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We’ve all struggled and dreaded to come across an unusual present for a special person. Many times, we’ve bought something way over our budget- or, worse, something we’re not certain our intended cares for- out of total despair. In an age where party revelry means so much,
the heaviness to find the right presents can bring on a lot of stress.
Unusual presentscan be rare, uncommon, or even unfamiliar. By now you might
be thinking about many weird, wonderful and outlandish unusual presents. It’s great to get creative remember at some point you need to come down to earth and make unusual present acquisitions. Just sit down with paper with and dream up it.
Everything conforms in modern time, sometimes it’s fun to do something completely different. On occasion, giving unusual presents at the right time can be enjoyable also. It takes a lot of reflection to outdistance yourself on the uniform thing time and time again. For that reason offering unusual presents might break the type and make for advanced and imaginative presents. Giving unique presents is great fun, it might be the difference from all the other presents the natives take delivery of.
After interpretation, in all probably you by now have some extra ideas for unusual presents that might increase on these. Find Unusual birthday Presents for him by clicking here.
If you give really great massage treatments all the time it’s true that your clients may recommend you to their friends, which may generate more business for you, however when it comes down to it, just being a great therapist does not guarantee that you will be able to build a thriving and successful massage business.
In fact, a large majority of the massage therapists that I know, all say that they would like more clients.
So how does the career massage therapist get a steady stream of clients? Well they certainly don’t just sit and wait (and hope) for the phone to ring, that won’t pay the bills. No, what every massage therapist who has decided to go out on their own should be doing (when they are not massaging) is in fact ‘marketing massage’.
Now I know that the idea of ‘marketing’ may conjure up in your mind, corporate images of elaborate and expensive advertising campaigns and the like, but really all I’m talking about is consciously and effectively putting your business in front of the different kinds of people you would like to attract to your massage business as clients, and getting them to make contact with you and book in for a treatment. That’s all!
You could be the most knowledgeable, talented, highly trained massage therapist out there but unless people ‘know’ about you and how ‘your service’ can be of BENEFIT to them, you may never experience the kind of practice or income that you want or deserve!
The first thing that I feel is necessary to grasp is that a massage practice (no matter how big or small) is in fact a ‘business’, your business! The next most important thing is that there are two sides to your business and one cannot survive without the other.
One side of your massage business is the providing of excellent massage treatments. The other side of your massage business is the marketing side i.e. the strategies and systems you use to attract a continual stream of clients and to get them to book in for a massage with you.
The secret to building a thriving and successful massage business is to realize that you need to be a marketer of massage first (in order to get the clients), and a provider of massage second. These are the twin pillars of your business. Once you get the clients on the table your job is only half done, you then need to give them a first class treatment that is based around their needs, each and every time!
So now that you know that you need to be a massage marketer as well as a massage therapist, the next question to ask is, “How do you market your massage?” Well it all starts with the most important rule.
“Don’t try to be all things to all people all at once!”
The biggest mistake I see therapists who are trying to build up a list of clients make, is that they will do up a brochure or business card etc that has their name or business name and / or logo, a list of the services they offer, and maybe a little about who they are and their qualifications, and that’s it!
The thing is, every other therapist is doing exactly the same thing, so not only do they not stand out from the crowd, they are not speaking to the specific needs of the people that they are trying to attract as a massage clients. In fact many therapists are not even sure who it is they’re even trying to attract.
So before you even think about printing up another brochure, flyer, business card or doing another ad, you need to first ask yourself, “What type of clients do I want to attract to my massage business? Who are they? Where are they? How can I get them interested in my business?”
Some massage therapists like to work specifically with sports people, others with women only, or people with back pain, others with people who are rehabilitating from illness or injury and others primarily for relaxation and rejuvenation etc, OR you might be the kind of therapist who wants to attract and work with people from all types of backgrounds. There are really no limits!
However, in order to effectively attract specific types of people into your massage business, your marketing must be ‘tailored’ to reach these people directly and speak to ‘their’ individual needs!
The mistake that a lot of massage therapists are making is that they’ll do up a brochure or put an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper and they’ll try to promote to all of these types of people at the same time. They might list the different benefits of their massage treatment by saying that their massage is good for back pain, relaxation, sports injuries etc.
By doing this they are saying that their massage is good for everything and everyone and while this is probably true, they are not speaking directly to each individual type of person, and therefore the power of their message is diluted.
The key to getting a great response is to market to each style of person individually, and whether or not you use a flyer, brochure or paid advertisement, you need to come across as a specialist by listing only those benefits of your massage that will appeal to that style of person.
Let’s say that we work from home or out of a small clinic and there are a couple of gyms in our area. We know that many people who go to workout at the gym will be interested in receiving massage so we decide that we would like to attract some of these people as clients.
If we want to attract a particular style of person to our massage business, we first need to get into their head and find out what their ‘needs’ are.
This usually isn’t too difficult. In regards to people who go to the gym, just put yourself in their shoes. “Why do they go to the gym?” People generally go the gym to workout because they are health conscious and they care about their physical appearance and their level of fitness.
Now think about what happens after you have a hard work out? Your muscles can become tight and tense and often there is soreness due to lactic acid build up. You often feel energized but your body now needs a period of rest to rejuvenate before the next workout.
Keeping this in mind, a great way to market to people who regularly workout at the gym would be to focus on all of the ‘physical’ benefits that these people would receive should they come to have a massage with you.
