Every time you enter a password online is an opportunity to reclaim your power or find inspiration. Don’t make it a missed opportunity.

The idea is simple; choose your passwords with certain goals in mind.

This suggestion stems from a series of less than satisfactory experiences I had with my health care provider, who shall remain nameless. (It rhymes with miser). I decided to create an account on their website so I could access my health records. When it came time to choose a password, I thought about all the negative experiences I had with them over time, and how demoralizing it was to be identified as an 8 digit number instead of by name. I’m a person, not a number, darnit. So I chose a password with these thoughts in mind.

Of course I’m not going to divulge my health care account password, but here’s a list of password suggestions in the same vein:

• ThisPlaceSucks666
• YouWillNotBreakMe@!99
• BillsSuckChocolateRulz!:44
• ItsJustMoney0912$
• YouStink!84

I have to say, logging in to my healthcare account is quite gratifying now, and has lead me to re-create passwords for other less than stellar service provider accounts I need but don’t like.

So chalk one up for the little guys and corporations beware. You may refer to us by number and treat us poorly, but we have the power to choose our own passwords!

On the flip side, passwords also present an opportunity for inspiration and self empowerment. Whether you’re logging into your email account or a social network, here are some password ideas for those looking for serenity now:

• Irule!39
• I’mNotOldI’mExperienced
• ICanDoThis!47
• YayMe!55
• 2468WhoDoIAppreciate?!%
• CalmBlueOcean*81*
• BoyAmIGoodLooking:>
• IFeelGreatToday42*

Whether you’re looking to reclaim your power or for a bit of inspiration, don’t forget to make your passwords strong. Here are some tips to help.

You can change your passwords whenever you want, so get to it and have some fun!

Photo Credit: Aussiegall-http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/

If you’re married and forget your spouse on Valentine’s Day, welcome to the dog house (assuming you and your spouse are celebrators of the Hallmark-fueled occasion.)

If you own a business and forget your customers on Valentine’s Day, guess what happens?

You miss a golden opportunity to stand out in the crowd and win the hearts (and dollars) of your customers.

Many business people recognize the holidays as an opportune time to thank and appreciate their customers. But for those looking to invest in gift-giving as a marketing strategy, there are plenty of months besides December in which to do so.

As I mentioned in my thank you post, I ran a socially responsible corporate gift program back in the day, and Valentine’s Day was my holiday of choice for thanking larger clients. Each year I would send them a box of Fair Trade chocolate along with a personalized card. The responses I received were downright moving.

“You’re the only one who sent me a Valentine’s Day card.”

“What a lovely surprise! You made my day.”

“I thought I was going to have to buy myself chocolate this year. Thank YOU!”

Despite the rather gruesome and debatable history of Valentine’s Day, call me a sucker, but I’m quite fond of the holiday. Whether I’m single or have a partner to share the day with, the idea of taking one day out of the year to spread the love really resonates with me.

That’s not why I chose Valentine’s Day to honor customers, though. I chose it because I wanted my business to stand out from the crowd. I figured most businesses gifted in December, when people are busy and over-saturated with stuff. so I would do it in February. The strategy paid off; year after year, our re-order rate for large corporate gift customers was terrific.

It’s not too late for you to honor customers and clients this Valentine’s Day. If you’re sold, read on for last minute gift suggestions.

For brick and mortar retail store owners:

Put a bowl of Fair Trade chocolates in your shop, along with a note that reads something like: We love our customers. Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at <insert business name here>. Enter your zip code here to find stores that sell Fair Trade chocolate near you.

For Service and Online businesses:

There are a plethora of gifts you can buy online and have delivered same day for customers and clients in need of some love. Here are just a few:

Oxfam Unwrapped: offers creative gifts for many budgets. A pair of goats, a can of worms, and more! It’s too late to receive the printed card to represent your gift, but there’s always email!

Online Gift Certificates: choose an online store that matches your company values. Here are a couple that offer same-day emailed certificates: Gifts With Humanity and Global Exchange.

Fair Trade Coffee-of-the-Month Club Membership: You can purchase a Grounds for Change membership online, print out and email the membership info to your gift recipient(s).

These are just a few ideas. It’s not too late for you to get creative and spread the love to valuable customers and clients.

From my heart to yours, Happy Valentine’s Day!

To wet your beak, here’s a sampling:

Magic words

• Free
• Sale
• Introducing
• Discover
• Guaranteed
• Benefits

Tragic words

• Buy
• Decision
• Obligation
• Liability
• Sell
• Deal

The magic and tragic list is great to use as a guide, if you treat it as constantly evolving and not written in stone. But when a word is used too much (Exhibit A: “Guaranteed“) it’s likely to lose its luster.

“This widget is guaranteed to last!”

Sorry, I don’t buy it. Literally.

Introducing…two words that when used together will stand the test of time, never lose their luster and forever retain their marketing magic:

Thank you.

According to the American Marketing Association the term  ‘Marketing’ refers to the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Saying thank you is an activity, a process of communication that delivers value to your customers, clients, and partners. Society at large? Sure, that too.

