Don't Write the Words, You'll Kill Yourself.

Remember that commercial, "Don't take the car, you'll kill yourself" That is true of writing your own press releases. Last night I had another conversation with a business owner asking about press releases. I will shed some light, as many have before me, to the question that plaques small business owners everywhere. How do I do it? If you have a story to tell, or want to make people aware of your event or fundraising activities, know about your addition to urban sprawl, launching a new product or want to talk about an existing product line or just want the press you deserve; you should let your local media know by sending them a press release. There are other ways to get found in your hometown online. Check this out:
http://tinyurl.com/yb9wgl4

Sending the local media your press release still holds true but we have more items to consider. When a term is entered into the search engines, the results often seem arbitrary, random, or just don't match what you are looking for. SEO Press Releases are the way to get your website into that top ranking, and listed on the first page of the search engines. Search engine optimization, (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is growing at an alarming rate, predicted to be a $13 billion dollar industry in 2010. Combine this with the introduction of new SEO technologies including social media, blogs, and user generated distribution it is critical that your business looks at the resources a PR Specialist can bring.

Many businesses want to write the release themselves. Big mistake! Someone with professional level writing skills and ample public relations experience will probably be your best bet for writing a press release that meets industry standards. Although small business owners often write and distribute their own press releases, it goes without saying that they may know their business but not the PR business. You should strongly consider hiring a professional. PR Specialists are usually proficient writers, will be privy to current best practices and updated journalist formatting preferences. Although it may seem cliché to say, press release writing truly is an art, and journalists are beyond savvy when it comes to deciphering a newsworthy piece of information from a fluffy, sorry excuse for a press release. Not only is it insulting to them when you waste their precious time by tooting your own horn about nothing special, but what's worse...it makes you look bad. In addition, they know where to distribute it utilizing the catch phrases of today such as SEO and social media marketing. For us PR is easy, for you the small business it may not be. Why not ensure success and hire the professional? But maybe you are saying I can’t afford it.

If that is the case, the following may help. If you really want to understand what goes in to writing a great press release, and to find out if the information you are sending is up to par, ask yourself these 5 simple questions:

Is your press release:

1. Attention Getting
The first question you should ask yourself before you even dive into writing a press release. Is it newsworthy? Don’t know what is newsworthy? There are no pat answers. But some general guidelines exist. Below are several characteristics that can make information newsworthy. The more of these characteristics a piece of information has, the more newsworthy the information is.

• information has impact if it affects a lot of people

• information has timeliness if it happened recently

• information has prominence if it involves a well-known person or organization

• information has proximity if it involves something happened somewhere nearby

• information has conflict if it involves some kind of disagreement between two or more people.

• information has weirdness if it involves something unusual or strange

• information has currency if it is related to some general topic a lot of people are already talking about

2. Do your homework! We all have homework. Remember writing a paper when you were in school? How you didn't cite any of your sources? Needless to say, journalists are much like teachers: they want to see that you've done your homework and that you have a thorough understanding of the topic on which you are writing. No, you don't need actual citations in your press release, but you should definitely be prepared to answer in depth questions if the situation presents itself.

3. A timely press release is the first cousin of a researched press release. That is to say, a press release that is relevant to current events or cutting edge technology is more likely to get noticed. Remember, it is important to be aware of trends in your particular industry so that you can seize opportunities to create the news!

4. The golden rule still applies: Tell the Truth
Ask yourself: is the press release written in simple, concise, factual language void of industry jargon and buzz terms? Can I get my point across in an understandable manner in less than 400 words?

5. Media Ready
A reporter or editor should be able to take the information from your press release and plop it into any medium without having to correct bad grammar, or call to get specifics on what the heck you are trying to say. The key is to make the journalist's job as simple as possible. If you master this, then your chances of getting press placement will increase exponentially.

