The bo staff in Business?

The bo staff is usually made of hard wood, such as red or white oak, although bamboo has been used. The bō may be tapered in that it can be thicker in the center then at the ends. The average size of a bō is around 6ft but they can be a long as 9ft. The earliest form of the bow staff, has been used throughout Asia since the beginning of recorded history. No kidding since it started out as a walking stick carried by travelers and monks!

We all read the newspapers, watch TV or listen to the radio. But like the simple walking stick we never give it much thought. How did that news item wind up in the paper on or the radio? Simply it may have started as a news release. A simple release put out about a topic or interesting item. Something of note!

When was the last time you put out a news release? To tell the world about yourself, your business or even your website? The Internet now makes it very easy to do just that. Over the years we have used Constant Contact to build up our media database and help distribute our news releases via email. Simple but how many do the simple things to help our businesses.

Remember that 78 year old selling Singing Bears on the Internet I've spoken about before. When her website was relaunched we put out a news release. That got some coverage. Same with the Seminars we do. They have even been on the local radio stations. Clients have called and said they heard about my seminar on the radio! Now that's some nice news coverage.

So like the monks of old traveling down that road of life. Keep mindful of any thing that can be used....

Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

Referral Confidence Curve

BNI has this curve based on time in the group. It basically shows that the longer you are in a group the higher your confidence with members hence higher the number of referrals. I have been in my chapter Shore Money here at the Jersey Shore for over 9 years and I can say this is most definitely true. However most people go out of their way to sabotage their own creditability.

BNI also makes reference to treating your fellow chapter members as the Most Important Client. Yet today I have had everyone cancel meetings with me for today and tomorrow. Yes, the first thing I checked was my breath and BO! Some did not even bother to call they just sent an email. I guess my time is not worth as much as theirs. The time I set aside for these meetings is time that I can be doing billable work. So instead I did paperwork today and got on the phone to set up some more appointments for tomorrow.

The best part is that two of these that cancelled have been after me to get them into my clients. Now I ask you, can I honestly refer them in good faith to my clients? I mean honestly! Each time they cancel or reschedule a meeting don't they know they are losing creditability with me! Or don't they care?

Keep your appointments!
Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

Can the Three Section Staff help your business?

The Three-Sectional Staff, Triple Staff, Three-part Staff, Sansetsukon in Japanese, or originally Sanjiegun, is a Chinese flail weapon that consists of three wooden or metal staffs connected by metal rings or rope. Also known in Japanese as sansetsukon, the weapon is also known as a "coiling dragon staff." A more complicated version of the two section staff, the staves can be spun to gather momentum resulting in a powerful strike, or their articulation can be used to strike over or around a shield or other defensive block.

Google Alerts can be wielded like a Three Section Staff. Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include: monitoring your own publicity campaign or keeping current on a competitor or industry.

So like the Three Section Staff you can get around the shield of your competitor and find out what they are up to. That would be call Market Intelligence. Are you using Google Alerts?

Richard M.J. Jarosz on LinkedIn
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

Eskrima in Business?

Eskrima refer to a class of Filipino martial arts that emphasize weapon-based fighting with sticks, blades and improvised weapons. The teaching of the basic skills in Eskrima are traditionally simplified. With limited time to teach intricate moves, only techniques that were proven effective in battle and could easily be taught en masse were used. This allowed villagers, generally not professional soldiers, a measure of protection against other villages, as well as foreign invaders. This philosophy of simplicity is still used today and is the underlying base of eskrima.

Thank you Wikipedia but what does this have to do with business????? E-mail that's what!!! It's the one technique proven to be effective and is available to the masses not only to Internet Professionals.

The actually technique I am referring to is the use of signature files or tag lines at the end of each and every email you sent out. Yet like most of the tools (weapons) available to small business owners today, very few use it. Just today I checked my email inbox and out of 73 new messages only 21 had a signature that make sense. That's less than one third!

The great thing about setting up a signature file on your email is that once it's setup your done! It attaches itself to each out going email. If you tell it too. Some email systems allow you can also set up multiple signatures if you want to but that is complicating the issue...

Most can be as long or as short as you like. My includes a number of our websites as well as a link to my LinkedIn profile if the reader want more information about me or my business. I only use one! The one listed below:

Richard M.J. Jarosz
http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmjjarosz

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Lone Keep Internet, Inc. 732.988.4044
P.O. Box 333 richard@lonekeep.com
Bradley Beach, NJ 07720 http://www.lonekeep.com
"Profitability thru visibility!"
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Divisions include:
Towne Crier Promotions
http://www.towne-crier.com
http://towne-crier.blogspot.com

Jersey Shore Community Information Bulletin
http://www.jscib.org

Jersey Shore Guide
http://www.shoreguide.info

Jersey Shore Coupons
http://www.jerseyshorecoupons.com
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Links the misunderstanding

A client today told me that a vendor would not place a link on their site to my client's because they were told that would hurt their ranking! The vendor said that they were at the top of Google and did not want to jeopardize that.

So a big believer in the pudding as it were, off to Google we went. We searched on the vendor's main field of business and they were nowhere to be found. So we narrowed the search and included the county and then the city they were located in, still nothing. Finally we typed in the exact company name and they were third on the listing in Google. Not exactly the top in their field. I then explained possibly he should not take what the vendor tells him about the web as gospel.

Here's the real scoop. The links to your website are one of the most important factors for high search engine rankings. If you want to get high search engine rankings on Google, Yahoo and other major search engines, then your website must have many good inbound links. In addition to the sheer number of the links, the quality of the links is also important. Plain and simple!

We will talk about what makes a good inbound link at a later date.

Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

Using a Sai in Bussiness?

Another agricultural tool used as a weapon. Folklore has the Sai used to measure stalks, plant rice and even as a pitchfork to lift bales!? A strange farm tool and even a stranger weapon.

But how does this help me in businesses? Another strange tool is Twitter. A lot of people don't see the need or even how to use it. It a quirky little tool just like the Sai but in the right hands it can be deadly. True no one wants to know that you dad is on the patio (that bad commercial for some phone system or another). But if you have important things to share and build up a decent following it can be a very useful tool for your business.

Check out Lone Keep Internet on Twitter to see some examples of some useful Tweets. Also see if you competitors are using Twitter. If they are should you?

Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

Kamas in Business?

First off, what the hell is a Kama? Before being improvised as a weapon, the Kama was widely used throughout Asia to cut crops, mostly rice. It is found in many shapes and forms in Asia and is particularly common in martial arts. We use them in Tae Kwon Do and I have trained with them.

Like one of my earlier posts about Nunchucks the Kama was a tool that the farmers had handy and used to help defend themselves. Business owners have a tool at their disposal that a lot have refused to use for a number of reasons. This tool is LinkedIn. My profile can we viewed at Richard M.J. Jarosz on LinkedIn. This is a lot like a resume online. Not only are my current but all my past positions as well.

The two best parts are the Recommendations and Connections sections. I can ask for recommendations from my previous managers and associates. I even have a recommendation from my first boss! The Connections sections not only tells you how many constants you have directly connected to you but you can also search others contacts. If you are looking for someone specific in your network (up to three levels away) you can find out how you are connected and use that info to contact that person! A great tool for target marketing!

But alas just like the farmer implement unless you use it properly it just remains a farm implement and nothing more... So is your LinkedIn a tool sitting on the shelf or a weapon of mass money making potential?

Use it well grasshopper.
Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.