A perfect gift for kids and parents this season is this latest book by Deepak Chopra.
Mr. Chopra’s book teaches kids the important messages all parents can share at any age. When kids understand the way the world works from a spiritual point of view, it makes it easier for them to navigate through life with joy, love, and happiness.
The Seven Spiritual Laws for Children
Everything is possible. We all have the gift of creating absolutely anything.
There’s no limit to what we can do or be.

If you want to get something, give it.
Always give with a happy heart. The greatest gift is feeling good.

When you make a choice, you change the future (karma).
Your choices bring about changes. To make good choices, follow your heart.
How do your choices make you feel?

Don’t say no—go with the flow.
Create peace within by learning acceptance of what is outside our control.

Every time you wish or want, you plant a seed.
Making your wish is like planting a seed and believing that it will grow.
Let nature do the rest.

Be open to life and enjoy the journey.
New ways and new ideas can lead to more happiness.

You are here for a reason.Your dharma is your purpose, path, or vision,
the unique talent that you are here on Earth to share. Your dharma is your happiness.

– Deepak Chopra
Add a few on your gift lists this year. Published and available for purchase at HayHouse.com
On My Way to a Happy Life.

So many opportunities for Michigan Entrepreneurs! Here is a quick list of some I would like to pass along. This first one has a tight deadline if you are interested, act quickly!
Opportunities for Entrepreneurs…
GLEQ Business Plan Competition. Registered participants in the GLEQ Business Plan Competition must submit an Executive Summary by Friday, December 17, 9 p.m. Submissions are entered online and are judged by venture investors that provide written feedback and suggestions. Winners will be awarded cash prizes at ACE’11 on Monday, January 31, 2011.
Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship – ACE’11. Register Today. This is your chance to get in front of 1,000+ attendees as ACE celebrates its 11th year on Monday, January 31. Register now for a display table (the cost goes up as the event date approaches) and a chance to be selected for the ACE’11 Elevator Pitch Competition. During this fast-paced competition with emcee Chris Holman, six entrepreneurs present three-minute pitches to win awards and services. The competition is a highlight of this annual event. You must be registered for an entrepreneur display table to be selected. Use this link to register for a display table: http://ace-event.org/. Learn more about the event at http://www.ace-event.org/.
Momentum 2011. Apply Today. Momentum is a venture incubator that provides seed capital, intellectual capital, and extensive mentorship to internet start-ups. Momentum is looking for great ideas and new technology and it’s creating reasons for you to stay in Michigan. Momentum makes a small investment ($20K) in your venture for a small stake (8%) in your new company. Your team resides in West Michigan for 12 weeks while you have support to develop and launch your product, refine your business strategy, and connect with investors and resources to quickly accelerate your product to market. The application period opened November 4. For additional information e-mail Amanda@momentum-mi.com, or visit http://www.momentum-mi.com/.
NEF – Prepare Your Pitch. If you’re an entrepreneur seeking funding or other resources, New Enterprise Forum can match you with a coaching team and an opportunity to pitch your ten-minute investor presentation to the NEF audience of entrepreneurs and investors. To be considered, contact me at diane@gleq.org. Your NEF coaching team will prepare you to make a polished investor presentation. Get ready for pitch opportunities at ACE’11, Michigan Growth Capital Symposium — and other events. Learn more at http://www.newenterpriseforum.org/.
Blue Water Angels – Boost Michigan. Be one of the early-stage entrepreneurs selected to present to angel and venture capital investors this winter at a Boost Michigan. “Boosts” are informal Pitch Night opportunities to get in front of coaches and mentors that will help you prepare for investor presentations. You’ll talk about your business for two minutes and have the chance to win an impromptu Advisory Board dinner — and the opportunity to present to Blue Water Angels and other investors. Upcoming Boost events are scheduled for December 15, Lansing; January 12, Midland; and March 9, Flint. Check the GLEQ website for details at http://www.gleq.org/ or e-mail contact@gleq.org. For information on Blue Water Angels, contact Chris Moultrup at the MidMichigan Innovation Center (moultrup@mmic.us or 989-839-2336).

The end of the month and that means – e-newsletters, coupons, postcards, tracking. Although we send announcements more and more frequently throughout the month, many of our monthly maintenance plans benefit from e-mail promotions landing in customer boxes on the first of each month. From monthly coupons, event reminders, and calendars, e-marketing campaigns provide the benefit of exact timing.

I could compose five to ten entries just on the value of e-mail marketing when it is handled professionally and with a respected company like MailChimp, Emma, Constant Contact and others. That however is not my intent this time around. The focus today is the importance of  building the promotion correctly and taking the time to test it thoroughly before blasting it out to hundreds or thousand of customers.

Testing starts at the beginning when you are creating your graphics. Most subscribers choose html format emails so go ahead and add those cool graphics to help your promotion stand out. When you design your graphics or choose photos take them through a photo imaging software such as Photoshop. Size them to fit your format, bring the resolution down to 72 dpi and optimize them for the web. Begin testing at this stage. When you load your e-news promotions pay attention to how long it takes to load. If your graphics load too slow your recipients may get impatient and delete the message before it even loads.

Now I have never turned images off in my emails – that just goes against my graphic designer philosophy – however some people do to help speed loading time. Take a look at your layout – how does it appear when no images are loaded? Does it still read well, does the message get lost if the graphics are not there? This is another good reason to include alt text when you place your images. Alternative text helps people with disabilities read the image. We often put our discount amounts in the coupon graphic. If we do not also include it in the alt text a screen reader will skip over it and text only email subscribers will miss out on important information you intended them to have.

After you spend your time designing and writing your email promotion it is always good practice to email a test. I typically email it to myself first then staff and lastly if the client had time to review it I send a sample email to them. If you are using a mail client and the e-postcard, e-newsletter or e-coupon looks good in the preview that is a good start but don’t just rely on this. Often text can adjust depending on the browser, email client, etc. Check in you actual email window to see a more accurate view. You can try it in the email you use daily and check it in a few other email accounts too, like gmail, yahoo, etc. If you don’t add these email addresses to your mail list you will be able to test the delivery better. The sample email is not just for proofing text and graphics it can also help to make sure you won’t be caught in spam filters.

If you have the ability to preview it on different computers and devices with different operating software that will help too. In most e-news subscriptions list, members can choose whether they want their communication in html, text or mobile these days. Be sure to check your promotion in all of these formats.

Lastly and possibly most important, test your links! All of them! Although it can be time consuming, think about why you are sending the correspondence to begin with – often it is to get people to click on those very links so recipients go to your Web site to take action.

Remember to check your stats after each campaign.  Learn what is working and what isn’t. You can keep your list lean if you find some subscribers have never opened, and target other subscribers who tend to only open particular messages. Good luck and happy campaigning!