Has your once well-organized marketing plan come to resemble the jumble of stuff in your closet not to mention the garage and the attic If you are like most people, each time you come across a new marketing idea you try to adopt it and add it to your existing approach.

Strategies and tactics tend to accumulate and linger even when they may not be working as well as youd like. Like the ill-fitting clothes that accumulate in your closet or the broken tools still in the garage, they are hard to get rid of, whether because of habit, emotional attachment or just plain not getting around to cleaning them out.

To improve your marketing, youll need to clean out some old ways of working. While I dont want to get anywhere near your closet, and in fact I could use some help with mine, I can show you how to clean up your marketing plan so youre ready to take advantage of the New Year to grow your business.

Cleaning Up Your Marketing Plan

Every morning my friend Michael Angier of SuccessNet.org sits down at his desk and asks himself the following three questions about his business.

1. Whats working

2. Whats not working

3. What can I improve

You may not want to review your marketing plan five times a week, but it is a good idea to do it at least once a year. So take out your pencil or fire up your computer and assess your marketing plan:

Your Marketing Plan

1. Is your plan working

2. Do you have a well defined marketing strategy that helps you achieve the three phases of marketing: Getting Attention, Positioning, and Selling

3. Do you need to write or rewrite your marketing plan

4. Do you need additional information or coaching to complete your marketing plan

5. What are you going to do to improve your marketing plan

Getting Attention

6. Does your marketing message prompt prospects to contact you

7. Do your ads, letters, and web site motivate prospects to contact you

8. What are your conversion rates

9. What steps can you take to improve them

Positioning

10. What are you doing to establish your credibility with prospects, to help them know and trust you

11. Is it working as well as youd like

12. What could you improve

13. Is the value of your products and services clear to your prospects or do they question you about merits and price

14. Want to learn how to ensure that your prospects understand the value of your products and services

Selling

15. How successful are you in selling, that is, in getting commitments for everything from appointments to orders

16. Whats your conversion rate of prospects contacted to clients and customers

17. Do initial s/ales generate repeat s/ales and referrals for years to come

18. Want to learn how to generate more s/ales from each client

Evaluating Your Marketing Plan

Use Michaels three questions to summarize your comments

about your marketing plan and your success in getting

attention, positioning and selling.

1. Whats working

2. Whats not

3. What do you want to improve

The hardest part about cleaning out your closet, attic, garage or your marketing is getting started. It may be time to straighten up or throw out some of your old marketing strategies and tactics and replace them with new more effective ones. Start 2005 with a well organized marketing plan, one that helps you Get Attention, Position your products and services and Sell and youll find your business growing in leaps and bounds in the coming year.

About The Author

2004 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Fr

Many homeowners clean their own gutters or hire someone each season to properly maintain their homes. What you may not realize is that most gutter systems should be cleaned 3-4 times a year with each season.

You may be wondering why should I clean out my gutters so often The reason is each season trees go through various cycles that can clog up your gutters. In spring, most trees drop seedlings and dead twigs. Spring is also the best time to inspect your gutters for any damages that may have occurred during the winter snow. In summer, trees lose leaves from heavy storms and high winds. In early fall, you should remove leaves that have fallen early to keep your gutters flowing freely. At the end of fall or early winter, you want to make sure everything has been properly cleared from the gutter system to help prevent ice dams or buildup of ice in your gutters. The extra weight of frozen water in your gutters can easily cause them to pull away from the fascia and in many cases, fall off the house. Improper gutter maintenance will lead to clogged or damaged gutters and can cause thousands of dollars in damage to your homes foundation, exterior trim and basements.

To clean your gutters properly, rent a sturdy ladder and get your a neighbor to give you a hand. Ladders can be rented from most local rental centers for as little as $40.00 a day. When using ladders, make sure you stay away from power lines, trees and windows. Its a good idea to use a ladder stabilizer to make sure the ladder doesnt crush your gutters or slip while your doing the cleaning. Ladder stabilizers can be purchased at most hardware stores for about $30.00. Remember your safety is more important than clean gutters, so make sure you get someone to help you. Thousands of people die each year from falls and electrocution while working on ladders.

