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Lessons From The Facebook Founder What Do Moms, Intellectual Articles, Profits Property 101 Have In Common? Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 1
PAGE 2 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
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LETTER
From The President
w a h S e l l e h c i R
One Month In – Boy is This Getting Exciting! After the 2-year search, when I discovered that NAFMIB had chosen me to be the new leader, I was both honored and scared to death. That’s when I thought to myself – this might be the right fit. Over the last 30 days of actively taking calls, meeting potential new sponsors and officially representing the association, I now know that this is going to be an exciting time for both me and the organization.
During this month, was my first board meeting, my first trip to Washington, DC to meet with senators, the assistant administrator of the SBA and others. WOW- I met people who were not only committed to Moms in Business but to helping advance the businesses of our members. Our first order of business is organizing ourselves to be able to communicate effectively with Washington, DC our members concerns and solutions. Here is how we would like to do this. 1.
We have a new website debuting in the next few days and you will receive a notification of how to login and access your membership account and how to participate in the trainings. 2. We have a Facebook page for the National Association for Moms in Business and here is the link – make sure that we are connected there! https://www.facebook.com/#!/ momsinbusiness 3. We can also connect on Twitter and I will be there to answer your questions and posts – Twitter.com/ richelleshaw or Twitter.com/momsinbusiness
And lots more stuff to come to help you promote your business! Oh yeah, and very important – I got to meet live and in color – our Moms In Business $50,000 Grant Winner – and last month’s cover girl – Tara Coles . I look forward to meeting each one of you too!
Richelle
PAGE 4 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
INSIDE
AUGUST
2012
26
4 LETTER
Letter From The President, Richelle Shaw One Month In - Boy is This Getting Exciting!
NOW 6
Moms Minutes
8
News
10
Important Tips and Briefs
16
Updates
Why 5% Succeed Master Resilience for Maximum Results
FEATURE 14
The Women of the USPTO
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is one of the…
20
STANDOUT 12 20
Money Lessons From The Facebook Founder
Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg made news recently when he refinanced the $5.95 million...
Going Remote: An Agency’s Transformation Through Teleworking For over 200 years, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been
22
Intellectual Property 101
24
USPTO Resources
25
The Women’s Entrepreneurial Symposium
26
The 10 Smartest Web Analytics Tools
28
What Do Moms, Articles, Profits Have In Common?
30
Communication Assessment Quiz
32
“Intellectual property”; you’ve heard that term before—in online media, on television... If you want to learn how to protect your creative work, but aren’t sure where. In 2011, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) initiated the Women’s Entrepreneurship...
22 14
Trying to understand your Web visitors can be a bit, well, confusing. Each individual visitor... Market Your Business To Moms & Increase Profits From.... Check your CEQ: Communication Effectiveness Quotient
Bits ‘n Pieces ~ Children & Friends “Hello, can you hear me?”
On The Cover
USPTO Women
Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 5
NOW
Moms Minutes
81%
of Employers Plan to Continue Offering Health Coverage According to a survey by Deloitte, 9% of those surveyed are planning on dropping health coverage; 10% are not sure and 81% plan on retaining health coverage; a marked decrease from last year’s survey by McKinsey & Co., which revealed that 30% of employers were dropping health coverage.
Millennials are Rising A bigger generation than Baby Boomers, Millennials (age 16-34) mystify their parents, bosses and marketers alike. As they enter college and start careers and families, this dynamic generation is having a huge impact on American culture, politics, media, retailing and technology. They are the most informed and empowered generation in history.
g to n i t r e v n o C Stores are out k c e h c f l e S Mobile and The RFID technology is changing the way we check out - without scanning! Radio Frequency Identification is becoming the greatest tracking system available. “It’s really cool and it’s really easy. … You don’t have to scan an item, you just throw it down and there’s the price,” said CEO Ron Johnson. JC Penny is one of the stores that is converting over the next few months. No more people with registers.
PAGE 6 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
Amazon Wins Trust From Consumers Twice as Much as Facebook Consumers have shown they are much more willing to let Amazon use their purchase history to recommend products than they are to entrust the same data to Google or Facebook, according to a Harris Interactive study.
2/3rds of consumers happy to have their Amazon history used for targeting purposes
41% of consumers were happy to let Google use same data
33% were willing to trust Facebook with their data
http://www.adweek.com
Increased Number of Supermarkets Find Offering Mobile-Enabled Shopping Beneficial
Supermarkets that are offering
mobile-enabled shopping are steadily increasing. Consumers are finding that being able to maintain shopping lists and gather coupons in one place is extremely convenient. According to Rebecca Roose, senior product marketing manager at MyWebGrocer, Grocers are finding “mobile shoppers spend 68% more than in-store shoppers” and become more loyal.
Moms Minutes
New App guides you through airport mazes easily A new mobile app was put to the test at Heathrow airport, not only for survival of arrival but for changing flights as well. A flight app (iFly) came to the rescue with its all-purpose airport guide (for all airports around the world) and an airline-timing guide. In the U.S., it also provides airport status, delays and closings and flight arrivals/departures and their gates. It also provides the shops and their locations, ATMs, amenities etc. Larger airports such as Newark or Chicago O’Hare offers even more details. It had some limitations, so be sure to review some of the other travel apps as well if you are planning a trip: iFly ($1.99), GateGuru (Free), FlightTrack ($4.99), FlightCaster ($1.99), NextFlight ($2.99), MyTSA (Free).
News - Phone Scam - Beware Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, scammers have been posing as government employees requesting your personal information, bank accounts, Social Security and Medicare numbers. They are basically threatening that if you do not provide this information then you are at risk of losing the health benefits you’re entitled to.
Plug-in Helps Retailers to Significantly Increase Sales
by Allowing Consumers to Ask for a Better Deal A
new Plug-in allows purchasers to negotiate a better price right on the website. The Netotiate Plug-In is for retailers of any size, engaging visitors and generating more purchases.
