Notes on Design
&
Work Flow
DESIGN CONSCIOUSNESS
Product Packaging & Labeling Reference
A Basic Resource List
I recommend working with a consultant to advise you on legal requirements associated with your product. This may include calculating serving size correctly and confirming that final design meets legal labeling requirements. Clients are responsible for understanding and conveying the legal requirements for their product, including content and design requirements. Please ask people in your network for consulting recommendations for the product that relates to your industry, for example, Food Consulting Company. Allow ample time to review, deliver, and make design adjustments for all food, cosmetic, and health packaging.
For your reference, a few guidelines and requirements are outlined below. This resource will grow over time.
Food Products
For food product packaging design projects, visit the following resources.
The FDA Label Guide includes requirements for ingredients, Net Wt, and allergen list, as well as design requirements like font height and logo size and statement of identity.
Serving Size & Food Labeling requirements and guidelines.
The Dept. of Ag. offers a Label Guidance fact sheet.
Food Labeling Requirements (MN) has basic definitions for types of food and helpful links for starting a food business.
Online generators can be used to create nutrition facts and bar codes.
“Best if used by” and other date guidelines for food products. More info
Health Products
For health product packaging design projects, visit the following resources.
Bridging New & Phased-Out Emails
Too many email addresses is a common issue for creatives and business owners. This post is intended as a stopgap for clients who have budget limitations and fit one or more of the following scenarios:
managing too many email addresses
creating a new email address that is intended to replace an old email address
need to preserve communication in phased-out email
Important disclaimer: The following information should not replace consulting with a qualified IT professional regarding email changes, transfer and/or deletion. Emails can be attached to functionality that you’ve forgotten about, for example, an Apple ID or an important credit card payment. Once it is changed or deleted, it can be difficult to gain access to some accounts again. Therefore, deletion is not recommended. If assessing and transferring email is not in your budget, the steps below can offer a temporary bridge. The following steps are relatively low risk, but only a qualified specialist can provide guidance that is specific to your situation. These are general guidelines that should be carefully thought out. Proceed at your own risk.
Contact me for a referral to work with a qualified professional to assist with email consolidation or set up.
Updating emails in the various websites and platforms with logins we accumulate is a slog. There are probably more than you remember, especially if an email address that is being phased out has been around for awhile. The following steps offer a phased approach to managing these changes until you can hire qualified professional to assess your specific needs and handle transfers or consolidation.
• Setting up a custom domain email (you@yourwebsite.com): After purchasing your website domain at Google Domains (highly recommended), purchase the email plan that fits your needs using the email address you would like to use. Test the new email to be sure that you are able to send and receive emails before continuing with the following steps.
• Apple ID: Never change your Apple ID without consulting with an Apple specialist about what will be affected by this change. Always check with a specialist before making changes to Apple IDs or other important IDs that control important information to discover irreversible consequences. I recommend downloading the Apple Care app.
• Personal & Business Email: You may consider keeping 2 emails in service. I use a free email plan for personal use and a custom domain with a paid plan for business. This helps keep information flow organized. For clients who may eventually sell their businesses in the future, this is crucial.
• Create a Spreadsheet: Create a spreadsheet that lists websites or platforms that require email logins. Start with those that are priority. (i.e.: premium or subscription websites, social media, etc...). You may also consider listing websites that require logins that you frequently use. After updating your email at each website, mark in a way that is recognizable to you. For security, only list email addresses to this spreadsheet—don’t list passwords. This is a great spreadsheet to keep around so that you can remember which email is used for which service, if you have multiple, active emails. It’s also incredibly helpful if you plan to sell your business in the future.
• Set Up an Auto-Reply: If you have email addresses that are no longer in use or that are being phased out, you should keep them active until you can hire a qualified professional. When phasing out an email , set up an auto-reply. This is the same feature that is used for out-of-office reply. Craft a message to any emails you’re planning to phase out with boiler plate content to alert email senders that the email is no longer in use. Ask them to update the new email or emails into their contact list.
• Set Up a Forward: In addition to the auto-reply, you can forward emails from old email addressees to a new email address. You’ll be able to see any emails that have been sent to an old email address without checking those emails. You can respond from the new email to encourage the use of it. This also allows you to receive alerts for any email changes that you miss for websites that may be important but you forgot about. Over the course of a year, you’ll likely receive fewer emails from those forwards, but you’ll see occasional privacy policy updates or other types of content from websites that use an old email address that you may have forgotten about.
