Thursday, October 11, 2007

Small business, it's like, hard and stuff.

So I have been working on both my businesses simultaneously and it’s been hard.

Honesty moment: When I had my “aha” moment I thought it would be a lot easier. I figured I do my research and follow the “build it and they will come” mantra. Um, not so much.

It’s been months and I’m still not up and running, and it’s very frustrating. Don’t get me wrong I love it. The hours I’ve spent reading and researching have been great. In the past few months I’ve been more stimulated, creative and happy than ever, I’ve also been quite exhausted. I hold down an 8-5 and I have children with after school activities. So it can literally be 10pm before I get time to myself and it aint easy working till 2 am to get up at 6:45 and start all over again.

Is it worth it? I hope so. I believe it will be, even though I have nothing tangible to show for it yet, well, unless you count a rapidly decreasing savings account, hmmm.

About 3 weeks ago, I put an ad out for an artist and was surprised by the amount of responses I received. All very talented people, if you are in need of an artist for anything drop me a line, I kept all of their email addresses and portfolio links.

I finally narrowed it down to 6 artists and 2 days ago made my first official business decision and choose the two artists that I will be using for my project. It felt good :)

So onward and upward with the small details like finding an envelope supplier and trying to decide if I need an 800 number or not.

Marketing:

Let’s remember that a sistah is broke and every penny counts. My best friend has been the Shel Horowitz book, Marketing without Megabucks: How to sell anything on a Shoestring and the archives on his website on frugal marketing. Some of the ideas are out dated, however some are not only timeless but quirky and fun.

And you know I am all about quirky and fun, I mean I am the Brown Eyed Girl C.E.O.

That’s about it for today, I have to hunt down authors after all.

Also, I added a list of movies and books that revolve around starting a business, so enjoy.

3 comments:

Shel Horowitz, author, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green said...

Hi, Brown-eyed Girl, glad to here you're such a fan of my long-ago book Marketing Without Megabucks: How to Sell Anything on a Shoestring.

It's not surprising you find it outdated; it was written in 1991 and published in 1993. I rewrote and expanded the book, taking it from 24 chapters all the way to 39--15 new chapters (nine of them covering online marketing, which hardly existed in 1991), and it was published under the title Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World. I've also done two more marketing books since then. You can see them all at http://www.frugalmarketing.com/shop.html

Thanks again for your support of my work.

Sincerely, Shel Horowitz
author/marketing consultant/blogger

Shel Horowitz, author, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green said...

Ooops, I do know the difference between here and hear. Sorry about that.

Lyza Ramona - Writer said...

Thanks for the update Shel, I'll be sure to check it out :)

Here Ye Here Ye!

I have changed my business focus which actually suits my blogs name to a tee. I will be building a business around myself, literally. I am shifting away from trying to start my ebook publishing business with other peoples work and instead I will be writing and publishing my own ebooks on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Nobles etc. While I've been published on Yahoo's Associated Content, I am a newbie through and through when it comes to the new frontier of ebooks. I am so scared I wanna pee my pants, but I am going for it anyway!