The Associate Newsletter
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The Associate
About The Associate
The Associate is the MBA's newsletter where we report on what's happened, share, what's coming up and focus on our great members. If you have news you would like to share or would like to be featured in a Spotlight or submit an article or column, click here for more information.
Bling for the Holidays
by Leslie Regan, Design with Less
December 2010
Ready, set, GO! Time to rev up for the holidays and that starts with decorating! How do you want to project your style for the holidays? Here are a few great ideas to get you headed in the right direction!
Start With The Front Door
Your front door is the first thing your neighbors, friends, and guests see – so Dress to Impress! Think outside the box by hanging a great lantern in the middle of your wreath. The battery operated candles are great for this!
Or wrap the door like a big present! This is an inexpensive way to make a big impact – just ribbon!
PICK A FAVORITE
Do you have a favorite Christmas decoration? A special ornament, wreath, or decoration? Make it a focal point! Place your treasured ornament atop a candle stick to elevate it to “special” status! Place it in a special box. Use a favorite wreath as a centerpiece of a candlescape on a table instead of hanging it.
THE TABLE
This is a place to get creative!! Hang ornaments from the ceiling or chandelier with ribbon over the table or buffet. Add fabric to the table to give it a “floating” effect. Display food at different heights. This can be accomplished by using books or other dishes under the fabric to create a festive table. Use candlesticks - lots of them, with or without candles. You can place ornaments on them, or plates with special treats. Add jewelry! Hang beads and place garland on your table to add some BLING! Have fun! Make it festive and visually exciting!
DON’T FORGET THE CHAIRS
Don’t pass up the opportunity to add an extra splash by adding some embellishment to your chairs, whether it is a wreath or just ribbon – surprise your guests with this extra touch!
BRING THE OUTDOORS IN
Bring in some of your outdoor décor. A favorite statuary or just cut some branches from the yard, place in a vase and adorn with a single ornament or many. It’s a great way to add some special touches in an unexpected area.
Take time to dream ~ time to remember ~ and time to give thanks. Wishing you joy to share, people to love, and reasons to have hope. Have a blessed holiday!
Leslie Regan
Design with Less
www.designwithless.com
Leslie is the Owner of Design with Less, a certified professional stager and interior decorator. Leslie says, “Anyone can afford to hire us! Get a decorator’s eye without the designer fee and invest in your nest!”
Arrange a Change
by Leslie Regan, Design with Less
It’s that time of year when fall is in the air, the brilliant colors of the marigolds and green leaves morphing into bright yellows and reds that lend itself to feelings of arrange a change. I look forward to the seasons changing and relish each one for its ever-changing effect on, not only our environment, but also our own personal lives. As we go into autumn, we are greeted with a crisp morning breeze, sounds of rustling leaves on the ground, and sites of ripened pumpkins and gourds. There is a renewed energy about fall. On a personal level, we are pulling out warmer, darker clothing, wearing jackets or sweaters in the cool morning and cleaning out the garden, relishing the last fruits of the season.
It’s during each changing of the seasons that reminds me to make some changes in my personal surroundings, too. We spend so much time, money, and energy on our outside environment, making sure our lawns are manicured, the flowers are planted, and the curb appeal is perfect, which we have enjoyed all summer. Now that fall has arrived, start thinking about your home environment – inside! Look around – see your home in a new light! There are some easy low cost or no cost ways to enhance your home, giving it a refresher course in comfort! Below are a few easy tips to arrange a change.
MOVE THE FURNITURE!
I don’t mean just move the living room furniture around, but think outside the box. Maybe swap an end table for your bedside table. Move the bookcase from the family room into the dining room. Pull that sofa away from the wall and place at an angle in the room. Try it – you might like it! And, if you don’t, try another placement.
CHANGE UP THE ART AND ACCESSORIES
Take the rug from the entry and place it in the kitchen. Pull artwork from other rooms – lay it out and think about hanging it in a new location. It’s amazing how artwork changes with the lighting in a room – you may gain a whole new view of a piece of art just by moving it to another wall. Or try placing the art on the floor, leaning against the wall. Rearrange your accessories, grouping similar colors or shapes. Replace a candle on a candlestick with something unconventional – like an artificial artichoke or a decorative ball. Let your inner designer shine.
PAINT A WALL
Create some DRAMA! Explore color. Painting is the easiest, least expensive way to change up a room. Give your room a surprise! Or what about wallpaper? There is fabulous wallpaper out there today – and if you are a DIY person, wallpaper is easy to install! Challenge yourself!
CHANGE OUT THE PILLOWS
Give the room a reason to shine! By just changing out a few pillows you can make the sofa feel new and fresh! There are some great new colors going forward into fall – lots of saturated jewel tones like deep purples, golds, or magenta. Or add an embroidered pillow mixed in with your current ones. If you are really adventurous, add an animal print pillow or throw! Every room needs a little animal magnetism!
