Showing posts with label support. Show all posts
Showing posts with label support. Show all posts
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Savvy Entrepreneur: It's Not Too Late To Save Christmas
With the recent onslaught of Holiday marketing and prep articles, some of which I'm guilty of writing, many of you may be pulling out your hair feeling you need to do it all. Right now! This very minute!
Trust me I know that feeling.
Lightbox SF is here to help. We've put together a Save Christmas Bootcamp to help you focus on one of 3 areas where we can help you make quick, significant changes.
If this is your first year doing major craft shows for the holidays we can help you put together an amazing booth display, feel confident talking to customers, and making sure your doing everything necessary to gain long term fans.
However if most of your sales come from an online shop we can help you tune up those item descriptions, get amazing product photos, and welcome customers into your best shop yet.
Maybe you're feeling you've got these two areas down pat, you've been selling at fairs and online years and you're doing just fine. But how's your publicity efforts going? When's the last time you were featured in a gift guide? Yep, we can help you with that too.
So let us help you Save Christmas! Sign up for our bootcamp by November 1st and we'll get you on your way to the best holiday season yet. After the 1st we're still willing to help, but we just may not have enough time to get it all done.
I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve [at] lightboxsf [dot] com
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Dream Big and Then Dream Bigger
I am going to apologize upfront, this post is a little emotional and sappy. It comes from two places: a comment a potential client made during an initial meeting and the fact that I'm getting married in just over a week.
As we were wrapping up our meeting the potential client asked me if we worked with any men. I said yes, but only a few, our clients are roughly 90% female. The she asked if the men we worked with had the same doubts that they deserved to or could succeed that women did. I hadn't really thought about it, but the answer was no. One of the things most of our clients have in common is the fear of dreaming big and the inability to trust that they can have what they want. I'm no exception.
Not only can they not really picture what this dream job they're creating looks like, they don't really think they can ever attain it. They think they'll get close, but never all the way there. In contrast, the men seem to have no doubt they'll get there, they're just looking for advice on how to get there faster.
That brings me to the second reason for being sappy, my upcoming nuptials. My fiance and I have been working on our vows and one of the things that has come up is my self-doubt and the encouragement and support he's given me to do what I want to do despite it. I can honestly say had I not met him I would still be working two jobs, struggling with both and wondering if I was ever going like my work life.
Did you feel the tug at those heartstrings? Just wait there's more.
It's one thing to have the vision it's another to believe that you deserve it. I wish that all of you are lucky enough to find someone in your life, friend, family or spouse that gives you the permission to live out your dreams, supports you through the rough times and failures, and then still has faith that you will succeed, especially when you can't find the faith yourself.
In the chance that you still haven't found that person I want to propose two things. First, try to find it within yourself. We are all capable of giving ourselves this gift. Believe that you are worthy of all you can dream and then dream bigger than you possibly dare. There is no reason you can come up with that will convince me you don't deserve it all. I'm sure of it.
I also know this takes time. You will need to work through fear and doubt and many other scary feelings. You won't know where to begin or what your next step should be. So while you're working to be the best cheerleader in the world for yourself, tell someone else your dream. I bet you'll be surprised by their reaction. Tell a total stranger if you're afraid you'll get laughed at, but I bet you won't.
Or tell Shelly and I. That's why we're here. We want to support you, we want to lead by example and we want to surround you with a community of like-minded, empowered people doing exactly what they want.
I'm going to leave you with that thought for the next two weeks while I go marry the man who has given me the strength to try the things that scare me most.
I challenge you to do the very tangible task of describing this life you're working so hard for. Write the story of your day from waking up to sleep. Who is there? What do you do? Where are you? How do you feel?
I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
As we were wrapping up our meeting the potential client asked me if we worked with any men. I said yes, but only a few, our clients are roughly 90% female. The she asked if the men we worked with had the same doubts that they deserved to or could succeed that women did. I hadn't really thought about it, but the answer was no. One of the things most of our clients have in common is the fear of dreaming big and the inability to trust that they can have what they want. I'm no exception.
