Moran Media

Graphic Design and Instruction

marketing monday

Marketing Monday: Snow Days!

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snow daySnow Days, they are a a part of winter.

Love them, hate them, snow days are here. Unless you live close enough to the equator where you never experience them, in that case, good for you, enjoy the sun, you can skip this. For the rest of us snow days can put a damper on our work day, it can effect the rest of the week.

If you work in an office there is always that decision, is it a snow day?  Calling a snow day is difficult. No one wants to lose a day of work, a day of revenue, a day of productivity. On the other hand, no one wants to be responsible for accidents and putting people on dangerous roads.  If you’re a contract employee snow days can stink because you may only get paid for days you are at work and snow days aren’t covered. Some companies have work from home policies on snow days, and that can help alleviate some stresses.

Often forgotten is that everyone has a family to think about. If they have kids, a partner, parents, or other family members that depend on them, there is a lot to do.

  • Prepare for school closures.
  • Prepare for early dismissal.
  • Aid partner in getting to work if they have to go in.
  • Make sure parents are taken care of.

 You don’t just get to snuggle up and drink cocoa by the fire, or go play in the snow like you did when you were a kid.

When you work from home, the joke is you don’t get snow days, because you’re already at work. In truth it can become a much harder day for you. If you have kids you may have them at home with you while you work. You need to make sure your driveway is clear. You need to keep your driveway clear. You need to be ready for people coming home. You need to work as if it were any other day too.

Here are some things to remember when working from home and a snow day hits

  • Just because you have a snow day, doesn’t mean your clients do.
  • Just because it’s not snowing where you are, doesn’t mean your clients aren’t in the middle of a snow day. Respect their stresses.
  • You can get your work done and take care of your family; you need balance and know when to let something slide.
  • Be ready for the power to go out. (likely it will be temporary)
    • Keep your cell phone (and other devices) charged.
    • Keep some food that can be made without a stove ready, keep it outside of the refrigerator.
    • Keep the house warm, make sure you have warm cloths to wear.
    • Have fresh water prepared.
  • Set a timer to make sure you get out to shovel at short increments so it doesn’t break your back.
  • Make sure you have proper clothing for shoveling, keep warm, keep on your feet..

OK, once you have your work done, your family taken care of, your driveway clear, now it’s time to snuggle up with hot cocoa. You can catch up and help your clients catch up as the week goes on.

Marketing Monday: Task Lists

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tasklistHow do you manage your task list?  Everyone has a different method. My father used to put everything in his day planner. It was small enough that it fit in his pocket, it had a calendar and an area for notes.  He used to say “If I don’t write it down, I won’t do it.” It worked wonders for him because he had a poor memory.  He moved away many years ago and one time he forgot to do something I asked if he had put it in his planner.  He told me he hadn’t been carrying his planner anymore… that explained a lot. If you have something that works, stick with it.

Some people carry Moleskines around with them so they have a running task list and a place for notes, ideas, and inspirations. Other people utilize the Post It note to it’s maximum capacity. I have an aunt who puts post its on everything, reminders, notes, you name it. Often you could miss a note meant for you because you thought it was one of her reminders. Many of my former co-workers had post its stuck to their monitor so they couldn’t forget something. (Top tip, don’t do this with your passwords, that’s not safe, write them down, but where you know where they are, not the whole office.) For others, it’s all about the white board. They keep a white board by their desk and have everything they need to do up there.

For me, I’m a fan of using google calendar.  My google calendar looks like a rainbow there are so many colors for different calendars, but it works for me. I put appointments in there, but also tasks.  I put the deadline in and any reminders I may need. Halfway through a project I may have a reminder pop up and ask me “How are you doing on Project X13?” because that’s the title of the event I made, and I asked it to email me a reminder.  If I’m not where I need to be on that project, I know to get cracking.

Many people are all about the apps these days, and LifeHacker, a site I love and often get good advice from, has a list of what they think the top five apps are. I’ve heard a lot of people tell me they use the “Out of Milk” app for sharing tasks. Out of Milk is an app for creating and managing grocery lists, there are many other apps out there like this, this is the one I use because I can access it from my phone, my ipad, or my computer. My husband can access the same list from his phone (his is Android and I currently have an iPhone), his tablet, or his computer. This way who ever is doing the shopping has the latest list.  Well Out of Milk also has a to do list, and many of my friends use this so their spouse or kids can see the list and mark when they finished something. Excellent when the kids are depending on allowance money for each task they complete. I think it could work with employees or project groups.

Another idea for sharing task lists with employees or project groups is Asana, it’s a site that not only lets you build task lists but allows you to delegate tasks and sign up for tasks.  I’ve used this with a volunteer group and I can tell you when everyone is on board for using the site, it works, when one or two people don’t check the site or participate, it flops. So like anything else, you get what you put into it. But that’s the same for any of these ideas.

If you’re really trying to find some Task List Fu, you might want to check out the Getting Things Done movement, it’s a method that started with a book, then became a movement. There are podcasts, and apps, that can help you work this process into your every day life.  For a lot of people it is a game changer. If you find that you just can’t get a task list right for you, that you are constantly missing deadlines, that you are unable to prioritize your list, check out the GTD movement, it’s for you.

