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Since entrepreneurs are wearing all the hats in their business, every little shortcut or tip that makes life easier is always welcome. Let me share some “been there-done that” information with you to make your business life a little easier.

Office furnishings and decorations say a great deal about you, so to convey the image you want to convey pay attention to these:

Furniture Arrangement: Setting your desk in the middle of the floor with chairs facing it conveys a “formal” atmosphere. It conveys to your clients that you want to maintain a distance from visitors. Instead, place your desk against a wall (not facing it) to convey confidence.

Messy Desks: A small amount of messiness implies comfort and

friendliness, but too much clutter makes visitors think you don’t care about making a good impression on anyone. The opposite extreme, an immaculate desk conveys coldness and could be perceived as you not having enough work to do.

Decorations: Plants, drapes, and artwork will convey a comfortable, relaxed attitude. Books and artwork express your sincerity.

Awards & Certificates: If job-related, they reassure visitors that you are experienced and competent.

Planning is essential for the entrepreneur, and all you need is 30 minutes to plan your entire week if you use the OATS formula.

Objectives: What results do you want to have by week end? Write them down and rank them.

Activities: List the necessary activities you must do to achieve your goals, and rank them.

Time: How much time will each activity require? Plan realistically allowing more time than you think you’ll need to compensate for unexpected problems.

Schedule: Look at your calendar and decide when you can do each activity. Most people underestimate the power of a schedule, but you won’t accomplish anything if you don’t schedule the time.

Underlining reading material is another great timesaver. With the mountains of material entrepreneurs must read to keep abreast of their niche, being able to find it again when you need it is essential. After you’ve read the article/book/paper/report, then go back and underline the important information so you can find it again easily. The reason for underlining after you has read it. is because most of us underline too many words before we’ve finished the passage and understand the key points. Wait until you’ve finished an entire section or chapter, then go back and highlight key points.

Returning phone calls is another time-stealer for entrepreneurs. Time-management experts recommend setting aside an hour a day to make and return your phone calls. But which hour do you choose? The best times of day are the first two hours of the morning or the last two hours of the afternoon. Those are the times when most people are in the office and accessible.

Do you think business is doing better because of your optimistic attitude? I would think so. However many management experts are now saying that pessimists make better managers. Why? Because they’re always thinking of what could go wrong and are coming up with solutions to problems in case the worst happens. My suggestion is not to toss your optimism away, I’ve found it very helpful some days, instead force yourself to write down everything that could go wrong with a new project, ideas, or employees. (Remember “Murphy’s Law - Whatever can go wrong, will.”) Personally, I think Murphy was an optimist! My advice is to be optimistic but be prepared. Once you do this you’ll naturally be prepared with solutions if disaster does strike.

In this present age of computers and time-saving gadgets, we are at times prone to purchasing the latest thing that promises to save us some work. When it comes to purchasing software, a good question to ask yourself is: Is it better than a pencil? The answer will help you decide if the expense is really justified. Keep in mind that computers are supposed to make your work easier and faster.

For the entrepreneur that travels overseas often, consider registering your handprint with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and obtaining an INSPASS card. It’s not exactly Star Trek technology, but it’s close. With the card, all you have to do is slide it through a machine, press your hand against a screen, and slip on through bypassing the lines. For information wit to: INSPASS, P.O. Box 2010, Newark, NJ 07114-2010

Want to impress your clients with Broadway shows? Call the Actor’s Fund of America and ask for “Fund Tix”, 212-221-7300. The tickets are double the price, but half goes to charity (tax write off) and the seats are great.

Are there days when you want to give up? Is your family telling you you’re too old to try something new? Well age isn’t always a factor in your success or failure. Consider these famous examples:

Actor George Burns won his first Oscar at age 80.

Golda Meir was 71 when she became prime minister of Israel.

At 96, playwright George Bernard Shaw broke his leg falling out of a tree he was trimming in his backyard.

Painter Grandma Moses didn’t start painting until she was 80 years old. She completed more than 1,500 paintings after that; 25% of those were produced when she was past 100.

Michelangelo was 71 when he painted the Sistine Chapel.

Albert Schweitzer was still performing operations in his African hospital at 89.

Doc Counsilman, at 58, became the oldest person ever to swim the English Channel.

S. I. Hayakawa retired as president of San Francisco State University at 70, and then was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Casey Stengel didn’t retire from managing the New York Mets until he was 75.

Entrepreneurs often have crazy ideas for making money and giving good customer service. The next one you have, remember the story of Phil Romano the founder of Fuddruckers the national hamburger chain. He once owned a small, out-of-the-way Italian restaurant called Macaroni’s. He packed the place every Monday and Tuesday nights, a time when most restaurants struggle to keep their doors open. How? Apart from the obvious fact that Macaroni’s served good food, Romano had a “gimmick” based on the old Psych 101 principle, “Random rewards beget regular behavior.”

If you happened to be dining there on a randomly chosen Monday or Tuesday night, you and the other 200 customers received a letter instead of a bill at the end of the meal. The letter stated that because the Macaroni mission was to make you feel like guests, it seemed awkward to charge guests for having a good time. So, once each month on a Monday or Tuesday, and always unannounced, everyone would eat free.

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If you were going to start a new ezine, what would you do to make it as large and successful as the one you have now? What woidd be your fundamental steps?

Once the web site is ready (including disclaimer and privacy policy) and the mailing list is organized, I would use the software Ezine Announcer and add my ezine to the ezine directories and free ad announcers. This was one of the first things I did when I first started EvieB’s New-Z. I still update my listings approximately every two months. I consider this as an imperative step because your ezine can still show up in search engines if you use the right key words.