Not only can they not really picture what this dream job they're creating looks like, they don't really think they can ever attain it. They think they'll get close, but never all the way there. In contrast, the men seem to have no doubt they'll get there, they're just looking for advice on how to get there faster.
That brings me to the second reason for being sappy, my upcoming nuptials. My fiance and I have been working on our vows and one of the things that has come up is my self-doubt and the encouragement and support he's given me to do what I want to do despite it. I can honestly say had I not met him I would still be working two jobs, struggling with both and wondering if I was ever going like my work life.
Did you feel the tug at those heartstrings? Just wait there's more.
It's one thing to have the vision it's another to believe that you deserve it. I wish that all of you are lucky enough to find someone in your life, friend, family or spouse that gives you the permission to live out your dreams, supports you through the rough times and failures, and then still has faith that you will succeed, especially when you can't find the faith yourself.
In the chance that you still haven't found that person I want to propose two things. First, try to find it within yourself. We are all capable of giving ourselves this gift. Believe that you are worthy of all you can dream and then dream bigger than you possibly dare. There is no reason you can come up with that will convince me you don't deserve it all. I'm sure of it.
I also know this takes time. You will need to work through fear and doubt and many other scary feelings. You won't know where to begin or what your next step should be. So while you're working to be the best cheerleader in the world for yourself, tell someone else your dream. I bet you'll be surprised by their reaction. Tell a total stranger if you're afraid you'll get laughed at, but I bet you won't.
Or tell Shelly and I. That's why we're here. We want to support you, we want to lead by example and we want to surround you with a community of like-minded, empowered people doing exactly what they want.
I'm going to leave you with that thought for the next two weeks while I go marry the man who has given me the strength to try the things that scare me most.
I challenge you to do the very tangible task of describing this life you're working so hard for. Write the story of your day from waking up to sleep. Who is there? What do you do? Where are you? How do you feel?
I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Prioritizing Helps Keep You Sane
With the workshop coming up this Saturday, my to do list has gotten a little out of hand. So to give myself a bit of a break I'm going to recycle a little material from the Lightbox SF blog. This one is extremely appropriate given my current state and all the goal setting and motivation that happens at the beginning of the year.
Enjoy, I will be back with fresh content next week.
This is the time of year when the to do lists seem to grow out of control. Our work lives get cluttered with holiday sales or the at least the effort to make more of them. We see the end of the year looming and want to get just one more big project completed. And then there's the holidays in general, events, gatherings, and family seem to take over any "free" time you might have had.
I'm feeling the pressure myself just writing about it. However, if I take a step back I realize that much of the pressure is self imposed. That project that I want to get done, I'm the only one who cares that it happens next week. The extra workouts I'm trying to fit in to ward off any holiday pounds, is the stress really worth it? Yet there's still that pressing need to get things done, cross things off the list.
Here's a process my fiancé walked me through a few months ago that has worked wonders to help me put it all into perspective and calm the anxious need to accomplish everything-all-at-once-now!
Priorities, that is the key. I write a list of everything I want to do. (This works well for both personal and work lists, but I recommend keeping them separate.) Then I mark them with a High, Medium and Low priority. If you write your lists by hand try different colors, if you're using a to do software they may have an easy way already built in or again you might be able to color code them.
High, Medium and Low
For this to work you need to be honest with yourself in setting the priority of each task. To do that I use these guidelines: High priority means the business depends on it, money, life or death - paying the bills, following up on contracts, or getting a new product launched, etc. Medium priority means the task falls into best practice, something that makes the business better, but isn't crucial to its existence - keeping your Facebook page updated, getting photos from your last event on your website, or researching new packaging. Low priority items are the ones that only you will notice if they get done or not - changing your picture on your website, reorganizing your workspace, or reading all those blog posts you've been bookmarking. You may want to set up your own criteria, but I find breaking it down this simply really helps.
