better to not have 80% of my thoughts (or more on some days!) Nine types of thoughts that will prevent you from succeeding at your business or in your job. 1) Pessimistic thoughts: For instance, judging myself too harshly. Or, before I give a talk, thinking that I’m going to do horribly despite the fact that I’ve prepared well and it’s a friendly crowd, etc. 2) Vice – My vice thoughts start when I wake up. Perfectionism is a form of bondage. 4) Possessiveness– there’s that Sting song, “if you love someone, set them free.” 5) Painful – We just had the Thanksgiving holidays.
Sell Downloads Bulk organic herbs, spices & essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs New Catalog Our latest catalog for Spring/Summer 2014 is here! Enjoy over 20 brand new herbal recipes from our kitchen, fun how-tos, exciting new products, gorgeous color photos, farm stories, and plenty of herbal inspirations to explore. We have all of the essentials you'll need as the sun brings new growth our way. Organic Tea Blends Our delicious herbal tea blends are made by hand in small batches each day. DIY Herbal Oxymels This medicinal preparation using herbs, honey, and vinegar has been used throughout the ages and can be adapted to suit your health needs. Salmon-Safe Certified Mountain Rose Herbs is the first business in Eugene to be certified!
Can Twitter Predict the Volume and Price of a Specific Stock? In a world where everyone’s opinion is publicly recorded, it should be theoretically possible to determine the most popular concept of the moment — be it a movie, a song, a feeling or even a stock. Certainly, we don’t have enough information at this point to record everyone’s fleeting thoughts, but Twitter is something that makes a good temporary approximation. And that’s what led University of California, Riverside professor Vagelis Hristidis to investigate whether Twitter sentiment could help predict the stock market. Hristidis and his team have set out to look at how Twitter activity is related to stock prices and traded volume. Specifically they look at the volume of tweets and the link between between those tweets, other users’ tweets and specific stocks. This is different than an experiment from March of 2011, where a group of researchers from Indiana University used the mood of the overall Twitter community to attempt to predict upcoming moves in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Hill Country Herbalist: Making Infused Oils One of the basic components in making natural homemade products that are good for you and nutrient rich is infused oils. Infused oils can be any one of your favorite carrier oils, i.e., extra virgin olive oil, jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil, etc. I typically use extra virgin olive oil for it's long shelf life, but many people rely on grapeseed oil for its light texture and affordability. Mindy Green recommends olive oil and coconut oil for a longer shelf life and I agree. So, what's an infused oil? An infused oil involves taking herbs/plant matter that you've identified as having certain desirable properties (such as soothing to skin)and infusing it in the carrier oil over a period of time so that the essence of the plant gets transferred into the oil - much like the process of making a delicious cup of tea. Here's a simple process you can follow so you can make wonderful infused oils at home.
The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time - Tony Schwartz by Tony Schwartz | 8:53 AM March 14, 2012 Why is it that between 25% and 50% of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work? It’s not just the number of hours we’re working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time. What we’ve lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? The biggest cost — assuming you don’t crash — is to your productivity. But most insidiously, it’s because if you’re always doing something, you’re relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour. I know this from my own experience. If you’re a manager, here are three policies worth promoting: 1. 2. 3. It’s also up to individuals to set their own boundaries. 1. 2. 3.
Make Your Own Apothecary: Teas, Salves, Etc. As a little girl I mixed up shampoos and lotions in my laboratory, trying to improve on the toiletries we had. I never came up with anything worth mentioning, but I did once get scolded for spilling my mom's shampoo all over the bathroom rug. A friend of mine told me about the "laboratory" she'd had at age 12, in which she created, among other things, the cure for AIDs. You probably won't cure any diseases with your apothecary, but you will scratch that youthful itch to create something useful out of ordinary ingredients. narfmore I'll get your mad scientist career started with a list of ingredients to start a home apothecary, with which you'll be able to make herbal teas, salves, syrups, tinctures, eye pillows, and infused oils. I've also included a recipe for an air freshening spray you can make. Starter herbs and their properties You can find these herbs online or in stores with large bulk herb selections. So, oils. Starter oils AND! Storage Lavender Mint Room Spray & Linen Mist Ingredients
With New Tool, Visual.ly Wants To Replace PowerPoint With Infographics "Before PowerPoint, you had to go find a designer to create a custom presentation," says Stew Langille. "Even though everyone hates PowerPoint now, it was really helpful when it first came out." Now Langille’s startup, Visual.ly, is attempting to do for infographics what Microsoft did for presentations. Today, the company launched a new platform to allow virtually anyone to create data visualizations. "We hear a huge influx of people saying, 'How can I get someone to help me create an infographic or a dashboard or an interactive visualization?'" The startup, which has raised $2 million in VC funding to date, unveiled the self-service platform at SXSW today. Currently, Visual.ly offers a small range of what Langille calls "WordPress-like themes," and a short list of datasets. The service is free, though Visual.ly does offer premium accounts. There is both a strong downside and upside to automating infographics. Click here to try Visual.ly’s new tool. [Image: Kinetic Imagery/Shutterstock]
Grounding Techniques for Empaths & Sensitives | Just Be In these trying times, with the constant bombardment of negative energies and emotions, it is a challenge for Empaths and Sensitives to stay grounded. Even when staying home, within one’s personal sanctuary, the empathic antennas are perpetually picking up pain from the outside world. Because of this, we can easily become consumed with depression, listlessness and apathy and lose sight of what our roles here are. To combat the constant overwhelm, we need to protect ourselves anyway we can. Water: The body is made up of 75% water (some body tissue has 95%), so it will come as no surprise that this is way up there on the self-healing scale. Most of us should be drinking at least 8 glasses of pure water a day, just to replenish what our body loses naturally through sweating, urination etc. If you type, ‘the healing powers of water,’ into any search engine you will get hundreds of pages worth of information on the subject, but by far the best I have so far come across is the site of Dr F.
BlackbaudNow: Publish a Website and Accept Donations Online PayPal and Blackbaud have teamed up to provide a simple website to serve small and growing nonprofits. Point and click to create your site, with built-in donations. No hosting setup fee No monthly hosting fee You simply pay 4.95% + $0.30 / transaction Use your domain name or ours We were advised to get a web based donor management program, but they are all too big and complicated. Without spending a lot on training, you can't really use them. Amy Pratt, The Greene School How Does it Work? Select Your Theme Choose from a library of website designs. What is an Empath? Tools and Resources for Empaths | EliseLebeau.com Top Startup Businesses for 2012 | The Business Finance Store Top Startup Businesses for 2012 You want your startup to succeed, so do we. In the process of funding over 2,000 new businesses in 2011 alone, we frequently get asked for input from our clients on specific businesses or industries. A recent IBIS World research study reviewed the best industries for your next startup. According to Brian Bueno, economic research analyst at IBIS World, the economy beginning to stabilize and other conditions such as job growth, credit conditions, and consumer spending will put “more money in the pockets of consumers and various opportunities for new businesses.” If you’re ready to start a business and want to improve your chances of success, read the descriptions below of which are the up and coming industries of 2012: Relaxation Beverages: Everyone’s heard of energy drinks, but IBIS World’s research indicates that relaxation beverages are going to be big in 2012. About the author.