Orange County Advertiser is excited to welcome back guest blogger Kari Adler, owner and founder of Have a Tiki Day with more timely business advice.

Is it really 2011? Yes! And the ONLY way we should think of this New Year is how lucky we are to experience it. Each day is truly a treasure and we need to remind ourselves everyday! Don’t allow yourself to be drained by what you don’t have, or can’t do, or criticism by others. This babble will only hinder your ability to live each moment of your life with appreciation for what you DO have.

I remind you of this because of my own latest experience with negative comments directed toward me. I was recently featured in an article for the Orange County Register titled No jobs? Graduate, 23, creates something bigger . I received several positive comments, many thanks to all of you, and several negative ones. Some were downright nasty. One individual even attacked my family. I couldn’t understand why someone would write such negative things without knowing me. I felt horrible.

This brings me to my first Tiki Tip of the New Year and my own personal resolution…

Tiki Tip: Turn a Negative into a Positive

I know, I know, you’ve all heard this before. But do you actually do it? Or do you dwell on negative thoughts that drain the life
out of you. If you’re like me, you are more inclined to believe a negative comment about yourself than a positive one.

As a self-proclaimed Perfectionista, I am already hard on myself. So criticism from others is especially difficult. This is where my brother Kash Adler, writer and actor extraordinaire, stepped in. Not only is he my younger brother, he’s my go-to for calm and positive energy. Basically, my little Buddha.

Kash flat out told me to stop being silly and turn this negative into a positive. I was dwelling and making myself upset. And upset over what? Some words from anonymous bloggers.

Of course I knew these comments were false and typical jealousy, but nevertheless, hurtful. As a small business owner, I’m not used to criticism that harsh. But he said, one day, HAVE A TIKI DAY® will be bigger than you could imagine. And if I think these comments are bad now, just wait until you’re a Fortune 500 company.

I now view these comments as preparation for the future. It pushes me to work harder on my business and reinforces the fact that I’m the one in control of my thought process. We are all faced with negativity on a daily basis, but it’s up to you in how you think about it. Think positive, be positive and you‘ll be productive!

Tiki Tip: Take out the Trash!

Referring to the physical mess around you. A space full of clutter and chaos will only distract you from what you need to focus on. Whether it’s your bedroom, office or kitchen…CLEAN IT UP! I have always found a disorganized space creates disorganized thoughts. Not to mention a waste of your valuable time if you have to sort through a million papers to find what you’re looking for.

I live and work in a clutter-free zone. Shocker, Perfectionista Kari operates in an organized space. But believe me, its works. I have helped other non-perfectionist people organize their spaces and it’s been successful.

In a hurry and can’t find your keys? Or the all important Blackberry? Eliminate this stress by placing your keys & cell in the same dish every day. Organize the little things and relieve the stresses you simply don’t need. Also, don’t forget to toss those items you won’t use again. They’re taking up space that you will eventually run out of. Whether its old books, kitchen gadgets or paperwork, donate what you can and take the rest to the trash!

Tiki Tip: Don’t Predict, ANYTHING

Predicting is the absolute WORST thing you can do. You may have an idea what will happen in the next 5 minutes, hour, or day, but you can never be sure. We like to plan and predict things as we think they should be and are let down when it doesn’t happen. By doing this, you set yourself up for disappointment. STOP this right now!

Always prepare for the unexpected and you’ll be prepared for anything! Life changes in split seconds and one can never know what’s around the corner. Therefore, DON’T PREDICT!

My grandmother always said, “Man Plans and God Laughs”. So very true! Sure I make business plans and keep events in my calendar, but I don’t freak if things change. I expect plans to change. This way of thinking will allow you to handle personal and professional changes much easier. Expect the unexpected and you’ll adapt with ease.

Celebrate the New Year with Kari’s Tiki Tips for your personal and professional life.

Peace, Love &… HAVE A TIKI DAY®

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

Today, Orange County Advertiser welcomes guest blogger, Adam Zepeda from the High Five Agency.

It’s safe to say that most businesses today have a website that lets their prospective customers come to for reference, general information, products, shopping, leisure and more. It’s also likely that from having a website for your business you’ve come across the phrase Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of multiple jobs, the accumulation of ethical strategies that help to influence the outcome of search queries.

Having a website is great, but what good is a website that can’t be found. It may seem crazy to hear but not every site out there on the web is a blog or has content that is updated frequently. Many business websites are relatively static and only change when adding new product or a new service is being offered.

