Category Archives: Business

How Local Business People Are Becoming Stronger Leaders

February 13, 2011 jd

by Lisa J. Lehr

Would you like to have more communicative employees—or be one? Have a more effective sales force, or be a trainer with phenomenal presentation skills? Be a more confident, competent leader? Be persuasive, inspirational, and/or entertaining?

That’s what 235,000 people around the world are doing right now, and it’s called Toastmasters International.

This might sound like a shameless plug for Toastmasters…and perhaps it is, because I’ve been a member of Toastmasters for over 10 months now, and I love it, and so do my fellow Toastmasters, and we’d love to have more company!

Toastmasters is an international organization that provides training in speaking and leadership that is on a par with expensive and extensive professional training programs, yet at a fraction of the cost and time commitment.

Nevada County is lucky to have four different Toastmasters Clubs—unusual for a community of our size. Mother Lode Toastmasters meets Monday evenings; Early Risers Toastmasters, Tuesday mornings; Penn Valley Club, Wednesday evenings; and the club I belong to, Empire Toastmasters, meets every Friday at noon at Trolley Junction Restaurant (at the Northern Queen Hotel) in Nevada City.

We’re a small, friendly, supportive group dedicated to helping each other improve at a comfortable pace, wherever we each currently are with our speaking and leadership skills. Our meetings are open to anyone who is interested. Come as a guest; you’ll be invited (but not required!) to participate in Table Topics, in which participants each speak impromptu for about a minute on a given theme. It’s often the highlight of the meeting, and almost always provides the most laughs. Lunch is $14 and reservations are not required.

My fellow Toastmasters and I are available to do a presentation for your business or organization that will explain the program in much greater detail. My own personal and professional growth through Toastmasters has been nothing short of astonishing in less than a year, and my fellow club members have similar stories to tell about being “the shyest person who ever lived”—but no more, thanks to Toastmasters!

Visit this link for more information about the local clubs:

http://www.toastmastersnevadacounty.org/

Lisa J. Lehr is a writer and copywriter living in Grass Valley. She can help you promote your business with a full range of online and offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s available to speak to your business or professional group. Visit her website www.justrightcopy.com for more information, opt in for a message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide.

Business

How to Capitalize on the Loyaty of Past Customers

January 27, 2011 jd

by Lisa J. Lehr

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you know that getting new customers is a lot more work—and a lot less profitable—than selling more to your existing customers. Needless to say, people who’ve bought from you in the past already have a relationship with you, so they don’t need to be sold; they only need to be reminded to come back for more.

People have short memories and fickle habits. If your competitor has offered your past customers some sweet deal, “your” customers may well stray from you to cash in the coupon (or whatever it is), receive good service, and switch loyalties, never to be seen again. The good news about that is…you can do the same thing, and get them back. And not only that: you can keep them coming back.

First step: get in touch with those past customers. If you already have their e-mail addresses, great; if not, you’ll need to use postal mail. An inexpensive, simple way to do this is with a postcard, which will need to do the following:

Tell your readers what to do: visit your store (for example, bring in the postcard for a special offer) or your website (to opt in to your list).

Follow the usual rules of good sales writing. Words sell!

Be attractive: following the rules of good design, yet not devoting so much space to graphics that you run out of space for words.

Entice your readers with what they’ll get when they take the next step. (Coming into your store gets them a discount or a freebie; opting in to your list gives them a heads-up on all specials, sales, and new offerings.)

Use both sides of the postcard. An often-overlooked strategy: put a map to your place of business. You’d be surprised—even customers who know where you’re located are more likely to visit if you show them how to get there!

Be prepared with the second step, i.e., whatever you’re going to give them when they visit your website or your store.

Now, once you’ve reestablished your relationship with your past customers, keep them! This is where your e-mail list is so important. You’ll stay top-of-mind, and when they need something, they’ll come to you—not your competitor. An essential part of the process is a website. The e-mails they get from you will be completely automated and anti-spam-compliant.

If you don’t have one yet, we seriously need to talk!

—
Lisa J. Lehr
I write words that make you money–just ask me how.
www.justrightcopy.com
Visit my website and sign up for my fr~ee marketing tips.
New! No~cost Marketing Guide now available at my website

Business

Bernard Madoff’s Estate Sues Three Major Banks

December 8, 2010 jd

Bermard L Madoff after his arrest

The court-appointed trustee for Bernard L. Madoff’s estate has sued three major global financial institutions for a combined $17.4 billion, alleging that the banks aided Madoff in his Ponzi scheme.

