OUR ANNIVERSARY ISSUE!
December 7, 2002
Table of Contents
Welcome
Quote of the Week
Administration
Featured Resource - SPAMCHECK
Editorial
Staff Article - 2002
RETROSPECTIVE
Guest Article -
WORK EFFECTIVELY IN AN INSPIRING ENVIRONMENT
Parting Comments
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Quote of the Week
Education is when you
read the fine print. Experience is what
you get if you don't.
- Pete Seeger
Administration
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mailto:s2home@peakconsultinginc.com - to switch to the home
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mailto:both@peakconsultinginc.com - to receive both versions of
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Featured
Resource
SPAMCHECK
Are you worried your important business email might not make it to its
destination because of faulty filtering for s p a m? Send your email
to
mailto:spamcheck-peaksbc@sitesell.net first and get a report back as to
how the filters will view it. You can then make modifications, if necessary,
to make sure it gets through. The report you receive will tell you what you
can change to lower your score and reduce the odds of being filtered.
You must put the word TEST in all caps in front of the subject line to get
your report back. Otherwise, your email will simply be deleted. For example,
if you're sending an email to customers with a subject line of "Information
you requested," you would write it this way for purposes of the test:
TEST Information you requested.
You'll get the results back in seconds and can then mail without worry.
mailto:spamcheck-peaksbc@sitesell.net
Staff Article
2002
RETROSPECTIVE
by: Cary Christian
It's hard for me to believe that it's already been one year since I produced
the very first issue of this ezine. Time flies when you're having fun! It
has certainly been an eventful year, one in which our lives and our
expectations have changed dramatically.
We now understand that we have to either live with terrorism or fight to
eradicate it. There is no middle ground any more. We're all
potentially on the front lines of the battle.
2002 showed us that the worst of the job recession is not over. It
seems like every day we got more news of layoffs and cutbacks. And to make
matters worse, we learned that some of our largest businesses had been lying
to us about their profitability, or lack thereof! More jobs down the drain
and the total loss of retirement funds for thousands upon thousands of
workers.
We also learned that some of our most trusted institutions, the largest
accounting firms in the world, were not to be trusted. These firms
were our first line of defense against corporate fraud, and one of them was
destroyed by participating in the very fraud they were supposed to detect.
And deep inside, we know the others are guilty also. Business becomes a very
difficult undertaking without trust.
And all of these events took their toll on the stock market. Investors
panicked and sold. And sold. People just didn't seem to know where to look
for some stability to grab onto.
Yes, we suffered this past year in our business and personal lives. But we
are still here. We're still working, still producing, still selling, still
living our lives the way we want. We have indomitable spirit. We refuse to
allow ourselves to be jailed by fear and mistrust.
And that is the real lesson of 2002.
It's been a year of continuing change and evolution here at the Peak Small
Business Center as well.
During 2001, we made a decision to concentrate our efforts on small and home
businesses as opposed to the larger organizations we had worked with for
more than a decade. I made it my mission to achieve that conversion in focus
by the end of 2001. By the time the first issue of the Peak Small Business
Newsletter was published on December 5, 2001, the infrastructure was in
place and the evolution was in full swing.
The biggest problem I faced as editor of this newsletter was creating
content that would appeal to both small and home businesses, for these two
types of organizations are often very different in terms of the resources
they need. I finally decided that these differences could only be
accommodated by having separate newsletters for small and home businesses.
This was accomplished in July of this year.
And we're still evolving! We're still looking for ways to create value for
our customers, visitors and you, our most valuable resource, our
subscribers.
Internet business has also seen its share of changes during 2002. Of course,
that is to be expected. If there is one thing to be expected from the
Internet, it is change. Change yields opportunity even if the changes
originally appear to be undesirable.
One of the biggest changes during 2002 is that email marketing has become a
much more dangerous and "iffy" proposition for online businesses. S p a m is
proliferating so rapidly that it threatens to destroy the medium as an
advertising source. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't receive
nearly a hundred garbage ads to every email address that can be harvested
from our website. And I mean EACH ad to EACH address, multiplying the amount
of junk mail by at least a factor of ten.
Try to unsubscribe? Doesn't work. I'll get the same ads again tomorrow, plus
a whole new batch.
The end result? Filters. Filters poorly applied that filter not only the
bad, but a lot of legitimate business email as well. (Be sure to check out
our featured resource this week for a tool that will help prevent your
business email from falling prey to filters)!
