I am curious to know if anyone has prepared any new marketing strategies for the upcoming year. I am planning to spend the next several days while things are slow to drum up some new marketing strategies for '08 and would like to hit the ground running in January.

Best regards,
Tomesia Ingram

I am planning on e-mailing radio stations to see if I can get i/views on their shows about my business. Other than that, it's just plain applying for advertisments, etc

This is something that I need to sit down and think about to see what else can be added, but just haven't had the time. Here is what I have so far.

I plan to continue with my local networking, which includes:

- Monthly ABWA meetings
- Monthly Entrepreneur Meetups
- Weekly Coaching/Training classes (I have partnered with a Coach, I attend her classes as well as provide personal finance training to the other students)
- 2x Monthly Leaders Achieving Excellence meetings (referral/networking group)
- Monthly Chamber meetings - they have one that is for minority (which includes women) small business owners that is free

I also do quite a bit of online networking which includes, weekly chat sessions, attendance in various forums, etc.

Most of my networking is done in the evenings so I can focus on my business during the day, only my LAE meetings are during the day and they are just from 12:00-1:00.

Also, I am going to be doing a 13 week (1 night ea. week) citizen training course through our police department. My ABWA had a police offer come in to tell us about these classes which teaches us all about the police dept and what they do and then they have demonstrations where we can learn to fire a gun, drive a cop car on a driving course, self-defense, drive a "drunk" car, etc. It sounds like a lot of fun and the police officer said it is a great place to network because it is mostly local small business owners in attendance.

OK, well after writing all that out it seems like I have a pretty full plate, but I am open to more ideas.

I am promoting a new service and plan on doing mailings, press releases and advertising in media specific to my niche market. I have an advertising piece in the works for a February release and I am looking forward to attending networking events and continually getting my name out there!

I have some ideas for the VA contest that I trying to wrap my head around. I'm sure I will be posting for that in the very near future!

__________________
Doreen R. Patrick, MVA, ACS, CIVA
www.virtualbusinesspartners.net

Thanks ladies, these are some great ideas that coincide with what I have planned as well. I am really going to put my thinking cap on for the remainder of the year. I plan to make 2008 my BEST YEAR EVER!!!

Best Regards,
Tomesia Ingram

New Year's Resolution: Marketing, marketing and more marketing!!