National Be Heard Day is here, AND WE ARE A PART OF IT! How cool is that!! To celebrate we are giving great bonuses to those who participate including a free 30 minute PR Coaching call & a PR Tip booklet that really rocks!
What is Be Heard Day .. The holiday was established in 2005, by publicity pro Shannon Cherry of Be Heard Solutions (www.beheardsolutions.com). She created the holiday to help entrepreneurs – like you – to find their voice, tell their story and be heard by using low-cost marketing tactics to promote their businesses.
And this year, she’s gotten together a great lineup of marketing pros, including me, to give away some of our secrets for free.
Questions and Answers from Diana Ennen & Jill Hart –
Hi Jill, I just found your website through my In Touch magazine. I am interested in a stay at home business but have no idea where to get started. It seems a little overwhelming. Can you help me get started?
I (Jill) can vividly remember that ‘overwhelmed’ feeling when I was trying to figure out what type of business I wanted to start. I knew that I wanted to be my own boss, have lots of flexibility and be home with my kids at the same time…and that’s about all I knew. Looking back, here’s what we’d suggest you do to get started:
Start with prayer – You may already be seeking God’s wisdom, but if not, we would encourage you to begin steadfastly seeking His wisdom on the matter.
Make a list (or two or three) – Lists can be helpful in a number of ways, especially our favorite – the pros and cons list. Lists can help you organize your thoughts and think through the many business ideas available to you. We encourage you to make lists to sort through your interests, your skills, and to help you find your passion. These things will determine the business path that you should start down. Be sure to include what experience you have too. It’s a combination of skills, experience, passions, ideas that lead to the right business.
Research – We say this alot, but we can really never say it enough: When looking into home-based business opportunities research is KEY. Spend a great deal of time researching the industry you want to go into. What’s great is that so many before you who have written how they have succeeded and you are able to use this to start your business. Look for books, blogs, teleseminars, teleclasses, ebooks, reports, etc. Follow those in the industry you want to belong on Twitter and Facebook and other social networks. Knowledge is power and in starting your business it can be priceless.
Starting your business can seem overwhelming, but it’s definitely worth it.
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What are your tips for starting a business and staying successful. I’d love to hear them! Post away. Diana Ennen
Ready for a great read? Online Bookstore Offers the Best in Ebooks, Fiction and How-To Books
Eager to read a great book, but no time to run to the bookstore? Then focus your sights on Virtual Word Publishing’s Online Bookstore at www.virtualwordpublishing.com. From sci-fi greats like Sledgehammer to business powerhouses like Virtual Assistant – The Series: Become a Highly Successful Sought After VA, you’ll find exactly what you are looking for here and with a quick click of the mouse, you can be reading away. What did we ever do before ebooks?
Ebooks are growing in popularity today, primarily because of the easy access. Who doesn’t want to order a book and have it within minutes? But most online bookstores agree that it is best to offer customers a combination of ebooks and regular books to meet everyone preferences.
What will you find at Virtual Word Publishing? Well, our fiction category features the highly acclaimed Sledgehammer, a gripping medical fiction thriller. This book sets theme in a Los Angeles emergency room where a patient is discovered to have symptoms consistent with smallpox. It is soon discovered that this is just the icing on the cake as a terrorist plot unfolds and the ER must act fast to stop the deadly attack. An awesome plot and characters you grow to love, make you eagerly await every page. This book has received numerous five star reviews and begs to ask the question, “What if?”
Our Children’s book category features the beautifully illustrated Children’s book, Zip, Burp and Hula. This book is an inspiring story of a trio of friends who meet, learn the value of friendship, and also find that together anything is possible. Sure to become a bedtime favorite and the best part is that it is accompanied by a paint-by-number and coloring book so kids can enjoy the characters even more. Oh, speaking of characters, did we mention the characters consist of a Chameleon, a burping bullfrog, and a dancing dragonfly? What kid wouldn’t want to connect with that trio?
Words From Home: Start Run and Profit from a Home-Based Word Processing Business takes you step by step through the process of starting your own home-based word processing business or secretarial service, including typing, medical or legal transcription. Updated regularly, this book has assisted thousands in turning their administrative skills into a profitable home-based business.
