Indie Business™

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I’m Speaking At Social Media Telesummit 2010!

Last year, I met Leesa Barnes, author of Podcasting for Profit. Leesa graciously accepted my invitation to be a guest on my radio show, and you can stream or download the interview with here. (Jamila White hosted that show for me while I was away speaking at a conference.) While I hope to meet Leesa…

New Johnson Family House Rules

My eight year old daughter is far more organized than I was at her age. She likes to make lists. In fact, on Friday nights, she often makes a list of all the things everyone in the house needs to do on the following Saturday. Much of the time, the lists focus on toys she…

How Blog Comment Policies Lend Credibility To Your Blog

The comments at my three blogs are always helpful, professional and polite, even when they disagree with my commentary. In fact, the only comments I reject are spam or comments that simply make no sense, usually because they are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. I am also a frequent commenter at other people’s blogs.…

How To Increase Your Product Sales And Visibility Through Site Parties

I hosted IBN’s first Site Party on Cyber Monday and had a great time doing it! The best news is that our featured Indie, Charlene Sevier, sold 11 pieces of her beautiful handmade jewelry in under 60 minutes! As you may recall from this post announcing the party, Charlene makes combines a passion for beads…

Join Me For Our First Indie Site Party!

I am pleased to announce IBN’s first online Indie Site Party on Monday, November 30 — Cyber Monday — at Noon New York time!! Our first party will be hosted at our social networking site and will feature IBN member Charlene Sevier, The Bead Dreamer, of Newport News, Virginia. Indie Site Parties are just like…

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s been three years since we moved from our hometown of Washington, DC to Charlotte, North Carolina. While we love a lot of things about Charlotte, we miss home, especially our family. After traveling all day, we finally arrived here late yesterday afternoon. Being here is such a treat. This photo was taken a few…

My 3 Blogs

I am often asked what I do. While I am involved in lots of business activities, my initial answer is always the same: I lead the Indie Beauty Network (IBN), a trade organization that provides business and advocacy services to small companies that make health, beauty and lifestyle products, and also to the companies that…

Indies On Assignment: Assignment No. 1: Beef Up Your Brand!

In the 1980’s, a popular commercial for a chain of fast food restaurants featured two elderly ladies praising the “bigness” and “fluffiness” of a hamburger bun. A third lady looks more closely and hollers, “Where’s the beef?” The circus-like music in the background reminds of us how ridiculous it is to praise a flashy hot…

Radio Show and Book Review: My Interview With Michael McLaughlin

This week’s Indie Business Radio, show features Michael McLaughlin, author of Winning the Professional Services Sale: Unconventional Strategies to Reach More Clients, Land Profitable Work, and Maintain Your Sanity. Michael is a management consultant and speaker with more than twenty years in the professional services industry. He is the founder and a principle of MindShare…

Eye Contact: Optimizing The I to Eye Connection

This is a guest post by Luci Weston of Here We Are With Luci, sharing topics and solutions to make your life better, brighter, and easier. If you would like to submit a guest post for my blog, please read the guidelines here. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook offer new ways to socialize that are simple,…

Why You Don't Have To Be Smart To Be Successful

In his new book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, Malcolm Gladwell says that psychologist Daniel Willingham conducted a set of experiments designed to test how quickly people become efficient at a task. For the experiment, he told people in Group A in what specific sequence a pattern of x’s would appear on a…

FTC To Host Workshops On "Journalism and the Internet Age"

On December 1 and 2, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hold two days of workshops on how the Internet has affected journalism. The workshops come in the wake of the release last month of the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which become effective on the first day of…

My Remarks At Indie Business Revolution: Portland

These are my prepared remarks for tonight’s event. I wish everyone reading this could be here, but since that’s not possible, I wanted to give you a flavor for what fun we are going to have and let you know that I hope to see you at a future event when I come to a…

Announcing Products Liability Insurance For Your Sweets and Confectionery Products

When I launched IBN in 2000, there was a small but growing number of people making soaps, cosmetics and other consumer products in very small quantities. With the explosion of the Internet and the availability to everyone of multiple e-commerce opportunities, micro-manufacturing in many markets has grown tremendously. Up until 2005, Illinois-based RLI Corp. provided…

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, A La Mamma Mohs

I usually don’t blog about baking, but I do love to bake. I don’t get to do it often because I’m such a busy Indie, but I like to make time for baking during the holidays because it seems to enrich my family life to do so. My kids love me for it and my…

Six Strategies For Being An Effective Media Outlet For Your Small Business

In order to be an effective media outlet for your business, you should abide by some basic journalistic principles. While the technologies that support journalistic endeavors are constantly changing, the basic tenets of good journalism have remained constant for hundreds of years. The challenge for you is to use those principles to establish the branded…

Announcing The Beauty-Fall Bath & Body Recipe Contest!

As you may know, I am the founder and CEO of the Indie Beauty Network, a trade organization representing small and independent manufacturers of cosmetics, candles, aromatherapy products, soaps, jewelry, confectionery products and other health, beauty and lifestyle accessories. My members manufacture products on a micro-scale, often by hand from scratch. In addition to manufacturers,…

Twitter List Widgets Use RSS To Help Small Business Owners Expand Their Reach

If you enjoyed my article containing 10 ways small business owners can use Twitter Lists to expand their sphere of influence and build trust and credibility, then you’ll be happy to know about this new Twitter widget creator allowing you to quickly and easily aggregate specific List content into a widget that can be displayed…

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