• Build Changes as a Process: Manage updates and adjustments as they come in from your email forwards, either by unsubscribing or updating your preferred email address. When important, add websites to the spreadsheet. After a year, or when you feel ready to delete an email address forever, get in touch with an email professional to usher you through that process. You’ll be better prepared when that time arrives.
Privacy, Terms, and Returns
As your business evolves, it’s a good practices to generate or update policies for privacy, terms, and returns. Consult an attorney if you’re not sure which terms or policies are needed for your website, online store, mobile app, or online community.
As your business evolves, it’s a good practices to generate or update policies for privacy, terms, and returns. Consult an attorney if you’re not sure which terms or policies are needed for your website, online store, mobile app, or online community.
Basics
Returns: What are the return policy expectations? Are returns accepted? How long does a customer have to make a return? In what condition is the product return accepted? Who pays for shipping? What is the refund method, back on the card or store credit? A Return Policy can be very important even for a “no return” policy. It can also improve customer satisfaction.
Privacy: Are you storing personal information? Are you selling products or services online? A Privacy Policy is required by law if you collect data that can be used to identify an individual.
Terms: Terms & Conditions or Terms of Use policies are not required by law, but can help protect your business or e-commerce store. These are legal agreements that allows you to create rules for visitors or limit liability.
Create Policies & Terms
Many online policy generators are available online. TermsFeed is widely-used to generate unique policies and their online forms guide you through the process for each policy generated for a reasonable fee.
The Art of Optimizing Anything
Profit Margin & Process Refinement
As the pandemic necessitates change for how we do business, some people who run small businesses are taking a breath, refining processes, and reimagining details. For those who have achieved that moment of breath, now is a particularly good time to optimize workflow and review profit margins. Whether you are refining offerings, creating new products or services, embarking on virtual classes, or launching your first online store, Design for the Arts can help you break down and fine-tune important details.
The art of optimizing is a requisite task for any small business. To assist with this need, I’m offering custom spreadsheet calculations to help you adjust quantities, scope, cost, and fees. What can you optimize? Virtually anything.
Contact Karen to chat about what you want to optimize and receive a free estimate for your custom calculation. Together we can determine a plan that will best serve you. You provide the costs and I create a spreadsheet with variables that you can adjust. Read on for examples and to learn how this process can help you plan. We can start simply and affordably or build on complex scenarios.
What Can You Optimize?
Pricing for products, services, or art
Fees for virtual workshops or classes
Subscription or class schedules
Optimize a production schedule that considers income + work/life balance
Refine an hourly rate based on new variables (like accepting credit cards)
What can be estimated?
Credit card processing and transaction fees
Shipping costs
Wholesale product costs
Vendor or print costs
Item variables based on quantity
Hourly rates, fees, and profit margins
Plan for the Future
Small businesses often have fine lines between the margins of profit and loss. My nerdy love for creating spreadsheets in Xcel and Numbers is how I relax into those margins for my own business. I use them for everything: from monthly and annual revenue and expenses to print cost projections or pricing artwork or products. This simple, old-fashioned spreadsheet calculator is a powerful tool for profit guidance and business planning when formulas are applied to the right concepts.
Crafting a spreadsheet that is unique to your specific needs can help you understand how to price products or services, define optimal quantities, and maximize margins. Each spreadsheet is a tool that is designed to flex and recalculate with each variable. It’s kind of magic.
Once a calculation has been crafted, if a variable changes or a fee increases, all it takes is one small keystroke adjustment, hit return, and the totals update.
The Art of Optimizing
This isn’t just a calculator, it can help you improve concepts before making costly mistakes so that you can relax into a rhythm in the production stage. These are the steps we’ll take:
Determine the variables (we do this together)
Document costs and estimations (you gather the numbers)
Create the calculation(s) (Design for the Arts)
Rethink variables to modify for better outcomes (we do this together)
Refine variables over time (you adjust the numbers)
The only variable remaining is whether or not your product or service is perceived by your community of customers as having the value that you attached to it.
Mindset Tools for Adaptation
for Small Businesses, Artists & Entrepreneurs
As a designer, consultant, and collaborator, I am happily witness to many businesses that have survived decades and beyond. During this time of transition, there is a lot of collective uncertainty. We don’t yet know what may unfold and I find it helpful to revisit tools that strengthen my own footing.
