Office Help To Go’s Blog

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?
1. She’s the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of ?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men’s bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We’re related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people’s moms like me.

What kind of little girl was your mom?
1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that Mom didn’t have her thinking cap on.

Who’s the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because dad’s such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What’s the difference between moms & dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home, and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power ’cause that’s who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend’s.
4. Moms have magic; they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don’t do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she’s already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Dye it. You know her hair. I’d dye it, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I’d get rid of that.
2. I’d make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Happy Mothers Day!!!

St. Brendan students give gift of hair
Locks of Love charity to receive donations from local school
February 7, 2008 05:06 PM
DANIELLE MILLEY

Olivia, Julia and Rachel might not be able to donate money to help other children, but they do have one item of their own they’re willing to part with - their hair.
Olivia Spahn-Vieira, Julia Thompson, and Rachel Reigber are three of 15 students from St. Brendan Catholic School in Scarborough who will part with nearly a foot of their hair and donate it to Locks of Love, a non-profit organization that provides hair pieces to financially disadvantaged children.

Rachel, 10, had some reservations at first. She’s never had short hair before and was nervous about cutting off 10 inches.

“I didn’t really want to do it at first but all my friends were doing it so I thought about it some more and decided I wanted to do it,” she said. “They are some people in the world who don’t have any hair and it helps them.”

Principal Dan Koenig explained the school does several fundraising and charitable activities each year.

It was Julia’s mother, Maria Thompson, who suggested the school do a hair donation this year. Koenig said he thought it was a good way to engage the parents, as well as having the students do something to help other kids.

“That was the biggest thing, that it’s children helping children,” he said. “The kids really get enthused when they’re helping other kids.”

Julia, 8, said she signed up right away. She doesn’t think she’ll miss her hair.

“Because I’ll be helping someone,” she explained.

Anyone can donate hair that hasn’t been bleached (permed or coloured is acceptable) and that is a minimum of 10 inches. Hair must be in a ponytail or braid - it takes six to 10 ponytails to make one prosthesis hair piece.

The group haircut at St. Brendan’s is scheduled to take place at the last Bruin pride assembly of the year in June. Koenig said the school sent out a letter to parents in January so children who were interested would have time to grow their hair longer, and to work up the courage to cut it all off.

He expects the list of 15 to grow between now and June 23.

The girls said they’ll be taking extra special care of their hair to make sure it is in top condition for the donation.

Olivia hopes more students will sign up, she had a message for those who might be considering it.

“There are some kids in the world who don’t have hair and you can help them by donating some of your hair because they can’t grow hair and you can always grow more,” she said.

Wow, I can’t believe the last time I wrote, I was wishing you all a Happy New Year. Time is going quicker then I like. I hope your 2008 is getting off to a good start.

The Risk of Love
by Kris Hydmore

There is a risk involved in everything
Every time you share a smile
Every time you shed a tear
You are opening yourself up to hurt.

Some people tread slowly through life,
Avoiding the closeness risk brings,
Side-stepping the things they can’t understand
Turning away from those who care too much,
Those who care stay too long,
Those who hold too tightly.

There is never an easy way to love
You can not approach it cautiously
It will not wait for you to arm yourself.
It does not care if you turn away
It is everywhere, it is everything.

Love is the greatest of all risks.
It is not reliable, it is not cautious,
It is not sympathetic
It is unprejudiced and unmerciliess.
It strikes the strongest of mind,
And brings them to their knees in one blow.

Even in the best of times, love hurts.
It hurts to need, it hurts to belong,
It hurts to be the other part of someone else,
Without either of your consent.
But, from the moment it overtakes you,
It hurts worse to be all alone.
The risk of love never depletes;
It grows stronger and more dangerous with time.
But, it’s in the total surrender of all defense,
That we, no matter weak or strong,
No matter willing or captive,
No matter what, we truly experience love.

Despite the many things love is not,
Outweighing it all are the things that love is.
Love is surrender without a loss.
It is a gift without the cost.
It consumes your every thought & desire,
Every breath you take.
It is the fire that fuels you
To do more than pass through life;
It urges you, instead, to live.
No matter the outcome, having felt love,
You will never be the same.
It may scar your heart & soul
And Leave you only memories of forever.
Or, it may cause every day of your life
To feel like there is no need for tomorrow.
But, love is worth it. It is worth the risk…
For in all of life,
Love is truly the only risk worth taking.

