Marketing Your Business

How 'linked' are you to related businesses in your area? Do you cross-market with them, to help each of you grow your business? I know this has been covered time and again, but it's still worth discussing.
As a photographer, I want to expand my business into weddings and events. One way I plan to do this is to market myself to the local florists and caterers. I'll approach one or two from each category and request a partnership with them. When I'm contacted to shoot a wedding, I'll suggest my partners as my preferred vendors, and my partners will do the same for me. I hope to also work up packages with my partners, so our clients can get a discount by using all of us together.
While it will build our business base, it will also raise us from the level of vendor to trusted professionals.
What businesses can you partner with to build your business?

Photography

I love taking pictures in and around my community - it's not a very big place, but I sure am proud of it. Lots of lovely 'hidden' places, fields, lakes, swamps and all sorts of beautiful images.
I recently entered a picture of our newest water tower, with a beautiful sunset in the background, in a statewide contest geared towards communities. I received a notice yesterday that my photograph won second place. I'm very happy about it, because it was one of those shots that just presented itself. I wasn't even thinking about photography- I had headed out the door to pick my daughter up from band practice, and when I saw the sky across the road, I went back in and got my camera.
My picture will be on the cover of the February issue of the organization's magazine.

A Homecoming Event

The Alabama Department of Tourism is sponsoring The Year of Small Towns and Downtowns in 2010. Each town that participates receives a free historic marker; Rutledge will be participating and we'll center the Homecoming Weekend around the Primitive Baptist Church in Rutledge. It's one of the oldest churches in Crenshaw County, and since Rutledge was once the county seat, the church is even more central to the county.
We've already set dates, and we also decided to have a homecoming weekend in 2009 as well - you might say it will be our practice run.
We've come up with several ideas on how to celebrate our town and it's roots - we'll be making videos of town members telling how it was to grow up in and around Rutledge; an art show is also being planned; we'll have activities for the kids on Saturday; and Sunday we'll wind up the weekend with a community church service in the morning, dinner on the grounds and an afternoon singing with local groups.
I've also come up with an idea to have a poster and postcard design competition among the residents of Rutledge. The winning posters will be used to publicize the weekend, and the winning postcards will be reproduced and sold during the weekend. Each winning designer will get a copy of all the winning designs. It will encourage the local folks to get involved, and any money raised will go towards maintaining the church building.
Check back for more details on how the plans are developing...

"A Breaking Heart" is at the Printer's

A Breaking Heart, the latest book by Dimple McInvale, will be published by my company, and I'm proud to announce that it's at the printer's, and should be back in time for Christmas. This is Mrs. McInvale's first novel, but it's her third book.
The book tells the story of three women who leave abusive relationships and move into the home of a country couple; the safe home becomes a real home for the three women, and while it relates some bad situations, it's a very hopeful, uplifting book. It's based on real-life events.
If you'd like to read more information about the book, visit the author's website here, or you can go directly to the book's page here.

Insurance...

I am always amazed when people say they buy life insurance 'in case something happens to them' - I have only ever heard of two people who left this earth without dying - Enoch and Elijah. Everybody else has to be prepared for the time when they die; which brings me to my point.
How is your business covered? I'm not talking about life insurance, because I'm sure you've got that covered.
I'm talking about the day to day things that happen in your business:
*what happens to your clients when you die or are unable to work? Do you have a plan in place to make sure they're taken care of?
*what about your current projects? will someone you trust be able to step in and complete the work, or will someone be able to help your current clients find a new partner to finish their work?
*have you already discussed partnering for this with a trusted person in your business? someone whose work ethics are on the same keel as yours, and who can work with your clients to their satisfaction...
*do you have your passwords and file backups in a place that someone can find?
*are you up to date on notes on your clients and prospects, so someone stepping in won't have to start from scratch?
After making sure my family is taken care of, I want to make sure my clients are cared for; I want the transition to their new designer to be an easy one.
Are you prepared?

Fluid Design

For as long as I've been designing websites, I've almost always designed using a fluid design- one that is set up so that it 'fits' the screen of the viewer, as often as possible. Obviously you can't fit everyone's screen, because some people use a small portion of their monitor to view the internet, saving another portion for their other open apps.
However, I feel this is the best way to go for most sites. If I use tables in the design, I set them so that they only use a percentage of the screen size. I did have a client who had purchased a template online, and we made some adjustments to it to customize for their site - he actually pulled out a ruler and showed me that the lines on each side of the design were not the same width, even though I had them set at the same pixel width. He also wanted the site to be perfect on his monitor, which was a fairly large one...
The problem with making a site 'perfect' on your monitor? You're forgetting that your customer is who you should be building your site for. My goal for website customers is to make a site that visitors can easily navigate, will enjoy viewing, looks good on their monitor, and is easily readable to them. That usually means, among other things, that I don't set exact font sizes in the design, but rather set it at 'large' or 'medium' according to how the font looks.
I do this for one simple reason - if I am on a site with tiny print, I will hold my CTRL button and use the scroll wheel on my mouse to enlarge it - if that doesn't work, I usually don't hang around very long. Life is too short to strain my eyes trying to read something in microscopic print.
Any site needs to look good, but it's most important that viewers can use it easily - and if they can't, what is that saying to them? "If you're not cool enough to use this site, then we don't want your business" is what it says to me. And I don't want to be responsible for a site that's saying that.

Seasonal ideas

If you have a website, do you update it for seasonal changes? Obviously, you don't want to do a total remake several times a year, but it is always a good idea to acknowledge the holidays and seasons of the year.
My favorite search engine is Google; if you've never seen the way they honor different holidays, visit this page - it's their 'museum' of logos.
I know you can't do something on the same scale, but you can support your favorite holidays. As an example, during the Christmas holidays, I make a slight change to my logo, then link it from my main page, to a retelling of the Christmas story from the book of Luke. Starting this next year, I plan to do something similar for the Easter season - after all, the main purpose of Christmas' gift is fulfilled in Easter.
Think about it, and see what ideas you and your designer can come up with to celebrate the holidays and seasons that are important to you.