Despite the vast many differences between them, small business entrepreneurs, independent contractors, and artists often share a set of common traits that fundamentally connect them. These seem particularly relevant as business owners learn how to adapt to a rapidly changed and changing world during the pandemic, and for what may follow in years to come.
10 Mindset Tools for Adaptation
In the Midst of Cultural Transition
I am fortunate to be part of a community of clients, friends, and acquaintances who participate in shifting culture through interaction in their local communities. Leaders who are accustom to the practice of adaptation have some advantage as the world shifts to navigate new environments (virtual or otherwise) and ongoing changes for the coming year and (perhaps) beyond. Shelter-in-place has impacted everyone in every marketplace, especially small businesses.
These are common traits that I notice are frequently modeled or adopted by business owners who consistently achieve effective outcomes.
Unwavering Vision — they have clearly defined their vision and intent
Consistent Values — they model consistency in their values and carry these through all facets of business which may include: quality and approach to products and services, social and environmental impact, and relationship-building with customers, collaborators, and employees
Adaptability — they are flexible and adaptable; they actively push against stagnation and see challenges as opportunities for improvement (they imagine how their unique products, services, or methods of deliverability might shift in order to fulfill a need or improve life for people or businesses in their community while keeping their vision in tact)
Sustainable Growth — they don’t grow endeavors too quickly (exceeding bandwidth for growth that occurs too quickly is a primary contributing factor for businesses that close doors during the first 3 years)
Focus & Communication — they bring their focus and full attention to completing tasks and responding to the needs of customers, vendors, and collaborators; they are transparent and realistic about schedules, budgets, product supply, pricing, shipping; they communicate with customers and collaborators and update them immediately if something changes
Collaboration & Leadership — they communicate needs, listen to ideas, allow others to lead, and offer plans for decisive action
Innovation — they are part of a larger community that shares ideas and allows for differing points of view; they notice, listen, read, engage, and create new pathways in the marketplace, but not to the extent that they ignore timing, habit, affordability, or the currents and trends within their sociocultural landscape
Efficiency — they create healthy workflow patterns and adjust approach when day-to-day processes become consistently chaotic, overwhelming, or under-achieve in the marketplace
Experimentation — they create incrementally; they test products and services in the marketplace and A/B test communications and consider community feedback
Transparency — they address issues in a timely way and embrace opportunities for learning which, when authentically approached, inform how offerings and brand are refined and shaped
Giving Back & Paying Forward — they are helpful to others, share ideas, and contribute resources without overextending
These mindset tools contribute to adaptability; adaptability helps businesses remain flexible so that they can adjust to cultural unpredictabilities (ie: the marketplace). It’s worth noting that most of the small businesses I work with don’t have a static definition for success. In other words, “effective outcomes” are defined in tandem with local, collaborative, and community-focused intentions, as well as their own financial goals.
“Success” implies that both the business and the business’s mission succeed. The fact that these are tied together for mission-focused businesses is evidence for how we can create new models in an undecided future. A few examples are: building community engagement, supporting local businesses, working against unfair or oppressive social constructs, fair pay for employees and suppliers, supporting local farmers, bringing chemical-free and local products to market, social justice advocacy, fostering self-empowerment, creating equal access to holistic wellness services, shifting paradigms in our approach to death and dying, and activating community involvement to improve water quality.
These are missions that belong to people in my client community. I am in awe as I am witness to the myriad of ways that they are adapting, in all of the slow, quick, quiet, inclusive, generous, and inspirational ways. This is humanity at its best. I see people offering resources, asking for help, sharing ideas, reaching out, and checking in. This is how we transform adversity into hope, so that our small businesses are doing the best that they can while we keep our local communities connected.
I’m here to help with this process, or just have a conversation. Let’s keep sharing and finding ways to discover deeper levels of adaptability. Our local communities need this, and we will all benefit from gathering in our ideas.
Reaching Subscribers In Email Campaigns
Even legitimate email campaigns can be filtered to spam. This list of best practices is a quick kick-starter to better engagement.