How do you manage your task list? What’s your favorite method?  Did I miss something that you think is the bee’s knees?

Marketing Monday: Networking

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social-media-552411_1920Networking is important for every professional, not just the self employed. Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you how to hook up your printer or create a home network. I’m talking about networking with people. Networking can help you in many ways, it can help you gain business, learn new skills, and get help with projects. In my experience word of mouth has worked better than any ad ever could. 90% of my customers heard of me through word of mouth. Word of mouth was so good that I could slack on my website and not feel it. (not that I should have). Some of this was from customers who liked my work and told their friends and colleges, while others were friends or colleges who when hearing someone needed help I could provide, offered my name and number (or email). While dumb luck at having that happen is nice, you can increase your odds by meeting more people.

Networking can help you stay ahead of the game too. If you are friends with people who work in similar fields, when something new comes out they are likely to tell you.  By talking about work you can see how other people do things and simplify your process.  Best yet, if you hit a stumbling block, you have a friend you can call that will give you good advice.

There are many ways you can network, locally I have attended several tweetups, meetups, and other local events where I might meet the community.  This may not sound very business orientated but that’s the best part of it.  Thanks to attending tweet ups I have been able to find some customers and meet many local business owners. I will admit the best benefits from this went to my volunteer work, but I still call that a win. I was able to help get donations for the organization, mostly non monetary donations, and even a big donation of web hosting, which made life very nice. These kinds of events are fun and you make connections that are useful later down the line. Just make sure you bring a friend so if you are nervous you have someone to talk to and don’t have to strike up conversation with strangers, the more outgoing the friend the better, but I went with an introvert and that worked.

You can also network online. There are LinkedIn groups that cater to almost any field, alumni groups, facebook groups (I belong to one that caters to women owned (super) small businesses, mostly women who are self employed like myself), and email lists. You can find groups that are great with advice on how to do things, groups that will help troubleshoot things for you (I belong to one that helped me figure out an audio issue for one project), and groups that you can vent to when you have hard days and cheer with when you have good days.

These groups could gain you customers, but they will also make you better at your job. Even introverts can network with online tools and a good plan.

What’s your favorite networking method?  Do you have a good success story?  Leave it in the comments.

Marketing Monday: New Year’s Resolutions

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New-Year_Resolutions_listThe new year is just around the corner, so of course people are thinking of resolutions.  I’m not big on resolutions because I don’t think it works for me to make a goal simply because it’s a new year. So I don’t make new year’s resolutions, but I often make goals, and after all, that’s what a resolution is, isn’t it? It’s a goal.  So let’s talk about the smartest way to make a goal and fulfill it.

Don’t make a resolution you can’t keep.

Often people make huge resolutions that sound impossible and set themselves up for failure. Rarely do these big hyperbolic resolutions work, the write 1 billion words that  fell far short and became an impossible task. The read 300 books goal that wasn’t possible without that becoming your full time job. Though sometimes you never know, when I heard of the 300,000 step resolution I wasn’t sure it was possible, but that goal was reached over a month early. (Each of these were real resolutions)  Pick something realistic, think about your goal and what you would need to do to achieve it.

Resolve to enrich your life.

Often resolutions when you think about them won’t make you really happy, they won’t change your life much, but a good resolution will.  One of my latest work goals has been to make sure that I got this column out every week.  I kept telling myself I wanted to do this, but didn’t. It wasn’t till I made it a clear goal that I got myself truly motivated. Blogging for me is enriching. It helps boost my site rank in google (google hates static pages, which is why I tell all of my customers that adding a blog to their site is a great idea) and it lets me think about my own business practices and fix what I’m doing wrong and figure out what’s working for me.  It’s a great tool for self analysis. Plus it helps put a personal voice on my page.  Considering I’m a self employed and self run business, that personal touch is a selling point.  These posts you get to know me.

Make a plan.

A goal isn’t a goal without a plan. You need to know what is preventing you from achieving this goal and what you need to do to be successful. For my blogging goal I needed a plan.  The last time I made this goal I thought I would just write a column a week, and that worked for two weeks, then I got busy. This time I wrote a few posts to start, built a facebook page so I could spread the blog posts more, and put the blog in my monthly agenda, same time that I pay my bills.  Now twice a month I check how many posts I have, and if I don’t have at least three I start writing.  This way I will never go a week without a post. Plus since I do it after paying the bills it’s a bit of a treat after a task I don’t like.

Forgive yourself if you fail.

Many resolutions fail because when we start to fail we feel defeated and give up. I have tried this blogging habit a few times, and when I failed it was hard to go back, I had the idea “Well I missed two weeks, no one is going to notice if I miss one more,” and before I knew it I was two months without posts. Swallow your pride when you fail, forgive yourself, and get back to the goal. Make a new plan, evaluate why you failed, and learn from the process.  Remember what your grade school teachers told you, every failure is a lesson, learn from it.

What will your news year’s resolution be? Did you succeed with last year’s?

Marketing Monday: 5 things to do before the end of the year

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5 things to do before the end of the year

ListSend out all your invoices.