“Our plug-in was designed not to cannibalize margins or sales that would have occurred anyway, but rather help retailers engage visitors before they leave to buy somewhere else, or not buy at all,” said Amir Farhi, Netotiate’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Even if a visitor to your site wants to buy a product from you, if your listed price isn’t right for the visitor, many will simply leave and look for a better deal elsewhere. With our plug-in, retailers have a new way to compete and close more sales by taking steps towards engaging their customers,” added Farhi. “Sometimes a few dollars off will do the trick to close a sale. Netotiation also helps circumvent Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) restrictions, a problem many retailers are struggling with.” http://www.netotiate.com
Target Your Tweet
Now you can now tweet to targeted audiences. A new service enhancement to Twitter allows marketers to promote to a target of subset consumers without tweeting all followers. There are also instances where sammers are posing as Medicare or Social Security employees who need to “update” or “verify” your on-file data; or as FDA or DEA agents who threaten to arrest you for buying medication from an online pharmacy, or even an IRS agent wanting your personal information for a supposed tax problem or refund.
Campaigns can be based on device platform, operating system or location. “Now global brands that have different launch dates for several countries can send tailored messages at different times, customized for the users in each country,”… http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/179178/twitterrolls-out-targeted-tweets.html
Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 7
NOW
News
BREAKING NEWS! Moms In Business has a new website...and a special gift for our visitors! Go to www.NAFMIB.org or MIBN.org and you’ll see a newly formatted site. Members should have received an email alerting you about the change and what needs to be done. In addition, for a limited time, AT&T will be sponsoring basic membership. You better get on board. -- Even if you already had a previously sponsored membership, you need to re-sign up.
$2500 + SCHOLARSHIPS! Fill in our new membership application - get your sponsored basic membership for free - fill out the FULL membership/ scholarship application when you sign up and you are automatically registered to be considered for a sponsored membership in one of our programs with free coaching!
Mobile Moms In Business Site There is now a mobile website for Moms In Business. Go onto your smart phone and discover the website is easily viewed on your phone.
Please Excuse the Dust! We will continue “construction” of the new site, so please be patient while we are working it all up.
Nominate a Top 10 Mom in Business! We’re seeking the Top 10 Moms in Business per industry. We’re looking for Top 10 Moms in the Technology Business, Top 10 Moms in Washington DC, Top 10 Moms in the Retail Business, Top 10 Moms in the Media Business, and many more! Click onto the Magazine Link at mibn.org and submit your nomination today.
Now LOG IN with FACEBOOK! You can now log in to your Moms In Business Membership with Facebook! Just click the button, connect and go. You can also sign up for membership via Facebook.
PAGE 8 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
Get to Know Our New President by Grabbing a Free Copy of Her Book www.TheMillionDollarEquation.com
Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 9
Why 5% Succeed
Master Resilience For Maximum Results
W
e all have days when the kids are nuts, the clients are crazy. The vendors must be mad...and let's not even talk about your sweetie!! How you handle stressful situations determines how successful you'll be in your business. Here's a simple four-step process that will help you build Resilience. Step One: Awareness - Recognize the Signs Notice when you’re starting to feel stressed, overwhelmed, or frustrated. Are you avoiding something you know you have to do? Are you deliberately distracting yourself from taking important action? Review your physical state - do you have sweaty palms, a fast heart rate, shallow breathing, or spinning thoughts? If you’re not in a romantic clinch, these are signs of stress. Time to get Resilient! Step Two: Attention - Get Focused Sit up straight in your chair, close your eyes, and take a deep breath in, letting your stomach puff out with extra air. Breathe in deeply through your nose for a count of 5, hold it for a count of 3, then exhale with vigor through your mouth for a count of 5 - really push the air out. Do this breathing exercise three times and hear the word, “Relax” in your mind. Breath nourishes your body and refreshes your mind, opening you to new ideas. Focus on how great you will feel once this challenge is resolved and your objective is complete. Imagine it’s all done and you are victorious! Let the feelings of delight rush through you. Think of another time when you were outrageously successful and bask in those emotions. Emotions determine motion. When you’re in a positive emotional state, you’re able to take positive action.
By Elaine Starling
Step Three: Appreciation - Notice What’s WORKING Most people get stuck by focusing on the problem and looking for reasons why it happened. Resourceful people imagine they have accomplished their objective, and then gain insight on how to get there. Imagine your objective in detail, including how you will feel, what you will see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and how you will move once this objective is complete. Next, on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is you haven’t started working yet and 10 is satisfied completion, where are you on this scale right now? Why did you pick such a high number? This exercise prompts you to recognize the skills, talents, experience, and resources that are already available to you. It helps you get into a state of appreciation and curiosity. Your positive emotions and awareness of your resources set you up to take effective action. Step Four: Action - The Critical 2.5% Tim Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Workweek,” states that just 2.5% of the actions you could take will deliver 95% of the results you need. Consider one small thing you could do immediately that would move you one step further up the scale towards completion of your goal. Make sure the step is something small and simple that you can do right away. Create a mindset of coming from a place of service before you take action. Supporting others is usually the fastest way to support yourself. You’ll find your momentum builds quickly as you take small steps forward and notice your progress. Remember, big shots are little shots that keep firing!
Elaine Starling: President and Chief Marketing Insighter - Starling Media Services, Inc. Author of “Your Success is Social: Contribution is the New Currency,” and “Why 5% Succeed: The 5 Secret Strategies of Business Winners” with Gina Robison-Billups. Elaine is also a sought-after speaker, consultant, columnist, mentor, entrepreneur and Innovation Expert, teaches people how to double their business results with The Revenue FormulaTM. Meet Elaine at www.ElaineStarling.com and connect with her about Why 5% Succeed at www. Why5Succeed.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/Why5Succeed, Facebook: http://www.facebook. com/why5succeed
PAGE 10 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 11
STANDOUT
Money Lessons From The Facebook Founder
By Ike Ikokwu, CFP, CPA, MSPFP The Financial Independence Coach
Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg made news recently when he refinanced the $5.95 million mortgage on his Palo Alto, Calif., home with a 30-year adjustable-rate loan starting at 1.05 percent. The question I keep hearing folks ask is; ‘Why does a billionaire like Mark need a mortgage on his home? Why doesn't he just pay it off with cash?’
T
hat, my friends, is indeed the million-dollar question. The answer lies in the fact that Mark ascribes to my definition of being debt-free. While most financial gurus believe all debt is bad, I don't. I believe that there's good debt and there's bad debt. Bad debt does not increase your personal net worth nor does it provide any tax benefits. Good debt either increases your personal net worth or provides tax benefits. A mortgage is an example of good debt. Most define debt- free as having absolutely no debt. I define debt-free as eliminating all forms of bad debt and wisely using good debt to accumulate a pool of funds that's liquid, accessible, earns a real rate of return, in your control and that can serve as collateral. With funds accumulated in this manner, you can now make the decision to pay off the good debt that you have - if you deem that to be a prudent use of your money.
