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Copyright 2008 – Bridget Wright

Post from: EveryJoe

Keep Up With Us

Nah, I think I’d better get a babysitter.

[Image Source: My Personal Photos]

So, I started making my calls to my tried and true sitters, only to discover that their social lives are busier than mine. They’re all:

a)at the beach,
b) at the lake, or
c) at some body of water in a skimpy swimsuit and do not want to come back here to babysit my brood.

Oh well. I continued to look.

While I was at the gym this morning working out, I noticed a sign on the wall advertising babysitting services! Yay! And, to make it even better, she was the owner’s daughter, so I can say I kind of “know” them, so all should be well. The thing is is that although she is an official “babysitter” you know with the American Red Cross training and all, but her rate was $8 an hour. $8 an hour??!! What…

She’s 14 years old, she doesn’t drive, she’s only 3 years older than my oldest child and she’s 14 years old. Wait, oh I said that already. Anyway, it just seems to me that $8 an hour is a bit steep for a 14 year old, who doesn’t drive and has NO bills.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like just yesterday I was babysitting in high school, in high demand and commanding $5 an hour myself. And at 18 years old, (ok, I know that was a long time ago) I was pretty glad to get it, let me tell ya. But now-a-days (my age showing again, huh?) kids are working and asking for a whole lot more than what we used to get.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that babysitting is no longer just a time-passer for teens these days. It’s a business for them. It’s how they shop at The Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch and do the movies and pizza scene on the weekends. But the rates are what I attribute to good old mom and dad.

See I figure these parents are encouraging their kids to charge these exorbitant amounts of money because THEY KNOW THEY CAN. With babysitter’s being so scarce and at a premium, moms (and sometimes dads) know that if you’ll pay that, their child can actually do pretty good working for you. And at 14, you can’t convince me that the girl has enough business sense to even ask for that kind of money. Did I mention that the babysitter’s only 14?

Babysitting is a premium gig, if you ask me. I’ve actually thought about it a time or two, but decided against it since I only like my own kids. But as a business, it’s wow. At 14, a young girl with a babysitting business charging those rates can do pret-ty good for herself. I’m amazed because from what I understand, she does get business and people are paying that rate. When my daughter comes of age to babysit, I actually thought about having her start off at a modest $5 per hour. But after seeing what the market will bear, heck, I think if she charged a cool $10, she could buy her clothes from Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap and throw in a little Ann Taylor for mom. Yep, that should work.

So needless to say, I’m back to searching for a babysitter for this weekend. I just hope I can find one for a reasonable rate, or, at least one that can drive to my house if the rate is going to be that high. Geez! I mean, come on. Pay you $8, and come to your house to pick you up? Get real!

In the meantime, maybe I’ll get Kyle his own razor so he won’t bother dad’s and my other kids can just supervise him. Think that’ll work? Probably not, huh? Well, if you know of any good, cheap babysitter’s, do send them my way. I’m willing to pay $5 bucks, provide a well-stocked junk food pantry complete with Cokes, potato chips and s’mores and three absolutely beautiful children who are just a joy to babysit…

OK, I’ll pay them $6 bucks, just get somebody here, alright?

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How much do you pay for your sitter’s? Does it depend on the area of the country or does it average about the same everywhere?

Would you pay $8 for a sitter? Did I mention that she was only 14?

Check out this interview of a daycare owner over at Home Biz Notes. Think she could help me out this weekend?
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Enter to win an iPod Shufffle! Deadline, 11:59 p.m. ET on July 13, 2008.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Commodities Exchange: When Did Babysitting Hit A Premium?

I’m (almost) never at a loss for words, but if I had been in this audience with Carly Fiorina as the speaker, I most certainly would have gasped for air. Mrs. (or Ms.?) Fiorina gave this speech to a McCain audience, outlining her reasons why she thinks she would be a great running mate for McCain. In addition to her pointed words, she also pointed out how unfair it is that some health insurance plans won’t cover some birth control methods but WILL cover Viagra. Hmmm. Good point. (excuse the pun)

Carly has a very strong and aggresive demeanor about her. I suspect that her direct and frank nature is the very reason she was such a powerful force with Hewlett-Packard and even now considered as being a running mate for McCain.