The Book of the Month is Virtual Assistant the Series, Become a Highly Successful Sought After VA; a complete reference guide that will lead you on your journey to running a successful virtual assistant business. What is a virtual assistant? Virtual Assistants are highly skilled professionals, working as independent contractors, who provide publicity, administrative support and other specialized services to authors, businesses, entrepreneurs, executives and sales professionals to name a few. Virtual Assistant the Series is considered one of the leading books in the VA Industry.
All this and more can be found here. Just stop by the bookstore at http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and start on your reading adventure. You are guaranteed to experience some entertaining and informative reading. Plus, check out the many free books available including a sample of a cookbook for busy moms.
About Virtual Word Publishing: Offering a complete online bookstore with a great selection of business and how-to books, children’s books and CDs, fiction books, etc. Virtual Word Publishing specializes in books on how to start a virtual assistant business. Also, Virtual Word Publishing offers marketing and publicity, and partners with clients to get the best results from their marketing campaigns. From writing press releases, to establishing a complete media campaign, Virtual Word Publishing gets the publicity your products/services deserve. http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com
Jill Hart, owner of CWAHM.com, and I work together on several projects, including our new book “So You Want To Be A Work from Home Mom” (you can learn more about this book here). Well, Jill’s at it again, this time she has been interviewed over at Momlogic.com on the topic of “Mentoring”, specifically “Working with a Mentor”. I believe you will enjoy this interview, just click here!
Do you work with a mentor? Have you ever worked with a mentor? I’d love to hear about your experience, please leave a comment below!
Jill Hart and I are thrilled that our book, So You Want to Be a Work at Home Mom has featured here on SmallBiz from VistaPrint. Please click here to view the entire article!
Hope you come to our Super Bowl Twitter Party Friday February 5 1 to 3 EST.
Hashtag #entsbp
Also though you might enjoy these recipes. Want a copy of our Bizymoms Cookbook – Email me at diana@virtualwordpublishing.com
SPINACH DIP
1 pkg. frozen spinach
1 container Vegie soup – Nors
Helmans mayo (enough to cover)
Sour cream
Mix all ingredients together and chill. Serve with Hawaiian bread. For a lower cal version use low cal mayo and sour cream.
POTATO SKINS
Potatoes
8 ounces Cheddar Cheese
1 cup Soup Cream
Chopped Green Onions
Cut potatoes into quarters lengthwise and scoop out the pulp. Spray potatoes in cooking spray and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, turning twice. Remove from oven and top with dressings.
MINI MEATBALLS
1 pound ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp. soy sauce
4 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. minced onion
Dash garlic salt
Dash ground ginger
Combine soy sauce, 1 tablespoon water, sugar, onion, garlic salt and ginger. Mix meat and crumbs and then stir in the soy sauce mixture. Shape into 1 inch balls. You can then deep fry them or bake them in the oven for 20 minutes at 350.
EVERYONE’S FAVORITE CHICKEN WINGS
Chicken wings (as many as you can fit!)
Apricot preserves – 12 oz.
Catalina salad dressing – 1 sm. bottle
Onion soup Mix – 1 packet
Mix the apricot preserves, Catalina dressing, and Onion soup in a large bowl. Add the wings and let marinate for about 4 hours. I like to let them sit overnight. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil (these get pretty messy). Place the chicken wings on the cookie sheet, as many as you can fit. Cook at 450° for about 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and then cook for 20 minutes.
Also, business tips that relate to football will be provided during the event. If you have any tips, email me – diana@virtualwordpublishing.com or leave a comment below.
Like run for a touchdown by always marketing your business, even when you have clients.
Avoid a fumble by preparing ahead.
Also, we are looking for more prize donations. Whether it’s an half an hour of your services, a book, ebook, report, etc., we’d love to be able to have it as a prize and also to give more exposure for your site.
Diana Ennen is the President of Virtual Word Publishing, www.virtualwordpublishing.com where she specializes in publicity and marketing, will be a guest
I will be a guest over at Cedar Valley Publishing with Stacey Kannenber on January 20, 2010.
You are invited to join us! Visit The New Toginet Radio page here
Virtual Word Publishing, Inc.
She’s also the co-author of numerous books including So You Want to Work at Home Mom: The Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business and Virtual Assistant – The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA and accompanying Workbook . Diana loves publicity and thrives on getting media attention both for herself and for her clients.
