Celebrity Apprentice: George Takei

This time the task is about Ivanka’s clothing line and making a nice window display at Lord and Taylor. The women had a hard time picking a project manager because 2 women wanted to be it. The men George T. because he was gay and they thought he and Clay Aiken would know all about women’s clothing. They didn’t. Arsenio picked the outfits. Clay was pissed at George again because he thought he had no clue as to what was going on. Debbie Gibson was pissed at her team because she wasn’t asked to model because she was older than the demographic Ivanka specifically identified as her customer.

It turns out no one on the women’s team was really good at what they were doing but the men had a team member show happened to be a super woodworker. He was able to finish the window design without the project manager seeing it. However, the team doing the window felt they were neglected because the project manager trusted them so much he did not check on them. Lou F. thought the midnight blue was too dark and that George T. would regret it later.

The men thought out of the box and having twins, one for each window. The women thought out of the box in asking Ivanka directly if they could also use her jewelery. Debbie Gibson seems very pleased to have come up with that one after they dissed her and declined her to be a model.

Let me say this about the commercial- it was a movie-like, long, 2 minute commercial from Cartier. I wasn’t high enough to really get it, but I did want to buy jewelery after it went off.

The women had a love fest at the trump table, the men only had Clay Aiken to dish dirt on the project manager.

George Takei leads the men to their first loss and is ultimately fired. He took full responsibility and did not act surprised. He was his same old classy self.

Lesson: Even though you trust your team to do the job right, they want you to look over their work and acknowledge what they are doing.

Who Came up with This Idea?

Seriously, where did this idea come from? I have this conversation with business owners every single week:

ME: What are you doing to market your business right now?

THEM: I do a lot of social media and I am about to put out a press release and I do a LOT of networking. I am a people person!

ME: Do you spend any money with off line advertising and marketing?

THEM: No, I do everything word of mouth!

ME: Do you have a budget for purchasing advertising?

THEM: No, I dont have any money for advertising right now.

or the Alternative Answer!

THEM: I don’t need to advertise, I get all my customers from social media!

Having your own business is NOT like working a job. You  don’t just show up and get a check for working. You have to bring in customers. If you could give someone $100 and they give you $1,00o back, how many times would you do it? When your advertising works, it brings in new customers. All advertising does not work, that is for sure.

NO advertising does not work either! That is for sure too!

If your business is not worth YOU investing in it, then it wont be valued by others either. Your voice alone is not enough to get you noticed in the market and social media is not the answer to everything. It does however, take a lot of time and energy and make you feel like you are doing something.

I love to see my competition say they just do social media to market, I know I can dominate the market by actually marketing!

What’s your take on this? Post a comment!

Why Go for Government Contracts? Part 3

 

The government is pushing its relatively new Women Owned Business set aside program, which is designed to increase the number of government contracts women-owned businesses secure. In the past, they’ve fallen short of the 5% goal of the $400+ billion in contracts awarded each year to female-owned companies. Economically disadvantaged women-owned businesses are heavily encouraged to apply.  

Where the Government Spends Money

While many forecasts are that the government will be spending less, and with fewer contractors in the near future, one close-to-untapped resource may be the Simplified Acquisition Process. In 2010, the government spent $11 billion through Simplified Acquisitions, $6.2 billion of which went to small businesses. SAPs tend to hire and pay out faster, which is a boon in an industry known for slow decision-making and payouts. It’s worth looking into if you’re already qualified to bid on government contracts. 

Yes, our government has money and we could be vendors!

If you have not certified your business which will enable you to

get these contracts, you can get it done on September 17th, 2011

http://wrightplacetv.com/business-certification-workshop

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