Small business owners wear many hats. They have to be chief company officers, project managers, lead generators and much more. When budgets are tight, it can be hard to find the money to hire a quality copywriter. And if you’re going to promote your business, you need good copywriting. Many small businesses just slap some copy into an ad or brochure and call it good. But with the right copy, you can garner a lot more attention and sales for your business.
And that’s where Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps by Susan Gunelius comes in. Step-by-step, Gunelius shows you how …read more

I’ve been checking out Managing Across Cultures: Seven Keys to Doing Business with a Global Mindset by Charlene M. Solomon, and Michael S. Schell. It’s been a very interesting read for me. Before I started writing I worked as a senior buyer for a multicultural automotive company for over 10 years. I always enjoyed working with, and learning about people from different nations.

The company I worked for was Japanese owned, but was developed from a sister company in Canada. The company also had plants in several other countries. I studied the Japanese culture quite a bit when I first started …read more

I’ve been checking out a book called “Creative Blogging For Personal or Business Improvement” by Paul William Johnson. The blogging part of the book title caught my eye, probably because, you know… I’m a blogger. When I got my hands on the book it wasn’t exactly what I expected, but it was still definitely an interesting read.

The book talks quite a bit about positive thinking and its affect on your life and your business. I’m a big believer in positive thinking, so the book definitely struck a cord there.
The second part of the book gets into creating a collaborative business …read more

When people discuss retirement planning, they are usually talking in terms of finances. While money is an extremely important aspect if you want to retire comfortably, the psychological aspect of retirement is arguably equally as important.
Psychologically preparing for retirement can be a difficult task, largely due to the lack of research on the topic. However, a new book promises to delve into this subject and study both the psychological and financial aspects of retirement planning.
“Psychology of Executive Retirement: From Fear to Passion” is authored by Doug Treen and published by iUniverse. Aimed at retiring baby boomers, this book takes a …read more

With Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, in the news today due to its declining profits and stock value, I thought it might be an interesting time to take a look at a recent book by Jeff Matthews: Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha: A Hedfe Fund Manager’s Dispatches from Inside the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. (Also of interest might be analysis of Buffett’s latest letter to shareholders.)
Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha
This book is an interesting first-person narrative of what it’s like to join the tens of thousands that descend upon Omaha to attend the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting. It is …read more

“If Nobody Loves You, Create the Demand”! What a powerful statement for any of you out there who can not seem to find a job. I heard this statement first thing this morning at a Marketing and Promotions Workshop at work and I was hooked! Dr. Joel Freeman, from The Freeman Institute was our facilitator this morning for the Workshop. I thought, what a great action statement for job seekers struggling in the job market today. Ok, so no one is calling you back. How are you creating a demand for your product – YOU?
Here are a few suggestions:
1. Rewrite …read more

YES, there are some things you should know without anyone telling you. I found this story in a book, Monster Careers: Interviewing by Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster.com. I would love to know what you think.
What Was This Candidate Thinking?
I was a 24-year-old recruiter on my first job. One day, I was a few minutes into an interview witha young woman when she asked me if she could bring her baby into the office. She had left her babhy in the waiting room! She brought the baby in. He was fidgety. All of a sudden, there’s an awful smell in my …read more

101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions by Ron Fry is the best book on the market in my opinion. This book will change the way you interview for jobs. It will teach how to effectively interview for jobs if you do what Ron Fry recommends. There are no silver bullets for anything in life, but there are proven prinicples that will work uniformly across the board if you apply them. I have 3 books to give-a-way!! Read on!
101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions got me my first management job years ago.
101 Great Answers to the Toughest …read more

Stan Toler wrote a handy pocket book called Minute Motivators for Leaders. It is a good, quick easy read for anyone wanting to understand leadership principles. The book if full of quotes, short narratives and inspirational writing. According to Stan Toler “Leadership is about gaining enough knowledge and wisdom to move people and plans from obscurity to excellence.”
Here is a list of some of the principles Stan Toler outlines in his book:

Character – Leaders do the right thing
Affirmation – Leaders make everyone feel valuable.
Communication – Leaders are good communicators.
Insight – Leaders understand people.
Endurance – Leaders accept pain and disappointment in stride.
Movement …read more

Do You Get Cold Feet or Sweaty Palms When Think About Interviewing?
More than 7 years ago, I had the distinct privelege to develop a workshop to help displaced employees. The workshop is called Tough Questions? Great Answers! It was designed to give people the tools, skills and confidence they need to go and compete for the jobs they want. Over the years I have given the keys to countless people, both individually and in small groups, to unlock the mystery behind job interviews.
I have taken Tough Questions? Great Answers! and created bite size webinars that you can sign up …read more