You could for example, focus on the BENEFITS of receiving massage treatments ‘in between’ workouts and list only those benefits that would most appeal to the style of person who works out on a regular basis.
Some benefits of receiving massage that would be effective in this example are that it:
- Quickly eliminates muscle soreness after your workout.
- Relieves muscular spasm quickly.
- Improves your flexibility and range of movement.
- Cuts your recovery time in half.
- Reduces the chance of injury by alleviating tension in the body.
- Increases your body’s ability to absorb nutrients and vitamins.
- Oxygenates your body’s cells giving you greater levels of energy.
- Can greatly improve your general health, well-being and appearance.
- Makes you feel relaxed, refreshed and ready to take on the world!
At the top of your flyer you could combine a few of these benefits into an attention grabbing headline for example, “Discover How To Quickly Eliminate Muscle Soreness After Your Next Workout!” followed by a subheading, …and feel completely relaxed, refreshed and ready to take on the world!
A benefit rich headline that captures the interest of your ‘target market’ should be at the top of every piece of marketing you do, whether it’s a flyer, an editorial or just a simple advertisement!
You could then follow up with the rest of the benefits above, so that you come across as a therapist who ’specializes’ in working with people who do intensive exercise on a regular basis.
If possible you would then throw in a testimonial or two from clients that fall into the same ‘target market’ that you have massaged previously, so that it gives you credibility and shows why they should have a massage with you.
Then give them a special offer of say 90 minutes for the price of an hour and mention that it’s for a limited time only, tell them to call A.S.A.P to make their appointment type and in your phone number so that it is big and bold. If possible, include a small photo of yourself and voila, you have a very targeted, inexpensive method of putting your business in front of a specific type of client that has a high probability of making contact with you.
Now this is just one example, and you could tailor different flyers for different styles of people and also different styles of massage. The main thing that I’m trying to get across here is that even though your massage itself may not change that much from person to person, you need to target your marketing so that you are speaking to each different style of person (target market) specifically and answer the question, “What’s in it for them?” by clearly listing those benefits that will be appealing to that style of person.
So to recap on what I covered so far today, think of your massage practice as a business that has two equally important sides - the ‘marketing of massage’ and the ‘providing of massage’.
Work out what types of people (target markets) you would like to have as clients and then market to each of those groups individually with benefit rich, ‘attention grabbing’ headlines. Then answer the question of “What’s in it for them?” by illustrating the specific benefits of your service.
Then, make sure you give yourself credibility by throwing in one or two testimonials from clients that are in the same target market and make them a ‘time sensitive’ offer that they can’t refuse. Last but not least, tell them ‘how’ to make contact with you. Make sure that these elements are included in ALL forms of marketing that you do, whether it be brochures, flyers, editorials or simple classified ads etc.
Then when clients show up for their massage treatment, give them 110% each and every time! This is a must!
If you can do just these simple things with your marketing, I have no doubt that you will be well on the way to building a very successful massage business with a steady stream of clients!
Jamie Thomas is a marketing mentor and motivator to hundreds of massage therapists around the world and is the creator of http://www.massagemarketing.wordpress.com. A site loaded with FREE massage marketing and success tips for massage therapists. Visit now and get your FREE report on the ultimate massage marketing strategy!
Spirit Dancer
The spirit dancer is the card of creative expression. Of exploring our inner truths and desires. Now is the time to open your heart and mind. Listen to your inner self and determine to bring forth and express all that is you. It is the time to let your creativity burst through. To jump into the dance of life and dare to be a full expression of your inner self.
Now is the time for creative endeavours. A time to spontaniously express your hopes and dreams. To allow yourself to expand your awareness, to dare to dream.
The spirit dancers message is clear. The coming months will be a great time to express yourself clearly. All forms of art and communication will expand in leaps and bounds. This is time of the inner visionary, the artist, the creator.
Now is the time to align your inner self with the outer world. A time to move closer to your dreams, a time to bring your inner thoughts to the outer world.
A time to create your own world, be master of your own destiny.
Affirmation.
My life is a perfect reflection of inner joy and light. Today I express all that I am, and all that I can be. I magnetize loving harmony within.
I am divine.
Amethyst creations
Resources for Natural Healing, Holistic Health, Spirituality, Sustainable Living, Metaphysics and More! Balanced Structure, Dynamic Movement, Endless Flow. The heartfelt expression of thoughts, emotions, and actions; in body, mind and spirit.
Intuitive Guidance
Intuitive life coaching and empowerment for the soul.
Becoming a successful entrepreneur in the online world is no different than becoming a successful entrepreneur in the brick-and-mortar world. Both tasks require vision, determination, and hard work.
The online world of the web offers many exciting opportunities for entrepreneurship because it is fresh, new, and exciting. The cutting edge of development has always been the most fertile ground for growing a new enterprise. In the 1800’s, the new frontier was the American west and many fortunes were made there. In the 2000’s, the new frontier is the web, where many fortunes have yet to be made.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com is worth 4.85 billion dollars. Pierre Omidyar of eBay is worth just over seven billion dollars. David Filo and Jerry Yang of Yahoo are both billionaires. These men made fortunes on the web, and so can you.
The path to becoming a successful online entrepreneur has changed in the last few years. The over-optimism which characterized the late ’90s and ultimately led to the subsequent crash in the technology sector has matured into a cautious and reasonable optimism grounded in traditional business values.
The party is over; it’s time to get to work.
