Although it can be useful for employees to use mobile phones for work, it can also cause a lot of inconvenience and expense. Business cards need two numbers. Customers don’t know which number to call, so they tend to call the cell number because they can be assured that they will reach your employee where ever they may be; even if they are sitting at their desk. There are additional cell phone bills that can get out of control and grow to be your biggest monthly expenditure. Outbound calls from cellular number lines don’t display the corporate name. The cost of long distance from mobile phones is expensive. The user now has two mail boxes to check, and wants access to their e-mails while away from the office. If you allow your staff to use their own cell phone – they will take their customers with them if they leave your company for the competition.

A number of IP phone manufacturers offer a variety of ways to integrate your smart phone with your office phone system. These solutions can range from being simple and cheap to offering very advanced integration for a considerable investment. So before you look for a solution, you should establish some criteria of what kind of integration would work best in your company. Keep in mind what you want to accomplish: features that facilitate your mobile worker’s jobs and/or keep them in touch with your office. Then discuss with the various vendors what their system can do and match the right vendor to your particular applications.

There are five essential features that most IP office phone systems can offer:

1. Forwarding of incoming calls to cell phones: this feature alleviates the need for callers to choose from multiple numbers to find an employee. Inbound calls to the desk set are routed directly to the cell phone. Most IP office phone systems today offer some form of find me/follow me and maybe managed by an easy to use GUI interface. Incoming calls maybe routed to ring desk, mobile, and home phones simultaneously or in order.
   Calls may be routed based on time of day. User may have the ability to transfer calls between their cell and their desk set with a simple key press. User can also define, based on caller line ID to forward calls to their cell or to voice mail.
2. Making outbound mobile calls through the office phone system: Calling through the company phone switch provides the company with substantial cost savings on long distance. A lot of cell phone plans only charge for outgoing calls with free inbound calls. Putting the calls thru the company phone switch can eliminate these charges thus realizing additional savings for the company. Additionally, the called party sees the company’s caller ID instead of the cell phone number.
3. Making your smart phone an extension of your IP office phone system: having handset software opens up all sorts of other possibilities as well. This soft ware provides a graphical interface to some of the most powerful features of office phone systems; such as visual voice mail, displaying on the phone’s LCD screen a list of messages that the user can listen to in any order desired. Integration with the office phone system allows users to have just one phone number and voice mail box for all their calls. It also lets them dial others in the company by extension number and transfer calls to the office from their smart phones.
4. “Presence”: Just as one is able to determine if a staff is on the phone in the office, this software will enable callers to “see” if the mobile user is able to take a call or not. This capability is made possible with s/w that provides instant messaging functions, which let employees see who is online and available to chat on an IM service. That same information such as “available” or “in a meeting” will indicate whether the mobile user is in a position to take a call.
5. “Campus” Wi-Fi integration: Today’s smart phones are dual mode cell & Wi-Fi. With an interface on your office phone system, and a resident Wi-Fi system in place, calls coming into your office phone system can be directed to your smart phone over your local Wi-Fi network. When you leave the office or campus area, you’re smart phone will seamlessly switch over to the cell phone network. This can be a very worthwhile investment that can diminish your cell phone bill by as much as a half.

It is also possible to roam through public hotspots via VPN’s securely connecting the handset to your office phone system.

The first step is to look at how your employees use their smart phones to facilitate their business. Determine which applications would benefit them the most and what the ROI is, if this can be measured. If you are looking at the Wi-Fi integration, then estimate what your cost savings would be on your cell phone bill. Often this will justify your investment and provide a compelling ROI.

Is there some part of your life that you would like to be more successful?

Wikipedia describes a new year resolution as a commitment that one makes to their personal goals, a project or to forming a habit. These resolutions involve change, usually a significant change, such as losing weight, improving health or finances. These types of changes are very difficult to make.

Many resolutions fail. Research shows that after six months, 50% of people have abandoned their resolutions and after a year, only 10% are still working to achieve their goals.

To maximize your chance of success, it is important to have the right attitude towards your resolution. You must really want to change, not just think you should.

You need to be specific regarding your resolution. What area of your life are you going to focus on changing? For example, is it your health, career, education or finances?

Select specifically what you want to change. Instead of saying you want to better your education, think in terms of eating better or losing weight.

Figure out a way that will measure your success. With regards to the health example, eating better can be measured by your cholesterol levels and losing weight can be measured by the scale.

