10 reasons you should enter an awards program today

In no particular order…

1.     Perceived Credibility – great for new businesses and great for young people in business.

2.     Free Publicity – newspapers, magazines, even TV depending on the award that you win. Winning it means not paying for it and that further multiplies point 1 - the credibility factor .

3.     Networking opportunities – win or don’t win (there’s no losing when it comes to awards) making it to nominee or finalist status gives you opportunities for networking with other amazing people both in and judging the awards program.

4.     Become more knowledgeable about your business – submitting an entry to most business awards is time consuming yes, but can also be an amazing tool to use for your future business planning and can help you get a proper removed view of just where your business sits right now and what opportunities lay in the future.

5.     Business opportunities – point 3 – network = meet amazing people = opportunities for new business.

6.     Something to put on your website / business cards / email signature or blog about– again magnifying point 1.

7.     Ability to open up other side ventures – depending on who you network with (point 3) you’ll be amazed at the business ideas that flow when fabulous people are all around you inspiring you and brainstorming with you.

8.     It gives you clients another opportunity to validate their support in you. I always love hearing that someone I support (or an organization) is being recognized by their peers or an industry award program.

9.     Fancy outfits, fun evenings, team morale – who doesn’t like a fancy evening out and it also gives you an opportunity to treat your team.

10.    You might actually win and then everything above is magnified. 

By Anonymous with 2 comments

Antisocial media

I had to pause for a moment this week and stop our team at our residential property management agency from spamming our social media fans on facebook.

We had a couple of properties that we were super keen to get some extra interest on and we were about to start posting them to our facebook page.

Now – it’s a pretty common strategy by real estate agents – but, with the pages I “like” on facebook for real estate agencies – I’m not typically looking for a property to rent or buy and I bet most of the people liking their site aren’t either (although they may have been at some time). I want to hear about their successes, their fun stuff, their new staff, their awards and their challenges and how they’re overcoming them.

Just today I felt a super surge of pride for Paige Mycoskie whose apparel brand Aviator Nation I follow (http://www.facebook.com/AviatorNation) when she was announced as one of the best new menswear designers by GQ.

The amount of interest we garnering over at Baby Teresa (http://www.facebook.com/babyTeresaFan) about a post on our former baby models and what they look like now, or showing one of our donations overseas is a lot more than we’d get if we were just trying to “sell” another romper by posting a picture of it.

Social media blew up (as did their media coverage) when portrait photographer Sue Bryce (http://www.facebook.com/SueBrycePhotographer) focused her amazing storytelling on Jill’s story of breast cancer with “The light that shines”.

And this classic “miss-take” photo of me at Elephant Property (http://www.facebook.com/ElephantProperty) garnered more likes than almost anything we’ve ever put online (when tongue in cheek said I would submit it as part of a business awards submission if we hit a target!)

If people want to be sold to  - there’s plenty of venues in which they can have that rammed down their throat. I’ve found that people respond best to social media when it’s light, fun, informative and most of all – a conversation.

How’s your conversation going?

By Anonymous with 1 comment

Too late?

This weekend I attended the wedding of a lawyer turned video games producer and an organic chemist turned pastry chef turned food writer.

 

I’m married to a police officer who has just recently turned his attention to starting his own business and to full time architecture study.

 

My father in law was a forestry worker till his 30’s when he decided to become a doctor.

 

My newest business partner in our real estate agency started her working life in hairdressing.

 

Speaking of hairdressers, one of my closest friends now also owns her own commercial real estate agency and started in hairdressing.

 

And another close friend who I blogged about recently started as a hairdresser only to successfully open two salons, become a real estate investor and is now launching into a styling business.

 

“The difference between what you were yesterday and what you

will be tomorrow is what you do today.” - Stephen Pierce

 

I’m surrounded by examples of people that bucked their “every day” and shot for their dreams. I’m sure you are too if you just ask around.

 

What’s your dream?

And before I forget - congratulations to pharmacist turned travel writing Ben (http://www.redrucksack.com/) on his recent wedding (he met his wife while he was setting out achieving his dreams). 

By Anonymous with 5 comments

No excuses

Not feeling inspired enough: http://www.ted.com/

Not feeling like you’re learning enough: http://sethgodin.com/sg/free_stuff.asp

Not feeling happy enough: http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/

Not feeling fit enough: http://www.bodybuilding.com/guides/

The internet has made it so easy for us to get access to almost anything we want for free. Just above are links to world class speakers (free), amazing business learning materials (free), stupid but very funny pictures (free and giggle-worthy), body building and fitness workouts (free).

You know what else is free? Time. Motivation. Energy. It’s free but not always easy to make the time to learn something, to find the energy to do a workout, to find the motivation to start creating your own happiness.

We all make choices every day.

We make a choice to listen to a certain radio station in the car, when we could download a podcast that teaches us a new language instead.

We make a choice to watch the latest episode of whatever television show we find at the end of our remote or to engage in a meaningful conversation with someone who will enrich our lives.

Am I saying I never watch TV or listen to dodgy commercial radio? Of course not. But you’ll never hear me saying I don’t have time to learn. If I have an internet connection I have means, if I have 10 spare minutes I have opportunity, now all I ever need to worry about is motivation.

What’s stopping you?

By Anonymous with 3 comments