The #1 thing you need to succeed in business is the customer. Whether you have one customer, fifty customers, or millions of customers, it is critical to remember that customers are the foundation of any business. Without customers, you don’t have a business; you have a hobby.
Going into an online business, people usually either know what they want to sell or know how they want to sell it. If the online business is an extension of a brick-and-mortar business, the entrepreneur knows what he or she has to sell and is looking for a new channel for their good and services. If the entrepreneur is looking to start a new business online, they may not yet know what product or service will offer the best opportunities for success.
Every business sells either products or services, a few businesses sell both. Products are easier to sell online because they can be more easily commoditized. People have become comfortable buying known commodities online. Services which are sold online are sometimes delivered online and sometimes delivered offline.
If you choose to sell services, the next decision to consider is how the services you sell will be provided. You can choose to:
Selling Your Own Services Online
Each of us has specific talents, abilities, and skills which can be useful to other people. These things which we have can be offered to others over the web. Perhaps you are a lawyer, a web designer, or a painter. It should be the easiest thing in the world to create a web page to tell the world about who you are and what you can do for them.
The key to success in selling your own services over the web is to focus on the needs of your customer. For every sentence you write about yourself online, write an entire page about what you can do for your customers.
Selling the Services of Others
Selling the services of others allows us to leverage a larger workforce, and ultimately to build revenue more quickly.
Perhaps you run a lawn-care business where you sell monthly lawn-care packages to home-owners. Your lawn-care staff may be employees, or they may be independent subcontractors who do business with you at pre-negotiated rates. In fact, you may not be in the lawn-care business at all, you may simply be in the business of being paid for generating referrals to existing lawn care firms.
Selling Automated Online Services
Selling automated online services presents a very lucrative business proposition, because it represents a potential revenue stream with very low maintenance costs. The trade-off is often in the form of considerable up-front development cost.
If you have the right idea, and the determination to follow it through to a successful conclusion, there can be no better business opportunity than selling an automated online service.
The first step, of course, is to determine what people want and what people are willing to pay for. Will people pay $9.95 for an online personality test? Will they pay $19.95 for an online personal wardrobe analysis? What would someone pay for a personalized online horoscope? How about an automated resume writing tool?
If you choose to sell products, you are not limited to selling products which you manufacture. If you are already in the manufacturing business, that is a significant advantage and the web is an excellent sales outlet for many products.
Greater opportunities exist for the rest of us by working with the distribution channel. We may buy products from manufacturers and sell then over the web, or we may buy products from wholesale distributors and sell them over the web.
We may inventory our products and oversee their shipment to customers, or we may send a request to have the products drop-shipped from our suppliers to our customers. We may never even see the products we sell.
Information technology is daunting to many entrepreneurs. Each little sub-field of IT has its own culture and terminology. It is difficult for the novice to understand all of the jargon and to determine truth from hype.
You will not be successful if you try to separate yourself completely from the technology, but you will also not be successful if you immerse yourself in it. You must understand IT decisions from a business level in the same way they you understand decisions which your business makes in terms of setting prices or acquiring real estate.
The most obvious need for your new online business will be a company web site. This will introduce you to the professionals known as web designers. If your business sells more than a few products online, you will also have to work with database administrators. If you want to sell an automated service online, you will find yourself working with software architects and software developers.
From there you will learn about shared and dedicated hosting and about the plethora of services (and pricing) available to you as a hosting customer.
The key in these communications is that each of these professionals owes you, as their customer a clear explanation of the business value which they are providing for the money which you are paying them. This may be an unfamiliar concept to many techies who grew up in the public school system. Remember, there are always more vendors for a willing customer.
In many ways, IT is the easiest challenge you will face, because so many entrepreneurs have trodden the path before you. An entire industry exists to market IT services to entrepreneurs. You only have to decide what to buy.
Once your have negotiated with your suppliers and you have you distribution system arranged — now comes the difficult part. Now you must bridge the gap between your business and your customers.
Most Internet traffic is currently brokered by search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. To do well in business on the Internet, you must do well in the search engines.
This means appearing very early in the search results for the key words or phrases your potential customers will use to shop for your good or services.
Very few potential customers will look for you by name. You must determine the phrases which potential customers will type into the search engines and make sure that you rank well in the result listings for those phrases. Product types or names are common search phrases, such as “sleeping bags” or “bumper stickers.” Key phrases for services often include a geographic component, such as “real estate kansas city” or “house painter colorado springs.”
Once your key phrases are defined, you must make certain that your company’s web presence is optimized for those phrases. This consist of two sets of tasks: on-site optimization and off-site optimization.
On-site optimization is designing your web site to be focused on those key phrases. This is where your web site designer will work with a professional in the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Off-site optimization consists of networking with others in your field to make sure they know about your web site — and that they link to your web site. The top search engines use the number of links to a web site as one of the criteria for determining which web sites to rank highly in the search results. A SEO specialist can help you in this task, but no one will know your industry as well as you.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical to the success of an online business. The difference between ranking third and thirtieth for your key phrase is significant revenue for your business.
The tasks involved in setting up a web site and driving traffic towards it can be time consuming and resource intensive for a small business. The time delay imposed by website development and search engine marketing can require many months to begin to deliver ROI.
Many web entrepreneurs use eBay and other online auction houses to short-cut this process and begin selling to online customers almost immediately.
On eBay, you create auctions for the products you are selling and potential buyers bid to determine what they will pay. You are able to set minimum prices to ensure that you will not sell products at prices below your necessary profit margin. You are also able to set up dutch auctions where you are able to sell large quantities of the same item.
