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What would happen in your business if your emails were no longer welcome anywhere on the Internet? How would it impact your business if every email you sent bounced back "undeliverable to recipient"?  I know the answer, because this has happened to me. It's nothing short of a nightmare and it's not easy to fix.

With email marketing being such a popular medium of marketing, I thought it a good idea to share some of what can go wrong with email marketing and how to avoid it.

1. Use an email service provider like constant contact(Free 60 Day Trial Below). Sending email blasts from your personal email account or from a home office will likely result in your Internet service provider blocking you from sending emails. there are limits to the number of emails you can send a day from a personal email account or a home internet account (i.e. @comcast, @aol, @cox). I one time did an email blast to 250 people through my Comcast internet service and they blocked my account so I could no longer send emails and I was sending from my business account, not my@comcast account!!! It didn't matter that I knew every person Read the rest of this entry »

I've been attending a lot of networking events lately and I am surprised at how many people do not actually seem to take advantage of the time invested in attending networking events. Here's five easy ways to blow it at your next networking event or mixer.

1. Show up without business cards! I was recently at a small business conference and was so surprised at the number of people who did not have a business card to exchange with me. NOTE: Make sure you Include your headshot on your business card. People who attend networking events meet a lot of people, your headshot on your business card will make you much more rememberable and much more familiar. It's easy to remember the face of the person you had a conversation with versus trying to find a person by name in a stack of business cards.

2. Don't prepare or practice an elevator pitch about what you do. People show up at networking events to meet people they can either do business with directly or network with to find themselves at either end of a business transaction, including having given a referral. If you can't clearly articulate what you do and the benefits of what you do in less than 30 seconds, you need to practice, OUT-LOUD over and over, in front of your WebCam is even better. Practice answering the question "what do you do" until you get it perfect, concise, and consistent.
My elevator pitch: "PrinterBees is a full-service on-line marketing company, we do everything from design, print and promotional item marketing. We help our clients create marketing plans and strategies and then execute on them to get them consistent. The best way a business can use Read the rest of this entry »

My suggested reading list is pretty big, I read as many books as I can get my hands on and have time to read.  These books are recent reads and definite favorites.  These books are not only interesting, but are like text books for small business.  Talk about eye opening and enlightening.  The time INVESTMENT spent reading these books will pay back 100 fold.  Trust me, I've seen it first hand in my own business.  We're growing at a rapid speed thanks to some of what I've learned in these great books!  The complete reading list can be found here: Recommended Reading

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference There is a point where a decision is made in one direction or another…."a tipping point".  Fads are started and things go viral at a certain "tipping point".  This book explains how tipping points happen, how to create them and how to bring your business to the next level by creating your own tipping points.  The examples and explanations in this book are familiar and having why fads and trends happen in great detail is not only completely fascinating, it gives readers direction on things than can be changed to grow a business.  This book is so interesting, I could not put it down! Read the rest of this entry »

Printing out your name on a strip of paper with your email address on it, is NOT a business card! Um….it's tacky and it'sbetter to hand out nothing! The more networking events I attend, the more offended I am at what some business owners hand me when I ask to exchange business cards. I have recently returned from Infusioncon 2012 (AMAZING small business conference!) and was finally able to get through the stack of business cards I collected for following up. We met some really great people and it was wonderful to be surrounded by so many amazing small business owners, what an experience. I do however have a "pet peeve" about some of the business cards in that stack. One of the "business cards" handed to me was a "printed out scrap of paper" with a name and email address…that's it! That's not a business card, it's a scrap of paper!!!! Arghhh So unprofessional! See the "scrap of paper"…That's the "business card" Daniel handed me…I'm not making this stuff up…I swear!

I've said it so many times, but here I go again..I'm going to ask you the "tough questions" about business cards in your business.

• How can anyone take your business seriously and actually want to do business with you when you haven't made the small investment ($69) in business cards for your business? Read the rest of this entry »
  

In January of 2013, the county of Alameda, Ca will begin an ordinance regarding single use shopping bags. Stores will be required to charge a .10 fee anytime a single use bag is used at checkout. How is this a marketing opportunity? People LOVE their reusable bags and feel good about using them. One woman I met recently told me that she made sure to collect reusable bags at every opportunity she could, especially at trade shows, they were her favorite marketing give away.

