Are You Safe?

So, this morning I woke up to find that virtually everyone in my mailing list had been spammed by some hackers.

The email was from my terrijames40@hotmail.com and advertised some electronics.  I DO NOT sell electronics of any kind.  I only sell products I make myself (including the ebooks).  I do not refer people to other websites, unless it is a recommendation of something I have found useful, use myself and I will tell you that.  Also, you can be sure that the email is from me, cause I do put either my name or CJ's Graphics in the subject line and, of course, I always include a freebie wrapper or graphic.

The website is wedosale.com and a friend of mine who also knows how to hack discovered that their IP is from China.  DO NOT open this email, just delete it.  I have contact hotmail to let them know and if you have received this email, I encourage you to do the same.

This came as a reminder to me to change my password every-so-often.  I hadn't been online in 2 years and didn't change my password since coming back.  Lesson learned.  I encourage everyone to do the same.  Please, put it on your calendar to change your password at least everyone 60 to 90 days.  This will make it harder for anyone to do this sort of thing.

This was a shocking reminder to me to do that :)

What Is Marketing

Simply put, marketing is creating a need for your product or services.  This can be done in many ways - press releases, newspaper advertisements, tv or radio, flyers, brochures, free samples, etc.  The list of potential strategies is only limited by your imagination.

To do this, you have to make people believe that they want or need what you have to sell, or that they will benefit from purchasing your products.  You don't need to throw words like "new and improved" or "this will change your life" at them.  You simply use words that will make them believe that you are offering a product or service that is worth paying for.

To start with, the old adage "Honesty is the best policy" is true in advertising.  Enthusiasm is great!  However, how many times have you heard the hard sells on tv or radio?  When writing your ad, put yourself in your customer's shoes.  Would you believe you couldn't live without this product?  Probably not.  So, as a small business, don't put yourself in K'tel or Ramco's position and blast away at your target.

After all, you want people to believe that "smaller is better", that they'll receive better service, a more unique product and a better quality product.  In short, a company that means what it says and a product that does what it's supposed to do.

Int he end, as a small business, your best marketing tool is word of mouth from a satisfied customer.  It is also the easiest on your budget!

Use your enthusiasm for your business whenever you write or talk to anyone about your product.  Enthusiasm is very contagious and should never be underestimated.

There are many online and offline ways to market your business for very little or no cost to you.  I don't mean giving away endless freebies that cut into your supply costs of ink, paper and time.  What if I told you that you could easily get free advertising online, through other people's websites, or even on the radio or tv?  Were you aware that you can even use Paypal to advertise your business?

I'm going to do a couple of more posts on marketing, for those who are interested.

However, marketing is a major issue and the number one reason for businesses succeeding or failing.  After all, you can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about, how do they know to buy it, never mind where to buy it?

This is where my Marketing Retreat comes in.  Now, I know that we all can't meet at some resort for a week, to relax and discuss marketing strategies, so what I've done is put together a 6 day workshop just on How to Market You Business For Minimal To No Cost.


This Marketing Retreat covers both online and offline strategies.  And, because there's so much to cover, it takes 6 evenings.  I've broken it down to 3 evenings one week for online and 3 evenings the next week for offline marketing strategies.

You are guaranteed that I have tried and tested every single marketing strategy that we cover and I only included the ones that really worked.  I'm not talking about giving away endless freebies and I'm not talking about surfing message boards and spamming people "looking for ....".  But you will learn how to use those messageboards to your advantage, how to choose what online strategies bring the best return and which offline marketing gives your business the biggest boost for least amount of work and dollars.

If any of you are interested, just post here that you want to register.  Now, here's my deal that I'm going to offer you.  This Marketing Retreat is normally $75.00 at an online seminar and $250.00 when I hold it at a convention.  It does include a downloadable workbook, seminar and question periods at the end of each session.

If you sign up for the 6 evening Marketing Retreat, it's a cost of $10.00.  However, if you refer a friend and they sign up, then I'll split the cost.  That means $5.00 each.