The options involved in becoming a successful entrepreneur on the web are extensive. Picking the right path for you own journey is your first step on the road to online success.
Will Spencer is the webmaster of Entrepreneur Support.
It was over-the-top, being treated to four days in New York City at Christmastime by the generosity of a Fortune 100 company. Its beauty was breath-taking, with a heavy snow preceding our trip blanketing Central Park; and lights, garlands and trees accenting everything from doorways to ceilings (Saks’ twinkling white lights strung along its ceilings and through tree limbs arching over every aisle is nothing short of glorious) to rooftops; and the temperatures, while nippy, were hardly bone-chilling. From Rockefeller Center to Times Square to The Met to The Park: New York was magical.
My promise to bring to you New York City bargains was ever-present in my mind as I pounded the pavements throughout mid-town Manhattan and much of the lower West Side. Due to the nature of our trip, I confess to spending much more time on Madison and Fifth Avenues than I did in Chelsea, Greenwich Village, SoHo and Chinatown, where bargains abound and where shops carry everything from the edgy to the kitschy to the fake to the cheap. So I’m going to share a little of both worlds with you. I also observed that in our corporateand globalgroup, travelers from different parts of the world very much wanted to buy very different stuff. While this will seem overly-simplified and perhaps a bit stereotypical, the Western and Eastern Europeans desired American clothing (especially blue jeans), Clinique make-up, iPods and digital cameras, while folks from the Asia-Pacific rim shopped for expensive (Italian and French) handbags. Almost everyone was in search of some type of electronic device, with iPods and digital cameras being in the highest demand. The non-New Yorker Americans shopped for the run-of-the-mill, A-to-Z type bargain, looking for anything and everything that was either less expensive or more available than it is back home. As this Newsletter spins ’round the globe, I’ll try to give everyone something to check out. Here goes:
If you travel to New York City during the Holidays, be prepared to pay dearlyor in bloodfor a hotel room. They are simply not to be had; ones that have availability are in extremely high demand with prices out the roof. Our room at The Essex House overlooked Central Park and was absolutely glorious, but my pockets wouldn’t be deep enough if I had to pay for it with my own MasterCard this time of year. One of NYC’s best-kept secrets is the Riverside Tower Hotel at 80 Riverside Drive (corner of Riverside Drive and West 80th Street; phone 212-877-5200.) Check them out first before calling hotels at more popular locations.
Dining in NYC is a sport. Be prepared to play with the professionals. We enjoyed dinner at Michael Jordan’s in Grand Central Terminal, lunch at the 21 Club and a dinner party in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, among many other special dining treats. (I can hardly mention our private dinner party atop the ABC Studios in Times Square as it was one of the most incredible views…as well as one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had and one which I’m sure I’ll never have again). When my feet landed on NYC soil and I had to pay for things with my own nickel, I enjoyed a pressed sandwich at Europa Café. Also check out Cosi for cheap eats in the Big Apple. You would do just fine for a long weekend eating at either one of these places for breakfast, lunch and dinner…and they’re scattered throughout the city.
Want something somewhere between Michael Jordan’s and Cosi? Try Cafe Saks Fifth Avenue (611 5th Avenue); Bloomingdale’s Le Train Bleu (1000 3rd Avenue); Bergdorf Goodman - Goodman’s Cafe for Women (2 West 58th Street); Bergdorf Goodman - Goodman’s Cafe 745 for Men (745 5th Avenue) or Fred’s at Barneys (660 Madison Avenue). I also have always had good luck at little bakeries strung along the Upper East Side on Madison. There’s nothing wrong with coffee and a bran muffin for lunch after all. Or hot roasted chestnuts from the street vendors. Yum!
Allen Edmonds (551 Madison Ave. around 55th St.; phone 212-308-8305) is having a sale on men’s shoes right now. Men I spoke with found this to be irresistible. As most of their shoes are in the $200-300 price range, it’s nice to think that one might save a little by buying now, if treads are wearing thin. And one of the best reasons for buying their stuff: you can send your shoes back to Allen Edmonds for re-soling….at least once before buying again.
Loehmann’s (101 7th Avenue between 16th and 17th Streets; phone 212-352-0856) remains one of my longest-running favorites and is, by all counts, the grand dame of discount stores. I bought a fabulous pair of beaded flats by Kenneth Cole for less than $30. With black and red beads on a black satin background, they’re perfect for Holiday parties (with longish black-sequined peasant skirts and glittery tops). Loehmann’s stuff changes daily, so it’s hit or miss. Keep checking. And get into “shopping mode” before you head over there; lines will be long, the building is on the hot-ish side and you may have to spend an inordinate amount of time searching for something wonderful in your size. But it’s worth it.
Century 21(22 Cortlandt Street– Between Church and Broadway in Chinatown; phone 212-227-9092; www.c21stores.com) has been billed by native New Yorkers as the best discount place in the city and Zagat has given it top billing as well. Our guide dropped us off there for an hour’s worth of shopping and I walked out with nothing. Nadda. Zero. Truthfully, it didn’t grab me. Too much stuff. Poorly displayed. Not enough variety to make me want to pull out my wallet. But the Europeans on-board were thrilled. Great boots and shoes, apparently. And lots of Ralph Lauren fashion jewelry at ridiculously low prices. Handbags, too. Also spotted: trendoid Oliver Peoples sunglasses at rock-bottom prices. And if you’re shopping for Clinique cosmetics, you can find it here at really decent prices.