Sent to me by AsAManThinketh.net
For a free eBook of James Allens classic:
http://AsAManThinketh.net

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Happy New Years. May 2008 be filled with joy, wonderment, happiness, good health, love and prosperity.

All the best,

Maria Thompson



Everyday, I take my kids to school and as I walk by someone, be it a parent, teacher or child, I think to myself, What is that person’s story? What makes him/her click? What happened in their lives to bring them here? What is their turning point?

I believe there are events in people’s lives that are defining moments. For myself, there are three that stand out - the diagnose of my dad’s cancer and his subsequent death, the birth of my daughter, who almost died at birth, and the birth of my son. Although it is quite evident that these events are life changing, it is the feeling that went along with these life events that I will never forget. I remember each day of each event very vividly — the laughter, the tears, the fears, even the smells of certain things. But what is most memorable is the strength I had within me, both physically and emotionally, to go forward, especially during the events concerning my dad and the birth of my daughter. I felt like I could handle anything.

From these three events, I learned so much about myself and about life. When things frustrate me today or I feel like I can’t go forward anymore, I draw on those events and they give me strength. When things are over chaotic and the kids are just not listening, I think to myself that things could have been a whole lot different for us and miraculously, things don’t seem so chaotic anymore. I am sure there will be more defining moments for me and although they may be painful, I know I will grow from each experience.

During this very special time of year, let us all remember how important we are to each other. May you and your loved ones have a wonderful holiday and a happy and prosperous New Year.

My Best Wishes,

Maria Thompson

P.S. If you want to share your story with me, I would love to hear it.

I usually don’t mix my business and my personal life, however, I believe this to be a very worthy cause. Ten years ago, my dad was diagnosed with brain cancer and died seven months later. I’ve started a GivingPage in his memory where the funds collected are donated to the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada. The goal is to raise $10,000. If you can help, my family and I greatly appreciate it.

To donate now and to see how much has already been raised, visit the GivingPage.

Thanks in advance for your support and generosity.

Maria Thompson & Family

Every entrepreneur wants to earn more from his or her business. When you ask business owners how they plan to meet that goal, they usually talk about making their marketing better or doing more of it. But in fact, there are many ways to go about growing a business. Here are five of the best strategies for any business to consider:

1. Find a bigger market. What needs does your business fill for your customers? Can you identify another group of people with those same needs? If you can, there is a brand new market just waiting to find out about your business.

Here’s an example: a child care center started out by aiming their advertising at parents. The center was doing well, but their marketing costs were high. Then they learned that many companies wanted to provide child care for employees, but couldn’t afford to open their own center. By contracting directly with these companies to care for their employees’ children, the center was quickly filled to capacity, and dramatically decreased its marketing costs.

2. Find a richer market. If you find yourself struggling to sell to people who often can’t afford you, look for another market that can pay what you need to charge. Many companies that do business with non-profits discover that they also need to have a few corporate customers, in order to compensate for the lower prices non-profits frequently require.

The same is true when you work with individuals. If the group you most love to serve is in a low income bracket, spend some of your time marketing to a higher income group as well. And if you can charge higher fees to the group who can afford it, do so.

3. Build a back end. It costs less and takes less time to sell something new to the customers you already have. If you’re not sure what this might be, try asking your customers what else you can do for them. An acupuncturist, for example, could also sell nutritional products.

Consultants often find that clients have many other needs, once they begin working on a project. If a client needs something that you can’t provide yourself, consider subcontracting the business to someone else and taking a percentage, or collecting a fee for making a referral.

4. Change your pricing. Any marketing expert will tell you that pricing is magic, not science. When you lower prices, sales usually go up. When you raise them, costs usually go down. The “perfect” price is the one that makes you the most money, but how do you find it?

The place to start is by doing some modeling. Estimate the size of your average sale, then estimate what each sale costs you. (A good book on writing a business plan can help.) Then, play with the numbers: see what happens to your profit as you raise or lower your price and estimate how your sales volume might go up or down.

When you model, you’re just guessing, of course, but many entrepreneurs are surprised to see that lowering their prices can sometimes bring more profit. Or by combining a price increase with idea #2 above, you could potentially make more money from fewer sales.

5. Find a strategic partner. Is there a company out there who you could partner with to gain access to their market? Imagine what your earnings would be like if Dell or Gateway included your product or service as part of the package with every computer they sold.

Take a look at the leaders in your marketplace and see if there isn’t someone whose product or service is a natural companion to yours. Partnering works with small companies, too. A chiropractor and a massage therapist can share space and exchange clients. A professional organizer and a computer consultant can team up to help clients organize information.

