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

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