A Year in Review…Designer Style

First, HAPPY NEW YEAR! While typically my first blog post of the year is a list of business resolutions and goals, this year we wanted to do something different. Before we started to focus on 2013, we wanted to recap 2012 and note some of our bigger accomplishments, changes and outcomes. While we are eagerly looking forward to facing whatever comes with this new year, we're also proud of this past year and wanted to reflect just for a moment. How does a designer look back on an entire year, you ask? …with an infographic, of course!

Here's our quick Kalico Year In Review, designer-style:

Holy Learning Batman!

Holy Learning Batman! So, last week I went on a learning binge—Wordpress Seminar on Wednesday, Time Management webinar and Creative Women roundtable on Thursday, and a Business Owner's Virtual Conference Friday through Sunday!

My brain is filled to the max! And you know what? It feels good!

As a business owner it's always a good idea to continue learning about your field (or related fields) as well as your business in general. It's how we grow and become better business owners—more crafty in our field as well as more savvy with our business. BUT—it's really hard to take the time out from all our daily duties and just focus on yourself (well, I mean focusing on yourself, which will in turn enrich your business).

I'll be honest (and to any of my clients reading this—I love you, I really do!), but it was so nice to take time out from answering emails, returning phone calls, putting out fires, etc. and just sit for an hour (or 2, or 6) to simply focus on learning more. Sure, I try to read up on daily industry news, but it's always something rushed, squeezed between this or that task. But, after taking actual time out to focus on something new, I feel more inspired and amped up than I have for several months! I like the feeling.

So, I am going to set a goal to do a minimum of one educational event per month, will you do the same? What are some of the most recent (and/or rewarding) business/educational events you've attended?

Can I Get 25 Hours in a Day!?

Last week I attended a Women's Business Lunch through the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce. (and yes, if you've noticed from my last few posts—I've been getting around the town lately. I'm workin' it, baby! I'm enjoying meeting new people and businesses!) OK, so back to my story…

At the recent business lunch one key thing most of us wanted help with was better time management and increased productivity. Who doesn't want that, right?  I'm always searching for ways to better my time management skills—I hate that feeling of being so overwhelmed you don't even know where to start, it's the worst. SO, I was very interested to hear the advice of other successful businesswomen. Here's a few ideas I liked and will try to implement in my everyday tasks (business OR personal):

• For email productivity, one women suggests the "FAD" technique. A way to quickly sort through your email: F-file it, A-act on it, D-delete it. It seems simple enough, right?

• Create a work log to track all the large tasks you've completed. A few women did this and said that after reading through the tasks they actually had completed, they felt a great sense of accomplishment. It's a way to focus on the positive, celebrate the tasks you've completed instead of stressing about the ones you didn't.

• Throw in the towel! As women, we tend to want to do things on our own and have a hard time asking for help. One women's advice was to basically to get over ourselves and know when to ask for help. If someone in your business is better at a certain task than you are—ask them for help, so you can focus on the tasks that you are best at. It's more productive for everyone that way.

• Get the "ick" out of the way. Set an hour each day (preferably towards the beginning of the day) to take care of the tasks you don't want to do. You know, the ones you keep putting off but are still weighing on your mind because they need to get done. 

• Don't be so reactive. Work on distinguishing the things that need to be address immediately versus the ones that can wait. Don't immediate react to something, especially if you're already in the middle of another task.

• And last, but certainly not least: Learn to say "No". Along with most women, I constantly struggle with this one!

So, what do you do that helps you with your time management and/or productivity skills? Have you tried any of the suggestions above? How did they work for you?

The Guerrilla in the Room: 7 Key Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

Last week I enjoyed a business roundtable discussion through the AAF-Greater Frederick discussing Guerrilla Marketing tactics. First, huge thanks to presenter, and certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach, Whitney Hahn of Digital Bard as well as to the event sponsor, Flying Dog Brewery!

If you're unfamiliar with the topic, according to their official website Guerrilla Marketing is a "body of unconventional ways of pursuing conventional goals. It is a proven method of achieving profits with minimum money." Basically it trains you to think outside the box with your marketing efforts, to think with your creativity, not your wallet. As a small business owner, it is very eye-opening and helpful!

