North San Diego Business@Large

Join me when the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce holds their First Friday Breakfast next Friday, December 7th at the Hilton Garden Inn. Chamber President Ted Owen and outgoing Chairman of the Board, Paul Thompson will acknowledge the volunteer business owners who provide invaluable assistance to the Chamber.

This is a great networking breakfast that attracts between 100 and 130 business owners each month. Make sure to bring business cards for the networking table, and of course, the networking at your breakfast table.

Are you ready to make 2008 your best year ever? I know I am, so I took Eric Lofholm up on his offer to attend a FREE Sales and Success Boot Camp this weekend in Newport Beach.

2008 is right around the corner. Now is the time to prepare for the best year of your life. The best way I know how to start the year off strong is to end the year strong. So I’m thrilled to share this great opportunity to do that by attending Eric’s Sales and Success Boot Camp on December 1 and 2 in Newport Beach, California.

Here are 5 reasons you must be there this weekend.

1. There is no charge for the event.
2. My two mentors will be teaching the event with me, Dr. Moine and Tony Martinez. The lowest price Dr. Moine and I have ever offered a boot camp is $995. There is no charge for this event.
3. I will be sharing success ideas I have never shared in a public seminar before.
4. The timing is perfect to help you end the year strong and start of 2008 even stronger.
5. I have hired the best DJ in town to keep the energy high all weekend.

Here is a list of just a few of the topics that will be discussed:

• The goal setting technique that changed my life
• The fastest easiest way to increase your sales results
• My latest thinking about time management that has me more productive and organized than ever
• The new idea I just learned that is going to 4x my business in 2008
• A simple way to get too many leads
• And much, much more!

This event is going to be awesome!

You will be so glad you attended at the end of the event. This is your chance to learn from the "gurus" at no charge.

Reserve your seat by going to http://www.ericlofholm.com/successbootcamp.php

A few years ago I was approached by Sheryl Roush, Sparkle Presentations, and asked to contribute to her Heart of a Woman book.  I, along with many other women in the business community provided inspirational passages, humorous and serious stories, as well as poems. It may have started with Heart of a Woman, but it certainly didn’t end there.  It was followed by Heart of a Mother. Rounding out the trilogy is the newest release….

On Tuesday, December 6th, many of the contributors to Sheryl’s newest release, Heart of the Holidays, will gather for a book signing at the Borders in Chula Vista. There they will be autographing and reading their original stories and poems !

Come do your shopping and get these gift books for everyone on your holiday list!!!

Contributors reading December 4th include:

Maria Carter (Heart of a Mother)
Jane Cohen (Heart of a Woman, Heart of a Mother)
Darlene Fahl-Brittian (Heart of a Mother, Heart of the Holidays)
Terri Hall, flying out with her daughter from Iowa
    (Heart of a Mother, and Heart of the Holidays)
Shenay Kloss, age 14 (Heart of a Mother, Heart of the Holidays)
Debbi McGill  (Heart of a Mother)
Teresa Kuffel (Heart of the Holidays)
Adria Manary (Heart of a Woman, Heart of a Mother)
Debra Simpson (Heart of a Mother, Woman)
James Tucker (Heart of a Mother, Heart of the Holidays)
Rev. Uki MacIsaac (Heart of the Holidays)
Michelle Weisser (Heart of the Holidays)
Carlee Westbrook (Heart of the Holidays)

Making a guest appearance is Beverly Roush, resident of the area and mother of Sheryl Roush. I’ll be podcast ing from the event. You can look forward to hearing authors reading the contributions in their own voice! It promises to be a lively, and lovely, evening.

So, the details…..

Tuesday, December 4 - 7:00-10:00pm
Borders Chula Vista    (Mapquest)
Village at Eastlake Shopping Center
878 Eastlake Parkway, Suite 210
Chula Vista, CA 91914
Store Phone: 619.482.9883
Located east of I-125 and I-805, off Otay Lakes Road

Come by and meet Sheryl, grab some books for holiday gifts (I did), and ask the 13 authors to sign their contributions. Besides, you’ll be meeting some great people!

Branding has been a huge "buzz" word in the business realm in today’s society. Many companies and business people believe that branding is just a logo and copy written about the company to be sent to the customer or potential customer to entice them to buy. This is only a mere fraction of what the total concept of branding is.

