Are you scratching your head after business events wondering
why you aren’t finding prospects? Whether it’s your first
or 100th event, here are some tips on how to prepare for
your next event that can make the difference between
scratching and smiling. These tips will help you save time,
money, create memorable impressions, and increase
connections.

1. Know your intention. Why are you attending? Listen to
your self-truth. Are you attending to refine your skills,
build relationships, make sales, or need to just get away
from the office? Intentions work best when they are limited
to one. The limitation clarifies and directions all your
actions. When there are multiple intentions, you begin with
confusion and convey the same to all at the function.

Does your intention match the type of event? If it’s a
Christmas party and your intention is to generate sales,
there isn’t a match. You don’t want to give a negative
first impression; they take too long to change. If you
aren’t sure what types attend the event, contact the event
manager, and ask or use of the theme as your answer.

What does your business need? Maybe you need a referral,
are looking for a new employees, or accountant, or image
consultant. A need can be a secondary or first intention.
If you decide to include a need into the equation, make sure
you know what that need is, how to present it and to whom.
After you ask, what is the next step? Clarity is necessary
for success. You job is to be ready for when it appears.

Are you ready for the sale? I’ve met many people who want
sales but aren’t ready for the orders. If someone says yes
at the event, are you ready with the next step? If not,
reconsider your attendance. It is better investment to
focus your time on finishing the preparation. A first
impression of not knowing what you are doing isn’t a good
impression to give.

2. Continuing with the topic of needs…what are your
short-term, medium-term, and long-term needs now? If you
are seeking short-term funds and the event is about building
relationships, medium to long-term, then it might be wise to
pass it up for now and pursue endeavors that match.

For a new business, short-term is three months or less,
medium-term from four or six to eight months, and long-term
is anything over that. Short-term projects usually match
short-term funds, and so on. It’s like buying food and
paying for it over a six-month period when the food only
lasts 30 days. You are buying apples to pay off with
oranges, and the two never mix well.

If there is a mixture, do you have something available to
sell that will generate short-term funds? For coaches,
whose prices do not fall into the short-term attraction
range, selling coaching with the thought that it makes
short-term funds is a mix match. Coaching falls into
medium-term and long-term and seldom short-term unless your
name is very recognizable.

3. It takes three contacts before people are aware that you
exist. It doesn’t matter if this is in person, an ad, or
three ezines. What three do you use to create awareness for
yourself? This is why the 60-second elevator speech is
important. Yet, by itself, it’s too lonely. Shaking hands
and carrying on a discussion is another but that is still
shy of three. If you write Internet articles, bring copies
to the event. Don’t place the articles on the general
table, personally hand them out so people can connect the
two.

4. Rehearse don’t practice. Create a list of 10 opening
questions, choose a few at a time from that list, and
rehearse them with colleagues, friends, or family.
Rehearsing is interacting with live people and is closer to
what you will actually be doing. Practicing into a tape
recorder is the next best thing because it allows you to
hear the voice others will hear. If that makes you twinge,
then maybe that is exactly what others are feeling as well.
Work with a voice coach to refine your tone.

Here are ten story-opening questions to get your started.
Pull from these and then create your own.

(1) What do you enjoy most about what you’re doing?

(2) What is the strangest (or funniest) incident you’ve
experienced in your business?

(3) What marketing have you found most effective in your
business or industry?

(4) What is your key product (or service)?

(5) What do people like best about working with you?

(6) What is your number one need at the moment?

(7) What do you like most about coming here? If it’s their
first time, “What do they like most about the event thus
far?”

(8)What business trends do you see affecting you right now
(or next year)?

(9) If I had an ideal customer of yours in front of me right
now, describe them.

(10) How do you see this event helping you in your business?

Know what actions you want to occur and what are their
triggers. Rehearse until smooth, not strained. Are you
going to ask them to become a subscriber for your
newsletter? Visit your website? Sign up for a workshop?
Set up a time for coffee? You will most likely have several
calls to action, limit them to five, and never request more
than one per person per event. Otherwise, you will come
across as too pushy or confuse your listener.

Ask attendees to join you in the next step. “Ask and you
shall receive.” Ask if they are interested in having a call
together. Ask if they would like to be a subscriber and
mention the main benefit people tell you why they enjoy
receiving it. Ask if they would like to register for your
workshop. If they answer anything other than yes, they
aren’t interest, it’s important to just move on. Never,
never, never, promise to call and don’t. The label will
follow you.

5. Differentiate yourself from others in similar
professionals. Even twins have differences. Leave the
humbleness at home. How are you different from others in
the same profession or selling the same type of product?
Can you explain the differences in 2 minutes during any
introduction if needed? Any longer and the listener zones
out because the conversation is no longer about them.