You can either adapt to an industry press release template like this:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact:
Contact Person
Company Name
Telephone Number
Email Address
Web site address
Headline
City, State, Date — Opening Paragraph (should contain: who, what, when, where, why):
Remainder of body text – Should include any relevant information to your products or services. Include benefits, why your product or service is unique. Also include quotes from staff members, industry experts or satisfied customers.
If there is more than 1 page use:
-more-

(The top of the next page):
Abbreviated headline (page 2)
Remainder of text.
(Restate Contact information after your last paragraph):
For additional information or a sample copy, Contact: (all Contact information)
Summarize product or service specifications one last time
Company History (try to do this in one short paragraph)
# # #
(indicates Press Release is finished)


Or develop your own by following some tips:
http://tinyurl.com/6ltw4m

We are the world-heed the call

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzw6GiqZyD0&feature=related

Lyrics:

Lionel Richie
There comes a time when we heed a certain call

Lionel Richie & Stevie Wonder
When the world must come together as one

Stevie Wonder
There are people dying

Paul Simon
And its time to lend a hand to life

Paul Simon & Kenny Rogers
The greatest gift of all

Kenny Rogers
We cant go on pretending day by day

James Ingram
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change

Tina Turner
We are all part of gods great big family

Billy Joel
And the truth, you know, love is all we need

Chorus:
Michael Jackson
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Diana Ross
Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives

Michael & Diana Ross
Its true well make a better day
Just you and me

Dionne Warwick
Send them your heart
So theyll know that someone cares

Dionne Warwick & Willie Nelson
And their lives will be stronger and free

Willie Nelson
As God has shown us by turning stones to bread

Al Jarreau
So we all must lend a helping hand

Chorus:
Bruce Springsteen
We are the world, we are the children

Kenny Loggins
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Steve Perry
Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives

Daryl Hall
Its true well make a better day
Just you and me

Michael Jackson
When youre down and out, there seems no hope at all

Huey lewis
But if you just believe theres no way we can fall

Cindy Lauper
Well, well, well, well let us realize that a change can only come

Kim carnes
When we stand together as one

Chorus:
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives
Its true well make a better day
Just you and me

We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Bob Dylan
Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives
Its true well make a better day
Just you and me

Chorus
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives

Bob Dylan
Its true well make a better day
Just you and me

Ray Charles
Alright let me hear ya

Chorus
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Ray Charles
Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives
Its true well make a brighter day
Just you and me

Stevie Wonder / Bruce Springsteen
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Stevie Wonder
Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives
Its true well make a better day
Just you and me

Stevie Wonder / Bruce Springsteen
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Bruce Springsteen
Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives
Its true well make a better day
Just you and me

Chorus
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives
Its true well make a better day
Just you and me

James Ingram
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Ray Charles
Theres a choice were making
Were saving our own lives
Its true well make a better day
Just you and me

Some great links to begin again

http://blogtactics.com/twitter-automation/

http://tinyurl.com/ydp3f6r

http://tinyurl.com/66ta64

http://bloglines.com/

http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com/blog/files/NicheSitesWP.pdf

http://roguecfo.podomatic.com/

http://www.mediaontwitter.com/

http://www.journalisttweets.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twzYm--XU5c

http://thenationalnetworker.blogspot.com/2010/01/venture-finance-reality-versus-rumor.html

http://om.shaayad.com/

http://christinesculati.com/blog/2010/01/finding-the-silver-lining-in-2010-10-social-innovations-shaping-our-communities/

http://b-clear.biz/354/small-business-brand-identity-strategies/

https://www.yammer.com/

http://www.ideamarketers.com/

http://justtweetit.com/

http://justtweetit.com/twitter-tools/

http://tinyurl.com/ya6plj8

Some useful websites he shared, which we are now sharing.

hitmelater.com This is a great free service for busy people.

filtrbox.com This is a cool web tool for monitoring social media.

peoplebrowsr.com This is another resource for monitoring things people are saying online.

Twitter Tip-Branding

If you use Twitter, your tweets are generally branded with the service
you use (Twitterrific, TwitterFeed, Ping.fm, TweetDeck, etc.). If you'd
rather that your tweets be branded with your own website name and
URL link, use the free TweetBrand service.