You're also many times more likely to be falsely reported for s p a m
because of people's growing exasperation with the problem. People are
starting to shoot first and ask questions later.
These are two problems that will have to be seriously dealt with in 2003.
Luckily, there are still other excellent methods of online advertising that
work well for small businesses. While search engine optimization is becoming
an even more difficult arena for small businesses to compete in, the
pay-per-click engines are providing lots of opportunity.
The two major PPCs, Overture and FindWhat, are still excellent choices, and
are likely to remain so throughout 2003. There are new PPCs cropping up
every day and some of them show a lot of promise. We're going to be watching
them very closely for you to identify cost-effective advertising
opportunities.
In fact, we're working on new ideas to help you make 2003 a very good year.
That's our commitment to you.
Editing a newsletter every week can be a very tough task at times. It's
difficult to stay creative when you're trying to provide new original
content week after week. But it's very satisfying as well. I know from the
emails we receive that we've been able to help some people, and that is what
it's all about for us.
You're important to us and we care about what's important to you. We thank
you for spending time with us over the last year, and we hope you'll stick
around for years to come!
Copyright (c) 2002
Guest
Article
WORK EFFECTIVELY IN AN INSPIRING
ENVIRONMENT
by: Wendy Hearn
Are there times when you know you could be more effective and productive? Do
you want to feel more excited, enthusiastic and inspired? Your environment
plays a big part in this and discovering an inspiring environment is a
worthwhile investment in yourself and the people you work with.
Different people are inspired by different things. Music, colours, feelings,
people, peace and quiet and your whole environment influence your
inspiration. When you feel inspired your commitment will be higher and
you'll get more done in less time. Imagine working in a place where you can
give your absolute best.
If time is being wasted by procrastination, distractions around you or your
mind drifting away and you know that you could be more effective in what
you're achieving, take a look at what you need to change.
For me, there were times I've worked very effectively. If I was writing it
flowed naturally but at other times it was a struggle. I felt frustrated by
this and realised that this happened partly because I felt isolated, working
on my own and staring at the 4 walls of my office. I needed to be in an
environment that was conducive to writing and working
effectively and not always on my own. I made a number of changes to my
office and included music. This helped quite a bit but my intuition said,
"go to a coffee shop". I resisted this intuition for a while because of
fear. Fear that I wouldn't be working hard enough because, surrounded as I
was by the work hard ethic, the pressure to conform was strong. I felt I had
too much to do to leave my office and enjoying sitting in a coffee shop
didn't seem to fit with running a business.
However, I needed to trust my intuition and if I was going to be that
person, going to the coffee shop was the next step forward. It took me a
while before I finally trusted myself and I found a great little coffee shop
in a bookshop. Perfect! There was a buzz around me of people who were
relaxed and chatting. It's fairly peaceful and yet there are things going
on. I don't feel isolated and on my own. Sinking back into a
big soft chair feels luxurious and relaxing. I've found that when I'm
relaxed I work best. My commitment to writing is so much higher, I get
ideas out of my head and onto paper with amazing results. It feels more fun
for me and there's definitely an element of rebellion in not conforming to
the usual image of running a business from an office, under intense
pressure, dressed professionally, when I'm sitting there in jeans and a
t-shirt. Working can be fun and free of struggle.
What environment do you and the people you work with need to work at an
optimum level? Take the lead and discover what is needed. Be outrageous with
your ideas; don't just choose the most obvious ones. Harness your power of
choice and demonstrate that it's possible to work in an inspiring,
enthusiastic way.
Start by identifying what happens when inspiration and effectiveness are
low. Listen for ideas and clues from yourself and the people you work with.
Is your working area too cluttered, too noisy, too quiet, too distractive?
Consider what you need instead. Would time away from the office help, some
soft relaxing chairs, or what? To be inspired requires
that you shift who you are being as a person. What shift do you personally
need to make?
--------------------------
Wendy Hearn
Personal and Professional Coach
She works with business owners, professionals and executives to
discover and unlock their own inspiration, to effortlessly take the actions
required to have the success they desire.
To receive Wendy's free newsletter, send an email to:
mailto:newsletter@wendyhearn.par32.com
http://www.Business-Personal-Coaching.com
Copyright 2002, Wendy Hearn. All rights reserved.
Parting
Comments
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