Several weeks ago I attended a SCORE workshop cosponsored  be Hewlett Packard on disaster planning for the small to mid size  business owner. Little did I think that within weeks San Diego businesses would be needing this information, much less having  to already put it to use.

As small business owners we have all invested significant time and resources into getting our business where they are today. Disasters that threaten a business can happen at any time – sometimes damage is isolated, sometimes catastrophic.

 At least one-fourth of all businesses that close because of a disaster never reopen. Small businesses are especially vulnerable, because few of them have the resources or knowledge to assess disaster risks and develop comprehensive mitigation and recovery  plans. That’s why the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)  offers a variety of tools in its Open for Business sm series for small  business owners to both reduce their potential for loss should disaster strike and to reopen quickly should they be forced to close.

As some of you know Mind Masters is all about having a plan, however this is not the planning I do with my members. So I want to introduce everyone to the forms that the Institute for Business and Home Safety has put together. As you begin to gather the information, the forms, when completed, will provide you with a customized business continuity plan. 

Many have data bases with employee, customer, vendor/supplier and key contacts.

1. Make sure they are backed up and available.  Without electricity or access to the internet this information may need to be in hard copy.
2. Take time to identify your critical business functions which are crucial to your survival and resumption  of operations.
3. Make a list of the items you need to perform those functions as well as the equipment that will assure that work can be done.

You can find the forms for all this needed information on the IBHS web site, www.disastersafety.org/business_protection/ or download the 47 page pdf booklet at http://www.ibhs.org/docs/OpenForBusiness.pdf.

The Challenge: Begin to plan your recovery program today. Take one step at a time, it is critical to move forward.

For more than twenty-five years Barbara Eldridge has been contributing to other people’s business success. Her many years experience in the corporate world provided her with knowledge, insight and presence to help thousands of entrepreneurial men and women nurture their business ventures into thriving successes.

Barbara founded Mind Masters in 1991 as an organization for entrepreneurs to master the challenges they face in an ever-changing market place. Barbara has a vision of Mind Masters to provide a value based program so that business owners could harness the power of each members’ success, make wise business decisions and realize their dreams.

Carlsbad Chamber November Sundowner

All my fellow Chamber members at our November Sundowner, held at the Village Faire in Carlsbad.

25 Photos

The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce held it’s monthly Sundowner last night at the Village Faire.  What a great networking event! Here are pics I took last night of many of my fellow Chamber members.

The Chamber really outdid itself on this Sundowner.  My favorite part???? The Pacific Coast Concert Band and the food.  Ok, the company was good too.

Here are the websites of the attendees you’ll see in the pictures. Check their sites out. There could be some business connections you should make.

The Restaurants

Naked Cafe
Cilantro Live
Gregorio’s
Coyote Bar & Grill

Business Owners

 Mario Aldana, The Alamar Company
Jeffery Anshel, CV Consulting
Randy Baker, BizVid Video
Carolyn and Arden Bercovitz, Einstein Alive
Cindy Broderdorf, Pride Staff
Russ Bruhn, Carlsbad Gourmet
Tom Bwarie, The Bwarie Gift Basket Company
Bob Clark, Robert J. Clark
Stacie Couch-Marotta, The Meet Market
Teri Cuellar, Western Flight, Inc.
Bumper Emerson, Unwind Stress Centers
Jo-Ann and Gene Forsyth, Forsyth Insurance
Jim Gerakaris, Innovative Video Solutions
Maria Garcia Kamon, MK Productions
Hank and Eleanor Jordan, Jordan Associates
Tony Norris, Sperry Van Ness
Pam Pahnke, Elegance Talent Agency
Stan Quinn, Quinn’s Rapid Charger
J. Robby Robinson, Edward Jones
Michael Shelby, Mossy Nissan
Tom Schuck, Astor Broadcast Group (KCEO)
Lee Sterling, Help-U-Sell Realty West
Josephine Wright, Tahitian Noni

Marty M. Fahncke of Conference Call University, will be interviewing, Alex Mandossian, Chief Instructor for Teleseminar Secrets, creator of the Virtual Book Tour, to discuss how to…

