A Successful CEO Meetup In Boston

I'd like to thank everyone who made yesterday's IBN Boston Area Event such a wonderful success. It's the first time I've ever been inside Maggiano's Little Italy and the experience of holding an event there has left me wanting to make up a reason to book another event with them. All the staff and management were absolutely fantastic and couldn't do enough to make us comfortable. For me, this is so important when choosing a venue.


This was our private room. There were nine of us total, and this gave us all the room we needed. The tables were set up lovely. We had nice background music that staff would turn up or down according to our desire, and whatever the hustle and bustle of their busy restaurant we had no idea that there were anyone there other than us.

Business consultant and professor, Nunzio Bruno shared his expertise on business plans and answered individual questions in ways that gave everyone at the table knowledge. Being small business owners, there were many questions and everyone gained so much from what he brought to the event.

There was plenty opportunity to get personal one to one sessions with both our guest speakers. Here we see Deb of Grace Farm Organics and guest Alfonso Santaniello, the mind behind the Creative Strategy Agency, a great marketing company here in Western Massachusetts. Deb was able to get insightful advice on Alfonso's Topic of the Day which was how to increase holiday sales as the Fall season approaches fast. Deb brought a great selection of products, including her aloe and jojoba facial cleanser.

Brenda of Bubs & Scrubs makes absolutely wonderful soaps and scrubs. I love the way her soaps are stamped with the name of her company. They look beautiful. Brenda traveled all the way from Philadelphia for the event, and it was a great pleasure to have her there to tell us her story.

This is Lisa of Wunder Budder, and I can see why she calls her company this name. She brought awesome tins of her super soft salve and other magical balms and inhalers. She kindly handed them out and we all got to take one home with us.

House Boss, Dana brought her company's products with her along with questions for Nunzio and Alfonso. Dana's packaging is lovely, and her bath salts were to die for! Here she is in the video room being interviewed by Alfonso, talking up her products. Deb, Lisa and Brenda also got their time in the video room with Alfonso and all will be spotlighted in upcoming business shows on The Businews Channel.

If ever you wondered if Indies really rock or not, let me tell you, as IBN's director in Boston, they certainly do. It was great meeting up in person with these fantastic CEO's. I loved hearing all about them and watching them shine. It was a really special day, and I'm looking forward to meeting up with these dynamic Indies again.

Friday's Food For The Fraught

This is the day of the week where I share a few of the good business articles that have been tweeted. My coffee breaks are not long enough to spend pouring through an encyclopedia of informational text. I like short and sweet. I like to read stuff that is simple, well written, and sinks in fast. I find that this stimulates the creative part of my biz brain into pondering... which in turn, causes me to explore how I can apply what I've just read to improve the health of my business.

So, go grab your cuppa and give your mind a little food for the fraught. These are my best from this past business week from folk who post on Twitter.

Enjoy your coffee break:

From: InteractMedia
Follow on Twitter: @cparizo

From: Ragan's PR Daily
Follow on Twitter: @GarveyComm

From: Uconomy: Episode 1
Follow on Twitter: @UconomyShow

Seven Wonders with Neos Creations

Who you are: Ginger Moore – wife, mother & business founder/owner/creative director
Your business name: Neos Creations™
Your website url: http://www.neoscreations.net
Blog: http://neoscreations.wordpress.com/
Twitter handle: @NeosCreations
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Neos-Creations/180473828641054 (sorry for the long url. FB assigned my personalized username to my personal profile and I can’t seem to change it to my biz page.)

We're wondering...

1) What was the first product you ever sold?
Oh that seems so long ago, I’m not sure if I can remember without looking at our records. I know it was a customized gift set order from a friend for his wife for Mother’s Day. I’m pretty sure it contained the Day-Night Moisturizer and the Under Eye Serum from our Mineral Skin Care Collection, a couple of Home Aroma Collection items. Maybe a lotion, body wash and a bath tool accessory or two.

2) What is your favorite smell?
Oh my gosh, I love the smell of my husband when he’s fresh from the shower or my son, fresh from the bath. I know. Not something I can really duplicate or market, now can I? LOL. Another is all the comforting and mouth-watering smells of Thanksgiving dinner cooking. Again, can’t duplicate that one for a product. Or can I?! When it comes to my favorite scents in products, I don’t really have one. I like so many different ones and personally, I wear whatever the mood strikes me to wear from one day to the next. Some days, I may be fun and breezy, others I may be sexy and sultry. Another day may be sweet and innocent. You just never can tell about me or what I will be on any given day until you sniff me.

