Writing Life Center

You might take the experiences of your business life for granted and not recognize the value of what you’ve been through.  But here are seven reasons why it is important that business leaders take time to share their stories in writing or other ways.  

Reason 1: You are a Part of History

Business leaders become a part of history by influencing their own part of society and the economy. You have lived through your own dynamic era in history and have a unique perspective on how the economy affects businesses in general and how society has changed for the business world over time. History is a story told from the perspective of a writer. Pick an event in your business history and write about your perspective on the event.

Reason 2: Business Leaders are a Demographic Group

You have a lot of colleagues who could relate to your story. Business leaders have a worldview that comes from getting up everyday thinking about how to influence the life of customers either directly or indirectly. You influence the world through the use of technology and belong to a group that takes risks others don’t. Write about what has inspired you to keep going everyday.  

Reason 3: A Unique Cultural Understanding

Business leaders come in all demographic categories, and ethnic and cultural groups. If you are a Baby Boomer, you belong to the most diverse age category alive. Being a part of this rich diversity means having unique insights on cultural and ethnic history, traditions, and events. Boomers lived through the dynamics of changing the national policies towards segregation and integration. People were learning to live together for the first time during your lifetime. What was it like to be the first woman, person of your ethnicity or cultural group in your business or company? How was it for you to encounter a person of a different background for the first time?

Reason 4: Business Leaders Grow Wiser Instead of Older

Business leaders do age, but aging brings about wisdom. Many events you have encountered are experiences others would benefit by knowing. How did you get through the latest economic downturn?  What did you do to change your business when the going got rough? You have more wisdom than you probably even realize and until you put it in writing others won’t realize it either.

Reason 5: You Live Life-Long Learning

To grow a successful business you have to continue to learn. The idea of life-long learning probably never crossed your mind because learning is just something you do on a regular basis. List lessons you have learned by operating a business over the years. Talk about the lessons of raising a family while growing a company. Tell how you got through conflicts in the marketplace. Talk about starting the company with little to no money. People need the insights of leaders who have made a difference in the world. You are in that category.

Reason 6: Your Stories Are Unsurpassed

There’s nothing like a good story to catch the attention of others; and business leaders have a lot of stories to tell. Your stories are the legacy you have to share and leave with the world. Record a documentary of your business from start to finish.  The breadth of your experiences gives you unlimited amounts of materials to choose from in order to write stories of how your business functioned over the years, what people did in the workplace, and interactions you encountered over time. .

Reason 7: You Created What Others Only Imagine

Thousands of people each day are studying concepts of organizational behavior and change management. Many want to know how to work with teams. With your personal experiences these are topics you can write about with ease and give the practical side of the story. It’s necessary to know the theory but hearing how to live out the steps is equally or even more valuable. You have created ideas that others only imagine. Tell that story and inspire the creativity of others.

Writing business memoirs will never grow old. You could start today thinking of your business history and end up with a list of wonderful remembrances that help business owners stay inspired.

When you know how to find the stories of your life to write about, you will be amazed at how much you have to share through a memoir.  What you’ll be doing is simply writing what you know better than anyone else.  Of course, you can keep your business memories to yourself or only share them with a personally selected limited group of people.  But what about the hundreds or even thousands of people that would benefit from know more about how you ran your business or the great ideas you learned along the way?

People love a great story. There’s nothing more exciting than a story about how a person achieved a goal or solved a life problem. Be assured, you have more memories in your business life to write about than you can imagine.

• No one can have your story.  You are a unique person with unique experiences in life. Your business story can only be told by you.
• Your memoirs provide the benefit of letting you record the meaning and purpose of your business life in writing.
• You have a right to record your business memories and to let others have the benefit of learning from your business experiences. 

Writing memoirs helps you recall the accomplishments or your life. They also let you review the hard life lessons that have built character along the way. Sharing the events of your life lets others learn from your experiences.

When you write your life with words, you look at your emotions, feeling, decisions, and choices. You understand the road you walked and the path you followed.

Your stories can be a way to honor those who influenced your life along the way. You can see the themes of your life and come to understand how you have made a difference in your world and to the world at large. 