TweetBrand allows you to brand your tweets (with your website link):
http://www.marketmetweet.com/tweetbrand/

Crowdfunding, Microfinance, Micropatronage, Collective Action, Middlemen and the Movies

Boy, just keeping up with all the terms is a chore these days. A not so new one is crowdfunding. Wikipedia defines it: Crowd funding (sometimes called crowd financing, crowd sourced capital or "mass funding") is an approach to raising the capital required for a new project or enterprise by appealing to a group of people (figuratively, "the crowd") for contributions from one or many. When such an appeal is global it is mass funding.

Crowdfunding is a neat derivative of microfinancing, which offers financial services to poor or low-income people. It’s a form of micropatronage that is being experimented with as a funding mechanism for creative work like film projects. Micropatronage is a system in which the public directly supports the work of others by making donations through the Internet. Micropatronage differs from traditional patronage systems by allowing many "patrons" to donate small amounts, rather than a small number of patrons making larger contributions.

Crowdfunding is circumventing traditional funding mechanisms like bank loans or venture capital. Basically, it says let's see if we can get a ton of people to chip in a very small amount of money that in aggregate can help somebody to do something. Sounds like mass collaboration with our pocketbooks. And mass collaboration is a collective action. Collective action is the pursuit of a goal or set of goals by more than one person.

Very similar to sponsorship term though I think sponsorship is more applicable as a verb meaning to sponsor something. To support an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor. Which basically means a good maker.

And since so many of us want to make good, the creation of crowd funding comes into play. One site trying to use crowdfunding to benefit film is Indiegogo.com, a collaborative way to fund ideas and fuel innovation. They act as a resource market, where visitors can watch a pitch trailer for films in varying states of production, share clips with friends (thereby creating a buzz), ‘demand’ screenings in their area and even contribute to a film’s release costs.

On IndieGoGo, projects use the fundraising, promotion and discovery tools provided to build an engaged fan base of funders. They take 9% of the money filmmakers raise themselves and deliver what? Fiscal sponsorship? An escrow account? Most fiscal sponsors charge less than 5%.

If someone managed to raise $200k, Indiegogo would take $18k. That's two days of shooting at that budget level. I can't think of many things worth two days of shooting. For $18k you could build a web site, incorporate the production, set up an escrow account (or an account that holds funds separate from the production's operating account), pay for a few decent meals for the crew, hire an extra PA, etc.

Has indiegogo helped anyone? So far the stand-out IndieGoGo success story has been the documentary Tapestries of Hope, which raised US $25,000 through the site to expose the shocking child abuse problem in Zimbabwe, where young girls are raped because of a mythological belief that virgins can cure Aids and HIV. Another film, The Lilliput, a feature based on the true story a Jewish dwarf who hid in garbage bins during the Holocaust, raised $10,000.

I've always thought that the potential for funding entrepreneurs via crowdfunding was a very powerful concept. I thought of it years ago, even before crowdfunding existed as a term.

But I'm certain that it's only a matter of time before crowdfunding overtakes angel investing and other traditional financing mechanisms as a great way to fund a new business concept.

But they are going to have challenges. If a small contribution obtained via crowdfunding is actually an equity investment or even a loan, then crowdfunding companies may soon have issues with securities laws. I forget the details but if you raise money from over a certain number of investors, you start being subject to all sorts of securities laws.

Is it a IndieGoGo a valuable tool? Depends on what type of project, I suppose. If you are looking for small amounts, it might be a good ticket item. Maybe I am shortsighted but they sound more like a finder or a middleman taking a piece of the pie like we have always done. A middleman is simply someone investors listen to — often another entrepreneur or investor. Now getting investors to listen, telling the story they want to hear, and you gotta have traction aka product testing. Investors don’t invest in businesses they invest in stories. You must start building your product and start testing it with your market before you start raising money. A story without traction is a work of fiction but then again, that’s the movies right?

