Everyone does it! New Years Day rolls around and we all sit down and make our New Years Resolutions. It’s one of those things that just come natural to us on January

How many of you make those New Years resolutions each year and lose site of them before the first quarter is over? I know I have! Let’s look at the difference between a goal and a New Years resolution. A goal is something you are striving to achieve. A New Years resolution is something you really don’t want to do, but you know you should. So, even though most likely it won’t get done, you feel obligated to make the resolution to do it.

An example of a goal would be:
I want to make $2000 a month

An example of a New Years resolution would be:
I want to lose 100 pounds

In the first example you know this can happen if you sit down and plan. In the second example this may be a little more difficult because losing 2 pounds a week may be hard for some. A lot of us set a goal of losing weight, but because life and business happen, this does not!

Now that we know the difference between a goal and a New Years resolution, let’s talk about the ways you can make your New Year’s resolution into a goal that you can achieve.

One thing that will help you reach your goal is to write it down. Not only will writing it down help you remember your goal, but it will also keep you accountable. You will want to put your goals in a place where you will see them every day. The more you see them, the more likely you are to accomplish them. Another thing that will help you to reach your goals is to share your goals with someone that can hold you accountable.

Once you have your major goals in place, you need to break those down into goals that are more reachable. Break them down into monthly goals. That way you will know what you need to do on a monthly basis to reach the major goals. Now for some a monthly goal is too far out there. That’s ok. Just break your goals into weekly goals. Just do what it takes to make it reachable.

When you break your goals into smaller goals they look more attainable. Here is an example.

Say you want to make $12,000 a year. $12,000 seems like a huge amount of money. You may take one look at that and want to give up. Well, don’t do that! Instead, make the goal reachable. Break that goal down into monthly amounts. $12,000 a year means you need to make $1000 a month, which means you need to make $250 a week. Now sit down and see what you need to do to make $250 a week. Write down exactly what you need to do to make $250 a week.

Once you have your smaller goals written down, you need to share them with that someone we talked about earlier. You need to share them with someone that will hold you accountable. That person may be your spouse or another work at home mom or maybe a friend that has similar goals.

When you find the person that is going to help you, you need to set a time at least once a week that will work for both of you. You will need to tell this person what you did for the week, if you reached your goals, and what your new goals are for the coming week. Mondays and Fridays are good days to do this goal meeting.

So there you have it. You are well on your way to having a successful year. Keep up the great work and continue to strive each week and before you know it, you will reach your goals!

Corrie Petersen runs a successful VA and Advertising business. Check out her website at http://www.virtualfreedom4you.com. You can also sign up for her free advertising tips newsletter at http://getyoursoload.com/advertisingtips.aspx.

Creating New Year’s Resolutions for your business can be a daunting task. Where do you start? As a communication consultant, I suggest you consider thinking about the various ways you communicate in your business as a way to help you see business success in 2008.

Following are seven types of effective communication skills which will easily launch your business into 2008 and beyond with the results you want.

1. Learn and implement a new content-related skill in your field of expertise. Keeping yourself current in your field by adding a new skill that can help your clients or learning a new technique to add greater dimension to what you offer is one great way to communicate that you are “cutting edge” and know the latest and greatest “stuff” when it comes to your industry.

2. Learn and create or implement a new marketing skill. Have you always wanted to learn how to create a Signature Speech to market your business? Or maybe you’d like to add article writing to your marketing mix. Or how about learning the best ways to get free publicity through public relations? Whatever marketing skills you learn will help you effectively communicate what you offer.

3. Practice extreme self-care. At first glance, taking care of yourself may not seem like it has anything to do with business, but as a woman business owner, it has everything to do with your success. Most women tend to take care of everything and everyone else before they take care of their personal needs. And that can be a mistake, especially in business. If you get run down or ill, then your business suffers. If you get burnt out or overwhelmed, your business suffers. Taking care of yourself will make sure you stay on top of your work and continue to succeed.

