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New Brunswick Road Trip – Day 1 and 2

Day 1: Home to Lévis, Québec! (818km)

Nothing like a last minute decision to make use of a week off! We decided on Sunday that we’d head out for coast in New Brunswick the following morning. We ended up leaving closer to lunch, but not bad considering we decided less than 24 hours beforehand to head out!

Some nice scenery along the way, including taking the scenic 1000 islands parkway, and we ended up just outside of Lévis, Québec after a looooong drive and a lot of bugs on the windshield. Also – thank you to the lady at Tim Hortons that understood my rusty French while I clumsily ordered our coffees! Since we left late, it was too dark for photos, so we’ll start off with the morning of the next day!

Day 2: Lévis, Québec to Bathurst, NB! (565km)

Yay! The beach… finally. The ocean has always been so calming to me, and just hearing the waves lap the shore was so welcome. We stayed on the beach looking for treasures and enjoying the view until we were both cold and hungry so off we went to find a place to stay for the night and a bite to eat!

Canadian Makers Spring Gift Guide

Hey Product Makers and Artists!

Applications for the Spring Gift Guide are only open until April 14th! Apply yourself, or tag a maker friend / pass this along to them, we’d LOVE to feature you (and them!) in our Spring guide.

(The gift guide is a FREE magazine style guide we volunteer our time to put together to uplift and promote our fellow artisans!)

For more information and to apply, head on over to the Canadian Makers site!

Gratitude and the Big Picture.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the bad, especially right now. It’s everywhere in the news, in social media, and it seems to find its way into every conversation.

Here’s the thing – there is bad happening, and it should be discussed and it should be addressed, but it shouldn’t be all-consuming, because that’s not going to help anyone. You need to balance the bad with the good, and you need to work to find the good when the bad is dominating everywhere you look.

Take a few deep breaths. List off TEN things you’re GRATEFUL for in your life, right now. Think about your friends and family, your health, their health, a roof over your head, a job, food, running water, health care, think about all the things you can do because you’re able-bodied. Not all of these things will apply to you, but if you try hard enough, you’ll find ways to be grateful for other things, or realize that things could be so much worse. Take a few deep breaths and focus on the positive. It’s there, you just need to look for it.

It takes effort to look at your big picture and realize just how lucky you are. Be grateful for your big picture – no matter what it looks like. No one’s life is perfect and I guarantee you can find ten things to be grateful for. Do it for yourself and your mental wellbeing today. It’s worth it for you and those around you to see some positive light amongst the negative.

Everyone can find something to complain about. Find something to be grateful about.

FREE 2017 Website & Business Planner!

Happy New Year!

With the way Christmas and New Year’s fell on the calendar last year, I feel like that first week of January was getting back into routines and playing catchup more so than getting anything actually planned for 2017!

So here’s your chance! Download our Free 2017 Website & Business Planner PDF and get going on your goal setting!

The PDF will take you through basic business goals that are going to set the foundation for your marketing and website for the year. Try to push yourself from what you’ve done previously and think about new things to try – but keep in mind what worked last year too.

Once you’ve got your foundation goals set for your business, think about how they should be applied to your website. How do these new goals change what your site should look like? What the site should encourage people to do so those goals are realized?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help from pros that know how to get things done for you! I’m always here for your business, design and website needs – feel free to give me a shout and see how I can help you tackle that list!

ABCs of Business: You, Zero Regret

Y is for You:
You are the key to making your business work. You need to be committed to lay a proper foundation, do the research, and be sure that the business is viable first. You need to make sure you’re ready to wear all the hats of an entrepreneur (and/or have the money to pay for the parts where you need an expert). You need to be ready to learn constantly, make mistakes, enjoy the big wins, and plan for the slow times. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of satisfaction when you succeed and grow. You can do it – just start from the beginning, one step at a time.

Z is for Zero Regret:
If you’ve done the research, you’ve planned it out, and the numbers work. Go for it – you’ll never regret it.

ABCs of Business: Viability, Wireframes, X Marks the Spot

V is for Viability:
So you have a great idea for a business… but can you make a profit from it?

Starting a business is an exciting time, but there’s a lot more that goes into it than just the services and products you’re offering. Before you start, you need to see if your business is viable – ie. can you make a living from it.

Checking viability is a lot of research, a lot of numbers, and a lot of spreadsheets – but it will open your eyes to what you can expect in the first couple of years and help you decide if you’d still like to move forward. Save yourself the time, money, and stress of jumping into a new business and get an honest look at the viability of your business idea before you start. If the numbers don’t work, or the market isn’t there, we’ll talk about how to tweak your plan to give it a better shot as a profitable business.

Knowing your target market, your competition, how much it will cost to run your business, your potential income, and having a marketing and sales plan are key to testing the viability of your idea before launching your business.

W is for Wireframes:

Wireframes are simple black and white documents that don’t reflect the design elements of the site, they ensure that all the functionality that needs to be there exists, and that the layout hits the goals from your Business Plan through hierarchy of information – without being distracted by fonts and colours!

X is for X Marks the Spot:
Who is your ideal client or target audience? Once you know who you’re selling to, it’s easier to focus your voice and message directly to them.

ABCs of Business: Strategy, Target Market, Useability

S is for Strategy:
Not having a strategy is similar to not having a plan – why wouldn’t you use all the information you have/can get, and apply it to achieve your goals?

Your strategy should be built on your business plan goals, plus everything you know about your target market, the results of your past marketing efforts, and anything else that can give your strategy outcome a better rate of success. Taking risks can be worth it, but base it off knowledge, and make sure it’s trackable so you can properly measure how well it did!

