Living In The Now

In all honesty, this phrase is something that could go for my business plan, or my personal life. It if you have noticed the crickets around here over the last few weeks then you know why I need to apply this plan to my business.

I am definitely guilty of putting things off until I do something else. For example, I tell myself constantly that I will do more posts when I switch platforms. I'll make more tutorials, I will create a following, and I will better my content when I switch platforms and do one last rebrand. 

The thing about waiting is that it is wasting beautiful time. The time and work that goes into rebranding and moving everything is not a small amount of time, and this is something I am planning to do during my spare time between clients. So it could be a few months from now. There is no way that I want the crickets to last that long.

So it is time to learn to live in the now! I need to do a little cleaning with my old posts/tutorials, and I need to work on creating quality content that my past and future clients will find beneficial. If I am completely honest with you, this is new territory for me. I have always put time and effort into the posts that go onto my personal blog, but I haven't ever done very good at focusing on this blog.  Have posts, but I never put to much work into them, and I wouldn't necessarily say that people would benefit from reading each and every one of them.

So as I work on growing/bettering my business, this is something that I have to learn to focus on. If  you have any questions, or know of anything that you would like to see me post about, make sure you email me your questions! 

My First Local Client!!!

Over the last few years I have had tons of clients, but none of them have been local until now. I have tried to kind of put the word out locally now that I am doing printed goods such as custom business cards, invitations, announcements, etc... But that hasn't ever really gone very far. A couple of days ago our favorite librarian at the Library that we take Sydney to sent me a message asking me if I did Bridal Shower invitations!

I believe my response was a big"ABSOLUTELY!!!". So I had her fill out a form to give me a general idea of what she was wanting, and to tell me a little bit about this shower that the initations were for. The brides colors verbvarious shades of purple, but she wasn't an overly girly person in reality. So we wanted something classic, simple, and sweet. 

I love how these turned out! I came up with a rough idea and ran it by my client. Then we happened to have story time for Sydney, and I had a couple of questions and details that needed to be figured out. So I loaded the images that I needed onto my iPad and took it with me. Once the kids had been read to, and everyone was playing, we figured out the last few details over the iPad. She was able to see the details clearly, and I could visually see her reaction! It was a beautiful thing! It really makes me want to do more consultations with local clients like this! So I am making it a goal to have more of a local clientele with my printed goods once our move is over. 

Now the invitations have been ordered and the delivery was so fast! I still really just love being able to sell something that people get to hold in their hands.

Naming Your Blog

I am more than just a graphic designer. I have a personal blog as well, and naming this blog was a process that took time and a few different names. Lately I have had a bunch of people ask me for advice on how to name a blog.

So this is me, sharing my advice with you!

Personally, I believe that the most important things about a blog are the name, the design, and the content. In that order! A name draws you to look, and then if the design is visually attractive you tend to look around. If you have stuck around long enough to read the content, and you like it, then that is what keeps you coming back! So you want to come up with a good name! 

But where do you begin right?

My response to this is to just sit down and write down words that you think describe you! If you have a nickname that is sentimental, or unique to you, then please use it! 

My next bit of advice is to try to make it a name that you will not grow out of! I have gone through three different blog names to finally learn this! For example, before my blog was SimplyTiki it was The Momma Bear Diaries. While there was a sentimental reason behind the name, it was a name that was kind of limiting in terms of content. Yes, I will always be Momma Bear, but I reached a point where I wanted to post more than just "mom blog" posts. I outgrew my blog name. So try not to give your blog a name that just describes one form of content! You can detail the type of blog your doing in the tagline. It doesn't really have to be in the title.

My last bit of advice is just to have fun with it! While your thinking of a name that works for you, and is not limiting, have fun with it! Write a ton of ideas down and see if one sticks out to you! 

So now you hopefully have a name for your site! Your next step is to create your free blogger account using that name and then go about purchasing your domain. There are so many different options to purchase your do,aim from. You can purchase through your blog or through the thousands of hosts out there. GoDaddy is my go to for domains. It's so easy to purchase and then you can call them and have them help you point your domain to your blog. 

At this point you have successfully named your blog! Now you need to start thinking of design! 

Ever Heard Of A Creative Meeting?

This post was originally posted on my personal blog this morning, but I feel like this is something I could go a little more in depth on here, so I'm sharing again! 

I know what your thinking? What on Earth is a creative meeting?! Is this something I should be doing for my business? Let me just start out by saying that I didn't really know what it was until my friend Erin mentioned having one. Last year she started ByErinCreativeCo, and I couldn't be more proud of her! She has always been there for me to give me opinions when I get stuck, and now we just bounce ideas off of each other left and right! Erin and I decided that it would be a great idea for us to have a video meeting once a month where we bounce ideas off of each other, and discuss product ideas/goals. We both do this with our husbands daily, but to do it with each other face to face was just such a great idea!

Just to give you an idea of what you could discuss in your own creative meeting, these are some of the topics we touched base on. 

• Product goals for January! - for me this includes adding etsy designs and finishing a certain number of custom blogs
• Social Media - we discussed the importance of each platform to our business. I have discovered that I have desperately got to get better at all forms of social media for this little site of mine. 
• Google Analytics - getting advice on using it! I have to admit it's all confusing to me.
• Time Management - every business owner needs to learn time management! I am still struggling with this! 

This first weekend in January we had our very first creative meeting, and I had a blast! At first we just talked about any and everything, but we eventually got down to business! We discussed things that we felt were important to us and that we wanted opinions on for our business, and then gave the other person open and honest opinions. This whole meeting is to get the other persons perspective. Any and all input is wanted! 

When we started the meeting, I had absolutely no idea what to talk about, but as it went on I started a list and it grew! By the end of the meeting I walked away with new ideas, and new insights on what I should be doing! Now I am already looking forward to next months meeting! Sometimes it is so great to have the opportunity to work with other business owners and get their input! Erin is a genius for coming up with the idea if you ask me!

If you are a business owner and have someone that you can do something like this with, then I highly recommend it! I walked away from this meeting feeling rejuvenated and ready to kick it into gear!