Subscriber Engagement
Whether you’re updating subscribers about workshops or events, launching new products, or sharing important updates about your business, your emails are an integral to keeping your community in the loop. Emails marked as “junk” may sometimes be determined by email providers and not the recipient. Even legitimate email campaigns can be filtered to spam, and low engagement is one of many factors that can incorrectly reroute emails to the junk folder. Sending relevant content that recipients want to open is a good first step to reducing emails “marked as spam.”
Subscriber Lists from Static Email Campaigns
Businesses can legally build email subscriber list in the following ways:
opt-in via website subscribe or contact form (can be a checkbox)
in-person sign up (at events or workshops)
content that relates to recent purchases
If your subscriber list has grown over time, but you have not sent an email campaign for many months or years, review best practices when sending that fresh new email to reduce confusion. Recipients may have forgotten they opted in months or years ago, or they may decide it is no longer relevant after a long gap in communication. You can also remind subscribers how they may have signed up in the first place and ask them to opt in again when reintroducing a dormant email campaign. Emails should also clearly match your brand and have recognizable subject lines.
Best Practices That You Can DIY for “Marked as Junk”
Check that email subject lines are not misleading and “From” information contains a recognizable name or company name and consistently uses the same one
Include your logo in email campaigns to ensure your email is recognizable
A physical address and unsubscribe link must be provided in any email (this is a legal requirement)
Avoid “Spam Trigger Words” in the body of your email like: winner, click here, congratulations, order now, or special promotion
Create a schedule for sending weekly, monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly emails and improve subject lines to improve low engagement rates (see this blog post on email subject lines and open rates)
Non-DIY Issues With Assistance
Sending from an unauthenticated email account (ie: a free gmail email account)
IP addresses that were used for spam (due to an email hack) can affect deliverability
Provider spam filter algorithms interpret active v.s inactive email accounts on your list. When email accounts are rarely used, they may be designated as inactive and as these build up, can affect how provider algorithms perceive your email campaigns. (Solve: send emails with some frequency, at least quarterly)
You will be able to DIY some of these solutions (like not using trigger words), for a deeper look contact me to review a tiered approach to email receipt improvement, available at different price points through partnership referral.
Post-Script on Whitelist
If legitimate emails are being “marked as spam” or appear not to have been delivered by certain providers, whitelisting may be a next step. The whitelisting process is different for each provider, so it needs to cover all the major ones. In Gmail, for example, your subscriber would drag your email from the Promotions tab to the Primary Inbox. To be effective, you’d provide instructions on how to do this.
You can read more about Whitelisting in theses Campaign Monitor or MailChimp articles. The Campaign Monitor article explains the process better, so I recommend reading both if you are a MailChimp user.
Asking new subscribers to whitelist your emails in welcome emails can be a great way to automate this process and achieve fewer “marked as spam” instances flagged by the recipient or their email provider. This requires setting up a transactional email, and we can help you set this up. Depending on subscriber numbers and how your plan is set up, this could increase your plan rate.
Donations, Subscriptions & Relief
Basic Guidelines For Artists & Small Business
In Times of Need & Innovation
Artists and small business owners are familiar, if not conversant, adjusting to the flow of circumstances. But, adapting during the pandemic has been a lot, for all of us. The entire globe is under stress, and for small businesses, restaurants, artists, and craftspeople who survive on tight margins and public marketplaces, the impacts can be devastating.
We are still in the initial phases of the shock and scramble of our collective world-as-usual shuttering down. Our impulse to activate, collaborate, and innovate is not wrong, but we need a lot of self-care during this time. And we may just need to stop everything and process for a moment too.
We are all in this together, and I am here to support you the best I can. I’ll be launching some helpful triage services for kickstarting an online store affordably, with lots of free resources for basic how-to dos. Watch for that coming soon. Meanwhile, I want to share some supportive resources for artists and small business owners whose businesses rely on in-person relationships or have been compromised in their ability to sustain themselves during this time.
Taking Donations & Subscriptions
Basic Starter Tips
Important Note: These guidelines may vary from state to state or your individual circumstance. Please investigate and do your own deeper research before you launch. Gathering these basic comparisons is a starting point.
Many processing fees have changed with Covid-19 pandemic. While PayPal is profiting off of the crisis with by increasing their processing fee from 2.2% to 2.9% for personal donations (I witnessed this change as I was doing this research and former lower rate can still be seen in Google search), most fundraising tools (with fewer resources than PayPal) are lowering or waiving those fees temporarily, at risk to their own platforms, but for the greater good of our world and communities. I will keep PayPal in the list, but recommend finding other tools.