PAGE 12 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
What Mark is doing definitely fits this description. If you had the choice of being debt-free with $12 million in assets and $2 million in good debt or being debt-free with $2 million in assets and no debt, which would you choose? I'd choose the former and apparently so has Mark.
So what other lessons can young Mark Zuckerberg teach us? Here are a few:
Time Value of Money Lesson Inflation teaches us that our money is most valuable to us today. That is why taking out an interest-only loan and deferring the payment of principal owed to the bank until
Moms Making A Million
Powered By: Moms Making A Million
Helping One Million Moms Creat a Path To One Million Dollars in Personal Net Worth One Million Dreams, One Million Moms, One Million Dollars
sometime later in the future is a prudent money lesson you should pay attention to.
Leverage Lesson Leverage is the use of borrowed capital to increase the potential return on investment. The less money you put into the purchase of a home, the higher your return on investment. Using “Other People’s Money” (OPM) is a proven method to accumulate wealth.
Liquidity, Use and Control (LUC Factor) Lesson Paying cash for a house violates a very core economic and financial principle I teach my clients which is that at all times, CASH is KING. You must do everything you can in the way you manage or invest your money to make sure you maintain liquidity, use and control of your funds. To be financially successful in life, I tell my clients they’ll need a lot of “LUC.”
Collateral Capacity Lesson Having collateral capacity on where your funds are invested allows you to use “Other People’s Money” to create even more wealth. This fact alone is why Mark obtained a preferential rate of 1 percent on his mortgage loan.
The Spread or Arbitrage Profit Lesson This refers to the amount of money that can be made on the difference between the cost of borrowing versus what can be earned on those borrowed funds. This is one way that banks make a ton of money and a very powerful money lesson for you in regards to your own money.
Velocity of Money Lesson This speaks to the ability to get multiple investment uses out
of the same dollar. It’s the equivalent of having $100,000 in two separate investments and reaping the benefits of what each investment yields. Apply these principles to help you win the money game!
Best-Selling Author Ike Ikokwu, (Amazon. com) “The Financial Independence Coach,” is a CPA, CFP and Registered Investment Adviser. He holds a bachelor’s in accounting and a master’s in personal financial planning. Ikokwu is president and CEO of Winning the Money Game with Ike, a tax and financial advisory firm, in Cumming, Ga. His book “Winning the Money Game” highlights the corrective measures that turned around his fortunes after a personal bankruptcy. Find out more about Ike and his company’s services online at www.winningthemoneygame.net.
Go to www.MomsMakingaMillion.com for financial information and tools to grow your business. Moms Making a Million is a program of the National Association For Moms In Business Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 13
Feature
The
By Gina Robison-Billups
Women of the
USPTO
PAGE 14 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is one of the oldest organizations in the federal government. Authorized by the U.S. Constitution in 1787, the agency’s workforce has grown from a small office under the first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, to more than 10,000 employees under the Department of Commerce. These civil servants work tirelessly to ensure that the fruits of American innovation are protected through the grant of patents and registration of trademarks. While David J. Kappos currently serves as Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, the next three senior executive positions are all held by women.
Commissioner for Trademarks Debbie Cohn, Commissioner for Patents Peggy Focarino, and Deputy Under Secretary for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO Teresa Stanek Rea have each been instrumental in the continued growth and success of the agency. All three bring immeasurable knowledge and expertise to their respective positions, and they all approach their professional and personal lives, as well as their roles as moms in business, in unique and enlightening ways. For this exclusive story, Moms In Business had the opportunity to interview these remarkable ladies and share their inspiring words of wisdom with readers.
Continued on page 16
Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 15
Continued from page 15
Feature
The
Women of the USPTO
Debbie Cohn has been with the USPTO for 29 years. She
is currently the Commissioner for Trademarks. In this role, she oversees all aspects of the Trademarks organization, including policy, operations and budget, registration and maintenance of trademarks. How did you become involved in intellectual property and working at the USPTO? When I was in law school, there weren’t a lot of intellectual property classes, but I found one on patents, trademarks and copyrights, and I thought, “Trademarks—that’s the place for me.” I’d always been interested in public service and admired people working in it, and government service and trademarks together seemed like the perfect match. So when a position for a trademark-examining attorney opened up, I interviewed for it and was lucky enough to get hired straight out of law school. The rest is history. What exactly does the Trademark side of the USPTO do? Through the federal registration of trademarks, the agency assists businesses in protecting their investments, promoting goods and services, and safeguarding consumers against confusion and deception in the marketplace. Trademarks are an extremely important aspect of our economy. For many companies, their trademark is their most valuable asset. It is what consumers rely on for every transaction they do on a day-to-day basis. It’s what drives our economy in the sense that companies and brand owners rely on the goodwill and recognition that they engender through their trademarks. Tell us about your kids
I have one daughter, and she is now an attorney herself in a private firm practicing patent law. (The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree!) Intellectual property was always a topic of conversation at our dinner table. We talked about patents and trademarks and what those ideas and concepts meant, so I wasn’t surprised that she started down that path, although, being interested in science; she went the patent route rather than the trademark route. As a mother, how did you maintain a good work/life balance?
One of the most important things was and is to make sure I get enough physical exercise. Also, when my daughter was young, I PAGE 16 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
took advantage of the flexible schedules available at the USPTO, which allowed me to manage my work and my family life. Now that I don’t have any small children at home, the balance is quite a bit easier, but I think being healthy, exercising, and taking time for fun and family is really, really important. The USPTO strives to give employees many options, including telework (work from home) and flexible schedules so that they don’t have to choose between work and personal lives. That is really the key to a productive and happy employee. You actually played a major role in creating one of those options, right?
Yes, I was involved in the early stages of the first telework program at the USPTO. I spearheaded the pilot program and moved things along, worked on the evaluation, and just tried to make telework part of the mainstream of our business. At this point, 90 percent of all our trademark attorneys work from home full time, and 87 percent of all Trademarks employees work at least part of the week from home. Since the first pilot, we’ve been looked upon as the gold standard in the federal government for telework, so it’s a professional achievement that I am most proud of.
