Nessa's Notes

Yep, I missed another day but that's OK. Participating in the 30 days of blogging has been a wonderful boost - to my blog, my habits and my perceptions of why and what I want to accomplish. #7 is to Ask A Question . Being told to ask a question naturally makes you wonder what it is that you want or need to know. So, remembering my purpose for this blog and thinking about the assignment, here's my question: How do you define wealth, and does that definition sometimes seem to contradict itself? For example, everyone has heard the adage "don't put all your eggs in one basket", and most business "coaches" and internet "gurus" talk about multiple streams of income. One of the more popular pieces of advice is to create and sell e-books based on your main business offering, articles and other content. I think this is a great idea and I'm working on several of my own . But the how and why matters fully as much as the what. Do you think it's rig...

Day 5 of this exercise sounded simple at first: make a list . Of ten things that are important to me. My first thought was if I could narrow it down to only 10. So, I started thinking about what is truly important to me. According to my friend Mr. Webster, important means: marked by or indicative of significant worth or consequence : valuable in content or relationship. Significant worth. Valuable content. Relationship. My next thought was if there were 10 things that were worthy of such a list. 1. God and Them. 2. My children, steps, their friends, my neices, Godchildren, granddaughter, and all those wonderful folks who call me Mama-V or Auntie-V. 3. Books, words, reading, libraries, literacy and books 4. Pictures, letters to and from and special memories of number 2 5. Music 6. Friends. The ones who have fun with and make fun of me. The ones who come and go, and come back again. And especially the ones who love me and show me the way. 7. Grace 8. Beauty I think that's enough. Thi...

So I joined twitter a couple of months ago. It took a while to get the hang of it, but now it's rather fun. And it's all anyone can see to talk about - online or off. There really are interesting things happening in the twittersphere. In the past couple of weeks I have witnessed two marriage proposals and laughed at countless witty blog posts. I've also gotten plenty of article ideas, learned a time-saving tip for my business operations and found a new client. All in spare moments when I pop in to check on the tweethearts. All very pleasant, entertaining or useful, right? Not quite. The endless debates about the possibilities of twitter and the character of those who use it are becoming a bit dull. Some swear it's the best thing that ever happened to their businesses. Others claim you have to be a complete narcissist with severe ADD to participate in it. As with any public forum, you find a complete range of personalities, cultures, assumptions and behaviors. I've...

Good customer service is not a difficult art to master. A few simple basics should be the starting philosophy of every business. 1. If you want my business, you have to make it worth my while. Show me the value and don't try to fool me with worthless junk or expensive "upgrades". 2. You are not doing me a favor by taking my money, just as I don't shop to do you a favor. So keep your bad mood and nasty attitude to yourself. And tell your employees to do the same. 3. I am not invisible. In fact, it's very easy to see me standing right here, waiting for you to finish your private conversation and serve your customer - who just happens to be me. Didn't your boss (or your mother) ever tell you how rude that is? 4. If you have a store, make sure it's clean and pleasant. If you provide a service, make sure you're clean and pleasant. If you sell a product, package it in a way that's clean and pleasant. 5. Don't argue with me. You cannot win because I...

My favorite client is a lovely, spunky and confident woman. She is established in her business; she knows what she wants and what she needs. She has decided what she will and can do, and she gets help (that would be me) with everything else. Every business owner should have a "favorite" customer. No, not so you can actually "play favorites", but so that you have a model for your ideal client. It doesn't matter whether this person actually exists in reality. He or she should exist in your imagination, and in your marketing plan. You should be able to see, hear and understand her. You should know his likes and dislikes, his values and his needs. Why? Because your business should be designed around your ideal client. You want to know who they are so you can talk directly to them. You want to be able to attract them, and let them know that you and your business have what they want and need.