Relief for Artists, Small Businesses & Education
Springboard for the Arts — Updated with coronavirus/COVID-19 resources for artists. Based in Minnesota.
GiveMN — Updated with new Covid-19 fundraising tools for non-profits, schools and Minnesota causes.
Taxable
What’s Taxable: My awesome accountant at Fox Tax put it this way: “If artists or small businesses have people sending them money via Paypal, or are running "donations" through a business bank account, or soliciting "donations" in their capacity as business owners to help cover operating expenses for their business, theses would be treated as business income.”
1099-K — Depending on your unique circumstances and the tool you use, you may need to claim PayPal, credit card, or other payments or donations. You may be issued a 1099-k from your vendor or credit card company if you live in the U.S. and make over $20,000 throughout any given calendar year.
Patreon — This subscription tool is specifically customized to assist podcasters, video creators, musicians, visual artists, writers, communities, non-profits, education, and more. Create on a regular basis and start a subscription program with fees that you can customize. Offer a monthly membership program that includes ability to connect with your patrons by sending them goods, livestreams, polls, chats, and lots more. View Patreon tax info.
KickStarter — An all or nothing fundraising platform for getting business ideas up and running. If a business is funded in the U.S., Kickstarter applies a 5% fee to the funds collected, plus payment processing fees via Stripe (roughly 3-5%). (No fees if a project is not funded.) Check out their lengthy list of resources for artists during the pandemic, including emergency grants, freelance resources, legal aid, and more.
PayPal — Accept personal donations (2.9% + 30 cents per transaction). This is a simple way to create a flexible, temporary or ongoing donation tool. Note that PayPal is profiting off the crisis and increased fees to 2.9% around March 20th, prior to that the personal donation fee was 2.2%.
Non-Taxable
What’s non-taxable. My accountant outlined it like this: “GoFundMe-type "donations" to pay for personal expenses are gifts, not charitable donations. So they are not treated as taxable income to the person who receives them, but are also not a tax deductible donation for the person who gives them.”
GoFundMe — Free personal fundraising tool, if times get tough. 0% fees via GoFundMe. Standard transaction fees apply to credit and debit card transactions. You can start a GoFundMe for yourself, for a friend, or for a charity. Personal fundraising includes: medical, memorial, emergency, nonprofit, education, or animals. Non-profits can fundraise or accept donations via GoFundMe Charity.
Virtual Inspiration & Free Resources
Virtual Makers, Doers & Free Downloads
From Our Local Community & Beyond
I will be updating this list of virtual resources weekly. Contact me to submit ideas. For those of you who are in a position to support our community of small and local businesses, please continue to discover opportunities to support local as an alternative to Amazon and other large corporate retailers whenever possible.
Many people, artists, and small businesses in my community (and a great many of my clients) are navigating how to adjust and balance during this time. We are learning how to take care of ourselves and our businesses the best we can, and become a support network without overwhelming ourselves. Many of my clients and collaborators are in difficult situations, concerned about how business and financial flow will change, in addition to all the other changes we need to face collectively as a society.
At the same time, it is wonderful to see how many people have activated to create new pathways, and virtual ways of being. It is comforting and encouraging to see that people are finding unusual ways to normalize business and our local economies. We can keep inspiring and supporting each other. So beautiful!
In the last 5 days, I’ve seen people pull together to start or participate in an incredible array of movements to support our valuable local community and creative makers. Yes, you guys! We also need to rest, be, and take time to process, to keep balance in mental health, spiritual, and physical health. We need strong immune systems. Activate, but be careful not to try to sustain fight or flight. We are going to need our energy for awhile.
Virtual Events, Workshops & Classes
Buy Online to Support Artists
Virtual Makers Collective was booted up by a collective of women artists and crafts-makers. (Textiles, jewelry, art, and more.) Join VMC for their first virtual show this Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 2pm CST. Follow on Facebook and Instagram for more shows.
Buy Online (+ Donation to Springboard for the Arts)
Local and chemical-free flower seller Foxglove is offering curbside PDubs (pussywillows), starting Thursday, March 19, 2020 at 2pm CST, while supplies last.
Virtual Wellness & Resources
Free, Donation, or Subscribe
Daily virtual practice including restorative yoga + reiki and meditation, free or by donation, at Sacred Space. Become a sustainer for $25/mo.