Reusable woven shopping bags are inexpensive, will be the "new normal" and are seen every-time someone goes shopping. Imagine having a really unique shopping bag, that people wanted to get their hands on to carry around while shopping. For retail stores…perfect! I was Read the rest of this entry »

In an economy where the unemployment rate is so high, you'd think it would be easy to find amazing talent to fill open positions, and for less than it would have cost in salary just a few years back. I was prompted to write this article by an article I read in Inc Magazine…here's the link. It's a good article with some great tips. 5 tips to hiring the right people. http://t.co/uMCGiAjy

The reason I didn't simply retweet it was because I had a few more tips of my own I wanted to add. I've gotten pretty good at hiring the right people (I founded/owned a recruiting company at

Read the rest of this entry »

Are you dreaming or doing? I had an amazing night filled with meeting new people and a lot of networking. I listened to a great talk on networking and how to do it

correctly. I didn't know networking could be done incorrectly, I was set straight on the subject by an expert in networking during his seminar. You learn something new everyday, today I learned I'm not networking correctly.

Come to find out, passing out business cards is not considered networking! Who knew? I'm being a bit sarcastic, but I definitely had a lot to learn about how to effectively network, because collecting business cards isn't networking either.

Networking is when you connect businesses with other businesses, without expecting a referral in return. When you consider the theory of reciprocity, it makes perfect sense, it all comes back around. It Read the rest of this entry »

When I see a drastic price change, I feel obligated to make sure I let you know, and prices on notepads just had a dramatic decrease and they're on promotion…It's almost like a "double coupon"! The savings is about 75%. Here's the pricing:

4 X 3 Adhesive Notepads - now only .25 cents ea.

4 X 6 Non-Adhesive Notepads - now only .35 cents ea.

4 X 6 Adhesive Notepads - now only .44 cents ea.

The notepads are printed in full color and there is no set up fee when you provide print ready artwork.

That's only $125 for 500 4X3 notepads
The minimum order is 500, there is a set up fee for non-print ready artwork.
Click Here To Order NotePads Now

P.S. These notepads are a perfect marriage with the promotion on custom imprinted pens at only .30 cents ea. (NO set up fees*). That's only $75 for 250 pens! (*When you provide print ready artwork or straight line text).

Read the rest of this entry »

We recently hired a college student to help out with data entry work we'd been unable to get done that was resulting in a growing stack of business cards. When attending a lot of networking events, you collect a lot of business cards!

You'd assume that your average college student isn't likely to have big opinions about business cards, the quality of the business card, what's printed on it or the multitude of other things many would notice when handed a business card. That wasn't the case as she went through the cards.

I was quite amused to watch this gal work through the large stack of business cards and her reaction to what she came across in that stack. When business cards are stacked, it's not difficult to tell the cheap business cards from the ones designed and printed professionally. No work or life experience necessary, it's simply obvious. It's no different than wine tasting and if you've ever been wine tasting you know what I mean. You don't need to know much about wine to tell the difference between a good glass and a not so good glass when given the opportunity to taste and COMPARE wine side by side.

Please keep these tips in mind the next time you hand out business cards:

1. Include your name: Yes, she came across business cards that didn't have the person's name on it. You had to "guess" the name based on the email address. Have no idea the last name is, it too was missing and not part of the email address.
2. Card stock matters: As she worked through the pile, she found cards printed on flimsy paper. She would hold them up by the edge and look at them as they wilted over with a big question mark over her head. The look on her face said "are you kidding me"?  Make sure your business cards are printed on nothing less than a 14 pt. cover stock.
3. Might be good to include a phone number: She had business cards that didn't have phone numbers on them. Enough said.

4. Vista Print on the back of the business card: It definitely didn't add up for her as she came across business cards with Vista Print printed on one side, trying to figure out who or what the card was for. Shouldn't the only name/company name printed on the card belong to the person handing them out? Tacky…tacky…tacky.  The cards even say the were "free" on the back, making it that more obvious.
5. Perforated edges: The print at home business cards are easy to spot in a stack no matter how clean the edges tear. A perforated card is a perforated card and it's always obvious it was printed at home. What some people may not know is that it's cheaper to have business cards professionally printed than it is to use business card design templates from Avery or MS Publisher and print them yourself. Way more expensive! Just do the math on a price per card, not to mention the cost of ink, it's a huge rip off! Pardon the pun.

6. MS Publisher and DIY design tools are NOT design tools for business. Those types of programs should be reserved for picnics and kids soccer games or school events. NOT business.
7. Crossed out information: There were plenty of cards in that stack with hand written numbers and email addresses to correct what was printed wrong on the card. I don't believe in waste, but it's tacky, especially when handed out at a networking event and so easily compared to others.

Business cards matter…big time! Business cards give people a first impression that is either good or bad. Avoid having "tacky business cards" by having them designed and printed by a professional. PrinterBees designs, prints and delivers 1000 business cards for $69.99. Designed and delivered for $69.99 and it's on nice thick 14pt card stock that stands out for all the right reasons.

Add a free QR Code (generated for you) to the back of any business card free (includes free double sided printing, with coupon)*. Use coupon code: BLG.QRC.3.2012

*Free backside printing limited to the QR Code and one color as a design element. Additional design elements can be added for a small additional fee.