Black History Month celebrates the achievements of blackAmericans and recognizes their integral roles in American history. Black history in the military is a narrowed focus to the point of celebrating those men and women who bravely fought for America’s greater good, but who were also groundbreakers in our armed forces and our nation’s long (and scarred) journey for justice in our civil rights.Continue reading
START DURING THE WALK-THROUGH
As you walk-through a property with a realtor, one of the best pieces of advice we can give is this — ask questions when buying a home. Ask whatever pops into your mind, ask questions. Get inquisitive. Yes, ask anything under the sun. If you wonder about it, then it can’t hurt to see what the sellers have to say about it. To start you off, here are a few questions to consider:
- Ask why the seller is selling.
- Find out if any of the furniture or appliances are included in the sale.
- Seek to look under the rugs.
- Inquire about looking under the sinks.
- Is the house in a rural area? Request information about cable and internet service. Maybe it’s spotty, maybe it’s non-existent. Either way, these are just a few of potentially many things that you’d really rather know before making a decision.
Family traditions are important. They make up a big part of what we hold onto as we grow older. Family traditions come in all shapes and sizes, and can be seasonally specific, or not. Holidays are meant to be celebratory, but if for some reason yours have been feeling stale or otherwise lacking, try instituting some new traditions. The variety will spice up your family’s holiday and either give you something to look forward to each year, or something to ditch in favor of yet more new holiday family traditions!
Here are some ideas for holiday family traditions. Some are Christmas-centric, some are not, and there are ideas to fit all budgets.Continue reading
Some families provide each other with a holiday wish list, but for those that don’t, or for that difficult-to-buy for person, you may be able to use Pinterest as your holiday gift guide.
Brilliant, right?
Of course right. Let me show you how to use someone’s Pinterest boards as your holiday gift guide this season! It’s part detective work and part putting those social media stalking skills to use.Continue reading
It’s beneficial to be aware of–and use–the top hashtags in your field of business. Don’t underestimate the payoff for also using mainstream top hashtags, such as the ones listed below. They expand your audience immediately, and show authenticity. Posting relatable content goes far in building brand identity and trust, so why not post it where everyone will see it?
Do you remember life before cellular phones? How did we ever do anything? We live in a time when technology makes life easier (and sometimes more complex) to the point that doing most things without the aid of technology seems preposterous. While mobile phones have warped everyday life over the past few decades, business websites have revolutionized our approaches to business models, advertising, and reaching our target market.
Yeah, they’re invincible, and she’s just in the background.
And she says,
“I wish that I could be like the cool kids,
‘Cause all the cool kids, they seem to fit in.
I wish that I could be like the cool kids, like the cool kids.—Cool Kids by Echosmith
If you’ve listened to a pop radio station in the last year you’ve heard Cool Kids by Echosmith. The simple and repetitive lyrics express the familiar teenage feelings of not fitting in to the cool crowd.
It’s also illustrative of dynamics in the marketing world. The marketing cool kids are doing something right, and thousands of marketers are wandering around the internet trying to nail down what it is.
In most things, we like to follow Henry David Thoreau’s advice to simplify, simplify, simplify. His advice is perfect for creating a simple business plan.
We like simple. You don’t have to have your MBA to write a compelling yet simple business plan. You need a vision, and you might need to do a little market research. But if you are starting or running a business, you likely already do these things. Get it down on paper, and your whole company will benefit.
Your brain is a 3-pound organ inside your head that tells you what to do. It controls everything about your life: your movement, your memory, your moods, your senses, your speech, your sleep, and even involuntary functions like breathing, digesting, and circulation. It is a magnificent, complex bundle of wires that scientists have barely begun to understand.
When it comes to our work lives, we can either choose to work with our brain’s natural systems or in opposition to them. Ever feel like you’re falling asleep at your desk, or you just can’t focus on that project that’s been looming? It may be because your happy hour lasted a little too long the night before–or it may be because your work environment is in direct conflict with the way your brain is wired. If you’d like to unlock your potential for focus, motivation, problem-solving, and creativity on the job, you need to work with the brain in mind.Continue reading
Put your money where your heart is, the saying goes. Buying local simply means choosing stores and brands that are locally owned and operated. Spending your money at small businesses instead of corporate and chain stores benefits a community more than most people realize. We see the small picture: $5 here, $10 there, but what does it matter?
In honor of National Small Business Week, (#DreamSmallBiz) let’s educate ourselves a little.
Where we choose to spend our money has an economic ripple-effect and most of us are unaware. Think about money as a life source for every city. Like blood and oxygen, you have to keep it flowing within the community, or the vitality diminishes. One way to pump life back into a town, whether big or small, is to buy local. Let’s talk about why!