Free
Bear Mounds Botanicals created a herbal protocol primer for better immune support relating to Covid-19. The primer is free, with donation option if you’re able, and full of research and resources developed in collaboration with other well-informed people in the Madison wellness community.
Online Shops & Subscription Services
Buy Online to Small, Local Businesses
Kopplin’s Coffee
(Buy coffee subscriptions)
Roundtable Coffee
More coming soon!
Literary Reading & Downloads
Free
Enjoy free downloads of select literary archives from Mental Contagion. For eight years, I collaborated monthly with writers across the U.S. to publish this arts & lit online magazine, featuring a national and global community of arts and culture creators. Four free mini-books, downloadable for print or screen-reading, are nearly complete and will be uploaded to this temporary literary archive mid-week around March 25th, 2020.
Virtual Life Hacks
Organizing Virtual Events
Create an online calendar dedicated to virtual events and give it a unique color. You can these mark to repeat weekly or monthly if ongoing. I use Google Calendar to organize my life and work. If Google Calendar is your organizing system of choice, check out the small, blue circle icon on the right (in computer screen view). I find the simplicity of this Task Tool very useful to note things I want to remember to check out, but don’t have time to dive in.
Postscript
Times of great change call for small steps, big leaps, innovation, communities gathering together, and lots of self care. I am 17 days into my self-quarantine and have watched the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded from inside the confines of my home.
It has no less been a bustle of texts, calls, info sharing, and support. Things have not been quiet here. As I practice self-care the best I can, while also nurturing myself back to health with bone broths, menthol drops, and eucalyptus lavender steams, I’m also connecting, supporting, checking in, and sharing valuable resources and tools with family, friends, clients, and community members.
It’s time for a little more balance and self-care now. But, I will continue to share inspiring movements and supportive resources created by artists and small businesses who are reimagining how they can transform business during this time.
Bringing Intentionality to Workflow
One of the shared values many of my clients and I have is a desire for work-life balance. With over two decades of collaboration with hundreds of incredible forward-thinking entrepreneurs, craftspeople, and artists, I am keenly aware that balance is not an achievement, but a practice.
Balance Is Not an Achievement — It’s a Practice
One of the core values many of my clients and I share is a desire for work-life balance. With over two decades of collaboration with hundreds of incredible forward-thinking entrepreneurs, craftspeople, and artists, I am keenly aware that balance is not an achievement, but a practice.
Starting and managing a business can be stressful. When we are stressed, everything becomes inflated, including priorities. This can bring disorganization to project flow for creative initiatives, which can result in increased budget, false starts, or missed opportunities.
Over the years, I have noticed that clients who regularly scheduled time to intentionally review the various aspects of their brands often achieved better outcomes and were more in touch with the vision for their business. I nurture this practice in my own business and also encourage clients to create scheduled check-ins with me to continue engaging with their brands as they evolve.
Intentionality & Better Outcomes
By fostering a purposeful approach to work flow and brand engagement, we can build on creative initiatives that impact work-life flow in a number of ways. For many clients, quarterly Brand Engagement sessions are sufficient to keep the energy alive.
You’re less likely to end up in a scramble because an event, conference, or deadline snuck up on you.
Engagement eases budget and increases efficiency. Minimizing “re-do” design and creative initiative projects that missed important opportunities can save hundreds or more in design time, printing costs, and your own time.
Engagement helps reduce stress. Inflating needs under the hold of urgency or worry is common when we’re stressed. Stress has a tendency to fan a spark into fire and predisposes us to create unnecessary urgency. When we step back from the space of urgency, different solutions come to light. Often these are better than the initial urgent thing that we thought we needed.
Working In the Flow
Quick timelines happen, and they can be beautifully in flow. Working intentionally in fast flow is a reality in our fast-paced world and it is possible to do it well. Flow within quick timelines is easier to achieve when you and your creative professional are regularly engaged with your brand and creative initiatives. With regular engagement, everyone is in the loop on business growth, obstacles, and successes.
The antithesis of urgent energy is the project that drops off entirely. This also happens when we have too much on our to-do lists. I’m pretty easy about riding the wave of project drop-off, and allowing clients to come and go as needed as long as I’ve been paid for work complete. It’s also worth nothing that as gap-time increases, likely so will costs and timelines. Getting back into flow and re-familiarizing takes time, which will be reflected in the cost, especially for complex projects or Web builds. Meanwhile, other projects on my to-do list are prioritized which may add further delays to an on-hold project, even after a client is ready to jump back into work.