Due to its importance, let me repeat this. If you don’t
know what you’re selling, how you are different, or have a
clear direction on your current prospect needs, then you
aren’t ready to attend any events yet. Spend the time
defining these first.

6. A memorable moment includes several items. One of the
items is your personal style. You can accomplish this in
your selection of clothing, tone, or language. You can wear
scarves or ties with themes, a comment-getting pin, hats,
and the same color in shirts or shoes. I knew a man who
always wore cowboy boots. He had a wide collection, they
matched his accent, and people could spot him across the
room. Did his style increase business? You bet. Create a
style and treat it like your trademark or calling card.

7. Know what you’re marketing strategy for attending this
event — all seven steps. What happens after yes, after
they become a subscriber, or any other call to action you
have? Always have the next step planned no matter which
direction the conversation goes.

Be the leader and they will follow. Be the leader, inside
and then out.

(c) Copyright 2004, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.

Catherine Franz, a Business Coach, specializes in for-profit
nonfiction writing, marketing, and product development.
Newsletters, articles, forms, and other information business
development, marketing success, writing, and laws of
attraction are available at: http://www.abundancecenter.com
blog: http://abundance.blogs.com

Thinking about going back for your degree? You may not have to
put in the traditional four years.

Students returning to school as adults bring more varied
experience to their studies than do the teenagers who begin
college shortly after graduating from high school. As a result,
there are numerous programs for students with nontraditional
learning curves. Hundreds of colleges and universities grant
degrees to people who cannot attend classes at a regular campus
or have already learned what the college is supposed to teach.

You can earn nontraditional education credits in many ways:

Passing standardized exams, Demonstrating knowledge gained
through experience, Completing campus-based coursework, and
Taking courses off-campus.

Some methods of assessing learning for credit are objective,
such as standardized tests. Others are more subjective, such as
a review of life experiences.

Adults can receive college credit for prior coursework, by
passing examinations, and documenting experiential learning.
With help from a college advisor, nontraditional students should
assess their skills, establish their educational goals, and
determine the number of college credits they might be eligible
for.

Even before you meet with a college advisor, you should collect
all your school and training records. Then, make a list of all
knowledge and abilities acquired through experience, no matter
how irrelevant they seem to your chosen field. Next, determine
your educational goals: What specific field do you wish to
study? What kind of a degree do you want? Finally, determine how
your past work fits into the field of study. Then, with the help
of a college advisor, you can evaluate educational programs to
find one that’s right for you

Visit My Site http://www.careerpath.cc

Are you one of the millions of consumers that took advantage of the record low mortgage rates by purchasing your dream home or refinancing your current home? If so…Congratulations! Low mortgage rates in the past 10 years assisted many consumers in managing their debt. However, the economy is changing and now is the time to ensure you maintain your financial momentum. It is important to periodically review the terms of your home loan - it just might save you thousands of dollars!

Purchasing a home is arguably one of the most emotional transactions a consumer can experience. Unfortunately, having a clear mind and remembering the details of the transaction is not par for the course. Granted, the vast majority of the time, real estate professionals (attorneys, realtors, mortgage brokers) complete their job with the highest level of ethical standards and guide their clients through the transaction. In today’s changing economy, it is still a wise decision for consumers to periodically review their closing documents to ensure they have the best available loan program.

When reviewing closing documents, it is important to understand the terms of the loan. There are basically two main types of mortgages - fixed rate mortgages and adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). Fixed rate mortgages offer consumers a fixed interest rate yielding a fixed principle and interest payment for a fixed period of time. Conversely, ARMs typically offer consumers a lower rate of interest for a pre-determined amount of time. After the initial rate expires, there is a possibility of both a rate and monthly payment increase.

Having an ARM certainly offers many advantages; however, it is critical to know when the interest rate can adjust. The inner workings of an ARM contain four major components: the index rate, the margin, the interest rate and the adjustment period. Each of these components play an integral role and significantly impact the monthly payment. Understanding how these components affect the payment can possibly avoid unnecessary payment increases.

A typical closing package contains several important documents including the Mortgage, the Settlement Statement and the Note. The Note contains important details including the interest rate, how the interest is calculated, and if and when interest rate and payment adjustments could occur. Upon re-reviewing the Note, consumers can confirm whether the rate is fixed or if it is adjustable. If the rate is fixed, the principle and interest payment will not change during the life of the loan. It is important to compare this interest rate with that of the current economy to determine whether or not refinancing would make financial sense. Similarly, if the rate is adjustable, it is important to know not only the interest rate, but also review when adjustments can happen and how the interest rate will be affected. It is possible for interest rates to increase as much as two percent during the adjustment periods of an ARM. Increases such as these can increase monthly mortgage payments as much as hundreds of dollars per month.

