by Donna Johnson on February 29, 2008
Leapin’ Loot! Leap Year Is A Good Excuse For A Fun Sale
Yesterday’s post shared how using email newsletters to stay in touch with your customers consistently pays off in droves. Today, Indie Beauty Network member Jennifer Hardaway of KLEAN Bath & Body proves my point.
In last night’s Group Coaching session, Jennifer shared how she’s using leap year today to double February 2008 sales. Last night, using Mail Chimp, Jennifer sent out a short email to her customers announcing a 29% off sale in honor of leap year. The sale started at midnight and ends at midnight tonight. It will work for lots of reasons.
- It Offers Big Savings: 29% is a big discount
- It’s Time Sensitive: This deal only comes once every 4 years
- It’s Easy: Just enter your coupon code at checkout
I just ordered the Sweet Orange Sandalwood Perfume Oil, Whipped Shea in Jennifer’s signature "KLEAN Grass" fragrance and the Devil Made Me Do It Ultra-Foaming Hand & Body Wash. You can do it too, but since the next learp year isn’t until 2012, you don’t have much time. If you already have a newsletter, you can tackle this clever promotion in about 10 minutes. If you don’t have a newsletter, well, shame on you.
Start planning for March.
Update: Jennifer tells me that she more than quadrupled her sales through this promotion, which she ended up extending through March 1. Not bad for an inexpensive newsletter promotion that took about 5 minutes (literally!) to put together.
by Donna Johnson on February 28, 2008
Go Back To Basics In Tough Economic Times
Even if we are not officially in a recession, the rising cost of everything means that people are more closely watching their spending these days.
As a small business owner, this means it’s more important than ever that you double up efforts to make your business as recession-proof as possible. Here are 5 ways to do it.
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by Donna Johnson on February 27, 2008
3 Steps To Financial Contentment Through Entrepreneurship
Today’s USA Today reports that people are cutting down on everything from gourmet coffee to designer jeans in order to save money during these challenging economic times. But these days, it takes more than cheap coffee and jeans to build a comfortable nest egg.
It takes good old entrepreneurship. And the more I work with Indie Business owners from all walks of life, the more persuaded I am that there are specific things entrepreneurs must do to maximize the chances of achieving the financial contentment that comes with using our God-given talents and gifts to generate income in our a business of our own. Here are 3 of them.
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by Donna Johnson on February 26, 2008
Quick Links To The Information Indies Need Most
When starting a business, many people start with Google. That’s fine, and it works well when you are looking for a lot of information about a lot of things. But don’t forget that the United States government has two websites with thousands of links to help you start and manage your business.
Business.gov is helps businesses do business with the government. While many Indie Business owners are not concerned specifically with that, the site is filled with information and links that are highly relevant for Indies. The United States Small Business Administration website is another great resource.
Based on the most frequently asked concerns and questions I receive from clients and members of the Indie Beauty Network, I compiled a list of the 10 links at these two sites that I think are most useful.
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by Donna Johnson on February 23, 2008
It’s Not All About The Cash
Today, the Washington Post reports that home foreclosures are moving forward at a record pace. I can understand people’s pain and frustration. What I can’t understand is why anyone is at all surprised.
This mortgage crisis was completely foreseeable. The consequences of greed always are. The lenders showed horrendous greed by specifically designing lending products to entice people with shaky credit to buy more house than they could afford. The buyers showed how greedy they were by exchanging long term pain and heartache for short term gain. How predictable that it was all too good to be true.
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by Donna Johnson on February 22, 2008
Get More Readers With These Health, Beauty, Lifestyle and Family Topics
Last night’s group coaching was, in a word, "fantastic"! (To find out how to join next week’s session, click here.) Throughout this month, every Thursday night, we’ve been talking about the who, what, where, when and how of newsletter publishing. I can’t wait to see all the great newsletters I’ll be subscribed to now.
By popular demand, I am posting the 51 Great Topics For Your Newsletter that I shared on last night’s call. While these topics are perfect for Indie Beauty businesses, most of them are also suitable for any woman-owned Indie business. We’ll be covering blogging during the month of March, and you can use most of these topics for your blog as well! In either case, you are informing and entertaining your readers while also creating conversations that encourage your readers to buy your products.
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