Business Tools We Trust

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Nope, this is not about online marketing. It is however about a holding garage sales, something that many of you do. And, at least in my neck of the woods, the season is here! In fact, this weekend is one of the largest organized sales that spans 30 miles along the beach.

Are you ready for your next sale?

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Garage Sale Advertising - How To Get Tons Of Customers For Nearly Free

by Helen Walters

One of the biggest mistakes people make when holding a garage sale is not advertising enough. Most people think that it is enough to put a single ad in the local paper one week before the sale. Usually these people are too worried that they will
lose money on their sale because the ad costs too much. That is nonsense.

When you don’t advertise much, you don’t get many customers. When you don’t get many customers, you have to sell at their price, because if you don’t, there is no other customer looking to buy that item. However, if you have a lot of customers looking at the same items, you can set the price and not need to haggle because you know that there is already another person wanting to pay for it. The more you advertise, the more customers you get, and the more you are in charge.

Most people don’t bother to use flyers very much anymore. Perhaps they think they are too busy to put them out, or that
they won’t work. However flyers are not that difficult to use effectively. When done right they can bring tons of people into your sales. You just need to keep in mind that while places with bulletin boards set up for flyers and such get a lot of traffic they also get a lot of ‘flyer competition’.

This means that your garage sale flyer MUST STAND OUT and CATCH PEOPLE’S ATTENTION or it will simply be lost in a sea of paper! So, use bright paper, and a LARGE BOLD HEADLINE that gets attention by being different. Then let the rest of the flyer give the details of your sale. Let me say that a little differently: you need to use a headline that causes people to stop and read your flyer.

This does not mean you need to be wildly promotional or crazy with your headlines. But if there are 19 flyers on the board
that say “Garage Sale on Saturday”, and your’s is the same, it just won’t be read. However if your flyer says something
different it will attract more attention. So try something like the following instead:

- We’ve Got What You Need for your garden at 90% off new prices

- Huge Discounts On all Home Products this Saturday

Then all you need to do is print them up and put them in your car and ask if you can post one at every store you visit during your weeks chores. No extra work is involved at all. Take these ideas and run with them and your next garage sale will be on its way to a resounding success.

About The Author: http://www.garage-sale-riches.com provides excellent resources on how to hold a profitable garage sale with the least amount of work and hassle. Great selection of tips and advice will guide you to a very profitable and enjoyable garage sale experience.

If any of you reading this has an issue or question about using Pre-Paid legal, let me assure you that is is well worth the cost - both for business and personal use. I only wish I had discovered it previously. For more information, please contact the associated listed below.

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It’s not just a Challenge anymore, it’s a Problem!

Daily, small business owners are faced with many challenges including marketing and expanding their product line, growing and supporting their customer base, hiring competent employees, maintaining adequate cash flow … and the list goes on. Now, we can add another challenge to the list, which has turned into ONE BIG PROBLEM: an ever expanding liability crisis.

We all know that we live in a highly litigious society. People are quick to sue. At times this is justified, but too often it is not. Regardless, the party being sued has to respond to the charges and defend itself. That defense can be very costly in terms of time and dollars. Due to this high cost of defense, businesses may chose to settle a case rather than to proof their innocence.

Whatever a company decides, the fact remains that law suits (justified or not) can and do force businesses to raise their prices, scale down their operations, and or close their doors altogether when they have to pay to defend themselves.

What is the solution, you ask? Simple, get insured for your legal needs, just as you do for your medical needs.

But wait what about all the day to day small business challenges you talked about earlier? Well, there is no insurance for that (that I know of). However, there is a paid plan that offers you both: help with your day-to-day business challenges and legal help and assistance when you need it. The plan is the Small Business Plan, offered through PrePaidLegal.

In essence, the Small Business Plan is your legal, marketing, accounting, finance, human resources and technology department all in one. You can sign up for most plans for about $2.50 a day, roughly the cost of a cup of Java. A number a small business plans are available depending on the size of the business and the state you do business in.

For further information contact Johanna Hofmann.

Do you Yahoo!?

Being online, world sometimes seems so…”googlized” (you heard that term here first!). It seems that many of us (or is it just me?) are not aware of other search engines and tools that are available to us.

I don’t know if you know about this, but I just learned about it. It’s called Yahoo! Site Explorer.

I’m not entirely sure of all it does, but I did find out two nifty things.

1. You can search your site and see what pages are indeed indexed by Yahoo!. If something is not..well, there is a palce you can submit that particular url.
2. You can see all the incoming links (inlink) to your site, and even explore that particular site.

While I am not entirely sure what I can do with this yet (other than check my inlinks in regards to my link partners), I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon.

While on the subject of Yahoo!, I understand they have their own version of “Adsense” - The Yahoo! Publsiher Network - now and that MSN will be joining in by June.

Competiition amoung the big three can only be a good thing.

I’ve been a member of this site since it’s inception. I’ve been able to brain storm my ideas and get feedbck from others who are in business or just learning (like I was) without feeling dumb! Often times we don’t ask the questions or seek out the advice of others for fear of showing what we don’t know….which is entirely the wrong thing! I’ve even been able to set up some joint venture projects! I found it to be wonderful for the new business owner as well as the business owner who is stretching her or his wings.

It is hard to believe, but MarketingSalad.com, the Online Community for Business Owners is going to be one year old in February. To celebrate, Biana Babinsky, the MarketingSalad.com Founder, is offering you to try MarketingSalad.com for just $7 for the first 30 days (this is under 24 cents/day!).

In the past year Biana has helped coaches, consultants, virtual assistants, professional organizers, web designers, infopreneurs and direct sales professionals become better known, get more clients and make more money online.

But what about you? Are YOU ready to make the most out of your business this year? Are you ready to get more clients, become better known and make more money online?

Take Note: Do not delay…this offer ends February 28, 2006!

Join Marketing Salad Now!