Some cool links

www.HelpAReporterOut.com (HARO) – Get notified of journalists looking for sources to interview for their stories.

www.ReportersSource.com - Also notifies you of reporters looking for sources - not as populated as HARO.

www.FreeConference.com – Set up a conference call for free.

www.HotRecorder.com – Record your conversations using Skype or other VoIP application.

www.Guru.com – Find experts to help you with any project.

www.PitchEngine.com – Create a social media newsroom. It’s FREE for 30 days!

www.PRWeb.com – Distribute your press release online and in newsrooms.

www.ContactAnyCelebrity.com – Look up the contact information for any celebrity.

www.ZapGrab.com – Grab screen shots and turn them into JPGs.

www.CutePDF.com – Convert your documents into PDFs for FREE!

www.ShrinkPictures.com – Resize any image for FREE!

www.WhichDraft.com – Download sample legal forms and documents.

www.SquareSpace.com - A great site to create a simple, low-cost website.

www.Pixability.com - Make a video and get it professionally edited. They even mail you a camera to use!

www.AwardSync.com - A site that helps you identify and track awards for you and your business.

http://www.mediabankers.com/PDF/DeSilva%20+%20Phillips_Celebrity%20Media_%20White%20Paper%203_09%20--%20by%20Ken%20Sonenclar.pdf

Blogs

According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2009, there are over 112 million active blogs in the world. Many of them are maintained by professional bloggers and are integral parts of company marketing plans. Who would have thought that blogs would grow so big. As we learn to harness the power of the Internet, business blogs are using this sphere as a way to talk with customers and clients on all sorts of things, from new product and service offerings to simply inform investors of the state of their companies to wishing them Merry Christmas.

BTW

I had a conversation this week explaining the many great reasons to pursue major national coverage. First, getting coverage in a major national publication like USA Today, or a market specific trade journal like Private Label Magazine sets in motion a chain of events that will raise your company’s visibility dramatically. There’s the article itself, which you can get reprinted and include in sales and proposal packages for additional creditability. Then, you can issue a local release that says something like: Regional Firm’s Accomplishments Gets National Attention, that sort of thing. A single “hit” in a major publication can be leveraged in a multiple ways – over an extended period of time (long shelf-life). That enables your company to “amortize” the cost of getting the attention over multiple uses during an extended time frame. Priceless! Second: getting this kind of coverage catapults a company into an entirely new and more significant category of player. There’s something about the “gravitas” that comes with the attention from a major. That’s not to mention the points I have highlighted in the past about increasing perceived value of the company, better positioning it as a candidate for acquisition, all of those positives as well. No brainer. If it’s easy, and doesn’t cost a fortune, it’s worth a shot.

Twitter

Expect the unexpected. Even the best plans cannot anticipate everything that might happen, so you have to improvise as you go forward. And one such improvisation is Twitter. When you wrote your Marketing Plan, maybe Twitter did not exist but it does now. Twitter started in 2006 and according to Wikipedia is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers.

Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

The 140-character limit on message length was initially set for compatibility with SMS messaging, and has brought to the web the kind of shorthand notation and slang commonly used in SMS messages. The 140 character limit has also spurred the usage of URL shortening services such as tinyurl, bit.ly and tr.im, and content hosting services, such as Twitpic and NotePub to accommodate multimedia content and text longer than 140 characters. Since its creation, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide.

Now for some stats:
•According to a recent report on Pew Internet “the median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for MySpace is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.”

•According to a recent study by Business.com of 1900 social media professionals:
◦65% have less than 2 years of experience working with social media.
◦ The companies represented by these professionals are just as new to the ballgame with 71% having less than 2 years of experience with Social Media.
◦In 66% of these companies the marketing department leads the social media efforts.
◦In 23% of these companies the customer service department leads the social media efforts.

Twitter is a great way to develop relationships and promote yourself and your product or business. But it's important to avoid being seen as someone who just promotes themselves. Most of your tweets should be about helping others, but you also need to inject some personality to help people get to know you.

Here's a great blogger who offers tips about Twitter:

http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/your-2010-social-media-plan-making-140-characters-count/

Here are some ideas for tweeting:

1. Link to helpful or entertaining articles, Web sites, and blog posts and recommend products and services you find useful.

