I love the fresh-scrubbed feel of a new year. It's a great time to set goals for myself and my company, which always fires me up and inspires me to charge ahead.

I do more looking forward this time of year than looking back, but it is important to pause and take stock of where I've been. It helps me avoid making the same mistakes twice, and reminds me of things we did that worked well, so that we can try to repeat them.

To that end, here are my top four marketing must-do's in 2014.

• Define your marketing goals.

With clearly defined goals, you have something to aim for and a way to measure your progress (or lack thereof). Throughout the year, I can easily analyze the numbers and see whether I'm on track to meet my goals; if I'm not, I know I need to look for any problems that need to be addressed.

Some marketing goal ideas include how many followers or connections you'll gain on your social media networks, and how many new subscribers you'll sign up for newsletters. Sales may be a number you take into account, but it shouldn't be a goal for your marketing efforts. Sales are the result of a comprehensive strategy of which marketing is just one component.

• Develop and build your own marketing database

Building a database with email addresses and relevant information about former, current and prospective clients is absolutely essential. It allows you to communicate with them, reminding past customers of all you have to offer; strengthening the confidence of current customers; and encouraging prospective customers to move toward a sale.

If you're just getting started, create a database of all the people you know who might be interested in hearing from you: friends, family members, former business associates - everyone.  Your communications should not be sales pitches; rather, offer valuable, helpful information relevant to your field.

Keeps your database growing by offering content on your website that includes a "call to action" - an invitation for visitors to share their contact information in exchange for something that benefits them. That might include free reports available as downloads, how-to videos or subscriptions to your blog posts. If you're an author, you can provide a free chapter or two of your book.

• Maintain your marketing budget even when sales slump.

The first thing some people do when income declines is minimize expenses by whacking their marketing budget. Huge mistake! In fact, you need to pay more attention to marketing when sales drop off.

The new prospects you develop today, and the prospects you've been establishing relationships with, will be your paying customers tomorrow. If you allow that stream to dry up, you'll be in even more dire straits a few weeks or months from now.

• Use every marketing tool available to you.

Today we have more tools than ever for communicating the value of our service or product to the public. Many of them cost you nothing!

Forget yesterday's expensive direct mail letters. Today I can jump on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and the other social media networks and reach a potentially far larger audience for free.

Speaking engagements may be old school, but they're still effective; personal, face-to-face experiences create lasting impressions. Traditional media -- radio, newspapers and magazines, and TV - are also still powerful and carry the additional benefit of giving you credibility. That implied endorsement from journalists and talk show hosts sets you apart from the crowd.

Creating a great website accessible to millions of potential shoppers doesn't have to break the bank, and you can ramp up its value by using it to showcase your publicity.

Use everything at your disposal to share your message.

Following these simple but essential tips will help ensure you stay in front of your customers in the months ahead, which may just make 2014 your best year ever.

About Marsha Friedman: Marsha Friedman is a 23-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations (www.emsincorporated.com/smallbusiness), a national firm that provides PR strategy and publicity services to businesses, professional firms, entertainers and authors. Marsha is the author of Celebritize Yourself and she can also be heard weekly on her Blog Talk Radio Show, EMSI's PR Insider every Thursday at 3:00 PM EST. Follow her on Twitter: @marshafriedman.

CHICAGO - Governor Pat Quinn today joined EquiTrust Life Insurance Company to announce that the company is opening new offices in Illinois that will create 200 jobs in the coming year and could employ hundreds more in years to come. According to company officials, EquiTrust will open their first Illinois office in Chicago, where they expect to add approximately 200 employees over the coming year. The announcement is part of Governor Quinn's agenda to create jobs and drive Illinois' economy forward.

EquiTrust also announced that Earvin Johnson is becoming a controlling shareholder of the company. Mr. Johnson is chairman and chief executive officer of Magic Johnson Enterprises.

"We are thrilled that EquiTrust has chosen to create jobs in Illinois," Governor Quinn said. "We are also excited to have Earvin Johnson become a corporate citizen of our state. His work in redeveloping urban communities has been widely recognized across the country, and this is a win-win for Illinois."

Mr. Johnson said the decision to come to Illinois was based on the state's large and dynamic economy and its pool of talented workers.

"EquiTrust's outstanding reputation and track record of helping people build for their future and plan for their retirement is a perfect example of doing well by doing good," Johnson said. "I am proud to be part of this great organization."

