Richard Reinholdt pointed me to an interesting article written by Rich Sloan over at Amazon. Here are a few excerpts.
Boomers, which I refer to as the 50+ crowd, are starting businesses faster than any other swathe of our population.
If you are a part of this trend, check out the StartupNation’s Home-Based 100, which ranks the […]

Murphy’s Law
Overall the commercial real estate industry is facing a barrage of problems, and Kevin Murphy, principal of The BridgeTown Group in Jacksonville, FL, listed all of them: lower dollar value, negative real interest rates, residential construction overhang, tight credit markets, higher transportation costs and resulting higher food and commodity prices, steady population growth, monetary […]

Strategic alliances. Virtual partnerships. Power teams.
Whatever you call them, having a network of trusted allies is a critical component for any company’s long-term marketing success. And if you’re a small company, networking is absolutely essential for survival in troubled times like these.
Don’t Rely on The Kindness of Strangers.
Fortunately, I haven’t had to rely on the […]

By PAUL B. BROWN
New York Times
Published: April 15, 2008
A few excerpts:
“Business owners tell me every day that the way they generate the most new business is through referral marketing,” John Jantsch writes on ducttapemarketing.com, a Web site devoted to helping small businesses with their marketing. “Yet they don’t seem to grasp the power of this […]

On this project we took extra care on an sidewalk a-frame sign for a local coffee shop. I was hired by a local graphic designer who I have worked with before named Alyssa Warnock. The a-frame is a 3/4″ painted black MDO with sealed edges and vinyl graphics.

I wanted to write to let you all know about the new San Francisco subsidy for solar power that just came out. If you own a home in San Francisco the city will give you $4000 to install solar with no strings attached. If you live in an “environmental justice area” (which means […]

Advertising specialities (swag, as we call it these days) develop brand awareness by repeated use of a common object. The branded writing instrument, the logo imprinted pen, is the best example.  It is, indeed, the King of Swag.
From the trade show, to the office, to the kitchen counter at home…..at each round in the pen’s odyssey through your […]

Putting official BNI policy to one side for a minute, I think it is unethical to allow part-time / second income members into your chapter.

In my Educational Moment this morning, I spoke about using the “comments” feature to add testimonials for fellow BNIers using this website (bniembarcadero.com). Here’s the quick and dirty:

Search: do a search (upper right) for, say, the last name of the person you’d like to give a testimonial to. If that doesn’t find them, try their […]

Master networkers are individuals who realise that networking is a life skill, not just something you do when you want something. Their networking includes connecting with different cultures, ages, special interests groups and networks.

Several of you indicated you wanted more information about technology virtualization. This is a technology strategy brought about by maturation of VMWare and its software.

If you enjoyed singing “The Referral Song” today, here are the lyrics. Remember, it’s sung to the tune of The Beatles’ “Lady Madonna”:
BEGINS WITH PIANO SOLO.
I have a referral for you my friend
I’ve been thinking about you, again and again
It’s a Hot Referral so let me grab a pen,
I have a referral for you my […]

I found a great article by Dr. Ivan Misner on creating depth in your business relationships. I thought the most interesting point is that you have to lay the groundwork for strengthening those connections long before you actually need to use them…

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP came to Marty from Sign*A*Rama San Francisco to duplicate an existing plaque at their East coast office in Washington DC. The problem was that no one had the existing plaque (1500 K Street)shown in the picture above the “Drinker plaque” on file, because it had been done many years […]

Christine Comaford-Lynch is a client of mine, and an uber marketer. Here’s part of her weekly newsletter, The Mighty Minute, this week’s topic: networking.
Regardless of where you are in your career, networking is key! Let Mighty Ventures show you how.
Life is about bringing people together and seeing what happens. Just because someone is […]

With more than 75,000 new webblogs created each day, PR practitioners find themselves charged with the formidable task of identifying influential blogs and monitoring a daily stream of posts and links related to their clients. Blogosphere commentary can enhance brands and serve to boost an organization’s position in the marketplace. But the first hint of […]

Here is the article I mentioned at this morning’s meeting. It was in Saturday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal and talks about the growing role of Certified Divorce Financial Analysts. They also mention collaborative divorce in the article which I’m also involved in.
If you know of anyone contemplating a […]

Thanks for listening to my 7 minutes in the last BNI meeting. I’m glad that most of you were able to stay awake. As I had mentioned in my Q & A portion of my presentation I am a cartoonist on the side. I have a daily cartoon strip called RACKAfracka that […]

Barkley Court Reporters, an independently owned and operated firm since 1974, with 11 offices in California, Nevada and New York, is proud to be recognized as California’s first and only court reporting firm to receive certification by the Department of the Environment.
In addition to running their business to the high standards of sustainability and conservation set […]

I got a very official looking letter from the “Compliance Annual Minutes Board” telling me I had to pay $150 to comply with blah blah blah for my small business. I’m about to leave on a trip, I’m trying to quickly get things done and I was about to pay the $150 but I thought […]

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The use of LED (Light Emitting Diode) for signage is increasing around the world.
LED is a semiconductor device that emits an electroluminescence. LED offers greater intensity of light, a longer lifetime and reduced energy consumption. In addition, LED offers uniform illumination, vivid colors and low voltage […]

WordPress is the software I use to build websites–including this one.
I just came across a fantastic article singing the praises of WordPress (WordPress And CMS: How To Make It Work). It’s a good and quick overview of why WordPress is part of the future of how websites work–and how they’ll be created.
Simply put, WordPress has […]

Opening Arguments Begin In Eastwood Trial
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA–Diane zum Brunnen claims that a bathroom and other parts of Clint Eastwood’s Mission Ranch hotel in Carmel were inaccessible to her and her wheelchair in 1996.”Obviously I have doubts about that, and that’s why I’m here,” the actor/director told reporters outside the […]

I saw this article in The Costco Connection (of all places!!) and thought it made some good points.
Take the Work out of Networking