Set goals or milestones that you can achieve. Focus on losing the first 10 pounds instead of the total number you hope to lose. Reward yourself when these steps are accomplished.

Keep track of your progress. This lets you see how far you have come in your journey.

Whether your resolutions relate to your personal or business life, the same steps can be used to make them a reality.

Suzanne is a promotional representative and writer for Loyal2U. Her passions include writing, oil painting, photography, interior decorating, traveling and many, many other activities.

One of the biggest expenses that businesses incur today is the maintenance and replacement of their electronic network equipment. Most people take the power that comes from the wall for granted. It is not realized that this power can wreak havoc on your electronic equipment. “It’s there almost all the time”. “My equipment is designed to be plugged into the wall”. “Why do I need to invest in these expensive power conditioners; won’t an inexpensive UPS from Costco do?”

A few questions that you should be asking are:

• What are the costs of replacing my equipment and computers?  
• If my operating equipment and or electronics are disrupted, damaged, or destroyed, what will be at stake?  
• Will my clients understand?  
• What is my cost of my downtime?

Equipment ages, breaks down and needs service or replacement on a regular basis. However, do you realize that a lot of this equipment failure over time is caused by uneven and unclean power? Electronics are very intolerant to power variations. In time the electronic componentry wears down and ages because it is either not getting enough power, or getting hit with power surges. These variances are known as “electrical noise”.

Problems with the power grid that cause wear on your electronic equipment:

1. Power surges: Caused by transformers, sudden power load caused by start up of heavy machinery such as elevators, faulty grounding, and much more. After a power outage, the biggest danger to equipment is the start up of power again by either the utility or your generator. This surge can be responsible for frying electronic equipment. Another obvious cause is lightening strikes.
2. Power Sags: Less visible but equally damaging are sags. If there is a large draw from the start up of a heavy piece of equipment; or just a heavy draw on the power grid, then the current diminishes. When electronic equipment doesn’t have the full current that is needed to run it, the electronic components get damaged. This is actually just as damaging as a power surge.
3. In house electrical equipment: On a day to day basis, much more electrical noise is created right in your own building by noisy electrical loads.  Switch mode power supplies, HVACs, copiers, coffee makers, power tools, vending machines, all throw noise back into the electrical system when used. Disk drives and printers use motors that often require large start up / inrush current that can cause transient power noise.
4. Complexity of chips: Semi conductor chips are more vulnerable to noise than ever. Each generation has more transistors packed into a smaller space. As transistors get smaller, the amount of electrical over stress they can tolerate gets lower. New semiconductors can now be disrupted by as little as 1/2V of electrical noise on your ground reference and only 10 V of electrical noise on your line-neutral.

Common Solutions:

1. Surge protectors: These actually provide a false sense of security. Surge suppressors do not operate until their clamp voltage is exceeded (approximately 250V or more on a 120V system). Voltage disturbances lower than that can pass right through into the equipment. They offer no protection from disruptive high-frequency noise and some will have little to no ground protection; some will actually dump your less damaging power noise to your more sensitive ground reference.  Over time, a surge suppressor can fail usually leaving the user with no indication that their equipment is unprotected. Even if the “on” light is lit - that only means that the power is on, not that the surge protector is working. 
2. UPS: Again, these are only a partial solution providing you with limited protection on their own. UPS’s can provide a backup power when the power goes down which can provide you the time necessary to properly shut off your equipment (or save whatever you’re working on your computer before you shut down). However, most common UPS are of limited life and it is all too common that it is discovered that the UPS no longer functions when the power goes out. Most UPS’s need to be tested regularly for their integrity, and too often they are not.

Our Solution:
Completely buffer your equipment from the power grid / source with an isolation transformer coupled up with the appropriate design of UPS. This will clean all dirty power before getting to your equipment. Your equipment will in turn be fed with steady, even power that will prolong the life of your equipment and maintain its integrity. By using isolation transformers to buffer the noisy power from the grid before it reaches your equipment, you can prolong the life of your equipment and keep your equipment running at its maximum efficiency.

What does Power conditioning do?
There is a lot of confusion over the meaning of power conditioning. People confuse power conditioners with other devices, such as surge suppressors, voltage regulators, spike arresters, or EMI/RFI filters. These devices are designed to treat one or a few of the symptoms of power noise. A true power conditioner will provide comprehensive protection from damaging power-line disturbances.