Almost next door, check out J&R for great deals on electronics of all types (Park Row across from City Hall Park; phone 212-238-9000; Fax 212-238-9191; www.jr.com). Travelers on my tour found iPods, digital cameras and video cameras there that made their hearts sing.
DSW is theeeee place for designer women’s shoes. (102 N. End Ave in Chinatown; phone 212-945-7419) Very hit or miss. The stuffbecause it is so wonderfulmoves out extremely quickly. I once eyed a pair of Lilly Pulitzer’s at a DSW store in Miami, hesitated, went back the next day and found that the entire stock of Lilly’s was gone. If you gotta have it, get it as soon as you find out it fits.
While you’re in the lower west side, check out the deals on Canal Street. Cheap. Fake. Fun…if you must. Everything from fake designer handbags to cheap jewelry to hats and scarves to t-shirts.
If you gotta have a drop-dead gorgeous Italian leather handbag for Christmas, call the good folks at Suarez on Park Avenue at around 56th St. (450 Park Ave; phone 212-753-3758). A family-owned business for something like three generations, their staff is courteous and their stuff is super-pretty. Their bags come in fourteen colors, including an absolutely incredible Tiffany-blue. But your pockets better be deep: prices start at $300 and rocket on up from there. They’re having somewhat of a sale, with their $550-on-up bags currently at 20% off.
After sleeping on a Suarez purchase by my husband (for my Christmas gift) not one, not two, but three nights…I decided that with four kids to put through college (and two sofas to reupholster and yada yada yada) that an expensive handbag was a little bit too over-the-top right now. Ernie and I opted instead to buy a gorgeous Italian handbag, the “Kelly Bag” (think Grace Kelly) at a wonderful handbag store that is losing its building and combining two stores into one and therefore discounting all of its merchandise by 80%. Yes. As in 80% OFF. Their gorgeous $650 bags have been discounted to about $130. At that price, you can perhaps think about buying one in a color you wouldn’t normally entertain…and if you accidentally ruin one, you won’t be crying all the way back to the city to get a replacement. And you might even be able to justify buying two. Call Michel’s Bags (510 Madison Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Sts; phone 212 355-8309). Ask for Kathy and tell her the-gal-from-Connecticut-who-couldn’t-decide-which-bag-to- buy-but-who-finally-bought-the-Kelly-bag-on-Monday sent you. She’s lovely. And hurry up! The sale ends December 31 and they’re quickly running out of stock.
Pearl River Mart (477 Broadway, between Grand and Broome Sts.; phone 212-431-4770; www.pearlriver.com) has not only cheap stuff with which to decoratechina bowls, tea services and placematsbut fun little no-nothings for stocking stuffers. I foundthough did not buythe cutest paper lanterns on the planet, and if I needed yet one more thing to put into my daughter’s bedroom, they would quite probably be it. I did, however, make my only afternoon purchase, because I hadn’t seen them elsewhere: pretty glycerine soaps for children with embedded “cute-isms” like “smile,” “joy,” “laugh,” “love,” etc. I bought a half-dozen to give to a family with four young daughters, along with silk draw-string bags in orange-with-white-polka-dots for festive packaging. All for something like $18.
Kate’s Paperie (phone 800-809-9880; www.katespaperie.com) is still the best shop in NYC for stationery and super-pretty papers. Hands down. No contest. With four locations on NYC (its SoHo shop at 561 Broadway is incredible) it is a must-see if you are a paper lover or simply need some eye candy. Call to order, but if you’re in the city, do not miss the Kate’s Paperie experience.
Dean & Deluca in SoHo (560 Broadway; phone 212-226-6800 or toll-free 800-221-7714; www.deandeluca.com) is the place to find all food-related things that you cannot find elsewhere. Glorious olive oil “brick” soaps, pots and pans, and gourmet candies are amongst my favorites there. See if they can special order you some chocolate-covered gummy bears. The best.
Baking a lot for Christmas? Need cookie cutters? Baking pans? Icing tips? Try New York Cake at 56 West 22nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. Incredible selection. Phone or FAX orders: 800-942-2539; FAX 212-675-7099.
Lee’s Art Shop (220 W. 57th Street, between 7th Avenue and Broadway; phone 212-247-0110) has fantastic kids’ art supplies, stuff for adult artists, creative stocking stuffers and the best art tools in the city. If your area lacks a great art supply store, this is it.
Museum gift shops cannot be ruled out as amongst the best outlets for creative gift ideas. I had a wonderful timeafter a two-hour guided tour of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in their large gift shop (1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd St; phone 212-570-3894), which is a destination in and of itself. If you can’t find that art book you’ve been looking for, give them a call. Beautiful silk scarves and ties. Jewelry, too.
Also check out The Museum of American Folk Art Shop for wonderful gifts, most made by American artisans: 45 W 53rd St between 5th and 6th; phone 212-265-1040.
The Holiday Gift Shops at St. Bartholomew’s have some unusual gifts that you won’t find elsewhere, but you’ve got to be in the city to access them. If you’re in the city, check them out at Park Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets.
If you do get into the city, do notand I repeat, do notrule out the fabulous pashmina and cashmere shawls that you can pick up from the street vendors for $5 or $10. OK. I haven’t exactly checked out the fiber content with a magnifying glass, but hey, for ten bucks, how can you go too wrong? I pick one up each trip into the city and have found some real beauties. The color range is quite wonderful. Yum. The latest have a gorgeous jacquard weave and I find one wrapped around my neck at every venture out of doors. Particularly good locations? Try just west of Fifth Avenue around 50th or 51st Streets.