The I separate the tasks that are recurring like updating your Facebook page, returning emails, and keeping up on blog reading. These recurring tasks need to get on your calendar. Are they things you do monthly, weekly, or daily? Put them on your calendar at a specific time, not just with a general day and block out as much time as you need to accomplish them. You may answer email for an hour in the morning and then again in the late afternoon. You might also write in calendar an appointment to do bookkeeping or pay your bills or whatever else needs to get done regularly, but you always seem to forget about.
Putting Tasks Into Perspective
Now that you've got everything prioritized, I want you to set due dates for the High and Medium priority tasks. Be realistic with how long each task will take and when it absolutely needs to be done. I suggest you give yourself some wiggle room with those High priority tasks.
Those low priority tasks are going to wait until you find yourself sitting around twiddling your thumbs or something happens to move them up in priority. Yes, this means you may never get to them. Take a moment to accept this. If they are really worthwhile tasks you will suddenly see that they need to be raised in priority. Until then, I only want you to glance at them once a month and then put them aside yet again.
Not Too Many All At Once
Honestly it's only realistic to think you can accomplish three tasks a day. I know that sounds like a small number, but think about how your days go, unexpected phone calls, urgent emails, you forgot you made a lunch date with an old friend... Things happen that derail you, it's a part of life.
I want you to begin to really follow those priorities, if it's not High, think Life or Death, you'll be ok if it doesn't get done exactly when you want it to. You will, I promise.
Taking It Day By Day
Every High and Medium priority task should now be at least marked with a due date. Now we need to slot them into your calendar. Some may just be marked on due dates, but others may need to have a couple hours here and there set aside to get them done.
Each morning you should look at the list of activities for that day and sort them again in order of priority, but also take into account how easy it will be to check them off the list. I like to take the first two hours of my day and check off anything, High or Medium priority that takes less than 15 minutes to accomplish. Returning phone calls, sending out emails, looking something up, keeping up with social media, etc. Then I have the rest of the day to accomplish those one or two tasks that will take a few solid hours of my time.
After the quick stuff is done I go straight to the High priority task for that day. If there isn't one then I look at the Medium priorities, what has the nearest due date and which one is going to take the most time to complete. I weigh those to decide what to do next. If somehow I manage to finish everything on my list for that day, then I look forward to either try to cross off another High priority task or get a little bit of work done on bigger project that's only a medium priority.
Always Keep In Mind
This may sound like a lot of work for a to do list, but the idea is simple, whatever is most important gets done first. The more you walk through all the steps it will begin to feel like second nature. The simplicity of it is also my greatest comfort when I inevitably begin feeling overwhelmed again. What is the most important thing I need to do right now?
What do you do to keep yourself on track? Do you have a similar system that helps keep you sane when things get really busy?
I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Get Support To Keep Your Resolutions
In this first week of the New Year we all have the best intentions. We vow to lose weight, take better care of ourselves, have more fulfilling lives, and work on our careers. I have talked often about setting goals; I think they are the key to moving forward and making progress. If you don’t know where you’re going how will you ever get there?
While the feeling of inspiration is still strong and you’re managing to stick to your resolutions I encourage you to also look for the support you’ll need to carry through to the end. This support may come in the form of a peer group where you get advice and understanding from others who are doing or have done something similar to you.
When Shelly and I finished the business plan for Lightbox SF we started a women’s business group. We have nine members and meet once a month on a Sunday for brunch. All of us own our own business, but are at various stages. Some are still perfecting logos and building websites, others have been in business for years. When we meet everyone gets a turn to share her successes and struggles from the past month. We ask each other for advice, feedback, or to just be a sounding board. We go to each other’s events, we spread the word about amazing accomplishments, and we’re all just there having similar struggles.
Another great way to get support is to have just one buddy, someone to tell your goals to that will hold you accountable and ask how things are going. I made the resolution this year to spend more time on my photography. The best way I could think to do this was to create a photoblog and make myself take a new picture each day. I told my fiancé about the idea and we decided to do it together. Now if I think about not taking a picture for a day I feel as though I’m disappointing him. I also see his posts everyday and they motivate me to pick up my camera.