Four basic functions of power conditioning:

1. Reducing all electrical disturbances: Most computerized systems have some level of noise immunity built in them. The manufacturers can’t predict how effective their conditioning is because of the wide variety of system configurations their equipment may be used. In order to be effective under all circumstances, a power conditioner must reduce the worst possible electrical noise levels to levels that are harmless to semiconductors before powering your device.
2. Providing single point reference ground: Noise on the ground wire is either directly or capacitively coupled into the system’s logic ground. More than 1/2 V of noise here will be disruptive. It is crucial to provide a clean, single point, all- purpose reference ground. This is accomplished with a transformer -based power conditioner that safely and legally ties the line, neutral, and ground on the secondary at noise frequencies.
3. Preventing interaction between noise generating loads: The switching power supplies used in today’s computerized systems and peripherals can create a fair amount of electric noise. This can be a problem if you have a printer plugged into a computer next to it. The situation can be exacerbated if they are plugged into older-technology conditioners such as Ferroresonant and high isolation type power conditioners. A power conditioner must have a low-impedance output that prevents disruptive interaction between noise generating loads.
4. Providing peak current on demand: Switching power supplies that are found in today’s computerized equipment have a very high current draw during the portion of each AC cycle that they turn on. Ferroresonant and high-resolution conditioners cannot meet these peak current demands unless they are considerably oversized. Such units cost more and are less efficient, hence higher electric bills. A low-impedance conditioner will provide peak current on demand.

The investment that you make in a quality isolation transformer and UPS will ensure that you get the full life of your equipment, and that you will not experience any business disruption due to equipment failure. In addition, when you do experience a power failure, you will have adequate power back up protection to calmly handle the emergency.

Barry Calhoun & Stephen Leber

Stephen Leber provides IT consultation for businesses in Calgary at Next Digital. He may be reached at sleber@nextdigital.ca or 403-686-4357x 402 Barry Calhoun is a power quality specialist and provides solutions through his company: Pro Sense. He may be reached at barry.calhoun@prosense.ca or 403-902-0240

Goal setting is a powerful tool to use for your business as well in other aspects of your life. In order for it to work though you do need to have a plan. So take out a pen and paper and start physically charting a course. If we do not make a plan to succeed we will fail by default. Often the difference between the wildly rich and the incredibly poor is just the ability to make a plan and then to work it consistently.

1. Assess where you are now.

Before you can make plans for the future you need to really analyze where you are right now. When you look at a map there are two major points of reference. Where you are going and where you start. Once you have determined that you are ready to select the best route to get there.
So ask yourself some questions and write the answers down. There are many questions that we could ask depending on the nature of the business. What is the revenue right now? What has been working well? What has not been working? How many new prospects did I see? How many did I close? Did I get any business from my website? Has social media been working for me? How many customers do I need to have go through my location each day? Are we profitable?

Brainstorm with a colleague from your industry to think of other provocative questions to genuinely help determine your current effectiveness.

2. Look at the bigger picture.

Take your head out of the work right now and think long and hard about where you want to be in five years from now. Do you want to be in the same business? Do you want to be in the same position? Do you want to sell? Do you have a good exit strategy? Where do you want to end up in five years?

3. Strategize

Make that pen and paper work. Now you know where you are, and you know where you want to be. So there is a lot of ground to go over to get to the promised land. So what would step 1 be? And Step 2? What will you have to put in place? What will you have to give up in order to make it happen? What can you put on hold? What do you have to do more of? Who do you need to hire? Who do you need to form a strategic alliance with?
We can’t continue to do the same things over and over and expect that the results will change. They won’t. So what do you need to change? How are you going to change it? Is it all up to you, or can you enlist the help of others? Put your team together for your success.

3. Make steps along the way.

What is phase 1 of the plan? And then what is phase two? You have thought about strategies, now make a plan. Step by step map out the route to get to the ultimate goal of where you want to be in five years. Make milestones along the way, so that you know when you have arrived.

4. Build rewards into the plan.

You will lose heart and your family will desert you along the way if you don’t build some rewards in along the way. So build them into the plan. Go back through your milestones. How will you reward yourself for your success at each level? How will you reward your loved ones? How will you reward your team? Celebrate with your partners, your friends and those who support you. Love life along the way or you may arrive at your goals having lost all that is important.

