Only 7 investments you need
“It’s a tough market, but that doesn’t mean you need more weapons for your portfolio. Now more than ever, don’t complicate your strategy. Simplify it.”
(Via CNN - Personal finance news.)
User Registration
If you are already a Meetup group member and would like access to post comments or, an article of your own, please use your chosen "username" and, "valid email address." All user profile fields MUST to be filled out (name, address, etc.) or you will be denied access. Thank you.Meetups
Joining in and participating in the monthly Meetups is what makes the group successful. When did you last attend?Upcoming Presentations:
November: Contracts & Licensing Your Art (was fantastic!)
December: Art Basel Miami Beach & Fairs
December: End of the year party
January: Getting Your Tax Life Set - Accounting Matters
January: Grants Writing Workshop
February: How to Photograph Your Work for a Winning Proposal & Portfolio
TBA: Intro to the Public Art process
TBA: Financial Planning for Artists
TBA: Setting up a Studio Work Flow
TBA: How to Use a Web Site
TBA: Getting Involved with Community Arts Programs
TBA: Artists Studio Visits
Web Development
We have a large network of web developers available for any web project, from small to large. Just ask for a quote.OK, Partner, We Better Sign a Prenup
Two friends recently had a few heated words about NOT forming a partnership even though one of them was recruiting business for the other person without receiving a dime in compensation. In the end, his lack of insight may keep him from having developed a bigger and faster growing business. Good thing we all found out before the friendship went any further. It too is now history.
OK, Partner, We Better Sign a Prenup:
“Business partnerships often end in bitter divorce, so prospective partners should first do some individual soul-searching and homework before planning together.”
(Via wall street journal entreprenurs.)
Top 10 Reasons A Website Fails To Perform
Top 10 Reasons A Website Fails To Perform:
“Find out where websites fail to perform and how you can figure out where to make it better.”
1. Undefined Website Objectives
Some sites try to do way too much at once, or worse, they have no definable purpose. Many
offer no clear objective. A site can do more than look good and flashy and have your contact
information.Websites can be informational, storing content and articles based on a topic. Sites can
run eCommerce solutions that help you with your sales process. It can also generate leads,
asking customers to fill out forms with their information and interests. It can also be a
hybrid site, with mixed purposes, like offering a free ebook or free access to information
(informational) in return for contact information (lead generation).Defining the purpose of your website gives a clear direction to your customers. Where should
customers arrive when they find your website? Where do you want them to end up? Using a clear
path and clear objectives, you can lead them through your site, your products, and your information,
depending on how you need to sell your products. Not all products or services can be sold directly
in an eCommerce situation. Maybe you prefer just getting to know your customer a bit more, and being
able to forward marketing materials, so a lead generation type of site might be more suitable.Assign a secondary objective. Maybe after visitors sign up for free access, or an ebook, they
are encourage to ask more by contacting your sales reps, or perhaps they can make a direct purchase
online. Use a clearly definable call to action. ‘Email for more information.’ ‘Click here to sign
up.’ Tell visitors where to go.”
(Via SiteProNews.)
Marketing Your Business Online – Easy Steps Anyone Can Take
Marketing Your Business Online – Easy Steps Anyone Can Take:
“Marketing is the breath that keeps your business alive and kicking. It is essential for life and it is essential for your business. Without marketing, your business will go nowhere. That being said, marketing doesn’t have to be a stressful and excruciating experience. Developing a marketing strategy is a fairly straight forward process that involves three basic steps:
- Creating a marketing strategy
- Implementing it
- Testing it and improvingNow you may be looking at that list and saying, ‘How do I create a marketing strategy?’ That is of course the first step. As a small business owner you probably have one product or service that drives the business. It is the one product or service that represents your company and brings in the majority of your customers. This isn’t necessarily your most expensive product in fact it may be your least expensive product.
For example, if you own a dog sitting business that also sells homemade dog treats or food and even sells homeopathic supplements your primary product, the one that brings customers in, may be your actual dog walking service. However, if you’re a personal coach who offers coaching, seminars and motivational talks, online courses, and you have a book, your lead generating product may be your book. That may be the one product that brings customers into your business. That’s the product you focus your initial marketing strategy on.
Whether you’re a brick and mortar business or an online business, the internet may be your most valuable marketing tool. Communications are instantaneous, more than 70% of internet users use the internet to research a product or service before they buy it, which means the internet may be your first communication with a prospect, and many internet marketing tools have a very good return on investment meaning you’ll make more than you spend which is of course the goal of marketing.
So what internet tools can you use to market your business online?
The initial phase of any marketing strategy is generally a lead generation campaign. The internet can be an extremely useful tool to collect a database of prospects even if you’re a brick and mortar business. For example, Bath & Body, a brick and mortar retail store, implemented an in-store campaign where they collected email addresses in exchange for a free tube of lip gloss. The catch was that people who signed up would receive a coupon for the tube of lip gloss in their email. This campaign was so successful that Bath and Body collected more than 10 million email addresses, the largest specialty retail database created to date. They value each email address at $18 each because now they can market specifically to their database.
So if step one is to determine your business’s most important product and step two is to develop a database then step three is to market to that database. You’ll likely use a mix of tools to communicate your marketing message to your prospect including blogs, article marketing, email campaigns, social networking, sales letters, and even video and audio messages. The online marketing tools you choose to use will depend largely on your target audience. What websites do they visit? What do they read? What is important to them?
Once you’ve determined a few marketing tools to use to communicate with your prospects, don’t hesitate or wait until you think it is perfect, get your campaign up and running. Why? Because you won’t know how effective your marketing strategy is until you test it. Test everything. Test your headlines, test your email open rates, and test your click throughs. You can find a number of tools to help you track that information online and via your website host. As you collect data on your marketing you can hone each message to receive the optimal results. Creating a marketing strategy, like most things in life, is a process. Online tools and tactics can make it an easier, more powerful, and more successful process.
No Tags”
(Via Small Business Branding.)
The Power of Design vs. Convergence/Divergence
The Power of Design vs. Convergence/Divergence:
“Convergence and divergence: terms that many consider over-used and under-defined (although that judgment itself is over-used and under-defined, isn’t it?). I gave a presentation at the recent ‘Power of Design’ seminar in Berlin and offered some tentative definitions and a humble attempt to clear the deck of clichés, myths, and stereotypes that beset the current ‘design thinking’ discussion.
Rather than touting design as the ultimate problem solver in all aspects of social, professional, and political life, I sought to illuminate the (relative) power of design in balancing the possibilities of convergence (media; devices; platforms; disciplines; processes) with the unleashed forces of divergence in a web 2.0 world — design as the facilitator between software and hardware; mobile, web, and desktop; analysis and creativity; virtual and real; professional and consumer; individual and crowd; business and art.
And yet, weighing in on the ongoing debate over the ideal and actual power of design in corporations, my answer to the question ‘Can designers become CEOs?’ would be: Yes, perhaps, but only if they can get over themselves. Leadership in business is about empowering others. Designers, however, are still busy yielding power for themselves.
Here’s the full presentation (warning: 146 slides…thanks and credits to my colleagues Ravi Chhatpar, Mark Rolston, and Adam Richardson for contributing 87 of them!)”
(Via frogblog.)
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