December is a perfect time to polish up on the art of the handwritten thank-you note! A handwritten thank-you note is a kind gesture and a habit your child will thank you for instilling. If your child is too young to write but old enough to express their feelings, you can write their thoughts, and they can sign or scribble their name. A note with the child’s own words will mean much more to the gift giver than a note from the mother expressing her hopes for how the child will feel about the gift!
Make it fun! If thank-you notes are presented as a chore, they will be seen as a chore! Because we have always made it fun, my four-year-old, loves dictating notes, even though she is not allowed to play with her toys until the thank-you is written. Start with fun supplies for your child to use when they write their notes. Make a thank-you box full of pens, crayons, paper or stationery, and stickers. Here are some age guidelines to prepare your child for writing their own thank-you notes:
0 to 2 years of age—Adult writes the thank-you note.
2 to 3 years of age—Adult writes the note, and child can scribble/decorate part of the note.
3 to 5 years of age—Adult writes a message from the child by using prompting questions. Child signs his/her name and colors the card.
4-plus years of age—Child writes note while adult helps him/her with spelling and wording. If a child is in the early stages of writing, let him/her write on the card. The parent can add a translation under a word that may be difficult for the recipient to read.
Remember, children model what they see. If they see you writing thank-you notes with little effort, they too will see thank-you notes as something that is easy to do. The act of writing thank-you notes is an important discipline to instill; the exercise of taking the time to sincerely express gratitude for another’s generosity (acts of kindness or gifts) is at the heart of the manner!
Taking business outside for the confines of the office walls can prove to be productive and profitable to any business. These social opportunities allow business relationships to operate on a more personal level, allowing business associates to get to know one another in different environments. Business associates will appreciate well planned communication regarding the event, and follow-up leading up to the event.
Think ahead and provide any information that they may need or want to know. For example, where will they park if it is not explanatory and will it cost them? What should they wear? If a client comes to an event and feels out of place (over or underdressed) they will not feel comfortable to mingle and therefore could be a missed business opportunity. Preparation will ensure a well run event, and will allow you to genuinely welcome your guests at their arrival. If you and your colleagues are not able to actively participate, and be mentally available to your guests it may cost you more than the time and money invested in the event itself!
Mixing business with pleasure? No matter how free your boss or co-workers are getting, it is always important to keep your composure. Especially if you are the host! Off color jokes, profanity, and gossip is always taboo in any social setting and even more so in a business setting. Remember, you are the only representation of your personal integrity. You never know when someone is uncomfortably going with the flow. The way you act, the things you choose to talk about could negatively concrete your social or business fate in the eyes of an on-looker. Respect is something difficult to earn, and unfortunately easy to loose! And if the situation should occur that you have gone over the line or business into self-indulgence pleasure, remember to earnestly apologize…as difficult as it may be!
It was great to meet some of our teachers in the Portland area and help them get their profiles looking perfect. Katie and I hosted two morning events while down in Portland last week. On Friday we had a great meet-up at Stumptown Coffee and on Saturday we met at Cafe Umbria.
It was our goal to accomplish the following:
Bring local teachers together to network
Provide information about TeachStreet (where we came from and where we’re going)
Show teachers how to promote their profiles
Get feedback from our teachers about things they like, and more importantly, things they don’t
We got a lot of great feedback from everyone about the things we could do to improve TeachStreet. We started a new feedback forum to capture all your great ideas and have the community vote on the top feature requests we should consider building. Pleasecheck it out and vote for your top features!
We went over the top things you can do to get more students from TeachStreet. Here’s a recap:
Get yourself on the TeachStreet homepage by adding photos to your profile and classes
Add more classes so that students can find you on TeachStreet
Boost your profile by requesting reviews from students (the link is right on your profile)
Utilize the free Craigslist ad tool to create awesome looking ads that give students everything they need to pick YOU as their teacher
Become a Guest Blogger on TeachStreet and get extra publicity that shows off the fact that you’re an expert
Here are a few pictures from the meet-ups on Friday and Saturday:
By the way… We met with several teachers that mentioned they had space available for other teachers to rent or use for their classes or events. If you are someone who falls into this category, please email Salar with more details.