What’s on the horizon for Trademarks? Trademarks is in a good place in terms of its operations. We want to continue delivering high quality service and trademark registrations, but we’re also trying to increase the general outreach to the public about trademark protection, about the need for protection, and about why somebody starting a business would want to make sure that they understand trademarks and the federal registration system. It’s very important work, and I think when you look at the people doing the work in this agency, you’ll find that it’s only positive. If people with negative impressions of federal employees could see what our USPTO employees do, they would get a completely different view. We are truly dedicated.
examiner did. Back then intellectual property was not talked about frequently in day-to-day life, although my grandfather and some of my uncles had patents, so I knew what they were. I really liked the possibility of using my technical background but also learning about the law, so when I got the call, I decided, “I’ll give it a try. It sounds like a really interesting job.” Tell us about your children I have four, and they all have different interests. The youngest is going to be a senior in high school, and the oldest is getting her Ph.D. in chemistry this summer. One is a violinist, and the fourth one is going to law school in the fall. We’re currently doing the college tour with the high school senior, and he wants to go into business. In your own words, what is the role of the USPTO and patents? At the very high level, our mission is to grant patents and register trademarks, but what that really means to the average person is that your ideas are important, and if you have a novel idea, then you need to protect it, and patents and trademarks are two of the tools used to do it. Our role is to ensure that people are granted valid intellectual property rights to their inventions and in turn hopefully they can then create jobs and new industries with those inventions. We work with a lot of people who don’t know what to do—even if they’ve got a patent, they don’t know where to turn next. We focus on not just helping people get their ideas protected, but also on educating them on how to get investment money and venture capital.
How do you manage a good work/life balance? I think people fall into the trap of thinking that if they’re at the office 15 hours a day, then they’re a superstar. I’m at peace with the fact that even if I were here 24 hours a day, it wouldn’t be enough to deal with all the issues, so learning how to prioritize but also making sure that you have the right balance is important. It requires discipline to say every night, “I’m going home at 5:30,” because it’s very tempting to say, “I’ll just stay another half hour, an hour,” and when you get home the kids say, “Where were you?” If you don’t have that balance, you won’t be a good parent, and you won’t be a good employee.
Margaret “Peggy” Focarino began her career at the
USPTO in 1977 as a patent examiner. In 2012, she became the first woman to serve as Commissioner for Patents. As commissioner, she oversees all aspects of the Patents organization, including operations, examination policy, resources and planning, and administration. How did you get to the USPTO and working in government? I came right from undergrad with a degree in physics. I had always wanted to be a public servant and live in the Washington, D.C., area, and the Patent Office was one of the agencies to which I applied. I didn’t know much about what a patent
During your time here, what changes have you seen in gender equality? When I first came here it was not a very diverse place. There were about 50 women out of over a thousand examiners. The men that were here tended to be older and did not know what it was like to have female colleagues or friends. I was shocked by that. It was very difficult at times. My approach was to try to gain respect for the position that I was in and be accepted and do a really good job. I figured if I had that, then the other stuff would work itself out. I’m thrilled every time I walk around campus today and see the diversity that has taken root. Women now make up one third of the organization, and many different races and ethnicities are strongly represented. Continued on page 16
Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 17
Continued from page 15
Feature
The
Women of the USPTO
It’s wonderful that people aren’t dealing with those old issues anymore, because the work itself is hard enough.
How has being a mother influenced your decision making and your career? It’s been a tremendous benefit. Being a mother teaches you to compromise and to be able to deal with the issues when the time is right to deal with them. That’s critical in a leadership role; you can’t mandate that things happen. I mean, I can, but that’s a very short-term solution. What you really want is for people to want to do things. So looking for ways to compromise and take input and to find out why things are done certain ways rather than to just judge and say, “I’m going to tell you how to do it and you better trust me”—I think you learn that when you have children.
Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO. She joined the agency in 2011, having spent a distinguished career in the field of intellectual property, including serving as the president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. As deputy director, Terry helps oversee an entire organization that encourages innovation and technical advancement, and helps businesses and inventors protect and promote their investments. How did your career bring you to the USPTO? It was perhaps the most interesting route of anybody that I’m aware of. I have a pharmacy degree and a law degree. I worked for corporations for four years, an intellectual property boutique law firm, and for two large practice law firms. I was active in a variety of aspects of intellectual property. When I was offered the opportunity to become deputy director, I couldn’t possibly say no because this was my first chance to actually try and make things operate the way I thought they should. Since I have a different background than some of the career people in the USPTO, I offer a diverse perspective and approach to the various issues that arise.
Tell us about your kids I have three daughters. They are now 22, 23, and 25 years old. The oldest two are chemical engineers, and the baby just graduated from college and is a bio medical engineer. Perhaps it was my daughters’ destinies to go into engineering, but it’s difficult to raise children and not tell them what to do. When they were young and would ask me what they could be when they grew up, I would give them a potpourri of ideas, but always in the sciences: chemistry, pharmacology, chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, etc. So I tried to plant it indirectly that way. Think it worked?
Teresa Stanek Rea
is Deputy Under Secretary of
PAGE 18 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
What more can you add about the USPTO’s mission? We help establish intellectual property policy for the entire administration, and we have constant contact with intellectual property offices around the world. Right now we can’t look at things only from the perspective of the United States—we have to expand the scope of what we know about intellectual property. Patent legislation throughout the world is undergoing significant change. There are similarities being built into a lot of the legislation that will make it easier for Americans to obtain international protection for their innovations. We want U.S. inventors to enter the global marketplace, to have confidence to build businesses, hire people and create jobs. How do you manage a good work/life balance? I never liked the word “balance” because that means at
times you are out of balance. The way I have navigated my professional and personal careers is to just remain focused. If I am handling something in my personal life, I remained focused on those personal issues and make the best decisions I can, but likewise in my professional life I remain focused and try to take any personal distractions out of my mind. When I’m at work, I’m all in, but when I’m with my family in the evenings or on the weekend, I am totally focused on them. So, I try not to balance and I don’t worry about being out of balance. It also helps that I have a very supportive husband. Do you have a breaking the glass ceiling moment? A woman in my generation was supposed to have gotten direct and indirect messages that she can’t do science or be a lawyer. Somehow, I didn’t get those messages. My dad was a mechanical engineer; the only homework he could help me with was math and science. Therefore, if my dad was a male and he was teaching me math and science, it never occurred to me that perhaps there was a genderbased reason why I couldn’t do it. So, I didn’t actually have a breaking the glass ceiling moment
because I don’t think I ever saw that glass ceiling.
