Business

Archive for the ‘Ask an Expert’ Category

“Write a book and get recognized as an expert.” How many times have you heard that? Hundreds? Thousands? It is a fact that people acknowledge you as the expert when you have put your knowledge in print. It could be a book, a column, a booklet or a white paper that has been published. If people find what you wrote helpful to them, you become an expert!

The good news is you can write about anything and become an expert. It doesn’t necessarily need to be something you know right now. Yet, I do encourage my writers to write about what they know as it is the easiest way to write your first book. It is important to write about what you know if you are promoting your business and want your clients to recognize you as an expert in your business.

Yet, I have learned from my clients that you can write about what you don’t know and be highly successful at it. Here are some tips to get any writer started writing about what he or she doesn’t know.

1. Have a passionate idea. Some of my clients wanted to do something different: Write a Zen book, a comic book, and produce a positive, motivational rap music CD. These passionate ideas had a thread of relationship to their business, yet they were obsessed with creating these projects. And that is the key: You have to want it so bad that it becomes an obsession. You think about it day and night and you know you will not rest until you do it.

2. Research your idea. Get some basic ideas and resource information by doing research. For many writers this is not fun: Then get a college student to do it for you. Tell the student what information you need to get started. For example, the comic book author would want to see if anything like an educational comic book for adults has been done before in the same topic she has chosen. She will want to check out comic book publishers and their criteria. Also, find some articles on comic book publications and “how to” articles. You can use the Internet, the library, and even the bookstore to get the information you need.

3. Find and ask the experts to help you. “Flattery will get you anywhere,” the saying goes. Experts love to hear that their ideas are helpful. They are willing to help you if you ask. For example, the author who wanted to create a comic book knew nothing about how to do that. She met someone who was a graphic designer. She told him about her dream to create her comic book. The designer was excited about it and showed her his drawings. Collaboration was born to create a comic book. Just keep on asking people who you know that can help you with your idea. The Law of Attraction will take over and in no time you will have the right person to help you write your book. Other ways are to visit networking groups or visit organizations that are related to your topic.

4. Go to seminars or take classes. There are many great writing seminars and classes available to learn more about your subject. We even have Internet online classes and teleseminars we can take without even leaving our house. Learning in an environment with other students is a valuable opportunity to make new like-minded friends. So don’t be a wallflower and keep to yourself. Share your ideas and be actively involved in the class so people will get to know you. Class participants could give you some great ideas for your book, especially if you are writing on a new topic and gathering information for your book.

5. Be an eagle-eye observer. Pay attention to what is going on around you. Read everything with an eagle eye. What are the latest, hottest topics? Do they fit your criteria? Is it something you might want to write about? Start watching TV differently–instead of just for entertainment watch special shows that give you information and news that might perk your interest in writing a book. My rap music CD client wanted to produce a positive rap CD to reach young adults. She began observing Gospel rap musicians and listening to music that had a positive influence. Observe other people’s point of view. Keep your eyes open and watch people in their daily lives. So by following these five simple steps–passionate idea, research, ask the experts, take classes, and be an eagle eye observer–you can write about what you don’t know. Remember you must be passionate about what you want to write, set up a writing plan, follow the plan, take action and write every day. In no time you will have written your book that makes you the expert.

Public relations is an absolutely integral part of any businesses recipe for success, in fact, a well thought out and properly enacted public relations plan can be the single most important part of a company’s marketing – and aside from a good product and hard working employees, the most important part of running a business.

Public relations will determine exactly how your company is viewed or perceived in the public eye. Current and potential customers like to be ensured that they are, or will be patronizing a company that cares. A public relations department can organize a plan of attack to let the consumer know that your company cares about people and the environment, and about any other burgeoning social issues. A good PR department will also make the public aware that your company has a new product on the horizon and why they have to be first in line to purchase it, or that your company is branching out to offer new services and how that will make you stronger and more capable of handling their needs as consumers.

Yet another great facet and important role of a public relations department is damage control. If something, anything goes wrong and the public is made aware that the problem arose from one of your company’s employee’s actions or due to a particular policy – a good PR department will be the first one on the scene to correct it. Writing releases for apology or correction of error, along with releases stating the fact that new employees and procedures are in place to prevent any future problems can often save a companies reputation in the public eye.

Inside or Out?

Many companies have their very own public relations departments, made up of what could be any number of employees who are responsible for a wide variety of duties including: producing eye catching press kits, writing poignant press releases, organizing charitable events and contributions and some general damage control.

This is usually the best option for large companies with big budgets in place for advertising and payroll. A good full time PR department is great if ever there are cases of an emergency that needs to be dealt with immediately.

Companies that don’t have their own public relations department, but that realize just how important the proper approach to and implementation of public relations can be, will often enlist the help of a third party public relations firm to take care of that end of the business for them.

This second option can work quite well for a company that doesn’t want to keep several full time employees on staff (having to take care of employee salaries, vacation and health benefits), when they can temporarily employee a service to do the job for them. Many reputable and successful public relations firms can bring quite a cost for the service that they provide, but often the results that are yielded from a good public relations campaign can certainly outweigh the cost of enlisting a firm to provide the work.

A third option is for a company to employ regular employees to handle the basic issues of a public relations department – to generate the thoughts and ideas behind the advertisements and new product pushes, but then hire freelance professional to take care of the artistic side of things (the graphics, design and writing).

Regardless of whether a company employs their own full time public relations department, enlists a third party to do the work or uses a combination of in house people and freelancers to get the job done – public relations is an enormous part of whether or not a company will succeed. Good public relations is the recipe for success while poorly thought out, improperly enacted or missing public relations can be an almost lethal detriment.

Before the evolution of information technology, you would think that asking health questions online instead of asking a medical doctor personally was impossible. But today, with the help of technology, it is very possible. From the different medical websites available in the Internet, asking medical assistance from medical online doctor is already easy.

Doctors Online

Medical doctors, physicians, and medical practitioners—these are terms used to identify someone who is into the practice of medicine and whose primary concern is to maintain and restore human health. From a thorough study of the different diseases and injury, medical doctors have the capacity to diagnose and treat certain diseases. Traditionally, sick people who need to see a doctor, literally see the doctor. But with the technology nowadays, seeing a doctor does not necessarily mean taking a trip to the doctor personally. Through the Internet, there are medical online doctors that can be consulted any time of the day and gives professional diagnosis and recommendation for possible treatments or further consultations. Asking health questions online from these doctors have no difference from asking them in their clinics or in the hospital, because they are licensed physicians, too.

Ask the Experts

It is understandable if you think that seeing a doctor can be intimidating, because it is quite true. That is why there are medical online doctors that are readily available for a consultation round the clock. In this way patients may not be frightened, embarrassed, and conscious and they can ask health questions online without hesitation. If you want to ask health questions, you can now have the option on whether to go to a doctor personally or just log on to a website and consult them online. It is important and advisable to know the basic questions you should be asking because sometimes you tend to forget them. Making a list of your questions before the actual consultation could be helpful, and it is also important to take note of the doctor’s reply.

Questions to Be Asked

Regardless of how you go about with the consultation process, below are the common or the more general questions that one should ask a hospital doctor or a medical online doctor:

1. What is the cause of the ailment?

2. Can it be treated without medication?

3. Are there other alternative treatments?

4. How long will the medication last?

5. Is the rest of the household at risk with the ailment?

6. What are the ways to avoid further the sickness?

7. What are the common symptoms?

8. What are the side effects of the treatment?

9. What to do to prevent getting the disease?

10. When is the right time to go for a checkup?