Brickman Blog

Travel the world with your phone!

Are you keeping up with all of the  Voice Over IP (VoIP) phone services? Thousands of businesses, large and small, are now successfully using VoIP. If you don't already use them, check out Vonnage and Skype - the quality is high and the cost is unbeatable. Take the time to research what's out there these days, too.  More and more in this arena! Check out and compare VoIP Providers.

Create an internal telephony network. LAN and PBX vendors can install IP-PBXs and IP Phones on your premises. You'll have improved productivity with voice mailk, intercom, and auto-attendance features. You'll enjoy reduced costs for moves, adds and changes as employees can simply take their IP phones with them and plug them into any working Lan report. Your remove employees and remote locations are now more easily supported with modern, full service telephony features.

Here are some questions to ask yourself...

Q - Is VoIP for me?

A VoIP or broadband phone service (also known as digital phone service) can help you save up to 90% of your monthly phone bill.

It's best suited for you if you can relate to any of the following needs:

- I have a high speed internet connection and would like to lower my phone bills.

- I make expensive long distance phone or international calls and want to minimize costs.

- I run a small business and phone bill services make up a significant part of my overhead.

- I like the convenience of taking my number with me as I travel anywhere in the world.

- I'd like to utilize attractive features such as conference calling, choice of any area code, voice mail, caller ID, call waiting etc.

- I live outside the U.S. but I need a local NYC number for my business.

Check it out!

Email Marketing

How much are we all utilizing Email Marketing? As much as possible, ideally. Here's what we learned at the recent SBDC Small Business Technology Boot Camp...

For permission-based Email Marketing to work, it must be Relevant, Valuable, Appealing and most importantly, the recipient is always in control.

Why Email Marketing?

It's easy to execute

It's relatively inepensive

It can be very targeted

There is instant delivery

You can track and compare results

And the Best Practices for Email Marketing?

Don't spam - use only permission based lists, opt-in, double opt-in

Create your own mailing list

Be relevant. Customize your message for different recipients

Create value for the recipient

Use Viral Marketing techniques such as Forward to a friend

Test and measure results for Different creative ideas, Different positioning, Different MarCom

Tools to use include Vertical Response, ConstantContact and YesMail

So, be sure you're incorporating Email Marketing in your Marketing campaign today! It's inexpensive and can be very effective!

The Right Kind of Boot Camp For Me!

Recently, I attended the 2008 SBDC Small Business Technology Bootcamp. It was an amazing experience that I recommend to everyone in business. An all day event, we covered a wide array of tech topics that impact company profits. Developed by the Northern California Small Business Development Center Network (Norcal SBDC), the Boot Camp was held in 10 cities in the greater Bay Area in 2008. It had a focus on "Transformative Technology" which covered the "best of the best" in technology solutions aimed specificlaly at small businesses.

I'll cover more of this in the future but do you have a Productivity Suite? If not, check out Star Office, Apple iWorks, ELOffice, Open Office, Zoho, or Think Free! There's also AppCentral.

More great tech strategies to come that will help improve your business!

Seamless Integrated Communication!

After hearing about this for a few months, I decided today to call AT&T and order their service so that my voice mails will be emailed to me. It's fabulous! I often have to pull myself away from the computer to check voice mails and now it's all seamless integrated communication! Plus, I can receive faxes online and it was simple to have their emails forwarded to my Thunderbird email box. Here's what they just wrote to me, too...

Thank you for choosing AT&T Unified Messaging^SM! We appreciate your decision to choose AT&T Unified Messaging (AT&T UM) and we believe you will be pleased with the choice you�ve made. You�ll find our service has much more to offer than independent stand alone voice mail, email and fax services. We have combined the three in such a way that is sure to exceed your expectations of what a Unified Messaging product is all about.

Some of the great benefits you will receive with AT&T UM are:

• A single place to manage all of your voice, email, and fax messages.
• Flexible and simplified retrieval of all your different messages -- via phone¹, PC, or your wireless phone from AT&T² (wireless integration not included with AT&T Unified Messaging Lite).

So...this is definitely a time-saver and a great use of technology! Check it out!

Multimedia Coverage!

A huge thanks to The Californian, the daily newspaper in Salinas, for their outstanding and visual multi-media coverage of the 41st Annual Scottish Games and Celtic Festival that was held in Toro Park this past weekend. On Thursday, July 3rd, The Californian did an incredible advance cover photo story in their entertainment magazine, The Ink, for the first time ever in that publication.

Several reporters and photographers came out to the festival ,and on Saturday, they wrote another terrific feature article. On Monday, July 7th, there was yet another feature story in The Californian. In addition, there was an excellent Slide Show of photos on the website.

Next, they added a video about the athletic feats on the website, too.

Great coverage! The other media was very generous as well...although the TV stations failed to join us for the first time ever due to covering the fires in Big Sur and their small weekend reporter staff. I also implemented an aggressive and diverse ad campaign and attendance was excellent. The weather was gorgeous, everyone had fun, and I certainly hope you joined us for this fabulous event!

Taglines!

Not all of this blog's readers have attempted to play the bagpipes but if you had, you would quickly realize that a reed you can EASILY play is very motivating. I've been struggling with a reed that was too difficult for me until I met Colin MacLellan at the 4th Annual Monterey Bay School of Piping. I cannot describe my delight at being able to play the pipes after Colin adjusted the reed for my skill level.