T is for Target Market:
Having a solid focus on who your target market is helps drive your advertising and promotional efforts to the right audience. Consider where your potential clients are located or visit often. What are they looking for in a product/service? What problems do they have that you can solve? Where do they get their information before committing to buying a product/service? Are they multiple purchasers throughout the year, or one time buyers? How big is the average transaction? Get even more specific and look at if your target is consumers or other businesses.

Do you know your target market? Need some help?

U is for Useability:
Useability is considering what your visitor expects when they come to your website, and hitting each and every one of those expectations.

With today’s technology standards, they expect a lot – and they should. There’s no reason why a business shouldn’t be covering the most basic aspects of good layout, design and functionality.

Here are a few examples of basic expectations:

  • they can browse your site on their computer or mobile device (no flash-based sites!)
  • the basic structure of the site won’t change as they browse (ex. the menu won’t change position)
  • they’ll get visual feedback when they click/hover on things that have actions associated with them (like a change in colour for links/buttons)
  • can avoid unnecessary clicks as they navigate (no splash page)

These expectations are just the tip of the iceberg, you know your target market, list out what type of functionality they’re expecting and what will appeal to them – and start checking your site!

ABCs of Business: Plan, Questions, Review

P is for Plan:
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Harsh words (somewhat edited from Benjamin Franklin), but also true.

Planning doesn’t guarantee success, but it gives you somewhere to start, and something to learn from – namely, what did and did not work. I love to plan, organize, and come up with strategies to test out. I tweak what worked, what didn’t, and keep at it, trying for better results, sometimes taking risks that don’t pan out, but learning from that too. If you don’t make a plan, you aren’t giving yourself the chance to learn from the results. Much like goal setting, it can definitely be overwhelming, but it applies the same way – having an overall plan, and breaking it down into smaller, more manageable pieces so every aspect is accounted for and can be tracked and analyzed so you’re moving forward in a positive direction.

It all starts with your business plan. Once you cover each aspect of your business there (your target market, operations, systems, marketing, sales, etc.), you can keep going back to it to make sure that your marketing matches your target audience, and your marketing efforts are matching your sales goals. Your business plan should be revised annually with your new goals, new things you learned about your ideal client, new trends and technologies that will affect your business and your marketing, and identify where your business has grown, and which direction it should be going in.

So plan to succeed! … or at least to learn from it and confidently move forward.

Q is for Questions:
As a designer, an important part of figuring out the best recommendations I can give my clients is asking the right questions. I ask a variety of questions, some of which can seem vague, but they give me great clues to put into words the style, tone, and message for the design and functionality. I’ve heard a number of times from clients wondering about why I ask something, but the more they talk about their answer, the faster they catch on – it’s to cover different angles to get a clear picture of what they’re looking for, without them having to sit down and try to write it all out from scratch. They go through some questions – and it’s suddenly all laid out for them. One of the best tools I use for this system is templates. I improve on them when I see opportunity, but having my questions all set to go in a template saves loads of time and having frequently asked questions pre-answered saves time too!

No matter what type of business you run, you’ll always get questions from your customers – save yourself some time and write out the answers to your most frequently asked questions and add it to your website!

Go one step further, and ask yourself what other questions your clients might have, and look at how your site is set up – are there areas that are adding to confusion? Could you have more information, or more concise information on certain pages? An in depth Website Analysis could be the answer!

R is for Review:
Reviewing for marketing: Take the time to look back at how your business, marketing, sales, etc. have gone over the past weeks and months. Compare it to months prior, and make notes on what got attention, and what didn’t. If you’re new to business, or you haven’t been tracking how your marketing is doing, take the time to set up your systems properly from the start so you can use this valuable information as to what your target market is looking for, and what didn’t resonate with them.

Reviewing your business plan: Your business evolves every year due to changing trends, technology, and target markets. It’s important to recognize these changes, and have a plan to make your business thrive in the positive and survive and overcome the challenges. Identifying these annual changes will help highlight weaknesses that can be turned into strengths, and help to push the strengths even further to create goals that will grow your business based on what’s already been working for you.

ABCs of Business: Marketing, Navigation, Opt-ins

M is for Marketing:
Marketing… the necessary evil of business! It can be very overwhelming to know what to do, how much of it, and what to say!

Once you’ve got a solid idea of who your target market is, and what you’d like your main message to be to your audience, sit down and create a plan on a calendar. Write bullet points for each of the things you want to say/sell, and cover all the aspects of how your business solves problems for your ideal client. Mix it up though – so you’re not constantly selling in your marketing. Social media is a great place to start, but if you still need to know where your audience hangs out (or if they’re even active on social media!). It can be a tricky balance, but knowing who your audience is, where they are, and keeping up with marketing consistently is going to make all the difference! Need some help figuring out where to start?

N is for Navigation
Navigation within your site is a delicate balance of making sure your visitor knows what’s available, without giving them so many options that they don’t know what to pick!

Consider what’s most important for your visitors to see, put the menu items in order of priority, and only show the top four to six. Other pages can be accessed within the site, or given lesser prominence by having them available in the footer (like a privacy policy page). By giving too many options right away, you’ll make it harder for visitors to sift through all the possibilities to get to what you want them to see, and what they’re looking for.

A search bar can help for a site that’s heavily content based. If you’re not sure if it’s worth the space you’re giving it on your site, take a look at your analytics over time and see how many visitors are using it so you can make an informed decision.

O is for Opt-ins:
Opt-ins are great for building your email lists, but how you approach them should vary with who your target market is. Some people aren’t bothered by popups that take over your whole site, while others take great offence! I know it seems like common sense, but don’t annoy the people you want something from!

Make them want to give you their email address! Give them something for what you’re getting. Offer a free e-book on a topic that helps your ideal client, offer a discount or coupon – make it worth their while!