School of Creative Business - Creative Entrepreneurship

Alease Michelle's Commitment Plan for 2009

Here we go again, another year and another commitment plan. It is time to make new commitment plans to ourselves in the hopes of becoming a better person or/and a better business professional. For those of you who remember my 2008 commitment plan, you know that ,typically my plan consist of 4 parts - Business- Professional Development- Health - and Personal Finances. Well this year I going to keep it to one general plan, which will include all things that are important to me.

 Keep my business # 1.

Start treating Alease Michelle Design Studio like a Fortune 500 company. Like many companies, they tend to have departments within their company. For my company I will have small departments within my company: Operations, Marketing, Training & Development, Legal & Finance and Human Resources. I will explain in more detail about each department's function in my next blog post.

Increase my company's presence on the web. A couple of weeks ago I posted my Internet Goals for 2009. In that post I listed 10 ways in which I would increase my blog readership. My iInternet goals were based on suggestions made by Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips and Darren Rowse of Problogger.com . 

Start video taping my art process. Now this goal might sound out of place, but from my research on You-tube, I have find many artist are video taping specific art techniques that they use in their studios. It is just another way for other to connect and understand your creative processes.

Write a book, or at least a 10 page booklet. This has been a long time goal of mine, but I never put it on paper, not until now. I guess what has made this hard for me is that , I never considered myself a writer, but what the heck- we all need to try few things we fear once and a while.

Add more exercise to my daily activities. I will be 38 in April - although I do not feel a day older than 28, I know I need to keep myself fit to ensure I continue feeling this way. I am not a gym girl, so I have decided to go back to the things I liked doing when I was younger, such as hiking or taking up kick boxing again.

Finish my Doctorate degree. I have decided on my research topic- Assessing Critical Thinking in Higher Education. I am really passionate about learning and teaching others how to think more critically, so what better topic to research.

To think outside my creative box. Currently I do try new techniques , but I do not practice -out the box thinking on a regular basis. I will create a monthly challenge for myself based on a word. I got this ideal for Ail Edwards' One little word challenge.

Increase art sales and offer workshops. For 2008 I reached my goal of showcasing my artwork in 4 galleries. For 2009 I have to up my game just a little. Increase my sales by 50% either in gallery or online sales, and offer 3 workshops on my favorite collage techniques.

Use email newsletter service more effectively. In 2008, I think I sent out 4 email blast. That is not an effective use of the money I spend monthly on Constant Contact services. I will customize my email blast to my audience, offer topics that link to my blog, inform them on special sales and new events.

Finally, To Love Life, and Live Strong!  It is key to remember that these are goals that we try to achieve, they are just directions to our destinations, but no one said that we have to follow theses directions exactly, we can take the scenic route or put our feet up and rest for a spell. Just enjoy the year and remember to keep the faith and live your passion to the fullest.  

Peace, Love & Happiness,

Alease

Favorite Blog Post of 2008

 Now is the time of the year to reflect, and in this post- This is my time to reflect on my favorite posts of the year.

• Redecorating My Studio
• Awarded $1000 Grant
• Finding My Signature Style
• Fashion Marketing Portfolio Review
• Featured at On My Desk.com
• Artwork Featured at Charlotte Fashion Week
• How to Become A More Proficient Artist

Happy Holidays From Alease & Maxwell

 

Happy Holidays Everyone!

This is a email blast I sent out to my clients,family and friends. I created this eblast at Scrapblog.com Once I created the card, I then downloaded it as a JPEG. This allowed me to place the image into my Constant Contact email marketing program.

Since sending out the email on Monday I have received many emails from people who have thought the holiday card was cute.

This was just another way for me to keep me and artwork on the mines of those who know me.

Inspiration from Old Vintage Photos

Come January I have two solo exhibitions- Davidson Community College and The Art Institute of Charlotte. Davidson Community College will exhibit my Personal Rites: Visual Storytelling and The Art Institute will exhibit new collection inspired by old vintage photos of Negro men during the 1920s -1950s - show titled " I Am Man."

Below are a few images that were used in the "I Am Man" exhibition. These images seem to tell a story of their own- as if these men wanted to tell me something. In my collages I tried to tell their stories their my use of color, texture, and layering.

More information on exact dates and pictures from this exhibition will be shared, but for now I would love to hear your stories that you have from found photos of family members or photos found at an estate sale.  Or Even Better- tell me what stories you think the below are saying to you.

   

Commissioned Artwork - Whitney & Brother

 

Whitney & Brother, 2008, commissioned artwork, 9x12

Internet Goals for 2009

 Blogger, Daniel Scocco  of Daily Blog Tips- posted that he was looking for other bloggers to state their Internet goals for 2009. Well - I decided that I need to go ahead and put mine in writing- they say goals become real once you write them. So here go......

My 2009 Internet Goals

1. To increase my readership- those who subscribe to my feed by 50%.

2. To offer more valuable content. Stay to my topics and only write about those topics.

3. To create a separate blog- that I am able to write about other topics of my interest.

4. To become more involved in social networks- posting  links to my blog and joining discussions

5. To generate more traffic to my blog- by offering contest- offering prints and original artwork from my collection.

6. To use my newsletter e-blast more- to send out monthly or topic driven newsletters to dedicated subscribers

7. To write an e-book to offer to other artist on my blog

8. To read more about the blogging business from other successful bloggers.

9. To interview other artist who are blogging and post it on my blog

10. To add links to more of my favorite blogs, and more links in my blog post.

Ok that's all folks- These 10 goals sound good and capable of doing.

It Feels A Little Like Christmas!

I am at home getting ready for the holidays. I love this time of the year. I like the music and the decoration, the family affairs. I just love it.

I hope you guys are enjoying the holidays and are sharing yourself with family and friends.

A ran across this Christams video of Brian McKnight. I hope it brings it joy like it has for me.

I Sold 3 Prints on ImageKind.com

I checked my email last night and noticed that I had 3 emails from ImageKind informing me that I had a sell.  I sold three prints from the Home Series that I created in 2005.   

I am so excited to see that my holiday marketing effects are playing off.  Sunday I sent out email blast using Constant Contact to all of my friends and family. The email blast was promoting holiday gift ideas for those who have everything.  

 

Well I guess it worked. I SOLD 3 Prints. YEAHHHHHH! I hope to see more sells. Since the eblast- I have had others ask me about greeting cards for the holidays. I am currently pricing printing for 2 to 3 designs. So hopefully by this weekend I can send out another email informing others that they can order holidays cards also.

An artist job is never done. LOL

 

Read Your Blogging Comments!

This morning I received an email from a reader who had visited my blog. She made some positive comments on what she had read and found useful. As I continued to read her email I noticed she had placed a link to a guest post I had done on On my Desk some months ago. I clicked on the link to view what others had posted. I scrolled down to my post and noticed that I had 10 comments. Oh My Gosh- I never thought people would post comments about my studio. Most of them seem to like my inspiration boards of my role models and every day wishes. I felt sorta bad that I hadn't read them sooner, but I quickly left a comment addressing my gratitude for their comments.

Lately I have been receiving more comments about my blog- I thinking it is because I have taken the advice of some famous bloggers - Problogger in his article Ten Tips for Stats Addicts and Daily Blog Tips in his contest run for Blogging Idol 2.

So my advice to you is to read those comments and try to respond back to all.