Kids make the world happier

Have you noticed that children seem happier lately?

Maybe it's just me but it seems that everywhere I go lately, the kids just seem happier. I just thought I would ask because it struck me as pleasantly odd.

In times of a changing president and economic challenges, it's nice to feel the positive energy coming from the ground up. And by ground, I mean the 2 foot tall bundles of joy that hobble around and smile at us 5 feet plus giants who often forget the simple joys of life as we try to make a living and create wealth while still maintaining harmony in our bodies, bank accounts and souls.

Now, I am not normally one to praise kids like this. I run past the Baby's R Us stores like it's emitting the plague. But lately, it just feels like the air is a little lighter. I hope you feel it too.

So here I am, back to work on a football Sunday and just thought I would share my happy thought.

Best wishes to you and yours this holiday season,
Angela

p.s. I came across this cute picture on a website and thought it was cute. I don't know the kids or photographer since I lost the link ages ago. Woops.

Step into the modern world - TV Box and Cell Phone Registration

If you're like me and live with only a cell phone and/or haven't yet upgraded to a modern TV, then these links are for you.

Get your TV Converter Box Coupon already. They'll mail you the coupon.
TV Converter Box Coupon Program website
TV Converter Box https://www.dtv2009.gov/

Reverse 911 for Cell Phones - San Diego
If you live in San Diego, you need to register your Cell Phone for Emergency situations. Let's put the Homeland Security Office to good use. We are paying for them to be there.
San Diego Reverse 911 http://www.sandiego.gov/ohs/reverse911/index.shtml

ICE your cell phone
On your Cell Phone, you should have your top emergency contact(s) listed in your Contacts under ICE, which stands for In Case of Emergency. I have mine listed as ICE Mom and ICE Daniel. I know if one person is not available, the other is. If you are unconscious, wasted or otherwise impaired and smart enough to have your cell phone on you, the EMTs and doctors can more easily contact people who know you if you have an ICE number listed. You can also put it on the outside of your phone, but that's totally up to you. You can get a cool ICE sticker for two bucks at Ice Sticker.com. Just make sure you put your ICE in your Contacts.

Peace and love,
Angela

Musician Resources

I have learned that many creative and business people are musicians or know musicians. Here are some resources to share with your musical friends:

Playlist.com: A great site for getting other people to post your songs on their MySpace pages. Exposure is key.

MySpace.com: Every musician should have a MySpace page to connect with their fans, post new songs, get feedback and give tour dates.

Pandora.com: This virtual radio station creates playlists of similar styles of artists. You can get heard by people who would otherwise never find you.

YouTube.com: Makes it easy to post videos online and send them out to fans. MySpace also has a video tool. Either way. Show your fans who you are.

Insights

What I've learned:

"What would happen if you turned Worry into Wonder? How would your life be different?" Angela DiCarlo, MBA

"We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden." Goethe

"If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest." Publilius Syrus

"To will is to select a goal,
determine a course of action that will bring one to that goal,
and then hold to that action 'til the goal is reached.
The KEY is ACTION."
Michael Hanson


Let me help you with Sales Training, Product Development, Promotional Tools, Web Design, and Consulting.

First consultation is FREE. Call or email today.

Financial Bailout Alternative: Payoff Consumer Credit Card Debt

What are your thoughts on having the Financial Bailout plan be used to pay off consumer credit card debt instead of rescuing the big financial institutions who got America into debt in the first place?

A NEW OPTION: HELP OUT OUR FELLOW CITIZEN
I may be naive but the $700 billion bailout seems to just get us into more debt, not out of it. If we used that same money and wiped out America's credit card debt that would be a true Freedom Act.

I understand that as a citizen that with this new option, I would be paying off someone else's mistake, but at least it's my neighbor, my brother and my friends that I know and live next to and see struggling on a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle as the interest rates on their credits rise to staggering levels of 33.99% and struggle to fill their cars with gas.

THE OLD OPTION: WHY HELP A FACELESS BOTTOM LINE?
This is instead of bailing out some multi-billion dollar company that has no real face and just focuses on squeezing more money out of us to boost their bottom line.

THE REAL BENEFITS: INCREASE CONSUMER FINANCIAL EDUCATION & RE-EDUCATE OUR CONSUMERIST SOCIETY
As part of the Consumer Credit Card Bailout Plan, I would add an education program that every American who gets bailed out would be required to attend within a certain time period of their debt relief (i.e. one year online education). This would encourage Americans to understand how their spending habits should be to sustain a lifelong debt free lifestyle. I work with some great people who are developing a program that would satisfy this portion of the crisis relief and would be happy to provide you their information.