Gotta hit the large department stores? OK. So do I, but not for bargains. They remain, I admit, a feast for the eyes and a veritable New York experience. You’ve got to get the salespeople spritzing you with the latest perfumes and schmearing you with the latest anti-wrinkle creams upon arrival. No one does this better than the good folks at Saks Fifth Avenue (50th St. and Fifth Avenue) Very elegant. Very expensive. Really, no bargains to be found except after Christmas, when discounts of 50% will be commonplace. I love their contemporary sportswear and their private label. Beautiful night show of dancing snowflakes in the windows timed to Christmas music. Magical. Bloomingdale’s (Third Avenue and 59th Street or in SoHo at 504 Broadway; phone 212-729-5900) is trendy, bustling and exciting. Their tagline it’s like “no other store in the world” is true. They carry some pretty cool stuff that you just won’t find anywhere else. Watch for deep discounts…but not until after Christmas. Some bargains can actually be found at Lord & Taylor (38th St. and Fifth Avenue) as they are continually bringing in new merchandise. Granted: most of the NYC stores are doing the same, but Lord & Taylor does this consistently and does it well. One of my favorites. Bergdorf Goodman (754 Fifth Avenue at 57th St.; the men’s store is located across the street. Phone: 800-558-1855) is not a store that you necessarily shop in, and is certainly not a place in which to behold a bargain. It is simply a place to train your eye. To look at beauty (and the beautiful). Their windows are the best-dressed and the same could be said for their (real) customers. Lines of gawkers outside their blue-and-white china window were five deep. I could hardly take my eyes off it. If you make the trip in to the city, you must make a quick stop here. ‘Nough said.
Crate&Barrel (650 Madison Avenue at 60th Street; phone 212-308-0011) is beautifully decorated for Christmas and contains enough low-priced stuff that it’s certainly worth a visit. If you’re looking for a small kitchen appliance, especially, it beats the prices at Williams-Sonoma. This should be part of your Madison Avenue experience; a phone call is also worth it if you know what you’re looking for.
For stuff for the home, I have two favorites: ABC Carpet and Home (888 Broadway at 19th St; phone 212 473-3000) is filled to the brim with treasuresand rugsfrom around the world. Not to be missed, you’ll find things in all price ranges, including arguably the best baby department in the city. Pierre Deux (625 Madison Ave at around 56th St; phone 212-521-8012) is not only for the Francophiles amongst us; it is a jewel box in the heart of Madison Avenue. Roosters lurk in every corner; gorgeous French fabrics fill every square inch; expensive furniture lines the downstairs footage; and reproduction paintings and lamps and shades and china take center stage through this large retail space. Ahhh….A little retreat into wonderful.
That oughta do it. Happy shopping!
Carolina Fernandez earned an M.B.A. and worked at IBM and as a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch before coming home to work as a wife and mother of four. She totally re-invented herself along the way. Strong convictions were born about the role of the arts in child development; homeschooling for ten years provided fertile soil for devising creative parenting strategies. These are played out in ROCKET MOM! 7 Strategies To Blast You Into Brilliance. It is available on Amazon.com, in bookstores everywhere, or by calling 888-476-2493. She writes extensively for a variety of parenting resources and teaches other moms via parenting classes and radio and TV interviews. Please visit http://www.rocketmom.com to subscribe to her free ezine and get a weekly shot of inspiration.
Kauai, most appropriately nicknamed the Garden Isle, is the Hawaiian vacation destination treasured for its lush tropical greenery and sparkling sand beaches. The tropical paradise of Kauai basks amidst the sparkling blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, about 20 minutes by air from Honolulu. Formed some six million years ago, the island encompasses roughly 550 square miles and is the oldest and northernmost of the eight major islands of the Hawaiian chain.
For vacationers who want to avoid the crowds of Oahu and Maui and see Hawaii in a much more natural setting, Kauai is the perfect alternative.
Visitors to the island worship not only its postcard-perfect beauty, but Kauai’s diversity of cultures, activities, shopping, and dining.
If ever an island was made for adventure, it’s the Hawaiian island of Kauai, owing to its extraordinary and diverse natural environment. Verdant rainforests, sparkling sand beaches, impressive golf courses, vibrant scenery, friendly faces, blissful breezes, and striking waterfalls are just a few of Kauai’s spectacular offerings to its guests.
- The busy harbor at Port Allen is the launch pad for a fleet of pleasure boats that take to the seas for whale watching, dinner sails, dolphin encounters, charter fishing, snorkel and picnic trips and cruising beneath the stunning green palisades of the Napali Coast.
- Hiking trails head into Waimea, the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific,” or along the Napali Coast to breathtaking valleys unreachable by road. There are coastal hikes across high sand dunes, and rain forest treks among the oldest flora in Hawaii. Ferns reach up to eye level and tropical hibiscus and ginger blossoms measure the size of ones fist. Waterfalls and cool plunge pools, hidden shoreline coves and glorious mountain vistas heighten the whole experience.
- The only navigable rivers in Hawaii flow through Kauai. Paddlers can explore placid river reaches by kayak, gliding silently through sanctuaries for the rarest birds on planet Earth.
- Real horseback riding will take one into forests, canyons and mountains for picnics, waterfall swims and glorious ocean vistas.
