How to Create a Mastermind Group

guest post by Brandana

So what is a Mastermind Group?

A Mastermind Group is a group of business professionals from various industries that meet up on a recurring basis to talk about their professional or personal life.

The concept of the Mastermind Group is simple – To be successful, you must surround yourself with successful people.

First off, you will need to promote or invite people to become a member of this Mastermind Group. Right off the bat, do you know of any like-minded professionals?  Go through your Facebook account and take a look at people’s profession and also create a Linkedin account if you don’t already have one. One Linkedin you could also create a Mastermind Group to stay connected with your members. You could post and share articles and of course, promote your actual meet up.

Once you’ve targeted the people you would like to invite, send them a simple email describing the event and purpose. I would try to keep it light and try not to make it sound too corporate or like a formal meeting. It’s simply a meet up for successful professionals. Also, be sure to extend the invitation to anyone your potential member thinks would be interested.

Next, you would need to have a couple of venues in mind. Affordable lounges, coffee shops and restaurants are always great. Make sure the venue is centralized to where everyone lives so it’s easy for everyone to get to it. I would recommend splurging a little and have some finger foods provided to your members. After all, they did join your group.

Like any other kind of group, organization is a key factor. In today’s world of technology, the internet has become the most effective form of communication. There are so many tools out there on the web that can help you get more organized in a time efficient manner.

The one tool I recommend for starting any kind of group is Whoozin.

Whoozin is an RSVP web application. Here you could place the group logistics and your members information and add them to a group which in this case, would be a Mastermind Group.  Whoozin provides the ability to email your members and track who is coming to your group and it also retains a history of events for the group. Whoozin can help you stay organized when it comes to registration or invitations to your Mastermind Group. I almost forgot to mention that Whoozin is free to use and provides an ad-free environment.

Finally, I don’t recommend handing out agendas like you would a meeting but you should have one in mind or a personal agenda handy. This agenda would contain topics of discussion or any announcements you would like to bring up.

After your first Mastermind Group is completed, make sure you call or email everyone a few days later to get your feedback from them. Always ask for ideas to improve the event.

Visit http://www.whoozin.com

Growing a Biz Results

Growing a Biz: Maximizing Advertising & Media Results

Guest post by marketing2020

If you are a business owner, manager, or entrepreneur trying to protect or grow a business with the assistance of advertising, you will 1) need a strategic media plan and budget supporting your marketing objectives and 2) you will also have to buy the planned media from media sellers, e.g., television, radio, print, online, direct mail — on a national or local basis.

Planning and buying media is a highly competitive, tricky and knowledge intensive business with over $270 billion in transactions  So, depending on what you buy, a budget of $50,000, your decisions could have  it the clout of $25,000 or 75,000+

Caveat-Emptor

The first rule to buying media is Caveat-Emptor.  Caveat Emptor means, “Let the buyer beware.”  You must understand that the sole purpose of media sales reps is to sell you some of their advertising media inventory (e.g., TV or radio spots, space in a print medium, impressions or clicks on the internet, etc.). They will pitch their availabilities in the most favorable light possible, carefully omitting information that doesn’t support their case. Caveat Emptor.

Media Selling Points

When media sales reps call on  potential advertisers, they  bring a  sales pitch– written, verbal or multi-media. However, media sales reps actually have only three basic arguments to pitch: audience, cost and impact.  A rep may try to convince you that their audience is perfect– in size, demographics, growth trends, etc. Or, they might pitch their cost efficiency, e.g., more audience per dollar.  Or, they might try to convince you that their medium is more impactful than competitive media (e.g., generates more sales, more credibility, etc.) Reps may point to a competitor’s alleged success in the medium (audience, cost or impact?)

Media Buying

As a buyer of advertising media you will examine not one but all of the reasonable alternatives in order to identify the ones which best meet your objectives, e.g., audience profile, impactful in communicating with target, and are  most cost effective, e.g., ROI = Cost/Audience x Impact.)  Ideally, you will make a side by side comparison of media alternatives on which to compare buying decisions for specific media vehicles.

Negotiations

Rate cards are a myth in the 21^st century. Regardless of what is printed on the rate card, almost all media buys are negotiable, including price, inventory offered, timing/scheduling, positioning of ads within the medium, audience or results guarantees, value added elements such as merchandising to trade or dealers, promotions, use of on air talent, etc. It is therefore very important that the buyer have a win-win negotiating strategy firmly in mind prior to beginning a negotiation.

Key to Success: Education

Like most things where the stakes and risks are high, planning and buying advertising media requires that buyers really know what they are doing.  For those without experience there is a new college textbook, Media Planning & Buying in the 21^st Century (2^nd edition) which can help bring readers up to speed. For information, see: www.21stCenturyMediaPlanning.com.

What the government can do and should do to help Women Based businesses

What the government can do and should do to help Women Based businesses

by Prodsllc

When it comes to the business world, a disproportionate number of business owners to this day are men. It is an interesting phenomenon, too, since women have proven to be more than capable as employees, and when women get an opportunity to lead for themselves, they prove capable and talented when it comes to directing the future of the business itself.
So what gives, and why are so few women owning and presiding over businesses in the first place? And maybe more importantly, what can be done to help ensure that they get the most out of business ownership and the assistance that comes with it.

Join us for part one of a three part series on woman-based and woman-owned businesses, where today we discuss what the government can do to help women and promote them as business owners.

Tax Credits and Breaks

First and foremost, there already exist certain tax credits for qualifying businesses that are owned by a woman, or a member of a minority. The government, then, could obviously do more when it comes to ensuring that these credits are given to, and felt by, everyone involved when it comes to improving the rate of woman-based businesses in this country. The tax credit can help entice women to start businesses, qualify for loans, and more along the way.

Focus in Colleges and State Schools

In state schools and public colleges around the country, perhaps there could be more of a focus taken on entrepreneurship and women’s studies, combining the two in some way, or in some other way encouraging the teaching of entrepreneurship for women in school. By starting early, in school, it can encourage women to join up and start their own businesses, while learning how to take risks and get the most back out of their investments regarding business and more. This, in turn, can help both women and men and increase competitiveness and productivity in the business market in general.

Get out of the way!

Finally, the government could do a great deal to help women in business by working to stay out of their way and easing their concerns regarding regulations and more. In doing so, they can avoid and destroy some of the red tape associated with starting a business, and can work to ensure that women – and everyone else – are likely and able to get the most out of their business experience with as few start-up problems as possible.

More and more women can own businesses in this country, and over time that trend will continue to increase as more women empower themselves and take risks to be the heads of small businesses and large companies. But until then, there are specific courses of action that can be taken when it comes to women getting the most out of their business experience and leading the pack in any industry across the globe. Watch out, for it is soon to become a woman’s world!

http://www.prodsllc.com/what-the-government-can-do-and-should-do-to-help-women-based-businesses/

« Previous Page — Next Page »