Saying thank you, whether it’s via email, a hand-written letter, or face to face, can have tremendous impact. Here are a few examples of how I’ve given thanks:

1. A thank you gift to clients: I used to run a corporate gift program. Each Valentine’s Day, I mailed my top clients a box of Fair Trade chocolate along with a personal card thanking them for their business. Very few businesses give thank you gifts for Valentine’s Day, those that do give thanks usually opt for holiday time. Our repeat business rate was off the charts.
2. A public note of thanks: When I worked on launching the 2010 Fair Trade calendar, the printer and designer were instrumental to its success. I sent an email out to various lists that I’m on thanking them both for their great work. Hopefully it lead to more business for them.
3. Thanking retail customers: As a Fair Trade Online Store Manager, each November I emailed a personalized message of thanks to  customers, along with a gift. The more times they ordered, the larger the thank you gift, ranging from free shipping to an actual physical gift for high tier customers. It was by far our most successful marketing campaign.

In the business world, thanking someone will win you unspoken points. So let the thanking begin. Co-workers and employees, clients and customers, prospective employers and employees, reporters and teachers all deserve thanks. Who would you like to thank?

I felt my face pucker and my butt clench, as if I had just tasted milk two days past its prime. My entire body had rejected those titles.

Why the repulsive response? I wondered.

I decided to press myself for answers.

Here is what I discovered:
While I love coming up with creative marketing ideas, when it comes to gathering and analyzing data I rather fold and catch the next game. But without gathering and analyzing results, spending valuable resources on marketing is like opening all the doors in your house, blasting the heat, and then wondering why your bill is so high yet you’re still cold.

Inevitably you will come across tasks you do not enjoy doing but know have to get done.

Skipping them entirely is not an option, so try this:

1. Take the time to understand the task; what are the key steps involved, how do you measure success, what are the costs, etc., and then
2. Delegate! Find someone you trust will do a good job, provide clear expectations, measurements for success, time frame and a system of accountability, and you’re golden!

Chances are the task will get done better by someone who enjoys doing it.
I’ve used this strategy and it’s worked great.

Many years back when I ran the Global Exchange Online Store, Adwords was all the rage. So I took an intensive Adwords course, read everything I could by Adwords pros and learned enough about it to understand how to run a successful campaign.

I also learned enough to know that if I ran that campaign it would fail miserably, because its success relied 95% upon compiling &  categorizing results (which you now know I can’t stand doing), analyzing the data and adjusting ads accordingly.

So I outsourced our Adwords campaign to someone I trusted and required weekly spreadsheets with summaries of key data. I was able to make informed strategic decisions based on those reports. I knew exactly where I was making money and losing money, what keywords to pause and what keywords to expand upon. You get the idea.

I’m starting to really believe that truly successful business people do not do everything themselves; they surround themselves with people who are good at what they do.

Work smarter, not harder.

I was on the Yahoo! homepage and before I knew it I was reading about internet colleges. I had been completely derailed from my intended task. You’ve been there; one minute you’re working on a report for work and the next thing you know you’re watching a video about cute kittens.

I wondered how they got me. I wasn’t even particularly interested in this topic and yet somehow I had been convinced to spend time reading about it. This was worth investigating. So I clicked the back button, returning to the page with the content that had caught my eye.
Here it is:

Why online college is rocking

1) Convenient 2) Some employers pay tuition 3) Higher salary with higher degree 4) Top schools online. (Top schools online was hyperlinked to the complete article.)

I looked at each aspect of the copy in an effort to pinpoint where it went right. Here’s what I discovered:

• Intriguing headline: “Why online college is rocking” is a question I would like to know the answer to. So that got me to read further.
• Short copy: At 13 words, it does not require much of a commitment on my part to read the whole message. Yes, the headline got me interested, but it helped that the answer was short. If it was 50 words I doubt I would’ve read past the word rocking.
• Information= a dangling carrot. “Top schools online” is information bait; they had awakened a hunger in me I didn’t even know was there. What ARE the top schools? I was curious. They were able to anticipate a question I would be interested in knowing the answer to.
• Reel them in later: Before you catch a fish, you need to throw the line out and see what bites. This ad does not mention anything to do with selling, it simply provides information. That put me at ease, so my guard was down and I was comfortable enough to explore further. The ‘sell’ came later, once I clicked the hyperlinked text.

Bottom line: You don’t need to be a marketing whiz to identify good copy. Just call yourself out when you fall for it, and ask yourself what it was about the message that got you to bite. Go ahead and try it. It’s surprisingly fun!

This blog is something I’ve been building up to for years. I am what you might call obsessed with socially responsible business, and I truly enjoy learning and sharing lessons to assist like-minded people in achieving their professional goals.

If you’re a business person who believes in the power of business as a tool for social and environmental change, you’ve come to the right blog!

Business has the potential to improve the planet and its inhabitants lives. It’s up to us to make sure that happens.

There’s lots of great business information out there, and Do Good Biz is here to ensure it reaches socially responsible business people like you who are interested in more than just their bottom line.

DGB will focus on sharing practical business information and resources to inform, inspire and engage readers like you who are working for profit AND to make the world a better place.

Together we CAN and WILL make a difference. Here’s to the future!