This is going to be a really scattered post. I blame the cold medication.

Since I’m pretty into New Years’ Resolutions, especially the wildly unrealistic kind, I am resolving to lose some weight. I am resolving to get off my ass and learn to cook something other than hash browns. I am resolving to go swimming regularly. I am resolving to burn my confectional. I am resolving to lose the FIFTEEN POUNDS I’ve gained since starting a full time home business in September.

As IttyBiz is not a weight loss blog (and thank God for that – if it was, it’d be pretty damned unsuccessful so far) I will not bore you with updates. Thinking of New Years’ Resolutions, though, gets me to thinking about business.

Your business.

By Naomi Dunford - Nov 30, 2007 in Marketing School
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As promised, here’s the first product link for the IttyBiz charity drive. Don’t have a clue what I’m talking about? Click here. Remember, even if you don’t buy this product, anything you buy through Amazon from this link helps the cause. Click the bag, buy a banana hanger, doesn’t matter.

Anyway, about this item. The awesomeness of this bag cannot be overstated. The title of this post is taken verbatim from one of the many, many five star ratings on this product.

Here’s the deal. You buy a bag that looks highly funky. The World Food Programme feeds a kid for a year. A YEAR! This is a perfect gift for the conscious person – whether they’re fashion conscious or socially conscious, it doesn’t matter.

(Oh, and yes, I’m well aware that the celebrity spokesperson for this product is Lauren Bush. I know it’s hard, but try to get past it. Don’t take it out on the kids.)

By Naomi Dunford - Nov 28, 2007 in Charity
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This post has nothing whatsoever to do with Tiger Woods. It has to do with follow-through, something I hear Tiger Woods is very good at.

My apartment is painted beige. The actual name of the color is “Surrey Beige”, arguably the most boring name in the history of the interior paint industry. My mother would love it. I would prefer to call it something like “Mushroom” or “Mochaccino”, but I am not in charge of naming paint colors, although I probably should be. (Does anybody out there run a paint company? If so, can I have a job?)

Moving on. The other day, I was reading a boring home decorating magazine, one of those ones that exists for the sole purpose of procuring advertising dollars. (Kind of like some blogs I know.) I run across an ad for Beauti-Tone paint. Beauti-Tone is a Canadian brand that’s been hit pretty hard by the emergence of the Martha Stewart, Debbie Travis, Disney, and NFL paint lines. Beauti-Tone is not sexy.

By Naomi Dunford - Nov 27, 2007 in Small Business Marketing
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We are the shoppers, and we’ve had enough.

This season, our dollars will make a difference.

We’ve had enough of hearing that your cologne will make her have sex with us, when someone dies of AIDS-related illness every 12 seconds.

We’ve had enough of watching you spend millions of dollars to persuade us that your lip gloss will make us more beautiful, while millions of people in this country eat less than one meal a day.

We’ve had enough of feeling the environment collapse while you cover your useless and disposable products with 7 layers of non-biodegradable packaging.

We’ve had enough of listening to you try to convince our children that the holiday season is about who got the best officially-licensed gifts.

This season, we will teach our children to think about what really matters.

This season, we will do our part to keep John Lennon’s dream of peace alive.

By Naomi Dunford - Nov 26, 2007 in Charity - 31 Comments
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Since there is no decent shopping to do in Canada today, I’m catching up on reading blogs instead. Today I run across a wonderful piece by Christine over at Self-Made Chick chronicling the first part of starting her own business. It’s very good, you should read it. When you’re done reading it, you should read my response.

I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t post the other side of the coin – what sometimes happens when what happened to Christine doesn’t. This was what happened to me, and it was probably just as hard, although many wouldn’t think it this way.

When I started my business, I was way too successful.

Let’s back up a little bit, shall we? When I was growing up, both of my parents were home business owners. My father is started out in software, moved into custom furniture, then on to high-end mustard (!). Since school wasn’t exactly the biggest priority in our house, I spent a lot of time going to sales calls and trade shows. I watched him sell very expensive stuff to people who didn’t know they needed it. I was probably about four when this whole game started.

