Modish Biz Tips

The Future of the Meetup!

2009-12-08T18:12:39-08:00

Hi meet-up lovelies!

Don't fret about that last post, as the meet-up will continue in oh so capable hands...one of the regular participants will be taking it over and hosting it on her blog- Liz, from Athena Dreams! So, if you'd like to continue meeting regularly and supporting each other with your goals, make sure you add Liz' blog to your reader to be notified when there's a new post up. She'll take over starting with the January meet-up. And at that time I'll archive this site and make a more user-friendly front-page so you can find past articles more easily, and still have all the info that's here available right at your finger tips.

Thanks again for all your support over these past months. And good luck with your December goals everyone!

<3 jena

Monthly Goal Meetup- December

2009-11-30T12:02:18-08:00

Oh my goodness, the last goal meetup of the year? Wowza! And I'm sorry to say, but I feel this will be the last meet-up period here on BIZtips. With the opening of my shop and needing to have at least a slim resemblance of a regular life too, BIZtips will become a fully archived site come January. Here always for your perusal! But it won't be updated any longer. I have faith the meetup will continue for those of you who'd like it to. I'll find someone to carry on the torch for me and update you here once I know how it will work.

So for November, I actually did great (for perhaps the first time!) Here's what I got done...

November Goals

Measure all clothing
Finish editing all photos
List at least 24 items in shop for opening
Opening goal date: Nov 16th actually opened on time!
Send out notice to bloggers about the opening! didn't do this yet- need to research some vintage friendly blogs first

And for my last goal list of the year, I'm not going to go with a list, per se. My goals are a little larger than list formation, but I need to remind myself daily this December, and every month afterward, what really matters in my life. So...

December Goals

Remember that it's not the hours I spend working that I'll remember when I'm older, it's the relationships I have and the fun times that come from those that turn to memories. Make more memories.

Remember that your health is of utmost importance and you need to take care of yourself. There's no excuse in letting stress make you sick. Give yourself time to relax. Exercise. Sleep longer. Feed yourself well.

Remember that you may not know now which direction to go, or where you'll be in 5 years, but take everyday as a learning experience, and you'll find your place. Grow within yourself and your business will naturally grow along with you.

How about you? What has December got you thinking about? What sort of personal/lifestyle goals might you have that can actually help your business in the long run?

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To participate in the meetup:

post a list of your business related goals for Dec, along with your checked off Nov goals if you'd like, on your own blog
come back here and leave a link to your post in the comments (*If you don't have your own blog to post to, feel free to just leave your list of goals right here in the comments to play along!)
Then, check out everyone else's lists as they leave comments here- click their links, hop to their blogs, say hello, meet and greet and support each other because that's what it's all about! And if you've participated before, maybe try to say hi to a couple new participants you're unfamiliar with this time around.

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I'm so thankful for all of you who've met here, read the articles, and been able to take away something from this meetup, and site as a whole. I had big plans for this site originally, but realized that it's just not the direction I'd like to go with my career. So here's to not being afraid to try things, to experimenting and being brave in your ideas, and to not being satisfied until you truly find the place you're meant to be.

Have a happy, successful and hopefully restful holiday season! Don't stress too much! It'll come again next year ;)

<3 jena

Monthly Goal Meetup- November

2009-11-02T09:16:59-08:00

Hey hey, it's that time again! How'd you do with your goals this month? I think the fall weather has helped me be a lot more productive lately, something about the cool air. An improptu trip at the end of the month set me back a bit, but for the first time in a long time I don't feel guilty and like I need to beat myself up over it. Progress! ;)

So, here were my October goals and what I accomplished...

Create shop header/logo
Create new blog for the shop
Take photos of first round of inventory
Get at least 24 items (2 pages on etsy) listed for the grand opening!
Opening goal date: Nov 4th

Well, 3 out of 5 ain't bad! But I definitely need more time to get the shop open, probably another couple weeks. So here are my goals for November to make sure that happens:

November Goals

Measure all clothing
Finish editing all photos
List at least 24 items in shop for opening
Opening goal date: Nov 16th
Send out notice to bloggers about the opening!

