Ring in the new with some healthy, wealthy, wise and FUN freebies to jumpstart you and your business:

Give For Free Satisfying ways to give without spending! Less than a minute could make your day.
	1. Children in Need Clicks generate donations from sponsors. 100% of the donations go to children in need.
	2. The Animal Rescue Site Click to fund food and care to homeless animal shelters.
	3. Give Free Rice Test your vocabulary and help end world hunger for free!
	4. Give Free Mammograms Your click helps women in need.

Free Business Stuff Who doesn’t love free stuff? Try these sites for freebies!
	5. Free Shipping
	6. Totally Free Stuff
	7. The Free Site

Free Health and Eco Apps Stay or get healthy—for free!
	8. The Snack App Choose your perfect snack – but if you’re feeling guilty, simple ways to burn the consumed calories included.
	9. Instant Heart Rate See your heart beat on your phone like in ER rooms. Measure your heart rate instantly.
	10. Eco Apps Download daily eco-friendly apps. Draw in the sand, listen to rain sounds, cheer for fruits and veggies with a cool game.
	11. Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker The largest food database of any calorie counter.
	12. iTriage Save, access and share the health-care information most important to you. Use as a symptom checker, doctor finder, or medical reference tool.

And One for Good Luck!

Free Marketing Analysis
Start the New Year off with a free evaluation of your marketing or advertising program. Choose from corporate or leasing advertising campaigns, trade show exhibit booth design and graphics, website, or leasing brochures. No strings. Click here.

The Breton Group Wishes You a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New 2012!

Are you an organizer? A creator? A salesperson? The colors you choose say a lot about your aptitude. If you’ve ever questioned your career path, or are just plain curious about yourself, you’ll enjoy taking this quick 60-second color test.

Studies indicate workplace enjoyment is the key to success. This Dewey Color System® test accurately determines whether your personality traits are in sync with your most pleasurable day-to-day occupational skills.

The world’s most accurate career testing instrument, the DCS® has been taken by 877 current and former CEOs, a number of whom have been “floored by the results”.

How can you use the results from this color test? Just take the test. Let your kids take the test. Pass the link to anyone who is out of work, unhappy with what they are doing, or unsure about what they want to do with the rest of their lives.

I took the test and there were no surprises for me. Fortunately, my work is a perfect fit!

Take this color test to see if you’re cut out for career success. Let your true colors shine and light the pathway to your future.

Here’s your link: http://www.careerpath.com/career-tests/color-test/

How many emails are in your inbox right now…10? 100? 1,000? 5,000? A cluttered inbox is an incredible waste of time and productivity.

It’s time to take control…and the 4th annual Clean Out Your Inbox Week is as good a week as any to win the battle of the bulging inbox. There are dozens of email laundering solutions out there, but here are a few basic ones that are touted by the pros:

Empty Your Inbox
It’s called an “inbox” not a “storage box, so treat it accordingly. Once you’ve dealt with an email, MOVE it out of your inbox and into a folder or the trash immediately. If you don’t, your emails will just fester and reproduce like rabbits.

File Your Email into Folders
Use whatever system works best for you. You can categorize your email folders by source (ie: clients, accounts, vendors); type (ie: projects, reference, waiting); or task (ie: follow-up, archive, on hold). As soon as you’ve read your email, file it in its appropriate folder.

Use Rules and Filters to Manage Your Email for You
Virtually every email program (from Outlook to Gmail and everything else) has the ability to sort your incoming emails based on simple rules and filters that you set up. For example, you could create a rule that says anytime you receive an email from a specific email address, it’s automatically moved into the folder you specify. Your email client can also be configured to filter your email and send your spam directly into the trash so you don’t waste time reading and deleting it.

Once you’ve emptied your inbox, keep it empty. Commit to making a decision about the fate of every read message on the spot. Never leave a read or answered message in your inbox. Delete it or file it.

More Quick Email Tips

• If you can answer an email in one minute or less, do so immediately and check it off your list.
• Only keep email in your sent folder that involve some type of action by the receiver.
• Keep only the latest version of a thread of emails to cut down on volume.
• Unsubscribe from newsletters, special offers and feeds that you don’t read or act upon regularly.

Last Resort: Email Bankruptcy
This is the act of deleting all messages older than a certain date due to an overwhelming receipt of garbage messages or as a result of email hoarding. During the act of declaring email bankruptcy, a message is usually sent to all senders explaining the problem, that their message has been deleted, and that if their message still requires a response they should resend it.

Readers, what about you — do you keep a clean inbox? Share your tips for avoiding inbox clutter — or your email horror stories. Please post your tips in the comments area below.

Good for you…you’re a big player on the mass eblast team, yes? But if you’re using your own in-house email software (e.g. Outlook) instead of a professional service (e.g. Constant Contact), you’re probably spending more time and money reinventing the game rather than scoring the points.