And, he suggested I look at his website which is excellent: http://www.pipereeds.com

I was delighted to see such an excellent tagline for something that is SO important to a piper. Great site! Great reeds! Great instructor!

Colin MacLellan Reeds – guaranteed to play vibrantly in tune and at the strength you require!

Black Irish Band!

We're all very excited to hear the performances of The Black Irish Band who will be performing at the upcoming 41st Annual Monterey Scottish Games & Celtic Festival.  The band has been together around 20 years and features the music of Ireland, Italy and America. Sounds like an irresitible combination!

From a marketing standpoint, I love the fact that they'll have something pleasing for all of us! As someone who is a huge music lover, it's wonderful to see how cowboy and country music evolved from Celtic music, for example.

A little bit about the band...

America's only Italian & Irish Band" -Double the fun!!

Hailing from the historic Gold Rush Country of America, the Black Irish Band of nineteen years, have a musical style that is as timeless as the rugged landscape of the west, a tribute to the people whose lives were spent building the world we now take for granted. The band has a large compliment of traditional maritime and railroad music, as well as ethnic tunes in their repertoire. They excel at Irish, Italian, and American folk music with an assortment of original songs and traditional western ballads. The bands musical style captures the spirit of the immigrants of this land, the men and women who tamed the Wild West.

To date the band has produced 17 CD albums and have recorded 82 original song ballads. Their latest, Into the Fire, honors America's Firefighters. The Black Irish Band teamed up with the nation's number one Cowboy Singer, Michael Martin Murphey, in the production of the album. Their newest CD also features a music video with Murphey and the band for a CMT Television release.

Differentiation!

In marketing, we always ask about differentiation...what makes your business different...what's your competitive advantage? Tonight we went to the new Intercontinental Clement Hotel just built on Cannery Row in Monterey. We had dinner at "C" Restaurant and Bar which truly featured many aspects of differentiation.

The dining room was large, comfortable and uncluttered. The windows were floor to ceiling overlooking the gorgeous Monterey Bay. When it became dark later in the evening, the lights in the room were also dim and interesting. The room overlooked their Pacific View Courtyard where one can dine around firepits when the weather warms a bit.

The food was unique and delicious too. I've never had a Castroville Artichoke Fritter which featured morsels of aged goat cheese and pablano sauce and it was great. The New England Style Clam Chowder was different too - made with chardonnay steamed clams and leeks and very tasty. The Fennel crusted Rack of California Lamb served with creamy polenta and Castroville Artichoke hearts was wonderful. How often (up here at least) do you find fettuccine with smoked sardines, sun-dried tomatoes, shaved gilroy garlic, basil and local olive oil - also very flavorful. I didn't even get to try the Mac-N-Cheese or sauteed spinach or many other menu items. Next time!

Soon, they'll be offering a "to go" window for those strolling along Cannery Row or looking for a gourmet snack for the nearby parks or beach.

Although the Intercontinental Hotel chain opened their first hotel property in 1949, nearly 60 years ago, in their newest in Monterey, the spacious modern lobby was beautifully decorated in a contemporary style. They know what they're doing with this hotel! Interesting accents, comfortable clusters of seating. Hanging near the courtyard entrance, there is a three plasma screen with video of the bay that makes for very unique video art. No time to linger tonight but we'll be back because....this hotel is delightfully different!

Seamus Kennedy is coming!

Seamus Kennedy is the ultimate entertainer...and he'll be back in Monterey at the 41st Annual Monterey Scottish Games & Celtic Festival on July 5 and 6, 2008 at Toro County Park!

Here's what the PR for Seamus says...or a bit of it...

So come and enjoy the music and mirth of one of Ireland's most popular exports – Seamus Kennedy! Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Seamus Kennedy has been entertaining audiences all over the United States for the past 32 years and is a favorite at the Monterey Scottish Games & Celtic Festival. With a ready wit and a vast store of songs, he travels from Alaska to Florida, Maryland to California. In concert or festival, in pub or club, in colleges or high schools, Seamus Kennedy has the repertoire and the ability to make folks forget their cares for a while, to relax and enjoy themselves. He encourages the crowd to sing along to silly lyrics and daft ditties or act out the choruses of children's songs. Seamus has an endless supply of rib–tickling jokes, stories and one liners which can leave an audience breathless from laughing so hard. But the Irish have their serious side too, and when Seamus performs one of the more somber ballads such as Tommy Sands' "There Were Roses" or Pete St. John's "Dublin In The Rare Old Times" you can hear a pin drop as the words sink in.

Seamus Kennedy Come out and see him and all of the other great entertainers at the Monterey Scottish Games & Celtic Festival including John Taylor and Hamewith, the Black Irish Band, Delta Police Pipe Band, and much, much, much more!

Celebrities!

It's time to mention how attractive name-dropping celebrities can be for publicity! And, I have just the right person to use as an example - Lorne Cousin, one of our top bagpipe instructors at the upcoming Monterey Bay School of Piping and Drumming which starts June 28th. Anyhow, Lorne Cousin toured with Madonna on her World Tour in 2004. He was fantastic as we drove up to San Jose just to see this show which featured bagpipes and kilts! He is also the piper for Paul and Stella McCartney...just namedropping some celebrities...and you can catch him performing at the upcoming Celtic Concert on July 2nd at Stevenson School in Pebble Beach and even at the Monterey Scottish Games & Celtic Festival on July 5th and 6th. Can you hear the sound of the pipes?