Madoff, former investment advisor and chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, in March 2009 pleaded guilty to a massive fraud involving his investment management business, bilking investors out of more than $50 billion dollars.

He is currently in prison serving a sentence of 150 years, after his Ponzi scheme involving Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was publicized in December 2008.

The three banks been sued are HSBC, JPMorgan, and UBS. They are accused of aiding and abetting Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

But analysts say that proving knowledge of fraud is difficult—there’s a difference of condoning fraudulent acts and actively finding it. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to act on reining in Madoff, despite alerts of fraud from multiple sources.

Source: The Epoch Times

For all your real estate needs
Call John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
DRE #00669941

Business

What do Seven Touches, Four Steps, and One List Have in Common?

November 26, 2010 jd

by Lisa J. Lehr

They are all parts of marketing “clichés” that could skyrocket your sales.

“It takes ‘seven touches’ to turn a prospect into a client.”

“Know me, like me, trust me, buy from me.”

“The money is in the list.”

What do these sayings have in common, and what do they have to do with your business? The answer to both questions is that they’re all true, and that understanding how to make them work for you could boost your bottom line exponentially.

In my previous post about marketing (before the one about rescuing cats from trees), I talked about simple, inexpensive marketing tools. Now I’m going to expand on one of my points—the opt-in box. The opt-in box, remember, is where people enter their name and e-mail address and click “submit,” or words to that effect. This little box could literally bring in 90% of your sales; if you have one, you’re in a good position to capture the lion’s share of your market niche.

It’s what happens after they click “submit” that really matters. Using an automated messaging system, you’ll send them a series of messages called “auto responders.” This accomplishes several things.

First, it keeps you top-of-mind. If one of the people who opt in (known as your “list members”) suddenly has a need for your product or service, and you’ve been sending him or her interesting information for weeks or months, you’ll be the obvious choice over your competitors.

Second, it establishes you as an expert. You see, you’re not sending them constant sales messages—although sales messages certainly can be part of the plan. You’ll mainly be sending them useful, valuable information that they’ll feel indebted to you for—and possibly forward to friends.

Third, it’s an inoffensive way to stay in people’s faces. The automated system includes an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of every message, so if people get tired of hearing from you, they just click and you’re gone. No angry phone calls, no returned mail, no enemies.

Autoresponders are particularly useful if your product is a one-time or occasional type of purchase or a seasonal item. People don’t buy a washing machine, a computer, or a Christmas tree, or get their windows washed or their gutters cleaned, every week. You don’t want your prospects to forget about you between that first visit and when they actually need what you offer.

The messages can be created around any of a variety of themes. They can reflect current trends or news themes; they can be based on case studies or testimonials; they can each focus on a particular product or service you offer, or announce sales or specials; they can be “seven tips for…” or “ten ways to…” types of messages.

Let me give you a first-hand example of a missed marketing opportunity by a local business owner.

I’d won a free session with a particular type of service provider. It was a new experience for me; I found it enjoyable, and my curiosity about this service was piqued. I told the service provider that I was a marketing writer, yet strangely, I never heard from her again! Apparently she didn’t have a website, so she certainly didn’t have an opt-in box or an autoresponder series. So she missed two great opportunities—to sell additional services to me (far easier and cheaper than finding new customers), and to take advantage of my ability to market her services to others.

Now, there are a few keys to making your opt-in box a success. First of all, your website has to be good enough that people will stay long enough to even notice you have an opt-in box. Second, the words on the box need to be compelling. (Hint: “submit” isn’t: no one likes to submit.) Third, offering an enticement, or “ethical bribe,” increases your opt-in rate dramatically. Enticements include a free e-book, report, white paper, informational message they can listen to or download, or free sample or consultation. How often you mail to your list depends on several factors, including the nature of your product or service.

Let me emphasize that you don’t want to try to keep your own list and send the messages manually. Yes, the automated system costs money (contact me for the name of the one that 95% of Internet marketers use); however, not only is doing it yourself a lot of work, you’ll eventually get labeled a spammer and blocked from most people’s e-mail systems.