When you fail to start writing your memoirs you are taking your life for granted. The best legacy you can pass along to those you care about are the stories you’ve gained throughout your work life. Start today by writing about your business, your challenges and accomplishments.  Tell what you did to achieve your goals. The ideas are endless but the writing doesn’t have to be. It just has to start.

Bloggers are using the best marketing concept possible. No question about it, blogs are great for business, both for online business and offline busienss.  Blogging lets you connect with your target market and promote your products quickly and easily.

Blogging is so easy that some people only use a blog and never a website online. You can even start a blog for free with Blogger.com, a free, easy to use blogging service offered by Google.  Using this service can be a great way to market your business.

It only takes three steps to start a blog on blogger. Go to the site, follow the directions and start blogging before the day is over.

What do you write on your blog?

Writing on a blog is called posting. Create posts that explain the features and benefits of your product in a subtle way.  For instance, if you have an information product on raising puppies, you can create posts that give a bit of helpful information.  At the end of the post you can add “for more information” and then provide a link to a page with more extended information. 

If you have a physical product, you can create similar posts, giving people reasons to buy your product.  If you happen to sell ipods for instance, create an informative post about the benefits of downing information talks on your ipod. You can add pictures of your product to your post and include a link to the page where your readers can buy the ipods from you 

A blogs is a great online communication tool.  It is so easy to post a comment that you will soon find it to be a bit addictive.  You are published immediately when you save your posts.  Keep your readers updated on changes to your website, provide information on new products you’re introducing, and receive feedback on the types of products your customers wish you would develop.

A way to get your target market involved with your blog and to established yourself as an expert is to establish a “question of the week” feature to your blog.  Simply have your readers send in their questions, and then, one day each week, choose one of the questions to answer.  Your readers will look forward to this interactivity and will take note to visit each week to see if their question was chosen.

You can also use Blogger to increase the size of your mailing list by adding a sign up form to your newsletter or other autoresponder list.  Once people are subscribed to your newsletter, you can continue to market to them.

Adding links back to your website on your blog will also help your website gain search engine traffic.  The search engines crawl the Internet, and when a blog site has a lot of links coming into it, the search engines take notice.  This can help your website rise in the results pages when someone performs a search using one of the keywords on your page.

As you get more familiar with blogging, you can add an RSS feed to your blog, which will notify your readers that you have created a new post.  This will keep your readers coming back regularly, and further help your marketing efforts.

Take these easy tips and start blogging immediately. It’s the way to get a presence online without having to know HTML or other intricate website concepts. 

Learn to write good web articles and you will be able to gain publicity for your online business or offline business. But just writing the article isn’t enough. You also have to know what to do with them. This includes writing articles and submitting them to reprint directories.

Website owners and bloggers visit article directory sites to access free content for their own sites. When they publish an web article you have submitted, they will include a link back to your site, which will drive a lot of traffic to you.

You can find many article reprint directories on the web. A few to try are www.ladypens.com, www.isnare.com and www.articlepros.com. To find more, simply perform a Google search using the term “article reprint directory.”

Some sites require you to register with them before you can submit an article, while some do not. Each site will have its own specific guidelines as to the type of articles they will accept. Make sure you familiarize yourself with each site’s specific instructions.

 You will see a link on the site that says something to the effect of “submit your article” or “add your article.” When you click that link, you will be sent to a page containing a form that will allow you to copy and paste your article. You will also enter personal information, such as your name. Some people use their real name and some chose to use a fake name, also known as a pen name.

Always take good advantage of the area titled “author bio box” or “reference box.” This is where you can put detailed information about you, your website or speciality. The website owner or blogger who publishes your article will include the information you include, so make sure you include some information about your website and your URL.

If the article you are submitting refers to information found on a specific page of your website, refer to that page. For example, if you are submitting an article about online marketing send the readers to www.yourname.com/onlinemarketing instead of just a general domain. 

This will allow you to receive highly targeted traffic which will increase your affiliate conversion rates and profits. Use web article writing to increase your online marketing and you will have a key to great internet marketing.