Make sure you send out all the invoices and past due invoices you have now so your customers have time to pay you before the new year. (OK these should have been sent out by now). Your customers want to be able to clear you off their books before the new year so they can claim you on their taxes. You will have happier customers if they see you are looking out for their interests.  Plus you will have more funds for the rest of this list.

Buy new equipment.

Now is the time to invest in your business.  Do you need a new computer? Printer? Or some other tool you need in your job? Buy it now, take advantage of these pre and post Christmas sales.  Anything you buy for your business (that you will use for work, not personal, so no you can’t buy yourself a new TV for the living room and claim it as a business expense) can be claimed as a business expense. You can’t claim the whole amount, you can only claim half of it if you bought it in the last six months of the year, but it will help you for this year and next year. You can even buy used items to save more money, and still claim them.

Donate now.

Depending on your business you may be able to count donations, for me, I donated and claim it on my personal taxes.  My business isn’t donating, I am. I make sure to do this before December 31st because I want it to count for this year.  A few years ago I started adding into my donation what I might spend on Holiday cards and the postage, I add that amount to an amount I would normally donate and skip the cards. Some people at first were not pleased that I didn’t send cards (my grandmother) but most people I talk to like the idea and have scaled back their own consumption of dead trees and stamps. In truth the idea came to me from my mother, back when I was at the age that cards became expected of me I remembered how she bought cards from a charity that were made by the developmentally disabled community and it was a fundraiser for them. Many charities sell cards as a fund raiser, I liked the idea but thought the charity could do much more with the full amount of money. So thanks Mom!

Make an extra contribution to your retirement.

If you’re like me then you are solely responsible for your retirement fund, you don’t have a company matching any contributions you make.  Make sure you top it up at the end of the year. I never get close to the maximum amount I can invest, but I’m sure some people do. Make sure you don’t go over that.

Renew subscriptions (early).

Many organizations have subscriptions, many of these you need for your business. Website domains, hosting plans, software, unions, professional organizations, get those paid for in this year. Again, it’s just easier to organize if you pay for everything in one year, this will help with your claims.  Just remember that while paying for multiyear subscriptions may be cheaper, they may not be able to be claimed in the full amount, so check your state, province, and federal tax rules.

Bonus: If you have employees, now’s the time to give them bonuses for the hard work they have done and you know how much you can afford because it’s the end of the year.

What do you make sure you do before the end of the year? What did I miss? Tell me in the comments.

Marketing Monday: The Evolution of Websites

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My old portfolio website before I went full time freelance/contract work & opened Moran Media.
My old portfolio website before I went full time freelance/contract work & opened Moran Media.

Websites have changed a lot since the internet was opened to the public in 1991.  There is so much more we can do now.  A lot of the code that we depend on today hadn’t even been invented yet.

The first website I coded (in 1995) was not for business but for fun, it was a geocities site that I wrote in notepad and was amazed I could put pictures and layout onto a website just by entering some simple lines of HTML code. Back then my accomplishments were amazing to me, now the design is embarrassing. Like being caught in 1995 fashion would be. Even the screen capture of my old website the left here is a bit embarrassing, but lets just consider this a throwback for thursday, even thou today is monday.

I was lead down nostalgia lane when a customer send me a link to this Business Insider article.  I remember some of these sites from back then, and admire at how far they have come.

While I applaud the evolution of sites like JC Penny’s (see below) I have to stop and shake my head at Pepsi.(also below)  The design of their site might look strange now, but that is a site that filled up your screen but you didn’t need to scroll for more content. It was a frame site with everything you needed in the center.  Perhaps they had a slide show there or maybe even a video. In 1996 that kind of design was far ahead of it’s time, it was revolutionary. Many sites ended up opting for this design (without the crazy background, but that was all the rage in the 190s, trust me) and stuck with it for years.

These sites would be flash sites, a new thing that everyone said would be the wave of the future in website design. I remember rallying against Flash as a basis for a website, or insisting that you also have a link to a HTML site too. My reason was mostly not everyone has flash installed and many people at work can’t add new programs without calling in IT. My words fell on deaf ears and my piers told me I was crazy. Yet her we are, in a time when most sites are completely flash free, iphones never could support it and there are no updates for androids with flash nor do new android phones have flash.  We all know how sites must be viewable on our phones or they are deemed a failure now.

Look at Pepsi’s site now though, instead of being forward thinking it just looks like a mess. It looks like a throwback to the early days of myspace. I don’t know where to look, the pictures change, it’s clunky, the top doesn’t line up with the bottom and it just looks sad and outdated. It’s sad that a site who was ahead of their time now look horrible dated. Sure it has a good color scheme and the pictures are nice, but most web visits take less than five seconds to decide if they will click around your website to learn more or skip on to the next hit in their web search. Sites need to use composition to help the viewers eye find the information they need, and the links to other pages to keep them on the site.

What about your website? Does it look modern or like it’s stuck in the 90s? Does it look crisp and clean?  Does make good use of the space it has on your screen? Is it compatible on all platforms? Can you use it through your phone? If you’re missing any of this, let me know and maybe we can work on it for you.