Addicted to Decorating with JoAnne Lenart-Weary

2007-12-04T01:14:00.001-05:00

Snow Days Rock!

I love a snow day! I think it takes me back to my youth when the snow would blow and you would hope to get a day off school or a "snow day"! Trust me, my youth seems so far away, there isn't much that takes me back there anymore so this was enjoyable. Many of you in this business work from home, but I have had a separate office/studio for many years. Today, no blow drying, no make-up, no "office" clothes, it was me with my sweats, my computer, and my butt on the sofa sitting in my first snow storm in our new home. What a great day! It helped me to bond with this house with which I have had a love/hate relationship. As many of you know, we have purchased my original family home. Sounds charming, but trust me, the house needs a great deal of TLC to bring it to charm level. But I have put up holiday decorations and created my temporary version of beauty in this house. Another year, this will be a show place but right now, it is in need of an extreme makeover but I am loving it more each day despite it's flaws. The view and exterior tranquility (which is what drew me to this house) brought me peace and inspired creativity today. The creativity brought me great ideas to redesign my business for 2008 and fun creative webinar and training ideas
for all of you.

How about you...are you inspired to make changes? Are you redesigning your business for 2008? Are you looking at what you already have and trying to decide how to best place it to complement your plans for your business? Think of your business like a great room. What is the focal point of your business this year? Is it to make more money, extablish yourself as the local expert, or perhaps put a spin on what you have been doing by adding new services. Don't allow yourself to get complacent about your business.

The number three is important when decorating a space, use that same number, to come up with three new ideas you can implement in your business by January 30. Then share them with me, so I and your peers, can support and encourage your success. Haave a great day, I hope you get a snow day soon!

JoAnne Lenart-Weary

www.onedaydecorating.com

2007-11-07T07:43:00.000-05:00

The ATM (Addicted to Marketing) Machine
"you can't withdraw if you don't deposit"

Marketing is one of the cornerstones of a strong business. It is about creating unique ways to bring interest to you and your business. It is not rocket science or filled with secrets. Quite simply, the key to successful marketing is simply "plan it, now do it". I would like to share some tips to make your marketing strategy more effective.

1. Deposit and Withdraw-Just like an ATM machine, if you haven't deposited money to your account, then it won't allow you to make a withdrawal. If you haven't deposited energy and effort to plan your marketing strategy, there will be no business to withdraw. Most large companies strategize and plan their marketing approach a year out, yet as entrepreneurs, we simply get out of bed and spend our time handling today instead of planning tomorrow.

2. Visibility and Credibility-As C.M Hayden of Get Clients Now fame mentions, the most effective marketing strategy is one that builds your credibility and visibility. A newpaper ad will give you visibility where a public presentation will give you both crediibility and visibility. People want to trust the people they work with so work hard to establish your credibility by becoming known as the expert. Are you spending a great deal of time doing busy work marketing instead of productive marketing?

3. Be Fearless, Memorable and Outrageous- A marketing stratgy is only good if they remember who and what you are. If you take the time to prepare a presentation, by golly, they need to remember you when you leave. Wear a funny costume, use humor, interact with the audience, whatever it takes to make your efforts memorable. Or try something new, that no one has done before. i.e. Decorating Lollapallooza, a free two hour webinar to give our attendees a taste of what makes a successful business. It must sound interesting because over 200 of you signed up in the first 8 hours and the numbers have continued to grow. So try something different to create interest. The worst that can happen is it doesn't work. I promise you won't die if you fail at one of your attempts. Trust me in 30 years, I have had a fair amount of failures but they are balanced by a larger amount of successes.

4. The Three C's-Consistency, clarity and creativity are the key components to any marketing plan. Do it often, do it with a clear message and do it with a sense of joy and fun.

5. Measure your Success- There is no sense in doing any of the things involved in growing a business if you don't track it. Sit down now and decide how to best track your success. You might use dollars or clients and always give yourself a goal date. For example, current clients-8. 30 day goal to increase that number to 12. Write down what do you have to do to increase that number and honor the committment. Do you need to attend networking events to meet new people? Do you need to speak at a kindred spirit? What are you going to do this month to increase that number from 8-12 or whatever tracking numbers you want to use. Track your progress each week as you head toward the goal.

5. Be Addicted to Marketing-ATM is fun and rewarding. Your business may be creating beautiful rooms, selling houses, or sewing window treatments, whatever it is, it will not continue with deposits to your marketing account.

See you next week!