4. Focus on spending more time with family and friends: create
systems. Spending more time with those we love is one reason many women business owners started their businesses to begin with. We wanted the freedom to come and go as we please, along with the cash flow to support our lives. If you create systems where your business operates without you, you free more of your time to be and communicate with those you love most and spend less time working.

5. Communicate with those in your industry by becoming more involved. Do you belong to a group or association of others in your field? Become known in your industry by getting active with those groups. Participate in online discussions, join committees, and get things done to help advance your industry. You’ll make a name for yourself by helping further your industry at the same time!

6. Become active in your local community for networking and philanthropic causes. In the New Year, consider joining your local chamber of commerce, leads organization, or one of the myriad philanthropic local groups in your area. You’ll meet people who will have a unique opportunity to get to know, like, and trust you, and at the same time you’ll be working for a good cause.

7. Brush up your brand image. Take a long hard look at your online presence and your printed pieces. Do you send a cohesive message about what you offer and who you are? When you communicate your business brand effectively, clients and customers will be drawn to you simply because it is clear what you’re all about.

By focusing on the above 7 communication skills in 2008, your business will be a great success!

I invite you to join me for a unique opportunity to make sure you reach your goals in 2008. It’s my Resolutions Results Program for Business. I’m Felicia J. Slattery, M.A., M.Ad.Ed., Communication Consultant, Speaker & Coach and I’ll show you exactly what you need to kick off 2008 right! Discover all the exciting details here: http://tinyurl.com/2r22hr.

Using a strong, projected voice is one of the most fundamental ways to create a lively, exciting presentation. A robust voice also creates an image of knowledge, credibility, and authority. Still, in my work as a speech coach at colleges and corporate settings, I have found most people must be cajoled to speak louder. Let’s look at the reasons for this reticence and also why projecting your voice is a vital part of a powerful presentation.

Why don’t we project our voices?

• While children are seldom scolded for soft voices, they are often scolded for being too boisterous. For adults, “raising one’s voice” can have the negative connotations of anger or conflict. In my classes, women are especially prone to very soft voices. Are we still teaching young girls that it is “more feminine” to speak quietly?

• Since we don’t practice projecting our voice, when we do try to speak with more volume we can feel especially self-conscious. Even when my students are speaking with a moderate intensity, they fear they are “screaming.” Because we hear ourselves “from the inside,” our new volume may feel overdone. And if we raise our voices without care –while screaming at a football game or concert– we may end up with very sore vocal cords and hoarseness. We may conclude that we don’t have the ability to project our voices safely.

• I’ve also found that too many of us dislike our voices in the same ways that we dislike our appearance. If a speaker fears that her voice is too high, too nasal-sounding or too raspy, she will probably be reluctant (at least unconsciously) to be louder.

• Finally, on a deep level, we must be willing to let our ideas and feelings be heard by others. Latent fears of ridicule or rejection can keep us from projecting our voice.

Why should we project?

• When lecturing to a class I demonstrate what good projection can accomplish. First, I talk to the group at a conversational level. My audience can hear me but the energy of the room feels low and the group has to really focus, lean in and “work” to concentrate. When I raise my voice to a “presentational level,” they can relax. I’m delivering my voice to them, full of vitality and vigor. They don’t have to meet my voice halfway– my speech goes to them. And, if I put energy into my voice it will also come out in animated eyes, facial expressions, and gestures. I won’t need to artificially impose fake movements; the energy I’m using to project my voice will pour naturally into these non-verbal enhancements of my message. These gestures and facial expressions, combined with a strong volume (and other paralanguage dimensions such as variations in pitch and tempo) create a liveliness that separates good speakers from great ones.

• Ultimately projection equals energy. In this age of microphones, the primary reason to project your voice is to radiate energy and excitement about your message. In a large room it may be necessary to use amplification, but we should still project our voice. Human Resource professionals advise candidates to stand and smile even when talking in phone interviews. Why? Because human beings are so sensitive to nuance that we can sense enthusiasm and energy through the subtleties in a voice. It is easier to project those positive attributes when standing and smiling. And projecting.

How should we project?