If you have gutter screens or gutter guards, make sure that they arent damaged or clogged with leaves and branches. They wont help protect the gutters if the water cant get into them properly and the water may just flow over them making them useless, even if the gutters are clean! Carefully lift the guards to avoid damaging them and remove any leaves or debris under them and then reinstall them properly. You should run water over them to make sure they are working properly. Check your downspouts to see if they have screens at the top and clear them as well. If necessary, use a hose to clear any heavily clogged downspouts and make sure you replace any damaged gutter or downspout screens. While cleaning your gutters, inspect them to make sure the fasteners are properly secured. This can usually be done with a hammer, or in some cases a screwdriver.

You may find that over time, the spikes that hold the aluminum to the fascia board have loosened. Either drive the loose spikes back into place, or replace them with longer ones for improved support. When gutters are loose, the pitch is changed and the water will overflow at low areas. Since you have help from your neighbor, this is also the perfect time to inspect your roof for missing shingles, cracked vent pipe gaskets or bare nails. Make sure you return the favor and help him or her on their house when youre done.

If you have any questions about gutter maintenance, gutter guard systems or to hire a professional to clean the gutters on your home, contact Henrys Housework at 301-353-9287. For more information about gutter cleaning, guard systems or our other services, see our website at www.henryshousework.com. We also offer a newsletter through our website with maintenance tips, reminders and discounts on our services each month.

Henry Bockman

President, Henrys Housework Inc.

Online at www.Henryshousework.com

Email Henry@Henryshousework.com

Office 301 353-9287

About The Author

1989 Henrys Housework provides gutter cleaning, roof repairs, power washing and nuisance wildlife trapping services to over 10,000 commercial and residential clients in Montgomery County, Maryland. For more information on Henrys Housework visit their website at: http://www.henryshousework.com.

henry@henryshousework.com

Great question. The answer is it really depends. Doing a full pond cleaning during the colder winter months can be very stressful on your fish. However, if the pond is really dirty and full of muck - then you may want to consider it because all of the decaying organic matter in the pond can cause problems if the pond ices over, and this begins to de-gas and rot.

So, I think the best solution, and what we used to do for our clients was do a partial Fall pond cleaning.

Heres how to do it:

First, get a container that will hold roughly 100 gallons or so, or up to half of your pond volume bigger is better. Then take a pump with a hose, and pump out the relativel clean water from your pond by holding the pump just beneath the water surface. Keep as much of the old pond water as you can. Then, catch your fish if possible and place them into the holding tank of their own clean water.

Then you can either net out your leaves and dispose of them, along with any muck that you can get out also. Alternatively, you can then pump out the remaining water and do a thorough clean out, including vacuuming out the pond with a large wet/dry vac this works great!.

Then refill the pond back up to the level it was at before disposing of the water, de-chlorinate the water, and adjust the pH to match that of the old water in your holding tank. At this point, start pumping new water from the pond into your holding tub, and then pumping the mixture back into the pond. Do this for 15-20 minutes until the new water mixture matches that in the pond - and then pump the remaining water back into your pond while netting your fish back in as well.

But its very important not to expose your fish to new water conditions too quickly as differences in temperature and pH can cause extreme stress to your fish, affect the immune system, and even cause shock or fish death. So always be careful when changing water.