5. Share your goals with someone that you trust.

It helps to talk about your goals but don’t share your awesome five year dream with people who will only see where you are right now and not believe for your victory. Don’t let a dream-stealer take your destiny away from you. Protect it from negative small minded people like you would protect your new baby from poison or wolves. But there are people you would leave your infant with for an hour while you run to the store to get more milk. Find the cheerleaders who believe in you and share your goals and your dreams with them. Find those who already are where you want to be and rub shoulders with them. Learn how to fly higher and faster by hanging out with the astronauts. Before you know it you will be on their team.

Kerry George

Kerry George the co-founder of Loyal2U. She is a published author and a professional writer with a gift for marketing and creating informational pieces on a variety of topics. She has written articles for major magazines, reviews for authors, and oversees the content publishing of several blogs and websites.

We all know we need one, we’ve all been caught fumbling when someone asks us what we do – or worse, we give the pat “I’m in real estate” kind of answer.

Well, that all ends today. We’re giving you the template to create two pitches – the first is a 10 second pitch that answers the question “What do you do?” (which is the subject of today’s post) in such a way as to get the next question “Tell me more” (which we’ll deal with on Saturday).

So, get your pens and paper out. Ready?

The 10 Second Elevator Pitch

1. Answer the questions “who” and “what”. For example:

• Who (subject): I or we – not much more choice unless you’re marketing someone else.
• What (verb): sell, guide, encourage, support, consult, teach, etc.

2. Identify your the negative emotions you’re ideal client is experiencing. For example:

• overwhelmed
• frustrated
• desperate
• struggling
• angry

3. Identify your ideal client:

• pet lovers
• small business owners
• migraine sufferers
• bad drivers
• homeowners
• real estate investors, etc

4. Name your solution:

• learn a fast and easy way to…
• create the ultimate plan to…
• discover a secret source to…
• position themselves to…
• find the time they need to…etc.

5. Identify what those ideal clients want, for example:

• More leads
• financial freedom
• pain free existence
• find honest labourers
• get the best deal
• find a perfect house in their budget, etc.

6. List 3 benefits to your client:

• get the best price
• experience a pain free life
• get out of debt fast
• retire financially free
• have a happy puppy

See how easy that is?

So, now you put it all together and play with it until it “clicks”. Here’s mine so you can get an idea of what it might look like:

I help struggling, frustrated small and home business owners create an affordable, easy to manage marketing program that enables them generate more leads, attract more clients, and make more money than they have ever made before.

Keep playing with it until it feels natural, and then memorize it so it’s always ready!

Share your Elevator pitches below! I’d love to see what you come up with.

On Saturday’s post we’ll take a closer look at part 2.

So, you think a networking group would be a really useful place to market your business.

You’ve done your research, picked a few you’re interested in visiting, and you head off.

At each meeting you exchange cards, and then go home and….wait. And….wait. And…………wait.

The phone doesn’t ring. Your email is not flooding with requests.

Your conclusion? Networking meetings don’t work.

Or maybe there’s a better way to do this!

One of the most important things you can do to make a networking meeting useful, is to show up – again and again. You become a familiar face. Conversations go deeper than just “Hi, what do you do?” You actually start making friends, building trust, and getting a reputation for hanging in there for the long haul. You refresh old relationships and keep making new ones.

Fly by nights don’t do well with networking meetings, but the person who’s willing to show up again and again will find him/herself in a position to make many important contacts and create those kinds of relationships that gain referrals over and over again.

So, before you decide one way or the other, choose a networking group (doesn’t really matter which one) and decide you’re going to be a faithful participant for at least a year. Get involved. Be open. Be faithful.

And at the end of that year, I’ll bet you find yourself with a rolodex of people who become friends, business partners, and dream clients.

Darlene Hull

Darlene Hull is the owner and founder of HotSpot Promotion, a marketing company that specializes in affordable marketing for the “little guy”. She is also the manager of the NW Chapter of CBN.

Following along from our last post, here’s how to continue with phenomenal follow-up so that it makes a huge impact on your client:

