Hello Ladies,
I'm looking for website, magazine, blogs etc that feature or interview business owners on their events. If you offer this service, please leave your website link or how to inquire for the feature or interview.
Thank you so much!
Dominique
Publisher/CEO From A Writert's POV
Literary Mentor & Consultant
The Author Power Team
As an author, you are always on the lookout for new ways to improve your marketing strategy and grow your platform. One of the best ways to do this is by developing your power team.
What’s a power team? A familiar term among business networking professionals, a power team is comprised of individuals and/or businesses with whom you share common goals or a common client base.
How can it help you as an author? The members of your power team can help you improve your strategy, connect with more readers, identify more opportunities, hone your message, and expand your reach.
Let’s look at key members of an author power team and how they help you build your career.
These are the primary members of your power team, but don’t be afraid to think outside the box while choosing members. Each book and genre has special needs and interests that are served by many people. Aligning yourself with those people will help you engage your audience and, in turn, sell more books.
Remember, just as with your audience, be willing to provide value before you ask for anything from your power team in return. You are looking to cultivate relationships, not just take what you can get. Here are a few key things to remember as you build your team:
Above all, treat them as you would want to be treated. If you are truly interested, considerate, and helpful, they will reciprocate.
Keeping Track of Opportunities
As an author, you’re constantly chasing down opportunities to share your book, speak to a crowd, serve as a resource, and perform other platform-building activities. People will often say no to your first request—but don’t let that discourage you or stop you from pursuing a lead after the first contact!
It takes at least six points of contact for a message to sink in—six—yet more than 75 percent of the time, people stop pursuing leads after the first point of contact (Good Day 2009). Sometimes authors stop pursuing because they receive a no on the first try, other times because the number of leads to manage is overwhelming. Cultivating relationships is crucial to your career, but it doesn’t need to take up all of your time.
The first thing you need to do is gather contact information. Every time you meet a lead or come across someone in a search, collect his or her contact information or business card right away. Enter them into a simple database such as Microsoft Outlook, PlanPlus, or Salesforce. Spreadsheets and Rolodexes can be hard to manage effectively, but databases like these allow you to classify your contacts, set up reminders, add notes, and keep track of all interactions. You can also consider adding new contacts on LinkedIn if you feel you know the person well enough to engage them online.
Next, you want to categorize your leads. Not all leads are created equal, and each group requires a different type of interaction. Here is a simple way to classify your leads:
Sorting your leads into these categories will help you better identify and manage opportunities as they come. Don’t forget to provide value first, and remember that your leads are people. Treat them with respect and consideration, and always show your appreciation for their time.
Rochelle Carter is the President/CEO of Ellechor Publishing House. Ellechor is a publisher of Inspirational Christian books, including Adventure and Romantic fiction, and non-fiction/devotionals dealing with Relationships, Suicide Prevention and General Self-Help.
"Books are a Business" Webinar is coming to From A Writer's POV June 29th! Author, Publisher and Career Expert Stephanie C. Harper will be speaking about the details in her book "Books are a Business". Interested?
Read the press release and get your name on the list to find out how to attend: http://www.prlog.org/11485947-books-are-business-w ebinar.html
Just for You... A Free "Say No to Yo-Yo Dieting" Gift Pack!
Discover How You can Look and Feel Amazing, Get in Shape, Stay Active and Start Living a Healthy Life... for FREE!
Before you read any further, grab a copy of my Free 7-part Ecourse: (included with this Gift Pack)
"How to Burn Calories While You Sleep."
"Varolo" is a completely free system that allows you to earn money on ads viewed by anyone in your social network which we call a "village". Plus you can see relevant ads and get discounts and promotions on the things you are interested in. Become a Facebook fan by clicking on "Like" button to receive the latest news and updates to keep you informed.
Varolo is completely, 100% free! Varolo also allows you to create your own ads for $5.00. Learn more about Varolo by watching this12 minute Varolo presentation because this is critical to your success. http://blog.varolo.com/flash/Varolo12Min.html
You can build a village of friends you have invited to Varolo and earn money on each ad they watch. Your village consists of your friends, their friends, their friends, and even their friends! Did I mention it's Absolutely Free? Click on the link below to get started and signup TODAY!
http://www.varolo.com/village/SheilaC43643
Workshop hosted by Dominique Watson in celebration of the launch of her new Service "Literary Career Moves"
Dominique is opening her workshop to those who are in need of finishing their book.
At a 26% discount, Dominique is opening the workshop to the first five people that sign up.
The Six Week Workshop will help you:
I've talked with many of you about The Writing Season Articles and helping you get through the rough time of building great characters for your book. Here's six week workshop just for you!
Check out the flyer: http://campaign.vpweb.com/aff07b7a-9788-4d47-ae78-8ba2daf02c08
Teen Girls Need L.O.V.E.
S. Dodson
Rating: 5
This self help book provides insightful nuggets of information that teen girls from every age, race and background will be able to relate to. The book is written in a very relatable manner and covers everything from peer pressure, to bullying, to teenage pregnancy, to self love.
