Note from SusanMarch 10, 2010 Hi, {!name_fix}!  Whew! We had lots of great questions come in from our readers this time! You asked all sorts of pertinent business and personal questions, including how to establish your home-based business identity, what to read when you're going through a major life transition, what the difference is between marketing and promoting your service or product, how to easily create a marketing funnel, and what the difference is between an agreement and a contract.
Some of the questions I answered over at my blog, Discovering Your Inner Samurai, and some I answered in the "Dear Inner Samurai" section below. When you click on the blog link, scroll to the bottom and click on "march 2010" under the "Archive" section.
Do you have a business question you'd like to have answered in our next "Dear Inner Samurai" issue? Submit your question here.
Keep your questions coming and your business growing!
And remember . . .
Success is assured.
Greatness is.
Beauty surrounds.
All is well.
P.S.: Let's connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. Talk to you soon! 
What's New?Green Careers for Dummies Book
 I'm really excited for my friend and former client Dr. Carol McClelland whose book Green Careers for Dummies is soaring to the top of the charts at Amazon!
Carol and I first met when I did some training with her under what would become the Niche Clarity Program (which so many of my clients have come to love). Then I worked with her on her One Page Business Plan. Since then, I have watched her business grow into a stunning green career.
Carol's Virtual Blog Tour will begin later this month. Our blog, Discovering Your Inner Samurai, is one of her stops. Later this month, we'll be featuring an article by Carol about starting up a green business which will also be posted over at our blog site.
In the meantime, check out Carol's new book!
Dear Inner SamuraiQ#1 : Dear Inner Samurai,
I've just lost my job, my husband and I are separated, and I'm in the middle of a major life transition that is both scary and exciting. I read your book, Discovering Your Inner Samurai, and know you went through a big life transition, too. I'm looking for answers, direction, and solace, and I love to read. What books did you find helpful when you were going through your life transition?
Sincerely, Falling Apart
A: Dear Falling Apart,
 Reading is a great way to connect with and relate to other women who have been there, done that, especially when you're going through a major life transition. In 2004, when it seemed to me as if my world was falling apart, books spoke to me in a way that made me feel heard, understood, and no longer alone in my experience.
As you know, in 2004 I went through a huge life transition. For a while after my spiritual awakening, I was able to function and operate in the world just fine, but then it became all too much for me and I crashed in on myself.
Within a short time, I quit my job, ended a long-term relationship, grieved the passing of both my parents, and wrote my book. The only two things that remained the same were my cat and my address. Other than that, my spiritual, financial, romantic, physical, and emotional worlds all went through monumental changes.
During that time I read a lot of books to help me make sense of the transition going in, around, and through me. One of the most helpful books was When the Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd. You may already know Sue Monk Kidd as the author of The Secret Life of Bees. (Another wonderful book, by the way!)
When the Heart Waits is an intensely personal book. Having gone through a life transition herself, Kidd openly talks about her own personal life journey and midlife experience. She shares how she grappled with the sacred questions of life, what her own emotional transformational process was like, how it almost did her in, and how she made it through to the other side.
Another book I found very helpful was The Way of Transition by William Bridges. This is a poignant, beautifully written, and uplifting story of his journey from darkness to light. Throughout the book, Bridges shows you how to not only survive a major life transition but also to embrace these most difficult moments and turn them into something positive.
Take heart. Transformation is very much a part of the Inner Samurai journey. It comes when we least expect it, and comes, seemingly, unasked for. The call is unmistakable. It's the call to shed what we've known ourselves to be in order to become a greater version of who we are.
It's a journey all entrepreneurial women must take. While it may feel as if your life is falling apart, it really isn't. Instead, it's coming together in new and wonderful ways.
Q#2: Dear Inner Samurai,
I'm confused. What's the difference between a marketing plan and a promotion plan, or are they the same thing? And where does advertising fall into all this?
Sincerely, Confused
A: Dear Confused,
Indeed, many women entrepreneurs think promoting and marketing are the same thing. It's an honest mistake because the terms are often used loosely, thus adding to the confusion. In fact, many women who run home-based businesses on the Internet think they are marketing when they are really just promoting.
Here's the basic difference between the two:
Marketing is the systematic planning, implementation, and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.
Promotion, on the other hand, is the process of notifying the potential consumers of your product or service of your availability to serve them.
Did you get that difference?
 My client didn't either until I put it this way: Consider your Marketing Plan as one big apple pie, and your Promotion Plan as one slice of the pie. And advertising? Think of that as the apples that fill your Promotion Plan slice.
Any clearer?
The Apple Pie: If you are marketing, then your eye is on making sure that every dollar spent is a dollar spent well. Before promoting their product or service, true marketers first do a lot of planning, testing and measuring of their actions and results to make sure they are getting the most out of every dollar they might spend on marketing, promoting, and advertising.
First comes marketing, and then comes promotion.
The Slice of Pie: Promoting, on the other hand, means putting down on paper a well-thought-out sequence of events that will help you streamline your advertising and promoting activities to ensure the kind of connections you want to make, and to whom. For instance, you could join a professional networking organization or build a 30-mile sphere of influence list.
For more ideas of things you can do to get your Promotion Plan going, read "Ladies . . . Start Your Engines!"
The Apples in the Slice: Advertising is a single component of the promotion process. It's the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or service. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such media as newspapers, direct mail, billboards, television, radio, and, of course, the Internet.
Do you have a business question you'd like to have answered in our next "Dear Inner Samurai" issue? Submit your question here.
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Except for our own products, Alkamae® does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any of the recommendations or advertisements above or the quality of any products, information, or other materials displayed, purchased, or obtained by you as a result of an offer in connection with any ad. Please do your own due diligence before purchasing any product.  About Susan L. Reid and Alkamae® Dr. Susan L. Reid, Small Business Expert and Business Catalyst, brings the gift of inner vision and insight to spiritually conscious businesswomen ready to run their businesses confidently, effectively, and fully aligned with their deepest inner principles.
Twice award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success, Dr. Susan revolutionizes the way women do business in the world through the transformational process called Discovering your Inner Samurai.
Discovering your Inner Samurai is not a theory or a strategy.It is a primal yearning spiritually conscious women can’t deny that drives them deep within, aligning them with their inner guidance system, inspiriting and inspiring them with the confidence and strength to prosper and thrive. Why “Inner Samurai?”
- Inner because the voice resides deep within her being (to distinguish it from the voice inside her head).
- Samurai because of how powerfully it stands, fully knowing what's true for her, sustaining her to act on that knowing in every moment of every day with integrity, honor, beauty, and grace.
The word "alkamae” means "to transform."
Therefore, Alkamae is the place where spiritually conscious women naturally come to transform their sacred inner voice into the central guidance system compelling their personal and business success.
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