Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 8, 2014

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS 13 
Mountain Views News Saturday, February 8, 2014 BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS 13 
Mountain Views News Saturday, February 8, 2014 
BUSINESS TODAY 

The latest on Business News, Trends and Techniques 

By La Quetta M. Shamblee,MBA 
MIND YOUR BUSINESS 

Establishing and maintaining a successful business begins and ends with an entrepreneur’s state of 
mind. “The Little Engine That Could” is one of the most famous children’s stories, extolling the 
benefits of what is possible when someone simply dares to believe they can accomplish something 
that may seem out of reach. 

Everyone who has any inkling of entrepreneurial aspiration must seize the moment at some point 
and take action in order to create the product or business they envision. The mind is defined as the 
part of a person that can think, reason, feel and remember. It is commonly thought of as the activity 
of the brain, which is an appropriate springboard to emphasize that activity or action aligned with 
aspiration is what distinguishes doers from mere dreamers. 

Mind your business is used here as an expression to emphasize the importance of how entrepreneurs 
can use their own thought process to forge ahead toward achieving goals. The following mnemonic 
can be used as a guide to move forward and keep going in the direction of your business interests. 

Make Up Your Mind

The first step is to get clarity about your vision, your dream to start a business. Do you want to earn 
extra income or build your idea into your primary livelihood? Do you want a small, easy-to-manage 
business or are you thinking of building a thriving enterprise? Either one will need to generate 
revenue and be profitable. It is important to determine the income goal as a certain amount per 
month, year or other timeframe. Finally, it is imperative to commit to a date by which you expect 
certain goals to be attained. 

Invest Your Time & Resources 

Everyone on the planet is granted with 24 hours in a day, and those who have relished in the success 
of building a profitable understand that time is a commodity more valuable than money. Both should 
be used wisely, but unlike money, time wasted can never be recaptured. Take time to layout the 
gameplan, the roadmap as you understand it, to reach your goal. 

Never Give Up 

Follow the example of The Little Engine That Could and press forward, even when going uphill makes 
it a little more difficult. 

Distinguish Yourself With Discipline

Executing your plan will build the bridge between your goal and your vision. Consistency fosters 
discipline, which results in a mastery of knowledge and skills that fuels the type of confidence that can 
help an entrepreneur to keep going when times get challenging. 

Move beyond thinking about starting a business, or if you’re already in business, move beyond simply 
thinking about what you can do to expand and move to the next phase you envision. Make up our 
mind to have the level of success you desire as a business owner and go for it. 

“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” - Buddha

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FIVE BEST PRACTICES FOR EMAIL MARKETING 

It can be difficult to decide which marketing strategies and channels give you 
the most return. Email marketing can give you great results if you implement 
best practices. Here are five tips: 

1. Create great subject lines. Keep them short and to the point. Don’t try to 
trick them to open the email, tell them what’s in the email. A subject line of 
five to eight words is plenty. Make your words count. The first two words of your subject line will 
determine if they will read the next few words of the subject, which can help persuade them to open 
the email to get to the good stuff. Good words to use are “How to,” “5 Tips,” “Update on,” “You’re 
invited.” Every day, take a look at the emails you receive and write down the subject lines that were 
successful in getting you to open the emails. Make a list.



