Monthly Archives: June 2009

CUTTING CORNERS IS NOT GREEN. IT’S JUST CRAPPY.

06.30.09

I’m still mad at Ikea.  And it’s about my fifty-nine cents.

Yes, my fifty-nine cents.

Yesterday, I spent three hours in Ikea looking, oohing, aahing, generally being inspired, adding items to my cart with abandon, and loving life.  My cart was overflowing with lovely products.

And then I got to the checkout, where I found out: there are no bags.  Yes, that’s right, no bags.  A bag will cost fifty-nine cents.  And I went blind with rage.

Ikea says this is eco-friendly and green because their bags, which cost $.59, are reusable. I say this is highway robbery — Ikea is cutting costs by nickeling and diming its customers, despite the average sale at Ikea being hundreds upon hundreds of dollars.

This would be completely and utterly un-get-away-with-able in a less-than-behemoth corporation.   If, as an artist, I just throw a bunch of prints your way and say packaging is extra, you would never use my services again.  If your clients order items from you and have to pay separately for shipping and pay again, separately, FOR THE BOX IT GETS SHIPPED IN, clients would have a hissy fit.

If you are selling enjoyable, quality products and experiences to your clients, don’t insult them by charging that last fifty-nine cents.  (If you must, raise the price of your products by fifty-nine cents, and throw the bag in for free. )

And for the love of Pete, DON’T tell me your practices are eco-friendly when they’re merely cutting corners.

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Alicia - June 30, 2009 - 11:19 pm

Most places here that do the bag thing give you a 20 cent bonus per bag for bringing in your own bags- but I have never heard of anyone not offering bags at all- only bags that you pay for! Ridiculous

IT’S BUSINESS TIME: PART II.

06.25.09

Okay, so on Tuesday, we talked about carving out time for your business to happen.  You scoffed and thought, “DUDE, I am so far ahead of you.  MY desk is perfectly organized and MY calendar is full of business time and MY business plan is in working order and has recently been revisited.”  Kudos to you, darlin’!

Now that you’re in business time mode, there’s just one question to ask: are you scared yet?

That’s it, and it’s the premise that will help to build an exceptional brand: are you scared yet?

Are you copying the marketing promotion of a prominent businessperson or coming up with your own, utterly brilliant concept?  Are you actively seeking media coverage for your brand?  Are you involved in social media in some way?  Have you tackled a ground-up web design (with the help of a professional, of course)?  Are you taking risks — or do you know how things are going to turn out?

Likewise, are you producing the products recommended by x artists on x forums and websites?  What if you created a product that didn’t exist before you, and that can only be created by you? What if you took an active interest in bettering the lives of others in your profession by releasing the product to the general public? What if you made your idea into a company, KNOWING FULL WELL YOU MAY FALL FLAT ON YOUR FACE? Again, I would argue…you’d be scared out of your wits.

…and in being scared, you would be on the road to being exceptional.  Try, fail, try harder, fail brilliantly, and then get down to business.

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IT’S BUSINESS TIME.

06.23.09

Before you have a brand, you need to have a business.

A tale of two Moms, today:

MOM A: I’m  a stay-at-home Mom interested in generating income from my fledgling photography business.  I work whenever I can nab a moment between diaper changes, tantrums, episodes of lousy kids’ shows, and nap times.  I work from my living room, as this allows me to babysit while working.

MOM B:  I’m a stay-at-home Mom interested in generating income from my fledgling photography business.  I work Monday through Friday from 11-1:30 while the kids are at daycare (read: Grandma’s house), and have a dedicated space for my little startup.  (It’s just an Ikea desk with front doors added to contain the chaos.)

Whether Mom A works 3 hours or 30 hours per week, I guarantee she isn’t going to be as productive as Mom B.  Why? Mom B isn’t multi-tasking, she’s giving the business her undivided attention.  Likewise, she isn’t ‘trying to fit business in,’ but actively making room for business to happen.

These are, of course, simplified cases, but the premise remains the same: what would happen if you carved out time for your fledgling business, whatever it may be?

This week, make time and space for your business to grow. Rearrange your desk. Pencil yourself into your own calendar.  Hire a sitter for a few hours’ worth of uninterrupted concentration.  And if you haven’t dusted off your business plan in the past six months, take a look.  Examine your goals, and identify simple ways to work toward them.

If you don’t have a business plan and you’re a photographer, go here and buy this now.  If you have a business plan, but need help with pricing your photographic artwork, go here and buy this now.  If you’re not a photographer but still need help, check out The Creative Entrepreneur.

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Jocelyn - June 30, 2009 - 4:35 pm

Wow, these posts are really helpful! I’m a new mom and also just started my photography business. I’ve been thinking a lot about how and where business fits in with my life. Thanks for the challenge!