I will only hold this seminar if I receive a minimum of 20 people who are interested.  So gather up your friends, talk it over and let me know.  I refer you to past participants, if you wish to ask anyone if they found the Marketing Retreat useful and there have been many Wrapcandy members who have attended and I'm absolutely confident will be willing to give you an honest opinion about the Retreat.

Give me a shout at terrijames40@hotmail.com, let me know.  As I said at the beginning of this post "Honest is the best policy" and I stand by that completely.

Can You Help?

I need a bit of help with an experiment.

I saw this on a forum, where a member wanted to share what they had made with the Cricut cutter.  I'm trying to make this idea possible for those who don't have the equipment she used to also make them.

What I saw what people using the Cricut to cut out different shapes and put them together to insert a chocolate bar.  It's kind of hard to explain.  For this experimental purposes, I'm using a heart shape.  So what would happen is the heart shape would be printed and cut out twice.  I've done a front and a back.  Then a small rectangle is cut out and glued like a pocket to the back side of the front piece and then glued to the back piece and the bar is placed in the sleeve.

So, basically you have the heart shaped front and back and in between you have the sleeve to put the bar into.

I thought I'd try and experiment to see if I could create something for those who do not have the $300 or more to buy the equipment these people were using to cut the shapes.  I'm at home and wouldn't you know it, don't have a full sized bar to try this AND I'm without the car today.

I've got other shapes in mind too, for different holidays and occasions if this works.  So, if anyone wants to download the pieces I've posted her and give it a try, please let me know if it works, if there are alterations needs somewhere, it when put together it stands up and (I guess most importantly) if the bar actually fits in the pocket.

So what I've upload (in order) is the heart front, back, sleeve and then the inside, where the pock is attached in between the two hearts.

The first three are for you to click on and download to use, the last one is just a pick of a samples I did on the computer.

And, here's a side view if that helps.  The dark purple is the pocket and the white with gold top is the chocolate bar.

Smack My Hand! How Did I Miss It?

Today, as I looked at my website, the proverbial light bulb went off in my head.  I don't know how I missed it, forgot to do it, or what. But, smack my hand, I had completely overlooked it!

There are fundamentals parts to a website, in order to make work effectively and efficiently for you.  Of course, we all know about navigation to your individual pages, easy to read fonts, headlines for special things you want your customers to notice, etc.

So, it follows naturally that if you offer a newsletter, free samples, an information or tips page, that you have a link placed prominently on your home page, for your customers to use.  It brings their attention to the fact you offer it and allows them a quick way to get there.  After all, it's useless to have if your customers don't know about it.

In my case, it's this blog.  I completely forgot to let my customers who visit my website know that this blog exists!  I do include a little blurb, inviting my customers to join the blog in my emails I send them with their purchases.  But, that's after they've visited my website and actually made a purchase.

What I've missed is those people who have visited my website, browsed through my pages but not made a purchase at that time.  They've left, not knowing that they can join this blog, to get some (hopefully) helpful information, tips and they're even missing the freebies with each post.

Now, although your customers who have actually made a purchase are more likely to sign up for your newsletter or blog, that doesn't mean that others won't have an interest as well.

Not having the sign up information on my website means I didn't even give them the opportunity to join if they want to.  How could they if they don't know is there?  If you look at the stats for your website, I'll bet you'll find that the number of people who visit your website is higher than the number actual purchases.  So, to me, that means I'm missing a lot more possible new members for the blog than I'm inviting.

Needless to say, I've rectified the situation and there is now a "Join My Blog" message at the top of my webpages.

So, my lesson learned is this, check your website, read it through with the idea in your head that you're looking for omissions, mistakes, typos, etc.  Just make sure that nothing is missing that you really wanted your customers to know, get (like free samples) or join.  I'm just glad I noticed it now instead of 2 years from now :)

Necessity Becomes Invention

I had a former client call me a few days ago, to see if I still did candywrapping. I was a little hesitant to say yes because I promised myself I would go head-long into absolutely everything again, at least not right away :)

The reason for her call was that she will be hosting an Opening Ceremonies event for the first day of the Olympics and she wanted to give an item that could be personalized, but within her budget. You see, there will be about 1,200 people at this event being held at a large hall.