Magic Johnson Enterprises provides high-quality products and services that focus primarily on ethnically diverse and underserved urban communities through strategic alliances, investments, consulting and endorsements. It is comprises multiple business entities and partnerships that include ASPIRE, a new African-American television network; Magic Airport Holdings; Inner City Broadcasting Corporation; SodexoMagic, Edison Learning; Simply Healthcare; and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"I welcome EquiTrust to Chicago and look forward to the hundreds of new employees who will be joining the most outstanding workforce in the world and calling Chicago home," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. "Chicago is a thriving center for the insurance industry and EquiTrust will only add to this leadership in the future."

Mr. Johnson said that he has long been a fan of both Chicago and the state of Illinois and is looking forward to contributing to the area. He is excited to begin this chapter in his business career by investing in EquiTrust and helping it innovate and grow to serve its policyholders and constituents.

"This city and state contain a vibrant business community, with an outstanding work force pool," EquiTrust CEO Jeff Lange said. "The Governor and Illinois Department of Insurance have been extraordinarily welcoming and helpful in assisting us in our efforts and for that we are appreciative. We are pleased to be here. We believe it is an excellent place from which to continue implementing EquiTrust's growth strategy and find increasingly better ways to serve the company's various constituents."

Illinois is attracting new and expanding businesses because of its superior transportation network, highly educated work force, culture of entrepreneurship, access to capital and competitive cost structure.

"EquiTrust Life Insurance Company is a welcome addition to the life insurance and annuities market in Illinois," Illinois Department of Insurance Director Andrew Boron said. "It's a well-rated company with relatively new ownership, which should provide increased choices for consumers in Illinois' competitive insurance environment."

EquiTrust Life, which also has offices in Des Moines, Iowa, distributes fixed-rate and indexed annuities and life insurance through a national network of more than 14,500 independent agents. EquiTrust Life is rated BBB+ (Good) by Standard & Poor's and B++ (Good) by A.M. Best Company. Guggenheim Partners, LLC, a diversified financial services firm, announced that certain of its affiliates acquired the company from its previous parent, FBL Financial Group, Inc., in 2011.

Mr. Johnson also has roots in Chicago's educational landscape and in September of 2013 was joined by Governor Quinn to launch his new organization, "Friends of Magic." The movement aims to provide at-risk students with the tools they need to graduate high school and have a successful future. The announcement took place at the newly established North/South Lawndale Magic Johnson Bridgescape Academy, one of two Chicago-area blended-learning programs that provide students who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out of school with a free alternative path to earn a high school diploma in an environment that fits their schedule, life circumstances and learning needs. Magic Johnson Bridgescape Academies are currently in six states with a total enrollment of 1,675.

Under Governor Quinn's leadership, the state of Illinois has identified, recruited and supported companies with the potential to bring jobs and economic growth to Illinois. The state has added 281,400 private sector jobs since January 2010, when job growth returned to Illinois following nearly two years of consecutive monthly declines.

For more information on why Illinois is the right place for business, visit Illinoisbiz.biz.

About Magic Johnson Enterprises

Magic Johnson Enterprises was formed in 1987. For additional information, visit www.magicjohnson.com.

About EquiTrust

For additional information, visit www.equitrust.com.

See below; and response from Jeremy Funk, Communications Director, Americans United for Change: "We're sure API President Jack Gerard just made an honest math error and forgot to carry nine zeroes somewhere in his calculations.  Seriously, if big oil can lie so shamelessly about the taxpayer subsidies everyone knows they reap, why should the EPA believe a word of their trash talk about the renewable fuels industry?  Big oil wants nothing more than to be rid of their cheaper, cleaner competition, so whatever they say about ethanol during this critical comment period on the proposed RFS rule must be taken with a grain of tar sand.   Big oil may get a lot more than zero in tax payer subsidies, but there is exactly zero chance that big oil will ever come close to producing enough domestically to meet U.S. oil consumption.  That's why it makes no sense to abandon the renewable fuels industry now at a time it's fulfilling 10% of our nation's fuel needs and at a time it's making incredible innovations that will fulfill more and more demand down the road."