Any last advice for other moms in business? Every mother is unique. There is not going to be one model that every woman in business should strive to reach but rather you have to know yourself and what you are comfortable with, what skills you already come with, and what skills do you need—because we all need a few more skills. Know yourself and be confident, and the sky is indeed the limit. There is nothing holding you down except your own imagination. Lastly, I recommend giving positive comments as often as possible to the people you’re with and to the people you work with. You never know; one positive comment could hit the right chord and give someone the confidence to go ahead and do something that just might exceed everyone’s expectations.
Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 19
STANDOUT
Going Remote:
An Agency’s Transformation Through Teleworking By Danette Campbell
F
or over 200 years, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been committed to protecting intellectual property (IP) and achieving organizational excellence. In the last two decades, one very important strategy has helped support these efforts, and that strategy is the USPTO Telework Program. “Telework” is a catchall term used to describe when employees work remotely and access the USPTO communications network via computer, interacting with their supervisors and coworkers through email, telephone, instant messaging, and video conferencing. It has been my great pleasure to serve as the director of this program for the past six years, but it wasn’t my first foray into telework. PAGE 20 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
I’ve been involved with telework programs for the last 15 years. In that time, I’ve heard the same mantra echoed by countless employees about onsite work: horrific daily commutes and loss of family time. Obviously a telework program appears like a glass of cool water in the middle of the desert. But on the other side of the equation, employers struggle with the thought of managing employees outside their line of sight.
With the rise of Internet communications, the USPTO realized the possibility of implementing a telework program. In 1997 the Trademark organization started its first telework pilot under the leadership of Debbie Cohn (see the MIB interview for more about Debbie). In that genesis, 18 examining attorneys
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teleworked a few days a week from home and shared office space when they came into the office. Fast-forward to 2012, and the agency now has 7253 employees teleworking between one and five days per week. Something obviously went right! From that first pilot program, the USPTO began to understand how issues like challenging commutes affect its workforce and an employee’s efficiency. The agency also realized the need to educate its managers about managing a distributed workforce and devised better supervisor-training programs. In the years to come, more benefits to telework would present themselves, benefits that were not just good for the employees and the agency, but also for the environment, economy, and the Washington, D.C., area as a whole. Take the most recent data from 2011, for example.
There were 3,464 employees working from home 4-5 days a week (full time). Collectively, over the course of a single year that resulted in:
uu 39,919,215 miles not driven (less wear and tear to cars and roads, and relief to traffic congestion) uu $5,220,102 savings to employees in gas costs
uu A reduction of 20,957 tons in emissions going into the atmosphere
Those numbers do not include employees who telework on a
part-time basis, which further adds to these mindboggling (in a good way) numbers. Additionally, as a result of teleworking, the USPTO has avoided the need to secure additional real estate and offices when hiring new employees. But perhaps the most pleasing impact telework has had on the USPTO is the increase in employees’ production and satisfaction with their jobs, which has helped the USPTO retain its highly skilled workforce. Attrition rates are at the lowest in agency history (about 4%), and surveys of USPTO employees indicate that the telework programs encourages employees to extend their years of service at the agency.
While I have had various work experiences in my lifetime, the USPTO stands out as the most remarkable. The USPTO is a truly product-driven organization. Teams must work together to ensure that product (examined patents and trademark applications) goes out in a timely manner and is of the highest quality. As the face of the telework program, I often get told by employees how much the program means to them and how grateful they are for it. But the truth is, I admire this agency for everything about it. These are top-notch people who make excellence a habit. Looking for a great job? Looking for great people? If you are, then participate in the (beta) HiringMoms.com program from the National Association For Moms In Business. Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 21
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Intellectual Property 101 “Intellectual property”; you’ve heard that term before—in online media, on television, and the business pages of the newspapers—but what exactly is it?
I
ntellectual property (IP) is imagination made real. It is work of the human mind that has been transformed into tangible and valuable products, services, and artistic expressions. IP covers a broad range of human creations from mechanical inventions and designs to trademarks and company logos, to books and drawings. IP is so pervasive in our society that it merely blends into the landscape. For example, it is estimated that every day, the average American comes into contact with up to 2,000 registered trademarks. Chances are many of us work in a segment of the economy that is heavily dependent on IP. The U.S. Department of Commerce released a report1 in PAGE 22 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
April showing that IP-intensive fields accounted for about $5 trillion, or 35 percent, of the U.S. gross domestic product and contributed 40 million, or 27 percent of, jobs to the economy.
The great thing about IP is that it starts with ideas. Some of the most successful and bestselling products in the world are the result of normal people who simply looked at a common problem in a new way and thought of a better way to fix it.
So how do you know if you’ve got a great idea or something that can be classified as intellectual property? The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers a free online tool to assess your intellectual property assets. The IP
Awareness Assessment Tool2 was developed in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and offers users a personalized training resource to evaluate their IP knowledge and targets specific areas they might need more education in.
But the idea is just the first part. Let’s say you’ve got the best thing since sliced bread kicking around your head but you’re not sure what to do next. The most crucial step in bringing any innovation to the marketplace is seeking legal protection for it. Nearly every country in the world has a system to grant its citizens exclusive rights to their intellectual property. In the United States, intellectual property is primarily protected by patents, (mechanical inventions, methods, material compositions, and asexually reproduced plants) and trademarks, (branding material in the form of names, logos, sounds, colors, shapes, designs, etc.). In addition to patents and trademarks, copyrights (creative works such as novels and drawings) and trade secrets (recipes, formulas, methods) all are also forms of intellectual property protection, but governed by different legal procedures than patents and trademarks. Patents grant inventors the right to “exclude” others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the United States or importing it into the United States. A patent is the surest way to keep others from unfairly capitalizing on your ideas and/or inventions. Patents are complex legal documents that grant powerful property rights enforced by American law. Applications for patents are examined by highly skilled professionals and undergo a complex process, known as “prosecution,” to ensure that the subject invention is patentable. When an application for a patent is filed, the inventor is allowed to use the term “patent pending” when marketing and selling his or her invention. While this does not grant legal protection per se, it serves as a warning to would-be idea thieves that the inventor has already sought legal protection for the invention and, in the event that the idea is stolen, provides a legal avenue for the inventor to claim any damages he or she may be entitled to when and if the patent is issued.
