Inspirational Business

Blessings for a Beautiful New Year in 2011

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Bright blessings to you and your family for a happy and prosperous 2011!

Meditation: Hope and Doubt

Photo ©2007 Jaya Savannah.

Sunny optimism permeates my spirit, only to be washed away by the cold wet rains of doubt. Just when it becomes unbearable, hope shines her countenance once again. I am weathered, yet much stronger for it.

Today, I blossom with the radiant light of love. Any remaining seeds of doubt will eventually produce new flowers. My spiritual growth is perennial.

[Click here to see more meditations for business by Jaya Savannah.]

Pause for a Cause: Watch This Video for Elephants (and Other Circus Animals Who Need Your Help)

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As you may already know, my philanthropic focus is elephant conservation. My career in its different permutations has always been about helping others, but in 2004 I also began a conscious effort to practice corporate social responsibility and choose one cause, rather than donate randomly. It's probably more accurate to say that elephant philanthropy chose me, but that's a story for another time. For now, I'd just like to take 5 minutes of your time to show you what is tugging at my heartstrings and compelling me to use every venue accessible to get the word out. I hope you'll be inspired to join me.

Ringling Bros., the "Cruelest Show on Earth" in on tour in the Bay Area. Last week, I went to Oakland to protest. What struck me most about my experience there was how most of the ticket holders were animal-loving families. They didn't know that Ringling beats animals. Most of them were pretty uncomfortable about crossing the protest line, but most of them also went in. After all, they'd just got all the kids in the car, spent $20 on parking, and had tickets (or were committed to following through on their evening plans.) People can be better persuaded to not attend, if they know beforehand.

I created the video What Circus Animals Can't Tell You to teach people that animal circuses are not wholesome family entertainment. I included some photos of me and friends at last week's protest and got other performers to contribute photos and music as well. I'm hoping that people will post the link on their Facebook pages or embed the video player code into their blogs--anything to help get the word out to potential circus-goers.

Thank you for watching the video and taking a pause for my cause. It really means a lot to me and to the animals, too.

PS: If you'd like more information, including additional protest dates for SF Bay Area shows, please look at this post on my Sacred Elephants site.

How to Insert Social Media Icons Into Web Pages and Email Signatures

A lot of people have been asking me how I put those colorful social media icon links into my email signature and our blogs/web pages. It's pretty easy! Here is a tutorial on how to do it.

Step One: Which social media icons do you need?

One of the ways that social media has changed the internet is that it allows people to keep track (follow) you, using the services they most prefer. It's a lot of work to manage multiple internet marketing profiles in addition to your main business website, but if you want to make it easier for your customers to stay current with your latest offerings, then you need to deliver news to them in the format they want. At minimum, that should be a website and/or blog, then a Facebook fan page (not a Facebook personal account) and Twitter.

You can see a screen shot of the internet marketing & social media links I'm using for Inspiration, Inc. at the top of this post. Click here to visit our contact page and follow us on your favorite sites.

Step Two: Download a set of social media icons.

There are plenty of free social media icon sets available online. The trick isn't just finding ones you like, but also finding a set that has all the ones you need. Most of the matched sets have Twitter and Facebook icons, but I had a hard time finding a set that also included an email and telephone graphic. 

This set of free social and web icons at Iconpedia had everything I needed and more. They have other styles of icons there, too. I chose to download the smallest size (32x32 pixels) in .png format, because they're easier to work with than .ico files. 

Note: I had to convert the .png's to .jpg files in order to upload them to our website (because our host doesn't allow .png files.) If that is the case for you too, I recommend Picnik.com to easily edit and convert graphics.

Step Three: Post social media icons on your website & blog.

I think the mandatory place to put your links is on your business contact page. Another good place might be on your testimonials page. (I also put a link to our Facebook page on our testimonials page.) However, if you really want to make it easy for people to follow, you can post your icons on the top of every page. The nice thing about icons is they are small and don't take up too much space.

Note for newbies: The basic idea here is to first insert the graphic into your Web page, then add a hyperlink to the image. That way, people can click on the graphic and it will take them to the appropriate page for your social media account. See your website or blog FAQ for instructions on how to "link an image" using your particular software.

Step Four: Insert social media icons into your email signature.

Note: I use Microsoft Outlook for my email, so that's the only one I know how to use, but it should be similar for any email program that allows you to send html-based emails and include custom signatures.

Locate the email signature option in your email program. In Outlook 2003, go to Tools> Options> Then click on the tab for "Mail Format." Signatures are at the bottom (example on left.) 

Vista is slightly different in how you navigate to the signatures section, but it looks similar to the image on the left.

Click on the "Signatures" button to open the editing window and choose "new."

In Outlook 2003, you need to open the "Advanced Edit" window in order to insert images. You'll get a warning about opening up an outside editor, but don't worry, it's just going to open a Word page.

In Vista, you can just start typing, as they include image insertion as a regular feature.

Include whatever text information you feel is necessary for your name, business name, and phone numbers. However, I think it's also a great idea to include your email address again because sometimes people forward things and it might be hard for recipients to decipher your email address from the header. Another very important tip is to type out your full Website address, including the "http://www." part. The reason is that part is usually required to turn your address into a hyperlink. Just typing "www" beforehand won't make your signature click-able. (See an example of my email signature above.)