• The interplay of breath, diaphragm, and vocal cords can be complicated–singers and actors may study vocal projection for decades. For our purposes we can simplify projection into two major concerns: keeping the throat open and using breath to project the voice. While singers and actors are taught to approach these areas through exercises and technical understanding, it is also possible to approach vocal production through its psychological dimension.

• Have you ever been in a dire situation and your voice poured forth naturally? I noticed this for the first time when I yelled for my puppy to come back from a busy street. Because of the danger, my need to be heard by Sophie trumped any self-consciousness. It is our reticence, our internal conflict about how much we really want to be heard, that creates tightness in our throat. This tension prevents the vocal cords from working freely. The first step, therefore, is to free our mind. We have to desire to be heard.

• Once we are willing to be heard we need to breathe deeply. Our voices are formed by breath traveling past our vocal cords–more breath means that the voice can travel farther. Looser clothing will allow us to bring a deep breath down into our chest and then to our belly. All of this may feel very foreign and “wrong” but with practice, deep breathing and a strong voice will become a new habit that feels “natural.”

We all have different vocal capacities. You’ll need to find what your own voice can do. Experiment with producing more sound beyond your current comfort zone. If you have a partner who can give you honest feedback, it can be easier since you won’t have to depend on your own “inner ear” for guidance. An outside source can reassure you that your voice sounds terrific and it isn’t “too much.” Audio and videotapes can also be used for guidance—if you can avoid being too critical of how you sound and look

While some speakers are naturally blessed with more resonant tones, anyone can learn to use their voice with more authority and power. Just as a confident attitude helps to create a winning appearance, any voice can be made more appealing if it is projected with conviction. And just as an “imperfect” feature can be alluring, an “imperfect” voice can captivate—remember Janis Joplin?

Laura Lewis-Barr is a writer, speaker, and trainer. She has taught and consulted at colleges in California and Illinois since 1991. Need help with a presentation? Contact info for Laura can be found at www.elgin.edu/corporatetraining.

Do you ever find yourself tempted to purchase something online, and even with a money-back guarantee, you’re still not quite sure about handing over your cash?
Well, some of your prospects will feel the same way as they read your sales page for your product or service. Your offer sounds great, the right guarantee eliminates their risk, but they still wonder if whatever it is they are considering purchasing is right for them.

If you want to increase the likelihood that they will take out their wallet, simply offer them a free or paid trial! Haven’t you loved it when you’ve been given the option to try something out for free or very little cost to make sure it’s what you want?

By offering a trial to your prospects, you’re doing two things of value for your business-building. One is that you are showing that you are confident in the value of your product to offer a trial, and the other is that you are essentially eliminating the last lingering question in your prospect’s mind: “What if I don’t like it?”

Allowing your prospects to decide for themselves whether or not your product or service is for them answers that question for them.

So, what kinds of products and services are best for free trials?

1. Downloadable products

If you’re offering information products, like ebooks or how-to guides, you can offer a sample chapter as a free trial. If you’re offering an e-course, you can offer one lesson as a free trial. If you’re offering an audio program, you could offer a 15-minute clip as a free trial. You could also create an introductory component to any of these that gives solid information, but that also leaves your reader or listener wanting more.

2. Membership sites

It’s common practice to offer a free, $1, $4.95, or $9.95 trial for a membership site. And it’s common practice because it’s a very effective way to convert your trial member to a paid member. Just like your local fitness club’s trial period - it’s much easier to sign up for a month for a couple of bucks than to pay the entire gym membership in one lump sum or to be bound to a contract for a certain length of time before you even know if the membership is for you.

3. Physical products

Offer to send your product to your customer for a small processing fee plus shipping and tell them they have 30 days to test it out. If they don’t return it within those 30 days, bill them the full price for the product (minus the processing fee, if you’d like).

4. One-on-one services

I want to make it very clear that I am not in favor of complimentary 1:1 sessions for any service professional. However, if you’d like to give a free 15-minute consultation to see if there’s a good match between you and your prospect, that can increase your client base.

A better option is to offer a free or low-cost group session. Give an introductory talk about your services and answer questions, perhaps even offer a discount to those who sign up with you right then. This way, you’re truly leveraging your time and talent by allowing your prospects to self-select themselves out without your having to go through that process individually.