Bits & Pieces, Business

You Don’t Have to Be a Helpless Victim of “This Economy”

November 2, 2010 jd

by Lisa J. Lehr

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting really tired of hearing the phrase “in this economy.” As in: “Everyone’s trying to save money…in this economy.” “Who can afford this, that, or the other thing…in this economy?” “Good luck getting a job, making a profit, running a business…in this economy.”

It’s as if “this economy” is a catch-all excuse for failure, inaction, and stuck-ness. Okay, certain things are out of our control. But let’s not throw everything that is within our control into the same hopeless bag. If you’re a business owner, there’s a lot you can do to secure an advantage over your competition who’s given in to the doom-and-gloom mentality of “this economy.”

Here are some starters:

1. Figure out your USP, and tell everybody what it is. If you’re not sure if you even have a USP, it means “unique selling proposition.” So what makes you so special? If you’re not the biggest, the oldest, or the closest, you must have something else that no one else has. Dig it out, polish it up, show it off. Hint: what do your best customers say about you?

2. Make sure your website is as good as it can be. Please don’t tell me you don’t have a website! (Okay, do tell me…I can help.) Forget the flash and snazzy graphics. You need a clean, easily navigable, informative website. The more content, the better—both for getting more web traffic and for making your readers know, like, and trust you. People who know, like, and trust you will buy from you! And on that website…

3. Put an opt-in form in a prominent place. This simple tool can literally bring in 90% of your sales. If you’re not sure what this is, I’m sure you’ve seen them on other websites: people enter their name and e-mail address and give you permission to keep in touch with them. Voila, when they need the product or service you offer, guess who’s top-of-mind—you!

4. Be famous. Not celebrity-famous—but establishing yourself as an expert in your field will put you light-years ahead of your competitors. This means you offer articles, news releases, blog posts, case studies, white papers, even an informative Yellow Pages ad—all kinds of free, no-obligation content that gets your name “out there” and convinces people you know your stuff. Secondary benefit: all that “free stuff” makes people feel indebted to you—and more likely to choose you over your competitors.

5. Have materials to hand out. Called “marketing collateral,” these are all the print pieces that support any sales messages you have: brochures, free articles, point-of-sale take-home pieces, catalogs, magalogs, white papers, and so on. These offline pieces have a “stickiness” that online content doesn’t have: people will keep, re-read, and pass along to others informative reading material. Make sure your contact info (including your web address!) is on everything.

Advertising can be expensive. And that “I can’t afford to advertise…in this economy” mentality has led to the failure of many businesses…especially in this economy. But the above relatively simple and inexpensive strategies will give you the visibility, authority, and distinction you need to remain competitive in your field. Even in this economy. Especially in this economy.

Business, Local Writers & Contributors

Workshop to Get Your Life Back on Track

October 14, 2010 jd

by Lisa J. Lehr

On Saturday, October 23, my friend and fellow Toastmaster Jolen Punches and I will be presenting the workshop “Discover and Conquer Your Obstacles and Get Your Life Back on Track” at Sierra Commons in Nevada City.

In this workshop you will learn how to:

· Shift your thinking in order to create the life you desire;

· Discover clarity on what you want in any area of your life…career, relationship, financial, or health;

· Uncover hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your ability to make changes with ease;

· Release the hurts and pains that keep you trapped in repeating patterns;

· Transform those stuck patterns of limiting beliefs, fear, and self-sabotage into confidence, clarity, and happiness.

Jolen is a Certified Life Coach and founder of The Lighter Signature System. She holds a Behavioral Therapist degree from California Institute of the Healing Arts and Sciences, is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, and has been studying the mind-body-spirit connection since 1980. A highly sought-after consultant, award-winning speaker, and soon-to-be published author, Jolen believes we all have the answers within ourselves and guides us toward finding them.

I earned my degree in biology a couple decades before the surge in research on the human brain. Now that the human brain is a “hot topic,” I find that my educational background provides a solid foundation for my interest in the subject. I’ll be teaching workshop attendees about how our brains are wired to make us repeat past errors, and how we can re-train them for successful behavior.

The workshop will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door; lunch is included. Sierra Commons is upstairs at the Stonehouse in Nevada City, 107 Sacramento Street, suite #300.

For more information, see http://sierracommons.org; to reserve your spot, contact Jolen at (530) 263-7549 or Jolen@lighterwithin.com.

Transform your life and start living the life you are meant to live!

Lisa J. Lehr is a writer and copywriter living in Grass Valley. She can help you promote your business with a full range of online and offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s available to speak to your business or professional group. Visit her website www.justrightcopy.com for more information, opt in for the message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide.

