Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

I find myself typing the same thing over and over again when I engage customers and vendors in email dialogue. To help avoid this time consuming task, I have started writing my ideas in templates and simply pasting them into my conversations with people.

I've heard that there are computer programs that let you do this (dedicated clipboards, for example, that store dozens of items) but I didn't feel like searching through tucows.com for a free download so I just use a couple of very basic notepad files in a folder with the phrases in them. It's not perfect, some might point out, but it works for me and that's the most important thing.

All I do is open the file and copy and paste the phrase I'm looking for.

Now, if you're thinking that I simply send out form letters, I don't and I don't recommend it. Instead, I find that I periodically include a paragraph in my emails and I ALWAYS proofread my emails to make sure that my “boilerplate” paragraph makes sense and is integrated into the email.

If you are a small business owner, you ARE your company. So if you're considering developing your company's brand, you should really think about branding yourself.

A brand is an emotion that people feel when they are around you based on everything about you… your clothes, your attitude, your marketing materials, your products… everything. Hollywood celebrities and sports celebrities already have this idea mastered.

Peter Montoya's book The Brand Called You looks at the idea of building a brand out of YOURSELF in order to build your business. It can work for everyone from the smallest operator to someone like Bill Gates.

What I really like about this book is that it is so practical, and is filled with success stories and advice that can guide you through the process. The book is highly comprehensive, starting at the very beginning by identifying what is a brand and how a good brand can benefit you and taking you right through the concepts to talk about developing websites and marketing material, public relations, networking. There's also a section on defending your brand should you fall under excessive scrutiny.

What's too bad about this book is that the title may not immediately win you over so that you might pass right by it on the bookshelf on your way to another book that looks like it has more to do with branding your business.

This book is highly recommended.

As a small business owner, you may find yourself occasionally on the road traveling… and other times you're chained to your desk longer than you'd like. There are times when you want to access your email online… and there are times when you want to access your email with your desktop email program.

Yahoo! Small Business allows you to do that with an enhanced POP system in their email program. This came as the result of a survey of business owners who wanted greater flexibility in accessing their accounts.

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/email/

That works great for me: I can access my emails with Microsoft Outlook when I'm in the office and through my web server when I'm on the road.

I don't try to endorse programs on my blog, but I do use Yahoo's email service and I'm glad for this enhancement.