- Kauai’s award winning and highly popular Movie Tours offers visitors the opportunity to visit the places of breathtaking scenery where some of the most popular motion pictures and television series have been filmed. These hits include Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, South Pacific, Blue Hawaii, Gilligan’s Island, Fantasy Island and about 30 others.
- Kauai is known as the Garden Isle because it’s so green and the flora and fauna so profligate. One can wander through botanical gardens chartered by the U.S. Congress and encounter some of the rarest living things on Earth. At Limahuli Gardens, native Hawaiian plants are arranged around ancient taro terraces carved into the base of the mountains where the Napali Coast begins. The scenery is dramatic, the air tranquil. Ninety percent of Hawaii’s native plants are unique to the Islands and half are endangered. At Na ‘Aina Kai Botanical Gardens, the Garden Isle’s newest garden, whimsical sculptures and a maze full of surprises are woven into a landscape of ponds, gardens, waterfalls, lagoons and streams. Kauai’s glorious weather provides the just right amount of sun and rain to nurture kiawe trees, blackberries, java plum, guava, eucalyptus, bamboo, sandalwood, pineapple, and sugarcane, to name just a few. One of Kauai’s specialties is the indigenous mokihana vine and berry, found only on the island. Other great finds include orchids, coconut palms, plumeria, hibiscus and other tropical plants throughout the island, with its arid to lush climate enhancing the beauty and fragrance of Kauai’s flowers and vegetation. One can anticipate the opportunity to see a variety of unique and distinctive animals and birds on this tropical island, which includes the likes of, dolphins, monk seals, sea turtles, reef fish, coral reefs, whales, and so much more. Native birds include the iwi and the State bird, the nene goose; other birds on the island are doves, cardinals, egrets, roosters.
- Kauai is a great place to learn a new sport or hobby, one that may light up a lifetime. There are schools for surfing, SCUBA diving, tennis and golf. Golfers can tee off at one of nine golf courses, many of them championship links set amidst spectacular scenery. There are also several tennis courts.
- Some of the most authentic lu’au in Hawaii happen on Kauai. No one should go home without enjoying this traditional feast with Hawaiian food, hula and fun.
Jim Hartley recommends that you visit www.whalers-cove.com/resort.php/WHALERS_COVE for more information on Kauai condo rentals.
In today’s business environment, companies that excel embrace the global dynamics of an international market with conference calling. The international market opens doors in many countries for increased competition, increased business, and increased profit. The international market has affected foreign policy, and continues to be a key point to success for many companies across the board. Larger markets and target groups increase potential clients. These increases provide room for growth, and please investors with the potential for wracking up the dollar signs.
While an international market allows for increased sales and a broader target group, international markets can also increase costs and burden. International markets require significant travel budgets, communication budgets, and increased attention to cultural differences. Companies who work across a single nation as well as with many countries must be familiar with local customs, and must embrace business traditions that may vary across borders.
Business dealings that occur in person present a particular challenge. Deals that require more than once staff member increase travel budget exponentially. As more office members become involved in an international transaction, the travel plans can become more complicated and the bottom line benefits of the deal are lessened with the expenditure. Conference calling to close the big deal offers an attractive solution to the mayhem that is traveling to meetings, and does so at a considerable advantage to both parties.
Conference calling provides a mechanism for meeting with many people in many places across the globe. With a conference call meeting, no one has to pack. There are not expense forms to fill out with a conference call. Because a conference call is not in person, business men can concentrate on the business at hand and not on which handshake or form of eye contact is more acceptable. Conference calls reduce travel costs because participants can take the conference call at their personal desk.
Conference calls can be crucial to sealing the deal even when they involve only members from one side of a deal. Conference calls are en effective way to disseminate information across a corporation quickly. Conference calls packages that allow for calls without reservation and at any hour of the day afford companies instant access to all members of their team. This means that company personnel assets in one place can also positively impact company actions in another region.
Conference calls to seal the big deal also offer some unique services. Operator-assisted conference calls ensure quality communication for all parties involved. Operators can be available for only the onset of the call, or can stay online for the duration of the call. Operators monitor the quality of the call, and ensure that all participants have a clear connection and can hear what is being said. Operators can record conversations held during a conference call, providing a record for all interactions during the call.
Conference calls can be beneficial for large-scale important meetings, as well as smaller meetings. Confernce calling occurs regardless of the weather, and can be an effective substitute for personal meetings when inclement weather arises. Conference calls provide increased opportunities for emplyeees at one job site to communicate with employees at another job site. This inexpensive method of communication increases the avenues of communication and opens new doors to coporate communication. Foreign deals, intercompany meetings, and other opportunities to interact that were once neglected due to travel costs can now be successfully completed with conference calling. When closing the big deal, companies can utilize all of their best players at a fraction of the cost with conference calling.
Alan Jason Smith is the owner of www.abeconferencecalling.com which is a great place to find conference calling links, resources and articles. For more information go to: www.abeconferencecalling.com
So you’ve finished building a great website and you’re ready to start raking in the profits - if you can figure out how to let the world know your business exists. Although creating an attractive website is an important first step if you plan to start your own online business, it is definitely not the last. In fact, once the website is complete you’ve still got quite a lot of work on the horizon.
Just because you have a website up and running, it doesn’t mean people will automatically know where to find you. And yet, surprisingly, many first-time web entrepreneurs drop the ball at this point in the game. They assume customers will find them amongst all the other sites floating around in cyberspace, as if through some kind of psychic connection. But if you think about it, this type of thinking is very misguided.