About The Author

Brett Fogle is the owner of MacArthur Water Gardens and several pond-related websites including macarthurwatergardens.com and pond-filters-online.com. He also publishes a free monthly newsletter called PondStuff! with a reader circulation of over 9,000 pond owners. To sign up for the free newsletter and receive a complimentary New Pond Owners Guide for joining, just visit MacArthur Water Gardens

brett@macarthurwatergardens.com

Doing a full pond cleaning during the colder winter months can be very stressful on your fish. However, if the pond is really dirty and full of muck - then you may want to consider it because all of the decaying organic matter in the pond can cause problems if the pond ices over, and this begins to de-gas and rot.
So, I think the best solution, and what we used to do for our clients was do a partial Fall pond cleaning.
Heres how to do it:
First, get a container that will hold roughly 100 gallons or so, or up to half of your pond volume bigger is better. Then take a pump with a hose, and pump out the relativel clean water from your pond by holding the pump just beneath the water surface. Keep as much of the old pond water as you can. Then, catch your fish if possible and place them into the holding tank of their own clean water.
Then you can either net out your leaves and dispose of them, along with any muck that you can get out also. Alternatively, you can then pump out the remaining water and do a thorough clean out, including vacuuming out the pond with a large wet/dry vac this works great!.
Then refill the pond back up to the level it was at before disposing of the water, de-chlorinate the water, and adjust the pH to match that of the old water in your holding tank. At this point, start pumping new water from the pond into your holding tub, and then pumping the mixture back into the pond. Do this for 15-20 minutes until the new water mixture matches that in the pond - and then pump the remaining water back into your pond while netting your fish back in as well.
But its very important not to expose your fish to new water conditions too quickly as differences in temperature and pH can cause extreme stress to your fish, affect the immune system, and even cause shock or fish death. So always be careful when changing water.

About The Author

Brett Fogle is the owner of several pond-related websites like http://www.MacArthurWatergardens.com and two others including http://www.Pond-Filters-Online.com and http://4-pond-pumps.com. He also publishes a free monthly newsletter called PondStuff! with a reader circulation of over 9,000. Sign up for the FREE newsletter and receive our complimentary New Pond Owners Guide!
brett@macarthurwatergardens.com

Today our time is eaten up by work, commuting, study, and so on and so on. We dont have much time left over to clean our own homes anymore. So we hire house cleaning services to help clean our homes.
If you are one of the thousands of people looking for house cleaning services there are four 4 steps that you can take to help you to choose the right house cleaning service for you.
1. Decide and write down what house cleaning you want done in your home by the house cleaning service you will eventually hire.
You can write down which rooms you want cleaned, what items or furniture you want cleaned, like laundry, floors, carpets, ceilings, dishes. You can even decide on whether you want the house cleaning service you hire to make beds.
2. Next to your list write down the price you would be willing and can afford to pay for the house cleaning services you listed for step one 1.
State the price that you would be willing to pay per month.
There are many house cleaning services out there, to help you find one thats right for you and matches closely with what you have listed in step one and two you can...
3. Make a list of potential house cleaning services to hire by:

asking for recommendations from friends and/or neighbors who use house cleaning services.
using the classifieds and the telephone directory
using the internet to find places online where you can find a prescreened maid service or find prescreened cleaning contractors go to http://www.housecleaning-tips.com/cleaning-services.html

4. Most house cleaning services offer free consultations. Using the list you made for step three 3, contact the prospective house cleaning services and set up appointments. During these appointments you can find out what house cleaning services they offer, what they charge, as well as get an idea of there personality and professionalism.
If you follow the steps listed above, I