As she was always a great (and lucrative) customer for me, I decided I couldn't let her down. Now, designing and creating a new wrapper for her wouldn't be a problem. But she was after something new and different. After all, this is not only the Olympics, but the Canadian Olympics!

So, necessity became invention. I decided to create something for her that would be different than a regular wrapper, add some dimension to her gift.

I kept thinking of those bar sleeves that some people use, to make their wrappers into some sort of card, but to put them together gets sort of fiddly, if you know what I mean. I tried one and it took twice as long to put together than just wrapping a bar and with 1,200 to do, I said "forget it".

That's when I thought of the new scarf I received for Christmas. It came in a pillow box and I wondered if I could modify the design a bit to fit a chocolate bar or individually wrapped candies. I did some measuring, designing, printing, testing, etc. and came up with my Pillow Box Sets.

The sets have a large box, which is actually about half the size of the pillow box my scarf came in, a small box, that fits a Hershey's mini perfectly and I added a wrapper (just for old times sake) for a nugget or bite size chocolate.

My idea was that to wrap the nugget or bite size chocolate, put a mini in the small pillow box and put them all in the larger pillow box. There's her gift for her guests.  I've uploaded the small, mini pillow box here for Canada and the US, so you can see what I mean.  Feel free to click on them and save to use.

She stopped by yesterday to take a look at what I created. Mainly because I found it hard to actually describe it to her. She loved it and gave me the green light to go ahead. She even offered for me to bring them to her committee meeting this weekend and she'll put a team together for me to show them what to do and let them finish them off. I told you she was a great customer!

I think they turned out great! The only problem now is that my mind can't stop thinking of the possibilities for designs and I just keep going and going and going with ideas. My husband had to come and tell me to get to bed last night, cause I just couldn't stop designing :)

I have the design for Canada, so I decided to make one for the US as well. If you want a set, just give me a shout and I will send it to you. If there is anyone here from a country other than those two, just let me know and I will create one just for you.

And now, it's Friday, so have a great weekend everyone and enjoy this unusually warm January we're having.

How Many Is Too Many?

We've been working on renovating our kitchen recently and I decided to go online to a specific hardware website and take a look at some sinks.  I wanted to see what styles were out there now and get an idea on pricing.

Now most websites have very convenient search buttons and as the larger companies have such a variety of things, it can save you a lot of time.  In theory anyway....

So, there I am, sitting at my computer and I type in "kitchen sink".  A new page opened, with a two column list in answer to my search for a kitchen sink.  I started reading and scrolling to see the different sinks.  To my surprise, this was not what I saw.  There were faucets, scrubbers, pipes, soap dishes, etc.  Absolutely everything you'd use or need in a kitchen, but no sinks.  As I scrolled to the bottom, I saw that the number of pages of items that met my search criteria was 26.  Twenty-size pages to search through and hope that at least one or two had a sink.  See, I didn't want to skip any, just in case there was a sink hiding in one of the page.  I very cleverly thought that if I asked for the search to be categorized by price (high to low), that would bring the sinks to the first page - Not!  It brought countertops and cupboards.  Not as bright as I thought I guess.

This got me thinking about websites for favors and, yes, candywrappers.  Many of them have absolutely everything you can think of (and some you didn't think of) that are in any way related to their main product or theme.  I must admit that I've gotten lost in some of those websites, just sitting here, browsing through at all the great ideas and products.  Hours go by before I realize how long I've just been scrolling through, looking at everything.

But what if I'm a customer who knows exactly what she wants and just want to get to that page where I can see if they have it, purchase it and move on?  And as the owner of the website, is it actually worth it to have so many different products to keep track of or on hand?  Is the fact that you sold lollipops to one customer last year worth keeping them in your inventory?

Bottom line, is it really necessary to offer everything and anything, just in case a customer, one day, might happen upon your website and buy one?

Personally, I gave up searching for the sink.  It was taking way too long and they were too hard to find.  I ended up doing a Google search for it and went to websites that had just sinks.  It turned out that they're prices were lower and there was tons of useful information on things like how to measure, installation, different materials they're made out of, etc.