JoAnne Lenart-Weary
Founder of "The ODD Squad"
joanne@onedaydecorating.com
814-440-3044

2007-10-24T08:39:00.000-05:00

If you are reading this and you are a woman, you probably feel neglected by your husband. You wish he would do the sweet things for you that he used to do. You want him to understand your needs and frequently, we are disappointed because they don't. If you are a man and you are reading this, my heart goes out to you, because we women are not that easy to deal with and yet....we are so simple. Little things make us happy, wink at us at a party, tell us we look pretty when we get ready for work, kiss us with no ulterior motives and most importantly, really "listen" for the things that are unsaid. A relationship is about understanding and honoring one another's needs and wants.

This rings true with your relationship with your business. Have you been neglecting it? When was the last time, you spent time alone with your business and talked to it about what it needed? When was the last time you gave it some TLC and helped it to blossom into all that it could be? Let's talk about common signs of neglect.

Website-do you have one? if not, what the heck are you waiting for? there is no reason in today's world, with so many options to not have an online brochure for your business, which basically is what a website is. If you do, when was the last time you changed any verbiage or photos? Does the calendar still have dates from things that have passed? Were the colors on trend when you had the site created but now look old and stale. Build traffic to your site by making changes.

Photo on Website-do you have one? I know, I hate the way I photograph also, but people like to visualize who they are reading about or talking to via email. Get your photo up now!

Marketing-when was the last time you tried something different? Do you do something everyday to promote your buisness? Apply the C.C.S.P. formula to your marketing, Creative Consistent Self Promotion. Do it better and more importantly, do it different from your competitors.

Okay, there is a beginning...now, go and talk to your business. Let it know you care and you will reap the benefits. Just like the husband that listens to his wife.

JoAnne Lenart-Weary
www.onedaydecorating.com
joanne@onedaydecorating.com

2007-10-16T16:39:00.001-05:00

The Experimental Stages of Decorating

I am truly addicted to decorating. I know I climbed out of my mother's womb thinking, what a horrible color on these walls. I was rearranging furniture at 10 for my Mom and by the age of 12, her friends were calling me for help. I have had decorating masterpieces and in the early years, some decorating nightmares. Let me share one with you.

I have been blessed to have two great men in my life...one I divorced and Tom, who is still my DH. The first one, Ed, was a funny man but liked the brown bottle a bit more than he liked me. But Ed was there for my formative years and the poor man went through a lot. Perhaps that is why he liked the brown bottle so much.

One of my decorating adventures involved a can of red, 2 step epoxy paint. Now this was in the 70's long before Al Gore was enlightening us on the environment and heaven only knows what kind of chemicals I inhaled during those early years of my decorating education. I set out one day to paint a lovely old claw foot tub this beautiful red. When I was done, I had paint left over. Well, like anything great decorator, I walked around trying to decide what I should paint with the left over paint. Voila, a toilet...what a great combo.
So I commenced painting until every part of the toliet and the seat were the same beautiful red. Now coupled with the newspaper print, (yes, real newspaper) that I had decoupaged on the walls, this was a pretty snazzy bathroom.

A few hours later, Ed came home from work and headed to the bathroom. I was already off and running on my next DIY (do-it-yourself) project so I paid no attention to him. Until I heard the roar from the bathroom and I went running. Well, to make a long story short, the red paint bonded very well to his skin but not quite as well to the toliet seat. Ed sported a bright red ring around his bottom for a couple of weeks as nothing known to man would touch it to remove it. I laughed so hard my sides hurt. Ed didn't laugh until about a month later and then even he had to admit the humor in the situation.

Now why am I sharing this with you? I want you to have fun with decorating. Have an idea, try it. If it works good for you, if it doesn't it was a learning experience. Are there decorating principles that will make a design better....yes, there are. But don't get yourself too caught up in the rules, have fun first and then polish it as you polish your skills set. Happy Decorating! JoAnne

2007-04-25T23:14:00.000-05:00

Blogging...what is this new fangled form of communication? Why does it work because everyone keeps telling me that people don't read anymore, but they must or blogs wouldn't be successful. As I pondered on it, I realized that blogging is simply blabbing....on paper. Everyone knows, I have always been good at blabbing so bring on the blogging.

My firm, One Day Decorating, is all about creating beautiful spaces and helping others to build a new career and follow their passion. This blog will be my attempt to share color, decorating fundamentals, "I never would have thought of that" ideas, interior redesign, staging, business skills, inspiration, marketing for dummies, and more! I might even share an occasional photo of one or all of my grandkids, After all, it is my blog and I can do whatever I darn well please. :) Thanks for joining me and let me know what you think. JoAnne Lenart-Weary