Seasons

Happy New Year!

Do you ever feel like you need a fresh start? I know I do.  I love that feeling of setting goals and shedding bad habits in order to move forward.
Most people feel this way around New Year’s Eve. That is always a good time to reflect on successes and opportunities from the past year and learn from them.  This is what I would call an annual season. How long does that good feeling last beyond New Year’s Eve however? Ask anyone who has made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. I will admit that the 2 to 3 week period following New Year’s eve, I am pretty pumped to work toward new goals.
I have found that in addition to the New Year’s eve annual season, there are two other seasons in the year that produce the same effect. One is Spring, when Winter finally dies a slow and painful death and we all get outside and in the dirt. The other is Fall, when we are ready to send the kids back to school for a new year of learning and fun. These are the three seasons of fresh starts.
But what if you could regenerate that New Year’s resolution feeling more than three times a year?
I have good news. You can!
New Year’s is just an arbitrary day that really in itself has no meaning. We tell ourselves that that date means something. Think about it. January 1st is really no different than April 29th. So if we can create that resolution scenario for January 1st, guess what? We can do it for any day of our life. Every day is January 1st.  How awesome is that?!?
Start by asking yourself,”If today were New Year’s Eve, what resolutions would I make?” Then decide on one that is significant and go for it. Renew your resolution as often as you need to to keep moving toward the change you are looking for.

Happy New Year!

p.s. Another great way to keep pumped about achieving your goals is by working with a high quality Business Coach. I use a coach and it has made an incredible difference.  Feel free to contact my Coach, John.  www.truechoicecoaching.com or https://www.facebook.com/pages/True-Choice-Coaching/138535236162890. 

Joanne Randall

http://www.LeapYearMarketing.com

iTunes Marketing Mojo Radio

724-603-LEAP

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

My Job is Killing Me!

Is stress making you not feel well?

As business owners we can sometimes be our own worst enemy. This usually happens because of some form of procrastination. Everyone has days when they don’t feel 100% and would just like to take a day off.  When this happens to you, ask yourself a couple of questions.

First take a look at your workload. If you are behind in your work and are looking at missing some deadlines, this may be the reason for not feeling well. This level of stress is what makes kids feel sick on test days at school. It isn’t fake. It is real. And it is caused by some level of being unprepared.
If you suspect that your work load is causing you to not feel well then take a look at the deadlines you have set. Are they real or are they artificial? Most importantly are they realistic? We all want to help our clients as quickly as possible, but it is unrealistic to drop everything immediately and finish a project that really doesn’t have to be done right away. Give your self some wiggle room. If you happen to finish the project early, then be confident in delivering more and better than you promised.
The other thing to ask yourself is, am I getting a little burnt out and should I just take a day off and rest? There is nothing wrong with this. It is important to recognize when our bodies are physically tired and need to rest. In addition, our brains can only work at full capacity for so long before they need some relief. Especially if you are in a field where you need to be creative for your job. If you find that this is the case for you, make sure that you are scheduling vacations out in advance.  It gives you something to look forward to. Also schedule personal days in the middle of the week from time to time and honor those days off. Do something you would not normally do. For example stay in your pajamas all day and read a book on the couch. For most business owners this would be such an indulgence that even discussing it makes us laugh out loud. But we deserve that time off and we need it.
So when you’re not feeling well check your work load and your vacation schedule. Take care of yourself so you can take care of your customers.

Joanne Randall

Leap Year Marketing

http://www.leapyearmarketing.com

Is it better to be a full service marketing firm or to service a niche market?

I would like to dispute the long-held belief that businesses should “find their niche”. I suppose that this theory does hold water when you are talking about selling a particular product, for example clothing. You could be a business that sells a full line of clothing to all types of people and therefore would need a broad marketing message, probably based on price rather than fashion. The alternative is to decide on a niche, for example children’s clothing, and market only to that niche. That message would be more about fashion and less sensitive to price.
I really do not believe that a marketing firm should market to a niche. My reasoning is that marketing is such a broad service that choosing a niche instantly eliminates prospects from your marketing funnel.  For example if I say I specialize in social media management, and never bother to explain that I am a full-service marketing firm, potential prospects will not even look at me if their needs are outside of the social media context. They will not even know that we have a graphic artist on staff, work with three different website developers, and have relationships with local printers to produce marketing materials. Branding and marketing cannot be pigeonholed into one or two small areas. Marketing covers everything from logo creation, to social media, to email marketing, to websites, to marketing materials, to feedback, and follow-up. As marketers we tell customers that consistency in their message is important. Are we offering a full range of products to help them achieve that goal? If not then we had better be prepared to tell our customers that we can’t provide them with particular services. And that is not very good business practice. Learn how to subcontract things that you don’t know how to do or do not want to do.  Offering a service to a client through a subcontractor keeps them from talking to other marketing companies. And that is good business practice.

Joanne