• Create content-rich info products at the speed of sound
• Automatically build highly-responsive online lists from scratch
• Motivate and persuade prospects to sign-up on calls faster
• Inspire and influence more registrants to show-up on calls
• Repeatedly develop world-class teleseminars that sell
• Rake-in thousands of dollars with Joint Venture Partnerships
• Captivate any teleseminar audience to buy "on-command"
• Delegate and offload “busy work” to reliable Vendors

Listen live as Marty grills Alex about:

• How to leverage your time and resources to triple your income and double your time off
• How to take a one-to-one business model, such as consulting or coaching, and turn it into a highly profitable one-to-many strategy
• How to develop a residual, passive income stream so that you can make money while you sleep! (I can tell you from personal experience…the first time you wake up, fire up your computer, and realize you got paid while you were sleeping is a GREAT experience!)

On Thursday, November 15th, during a special Teleseminar interview, you’ll learn how Alex helped Marty’s business jump to a higher level…and how he can help us too…

Register NOW for this FREE event.

Over the past few weeks, I have heard mutiple small business owners ask about Press Releases; How do they work, who do you send them to, how can a small business get recognized, etc.  I’m sure this has crossed your mind at some point as well.  I’m going to tell you right now, it’s not easy, but it can be done.  I have identified the 6 steps to submit a press release.

1.  Know your Target and the Media they Utilize - If you have read many of my posts, you know how important it is to know your target.  Buy now you have to understand what media they utilized to know where to submit your press releases (both online and offline).  Let’s say you want to attract business owners in San Diego County, you would definitely want to send a Press Release to the San Diego Business Journal.  Identify your target and then create a PR plan outlining key media outlets you are going to send your Press Release to.  Read the stories in your key media outlets to begin to learn their writing style and what type of stories are in posted on a day to day basis.

2. Meet and Greet the Press -  The old business adage that… "people do business with people they know and trust" works in PR as well.  Call up or stop in to introduce yourself to the editor or decision maker at each or y our key media outlets.  Build rapport by introducing your business and offer to submit articles or article ideas about your product or service.  Also, ask what type of stories they like to see, how they make their decisions about which PR pieces to use, what their printing and special issues schedule is, etc. 

3.  Identify a Story in Your Company - We all think our businesses are great and that everyone would want to read about our company.  The truth is, they don’t.  They want to be entertained, inspired, or educated.  Find that "differentiating" factor that does this.  For example, if you have developed a cure to save a certain species of penguins in some frozen tundra far away, you should probably write a press release about it.  That’s real news. 

4.  Write an Article (Press Release) from the Reporter’s Point of View - With your understanding of what type of articles your Key Media Outlets publish, your rapport you have built in these media outlets, and your Story Identified, you can now write the press release.  When doing this keep in mind the following:

• Name the Press Release with a Catchy Title That Outlines the Core Message (Story).
• Keep it to one page - You don’t necessarily have to write the entire article.  Rarely do Editors publish a press release that has been sent to them word for word.
• Write the Press Release like an article you see in their publication.  Add some Quotes from you to give you more credibility.
• Get their Mouth Watering - Write a very descriptive summary of "This Late Breaking News Story That Just May Change the World" and you will get their attention.
• Be sure to Put in all your contact information (phone, email, address, etc.) so they can follow up and interview you about the story.

5.  Submit the Article (Press Release) - In today’s day in age there are many ways to submit press releases.  There are a multitude of online submission sites, but for the small business, we need to narrow our focus to a few media outlets so we can get the best results.  I have found that the best way to submit a press release is to email it to the editor or decision maker for the publication or section of publication.

6.  Follow Up - This is the key to success.  The Day after you email the press release, get the decision maker on the phone and ask if they have a few minutes to go over the press release you submitted.  Don’t ask if they received your email or if they have any questions, make them talk with you.  More than likely your enthusiasm won’t come through in the written article, but going over the story with the decision maker on the phone will allow you to convey this enthusiasm through your voice and catch their attention a little better.

Following these 6 steps will give you more chances to get your article and information printed and in front of your Target Market for free.  PR is a great way to build credibility and exposure.  Doing it correctly is the key to success.

Paul Miser is the President of Miser Advertising and Marketing, a small business marketing company in Carlsbad, CA.  He can be contacted by emailing pmiser@miserad.com. 