Today’s robust mass email campaign technology offers multiple benefits, making it more economical and efficient to go pro than to do it yourself and fumble.

The advantages of using an existing, tried-and-true email service provider (ESP) far outweigh self-sent options, especially at the modest fees these services charge. For starters, you are able to:

• Send eblasts to an unlimited number of recipients all at one time
• Embed email and web links into the body of the message
• Utilize provided campaign templates to create custom professional-looking emails
• Display your message in the body of the email instead of as a PDF attachment that has to be opened manually
• Effortlessly track your lists, opens, click-throughs and opt-outs

What’s more, most ESP’s offer a built-in opt-out feature so you’ll be complying with spam laws*, which are the biggest challenge for self-sent email blasts. Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, so non-compliance can be costly.

Each ESP offers different features and price points. To help you find the one that’s right for you, here is a fundamental comparison chart of the more popular companies:

* Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. You must provide a clear method for recipients to opt out, and it’s your responsibility to remove them from your list as soon as possible to avoid violating the CAN-SPAM Act.

** Spam checking assesses how spam filters look at the contents of your email prior to sending.

Most corporate email accounts restrict attachments to a mere 10 MB. A few offer up to 20 MB. That’s enough for a small group of uncompressed photos, PDFs or graphic files, but not enough for most videos, bigger photos or larger files. Which leads frustrated users to file transfer companies.

Today’s growing file sizes have fueled the demand for file transfer companies, dozens of which have cropped up online recently. Competitively priced, secure, convenient and fairly simple to use, these services eliminate the need for traditional email attachments. Materials are uploaded to the site instead, and a link – as opposed to the actual file – is sent to recipients who can then access and download the files.
File transfer service companies offer users a variety of features and price points ranging from free for smaller file transfers, to $99 per month for larger file transfers up to 2GB. Prices are based primarily on the number of users and the variety of applications. Here is a criteria comparison chart of three of the more popular file transfer companies and services:

DEFINITION OF TERMS
Max File Size – The limit set by the service provider on the maximum size per file uploaded or received.
Max Download Per File – The number of times a file can be downloaded once the file is uploaded and link sent to a recipient.
Sign Up Required – All services require that the user signs up in order to use the service, although the recipient doesn’t need to sign up to download.
Users – The number of unique login names you can have. (These are essential in order to have an accurate audit trail.)
Send and Receive Capable –Services include sending and receiving files. Companies offer a drop box where your associates can upload files for you to retrieve.
Online Storage – Uploaded files can be stored on the server so that they can be resent without repeating the upload process.
Control Expiration – Once a file has been sent, the recipient has a limited number of days to download the file. The expiration period is controlled by the sender of the file.
Custom Page Setup – The ability to customize your login page with your brand and logo.
Secure Encryption – When transferred, files are encrypted for security reasons.
Audit Trail – History of who sent who which file and when. The same capability goes for files received.
Software – Various application types that allow you to use the service.
Max Send & Receives Per Month – This sets the limit of how many file transfers a user can perform a month.

Don’t know exactly what to put in a leasing brochure? Think of the 7 notes in the musical scale A through G:

A is for Aerials

Aerial photos speak a thousand words. So do cars in the parking lot. If you’re scheduling a shoot, do so on a big sale day or sunny Saturday when crowds of shoppers are at the center. Add supportive call-outs to your aerial shot on your leasing package: label area roadways and benchmarks. If your center was having a bad day, get your photos retouched: if the weather wasn’t compliant, put in a blue sky; if the cleaning crew missed a spot, remove unsightly debris; and if shopping was atypically light, it’s less expensive (and ethical) to add some cars in the parking lot than to re-shoot. Of course, ground shots could be used as well. Just make sure they are presentable, indicative of the center, and hopefully include shoppers.

B is for Benchmarks

Trade area benchmarks add validity to the project and represent vital data on the area’s economic base. Indicate major employers, universities, hospitals, retailing, convention centers, etc. within the trade area. Also include other important area data like impressive employment rates or nearby developments.

C is for Contact Information

Make it easy for the prospective tenant to reach you by providing every possible form of contact possible. Be sure to include: leasing person’s name, company, address, general phone number, direct phone number, cell phone number, website address, email address, and fax number.

D is for Demographics

Current demographic facts, statistics and traffic counts are essential to make your property information credible. Include population and household income figures based on the three rings that define the property location. For instance, urban centers should have shorter rings; rural or regional centers should have farther rings. Indicate spiraling growth patterns if applicable. Also include traffic counts for the surrounding streets and nearby highways.

E is for Easy-to-Understand

Your property site plan needs to be current and comprehensible from the retailer’s perspective. It should not include extraneous, cumbersome architectural information that has no relevance to the prospective tenant. Existing major national and regional tenants, parking, surrounding streets and traffic lights should be indicated. You may want to highlight the availabilities and square footages, and indicate shadow anchors and adjacent retail projects. Colorizing the plan enhances readability. Also keep in mind that legends are more difficult to read than labeled spaces, and retail logos are easier to interpret than typed names.

