For entrepreneurs, staying connected to the office is critical even during the holiday season. Tom Shaughnessy, director of business marketing for Sprint, offers 10 tips for remaining connected through the holiday season with your wireless phone.

1. You don't need to say, "Bah humbug!" to holiday fun to keep up with the news. Many new smart phones offer on-demand web content access, allowing you to retrieve information such as business news, stock quotes and other headlines to keep you informed even when out of the office.  
   
2. Don't wait until January 2 to track your company expenses during a hectic end-of-the-year spending period. Consider paying bills and monitoring account balances on-the-go via your mobile phone.
   
3. Spread your holiday cheer from almost anywhere. Many smart phones allow you to access e-mail programs that store all of your contacts. Whether you want to send a quick "thank you" for a gift from a vendor or follow up on new business leads after a holiday networking event, it's important to have your contacts at your fingertips.
   
4. Don't end up at the North Pole on your way to a fun holiday gathering.  Invest in a GPS-enabled phone, offering you step-by-step directions and even re-routing your way to your destination if you happen to make a wrong turn.
   
5. Access the office from the ski lodge or your tropical holiday getaway. Stay connected using a mobile broadband card, which allows for internet access anywhere your wireless carrier has mobile broadband service.  
   
6. Get organized and save on personalized holiday gifts for customers and colleagues. Smart phones and numerous wireless devices offer e-mail for sales alerts, access to the internet to view product pricing information and store hours, and to-do list software to keep track of gifts and shopping deals.
   
7. Never miss an important business call while running holiday errands. Make sure your clients and colleagues can reach you on the go with call forwarding. 
   
8. Stay seamlessly informed of top business news during long holiday road trips. Consider purchasing a handset from a wireless carrier that offers satellite radio.  
   
9. Keep from being dubbed the office Grinch. You and your team can stay on schedule with important meetings and deadlines using a push-to-talk service that allows you to connect with a group of people, even if calling in remotely.
   
10. It's winter and your phone should withstand the elements. Consider a rugged phone--originally designed for the military--that can handle extreme environmental conditions, including dust, shock, vibration, and/or extreme temperatures. Some can even withstand rain.--Eve Gumpel  

To make the most of marketing dollars, companies use various strategies to reach their desired audiences: niche marketing, product placement, a range of mediums, complementary partnerships and promotional items. For Shecky's, a female-centric media brand and website, it's all of those tactics that reach and appeal to its 150,000 annual event attendees and 4 million monthly page viewers. The decade-old company provides tips and info on nightlife, dining, fashion and beauty. And Shecky's Girls Night Out is a popular shopping-extravaganza hosted in several cities around the country, including Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.

The event targets the company's trendy female audience with goodie bags loaded with full-size products from a number of partners, while beverage companies provide bottomless drinks, and local designers offer discounted shopping. Shecky's and all the brands involved are placed at the hands, eyes and taste buds of their target audience.

The New York City-based company just rounded up 2007 with a two-day shopping spree in Los Angeles this week at Santa Monica Barker Hangar, featuring low-calorie beer tasting from Budweiser, free flip-flops from Jenni clothing and consultations from Booty Parlor's home party sales. For 2008, Shecky's is planning for additional cities, new partnerships and more freebies.--Lindsay Holloway

Tis the season for online shopping--at work. According to an article on eMarketer.com, Burst Media's "Online Insights" study found that more than 50 percent of respondents admitted to shopping online for personal items during work hours. Workers' most common personal shopping activity involved making a purchase, followed by researching products and comparing retailers. Data from 2006 Nielsen/NetRatings echoed these findings, showing that daily online traffic to retail sites was heaviest on weekdays. It makes sense when you consider the fact that online shopping is a mostly solitary activity, whereas most people choose to spend weekends with family and friends. "Consumers use their weekend visits to the mall to get gift ideas, but return to their computers at the beginning of the week to search the internet for better prices," said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.