North San Diego Business@Large

Friday, April 25, 2008 @ 11:30am at
Shadowridge Country Club

Does your brand speak for you when you’re not around? In the next session at TheMeetMarket, we’ll be discussing your marketing brand and how it represents you and your business. Learn these following techniques …

• Define "branding"… comprehensively and by its parts
• Understand the 3 Key "C"s of branding as it is used in marketing
• The basic principles of creating and using your brand
• Discover what changes you should make to your own brand and message
• Walk away with the knowledge, understanding and ability to be a better "brander"

Learn how to maximize your marketing brand with Shonna Jordan, owner of Jordan & Jordan Marketing. Come for the Speaker and stay for the networking! Mix & mingle with other Small Business Leaders right here in North San Diego County.

Visit The Meet Market to RSVP today as seating is limited and reservations required! I’ll be there, just look for That Hat Lady!

Recently Rhonda Sher presented "Networking Sense You Can Take To The Bank" to members and guests of The Meet Marketing networking group.

Rhonda shared the following tips:

• How talking to strangers can build your bank account
• How the "F" word, follow-up, will create client loyalty
• How to effortlessly attract the right people to you
• How to keep your pipeline filled with prospects
• How to instantly develop rapport with everyone you meet.
• The secret of your business card can make your phone ring with
  clients and much more.

Here is the audio podcast of her presentation.

On Tuesday, April 15th Microsoft held "Vision to Venture", an event bringing together women from all over San Diego County to share ideas about starting and growing your small business.

Microsoft introduced their Office Live Small Business service for budding entrepreneurs, or solopreneurs as I like to refer to us! There were four excellent speakers. The first speaker was Susan Wilson Solovic, SBTV.com, who spoke about building a million dollar business. She’s the author of "The Girls’ Guide To Building A Million Dollar Business." What an energetic woman and an inspiration to all.

Additionally, she moderated a panel of three entrepreneurs who shared their experiences while answering questions from the audience. The panel was made up of: Lisa Baker, Lisa Confetti; Holli Door, Hollister Construction Company; and Ramona Russell, Uptown Liz.

This is the interview I did with Susan about the conference and SBTV.com

The second speaker, Rich Sloan of Startupnation.com, spoke about the seven overlooked secrets to starting up a business. He’s incredibly knowledgeable about the small business community and the co-author of "StartupNation: America’s Leading Entrepreneurial Experts Reveal the Secrets to Building a Blockbuster Business." He was gracious enough to sit down with me for a few minutes to share information about Startupnation and being a solopreneur.

Karen Dayan, Microsoft’s Digital Media Expert, spoke about taking your business and promoting it online in an easy and affordable way using Microsoft’s Office Live Small Business service. She also served as the Master of Ceremony during the day.

Microsoft is also offering an "on demand webcast" of the Vision to Venture event and it will be available later in May. Visit the Vision to Venture page to sign up for an e-mail alert as to when the webcast will be available.

Here’s my interview with Karen.

John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing, wowed the audience with the 5-step conversational marketing plan. He share how to create an education-based, information-rich branding strategy. I’ve been following John for a couple of years now, as a subscriber to his blog and a fellow tweeter on twitter. I was delighted when he agreed to an interview. I hope you’ll enjoy all these interviews as much as I enjoyed speaking with these four delightful and insightful professionals. Here’s my interview with John.

Their Books
Girls Guide To Building A Million Dollar Business	Duct Tape Marketing

Microsoft Office Live Small Business is providing some great tools for the solorpreneur. Not only can you manage your projects, you can develop your contact database, email marketing, resource center, and you can host your site over there too.

Now you can set up your first site at Microsoft’s Office Live and when you’re ready, bring a designer/programmer in to enhance your site. The most important aspect though is YOU can easily update your site through the web. I’d really encourage you to go over an take a look at Microsoft’s Office Live Small Business.

Go there now and check it out!!