How about you? Holiday season is officially upon us! What are your goals to help see that it'll be a successful one?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

To participate in the meetup:

post a list of your business related goals for Nov, along with your checked off Oct goals if you'd like, on your own blog
come back here and leave a link to your post in the comments (*If you don't have your own blog to post to, feel free to just leave your list of goals right here in the comments to play along!)
Then, check out everyone else's lists as they leave comments here- click their links, hop to their blogs, say hello, meet and greet and support each other because that's what it's all about! And if you've participated before, maybe try to say hi to a couple new participants you're unfamiliar with this time around.

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I look forward to checking in with everyone! Let's meet back here on Monday, Nov 30th to set and share our December goals. See you then!

Double Your Marketing Impact With Cross-Promotion

2009-10-08T11:24:25-07:00

The following is a guest post by Meredith Keller

{photo by Pochaco}

Imagine you have a company newsletter with 300 subscribers. Your website gets 3000 visitors each month and you've managed to amass 100 fans on Facebook. You're using these channels to promote special sales and discount codes and seeing a trickle of a response from customers. Now imagine you could let two or three times as many people know about your current promotions without spending a dime. How is such a thing possible? With cross-promotion!

Cross-promotion is marketing activity that is mutually beneficial for two or more businesses. You may already engage in some of this now by having a friend in business insert your promotional flyers into orders she ships to customers. Big businesses do this type of marketing too. You've probably seen the Geico commercials featuring Mrs. Butterworth syrup, for example. There are lots of ways to engage in cross-promotional activities but before we explore some examples, first you need to know how to pick the right partner.

Picking a Cross-Promotion Partner
There are two elements to consider when selecting a cross-promotion partner and they're both very important:

1. Demographics
You'll want to choose a partner who sells a non-competing product or service to a similar demographic. If you sell handbags you probably don't want to work with another handbag company, however a jewelry company might be a better pick. You both sell to a style-conscious female audience so you're pursuing a similar customer-base but presenting different products. Make sure your brand's image is compatible with your partner. You don't want to work with a company selling lacy, shabby chic home decor if you specialize in punky studded cuffs and collars.
2. Reach
You want to make sure that your cross-promotional relationship is going to be equitable. If you have 10,000 Facebook fans and you are planning to do a cross-promotional campaign on there, you want to make sure you aren't working with companies that only have 200 fans of their own. You can mix and max marketing channels to make your relationship equitable, a company with thousands of Facebook fans might be interested in working with a company just starting out on Facebook that has tons of website traffic but only a few hundred Facebook fans. Make sure whatever campaign you come up with, your partner or partners can offer your brand the same amount of exposure that you can offer them. You want a fair trade.

Examples of Cross Promotion

There's a limitless number of ways two or more businesses can help each other grow. Here are just a few examples to consider:

1. Email marketing
Mention your partner's 50% off sale on your newsletter in exchange for having them announce your new product launch on their newsletter.
2. Sweepstakes
Organize a giveaway with a partner in order to promote your brand. You have all kinds of options with this one. You can announce to your customers (via Twitter, newsletter, website, etc.) that you're co-sposoring a giveaway with another company. Maybe you're a soap maker and you're sponsoring a giveaway with a candle company. Both companies tell their customers there's a prize to be won and then ask customers to become Facebook fans or join your newsletters in order to be eligible to win. Both you and your cross-promotion partner should see a lovely boost in your customer contacts and you can use this sweepstakes to get some buzz about your brands. Ask bloggers to tell their readers about the sweepstakes. Post your sweepstakes to contest websites like Prizey.com. Create a website dedicated to the sweepstakes (linking to your and your partner's website of course) and buy ad space on high traffic websites promoting the sweepstakes (splitting the cost of the ad of course). You can do as little or as much promotion as you want, but the beauty is that there are two companies doing the promotional work and spending promotional dollars.
3. Print Advertising
Print ads can cost big bucks, why not share the cost with another business. Instead of scrimping for a tiny marketplace ad in the back of a magazine, pool your cash with two or three other businesses and take up a full page ad in the middle of a magazine your customers read.
4. Promos
This type of cross-promotion is already popular in the handmade scene. Simply send some promotional flyers to another business and have them send some to you. Put their flyers in with your orders when they ship and have them do the same for you. You can even include a coupon code on your flyer to track the success of the effort.
5. Social Media and Blogging
Retweet your partner's promotions and have them do the same for you. Post their deals to your Facebook fans or on your blog and have them do the same in return.
6. Website
Trade banner ads with another company and put each other's banner ads on your websites. Offer a coupon code on your order confirmation page for your partner's business and have them do the same for you. Create a holiday gift guide on your website and include your partner's products in addition to your own. Have them do the same on their website.
7. Collaboration
Develop or design a new product with another business. Maybe you're an illustrator but know nothing about screen printing, work with a screen printer to have your illustrations printed on shirts or canvas bags. Then when the products sell, both businesses profit. Both business can also take part in spreading the word about the collaborative work.