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/01/09/1423351/oil-zero-subsidies/

Big Oil Lobby Claims The Industry 'Gets No Subsidies, Zero, Nothing' 

BY REBECCA LEBER  ON JANUARY 9, 2013 AT 2:23 PM

Despite ranking among the most profitable corporations in the world, Big Oil benefits from $4 billion in annual tax breaks. It fights to maintain them through aggressive political donations, lobbying, and heavy ad spending, but also employs another tactic: Pretending these tax breaks don't exist.

"The oil and gas industry gets no subsidies, zero, nothing," API President Jack Gerard said on Tuesday. "We get cost-recovery benefits, much like other industries. You can go down the road of allowing economic activity, generating hundreds of billions to the government, or you can take the alternative route by trying to extract new revenue from industry by increasing their cost to do business."

Tax deductions are indeed subsidies, as API admitted in a document that labeled "subsidies for alternative fuels" as "preferential tax treatment." And the oil industry's $4 billion preferential treatment is written permanently into the tax code. These include :

Percentage depletion allowance: lets companies deduct the costs of an oil or gas well, about 15 percent, from its taxes.

Domestic manufacturing tax deduction: Allows oil companies to collect $1.8 billion each year, even though there are vast differences between oil and traditional U.S. manufacturing. It is a benefit that was never intended for them, according to Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, who said Congress included oil producers "almost inadvertently."

The foreign tax credit: Oil companies overwhelmingly fall into the category of companies that can claim credits for payments to foreign governments.

Expensing intangible drilling costs: For over a century, oil companies have written off wages, fuel, repairs, and hauling costs.

ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips have paid federal tax rates well below the 35 percent top corporate rate, a far cry from paying "more than our fair share". ExxonMobil, for instance, paid a 13 percent tax rate in 2011, after drilling deductions and benefits, and 14 percent on average between 2008 and 2010.

While the world is still feeling the long ripples of the economic meltdown that began six years ago, our economic institutions remain "too big to fail" - at least in the minds of  millions of retired Americans and those soon to join their ranks, says veteran financial advisor Curt Whipple.

"That's what we see when we review their retirement portfolios," says Whipple, a Certified Wealth Strategist, Certified Estate Planner and CEO of C. Curtis Financial Group. He recently published "Retiree Lifeline! How to Get Government Out of Your Pocket," (ccurtisfinancial.com), a retirement planning guide.

"I see it all the time: a new client comes in with what they believe to be a 'diverse' portfolio. While it may be diverse in terms of Wall Street holdings, a solid retirement plan also requires diversity outside of a system that's 'too big to fail,' which could fail yet again."

When Wall Street falls, it shouldn't mean that Main Street must as well. Whipple outlines the three kinds of money retirees should have available for enjoying the golden years with peace of mind.

• Red money ... can be defined as that which is tied to Wall Street, by far the most popular kind of investment, including stocks, bonds and mutual funds. "I've been looking at the accounts of new clients for nearly three decades, and on average, 92 percent of their retirement plan is based in these investments," he says. "That's risky, especially as you get closer to retirement age or once you retire. You don't want 92 percent of your retirement premised on that kind of potential volatility."

• Blue money ... is often referred to as "alternative investments," which typically include Real Estate Trusts (REITS), equipment leasing programs, precious metals such as gold and silver, high grade rare coins and collectibles. "This 'color' of money has been an important portion of the pie for success in my clients' investments; they were essentially unaffected by our recent economic collapse because they were so well diversified." This is a highly advantageous part of a portfolio because it historically creates good income with a low correlation to the stock market.

• Green money ... is accounts that come with a guarantee of some sort. They are either backed by the FDIC, the Legal Reserve System, which is supported by the insurance industry, or insurance companies themselves. "Not all wealth is created equally, and this is the safest kind of money you can have in your retirement plan," he says. Green money includes investments in one's portfolio that have guarantees to not lose one's principal and, sometimes, one's earnings.

"Investment in Wall Street should be much lower for those who are either retired or are about to be retired," Whipple says. "Depending on a person's age, a good investment portfolio could include about 36 percent red money, 32 percent blue money and 32 percent green money."

About Curt Whipple, CWS, CEP

Curt Whipple, Certified Wealth Strategist (CWS) and Certified Estate Planner (CEP), is Chief Managing Partner at the C. Curtis Financial Group, which he formed in 1986. Since then, Curtis Financial Group has counseled and advised individuals and corporations on their financial goals and decisions. Whipple is a nationally recognized speaker.