2. Offer an incentive to subscribe to your ezine or blog, or offer a free eBook or sample of one of your products with no strings attached.

3. Announce your live and virtual events.

4. Teach a mini-lesson in 140 characters.

5. If you make a mistake say so.

6. Get to know your followers.

7) Twitter is as a "knowledge network". A "network" of people to whom you can pose questions and - usually extremely rapidly - get back responses.

8) Conduct a survey.

9) Twitter as a Travelogue, plane late? traffic? Check it all out on Twitter.

10) Use Twitter as a tool to drive traffic to blog entries.

One final note. If you have actually read this far along (thank you, if you have!), you might have come to the conclusion that I spend a lot of time using Twitter. The truth is that I really don't, but I have found a way that works very well for me to fit occasional glances at the twitterstream into my regular daily workflow.

A Viral Campaign Begins

Earlier this year, I was retained by DoodleBra to get them some press for their product. My initial meeting with Randy, Betty Ann Segal, Deborah Delaunay and one other person was to discuss how Midtown Marketing Group could help them grow their brand awareness. I explained – the rules of marketing change rapidly and public relations is front loaded. Most of the work is done in the beginning; interviewing them, learning more about them and their business, their product line, researching potential media outlets that would be interested in their press release or pitch, and preparing their pitch grid. (A pitch grid is a fancy name for a story-pitch tool that is visual and laid-out in grid fashion.)

Once the research is done, press releases, new product releases and pitches are written based on what is learned. The power of their brand relies on the ability to focus. That is why defining their target market would help to strengthen their brand's effectiveness. In the initial meeting, I saw fashion, teen entrepreneur, and party favor attributes as the assets that I could leverage. Once retained, we could flesh-out the strategy over a few days, and build-in the flexibility to roll with the punches. Mounting a visibility campaign and build awareness in target top-tier dailies, weeklies, long-lead monthlies, syndicated columnists, reviewers, radio and TV talk shows, and bloggers. Blogs also have comment fields, allowing users to leave comments and be more interactive with the blog author.

Their web site was good but needed to operate more like a product driven site. Who comes to the site should experience easy navigation and be able to find what they want. The web site works more as a digital, online brochure and information gathering site. Adding a shopping cart is a good idea, so when a buyer does come - they can buy. Randy said he was working with an India company to get that done.

I advised they would need an online press kit. They had the makings for one since they had been published locally; the information just needed to be re-structured and included into a link on the site called PRESS. (A press kit is a promotional package that includes press releases, tip sheet, bios, FAQ sheets, photographs of you, your business, product shots, logos, etc., reviews, published pieces and other pertinent information.)

It all boils down to budget. Different amounts get different things. I am, however, mindful of the budgetary constraints. Randy stated they would love to have press right away as they want to sell bras. I explained it does not always work that way, sometimes you can get the press right away and other times, the press picks you up when they have the need. I added that I could pitch them to my sales database. We could try and get a rep to rep his product but they generally want a line not just one product. Randy said he would retain me to pitch my PR and sales database. I pitched 1200 contacts including manufacturer's reps, resident buyers, QVC rep, television, radio, print and bloggers. And whala!

http://www.beautycutie.co.uk/2009/04/doodle-bra.html

http://www.pinkblog.it/post/3527/doodle-bra-decora-il-tuo-reggiseno-personalizzato

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/crafts/2009/04/doodle_your_bra.html

http://www.lilyqtalksclothes.com/2009/06/doodled-all-over-that-shiz.html

Fab Sugar

Glamour Magazine
http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/slaves-to-fashion/2009/04/all-of-that-plus-the.html

Lingerie Buyer Magazine

The View

http://abc.go.com/watch/the-view/167365/241870/the-view-1120

http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=doodle+bra&date=2009-11-20&sa=X

http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=di7yAlNt7j7lfaMFs4s_XGtQ-UI-M

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Doodlebra&spell=1&oi=spell&sa=X

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Doodlebra

http://hotissuestrends.blogspot.com/2009/11/doodle-bra.html

Making a Product in China

The pathway to a successful product is challenging enough for big companies, but for the average person with a great idea, getting a product to market can be downright intimidating – to the point that many great products are never made.

