Dana Kerford epitomizes the ideals of our organization – motivated, inspired and inspiring, on a mission to make change, normal in nature yet deeply unique in pursuit of a passion. She is also positive. Incredibly, unbelievably positive. This is her mission. Dana is the top of our top part-time entrepreneurs for her work in founding [...]

Social media is not going away. If you are sitting there hoping and praying you will never have to learn another thing online to run your business, sorry to burst your business bubble. You need to learn. But there is great news too. You are still not behind. And you probably never will be because [...]

Are You a Part-Time Entrepreneur (PTE)? I am. Millions are. And if you aren’t, you’ve probably thought about it. If you have a small business you are running, on fewer than 30 daytime hours a week (no… you can’t count those night owl hours)… then you ARE a PTE! Hurrah! You are in the right [...]

I’m reading a Maclean’s article right now about how Oprah can’t even always pick “walk the talk” experts. So I’m wondering, why would you think you can if Oprah can’t? If I may be so bold, I can do a better job than Oprah at this one, and I’m going to share what I know [...]

“Social networks are now the fabric of our culture,” says Karen Richards, aka @socialgrrrl, and Word of Mouth Marketing strategist at Mount Royal University, in Calgary, Canada. Karen recently spoke to our local part-time entrepreneurs about the critical importance of familiarizing with social media tools and using them to connect with champions. Social network marketing [...]

The easy answer is yes. If I want a certificate in technical writing, a weekend course isn’t going to do it. But if all I need is a basics in word processing course, why would I sign up for a four year degree? Writing for your business is the same way. Why write a book [...]

Imagine this – you are at a luncheon for your day job and someone says “so what do you do?” And you stumble over your thoughts for a few minutes trying to tell them what your day job is, but really wanting to share your passion business… your own small business. Or you are at [...]

For the do-it-yourself entrepreneur, writing can seem to be the simplest task to save money on. You speak English. You write all the time, right? When you are representing your professional brand or business, however, the rules of writing are more important than you might think. Do you believe these common writing myths? 1. Only [...]

Time to admit some truth to yourself! Writing is hard. Writing to rally your fans into responding is even harder. If you can’t write or say what you do well, the distance between stumbling over your words and money in the bank is simply a chasm you can’t cross. On one side of the chasm [...]

Have you heard of the great Canadian Marshall McLuhan? He changed the way professional communicators think about what communication entails… beyond just the images portrayed and words used to get the point across. He said the medium itself IS the message. Thought-provoking at least. Truthful at best. Perhaps you know of the recently passed Steve [...]

Quit complaining. You can choose your reactions, and you always have a choice even though sometimes the choices are not nice to make. Quit blaming. It’s time to take responsibility for your own life. Quit pretending. In the end it all comes out. Quit worrying about what others think. Do you really want to live [...]

As part-time entrepreneurs and small business owners, sometimes we just don’t have a ton of time, so every hour has gotta count. We just need to keep in touch and stay on top of it all, right? As someone who is all over the social web –for my own business and sometimes on behalf of [...]

Writing a book is not for the faint of heart. We all dream of seeing our name in print at least once in our lives. We dream about having our books made into movies, about making a quick million. Sadly, the reality of writing a book is very different. All of my clients agree that [...]

One of the systems I’ve grown to love is “Dropbox“. Price: free up to a certain file size Ease of Use: Easy Like most systems, my use of Dropbox grew out of necessity. Once in a while, and enough to be frustrating and a major hindrance to any project, an email wouldn’t get through. It [...]

Once upon a time the concept of creating “systems” sent me into instant snooze mode. That was then. This is now. Now I think systems sizzle and set the foundation for creating business success. But if you aren’t a natural at it, like me, it takes time and work to figure out what kinds of [...]

Online press release distribution is an important part of getting the word out about your business. It helps you grab the attention of journalists and bloggers, opening the door to broader exposure to your target audience. This alone can generate media coverage, improve brand awareness, and drive more high-quality traffic to your website But direct [...]