San Diego Finishing School

Working on full descriptions& registration pages for July faux painting and marketing classes both, but wanted to share this email from last week’s New Century Media marketing class where I do an introduction/overview of social media and web design essentials for artists, craftspeople and other small creative “brick-and-mortar” businesses.

Gary, who I’m quoting below, is both artist and craftsperson who has been working to get his jewelry specifically focussed online for business purposes, has more than one “light-bulb-on” moment during our session last Thursday night, and sent me this email in response to my inquiry about this experience an dreaction to class.

John,

Your class was a very thorough introduction for the uninitiated to an abundance of new tools within reach of most artists today and brings forward what to many may seem complex elements.

Thanks for showing that it can be simple and seamless and more importantly, effective, made very apparent in the success of your wife’s jewelry business where you’ve applied your ideas– she’s a great example for us.

-Gary Welsh

I look forward to working with Gary further and sharing here some of his progress in achieving new business success as a direct result of his own efforts online.

Tonight’s introductory class to “New Century Media” marketing for small businesses– small business websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more– still has open spaces (from 6-9pm), as does tomorrow morning’s from 9am -noon.

If you’re looking to harness the the activity of the internet and leverage these easily available (and almost free!) marketing tools to generate new audience and work flow for your small business, you will greatly benefit from these classes.

You don’t have to take tonight’s intro class first, but it certainly helps if doing business and promoting your business online is unfamiliar territory.

If you already know what you need to do for your business online (and why the internet is the place to do it), but are still looking for the most powerful and expedient way to get it going on, then tomorrow morning’s WordPress Master Class will be a real eye-opener.

Questions? Call my mobile at 619. 654. 6208 to find out more.

Both classes will be held at the studio space I share with designer Jen Guerin at 1843 5th Avenue in Banker’s Hill, San Diego, just a few minutes from downtown and the airport.

All of us engaged in running our own business for profit and livelihood know there are literally hundreds of “steps” we had to take first in order to be able to “run” now.

Over the last few weeks I have been making lots of these small steps for a few different start-up type businesses I am involved with, and it occurred to me that while my focus has been on my fellow artists and creative contractors, the steps I advocate for artists to take with their businesses online will work for any small business trying to start up in the new challenging economy, especially service businesses or small business built on personality.

Why will it work?

Because as business we have the same fundamental goals, whether we recognize it or not, and all of the steps we take as business people should be to further these goals:

• finding an audience for our work
• converting some of our audience into active fans of our work
• converting some of our fans into paying clients

Now there’s a lot more to it obviously, and this is certainly a marketer’s perspective. That said, if you’re in business, what else is there to do?

All businesses are predicated on having a client base interested in paying for the products or services that the business provides. If no one is paying, where is the “business”?

My online marketing strategies help artists take these steps in developing real business, and now they’ve been working for “real businesses”, too.

In my new media classes, you’ll learn to use “new media” to start taking these steps for your business.

Why “new media”?

• Because its the most effective way to connect with your audience
• Because its customizable to any business model or style.
• Because its the cheapest way to get the highest quality results.

Find out more by reading the class descriptions and
contacting me if you have further questions about what we’ll cover.

(Your business is thanking you already!)

“… I was wonderfully surprised by the amount of information you provided in your initial class. I also appreciated your delivery, you made it all sound so very doable and practical. You gave me a lot more than I was expecting and answered many of my questions in a way that made sense…”

-Luis Santiago

A quick note about a new class I’m offering in June,
designed directly from your feedback!

The most popular question resulting from my first
“New Century Media” marketing class in May was:

“I don’t have a lot of time; if I’m only going to do
one thing for my business online, what is it?

And how can I get it going on now?!”

If you’re looking to grow an audience for your work online, I think
there’s really only one answer, and so, I designed this new class
for anyone and everyone with the same concern:

“WordPress Master Class for Artists”

This is the first of a series of seminars I’m calling “New Century Essentials”.

The first session is scheduled for Friday June 12, 9am-12 noon at the new
SDFS space shared with Jen Guerin’s JG Color Studios, 1843 5th Ave in San Diego.

You can read the full WordPress class description here, and as always, feel free to call me
with any questions at 619. 654. 6208.

If you haven’t already heard me rant about this, artists of all kinds ARE small businesses whether they want to be or not– even if you’re independently wealthy or self funded, some part of your work as artists relies on generating an audience, presenting to them, and getting their feedback.

The people who have always gotten the most from my classes are the ones who understand WHY they need to learn more and incorporate more into their daily activities–> this is how business people think, and that is the format of all my classes, not just “New Century Media”:

enough comprehension to ensure motivation, enough detail to inspire specific action.

Today more than ever, independent businesses of any size need to both enlarge and enrich their audience base in order to survive and grow, and it’s with this end in mind that I design my classes.

If you are already familiar with my studio partner Jen Guerin of JG Color, then you’ll know why I am so pleased to have received this review of my “New Century Marketing” marketing class as a recommendation on my LinkedIn page.

“I was blown away by not only his delivery on such a tricky subject for artists such as blogging, twitter and rss feeds but also how much he really understands about the subjects. Every one of us walked away full of ideas and able to follow through with them without a hitch.”

Because Jen is a pretty smart independent business person as well as an astute observer of what’s happening all around us, she understood going into class why this stuff is important to small business people today, even if not specifically what to do or how to do it– but she does now, and that’s the point, “being able to follow through”.

If this sounds like you, and you’d like to have Jen’s experience, then my “New Century Media” class can definitely work for you, even if you aren’t technically an “artist”. Many small businesses share the essential features of artists when it comes to marketing in the 21st century, and can greatly benefit from these strategies as well.

Do you have specific questions? If you really want to improve on what you’ve already done with your small business, please contact me directly and ask. Since everything seems to move a little faster every day, I usually suggest that real-time is the best time to make real progress.