Of course I feel one of the best ways to get the support you need is to be a part of your larger community. That may be crafters, jewelry designers, knitters, etc. Etsy is of course a great way to make those connections and ask questions and as we’ve seen the SF Etsy Street Team grow by leaps and bounds this year, there is no end to the support you can get here. However I also encourage real life interactions. Going to community events and art openings, attending workshops, and just generally putting yourself out there will allow you to meet more people who can support you in reaching your goals.
So as you push forward on your New Year’s resolutions ask yourself what would make the road a little easier. Do you need to learn a new skill? Do you need advice from someone who’s done it before? Or do you just need someone to listen when the going gets tough?
Now for the shameless business plug, Lightbox SF is holding two workshops this month to help you reach your New Year’s goals. Social Media For Artists will be on Saturday, January 15th from 11am-2pm and Writing a Press Release That Calls Attention will be on Saturday, January 29th from 11am-2pm. You can sign up directly on our website. And if there’s anything else you need help with, contact us to set up a free consultation.
Share some of the goals you’ve set for the New Year and what steps you’re taking to make sure you reach them.
I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Making The Connection
Networking, for many it’s a dirty word. It often brings up feelings of anxiety and thoughts of sleazy salespeople. I use to feel that way too. I didn’t want to introduce myself to strangers. I didn’t want to feel like I was trying to “get” something from them. I also didn’t feel I had anything to offer in return. Granted I formed these opinions when I was fresh out of college trying to get a job in publishing and I didn’t know anyone who knew anyone.
I now have a totally different take on the subject of networking and as you can probably guess, I kind of like it. It’s still extremely hard for me to introduce myself to strangers and I often still feel I don’t have anything to offer, but deep down I know the later isn’t true which makes the former a little easier. Sometimes.
What changed my mind? Having the coin flipped. I’m no longer that kid fresh out of college desperate for a job and a little lost. I now have quite a bit of knowledge to share and connections of my own. I have learned that generally people like to help if they can. I have also been approached by fresh-faced kids who didn’t know what to say or ask, but knew that I might be able to help them. And you know what, I wasn’t bothered by them, I didn’t look down on them, and I certainly wasn’t weighing how much they could help me with what I was willing to share. I just wanted to help, because I know how hard it can be. I have a feeling most of the people I was brave enough to talk to felt pretty much the same way and the ones I didn’t talk to would have.
I still cringe when I walk into an event and only know the person I came with. I still have to psych myself up to talk to those one or two people I want to make connections with. I still don’t know what to say most of the time. But it almost always turns out well, sometimes even better than well. I can also honestly say it’s never turned out bad.
I’m sharing all this because lately networking seems to be all I’m doing in building my business. At first I felt like it was taking away from what I really wanted to be doing, that it was distracting me from the tasks that “needed” to get done, and it also felt like nothing was happening. I was reaching out to people trying to get advice, make connections and tell them all about Lightbox SF. I had some great meetings, I had some so-so meetings and I had a lot of unanswered emails. Then suddenly people started to reach out to us, they wanted to know how we might collaborate, and they wanted to know more about what we were doing. They had heard about us and were curious. How cool is that?
The other thing about all my recent networking was that none of it really had much of an agenda. I just wanted to tell people what we were doing, partially for practice and partially so that they had heard of us. However, many of my meetings ended up with plans to collaborate on an event or an offer to introduce me to someone I really wanted to know.
So I want to reintroduce you to networking because it can:
- Spread the word about your business
- Introduce you to people to collaborate with
- Provide you with resources to help you grow
- Lead you to new opportunities and friends
Set small goals at first to get yourself more comfortable. Try something like attending one industry related event a week, or handing your card to 5 new people a week, or book one networking meeting a month. Tell people what you do as often as you can, get excited about it and they will too. And most importantly don’t expect anything from them except an ear to listen. Instead think of what you can offer, what your goal is and go with that. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Now for the self-promotional plug, Lightbox SF is hosting a Holiday Mixer. We want artists and those who work with artists to get out and socialize with each other. So we’re asking you all to join us at Heart Wine Bar, 1270 Valencia St. @ 24th on Wednesday, December 1st from 6-9pm for a glass of wine, a little nibble, and some old-fashioned networking.
