Strategies and Tactics for Women by Dr. Shannon Reece

1. If I Could Have Anything

If I could wish for anything for Christmas for my business, I would wish for a storefront. I want a retail shop in the front, studio space for myself and other artists, an office, and all in a good location, easily found by shoppers. I wish the rent were paid for six months, to give me time to develop a customer base. I dearly want a brick and mortar business, but I want to have a firm base for my business first.

Thanks to Elizabeth Cogliati of Lizbeth’s Garden

2. Bricks & Mortar!

If I had one business Christmas wish, I would ask all of my big box online retailers to give my products a chance in their bricks and mortar locations! It seems, nowadays, it is a long process of testing products online before they ever make it to the shelves of stores. In general, online retail sales are projected to grow to $250 Billion by 2014, so having a large online presence with big retailers is amazing but my Christmas wish is to have product on real shelves, not just virtual ones!

Thanks to Christy Cook of Teach My

3. Yes, You Absolutely Can Have This

My absolute biggest wish for my business this year would be to outsource my social media and blogs to someone else. This will allow me to work on meeting clients face to face and to also get more clients and build relationships. I would also outsource to someone to set up systems for me that’s working while I’m sleeping. So, Yes, you can absolutely take this responsibility off my hands. I most certainly won’t mind at all.

Thanks to LaTersa Blakely of Moms Wearing Multiple Hats

4. One Wish: More Followers!

The one business holiday wish would be a stronger following for our social media pages. Our Facebook and Twitter pages have a growing population currently, but with more followers, we would certainly increase our membership. We are trying different methods to do this as we speak and succeeding, but having it magically granted to us for the holidays would be fantastic!

Thanks to Michael Pesochinsky of GovernmentAuctions.org

5. My Business Christmas Wish

It may sound completely trite, but my business wish would be sales. We’re only a 6 month old business, and are just now at the point that everything is set up to make sales. If that happens I can show investors there’s interest in our company, I can offer my contractors full-time work to make their Christmas better, and I can help Goodwill hire more people. I want to make other people’s Christmas great, so that’s my wish for my business.

Thanks to Corissa McClay of MakerCraft

6. Continued Network To Build Our Shells Of Influence

I’ve learned a lot about myself while finishing my PhD coursework at The Graduate School of Education at George Mason University. Most importantly, I’ve more clearly recognized my passion for learning through mentors and experience. My single business wish for iMADdu is that we continue to have a solid growth and quality as we grow our shells of influence collection (a collection of shells, driftwood, and stones that are signed by people who create impact in our lives). Our network is paramount to moving forward, learning, and evolving. We are so thankful for those who make a difference in our lives and are hopeful that our wish to have more iMADduians join in our mission to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Thanks to Mona Anita Olsen of iMADdu (I make a difference, do you?)

7. Guidance To The Path Of Success

If I had one wish; it would be guidance to the path of success. Most businesses that fail don’t do so because they lack effort. Their failure is due to putting effort into the wrong things. So my Christmas wish is for wisdom to put effort into things that will make continue to make my business successful opposed to things that are unprofitable.

Thanks to Cornelius Davis of Outstanding Apparel, LLC

8. Submitting Sales With Ease

This holiday season, we would love for people to be able to submit their own fantastic deals and bargains to our website. Those would then be automatically published, but also be reviewed by our own staff. It would save us a ton of time and energy, and also pump out dozens of more great sales for the public to cash in on.

Thanks to Elik Aaron of SaleRacks

9. The SeeSaw In Your Business

Being a sole entrepreneur is tricky in the sense of finding the balance of working on your business and knowing when it is time to shut it off for the night, morning or weekend. I know that working for me is addicting. One more email, one more blog post, one more idea to marinate over, and the list goes on and on. My wish is simple. Remembering the words of a very wise woman who told me that I could do it all….just not all at the same time. I am working hard to make these words to live by in 2012.

Thanks to Leslie Josel of Order Out Of Chaos

10. Dear Santa: Need PJs For My Pajama Fridays

My Christmas wish is to make enough money through my blogs to be able to take Fridays off from my day job. I would love the joy of three-day weekends, long walks in the morning with the dogs, relaxing in front of the boob tube with a cup of tea and biscuits, and a few hours of blogging time that won’t interfere with my family life.

Ultimately, my goal is for my business to be a full-time venture, but to start, I’d just like Fridays off.

