Over the holidays I had a chance to catch up with some friends and family, which are times I always enjoy and cherish.  On New Years day I had the pleasure of catching up with a very close family friend.  In fact, he published a wedding magazine about me and my husband as a wedding gift.  We chatted about the vision for his magazine and how he’s changed his business model to be better rounded and more profitable of course.  He asked me about The Pink Locket and I told him one of things that I’m struggling with time management.  When I mean time management I specifically mean organizing my time between the “creative” and “business” aspects of running a business.  I told him if I were to divide up my time in percentages this is what it would look like:

25% Spent on creating new designs

65% Marketing

10% Business Operations

He then told me “Yeah that looks about right.” I felt a sigh of relief that I’m somewhere on track as far as my time management goes.  He stressed the importance of Marketing (which I knew) and said that 9 times out 10 whether or not a business stays in business or an idea becomes fruitful is dependent upon Marketing.  Usually people who are creative have a hard time executing the business related tasks for their business.  One of the advantages that I have is the ability to be creative and having business acumen.  After thinking back over the past year I came up with some business/marketing tips for my fellow “creative” people:

1. Dedicate at least 1 day to catch up on the business operations of your business.  This includes updating inventory, logging sales into whatever database or tracking method you use.
2. Come up with monthly goals and keep them in an area that you will look at everyday.
3. Create a MARKETING PLAN.  Yes, this is the most important.  It helps to organize all the ideas you have on how to grow your business.  Trust me it works!
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from people around you who are experts in certain areas.