The current economy is yielding higher interest rates than a few years ago. If you find that your current mortgage is an ARM, or a fixed rate mortgage with a high interest rate, it just might benefit you to contact a mortgage professional to discuss if refinancing is a viable option. It just might save you thousands of dollars!

Throughout his 15 year career, Steven Campanella has held various positions worked in the lending industry. Currently, he works as a Loan Consultant for Fresh Start Financial Services, Inc.

Fresh Start Financial Services is a licensed mortgage broker in the States of IA, IL and WI and originates loans also in CO, IN and MO. In 2003, the Illinois Association of Mortgage Brokers recognized the mortgage broker as the Subprime Mortgage Broker of the Year.

Secured credit cards are one of two types of credit cards. There are unsecured credit cards that generally only require your signature and a monthly interest rate, and perhaps an annual fee, and they will offer the consumer a designated line of credit. A secured credit card is much different, but it is an excellent way to create your credit history, or to build it back if, for instance, you have filed for bankruptcy in the past seven years or your credit is not looking so good.

Secured credit cards are easy to obtain by the general public because you are securing your line of credit with your own resources, usually with a savings deposit. This deposit will typically range from $500 to $1000, and your credit line with a secured credit card is then a percentage of that deposit, typically 50 to 100 percent. The issuing company will pay interest on your deposit, but in return there are application and processing fees associated with this type of card, sometimes totaling hundreds of dollars. Before you apply, be sure to find out what the total fees are and whether they will be refunded if you are denied a card. A secured card requires an annual fee and has a higher interest rate than an unsecured card.

Secured cards are usually easier to acquire because you are supplying the capital that you will be charging against, and this is the reason why they work well as a first credit card, or one you will be using to build your credit back up. You supply the capital and for the fees, they will manage your card and account for your transactions in a monthly statement for you.

Debit cards are a great example of how the secured credit card works. When you open an account at your neighborhood bank, they issue you checks and a debit card. You are welcome to use the debit card anywhere that credit cards are accepted as long as you have sufficient funds in your bank account. When your balance hits bottom you can no longer use your debit card until you replenish your account. It is this same principle with a secured credit card. As you run down your account you will periodically need to deposit more so you have the funds to make charges. These deposits are made by paying off the balance of the credit card in full each month. If you do not, you may forfeit your deposit and have the right to charge to the card revoked.

The process of a secured credit card is simple, but it is more costly when you include the fees, and for this reason, it is more inconvenient than an unsecured card. So to improve your credit history, keep your card with responsibility especially if you are planning any loans or investments in the future and will need record of good credit payments. Of course, keep in mind that the higher your credit score, the better your credit history will be. With a reputation of bad credit, your doors of opportunity will close quickly!

Copyright (c) Greg Aldrich

Greg Aldrich helps match consumers to the appropriate credit cards. His site, http://www.FindYourCard.com, allows anyone to compare credit cards sorted by features and apply online.

Lead fraud is possibly the largest obstacle to successful lead gathering via Affiliate marketing on the internet. Finding pre-qualified leads online can be either very successful or very frustrating depending on how you set up your program to deal with fraud.

Gathering leads through an Affiliate program can be a very successful venture if you find the right Affiliates. Names and contact details of people who have an active interest in your product increases conversion rates for offline sales and hopefully increases your bottom line. That benefit may, however, be adversely affected if the time you spend sifting through rubbish leads becomes too great. But there are a few things you can do.

Choosing Affiliates

As with all Affiliate programs, you will need to choose your Affiliates wisely at the beginning to have a fraud-free campaign. This means manually vetting Affiliate applications to join your program. Look at other sites your Affiliates have gathered leads for and ask for references if you think it is warranted. Remember also that seeking legal redress against fraudulant Affiliates is much easier to do in your home country, or countries with a similar, enforceable legal systems. Be sure that you know all of the contact details of your Affiliates so if something goes wrong you can contact them quickly.

Monitoring Your Lead Campaign

You will need to monitor your campaign manually, especially at the beginning to ensure you are receiving quality leads. Look at the leads you are receiving - if they all exhibit similar properties then you could have a problem. Things to watch out for include similar spelling mistakes on each lead (which would indicate one person is filling out the lead many times) and identical IP addresses (which could also indicate that one person is filling out the lead form several times or getting friends and relatives to do it). You will need to keep doing this manually until you are happy with your Affiliates and the quality of leads they are sending through.