Orchestrating Your Campaigns

Cross-promotion efforts should take the form of campaigns. You and your partner should pre-determine several factors before you embark on your partnership including:

1. The length of campaign

Don't commit to a cross-promotional relationship with no end-date in mind. Business needs change. Sometimes cross-promotions don't work out. Build an end date into your efforts. You can always launch a second campaign if all parties are pleased with the result of their first one. Agree before you start that your effort is to include a 30 day contest. One mention in each partner's newsletter. Three print ads during the summer of 2010 in Lucky Magazine. After the initial campaign is complete, everyone can decide if they want to continue working together.

2. Campaign activities

It's important that all parties involved know exactly what is expected of them and agree to follow through on those activities. If you're doing a print ad decide who is designing the print ad, when the design will be completed, who will make the payment for it. If you're doing a sweepstakes decide how each of you will promote it. Will you both be contacting bloggers to try to get press for it and if so which ones? Will you both be announcing it on Twitter or your website's homepage? The more specific you can get with the steps you'll undertaking during your campaign the more smoothly things will go. Don't assume your partner is taking care of a task, spell out exactly who is doing what and when it has to be done by.

3. Measures of Success

You'll need some way to determine whether your campaign was successful. You can do this by directing cross-promotion related customers to a special landing page on your website. You can assign a special promotion code to be given out during your campaign so you know which purchases came from the effort. You can look to see how many new Facebook fans or newsletter subscribers you added during the life of the campaign. Decide what you're trying to achieve with your campaign (newsletter subscribers, website traffic, sales, buzz, publicity, etc.) and how you're going to measure your success. It's important to determine ahead of time what you consider successful so you can decide if you want to pursue campaigns like this in the future.

Next Steps

Finding a partner can be tricky. If you already have a company in mind that you think you'd like to work with, send them a friendly email asking them if they're interested in working together and let them know what you have in mind for a campaign.

If you're not sure who you'd like to work with check out my "matchmaking services" page on Indie Parade. I am in the process of pairing up companies interested in doing cross-promtion. You can send me details on the promotional avenues you have available to you and what kind of company you'd like to work with. If I find a good match for you I'll introduce you and you can get started.

Monthly Goal Meetup- October

2009-10-07T11:03:26-07:00

I'm much more than a day late and a dollar short, but I think it's time for the October Monthly Goal Meet-up, hmm?

I wasn't going to continue with the meetup because I had no idea, really no idea that it was actually helping people stay on track! I don't know why I thought that, but I'm really hopeful and inspired to hear that it has been helping many of you. So, thank you to everyone who emailed and commented about how you would miss the meetup- you changed my mind. I'm going to continue on with it and can see BIZtips remaining the meetup space for us each month, whether or not I make it a more active blog again in the new year.

So, for those of you who would like to continue to participate, if you haven't added BIZtips to your feed reader yet, that may be a great way to stay on top of when new posts come up, since they'll be infrequent. There's an option to sign up to receive posts via email, which may work well.

Other than that, let's get on with the goals, shall we?

Here were my goals for Sept:

September Goals

Do something for you, just for you. Write. Take more pictures. Embroider something. Read a book that's not business related. Find your creative voice again. Did it! Feeling excited & inspired!
Re-instill the original vigor and frequency into BIZtips that it had before your impromptu summer vacation. Didn't do this, but made a decision about it, which feels like an accomplished goal to me!
Unslumpify yo'self, girl. I'm back to me old self again

And now since I'm trying to get a shop opened up, all my October goals are relating to that. Hmm, maybe this really can help! :)

October Goals

Create shop header/logo
Create new blog for the shop
Take photos of first round of inventory
Get at least 24 items (2 pages on etsy) listed for the grand opening!
Opening goal date: Nov 4th

Now it's your turn- what are your goals for this lovely autumn month?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

To participate in the meetup:

post a list of your business related goals for Oct, along with your checked off Sept goals if you'd like, on your own blog
come back here and leave a link to your post in the comments (*If you don't have your own blog to post to, feel free to just leave your list of goals right here in the comments to play along!)
Then, check out everyone else's lists as they leave comments here- click their links, hop to their blogs, say hello, meet and greet and support each other because that's what it's all about! And if you've participated before, maybe try to say hi to a couple new participants you're unfamiliar with this time around.

