It is not surprising that, with the holiday shopping season looming immediately on the horizon, many people are wondering how they might be able to save a little money before the end of the year. I liked some tips sent via email by Herb Kay, who is known for the SOS System. Here are some of my paraphrasings of the tips, along with some of my thoughts and quotes from the email:

Change your withholding at work: This is a short-term way to get a little extra cash in your paycheck. Here is what Kay points out: “According to the …read more

Many people travel for the holidays. If you plan to do any travel for Thanksgiving or in December, now is the time to book your travel. While you are unlikely to score a really great deal for Thanksgiving (this is the most popular time of the year to travel, so the airlines are pretty unforgiving), you can still find reasonable fares for December. Just try to stay out of the immediate vicinity of Christmas and New Year’s.
Some things to remember when trying to get the best holiday airfares include the following:

Travel mid-week. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are usually your best …read more

Obviously, my most poignant memory of 9/11 was watching the Twin Towers come down. I also felt sad for the people directly affected by the tragedy. I lived thousands of miles away at the time, but I still remember feeling connected to strangers.
But what about after that day, when our leaders began to comfort us?
I remember President Bush telling us that we should make sure to go out and spend money so that we could keep our economy going. It would, he promised, be a way to defy our enemies, who seemed bent on destroying our financial well-being as a …read more

Labor Day has a long and interesting history.

Holidays are a great time to take days off and spend time with your friends and family. This labor day weekend, I don’t have much planned, but I do intend to relax a little, especially since I’ve been working so hard lately. I have a client who gets a certain number of articles every day, and I mentioned to him on Friday about having a nice holiday weekend.
His reply was a confused “so you aren’t going to be around on Monday?” email. Stupid me – I forgot that Labor Day in the United States isn’t Labor Day everywhere. My client …read more

Wishing you a Happy 4th of July. Hopefully, you are enjoying a three-day weekend, whether you got Friday off or whether you still have Monday off to look forward to. It’s a great weekend for festivities — at least where I live. The weather is quite nice.
Enjoy a simple, straightforward rendition of the Star Spangled banner by the United States Marine Band in honor of the day. Then, watch the video from JibJab and ThePartyParty.com. It’s an amusing take on the Banner, with former presidents saying words that can be used in the national anthem.
Happy 4th of July!

July 4th is among the most frugal of holidays.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Is your business recognizing the holiday? I don’t mean giving your employees the day off, but do you have special holiday sales or events?

Many people love holidays and smart business owners take advantage of this fact by providing reasons to celebrate – buying something special from their business, that is.
As you can see by the BizFact, a fair percentage of people will recognize the holiday with a special dinner or by going to a restaurant or bar.  But there are lots of other possibilities for your business to link to a holiday.
A local quilt shop, for …read more

I appreciate your readership. And since it’s the season of giving, I’d like to give you a couple of public relations related gifts as well:

On December 30, I’ll be hosting a FREE teleseminar called “Three Steps for Free Publicity” at two different times, so you can pick the one most convenient to you. So check your schedule and see if you are available either at:

December 30  at Noon EDT, 9 AM PDT
December 30 at 8 PM EDT, 5 PM PDT

In ‘Three Steps for Free Publicity’, sponsored exclusively by ReadyTalk, you’ll learn the strategies I use every day for myself …read more

Just a brief note wishing you everything your heart desires, especially great Public Relations and Publicity!
From
Shannon Cherry, APR, MA
Image Credit: Christmas Before the Chaos by Shannon Cherry