With just a few hours of diligence at the beginning when you are setting up your lead campaign you can avoid days of frustration. The bulk of lead fraud is preventable - it just takes a little planning.

Rob Wood is a professional Affiliate fraud investigator. He runs a site over at eFraudster on click fraud and general affiliate fraud prevention. efraudster.com

Brand new movies are great! It’s so much fun standing in line at the theater, breathing in the buttery popcorn smell, giddy with anticipation when a new movie is released.

My children love watching the latest and greatest movies, but I just grin when I hear my children singing the songs I used to sing as a kid - “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” or “Tomorrow”. Hearing their little off-key renditions is the best music to my ears.

Have you introduced your children to the movies you enjoyed when you were younger?

Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
The Robinson family gets shipwrecked near an island. With hard work and togetherness, they build a majestic tree house. They are faced with many trials - wild animals, weather, and pirates, but their ingenuity carries them through. Great family values!

The Parent Trap (1961)
Twin daughters are raised not knowing about each other, each living with one parent. They unexpectedly bump into each other at summer camp, put two and two together, and work out a scheme to get their parents back together again. This movie is just plain good fun.

Mary Poppins (1964)
Mr. and Mrs. Banks are both so preoccupied with their own interests that their children, Jane and Michael are unhappy. When the magical nanny, Mary Poppins enters their lives, she brings the family closer. Between the penguin scene, the chimney sweep dance, and the magic, your children will be entranced.

The Sound of Music (1965)
The hills are alive with the sound of music. Your home will be alive with the sound of music once your kids watch this one.

Annie (1982)
Oh, how we love Annie! The music, the dancing, the wealthy Mr. Warbucks, and a happy ending. It doesn’t get much better than that!

These five movies are a must in every family library. Share the memories, and sing the tunes. It’s ok if you’re a little off-key. I won’t tell.

Nicole Dean invites you to visit www.ShowKidsTheFun.com -a fun site to inspire parents to keep the lines of communication open with their children, making memories that last a lifetime.

You will find a good number of online sources for the best-quality wholesale plasma televisions. These sources provide you with the latest information and links, enabling you to choose the wholesale plasma televisions you want to purchase, be they for your company or your own requirements.

Wholesale plasma televisions can often be found at very low cost online. You need to find these sales to get the wholesale plasma televisions you deserve. They will offer you a whole array of top-quality wholesale plasma televisions like Samsung, Sony, Panasonic or Zenith, indicating their characteristic display features.

While purchasing plasma televisions, take a hard look at the shipping charges and the service facilities they offer.

And if you are a smart consumer, you will certainly shop around before making purchases, especially with big-ticket items. The Net has greatly eased the tiresome task of comparing prices. Plasma television manufacturers do not exactly welcome online consultations, because they obviously don’t want you to know you could be getting better bargains elsewhere.

Be aware that wholesalers generally only sell to retailers, since retailers are able to buy many units at one time. But you can pool resources by getting a number of buyers together and approaching the wholesaler directly. Live entertainment companies and theaters also buy wholesale plasma televisions quite often. It will be always better if you check beforehand if the big discount wholesale outfits are selling a model that is either the previous year’s model, or a rebranded model that has specification deficiencies.

Once you have made your choice, the two most important things are
to stay focused and not to get discouraged…it takes a long time
to become an overnite success!

I’ve had many active and enthusiastic business team members that
were their own worst enemies because they exhibited the classic
“flea on a griddle” behavior pattern and jumped around chasing
one business opportunity today, and then another one tomorrow
without ever putting in enough sustained and focused effort to
reasonably give themselves a chance to succeed at any of them.

I can really relate to this situation since I briefly fell prey
to this same “dog in a meat market” syndrome when I first started
my own home based business a few years ago. I caught myself
trying to chase several different opportunities at once and not
being very successful with any of them.

There are so many home business opportunities (some real, some
not) that it takes real personal discipline to avoid the
scattergun approach…you know, throw enough against the wall
and something is bound to stick. In the early going, it is
really important to resist this temptation and to stay tightly
focused on a single business.

Some will argue that “I don’t want to have all my eggs in one
basket”. To those people I say, diversification is fine, but
only after you have achieved solid success with your initial
business. A premature attempt at diversification will quite
likely cause a loss of focus and actually slow down your
success rate.

If your main marketing vehicle is a website, you can fairly
easily leverage your initial success and effectively promote a
few other complimentary and closely related home based business
propositions from the same website.

However, it is important not to go overboard and offer too many
choices to visitors to your website. If you do, there is a good
chance of confusing your visitors to the point where they will
take no action and you have, in effect, diluted the effectiveness
of your website.