I recently interviewed Adam Englund, Euphlotea’s President. We spoke about his vision to build a floating airport to serve San Diego County. I hope you find it as informative as I. Please leave your comments below.

Adam brings three decades of environmental activism, visionary engineering, critical legal analysis and transportation advocacy to his position as the promoter of San Diego’s International Offshore Floating Airport.

Englund’s inspiration was born at the Oceanic Institute in Waimanalo, Hawaii, where, in 1971, a futuristic development project called "Hawaii’s Floating Cities Program" caught his imagination. Eight years later, after graduating from the University of Pacific, Englund wrote his International Law thesis at Cambridge University on the jurisdictional and administrative issues raised by artificial islands and floating cities.

Englund’s vision of oceanic development contingent on environmental protection embraces both the inevitability of open ocean colonization by humans and the consequent need for enlightened regulation. Accordingly, when San Diego’s search for a site for the development of a new international airport found little consensus and even less support for any one land-based alternative, Englund realized that the time for the founding of Euphlotea was upon him.

"We have reached that critical moment in time when real estate values in this region - both in terms of tangible dollars and in terms of environmental preservation and quality of life have exceeded the economic and environmental costs of locating an international airfield in the open ocean," says Englund. "All of a sudden the economic mandate for a world class airport facility has intersected with the existing, practical and cost effective technologies available to build and operate the facility offshore."

Englund’s legal career began in Los Angeles, where he focused on entertainment law; since arriving in Encinitas in 1997, his practice has evolved to general business and intellectual property transactions. In Los Angeles, he also was a leader of environmentally sound transportation initiatives through both public agencies and private organizations.

Englund lives with his wife, Victoria and daughter, Arielle in Encinitas. A former mountain bike racer, he now enjoys surfing, running on and cleaning up the beach.

Your success in business comes down to the difference between managing your work  or letting your work manage you. What’s it going to be? The biggest contributors to clutter are those good old fashion letters, junk mail, memos, e-mail  printouts and sticky notes, So how do you sort through all the junk and all the distractions and concentrate only on the things that are important  to you and your business? In business ownership and management, as in war and other activities, you are only as good as your last success. Just as you always have to be on the lookout for the next opportunity, you also have to be on the alert for the next crisis. That is what being organized is all about. You don’t want to waste your time on useless trivia when importantissues that have significant impact on your customers or your organization deserve your attention.

Delegation is an ideal way that allows you to work on important tasks. As your business grows, your functional responsibilities normally grow past the point where you can cope with all the duties which must be handled. As this process of growth occurs, you must begin to delegate specific duties to insure that all necessary tasks are carried out. This means hiring someone on a full or part time basis and properly training them. It is important to have performance guidelines with proper follow up procedures for the delegated assignments. In some instances people who do outside services can take up the slack .

Remember, a well managed business achieves results. Good management requires  passing down the authority to get the job done and allows you to get on with the high priority, high payoff activities of your business .

One of the most important steps in the Mind Masters program is planning. A business plan requires an action plan that will have specific and measurable results. Here is a suggested proven planning method that if you are truly committed to improving your management skills you can become a planning master overnight. What would it mean to you if you planned every business day on paper prior to the day starting?

• Block 30 minutes each week to review the week and your Quarterly plan and determine the actions
     you will need to take that week to achieve those results .
• Block 10-14 minutes daily to plan the day. No cell phone, no e-mail, no distractions, just planning.
• With your goals in front of you ask yourself if the activities you listed will help you achieve those goals .
• Prioritize your action items for the day. Put an asterisk next to your 5 most important (valuable) action items .

I challenge you to prepare for business growth through better organization, delegation and time management. Remember as a business owner setting a standard of consistent behaviors leads you to achieve results that carry over to all areas of your life.

For more than twenty-five years Barbara Eldridge has been contributing to other people’s business success. Her many years experience in the corporate world provided her with knowledge, insight and presence to help thousands of entrepreneurial men and women nurture their business ventures into thriving successes.

Barbara founded Mind Masters in 1991 as an organization for entrepreneurs to master the challenges they face in an ever-changing market place. Barbara has a vision of Mind Masters to provide a value based program so that business owners could harness the power of each members’ success, make wise business decisions and realize their dreams.