A wise person once told me that It is better to be the expert at one or two things, than to do a half-ass job at many.

So, the million dollar question is.... How many is too many?  What is the saturation point where that's enough.  It could be when things are too hard to find on your websites, or it may be when you have so many products, your homepage looks like an apartment, with mini windows of products stacked ontop of one another, perhaps it's when a potential customer visits your website, stays for a couple of hours and still doesn't buy anything.  Perhaps it's when you have piles of boxes sitting in your garage and you've never opened them to ship the products to any customers.

I took stock in my website a long time ago and removed a lot of things that I thought were a good idea or people would find useful.  Turns out, just because I thought they were, doesn't mean my customers did.  I trimmed down to those products that were actually being purchased or used.  The other things no longer clutter up my website or my office.

What's In Your Store Window?

When giving seminars on website design, I've discussed this analogy very often.  I think it's an important part of your website and I want to share it with you.  I hope you find it not only interesting, but gives you some food for thought.

When thinking about how your website appears to your potential and returning customers, I want you to think in terms of a storefront.  After all, the whole reason for your website is to make it productive and work for you by having your customers make purchases.

Think of your website as a virtual store, in one huger, sucker of a mall (the internet) and as your customer window shops (does an internet search) how are you going to entice them to choose your website over the competition's to make their final purchase?

Your website needs to appeal and off what that customer wants and/or needs.  As they shop through the internet mall, they locate candy wrappers (i.e. a Google search)  and they arrive at the end of the mall that has all the candywrapper businesses, right beside each other.  As they walk through (click on the links) and look at each store (open your webpage), your job is to make sure they want to come in (go through your navigation to find the product they want to buy).

The catch is that they can only see your front windows that display some of your merchandise and your front door, which gives a brief description of whats inside.  The can't see everything that's on your shelves inside.  They have to inside to see everything and have your store clerk explain about thee wonderful products you have.  How do you get them inside your door, instead of moving on to some other store (another website)?

The answer is that you have to know your customer.  You need to know them in the same way you know exactly what to buy your sister for her birthday.  You know what she wants, the exact clour and size and how much to spend.

Who is your ideal customer?  Who are you trying to sell your products to?  What age are they; are they married; if so, do they have children; how many; what age, etc.  What is their lifestyle; do they work; how often do they shop; are they buying for themselves or someone else?  How often and why do they buy your products; what do they use them for?

As an example, someone's ideal candywrapper customer may be a young, married mom, with 3 children, between the ages of 5 and 15.  Her household income is over $60,000 a year and has an active social life.  She works long hours, so between her kids' activities and her job, she doesn't have much time for planning those social events she hosts.  She looks for new ideas that will bring great comments from her friends and she has a little friendly competition going to see who can outdo each other, be more creative for the kids' parties, adult get-togethers and when hosting fundraising events.

So this person is looking for something unique and creative that can be personalized for individual specifications or event.  So, being able to choose customized features should be emphasized.  She doesn't have much time on her hands, so she won't spend much time looking, therefore, ease of use is a major factor.  Having clear, easy to follow information and explanation of your products, along with being able to find things quickly is what she is looking for.

She needs everything from kids parties to major, adult events, so lots of variety in one place works best for her.  Finally, she also perceives quality with price, as she wants to outdo/impress her friends.  If she considers something is cheap and low quality, she'll move on to another store.  Therefore, the lowest price is not necessarily a factor in her search.  A good quality product, unique and reasonably priced will suit her just fine.

Bottom line is high quality, moderate price, quick and easy to use, plus a variety of unique products will entice her to buy.


Remember that, unless it's a department store, the individual stores in any mall cater to a specific clientele,  They design and create their entire store around this ideal customer.  Which includes what they place in their own front windows, to catch that customer's eye as they pass by.

Designing your homepage for your ideal customer just got a little easier when you think about it.  Place in your window (homepage) what you believe will entice your ideal customer to walk inside.

Now you try.  Who are you designing your store for?  Who's going to walk inside?  What's in your store window?

