First of all, Happy New Year to you all Hope 2012 is just as you have imagined it to be and then some! Now it’s back to business..

A while back I told a good friend of mine selling career and business related products and services that December will be an awesome month for him. He’d sell more, a lot more than in the previous months. He did not believe me, not entirely. He then told me December had been an amazingly pleasant surprise.

The truth is I drew a very obvious conclusion. Whenever a year ends and a new one starts, we start reviewing our lives and somehow see the negatives, then decide to do something about it. We start working on our resumes in December, we start planning, in our head or on paper, we buy products and services to help us achieve our goals, from business to weight loss and so on.

I suspect the seasonal extended family reunions play a decisive part, that’s why most of our planning effort happens between Christmas and New Year’s Eve! We go to face our loved ones who somehow are our biggest critics as well, tell them about our lives and have them point out where we went wrong. Or they don’t, but they start talking about their accomplishments and all we have to do is compare notes and figure where we need to improve. 

I believe there is nothing wrong with using whatever it takes to motivate ourselves. The problem is we plan and buy in December, start pushing hard in January, and by February we’ve already allowed ourselves to tone it down and take it easy, we’ve already found ways to accept the reality of our life instead of trying to change it. Things might pick up some speed around our birthday, whenever that is, but then we wait for Christmas again to find motivation to go on with our plans.

What’s wrong with new year resolutions is that we should not use holidays and the generally accepted calendar to boost our efforts and decide what our lives should be like. It applies to our personal lives, our careers and our businesses. We should always work on improving everything about us, on getting where we want to be.

As Yvonne DiVita of Lip-sticking puts it,

Here’s the skinny – your business needs to thrive all year long. Your business needs to be on the leading edge all year long. Your business should be launching new ideas and new projects throughout the year. You can time them to specific holidays, if you like, or specific calendar events. But, don’t plan them according to an ‘end’ or a ‘beginning.’

Today is a beginning. It presents overwhelming opportunity to wow your clients/customers. Tomorrow will be the same. Monday will land on your desk and do the same. The only similarity in them is… that they are all open to creative ideas that will make your customers stand up and cheer.

If you need an end and a fresh start to motivate you, try to do that every morning, or every week, or even every month. Don’t let the December-powered January fever fade away! And try to decide for yourselves what your lives should be or where your business should be a an hour, a day, a month, a year from now! Just keep at it and start fresh every day.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting more. We should appreciate what we have, but wanting more and better is not such a character flaw. We actually all do it: we want to travel more, run faster or further, get more clients, sell more products, touch more people with our words and so on.

What will you do today to achieve your goals?

We love the design of our blog and that of our PR agency‘s website. But that’s not all, we at Mirror Communications generally love everything our friends at QBKL release, be it our own websites, new online homes for their clients or their online CV/resume templates. When it comes to designing and developing websites, even more so when implemented on WordPress, we are what you would call QBKL’s groupies

A while back we introduced their Bold online CV/resume template. Since then it has become quite a Themeforest hit and was even included in Envato’s birthday bundle! But it was definitely time for something new from QBKL! They knew it and that’s why yesterday they released MinimalMe, a minimal HTML CV / Resume template. It pretty much is a one-page template that features a unique, clean and minimal approach. It’s easy to use and customize so that your online resume shows off the best possible business presentation of yourself and your services.

MinimalMe, other than looking awesome and being extremely easy to set up, keeps a very important aspect in mind: people like to be special. And their CVs and resumes usually strive to be accurate and convincing, but to also differentiate them. That is why this html template features 130 possible combinations of background patterns and color schemes.

Based on what your hosting packages allows for, you can choose between a fully XHTML based version and  a PHP version that comes with a fully functional AJAX contact form. If you like to dive into the code of any one page website you post online, don’t worry, the template is well documented and you’ll find it extremely easy to customize it to your liking.

More details on how to get the MinimalMe HTML CV / Resume template on Themeforest.

Guest post by Nick Deyong

In today’s world, everything happens at breakneck speed and, to offer a clumsy version of an often-used expression, “we’re too busy gazing off in to the distance to notice what’s right in front of us”. Or something to that effect.

The same can be said when considering the practice of marketing; amidst all the promotion to the wider world it is easy to overlook a key stakeholder group – internal colleagues and suppliers. A curious occurrence, when it is clear that without employees operations would grind to a halt.

Not just that, but without enthusiastic staff who are fully behind the task at hand, know exactly what their role is and how important they are to the business, all the clever marketing in the world would ultimately prove futile. You see, employees are a company’s greatest ambassadors – treat them well and they will pass on this positivity to future customers and staff in a way that is wholly more honest and authentic than any advertising campaign.

