As an only child, I’m used to doing everything on my own. So most of the time, I rather stick it out and make it work, no matter how long it takes.

Finally, my back was “against” the wall and and I had to make a decision. I took a deep breath and  I asked a friend from around the way to help me with basic coding edits. This was a big step for me, since I’m so used to being in control of everything involving my clients.  A good book  to reference in this case is The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It.

Slowly but surely, I am evolving, as most business owners need to do to survive. I have also taken the bold step of having someone else review my taxes instead of me doing them by myself.  At least next time around, I know that I do not have to be afraid to ask for help.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

Like most business owners over the past several months, I have been doing a lot of internal auditing and reflection.

Like with any move, one decides what they need and what they could let go of. The same can be said about business services. Are there services that you are using because everyone else is doing it, or is it something you and your business genuinely need?

After deciding to let some services go and cutting down on others, I also decided like any good designer type, that I needed to update my look. So here we are.

I am still in the process of moving things around here, but in the meantime, you can take a look at some past blog articles that are in some ways the catalysts for this change.

• Cleaning up the email clutter


• Digital Spring Cleaning

Have you made some decisions in regards to your business to cut back on some services? Let us know what for and why in the comments.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

One early evening while I was over to Gram’s, ABC World News Tonight broke the story about Twitter. I thought “Great! how was I going to explain this to her?” I know I make some of my living explaining blogging and social media to people, but its a whole other animal explaining it to your parents.

So I pulled it up my phone, showed her my Twitter account and explained that it was like a bulletin board that tells people what you are doing.

I thought that was it and then a story with Facebook came up. I then had to explain that not everyone can see my profile and that only some people can only see some things, not everything (BTW, I wrote a post as to how to control who sees what in Facebook).

Finally the news about Craigslist hit the fan. I then had to explain  to both Gram and my father that I couldn’t remember the last time I sold anything on CL. If I did, I always met the person in a public place ( as a New Yorker, that’s just plain common sense.)

No matter how old you get, parents are still going to be parents, fearful and concern for their child’s safety whether online or offline.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

Before the presentation, I got to mingle with the audience to see where their interests lie and what they were hoping to get out of the talk. Some wrote reviews, others work in the industry, so it was interesting to hear about the different viewpoints of being in theatre.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

Here are a few tips that I took away (I would of tweeted these, but I was afraid I would run out of power on my phone.):

“Disruption is a threat and an opportunity.” – Steve Douty, EVP nGeneva

“Make sure content is relevant and consistent.” – Nestor Portillo, Microsoft

“(According to Tim Berens- Lee,) The web has always been social. – Rhonda Lowry VP, Social Media Technologies, Turner Broadcasting System

“Learning to take talk to people in real time about real issues. – Rhonda Lowry, Turner Broadcasting System.

“If you have to ask it its OK, then its not.” – Andy Sernovitz, Gaspedal
(Sounds like something my Mom would of said.)

“Its about having conversations, not lectures” – Larry Blumenthal, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

“Going from broadcasting to the challenge of forming relationships” – Marc Monseau – Johnson & Johnson

“My house (blog) my rules” – Marc Monseau – Johnson & Johnson
(This sounds like something Gram would say.)

To see what everyone had to say about the conference, follow #blogwell on Twitter.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

I was quoted today in an article from Web Worker Daily.

Learn more about what others say about what it takes to have a career in search.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

“Great, just what I need with a conference call at High Noon!”  What was I going to do?

I then called my father, master of all things communication tech (in my book, at least) and he reminded me to use the “old school” corded phone I had for the call.

So I picked up the phone to make sure I had a dial tone, disconnected the landline phone from its usual place and connected it to the modular jack near my desk and I was ready to roll with 5 minutes to spare.

The lesson here, always have a landline phone stashed away, you never know when you may need it.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

Back in February, I was invited to be on a Media Management Career Panel at my Business School Alma Mater, Metropolitan College of New York.

Click on the picture to view the video.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.

So before going on an “all borough scavenger hunt” , I decided to start online.  I went to a search engine and typed “lamp supplies.”  The results that came up were not specific enough, so I then typed in “lamp nut.”

This last query led me to a store in Little Italy  that had a webpage describing “finials.”  They say that a lamp is not complete without a finial.

I did tell the store owner that I found the store online.  He said that it was nice to know that the investment was paying off.

Tip to local retailers: Ask new customers how they found out about your store. It will give insight into your marketing and then you will be able to make informed decisions  about uncoming maketing plans.

The moral of this article is that advertisers have one vocabulary and the customer has another.  Make an effort to communicate in the customer’s language. That wil not only translate into revenue, but it will give you an opportunity to educate the customer as well.

This post is from Stephanie M. Cockerl's blog, From the desk of next STEPH.