WOW...Long Time...No Posts! Will you forgive me?! :-)

I can't believe I haven't posted a blog since September of '09.  My apologies to all of you who are followers.  I never intended for the delay in posts to my blog, but a lot has happened the past few months...all of which has been good, but has kept me away from writing!  If you don't mind, I'll share a little of it with you and bring you up to date and share some thoughts about the direction of my blog!  :-)

At the end of September, my sister and brother-in-law approached me about coming back to work for them.  Their new business venture (one year old at the time) had taken off more than they expected and they found the need to hire help.  With having worked for my sister in previous years with her business (resume writing) and learning/knowing the new business venture from evenings of helping out when I could, I was their first choice when it came to thinking about hiring an employee again!  It happened at a great time for me because the current position I was in was becoming a headache for me and I wasn't enjoying the work anymore.  So when they called and asked if I was interested, I immediately said yes and found a new job doing what I enjoy doing....being creative, helping others, assisting businesses with marketing products/ideas and more!!  And being able to do that with family on a daily basis makes it even better!!  :-)

I continue to have my jewelry business and it is doing really well for me.  I did two celebrity gift opportunities last year and as a result, received another call a few weeks ago to provide 26 pieces of jewelry for the 2010 Oscar Nominees/Presenters who will be staying at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills during Oscar Week in a couple of weeks! My online store continues to do well for me and I enjoy the business as much as I ever have!!

The focus of my blog has always been about helping handmade businesses with marketing/advertising ideas. That will continue, but not on this blog.  I will be closing down this blog in a few weeks.  I encourage you to follow me at http://zonezmarketing.blogspot.com/.  I want to continue that focus...providing more of a general marketing/advertising direction for all business types.  With my current position with our family company, we work with small businesses every day on creating marketing materials, promotional products and much more and we are constantly staying current with trends and ideas that are the latest in helping your business stand out in a crowd.  

I hope that you still continue to follow me on my new blog and share it with others as a tool to help grow and find new ideas and ways to promote your business, whether big or small!  :-)  I appreciate you reading and following and hope my posts have been a help in some small way over the past few months.  Stay tuned for more to come and a new look to our blog in the next few days/weeks ahead!  

I would love your feedback/thoughts on the new changes and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about topics you would like to see covered here!  

Many blessings and best of luck to each of you with your business endeavors!

Dawn

Follow Here or Follow There!

Little did I know when I started sharing information about marketing, advertising and promotions for handmade businesses via this blog that it would lead to other ventures, but it has! I'm now a columnist for another site (read on!), I'm starting a street team on Etsy to get store owners together to have face to face discussion about their handmade businesses and the list goes on!

While still fairly new to Twitter (and still not sure if I like it or not), I've met some interesting people along the way and have gained almost 400 followers in just the three weeks I've been on there. One person whom I met via Twitter suggested I venture over to http://www.handmadenews.org and check out the site and see if I would be interested in becoming one of their columnists in their marketing section. I went and checked out the application and decided I'd apply, but thinking the entire time, there are more qualified people out there and I'm probably waisting my time on this, but I'll try it. I had to update my resume (thank goodness sister is a Certified Professional Resume Writer for over 20 years) which I did, supply a writing sample and answer several other questions. I hit send and thought, ok, end of that, move on and forget about it.

Well, that wasn't the case. A few short days later, I woke up to an email from one of the sites VP's saying that I had been selected as a columnist for the site. I honestly thought it was a joke, but it was true. I was pleasantly surprised and humbled that I'd been chosen among the hundreds of applications I know they received.

I appreciate each and everyone one of you who follows me on this blog. I will continue to post links to this blog which will be for the articles I am writing for Handmade News. The articles for that site will be on marketing, advertising, promotions as well, so nothing will change!

And if there are topics, questions or things you would like to see articles on, please don't hesitate to contact me anytime. I'd love to hear from you! Email me at shadesjewelry@aol.com or leave a comment here!

Again, thanks and I look forward to more handmade business blogs with you!