Thanks to Kimberly Gauthier of A Novice With Moxie

11. Santa Baby, Fill My Stocking With This!

If I could find anything in my business stocking this year it would be MORE ENERGY and TIME to do what I love! The things I love in my business are volunteering with youth and women in need, writing books, creating products, teaching the Reiki Method of Natural Stress and Pain Relief, seeing old friends at networking events, creating a new seminar, presenting to groups with a keen sense of humor, etc. But sometimes the daily grind of emails to send, phone calls to make, contracts to sign, etc. can eat up all the time. Maybe what I really need is an employee who I could trust to do that stuff? Or better yet, a really good clone? Feel free to send me your ideas–I am open to suggestions. I am about to write Santa a ten-page letter on this one…

Thanks to Dr. Barnsley Brown of Spirited Solutions Speaking & Coaching

12. From The Morgue To Immortality

Many years ago, I interviewed a woman who worked in a morgue. She had started a campaign about teen-age drinking (the victims of which she often saw in her workplace). The Associated Press picked up her story and she was soon on her way to fame and fortune (for her non-profit). My Christmas wish is to have the kind of publicity that leads to a vastly increased customer base. AP, are you listening?

Thanks to Dr. Marlene Caroselli of Center For Professional Development

13. Santa, The Girls Believe In You – And Themselves!

I believe in you Santa, and you believe in all of the little girls and women who need to believe in themselves! My Christmas wish is to help YOU achieve that by providing an “I am enough” bracelet for those girls and women you love to affirm and remind them that they are perfect and powerful – as they are!

Santa, help spread the word about my little business with a BIG message. I know that’s what you love best – making a difference that lasts longer than just one Christmas night.

Also Santa, help spread the real meaning of Christmas by including an extra card that reads, “I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.” Phil 4:13

I appreciate your push to help get my sleigh off the ground and distribute these bracelets in a greater market than my current sales only online.

Thanks to Jan Thomas of Loved Unconditionally

14. I Wish For Social Media

My business wish is for more time to explore social media and take an even more pro-active approach to all it has to offer. Social media gives me an opportunity to speak directly to my customers, without an expensive middle man. I don’t mean this in a general sense, we already embrace social media wholeheartedly, but I’d like to get in on the cutting edge – QR codes, location-based marketing, starting a direct Facebook Store, and more.

Thanks to Ashley Judge of Alwaysfits.com & unBaskets.com

15. The Popcorn Effect!

You know how nothing happens for the first two minutes you make microwave popcorn…and then all hell breaks loose in those last 30 seconds? If I had one wish for Christmas, it would be the ability to break my business past the current “first two minutes” and commence with the serious popping!

Thanks to Erik Stothart of www.StumpedAgain.com

16. Help PYPTW And Tax Today Start A Low Income Tax Clinic In Georgia

As an entrepreneur, if I could have one wish, it would be to procure the funds needed to start a low-income tax clinic in the Metro Atlanta area to ensure that year round tax help is available to all that need it. We currently operate online and via telephone and want to reach more of Atlanta’s low-income population by having a brick and mortar site.

Thanks to Cora Parks of Tax Today

17. Give HOPE This Year

I wish for HOPE to grow this season.

We can give HOPE to one another without great expense, but with thoughtful intent and actions.

It is not made in factories, nor found on chain store shelves.

It is manufactured in the human heart, marketed by viral contact, purchased by a weary soul shopping for peace of mind.

When we give HOPE, we have allowed the Light of conscious choice to be born in us, and to grow into new possibilities for future generations.

Look for it wherever you go.

Buy into it often.

Then give it away generously, even after we enter the New Year!

Thanks to Alana Lea of Rainforest ECO

18. Vanishing Rabbits? How About Magically Appearing Clients?

My Christmas wish for Memory Catcher would be for word of mouth to spread enough, so that I can focus solely on helping my clients share their stories, without having to devote a portion of every day to the PR and marketing required to find said clients! I absolutely love every other aspect of my business – from getting to know my clients and guiding them down “memory lane” during the interviews, to the selection of photos and music to help illustrate their story, as well as the creativity involved in editing their video biography. It is so rewarding to share my clients’ excitement when they watch their finished video for the first time, while knowing that it will be a legacy they leave for future generations. However, I loathe the marketing. If I could magically have all my clients come to me, I would 100% have my dream job!

Thanks to Nicole Beart of Memory Catcher Inc.