2. Schedule your emails when your audience is most likely to be active. To determine when 
that may be, you may want to try an “A” “B” test to help find your sweet spot. With Constant Contact 
you can segment your list. This means you can send the same email to a portion of your list one day 
and then to the remaining portion on another day. Review your results and you will begin to see 
which days and times have better open rates and click through rates.
3. Use email marketing with social media to measure results. Results in social media can 
be hard to measure. Email marketing and Constant Contact’s Social Campaign tool can help. For 
example, create a marketing campaign in Facebook to build “Likes” while at the same time enticing 
them to sign up for your email marketing list. If they give your Page a “Like” and provide their email 
address they will be entered in the contest, or get access to an exclusive coupon or document. A 
simple way to track the action is to write down how many followers you have on social media before 
your campaign and compare to how many you have gained once the promo ends.
4. Build on what you’ve done and learn what works and what doesn’t. Constant Contact’s 
reporting is exciting. You can see who opened your email, what links they clicked on, if they shared
the email and if any emails bounced. Over time this information will help you determine when
to send, what to send and who to send it too. You’ll learn what information is important to your
audience and what tends to get the most action.
5. Make sure there is something in it for your audience. Talk their language and ask yourself is 
this valuable for my audience? That single question will help you create content that matters. Also,
it is important to use your custom welcome email message strategically. Your welcome could offer
an immediate offer or reward something they will only get if they join your list. Once you give them 
a good reason to sign up, you need to deliver. 
About MJ: MJ and her brother David own HUTdogs, a creative services business that specializes in 
Internet Marketing strategies and Social Media. They offer social media management services and help 
their clients build a strong on-line presence. “Like” them on Facebook for trending news in social media, 
internet marketing and other helpful tips, www.facebook.com/hutdogs.
Sign up for their upcoming classes and presentations at: www.hutdogs.com/workshops/schedule 



RICH Johnson 
VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD JOHNSON 

What’s your name? How many Vice Presidents of these here United Stateshave there been with your last name? Ask me. Go ahead, ask me. How many 
Johnson’s have been Vice President? 

Well, I’ll tell you. There have been three of them. And two of them became 

Presidents because of assassinations. Lyndon Baines Johnson who succeeded

John Kennedy and Andrew Johnson who succeeded Abraham Lincoln. The only Vice President 

named Johnson to not have become President was…you guessed it, Richard Johnson. Richard

Mentor Johnson to be exact. 

Richard Mentor Johnson, a Kentuckian, wasn’t even elected by the American people to the job.
He was the only vice president elected by the United States Senate under the 12th Amendment. A 
little side note on my namesake. He had an interracial relationship with a slave named Julia Chinn.
This was not uncommon amongst upper class leaders. Vice President Johnson was different in thathe openly treated Ms. Chinn as his common-law wife. And he gave their two daughters his surname. 
This did not bode well for his political career. But it makes me like him more. 

In 1836 Mr. Johnson was the Democratic nominee for VP with Martin Van Buren. Van Buren won 
and Johnson didn’t, by the popular vote anyway. The fine electoral college delegation from Virginiarefused to endorse Mr. Johnson, even though his state voted for him. So, hence the Senate stepped in.

 Vice President Johnson proved such a liability to the Democrats during that election that theyrefused to renominate him in the election of 1840. Van Buren campaigned without a running mate.
And lost to William Henry Harrison. Richard Johnson finally got back into the Kentucky State 
Legislature in 1850 but died two weeks after taking office. By the way, President John Tyler had 
no Vice President. Neither did Millard Fillmore (both Tyler and Fillmore were Vice Presidents somaybe they knew the positions were unnecessary).

 Other Vice Presidents you probably never heard of: George Clinton (served with both Jeffersonand Madison). George Dallas, William King, John Breckinridge. Hannibel Hamlin was HonestAbe’s first VP. Schuyler Colfax and Henry Wilson worked under Ulysses S. Grant. William Wheeler,
Thomas Hendricks, Levi Morton, Adlai Stevenson. Garret A. Hobart was the last Vice President of 
the 19th Century.

 Here is an interesting bit of trivia. The 22nd Amendment limited the President to not being electedto more than two terms. There is no similar limitation on Vice Presidents. The question is: “Could 
a two-term president run as a Vice Presidential candidate?” If so, what would happen if the sittingPresident was killed or incapacitated? Could the termed out President, now Vice President, become 
the President again?

 Wanna know where the Vice President lives? The Naval Observatory, aka the Admiral’s House.
They play “Hail to the Chief” when the President makes an appearance. What about the Vice 
President? A tune called “Hail Columbia”.

 Which two vice presidents were accused of accepting bribes while in office? Schuyler Colfax (U.S.
Grant) and Spiro Agnew. Have any Vice Presidents resigned from office? Yes, John C. Calhoun (JohnQuincy Adams and Andrew Jackson). He was later elected to the Senate from South Carolina. And 
good, old, Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973.

 So, now you know more about Vice Presidents than you may have ever wanted to know.