Growing Your Facebook Fan Page Series, Part 5

Now you have the knowledge to create a business fan page on Facebook and grow into a viable page. You are using the advice and tagging, building a core group, offering exclusive content, responding to your customers, welcoming new fans and updating your status with engaging content. What else can you do and how do you know it is working to your benefit? Contests Have Facebook exclusive contests and giveaways. The contest or giveaway can be anything from a specific product to a gift card to use for your products. I heard of someone giving away an item to the … Continue reading

Stretched Too Thin in Your Work and Business

Building a home business means increasing the number of customers we serve, finding more clients, selling more products and/or offering more services. We have to continue adding work if we are going to go from nothing to a viable business. As a small, one-person operation, however, it is possible to push ourselves too hard, too fast and end up being stretched far to thin to provide good service to anyone. This is a very pertinent topic for me and I know from talking to some other home business owners that managing work and how much time and resources we have … Continue reading

Tips to Remember When Spending on Scrapbook Supplies

With tax season over today, and everyone shuffling to get those last minute returns filed, I thought I would remind you of some good ways to spend your money on scrapbooking supplies. I don’t know too many scrapbooker’s who don’t purchase something for themselves with the tax money they get back. Here are a few tips to spending wisely. The Dollar Per Use Rule – Before you spend any money at all on a scrapbooking tool or supply, be sure that it is something you really think you will use. Keep in mind that there is a dollar to use … Continue reading

“You’ve Got to Try This Product!”

Have you ever been at a party or chatting with some friends and the topic of some new product or business comes up and it seems everyone has tried it but you? Can you remember that feeling of being just a bit left out and wondering what all the fuss was about? Chances are, you probably went out and tried it for yourself (or ate at that new restaurant or saw that movie)–this is one of the most successful marketing techniques ever: word of mouth and peer pressure. Often, that whole snowball “you’ve just got to see this movie!” happens … Continue reading

Frugal Living Week in Review for September 3-9, 2007

It was a short week with the Monday holiday, and getting back into the swing of things again on Tuesday threw me off the rest of the week, and I was always a day behind. However, the blogs here at families.com were still filling up with excellent articles on every topic you could want. Let’s see what happened in the frugal living blog this week. More Frugal Decorating With Flea Market Finds Lately I have been obsessed with decorating my home. Partly because we are putting it on the market, and partly because I know we will be getting a … Continue reading

Media Review: Adoptive Families Magazine

Adoptive Families is a comprehensive bimonthly adoption magazine which covers all types of adoption—domestic and international, infant and older child, open, semi-open and confidential, and adopting from foster care. I have found the coverage to be very well-balanced among the different types. In the past two years I have canceled several magazine subscriptions because I don’t have time to read them. Adoptive Families, by contrast, is read cover to cover before I go to bed the day it is delivered. The magazine is written almost entirely by adoptive families. There are sections of advice from experts such as counselors, social … Continue reading

Don’t Overlook the Power of Small Talk

Think your time is precious and that if you have to chat your way through one more cocktail party or networking event you will scream? If you are trying to build a business, all those opportunities for small talk can actually result in an increased profit margin and a fatter bottom line. Small talk can really yield big results… Done properly–and that means listening attentively and asking the right questions, you can actually garner quite a bit about a person from a brief, seemingly meaningless conversation. Chatting about the weather, sports, current events, or other typical topics found buzzing around … Continue reading

Airline Travel Deals

It has been 25 years since both United and American Airlines began offering passengers “reward miles” for flying with them. To mark the anniversary, both airlines are offering a special double mileage promotion. I have been a United Mileage Plus member for 22 years. (Ugh, can I be that old?) and have racked up enough miles to fly back and forth from Chicago to Hawaii a number of times. If you currently are not a member of either United or American’s frequent-flier programs, this offer may be the incentive you have been waiting for. United customers can earn double miles … Continue reading

Tips to get better Customer/Tech Support

One of the most frustrating things can be calling a company for customer or technical support and getting unsatisfactory service. I’ve had this happen and I’m sure most of us can tell horror stories from our past. I also have a slightly more unique experience with this topic and that is working on the other end of the phone. While in college one of the jobs I had was customer support and then tech support for one of the top three cell phone companies. There are many things that can frustrate us when we are calling for help. Long hold … Continue reading

Interview with Prolific Author Shirley Bahlmann

Shirley is a wonderful person. What can I say? I met her when I first entered the LDS literary scene and she welcomed me with open arms, literally. She is a great support for literacy, new and old authors, friends and family. She is a treasure who rules her roost from a small town in Central Utah. From her website we learn: “My stacks of journals, road shows, plays, and skits attest to the fact that I’ve been writing all my life, but I finally got past the “fear” when I came home late one winter night after selling skin … Continue reading