I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
5 Tips for Great Content
I recently taught a seminar on social media and must admit I’m still reading all my resource blogs and getting excited about new tips. However, you get to benefit from my geeky obsession because I like to share. Here are 5 tips for creating great content.
1. What’s The Point?
Successful blogging has a purpose or a goal. This also goes for posting on Twitter or Facebook. What sort of message do you want to share? Are you relaying tips, offering tutorials, or giving bits of inspiration? Pick a focus that makes sense for you and your goals. It should be a focus that you feel inspired to talk about over and over again. By creating an overarching theme for your writing and posting you establish yourself as an authority in the area you’ve chosen. Just like in your art, you want to be known for something.
2. Using Your Voice
Once you’ve settled on a theme for your content, then you need to think about your voice or tone. Will you be funny, conversational, authoritative or informational? Will you share lots of links and pictures or will you write witty monologues? Your style should compliment the image of your business. You’ve undoubtedly spent a lot of time creating not only your art, but also your brand. Your voice should be an extension of that. If you make delicate metal jewelry with soft flowing shapes, most likely your tone won’t be short and quip or use a lot of slang. Your tone comes across in the words you choose, the phrasing of your sentences, and even the references you link to.
3. Short and Sweet
Your readers are busy. Always remember that. They want useful information that they can read in 5-10 minutes. If you have a lot to say on a topic break it up into a series of shorter posts.
4. Quality Over Quantity
If you’re not intending to make money directly from your blog, you do not need to post every day. It’s more important to have high quality articles posted once or twice a week then five mediocre posts in a week. Referring back to tip 3, your readers are busy, don’t waste their time or they won’t come back.
Finding quality content is a never-ending job; you should always be looking for inspiration and ideas. Save links to other articles that you really enjoy, they can provide a jumping off point. Take the time to brainstorm a week or even a month’s worth of content ahead of time so that you won’t be struggling at the last minute. It takes planning, but it also gets easier the more you do it.
5. Be Consistent
As I said in tip 4, you don’t need to write everyday, but I will strongly urge you to be consistent. If you decide that you can manage 3 posts a week and you will publish them on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, don’t suddenly go dark for a week with no explanation. You will loose readers if they don’t know what to expect. Pick a schedule you can maintain and then put it on your calendar as an appointment you can’t get out of. It is really that important if you want to build a relationship with your audience and you want that audience to grow.
More Resources
Georgina Laidlaw writes about keeping a consistent voice over at problogger.net.
And one of the best analogies about developing a voice is in Steve Kamb’s article “How to Blog Like Bond. James Bond.” on copyblogger.com.
April at Blacksburg Belle talks about creating useful content.
I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
No More Starving Artists!
I’m so excited to be taking over writing The Savvy Entrepreneur. I've got a lot I want to share with you so look for my posts each Thursday. Before I jump in I want to introduce myself and tell you a little about what I have in store.
My name is Genevieve and I’m the co-founder of Lightbox SF. Our mission is to help artists make a viable income from their art. We believe that the starving artist myth is a crock. There is no need to suffer for your art, you do not need to wait to be discovered, and you do not have to work a second job to support yourself, at least not forever.
So to that end I will be sharing motivations, support, inspiration and of course just plain practical business tips each week. Not only is it my job to have all this knowledge to pass on, but I’m also testing it everyday as I run a business that is less than a year old. I am always learning something new and I promise to share my experiences, trials and errors.
I also want to encourage you to send in questions, because what I become obsessed with on any given week may not be the information you’re craving. I may be in the throws of updating our website and have all sorts of SEO geekiness to share, but you may be struggling with how to find a rep for your jewelry line. Let me know! I will offer all I can on the subject. This column is first and foremost about you and me destroying the myth of the starving artist.
I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
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