The presentation started with 7 Key Aspects of Guerrilla Marketing. I've outlined for you below and hope they'll help you with your ongoing marketing:

1. Set Goals. Make the goal specific, including a designated time frame and quantifiable outcome.
2. Identify Your Target Audience: Again, the more specific the better. (This doesn't necessarily mean the only audience you will do work with, it means who you will target your marketing to)
3. Define Your Benefits: Know the different between a feature vs. a benefit. It's not what you make what you use to make it, it's why and how does that benefit your client. Always try to see it from the client's perspective.
4. Decide Your Niche: Your niche is partly your targeted audience, and partly how you go about doing what you do. It's your audience AND your process.
5. Use Your Weapons: Guerrilla Marketing identifies several low-cost or no-cost marketing weapons ranging from something as simple as your email signature and/or your voicemail message to more complex things such as your corporate brochure or where a QR code directs to.
6. Identity: This is your entire corporate culture. Who you are, not how you want to be. It's who you are when no one is looking.
8. Set Your Budget: Always be sure to set a budget for yourself. This will keep you from over-spending as well as under-spending. (Under spending means you will be less likely to reach your goals).

If you're interested in learning more about Guerrilla Marketing, feel free to visit their official site at www.gmarketing.com or, contact Whitney Hahn for marketing coaching seminars. Do you have any additional marketing tactics that work for you and your business?

Looking Back, Thinking Forward…

Every year I try to write New Year's resolutions for my business, as well as reflect on my goals from the previous year. When I looked over last year's goals, I realized how much my business had changed throughout 2011, in ways that I honestly hadn't anticipated. Um…like, big changes. Changes like hiring my first full-time employee and moving out of my home office into a studio in downtown Frederick!  (More to come about this in the New Year!)

So, maybe I didn't reach all of my goals for 2011, but to be honest, I think I ended up accomplishing way more—and I'm totally happy with that! After all, your business goals and plans are just a guideline, something that needs to be tweaked and changed throughout the course of your business, right?

Some of the goals I did reach included:

1. Switching to a smart phone. (I seriously can't imagine living without my iphone now. Check out a previous post about this…)
2. Blogging weekly (ok, well, almost weekly!)
3. Increasing blog traffic, and integrating Kalico's facebook and twitter accounts better. (seriously, if you're reading this and haven't liked us yet on facebook or aren't following us on twitter...what the heck are you waiting for!?)
4. Adding 3-4 new clients in the health & wellness industry (not to mention a lot of other really great new clients ranging from magazines to small start-ups to national associations!)

All in all, 2011 was a year of big changes for Kalico. Stay tuned for a list of our resolutions for the New Year, and let us know what your big business goals are for the upcoming year! I look forward to what 2012 has to bring and I wish everyone a very Happy (and safe!) New Years!! See ya on the flip side!

Keys to Effective Self Promotions

As mentioned in a previous post, a few weeks ago I participated in International Freelancers Day, an online conference exclusively for solo professionals. Here is another recap of some of the insightful information I gained during the webinars.

Next up, is a recap of James Clear's session "The 10 Keys to Effective (and Ethical) Self-Promotion for Freelancers" (but, I'm just going to highlight a few of the primary concepts). James focused on some of the fundamentals for self promotion—not the tactics, but more about the strategies. Here's a list of some important things to consider when considering your next self promotion campaign:

1. Value First. This is a very key point to make. Be sure you provide value to your target audience before you promote your work to them…otherwise, it's kind of pointless, huh? Don't wait until money exchanges hands before giving something of value. This way you'll create fans and then you'll have a much easier time selling your services. Examples are: samples of product, blog posts or white papers of information, coupons, etc.—be sure it is something relative to your field that is  thoughtful and/or useful.  "Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process".

2. Build Relationships. Effective self promotion never starts with the pitch, it starts with the relationship. Build relationships with the right people that can help accelerate your growth. Everyone is valuable, but try to find relevant people to you and your business. So, get out there and network! But, remember, it is about making relationships, not just making the sale. Be sure to be genuine and just get to know someone, don't bombard them with sales tactics…nobody likes a pushy salesman (or woman)!

3. Research. A more, specific, targeted audience is usually more effective than a blanket pitch the everyone. Research your target markets, and cater or tweak your promotions to them. Research gives you the content to make connections, and also will allow your promotions to create a maximum effect in a minimal amount of time.

After you've worked on the above three tasks, be sure to make your self promotions simple, yet powerful—and, focus on being consistent! And remember, this is a cyclical process that you will have to do over and over again throughout the course of your business, it's not a one time thing and you're done. In order to grow your business, you need to grow with your business!

