More Than WE Know

Although I traveled light this week, I still had plenty to read thanks to some great recently published ebooks based on the winners of Hewlett-Packard’s Top Business Blog contest.    All of these are filled with useful information for entrepreneurs.  And best of all - they’re FREE!

Four ebooks are currently available on the topics of:

• Marketing
• Productivity
• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation and Management

There’s also a fifth ebook that contains the top article in each book.

Sound good? It is…… But wait!! There’s more!

HP also has links to all the articles submitted into their Top Businss Blog contest. So you can read all the posts on these subjects, not just the ones that made it into the books!

Sound good? It is….. But wait!! There’s more!

HP is also giving away the templates they used in creating these ebooks - so you can create ebooks yourself!

Packaging content and giving it away to prospective customers is a proven way to let your customers get to know who you really are, both generating and converting more leads.

So be sure to let me know about any ebooks you create to promote your products - I’ll be glad to promote them here!

And if all this talk about writing has inspired you to learn more, be sure to check out Susan Gunelius’ upcoming course on Copywriting, based on her soon-to-be-released book, Copywriting in Ten Easy Steps.

Whew!   Only a few links today but they’re jam-packed with a dizzying amount of high-quality information - enjoy the ride!!

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Another home-made carnival this week as I share some of the articles I’ve been enjoying this week on the web.

Wendy Piersall at emomsathome shares 10 Free Resources to Start or Grow a Home-Based Business. Lots of good links!!

Nick Thomas shares his Twelve Tips for Terrified Speakers. I especially liked the idea of numerically rating your level of nervousness. It sounds like it would help move you from right brain emotion to left brain logic very quickly. I’m going to try it the next time I’m nervous speaking in public, doing an interview or meeting a new client!

And now for a chuckle - Guy Kawasaki shares an article from Sherry Couch of BizNiche titled Everything you Should Know about Me as an Entrepreneur, You Could Learn From my OB/GYN!

And last but not least, get inspired by this audio interview with a 10 year old Woman-to-be Entrepreneur named Alice, designer of Frou-Frou Flip Flops. Alice donates her profits to charitable organizations. Listen to the latest in StartupSpark’s series on Success Secrets: A 10 year old Shares Her Small Business Success.  

Quite a fun and educational round up this week - hope you enjoyed it!! 

Q: What do you do when you can’t go to the Carnival?

A: You make one up yourself

So welcome to my do-it-yourself collection of interesting articles I’ve been enjoying this week around the web.

And in the spirit of DIY and doing less with more, I’d like to share several articles with you that can help you to continue to grow your business in a troubling economy.

First, as you probably know, When the Going gets Tough…the Tough Start…Planning!

Whether it’s a marketing plan, a strategic plan or a business plan, now’s the time to start planning how you are going to make more and keep more in lean times.  Evan Carmichael has made this easy for you with his post, Top 50 Business Plan Posts of the Year.

Rafi Mohammed has put together 4 Pricing Strategies to Prosper in a Recessionary Environment at Pricing for Profit.  You’ll be pleased to know that none of the strategies involves simply cutting your prices.

If you’d really like some outside business consulting Scott Ginsberg (the Nametag Guy) offers some tips on How to Become Your Own Consultant.  This one article is crammed with good information and strategies about how to step back, think objectively about your business, and overcome your marketing, management, leadership and sales challenges. It will definitely get you thinking!

And if that thinking has you convinced that you need a new logo and marketing materials - then be sure to enter Hewlett-Packard’s 2008 What Do You Have to Say? Small Business Contest.  Top prize includes a new logo design, website, business cards and a color printer.   But don’t wait! The contest deadline is Feb 28, 2008.

Then take a few moments to watch this ABC interview with Lisa Stone the co-founder of BlogHer.  If your target market is women, you’ll be interested to learn that women today spend more time surfing the internet than reading the newspaper or watching TV.  If you want to reach women (who make 83% of all purchases!), then you want to be online. 

