Fast and Easy Christmas Decorations 

During this busy season, festive touches that don’t take a whole lot of time, but still look nice are a bonus to busy women!

-how about a bowl filled with glass balls (of one colour or multi) – you could intersperse them with small candy canes or tinsel.

-candles are an inexpensive way to bring both colour and scent to your home and are readily available just about anywhere.

-twist garlands around stair case railings

-tie ribbon around door handles

-add a festive air to your bathroom. Buy red and green glycerine soaps, buy hand soap in a Christmas container, and add candles that are red or green or fancy Christmas towels to our bathroom.

-put a Christmas screen saver on your computer screen.

-start a Christmas collection, start by buying Christmas (one or several) ornament every year

-string anything that has a hole in it (even the little ones can help with this). It would be fun to spray paint pretzels gold and string them.

-have your kids cut out paper snow flakes

- greenery wreaths that can be purchased just about anywhere and adorned with ribbon (with the ability to buy wire edged ribbon, just about anyone can make a bow and have it look good)

-if you have antiques such as sleighs, skates etc now is the PERFECT time to bring them out and put them on display.

The Christmas season is such a short one, make it last by decorating early and have fun while you are doing it!

Promoting Your Small Business

In the sea of so many business that have the same product or service that is similar to yours, how can you make yours stand out head and shoulders above the rest? Promoting your business might seem like an easy thing to do, but how can you make yourself more noticeable. It would seem that a simple website or add in the paper just doesn’t cut it any longer.

We live in an instant gratification world these days and when I am searching for something on the Internet and if it not in the first 4 or 5 pages, I usually give up on it. If your business is fabulous, but on the 6^th page of a search engine, just how many people are seriously reading your web page?

However, there are ways that you can promote your business and ways that it will get noticed!

Make your name known to everyone. It has said out of sight, out of mind, don’t let this be the case with our business. The more people you talk to, the more people will want to try it. Never assume that people aren’t interested.

Networking can be a powerful tool in making your business known. Always, always, always carry business cards with you and don’t be shy about handing them out.

Write effective ads and use the power of the press release when you have exciting news to share (like breaking sales records, hiring new key staff, etc)

Always be positive, never tell anyone you are down-sizing instead use more up-beat, positive language. Tell people you are streamlining to become more efficient.

Remember your abc’s - always be cool; always be calm; always be collected; always be creative; always be competent; always be CONFIDENT; always be colourful; always be charismatic (you get the picture).

Keep these few pointers in mind and they will help you and your business succeed!

How To Run An Effective Business Meeting

Almost everyone has been to a boring meeting and has had to force to keep yourself from not nodding off during it. If you are the person running the meeting, how can you keep the meetings from getting stale and dry?

First you might want to send inner office emails to let everyone know a) what topics will be covered during the meeting and b) what they need to bring to the meeting (such as a document that is already in circulation).

Secondly, you will want to designate someone to take minutes of the meeting, whether it be a secretary or whomever, but you might find yourself lost as to important discussions that have taken place if you don’t. You might want to consider having some sort of refreshments during the meeting. It is surprising how much a little food adds to meeting! Of course if you have handouts, you will want to make sure that you have enough for every person

If you are the person running the meeting, you should sit at the head of the table, that is a non-verbal signal to everyone else that you are in charge of the meeting. You will want to have a set agenda and stick to it as well as. Don’t let the meeting become bogged down by discussions, but on the other hand, allow everyone to participate.

After the meeting you should thank everyone for coming. Make sure that everyone understands what they have been asked to do and what follow-up is needed. Also, you will want to check with each person that did attend your meeting and make sure they are doing the follow up that was suggested during the meeting and finally, be sure to share credit where credit is due on the tasks completed/

Mutli Tasking – Is It A Good Thing?

To know if multi tasking is a useful thing or not, we first need to define what multi tasking is. Multi tasking is the ability to do two or more things at once. A buzzword of the 21^st century, multi tasking has become the mainstay of the work environment. But is this necessarily a good thing? It would seem that when doing two or more things at once, that the tasks you are working on don’t get your full attention. Is this a cause for more mistakes? Or how about the time wasting as you switch from one task to another? Sometimes multi tasking is a definite no no. For example, think about talking on your cell phone while driving. In some areas, that is a strictly forbidden practice

Think of multitasking in an office scenario. If you are working on your computer on a report and talking on the telephone, it can be a time waster as you switch from task to task, not to mention the time that it takes to get into the task at hand. It all comes down to concentration. I know myself that if I am typing away on the computer and the phone rings, I am often accused by the person on the other end that I am not paying attention to what they are saying.

The same thing with paper, if it is left alone and looked into immediately, paper tends to grow into piles. IM’s can be culprits too and not to mention time zones. If you have business dealings with people not in your time zone, that can take up time also. Emails and ‘um, have you got a minutes’ take up time also. Well there are all sorts of time stealers that can come your way in the course of a business day. But its up to you to stop it before it stops. As for multi tasking? Do it to the best of your ability, but don’t over do it…Remember, your sanity is at stake! ☺