The problem with this kind of website is that Google begins to realize that you have not been updating pages or content thus making the realization and assumption that you may not care for your site or deem it as important as other websites being updated regularly for similar keywords. The websites that get updated regularly tend to be blog sites leaving your static business website to drown in search from opinion lead blog sites.

So how do you get your website updates indexed in Google quickly? Google Reader is a great way to get your website crawled by Google more frequently by simply including a feed url from your static website into the subscription box. This subscription requires Google to return to your site in search of updates. How often should you expect Google to come back to your site? If using Google Reader, your site will generally be visited every 24 hours by Google, in some cases more.

It’s important to know that Google Reader should not be a single determining factor in your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy but more of a means to assist your SEO and draw in some potential movement to help achieve a better ranking in the Google search.

Adam Zepeda
http://theh5agency.com

What Motivates People?
By Rick Warren

If your work involves any contact with people, whether as a construction foreman, salesman, teacher, flight attendant or a leader, or in providing a service, you must understand something about motivation to be effective. Why do people act the way they do? Throughout history great minds have suggested different answers to that question.

Sigmund Freud believed that all behavior is motivated by the desire to avoid pain and experience pleasure. In his view, pleasure-seeking is the reason anything gets done. We work because it will provide us with things that we think will provide pleasure. While it’s obvious that the desire for pleasure is a real and powerful force behind much of what we do – it doesn’t explain all behavior. Millions of people willingly forfeit physical pleasure and endure pain every day for a variety of reasons.

Alfred Adler believed that the desire for power and prestige is what motivates us. He wrote that we all need to feel good about ourselves so we seek to control the people and events around us in attempt to acquire these feelings. We look for things to do that will give us a sense of power and status. Again, this is partly true, but it doesn’t explain why so many powerful and famous achievers still feel unsatisfied.

Victor Frankl believed that it is the desire for purpose and permanence that explains why we do what we do. As a survivor of the Nazi death camps, Frankl learned firsthand that man’s search for meaning is the root of human motivation. People can live with minimal food and comforts but they cannot live without hope.

The truth is, each of these views is partly right. Human beings have a physical dimension, a psychological dimension, and a spiritual dimension. Life involves HAVING, DOING, and BEING. Our physical side desires a safe workplace and a secure income. Our psychological side wants to be valued, rather than devalued, for our work. And our spiritual side requires that there be a meaning and purpose to what we do.

Wise managers and leaders create organizations that help people experience pleasure instead of pain at the physical level, self-worth at the psychological level, and meaning and purpose at the spiritual level. When you integrate these values into your workplace extraordinary achievements are possible through ordinary people!

“Thank you God for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your work-manship is marvelous… You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe… How great to realize that You are thinking about me constantly!” Psalm 139:13-17 (Living Bible)

“This article is from Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox issue #20.
www.Pastors.com. Copyright 2001 by Rick Warren. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

Business Expo Center
Connecting you with opportunities

What: Business Expo Center Grand Opening Celebration

When: Thursday, July 29, 2010 3:30 PM

Where:
Business Expo Center
1960 Anaheim Way
Anaheim, CA 92805
949-484-4834

The long awaited Grand Opening of the Business Expo Center is finally here!

Exhibit your business or attend the event with 500 other like minded entrepreneurs with the launch of the 36,000 square foot multi-million dollar facility.

Hear from incredible speakers like Les Brown, an internationally recognized motivational speaker, author, and television personality will be one of the featured speakers at the Grand Opening Event. Also appearing is an array of celebrity and key note speakers Ron Kovach, Matthew Fox, Tara Grace Perry, Dave Espino and Chris Alexander. This powerful lineup of speakers is for local business owners and professionals, but seating is limited…RSVP here today to reserve your spot, seating is limited!

500 Attendees, 50 Exhibiting Businesses, 5 Great hours of food, fun and networking,…all free for you!

Here is a little more about the Expo Center and how it is relevant to you, the OC Business Owner, taken from their website http://www.businessexpocenter.com/?page=about

“Our facility is THE VENUE that provides a membership based, revolutionary approach to integrate opportunities and create long term solutions for personal and professional success.

Empowerment in your business and in your life is a key to your success. The Business Expo Center is a platform for Speakers, Trainers & Coaches to bring their valuable teachings to those in our community, inspiring people to bring their lives and their business to the highest level.”