By Naomi Dunford - Nov 23, 2007 in Home Based Business
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Written with love by Naomi

Yesterday, we talked about random acts of honesty – the kind of truths you tell out of the blue and without provocation. Today, we’re going to talk about what to do when someone asks you a direct question, the kind that makes you want to lie even if you know you can’t.

Redirection is a skill that everyone needs. It is sometimes also known as being evasive, sneaky, or avoiding the question. This may be true, but since you’re going to be doing it anyway, you may as well know how to do it properly. Here’s the big trick to the redirect.

Behind every question, there is a secret meaning. Find the meaning, find your answer.

In the comments section of yesterday’s post, Shane asked what to say when your wife, girlfriend, sister, or mother asks you, “Do I look fat in this?”

By Naomi Dunford - Nov 23, 2007 in Home Based Business
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Written with love by Naomi.

I’d like to state for the record that I am all for honesty. Good stuff. I’m digging the truthfulness. Big fan over here. But. There is a but…

Honesty is like communism. Executed correctly, and under the right circumstances, it’s wonderful. But it’s often just a really big flop.

There are two kinds of honesty. One is dumb. The other is not dumb.

The first kind is honesty for honesty’s sake. This is the kind of truth you tell when you don’t even need to tell it. The kind of truth that has no relevance to anyone. The kind of truth that does nothing but alleviate your own guilt, fear, or discomfort.

Example: “I know it’s only our second date, but I think it’s only fair to tell you I’ve slept with 34 other men.”

Yes, that may be true. It’s also really dumb.

By Naomi Dunford - Nov 21, 2007 in Home Based Business
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I have a confession. I was born without the urgency gene. I just can’t get it together to care. Therefore, if you have breaking news and you want to give a hard-hitting, journalistic blogger an exclusive scoop – call someone else. I’ll probably be napping.

These links may be old news. I present them to you anyway.

Do you like pizza? Do you have children? Do you run a home business? If any of the foregoing apply to you, please check out this post. I’d could tell you what it’s about, but then I’d have to kill you. (Hint: pizza, children, business.)

If you want to get anywhere in business, blogging, or possibly even in life, you need to learn to network. (Also to market yourself and your wares, but that’s why you’re here.) Here is a fantabulous (hey, spell check didn’t grab fantabulous… how cool is that?) quote from the link you’re about to go to:

By Naomi Dunford - Nov 21, 2007 in Small Business Marketing
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So we at IttyBiz have been following a post and some comment streams between what seems like my fellow home business owners James and Harry at JCM Enterprises and basically the entire free world with an internet connection. This got me to thinking, and because the comment streams were so huge I figured I’d write a post instead. But first, a disclaimer:

WARNING

The preceding and following statements represent the opinion of this blogger alone and are not necessarily those of the entire blogosphere. We take no responsibility for any debate, dispute, argument, fight, falling out, wars, acts of terrorism, or any other negative reaction that may result from these thoughts in any form. (We’re thinking about making this a standard disclaimer for our blog. Maybe we’ll copyright it and sell it to other bloggers. Speaking of income streams…)

By Jamie Dunford - Nov 19, 2007 in Moral of the Story - 37 Comments
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Normally I’m not one to post twice in one day, but people, you HAVE to see this.

Young Go Getter has been one of my favorite blogs, even before they awarded me with 5,000 free business cards. Today, however, they’ve outdone themselves. Guest poster (?) Darius of Colour Lovers and Hands On Worldwide gives an AWESOME breakdown of blogosphere miscommunication and general bullshit in his post:

Blogoshpere Gone Wild:Top Blogs Play Telephone with Nissan.

He uses the word “blognannegans”, people. For that reason alone you should go right now.

***

Overwhelmed? Freaking out? Borderline hysterical? Click here to get your own small business marketing plan. It’s not scary, I promise.

By Naomi Dunford - Nov 19, 2007 in Home Business Blogging
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