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A little in your face, yes, but that’s the tagline for a networking group I joined late last year. It’s called “biznik” and if you are looking for networking events where people actually want to know who you are, not just whether you are a good client for them, biznik is a great alternative to the networking groups that are speaking to fewer and fewer people these days. Continue Reading »

Kurt Vonnegut died lastnight. He was a great example of someone doing his own thing and being successful with all of his quirks and eccentricities. Vonnegut found a style he could own because it was genuine and a true reflection of his personality.

If you do your thing like everyone else does it, you’ll simply blend in and people will forget about you. But when you really stick your neck out Continue Reading »

Many business owners are afraid of offending their cell phone-wielding customers by posting a “no cell phone policy” in their place of business. They don’t consider that these customers are actually hurting—not helping—business. Continue Reading »

Are you the reason the post office stays open until midnight on April 15th?

Is your idea of logging your miles, basically, not to log your miles?

Do you dig through piles to find everything you need at tax time?

Do the letters I R S give you the willies?

If so, you are not alone. Most business owners have anxiety about the IRS—not because Continue Reading »

We are three months into the new year. How many ideas have you come up with for projects you want to create? For articles or stories you want to write? For products you want to design? For career directions you could take? For business improvements?

You can generate ideas–great ideas–until the cows come home. But what happens once you have a million ideas? Continue Reading »

There’s a lot of bad marketing out there. You know: Marketing that irritates you or insults your intelligence or that simply doesn’t speak to you. I looked to Aretha Franklin for some inspiration in writing this one. Be grateful there is no sound with this article—I am tone deaf. Continue Reading »

“We can evade reality but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.” ~ Ayn Rand

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” ~ Aldous Huxley

It’s always easier to find what you need if you are not in the dark. And don’t we move more confidently and freely when our path is lit? But what we do with our businesses and our projects is that we keep ourselves in the dark about certain things. Maybe they are areas where we feel a little insecure or afraid to know the truth.

So let’s take a look at your project or business…Where are you keeping yourself in the dark? Continue Reading »

People who dare to start a small business or creative project are by nature very independent. You want to do it all yourself. Maybe you file your own taxes, clean and organize your office/studio, created your own website, designed your logo, wrote your marketing materials and you somehow do everything else Continue Reading »

I take trumpet lessons from a wise man, Tony Grasso, who told me one day as I was racing through the music, “The rests are as important as the notes.” He’s right. Without those rests, the music would be painful to hear—a continuous cacophony that could not be sustained. The rests create a pulse, the rests are integral to the melody and the rests allow the musician to take a breath so she can go on. So why don’t we respect the rests and take time for them more often? Continue Reading »

Studies show that people over-estimate what they can accomplish in a day and at the same time under-estimate what they can accomplish in a year. You’ve probably experienced this on the daily level, not getting to everything on your to-do list and feeling a bit defeated. At the same time, Continue Reading »

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