Archive of ‘Business’ category
Failure will happen. What you do next is up to you
National Lipstick day is made for makeup mavens like Jestina Howard
By Chanda Temple
For years, I wore Desire, a plum lip color from MAC. It was my signature shade.
Little did I know I was only supposed to wear it in the colder months. (It took my aunt to break the news to me when she saw me on TV one morning. She said it was too dark and not the best look for spring.)
I lightened up on the lip color the next day.
But I want to also credit Birmingham, Ala. makeup maven Jestina Howard for challenging me to step outside my makeup comfort zone. In 2013, I contacted her to buy my favorite plum color from her line, Aware Cosmetics. (Hey, let’s just say I’m addicted to plum.) Anyway, Jestina said that color no longer existed in her line. Then, she encouraged me to try a bright red.
Ummm, excuse me. Bright red?!! Oh no, I thought. That’s not me. (more…)
Motivation Monday: Just Start
By Chanda Temple
I ran into a friend at a coffee shop this morning and she said something that got me to thinking.
She talked about life and then expressed how she really wanted to write. She said she liked to write poetry and maybe write even a book. I had no idea she loved to write, so her words intrigued me.
When I asked her why she had not started, she said, “It’s not that I’m scared. I’m just worried no one will like it.”
How to go from lady blogger to boss lady? Get focused
By Chanda Temple
Today is Day 3 on how to make money with your blog. We’ve already looked at how important it is to get serious and get creative with your blog. Now it’s time to get focused.
Javacia Harris Bowser, founder of See Jane Write in Birmingham, Ala., recently held a workshop on this very topic. One way to get focused is to know your reader, she says.
How to go from lady blogger to boss lady? Get creative
By Chanda Temple
See Jane Write Birmingham founder Javacia Harris Bowser recently held a workshop on how bloggers can make money from blogging. Tip No.1 was Get Serious. Today is Tip No. 2 – Be creative.
How to go from lady blogger to boss lady? Get serious
By Chanda Temple
You have a blog and now you’re wondering how to make money from it.
Will you get rich if companies post their ads on your page? Will you get “discovered” simply because you post cool content?
Good theories but it takes more than these concepts to get paid. It also takes networking, hard work and a strategic plan for your blog, according to blogging expert Javacia Harris Bowser of See Jane Write Birmingham. She led a workshop today on how to go from lady blogger to boss lady. For the next seven days, I will highlight one of her tips. Today’s tip: Get Serious.
Want to be better in business in 2015? Have a PR plan
By Chanda Temple
If 2015 is the year you promised to improve your business, it’s not too late to start.
On this second day of February, what are your new year’s resolutions to building a better business? Gaining additional capital? Expanding your product or services? Broadening your consumer reach? While all of these are great goals, don’t forget to do an honest review of what you have and create a list of what you need.
“No company is above a once-over! No matter how well a business is going, there are always ways to improve,” saysKrista Conlin, founder and president of KC Projects PR in Birmingham, Ala. “Employees are much more agreeable to change at the beginning of the year. So if there are moves to be made, now is a great time.”
One thing that you should definitely include is a public relations strategy with new, fresh and creative perspectives, says Conlin. Here, she offers five tips to get you started:
Always be prepared
Expect the worst and hope for the best. If the unthinkable happens, panicking can only make things worse; especially from a public relations perspective. You want to have a broad strategic plan that includes as many scenarios as possible, no matter how improbable the scenarios may seem.
Motivation Monday: University of Alabama graduate and designer Smith Sinrod talks fashion, rejection and Southern grits
By Chanda Temple
When starting your own business, you can’t be afraid to hear the negative feedback because it’s bound to come.
It happened early in the career of clothing designer Smith Sinrod. She was at her first trade show when a woman walked by and said, “Eeew, look at that.” The woman didn’t know Sinrod was the designer.
The comment hurt so much that Sinrod wondered, “Gosh, should I be doing this?” But Sinrod recovered, telling herself that for every 10 nos the one yes she gets will make it all worth it.
“People are very opinionated. I’ve heard it all,” she says. “I think it’s important to have a little criticism. That’s the only way to evolve.”
Birmingham loves Bud’s Best Cookies
One of the best parts of a banana pudding is a sweet, fresh wafer that holds up to the custard. In Birmingham, Ala., people have found just the right cookie in the vanilla wafers by Bud’s Best Cookies.
Birmingham-area restaurants know this, too, which is why places such as Dreamland Bar-B-Que, Ragtime Cafe, Magnolia Cafe, Irondale Cafe and Miss Myra’s Pit Bar-B-Q all use the Bud’s Best Cookies wafers in their banana pudding recipes.
“I like them because they are small, they are not burnt, they are baked local, and they are fresh,” says Rennae Wheat, one of the owners of Miss Myra’s Pit Bar-B-Q in Cahaba Heights, Alabama. “They are just right.”