But, is being outspoken and direct really ok for women? I mean, is it really necessary? Watch your answer now because last week, James got his **unmentionables** all in a wad over our discussion on women and the things they say. But then again, Fiorina did talk about Viagra, so maybe he won’t mind, right?

What do you think?
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Enter to win an iPod Shufffle! Deadline, 11:59 p.m. ET on July 13, 2008.

Post from: EveryJoe

Via-gra, Via-gra – - Fiorina Says the “V” Word

But I was far more interested in some of the behind-the-scenes goings on, which probably sheds some light on Hillary’s silence. My favorite quotes from today’s New York Times article about the end of Hillary Clinton’s campaign:

Mrs. Clinton’s decision to suspend her campaign, which was first reported by ABC News, was a bow to the emerging political reality. No one in her campaign — including by all reports Mrs. Clinton herself — saw a viable road to the nomination. A suspension of the campaign allows her to continue raising money and pay off millions of dollars in debt.

NO one? MILLIONS of dollars in debt? Ouch.

Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat with close ties to Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, and who had kept studiously neutral throughout the fight, said in an interview that he was “coming out from hiding under my desk” to endorse Mr. Obama. “The fact is that he is the nominee,” Mr. Emanuel said

He seemed quizzical at the slowness of Mrs. Clinton’s decision not to acknowledge this.

“You don’t answer about whether you want to be vice president unless there’s no doubt in your mind that he is the nominee,” he said, referring to Mrs. Clinton’s initial reluctance to congratulate Mr. Obama, noting that she told supporters she would be open to be his running mate if he wanted her.

Quizzical? Really? I don’t know, man, if I were the first WHATEVER to run for President, I’d be kind of reluctant to bail, too, if I had any POSSIBLE hope of making a good showing. I don’t think it was necessarily a good or bad choice, and I can’t say with any certainty that I would have done things differently. Aside from the fact that I would never run for President, that is. I mean, I don’t even vote. ANYWAY!

“We pledged to support her to the end,” Representative Charles B. Rangel, a New York Democrat who has been a patron of Mrs. Clinton since she first ran for the Senate, said in an interview. “Our problem is not being able to determine when the hell the end is.”

Sounds like that was EVERYONE’s problem here.

Most interesting to me about this article is that there’s only ONE quote from Hillary Clinton, and it wasn’t even a direct response to her losing the nomination. I find that odd. Do you?

What other articles should we be reading about the Presidential race? Leave your links in the comments.

Contents © Copyright 2008 Kristen King

Post from: EveryJoe

It’s Official: Hillary Clinton Is Out of the Race

In April, I laid into PR folks who suck at their jobs, and I stand by my complaint. Really, they have no excuse. But if you have no PR or marketing training I can understand why you would make some mistakes when you’re first getting the hang of your business. I want to help you, really, I do. But before I get into that, let me give you some context for why I’m writing this post.

I recently joined an excellent mailing list called Help a Reporter Out (HARO for short). If you’re a source, or someone with information to share, you sign up to receive daily collections of queries from individuals who are looking for people to interview, feature, whatever. If you’re a reporter, you can submit your detailed query and tell sources how to contact you. It’s a brilliant idea, and the guy who runs the joint, Peter Shankman, is smart, engaging, and very good at what he does, so I learn a lot even when I don’t have a query to post or a response to send.

But this week, I did have a query to post. Two, in fact. Here is the one I sent for sources for Biz Chicks Rule:

Summary: Chick CEOs and Business Owners
Name: Kristen King
Email: kristen@b5media.com
Title: Blog co-host
Media Outlet/Publication: http://www.bizzia.com/

“Women’s business blog Biz Chicks Rule (http://www.bizzia.com/), part of the Business Channel at global media network b5media, seeks female executives and business owners for profiles, Q&As, and guest posts. Our audience is mostly female (duh), primarily North American, and very interested in stories of real women climbing the corporate ladder and making their own way in business.