3) What is your favorite line from a song?
I don’t really have one. Many songs came to mind but no one song line that I could say was “My favorite”. It could be because I don’t listen to music much in recent years or it could be because what little I do hear is usually children’s songs from Nick Jr., Noggin, Disney or another kid friendly source that is then relayed to me by my son. Either way, I’m at a loss on this question.

4) If you were something in nature, what would you NOT want to be?
There are a few. #1- A skunk. #2 – Poison oak, poison ivy, etc. #3 – Anything with a stinger. Why? Because people would avoid me at all costs. I love people and conversation too much and would be miserable.

5) What's your favorite pet's name? (Past or present)
Max, a miniature Daschund, black and tan in color. My husband surprised me with him one day a few years into our marriage, when we had been trying to have a baby for a couple of years with no success. Max quickly became a fill-in to satisfy some of that deep yearning I had for a baby. Unfortunately, we had to have him put to sleep just a few years later. Because of the long back of weenie dogs, they often have vertebrae and disk problems. Max had chronic problems with a disk that would bulge and get irritated. It finally ruptured, causing him to be paralyzed from his mid-back all the way to his tail. We just couldn’t justify the thousands of dollars for the operation that could not even be guaranteed successful that he would be well again or pain free. Failure would result in him being confined to a doggie wheel cart strapped to him at all times, so we had to make the difficult decision to have him put to sleep. I loved him too much to see him suffer and not be able to jump and play like he always had. Oh! Sorry, that was TMI wasn’t it?

6) What's the best pair of shoes you ever owned?
Oh gosh, I don’t know. I don’t spend a lot on shoes for myself. If I like them and they’re comfortable to me, I buy them if they aren’t too expensive in my opinion (and I’m Ms. Squeaky Wallet). If you’re talking literally, I’d probably have to say a pair of tennis shoes, no specific brand. Those are the only shoes I don’t bargain shop for as much. If you’re talking figuratively, the shoes I wear everyday as a wife to the greatest man God ever created, mother to an amazing little boy, and business owner of a growing business.

7) Seven words that are dear to you:
I gave this one much thought. Words are potentially tangible ideas and often take flight to give them great meaning. I’d have to say – Love, Family, Integrity, Faith, Peace, Patience, Joy and I’d like to add a couple more – Flexibility and Rest

What's The Price On Free?

Over the weekend I was looking for online for reputable websites where I could place my latest press release. Oh, how things have moved along this past few months in the world of technology. So many more places have sprung up, it's like a maze out there! Where to put my prized release? How do I know what's worthy and what isn't?

Sometimes, just that one more search is all you need for clarity and it was one of those "just once more" moments that turned up a valuable article. It's cleared a much needed pathway through the press release placement maze I had found myself in:

"Now the purpose of this article is to examine free press release sites - and more importantly - to realize that free doesn’t always mean no-cost. As a big believer of online press releases, consider me amazed, even dumbfounded when a new blog post or tweet surfaces with a BIG list of free press release sites..."

You can read the rest of the article here. There's even a small poll box where you can help the author in his research with just one click of a radio button.

I'm a happy chappie right now with my new press release. I could have made so many mistakes with the placement of it. Each and every one of them at the cost of my business.

Friday's Food For The Fraught

This is the day of the week where I share a few of the good business articles that have been tweeted. My coffee breaks are not long enough to spend pouring through an encyclopedia of informational text. I like short and sweet. I like to read stuff that is simple, well written, and sinks in fast. I find that this stimulates the creative part of my biz brain into pondering... which in turn, causes me to explore how I can apply what I've just read to improve the health of my business.

So, go grab your cuppa and give your mind a little food for the fraught. These are my best from this past business week. The first one mentions my own Manor Hall Soap Company, but it's the tips given by Nunzio (#1 thru 3), that make his article a real must read for the small business owner.

Enjoy your coffee break:

From: The Beat
Follow on Twitter: @Nunzio_Bruno

From: Indie Business Blog
Follow on Twitter: @INDIEbusiness

From: Succeeding in Small Business
Follow on Twitter: @JeanneYocum

Meet Me In Boston

If you've been following my Manor Hall Soap company you will have heard of Donna Maria Coles Johnson. She's the President and CEO of the Indie Beauty Network and I'm always talking about her. Donna Maria has been a huge inspiration to me and to many others. Leading a 7,000 member strong network of small business owners, her tireless work and research for all things business bring us together, helping to improve our daily grind.

One of the latest brainstorms from Donna Maria is splitting the U.S. up into Indie regions so that her members can get together and bring our power together locally. I have had the great honor of being named the representative for the Boston region, and I'm really excited to announce that the first meetup is going to be on Saturday, July 30th, at the Indie Business Summer Sizzle Networking Luncheon in Boston.