LIGHTING
Lighting is so important in a home! Most people don’t have enough light. Again, thinking outside the box, don’t just place lighting for reading. Think of lighting as spotlighting a special feature in the room. Use upward lighting in corners to illuminate the room. (Up lights are can lights designed to sit on the floor and shine upward. They are very inexpensive and can be purchased at your local home goods store) Shine a light on a treasured piece of art or an accessory. Change out a lamp shade. And don’t forget sunlight - open those draperies, pull back the shutters and let the sunshine stream in!
ADD PLANTS
Now is the perfect time to bring your green thumb from the garden into the house. You may move some of your favorite plantings from the outdoors in, if possible. (Just make sure you have thoroughly inspected and sprayed your outdoor plants for critters before bringing them indoors) Or buy an inexpensive green houseplant to add that lush color to your space. Research and read about a new plant; find the perfect place in your home. You will be rewarded!
Give yourself permission to give your INSIDE home the same love, care, and attention you give to your OUTSIDE home. As the days get shorter, and the nights get colder, we will be spending more time in our homes. Now is the time to ARRANGE A CHANGE!
Leslie Regan
Design with Less
Leslie is the Owner of Design with Less, a certified professional stager and interior decorator. Leslie says, “Anyone can afford to hire us! Get a decorator’s eye without the designer fee and invest in your nest!”
Leading a Meeting
by Diane Sullivan, The Organization Station
The complaint I hear often from employers and employees alike is the topic of meetings. Most of the time, they last too long, you don’t make any decisions, someone in the group always “gets off subject” and rambles on and on. How many of you seem to go to “meetings” all the time, but don’t seem to get anything useful out of them? How many of you plan the meeting and it never seems to “get any results”?
Here are a few ideas and structure to make EVERY meeting be what it is intended to be.
BEFORE THE MEETING:
1. Try to arrange the meeting for a central location.
2. Have light refreshments, so that people feel comfortable.
3. Arrange sitting with everyone facing each other.
If the meeting is a weekly event, plan to make it the same time and place every week. This will allow for members to mark a whole year on their calendars.
4. Make an agenda:
Call to order
Approve the minutes from the last meeting
Announcements
Committee reports, if any
Unfinished business
New business
Discuss any special projects
Set up the next meeting
Adjourn
Send out the agenda, well in advance, to the members. This will enable people to come prepared.
DURING THE MEETING:
1. Greet members individually
2. Start on time
3. End on time
4. Stick to the agenda
5. Encourage discussion, members will feel more involved, important and not bored
6. Keep minutes during the meeting
7. Praise members for their input
8. Keep members focused to the task at hand
9. Be flexible, not rigid
10. Take care of negatively problem swiftly and confidently
11. Encourage members to see different perspectives
12. Help members work out conflicts
AFTER THE MEETING:
1. Type up the minutes
2. Write up the next agenda. Put in any unfinished business.
Search Engine Findability: The First Step in Website Development
by Steve Van Buren, Firespring
Four hours revolutionized the way I think about creating a website. It wasn't too long ago that, as a website designer, my first step was often asking "What would be cool?" Now, it's become more about creating relevant content for your target audience. A few months ago, Firespring as a company brought search engine marketing expert Heather Lutze, author of The Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing, to Nebraska to teach us about designing sites with searches in mind.
The first place we go to make decisions and solve problems is more often than not a search engine. It's our Oracle of Information. We are becoming increasingly sophisticated at searching, and we hope that the information we are seeking is organized is a similarly sophisticated manner. At Firespring, our job as an internet marketing agency is to help businesses and organizations present their information in such a way that it is easily found.
Lutze explained that it all starts with keywords. How are people searching? She suggests three phases, Information, Shopping, Purchasing. Those in the information gathering stage search broad terms, like "running shoes" or "church". As you decide what you want, you move on to the shopping stage and might narrow your search down to "Adidas Supernova Adapt" or "Baptist Church." Then, you might decide you are ready now. You're in the purchasing stage and are probably searching "Adidas Supernova Adapt Omaha Nebraska" or "Baptist Church Omaha Nebraska" and bingo, you're on your way to Sports Authority at L Street Marketplace or sitting in a pew at Westside Baptist Church on Dodge Street. Smart sellers make it easy for those in the buying process to make that purchase. They include those specific key words on their site, in the headlines and in the photos. They organize their site intuitively. Heather explained that if someone is searching "dog food", they don't want to go to a page with information about all the types of pet foods a store sells. They want to go to a page just about dog food in a section about dogs.
This is how findability transforms the way we create, arrange and build websites. Even a blog like mine will be more easily found by those seeking the content I'm adding with more descriptive headlines. I may like the creativity involved in my one-word headline convention. I admit, it doesn't make it easy to find information. Lutze offers that you can keep your creativity, but add a descriptive, keyword-focused subhead along with it, which is what I will do from now on.