There are many opinions on cleaning a Dutch Oven. Not all Dutch Oven cooks believe you can use soap in your Dutch Oven. Some cooks suggest never to wash them, others wash them, but not with detergent. We have found that a well-seasoned oven will not be damaged by using a few drops of dishwashing soap if you have been cooking something really greasy. Just be sure to rinse several times to make sure there is no soap residue. If your oven is not well-seasoned, whatever you put in the oven will be absorbed into the pot and become part of your next meal.
Dutch Oven care begins with seasoning, but its important to clean them properly after each use. Cleaning cast iron is easier than scrubbing pots and pans. As soon as possible after using your Dutch Oven, scrape out as much food as possible with a plastic scraper. Put 1 - 2 quarts of hot water in your oven and scrub with a plastic scrubbing pad or a vegetable brush. Immediately after washing, dry the oven thoroughly by putting it in your kitchen oven at 150 to 200 degrees for about 10 minutes.
Cast Iron can only be dried by heating. Heat dries out the moisture in the pores. If a pot is not completely dried after it is used, it will rust. The pores must be opened by heating up, and the moisture dried out of it. Dont let the oven set around after washing, go straight from draining the rinse water into the kitchen oven if possible. If you are camping and dont have a kitchen oven to dry a Dutch Oven, dry it the best you can and try and store it away from moisture.
Dutch Ovens when cared for, will last for generations. Be sure your oven has been cleaned and lightly oiled before putting it away. Try to keep your ovens in a dry, warm place. Remember, moisture with cause cast iron to rust. Leave your lids slightly ajar, allowing the air to circulate. I like to store with a paper towel rolled up and sticking out from under the lid. The towel inside the oven acts as a wick and will help absorb moisture.
Tip: Heres another idea. If you need to store an oven for long periods of time, use a light-weight food-grade Mineral Oil and coat the oven, inside and out. Its cheap and effective. Once you have sealed the oven with mineral oil, no oxygen can reach the seasoning and it will last many months.
With correct use and proper care, a well seasoned oven produces a unique flavor unequaled by any other cooking utensil. Thats the Magic, it looks great and tastes even better!

About The Author

Glea Reno and Dennis Reno are the owners of Dutchovenmagic.com. They are based at Billings, Montana and have taught Youth Groups, Scout Troops, Church Organization and friends what they have learned over years in Dutch oven cooking. They also do cooking demonstration at various retail outlets. They can be contacted at help@dutchovenmagic.com
info@dutchovenmagic.com

If your burner pans and covered casserole dishes look like mine did, theyve got baked-on spots that no amount of scrubbing will remove.
And if youre like me, even the thought of using chemical cleaners brings tears to your eyes and makes you want to start coughing, not to mention that the chemical cleaners are expensive.
One simple solution that Ive found works very well uses ingredients that are probably in your cupboard right now: cream of tartar and vinegar.
Here are the steps to follow:
1. Mix 2 teaspoons of vinegar and 2 teaspoon of cream of tartar in a small dish use 3 or 4 teaspoons of vinegar and 3 or 4 teaspoons of cream of tartar if you have more items to clean or if you have larger items, such as a heavily soiled casserole dish and cover.
2. Use a cotton ball to apply the solution to your burner pans or casserole dishes and covers Corning Ware casseroles, for example.
3. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Scrub with a scouring pad and then wash in hot, soapy water.
5. Repeat several times, if necessary, for heavily soiled burner pans and covered casserole dishes.
I was surprised by how well this works. You will still need to scrub a bit, but your effort will produce definite results.
The first time I tried it, one of my burner pans was black and crusty from lima beans that had boiled over. The vinegar/cream of tartar solution took it right off. It worked so well, I tried it on my other burner pans, and soon they were cleaner and more shiny than they had been in a long time.
Then I tried it on a covered casserole dish that had belonged to my mother. Mom died in 1985, so that tells you how long the casserole dish has been around. When I used a cotton ball to wipe on the vinegar/cream of tartar solution, some of the baked-on gunk wiped off immediately! I scrubbed a little harder with the cotton ball, and more of it came off. I also discovered that the longer I let the solution sit on the cover and the casserole dish, the better it worked. Soon, the casserole dish and cover also were cleaner than they had been in years.
And one of the best parts about all of it was that I didnt have to use expensive chemical cleaners that make me cough and bring tears to my eyes.
***************************

About The Author

LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the book: Christmas in Dairyland True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm trade paperback; August 2003. Order your copy today! You are also invited to sign up for LeAnns FREE monthly e-mail newsletter, Rural Route 2 News & Updates. Visit