Be creative in thinking about growth. If you run out of ideas, remember — ask your customers! They know better than anyone what else your business could be doing to serve them.

Copyright © 2007, C.J. Hayden

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now!™ Thousands of business owners and independent professionals have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at www.getclientsnow.com.

Recently, a client of mine complained, “I’m really good at what I do. I shouldn’t have to market myself.” In fact, he is quite good at his profession, but the problem is that not enough prospective clients know about him. Like many professionals, he is reluctant to talk about his accomplishments. “It feels like bragging,” he says. “Doesn’t it make me seem unprofessional?”

If thoughts like these often cross your mind, ask yourself this — who are the biggest names in your profession? In your line of work, who might be considered unquestioned experts, those with maximum credibility? Now, how did you get to know about those people’s work? Did you read an article or book they had written, hear them interviewed, learn about them on the web? Or perhaps you were told about them by others who had heard them speak or read their words.

The point is that these well-known people became well-known because they showcased themselves, usually in multiple ways. They shared stories, examples, and ideas about the work they had been doing with a wider audience than just their friends and family. You know about their work because they showed it off. And I’ll bet it never occurred to you to call them unprofessional for doing it.

Showing off your work doesn’t have to sound like, “Ta da! Aren’t I great?” It doesn’t have to contain even a hint of bragging. There are a host of very dignified and appropriate ways to let a wider audience know how good you are without ever saying so. Here are a few you might try.

1. Writing articles - Putting your expertise in writing and sharing it with publications your target audience reads is a powerful — and very professional — way to let more people know about your unique talents. Submit your articles to both print publications and web sites that serve your niche and watch your visibility grow.

2. Public speaking - Appearing as a speaker allows you to broadcast your expertise with three different audiences — the people who attend your talk, the people who are invited by the sponsoring organization but can’t attend, and the people you tell about it before and after. If standing in front of a room makes you too nervous, serve on a panel of experts instead. You’ll get to sit behind a table and speak from notes.

3. Media interviews - Being interviewed by magazines, newspapers, or on radio and television can spread the word quickly about your capabilities. Landing interviews is not that hard to do if you remember to start small. Begin by approaching easy targets like association newsletters, neighborhood newspapers, and local cable programs or talk radio.

4. Telling stories - One of the secrets to effective articles, talks, and interviews is to tell stories about your clients. When you describe their challenges and accomplishments, you reveal the value of your role in helping them without having to boast about it. You can use the same technique in a client presentation to boost your credibility without being arrogant.

5. Testimonials - Whenever you do a good job for a client, ask them to write you a simple thank you note describing what you did to make them happy. Then make their words available on your web site, brochure, or other marketing materials. Let them tell others about your value, and you won’t have to say it yourself.

6. Building a portfolio - It’s not just artists that should capture their best work to show off in a portfolio. You can collect photos, examples, and other evidence of your accomplishments and display them on your web site, in a marketing kit, or with a PowerPoint presentation. You don’t have to sell people on your abilities when they are seeing for themselves what you can do.

7. Creating products - Packaging your work into merchandise that prospective clients can take home and sample gives them a compelling way to discover your real value. Products like ebooks, white papers, and audio recordings allow you to showcase your expertise and increase your credibility. They can often be advertised more widely than your services can, giving you another avenue for getting your name known.

Pick just one of these ideas to pursue and make a plan to showcase what you can do for a wider audience. If you truly want to spend less effort on marketing yourself, start letting your prospective clients know how good you really are.

Copyright © 2007, C.J. Hayden

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now!™ Thousands of business owners and independent professionals have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at www.getclientsnow.com.

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down
by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Kent M. Keith has been an attorney, state government official, high tech park developer, university president, YMCA executive, and professional speaker. He is currently the CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership in Indiana. He wrote and published the Paradoxical Commandments in 1968, at the age of 19, while a sophomore in college. Since then the commandments have been used by millions of people, including Mother Teresa, Stephen Covey, Wayne Dyer, John C. Maxwell, and Dr. Robert Schuller. He can be reached through his website, www.paradoxicalcommandments.com

Sent to you as a courtesy of…

Your friends at AsAManThinketh.net
For a free eBook of James Allens classic:
http://www.AsAManThinketh.net

Many independent professionals believe cold calling is a complete waste of time, while others claim their cold calls produce plenty of sales. Why is there so much disagreement about the effectiveness of this approach to selling professional services?