GRAMMAR COUNTS, TOO.

06.18.09

While spelling errors can be written off as typos, grammar errors will just plain make you and your brand look dumb.  No, really.  It needs to be said.  Dumb.

The most common, DEAR-GOD-PLEASE-MAKE-IT-STOP grammatical errors you can fix in two shakes of a lamb’s tail:

1.) YOUR & YOU’RE

Ask yourself: does someone own what you’re describing?  Then it’s a ‘your’:

your books, your shoes, your love, your thankfulness, your dirty laundry, your umbrella

If no one owns what you’re describing and the words ‘you are’ could replace it in a sentence, it’s a ‘you’re’ you’ll be needing:

you’re awesome, you’re a pal, you’re going to the fair, you’re silly, you’re super

Again: ‘your’ indicates possession, ‘you’re’ is a contraction standing for ‘you are.’

2.) THEIR & THEY’RE

Just like our previous example, ‘their’ indicates possession:

their shoes, their party, their website, their company, their toilet paper

If no one owns what you’re describing, ‘they’re’ stands in for ‘they are’:

they’re nifty, they’re mean, they’re quite a pair

Again: ‘their’ indicates possession, ‘they’re’ is a contraction standing in for ‘they are.’

I saw your eyes glazing over, so I’ll stop there for now.  But, if your grammatical brain is suddenly wishing for more ways to self-correct, I would hit up Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips. Grammar Girl rocks.

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hannahelaine - July 10, 2009 - 12:06 am

i don’t know who you’re but THANK YOU for this.

wink!

YES, SPELLING COUNTS.

06.15.09

No matter who you are or what business you’re in, spelling counts.  The more savvy the client, the more they care about pesky little details like the official lexicon of the English language.

Additionally, since spelling is one of those taken-for-granted attributes of the world, good spelling won’t help your brand.  But bad spelling can hurt it.  (Boo, I know.  But it’s true.)

You’d best get your spelling right when it comes to:

Web copy. If you can’t spell things right on your website, that platform you created for allowing the entirety of the internet to get to know you, your brand is in trouble.  Your website should be perfection that has been raked over with a fine-toothed comb by at least five people before going live.  (Why five?  At least one of those five has got to be a spelling maven.)

Need help with this?  Most anyone with an English degree will look over your work for a small fee.  (We’re talking spelling errors, not copy writing or Rocket Science.) If you know this person well, they might even accept cookies as payment.

Your blog. Since this lives in the search engines of the world forever and ever, get it right.  If you use a browser like Firefox, it will actually suggest words to replace your misspelled words. Right in your blog-creating interface.  Boom.  Let’s say I’m trying to spell a tough word, like entrepreneur, and get it wrong.  It will underline your error — right click, and choose the correct spelling.  Come on, it doesn’t get any easier than that.

Printed materials. Whether you’re leaving postcards at the local coffee shop or drumming up business with fancy-schmancy 20-page brochures, you’re going to need to get it right.  When you view the proof of a piece, send it to a few of your friends, colleagues, employees, and/or coworkers.  Ask them to check for mistakes.  This is much less painful than discovering the error after that run of 5,000 shiny new marketing pieces.

Ok, smarty pants, where can I get help?

I thought you’d never ask.  Some spelling resources for the not-so-linguistically-inclined:

dictionary.com Yes, I know it made no sense when your third grade teacher sent you to the dictionary to look up a word you didn’t know how to spell.  But with the grace of modern technology, if you enter a word you believe to be correct and it turns up no hits, you’re spelling the word wrong.  If you spell it correctly, you’ll be rewarded with definitions galore.

SpellBoy This is spelling heaven for your mobile phone.  Bookmark it, and boom!  Easy spelling on the go, with a simple, ad-free interface.

Miss Spell’s Class It’s an iPhone app that tests your spelling skills against the most commonly misspelled ones in the English language.  The perfect way to kill a few minutes and boost your brain power.

Now go forth and spellcheck, lovely people.  (Also, due to Murphy’s Law, I’m sure there’s a spelling error in this blog post.  I apologize in advance for not catching it.)

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caroline - July 7, 2009 - 7:09 pm

My favorite way to spell check is actually Google. If you type in a word incorrectly, it comes up with that somewhat condescending “Did you mean…” with the correct spelling. In fact, I just used it to look up how to spell condescending.

Becky (rksquared) - June 15, 2009 - 2:29 pm

Ah! Grammar. Don’t forget to watch for those “their” or “they’re” and “its” or “it’s” type conundrums, too!

I also love Thesaurus.com when I’m stuck on something and need a different way to phrase it. I don’t know that it’s much help with the spelling though.

Alicia - June 15, 2009 - 10:45 am

thanks for the reminder! :)

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