In a day and age where negative influences are in abundance, a book like this one is absolutely necessary. There are pressures that mount up on teens that if not handled could cause a daunting demise. A few years ago I was told about a young girl who had committed suicide because of things she was going through. She felt like she had no one to talk to an eventually took her life for that very reason. I wrote a book inspired behind that incident called “Sweet Dreams” and in reading this book it took me back to the emotions I felt during the time that I was writing that book. I really wished that that young woman had a chance to read this book. Had she done so then perhaps she would still be among the living and used her strength to tell her own story to other teens as to how she was able to overcome.
This is a book that I believe every parent of a young lady should own. Sometimes they just need to know that someone else has been there and done that in order for them to feel strong enough to talk about the pressures that they have to endure. Often adults think that children don’t have anything to worry about because they don’t have bills, they don’t have to worry about jobs, money, etc. Little do we know that there is so much more to being a teen now a days. In this book the teens learn how to empower, inspire and motivate themselves to get on the right path. There were some minor editing concerns, however all in all this is definitely a recommended read. For teens to it will allow them to find ways to over achieve. For parents, it will allow them to find ways to relate. There is nothing better than building a bridge to close the gap!
Reviewed by:
Nikkea Smithers
RWA Bookclub President
OurLegaci.com is launching a new segment that will feature the works of black writers from all over the world. Writers will discuss key issues affecting Black, African and Latino communities.
We are currently seeking writers to participate in online debates about:
The Economic State of Black America, Abortion, The Black Family Structure, Homosexuality, African Americans vs. Africans: Can we get along?, Black Relationships, Black Businesses: Will we ever get ahead?, Domestic Violence, and the State of Education Among Black Youths. If you are interested in any of these subjects or if you would like to discuss something that is not listed, please email us at info@thelegacionline.com.
All contributing writers will be featured on OurLegaci.com.
Early on into building my first business, I quickly learned how important it was to be organized with managing my time and I started a system for myself based on how quickly and effectively I needed to get things done, not only in my business but with my family as well. Because for me, at the end of the day, I’m mom first and the reason I made the choice to start a business was so that I could always be available to my family and for my children.
So, I’m delighted to be able to share with you, how I have set up a system that helps me manage my time most efficiently so that I can get the most done during my days to build my businesses around my family without compromise.
The first thing I strongly encourage is that you first believe in yourself. No matter what your business is, no matter if you’re a brand new business owner, a seasoned business owner or whether you are just thinking about taking that initial step towards starting a business, you have to believe in you. In order for anything to manifest from your dreams, you have to first believe in your own vision. It’s important for you to connect with your subconscious and envision exactly where you want your business to go in order for you to take the necessary first steps to getting there.
So, that should be your first step, even if your not sure of HOW you will make it happen, write down your goals anyway. Over time, this can help you develop your own road map to success. But for now, just commit to getting started.
My favorite business motto is Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan this is something I use for every new project or idea I have with my business and it’s something I encourage you to adopt as well, Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan.
Here are my 5 tips to effective Time Management
Tip # 1 Develop your Daily Method of Operation This is when you will want to determine and write down each task you need to perform each of the days you work your business that are necessary, for the daily operation of your business. The first set of tasks should be your income producing activities. These are the things that bring money into your business, for example: sales/or follow up calls to clients, product/service inquires via email, product presentation activities, anything that you do in your business on a daily basis to generate income.
Your next set of tasks should be those that will build your business. These could be things like, blogging, article marketing and social networking. These will be the tasks that get your business in front of your audience and help you gain exposure. Write down everything, and don’t worry about when you will fit it all in yet, we’ll cover that next, this is just determining WHAT you have to do.
Tip #2 Design Your Schedule What I like to do is use a blank monthly calendar and fill it in for the month. You can also do this on a weekly basis, it’s all about what works best for you. I know some of you may work a regular job and have children so the first thing you will need to do is include that into your schedule. Mark down the days and times your work your regular job, when you go to school, mark down the kids appointments and extracurricular activities, include all your family and personal activities for the month as best as you can.
The goal here is to have a visual that will help you better carve out the time you can commit to working your business. You can even color code the different activities if you want. After you’ve done that, you can then go ahead and include the days and times you are available to work your business. This will give you a clear idea of how you can adjust your schedule to fit your lifestyle. You’ll know by a quick glance, on what days and times you are able to plan and execute certain tasks for your business. (You can download a free calendar at www.printablecalendar.ca )
Tip #3 Plan Your Tasks and Prioritize Your Activities The next thing you can do to ensure you have a productive business day is to work from a To Do List. You can use a regular sheet of notebook paper and simply write down the tasks you need to get done for that particular day. I suggest you prioritize your tasks, tackling the ones that are most time consuming and beneficial to your business and working down from there. For example, I write articles, blog posts and newsletters before I conduct any social networking or checking email.
I normally do my list for the next day at the end of my current business day so when I get to my desk the next morning, I’m ready to go. I know there are some of you who may work your business at night or only on weekends, so again, it’s all about what works for you. This is also the time you can revisit your daily method of operation list and begin to incorporate those activities onto your To Do List.