_________________________________________________________________

If you left a link to your goals previously on another post, please leave that link again here so they can all be in the same spot. Thank you!

Since we're getting a little late start, let's meet back here on Monday, Nov 2nd to set and share our November goals. See you then!

Incorporate Charitable Work into your Brand Indentity

2009-10-06T11:44:16-07:00

The following is a guest post by Meredith Keller

{photo by raceytay}

The key to brand building is telling a story. Anyone can sell handbags or earrings, part of what makes your products stand out is the personality behind the business. There are lots of great ways to show a bit of yourself to your customers: create a Flickr account, maintain a blog. Share your process, share your workspace, share a bit of you. One valuable way to share with your customers is through your charitable activities. We all like to do business with socially responsible companies, so if you're involved with a good cause make this part of your brand's story.

1. Be Authentic

If you're not currently involved in a charitable organization, your first task is to select one. When doing this, make sure it's a charity you really care about. For one thing, it will come across as more genuine when you tell the story and for another, it will help you stay engaged with your charity. Some good examples include running a marathon for breast cancer, teaching art classes to underprivileged youth, or volunteering for a conservation organization.

Ideally, you'd want to pick something that fits with your brand. If you're an illustrator, teaching art classes might be a natural fit. If you make products from recycled goods the conservation organization might make more sense. At Ex-Boyfriend, we are very involved with local animal rescues. Our whole company is run by animal lovers and a lot of our illustrations feature some of our favorite critters. Our customers are likely to be animals lovers and interested in our work with animal rescues, so it makes sense to share our experiences with them.

2. Tell the story

Tell your customers how you got involved in the charity of your choice and what it means to you. In our case, we've always loved animals and after adopting a couple of kitties from local rescue organizations, we wanted to get more involved. We have a page on our site dedicated to our history with animal rescue organizations, and it details the ways in which we are involved with them. We donate a portion of our profits to animal rescues and do volunteer work for them.

3. Share the experience

Make your experience with your charity an ongoing one. It gives customers a view into your life and continues the story of the brand's relationship with the charitable cause. (It's also just awesome to help a good cause.) If you're training for a marathon, blog about the experience. If you're donating products to a charitable auction, tell customers how they can bid. If you're teaching an art class, post pictures of your students' work. Since, we foster rescue animals at Ex-Boyfriend, we keep our customers updated with videos, pictures of our foster animals and stories about caring for them.

You can also use your charitable work experience to generate content for your social media pages. Use stories, photos, videos and links related to your charitable work across Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and your blog. It gets your brand out there in a way that's tied to something positive so new customers can discover you, and existing customers can stay interested in your activities.

Lastly, be sure to include information about your charitable work when talking to the press. It helps tell your brand story and add interest. It will make you stand out among other companies pitching similar products because it adds another angle to your story. It also helps generate interest in your charity.

4. Invite customers to participate

Provide ways for customers to get involved with your charitable activities. Donate a portion of your company profits to charity. Provide links to donate to your charity directly. Ask your customers to bid on your products for your charity's auction. At Ex-Boyfriend, we often promote the Animal Rescue Site on Facebook, Twitter and in our newsletter. Customers just have to click a link to help raise money for animal rescues. Inviting customer participation not only helps your charitable cause, it also helps your customers engage with your brand.

5. Use your charity to promote your brand

Charitable organizations are often willing to give you a little free word of mouth in exchange for volunteer work or donations. Offer to design their newsletter or sponsor their next happy hour with door prizes. In exchange, they'll most likely be willing to mention your business in their newsletter, on their websites or on event flyers. It's almost free advertising to an audience that's likely to view your brand favorably since you're both involved with the same charity.