As a business owner, it's essential that you talk to people. You need to get the word out in as many ways as possible about what you do and what you offer. This might mean talking to prospective clients on the phone. It may be speaking to people at a networking event. It might even be leading an event from the stage. The list goes on and on....

Wherever you're speaking -- from casual conversations to formal presentations-- you really need to be comfortable with it. In fact, you can't really afford not to! Here's why:

• Your Financial Bottom Line It's critical for you to be able to connect with people about what you offer - even if you're a soft-spoken person. I know you've heard it before: Folks do business with people they know, like and trust -- people they feel connected to. You don't have to change your personality. But you DO have to come out from behind your computer and out of your office. Otherwise, you're leaving serious money on the table. It's that simple. Your website can't do all the talking for you.
  
• Tension Drives Them Away When you're in business and you're uncomfortable speaking, people pick up on your discomfort vibe. And they often read it wrong. Maybe your discomfort makes you a little aggressive. You're just nervous and trying to power through your fear. But you can be perceived as pushy and intrusive - sending them running in the other direction. Or maybe you appear shy and uncertain when you speak. Once again, your behavior can easily be misread. Your listener may conclude that you're uncertain about your product or how effective it is. They don't know you're just anxious about speaking up. But they've caught your uncertainty bug and don't want to engage in business with you.
• Expanding Your Reach When you're comfortable speaking, it opens up all kinds of opportunities. You can diversify your offerings to include live and virtual workshops and presentations, videos, teleseminars, training products, guesting on or hosting radio shows and events; participating in joint ventures - the list goes on.
  

All these activities massively increase your visibility and really stretch your possibilities. If you're not at ease speaking, you're going to come up with all kinds of reasons why these things aren't for you. Or you'll just hope to do them later instead of jumping on opportunities when they show up.

So do what YOU need to do to relax so you can be at ease speaking in your business - either on your own or with some outside help. It is absolutely going to open up new possibilities for you.

Article by:  Janet Hilts@EzineArticles.com

It's that time of year again - the night of New Year's Eve - when all too many sit anxiously waiting for the clock to strike twelve and the ball to drop. We celebrate the year that has just passed and the year that is coming up ahead. We reflect back on our accomplishments and our setbacks, what has gone down in history and how we are getting older. But, it doesn't last long, less than 24 hours later it is all over and we are putting pressure on ourselves with new found 'New Year's Resolutions'. An idea so many people process and vow to work on in the upcoming months.

New Year's Resolutions are great. They are a part of getting to 'someday' and they help us set up goals for ourselves. But realistically statistics have shown that only 8% of people actually succeed with their resolutions. Could it be possible that so many people are setting unrealistic goals? Or, is it the mere fact that they just don't have the will power to commit and stay dedicated to that once great idea they thought of on January 1st? The possibilities for failure could be many. But one thing is possible, if you set yourself up realistically you shouldn't be failing, so let's step back and look at what the process should be, before we start endlessly committing ourselves to unrealistic goals.

First and foremost, you need to be realistic with yourself. Why are you setting these particular New Year's Resolutions? Is it because it is something new you heard about and would like to experience, is it a transformation you would like to make within yourself, or is it a lifelong dream you've always had and have finally decided to conquer? Either way, ask yourself why you have never done it in the past - can it realistically be scheduled into the lifestyle you are living now, or are you going to have to change that too? How much time is it going to take from you? Be honest with yourself - why all of a sudden do you want to achieve this goal?

Once you are honest with yourself, and you are ready to commit, it is time to make a plan. First grab yourself a piece of paper for each New Year's Resolution you have. Then, at the top of each paper, write one of the resolutions. One at a time, answer the following questions:

Is this a permanent lifestyle change? If not, when would I like to achieve this resolution by?

Exactly how am I going to accomplish this resolution (i.e. if it is to lose weight - I will exercise three times a week for 30 minutes and cut out all junk food from my diet)?

Will this resolution affect people around me (i.e. if you decide to eat healthier, will your family be eating healthier as well or will you have to cook different meals for them)? If so, how will it affect them and what will I need to do differently?

Is my New Year's Resolution going to cost money? If so, how will I pay for the extra expenses?

What are my plans if I fall of track?

Is there someone that I can report my progress too, in order to stay focused?

What areas of my life will be affected by my resolution? What will I do to make sure everything works well together?

What else can I do to ensure I achieve my resolution?

These are just some of the questions you should be answering when you are writing down your resolution. Ensuring you are ready, you know the obstacles you have to accomplish and you have made a plan to get there - you are more likely to succeed at your New Year's Resolution. Keep in mind, that maintaining a journal with your progress, setbacks and reflections will help you learn, grow and stay focused throughout your journey.