Seating is limited, so reserve your spot today! http://www.businessexpocenter.com
See you there!

It is no secret that times are tough. Driving through local shopping centers, the “for lease” signs look to be contagious. But as a business owner, this is not the time to put your tail between your legs and slink away. This is the time to focus on your marketing budget and position your company for future prosperity.

In a study of U.S. recessions, McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies from 1980 to 1985. The results showed that firms that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth than those that eliminated or decreased their advertising. This increased growth not only occurred during the recession, but continued for the following three years. By 1985, sales of companies that were aggressive recession advertisers had risen 256 percent over those that didn’t keep up their advertising!

5 Tips for staying on top:

1. Maintain marketing budget making sure efforts include high value and high impact non-advertising venues such as public relations, word of mouth, and social media. Consider direct marketing which gives more immediate sales impact.

2. Market to your target audience. Spending money to sell to people to who don’t need your product is poor budgeting.

3. Keep in mind that customers will be shopping for the best deals and in tough times, price cuts offer a bigger draw than promotions.

4. Consumers want to count on the reliability, safety, durability, and performance of products so stay away from gimmicks and flowery messages. Look to empower consumers to make good choices based on value rather than price.

5. Be innovative. For example, run a competition to win advertising space on your site. You are marketing your website in a way that is free for you but valuable for others. Or add your website’s URL to the signature of each email account (personal or business) you use, so it appears on every email you send.

What it comes down to is that successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they refine and adapt them. What are you doing to adapt?

Welcome Express welcomes Guest Blogger, Mitch Devine.
Mitch creates marketing messages for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Some of his main categories of experience include automotive, fast food, health care, insurance, real estate, technology and utilities.
Mitch writes words to fit innumerable commercial media formats including Web sites, email, print, collateral, radio (including voice-overs), TV, interactive multimedia, direct mail, outdoor, and point of purchase. Everything from gas pump videos to bar coasters.

If you’ve got something to sell, Mitch can help you say it well. (Rhyming optional.)

Your brand name is usually the first impression customers will have.

Names carry a lot of connotations for various reasons, mostly because of the actions of previous people who had those same names. Notice how not many people name their kids Judas, Ahab or Adolph anymore.

When you hear the name Medusa, what comes to mind first?

Chances are, if you’re familiar with the Medusa of Greek mythology, you don’t think of beautiful hair. More likely, you think of snakes for hair. That’s why it was odd to see a hair salon named Medusa while driving around the other day.

According to myth, Medusa was a monster, one of three sister-creatures called Gorgons, who lived on a remote island. Medusa had snakes for hair and was so hideous that anyone who looked directly at her would literally turn to stone. Ovid’s version of the tale says she was a beautiful maiden until she offended the goddess Athena, who transformed her into the monster. Either way, she’s known as the ugliest thing in all of mythology. (But now fugly is the new pretty, so maybe the name makes sense for a salon.)

Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who looked at the Gorgon’s reflection in his shield to avoid being turned to stone. Perseus then used the head as a weapon before giving it to the goddess Athena, who affixed it to her shield.

So why name a hair salon after Medusa?

Granted, I’m not exactly the target audience for the hair extensions or coloring offered by Medusa, so I called the salon to find out. Unfortunately, the person who answered didn’t really know. She thought it had something to do with being near the sea. (I learned Greek mythology in fourth grade; evidently it’s no longer part of public school curriculum.)

This Medusa Salon in Huntington Beach isn’t part of a chain or franchise, but it’s not the only hair salon using the name. There are quite a few other Medusa hair salons scattered around the country. This is not meant to knock any of them. I’m sure they’re all quite capable stylists who do beautiful work.

How to get a head in business.

Just speculating here, but maybe the rationale is that you come in with unruly snake-like hair that gets tamed by the time you leave. (As long as you don’t leave without your head.)

I suppose it’s only an odd name for a beauty salon if you’re a big Greek mythology buff or Clash of the Titans nerd like me who knows the backstory.

Obviously, first impressions are important. But in the case of the Medusa Salon, playing against type by using a memorable name can also help you stand apart.

Ultimately, the name and image of your brand comes from more than just history or past associations. It’s built gradually over time through the cumulative results of your interactions with customers.

By the way, Nike was also a Greek goddess, the personification of victory, but that connotation is no longer as well-known as the footwear/apparel company.

What’s your take?