Do you have any advice on good self promotion? I'd love to hear it!

Super, Simple 3-Step Marketing Plan

Yesterday during my weekly BNI networking meeting, my very wise friend and fellow chapter member, Whitney Hahn (certified guerilla marketing coach and co-owner of Digital Bard Video. Web. Marketing.) presented us with a super easy, 3-step procedure, to get started on our 2012 marketing plan. And… here is is:

Step 1: Write down the marketing actions you want to take. Keep it very simple, just action-based, such as "Write Blog Post" or "Advertise in Local Newspaper". Whitney suggests writing each action down on a small piece of paper, like a Post-It note.

Step 2: Divide a large sheet of paper (or white board) up into 5 sections: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly. Then, take the actions you created in step one, and assign them to one of these sections. For instance, for Kalico, I would take my "Write Blog Post" post-it, and stick it in the "weekly" section of my white board. Do this for all your actions (keep in mind, it should be easy to rearrange things as needed, we are working with post-it notes, here, people. they're sticky, that's what they do.)

Step 3: Once you're happy with your actions and timeline, be sure to add them to your regular appointment calendar, be it an online calendar, your blackberry, your planner, etc. Basically, wherever you keep track of your appointments, meetings, and events, you also need to include the actions indicated above. It's like you're making an appointment with yourself and your business, be sure you schedule the time here (I'll admit, this is where I fall short!).

And, there you have it. The start to a super, simple, low-tech, but ever-so-effective marketing plan. And remember, marketing plans may need to evolve and change over the course of time, and that's ok (in fact, it's typical!). But, at least you'll have a starting point to work from, with goals and a timeline you set yourself. I hope this helps! How do you come up with your marketing plan?

All You Need is Love

Last week I participated in International Freelancers Day, an online conference exclusively for solo professionals. It was great—lots of wonderful speakers, great topics, and best of all, it was FREE! Since I gained so much insight and information, I am going to dedicate the next few blog posts as recaps of some of my favorite sessions, I shall call it "All the Cool Stuff I Heard on Friday".

First up is a recap of Peleg Top's session entitled "All You Need Is Love—Growing Your Business From the Inside Out". Peleg focused how to run your business with love versus with fear; how to take your passion and build your business around it.

Fear = anxious, saying yes to things you shouldn't, always being in reactive mode, working with the fear of always wanting to please your client

Love = energetic, being in creation mode, creativity, working with the desire to serve your client

How does LOVE show in your marketing?
Well, Fear shows in marketing when you try doing the same thing everyone else does, and when you feel the need to always grab your client (or potential client's) attention. Don't get me wrong, getting a potential client's attention is not necessarily a bad thing! But, when you feel the need to constantly inundate them with ways to show how good you are, you may come off a little desperate, and the "fear" definitely begins to show. Conversely,  Love means connecting with your client, serving your client, creating a value to your client so they can see the passion behind your work. This makes your client want to work with you, and enjoy working with you!

Ready. Aim. Fire.
So, how can you get your passion to show more in your work? Peleg suggests the "Ready. Aim. Fire." method:

Ready: Take an audit of your current business. How much passion is in your current work? Are you proud of it? Do you want to share it with other? Did you enjoy working on it? Is there something specific you'd rather be doing with your work? Where is your passion, if it's not in your current work?

Aim: Create a positioning around your passion. Focus on a specific kind of client you want to work with or a specific kind of work you want to do. Declare this first to yourself (this may actually be the hardest step), and then to the world. Be specific about who you are as a business, what you do exactly, and why.

Fire. Now that you know where you business passion lies, start marketing to those who share you passion. Research who they are, where they can be found, etc. Chances are, if you both enjoy the same passion, you may already know who your next potential client should (and could) be.

"Passion is the Fuel for Creativity" Is there passion in your work?

Thanks again to Peleg Top for his wonderful webinar. We'll be continuing our recap of International Freelancers Day in blog posts to follow, with topics ranging from Effective Self Promotions, Hiring Your First Employee and Smart Risk Taking.

Multitasking, Schmultitasking: Improving Your Productivity

I recently sat in on a teleforum by Design Coach On Call discussing how creative professionals can improve their productivity. Holla! As a micro-business owner who balances just about every part of running her business, I can say first hand that it can be overwhelming at times! I'm constantly looking for better ways to discipline myself to be more productive. Pam Bryan, the forum facilitator, had some great tips and advice. Here are my favorites, all of which I hope to start implementing within the next few weeks (seriously, can someone hold me to this?)