Better Work / Better Life
Bringing intentionality to creative initiative workflow improves outcomes, and this approach to a sustainable work/life is fundamentally tied to its practice. I can say this unequivocally with the experience of having collaborated with hundreds clients with different kinds of businesses over the last 20 years. Over time, creative initiatives become clearer and there is more enjoyment in the process. Bringing balanced, purposeful energy to brand development and creative projects is a practice that we can cultivate, addressing needs with intention instead of as they arise. And this helps you better focus on the work that you love.
Creating Authentic Connections
Developing authentic brands and creating real connection with clients and customers is a process. It requires knowing who you are, defining your business intentions, committing to your values, and understanding your distinct community of customers. There is no “greenwashing,” “bait and switch,” or “story spinning” here. You get to be yourself, and it’s my job to get to know you.
The Voyage to Yourself
(and/or Your Business)
It’s relatively easy to tick off the boxes of the ‘by default’ marketing practices that promise successful brands. While some of these best practice strategies are relevant to being in flow with culture and how people relate, connect, and make choices, it’s important to clarify how your business is different, and be real. Understanding how your authentic voice and the needs of your customer community intersect is your baseline for authentic connection.
When working with clients, my intention is to become a steward for your brand, so that we can reflect your authentic intentions out to your community through design, messaging, and promotional communications.
If knowing who you are and who your customers are is journey, the following Codes of Conduct are the tools to make the path for your authentic business.
Consistency & Intentionality
Cohesive brands build trust and visibility. Whatever feel or tone your band conveys, cohesive design and consistent messaging creates recognition for your existing customer community, and a feeling of trust from potential communities. When my clients have the instinct to shake things up in the brand I ask a lot of questions, not to discourage, but to understand where the urge is coming from, and to bring intentionality to that shift. Guiding clients through thoughtful approach to brand shifts, changes, name changes, and how these roll out and ripple out are a few of the long-view insights that sustain good brand stewardship. It’s necessary to grow and shift. As brands develop, I help business owners and organizations think through all the details involved in order to reduce or eliminate process issues and customer confusion or frustration.
Honesty & Transparency
No one likes the feeling of being aware that they are being targeted as a consumer. Most people prefer to be considered as humans. It seems ridiculous to even write that sentence! But, the reality is, in marketing, people can easily be reduced to numbers and trends can be touted as “you musts” in order to succeed. That’s the dark side of promotion, but here we try to stay in the light. Understanding the value that your products, services, or offerings bring to your customer community inspires authentic connection with less emphasis on ‘selling.’ This value message will be embedded into visuals, messaging, and the way you approach communication with customers. Discovering authentic voice for your business, and reflecting that out to your community, will engender engagement and loyalty.
Keep It Simple
Word clutter and visual confusion diminishes impact. Too many bolded words, fonts, competing messages, and non-guided actions are common mistakes I see from DIY-ers. I fully support the world of DIY, and I’m always here with fresh eyes, ready to help with refinement if you need it. For those of you managing content for your own websites, email campaigns, and print promos, the following simplification model can help make communication for products, services, and long reads more effective.
Know Your Story & Simplify
For increased engagement, keep the message, visuals, and action simple and clear. Our culture is inundated with information, digitally and in the real world. You can stand out by applying the “less is more” rule. The key to “less is more” is clearly communicating the one message you want to relate right now. Rather than putting as much information possible in promotions, think of your communication as spacious experiences (whether motivating, creative, energizing, or relaxing) that leave your readers following little breadcrumbs to the big dinner of engagement. If you do need to relay more than a single message, think about creating hierarchy by prioritizing one story, and allowing the reader to scan over 2 to 4 additional sub-stories.
Keep your voice strong, your values up front, and remember (and continue to discover) who your community is. You have a relationship with your customers, so you can guide them with ease. You don’t have to “sell,” but you do have to make it clear how they can participate, buy, or sign up. Imagine that you have all the space and time in the world to bring them along on your voyage—that spacious feeling will come through in your visuals and messaging. Be authentic in how you share the story of your business, services, and products. The more ease and clarity people feel, the more people want to be part of that experience in a healthy and genuine way.