If patents serve to protect the idea of an invention or product, trademarks protect an equally important aspect: the product’s identity. Trademarks are words, names, symbols, or devices that are used to identify and distinguish goods from competitors. Trademarks perform a vital function in any business; they establish relationships between products or companies with their customers. The process for obtaining trademarks is also a
legal process, though not quite as time consuming or expensive as the patent process.
While it’s always a good idea for inventors to seek intellectual property protection if they plan to sell or market their ideas, they should also be cautious when dealing with firms and companies that advertise inventor assistance. While many companies are legitimate and do their best to help inventors, there are also a lot of opportunists that will say and do whatever it takes to get your money before leaving you high and dry without IP protection. There is also a lot of bad and just plain wrong advice out there regarding intellectual property protection.
The USPTO’s website offers inventors and entrepreneurs a wealth of valuable information regarding IP. If you’ve got a great idea but are uncertain on how to begin, the Inventors Resources3 pages are a good place to start. The USPTO is working hard to ensure that small businesses, entrepreneurs, and independent inventors have better access to patent and trademark information and resources. 1) Report: http://www.uspto.gov/ip/officechiefecon/report_ip_and_ the us_economy.jsp 2) IP Awareness Assessment Tool: http://www. uspto.gov/inventors/assessment 3) Inventors Resources: http://www. uspto.gov/inventors
Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 23
USPTO RESOURCES If you want to learn how to protect your creative work, but aren’t sure where to start, you can find a wealth of practical information on the USPTO’s website. New inventors should visit the home page of the Office of Innovation Development, which features links to: zz Frequently Asked Questions about Patents [http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/patents. jsp] and Trademarks [http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/trademarks.jsp] for inventors zz Inventor Assistance [http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/edu-inf/index.jsp] zz Educational Resources [http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/edu-inf/index.jsp] zz Scam Prevention [http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/scam_prevention/index.jsp] zz Pro se - Pro bono legal programs [http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/proseprobono/ index.jsp] zz Events [http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/state_resources/index.jsp] zz State Resources [http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/independent/index.jsp] zz Inventors Eye Magazine [http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/independent/index.jsp] The Trademark [http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp] home page will take users to valuable resources, including: zz Basic Facts about Trademarks [http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/process/TMIN.jsp] zz Trademark Information Network (TMIN) Videos [http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/ process/TMIN.jsp] zz Trademark Registration Timelines [http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/process/tm_ timeline.jsp] zz Frequently Asked Questions about Trademarks and the Trademark Electronic Application System [http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/teas/teas_faq.jsp] Entrepreneurs can use the free interactive IP Awareness Assessment Tool [http://www.uspto. gov/inventors/assessment/index.html] to learn about protecting the intellectual property vital to their success.
PAGE 24 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
The Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium In 2011, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) initiated the Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium (WES). This annual event in March celebrates Women’s History Month by recognizing the importance of women in starting and building businesses in the United States. Women-owned firms have the well-documented potential to create millions of jobs and trillions of dollars for the economy.
S
tudies show that women are more customer-focused, more committed to creating opportunities for their employees, and more likely to include community and the environment in their business plans (http://thestoryexchange.org/fired/).
as a driving force in this world, the onus is on us to unleash our ingenuity upon our economic competitors,” said Rea.
Each WES offers a valuable networking opportunity for both male and female entrepreneurs and innovators. At this year’s event, participants were able to connect and share information with fellow innovators and symposium resources, including USPTO executives and staff. In such a setting, participants are able to ask individual questions and share personal experiences to help each other move forward in their innovation journey.
Local business and technological development entities are also well represented at WES. Participating in Louisiana were the Women’s Business Center of the Enterprise Consortium of the Gulf Coast and Louisiana Tech University. Individuals from these organizations provided critical information about local resources available to individuals looking to start or grow a business, including the ever-important and elusive sources of funding, prototype building and manufacturing. In addition, specialized experts Karen Waksman and Renee Quinn respectively shared their individual expertise on how to successfully get products into retail stores and online markets and the use of social media to enhance product sales and business.
The 2012 WES was held March 25-26 in Shreveport, La. Jointly sponsored by the USPTO Office of Innovation Development, United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA), and the city of Shreveport, La., the symposium was a huge success and featured an all-star lineup of women leaders in the worlds of government, intellectual property protection, innovation and business.
“This two-day event recognizes the many pioneering women who have built our great nation,” said Sen. Landrieu in a press release for the event. “It is also an opportunity for inventors and entrepreneurs—both men and women—to network, discuss best practices, and hopefully spark some new innovations.” In Louisiana, successful inventors like Martha McKenzie and trademark recipient Lisa Price, the president of Carol’s Daughter, won the crowd over with their inspired and informative recounting of their experiences patenting and trademarking their intellectual property.
Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO Teresa Stanek Rea delivered the keynote address. Rea’s powerful talk spoke of the roles of women in leadership, business and innovation. “Women’s rights are human rights, and if we’re going to serve
At each symposium, USPTO staff members educate the audience about the importance of intellectual property, the need for its protection, and the various forms of intellectual property that might be present in their businesses— namely patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Presentations by the USPTO at these events focus on how inventors and entrepreneurs can apply for patents and trademark registrations and USPTO services available to assist them in doing so.
Feedback for WES is overwhelmingly positive. Louisiana attendee Kathy Wyatt, who directs the Technological Business Development Center at Louisiana Tech said, “The entire event was excellent. The content was very informative, the USPTO staff members were incredibly helpful, and the women entrepreneurs that spoke were truly inspiring.” The Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium for 2013 is currently in the works and promises to be another great opportunity for everyone. Be on the lookout for future announcements in Moms in Business! Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 25
10
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Market Without Money Powered By: Market Your Business Without Money How do you grow your business without breaking the bank? Creativity, Ingenuity, and Resources are the answer.
Smartest Web Analytics Tools
By John Jantsch Founder, Duct Tape Marketing
By Tim Brown
Trying to understand your Web visitors can be a bit, well, confusing. Each individual visitor brings his own set of data that has to be collected, measured, analyzed and reported. If you don’t know what you’re looking at, it can feel a bit like being handed a Rubik’s Cube.
Luckily, there are plenty of tools out there that can turn all of that collected information into an easy-to-understand report that gives you much-needed insight into your unique Web visitors. When you are armed with this knowledge, you get to see how effective your website is and what changes you need to make in order to make it even better.