Learn how to write articles that get results and know where to submit your article wtih the Slam Dunk Articles Wrting course. http://www.slamdunkarticles.com

If you have a business and want it to succeed, you need to have a business plan.  It’s as simple as that. A business plan is a document that outlines your business goals and the plan for achieving them. Even if you are working from the kitchen table, you still need a business plan.  A business plan can help you do the following: 

• Define your business and set goals
• Create a plan of action
• Develop your brand
• Organize your marketing efforts
• Keep you focused on your business 

When it comes to developing your business, writing out your business plan will help you sort out your ideas and make it easier to identify which ones make the most sense. This will be a great thing when you start coming up with so many business ideas that you get overwhelmed. Your business plan will keep you on track.   

Your business can’t do everything for everyone. Without a business plan you might forget that point. Writing your business plan will let you narrow down which products and services you are going to offer, as well as help you decide which target market to offer them to. 

For example, if you are a professional events planner, you can choose to target market your business to other local businesses and offer to help them organize and put on events to market their businesses.You can market yourself to local residential busiensses and families to help them organize all types of events.. 

You can also market your business online and create online seminars or teleconferences or information products and people can learn from you long distance. Once you have determined who your target market is and how your business is going to help them, you will need to write out your goals and determine your plan of action in achieving them.  

Your business brand will help you achieve recognition among your target market and set you apart from the competition.  Some people can really struggle with determining their brand, and unfortunately, never create one.  Having a business plan will help you create a “big picture” idea of your business.  When you see the big picture, you can determine how you want your customers to see you. 

As you know, there are many different ways to market your business.  Another benefit to having a business plan and being able to see the “big picture” is being able to organize your marketing efforts. 

Your business plan will help you decide how you want to promote your business.  Some examples include marketing to local customers or taking your business global and marketing online.  

Finally, your business plan can keep you focused on your business and your goals.  If someone approaches you about a joint venture project or if you have an idea for a solo project, you can look at your business plan and see if that is something that would enhance your business. By now, it should be pretty obvious that writing a business plan is worth the effort.

Learn to Select Keywords

Keyword selection is a critical skill for successful website business. Choosing the right keywords for your website is important for a few reasons, but the main one is traffic.  Without the right keyword selection, visitors may never find your site even if it has the exact information they are looking for.  Keywords play a part in the way your site is ranked on search engines so you’ll want to make sure you are using the right keywords to get those rankings up and bring those visitors in. 

Here are a few tips to consider when trying to select the right keywords for your website. 

1.  Using a tool such as WordTracker.com will help you to determine what keywords people are actually searching for, how stiff your competition might be for certain keyword phrases and can even reveal hidden gems that you may not have thought about originally. (http://www.wordtracker.com) 

2.  Just because a term is searched frequently doesn’t mean you should always focus on that keyword.  If you have lots of competition for a really hot keyword phrase, the likelihood of you making it to the top of the ranks in the search engines drops dramatically.  Think about who your competing with and possibly search for a better, less searched phrase to help target in on your market even better. 

3. Include variations of your keyword phrases in more than one way on your site. Don’t overdo it by stuffing your site with keywords.  People want quality content and if you have an article on your site that has your keyword phrase in it every other sentence they won’t stick around and what good is traffic if it leaves and never comes back? 

These are just some basic tips to help you get started on the right foot in keyword selection.  Learn to select the right keywords for your sites and see the amount of visitors to your website increase.

Apply for Your Business License

Applying for a business license is something you should do as soon after you decide to start your business as possible.  There are different requirements for getting a business license at the federal, state/city and county levels.  Each location is different in those requirements and there are even some locations that may not require you to have a business license, but you need to determine what your business requires by following and completing the steps below. 

Find loads of information on starting your business, including applying for a business license by visiting the Small Business Administration (http://www.sba.gov).   

There you will find links to help you determine, what if any licensing requirements there are for your business.  You’ll be able to determine what type of license your business requires based on the type of business you own.  Just a few of the common licenses include: 

Basic Business License

This is a basic business license that says you are allowed by law to do business in your locality.  Some places require it, others don’t so be sure to check with your local and state taxing authorities to determine your individual case. 

Occupational & Professional License

There are certain professions that require you to carry a special license in order to conduct business.  Some of these businesses include:  

• Accountants
• Doctors
• Barbers
• Security
• Professionals
• Real Estate Agents 
• Licensing Based On the Type of Products You Sell 

Tax Registration

One of the biggest reasons a business license is required is for tax purposes.  The type of business you run, along with other factors, will determine your tax rates at the state and federal level.  It will also help to determine certain taxes, such as sales tax, etc. that you may be exempt from paying. 

