5 Ways Your Clients Can Use Pinterest!

Happy Pre Super Bowl! We are so excited that the Baltimore Ravens are playing!

Here's 5 great ideas about how your clients can use Pinterest to promote their business (This is from a great article in Wearables Magazine, Feb. 2013 issue):
#1 Take pictures to show off great customer interactions, teamwork, people being productive, to let everyone see what a great work place it is!
#2 Create a lifestyle for the business brand. That means that instead of just pictures of wonderful completed projects, post pictures of associated topics that are relevant to your business.
#3 Use the pictures to support an incentive program. Yes a picture is worth 10,000 words!
#4 Encourage fans and clients to post pictures of them using the company product. This is called "crowdsourcing". Then they can tag the brand in the post. That tagged picture can be re-pinned on the company's pinboard.
#5 Create a contest. You could award prizes for the most creative pins related to the brand. Or you could ask for comments on a picture, and the person with the best comment is awarded a prize.

Happy Pinning!

New Year, Get Ready for Trade Shows!

A happy and productive new year = trade shows!


We can help you decide which tablecloth is best for your next expo, get the art done for the front of the cloth, and get it ordered so that you will be ready in plenty of time.
Choices include size of cloth, cloth color, what art to use, fitted or not, and what about table runners?

Cold Calling Tips - Thanks to Jim Bennett!

I really like these cold calling tips by Jim Bennett, a great entrepeneur!

"To me, cold calling techniques differ depending on the size of the business you're calling. My focus is on local small business for promo advertising. My opening line for every call is "Hello. My name is Jim. I was wondering if you can help me find the person that handles your marketing?" There are 3 keywords here that I believe makes it easier to break through..

1. Help. Who doesn't like to help?
2. Handle. It's a nicer way to say "in charge of". Doesn't seem like you're asking for a person of authority.
3. Marketing. I used to say advertising. But businesses get advertising calls many times during a standard week. Changing it to marketing makes it seem less invasive, to me.

Another reason why I use this statement right up front is it already answers all the questions they may have for me.

After that, if I get someone on the phone of authority, I try to remember that I'm just trying to sell the appointment, not the product. While giving them a reason to take the appointment is necessary, overwhelming them with promotional product advertising can be off putting. So just keep it simple. Develop a good elevator speech of 15-30 seconds to explain what you do and why they need you. Spend 2-4 minutes building as much rapport as you can and another minute gaining the appointment.

Keep the initial call under 5 minutes. That's always my goal. I want my customers to know that I'm respectful of their time and that I know that I'm calling them at what could be an inopportune time, and I don't want them to spend a lot of their precious day talking to me."

Useful Apps for Your Apparel Office on the Go

5D Thread Match
Instantly match a selected part of your project to show you the perfect thread out of over 15,000 threads! Take a photo of your fabric, home dec item or garment and find the perfect embroidery thread match.

Planet Embroidery Lettering Software
iPE produces embroidery designs for embroidery machines in several embroidery machine file formats. This program is useful for you, if you own an automatic embroidery machine (Brother, Janome, Singer, Elna, Melco, Happy, etc).
You will be able to create text designs using pre-digitized fonts, select the size, density and underlay. iPE sends those designs (attached) by e-mail to your e-mail account. Then you just have to save them (from the computer) on the apropriate media for your embroidery machine.
Don't worry if iPE doesn't include your embroidery file format. You may later convert the created designs using other standard application (stitch era universal, etc).
No need to learn about digitizing. Creation of embroidery designs with your custom text requires a few simple steps.
iPE uses some Internet services to process each design request, then it requires an Internet connection to run it.
If you like this application, or if you would like more free programs for iPhone, please recommend this program.
You may find other Sierra Technology Group free and professional products & services at: FreeSierraSoftware.com, PlanetEmbroidery.com, StitchEra.com, EmbroideryOffice.com.

Splashtop Remote Desktop
Splashtop enables me to connect to and control my computer from a mobile device. You can use it with iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android and BlackBerry, find it at splashtop.com.

CamCard
Camcard reads and scans business cards. When you snap a picture of a card, it recognizes the contact info and saves it to the card holder or your phone address book. "One of the best and most useful apps out there. If you're a business professional, sales person, convention goer, or have to be some place where you're going to meet with other business people, take this app and avoid the hassle of a pile of business cards. It takes about 10 seconds to take a snapshot of the card, the app reads it, lets you review the info, and then add it to your contacts. VERY useful app."

SanMar
SanMar created this app so customrs can search products, check stock/pricing, browse sale items and place orders from smart phones/tablets.

DropBox
Dropbox allows you to take your documents, photos, and videos with you on the go. After you install Dropbox, any file you save to it will automatically store in your computer, mobile device, and the Dropbox website. You can exchange files with your team and clients.

Shop my AVON store!

Shop my AVON store!: Here's a sneak peak at some of the latest products available at Avon. Be sure to click

Uncovering the Power of Branding

Hello, today some thoughts on branding your self, courtesy of the Fast Growth Blog.

Awareness
Do the right people know about you and your company?
Do they have a positive and meaningful impression of your business?

Consideration
Do they consider your business relevant?
Are you a problem solver or just a solutions provider?
Will you help them figure things out?

Preference
Does your audience understand the value you bring?

Purchase Intent
Do they understand the cost of not doing business with you?

These ideas are taken from The Fast Growth Blog, and from Marty Neumeier.

Introducing PayBizness!

Hello and Happy New Year!
I want to introduce you to a great lady Michelle McBride, CEO of PayBizness.

PayBizness offers payment solutions that can help grow your business, because the free card reader allows your IPhone to accept credit card payments.

"Let Pay Bizness be your processing partner so that you get paid for your products and services, everywhere… all the time.  In today’s fast-paced, competitive business environment, making money for a small business owner can be a challenge so it’s important to have a payments solution that goes where the business is 24 hours a day. Our technology can help you to keep pace with processing credit card, debit card and check transactions with flexibility & speed, all at an affordable cost for your business. "

Michelle McBride is the lady to contact, her number is 888-992-5551, or email michelle@paybizness.com, or visit her website www.paybizness.com.