THE REAL BOTTOM LINE:
By freeing up ourselves and our neighbors from credit card debt, we would be giving everyone in our country a "new lease on life" and a "fresh start," two ideas that Americans preach every day.

We want to succeed. Case in point: Did you know that one of the most stolen items at drug stores is disposable razors? Razors to shave men's face. You see America wants to look good and succeed. It's just the way we have been encouraged to live to spend money with advertising, impulse buying and availability of credit has so jaded America that WE, the citizens of America, need a bailout plan that gets us out of debt and puts us on the right path. Hence the credit card bailout plan with financial education.

Let me know your thoughts.

Carpe diem,
Angela

Angela DiCarlo, MBA
858-412-7738 | 858-41-ASSET
angelasemailis@gmail.com
http://myprofitcoach.blogspot.com

It's my birthday, have a Free Slurpee at 7/11

Yes, it's official. Today is my birthday. And because I am the giving type. I am inviting everyone to get a free slurpee at 7-11 stores. Yep, enjoy your slurpee and celebrate my birthday. Good for today only.

LOL,
Angela

Life in Action

Photo by Don Mirra

See People in Action at TED. Technology, Entertainment, Design - Inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers. Ideas worth spreading. Videos range from 4-20 minutes long by some of the most inspiring people in the world. It doesn't cost anything to view, please take a moment and glance through TED. It is important to understand our personal and world problems so we can fix them.

This TED video inspired me because it made a visual image of our daily behaviors that we are not seeing but should. Ignoring it will not make anything better. Knowledge is only half the power.

I mentioned this before, but if you want all your news in one paper, pick up a copy of The Week. It is a great short magazine that has all the top stories from the week. It takes about 1-2 hours to get a good recap of all the major happenings in the world.

Carpe Diem,
Angela DiCarlo

p.s. Thanks Don for sharing these with me. Your stories and your photography are inspirational. Don Mirra Photography


UPDATE: July 30, 2008 Don Mirra will be leaving for Kenya. Let's send him our best wishes for a safe and bountiful journey.

UPDATE: Don returned safely from his journeys.

Big Toys to Please Your Inner Child

You take your car to work, I'll take my...BuzzBall. Human hamster wheel or the next great high end toy? Large field required. Let me know when you get one of Evento's BuzzBalls and I will join you. Get the BuzzBall story here thanks to OhGizmo's Andrew Liszewski.

Nerd Alert - Coolest Sites for Latest Technologies

Every day, my colleagues and I email each other the latest new technologies. I thought I was just a nerd, but one day I realized I was a full-fledged, early adopter, hybrid driving, organic food eating, green advocating, tech geek. There is no doubt about it. Here are some of my favorite sites for ultra geekiness. Subscribe to their RSS feeds if you want and enjoy daily coolness.

Want to stay on top of the latest techie news and toys? Find news and gadgets you never thought you needed but can no longer live without like Darth Vader USB Hubs that are abundant at Engadget

TechCrunch is full of useful stories like how Google Employees Get Japanese Space Toilets.

Make your home more Green while still being sexy at Inhabitat. And if you want to feel like you're outside when you're really inside, go to
The Sky Factory to dream about getting a virtual landscape ceilings for your home or office.

BBC is a great place for world news. Be wowed by innovative architecture with the 80-story Moving Skyscraper coming to Dubai on BBC.

In case you missed it, Bill Gates retired from Microsoft as CEO officially Friday, June 27, 2008. There's an awesome video with Bill, Jon Stewart, Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and many more. Take a few minutes if you can to enjoy.

If you have time to read one paper a week, this is it. The Week arrives every week in my mailbox with the top stories from around the world for the past week. Takes about an hour to read from cover to cover. No more searching multiple papers for interesting news, it's here.

I stll get Maxim and Fast Company. Yes, I am a lady but I enjoy Maxim, Men's Health and the occasional Vogue. Oh, and yes, women do love the smell of AXE. You need to take a shower anyway, so why not try it and see what happens, the last three men of interest had one thing in commmon...AXE.

And if you are a lady or have a lady in your life, there's a sale going on at Frederick's. Buy her something sexy. Try to get something she will like to wear like sexy cotton hiphugger panties and something for you to enjoy seeing her in like a patent leather corset or thigh high pantyhose.