Just make sure that along the way and at the end of the trail period, you convey the benefits of the paid version in all these cases. Having a quality product or service and following up effectively to convert your trial customer to a paid-in-full customer will increase your overall sales.

So, which of your offerings can you give a trial on? Choose one, create the trial, and see what happens to your bottom line.

Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & CoachT, founder of ClientAbundance.com and creator of 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com.

There are many questions that often come up for new small business owners around offering guarantees - what kind, how long, am I risking too much by doing so, and even if they should offer them at all.

In my business, I offer a guarantee on everything I sell (except for my personal coaching and consulting). These guarantees do one very important thing:
Guarantees remove the risk from your buyer.

And yes, that means that then the “risk” is on your shoulders, but that’s exactly where it should be. After all, if you’re providing something of value that you believe in, standing behind it should be very easy to do.

Here are some other thoughts about offering guarantees for your products, based on my experience and knowledge:

1. Guarantees make it easier for your prospect to buy…
If you offer a 100% money-back, no-questions-asked guarantee, you’ve answered your potential buyer’s #1 objection - “But what if it doesn’t work for me?”
By assuring them that, if your product doesn’t do what you say it will for your buyer, you’ll give them their money back without demanding a reason, you’re assured more sales.

2. Guarantees are proven to make more sales…
You may think that by offering a guarantee people are going to take advantage of it unscrupulously, especially if you’re selling a digital product. After all, you can’t really take an ebook back once someone has downloaded it to their computer (and yes, I know there is software available that turns “off” a returned copy, although I don’t recommend you use it).
But so few people will really do that that it’s not worth not offering a guarantee. There will always be a few turkeys who will take advantage, but I suggest you leave it up to the Universe or Karma or whatever to take care of them.

3. Offer a strong guarantee…
Meaning, 100% money-back, no-questions-asked, one-year guarantee.
Studies agree that the longer the guarantee, the less returns you’ll get. Why? Because people are busy, and they will appreciate a longer time to try something out before they have to return it. And frankly, unless they are furious about a purchase, it’s unlikely they will ask for their money back.

4. Guarantees for services…
If you’re a service provider, like a coach or consultant, as a general rule of thumb, I don’t recommend that you offer a guarantee on your results because you need your client’s active participation to achieve any results. And since there is really no way that you can make them engage, it wouldn’t be wise to place all the responsibility for results on you.

5. What to do when someone wants to invoke your guarantee…

Sometimes you’ll have to make a decision on a case-by-case basis, but generally the best way to deal with refund requests is to simply honor them. To paraphrase a business coach I worked with a few years ago,”Here’s your money, off you go…” is usually the best strategy when dealing with requests for refunds.

Offering a strong guarantee will put your potential buyer at ease and make more sales for you. If you’d like to see a copy of my “No Quibbles Guarantee” visit my sales page for my “21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System” and scroll to the bottom. And feel free to model it for your own offerings as well!

Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, & Founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com , teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com

One of the most effective success strategies I share with my coaching clients is regularly attending to the WINS and Successes—in life and in business. Luck is never an accident. Any success you have can be replicated if you really pay attention to what you did that worked. Doing more of what works is key to working smarter and not harder in your business!

We often spend so much time thinking about our problems and frustrations that we don’t focus sufficiently on our successes. There is much to be gained by focusing on successes. Focusing on your success increases your positive energy and strengthens you as you take on new challenges. You learn about your unique strengths and contributions. Noticing what has worked for you will help you to intentionally continue doing more of the same in the coming year. As you think about your successes, consider your all aspects of your life.

Consider your relationships. Which bonds have you strengthened? What new friendships have developed for you over the previous year? Which relationships brought you the most joy this year? How did you support your loved ones during difficult times? In what ways have you acknowledged others for their unique contributions? What lessons have you learned from your relationships?

Consider your spiritual life. How have you grown spiritually over the previous year? What new insights have you gained? In what ways have you connected with your higher power? What spiritual practices have you implemented over the previous year? How did you stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone in exploring your spirituality?