1. Paste Mackay66 Questions into your “notes” section on your contact management system
2. Connect with your contact on all the Social Media opportunities you have in common
3. Search each client online as thoroughly as possible and fill in the answer to as many of the Mackay 66 questions as possible. Make sure, at a minimum, you find out their birthday and anniversary and enter those into your calendar with a reminder that comes up 2 weeks previous to the date. If no birthday is available schedule in your contact management system to send them an “un-birthday” card 3 months from today, and an “unanniversary” card, 4 months after that. In those cards, request their actual dates if they’re willing to share (“If this card arrives on or near your birthday, I’m delighted! If it doesn’t and you’re comfortable sharing the dates, I’ll make sure that next year it’s sent on time!”) If you get the info before the card goes out, make sure you enter it into your client management system.
4. On the coffee date: Take an actual interest in their lives, and keep the conversation over coffee focused on them as much as possible. The purpose of this first meeting is to make them feel appreciated, understood, and valued. Use the fantastic tips in the book How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less to make a lasting and positive impression. At this coffee date you also want to invite them to any networking groups or events you’ll be taking part in over the next month or so.
5. After the coffee date send another thank you card as above, and put your client into the most appropriate follow up card campaign. If they mentioned any special event coming up, or something they’re working on that’s important to them schedule a follow up call to see how this went. At this point it might be useful to also send your client/prospect a quick email and invite them to be a part of your newsletter. Put the sign-up link in the email so they don’t have to look for it. If you’ve written a blog post that pertains to their industry/problem, put in a link to that, as well
6. Schedule in your calendar to follow up with them on a Face-2-Face 3 to 4 months later. If face-2 face/phone contact happens sooner for any other reason, adjust this date, so that you are making face-2-Face/phone contact at a minimum of every 3 to 4 months.
7. If, in your day-to-day reading, you find something of interest – a magazine article that talks about their industry, a family engagement, graduation notice in the paper, you hear of their promotion, etc. send a note or send the article.

I know this looks quite overwhelming at first, but I assure you, with the right tools you can automate 90% of it, and it can be amazingly affordable – a 12 month, completely personalized campaign can often be sent for the price of one very nice card – postage included. Fully automated is easy, but it’s also easily ignored (how many newsletters do you delete without reading in your daily inbox?) By augmenting your automated, online campaign with a physical, personal card, you enter into the realm of “wow” follow up, and your clients tend to eagerly open your cards (especially if you make sure the cards are directed at your client, not at yourself).

If you’re interested in discussing this further, give us a call.

Do you have a really effective follow up system you could share? I’d love to hear from you. Share it below so we can all benefit! If you want to see how my system works, email me with your mailing address!

Darlene Hull

Darlene Hull is the owner and founder of HotSpot Promotion, a marketing company that specializes in affordable marketing for the “little guy” and Phenomenal Follow-Up. She is also the manager of the NW Chapter of CBN.

So you’ve just been to a networking meeting or a trade show, and you have dozens of business cards. What do you do with them?

Follow up is a hugely important part of your business. If you’re not following up properly, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. Usually it takes 4 “no’s” to get the “yes”, and if you only have one contact with a person, you’re never going to get to that yes. It’s also very possible that the person you’re talking to will never use your services, but they may know people who will. How do you stay “top of mind” without being a total nuisance?

This is where a great follow-up system is crucial, and it’s important that it’s also “multi-touch”. Brandon Cornett, in his article How to Improve Your Client Followup says

“Go for a balance of automation and personal contact. Why? Because a program that`s 100% personal contact (phone calls, for example) will be exhausting to maintain. In the other extreme, a program that`s 100% automated (like a scheduled mailing program) will be too impersonal. You have to combine the two.”

“You have the best chance of generating referrals during this first year. In the second and third years, you might choose to reduce the number of phone calls, while keeping the newsletter and auto-mailers going. “

Sound good? Well, here’s how to set one up that will knock your contact’s socks off (yeah, it’s tedious at the start, but SO worth it in the end! Hire/barter with someone to set it up for you if you can’t manage it yourself):

Before the event
1. make sure you have a good contact management system. At the very least, set up Google calendar and gmail contacts
2. Make sure you have a free day scheduled after the event to set up your contact management system with the new contacts you meet at the event
3. Using an online greeting card management system, create a few card campaigns that are likely to appeal to a general audience that are somehow related to your industry. Make sure you also have one campaign set up to touch base on key holidays – Birthday, Anniversary, and Christmas, for example

At the event

4. when you’re in conversation with someone new, as you’re talking, be looking for something to say in your follow up. As soon as it hits you, make a note of it on the back of their card. You can find something in common — a topic of interest, whether personal or professional – or listen for what they may need help with.

