by Marcia Francois

One of the most common goals my clients tell me about is that they want more time.

If you can relate, I have good news for you – if you put just one of these tips into practice, you will save hours every week:

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If you’re on Twitter much you may have noticed others including special characters in their tweets. Here’s a list you can bookmark to copy and paste in your own tweets.
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I’d love to know more about your business. Leave me a comment – it’s an open invitation to share your products/services and your URL!

Note from Michelle: this article is a great overview of how to get started publishing your articles online!

Have you ever visited a website or blog and discovered the owner had published an article written by another business owner, along with a short biography of the author and a link to his or her website? You might have wondered how you could have someone publish an article you wrote and advertise your business like that for you.

It’s actually very easy to publish your articles on the Internet, and it’s free to do. If you’ve been sending articles out in your monthly newsletters or keeping them hidden in a folder on your computer, it might be time for you to consider publishing them on the Internet.

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The Muses Guide to Banner Ads:
Make Them, Track Them & Get Results!

19 pages packed with information on what to include on a banner ad, how to create them (including links to free software for both Mac and PC), how you can use them to market your business, and how to track them.

Plus step-by-step instruction sheets for 6 free online banner makers, and 4 downloadable graphics programs you can use to create banners. Nearly 300 banner ad backgrounds included!

Investment $19

Click here to purchase!

BIG NEWS!! We’re undergoing a renovation this week. We’ll be back in shape soon, but feel free to click around. Most of the links in the navigation bar are up and running — special reports and workshops are all available for download. Our freebies section isn’t finished yet but it will be back soon. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Muses Brainstorm while you’re here.

Running your own small business can be a bumpy road. Many small business owners go through moments were we aren’t sure we can succeed or that we are “enough” (good enough, smart enough, talented enough, etc).

Overcome the confidence crisis! Create your own positivity file. It can be a folder on your computer, a folder on your desk filled with printed papers, a special box, a bulletin board on your office wall, or whatever else you’d like to use. It’s a place where you can keep things that are positive and remind you of your value and accomplishments.

Ideas of what to include:
- Customer comments or testimonials
- Pictures of your favorite projects
- Awards, reviews, etc.
- A profit statement from your best day/month/year in business
- Comments from your colleagues
- Your own notes on projects or clients you feel you made a difference
- Accomplishment journal

If you’ve been in business for a while you probably already have many of these items and will just need to gather them.

If you need help building things to including, here are some suggestions:
- Join LinkedIn or Merchant Circle and invite your clients to leave you reviews
- Send an email to a few of your favorite clients and ask if they’d be willing to write a testimonial for you
- Look back through your project files and find the projects that you enjoyed working on, whether for your own business or in a previous employment position, and include those in your file
- Start an accomplishment journal and write down something positive you accomplished each day — small or big, doesn’t matter, anything that you were successful at will help you boost your confidence

Next time you feel that confidence slipping, allow yourself time to acknowledge the feelings, then pull out the positively file and refocus on the reasons that you have to smile and be confident.

Would you like to republish this article on your website or in your ezine? I’d be honored! Please include this at the end of it with my link:
Work at home mom extraordinaire Michelle Shaeffer publishes The Muses Brainstorm, a weekly ezine with tips to help you balance, manage, and market your home based business. If you’re ready for inspirational guidance and bright ideas sign up free at www.thesmallbusinessmuse.com.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade!

I’ve been awarded the Lemonade Award by Tammy of the ParentZone blog.

Visit Tammy’s blog for articles, healthy recipes, tips and more.

Here is how the Lemonade Award works…
1) You must link back to the person you received the award from.
2) You have to nominate 10 bloggers who are deserving of this award!

So, here are 10 blogs I nominate.

• Organising Queen – http://organisingtips.blogspot.com/
• Create a Thriving Business – http://createathrivingbusiness.com/
• The Savvy Entrepeneur – http://blog.cristinafavreau.com/
• Article Writing & Marketing Tips – http://wahm-articles.com/blog/
• Beneath the Rowan Tree – http://beneaththerowantree.blogspot.com/
• August Afternoon – http://www.augustafternoon.com/blog/
• My Happy Crazy Life – http://myhappycrazylife.com/
• Virtual Freedom 4 U – http://virtualfreedom4you.com/blog/
• My Direct Sales – http://mydirectsales.com/
• Freelance Mom’s Blog – http://freelancemom.com/blog/

Secure passwords are critical if you want to keep your website, your email, your social networking profiles, and everything else online safe.  Here are some free sites where you can generate more secure passwords:

Random.org
http://www.random.org

Password Bird
http://www.passwordbird.com/

PC Tools Password Generator
http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/