Did you know that women are starting up businesses at a much faster rate than men? However, many female entrepreneurs still struggle to succeed. Susan Solovic, author of "Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business" and co-founder of SBTV, notices that many women are afraid to say "I want to make money" because they might be labeled as aggressive or greedy. She has found that women often do not think big enough or push their ambitions far enough and end up losing out on growth and opportunities.

San Diego, Tuesday, April 15, 2008, (Check Out The Line Up of Speakers) Westin Horton Plaza San Diego is the place to be. If you have plans, get out of them and join women business owners from around the county for an inspiring and educational day. Microsoft Office Live Small Business is hosting a five city tour across America that will allow women to learn smart and effective strategies for starting and developing a business.

Susan Solovic is one of the speakers at this event and she and the other speakers are available to speak with you if you would like to hear more. A collection of women entrepreneurs will be presenting at each local event as panelists and are available for a chat as well.

I’ve been talking to you about leveraging your business online and this panel of speakers will enhance everything I’ve ever said to you. I follow John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing, not only through is blog feed, but on Twitter as well.

Register Here For The Event, NOW!

Magic In Words is hosting another free webinar Monday, 3pm Pacific - 6pm Eastern on Social Networking. Our special guest will be Myrna Weinreich, of Myrna’s List.

She’s quickly becoming a Twitter expert, among other social networks. We’ll be discussing Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. This is your time to ask questions and find out how to leverage your business using the internet.

There are several "how-to" videos for Linkedin at Magic In Blogging.

My Leads Club meets on Wednesday mornings at Ruby’s Diner in the Carlsbad Company Stores (ok, the Premium Outlets). We had the opportunity to see how a business can rise to the occasion when something goes wrong.

My Leads Club chapter has been to many restaurants around town, some of them still exist and some are gone. Ruby’s has been very flexible and accommodating to us, for each of our meetings.

However, today we had a glitch in the technology…the internet was down. Our members have become accustomed to using the internet during our 10 minute presentations. One of our member speaking today created her entire presentation around the internet and being able to surf sites.

Ruby’s undeterred..worked on getting the internet up, but to no avail. The manager understood the impact to our member’s business and made things right. So many times the manager of the prior restaurants could have cared less. To have Bill extend the courtesy he extended.

He didn’t have to do anything. We would have been fine because he’s always treated us as though our business was important to him (the other restaurants didn’t). What did he gain today by what he chose to do? He gained 21 advocates who will speak glowingly of his restaurant, RUBY’S AT THE PREMIER OUTLETS (Paseo del Norte and Palomar Airport Rd.) and will take their business meetings there any time they can.

Ruby’s delivered the WOW factor today.  Any comments???

• Have you always wanted to invest in Real Estate but felt that a rental property was a larger commitment than you were comfortable with?
• Were you aware that there are Real Estate investments that you can participate in with as little as $10,000 and/or use IRA money?

Cindy Norsworthy, of Western Financial Planning Corp. is will be sharing alternative investment opportunities Wednesday evening, April 9th from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at Lake San Marcos Country Club in the Trophy Club room. Seating is limited. Please call 760.715.2857 to RSVP.

The Meet Market presents Rhonda Sher, the Two Minute Networker, who will share how to make the most out of every networking event you attend.

Learn the secrets of creating and keeping your pipeline full of prospects. Attendees will walk away from this lunch learning how:

• Talking to strangers can build your bank account
• The "F" word, follow-up, will create client loyalty
• To effortlessly attract the right people to you
• To keep your pipeline filled with prospects
• To instantly develop rapport with everyone you meet
• The secret of your business card can make your phone ring with clients and much more

This is a great opportunity to learn and network with other small business owners in North San Diego County. RSVP today, as seating is limited! Find out more now!

Recently The Meet Market hosted Greg Betts, at their semi-monthly luncheon. Greg spoke to the small business owners about creating an upward spiral for their business and personal lives.

After listening to this, please join the conversation by commenting below.