I feel energized, and I’m hoping to inspire you.

After a COVID year, I’m headed back to Start in the game of business development, and that means I must return to the basics of using public relations—or PR—tactics and getting the word out there about what I do. 

Fortunately, this comes easily to me. I will simply do for myself what I do for clients.

I’m starting a series of blogs in hopes I might give you some hope and passion to reinvigorate your business by ramping up your presence online and in the local media.

In early March 2020, my to-do list for client projects was so long it gave me angina. By St. Patrick’s Day, I did not have a to-do list. That was the blow that the COVID-19 pandemic dealt to me and Beetle Press—and hundreds of thousands of other businesspeople across the country.

One by one, clients canceled projects for various reasons. They didn’t have the funds. They couldn’t hold the events they had planned. They were afraid to talk about their COVID protocols because at any minute they might have to change them. 

Time passed, and some clients have come back to work with me. Others are still affected by the loss of income. They are doing without a public relations partner at this time, or they’ve added the responsibilities for blogging and creating content for newsletters, social media, and other platforms onto the shoulders of already-busy staff members.

This all means that today, as we sit perhaps on the precipice of a new Delta Variant attack on health and economics, I am among the businesspeople across the world who are focused on regrowth, rebuilding, reshaping, rebranding, and restrengthening. 

I’m a storyteller, and I use my fact-finding, writing, and editing skills to help my clients reach out to their various audiences to share their important news and also to explain what they do, why they do it, and how it helps those they serve. 

With today’s blog, I will move away from posting the stories and press releases I write for clients, and I will return to writing posts that educate my readers about content, its importance, and how I can help strategize the best use of content and also produce it. 

I have been fortunate in this past year. Because I have a second business focused on book development, I have kept busy—mainly writing my own books and getting them on the market. “Willful Evolution” came out several months ago and has received much praise from a mainly female readership; women and men tell me the book is powerful, honest, and inspiring.

Many businesses are not diversified in the same way I am, though, and they have struggled.

I hope that in putting more energy into Beetle Press and talking with you all about the whys and how-tos, I can help you learn how to promote yourself through PR or show you that I can do it for you, affordably.

Reach out today to learn how I can help you make a COVID comeback. 

I can help you strategize.

Share your important news with the media.

Create blog and social media posts and newsletter content.

And if you don’t have a newsletter yet, I can get you started. 

I want us all to recover together. Please be in touch.

The post Focusing on Strengths in Covid Recovery appeared first on Beetle Press.

How do you come back and thrive after your husband dies four days after you are laid off from a job that was supporting your family?

It’s not easy, but I did it, and my new book, Willful Evolution: Because healing the heart takes strength, shows how. My hope is that it will inspire others to get stronger, too.

In 2010, I was laid off from my full-time job as a communications specialist in a hospital while I was on a family medical leave, taking care of my husband in his last days. I heard my boss tell me my position had been eliminated as I stood on my front steps; Ed lay in a hospital bed in my living room just inside the door. He died four days later. I had no income. No partner, and two teenaged children to raise.

I told the story of that devastating loss in my first memoir, Divine Renovations, which was published in 2011. Willful Evolution is a sequel, and it is poignant, inspiring, and at turns, downright funny. The book shows how I reinvented myself, building not one but two successful businesses and otherwise turning vulnerability into strength.

Willful Evolution offers stories of my travels to far-away places, shows me meeting some wacky men while online dating, and also lets readers see how I used yoga, exercise, and adventure to gain physical and emotional strength.

My book is about wrestling fear, building and repairing relationships, and finally growing up—in my mid-fifties.

Think Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert because the book touches on travel and love.

Think Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle because I write about empowerment and metamorphosis. I show it more than tell it.

Think Daring Greatly by Brené Brown because so many of the moves I made involved daring, pushing myself to do things that frightened me.

My book is as motivating, amusing, and powerful as these works. It’s available in my shop and as an e-book on Amazon.

My hope is that people who read my book will find new strength in their own lives, take risks, set new goals, and reinvent themselves!

If you read it, I feel confident something will resonate and make you feel creative and inspired.

