Holiday Season has started

Well it's that time of year again. Are you ready to deal with the end of the year and the Holiday's? At BusinessDetroit.com we understand that the Holiday's are very stressful both on the business side and personal side of life. Here's a few tips to lowering your stress in your business and personal life right now. First let's visit the business side and talk about what needs to get done and the easiest way to just finish things up, so you can enjoy the Holiday's. Now is the time to sit down with your staff and write up the must do's for your companies year end. These should include improvements, taxes, sales campaigns, customer service issues and of course your new game plan for 2008. This might sound like a lot of work, but actually it should only take your a day or two to get this started. Some improvement ideas should be connected with looking back at how your year went in regards to sales and customer service. What worked and what really didn't...then write up a new way to do business. Now let's move onto the next task taxes....if you use Quickbooks or a similar product then this is a breeze...just print off an account summary of your financials and scan to see how much money you made and loss. This is the time you need to figure out if you want to pay extra taxes or get some more write offs by investing back into your business with new equipment, training or products. Touching base with your client's during the Holiday's is a great way to share with them how you care about their business and how you can help them in 2008. Sending out a Holiday card is the easiest way to maximize your marketing and customer service with a very low cost. We love using a company named Promotice, who does an outstanding job with Holiday cards....you can order online at www.Promotice.com . Now the game plan for 2008....don't make this to difficult because if you do then it just won't work. Keep it simple stupid...as my Mom would always say....I'm not sure if she just wanted to call me stupid or if she really liked to say that phrase...anyway it stuck and I'm in therapy 3 days a week...just joking. Keeping it simple is the only way to create a new game plan. Just go to a white board in your office and write down three things....Customer Service, Sales, Operations. Under each one write down five goals to improve each one then leave it up on the board and start working on them. This shouldn't take you very long...you know what needs to be done the hard part is actually just getting it done. Write it down, keep it simple and get it done.

Now on the personal side of life regarding lowering your stress levels. Buy early and on the web. As you know BusinessDetroit.com loves to promote Detroit Businesses and some of these are Detroit area based, but some are not sorry to say, but they are great places to go to get the shopping done. First stop should be www.etoys.com this website is a great place to get toys for all those kids in your life. They will even wrap the presents and ship them anyway...this is a huge time saver. If you have adults to buy for another great site is www.woodwardavenue.com and www.redwheelbarrow.com both of these are locally owned in the Detroit Area. Woodward Avenue sells luxury items like Ray Ban sunglasses, Gucci bags, diamond rings and very nice artwork. The RedWheel Barrow sells tech stuff like IPODs, Computers, Palm Pilots, MP3 players and other great tech gifts. Just like the business side of life creating a list of tasks that need to get done is a great way to make sure your on track with everything. Make sure you post this on the Refrigerator and put a due date on each item...if you don't then it won't get done. Make sure you free up the last two weeks of the year to do nothing. This is a great goal for everyone, so you can enjoy, relax and just restart your mind and body for the next year.

Well as always I hope these tips help you and when you visit the sites I've listed make sure you mention us at BusinessDetroit.com. Happy Holiday's to all!

Halloween time in Detroit

Well it's Angel Night in Detroit and it seems to be very quiet. Former Mayor Archer created a great program with the Wayne county sheriffs department and renamed devils night into Angels Night. Groups of citizens patrol the city looking out for would be arsons. The number of fires have dropped by hundreds and saved many people's homes. Well two businesses in the Detroit Area Halloween USA and Spirit Shops are going head to head selling Halloween costumes and decorations. My kids loved going into these stores we must have visited them at least ten times spending over two hundred dollars on costumes and decorations. Well this is the time of year that many Detroit Area business start the big push for the Holiday seasons. Retail outlets like WoodWard Avenue.com, Macy's, JC Penny's and Kohl's will be showing off the Holiday decorations in the next couple of days.

Remember Detroit has one of the greatest Thanksgiving Parade in the world. Every year thousands come out for the big event along with the traditional Lions game that everyone in the country watches. More on the Detroit Thanksgivining parade and other local activities throughout the Detroit Metro Area.

Santa is coming to town

Santa is here in Metro Detroit....yep...Santa Claus is back in town. This photography studio Winship Studios in Clarkston, Michigan has been providing a great new spin on sitting with Santa Claus. For years now Ken Winship (Santa Claus) has been bringing smiles to kids faces for generations. You bring your kids into see Santa Claus to share their wish lists and then get a photo, DVD, Video with everything recorder. Plus, you can bring back the old videos and just add to it from year to year.
You have to act quick though....the slots get filled mighty fast. Visit their web site at http://www.winshipstudio.com
Make sure you tell them that BusinessDetroit.com sent you.

WorldWise, Inc.'s new product OneWEB takes the lead

WorldWise, Inc. has spent the last 3 years developing a web solution for small and medium sized businesses that would would give them everything they need regarding web solutions without losing out on customization and quality. WorldWise, Inc. introduced OneWEB, which includes custom desiged web site....yest a custom designed website not the typical templates that so many companies try to pawn off on businesses. OneWEB brings custom designed web sites, free web site hosting and submits your web site to all the top search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Netscape / AOL and so much more without a huge down payment. Actually, the cost is so reasonable I don't know why every business doesn't sign up for this service right now. OneWEB starts at only $199 per month with nothing down. That's right only $199 per month and you get everything you need for a website.

You should check them out at www.GetOneWEB.com and make sure you tell them where you found out about them.

Who's the Great Vladae?

Vladae Roytapel has been seen on David Letterman, Ellen and our local Detroit Area news Fox2 News every Monday morning showing the public great dog training tips. Vladae has launched a great web site that is hundreds of pages deep and covered with free dog training tips for every type of dog. Vladae has even taken this website one step further than any other Dog Trainer in Michigan or even in the entire World and that is interactive additions, ecommerce stores, free expert tips and so much more. If you have a dog and he or she needs some help...then Vladae is the dog training you should see. Visit his web site at http://www.alternativecaninetraining.com today.

BusinessDetroit.com

This Business Directory that focuses on Business in the Metro Detroit Area. Any business that is located in Oakland, Macomb or Wayne Counties can list their business online at BusinessDetroit.com for free. This business directory is unique compared to any other directory on the web. BusinessDetroit.com adds great additions to the basic listings like referral features, ratings, mapping system and much more that brings top quality interactive ability to BusinessDetroit.com and helps local businesses in the Detroit, Michigan area the web site tools that they need to be found by people and business alike.

Now if your a business in the Metro Detroit area you should come by and visit our website www.BusinessDetroit.com and sign up your business for free. Sign up and fill in the details about your business that's all it takes. Help us build a great new business directory on the world wide web for the Detroit Area.

New Business in Detroit

What a unique online store located in the Metro Detroit Area. They've just signed up on BusinessDetroit.com the website I run for businesses in the Detroit Area. I'm very excited to announce this online store that sells luxury items at a very low price. Most of the items are only 2% above wholesale. They carry products like Ray Ban Sunglasses, Gucci and Prada Handbags, plus top quality diamond jewelry, rings, necklaces and more. WoodwardAvenue.com has a great group of sales people that will be able to help you 24/7 with any online orders.