It's Great To Give

Staying along the lines of a website, I've been sitting at my computer, gathering information and printing it off, to get organized before I actually work on mine.  One of the things I've always liked to do on my websites is give my customers more than what they expected or came for.  It's Great To Give!

But not just giving, there definitely is a formula you need to follow, so that both you and your customer get the most out of it.

• Give something that they can actually use
• It must compliments what you are selling (i.e. it can't be a lamp if you are selling shoes)
• Change it often, to keep them returning to see what's new
• Place different items on a couple of pages that you want your customer to visit
• Have a sign up button, so your customers won't miss out on getting the latest gift
• Have a "refer a friend" button, to encourage word of mouth referrals to your website

Now, for me and my customers, you know that I put up free articles, wrappers and other templates or e-books and some of you might be wondering what you can put on your website for candywrapper customers.  Well, I do have a few suggestions that might help you get the creative juices flowing as you look at the pages of your own website.  For instance:

• Wedding page/s - a wedding planner guide or sheet; latest wedding trends in flowers, themes and colours
  
• Baby page/s - articles on baby names; pregnancy nutrition; baby safe toys; baby shower ideas
• Holiday page/s - decorating ideas; history on certain traditions; listing of special holiday events

That's just a few ideas to get you going.  The great thing is that you don't have to be a writer or an expert in decorating, nutrition or any of these things.  There are plenty of places on the internet that have authors that are looking for exposure and offer their articles for free.  In most cases, all they ask you for is that you leave their bio information intact, let them know where you use their article and, in some cases, a link back to them.

Just do a search for "free articles on....." (whatever subject you want).  Just remember to read their terms before you use their article.

Having said all that, it isn't necessary to put something on each and every page.  Pick and choose which pages you want to bring attention to.  Such as, in the fall, it would be your Christmas page/s; January, your Valentine's and Easter page/s, etc.

It would also be beneficial to put a general party or occasion planning guide, booklet or idea suggestion sheet that you can change with the relevant seasons on your home page.  A great "side effect" to doing this is as your customers return again and again AND send referrals to your website, it increases the number of visitors to your website and helps with your seo and moving your website up in the search engines :)

Just remember that whatever you choose to do should be useful to your customers and compliment your business and then you'll find out just how great it is to give!

Making Your Website Work

Whether you are contemplating putting your business on the world wide web and thinking about having your own website, or updating an existing one that you want to make more productive, there are many articles, e-books and software products available that tell you what you should be doing.  It can be very difficult to decide which ones will actually work.  Did you buy the book that gives you all the information you need?  Some are so full of technical advice that they’re difficult to understand and others only give you a specific area that they cover.

To begin with, small business owners get very excite and start with searches of website templates and looking at existing websites to choose a design.  Then they spend money on the self-help books, or purchase programs and then find out they didn’t get the full story or the program gathers dust because they couldn’t figure out how to work it.   While having your business on-line is a very exciting time, doing that search to see what style or design you want, then buying software and design books to create it are not the first steps you need to take.

The first step actually needs to be done either at your desk or dining room table.  You need to organize your website before you do anything on-line.  For those who already have a website, this is a great way to assess whether or not you need some modifications or adjustments in your existing website design.   Always remember through the entire process of designing, creating and modifying your website that it’s not actually for YOU, it’s for YOUR CUSTOMERS.  Your website may be appealing or look cute to you, but how will it look at the kind of customer you are trying to attract?  Your website is your store.  Think about that as you go through the rest of this article and follow the suggestions it contains.  Then, please call in to Wrap’n Radio Sunday afternoon at 4 pm Eastern Time, for Website Workings, where I discuss these concepts and will answer any of your questions.

But first, take the time to sit down with different colors of paper.  On white paper, write down every product you want to sell through your website.  Each product should be on a different piece of paper.  Now think about how you want to organize your page to display these products.  Whether it be by product type, season, occasion, price range, whatever it is you think you want to do.  Keep in mind as you go through this exercise of how your prospective customers will find these products.  Are they all going to be listed on your homepage?  Do you want links leading from say a candle page to matching candle holders?  As you work with the pieces of paper, organizing them as outlined below, don’t forget that you have to make headings for your homepage, maybe price list page, ordering page (although most people make it easy on a customer to order directly on the same page as the product they wish to order).  As the number of pages grow, the different connotations can become endless.  So, let’s take a look at the process.