Then there’s other highly desirable by-products of a happy and focused workforce – better recruitment and retention, greater productivity, increased profits. All these are a CEO’s dream and can easily be achieved through moulding the manpower’s mindset.

So, how can an organisation instil such an attitude in its workforce? Firstly, there’s education – ensure that every employee knows what the business’s objectives are and how they can help to achieve them. Too often, staff simply clock-in, do their bit (and nothing more) and clock-out without ever having an idea of the bigger picture. Staff working in silos without consideration of what is happening around them or beyond their office door is potentially very harmful to a company as it breeds inefficiency, selfishness and a lack of co-operation amongst colleagues.

Secondly, there are incentives. If a rallying call to arms doesn’t motivate, then maybe a chance to win a luxury cruise will? Material, yes, but also highly effective as many a company will testify. But it shouldn’t just be all about sales – if someone’s contributed towards some form of success, whatever it may be, then even something as small as a gift voucher through the post can spur an employee on for months to come.

On a grander scale, motivation and incentive programmes can inspire staff; whether through once-in-a-lifetime experiences for teams or individual reward packages for high achievers. Even with such beneficial enterprises, however, there are pitfalls to look out for, namely, that staff forgets why the incentive is there in the first place – to achieve within their role. Instead, employees can become so pre-occupied with ‘winning’ the next prize that it’s to the detriment of other colleagues and morale begins to suffer – thus having the reverse effect of what was initially intended.

About the author
Nick Deyong is the managing director of NDL Group, a prize promotion agency that delivers incentive and motivation schemes for customers and employees, as well as events, partnerships and digital services. Nick set up NDL Group in 1997 with the goal of creating a great place to work that provides solutions to clients based on expert delivery and service.

CEOs are fired or forced to resign. It happens, as in business, as well as in private life, some relationships are not bound to last forever. Even Steve Jobs, who will always be one of the archetypes for CEOs for a long time from now, severed his connections with Apple at a certain point.

Being fired or having rumors spread about having been forced to leave a company is a crisis for a professional’s personal brand. Other potential employers will be influenced by some other player’s decision to fire their CEO and not want to hire that very same person to lead their company. So how one handles their personal brand while and after being fired is not something that should be taken lightly.

I had a conversation on this topic with a CEO that left a tech company very suddenly, and the details of the event were never fully talked about. At least not in the open! The person in question was commenting on the Yahoo – Carol Bartz breakup and said that was the way to do it: let everyone know what’s going on instead of protecting the interests of a company that just got rid or you. I asked why they had taken a different approach and the answer was that immediately after the event, they were unable to separate their own interests from those of the former employer. 

My opinion is that once you are fired, your interests and goals are the only ones that count. You have been fired and when word gets out, you will have a reasonably hard time finding a new job, unless you have a good explanation, backed up by somewhat verifiable facts to back you up. Taking a strong stand and explaining your reasons would certainly help your brand of a competent professional.

But there are caveats, as in everything that has to do with communication. First of all, it does matter who has the stronger voice and who’s got more trust. In most cases, the media is one of the sources of information, but actually your ex-team, your partners and clients are as good of a reference. If they believe you, they might vouch for you and help spread the information you need to ensure your brand is still bright and attractive in the end. Secondly, the tone is paramount. A fired CEO having they say on a matter needs to appear honest, smart and with a good sense of business. If the opposite happens, you’d be labeled vindictive and getting a new job will be worse. Third issue you need to keep in mind is that the audience you’re addressing needs to be thought of as a small world. Not all companies will hire hot shot CEOs and the medium and big ones in a market and those connected to it are not so many. They are a handful and their opinion is the one that matters, the rest of the world might be buzzing about you, it still does not matter.

So should a fired CEO take the stand and speak their mind? They should certainly give it a try if they are not at fault in any way. If their performance was less than impressive and they cannot prove it all happened despite their inhuman, best possible effort, it’s better to lay low and let it all pass. In most cases, companies don’t make a fuss about it, they just announce a new CEO and move on to the next order of business. So if the beehive is quiet and relax, one needs to carefully consider their actions before taking a stick and poking it. Also true, a company would not have much to gain from a public scandal involving a former CEO, so their retaliation to your attack might not be strong or might not come.

If you’re still wondering what to do in such a situation, the road to your answer is simple: remember your interests and objectives. See how you can best go about obtaining everything you want. If exposing the short mindedness and errors of your former employers helps, then do it. Talk to the audience that interests you – potential employers or the whole world. Then get ready to face any storm that might trouble your personal brand.