Beyond the hurdles involved in getting a product in front of buyers and customers is the fundamental task of actually making a product. While it may be easy enough to make a prototype or two or ten, making 10,000 or 100,000 or millions of almost anything at a globally competitive price will most likely require an entrepreneur to manufacture overseas. Yet unless an inventor-turned-entrepreneur can assure a major buyer that their product can and will be available in quantity, there’s no real chance for growth.

As manufacturing in Asia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere becomes more standard operating procedure than strategic competitive advantage for businesses of every size, first-time inventors often find themselves slogging through the cultural quagmire of dealing with foreign languages, inconvenient time zones, different manufacturing standards, and unusual business practices – all real-world issues that are part of the process of off-shore manufacturing.

John Mulry, founder of Rescue Facts in Central Point, Oregon, www.rescuefacts.com is such a budding entrepreneur. John – a retired EMT– saw a need for a way to quickly provide emergency personnel with critical personal and medical information about the victims of automobile accidents. This basic concept led him to develop the Rescue Facts product – an inexpensive nylon wrap that secures around your seatbelt with Velcro. An embroidered universal medical symbol alerts EMS and Police that there is important health information inside.

Initial prototypes were well-received by potential customers and large scale buyers. His business was off and running. Their first production run was handled by a Southern California agent who got their product made in China , but at a price that left quite a bit of room for improvement. Working with me, John was introduced to one of my subcontractors, specializing in U.S./China business facilitation. He provides U.S. companies with a bi-lingual, bi-cultural, time-convenient channel of communication to sources of manufacturing in China through their partner in Guangzhou, which specializes in sourcing and facilitating all manner of manufacturing in China from low-tech to high-tech.

For Mulry, it was a perfect match. Not only was he able to shave a large percentage off his wholesale price, but he ended up with a much better product. From beginning to end, getting things made (and made right) overseas is all about communication. We first took John’s basic product description and drew up a detailed product specification that served as the foundation for the manufacturer to quote against. It assures that both sides understand what is expected – particularly when there are language and cultural issues involved.

Then we worked with both parties to write up a well-structured statement of work and quote. Once their order was placed, Rescue Facts had the opportunity to sign off on samples of every aspect of their production including materials, workmanship, printing and packaging and packing. Together, we work out the details of the process and troubleshoot the problems in both worlds so my clients don’t have to.

What can happen along the way? Lots of things. Most problems arise from simple mis-communication over details that are exacerbated by language, metric conversions, and a lack of technical understanding on the part of the entrepreneur.
First-time inventor/entrepreneurs often don’t understand the manufacturing process and what goes into mass-producing their product. The value-added of a subcontractor is that we not only address the East/West business issues, but also helps bridge the tech/non-tech gap between my clients and the Chinese manufacturers. This really can’t be done effectively by e-mail alone.

For Rescue Facts, the key to quality was both in the production process and in the shipping. Their first batch of products from their original Chinese manufacturer was basically okay, but the packages were unsellable. The product packages were packed improperly allowing them to be damaged in shipping. Mulry was disappointed with that first production run. But now that he is working with me - in English and during normal business hours – everything’s worked out fine. Everything looks good for this new international small business venture.

Are Big Retainers Really Necessary?

I've been quite taken with the breathtaking ability of large Ad and PR agencies to demand up-front retainers that look at lot like a King's ransom. Now what we do is front-loaded to be sure, but I've been getting the feeling that a lot of the fancy retainers being paid in the market today are more about what the client will bear than the delivery of actual value. Ya think?

So Midtown Marketing Group is working on a new model, that we will be announcing more formally in the near future. I wanted my blog readers to know it was coming. It seems to our group like a change in business-as-usual is in order, given the new economic realities. Cost-cutting and efficiency are now mandates, and at MMG, we get the message.

Look for an announcement next week detailing the specifics. If you're tired of big retainers and questionable value propositions, stay tuned.

Tina