Consider your financial life. What steps did you take this year to build financial security? What steps did you take toward financial freedom? In what ways did you save, invest, and spend money consistently with your values? What did you learn about your relationship with money this year?

Consider your physical surroundings, community, and your environment. How did you improve your physical surroundings this year? What did you do to improve the comfort of your home? What did you do to contribute to the betterment of your community? How did you take care of your environment? What did you learn about yourself in relation to your community and your environment?

Consider your health. What steps did you take this year to improve your health? What new healthy habits have you incorporated in your life? What have you learned about yourself that will help you to add more healthy habits in the coming year? How did you manage stress in a positive way?

Consider fun and recreation. What activities brought you the most pleasure this year? What new skills did you acquire? How did you structure your life to ensure you had sufficient time for fun and recreation? What lessons did you learn while having fun?

Consider your business and career. What were your achievements and accomplishments over the past year? In what ways did you challenge yourself in your career? What new skills did you acquire? How did you express your values through your work?

Now that you have considered your success in all aspects of your life, reflect on what you have learned about yourself. Consider how you can take these lessons forward into the coming year. Perhaps you noticed areas of life that you have focused on less than other areas of your life. You may want to challenge yourself to focus more intently on those areas in the coming year.

Take your success to the next level. Partner with me as your coach and we’ll develop a plan for to leverage your success. By the end of 2008, you’ll be earning more, working less and having more fun. Email me today at Sabrina@tapthepotential.com and we’ll schedule a time to talk about your customized success plan.

Business & Life Coach, Sabrina Schleicher, Ph.D. offers a FREE e-course: 7 INSIDE TIME MANAGEMENT SECRETS OF ELITE PERFORMERS plus FREE subscription to her newsletter at http://www.tapthepotential.com

Most people know that eating healthier, in smaller quantities and exercising helps you lose weight. Yet 60% of Americans are overweight. Why is that?

Here are the top four reasons I have heard people give:

1. I don’t have enough time in the day
2. I really don’t want to work at it (it’s too hard or not fun)
3. Fast food/junk food temptations are all around me
4. I am afraid of failure

These are all honest and valid reasons, but if losing weight is something you really want to do, you can overcome these objections.

Let’s first address the time issue.

So many times I hear people say “I would love to exercise but I don’t have the time”, or “I would love to eat healthier, but I don’t have time to prepare healthy meals”. Yet these same people find the time to go to events or parties or get together with friends for a movie night. This is because they planned (scheduled) the time to do the things they really want. Well, if you really want to lose weight and eat healthier, you must schedule it (put it in your calendar as it if was an appointment). If it is in your planner like any other appointment (dentist, doctor, etc) then you will have the time for it. Remember you are doing this for you. If you really want to achieve something you must make time for it!

So you don’t want to go to the trouble of trying to get healthy because it is not fun or too hard?

First of all when you want to lose weight and get healthier you need to make a decision. You must decide that this is something you really want. You must decide to do whatever it takes to get healthy and lose weight. You must do it for yourself, not to please someone else or just to look good in a party dress. Otherwise, the results won’t last. Once you make the decision to get healthy, then you can move on to the next step, but until then, you cannot move forward. Decide now. What do you really want? When you have made the decision to lose weight and get healthy, stop making excuses and just get started. Make an appointment with yourself every day and just do it!

Are you keeping from starting on your weight-loss journey because you are afraid of failing?

Well, guess what? You will fail, many times! But if you don’t even try you will never succeed. Most successful people succeed because they don’t give up. They figure out what went wrong, start again, try different things and keep going until they reach their destination. It took me a lot longer to lose my weight than the average person because of my chronic illness, my elderly parents being in and out of the hospital, the hard time my eldest child was going through in life, my neck injury, etc. These things slowed me down, and sometimes I strayed from my journey, but I did not give up. I kept going, turned to my support system (which in my case was a weight-loss support message board community), and kept trying again and again. The key here is to keep going! We are only human, it is normal to stray and it is perfectly okay to make many mistakes. What is not okay is to give up the fight. Never give up!

