Megan Auman of CraftMBA says “you’ve got to spend big money to make big money.”

“Having big goals for your business means you have to be willing to spend big money on your business.”

Go ahead. Go read the article. I’ll wait.

Do you have big goals for your business? Are you making big investments in your business?

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Love this: Your Idea Sucks, Now Go Do It Anyway. Required reading.

Getting your idea perfect before you start your project probably won’t happen. That’s okay. Get started. It will work itself out as you work on it, not as you think on it.

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Website Kick Start

Your website is like your photography. The good news is that it can always be better :) Small changes can create big results.

Check out Tara Gentile’s free ebook 7 Ways to Improve Your Website Today and get busy!

And if you’re ready to create a website you’re proud of, Tara’s Website Kick Start class starts soon! Six weeks to your own wordpress site.

I just completed a series of group coaching sessions with Tara and loved her big thinking and practical, actionable next steps. If you’ve been thinking of getting your website up, the time is now and Tara rocks teaching.

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Start with Why

by Tricia

Why you create the things you create is the foundation of your success.

Are you so immersed in the making the thing that you make, that your business revolves around the what and not the why?

Building your business on what limits your choices. If that thing that you make no longer floats your boat or becomes obsolete, all your focus on what you make is lost.

Consider a candle maker who discovers she is allergic to some critical ingredients in her products. (I know nothing about making candles and I certainly don’t mean to suggest any candle ingredients are dangerous. Just bear with me here.) If her focus has been entirely on the candles, the what of her business, she’s in a tough spot. If it’s all about the candles, and the candles are gone, what’s left for the business?

What if she had found a deeper meaning than making candles for her business. Maybe she has a deeper meaning and just hasn’t thought about it. What if she had focused on the calming qualities of her candles? What if her vision for her business is to help people find calm in their busy, stressful days? Her transition to calming scented cachets or lotions would be much easier. Her buyers would see the consistency in her brand of creating calm.

As much as building brand consistency rocks, there’s more.

Building your business on why you do what you do does more than help your business be ready for changes in your products. Building your business on why creates a stronger connection with your buyer and this is the key to success.

As Simon Sinek says in his brilliant book, Start with Why: People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

If that sounds a little lofty and not really practical for day to day sales, consider Sinek’s example. Compare these two possible marketing messages from Apple:

We make great computers.
They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
Wanna buy one?

Or

Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently.
The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
And we happen to make great computers.
Wanna buy one?

Which one inspires loyalty? Which one cultivates raving fans?

Does your business have a vision? A why? Are you communicating your why to your buyers?

If this post rocks your world, would you please tweet it? xo

Image: WHY Gig Poster by Andy J Miller. Used with permission of the artist. Andy’s Etsy shop and website, Design Koma.

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47 Tips to Get Your Etsy Shop Ready for the Holiday Rush

September flew by. The holiday sales season is upon us. Is your shop ready for the rush? Here’s 47 tips to get your holiday sales mojo brewing. 1. Update your banner. Does it reflect your current work? 2. Update your profile. Is it current? Is it interesting? 3. Check your avatar. Is it memorable? 4. [...]

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Target More Sales in Your Online Shop with a Marketing Calendar!

Who’s thinking about Valentine’s Day in December? Who’s thinking about Christmas in June? If you have an retail business, planning ahead is critical. Success means putting your seasonal products in front of buyers before the holiday, when it’s time for them to buy; it means pitching your products to magazines and blogs when they are [...]

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What Gets Measured Gets Managed

What gets measured, gets managed. –Words of wisdom from an influential business thinker, Peter Drucker. Things that get measured, get our attention. What gets measured in your business? What gets a guess? You probably calculate your costs and your time. What’s not getting your attention? Do you run ads? Are you measuring their effects? Do [...]

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How to Sell Your Photography on Etsy

My friends ask me how to sell photography on Etsy all the time. So I’m spilling it here. What is the first step in selling your photography prints on Etsy? Define your focus. Narrow your collection. Pick a theme. When many people start selling photography prints online they make a huge mistake– they try to [...]

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Getting Traffic to Your Etsy Shop: Seasonal Color Merchandising

Looking for more traffic to your Etsy shop? Are you working seasonal merchandising trends? Following seasonal trends and adjusting my products’ titles and tags has made a huge impact on my Etsy traffic and sales. My seasonal merchandising “aha” moment came last September. I logged on the Etsy and saw a front page filled with [...]

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Are You Ready for a Website You’re Proud Of?

What do you want in your website? Is your website all that you want it to be? Creating a website is hard work. I get it. There are a lot of little (and big) things to get right… Technical: Which host should you choose? What should you look for in a host? Why should you [...]

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