Most people wake up on January 1st and decide they are going to change. They don't make a plan. They don't set a specific date. And they don't think about how this resolution will be implemented into their life. Today, you can be different. You can do all of this and more, by simply taking a few minutes to dedicate yourself towards your dream, you can and you should be able to make a New Year's Resolution that's right for you and succeed!

I started researching causes and cures for this condition, knowing deep down that there HAD to be a solution. My intent with this article was to publish a summary of my findings, from my personal experience. Hopefully they will be useful to you, whatever your situation with flushing.

It's safe to say that there are a range of things responsible for the tendency to flush or blush in the face and neck. They include stress, diet and poor digestion,and constant unnecessary fears. I put stress first, because continual strain on the body and mind cause a myriad of disorders. I learned that stress can weaken the digestive tract, which in turn can make you more sensitive to foods and even cause allergies. A medical doctor, specializing in facial flushing, told me that blushing is actually likened to a signal flare, telling you something is wrong in your body. And in most cases, it means your digestive system is out of whack and you are under too much stress. Upon learning this, I immediately changed my diet cutting out alcohol, gluten and dairy. I also started going toa few more massages a month, as a stress reducer.

At this point though, I'd conditioned myself to expect a facial flushing episode while public speaking. What I found was that my constant yet unnecessary fears, which by now were apart of my normal thought process, were actually inhibiting me from staying calm. I learned about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and that it's commonly used to cure social anxiety and facial flushing. I also found many accounts of people who'd had success with hypnotherapy. Both methods' main goal is to re-train the mind to disassociate from triggers that seem threatening but truly aren't. For example, when I started speaking in meetings,I would instantly become afraid that what I was saying was stupid, boring ornot relevant and that everyone was judging me. It was horrible! Choosing to try CBT and Hypnotherapy was one of the best decisions I made, as my facial flushing is almost non-existent and I never even worry about it!

If you're experiencing facial flushing during public speaking, you might want to think about making healthier diet choices, lowering your stress level, andusing Hypnotherapy.

To read more about my story about facial flushing, check out this site: Stop Blushing Now!

ArticleSource: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathleen_Timm

No matter how large or small your company is, there is likely a moment where you have wondered if outsourcing to a foreign country is a step that you should make. Particularly when it comes to virtual assistance and transcription, you will find that the services that are coming out of countries like India and Pakistan are fairly varied and at first blush, they offer an economic advantage out of using domestic workers. However, the savings that you get from doing this is likely going to be false, and upon closer inspection, this action can be detrimental in a number of ways.

First, start by looking at financial arrangement. When you outsource to a foreign country, where the first language is not English and where the operators are going to have English as a second language, you are going to be putting more money into upper level management and support. Most companies use foreign outsourcing as a replacement for the first tier of customer support and service. The problems encountered by this staff will more often be passed up to higher management and service personnel, resulting in more man hours from staff that gets paid more. In less than a year, you might have eliminated any savings that you have made from making the original decision to outsource.

Another issue is that you are going to be dealing with staff who are essentially working night shift. When you outsource to places like India, you will find that you are dealing with a staff that needs to come in late in the evening to field calls from the United States, where the day is just getting started. The people who are willing to work late at night in this fashion are not going to be at their best, and for customers who expect prompt service and clear directions, this type of service just won't cut it.

Also remember that when you outsource to a foreign country, you are going to be dealing with a disgruntled customer base. For better or worse, there are many companies that have made this decision, and their clients are displeased. The customers find that it is frustrating dealing with operatives who have English at a second language and they are going to feel that your company has taken away sorely needed domestic jobs. In the most benign form, the customer might refuse to speak with a foreign tech until he or she can find them a domestic supervisor, which will result in more time wasted for better paid staff, and in some cases, they will simply become downright abusive.

Take some time and think about what your options are going to be when it comes to outsourcing. This is far from being your only option and should be avoided at all costs. Take some time and consider how you are going to be able to service your customers well and what you can do to cut costs in a realistic and profitable way.

With gas prices sky high and everyone pressed for time, more and more professional training and skill building course work is taking place by phone and online.

Teleclasses provide audio-only, and can be difficult for visual learners. Webinars incorporate audio and visuals, making it possible to view a slide show in real-time and participate in online Q&A with other presenters and the speaker.

#1: Sell what you know

If you are in a knowledge-based or information-based business, consider Webinar Marketing as a way to connect with prospects, build relationships with customers and future-clients, increase your online visibility and grow your all-important opt-in email list. It's also a way to expand your business by making it easy to provide valuable information for people who live anywhere in the world.

