MAKE YOUR BUSINESS CARD WORK

Don't let the small size fool you. Your business card can be the hardest-working and most cost-effective weapon in your marketing arsenal. That tiny scrap of paper can be powerful enough to direct someone to your URL, announce a new location, and even convince someone to do business with you
Use a good quality paper. Avoid punch-out cards. People expect "professional" business people to have "professional" cards.
Avoid overcrowding your card. Only keep what is truly essential, or people won't read it. Try to keep font size above 10 points. Use simple fonts that are easy to read. Do not use multiple fonts styles.
Treat cards as if they are very important. Use an attractive cardholder for your business cards, so that they're crisp and clean when you hand them out.
A dog-eared soiled card will not make a good impression.
When you accept someone else's card, take a moment or two to really look at it. Then tuck it away carefully. How would YOU feel if someone casually crammed your masterpiece into the bottom of a bulging purse?
Organize your business cards. You MUST have a system! How can you send information to that HOT prospect if you cannot find the business card? Don't

let them float around on your desk...file them!
Do not give cards out at inappropriate times, such as a strictly social situation, or while a person is eating. People remember poor manners much longer than they remember elegant business cards. At social events, it's better to ask for permission to send a card to someone's place of business.
If you have more than one business, more than one role, or want to network OUTSIDE your industry, get another card. Don't expect one card to do it all.
Your consistent use of a well-designed business card is one of the most affordable and acceptable ways to market your business.

NOT A TIME TO STEP BACK
The clock is poised to fall back - but not EMBA. We are pleased to have added four new clients that have expanded our horizons.
A new audio cassette, Business Success Stories Direct From the Zoo, will be out shortly. We are writing a marketing column for Tooling and Manufacturing Association (TMA). Our popular presentation, High Impact Marketing on a Shoe-string Budget, continues to be a "top-of-the-charts" request.
In November, our Access USA division will be helping to bring a trade mission from Nova Scotia to Chicago. Busy times ahead.

Why does a slight tax increase cost you $200
And a substantial tax cut
Save you thirty cents?
-Peg Bracken

What's so funny?
A look at your humor at work

Humor has been with us a long time.

A mosquito lands on the ear of an elephant and says, "Mind if I grab a ride?" "Not at all," replies the elephant. "I didn't notice you land and I won't notice you taking off."
This joke will hardly prompt a chuckle today, but it was significant enough in ancient times to be recorded on a Babylonian tablet during the 7th century
B.C.
What's the nature of humor in your office or organization? Is it random, with everyone participating? Is it topical or is it sarcastic and personal? Do certain individuals dominate? How is your humor perceived? Would you like to be more of a participant; to be funnier?
To begin to answer the last question, you must first take a hard look at your own sense of humor. When appropriate, do you listen to others and laugh at their stories? Do you share personal experiences that were funny, even though they might have been somewhat embarrassing? Above all, do you smile throughout the day, carrying a message that you enjoy your work and can laugh without effort?
If you'd like to increase your involvement in office humor, if you'd like to be better able to tell jokes and stories and evoke laughter, and if you believe that you have a sense of humor, here are some guidelines, starting with three important ground rules.
1. Humor is power. Nothing is so satisfying as the feeling that comes when you deliver a punch line and otherwise sober people convulse with side-splitting, thigh-slapping, watery-eyed hee-haws. It's a great feeling. That's power! Remember, however, that people will willingly accept such a subordinate role only if they respect the source of the power. In short, people who are perceived as jerks can't use humor to become respectable.
2. Acceptable humor NEVER degrades. This applies not only to the obvious (race, heritage, sex or religion), but also to any physical or mental deviation from what society considers a norm. An ailment common to many (toothaches, bunions and colds) may be okay but a condition affecting an identifiable few (with terms like morons, dwarfs, even "old ladies") should be avoided. Remember also that off-color jokes also degrade and should be off limits in all business situations. If you need a target for a joke, the safest is yourself.
3. If you wonder whether you should say something funny, don't. Humor is part of natural interchanges. If you're unsure of yourself, don't try to bolster your confidence by trying to be funny. You'll fall short on both objectives.
The following are tips for telling jokes:
a. Make sure the story fits with the ground rules above.
b. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. The professionals do. When you hear a good story that you'd like someday to repeat, make some immediate notes to yourself. Then rehearse it alone a few times to make the story flow. Make sure you have the punch line down pat so you can't blow the climax of the tale. If you give presentations and want to use prepared jokes, write them down in a log book so they'll be available when needed.
c. Tell the joke as a natural part of conversation. Save it for the right spot when it contributes logically to the topic at hand. Most comedians use humor that's topical and relates to current issues. If you stick to the present, you'll be perceived as on top of things and your remarks will get better responses.
d. If you bomb, kick yourself. Learn to recognize when a joke just isn't going over. If the laughs don't come, say something like "I think I need more practice on that one." Don't be too hard on yourself and don't become a grouch, but also don't try to overcome your failure with another joke right away. Back off and rehearse some more.
The final word: If you want to be funnier, you must seek to understand who you are and what your environment considers funny. After some successes, and a few failures, if you work at it, your humor will come naturally and will automatically fit the situation.

