Orange County Advertiser welcomes guest blogger, Kari Adler, founder and owner of Have a Tiki Day in Laguna Beach. She shares her tips as a young entrepreneur in Orange County.

Are you Having A Tiki Day? I am and you can to! I decided to Have A Tiki Day™ in 2009 after graduating from UC Irvine with a Criminology and Law Degree. Like many college graduates, I had no clue what I wanted to do or if I wanted to use my degree at all. And for those who know me personally, you know I’m not one to take orders, from anyone!

My solution, become an entrepreneur and create my own brand! Easy? NOT SO MUCH. I soon realized that having an idea is one thing, but actually creating a business with it was a totally different ballgame.

Many people have innovative ideas, yet don’t follow through out of fear and rejection from others. Learn to THROW THAT AWAY! Fear has no power and will only paralyze you from life. If you don’t try, you’ll never know. If I listened to those haters who said I was wasting my time and college education by creating my own industry, I wouldn’t have clients wearing HAVE A TIKI DAY™ all around the world! My clients have been from Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Japan, Singapore, Hawaii, and more! Hmmmmmm, who was right? Instead of Having A Tiki Day for the past year, I would still be in Law School wondering what if.

My strength and wisdom has brought HAVE A TIKI DAY™ to life at the Laguna Village Arts & Flowers in Laguna Beach. My following Tiki Tips are helpful tools I have learned as a 24 year-old entrepreneur building an apparel brand in Orange County.

TIKI TIP: Confidence, Confidence, Confidence

I cannot emphasize this enough. Confidence is the key to everything we do in life. If YOU don’t have confidence in yourself, no one else will either. This relates to everything from starting a business, to dating, to how we dress. Always be your genuine self because a copy can be spotted a mile away. Besides, copying is boresville, and no one likes a bore! As any entrepreneur knows, you must have the passion first before anyone else can.

True Story Last Week: My friend walked into my shop with dog hair all over his shirt. As a crazy perfectionist and lover of lint rollers, I literally lint rolled him from head to toe before he could hug me. I know I know a little obsessive. But that’s who I am and as a confident man he didn’t mind at all. Imagine a 47 year old man getting lint rolled by a 90lb. 4’11 woman. It was pretty funny.

My point is, confidence with who you are makes life a lot easier to deal with. It’s draining to worry about what other people are thinking about you, so why bother. Fear of rejection and judgment will only hinder you in life. Entrepreneurs especially MUST overcome fear. I did and I now have a trademarked brand of apparel that is worn by men, women and children all over the world!

TIKI TIP: Say Goodbye to Flappers

Everyone knows a flapper. I’ve known many and many is an understatement. A flapper is someone who flaps their mouth about anything and everything but will never actually help you. People love to make suggestions about what you can do and who you can go to and who they know to help you. Most of this chatter is exactly that, chatter! My tiki tip is to view everyone as a flapper and then see who really comes through for you.

Surround yourself with Doers, not flapper’s! If someone doesn’t return a phone call and email after they said to contact them, they’re a flapper! Don’t take it personally, just move on to the next. You don’t have time to waste mental energy on wishing and wondering why someone doesn’t respond. Who cares why because it won’t make a difference. Once you get the hang of this, it’ll be easy to let the flapper’s just flap away from you!

Stay tuned for my next blog and more Tiki Tips for your personal and professional life. I’ll keep it fun and informative with a dose of Kari’s personal perfectionism!

Grab a Tiki Tee, Tote or Tip and HAVE A TIKI DAY™!

At 10:21 a.m. on October 21, 2010, millions of Californians will Drop, Cover, and Hold On during The Great California ShakeOut, the largest earthquake drill ever! The ShakeOut is our chance to practice how to protect ourselves and to be prepared in the event of a large-magnitude earthquake on the Southern San Andreas Fault.

When considering disaster preparedness, we most commonly think about our family and our home. But now it is time to expand our thinking and consider our place of employment; the survival of our business depends on it.

“Roughly 40 to 60 percent of small businesses never reopen their doors following a disaster” according to the U.S, Small Business Administration.

So where to start? We recommend Ready OC. Ready OC is just that…Ready to help you and your OC business.

Their website offers a comprehensive guide to assist you in planning for all hazards (both man-made and natural disasters) that can impact business. It starts with making a plan to assess the situation as well as using both common sense and available resources to take care of yourself, your co-workers and your business. Effective communication with employees is the second consideration. Every employee should know where to go, who to contact and what to bring along in case of emergency. Lastly, review the steps you can take to both safeguard your company and secure your physical assets and protect your investment.

Participating at work in The ShakeOut is a great way to start your business on the road to preparedness. Right now there are 147 businesses registered in Orange County for the 2010 Great California ShakeOut, with a total of 38,103 participants. But even if your business did not register, you can still have your employees practice Drop, Cover, and Hold On as the first step in your emergency preparation.

Utilize the resources on Ready OC and don’t let your business become a statistic!

Predictions of the near future have print media continuing to lose readership and lose advertising revenue (albeit at a slower pace.) But we recently read one prediction that indicated newspapers would face increasingly fierce competition from local TV and radio. This begs the question – among newspapers, TV and radio – which media should be first in line for local ad dollars? We actually didn’t anticipate the answer would be quite so compelling. But we think you’ll agree, the answer is print. This link is to a chart of the top 10 media markets in the U.S., outlining the relative strength of local late TV news, AM drive radio and daily newspapers.

Comparing 100 percent of the possible audience for each media (actual numbers for each would be lower of course) and using national average ratings for each market; these ratings would, of course, be a little higher or lower in any given market. But as you can see – the audience that actually uses newspapers ‘to plan shopping and make purchase decisions,’ far exceeds that of TV and radio in virtually every market.

What is especially interesting is that we’re only including the major daily newspaper circulation in each market. What would the numbers look like if we included all the weeklies and various shoppers in the mix? — Source: Media Bids

As an Orange County Business Owner, consider the impact that print advertising has on the newcomer market. Home at Last (HAL) is “home plate” for OC new residents who want and need to touch base with their surroundings. Each issue is packed with information — a combination of articles, advertorials and directories focus readers on what’s important to them: City resources (local government, libraries, parks, recycling centers), malls, beaches, automotive (AAA, auto malls, DMV), points of interest (amusement centers, harbors, sports centers), home improvement, dining and other lifestyle topics are covered.

HAL Newcomer Directory and Relocation Guide is part of the Welcome Express® Welcome Package, which is assembled specifically for each newcomer and personalized with the family’s name.

Home at Last is unique — new and fresh yet still deeply rooted in the Welcome Express® brand name recognition achieved through 20 years of doing business in OC

Orange County Advertiser is pleased to offer this selection brought to you by Capstone studios, Inc.

Capstone Studios Inc. is a small marketing and design agency in Irvine, CA. They work hard so you can rest easy; knowing your goals are understood and followed through using data-backed strategies for brilliant, award-winning results.

As kids, we all had some favorite bedtime story. Maybe these stories were told while camping in the backyard, at elementary school during recess, or in our cute child-sized beds. But we all remember one.

Source: ClickZ, 5 Ways to Integrate Stories Into Your Social Media Marketing, Aug 2010

Jo-Anne Redwood, Principal
jar@capstonestudios.com

Capstone Studios, Inc.
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