If you haven’t already upgraded your cell phone, now might be the time to do so, especially as you attend more and more business events and workshops. You’re going to need something fast and reliable so that when you meet new people you can instantly save their numbers or connect with them on social media, maybe even take a few important pictures and reduce the amount of business cards you bring home.

Cell phones are so powerful now that you can pretty much take pictures of documents and scan them as PDF files or use the camera as a scanner. In fact, you can download apps that will generate barcodes for you. You can have that barcode link back to your personal website or upload your contact information into the other person’s cell phone.

If you are worried about losing the business cards handed to you, you can use your phone to take pictures of them. If you’re signed up with a reliable cell phone network, you can easily email everything to yourself so that you can quickly access everything once you’re at your computer. Thing is, networking events can be so fast-paced and exciting that you might lose track of who you meet and what you talk about. Use your cell phone to jot down important notes about who you’ve spoken to and why you will want to contact them again soon.

Your cell phone is the main hub for social networking and in-person interaction. Keep it charged and get your apps in order. One thing people love to do while at these events is take pictures and the occasional interview video. Make sure you’ve got a memory card that can handle a few short videos that you can quickly upload to YouTube or Facebook. Carry an extra memory card if you have to. Also, make sure you’ve got an extra battery or a cord so you can recharge your battery if necessary. You’re going to put it through some very heavy use, so be prepared so that you don’t suddenly become disconnected.

Explore what new business apps are being put on the market for you to download and find the one that is the easiest to use. LinkedIn has an app that you can try out and see if it helps you get connected to other LinkedIn users instantly. Whatever you choose to download, make sure you learn how to use it so that you don’t fumble with it once you’re talking to people and trying to get down their contact info.

As the CEO of your own business, you’re basically allowed to determine how you brand yourself. It’s up to you to decide who you want to appeal to with your product or service and there are very good reasons for doing this. Obviously, you only want to attract people who have a serious interest in what you have to offer, otherwise you’ll end up with a wishy washy and troublesome customer.

Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, recently released a statement about his company that caused a lot of trouble and spurned tons of commentary in social media. He explained that the fashion line wasn’t intended for large people, therefore it is designed to fit athletic males and thin females only. His intention is to brand the line to “cool” people, those who are part of the so-called popular crowd.

While this is not the ideal way to talk about your business, it won’t be putting him out of business anytime soon. Granted, he could have been a lot nicer with his words, but in the end he doesn’t have to be nice about it. It’s his company and he can brand it as he chooses. This can provide us with a valuable lesson as we set out to brand ourselves as business builders.

First off, you will know how to brand yourself once you’ve determined what kind of customers you’d like to attract. You can’t waste time branding yourself incorrectly and then wonder why you don’t have any new clients. Are you creating a website building service? If so, who do you want your customers to be? Do you want people who are experts at building websites but don’t have the time, or do you want to serve those who have no idea how to do it and could really use an affordable web site building company? Once you sort that out, you’ll know how to properly name your business and how to start advertising to the kind of people you’d like to help.

Jeffries knows who will buy his clothes and he is marketing directly to them. The people he chooses to hire and the sizes to which the clothes is limited all speak to a very specific set of customers. While we may disagree with his opinions on larger people, we don’t have to run our businesses the way he does. He is definitely leaving out a huge amount of people who have money to spend. You can bet that other businesses will get smart and take advantage of this if they are ready to market or rebrand themselves to attract that set of people who are being excluded from the Abercrombie & Fitch line of clothing.

Choose which customers you want and start formulating your marketing strategy to let them know you are looking to serve them.

If you’ve ever wondered why so many entrepreneurs are happy, you can bet that a lot of it has to do with how they are free to pursue whatever they want to on their own time.

Having a job is fine. It helps you pay the bills and keeps you going, but if you’re working for a place that offers little advancement, eventually you realize that you can only go so far. The job is fine as long as it pays the bills, but that’s all it will ever do. What if you want to go on vacation a few times a year instead of just once or never? What if you want to spend more time at home during the day instead of coming home every evening in time for dinner and then straight to bed?

There’s a reason why you see so many entrepreneurs taking trips out of town and sometimes to other countries. Their businesses allow them to move freely and create their own schedules. They never have to worry about getting their time off approved by a boss. They almost never have to worry about missing important family events because they are in charge of their schedules and can make time for the things that mean the most to them.

It’s the desire for freedom that leads so many people to surrender their fears and becomes independent and wealthy. Don’t misunderstand, this freedom still requires some work and effort, but the huge difference between the work and effort you put into your own business versus what goes into your day job is that one is much more fulfilling than the other. When you’re working for yourself, you hardly feel like you’re working at all. You’re doing exactly what you want to do, when you want to do it, and you make sure that you do what it takes to achieve the success you want.

For that reason, many new entrepreneurs are joining Nutrie and becoming independent business owners. Rarely do you come across an opportunity to build your own business on your own time while also bringing amazing changes to your health. If you visit Automatic Body, you’ll find two types of people right away: customers who are drastically changing their lives in positive ways, and independent owners who are building successful business teams. You’ll also see the qualifications of the company right away. Celebrity fitness trainer Kim Lyons is actively involved in the design of the program which tells you right away that she’s a huge part of the reason why those people’s lives are changing in great ways.

When you’re ready to learn more about how people are becoming wealthy, healthy, and free of living paycheck to paycheck, visit the Automatic Body site and also take a look at Nutrie.