Photo source

We are extremely proud that Mirror Communications‘ client CoSoSys, a developer of endpoint security, device control and data loss prevention solutions, has been included in this year’s edition of Deloitte’s 2011 Technology FAST 50 top for Central Europe. CoSoSys is now part of a prestigious and very competitive list, where a technology company’s intellectual property and the subsequent revenue growth are evaluated and rewarded.

Deloitte’s FAST 50 not only rewards innovation and major contributions to the technology market. It also shows the world how intellectual property actually generates business growth, as the companies ranked have an impressive year to year revenue growth. The growth rate is not the only factor, there is a minimum revenue required to make the list and the chunk of budget invested in research and development is also important.

While both the CoSoSys team and I are extremely proud of this amazing accomplishment, the company’s inclusion is a well deserved recognition of their role in the endpoint security and data loss prevention field. CoSoSys has over the years launched a few world premiers, including the first ever cloud computing solution for device, data and endpoint security, MyEndpoint Protector, and the first out of the box DLP and endpoint security appliance – the Endpoint Protector Hardware Appliance, a plug and play hardware and software package to protect companies from all threats of the modern business environment. CoSoSys has also been extremely successful ever since their debut in the market back in 2004, reporting significant business growth and profitability every year.

I am sure they will keep on being as successful as before, even more so, and I know for a fact they have new products just waiting to amaze the world of IT security. So keep an eye on them to find out what’s next!

I’d also have to congratulate the other five Romanian companies that made it into the top. The big winner, the company on the first position of the top, being one of them – Vola.ro. Hope Romanian companies just take over the top next year!

This year’s edition of The Business Growth Summit, an online event bringing together leading experts to share their strategies on how to grow a business, leverage opportunities, and increase profits starts today and will continue until September 23rd. What the summit actually offers is free, on demand access to videos by well known experts in the social media, marketing, PR and business development fields to help small businesses promote themselves more effectively and sell more.

Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Dan Schawbel, Amy Cosper, Carrie Wilkerson are only a few of the people you must learn from through the Business Growth Summit. If you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, work-from-home professional or thinking of making a career switch to become either one, you should register for this online event and start watching the 5 to 20 minute videos the best and brightest of today’s business minds have to offer.

Yours truly, on behalf of the Mirror Communications agency, is also part of The Business Growth Summit. The video I have contributed is titles “How to Get More Business from the Social Media Clutter” and will help you decide what’s worthwhile and efficient from the huge social media world, what will help your business achieve better results.

After attending this business online event, please share your experience, your questions or your feedback either here, in the comment section, on Twitter, Facebook or via email.

Wish you all a great week and enjoy the summit!

Enhancements drive more business. Doing something better, smarter, faster makes current customers happy and attracts new ones. An improvement to your website, a new system in your store, a new customer care infrastructure, easier online buying programs, it all is implemented to help grow your business.

While the intention is commendable, many companies fail to cash in on their improvements because they fail to communicate what’s going on properly. What some business owners don’t understand is that in most cases, people don’t like changes. They require time to learn, adapt and create new habits. In some cases, failing to show them the benefits, but most of all, to explain how things work, turns your efforts into a big hassle that only generates frustration, anger or the sudden desire to go to the competition.

Before you make the change, make sure you announce it. Then setup tutorials, videos,  FAQs or dedicated personnel to help your customers through the change. Pau extra attention to explaining clearly what the benefits are: how does the new system you’ve implemented help them? How does it solve their problems faster, how does it make their lives easier? Make the change about them, not you or your future profts.

No matter how much you prepare for it, no matter if you believe your communication plan for the changes you are about to implement, there will be issues you haven’t considered. Therefore you need to have someone appointed to addressing them.

Renenber! No matter how good, change is still a nuissance for your customers. Communicate your intentions and the newprocess to them and welcome their questions, xoncerns and suggestions. That’s the only way to make sure your efforts pay off and you don’t invest time and money in annoying your customers.

Yesterday evening, WomenonBusiness.com published my first guest post. Thank you, Susan, for having me as a guest writer! Here’s a small excerpt to give you a taste!

For most women running a small business, constantly growing it also means cutting all unnecessary costs and trying to save whenever possible. If a fee seems a bit much for a certain service they might want to contract, they turn to the Do it Yourself/DIY approach. In most cases, doing anything yourself is not that difficult. There must be someone in your office with the skill set needed to learn how to and then do a good job at it!

While true, in most cases, this approach is counterproductive, unless you’re choosing the DIY option for services you are already offering. If you run a design agency, it would be crazy to hire someone else to design your corporate website.

I warmly invite you to head over to WomenonBusiness.com and read the entire article - DIY, the Small Business Mirage.

