February :: 2010 :: Thinking Home Business | Practical Tips For People Who Work From Home

A recent guest on my Des Walsh & Friends program on BlogTalkRadio, Shirley George Frazier, shared valuable insights and tips on marketing and business generally.

Shirley George Frazier Shirley is a Solo Marketing Specialist, Best-Selling Author and Professional Speaker. Shirley is recognized worldwide as one of the foremost experts on marketing strategies for small businesses and independent owners who work without employee assistance.

One of the people in small business I most admire and respect – as well as being a totally delightful person to meet online or IRL – Shirley has been in business since 1990. She is President and CEO of Sweet Survival®, a consulting firm specializing in business and marketing support. She speaks at conferences, trade shows and business meetings worldwide.

In the best tradition of the new world of social networking, our friendship developed first online. We then had the pleasure of meeting face to face, a.k.a. in real life (IRL) in New York City in late 2008.

Some of the topics on which Shirley shared her experience, insights and wisdom:

How to manage multiple activities effectively, focusing on what you want to accomplish on a yearly, monthly, weekly and daily basis
How she has traced her entrepreneurial inclinations and talents back to a great-great-grandmother and other forebears
The wonderful story of how an amazingly successful gift basket business got started
How someone who has suddenly been put out of work can look seriously and practically about starting their own business
Practical guidance on how to do due diligence on business opportunities
How people without special technical expertise can cut through the mystification and get started with a website and a marketing campaign
Why although offline marketing is a necessity, businesses still need to do offline marketing as well

And much, much more.

[Click here to listen if player above does not appear]

Some details for more information about what Shirley does and thinks and how to reach her:

Solo Business Marketing and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ShirleyFrazier

If you have a relative or friend who is even vaguely wondering about the possibility of establishing their own business, or who is in business already, I urge you to share the link with them. I know that if you do, you will be doing them a seriously good favor. Know someone like that?

Networking breakfast at the beach and an interview with a champion networker

Just a week ago today I had a reminder that, while it’s great to connect with colleagues and customers globally, via the Web, it’s also very healthy for business to go to live events.

Just before Christmas, at a local Chamber of Commerce function, I met up with a good friend, although lately we have not been frequently in the same place, local businesswoman, coach and superb networker, Kym Kranen, I learned that Kym was running some networking breakfasts in the local region.

I attended one of the breakfasts last week and was very glad I had done so. Good conversation, some excellent business ideas, dynamic people.

Actually, a good touch with these events is that if you don’t want a breakfast as such you can just have a coffee or tea – or water! And there is no admission charge, so for people working from home and on a very tight budget, “can’t afford it” is not a viable excuse for staying away.

It was also good to be able to get a few minutes of Kym’s time and speak with her about what she is doing with business networking in the region and how this can help, especially but not exclusively, people with businesses from home – and on the latter topic she shared some interesting statistics.

Here is the video of the chat we had.