Write each of these headings on a different colored piece of paper (i.e. if by product type blue would be hats, green would be gloves, red would be shoes, etc.).  Then lay your headings out and place the products that match each of those headings underneath them.   This where you can do some planning.  If there are too many under one heading, how can you reorganize that?  Does the list look overly-long if you have a lot of one type of product in many different colors or styles?  Try re-organizing using different headings.  Use different colors for seasons maybe and see how that works.  This may take some time, shuffling of papers around in different set-ups for different categories and lot of reorganizing again and again until you are satisfied with what you see.

Once you have completed this task, you have conquered a major step in your website designing stage.  Now you have in front of you exactly how your website should come together and what is left of the designing stage is the fun part – colors, theme, style – have fun!

I've Dreaming About Puffy Clouds :)

I had a nap today.  It's part of my new lifestyle to rest when I actually feel tired and eat throughout the day when I actually feel hungry (4 or 5 little meals as opposed to 3 big ones).  I think it might of been the soft music I listened to as I fell asleep, but I dreamt of puffy clouds and was inspired by the dream!

And here are my inspired creations.  The Puffy Clouds Wrapper Set.  After I finished them I realized they are so versatile!  They can be used for a baby shower; first birthday, wedding, anniversary, girl's birthday, prom or even Valentine's and Mother's Day.

You can purchase the set of 12 full sized wrapper here for $5.00.  When I put them up on my website later this week, they'll be the regular price of $8.99.

Don't forget to pick up your feebie at the beginning of this post and make sure you've gone back through all previous posts and saved those ones as well.  I want to make sure you didn't miss any :)

Take care,
Terri

Thinking Ahead - It's Graduation Year at My House :)

I always like to plan ahead where business is concerned.  For instance, even before Christmas was over, I was planning and designing for Valentine's Day and now that it's January, I'm thinking about Easter, Mother's Day and Graduations.

It takes time to design and plan for each occasion, so by the time my customers start thinking about them, I'm completely ready for them!  So, in order to help you get in that ready mode for the upcoming, grand, graduation season, I have created a complete Graduation Candy Cake Set.

A sample is at the top of this posting and if it's a set you'd like to have, simply post in the comments section below and I will send the zipped file directly to you.

Thinking Ahead keeps you totally prepared for your customers' needs and requests.

Enjoy!

Productive Downtime

For many people in small business, productive downtime means that your business or system is working for you when you are away; or that when there is a slow time for your business, you're still working on marketing strategies, your website updates or product development.

For me, productive downtime means the time I spent on me.  It is downtime because I'm not thinking about the business at all and it is productive because I'm looking after and doing things for myself.

I never used to give myself downtime, except maybe a few hours of sleep and I just kept going and going and going.....  But, that was one of my downfalls.  It left me mentally and physically tired, which led to my body not being able to look after itself and giving up on me so to speak.

I cannot stress enough that it is extremely crucial that you give yourself some productive downtime each and every month.  Your mind and body NEED to be nurtured and given time to recover from stress, overly active thought processes, daily grind and responsibilities.

This past weekend, my productive downtime was spent taking my best friend, her daughter and mine to Niagara Falls for a spa day together.  We stayed in a Marriott hotel right at the brink of the falls.  It was just what we all needed to recharged our batteries and friendships.  There was lots of chatting, giggling, hugs and a great feeling of warm and closeness.

Now, you don't need to actually go anywhere.  You can create your own productive downtime with something different, easy and inexpensive at the beginning of each month.  Just one day is all it takes.  Productive Downtime works best when shared with someone close to you, because I find doing it alone makes is so much easier to abandon your plan and go back to working.  Plus the relaxed interaction between 2 or more people is what adds to the whole atmosphere of being totally away from the normal day.

