1- EASE OF LINKING: You can link directly from your fan page to your website.  Placing a Fan Box on your page allows website visitors to instantly become a fan.

2 - FANS APPROVE THEMSELVES: People can become Facebook fans without you having to approve them first (like they would to become a friend of your personal profile page).  This saves you time and make it easy to build your fan base.

3- UNLIMITED FANS: You can have an unlimited amount of fans.  Right now you are limited to 5000 friends on Facebook.  But you can have an unlimited amount of fans.

4- COMMUNITY: Because fans can comment on your posts, it creates a sense of community where they can share their thoughts and views.

5- INSTANT MAILING LIST:  You can instantly send an update to all fans about special offers, events, new products.

6- DAILY OUTREACH: People check Facebook everyday.  Allows you daily interactions with your readers.  And unlike email updates, you never have to worry about your message being caught in spam filters.

7- RELEVANCY and CONTROL:  Lets you keep BUSINESS communications on your Fan Page and PERSONAL updates on your PERSONAL page.  That way you don’t annoy your mother with information about your 50% off sale.  And your customers don’t have to read updates about what your kids dressed up as for Halloween.

8- MORE EXPOSURE: Fan pages are public.  All search engines and people can see it.  This dramatically increases your potential for exposure.

9 - KEEPS YOU FROM BEING DROPPED FROM FACEBOOK: Facebook Terms of Service state that they will disable your personal account if you use it for business purposes.  “All personal site features, such as friending and messaging, are also for personal use only and may not be used for professional promotion. . . . Using personal site features for professional promotion, or creating unauthorized Pages, may result in your account being warned or disabled.”

Summary: That’s it in a wrap.  Loads of cool reasons why you should create a fan page for your business.

What other benefits you have found that you’d like to share? Share your tips here!

That’s why when I heard that my friend Patti’s son Kyle started a cleaning business I wanted to share the story with you.

Kyle is 11 years old and in the 6th grade.  He started a new business called Kyle’s Cleanery.  When I asked Kyle what gave him the idea to start the business he said, “He got money for doing chores and thought he could do something extra and he likes earning money.”

The idea came to Kyle when his family was riding in the car and his sister Heather asked their mom about getting a job.  Kyle asked if he could get a job to earn his own money too.  His mom said that he was too young to work. So that is when Kyle decided to start his OWN business.

When I asked why he decided to start a cleaning business, Kyle said “I clean really well and I love walking dogs”

He came up with the name, Kyle’s Cleanery by himself.  His mom says that  “As soon as he thought of the name it stuck.”

Kyle priced his cleaning services at  $1 for dog walking, $2 for washing small cars, $3 for washing big cars, and $2 for raking the leaves. He has plans to expand to snow shoveling in the winter season.

To market his new business, Kyle gave out flyers.  He hand designed the flyers with pen and paper and photo copied them.  Then he walked around the neighborhood passing them out.

So far business is good! In his first week he earned $35 total and has 4 customers. His goal is to save enough money to get a WII or some baseball cards.

What Kyle likes most about having his own business is that he likes being his own boss and doing things himself.   He performs his cleaning services after school and rarely on weekends because then he is at his dads or playing baseball.

Congrats Kyle! Your story is truly an inspiration to kids (and moms) everywhere! I am proud of you!

Today I ran off to IHOP to plan business over some pancakes.  One exciting thing for me is that my web design business (Brandingonthenet.com) has merged with a local Chicago wedding photographer business Imagine Photography (photographybyimagine.com).  Just so happens that not only is it a great business connection because our businesses are so related, but it’s been a LOVE connection too.  Very cool stuff.

So we sat down and looked at our revenue streams and how they tie in and could work together and different things we could do to promote each business and leverage our marketing efforts.

My next step is to put it in writing in a 3 ring binder book we can reference.  One for our big picture vision and how our entities intertwine.  There is another sheet for every project we wanted to tackle with specific to do items.  Then we created a separate sheet for each marketing vehicle and to do items for that.

To implement this, we are implementing a “power hour” where every day we set aside 1 hour to do marketing activities.  When I used to do this in my network marketing business it grew like CRAZY!  So I am excited to do this again and see the results.

And then every week my new beau/business partner Rick and I will meet, discuss progress, choose next steps for the week.  It’s great that we can help each other stay focused and excited.

Do you set regular time aside to PLAN for your business? Head to Starbucks or Panera.  Or if you have tiny kids take them to McDonalds and let them play at the playland while you plan out your business future.

Happy planning! Here’s to focused efforts to get amazing results in your business.  A little planning goes a LONG way!

So I have been on a mission to find a great business gift to send to my favorite clients.  This week I found something fun from a local Chicago based company (Popcorn Palace) that rocked my world.  Now popcorn has long time been a favorite treat of mine.  It’s the perfect snack to munch on while cranking away in my work at home office.

I like to know that I am sending out quality stuff.  So I ordered a sample.  When I opened the tin, I dove right in and  WOW!  After a couple bites, it was sooo hard to stop eating.  What I really like is that Popcorn Palace offers some very cool popcorn flavors gourmet varieties like White Chocolate Cinnamon, Dark Chocolate Cherry, and Cookies and Cream.  For the more “wild” at heart, they carry some outrageous candied popcorn flavors like Tangerine, Spiced Apple, and Grape.  (I know my kids would go crazy for those!) And if you wanna kick it up a notch, they offer some fun spiced popcorn varieties including Cheesy Ranch, Jalepeno, and Sour Cream and Chives.

I LOVE sharing the “popcorn love” with clients, vendors, and business associates.  What’s awesome is they will even put your logo on it. But best of all they make and ship your popcorn order fresh for you that day.  Believe me it’s freshness you can TASTE!!! MMMMMMM.