F is for Facts

Include all the property’s factual and descriptive information: name, location (address, city, county, suburb, state, and MSA if applicable), GLA, number of parking spots, and any other highlights and details about the property that are pertinent and beneficial information for the retailer to be aware of (ie: recent renovations, expansions, exceptional area sales figures, visibility, accessibility, neighboring projects, etc). And keep in mind that bulleted items are easier to read than verbiage in paragraph form.

G is for Geography

This is the location, location, location section. You need to include a detailed map, or several maps showing the location on a street, regional and state level. You may be tempted to pop in a map you pulled off Google, but keep in mind that it cannot be manipulated to highlight certain attributes. If it’s within your budget, consider a custom illustrated map so that you can simplify the diagram by removing irrelevant roads and information while highlighting important specifics and benchmarks (ie: the corporate park across the street) making the map easier to read and understand.

Last “Note”

Retailers are looking for information they can rely on, so be accurate and don’t inflate the data or you run the risk of discrediting all your information. You need to present the data that will help the retailer make a sound, profitable decision. A profitable, satisfied retailer is a reliable, profitable tenant.

Click here to read complete article.

Until the App is available for the other platforms, you can still take advantage of this technology by posting your properties on LoopNet (also for free!), enabling both online and iPhone users to be able to view your listings.

The LoopNet iPhone application features include:

• Location Finder: explore properties using the iPhone’s built in GPS capabilities;
• Custom Search: filter results by price, building size and property type (office, industrial, retail, land, multifamily, etc.);
• Driving Directions: use Google Maps to plot properties or email directions to a friend.

Visit the LoopNet site to see various screenshots of the App in action, read dozens of comments from industry professionals, get access to the free App download page, and post your property listings for free.

New iPhone App searches
commercial properties

Online listing service LoopNet introduced what it says is the first commercial real estate search application for the iPhone. The application, which can be downloaded free from the iTunes store, enables anyone with an iPhone to search for available commercial real estate properties from wherever he or she happens to be. Tapping into the interactivity created through the phone’s built-in GPS capabilities, users can locate available properties in their immediate vicinity; filter results by price, building size, lot size and property type; and use Google Maps to plot locations or e-mail directions.

“A tenant rep broker is showing her client around the Buckhead submarket of Atlanta, highlighting various available properties in which the tenant has expressed interest,” said Mike Manning, vice president of marketing at LoopNet. “After seeing the Buckhead properties, the tenant changes his mind and decides he’d like to look at spaces in the Perimeter Center area in North Atlanta. … With the LoopNet iPhone applications, the broker can immediately pull up properties in the new area, review them with her client, and use Google’s mapping feature to get directions to the new listings. Business gets done in real time on the fly, from wherever the broker and the prospective investor or tenant happen to be.”

Several hundred thousand properties are searchable for free, according to the company, while access to all 745,000 of LoopNet’s listings in the U.S. and Canada is gained through a premium LoopNet membership that costs $39.95 per month. Listings posted by premium members can be viewed by basic members for free, while listings posted by basic members can be seen only by premium members.

- Excerpt from Shopping Center Today’s SCTWeek | January 22nd, 2010 Vol. 15 No. 3
- Image courtesy of Loopnet.com

Start the new year off right with a free marketing evaluation to jumpstart your business. Choose from an in-depth analysis of your corporate advertising campaign, trade show exhibit booth design and graphics, website, branding or leasing brochure program. No strings attached!

Click here to request an appointment*.

*Limited time offer. Appointments must be requested no later than January 31st, 2010.

Many of our shopping center clients are taking some very creative steps and pursuing non-retail type tenants to fill their vacant retail space. Some are canvassing schools and call centers, others are speaking to museums and employment agencies.

The easiest way to research atypical tenant types is to go through the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) [or the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)] code list and search through the various industry lists for non-traditional tenant options. (Of course you could also purchase the selected list and send out a mailer, but that’s for another Breton post.) Here’s a short list of prospective, non-retail type tenants:

Educational Services

• Bartending schools
• Music schools
• Art schools
• Cosmetology and barber schools
• Libraries

Personal Services

• Adoption agencies
• Dating services
• Photography studios
• Party planners
• Wedding chapels
• Bankruptcy services

Business Services

• Collection agencies
• Business records and document storage
• Telemarketing services
• Document preparation services
• Employment agencies
• Publishing companies
• Environmental consulting firms

Entertainment Services

• Recording studios
• Dance companies
• Caterers
• Theater companies
• Radio broadcasting

Other Services

• Translation services
• Antique dealers
• Investigation services
• Exterminating companies
• Shredding companies
• Exporters
• Immigration services
• Auction houses
• Recycling centers

There are hundreds more. Want to research further? Click here for the complete SIC/NAICS code list.