5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Holidays

Photo Credit: shutterstock.com

Worried about funding your holidays because of the recession? Thinking about cutting back? While saving for the rainy day might be smart in a tough economy, it definitely doesn't make for a fun holiday season. Therefore, it's important to take action now and learn how to recession proof your holidays so you can enjoy them.

Tip #1 Potluck your holiday meals
When getting together with family, friends or co-workers for holiday meals and parties, don't take on the burden of paying for the entire meal. Let your guests bring their favorite holiday dish. Make it fun by having a contest or making it a recipe swap.

Tip #2 Raid the Local Dollar Store or Goodwill
You will be surprised by the kinds of holiday items they sell including wrapping paper, wreaths, ornaments, table runners and stocking stuffers. These small items can really add up at major retailers so saving here can allow you to spend more on bigger presents for your loved ones.

Big Name Companies Opt for Simple Logo Designs: Should You Follow the Trend?

EBay recently joined other big names like Microsoft and Apple not for a new release of a mini tablet or operating system but for remodeling their iconic logo. This has many business owners looking at their own brand and wondering if there is merit to this trend.

Deven Wenig, president of eBay, had this to say about the logo:

Our refreshed logo is rooted in our proud history and reflects a dynamic future. It’s eBay today: a global online marketplace that offers a cleaner, more contemporary and consistent experience, with innovation that makes buying and selling easier and more enjoyable. We retained core elements of our logo, including our iconic color palette. Our vibrant eBay colors and touching letters represent our connected and diverse eBay community – more than 100 million active users and 25 million sellers globally and growing.
 

Obviously when a business decides to change their logo - risk is involved as well as re-branding numerous products including everything from websites to sales materials to the sign on the building. However, as most small businesses look to the big names as examples, it's hard to miss the current trend.

Simple...is in!

Learn from the World Series and Super Bowl to Motivate Your Small Business to Win!

Millions of people tune in by radio, television and streaming feed to watch SPORTS. The 'big game' draws more attention than other events such as a politial debate, breaking international news or even a natural disaster. As a country, we're probably not ashamed to say it - we're sports obesessed. We applaud and celebrate the shot, the stop, the drive...the winning play that made history. Some even experience agony when their beloved team does the unthinkable...they lose.

There are critics who argue that sports pay hommage to inflated salaries and offer a distraction from real life but when it comes to business - sports might have a few points worth taking notice.

Goal Oriented Excellence

Every year, thirty-two NFL teams compete for the chance to be in the Super Bowl (one of the most watched televised events ever). Thirty MLB teams take aim at a shot of playing in the World Series. For Basketball, it's all about the Finals and for Hockey, the Stanley Cup reigns supreme. The winners receive praise, parades, record book titles, tons of confetti and possibly a shower from a cooler full of gatorade.

10 Tips to Public Speaking Like a Business Pro

At some point - as an entrepreneur - you will need to speak. You cannot hide in the background forever - whether it's introducing yourself at a business meet up or presenting to your staff - you will need to speak in front of a group of people. Odds are you will need to sell a product or a service or an idea and it all hinges on this one speech. After you read our 10 tips below - you'll be speaking like a pro!

Before You Speak

1. What do they want? How can you help them specifically?

Most polished public speakers will tell you that the first question you should always ask yourself before taking a speaking job is "Does this audience want what I've got?" Now, you're not exactly a professional public speaker but that doesn't mean you can't learn from the pros. Even when making a presentation to a leads group or Chamber of Commerce - know your audience. What do they need? What do you offer that will make a difference to them. Audiences are self-centered so everything you say needs to be tuned to what they need to hear.

4 Steps to Handling Negative Online Reviews

If you work with small businesses like us you start to recognize the cries for help when a usually spotless reputation shows the dark mark of an almost unspeakable villain...the unhappy customer.

"Yelp! I've Gotten a Bad Review - Now What?"

We understand your plight. Used to be that when you or your employee had a bad day that affected a customer or a product malfunctioned - you only had to worry about who that individual could tell in their circle of friends. Now with the advent of the internet and jumbo review sites like Yelp.com - you have to worry that one bad experience could haunt you for the rest of your career (or worse lead to the end of it)

So what do you do when your business gets a bad review on user sites like Yelp?

5 Reasons to Participate in Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday 2012 is November 24th, less than 2 months away! If your a small business you might be teetering on the fence of whether you should participate in this annual "Shop Small" Extravaganza. Maybe you're a new entrepreneur. Perhaps you've heard rumors or noticed the television ads sponsored by American Express.

The time to leap off the fence is here and we've got 5 Reasons you should throw your hat in on Small Business Saturday!

1. Be a part of a Nationwide Campaign

American Express sponsors Small Business Saturday which means (drumroll)....MONEY! This is a huge nationwide marketing campaign pushing consumers (ie: YOUR customers) to shop their local businesses on Saturday, November 24th (Why that Saturday? Black Friday is the day before and Cyber Monday is not far behind). Think of how much it costs to run television ads, direct mail, run social media campaigns and spread the word - now imagine that ALL of that is being done for you. All you have to do is tell all of your customers and clients that you're participating and then be open for business that day.

Creating Landing Pages with Squidoo

According to Squidoo.com...

Squidoo makes it easy to build custom pages about the things you know and love

On Squidoo, you can write a page. A single webpage, focused on a single topic.

Then you can build another page. And another one. And another. Each page on a different interest. Tell a story, recommend a product you love, share an experience you had, teach someone something, pay tribute to a person you admire (an author, band, your mom... ) and so much more.

We call these pages lenses because they snap your point of view into focus. It's simple to write a lens. And of course, it's free. Even if you build 100 of them! You can also start to earn royalties from your writing, when the pages earn their way up in the site and when readers start interacting with them.

So how could this help your business?

Well as much as we like the idea and cool verbiage of a "lens" you could also think of these pages as landing pages that could help bring people to you! A landing page is a page on a website that concentrates on one idea or one product or one service with a push to get the visitor to do something (ie: click a link, visit another page, buy now, become a fan, share etc).

Alt Code Cheat Sheet for Business

Sometimes, when writing a blog or social media post - you need a symbol. It could be the ♂ or Φ or ♥ or maybe even £. Going through your document software to insert the symbol can be annoying or depending on your comfort level - downright impossible. And in cases of social media - you don't get those kind of formatting options.

Cue the Alt Codes

We've all seen a friend or colleague use a little ♫ here or a cute ☼ there or maybe reference the Chinese Yen ¥ easily in an email. Now you can also look cool (and of course, professional) by using alt codes.

Contents:
• How to make an alt code
• Popular alt codes we recommend
• Link to the cheat sheet on Pinterest