I encourage you to check out the selection of popcorn flavors and packages they offer at Popcorn Tin.  Ok, I am off to put in some of my holiday orders.  Gotta love that online ordering.

What are some of your favorite business gifts you like to give to clients for the holidays?

And WOW was I excited. “Of COURSE!” I said. Lynn Pierce is awesome. And Randy has arranged for me to give away 10 Free Tickets to Lynn’s event. Now these tickets are being sold at $997 - but Randy has given me 10 of these tickets that I can GIVE as GIFTS to my Webmomz members.

The deal is that you have to book your hotel room by tomorrow (July 7) to receive the FREE $997 value admission gift that Lynn is allowing me to pass onto you. So if you would like to go to this event - your only cost is travel and hotel.

Remember, this event is only weeks away in sunny Las Vegas at a superb and stunning hotel! And what mom wouldn’t wanna get away in Vegas with some like minded moms. Way fun! Here is a bit about the event. http://WomensBusinessEmpowermentSummit.com/index1.html

If you wanna get your free ticket email Lynn@LynnPierce.com with any questions and tell her Kristie T of Webmomz sent you!  BTW - this is not an ”affiliate” offer and the ”gift” is simply that…  an incredible opportunity to quickly move you and your business forward to the success you deserve! — Remember there are only 10 spots I can give away.

So if you are thinking about this, jump on it. These 10 spots will go like candy - really quick!

Hugs,
Kristie T

P.S. Thanks to Randy Hlavin for thinking of my Webmomz and coordinating with Lynn so I could offer you this awesome gift! You rock Randy!

Webmomz is really excited to announce our 2009 Business Grant winner.  Tracy Fletcher of A Totally Mobile Massage in Gainsville, Florida won our $500 business grant.

In addition to helping ease stress for her clients, Tracy is helping her community by serving as a mentor for pregnant teens and battered women to help them find financial independence by starting their own massage businesses.

Special thanks to RenegadeHouseCleaner.com and MomsMakingMoney.org for helping sponsor this year’s grant so we can continue the tradition of supporting the dreams of entrepreneurial moms.

Click here to learn more about this year’s business grant winner Tracy. 

http://www.webmomz.com/resources-free-business-grants-2009-winner.shtml

Join me in welcoming Tracy huge success in her new business.

Kristie T
Webmomz.com

One of my best buddies in the whole world, Mike Robbins is launching his second book today, “Be Yourself: Everyone else is already taken.”  And today this work at home dad is trying to make his book a bestseller!  And to make it even more AWESOME he is offering tons of cool bonus gifts.

I have always been a real believer in the power of authenticity.  By being more YOURSELF you have so much more personal power and stronger relationships.

Mike’s new book shows you how you can dramatically enhance and deepen the quality of your life and relationships by being more real, vulnerable, and authentic…and celebrating all of who you are!

I am excited to support Mike and the success of this new book.  I encourage you to grab a copy of this today and receive loads of free bonus products from authors like myself and Jack Canfield, Marci Shimoff, Wayne Dyer, Michael Beckwith, and many others click on www.BeYourselfBook.com 

Check Mike’s new book and let others know about it – you’ll be glad you did! 

I give it a STRONG Webmomz Two Thumbs Up!!!

Kristie T

P.S. This a pic of me visiting Mike, Michelle, and his daughter Samantha in San Francisco! They are SUCH nice people and I am such a firm believer in Mike’s work to heal the planet!

P.S.S. As of right now, his book is #901 on Amazon.com (it was at about #27,000 yesterday morning) and it is #54,476 on BarnesandNoble.com (it was at about #440,000 yesterday).  This is exciting. Woo Hoo!

Best Buy had a great special on Macs with zero percent interest for 18 months.  I decided to switch.  It was the BEST decision I ever made.  Several of my colleagues who had gotten new laptops with Vista were discusted as I was with the sick lack of performance.  Many of them had “switched” to Mac and were happy campers.

Here is a great site Tao of Mac for switchers to help you learn to find your way around a Mac.  It totally helped me survive my first few weeks of “how do I do this” insanity.

Another thing that has been really helpful is the in store Mac tutoring.  For like $99/year you can get a year’s worth of personal training to answer all your Mac questions.

I am DIGGING Mac, loving the culture, performance, and the FUN!!~

Any other switchers out there? Who else is ready to throw their Vista laptop thru the window?

Kristie

I tried and my Blackberry fits right in there too - awesome!!  This is perfect for my “networking” kit to take to events.   I can keep my phone and my business cards in one Card Cubby.  In the other one I will put the business cards I GET from others that I need to follow up with. Neat! Finally I can be organized. 

Cause I network so much I always have a big pile of business cards on the kitchen counter.  Now I can keep it in my Card Cubby and even use the neat tabs to keep them alphabetized.  I LOVE them. 

The company was started by Wendy Krepak a Commercial Real Estate Professional, Wife and Mother.  She got tired of all those coupons, credit cards, frequent shopper cards and receipts swimming around in her purse. 

I love Card Cubby it is the coolest thing ever.  I think I just might have to get one more for my purse.  I am DIGGING it. Check it out at http://www.CardCubby.com

My friend Georgie Weston is holding a teleclass just for women on Re-Claiming your calm.  If you are looking for some techniques to help you snap back into center, feel a renewed sense of peace and love - you really should check this out.  

It’s a 2 part class starting THURSDAY this week.  Reserve your seat for this stress management class here.

I definately plan on attending. Hope to see you there!

Kristie T
Feeling ZEN, PEACE, and LOVE thanks to Georgie!!!!