Isn’t it frustrating when you arrive at an office reception only to find that there’s no receptionist! There you stand, waiting for someone to notice you.

And some how the staff manage to beaver away while at the same time giving you glances but, infuriatingly, not making any effort to come to your rescue?
You think to yourself, should I wait, should I talk, should I….

I have worked in many busy offices in my time and the one person who seems to have the most fun and the cushiest job always seems to be the receptionist.
The problem is that when a company has a belt tightening period, then the receptionist is usually the one that bites the dust leaving a void in the reception area and some poor employee out of work and me, the poor visitor, left to her own devises. Read More

A message from Lady Val Corbett of The Hoxton Apprentice.

Yesterday’s Hoxton Professional Women’s Lunch buzzed right around Hoxton Square; you could feel the positivity in the room. Your feedback forms (we don’t ask for names to ensure frankness) glowed and my hat is now a bigger size (if I wore one). And the menu went down well: “I do NOT like bread and butter pudding … but I loved yours.”

There were a couple of gripes: not moving after the 2nd course as normal. By the time I remembered no one appeared to want to – wrong, they did.  Sorry. Next time. We are going to get special Network badges as some labels were not clear.  And the usually reliable mikes, weren’t. We will sort. Am attaching the guest list again (Select all and enlarge to readable size) as a few people said they didn’t receive it – could they please let me know who they are? We thank, once again, our speaker Anne MacCaig, chief executive Café Direct:  “Terrific, great fun, good jokes” and “restored my faith in ethical business and lifted my spirits with a laugh”.

Only a few of your comments on the lunch:
•    “Met some wonderful women who I can work with and hopefully pass business to”;
•    “Have met people who have opened doors to help me achieve my objective which wouldn’t have otherwise happened.”;
•    “I have been to many women’s networking events and this one will stand out because it was so jolly and informal and every woman I talked to was accomplished, interesting and fun.” ;
•    “You introduced me to someone who could be a real help to me! In just 10 mins or so she gave me some very useful advice and feedback. I am going to meet her over coffee. Thank you!”
•    Great place to meet and mix with dynamic women.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO LET ME KNOW HOW THE NETWORK HELPED YOU –  IT’S WHAT THE LUNCH IS ABOUT.

NOW BOOK FOR OUR NEXT LUNCH (I KNOW, YOU CAN’T DRINK A GLASS OF BUBBLY AT LUNCH TIME … GO ON, FORCE YOURSELF!)

To welcome you to this lunch will be Her Majesty the Pearly Queen of

Hoxton aka our guest speaker…

Vanessa Vallely

Head of Business Management at Aviva Investors.

Her topic: The Power of Profile – how to work that public image

Vanessa has been in banking and finance,
and finance, specialising in IT and Operations
for the past 15 years. Recently she completed
her corporate education at
Chicago Booth University with their Accelerated
Development Programme for
leaders and was also a finalist for the
Women in Banking and Finance awards
as well as the Women in the City future
leaders awards with Barclays Wealth.
Founder of the leading women’s information
website WeAreTheCity and one of the co-founders of the Citywide
diversity forum, The Network of Networks, she has been nominated
by Aviva Investors for the Financial News’ “Top 100 Rising stars” awards.
Yet a few years ago her life was very different. Learn how Vanessa
raised her own profile and the benefits she has enjoyed since because,
she says, once you know the mechanisms, you can do it too.

FIVE ITEMS FOR YOUR ATTENTION:

1.    PLEASE, JOIN THE HOXTON APPRENTICE PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S NETWORK GROUP ON LINKED-IN

2.    Do you need a reliable, cover-your-back PA who is keen on the nuts and bolts of admin and who presents well?  Please let me know.

3.    Do you know someone who wants to return to work? Find out about the iRelaunch Return to Work Conference hosted by
London Business School on 2 November 2010.  Details from Networker Kate Grussing kate@sapphirepartners.co.uk

4.    FUNNY WOMEN: stand up comedy at the Hoxton Apprentice at from 7 pm on Thursday November 11, tickets £10; bowl food £10. Please support this and bring your friends. It will be a hoot!

5.    GLAM ROCK:  Thursday November 18 at the Waldorf Hilton, Aldwych, champagne reception in their fabulous ballroom then a gourmet 4 course dinner by celebrity chef Anton Edelmann with fine wines and dance to the Rolling Clones.  Tickets £150 per person from wayne@trainingforlife.org

So you’ve got a business on the high street? Let’s say it’s a shoe shop in Hammersmith!
Trouble is that your shop is just out of the way, off the beaten track or maybe no-one knows you’re there, so how do you get people through your door?

You may be surprised to learn that a profile website that you can blog out of is one of the best ways to drive traffic online and offline to your door! I’m not talking about a normal brochure website, I mean a profile, blog website that showcases you first and your business second. You see, people buy from people!

Maybe you don’t see this…maybe you only get your laptop out a couple of times a week? But I promise you that the majority of people use the internet to find the right place to get what they need. So if you have a way of marketing yourself and your business to your local target audience then you can’t lose.

Here’s how to market your “offline” business online using your Profile/blog website!