Business

Six Secrets to Shortcut Moneymaking

October 1, 2010 jd

by Lisa J. Lehr

Want to make money in business? As much as possible, and as fast as possible? If you’re in business, of course you do. Here are six secrets to shortcut moneymaking.

1. The first secret is…there is no real shortcut. There is, however, a shortest distance between where you are now and where you want to be, and everyone knows the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The straight line in business success is a plan that includes no unproductive use of time or money.

2. Figure out your USP—your unique selling proposition. Especially if you’re a local business with some competition, you’ll need to stand out from the crowd. What makes you different? Spend some time figuring it out.

3. Advertise your product or service. Do all that your budget will allow. If your budget is small, start with inexpensive (and free) forms of advertising. As you begin making sales, roll as much as you can back into your advertising. This is where your highest ROI will come from.

4. Ramp up your marketing as your budget increases. Always stay in front of your target market. Even as your product or service takes hold of the market, and word-of-mouth advertising spreads—unless you’re getting so many orders you just can’t keep up—continue advertising. (And if you are getting so much business you can’t keep up, you can do one of two things: increase your prices, or narrow your offerings to the most lucrative products or services.)

5. Upsell. It’s a basic principle of selling that there are three ways to make more money: get more customers, get your customers to buy more often, and get your customers to buy higher-priced products and services. The third one is the most cost-effective. If your customers like your product or service, and if they trust you, they are more than happy to spend more money with you.

6. Work with a professional copywriter. Many companies have tried to crank out their own marketing programs, and even as that tactic has failed, have continued to try. You’ve probably heard the definition of insanity: doing the same thing and expecting different results. Give your business the competitive edge by letting a professional take charge of your marketing program.

There you have them: six secrets to shortcut moneymaking. The truth, however, is that they’re not really secrets—most smart marketers already know them. And they’re not really shortcuts—they’re just the shortest possible route to where you want to be: making money with your product or service.

Lisa J. Lehr is a writer and copywriter living in Grass Valley. She can help you promote your business with a full range of online and offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s available to speak to your business or professional group. Click Here to visit her website for more information, opt in for the message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide.

—
Lisa J. Lehr
I write words that make you money–just ask me how.
Visit my website and sign up for my fr~ee marketing tips.
JustRightCopy.com
New! No~cost Marketing Guide now available at my website.

Business, Nevada County Information

Nevada County Airport

September 30, 2010 jd

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buYZzj-ORmA
Note: if you cannot view this video, you need Click here to download Adobe Flash

Nevada County Airport is home base to over 140 aircraft with over 30,000 take-offs and landings occurring each year.

Nevada County Airport was built in 1932 by Errol McBoyle, owner of the Idaho Maryland Mine, to fly gold to Mills Field (now San Francisco International Airport). In 1956, Charles Litton of Litton Industries, gave the airport land to Nevada County as a gift. Later, Nevada County invested over $5 million in upgrading the air park.

Pilot information is at AirVav:KGOO Nevada County Airpark

Nevada County Airport
Manager: Greg Marshall
13083 John Bauer Avenue
Grass Valley, CA 95945
530-273-3374
Fax 274-1003
Email: gregory.marshall@co.nevada.ca.us

By: John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
Call for any of your real estate needs or questions
530-263-1091

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Business

Obama Care

September 24, 2010 jd

I hear a lot about “Obama Care” and how we should not have socialized medical care. Interesting that we would prefer to have the majority of people in this country un-insured, and than trusting our health to insurance companies who are in the business to make as much money as possible and try to deny health care when we get sick. I recently talked to two former employees of a very large insurance company. Both were former managers. This particular company has (or had) a division devoted to auditing large claims in the hope of finding something in the records to deny coverage. Is that what we want for health care, more of the same, the true death squad?

The argument I hear from people say that the American government can’t run anything (other than the military, the police, the road systems and on and on) In general I hear we have the best health care in the world. Sorry, according to the National Health Organization, the top health care country, that is the country that has the best health care for their citizens is France, followed by Italy. Where do we rank? Thirty seven out out of a hundred and ninety countries. Yep, we’re two steps above Cuba.

If you think we have the best health care, than you need to read the article in the Bloomberg Businessweek Harvard researchers say 62% of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. in 2007 were caused by health problems—and 78% of those filers had insurance. In other words, health issues in this country is the largest cause of bankruptcies in the United States. A portion of the article states “Unless you’re Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy.”