By the way, I don't get paid for your clicks so don't think I am trying to push anything on you. I just felt like sharing some of my favorite sites.

Carpe Diem!
Angela DiCarlo :-)

Raise the happiness meter in the world.
p.s. If you tried to call me recently, you probably heard my GrandCentral voicemail. I was waiting patiently to purchase a Samsung Instinct Phone since my much beloved LG Fusic jumped out of my pocket and took a dive in the toilet. But the Instinct was well worth the wait. It's an amazing phone. I never used an iPhone, so I can't compare, but I am hooked on my Instinct. Total cost out of pocket was $247, with a $100 rebate coming in the mail. Instinct's everything a phone could ever want to be, including a 2 megapixel camera with direct upload to web, email or picture mail, awesome GPS with navigation, video camera, email access, messaging, calendar, and so on....Check out the Instinct if you're interested in a new phone.

p.p.s. My GrowMyProfit.com website is still going through some construction. If you know any more about Flash than me, please email me. The load page takes 30 seconds, so I had to put the incomplete HTML up.
Argh. ]:-O LOL

Resources For Entrepreneurs

Here are some organizations that provide information that may be helpful for you as an entrepreneur. Use at your own discretion. Best wishes to you and your success.

Business.Gov
This website is the official business link to the U.S. government. Business.gov gives guidance through a maze of government rules and regulations providing access to services and resources helping businesses develop, grow and succeed.Visit Business.gov.

Count Me In
Count Me In is the leading not-for-profit provider of micro loans and business resources for women entrepreneurs. Apply to the Make Mine a Million $ Business awards program to get the assistance to grow your micro business to a $million enterprise. For more information visit MakeMineAMillion.org or CountMeIn.org.

Enventys
Enventys provides vertically integrated solutions to product development. For more information visit Enventys.com.

Everyday Edisons
Everyday Edisons a PBS television show, introduces viewers to the process of invention and help them understand how to take their own ideas to the next level. For more information visit EverydayEdisons.com.

Inventors Digest
Inventors Digest provides education and inspiration to independent and professional innovators. For more information visit InvestorsDigest.com.

FastTrac®
FastTrac is a practical, hands-on business development program designed to help the entrepreneur hone the skills needed to create, manage, and grow a successful business. FastTrac participants don't just learn about business, they live it. They work on their own business ideas or ventures throughout the interactive program--moving their ventures to reality or new levels of growth. For more information visit FastTrac.org.

Kauffman eVenturing
to high growth. The site provides original, relevant, practical "just-in-time" information, articles, and tools. Written by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and aggregates "the best of the best" content on the web related to starting and running high-impact companies. For more information visit Eventuring.org.

Manufacturing Extension Partnership
MEP is a nationwide network of not-for-profit centers in over 400 locations nationwide, whose sole purpose is to provide small and medium sized manufacturers with the services they need to succeed. Centers are funded by federal, state, local and private resources to serve manufacturers. That makes it possible for even the smallest firms to tap into the expertise of knowledgeable manufacturing and business specialists all over the United States. These specialists are people who have had experience on manufacturing floors and in plant operations. For more information visit www.mep.nist.gov.

SCORE ®
The SCORE Association (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is a resource partner of the Small Business Administration (SBA) dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth and success of small businesses nationwide. There are more than 10,500 SCORE volunteers in 389 chapter locations who assist small businesses with business counseling and training. SCORE also operate an active online counseling initiative. Score.org.

Small Business TV
Small Business TV is a video news and information destination site for America's small business community. Their commitment is to provide small business owners with the resources and tools to manage, grow and protect their ventures. For more information visit SBTV.com.

StartupNation ®
A website and nationally syndicated radio program directed to the nuts and bolts of entrepreneurship. Visit StartupNation.com.

United Inventors Association (UIA)
United Inventors Association is resource for inventors/entrepreneurs seeking help in bringing inventions from garage to market. An educational non-profit delivering expert advice, product evaluations, patent searches, news and opportunities. For more information visit uiausa.com.

United States Small Business Administration
The SBA provides small business counseling and training through a variety of programs and resource partners located strategically throughout the U.S.
sba.gov.

Women’s Leadership Exchange ®
The WLE mission is to provide the knowledge, the tools and the connections women need to be successful in their own businesses, the corporate world and the not-for-profit environment. For more information, go to WomensLeadershipExchange.com.