All industries are welcome. Particularly interested in women who developed an innovative product or service or succeeded in traditionally male-dominated arenas, but not a requirement.

E-mail pitches to kristen@b5media.com with ‘BCR Pitch’ in the subject line. This is an ongoing need, so lay it on me, baby.”

I did get some phenomenal pitches and I will have a ton of great content for you in the coming weeks and months as a result. But I also got a boatload of crap, and so I give you…

The Top 10 Annoying Things Respondents Have Done That Have Made My Life More Difficult Instead of Easier

1. Asking me questions that are clearly answered in the query, like “Would you consider a female entrepreneur?” Uh, yeah, that’s kind of what I meant when I said “business owners.” DELETE.
2. Failing to include “BCR Pitch” in the subject line even thought I explicitly asked that it be included. Your e-mail is NOT the only one I have to read, and this is NOT the only query I have out right now. Throw me a bone, please. It’s CALLED Help A Reporter Out, after all. And if you can’t follow simple instructions in a call for pitches, how can I trust that you’re going to facilitate the interview I want or get me the product I need to review? You’re only hurting yourself here. DELETE.
3. Using ONLY “BCR Pitch” in the subject line. Do you know how many message I have to go through that are all labeled “BCR Pitch”? I didn’t think I had to specify that it just needs to be there somewhere, not the ONLY thing there, but apparently that wasn’t as obvious as I thought. Is this my fault? I really don’t think so, but I’m open to being knocked down a few notches on this one. WOULD delete, but there are too many. Sigh.
4. Pasting a press release into the message and then hitting send. And the professional PR people are the worst offenders on this one! Did they not go over this on day one of PR school? A press release is NOT a pitch. It is a press release. DELETE.
5. Attaching a press release and saying “See the attached press release for my pitch.” See #4. DELETE.
6. Saying things like, “It’s complicated. I need to know if you’re interested before I get into it.” And I need to know what in God’s name you’re talking about before I can tell you whether I’m interested. Why are you wasting my time? DELETE.
7. Sending a novel instead of a pitch. Okay, well not literally a novel, but does it really take 1000+ words to tell me what you are telling me and why I should care? “My business/product/client is ABC. This is innovative/interesting/a perfect fit because XYZ.” I want a little more than that, but really, 300 words is more than enough. Sheesh. DELETE.
8. Using words completely wrong. I can’t give an anonymized example of this one because all of the truly awful queries that did it are too easily identifiable by the egregious errors. But when I say egregious, I mean like saying that something is chartreuse when you mean that it’s obtuse. What kind of interview will you be when you can’t even make sense when you have all the time in the world to look stuff up and craft what you’re saying? I shudder to think. DELETE.
9. Making a way bigger deal of yourself, your company, or your product than is even remotely believable in any possible reality. I get that you’re excited about whatever your thing is, but I’m pretty sure your goal is to interest me in it, not to make me think you’re totally delusional and potentially dangerous. DELETE.
10. Making me click on stuff “for more information” without giving me any information in the first place. I get that SOME is technically more than NOTHING, but you’re supposed to use links and attachments as a SUPPLEMENT to your pitch, not in place of it. (See also #5.) I don’t have time for this, dude. I asked for a PITCH, not a link, and certainly not more work to do. DELETE.

Once I simmer down, I’ll follow up with some of the BEST things folks have done in these pitches to give you a How To list. But in the meantime, I have a bazillion more pitches to read!

Oh, and if I find that you pitched me AFTER reading this list and you STILL commit one of these heinous acts against the public relations field, I will not be held responsible for my actions. Consider yourself warned.

Contents © Copyright 2008 Kristen King

(image: SXC.hu)

Post from: EveryJoe

10 Things NOT to Do When Sending a PR Pitch