If you don’t like socialized medicine, well, you don’t know what you’re missing, other than what the insurance and drug companies are telling you.

For a taste of socialized medical care here is a portion of an article I wrote earlier:

“While in Rome last May, for some reason I got an asthma attack. I haven’t had an asthma attack since I was a teenager which was a couple of years ago, more or less.

In talking to the receptionist at the place we were staying at, he suggested that I go to the emergency room, since that would be free and if I wanted a doctor to come to our place it would cost a $100 euro’s. (try getting a doctor in the US to come to your home for $122) I also had the option to go to a private hospital, but that would be expensive.

I arrived at the emergency room, not knowing what to expect, since in the U.S. you can wait a couple of hours or more. However, within 30 minutes or less, a doctor interviewed me (not some clerk wanting to know my life history and a promise to go to mediation if the doctor screwed up)

I told him I was having an asthma attack. He took the information down and told me to go to the waiting room. Sure enough, I had to wait about 30 to 40 minutes. I was then taken to another room, a doctor listened to my chest, put me on a nebulizer, with vapor and oxygen coming out of it, put an IV in my arm , took blood samples, did a EKG and sent me back to the waiting room. While in the waiting room, someone came and took me up for two x-rays. Finally after two doctors examined me, one a specialist in bronchial problems, I was told that indeed I had had an asthma attack.

The doctor gave me a prescription for three drugs, a full printout in Italian of the blood test results, the EKG, his diagnoses and told me when I got near another hospital in the next week or two, to go and talk to another doctor and give him this report to see how I was doing.

Total cost – zero. If I had been a senior citizen of Italy, the drugs would have been free. By the way, the total costs of the drugs were $83 euros.

I can well imagine the costs of going to an emergency room in the U.S. and getting that kind of treatment. The hospitals in the U.S. would charge at least $10 to $15 thousand for two doctors and all of the tests. It was really nice to have the doctors in charge of my treatment, instead of a hospital administrator or an insurance company dictating what a doctor can do or not do.

You know by now, that because medicine is so high in this country, people in this country are buying airplane tickets to India and other places because they can’t afford our great medical system.

Of course, the biggest joke I’ve seen in years was senior citizens protesting Obama’s attempt to have insurance for everyone. They said they don’t want socialism but it was OK for them to collect their social security and have Medicare insurance.”

Bits & Pieces, Business, Nevada County Information

Charles Schmidt Local Furniture Maker

September 21, 2010 jd

By Charles Schmidt:

(Charles Schmidt is a local Nevada County furniture maker)

I probably started getting a feel for putting rustic furniture together from growing up in Montana, living and working on ranches and farms that were quite poor; and quite pioneer in lifestyle, where we built what we needed; often with hatchet, hammer and hand drill. My wife Barbara and I lived in Oregon for years where there’s a lot of roadside rustic furniture to pique the mind. So ideas were always perking.

When the economy started south in ’07 I got the idea to try to add to our income by making rustic furniture and selling it at local craft fairs here. We have our own style and make benches, chairs, coat-racks, end or coffee or chair side tables, footstools, freestanding shelves and do custom orders. We’re currently working on an all-manzanita queen bed that goes to a Tahoe home. We use manzanita (Little Apple), Oaks, Pines, Locust, Maple, Cherry, Laurels, Sycamore, Cedar, Hawthorne and Crepe Myrtle. We use about every wood you can find here in the foothills. A chair will normally have 12-14 different woods in it.

Most rustic furniture is log-gy looking; ours is a bit more artistic in look and made from sticks salvaged from brush piles. Meaning most all the lines are curvilinear instead of straight. The joints are fastened with bronze screws. The furniture tolerates foul weather quite well.

It’s quite enjoyable work in that one has an idea that it’s a chair you want to build. But the contours of the wood rule how it will go together.

Wood-will over craftsman’s-will, so to speak.

Our prices here are around half what our pieces sell for in galleries and retail stores; which we have done in the past. People from Colorado come here to buy from us at way less than they pay there; and get a different style with prettier woods also.

We have no web-site; but you can Email your request and we can send you pictures of similar pieces we’ve built. You may want something from inventory or we can build it for you. Perhaps from wood off your own land. Charles & Barbara, forest-furniture@att.net