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5 Tips For Running A Successful Online Business
There are a couple of key things to look at when starting an online business. I’m not here to give you “hidden secrets,” just a few fundamental tips
5 Tips For Running A Successful Online Business
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to get you started....
Creative People - How to Handle A Bad Client
A client with a creative business called me one day and asked the following question. It's a question I get asked frequently, so rather than write an entire article, I decided just to tell you exactly what I told her.
Kirstin --
Do you have a...
Innovation Management – Ignoring Content
A useful approach when generating ideas is simply to ignore content. Evaluating content is a hindrance rather than an enhancer. If the people who wrote Red Riding Hood had realised the number of interpretations and analysis it was going to receive,...
Seven Qualities To Get A Job You Want
There are a lot of companies which are employing graduates with strong education background and fluency in several foreign languages. But will you agree that there are quite many candidates meeting the following requirements? How will human resource...
The Key to High Productivity is Energy Management
One of the issues most often raised by my clients is better time management. People have tried prioritizing tasks, blocking out parts of their day for certain tasks, implementing new systems and getting better at delegation. While all of those...
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Setting Goals -- Your Ticket To Success
You know that old saying -- if you don't know where you're going, any path will get you there. That's what happens if you don't take the time to figure out what your goals are and WRITE them down. There's power in writing things down. Trust me, I'm a writer. I KNOW.
Figuring out your goals is probably one of the most important and one of the most overlooked steps for creative professionals starting their business. Ideally you should put together a business plan. However, I have yet to meet a creative professional (including myself) who has one. (In fact, if you do have a business plan, please contact me. I'd love to chat with you about it.) Second best is getting your goals down on paper. Here are some things to include.
* Your personal mission statement. What do you want to accomplish in your life? Not just as a creative professional, artist or writer, but as a person. Knowing your mission will make organizing your time much easier.
* Your creative or artistic goals -- both long-term and short-term. What do you want to accomplish in three months? Six months? This year? Five years from now?
* Your financial goals -- both long-term and short-term. Don't forget to write down how much money you want to make.
* Your plans for your business -- both long-term and short-term. Break it down the same as your creative or artistic goals -- three months, six months, one year and five years. Include a marketing plan as well. It doesn't have to be elaborate, just figure out who your target market is, where your target market is (i.e., local, regional, specific cities or national), and how you're going to reach your target market.
* Action steps for each goal, including the marketing plan. Break each goal into manageable steps, number each step and add a completion date. Make a separate copy of this and put it where you can incorporate these action steps into your daily activities.
Don't rush this process. In fact, you should make it a treat for yourself. Go on a retreat. Try and get away for at least a day if at all possible (a couple of days would be better yet). Go somewhere where you won't be interrupted (and that includes the cell phone). Allow yourself some quiet time to really think. If it helps, do some meditating or journaling during this time.
Don't worry about it being perfect either. This is a working document. Ideally you should review it every six months or a year and see where you are and what's changed.
Now, when I first started my business five years ago, I hadn't planned anything or written anything down.
This was a mistake.
Sure I had some vague notions in my head of where I wanted my business and my writing to go, but by not committing anything to paper, I didn't end up there. My first three years of my business I was busy and making money, but I wasn't getting anywhere near the vague notions dancing around in my head. Even more amazing, I couldn't figure out why.
So two years ago, I started a regular practice
of writing down my goals and plan (much like the above). I do it twice a year, and you wouldn't believe the difference. Sure, my plans are far bigger than what I actually accomplish, and I've also found myself modifying and changing my action steps (the goals remain pretty constant, but how I attain those goals does change).
Best yet, I'm now seeing results. I'm accomplishing my goals.
Take the time to go through this process. The rewards are worth it.
Creativity Exercise -- Goal setting and creativity
If every year you find yourself setting goals and never making ANY strides toward reaching them, perhaps it's time to ask yourself why. Could it be they aren't YOUR goals but someone else's goals for you?
I don't care what the goal is -- stopping smoking, losing weight, starting an online business, writing that novel -- there's a reason it keeps climbing up, then falling off the goal list. And until you figure out WHY that goal is stuck in the never-never land of goal setting, you'll never actually pull it into reality.
Is it because you don't know where to start? Or is the project so big you're afraid to start? Or you're stuck somewhere in the middle and don�t know what to do next?
Or is it because you really don't want to do it?
Okay, I'm probably dredging up all sorts of demons now, but truly, those demons need to be exorcised or they're constantly going to be standing between you and your goal.
What I suggest is to take some quiet time and do a little soul searching. Journaling and meditation are both excellent ways of opening up a dialogue between you and your muse. Your muse is an excellent resource for you. If you ask, it will tell you which goals really matter and really don't matter to you.
And, if it turns out that goal is something you don't want to do? Then stop putting it on your goal list. I mean it. Quit making yourself feel like a failure by constantly sticking it on that list.
What if the goal is something like quitting smoking? Something you know you have to do because it's hurting your health? Try this instead. Rather than making it your goal to quit smoking, make it your goal to figure out why you don't want to quit. And what you can do to help yourself become committed to quitting.
Whatever you do, don't make turn this exercise into a license to beat yourself up. Be nice to yourself. You're doing this to help, not hurt, yourself.
About the author:
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of "Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money." She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.comCopyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek
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| Creativity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Creativity (or creativeness) is a mental process involving the generation of ... Wallas considered creativity to be a legacy of the evolutionary process, ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Creativity For Life |
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| AdCritic.com: Commercial Ads |
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| National Curriculum in Action - Creativity - |
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| Ten Steps for Boosting Your Creativity |
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| Creativity at Work: The interplay of business, art and science |
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| Crayola Creativity Central |
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| Pages tagged with "creativity" on del.icio.us |
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| Creativity Web - Resources for Creativity and Innovation |
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| members.optusnet.com.au |
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| gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": how to ... |
| So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. ... Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion ... |
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| Quotes on Creativity - part of a larger collection of Wisdom Quotes to challenge and inspire. Find Creativity quotations and links to quotes on other ... |
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| Ideas by Creativity Pool |
| A free database with new ideas and possible inventions. Add your own, or bring an existing idea to life. |
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| CREATIVITY |
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| The 6 Myths Of Creativity |
| A new study will change how you generate ideas and decide who's really creative in your company. |
| www.fastcompany.com |
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| CreativeClass.org |
| Richard Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class" examines creativity and its effects on economic development. |
| www.creativeclass.org |
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| TIP: Concepts |
| The relationship between creativity and intelligence has been always been a central concern of psychology ( Guilford , 1950). Much effort has been devoted ... |
| tip.psychology.org |
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| American Creativity Association (ACA) |
| An incorporated non-profit organization promoting personal and professional creativity. Association membership is represented by four multidisciplinary ... |
| www.amcreativityassoc.org |
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| CREAX - Portal for creativity and innovation |
| A resource for links on creativity and innovation on the web. A selection of 690 links is divided into 67 categories for the visitors convenience. |
| www.creax.net |
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