Archive for April, 2008

Kelly and I were twittering together last week and she asked if I was available to chat for an interview regarding my business journey offline and online.

This chat goes through from owning 5 retail stores to selling everything off and pursuing my dreams in the online world. From living in a day to day stress to living my life to the fullest and enjoying my life with my family.

Thanks Kelly for having me on, it was a really great time.

You can listen to our interview here.

For me I know that I love these things. I love instant messaging, I love things like twitter, and video games. Yes, I play video games and I always beat the kids and hubby at Mario Kart, my all time favorite. Especially DK Mountain, that rocks!

But lately I’ve been a slight bit addicted to twitter. I have spent too much time on it this week and realize that I will have to be more strict on myself for next week. There’s just so much for me to do and I cannot play until I’ve done my work.

But you know what? Twitter has been a really great business tool as well. I’ve managed to connect with online business friends, but also more importantly been available to a wider audience of people. Just yesterday my friend Kelly and I were twittering, she realized I had some free time so we jumped on an interview for her show.

That show will be published on Monday April 21st, and I’m really looking forward to hearing it. I know she said we chatted for 45 minutes.

If your business is the body, you are the heart and your customers are the blood.  Picture your business as a living being.  The body (your scrapbooking business) contains the heart (you) and your customers are the blood that delivers the life giving nutrients that keep the heart and body going.  Your business (a living being) cannot survive without a hard working, healthy heart and lifeblood, your customers.

The customer alone is not the key but without them you will not have a business.  Serving your customers with all the information given in previous sections will help your business to thrive.  For instance, on your customer card have you listed important dates like their birthday or anniversary? Take the time to remember your customers and treat them like family, after all they have given to you the responsibility of taking care of their most precious memories.

All successful business are the same in the method by which they start and successfully run.  They all have an individual or group of individuals who have an idea or vision and move forward to manifest it.  Putting a business plan to pen and paper is highly suggested, because a written business plan always gives you something to fall back on.  If you don’t know how to write one, do your research.  There are countless resources that are available for someone who is trying to write a business plan.

If you are needing help writing or developing a business plan you can start by searching on the internet.  There are many services that will help you develop, write and understand your business plan.  If you don’t have the financial resources to pay someone to help you develop a business plan you can always use free templates that are posted all over the web.  If you don’t feel comfortable using the methods above your local book store or library will have published books that can walk you through the process step by step.  It is also always a good idea to talk to another successful business person about how they developed and implemented their plan.

If you have decided that starting your own scrapbooking business is in your future, you have come to the right web site to start you on your way.

Starting a business can be a daunting task, so before you invest time, money and effort into business development and work equipment you need to determine a few things about yourself.  Doing an “internal” audit of your expectations, talents and limitations will allow you to develop a realistic view of your goals.  It will also allow you to set goals develop follow through plans and reach the benchmarks you set for yourself.  It is always good to review your plan with a trusted friend or with another successful scrapbook artist. By reviewing your “internal” audit with someone else you can gain perspective and possibly gain a few ideas for success

Anyone who starts a new venture, especially one that is artistic in nature, must have some talent in that venture.  Ones’ talent is a matter of opinion for the most part, but you could start determining your talent level by listening to feedback from others.  Have people told you that you are very talented in scrapbooking?  If so you can probably derive from these compliments regarding your work as: you being talented.  If people you have shown your work to have gone so far as asking you to help them with their scrapbook projects or asked you to put together a scrapbook for them you can definitely consider your skills above average.

Any person who owns a business has asked themselves: “what is my target market.”  Large corporations not only ask this question, but also spend millions of dollars annually determining their target markets.  Determining your target market does not have to be difficult or take a lot of time.  You simply have to take your scrapbook business and ask yourself: Who, What, Where, When and Why.

Who
Who is your target market?  Men? Women? Children? Are your clients working adults, retired persons, business professionals or housewives?

Where:
Where do your clients live?  Do they live in a rural part of the country?  Do they live in the City? Are they in a costal town or in the heart of Mid-America? Do they even live in the United States?

What:
What do your customers want? Are you marketing to a broad spectrum of persons or are you focusing your talent on a niche market like bridle/ wedding books?