Create Your Own Job

Create For Cash is about anything you create and make money from. That could be a business, a product, a service, a piece of art, or an old tennis shoe. As long as it makes money.

3 Ways to Thank Your Customers

The two most important words in the English language are “please” and “thank you”. You should be using them every single day. So on Thanksgiving weekend not only am I grateful for friends and family, but for all of the customers and clients I’ve had through the years.

It should go without saying that as a business owner you should have great customer service, but you should also make a point of thanking your customers personally. It really goes a long way. The Journal of Marketing conducted a study about the positive reinforcement of customers. They found that customers from one retail store who were called and thanked showed a 70% increase in sales. There was only a 30% increase when they were also told about a sale. [Read more…] about 3 Ways to Thank Your Customers

Prepare For Your Business Like You Would Prepare For a Storm

Hurricane Sandy, or “Frankenstorm” as it’s been nicknamed, is barreling down on the east coast this week. Home owners and business owners are boarding up in anticipation of a monster of a storm that is expected to last for up to a week.

Prepare your business

We never expect anything like this to happen, but the truth is that it does. The same thing can happen with your business, so you should prepare for it now. As a manufacturer I did think to prepare in case anything happened to the factory, like a typhoon or political upheaval. But I didn’t anticipate the price of oil going up so much (affects the price of plastic and shipping) or how bad the economy would become (not just here, but around the world).

Here are some things to consider when preparing for a natural disaster or one that hits your business: [Read more…] about Prepare For Your Business Like You Would Prepare For a Storm

My Week Without TV or Internet

I just realized it’s been quite a while since I wrote my last blog post. I’ve been on the road traveling and had no Internet access or even a TV. I think the last time I did this was years ago when I was backpacking through New Zealand. I didn’t exactly do it on purpose, but the places I stayed didn’t have either one.

Funny, I did have a phone, but no one called me all week. I was already getting to the point that I thought many people have stopped connecting to each other. And after stepping back and watching the world go by in my week without TV or Internet I realized I was right.

You would think by the way I’m talking that I was on a mountaintop in Siberia, but no, it was New York City, Washington, D.C. and places in between. I stayed in B and Bs and hotels in the middle of nowhere with no Internet access and bad cable reception. [Read more…] about My Week Without TV or Internet

To Whom it May Concern – Cold Emailing

Cold emailing. It’s kind of like cold calling, but without the really scary part where you have to talk to a live person and get rejected. Sometimes over and over again. Hiding behind an email may feel safer, but it’s less likely to get a response, especially if it’s not done right.

Cold email

I got a cold email today from a company that wanted me to hire them as a publicist. It started with “To whom it may concern”. Okay, already I’m going to delete it, but not before checking out their site. This is already more homework than they did on me. It just takes a few extra minutes to at least look through someone’s site before contacting them, especially when you’re asking someone to spend $5,000 a month.

If they had looked through my site they would have seen that I have quite a lot of PR already and just by Googling swiggies and publicity. My Linked In info comes up on my page along with the title of “publicist”. [Read more…] about To Whom it May Concern – Cold Emailing

The Psychology of Free

I’ve noticed in the past few years that the number of things that are offered for free has really increased. Free ebooks , free webinars, and free consultations. It sounds good to get something for nothing. But we all know that there’s no free lunch really. There’s always a catch. And I think people have finally figured that out.

The psychology of free

I was told to give away a free webinar in order to get people to sign up for a paid webinar. It made sense, so I tried it. Even with a free webinar I wanted to give the best information possible in the most entertaining way. I polled my Facebook friends and asked what they really thought about a free webinar. Overwhelmingly, most of them said I should charge something, even if it was a small amount, because they wouldn’t appreciate it if it didn’t have some kind of value attached.

Showing up

I have to say that I think they were right. I would get people to sign up, then carve out the time on my calendar, and get myself psyched to do the webinar. Then no one would show up. So, I guess it’s true that they didn’t really place a value on something that they didn’t have to invest anything into. But I can’t blame them, because I do the same thing. If there’s a free webinar, seminar or class, I will sign up for it, but often don’t show up. Not because it’s not a good class, or that I don’t want to hear it, I just forget or get busy. If you pay for something, even if it’s a small amount, you’ll make the effort to show up. [Read more…] about The Psychology of Free