#2: Increase your scalability

Service-based businesses can also use Webinar Marketing to make the shift from pay-per-project to becoming a content provider. As a service provider, your time is limited. If your income is completely linked to an hourly rate, your company will hit a ceiling based on your inability to do more work. Webinars enable you to earn money for your expertise instead of your output, making it possible to become an expert resource and multiply your earnings by simultaneously serving dozens or hundreds of people instead of one.

#3: Create relationships and sustain loyalty

Even product-based companies can benefit from Webinar Marketing by using webinars to help customers learn to demonstrate products, use advanced features or get better results from product usage. Webinars can provide helpful information that make buyers feel good about their purchase and keep them in touch with you between purchases.

#4: Create information products and multiple streams of income

Webinars also are a great way to create information products and a stream of passive income. Your webinar recording is an audio you can sell, and the transcript becomes another product. Turn the transcript into smaller articles and post them to online directories to drive traffic to your site and build your list. Combine transcripts on related subject matter to create an ebook. Offer a CD-transcript-workbook package as a multimedia home study program. The possibilities to build your professional reputation and your passive income are limited only by your imagination.

#5: Increase marketing productivity with virtual collaboration

New webinar programs like GoToMeeting.com make it affordable for small businesses to harness the online collaboration tools once only available for huge companies. That means that webinars can also be used to collaborate in real time with team members anywhere in the world. Documents or slide shows can be presented with live commentary and discussion.

Today's webinar technology is available to anyone with a reliable phone line and high speed Internet connection. Webinar software platforms range in features and price, but there are good options available starting at less than $100/month. A web audio product, like AudioAcrobat.com, is recommended for recording the audio portion of the webinar. And programs like FreeConference.com make it possible to hold phone conferences for hundreds of people for free. That means that webinars have become an affordable way to reach a global audience and establish your professional credibility in the world marketplace even for small businesses and solopreneurs. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Author:  Gail Z. Martin@EzineArticles.com

Hosting a successful webinar takes a few steps and a bit of research but once you have the basics you can easily host any number of webinars and have them be a success for both you and your business. Each year the use of webinars grows by close to 30% as technology makes this form of information presentation more appealing and easier to use. When looking into webinars consider the following things, not all hosts are the same, a consultant may be a wise investment, consider your webinar's schedule, create superior quality content, and etiquette -often forgotten but often essential.

The host you choose is vital to the success of your webinar. No matter how great your content is if you do not have the features you need or your content cannot be viewed it is not going to provide you with benefits and the results that you need. This is why it is important to research your host carefully. Things to look for are scalability, reliability, and the ability to work with a wide variety of technologies. Having the latest and greatest is great but if you cannot get your video to the people who need to see because the technology is too different your webinar may not be as successful as you may like.

Consider the benefits of a consultant. Consultants can help you to put together your webinar in a way that helps to maximize the potential of success and viability. They can help you tailor your content and presentation to make it easier to present on the web and make it more web and user friendly. They help to make the transition into using webinars easy from start to finish.

The dates and times you offer your webinar are just as important as the content provided. If you are offering your webinar to UK viewers and you set your schedule to Eastern Standard Time and set it for 4pm you may find a decided lack of viewers since this is around 9pm in the UK. The same goes for setting up a schedule with Pacific Time at 3pm this makes it 6pm in Eastern Standard Time. This is why the times and dates of your webinar are essential if you are looking to market it to individuals who would be taking it during normal business hours. If you were looking to make it available for home use you would need to consider hours outside the normal business schedule.

Content is everything in a webinar so it is important that you present information that is well researched, well organized and above all relevant to the topic being presented. You want to supply information at a speed that is going to allow retention but still allow you to get everything you want to present into the presentation.

Etiquette is something many people forget on the web. This is because the web is the world of short hand and abbreviations. However, such abbreviations should be avoided. Arrive on time to your webinar, make sure to maintain politeness such as welcome, please and thank you and as a courtesy consider supplying materials that show how to use each of the function to make it easier for people to benefit from your presentation.

With every new technology, comes groups of users who immediately want to dispense with the old. Now that webinars are becoming mainstream, I've had a few clients ask which is better to use in their business: old-fashioned direct mail, teleseminars or webinars?

Before I answer the question, let's first discuss the definition of each:

Direct Mail consists of postcards, flyers, mailings done to your prospects -- anything they receive in their mailbox.

Teleseminars are conference calls where you can have as few as two or as many as 2,000 (and more) people on a call at the same time. There's a moderator who runs the call and keeps things on track.