I know what you’re thinking!
How can a blog website bring people to my shop?

You need to portray yourself as an expert, a leader, someone who can deliver the best product or service. You do this by showcasing articles, writing blog posts and generally blowing your own trumpet!

Your blog posts must contain valuable content, they should not be self serving but informative and interesting. It doesn’t matter how obscure your business is there is always something you can write that is helpful or of  interest.
Let’s see, a shoe shop…..mmmm…not easy but how about the importance of well fitting shoes or how to stop your heels from scuffing or how to clean your leather handbag…got me?
Once done, you then send these blog posts out to online forums and social networking groups that are actually from your area or are your target audience. In other words…if you sell women’s shoes in Hammersmith you target women who live or work around Hammersmith!

If your blog posts are written with valuable content and include the right key words, good blogs and articles will lead people to your blog site and will also drive organic traffic generated by the search engines. If you want them to continue on to view your main website, and who wouldn’t, then you create strong links to it in your blog website.

How do keywords help you to get seen in organic searches?
Many search engines rely on the keyword and keyword phrases of a site to put it in their results list. If your content contains a good number of keywords and keywords phrases, it may be chosen to be a part of the top listed sites in the search result pages.

But before you think of just plastering your site and articles with all the keywords and keyword phrases you can, remember that the search engine police will notice if you are trying to abuse the system and will most certainly penalise you. You must have good well written articles that incorporate the keywords and keyword phrases properly in their content.

I know it’s difficult as many of you will say that you just don’t have the time to write your own blogs and articles, but if you can find the time it is well worth the effort.

If you do it right, articles once written, can be posted across the web to drive traffic back to your website so that your business, whether it be advertising services or selling products will gain immediate exposure.

Pat Sutton is “The Web Celeb Builder” check out her website at http://www.NicheMediaMarketing.co.uk

What do you need to do to market yourself on the web so people want to engage with you?

Believe it or not, we are pack animals, we need to follow a leader in everything we do!

When someone takes on the responsibility to be a leader they are seen differently, they are seen as someone to look up to.
It doesn’t matter how hard you try, you will still see some people as larger than life. It all depends on the way they portray themselves.
You can’t help but be attracted to leaders. These people portray themselves as confident, successful and even rich.
But what you must remember is that this is only how you perceive them, it may not be how they really are.
They could look confident but could be shaking inside, they may not be successful but they act like they are, they may not be rich but perhaps they have borrowed their designer suit from a friend!

So the moral to this story is….even though you may have to beg steal or borrow to portray the right impression…the fact that you are aware of what is required means that you are on the right track.
I am not saying you should be a fraud, I am saying that you should give the right impression. How many of you have dressed up for an interview, I am sure you don’t always walk around in a suit and tie!

Remember:

It is not the amount of money you have or just the amount of knowledge you have gained it is how you portray yourself.

So here are my 6 tips that will get you on to the path of attaining “Internet Celebrity Status”.

1. Take responsibility for your well being. Do things to give yourself that personal boost. It could be losing weight, getting fit or changing your wardrobe. If you don’t love yourself, no one else will!
2. Build a website around a great profile, it could be a separate site from your business website or you could just dedicate a page to yourself but please do make sure you have a great profile and the website shows you off well. We’ve all got something we are good at or proud of…learn how to tell everyone about it using all the social media platforms!
3. Make sure that your website is optimised and marketed to drive traffic to it. You can learn how to do this in my “The Image Attraction System” e-mail course.
4. Join all the important business networking websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Spoke, Twitter and learn how to interact with the people.
5. Offer value to others, don’t give just to receive. “You can have everything in life you want if you will help enough other people get what they want.” ~ Zig Ziglar
6. Choose a role model and try to be like them…if possible get close to them!

People buy from people! You never get a second chance to make a first impression!

Pat Sutton is the founder of The Web Celeb Builder.

Marketing your business by marketing YOU! CONTACT US NOW

Do you think that your busines would benefit from you having an Internet Celebrity status?

I went from leaving a full time job in August last year to setting up my own blogging site and being Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

I have been interviewed for “The Get Inspired Project”. 365 inspirational people – one interview a day for one year!
The Get Inspired Project showcases not only what people need to be inspired but what approaches they are taking to inspire others.
I am number 141, why not have a listen? CLICK HERE

Also, you can join me where I am being interviewed by Patrick Dacre from Computerhelpers4good.net on “Women and Their Technology” A New Relationship show on BlogTalkRadio at http://tobtr.com/s/902849

At the time of this post, I have over 20,000 followers on my many Twitter accounts and am listed on over 300 lists.

Do you think that, if you had a great status on the Internet that it would help your business?

Of-course it would – it would supercharge your business wouldn’t it! Read More

The ‘desire’ portion of your profile is where you present the facts of your expertise and success; create and justify your prospect’s conviction and cause him to demand a piece of the action’ for himself.
It’s vitally necessary that you present proven facts because survey results show that at least 80% of the people reading your profile – especially those reading it for the first time – will tend to question its truthfullness. So, the more facts you can present, the more credible you will be.
As you write your profile, always remember that the more facts about “you” you present, the more products you’ll sell. Read More