PAGE 26 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
Here are some of the top 10 tools that you can use to gain more understanding about your website traffic.
1. Google Analytics. Google Analytics is one of the
best free tools that any website owner can use to track and analyze data about Web traffic. You get to see what keywords are bringing the most visitors to your pages and what aspects of your designs are turning them off. This tool will generate a report for your website that includes information about visitors, traffic sources, goals, content and e-commerce. The downside of Google Analytics is that it can take time to update. (The real-time version is still in beta testing.) There are other
tools that offer real-time updates of your data now.
2. Spring Metrics. Spring Metrics has taken the analytics tool and made it simpler. You don’t have to be a professional data-miner to get the answers to your questions. You get real-time conversion analytics, top converting sources, keyword analytics, landing-page analysis, e-mail performance reports and simple point-andclick configuration. Unlike Google Analytics, Spring Metrics tracks a visitor’s path through your website from the time he landed to the time he left. All of this is included in Spring Metrics’ Standard Plan for $49 a month. When you first sign up, you get to try it free for 14 days. The simplicity of this tool has a lot of website owners switching over from Google Analytics.
3. Woopra. Woopra is another tool that offers real-time
analytics tracking, whereas Google Analytics can take hours to update. It is a desktop application that feeds you live visitor stats, including where they live, what pages they are on now, where they’ve been on your site and their Web browser. You also have the ability to chat live with individual site visitors. This can be a great feature for your e-commerce site to interact with customers. Woopra offers a limited freebie plan as well as several paid options.
behaviors change over time, identify patterns and see the most typical and recent referrers, among other stats. It offers a “Timeline View” of visitor activity in an easy-to-understand visual format. You can try this service free for 30 days. Plans start at $149 a month, depending on how many events are tracked.
8. UserTesting. UserTesting.com is a unique way
to gather information about site users. You are paying for a group of participants of your choosing to perform a set of tasks on your site. The user and his activity will be recorded on video. In about an hour, you will have your feedback. You get to hear the actual thoughts of users in your target demographic. The cost is $39 per participant you choose. You may choose anywhere from 1 to 100 testers.
9. Crazy Egg. Crazy Egg uses the power of Heatmap
technology to give you a visual picture of what site visitors are doing on your Web pages. It shows you where people are moving their mouse on the page and where they click. There is a link between where people put the mouse and where they are moving their eyes. So, this kind of tracking helps you see what areas are catching the most attention and interaction from users. There is a free one-month trial with this service, and prices start at $9 month for 10 Heatmaps.
4. Clicky. Clicky also offers a free service if you have 10. only one website and a Pro account for a monthly fee. You get real-time analytics, including Spy View, which lets you observe what current visitors are doing on your site. Clicky’s dashboard is simple to use and presents all the information you want to see clearly. They also have a mobile version that makes it easy for you to check your stats anywhere.
5. Mint. Mint is an analytics tool that is self-hosted and
costs $30 per website. You get the benefit of real-time stats, which you don’t get with the free Google Analytics. You can track site visitors, where they are coming from and what pages they are viewing. And Peppermill, a part of Mint, lets you make any adjustments to make it more compatible for your use with tons of free add-ons.
Mouseflow.
Mouseflow is somewhat of a combination of UserTesting and Crazy Egg. You can see video of users interacting with your website, including every mouse click and movement, scrolling and keystrokes. You also get to view heat maps from different time periods so that you can see the effect of changes that you make on your page. Pricing varies depending on how many sites you want to cover and how many sessions you want. For a single site and up to 100 recorded sessions, there is no cost. Over that, prices start at $13 a month.
What analytics tools have you tried out for your website? What do you like best?
6. Chartbeat. Chartbeat lets users get the most from
their data with instant information. They keep constant watch on your visitors and what they are doing on your website. This gives you the information you need in order to make the adjustments necessary to your content or design. You get a free month when you sign up and after that plans start at $9.95 per month.
7. Kissmetrics. Kissmetrics is another analytics tool that allows clients to track the movements of individual visitors throughout their websites. You can see how
John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker and author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine and the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network. http://www.ducttapemarketing.com
Visit www.MarketWithoutMoney.com, providing marketing resources, tools and training that keeps more money in your wallet while still getting great results.
Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 27
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What Do Moms, Articles, Profits Have in Common?
By Kalena Jordan
The Answer Is: Success
Market Your Business To Moms & Increase Profits From Your Free Reprint Articles Learn how writing and distributing free reprint articles can increase your credibility and web site popularity. Providing information and education establishes loyalty. Focus on what Moms need and want to balance work and home.
I
came across a very clever tactic by an article author the other day. I was reading one of his free reprint articles and when I finished it, I realized just how smart he really was. Not simply for the content of the article, which contained very timely and useful information, but for the way he managed to hook the reader in and possibly profit from them. Let me explain: Like me and other article writers, this author circulates his articles to hundreds of article distribution lists on a regular basis. His articles contain a link back to his web site, which is PAGE 28 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
an ideal way to boost his site’s link popularity on the search engines. How does that work? Well, the more incoming links you have pointing to your site from sites of a similar theme, the more popular your site is considered to be by search engines and this earns you a relevancy boost by their algorithms. This in turn means your site is likely to appear higher in the search results pages (SERPs) for related search queries. Sites that republish your articles generally have a similar theme or topic to your own site and what you write about, making their inbound links very relevant and valuable. Many people think that reciprocal link building is the best
way to increase your site’s link popularity, but this isn’t true. It’s the number of inward links that make the difference, not the number of outward or reciprocated links you have from your site. If you swap links with another site, those two links sort of cancel each other out. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t swap links if the site is likely to bring you traffic or be relevant to your own site visitors, just that you shouldn’t do it purely for perceived search engine value. Anyway, back to our article author. Like other authors, he writes about hot topics and current events in his particular industry. Like most article authors, he writes in a casual, relaxed style that engages the reader quickly and earns their
article will naturally click on the link leading to the next. Once they are at his web site, he has much more control over how the rest of the article/tutorial is presented. If the article is a tutorial about an aspect of web design or search engine marketing, it generally includes software recommendations that integrate his affiliate links. He also manages to weave in Google AdSense ads at convenient points between the article paragraphs. And of course, by the time readers arrive at his site, he has engaged the reader and gained enough of their trust for them to take his recommendations and click on his affiliate and AdSense links so he earns commission from them. Very clever, don’t you think? 1. You too can use this tactic to profit from your own free reprint articles, by doing the following: 2. Write articles that solve a problem for the reader, like a “how to” article or a basic tutorial. 3. Write about hot or new topics in your industry that people are likely to be searching for. 4. Write the article in two or more segments and save the key instructions for part two. 5. Design a landing page for the later part/s of your article that naturally weaves in your affiliate links and/or AdSense ads. 6. Create a text link “hook” to the continuation of your article, (your landing page), from the bottom of part one. 7. Make sure the first part of your article is well-written and contains useful information as a stand-alone article. The key is to provide a relevant, interesting article with a link to another relevant, interesting article. No-one wants to read a poorly-disguised ad for your affiliate products. 8. Submit part one of your article to free distribution lists. 9. Observe the increased link popularity your site attains and the resulting increase in search engine traffic. Enjoy the benefits and potential profits from your article marketing efforts!