Teleseminars are great for solo-presentations as well as interviews where one person interviews another and a live audience listens in and asks questions.

Webinars are what I like to think of as "visual teleseminars". You are listening in on the telephone (just like a teleseminar) AND you are watching your computer screen (just like television).

The moderator in this case is taking you through a presentation -- similar to a live event slide show only you're participating from the comfort of your own home. Webinars can also be online videos or a hybrid presentation/video format.

So which is best? The teleseminar or the webinar?

The answer, as you may suspect is "it depends".

Marketing is about building a relationship with your prospects through your unique message (or Unique Selling Proposition). Tools which set you apart and make you more *real* to your prospects must be included in your business -- this is especially true for those who market themselves online or virtually.

Which builds a better connection with your audience:

1. A flyer sent in the mail?

2. A teleseminar where prospects can hear your voice?

3. A webinar where prospects can hear your voice and see you moving things around the screen?

While you may be tempted to answer "number 3" as webinars allow you to create a connection and bring your prospects into your world, the true answer is "all three".

A webinar REQUIRES more of a commitment from your prospect as they are agreeing to be at their computer at a certain date and time while a teleseminar REQUESTS prospects to be at a telephone knowing that most business owners send out recordings after the fact.

Given the increased commitment requirement AND the fact that people learn best through different media (reading, watching, listening), the ideal mix, regardless of your business, is to include all three methods in your marketing: direct mail, teleseminars and webinars.

Teleseminars and webinars are not only for online businesses. Brick and mortar/retail businesses who use them define themselves as being FAR AHEAD of their competition.

Knowing this, how can you incorporate teleseminars and webinars into your business?

Your Coaching Challenge

Review your marketing action plan and ensure you've included direct mail, teleseminars AND webinars in your lead generation activities.

My challenge is that you schedule and promote either a teleseminar or webinar for your business within the next 30 days.

Author:  Sandra Martini@EzineArticles.com

Teleseminars are telephone seminars or conferences. Webinars are seminars or conferences conducted on the internet. The following are the advantages and disadvantages of both systems:

Teleseminar Advantages - It is easy to use. Everyone seems to have access to a land line phone or cellular phone. It is inexpensive because the only equipment you need is a telephone, bridgeline and your mouth. People can listen to it while they are working, driving or at home. There are not many technical difficulties with teleseminars. You call into the bridgeline and enter the conference. This can be recorded and scheduled to play without your presence.

Teleseminar Disadvantages - There are no visuals during the teleseminar. People may be multitasking when they are listening to your teleseminar. You can provide a study guide to alleviate this problem and engage the listener.

Webinar Advantages - There are visual and audio on the webinars. This can be an asset for the participants who need to see what you are talking about. The visual can help with your sales since you can show them different examples instead of just speaking the different examples.

Webinar Disadvantages - You are constantly monitoring the amount of participants who are on your line. This can be distracting when you are conducting a live call. You have to be present starting and stopping the webinar. There are a lot of technical difficulties that can occur with webinars. You may end up with a lot of customer service complaints during the actual webinar. Participants need to be in front of a computer to get access to a webinar. This is very restrictive for people who want to just listen and do other activities while learning.

Both teleseminars and webinars are great means to create relationships with the prospects and clients. It is up to you to determine what is the best method for your topic.

Author:  LaylaTusko@EzineArticles.com

Teleseminars are taking the internet by storm. Online users simply love them because compare to articles and blog posts, they are more interactive and more interesting.

Here's how you can explode your teleseminars:

1. Talk to your target audience - Ask them what information they want you to share. Do they want you to talk about their problems? Perhaps, they want you to host a question and answer type of teleseminar. It's important that you know what they want so you can easily give it to them.

2. Research. It's your responsibility to make your teleseminars very informative and content-rich. They must offer your participants with in-depth and complete information so they can easily understand your main topic. Obtain relevant information by checking out relevant online resources and by interviewing other experts on your chosen niche.

3. Create an outline. It's easy to get lost during the call if you don't have an outline that can guide you. List down the major topics that you would like to talk about and arrange them in a logical manner. By doing this, you can be assured that you will not be able to forget crucial information and that you can make your teleseminars sound organized.

4. Send study guides. You will need to do this at least 24 hours before the big day. This can help your participants follow along visually.

5. Entertain questions. One of the major reasons why online users would like to participate on teleseminars is because they have the chance to personally ask their questions to experts like you. Give them what they want and spend at least 15 minutes on your question and answer portion.

Article Source: Sean R Mize@EzineArticles.com