I also find it very helpful to designate a specific time frame for each task so that I’m not spending too much time on twitter or Facebook for instance, when I could be writing a post for my blog. As you complete your tasks, you can cross them off your list and move on to the next one. It is very important to prioritize and have a good understanding of which activities bring the most value and benefit to your business and your customers.
Tip #4 Goal Setting and Project Management One of the most important steps to managing your time and being productive is learning how to set goals. Setting long term and short term goals when working on a project can help you get more done while helping you stay organized and focused on completing small chunks at a time. That way it’s not so overwhelming and can curve procrastination.
When you are ready to start a new project, again, you will need to write down your idea, Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan. During my project planning, whether it is a marketing campaign or blog series I want to do, I usually work back words. I write down what my objective is, or what it is I’m going to accomplish, I will write down the steps it will take for me to complete my project and most important, a goal is never complete without a DEADLINE!!
When you set a deadline, you eliminate procrastination and put yourself in the mindset of completion. Now you can break it down into small tasks, spread that out over a period of time and complete your project in pieces. Setting goals helps you get important things done.
Tip #5 Achieving Business Productivity How to be productive is a huge concern with many entrepreneurs who understand the value of implementing social media into their business building. What applies to me also applies to each of you and that is we must be willing to be disciplined. When you take on the role of “being the boss” you have to live up to the title.
Think about this for a minute…What makes it okay, for you to get up, 5 days a week at 7am, to be at a JOB for 9am, work hard for 8 hours of your day, to put money in someone else’s pocket yet, you don’t dedicate that same drive and desire for your OWN business? As women in business, we have to step our game up and stop treating our business like a hobby. You have to be disciplined and it’s okay if you have to learn it, because it is a skill. That’s why I said in the beginning, you have to believe in yourself, trust your vision, go with your passion and MAKE IT HAPPEN!! We all have to start some where. If you don’t know how to implement a certain aspect in your business, LEARN IT. If you need advice or help, SEEK IT. You are the boss, be accountable to yourself.
There are great tools that can help you leverage your time online. One of my favorites is HootSuite for twitter. It allows me to manage multiple twitter accounts, my Facebook fan pages, my Facebook profile page and my RSS feeds. I can schedule updates across my networks and plug in my blog feeds for them to go out automatically.
WordPress also offers this option to schedule posts. Sometimes if I know I’m going to have a busy week, I will write 3 blog posts in one day for that particular week and schedule them to post on my blog on different days. Another great tool is using an auto responder, MailChimp is my favorite, it’s free and you can send out pre-scheduled messages to your entire mailing list. You can pretty much set it and forget it and have an email marketing campaign working for you on complete auto pilot. Each of these tools provide a way for you to track website traffic and statistics so you can better utilize the marketing strategies that are working great and tweak the ones that aren't.
Another thing to help you stay productive in your business is to be aware of your habits that cause procrastination. One of my bad habits was having the need to keep checking my email and Facebook during my writing time. My plan would be to just skim through my messages and get down to work. But, before I knew it an hour would have went by and some how I ended up clicking a link somewhere and would be heavily involved in reading a blog post, then another and another.
So, to get the important work done, you need to learn how to eliminate your distractions while working. Close those social media tabs on your browser while you are working on something for your business, turn off the TV, the black berry, anything that can cause you to get distracted. Make a conscious effort, to do what is necessary to make the time you spend building your business most productive.
I teach women how to build a business with no-cost marketing because that’s how I built my business. I refused to let a limited income stop me from fulfilling my dreams and I want to tell you, that you can do the same thing. YES, you may have to work harder than your peers who may have a substantial marketing budget to start with. YES, you just might have to work longer hours then her, but that’s okay, because THIS is your business, your baby…make it happen! Be active in the growth of your business, always be willing to learn and be coachable. Find a mentor; connect with women who are where you want to be. Be a sponge, absorb everything they teach you.
You can not be afraid to ask for help, there are business women online who love to help other women reach their dreams and I just so happen to be one of them. You can only create greater opportunities for yourself and your business when you first learn how to align your vision with effective time management.
Tamyka Washington|TheCEOMamma
One of my goals for this year was to really step up my game when it comes to my business, Mocha Writer and my blog, For Colored Gurls. Doing this has required me to step out of my comfort zone which hasn't been the easiest thing because I'm a person who loooves stability. Some things I've done so far:
I recently learned the importance of putting my face and business out there and letting people know what I have to offer. The reason I hadn't really done so before is because I didn't want to be obnoxious or for people to think I was conceited or something. But, I realized I had to promote myself because no one else is going to, and I realized there is an art to selling oneself in an appropriate way. So, while it was a little weird for me initally, I'm getting used to it now.
Continue reading "Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone"...
~ Jamie
Brand support system number one is about the way in which you engage your customers. This is the process by which you create a path of attraction to your business. It's the way that you make it easy for prospects to meet you, to love what you do, to test drive your services. This might look like your current opt-in strategy. Or it may even be the type of events you host that attract people to your business.