trust. BUT, (here comes the clever part), unlike most article marketers, this author always divides his articles into two or more parts. The first part of the article is circulated as a stand-alone free reprint article via traditional distribution methods. But at the end of the article and in his Author Resource Box, he adds a link to invite the reader to view “a continuation of the article” on his web site. The link is described as either part two of the first article, or a related article with more detailed information or a specific tutorial on how to implement what was discussed in part one. Why does he do this? Because most people reading the first
Kalena Jordan is the search industry’s first agony aunt, here to answer your tricky questions about search engines. Kalena is CoFounder and Director of Studies at Search Engine College, an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects. She’s been marketing websites online since 1996 and blogging about search since 2002. For her full bio, view Kalena’s Linked In Profile. When not working, Kalena likes to go geocaching, hiking or fishing. She also plays a mean darabuka. Visit: http://www.ask-kalena.com
www.Marketing2Moms.com, a program of the National Association for Moms In Business, is leading the charge to affordably and effectively help members more effectively market to the #1 consumer in America. Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 29
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Bringing Business Buyers 2gether with Business Moms: Building Relationships 2 Build Your Business
Communication Assessment Quiz Check your CEQ: Communication Effectiveness Quotient 1. How often do you feel intimidated by someone? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 2. How often does intimidation prevent you from speaking up? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 3. Do you shy away from conflict? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 4. How often do you find it difficult to get your point across? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 5. Do you find yourself angry with little idea of how to express yourself? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
By JoJo Tabares
11. Do you “stick your foot in your mouth” frequently? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 12. Do you fail to take into account the values or views of those you are speaking to? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 13. Do you find yourself using humor inappropriately? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 14. Are you uncomfortable with a pause or gap in the conversation? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 15. Are you uncomfortable in groups or making a presentation? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 16. Do you avoid situations where you could speak in public? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
6. Are you ineffective in diffusing another’s anger? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
17. Are you uncomfortable speaking to successful people? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
7. Do you feel you are ineffective in getting what you want? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
18. How often are you uncomfortable speaking to someone who has different beliefs than you do? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
8. Do you feel unappreciated for your efforts? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
19. Do you have to force yourself to meet and greet at a public event? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
9. Do you purposely avoid contact with people that you have had a conflict with? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never 10. Do you find conflict emotionally taxing? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
PAGE 30 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine
20. How often are you uncomfortable introducing yourself to strangers? Always Often Occasionally Rarely Never
Now lets add up your score: Always = 1pt Often = 2pts Occasionally = 3pts Rarely = 4pts Never = 5pts
90-100 pts: Silver-Tongued Devil
You are an effective communicator! President Reagan would be proud! You are very comfortable with your ability to communicate your needs and make effective use of those abilities to get results in most situations. You will achieve a high level of success in your chosen field.
70-89 pts: Tongue in Training
You are fairly comfortable in most situations and demonstrate some ability to get things accomplished when persuading others of your ideas, but there is some room for improvement. You are less confident and effective in a few interpersonal situations and may benefit by further study or practice in these areas. You will be able to achieve more than the average person because you are on the right track.
Moms In Business Magazine is read by thousands of readers around the globe monthly. As the National Association For Moms In Business continues to grow throughout the nation, Moms In Business Magazine also continues to expand, providing more and more information and tools to support, educate and inspire its readers.
Coming Soon!
50-69 pts: Tongue-Impaired
You are uncomfortable in many interpersonal situations and tend to be self conscious. You have some difficulty in communicating your wants and needs and as a result there are many situations in which you find yourself settling for less. You would benefit a good deal by brushing up on some specific communication techniques and sharpening your skills. You will have a more difficult time achieving your dreams unless you take action now to learn to express your desires to others.
20-49 pts: Tongue-Tied
You tend to be accused of saying the wrong things or are afraid to speak up. You are easily intimidated and uncomfortable with conflict or situations in which you disagree with others. You will continue to be dominated by fear and doubt when dealing interpersonally in business and your personal life unless you learn the skills that build your confidence, competence and set you free. Effective communication is a skill that can be mastered with some practice. Effective communicators are happier, better students and are more successful!
Moms In Business Magazine Advertising Opportunities and Christian-based communication studies for the whole family, please visit http://www.ArtofEloquence.com.
JoJo Tabares holds a degree in Speech Communication, but it is her humorous approach to communication skills which has made her a highly sought-after Christian speaker and writer. Her articles appear in homeschool publications, such as Homeschool Enrichment Magazine and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, which also endorses her Say What You Mean curricula. You can also find JoJo on web sites such as Crosswalk.com and Dr.Laura. com. For more information on communication FUNdamentals
Article printed from LadyPens: http://www.ladypens.com/ communication-assessment-quiz.
For business to business articles, tools, resources and events visit: www.B2BMoms.com. Moms In Business Magazine • August 2012 • PAGE 31
Bits ‘n Pieces
Founder Gina Robison-Billups Editor Design/Layout Eugenia Martini-Jarrett Eugenia@MIBN.org Advertising Eugenia Jarrett Eugenia@MIBN.org Published by NAFMIB, the National Association for Moms In Business. The Leading National Association Representing Executive, Entrepreneur and CEO Moms MIBN.org, NAFMIB.org Copyright 2012, © International Association of Working Mothers See www.MIBN.org for full copyright page All Rights Reserved
PAGE 32 • August, 2012 • Moms In Business Magazine