After the Event

5. Send a “pleased to meet you” card, refering to specific things in your initial conversation – anything you might have in common or that might “connect” the two of you. Send a personal card that is purely casual and doesn’t include sales talk. On the front of the card have a photo of the client/prospect or their business card. This makes an enormous impact! Inside the card put a small photo of yourself (I do this as part of my “signature” at the bottom of my message). This helps the client “place” you and remember you more easily. If possible, send this card the day of the event or the next day at the latest,
6. Once the card is sent, set a date in your calendar 2 weeks out to give that person a phone call and arrange a date to meet for coffee. In your calendar put a few notes regarding information you might still be looking for about this client.
7. Scan their business card and file it into physical place (folder, Rolodex, etc) and also your Smartphone (use a tool like the CamCard Business Card Reader) and then enter all the information into your contact management system.

All of this should be accomplished the day of, or the day after the event. The sooner, the better. Your memory is fresher, and so is your contact’s memory!

Tomorrow I’ll show you how to make this work for the long term.

Darlene Hull

Darlene Hull is the owner and founder of HotSpot Promotion, a marketing company that specializes in affordable marketing for the “little guy” and Phenomenal Follow-Up. She is also the manager of the NW Chapter of CBN.

You have been working really hard to get your name, your brand and your product line out there. Finally you have an opportunity to showcase what you know to a group of your peers. How do you prepare? What should you share? What is the best way to engage your audience and have them remember you?

There are so many questions running through your mind as you get ready.

Here are some tips to help you prepare to make the best presentation possible.

1. Look at the audience – From time to time as you speak look different people in the eye. Engage them and make them feel like you are speaking to them personally.
2. Move about as you talk – keep your audience intrigued with some motion. Don’t pace like a tiger but don’t stand just in one spot either. At key moments lean into them. Change your position and get close to them on key points drawing back on others.
3. Use visuals – give them something to look at. But don’t use too many visuals and don’t overload your powerpoints or other visual material with written words.
4. Use props – not everyone learns audibly or visually. Some people connect better with what you are saying if you give them something to do. Pass something around the room or get them to take notes. It is even better if you have some kind of activity for them to physically engage in.
5. Be a real person – You have a personality. Show it. Give real life examples. Bring them into your life with real stories.
6. Use laughter – People remember better if they enjoyed themselves. Mostly they remember you and how you made them feel. A positive experience is memorable. Laughter keeps them alert and in a good frame of mind preparing them for your close or compelling action at the end.
7. Relax – You want to be prepared but don’t over prepare. You want to follow some points but don’t read it off word for word. Relax. Know your subject matter and enjoy yourself. If you are having a good time they will join you in having a good time.
8. Watch your use of useless words – the more you speak you will get over this but many first time speakers use words like “uhm”, “ah”, or “like” frequently. Unfortunately the best way to overcome this is just more practice. You will also want to record yourself so you can watch for that pattern. Don’t be overcritical of yourself though. Make a note and deal with it. Knowing that you do it is half the battle.
9. Be unique – let your uniqueness show. If they wanted a Dale Carnegie course that is where they would be. You have their attention right now so use it and be the best you that you can be. Let your creativity etch you firmly into their memory.

Kerry George is a single mom of three children and the social media columnist for “Today’s Business Woman” Magazine. Kerry is an accomplished writer who has published books, articles, and how-to manuals on a variety of topics. With over 8 years of experience with email marketing and social media Kerry became the co-founder of www.loyal2U.ca email marketing. Today she is part of a team that writes and electronically delivers emails for businesses to their customer base creating loyalty to them and increasing their bottom line. She specializes in increasing the open rates and adding value in such a way that her clients customers come back again and again for repeat business.

Welcome to the CBN blog! I’m so excited that we are able to now offer this to our community!

This is a wonderful place for you to share your expertise, help other business owners, and establish your credibility.

Here’s how this works:

• You are welcome to submit an article – either one you’ve written yourself, or one from elsewhere that we have permission to publish (along with the author’s bio, etc).
• The article must be informative – no advertising of any kind is allowed in the article other than in the author’s bio. It must be on a topic that’s helpful and applicable to numerous businesses.
• The maximum length is 500 words.
• Please include a SHORT bio at the end with your name, business, and a URL to your site.
• Please make sure the article is nicely formatted, and spell-checked. Articles requiring editing will be returned.
• Feel free to include a quality photo to post with your article if you have one
• Submit your completed article to info “at” hotspotpromotion.com
• I will make sure it fits our criteria, and, if so, enter it into the cue to publish in rotation with the other articles that are coming in.

I look forward to receiving your submissions! Let’s make this blog an informative, “go-to” place for Calgary business!