19. Business Christmas Wishes – I’m A Lover Not A Quitter

My name is Falisha Hopkins and I own and operate a promotional marketing company. I’ve been in business 11 years and my Christmas wish is to land a million dollar account. Yes, you read that correctly, a million dollar account. Not just any account, but a Pharmaceutical account, a million dollars to them is pocket change. Average first year sales in my industry is $500,000 and I have come nowhere close to earning that much. I have had so many setbacks and obstacles in the last 11 years that sometimes I have
wanted to give up and go back to cubicle hell (Corporate America).

Usually after I ponder the hell that comes along with Corporate America, I continue to persevere, stay resilient and continue my entrepreneurship journey. Well that’s my wish. I just have to make it happen.

Thanks to Falisha Hopkins of Innovative Specialty Gifts LTD.

20. We Wish For Awesome Gifts!

Since we run mega-prize giveaways all the time, it would only be fair that we wish for more prizes to give away to our loyal fans and followers. They don’t have to be too extravagant—things like a Blu-Ray player or a Huffy bicycle will do the trick. We would pack those giveaways full of cool prizes.

Thanks to I. Aronovich of Awardable

21. Helping Out With Certain Aspects Of Our Business

Number one on our wish list would be to have all auctioneers from around the country submitting their specific county’s info on our website, rather than us calling them for it. It’s an arduous task that is very time-consuming. Having these auctioneers log into our company’s page, and submit that info themselves would be a huge weight off our shoulders. It would give us much more time to focus on redesigns, public relations, market, and many more aspects of our business that often get put on hold due to the lengthy process of plugging in the auction info.

Thanks to Max Aronson of Government-Auctions-Guide

22. Record Low Rates

If we had to wish for one thing this year, it would most definitely have to be even lower interest rates than there are now. Interest rates are at an all-time low and people are still looking to own a home for their new family or purchase a secondary property as a business venture. If rates plummeted to further than they are now, people would be more inclined to go ahead and check out the properties that are available in their city. Our website offers free foreclosure listings and the combination of the lower rates and people searching for homes would definitely draw more people to our site.

Thanks to Eli Israel of Foreclosure Magic

23. I Wish For More Time

It’s the classic issue: not enough time. Business has been booming lately and so many great projects come along that I want to be a part of, but just don’t have the time. So this Christmas, I wish for more time in the day…or a clone of me.

Thanks to Brandon Yanofsky of My WP Expert

24. Wishing Well Water For The World

Our dream is a big one, but it’s a vision we passionately believe can come true. At the top of our Christmas wish list is access to clean, safe drinking water and sanitation for all the world’s population, including the one billion who currently go without. Our company committed this year to give a percentage of all online sales to charity to make our wish come true. As a business, we have been genuinely transformed by the incredible work of non-profit partners working to bring our dream to reality. In the season’s spirit of giving, that is exactly what we want to see in the New Year.

Thanks to Karl Rist of WaterFilters.NET LLC

25. All My Business Wants For Christmas…

…Is the perfect junior designer to work for my company, very part-time. Someone who has a solid design sensibility, a range of creative skills, can work in print and with web graphics, works in Illustrator and Photoshop. It would be SUPER if they also were a video-production genius.

So, business-Santa, if you’re listening… you can just pop him or her under my teeny tiny tinsel tree!

Thanks to Erin Ferree of BrandStyle Design

26. 2012 Holiday Business Wish – Share The Pearls

I wish to be speaking about my book – Vivid Living for Busy Moms – Coach Yourself to an Extraordinary Life – to people and in places all over the country – sharing every big and little pearl of wisdom and inspiration that I can!

Peace and Love & Happy Holidays!

Thanks to Julie Zeff of Vivid Living

27. All I Want For Christmas Is Property Of Our Very Own For Our Sled Dog Touring Kennel

Currently, my business partner and I run Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel/Raft NH & our non-profit, no kill NH Sled Dog Rescue, History and Education Center with a month to month leased land/buildings. I have 130 rescue and second chance sled dogs that we offer dogsled rides with throughout the year to guests to our region.

Having a “real Job” myself as a HS Guidance Counselor (my business partner is a HS Science Teacher), and using the sled dog tours to support the dogs’ feed/vet bills/ 8 staffers to care for them, has us working two full-time jobs to pull it all off.

The one thing that would make my Christmas perfect, would be to find/finance/purchase the land to move the kennel to. Over the past 7 years, the business has grown in leaps and bounds, far past my expectations and seems to have taken on a life of its own. I have an amazing staff, tons of repeat guests that have become like family watching our dogs & business grow and support our mission, but it’s a bit scary being in a short-term lease situation with such a big responsibility!

Thanks to Karen Tolin of Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel, LLP