Here's some ideas to do with your girlfriends (or husband if you prefer):

1. Get some snacks and have a Saturday movie marathon with a specific theme.
2. Make your own spa in your bathroom with bathsalts, sit on chairs at the side of the tub, soak your feet, some soft music and chat.  When your feet are finished soaking, move to the bedroom and do your nails together.  Finish off with facials while your toes are drying.
3. Set the diningroom table with a fancy tableclothe, good dishes, silver and wine glasses.  Then order chinese or other favourite take out and you and the girls enjoy a "fancy" dinner that you didn't need to cook.
4. Make up your own roadtrip.  You can just wander wherever the road takes you, or start the day with a map, a direction and any small town anyone wants to explore.
   

Remember, it's just one day each month, but it's sooo important to make sure that you give yourself your Productive Downtime.  If your life is so hectic that you think you'll find it hard to find the time to do it each month, then treat it like you would any other dr or dentist appointment and put it in your schedule.  I find that part of enjoying my productive downtime all of us looking forward to that day each month.

I'm sure you can come up with some great ideas as well.  What do you think?

Free Easter Wrapper For Everyone :)

OK, so I just realized that the free wrapper I sent out with my announcement to everyone is the exact same one in my previous post below (Easter Lily).

So, here is another, new one to make up for my mistake.  This one and the Easter Lily wrapper are part of a new Easter set I'm working on that will include the wrapper and gift can labels for each design.

Sorry for the mix-up guys!

Enjoy:)

Step Three and Beyond - Finding/Getting and Keeping Customers

Anyone who is in business is basically spending most of their time doing these three things.  It is an ongoing process for anyone from the newest small business owner to huge corporations like WalMart or GM or Macy's.  The way you find them, get them to purchase your products and keep them coming back is basically your marketing, plus your customer service that we talked about before.

So, to begin, you need to look at what we discussed before about your ideal customer.  For me, generally speaking, it's the candy wrapper business owner, but can also be the small business owner who uses digital graphics and artwork to create their products for their own customers.  As my products are completely digital and sent to my customers as a download, they can be anywhere in the world.  This also means that my methods of finding/getting and keeping customers will be through a website, emails, blog, discussion forums and other available internet services.

The next step for me then is to create a website (http://s2.webstarts.com/cjsgraphics/) and as I'm starting from scratch, it's a freebie that I found while searching on the internet.  It is a humble beginning, but it's also the way I originally began 10 years ago.  Right now, rather then spend any money on a domain name and hosting, I'd rather spend it on the things I need to create the best product I can for my customers.

So, while marketing is important (and will be an ongoing process), the quality and quantity of my product is more important.  Without a quality product, there won't be any customers at all.

It is much easier and less expensive to have existing customers returning than it is to constantly find new ones.  Therefore, the quality of the product is extremely important and where you time and effort are well spent.  Also, keep in mind, these happy customers can do some marketing for you.  People are very skeptical, not only because of wanting value for their dollar, but also afraid of scams and fly-by-night small businesses.  Therefore, a referral from a satisfied customer can carry a huge amount of weight in a potential customers making a final decision on whether or not to purchase from you.

Right now, for me, I've been working on my little, beginner website and will continue to do a bit each day; I've sent out an email to past customers, letting them know that I'm starting again; and once I'm a bit more organized, will start posting on some forums that I had been active on in the past.  Some customers will return, some won't, but that's ok, I have to start somewhere right?

Take care, Terri

Step Two - Customers

Defining who your customers will be and creating your customer service policy are two crucial steps.

Knowing who your target customer is will help you to know how to plan your marketing strategies.  For instance, is your ideal customer:

- someone who hosts a lot of parties and events, so they will return frequently to purchase more products;
- are they a mom who is family oriented and likes to do crafts and scrapbooking;
- a corporate executive, who has various clients he likes to gift for their birthdays, anniversaries, or when they come into town;
- other small business owners, who are looking for creative ideas to advertise their own business; or
- wedding planners, looking for new and fresh ideas to offer their clients for decorations or favours.

