Blog Author Mellissah Smith - Page 92

Sitting on a beach in the Bahama's sipping Pina Coladas, and soaking up the glorious rays of sunshine - ipad in hand... life could not get much better. If this is working, then I am totally up for it! Thus, is the virtual world. Anyone can do anything from anywhere - with no diminishing quality constraints.

The idea of a virtual anything is often something that we look at with trepidation - HOWEVER - is this the actions of a foolish person? Harsh... I get that, but as a stickler for little or no change, I am the first to admit that I am a slow adopter of many things that end up being very good for me and definately for my business. To change a technology that we may use, would be likened to going to the dentist and having my wisdom teeth removed without gas.

You can tell when you have hit a certain age and everyone is either wanting to get married and have babies or they are deluding themselves with their own positive affirmations that they are in fact 'happy' just the way they are and wouldn't change their world for anything or anybody. The latter tends to think that by caring about someone other than themselves or making any changes to their lives would only lead to 'unhappiness' or as I like to think, 'putting themselves in a vunerable situation in which they cannot control'. Having spent the last couple of weeks with a number of single, middle-aged, childless, unmarried individuals who proclaim that by having anything different in their lives, they would have to change their lives and that is something none of them aim to do. Going out, drinking too much, partying too much and holidaying at every opportune moment seems to be key to what they think is the perfect life - of course, until they wake up one day and realise that they are all alone and they have spent too much time loving themselves to realise that there is no-one there to love them when they need it most.

Ever sat down with a group of friends from another country and felt like the odd one out? Not because you dress particularly strangely, nor due to the fact that they eat a whole different menu than what you are use to (think peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - ughhh!), but because your accent and basic language is lost in translation and you are not sure whether to keep quiet to avoid embarrassment or to power through in hope of perhaps teaching your friends a thing or two about being Australian or English or whatever you may be.

Happy New Year!

I don't know about you, but I am feeling pretty good about 2012. Sitting in the kitchen of a friend's home in Vail, I am spending literally hours trawling through websites on marketing from around the world.

With entrepreneurs surrounding me, I constantly ask them what they read online, what apps they download and what is the best marketing campaigns that they have seen. Its an interesting conversation and everyone seems to have a number of websites they love that is consistent with the others and a few have a some 'pearlers' that are untapped by the average entrepreneur that is a must-have resource.

Every year, millions of people around the globe make New Years' Resolutions.

It's that time of year again and I have to say it has come around far too quickly for my liking.

It's seems that as we get older, the faster the year goes. I remember very well when Christmas used to come around very slowly and the last weeks lead-up to Santa arriving was the slowest week of all.

Are you the Xmas Scrooge or do you bring joy to everyone around you?
Does going to work mean that you change hats and become a negative, overly opinionated, in-your-face style manager who nags your employees into being so afraid to communicate?
Do you conjure up ways to make others miserable without even knowing it?
Are you too pedantic about detail that you lose sight of the big picture?

December 7 and counting. While most of us have a jam-packed agenda for December with Christmas shopping to be done, parties, last minute things to finish at work, deals to close and family to catchup with, it seems that many small business owners get so caught up in what is going on, that they forget about what the future may hold.

2012 isn't going to be easy. It is predicted that we will see more floods, earthquakes, droughts, heat waves and cold spells as the world's weather patterns show increasing destabilisation but fortunately the world will not end as previously predicted on December 21, 2012.

Today, marketing happens in real time. Anywhere. Anytime.

While one-way communication is almost dead and buried, there seems to be an influx of 'worried' retailers out there who are scurrying to put the latest 'offer' or 'promotion' in everyone's letterboxes.