San Diego Finishing School

I just wrote some notes about Monday’s mostly successful Online Business Commando Training on my new personal blog www.johnhiemstra.com, mainly because I was using that site as a “live” subject to demonstrate how easy and fast it is to publish essential information about your business to a targeted bunch of people interested in and willing to pay for your product or services using Wordpress (without having to pay someone else (too much) to get real results).

Can you tell I’m a big fan of Wordpress?

Anyway, here’s part of what I wrote on the other blog, and a picture of my new Commando troops I took with my iPhone and e-mailed directly to my Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts in seconds (literally) to make a point about leveraging technology for time as small business person.

“In the afternoon on Monday of my “Online Business Commando Training”, 3 woman entrepreneurs and their assistants sat down to their own laptops as I guided them through:

• setting up proper web hosting
• installing and optimizing a Wordpress blog
• crafting a post
• publishing it across multiple social media platforms

While I confess to cramming in too much information for most people into one day, I can now be sure to say that everyone had an “intensive” time and is working away on creating a powerful online channel for their existing offline businesses– all 7 of their businesses (between just three students).” (read the rest here)

July 20, 2009 Commandos

July 20, 2009 Online Business Commando Training

I just made a significant change to the format of my “Evolution” marketing and business classes happening next week, in addition to unexpectedly opening up two spots for my first Online Business Commando training class on Monday here in San Diego.

Because I have the honor of appearing on San Diego art sage Philly Joe Swendoza’s ART ROCKS! Internet Radio show this Wednesday night, I decided to combine the Wednesday night class into Thursday night’s class to free up the time.

Then I realized it was even better deal for people just starting to be serious about marketing their art or creative small business online, because I’m fitting twice as much information into a more convenient single class AND more convenient single price.

Its like getting 50% off the information in half the time— if you’re ready to be serious, that is. I’ll be presenting a lot of information in that evening that can fuel the growth of your business using online tools and social media channels, if thoroughly absorbed and applied by you.

Check out the revised Evolution Business I & II class description.

Finally got caught up on the faux finish classes and artist business and marketing classes scheduled for the end of July, with full descriptions and registration pages now live here on the San Diego Finishing School website.

I’m especially excited a new class on Monday July 20 called Online Business Commando Training. I’m teaching this in a secret North County location in San Diego and only have 2 spots left– so if you’re looking for the ultimate shortcut to getting your art or creative business online with the most powerful business generating strategies available to brick and mortar business today, this is your chance!

This class started as a custom spec and I didn’t anticipate having extra people, but my excellent host has assured me she can make comfortable room for two more people to suit my maximum of five people/projects to a session. The reason for this is to make sure everybody’s getting what I’m talking about in the class and getting the results they want weeks and months down the road.

Check out the class description and feedback from my marketing classes for artists at the San Diego Finishing School.

I’m talking about my own business(es) here: in the past week I’ve been swamped with every aspect of the business of being an artist, starting with two bids last Monday, ensuing discussions, actual production in the studio, basic marketing maintenance, invoicing, photography of finished work, writing and publishing—-

Can you tell I’m going to beg off on not having updated the schedule of classes here or created the registration pages you need for my marketing for small business classes in July?

(the faux painting classes, too, actually.)

Well I’m really going to apologize for putting the teaching schedule and “maintenance” of the San Diego Finishing School second after my painting and business gigs– it is all about getting the gig, right? and any opportunity to just paint is going to come first for me, and I hope for you, too.

So I’m sorry I’m being a selfish artist but, among other things, I have a show opening this Friday in Little Italy, a show of my sky paintings which I sort of backed into, but its working out great for a variety of reasons, one of which is some marketing practice of my own, which you might be interested in.

Check out this video I made of a fun step in the process of these particular paintings (fun for me, anyway).

Anyway, I really am working on the class stuff, and I’ll actually be out of town on the 15th, so that sequence of classes for artists as small business people is going to move for sure, but more on that later this week.

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.