Speaking of New Year’s Resolutions, how many years have you pondered the notion of starting up your own business, envisioning a day comprised of doing what you love and loving what you do, working on your own schedule, developing your skills and talents and channeling them through a product or service you want to stand behind, yet you never took steps to realize your business venture because you, like so many like you were trapped beneath your own self-defeating ideas about your dream. “I can’t _____________, I don’t know where to begin, I don’t have the start up capital,” etc…simply fill in the blank. I’m sure this sounds familiar, right?

I have some good news for you, you can…if you desire it, you were meant to manifest it, and furthermore, start-up capital isn’t necessary. I know this seems simply too good to be true, but it is true, nonetheless. Today’s business idea, marketing plan, industry venture doesn’t begin with thousands of dollars in merchandise imprinted with logos and mailed willy-nilly to hundreds of faceless “potential” clients. Today’s market is a virtual market, and it all begins with you, your good ideas, a computer with Internet connection and Gettingthewordout.com. The idea behind Getting The Word Out is the saving grace for any start-up small and mid-sized business, regardless of your product, your location or your demographic, and it begins with one simple concept…guerilla marketing! The small business market has its advantages; small markets are conducive to maintaining intimate relationships with clients and acquiring low-cost publicity. However, the critical concept behind guerilla marketing requires ingenuity, time and creativity on the part of the small-business entrepreneur.

Guerilla marketing emphasizes concentrating on developing relationships with current loyal customers, rather than focusing on acquiring a homogenized new customer-base. The catch-word here is “quality” marketing. The small-business owner, utilizing guerilla marketing tactics, must create a “standard” of excellence and mainstream their product or service, rather than developing a business with diverse and unfocused services or products.

With an emphasis on “personalizing” the relationship between business owner and customer, much latitude exists within the realm of technology to bring this technique to fruition. Developing an effective Website, utilizing Email Autoresponders and maintaining “constant contact” with your customer-base is the proven, workable marketing method behind guerrilla marketing, and accounts for its unequivocal success for the past 20+ years. But you don’t need to take my word for it, visit www.gettingthewordout.com and familiarize yourself with this profoundly effective guerrilla marketing blog for invaluable tips and step-by-step procedures to bring your small business into the 21st century of effective guerilla marketing!

Tis the season for quality family time, overindulgence and general holiday cheer. As such, for most of us, those areas of our life so many of us struggle to discipline ourselves in throughout the year, whether it be maintaining general health and fitness or managing our business with success can frequently fall to the way-side, replaced by a general sense of uninhibited merriment. With the approach of the New Year, often comes the internal need to re-commit our selves to those things we value, the diet, our friendships, and our business ventures. As such, reconnecting with your client-base via both direct and e-marketing mail campaigns to bring in the New Year can create a sense of camaraderie and refortification of your shared vision…business success!

As such, a direct mailer or email to your client pool emphasizing your goals for their business or service needs for the New Year can build morale and help in reassessing customer need. A simple spirit-boosting note with strong action verbs, as well as an itemized list of your goals for your customers’ success reminds your clients that maintaining that relationship and providing the services or products they have come to rely on is your primary goal for 2008!

The Email Autoresponder or auto email is a proven efficient and effective promotional tool that meets the needs of both your client and your business via automated Emails, Eblasts, Enewsletters and the like, customized with your own unique brand and sent automatically to your client-base by way of a virtual contact database. With the trend of Email Autoresponder marketing came a plethora of on-line services specifically designed to assist the business owner with developing catchy, colorful e-marketing templates. Many of these services provide dozens of aesthetically pleasing templates for promotional mail-outs, coupons, newsletters, formal introductory letters, holiday mailers and scores of e-marketing tools designed to strengthen the relationship between you and your clients.

In addition to Email updates, Email Autoresponders allow you as a business owner to respond to customer questions, comments and feedback, sent to your business email account, as well as those questions posted directly to your website. Email Autoresponders generate unique templates, which can respond to specific questions, technical support and the like then send these email responses out to the client directly. Simply designate an email specifically for customer questions, and encourage your client-base to post their questions and concerns to this specific address. Then, generate an automated response that contains answers to the most commonly asked client questions. Gone are the days of wading through hundreds of customer emails and drafting response after response, one request at a time. Email Autoresponder services do the legwork for you!

Email Autoresponders can also be used to assist you in gathering customer email addresses for future Eblast or Enewsletter mail-outs. Once again, simply designate a unique email address that will capture visitor email addresses and post it on your website. Visitors to your website can post their client information and you have now manufactured a client-list to send e-marketing material to in the future!

When considering which Email Autoresponder service to utilize, you can opt for a free service, or one that will charge a nominal monthly fee. It is recommended to pay that small monthly fee (approximately $15-$19/mo.). Free services often bring with them the headache of unwanted advertisements, which are included in your business mail-outs to customers. As such, these mail-outs can, and often are considered SPAM; certainly not the most effective way of building customer relations. Best to pay this nominal fee and allow an Email Autoresponder service help you to build your on-line marketing tools!

Yes, that’s right…after four months in development I will be launching my new site. It was time to step up and raise the bar on my own marketing and promotional efforts. I spend so much time working with clients in building their individual brand and concentrating on their individual needs and wants that I was ignoring the options I have to take care of my own. Well, even in my part-time I have been able to sell just over 10,000 books in the last 5-6 months. Therefore, this leads me into the topic of today:

Today’s business is an on-line business. No, I’m not simply referring to those small web-based businesses offering web-based products, I’m referring to any business; whether it be a small-market-based local business or a large urban-based synchronistic business. No matter the type of business they must be combining both in-house and on-line services and products. Regardless of your personal business venture, if you’re not on-line, you’re simply not in the game. That being said, the business owner of today does him/herself a great service by familiarizing themselves with the most prolific and cutting-edge on-line marketing technologies. The list of on-line marketing tools is virtually endless (no pun intended), but with a little help from your friends here at Gettingthewordout.com, you too can familiarize yourself with those virtual tools that serve your business needs most effectively.

(to be continued)

Have you thought about your goals for 2008 yet? Better yet, have your written your goals down and defined them specifically? Its one thing to set goals, it quit another to achieve them. If done correctly you can achieve and possibly exceed any goal that you set for yourself be it Blogging or some other aspect of your life.

Here are some effective ways to set, monitor and track your goals.

Make your resolutions goals – Have you ever noticed how most resolutions are made. Lets use the one I hear the most as an example. “I am going to loose weight and live a healthier lifestyle.” Its not a bad resolution to have its just that most people blurt these words out and can’t back it with a plan. I go to the gym and there are twice the number of people, then slowly the number of people start diminishing. So why do they fail? Because they didn’t stop long enough to plan this out properly. Do you want to know how to avoid this mistake? Then keep reading.

Write down precise goals – Write down precise, attainable, measurable goals. Keeping them as short as possible to see results is key. This will help you stay on track and measure your progress.

Use smaller goals to achieve larger goals – If you chip away at a large goal by accomplishing smaller actionable items you stand a much greater chance of meeting your goals.

Keep it in front of you – Keeping your goals in front of you will help keep you on track. Put them in your planner or on your computer where you can read them every day as a reminder to keep your priorities in order. Another good method is to record your voice and listen to your statement on your MP3 player every morning and night to remind yourself of what your goals are.
These goal setting tips are all things that work for me when I set out to accomplish new goals. Feel free to use them or modify them to work for you. If you have tips for setting and attaining your goals please feel free to share them with us.