My husband thinks I am addicted to getting publicity, seeing my name in print, and being recognized for my business efforts. And I am...but probably not for the reasons most people think. I don't want glory...I want TOMA.

The truth is I am a shy person by nature and had to train myself to speak up and be heard about my business and other things I care about. To toot my own horn. To tell people to stop what they are doing and see what I am doing. Why? Because I want TOMA.

TOMA is short for Top of Mind Awareness. When it comes to being in business for yourself, TOMA is critical to your success. For example, when I was beginning in massage therapy I wanted people to think of me as THE massage therapist in town. I introduced myself around to everyone, attended tons of networking meetings, gave my business cards out to everyone I met and looked for as many opportunities as I could to get quoted in the paper or on the news.

I did the same thing with my previous spa (and my consulting business) because I wanted it to be the only place people thought of when they thought of relaxation, massage therapy or holiday gift giving! It definitely worked and helped me get more clients and eventually to sell it for a profit.

So now that I am back in business locally with Inspire, I am doing everything I can to get TOMA. Recently I saw a poll question in the Greensboro News & Record that I thought I had a good response for. So I sat down at my computer, typed it up and sent it to the columnist in an email. You know what, she published practically the whole thing. Click here to read the article in full.

This is free PR folks. Yes it is true that my spa's name is not in the column. BUT, I can still use it as a tool to market my business by sending the link of it to you, posting it on my blogs, sharing it with clients, etc...Being quote worthy brings credibility to me and my business and will do the same thing for yours.

Start looking for opportunities to write letters to the editor that relate to your area of expertise or business, submit comments to blogs and online columns, send a press release about something you did or plan to do that will be of interest to the community or the readers of a particular publication. And little by little you too will have TOMA.