Take a look at Mitch’s other fascinating posts at http://lovehateadvertising.wordpress.com/

Are you angry, frustrated, & worried about the state of the business climate in CA? Many business owners like yourself are too busy running your own company to be active politically, yet you would like to see changes. Here are some answers:

A coalition of concerned chambers of commerce in south OC will now be a voice for you. Chambers work behind the scenes as your legislative advocate; you may not be aware of all that they do on your behalf. This group is LASOC—Legislative Alliance of Southern Orange County—founded to be a strong voice for business. Welcome Express attended the inaugural meeting of about 50 local interested parties forming this group and can confidently report back the following agenda.

Vision: The voice of and Advocate for the Southern Orange County Business Community

Mission: The Legislative Alliance of Southern Orange County LASOC will work to ensure that the collective voice of the Southern Orange County business community is heard at the County, State, and Federal levels of government.

Strategic Initiatives: To that end, LASOC will develop a strong focused agenda and implement a proactive advocacy plan to address the issues most critical to the success of the region’s businesses. These include:
Regulatory Reform
Health Care Reform
Housing & Infrastructure
Workforce Development
Stop the state from raiding local funds

Many top officials in government, legislative advocacy groups, and civic organizations on all levels have made a commitment to become involved and raise the volume of our voice in Sacramento and DC. They will not participate in political theatre; they will contact your elected officials and ‘hold their feet to the fire’ in terms of addressing your needs. You are welcome to attend the LASOC meetings. They will be held 7:30am-9:00am every 4th Friday at Saddleback College (need to confirm location.) Get involved or don’t complain; help be part of the solution. If unable to attend, visit the websites and contact your local officials.

Important & Related Links:
www.calchamber.com
www.uschamber.com
www.freeenterpriseamerica.com
www.savelocalservices.com
www.socchambers.com/advocacy/

Cinda Baxter writes in her blog, “always upward: blog” about the power of “supporting local business in small, easily consumable bites” by keeping our money local. In other words, with more businesses losing their leases every day, we can make a big difference by making a small change in our shopping habits.

We all shop. It’s a part of daily life and there is power in your shopping habits. Instead of going into neighboring cities, or even counties let’s choose to patronize those businesses in our own community.

Why?

•Keep money in our community: Significantly more money re-circulates locally when purchases are made at locally owned, rather than nationally owned businesses.
•Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy. Community businesses are going to stock their stores based upon the needs of their community. Let them know what you want and they will have the motivation to please their neighbors.
•Put your taxes to good use
•Support community groups – Our local businesses are the ones who sponsor our youth sports teams and donate to our auctions.
•Create more good jobs – there are city mottos based upon the theme of live, work, and play in the same city in which you live. Not having a commute is definitely a “plus”

This list is by no means exhaustive. What other reasons can you think of?

Now on the flip side of this concept, how can you, the Orange County Business Owner reach the patrons in your neighborhood. Welcome Express is “home plate” for new residents who are ready to touch base with their current surroundings. In addition to welcoming newcomers with a package of valuable welcome gifts from local businesses, we provide an online directory containing tools and resources – a mini yellow pages for newcomers. Take a look!

Orange County Business Owners, have you received your Census questionnaire yet? It shouldn’t be long now until you can take part in this historic event and be counted. Make your voice heard!

The U.S. Constitution requires a national census every 10 years and has been conducted each decade since 1790. It includes everyone living in the United States, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. All people, all ages, races, ethnic groups, citizens and non-citizens participate. Hundreds of thousands of temporary jobs are created across the nation.

Now, as a business owner, how does the census affect you? The data obtained by the census guides local decision makers such as your city council. It enables them to make sound decisions as to where to build new roads, hospitals, schools, etc. Robert M. Groves, Director of the United States Census Bureau, states, “Just like we can’t survive without roads and bridges, the country doesn’t function well without an updated Census to distribute funds to areas that most need them and to support community decisions about their own future.” Businesses can use census data to locate supermarkets, shopping centers, new housing, and other neighborhood services. Knowing your community will assist you in making sound decisions on how to meet the needs of your customers.

So when you receive your questionnaire, take the time to complete it in a timely fashion. Don’t worry about sharing personal information as the Census Bureau ensures that they don’t release or share information that identifies individual respondents or their households. And while important at the local level or for the local business owner, the census data also determines how many seats each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives. For more information on the U.S. Census, visit www.census.gov/2010census