You can probably think of some ideal clients yourself, who you can target specifically for your products.  Remember, it is much harder to keep quality and service high for hundreds of products than it is to be able to take the time and care offer a few that are the best in the business.  It also makes sense and is more profitable to be the expert and the "go to" person for specific, quality products.

Once you have your ideal, target customers in mind and the products you want to offer then, you now can work on your strategies on how to reach them.  Narrowing down your target customer also allows you to focus your marketing on specific areas and, therefore, keeps your marketing portion of your budget from getting out of control.

Completing a customer service policy will help your customer understand timelines for delivery, alterations, returning emails or phone calls, customer satisfaction, as well as returns and complaints.  It will also be a great assistance for you when you have numerous inquiries or a difficult customer, as you can refer and quote what you already have in place.  Your policy can actually ease your stress, because a well-thought-out customer service policy can make decisions for you that could be difficult or emotionally charged when you are in the middle of dealing with a problem.

I'm working on my ideal customer and marketing strategies right now.  How about you?  If you don't already have them in place, I hope these tips can help you get started.  If you do, great!  Maybe there's something here that can help you tweak them a little or it might just confirm that you're on the right track :)

Step One - Defining The Business Plan

As I begin again, I need to define my business plan.  This should include, among other things, overall concept of the business; product or service provided; target customers; finances; customer service plan; inventory; branding; some targets and goals.

Now that's too many things to post here, so I'll just do the basics for now.

Overall Concept:  To provide online products, services and information to small businesses, with an emphasis on those in the creative industry and who use digital and printed graphics to create their products for their customers.

These products include, but are not limited to digital graphics creation; templates and sets for candy wrappers, scrapbookers, website designers, creative crafters and website designers.

Services include, but are not limited to information ebooks; website design; business branding, such as business card, brochure, coupon/gift certificate design; online seminars and personal/one-on-one consulting.

Each of these products and services can grow or change according to each customer's individual needs.  My goal is to ensure each of my customers has the products, knowledge and support they need to have confidence in their own business.

OK, so that's my basic outline, which briefly included some products and services. Now, why don't you give it a try as well.  For those of you who are just starting out, this is essential.  For those of you who have been in business for a while, it is always a good thing to update your business plan every-so-often and at the beginning of a new year is always a great plan.

There may be things that have changed since you originally created your plan, or there may be things you had in your plan that you no longer do, added things that you hadn't originally thought of, or no longer offer things you found didn't work.  A yearly dusting of your business plan helps you refocus and re-evaluate how your business has been doing and help you see if you need to make any changes or adjustments to reach your goals and be successful.

Beginning Again in 2010

Well, it's been a long time - 2 years to be precise - since I was online in any kind of business. But I'm back!

This is a new beginning for me in many ways:

- I have come through a major illness and feel like a new person
- I will be starting my business with new and exciting ideas
- My approach to my customers, business partners and growth has changed for the better
- And... it's not only a new year, but a new decade as 2010 begins!

To begin, I want to show my deepest appreciation to my past customers, who have sent me emails, cards and notes of support. The best way I know of to do that is to give you a very special gift... All my business ebooks for FREE! Before you ask, yes I'm serious - for FREE!

There are 6 ebooks in total: FrontPage for Beginners; Scratching For Profits; Trade Shows - Be Prepared, Don't Be Scared; Profitable Fundraising For You and Your Customers; Brochures For Small Business; You Can Do This! Small Business Marketing.

So, please post here if you wish to receive your own copy of these ebooks, along with your email address. They will be sent to you as a zipped .pdf file and I hope you find them useful.

I also encourage you to register and follow my blog as each post will begin with a free wrapper, graphic or other item that you can use FREE, just like you see at the beginning of this post today.  Simply click on the wrapper, it will open at full size and you can save it to your files - FREE to use for your customers.

I will also be constantly sharing everything I'm doing with my business, so that you can follow along, join in and use anything that works for you too. I won't be keeping secrets and I will definitely tell you what I've tried; what worked and what didn't.

So, please join me as we begin again, learn together, grow together and make 2010 an awesome year!