Last but not least, the final reason for people not losing weight is because we are surrounded by fast food and tasty temptations.

In this busy day and age, we find ourselves stopping to pick up “junk food” for many reasons. We don’t have the time to make dinner since we have to take our kids to their after school activities, do other errands or had to stay late at the office. This goes back to planning and setting appointments even to prepare and make dinner. However, there will be times when you will need to pick up some fast food to feed the family. When you do, know that there are choices. Fast food restaurants are realizing that people are trying to get healthier these days. So they are now offering more healthy choices on their menus. Instead of ordering the same greasy choices you’ve ordered in the past, stop and think before you order. Pick the healthiest things on the menu. Skip the sauces and dressing unless they offer low-fat options. Keep some healthier choices at home so that when you get home you can add the dressing or dipping sauce. Cooking fresh at home is always best (and a lot cheaper than eating out all the time), but when you are in a pinch and must eat out, make smarter choices.

Yes all these suggestions require a little thought and planning, but eventually after doing these for a while it will become second nature and you will be making better choices without thinking about it. Changing your lifestyle to make healthier choices takes time, but it will be well worth the effort you put into it. Remember that anything worth having is worth fighting for. Remember, If you really want to achieve something you must make time for it! Repeat after me: “If it is to be, it is up to me!” So, what is keeping you from losing weight?

Angie Cyr is an Independent Million Dollar Body Coach and available for free mentoring and encouragement via E-mail. Find free weight-loss tips and sign up for her free monthly newsletter at her website: www.CoachChica.com

Your web site is sending potential clients a message about your business, often before they even meet you. Is it saying the things you want it to say?
Ideally, your web site does three things for your business:

• It educates your clients about their problem or need so that they realize your business can help them
• It shows that you are an expert, so that clients will be comfortable working with you
• It answers basic questions so that clients convince themselves that you are the ideal person to work with
Unfortunately for many solo entrepreneurs and small business owners, their web site says other things:
• They must be too busy to take on new clients because their web site still has announcements for events that happened months ago
• They do “just enough to get by” because they have a web site but it is skimpy on information
• They don’t really know very much because the site doesn’t have any content on it, just a few pictures and a bit of text
Those are not messages that any small business owner wants to send to a prospective client.

The good news is that there are free and inexpensive tools that allow you to set up a web site so that you do not have to go back to your web designer to make any changes.

Your designer can use tools like Adobe Contribute® to set up editable regions on your web site that you can change without any HTML coding. These regions are great for listing current specials or upcoming events. If money is tight, Flyspeck is an similar product available for about $35.

Blogs make it easy to add content articles to your web site on a regular basis. Your personal articles go a long way to establishing you as an expert in your field. Tools like Blogger™ allow you to get a blog up and running in less than 5 minutes. You can attach your blog to your current web site or even make a blog act like a web site.

If you don’t like to write, audio files offer a way to give information to potential clients without having to write very much – recording an audio file can be as easy as making a telephone call. You can add short audio clips to other items on your web site as well. Imagine how much an audio clip will add to a before and after picture for a decorator or organizer.

Your web site speaks for you when clients come looking on the web. Make sure it is saying what you want it to say to future clients.

Sue Newell is a coach and consultant for solo entrepreneurs who need help suing their web sites for marketing. Visit Sue’s site, www.fromideatoaction.com to download a free e-book: How to write articles when you hate to write.

As a business owner, you have a lot of balls to juggle all at once. However, you must always remember your clients and customers and respond to their wants and needs. I do this by creating products and services they tell me they want. I pay attention and respond quickly. Here are the 10 steps I use to create products that respond to my clients’ wants and needs:

1. Decide what type of product to create. Will I offer a multi-session telecourse? A written product? A one-time teleseminar? I personally have had a lot of luck with multi-session telecourses, so I gravitate toward those first. The next steps are what I follow in creating telecourses.

2. Decide on the topic. My audience is specific. I teach small and home-based business owners effective communication skills. They have specific wants and needs as a group, based on my expertise and what I can offer them. My audience often tells me what they need. I listen for that and respond to their needs.