Whatever you decide to do, you will need to stick with it for a
reasonable length of time (give it at least one year) and put in
a solid and sustained effort. Stay focused and don’t get
discouraged. As much as you would like it to be, starting and
developing a real home based business is certainly not an instant
gratification situation.

Kirk Bannerman operates his own successful home based business
and also coaches others seeking to start their own home based
business. For more information visit his website at
Proven Work At Home Business

Lots of people would like to get their Web site to the top of
Google’s free listings. But that’s precisely the problem: You’re
competing with lots of people. It’s certainly possible to
get to the top - after all, somebody has to be there! - but
it takes a lot of time and effort. Alternatively, you could pay
a search engine marketing company to do this for you.

But by far the better way to get to the top of Google is to pay
for it. Google’s “AdWords” program allows even a small business
to buy advertising for selected key words and phrases. You might
be surprised at how little you have to pay.

Here’s how it works …

Google (at www.google.com) has two types
of listings: Free and paid. Google makes its money from the paid listings.

Google AdWords is the name of Google’s paid advertising system.
It is a pay-per-click advertising system, which means that
you only pay when someone clicks on your advertisement.

AdWords is an auction-based system. You offer to pay a certain price for
each click, and you compete with other bidders for higher placement.

You choose which words or phrases you would like to use
for your ad. When somebody searches
Google using those search terms, your ad will appear. If they then click
on your ad, it takes them to a specific page on your Web site.

The biggest advantage is that it gives you CONTROL.

Another problem with trying to get into the free listings at Google
is that you don’t have much control over how your page will appear.
You’re not sure exactly which search phrases will display it; you’re
not sure what Google will say about it; and you’re not sure which
pages of your site will match Google’s criteria for each search
phrase.

With AdWords, all those problems disappear. You can control the
exact wording of your ads, the exact page they link to, the exact
search phrases they match, and exactly when they appear.

For example, when I went overseas for a month last year, I turned
off all my Google advertising while I was away. (That was in the
days before I had fine-tuned my advertising campaigns. Nowadays, I
would just leave the ads running, knowing that they would make me
money in my absence :-))

You can control where the ads appear in the world. For example,
at the time of the Australian election last October, one of my
clients had an election-related Web site, so we ran some Google ads -
but only for Australian Internet users.

You can get even more specific with geography. For example, I
can run ads for events that I’m conducting in Sydney, and only show
those ads to people in and around Sydney.

You can run two ads side by side and find out which is more
responsive. Then you delete the weaker ad and replace it with a
third ad that you pit against the stronger ad. Keep doing this
until you find the ad that gets the best results.

Google tells you exactly which words and phrases people used when
searching. For example, when we did the advertising for the election
campaign, we found that “Australian election” had 50% more searches
than “federal election”; and “liberal party” had three times as many
searches as “labor party”!

With all these benefits, why would you ever go for free listings?

I hope I’ve convinced you by now that Google AdWords is the best
way to get traffic from search engines.

But what about the free listings?

Actually, I’m NOT suggesting that you give up the idea of
getting a free listing in Google. There are definitely advantages
to these listings.

What I am saying is that you should go for the paid listings
first - to test your market, refine your ad copy and improve
your marketing. Then put your efforts into the free listings
if you choose.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gihan Perera is a co-author of “Get Traffic Fast”, a
fast-track program to get started with Google advertising,
avoiding the common traps and pitfalls.

Sign up to his free mini-course “Google Kick Start” here:

http://GihanPerera.com/get-traffic-fast.html

If you’re thinking “How do I find the best deal?” “What should I be looking for? The best advice is take your time and see what loans are available to you. Don’t jump at the first you’re offered. Consider everything about the loan not just the monthly payments or the interest rate. You also need to compare a number of lenders, one just isn’t enough, and we recommend at least three, maybe more if possible. Ask lenders questions and make sure to write down their answers to compare later yourself. You may feel this is too much work but these little things done now could save you a lot of money in the future!

Here’s a list of questions to ask when comparing home equity loan lenders

What is the interest rate on the loan? Is it fixed or variable? If the rate changes by how much?

What are the monthly payments?

What is the highest the payments can go up by if the interest rate changes?

Is insurance included with the monthly payments and if not how much more will it cost?

Or can you get the insurance cover elsewhere?

Is the lender charging you for the loan?

How many years is the loan for?

Is there a final payment at the end of the loan?

How much will you be paying back in total?

.and finally the most important question Can you afford it??

For more information about home equity loans and how to avoid the scams visit http://www.allabouthomeequity.com/ for details.