...By Carter Johnson:
Buying Time Seminars
630-910-1927

DID YOU KNOW

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
Spades - King David
Clubs - Alexander the Great
Hearts - Charlemagne
Diamonds - Julius Caesar

The 3 most valuable brand names on earth are:
Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

111,111,111 times
111,111,111 equals
12,345,678,987,654,321
(Resulting numbers are in order, then reversed.)

It took just five years for the number of US Internet users to reach 50 million. The time span for other communication tools to reach 50 million US users was cable TV, 10 years, television, 13 years, and radio, 38 years.

A survey of 1,400 companies found that it takes an average of 16 weeks to replace an executive, 10 weeks to replace a middle manager, and seven weeks to replace other staff.

Professional Email Netiquette Tips
Don't use all CAPS:
You may think that using all CAPS
seems attractive, but using all caps is found to be amateurish, if not completely annoying. If you open a message that has only a few starting sentences that are all caps, you more than likely delete it as spam. Professionals and new users alike are so accustomed to seeing this poor "eye-catching" technique in their "junk mail" every day that most delete them out of habit.

Keep your signature file down to 6 lines or less:
If your message was deserving enough to earn attention, congratulations. It has been read as has your name at the end. To that point, you have gained the recipient's attention. Don't make the mistake of thinking that they want to read another entire paragraph of your ad material. Keep your "sig" file short with the essentials and keep their attention. Your name, your email address, your URL, your Web site name and a short catch-phrase advertising your product or service. Don't scare them off with too much text when they thought it was done.

Please double space between paragraphs:
Even if you don't consciously realize it yet, your brain requires "breathers" and looks forward to that line break. Emails where a new paragraph is simply indented with no line break between becomes slightly overwhelming and never-ending. Do your reader(s) a favor; double space between paragraphs and give them time to absorb what you have said so far.

Subject headings are for "identifiable" subjects:
"Hi" doesn't cut it. If the recipient doesn't recognize your email address, or the name that shows in place of it, why would they open yours out of the other 100 received. If you have an important message, use a short phrase, which makes it clear why one should open your email. If you're emailing other professionals, remember that many receive such enormous amounts of junk mail that we must sometimes delete mail based on the "subject heading" alone. There just isn't time for "Hi".

Please don't forward your trash:
Short of spamming with your useless promises of riches, the easiest way to get blackballed from email is to send useless garbage. If one has the time to feel lonely, join a chat room. If you have something genuinely beneficial, great. But don't send garbage!

Text-based email is not for wanna-be Web designers:
We all know that text-based email can be sort of drab and boring, but please keep the dime store window dressing to a minimum. ASCII pics or dividers make nice little breaks between messages, but it doesn't take 5 lines of plus signs between each paragraph or a photo layout of the "wall peaker" throughout your message to break up the monotony.

Reply with the original message attached please:
How many times have you received a message that says nothing but "yes" or another anonymous message that makes absolutely no sense to anybody without the question attached. Unless you are carrying on a conversation back and forth that you know will be answered immediately, don't assume that the recipient will know what you're talking about. It could be days before they get to your reply. Some of you may have a photographic memory, but others of us have trouble remembering what we had for dinner last night. So please, include the original message so we can refresh our memory on our discussion.

With attention to these tips,
happy emailing!

CRITICAL ELEMENTS
TO BUILDING A
SUCCESSFUL
WEB SITE

By paying attention to the following elements, you can create a Web site that becomes super successful.

Establish the purpose of your Web site. Why are you doing it?

Define your target. Who are your prospects?

Understand you target and their specific needs and wants. What are your prospects looking for?

What are your target's hot buttons? What will it take to get the prospects to listen?

Allow your passion and enthusiasm to permeate your site. Why am I great (or am I?)

Think of your site as a work in progress. Creating the web site is only the beginning!
a. Establish a plan to regularly up-date your Web site to make it fresh and worth revisiting.
b. Be prepared to test, make changes, and retest.
c. Leverage the power of the search engines, but don't depend on the web to get you noticed.
d. Use PR to publicize your site - and advertising, if you can afford it.
e. Make certain your URL is on everything you do. - Business cards, stationery, brochures, etc.

It's not what's been taken away from you… it's what you do with what you have left!

e.business

e.business2business

e.commerce

embainc.com

everything for marketing your
product or services, on-line and
off-line

e has always been our first name.

elliott m. black & associates, inc.
e-mail: eblack@embainc.com
website: www.embainc.com

From the Editor's Desk

Summer has been a busy time and it appears that Fall will be busier than usual. New clients have been added. In November, Access USA, our foreign trade promotion division, will be organizing a trade mission from Nova Scotia. However, we have enough staff to assist our present clients and any new ones that need our expertise. Let us help your business to grow!

MAXINE, Newsletter Editor c/o EMBA
2511 Windsor Lane
Northbrook, IL 60062
Tel. No. 847-272-2884
Fax No. 847-272-3551
E-mail: eblack@embainc.com
www.embainc.com

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