Trade or Doing Business As (DBA) Name

Many states require a special license if you are a sole proprietor doing business under a name other than your name. 

Employer Registration

If you have, or plan to in have in the future, employees this is definitely a must to check into.  You can find more information about what all is required of you as an employer by checking with your states Department of Revenue or Labor. 

A business license is something that, if you’re required to have one, you should acquire as soon as possible.  Some states can and will penalize business owners who operate a business without the proper license, so don’t delay in finding out what your business needs.  Many states have business workshops to help make certain owners have everything they need in place.  Check your state or http://www.sba.gov to find one near you.

Many job hunters mistakenly believe that the job interview is the most important component of finding a new job. But that’s not true. What’s really important is a great resume that enables you to get a job interview in the first place. It’s important that you not only submit a job application, but that you also attach a resume as well.

If a resume is so important, what is it that many job hunters don’t submit one with their application? One of the many reasons for this is because resumes, especially ones that are considered “perfect,” can occasionally be difficult to write. 

You have a number of different options when it come to writing a resume.  According to information in the Job Hunter’s Manual (http://www.theonlinebusinessreport.com/jobgive.htm) choosing an option for getting a resume created doesn’t have to be a big deal.

The main thing is find a reume format that works to highlight your skills and experiences.  Write the resume according to a standard format, make sure it is clean, neat and without errors. Then send it in to that employer. No matter which option you choose to write your resume, you should find that having a resume will increase your chances of finding a new job.

When it comes to finding a new job or changing careers, it is important that you have an effective resume. Writing a resume can be complicated and a bit nerve-wracking if you’re doing it for the first time. Having tips on how to write a resume will help to make it a lot easier.Find a sample: To get started writing a new resume or updating an old one, do a web search for Career Websites and look for sample resumes. You could find a free resume template online free resume templates online to use as a guide. Here’s a site to try for a free sample resume http://www.freeresumeexamples.net/default.html

Computer Template: Did you know that many computer programs, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Works, have free resume templates available with them?  If you are using one of these programs or other similar ones, look for the program’s resume templates to see available formats and options. You might have ten or more free resume templates that come in a number of different styles already installed in your computer. 

Freelance Assistance: Look for professional assistance in writing your resume by doing a standard Internet search with phrases such as “resume writer,” or “professional resume writer.”  Expect to pay reasonable fees to use the services of a professional resume writer.  Fees vary according to expertise of the writer and the specifics of the resume you need.

How To Write a Business Plan That Works for YOU

The Ultimate Business Plan Teleclass starts on November 27 and runs for four weeks.  Class is at 6:00 p.m. PST. m This will be the only Business Plan building class I’ll teach until next year.

If you don’t have your business plan written,  join this class and start the New Year off right. How to write a business plan is the top online keyword term for small business owners.  Writing a business plan for a small business is something every business person must do in order to assure their business success. 

You need to write a business plan if:

 1. You intend to succeed in your small business for more than one year

 2. You want or need any of the following

• Small business loan
• Small business grant
• Small business opportunity support
• Small business idea generation
• Small business finance
• Government small business grant

 3. You desire to have a professional document to use as a success roadmap for your small business.

 4. You want to be a professional in your field and known as a serious player in the small business world.

You could continue to take a “chance on your success” by continuing to just think about writing your plan and never get it finished. You could continue to try to find generic, free business plan templates online that you use to fill in the  blanks. You could scratch out a business plan outline and hope that takes you through the steps you need to get what you want.

Or, you can make an investment in your small business future and write your business plan in four weeks.

How to Write a Business Plan is the ultimate business plan course for small business owners and entrepreneurs. If you have a home based business, internet based business, or offline business, you need to understand how to write a business plan.

This course uses a free sample business plan that I created as a method that has proved successful in writing business plans for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

In this four-week telecourse, you will learn how to complete each step of a business plan. You will know how to write and finish a business plan that will serve as a working document for your business.

To get a detailed outline of what you’ll learn in the class go to the registration page on my home site http://www.consuelomeux.com/writeabusinessplan.htm Sign-up to get your business plan finished before the end fo the year.

This is good even if you’ve been in businss for a while and never got your Business Plan completed.