In addition to the sites noted, use your local “Yellow Book” as an additional resource. Under the “Contents” page you will see a reference for U.S. Government listings. Use this information for contact telephone numbers for the Small Business Administration. This toll-free information is available for use in English and Spanish.

Online Tools for Advertising and Sales

I spend a lot of time online managing advertising for PhonePeople.com offering affordable 800 numbers to businesses. Every weekday I am online trying to figure out how to best reach my target audience of growing small to medium businesses.



TODAY'S TOP SEARCH TRENDS
In order to see what's catching people's eyes, I turn to Google Trends Lab. You can see what people are searching for most on Google. It's updated constantly. Take a look for yourself.

ONLINE ADVERTISING
The majority of my advertising world revolves around Google AdWords. They have online text ads and banner ads and you track direct conversions and cost per order. Google also make it easy to advertise in print, TV and Radio. The best part is that all of your marketing is in one place, which makes it easy to track your advertising spend. If you set up tracking codes or custom phone numbers, you can track advertising success.

I also use Visit Yahoo Search Marketing for advertising but get less traffic and have to monitor conversions more closely for accuracy. Yahoo is also a good tool but a little slower to get significant results, at least in the testing I have done for the last few months.

ONLINE SEO
SEO, short for Search Engine Optimization, is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via organic search results for targeted keywords. In other words, it places you higher in the search results without you being a paid sponsor. It's definitely a good goal to get higher organically for keywords related to your content and what you are trying to sell or promote. You can do this by providing relevant content, adding metatags to your site, linking to blogs, promoting your site, sending out press releases and/or hiring an SEO firm if you need help. If you can get high in the organic search, then you can reduce your online advertising spending and make more money with lower expenses.

These are some of the tools I use and hopefully at least one thing can help you.
Best of luck,
Angela DiCarlo

p.s. For you Wikipediacs, there is an upcoming conference in Egypt July 17-19, 2008 for people who contribute to Wikipedia. I use Wikipedia at least twice a day to find information on whatever I am researching.

Pecha Kucha - A New Form of Presentations

Here is a novel idea I came across this morning - Pecha Kucha presentations. If you haven't heard about it yet, then check it out. It may make your world of presentations and networking meetings better than ever.

The idea behind Pecha Kucha is to keep presentations concise, the interest level up and to have many presenters sharing their ideas within the course of one night. Therefore the 20x20 Pecha Kucha format was created: each presenter is allowed a slideshow of 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds. This results in a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds on a stage before the next presenter is up. Each Pecha Kucha event usually has 14 presenters. Presenters (and much of the audience) are usually from the design, architecture, photography, art and creative fields, but recently it has also stretched over to the business world. (Wikipedia)

So instead of dreading the writing of a long presentation, you could make and hear multiple presentations that are less than 7 minutes long each. What a great way to make more time for real interaction after peaking the audience interest.

There are a lot of great videos on YouTube that demonstrate Pecha Kucha. Video About Pecha Kucha.

Have a great week!
Angela DiCarlo

Start with the small stuff

Know yourself, and set a goal that really pushes you to your limit.
Start doing the “silly little things” early, way before you need them.
Let people see what you’re doing, but don’t let them distract you from your goal.
Surround yourself with people who inspire you.
Make your business what’s fun for you.
Do the hard work.

Making Your Business Card Collection Work for You

So it's time to boost business and you offer a service that can help others. You have a stack of business cards you've collected from others but haven't done anything with. You need to increase your income. Let's put our brains to work with a little elbow grease and make something happen for us and our customers.

First, get the data from your collection of cards into your contact management program, whether it's an Excel file, Sales Genie or something else. Just do it. Short on time, input the contacts while watching a movie. Or make a brainstorming game out of it and jot down everything that you could offer that contact if only you got in touch with them. You'll be amazed at what you come up with.

Keep the end result in mind, a contact either needs something from you, they can offer you something, or they know someone who needs what you offer.

Then, create your sales plan. Can you offer them something special like a discount? Do you have a new website that you would like their feedback on or referrals to? Can they give you referrals? Ask for what you want in an inviting way.

I read a great quote the other day from a 1956 New York Herald Tribune column that said "Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you're doing, but nobody else does."

So turn the light on and let people know what you are doing. Don't just turn it on, make it flattering so people want more of it. As much as it seems that misery loves company, people are even more excited when they have a role to play in helping someone win.

TGIF

Happy Friday! My second favorite day of the week, next to Saturday. Don't get me wrong, I love my work (aka play) but it's nice to get away and refresh.

