Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know Twitter is the newest craze.  Newscasters haven’t even figured out how to conjugate the verb yet (Twitted..Tweeted…Tweeting…who knows?!) but everybody seems to want to talk about what it means to tweet…

Lets start with the elephant in the room…”What the heck is Twitter?”  In the beginning I was hearing the name so much I mistakenly thought I knew exactly what Twitter was about.  Everybody knows what Twitter is right?!

Twitter describes itself as answering the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. Other people on the site can “follow” you…These folks are conveniently called “followers”.  And of course you can follow other people you choose. You can broadcast messages or even engage in 140 character< conversations on the site.

In essence it is micro-blogging.

The trick for businesses is that the content you share even in these baby tweets must also be worthwhile to read. Yes, if you don’t have anything interesting to say then..don’t say anything.  People tend to like quiet people much more than annoying ones….

You can’t just blah blah blah about your product or upcoming season.  You may just have to step out of your box…make yourself a personality.

Hey..you watched project runway last night–that dress was a mess; You know what networking events are going on during the MAGIC show, You know where people can find cheap parking for the L.A. Textile Show.   People love a little inside scoop served with a dash of humor…

Make yourself interesting and provide entertaining or informative content to your current and potential customers.

The best part about Twitter is that you can do all this randomness in 140 characters or less right from your cell phone. Wow…now desktops are really out of style.

It’s Genius!

For more information on using Twitter for your business check out the insightful new book Twitter Power by Joel Comm

Friend to the FBI Peggi Burdick, also known as the Financial Whisper submitted the following article to help designers unlock the keys to achieving financial success in business and in life.

So many designers have a dream, are propelled by their passion, but get ‘stuck’. What is the answer people need in order to move forth and not sacrifice their passion?

Why does it feel sometimes that the more one wants to move ahead, there is an invisible rope that holds them back.

All of it can be traced back to one’s childhood where the messages were potent and long lasting. I call it: Living Your Life on Two Tracks.  One’s very early childhood, from birth to 5 years old is total imprinting, for better or for worse.

That imprinting can create havoc when we are adults. We have the body of a 30 year old, but the reactions of a frightened five year old.

For those of you who were sewing at an early age, dressing the dog for a walk around the block, making all sorts of hats, purses, shoes and the like, clearly, your path was set; your passions were taking shape.

What happened?

Reality verses your fantasies clashed.

How do you at this stage ground yourself so that you can proceed and fulfill your dreams?

The key is to get rid of your self-sabotaging behaviors. And, you accomplish that by becoming the perfect parent you never had.  Your inner four-year old often is ‘driving the bus’. The adult in you can help your inner-child calm down and make better choices.

There is a workshop starting Wed June 17^th for four weeks, held in the evenings in Santa Monica. This workshop will help those who really want to move ahead with becoming financially stable to finally make their dreams come true…

For more information, go to: www.thefinancialwhisperer.com/events

Or call: 310-316-3579

Join us for a FREE fashion show featuring the collection of up and coming designer and FBI member Ximena Valero on the first day of LA Market at California Market Center.

Designed for a woman who is not afraid to reveal her femininity, the line is characterized by bold and eccentric colors, vibrant prints and racy silhouettes. Her work has been featured in major magazines including In Style, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle, and has been used to dress major celebrities including Jessica Alba, Alicia Keys and Eva Longoria Parker.

There’s a case to be made for the small business these days.  While big corporations are going through these massive restructuring plans to stay afloat–and small businesses certainly have their vulnerabilities they also have one big commonly overlooked advantage.

Flexibility….

“I can change in a day!” a successful small business owner once told me.  He looked around his small office, snapped his fingers as if to drill his point home and said again,”If something stops working out…I can change it all in a day.”

While his statement may have been a bit of an exagerration, his comments do have an interesting underlying question. In these challenging economic times how many small companies are taking advantage of their unique opportunity to change in a day…a month..or next year for that matter?

Many of the fashion business owners I encounter are just trying to keep what they have, lower prices, push the sales reps, find new production.  However maybe now is the time to pull out that small business trump card and “change in a day!”

So who’s going to dream up all this change..as if the small business owner doesn’t already have more than enough to do?  Well as the saying goes “Fish can’t see water.”  If you’re in the trenches of running your everyday operations you may not even know quite where to begin…

Why not get some outsiders involved to give you some ideas to create change you can believe in….

1.  Hire Some Bright Interns–And not to answer the phones, file or fax.  Encourage them to share ideas, give feedback and even have a pet project. Schools like, The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising allow employers to skip the clutter of craigslist and post opportunities for interns directly on their website.

2.  Meet with a Consultant–Why not get the assistance of someone that knows how other companies have managed to succeed and fail.  Many times their insider perspective can make the difference between a golden parachute and feeling like your business is trapped at the bottom of the ocean with an iron anchor.  You can find these helpful industry insiders presenting seminars at trade shows and other industry events or you can check out Fashion Business Inc Consultants that may be able to help.

3.  Get Some Free Business Advice–Score.org is an association of retired executives that helps small business owners plan and assess their businesses completely free of charge.  Maybe you need to revisit your business plan…or maybe you never even had one to begin with.  Now could be the perfect time to rewind and restart.  Get the scoop on score and its services at  www.score.org.