Sponsored post brought to you by Office Genie

Working from home is all well and good when you’re starting out in business, but it does have its limitations. Despite being a cheaper alternative than renting an office initially, running a new venture from a spare bedroom, study or even the garage can be a rather solitary experience, although admittedly there’s no daily commute to worry about.

What’s more, with a business growing by the day then the home workplace isn’t always a practical solution to your expansion plans either. After all, how many of us occupy our spare bedrooms and other space around the house with all manner of other household items that tend to cramp our style? In short, working from home is easy, but it’s certainly not the be all and end all.

Time to expand

At one point in time a lot of people building up a new business would have baulked at the thought of moving into rented office space. Today though, thanks in part to the recession and a wealth of available property, it is now quicker, easier and cheaper than ever to rent good quality working areas.

Of course, one of the most advantageous aspects of renting an office is that it will allow you much greater networking opportunities, which always means the possibility of garnering a lot more business. You’ll find that there is a wealth of different office rental options available these days too, including desk rentals, which are very cheap and simple through to whole offices.

If you’re looking to expand then there is also the likes of the serviced office route, which allows you to enjoy many more frills, such as receptionists, post and IT support facilities. With all of these rental options you’ll also find that contracts are much more flexible than in the old days. In fact, many of the deals currently available work on short-term rolling contracts and that is perfect for the fledgling business that does not want to commit itself too far into the future.

Move on up

In addition, many office and desk rental options are up for grabs in prime locations too, such as city centres or purpose built business parks. You’ll be able to pick a location that is suitably close to home too, thanks to the office rental comparison websites that are now in existence.

Getting an office or desk in a locale like this will give your business an added sheen, with a professional shop widow that will enable you to meet clients without having to feel awkward about them coming to your home. Having a decent postcode and a front office that looks the part will speak volumes about your professionalism and, theoretically, make potential new customers warm to both your charms and whatever it is you’re selling.

What’s more, due to the relatively short-term nature of these rental schemes you can also enjoy and exploit the potential of them and then expand if you find you need more space further down the line. If you’ve grown your business sufficiently enough to add more desk space then taking this direction for expansion could be the most productive thing you’ve ever done. And it needn’t cost a fortune to do it either.

About the author: Rob Clymo writes on behalf of Office Genie, the first proper online marketplace that helps small businesses and start ups find desk space and shared office space in the UK.

Guest post by Alexis Bonari

The Fed says we’re in recovery, but there’s no doubt in my mind that there continues to be a great amount of uncertainty about the economy. Looking at various economic indicators like gold futures, gun sales, and home security systems definitely supports this theory. People feel threatened and insecure, and that fear shows up in their spending habits. These are serious considerations marketers need to take into account in order to prosper under these dire circumstances.

We’ve all seen advertising campaigns based in fear, and as much as we may dislike these techniques, they do tend to work. Given the length of time that our current economic troubles have been going on, an increase in consumer awareness, target demographics, and media fatigue this base strategy will not be profitable for every market. A good marketer knows how to make the best of every situation, and what follows is some advice for how to successfully approach these stagnant markets.

1. Think about how your product fulfills your clients’ needs in this type of economy

For us Internet types, this is pretty obvious. Large numbers of unemployed people have taken to the Internet to try and make some cash. For bloggers, this means an increased opportunity for guest posts, for SEOs it means a larger potential client base. This group of people is not necessarily going to be the most Internet savvy crowd, but they need an income; by focusing your marketing strategy on how you can fulfill this need you are sure to win.

2. Think of how you can add value to your brand for this new demographic

With times being as tight as they are, most people, especially unemployed ones are reluctant to spend money on anything that isn’t clear in its returns. An investment of several thousand dollars, which for example, is quite reasonable for professional SEO services, may be out of their reach. If you are a well established SEO you may not want to split your services and lower your perceived value, but there are other avenues you can take to pick up that business without devaluing yourself. Be a little creative in addressing the needs of this demographic in order to convert their visits into sales. For example, stress your past successes in marketing start-ups and small businesses.

3. Learn to effectively manage fear instead of blindly playing into it

Start-ups inherently have a lot of uncertainty, especially for people that haven’t done them before. Successfully mitigating this fear is essential to prospering in this type of economy. While there is no sure fire way to do this, you’re marketing strategy should have it in mind. Prove to your customer base that an investment in your services will result in returns, and be honest with them what kinds of returns they can expect. Remember that this demographic is taking a gamble, and while you might not be able to guarantee their success, since that is dependent on the quality of their own work, you can guarantee the quality of the service you provide.

About the author
Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and researcher for College Scholarships, where recently she’s been researching environmental scholarships as well as political science scholarships. Whenever she gets some free time, she enjoys watching a funny movie or curling up with a good book.