1. Multitasking is Worse Than a Lie: To sum it up, multitasking, or more appropriately called "switch-tasking" just isn't productive. Switching from one task to the next, back and forth, and so on can cause you to loose up to 28% of your time. So, try to discipline yourself to make changes in your work day that will deter you from switch-tasking as much as possible.

2. Gather Your Gathering Places: A "Gathering Place" is any place where unprocessed work items go. This can include your desk, your briefcase, your office, even your car…any and every place where you might do work. The key is to consolidate all gathering places so that you only have one physical "inbox". Then, set a time each week or day to sort through this inbox, usually 30-60 minutes. Obviously, sort through the more pressing items first…this way you won't be stressing about them throughout the day, so you're able to focus on other tasks throughout the day.

3. Conquer Your Digital Space: These days, your digital space can be a real time sucker throughout the day! Digital Space includes your email, social media accounts, voicemails, etc. Similar to your "Gathering Places", try to consolidate your digital space as well. For instance, direct all your emails (personal and business) to one account. You'll still have the separate accounts, but you'll only have to check one master email account, thus saving you time logging on and sorting through various accounts. In addition, Pam recommends turning off your email alarms and setting yourself a schedule. Check your email 2-3 days per day, answering all inquiries during your set timeframe. Use this time to check your social media accounts like facebook and twitter as well.

OK, so these are a few of the changes I'll be making here at Kalico World Headquarters in order to increase my productivity throughout the day. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. What changes would you like to make? Let me know!

Setting SMART Goals!

I recently attended a local Women's Networking lunch with the topic "Planning Your Business Goals for 2011", presented by Diane DeMarco of Marketing @ Work. Diane had a lot of great pointers including doing a SWOT analysis, setting a budget, and creating an action plan and timetable. One of the key points I took from the meeting was how to set S.M.A.R.T. goals (because, really, is there any point in setting stupid goals…um, no.)

S.M.A.R.T Goals stand for:

Specific: Be as precise as possible. What do you want to achieve and within what time frame.
Measurable: How will you measure your success?
Achievable: Is this goal realistically attainable?
Relevant: How or Why is this goal important to the success of your company?
Timely: When do you hope to achieve each goal?

While you're working on your goals for the upcoming year, be sure to keep the S.M.A.R.T. goal formula in mind!

It's A New Dawn, It's a New Day…It's a New Year!

Happy Belated New Year to all! I hope everyone has had a great start to 2011! I've already been busy with some exciting new projects and great clients—I hope this is a preview of  the year to come!

Luckily, I was able to take a winter vacation during the last week of 2010. (Yay!) During my time off, I managed to update the Kalico website with some new content and new work! Per tradition,  I also created a set of 2011 business and professional resolutions for Kalico Design. I am curious if anyone else did the same—I'd love to hear some of them!

I've listed my goals below, and I'm hoping to use this blog as a way to update my goals throughout the year and to catalog any successes and/or obstacles I may approach along the way. (plus, putting them in writing makes them, well, realer, somehow!) Without further adieu, here are Kalico's resolutions for the new year:


Kalico Resolutions:

1. Get Smart Phone in order to be more accessible to clients while I'm out and about in meetings or on the road.
2. Reformat the Kalico eNewsletter with content that will be more usable for clients. In addition, I will write a schedule for the eNews, and stick to it!
3. Blog a minimum of 1 time per week, increasing blog traffic by 15%. Plus, better integrate my social media efforts like twitter and facebook with this blog, as well.
4. Develop a self promo to use throughout the year targeting businesses in the health & wellness, organic, holistic and women-oriented industries.
5. Participate in 1 tradeshow event as an exhibitor or speaker.
6. Attend weekly networking lunches, plus go to a minimum of 2-3 additional networking events per month.
7. Acquire 3-4 new clients in the health & wellness, organic, holistic or women-oriented industries.
8. Set aside a minimum of 4 hours per week to work on Kalico business and marketing, preferably on Mondays or Fridays.

Well, that's a great start! I'm sure as the year goes on, I'll set a few additional goals as well. Have you written your business resolutions for 2011? What is your biggest goal and your biggest challenge for the year ahead?