As always, Blessings!! ~ Dawn

I did it...I joined Facebook! Free Marketing!

I took the plunge and joined Facebook last week. I hadn't joined before now for several reasons, but after getting 8 invites to join from friends and family in one week, I said that's it, and joined.

I'm not addicted to it like my 19 & 15 year old nephews are, but it is interesting and I have reconnected with lots of friends and family from all over the country so that has been cool!

What's also been neat is that I added a link to my Etsy store and my Etsy mini is also on my box page and since adding these, I've noticed on my analytics that I've received several clicks to my store from my facebook link! So I have added yet another fairly easy marketing tool for my business by having this page. :-) Not bad!

While I can't say I've gained a sale from it yet, I have however exposed my shop to all of my friends on there (90+ as of today) and given my store another audience to promote to. Many of these people were unaware that I did jewelry or even had a store. Much like a mailing list, this keeps your name and products in front of your family and friends and whenever they are looking for jewelry or a gift, they will hopefully remember me and check out the store!

You can also set up a business page on Facebook, but I haven't explored that option yet. Right now, I'm content with what I have on there and don't want to get too bogged down with more and more things to keep up with. :-)

So if you haven't joined, consider it! And if you have, make sure you have your store mini or website link on your site! It's free promotion and that is always good!

Until next time....Blessings! ~ Dawn

PS...you can add me as a friend on Facebook if you want....there is a link to my profile on the left hand side of this blog! :-)

Business & Marketing Review Service

I thought I'd take a few minutes and provide some more in-depth information about this new service I am beginning to offer for small businesses. I think some are thinking this is just a quick "shop" critique and its more than that as you will see below!

To start the process, we will send you a brief questionnaire. It will ask a few general questions about your business and what you are currently doing with your business in order to promote it along with some other general questions which will allow us to fully look at your business as a whole. This will then give us the chance to give you a full review of your business from your store to your marketing to how you ship your products and more after receiving your responses!

This is more than just a quick "store" critique. This is a chance for us to review your on-line blogs, ads, off-line marketing techniques and more and give you recommendations and suggestions in to your business as a whole.

If you are looking for a full in-depth review of your business and how it is working, then this service is for you!

Still have questions about this service? Feel free to contact me at shadesjewelry@aol.com!

Thanks, Dawn

New Service Being Offered

Just a quick note to let you know that I am now offering a new service for small business owners! Notice on the right side of the blog that we are offering small business reviews! After some requests from business owners and wondering if I would do personal reviews of their businesses, I decided that I would offer this service for those interested.

I'm currently offering it at a low price of $30 for a limited time. I feel this is a great deal as I will spend at least two hours or more reviewing all the information you give me on your business and I will then prepare the report which will give you detailed information regarding your business. This is a reasonable rate for probably 3 or more hours of work! :-) But I wanted to keep it affordable!

Feel free to email me with any questions regarding this new service! shadesjewelry@aol.com

Until next time...Blessings! ~ Dawn

Developing A Class

Wanted to send a quick update to let everyone know that I'm continuing to work on developing a class or seminar type event to host for small business owners. My goal in offering this class is to make it a very casual, relaxed and affordable time in which small business owners can receive information that will be useful and helpful in helping their business succeed.

I feel that this class should be a learning time in which you will receive lots of information that will be helpful and useful in marketing your business. There are tons of wonderful ideas and resources out there and my goal is to compile this information for you and present it to you in a fun, exciting way!

I would also like for this class to have a question and answer time in which all of us can sit around and share additional business information and ideas. Having a chance to talk and network with other business owners is important and this class will give you that opportunity.

Having been in and around small business management and ownership for over 15 years with my sister's business as well as my own, my goal is to try to help others and bring small business owners together in a relaxed, fun format to share ideas and thoughts with other like-minded individuals!

I hope you will consider answering the survey below in the previous post if you haven't already and share your thoughts and suggestions you might have about this class!

Thanks for your interest! Until next time, Blessings! ~ Dawn