The post “Willful Evolution” Now Available on Janice Beetle Books appeared first on Beetle Press.

I have had to reinvent myself many times in life, most markedly in 2002, when I got divorced from my first husband, and in 2010, when I was laid off from a job I loved four days before my second husband died.

Each time, it was painful and difficult, and I had to figure it out. The experiences made me strong, resourceful, resilient. And those traits are serving me well now as we all must create a new normal and mutate a little bit in the wake of COVID-19.

March 10 was the last normal workday I recall. I had a busy day at my desk and was at a client event in the evening. The next day, two press releases I had in the works fell through—my clients had had to close their stores. And three events I had helped a client organize were cancelled. There was nothing to promote.

Each day brought similar bad news.

After a week, there was only junk mail in my inbox. 

My gut reaction was to panic. How would I pay my bills? Would my clients come back? Was this the end of Beetle Press and Janice Beetle Books? Then, as I’ve mentioned, I shook myself off and saw the opportunity I had to work on my own creative projects and to work on my website and marketing as well.

I had about three weeks to do that—to imagine what else was possible for me, to work on a book of my own, to dream up a new feature for the Janice Beetle Books website (stay tuned). Then slowly, work trickled back in. I’ve done a few press releases for Beetle Press clients—most of them focused on client responses to the pandemic—but the majority of my work is for Janice Beetle Books.

I am writing one woman’s memoir, and I’m working on a how-to manual for a trio of businessmen. I have several other projects in the works at well, and I’m grateful and gratified. My own books can wait.

It astounds me that, a year ago, Janice Beetle Books did not exist, and this year, it is key in supporting me. That is tremendously affirming—like a big sign in the road saying, “This way!”

I have no doubt Beetle Press will come back as well. I will be here when my clients are ready.

I have created both of these businesses from nothing but an idea. To be able to do that feels accidental, but instead of feeling lucky, I’m going to take credit for following my heart both times. Tremendous thanks to business coach Val Nelson for helping me do that.

The point of this blog is not to pat myself on the back, though. It’s to show you a way out of a bad situation by applying your passion and creativity. 

Have you been laid off, like hundreds of thousands across the country? Are you at home, scared?

Give yourself some time to feel the emotions of it. Be angry. Sad. Anxious. Wring your hands.

Then, apply your own passion and creativity and imagine what is possible. 

What excites you? What do you love to do? Love to cook, garden, write?

Imagine how you might be able to help others with your skills.

Think about who you want to work with. Children? Adults? Seniors?

Think about what makes you happy—not what you think could bring in the biggest paycheck. What we love is the best compass.

Are there businesses out there you could turn to that are not suffering? It would be hard to find a job in the restaurant business now, but think about the industries that are thriving—businesses that sell home gym equipment, delivery services, toilet paper manufacturers. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)

OR imagine creating a business around your passion. 

What steps could you take to bring your idea to life? To get paid for doing something that makes you feel fulfilled?

Use the internet to search for like-minded businesses in the area. See if there is competition. Research how to write a business plan. Name your business. Imagine the services you offer, and the fees associated with them. 

Then get the word out there. Create your own website. Register your business in your city or town. Create a social media presence. Write a press release. 

Don’t know how to do these things? Use the internet to learn, or recruit a team of friends, family, former colleagues who do have the experience and knowledge, and let them help you. Call Val! 

You have the time.

You could do it. 

Reinvent yourself! 

The post Reinvent Yourself by Following Your Heart appeared first on Beetle Press.

WEST SPRINGFIELD—Construction is underway on a 9,000-square-foot plaza at 1010 Union St., one third of which will house Florence Bank’s new Hampden County Banking Center, scheduled to open this summer.

John Heaps Jr., Florence Bank’s president and CEO, is confident the time is right for an expansion into Hampden County, and community leaders who attended a hard hat tour at the construction site on April 27 said they are excited to welcome the bank as part of a city-wide commitment to new business.

“Our goal is business development,” West Springfield Mayor Will Reichelt told a crowd of roughly 50 civic, business and bank leaders who gathered for a celebratory hard hat tour with Developer Frank Colaccino and architects, attorneys and other professionals involved in the project.