Next I would start joining ezine ad coops and publishing the free ads from the coops in a special classified ad edition. Join as many as you can and publish as many ads as you are comfortable publishing in the edition. Due to FTC regulations, it would be wise to join ad coops that are FTC compliant and it is important that as a publisher you inform your subscribers that you reserve the right not to publish ads that make claims that can’t be substantiated.

Start negotiating co-registrations with other ezine owners and also making use of link swapping. Write a slew of classified ads and start submitting them on a regular basis to the free ezines that you are subscribed to.

Use all those free marketing avenues out there to advertise your ezine and make sure you place the subscriber bonuses in clear view to attract the attention of the potential subscriber. Give them something worthwhile.

If you have some available funds, purchase some opt-in subscribers through a reputable source that uses your ad with an unchecked box to subscriber. If you’re like me and had no money spare when you started, ask for some subbies for Christmas! My husband bought me 10,000 once and I was thrilled to bits about the injection into my numbers!

Start writing articles with information of value to the reader and get yourself known on the Internet. Make sure the resource box info catches the readers eye and gives them a reason to click on your subscribe link. And really tell them about yourself - don’t be shy. We want to know about you!

What are things you do to get people to actually read your ezine?

I include click thru contests, feedback requests with a reward, random cash prizes for a specific task. I use advertising in the ezine in the prize range so people will want to read their ads. I also have an Editor’s Pick where I choose the best original ad submitted and I publish it on the ad submission page until the next edition comes out. Most importantly I aim to publish items of high interest that I know my subscribers will want to read and gain something of value from.

What are things you do to keep your readers from unsubscribing?

I don’t do anything. If someone wants to unsubscribe, that’s their right and there’s no way to stop it. What about people who subscribe just to have an ad published through a coop? Some of them will unsubscribe right after their ad is published because there’s no way they can keep up with hundreds of subscriptions - not unless you’re well organized, and most people aren’t. I gave up worrying about that a long time ago. It’s too stressful and not worth taking too personally - learn from it but don’t let it upset you. I do know that my unsubscribe rate is -2.5%.

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Assuming that the space occupied by your title, masthead and listing of rates for advertisers interested in placing an ad with you is two inches deep, this leaves you about 24 inches of advertising space to sell on the front side. Figuring a cost of $50 for 1,000 copies of such an ad sheet, printed both sides, and a third-class bulk-rate postage of $110, this means that your 24 inches of ad space will have to be sold at a rate of $6.25 each in order to break even. This means: You have to sell all of the ad space on the front of your ad sheet at $6.25 per ad - and then expect to make your profits from the sale of the back side of your ad sheet. Actually, it would be feasible to charge $7.00 per inch for the space on the front side, and carry your own full page ad on the back side. At any rate, don't box yourself into a loss situation where you can't afford to place your own ads in your ad sheet.

You get ads by making up an advertising solicitation sales letter and sending it out to as many mail order dealers as you can find. You can also run ads in other people's publications, inviting the readers to check with you regarding placement of an ad in your publication. And of course, you'll be wanting to work out some exchange advertising deals (whereby another publisher runs your ad in his publication, and you run his in exchange). From the experience of many, many publishers, this can be one of the most effective ways of getting your ads run, at low/no cost, and it is recognized to be successful in the field of Mail Order.

You probably won't be able to fill up all of your available ad space with paid ads until you are well established - but no problem - first you fill your ad space with paid ads, and then you fill in the empty space with ads of your own. Some beginning advertisers fill a part of their empty space with complimentary ads for other mail order operators, send them a copy of the issue in which the complimentary ad appears, and invite them to continue the ad on a "paid" basis from there. Many of them will appreciate the favor and send you a check or money order to continue running the ad.

If you undertake the publication of an ad sheet, be sure to consider the possibilities of sending out 100 to 1,000 copies of your ad sheet to other mail order operators to rubber stamp their names/addresses as co-publishers and mail out for you. Thus, if you had 50 other mail order operators sending out 100 copies each of your ad sheet, you’d be talking about a circulation of 5,000 copies plus the number of copies you mail out. If you can get this kind of program going, you’ll quickly build your reputation as well as your circulation, and at the bottom line, your profits.

Some ad sheet publishers, once they’ve established themselves and are putting out an impressive publication, set up distributor networks. Generally, they run ads calling for distributor/dealers and asking for a $5 to $10 registration fee. In reply to the registration application, they send out a letter explaining that each distributor can buy at half price, so many copies of each issue of the ad sheet, rubber stamp their name on each copy, and send them out as their own. In return, the distributors usually get 50% of the incoming advertising orders, a half-price ad for themselves, and an opportunity to sell subscriptions.

The bottom line relative to becoming a successful ad sheet publisher has to do with keeping your production costs - printing and mailing - as low as possible, while putting out a quality product that other people in the mail order business will want to advertise in - while at the same time using it as an advertising/selling vehicle for your own products.

Everyone involved in mail order selling should have some sort of ad sheet - if for no other reason than as a means to an end - an advertising vehicle for your own products, an extra income form advertising revenues, and as an exchange media with which to gain greater exposure for your own products in other people’s publications. Once you’ve got an ad sheet, or any kind of publication set up and being seen by other mail order operators, you’ll quickly gain stature and a certain amount of prestige.

As with any business, your ultimate success depends on your own feasibility studies, and your "sharp-pencil" planning completed before you order your first issue printed. Think about it, weigh the pro’s & con’s, then go with your decision.