That’s it for this week’s do it yourself carnival - I hope you enjoyed it!

And look for posts from the real carnivals next week!

It’s been an inspiring week for me and I hope to share some of that inspiration with you in this week’s round-up of exciting articles on the web.  So without further ado, let’s get started!

One of my favorite sources of inspiration, Christine O’Kelly, from Self-made Chick wrote a great article on breaking out of her comfort zone to reach new heights in her article How I’ve Been Holding Myself Back and How to Avoid Stagnation in Your Business.  Christine’s article is a reminder that we sometimes need to let go of the comfortable and familiar in order to achieve our next level of success.

A brand new source of inspiration for me this week is Stephen Hopson from Adversity University.   A little over ten years ago Stephen was a successful Stockbroker on Wall Street. One day he walked away from the glamour and money (not to mention the long hours and high pressure)  and devoted his life to motivating others!  And if that isn’t inspiring enough - Stephen has since become a much sought-after public speaker - despite the fact that he has a profound hearing loss! 

Stephen says ”Trust that bigger things are in store for you if you listen to your intuition, take action and believe that things will work out despite lack of clear supporting evidence.” 

Another frequent source of inspiration for me is David Bohl who usually writes on his blog Slow Down Fast.  However this week I found him guest writing on Dumb Little Man with an article called Don’t Let it Be Boring - Let Life Excite You!  Nothing more I can add to a title like that!

It might seem odd to find inspiration in an article that is talking about the possbility(reality?) of a recession.  But I liked the positive focus that Gavin Ingham put on his article Selling in a Recession - Why Some People are Going to Crash and Others are Going to Fly.  

I liked the fact that Gavin reminds us that even when dealing with a situation that seems outside of our control, such as the economy, our reaction to it is still very much within our control.  Focusing on what I can control, always helps me cope.

And the last item is a treat - a blogtalk radio episode with Wayne Hurlbert interviewing Dawn Rivers Baker.  Dawn is an expert on microbusinesses.   In this interview Dawn describes the rapid growth of entrepreneurial non-employer businesses including who they are, their business styles, and their niches & industries.

Since this category includes many Women Entrepreneurs, this interview is all about you and the significant impact you have on the US economy.  Listen directly or download the mp3 file to listen later.

This week’s reading really energized me! It’s great to see so many people taking charge of their lives - I hope you’re feeling it too!

This week, I’m sharing articles written by Women Entrepreneurs and Bloggers, who I always enjoy reading.

First up is Heather Juma, at Girls Who Network.  Heather asks the question Who’s Going to Stop You From Being a Successful Woman Entrepreneur? Hopefully after reading Heather’s article - your answer will be “No one!”

The next article is by Shama Hyder at After the Launch.  Shama was inspired by Seth Godin’s article about Gimmicks to tell Independent Service Providers How to Pull Off a Gimmick- without being gimmicky!  It’s good advice that you’ll want to read.

Anita Campbell at SmallBizTrends has rounded up 22 marketing secrets from top marketers in Top Experts Dish With their Best Kept Marketing Secrets.

My favorite is from Yvonne DiVita, from WME Books, and publisher of Inner Samurai.  Yvonne’s “secret” is to be sincerely enthusiastic about other people’s businesses: what they’re doing, how they’re doing it and why they’re doing it! That’s advice that I can definitely relate to! 

Anita is asking for her readers’ top marketing secrets, too. So stop by, read them all and share your own!  

And last, Christine O’Kelly at SelfMadeChick has written a book! She has poured all of her enthusiasm, wisdom and experience into a new 24 page ebook called “How I Built A Profitable Freelance Business for Under $50 - (And How You Can Too!)” . She’s written a great post about her motivation for writing the book, How I Ditched My Job and Never Had to Come Crawling Back.  

Christine is always a delight to read - entertaining, educational and profound - I know I’ll be buying a copy - how about you??

Well, that’s my round-up of inspiration for this week!  Let me know if you find any other great articles around the internet, and I’ll be happy to highlight them here!!