3. Buy a URL. I like having a separate URL for each of my products. I figure out a name for the product while searching for a URL. I try to think of a title that is descriptive and easy to remember

4. Write the sales page. Yes, I write my sales page before my content. Why? Because I use my sales page as a guide and outline for what I want to include in the program. As I write the sales page, I’m also constructing the program. I have my resources about that topic open on my computer and surrounding me on my desk, the floor, and where ever there is free space. I also open my favorite sales page books, ebooks, and notes, too. Because writing is a process, I usually sit down and crank out the whole first draft at one time. Then I go back over the next day or so and revise, tweak, or add things as I think of them.

5. Send my completed sales page to my assistant to upload to my new URL. My virtual assistant is a whiz with all things technical. I don’t know how she does it and don’t really want to know. It’s quick, cost-effective, it works, and that’s what matters.

6. Send my subscribers to the sales page. After the sales page is ready and we know the links to PayPal work, then I send the link for the sales page to my subscribers so they know what I’m up to and there is something new for them.

7. People sign up!

8. Write the full content. ONLY after people sign up is when I commit the time and energy to writing the detailed content. Let’s say I made a mistake and somehow misunderstood the needs of my clients. I’ll find out in a hurry. By now my subscriber list is large enough that when I send an offer that is priced right and promises to deliver something my readers want, they will buy it. After clients have committed to the program is when I prepare the full content for the first session. I base the sessions on what I promised in my sales page. As a result of having all my resources open when I wrote the sales page, I’ve already created an outline of the full program. All I have to do is go back to the sales page (and I sometimes write notes to myself in the file about page numbers or books or websites) and I’m all set.

9. Write NOTES, not a manuscript.

10. Market the class to places where my ideal clients “hang out.”
Often I do not write new content for a program until I have feedback from my clients on their wants and needs. Let’s say I write four full sessions but after session one someone sends a question I think the entire group could benefit from. If every session is meticulously planned out, there’d be no room for that type of spontaneous, client-driven content. All programs should be client-driven. After all, these are the paying customers! I make sure I give them what they want as it relates to the topic at hand.

The way people will want to sign up for your classes is to be seen as credible. I invite you to discover how to Increase Business by Communicating Your Credibility now. You’ll get this FREE e-course designed to help you attract more business and get more cash flow. Pick it up here: http://www.communicationtransformation.com/creating-credibility-ecourse.html

Felicia J. Slattery, M.A., M.Ad.Ed. is a communication consultant, speaker & coach specializing in training small and home-based business owners effective communication skills so they can see more cash flow now.

I love looking at magazines for decorating tips, especially for the holidays. I wanted to share with you some of my own ideas along with some that I have found over the years in other magazines that really have helped my home to look less cluttered and quite crisp for the holidays.

Decorating Your Christmas Tree

Step #1 - Wrap white lights around the tree in a spiral pattern, start from the top. Next, place identical medium sized ornaments in a zig zag pattern, work from the bottom up. Repeat with 2 or 3 other types of medium sized ornaments.

Step #2 - Hang larger ornaments among the medium sized ones. Fill in any gaps with smaller ornaments.

Step #3 - Select 3-5 ornaments that will be your focal point. Place them in a diamond or triangle pattern half way down the front of the tree. Depending on the where you place your tree, you may have more than one focal point. Something to keep in mind.

Use ribbon. Tuck in 4″ strips of ribbon around the entire tree or , sporadically drape long strands of ribbon down your tree.

Use beads. Starting at the top of your tree, loosely drape your beads.

Finally, add your tree topper.

Inexpensive Decorations, because less is more!

A simple arrangement of candles

Fill decorative bowls with oranges, apples, pomegranates or nuts

Add your favorite jewellery or beads to your centerpiece

Combine existing decorations to make wreaths or centerpieces fuller and far more attractive.

I do believe the most important thing is to just have fun decorating.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Wendy Okkema
Yak’s Healthy Lifestyles
Personal Trainer/Lifestyle Coach
http://www.yakshealthylifestyles.zoomshare.com/