As a business owner, it's hard to separate work from play, and sometimes, it's hard to walk away from work at all. That is why it is so important to set boundaries between work and personal time, at least a little. Your work will still creep up in conversation but make sure to take time away. Whether it's reading a fiction, hanging out with friends or enjoying the beautiful spring time weather.

Make it a great weekend. Enjoy!

Tax Day makes a great time for a Year In Review

If you have waited this long to file your taxes, then you should stop reading this and go do your taxes. LOL. If you are reading this, either you already filed or the tax deadline has long passed.

How did you do last year?

Were you profitable or are you just getting by?

Is your business being treated as a hobby or as a money making machine?

Are your books organized?

Do you outsource your accounting or do it yourself?

What are your key weaknesses in your bottom line?

What keeps you up at night?

I want you to be profitable, so send me an email with answers to any of the above questions, and I will help you....

Succeed!
Angela DiCarlo

Focus on the Bottom Line by Closing More Sales

Anyone who has been consulted by me knows that I always focus on the Bottom Line. If you're too busy "setting up procedures" when you could be getting new clients or selling to existing clients, then you are most likely losing money instead of making the money that could be getting you closer to your goals.

Yes, it's important to have procedures. But, if you can't pay your staff or yourself when payroll day comes around, then you are not in business...you are going under. Grab a bucket and let's bail you out before your ship sinks.

Rule #1: Focus on the Bottom Line. If you have leads, follow up with them. The reason a company is financially successful is because they have money coming in. You have clients who want to give you money, they just may not know it yet. Open up your file of leads and follow up. Call, email or visit them. Offer rewards to your team for closing sales.

One client recently offered a $15 incentive for each "Upgrade" sale to its Customer Service Reps (CSR) and the upsells went through the roof. Instead of processing the basic package at $29.99 a month, the CSRs were offering an upgrade to clients for the $49.99/month plan. At a $15 Bonus Cost, the company recovered the extra fee in the first month fee and makes an extra $240 per customer per year. At 20 upgraded customers a day over a 5-day period, that's $24,000 per year of increased income at a cost of only $1,500.

If they keep the promotion going, the company will give employee incentives of $75,000 for upgraded sales, while creating an extra $1.2 Million per year of extra income from customers who were buying the service anyway!

The CSRs were thrilled with the extra income and wanted to keep doing the promotion. That's the best of both worlds - more income and better employee morale. It's much easier and cheaper to keep good employees than to find and train new ones.

Tell me what you did to boost your sales. Or contact me and let me help you find ways to grow. Best of success!

Time Flies

So, April arrives and somehow an entire quarter of a year has zipped by.

Where has your business gone in these last three months?

Are you still in planning stages?

Have you made the progress you were hoping for?

Is your business growing at the rate you want to achieve your 2008 goals?

If you are not where you want to be, then it would be a good idea to get a business coach. Someone to push you along every week to make sure you are staying on track. Every successful person has a coach, whether you are an athlete or an entrepreneur, you will grow by leaps and bounds with the support of a coach.

Call me if you need support to grow at 858-41-ASSET.

Be Successful!
Angela

Ready to grow? Call me.

Need to grow your business? Looking for a consultant to get you to the next level.
Visit me at GrowMyProfit.com .
or find other consultants at Bitwine .

I am here to help businesses and business owners succeed.

Simple Payment Acceptance Options

There are so many tools online that it's hard to know what to use. If you need a quick online store to get started, you can use PayPal to accept payments and eBay to sell products. There are little to no costs and both are relatively easy to use.

Affordable Royalty Free Photos

Starting at $1 per image. Fotolia has great images and is royalty-free so if you have your image all over the web, you won't get hit with extra charges. Here is a link. Check it out if you need stock images at great prices.

There's also istock.com but they have some limitations in usage rights so read their contract before you download. Either way, happy photo shopping.

Great Website Templates

This is a great site for website templates from basic to flash and blogs. I created a very nice business website using a Flash template for only $65. Their support chat was very helpful in answering questions quickly.

Check out my site and feel free to provide feedback at http://www.GlobalBusinessCooperative.com.

If you need a good website and have basic web design knowledge, you can use these templates. It's even better if you have Flash and/or Dreamweaver to design your pages in.

Welcome to Your New Best Friend - My Profit Coach

This is a combination of Business, Marketing and Technology Tools designed to help your business grow.

Contact me if you would like to join an Accountability Program to reach your success with the support of a Business Coach.

Best of Success,
Angela