It is the same with any business: customers won’t start flocking to your store unless you invest some time and money into advertising. Depending on your budget, you can either blast the trumpet really loud or toot the horn a little bit at a time. But in the end, you have to make some kind of noise in order to be heard.
But how do you achieve this in the vacuum of cyberspace? Or perhaps more fittingly, how do you make yourself heard amidst a crowd of other aspiring musicians all trumpeting their own cause? Obviously, online marketing is different from marketing a bricks-and-mortar business, so it’s important to know exactly where to begin. If you take the proper steps you will be attracting interested customers in no time.
The first step is to know your customer, inside and out. This is key if you want to be successful in your marketing strategy because you can’t market to potential customers if you don’t know who they are. For someone selling baked goods, targeting the “Carb-Haters of America” might not result in the profits you are anticipating.
Next, determine where you want to market your product. The Internet allows every new or expanding business the opportunity to reach a global market, but not every business is aiming for that goal. If your website is set up as one arm of your existing offline business, you might wish to target potential customers in your local area who also want the option of online shopping. In this case, integrate your website into promotional materials for your store so people will learn about the new branch of your business. Essentially, the efforts you make to promote your business outside of the Internet can be used to get your web address out there as well.
Internet Marketing
But of course, most people who begin an online venture are looking to broaden their customer base and attract a global clientele. There are several ways to start advertising online. Just remember: online marketing is always changing, and nothing works perfectly for every business. You might have to tailor a marketing plan to suit your company’s specific goals, or if Internet marketing makes your head spin, you also have the option of hiring a company to do the marketing for you.
Step one: register with search engines. Unfortunately, this doesn’t guarantee hits to your site, and the promises many search engines make are usually more pie-in-the-sky than realistic, but it is still a necessary evil. If you have to choose, register with Yahoo! and Google, as the highest percentage of web traffic originates from these two giants. In the past, achieving top search results could be done for free; now you have to shell out some cash if you want to get top placement and advertising space. Yahoo! Express and Google’s Adwords program are two examples of this type of paid search engine placement.
Another way to get noticed is to participate in a link exchange. Simply put, this involves seeking out other websites that are related to your company or product in some way and asking the owner if he/she will post your link on the site. If the owner agrees, you offer to post their link on your site, hence the term “link exchange.” This is a good way to start advertising your site because it involves targeting the right kind of people (someone visiting a site already related to your business) and forming solid bonds with other websites. And the more links other sites have to your site, the more popular you become with the search engines, without having to pay for top placement.
Finally, don’t sit back and wait for customers to come to you. Be proactive and go directly to your clientele. Of course, this means you must know where to find them, but this sounds harder than it actually is.
For instance, many new businesses actually use eBay to source potential customers. It depends on what you’re selling, but if you know a lot of people looking for your product spend a good amount of time making eBay purchases, that might be a good place to begin and get your name out in public. Use eBay as a marketing tool - sell a few items for very low prices, get people on your email list and invite them to consider future purchases from your website. EBay is more than a place to sell goods; it can be used as a highly effective marketing tool.
Or, as mentioned above, make business connections with people in a related business. Pay to have banner ads displayed on other websites to help spread the word about your business. This will bring you closer to the people who make up your target market.
This is just the beginning when it comes to online marketing, but if you start off on the right foot and persevere, you will succeed.
Article was written by Katerina Mitrou sponsored by templatedogma.com/. Template Dogma offers a huge selection of professional, ready to use website templates and custom products. Build your professional website in minutes with the help of Templatedogma.com. Reproductions of this article must include a link back to templatedogma.com/.
Creative professionals often meet with clients for “free consultations” with the hopes of turning that consult into a paying client. Though this thought process is common and may make sense on the surface, it’s actually contradictory to the behavior of great paying clients.
By giving away the initial consultation for free, you are diminishing the value of your talents and your services, and in turn hurting your chances of closing a great deal. Potential customers who get the initial consultation for free are less likely to value what you do and will more likely balk at your fees.
You should absolutely charge a healthy amount for your initial consultation. This approach will help eliminate “bad clients” or clients who are just price shopping or looking for free advise. It will also increase the value of your creative services in the mind of the prospect. Any potential client who is “offended” by paying for the consultation was most likely never really a potential client in the first place. Turning away these types of people will help reduce the number of wasted consultations you present.
If you are already charging for your consultation, you should re-examine the amount you charge. If you are not charging at least $100 for the consultation, you are probably going out on far more wasted meetings than you should. Increase your consultation fee and tell the prospective buyer that you will put the consultation fee towards their project should they choose to hire you. This approach reduces resistance to the higher amount. It also increases the quality of your potential client and your chances of closing the sale.
Try this approach out on the next person who calls to set up a consultation and keep in mind that a major part of effective marketing and sales is weeding out bad clients and wasted initial consultations. Stop giving away your consulting and you will change the value of your services in your mind and in the mind of your clients, which will help you increase your income, decrease your wasted time, and get better clients.
Kirstin Carey is the author of “Starving Artist No More: Hearty Business Strategies for Creative Folks”. Kirstin knows that most creative professionals hate sales, contracts and discussing money. She consults creative folks on the business side of creativity so they make more money, attract better clients, and love what they do. Get proven strategies and insider secrets to help creative types like you get the business help you need at www.MyCreativeBiz.com