First, let’s define the nature of cold calling. A cold call is when you call someone you don’t know and have no direct connection to. When you already know the person you are calling, or you were referred by a mutual acquaintance that person trusts, you are instead making a warm call, and different rules apply.

Here’s the cold calling debate in a nutshell. According to cold calling fans, “Cold calling, done well, can be one of the fastest and cheapest ways to get new clients.” But cold calling foes say, “There’s no point in calling people who have never expressed interest in doing business with you. It’s annoying to them and a poor use of your time.”

The truth, as with most controversies, probably lies in between these two extremes. For some professionals under certain circumstances, cold calling can make a lot of sense. For others, it’s far too labor-intensive and ultimately non-productive. Here are ten tips to help you determine if cold calling is a practice you should avoid — or adopt.

Cold calling can work when:

1. You are selling a service that people are already using or seeking. The best candidates for cold calling are services that can be described in two or three words and are immediately understood by prospects. In business-to-business marketing, services that can benefit from cold calling include graphic design, marketing communications, and IT support. When selling to consumers, successful cold callers include insurance brokers, financial planners, and real estate agents.

2. You can identify likely prospects via research or targeted leads. If you can describe your prospective clients by demographics, industry classification, or job title, you can look them up or buy a prospect list. Online phone directories display businesses by category for any geographic area. List brokers offer databases of homeowners, subscribers to investment publications, and members of certain trade associations.

3. Your name or your firm’s are already well-known in your field. Prospects are more likely to accept or return a call when they already know who you are. Being active in professional groups that serve your industry, speaking, writing, and building your web presence are all factors that can increase name recognition.

4. Your phone skills are up to the task. Effective cold calling requires getting past gatekeepers, clearly communicating benefits, and the willingness to hear people say no. The best cold callers actually enjoy being on the phone and have the ability to keep making calls despite many rejections.

5. Your pipeline is empty and you need to fill it quickly.
Whether or not cold calling is an effective use of your resources may depend on what your alternatives are. Attracting prospects through networking, referrals, speaking, writing, or web presence are approaches that require a certain amount of elapsed time to start paying off. With cold calling, you have the potential to make contact with a large number of prospects by the end of the week.

Cold calling can fail when:

1. Your clients don’t know they need you until you tell them why. When prospects aren’t already using or seeking a service like yours, it can be difficult to get their attention long enough to explain how your solution addresses their problems.
Communicating tangible benefits in a cold call can often be too steep a challenge for less-familiar services like executive coaching, leadership training, alternative healing modalities, or professional organizing.

2. You place one call per prospect with no follow-up. Calls are typically more successful when they are part of an ongoing call-mail-call campaign. When you contact your prospects multiple times by sending mail or email and calling again, you can communicate a variety of messages on more than one channel.
This increases the likelihood that at least one of your messages will provoke a positive response.

3. You have no name recognition or connection with the people you are calling. When prospects have never heard of you before, they are often reluctant to grant you even a few minutes of their time. You can get more people to take your calls when you can claim some sort of connection between you, for example: “We both know Frank Carducci,” “We belong to the same association,”
“We went to the same school,” “I read the recent article about you,” or “I saw you speak last month.”

4. You are uncomfortable or fearful about talking to strangers on the phone. The first impression you make when calling a prospect can determine their willingness to speak with you. If you are awkward or sound uneasy, your call may go nowhere. It’s true that you may get better at calling with practice. But if you dislike making these calls in the first place, you may discover that sales and marketing is more productive for you when you use approaches you find more comfortable.

5. You have a substantial list of warm prospects and referral sources you aren’t tapping. Surprisingly, some professionals find it easier to call strangers than to talk business with friends and colleagues. It seems it’s easier to face rejection from people they don’t know than to risk being turned down by an acquaintance. But warm calls are always a surer bet than cold calls. Be sure to take advantage of all your existing contacts before resorting to contacting strangers.

Perhaps the best rule for any professional to adopt about cold calling is not “don’t ever do it” but rather “don’t ever rely on it.” Most successful cold callers combine their calling with other sales and marketing techniques that help them improve their name recognition, referral base, personal network, and market positioning — all factors that can increase cold calling success.

And in some cases, those other techniques will net you better results if you just focus on using them instead and forget about the cold calls.

Copyright © 2007, C.J. Hayden

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now!™ Thousands of business owners and independent professionals have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at www.getclientsnow.com.