Queen of Hearts

Today I want to tell you about a wonderful charitable organization, “ The Queen of Hearts Foundation”.

“They provide financial assistance to individuals coping with the day to day challenges of surviving cancer; or waiting for or recovering from transplantation. The

Queen of Hearts Foundation

hopes to make a difference by removing some of the financial stress.”

On Friday November 4^th The  Queen of Hearts hosted a COACH Bingo Party…and ladies you know I don’t mean football coaches!  It was a wonderful event.  Over 200 ladies attended  to have some fun, and take a chance to win a “COACH” pocket book.  It was held in Hammonton, New Jersey at Kerri Brook caterers, the doors opened at 6:00 pm and the fun started  at 7:15 pm.  This was my first “COACH” BINGO  PARTY so I had no idea what to expect.  Many ladies brought their own food including, pizza, subs, cheese and crackers, nachos, you name it!  There was a paid bar, a dessert table with plenty of goodies, coffee and lots of handsome gents to wait on you.  The costs was $35.00 and you were given  1 pack of 16 bingo cards.

The Coach Bags were gorgeous and they were not only available by winning a bingo game but there were several on the silent auction table.  The Queen of Hearts organization put together a wonderful silent auction table with great prizes.  Oh and did I mention the 50/50?  It paid almost $1,800 to the winner.

The Master of Ceremonies was Ken Dunek former tight end of the 1980 Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl Team.  He was quite the comedian and kept things moving along.  Needless to say the Queen of Hearts organization put on a great event and I would definitely return for the next one, only…I would buy more BINGO CARDS!

Visit Queen of Hearts  for more information about their organization.

I RECENTLY joined  Business Network International (BNI) as  a additional tool to mitigate the awful effects of the recession (that they say is over). Hey, the economic engine has been ratcheted  back, but that doesn’t mean that it’s turned off.  What it does mean is we have to find new places to ferret out the customers we need and business networking is a great way to do that.  BNI provides a good, RELIABLE source for those scarce opportunities.

“BNI is the largest

business networking

organization in the world.”   offering members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals at a very PROFESSIONAL level

Here are some reasons why BNI is an organization worth looking at:

• You can’t just ‘join’.  There is a vetting process that is taken very seriously, including checking your business references.
• A loyalty among members in choosing goods and services for their own needs, fellow members support one another’s businesses first always.
• Substantial referrals from quality businesses or organizations through business networking.
• Weekly
  

  business networking

  meetings provide a chance to share information about your business as well as learn about other members businesses and talents.

•  One professional per specialty is permitted in a given chapter.
• Bi-monthly newsletters, trade shows provide an opportunity to showcase your business, and utilize business networking once again.

The BNI professional motto is “Givers Gain”, suggesting that not just being a member, but being active in BNI is where the real benefit lies.  The local chapter in Galloway Township is accepting new members in many business categories, including, florists, hair salons, CPA’s, Property and Casualty insurance, landscapers, wedding planners and more.  If you’d like to attend one of our meetings feel free to email me at kaswebsitedesign@gmail.com, or check out their website @ Business Networking

SO, I’ll be actively participating in Business Networking @ BNI and will……………………

REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE RECESSION

Why Word Press?

Word press has historically been known as a great blogging tool. However in recently years, it has been transformed into a wonderful website platform. There are many reasons why Word Press has become so popular as a CMS content management system choice. Here are just a few:

• A Word Press/CMS website makes it easier to publish content online without having to know html, (sophisticated computer language).
• A Word Press/CMS website allows you to edit or enhance your website from anywhere in the world.
• Plugins are available for almost anything you want to do including forums, blogging, shopping carts, slide shows and you don’t have to be an expert in development to use them.
• A Word Press/CMS website makes blogging, commenting, and updating your website content easy.
• A Word Press/CMS website is naturally SEO Search Engine Friendly. They have built in tools to optimize every page of your website.

Give us a call today TOLL FREE @ 1-855-260-0420 to

“GET MORE TRAFFIC, LEADS, & SALES”

You’re on the web.  Your mother’s, sister’s, aunt’s, son, who’s married to your first cousin does websites “on the side” and got your business “online”…..  

Now what?

A few weeks, months, (even years?), go by and you don’t think anything about your website. Have you looked at your website lately?  Are there dated materials on your website?  And by the way did you ever think about who is looking at your website and what it means to your business?

Say you’re a contractor and you’re bidding on a big job.  Guess what?  The owners that called you have looked at your website.  They are judging your business based on the professionalism of what they’ve seen on your website.  If you have dated materials, an events page that hasn’t been updated, or old outdated photographs, you may be at a disadvantange!

A good solution would be to invest in a CMS (Content Management System) website,  which gives you the ability to manage your website on a daily basis, keeping your content fresh and ” in  the know”  It’s a fast paced world out there today, and you need to stay in the race.

 How can Social Media Marketing benefit my business?

According to “Resources for Entrepreneurs Staff”, “Using social media to improve a small business’ exposure online is one of the fastest-growing trends today.”  But many business owners do not have the time, nor the desire, to manage their own social media.

How can you use social media to get more prospects and sales for your business?  You may need to hire an “internet marketing strategist”, aka Social Media Expert.   Someone who can completely manage your social media efforts, handling everything from Twitter to Facebook to Blogging, to Linkedin.

The key is knowing how to use social media to benefit your company and bring in leads and clients. Spending hours updating your Facebook page, and tweeting about what you had for lunch is just a waste of time.  Your main goal should be to get people to your website, and using social media can help.

Plus Social Media is 100% Free and if you’re not using it effectively you are behind the eight ball!

An important part of starting up a new business is developing the company ‘brand’. This will include, depending on the nature of the business, color scheme, font, tag line, uniforms, vehicles, stationary, website, business cards, promotional items, etc. In short, any visible representation of your business will become part of, and contribute positively, to your company branding.

The most important component of any brand of course, is the recognizable logo. It will be displayed prominently on all of the items detailed above. Your logo is what will identify, in A MOMENT, and from this moment on ……. YOUR BUSINESS! ……… let’s be careful.

Some important things to consider: your logo should if possible, suggest to the public what your business is.  Your logo should be memorable, that is to say, attractive, artful, clever, funny, whatever, but it should ‘click’ with the public.  It should be simple….you don’t need people to have to try to figure out what they are looking at.  Your logo/brand should be easily copied, so that the tee shirt printer, the website designer, the vehicle stencil maker, the stationary supplier, etc., all reproduce the same exact logo.

Finally, it should be clear, or, said differently distinct, able to be recognized as YOUR LOGO from some distance.   It should be unique. You don’t want to be confused or mistaken for any other business or brand.

I recently visited a restaurant in Galloway Township and thoroughly enjoyed my dish. Craving the dish as a take-out item but not remembering the  name of the dish, I googled their sight. SURPRISE!!!  No website,…….only a listing with their phone number.

Imagine that.  a restaurant, in 2011 new jersey, that serves and delivers takeout food , has no website.   Now I don’t want to disparage the place, as a ‘restaurant’,  because the food is GREAT.  Although they’’ve only been open a couple of years, they’ve established themselves as a very reliable place to dine.  The point here however is that they miss the opportunity to  grow their business  with THE FUTURE OF  MARKETING….. the internet.

The internet is the new phone book, and you have to be on it…… the average home has four internet connected devises  .the future of American business is in the palms of the hands of our high school and college students, in the form of the ‘smartphones. They ‘google’ everything, from concert tickets, to weather, to pizza to when the bus will arrive.   And they get accurate information, quickly.

If a business in today’s America is to maximize their marketing opportunities, the internet is mandatory