Next, you want to insert the .jpg images for your social media icons. In Outlook 2003, use the Insert> Picture menu options. In Vista, click on the small button that represents image insertion. After your images are inserted, highlight them individually and insert the corresponding social media link to your accounts. To save in Outlook 2003, click the save button on the toolbar and close the Word document. Then click "OK" to return to the main edit signatures window.

Lastly, you want to associate your new signature with your business email account. See "select signatures for account" and choose your business email from the drop down menu. Then select your new signature as the one for new messages. That way, it will automatically be inserted into all your new email messages. You can also choose to have it insert itself into replies and forwards. I think that starts getting redundant, so I don't do that. However, you can always insert it into a reply to a new person whenever you want.

I hope that was useful to you! If you have any tips for people using different email programs, such as Gmail, please add your notes to the comment section in the blog footer.

Inspiration, Inc. on Facebook

Like our blog? There's now an Inspiration, Inc. fan page for those of you who want to receive new post updates in Facebook.

I'm also sharing extra content there, such as useful links or funny YouTube videos, as well as answering questions for people who post them to our Facebook wall.

Click through to Inspiration, Inc. on Facebook and select the "like" button at the top of the page to join.

Famous Failures [Video]

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I thought you might enjoy this short inspirational video that reminds us how life brings each of us our share of failures and that our successes come only when we keep trying (and sometimes that means trying something new.)

Working On Your 2009 Corporate Taxes? Here's a Free Download of TurboTax Business.

Intuit is giving away downloads of TurboTax for Business 2009 through this link (regularly $109.95)

Suitable for S-Corps, C-Corps, LLC's and partnerships, the software is free and includes free e-Filing of your 2009 Federal tax return (due 3/15/10.) A state version with e-Filing costs $50 (a pop-up box offer appears after you install the program and begin your Federal return.

This freebie is the full version of the software and is available to first-time users as well as people who've used it before. I got a freebie last year and was able to get this year's freebie too. The only thing you can't do if you're a previous customer is import your data from last year. So the trade-off for saving $110 is a little manual entry from your 2008 return.

I tried TurboTax Business last year (instead of paying over $900 to a CPA) and found it be really easy. If you've never done your own taxes, you might do better with a pro. But if you're at least somewhat acquainted with how your company is set up, you should be able to do this yourself. It's empowering and can save you a lot of cash.

Meditation: Break Free

Photo ©2007 Jaya Savannah.

Hopes, happiness, success, and security—so many treasures packed neatly in my bags. Station to station, I travel down rusty tracks. Past cities and factories, through narrow tunnels and vast deserts, my cargo and I arrive at the end of the line.

There’s no need for belongings here in the outback. I choose to unlock my heart and leave my possessions behind. Breaking free gives me more than I ever had before.

[Click here to see more meditations for business by Jaya Savannah.]

Good Reads: CNN Money on Taxes & Credit Cards

I tweeted these CNN Money articles, but think they're important enough to you business owners that I'm reposting and emailing these two links.

1. Did you lose money in 2009?

You might be able to take advantage of a new tax rule that will let you carry the loss back to PREVIOUS years. Basically, this could allow you to get a tax refund for years past, to use to grow your business this year. Ask your CPA about it!

Read the Article: Lost Money? Score a Whopping Tax Refund 

2. About those credit card regulations.

I've long been calling those too-little too-late laws a toothless German shepard. We are NOT being protected from the evil empire by the credit card "reform" laws. But just in case you thought those laws actually applied to you, here's more proof that they do not, as small business credit cards are not included in the consumer protection laws.

Read the Article: Credit Card Rules' Double Standard

Taxes and credit cards are not my favorite topics, but if you can get some money back in your pocket from implementing article #1, it might help make up for the fact that credit card companies are trying to grab your cash. 

Sweet Deal: "Food, Inc." on DVD for $9.99 (Expires 1/29/10, Midnight)

While many of you are health care professionals, I know that pretty much all my readers are health care advocates. You're the go-to person for friends and family with health questions. You're also the ones reaching out and teaching others. There's a last-minute deal on a tool to help you do that better.

***Offer expires Friday, January 29, 2010 at Midnight***

Food, Inc. is a good overview documentary about US food production and how corporate America has been steadily controlling our food supply by dominating farmers and food processing techniques. I was lucky enough to see it in the theater, but it had such a limited run nationwide that most of you didn't get the chance.

For 2 days only, you can buy it on DVD for the same price as a movie ticket!

Food, Inc. on DVD for $9.99

If you're reading via RSS or email, click here to watch the movie trailer.

What's great about the movie is that it gives equal time to the biggest problems in our food supply such as meat production, GMO corn, lack of agricultural diversity, and labor issues. These topics are so big that getting it down to movie-length is no easy task. Some of you who are already knowledgeable on these subjects might find it too cursory, however it's perfect for teaching others. This would make a great gift for your clients and loved ones!

Click here to buy Food, Inc. on DVD for $9.99