CREATIVE BIZ MARATHON

What's happening with you guys? Share your business progress with me. Would love to hear from you. Alease Michelle School of Creative Business

photo credit Thank you for following the first 24/7 (24 hours, 7 days) of The Creative Biz Marathon.  We are so glad you've joined us in this space.  Now that the first 24/7 of this journey is coming to a close, we're super-excited about following this journey / our hearts / our biz dreams even further in 2011! In fact, we've been so tremendously blessed by this experience that we aren't stopping now! Here's how you can continue to follow our journeys... 1.  Join the CBM email list.   We've created a handy sign-up process that will allow you to submit just one email signup form to join each of our email lists.  You'll be free to leave at anytime if you so choose.  We're sure you'll stay, though, because we're on a roll and can't be stopped! Email Signup form here and at the end of this post. Please subscribe! 2.  Follow each of our personal creative biz blogs , and look for the " Creative Biz Marathon" tags  there. We'll b...

For the past week I have been watch video series from Ittybiz.com  - How to Fail proof Your Business.  Naomi and Dave are really good at given you honest, no B.S. advice on starting your business. Of course there is a sales pitch, but not a hard one. Actually you learn a lot from the videos and there's homework assignment after each video lesson. I was able to implement most of their suggestions the same or next day. GREAT Right? Go ahead and check it out. Good a advice for FREE is worth it. Here is the link to the first video: How to Fail Proof Your Business: Ep. 1 Talk with you soon, Alease Michelle

School of Creative Business- Target Market Profile I thought I understand who my target market was for my business. And actually I do, but Chp. 5 - Communicating Value made me visualize a better picture of my target market and their needs. So this is what I did- I answered the following the questions. Where they shop? Target, Amazon, consignment shops, Earth Fare, speciality boutiques Where they don't shop? Major department stores, Wal-mart (too generic and too many people) Media consume? fashion, interior design, & craft magazines; self help and up-lifting books; interior, craft & fashion blogs; thought provoking TV shows Usage of Internet?   For research, shop and share photos with family and friends Trade associations?   belong to very few trade associations. If they do it is career related- not passion driven Trade shows? Attend only a few, maybe one a year or less. Don't live close to major trade show event. The travel too expensive. E...

As I've gone thru- The Creative Entrepreneur - I've realized that I need a plan. Please know I plan everything I do. But a majority of my planning is in my head. So this is what I did. I created a Business Marketing Plan for the School of Creative Business  The Plan for the School of Creative Business blog site  The Plan: Offline Networking Strategy attend one event a month - pass out new designed business cards Web Strategy Post more often on blog Article Marketing (2 per month) Use money keywords Outreach Strategy Email Marketing ( include Blog RSS feed ) Work on email auto-responder Information Product Strategy Create 2 Free Reports Mini - ecourse (video or print) Teaching/Mentoring Strategy Brainstorming sessions Business Launch Social Media Networking training Online Network Strategy More involved on Facebook, Twitter Use  Ping.fm Then I had to create a To do List.  The To do List  1, 2, 3, 4  I just listed all the actions I needed to...

 Me (Alease) with one of my Creative Entrepreneurs (Tara Davis)     In my last post- I mentioned that my goal is now to change the mind set of artist. Internet marketing is the key to our success in moving beyond the starving artist. At the event, I assisted Tara in marketing her event through video, social marketing and email marketing. All key components  in Internet marketing. So you ask what is my heart?  Teaching and sharing what I know. What's my desire? To learn as much about Internet marketing as I can. The next picture is my action plan- mind mapping my thoughts. It's not a mandala, but it is the way I think. Right now, as I write this post, I have two of my clients working on their Internet marketing plans. They are complaining about of the work. But I say to them- once you get it step up, the rest is easy. After they finish their plans we will work on our stop doing list. Which will require them to hire a virtual assistant. I am happy for t...

As I was thinking about my creative business and its purpose - I realized that my main objective for starting my busines is share with other artist what I've learn about making money online. The key thing I want my creative readers to understand is that I want them to move beyond the straving artist mentality. We have to move into the world of internet marketing. Learn the skills and techiques they use and apply those same tactic skills to our art and craft business. I'm taking an internet marketing course now and I am learning so much. And all these techniques can be used in anyone's artist business. We - artist just have to move beyond just creating art, we need a mindset of that we are in the business of marketing our artist ability. So artist lets get into the habit of marketing what we do and learn all that's required to make it happen.

Creative Thinking Supplies Although I am an artist, I also think of myself as a little too technical when it comes to my brainstorming. I don't do much sketching in nice blank journals, but I do lots of mind mapping and note taking. My main creative thinking supplies: Lined Journal - easy to fit into my purse and at the bottom of each page are inspirational quotes. Webcam - to share my thoughts and advice with my blog readers Voice recorder - to record my thoughts while in the car Colored Sharpies - Just like to see color on my pages. Post it notes - to mark ideas in a book I borrowed from a friend or library. Bubble Gum - a treat. Since the removal of my braces I've really enjoyed the process of blowing large pink bubbles and thinking at the same time. More to come... Peace & More Love, Alease Michelle