“We’ve been developing the Memorial Drive corridor, and we’re doing that because of businesses like Florence Bank,” Reichelt said. “We’re happy that Memorial Drive is becoming another major corridor.”

West Springfield City Councilor Bruce Gendron, also at the event, chairs the Ordinance and Policy Committee, which the mayor said is working to restructure the city’s zoning laws to make West Springfield more welcoming to new business. “We want to make it easy to open the doors and get business done,” he said. “It’s good for the businesses, and it’s good for West Springfield.”

Others in attendance included Fire Chief Bill Flaherty; Rick Sullivan, president of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts; and Florence Bank board members John Ebbets and Bob Borawski, and board chair Ruth Constantine, as well as Corporator Tanya Barber.

Heaps, the bank’s CEO since 1995, said that what has made this year a good one for expanding to the south are recent bank mergers and acquisitions that have left Springfield without a local bank headquartered there.

“That’s a unique opportunity for us, and we’re taking advantage of that void,” Heaps said.

Florence Bank is unique in that it’s a mutually-held bank, and Heaps said that mutuality allows it to make decisions about what’s best for customers and the community without input from stockholders.

“The Springfield area needs our kind of independent institution,” he said.

In the next three to five years, Heaps said Florence Bank plans to open two to three additional branches in the Greater Springfield area—a strategic direction that began in 2007 with a loan production office in West Springfield, the success of which is responsible for transforming the bank’s total commercial loan portfolio to more than 36 percent from Hampden County-based businesses.

Between the loan center, a visible ATM in Springfield, a relationship with the Basketball Hall of Fame and employees—like Heaps—who live in Hampden County, the bank can already boast of nearly 3,000 personal banking customers and over 400 commercial clients in the Greater Springfield region. The bank also has a relationship with 97 nonprofits in Hampden County that have received over $300,000 in grants and gifts in the past five years.

Under construction

The Colvest Group, Ltd. of Springfield is developing the building where St. Ann Roman Catholic Church was once located, at the intersection of Union Street and Memorial Avenue. It’s expected that, by the end of May, a team of local subcontractors hired by the bank will be able to get inside and do what’s called “the tenant set-up,” according to Mark Cavanaugh, the bank’s facilities director.

Solidus of Bloomfield, Conn., will oversee that interior work, which Cavanaugh said will include framing walls and ceilings, installing partitions and lighting, and laying carpet.

The building’s exterior will feature stone wainscoting on the first few feet near ground level—already in place—and tan siding and multiple windows across the front. Florence Bank will occupy one third—or 3,000 square feet—of the new plaza, and up to three additional commercial tenants will fill the remaining space, said developer Colaccino.

“We certainly think it’s a high-quality location, and the building is very attractive, Colaccino said. “We’re excited to have Florence Bank as our anchor tenant, and we’re confident we’ll have some good-quality tenants in addition to Florence Bank.”

Colaccino thanked the building’s architect and all the professionals—in private business and in West Springfield—who have helped expedite development. “It takes a whole team of people to get something like this done,” he said at the bank’s hard hat event.

“West Springfield is a great place to do business,” he said. “It’s an exciting project. Florence Bank is here, and Florence Bank is a great bank to do business with. We’re happy to not only be your customer but your landlord as well.”

The Hampden County Banking Center

All of Florence Bank’s services will be offered through the new Hampden County Banking Center.

The full complement of offerings includes deposits and loan products, mobile services to provide 24-hour access to accounts, mortgage application services, debit card issuance, commercial loan services and investment services. The center will also offer a drive-up ATM and night depository.

The center will be staffed by eight employees including: Maureen Buxton, Branch Manager; Stephanie Moore, Assistant Branch Manager; commercial lenders James Montemayor, Henry Downey and mortgage loan originator Susan Seaver, and John Ernst of Florence Bank’s Financial Group will also be available by appointment.

Florence has branches in Amherst, Belchertown, Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Northampton and Williamsburg and is headquartered in Florence.

The post Florence Bank’s New Hampden County Banking Center Under Construction appeared first on Beetle Press.