I recommend that if you have any kind of small business and you think you can get to Boston on July 30th, you go and get more info over at Indie Business Blog. This is a great opportunity you absolutely don't want to miss.

In addition to meeting me and Donna Maria, you'll also get the chance to make contact with two other great business minds. Speaking first is the amazing business coach, financial analyst and professor, Nunzio Bruno (catch him at his informative financial blog, Financially Digital). And speaking second will be the wonderful marketing strategist Al Santaniello, host of the awesome Businews Channel.

One of Donna Maria's favorite sayings is that "a rising tide lifts all ships". Well, Donna Maria is that tide, and she has helped lift me up, along with thousands of others. This is going to be a really great event, designed to bring real information to small business owners, and I can't wait for it. If you have a small business, a start-up business, or even just thinking about going into business for the first time, I'd really like to meet you there. You'll arrive full of the usual wonderings of what it's going to be like.... and you'll leave, knowing that your business has just turned a real corner!

What Are You Looking At?

Focus. For that you need to be able to see close up. You also need to be able to see mid range, as well as long distance. But what happens if all you can see is far ahead. Like... here's what I make, I want my own store. Or... here's my website, I'm gonna sell loads. Or even... here's my product, Oprah's gonna love it.

Yes. We've all been there. We had the dream. We made the products like there was no tomorrow. Only to find there is a tomorrow, and we're paying dearly for it today while we watch our little business stand still in a myriad of yesterdays.

Sometimes, I feel like Dorothy. I'm standing in my CEO shoes, but when I click the heels... they don't take me home. In fact, they take me anywhere but home. I've walked what feels like a million miles in these shoes, and I still don't feel comfortable in them. It's like the soles are gonna wear out before I've even broke them in. I never wanted to be a CEO. I just wanted to make soap. Then folk bought it. Oooh, that felt good. It felt even better when the same folk returned to buy more. Then they brought their friends. Thank you very much!

Then came the website... and it was like, "Where's all the traffic?" Of course, that question only came about after I'd already lived the future. Yes, here's my website... I'm gonna sell loads. I think that was my first hard lesson. It was back in 2005, and it would be two long years before I realized something that could have saved a lot of hair being torn out from my roots.

You see, there's a thing called a "Target Market", and if you don't know it... it's gonna jump up one fine day and bite you in the proverbial. It was a question I had been asked right back in the early days when I was plotting and planning my little company:

"So, what's your target market, then?"

"Target market? Whaddya mean?"

"You know... who's gonna be buying your soap? What people are you aiming at?"

"What d'ya mean, what people am I aiming at? Everyone uses soap. I'm aiming at everyone."

And as naive as that may sound, I meant it. I actually said it with a straight face. I can still feel the sense of my reply inside now as I think back to it. What a stupid thing to ask. And what's more, I told him so. Here I was trying to plan a proper business model, and there's my techy guy husband poking his nose in with what amounted to nothing other than stat-head stuff.

What did he know? He's just one of those math heads with a scientific brain. He uses flow charts, and makes maps. I know what a map is... I can pick one up from the gas station. Data analyst? So some folk need a map showing data. It's all numbers. I suppose someone's gotta do it. I hate technology. It always lets me down, crashing and wiping my work. Well, I don't need to know how a computer works, and get this if you don't get anything else... there's no room in my soap business for excel spreadsheets. Not now... not ever.

Oh, yes. That told him. I wore those CEO shoes, and how! They felt pretty good too. Well, I thought they were feeling pretty good until two years later, when I found myself puzzled at why my fantastic website wasn't taking me to Wall Street.

That's when I discovered the value of target markets. What they are... and what they do. You see, not only do you need to know what your target market is, you also need to have an understanding for how the target market behaves. Are you aiming at the right target market? I thought I was. I mean... who doesn't use soap?

So, everyone uses soap... but not all use a computer. And of those who do, not all shop on the internet. And of those who shop on the internet, not all want a smell they have never smelled. Not all internet shoppers want to buy their soap on the internet. And what's more... those who shop in stores, like to handle and hold. They like to pick up and smell first hand what they are going to invest their spending money in.

Hmm... I wasn't there yet. But I was certainly gaining a sense of what a target market was. More importantly, I was learning what my target market wasn't. And I was learning it from data. I was learning it from numbers on maps. I was learning it from excel spreadsheets.

I'm the farsighted CEO, and I'm always learning to bridge the gap between what's in front of my nose, and what's in the distance. I'm using focus. Without it, there's no middle ground in view. Unfortunately, the ability to view the vast area that is the middle ground, is what makes the difference between success and failure of any small business.

Do you feel that you're walking in molasses? Do you know your target market?