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.  Continue reading

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Guest post by Mike Patterson

In the age of instant communications, the wrong information can make or break a company. Information is essential in generating the exposure and market placement of any successful firm. Public relations (PR) professionals are key to initiating the hype and image a company needs to get noticed. In order to properly do their job, PR departments must understand the nature of the business they represent, the products the company produces and the overall philosophy of the firm for which they work.

One element that often eludes PR personnel or consultants is the basic tenet of business. Undergraduate programs cover the dissemination of information and the spin that needs to be generated to promote an organization or an event. They often fall short of teaching business principles, which are the driving force of business itself. Continue reading

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What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

The last week of January 2009 comes with the 20th edition of the Monday reading tips brought to you by Words of a Broken Mirror.

We’ll start with some interesting top 10 trends for 2009 from Samll Business Trends: the top 10 software publishing trends by Tim Berry and the top 10 global trends for SMBs by Laurel Delaney.

Mihaela Lica raises the issues of spam-like ads on Twitter, an attempt thought of by Magpie, not Twitter’s monetization team as you might have thought.

Lip-sticking has published an inspirational guest post by Mary Schmidt on powerful first ladies, what they have achieved and what women in general can accomplish, regardless of being married to powerful men.

Brad Shorr of Word Sell Inc. discussed the issue of business-to-business sales and how managing daily pains helps build or demolish businesses and individual careers.

Brian Solis of PR 2.0 pointed out that social networks are growing up as more adults are joinging the conversation.

Hoping you’ve enjoyed this week’s list, I invite you, as always, to share your recommendations in the comment box. See you next week!

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I’m not planning to start celebrating Thanksgiving, but I will start acting in this holiday’s spirit: remembering everything great in my life and being thankful for it. So here are some really cool people and events in my life that I am deeply indebted for.

My family – the one I’ve been born into and the one I working on creating. They are all great and in their own way helped me achieve whatever I set my mind to.

My friends – an amazingly vivid and eclectic group of wonderful people that I’ve met around the world. No, I don’t differentiate between online and offline friends, but when online, I know who my friends are, not everyone chatting with me or sending me cool stuff to read is my friend. Yet

Kayla - the little lab puppy I finally got! I am a dog fanatic, yet only owned two when I was in secondary school. I’m happy and thankful I was able to get her and give her a home full of love (and dog toys and dog hair and dog stuff ).

My career and where it’s going – I’m extremely close to a dream come true, something I’ve been secretly wishing for since high school. And I have been blessed with the support and constant encouragement of some wonderful people.

My life in general – It’s not always perfect, there’s always room for better, but generally, I am doing great! I’ve accomplished everything mostly on my own, with the help of family and friends and Lady Luck, but I never needed someone to find a job for me, find me some people to hang out with, pull me out of tremendous crises and I’ve generally been keeping far from destructive habits. All listed above deserve a big fat thank you for this final point!

What are you thankful for?

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