Makery Inspirationery Archives - themerriweather council blog

March 21, 2017

How to Create Custom Folder Icons + Spruce Up Your Desktop for Spring

Happy second day of spring!

I wanted to share this super quick and easy tutorial with you today because changing your blah and boring default folder icons to custom, awesome icons WILL change your life.

I’ve been doing this for years and it really does make work a bit more fun especially if you do a ton of computer work like I do! Best part is you don’t need anything fancy to make it happen! Watch the tutorial below.

I’ve rounded up some affordable, adorable or otherwise likable options for you to use for your icons from Creative Market below.

Remember you can use just about any image and you could definitely spend an hour or more browsing all the amazing options CM has!

The benefit to buying a set is that your icons will maintain a similar look and feel and appear more uniform and organized. If you buy a set with lots of icons in it you’ll be set for a while if you create lots of folders.

Be sure to read the descriptions on these or any other sets or items to be sure they suit your computer’s abilities. If you don’t have a program like pixelmatr to open the .eps files in to isolate the images if they come on a single sheet, look for sets that have individual elements. Do also note these are affiliate links.

Here is the radical 80s set I have on my own computer!

I love this set of stylized jungle animals. This would be perfect for you animal + color lovers.

This set of circle icons has a little bit of everything. Would be great for those of you who want your icons to thematically align with your folder names as there is bound to be a match somewhere in this set of 250 icons! Do note this set is a bit more expensive.

This sleek water drop set is ideal for minimalists.

Let me know which set you choose!

Enjoy!

February 23, 2017

How Much does B-School Really Cost?

the real cost of B-school | the merriweather council blog

Last week I introduced you to Marie Forleo’s amazing program for modern entrepreneurs. If you missed it, catch up right here.

Because B-school only opens for enrollment ONE TIME per year, I want to make sure you know everything you need to know in order to make a decision that is best for you. Because if you read this blog, you are likely a modern entrepreneur, and if you’ve read this far into this post, I know you are interested in this business-changing, mindset-shifting, praise-be-where-has-this-been-all-my-life experience.

Is that an exaggeration? No.

Consider the grocery store

When you first enter a new grocery store, it can be a little confusing trying to get the layout and flow of everything. You might even have a few trips where you have to circle around a bunch, back and forth across the store because you haven’t quite figured out where everything is yet. You feel like certain things should be over here but they aren’t. You feel annoyed by this because, hello, time is precious, and this really shouldn’t be that hard, right?

You are probably doing the exact same thing in your business.

You know what you are looking for but can’t find it.

You know this whole thing would be a lot smoother if you just had a better understanding of what to expect.

And you feel annoyed that you keep going in circles.

Yes?

Imagine that B-school is the that thing that can make your trip in entrepreneurship a LOT smoother. Imagine that you don’t have to go in circles anymore, because you’ve got the blueprint, the mindset and support you need to move forward, and the tools to grow bigger instead of not at all.

To enroll is B-school is an investment. To sit B-school out is a risk.

B-school costs $2000 which breaks down to:

400 per year, or 33 per month, or about $1 per day for five years.

For 1 year, it’s about 5.48 per day — I spend more than that at Starbucks most days and my coffee doesn’t even teach me anything!!

In five years time, you’d experience 10k worth of Marie content if you checked back on b-school each year. That’s $1 per day for access to 10K worth of content after 5 years.

There have been many WEEKS and also DAYS in my PRODUCT BASED BUSINESS where I made more than $2k.

If your product averages $50, that’s 40 sales to pay for B-school. Are you really going to let 40 sales stand between you and this opportunity?

If you charge $30/hour that’s 66 hours of work, or about 2.5 weeks of full time work to pay for B-school. That time will pass anyway, you will work anyway.

It’s $333 a month for 6 months. If you product averages $50 that’s about 7 sales per month for 6 months you’d need to cover the cost of B-school. Just 7 sales per month for half the year!

If you made $286 every other day for 2 weeks, you could pay for B-school. If you made $143 every day for two weeks, you could pay for B-school.

Another think to think about: If you aren’t making this sort of money now, you could be before B-school is offered again.

You can participate in B-school from ANYWHERE and ANYTIME. The materials are available to you indefinitely and you can check in on them whenever you want. I check in with B-school materials multiple times per year, at the start of any project, always.

If you are trying to build more income streams, craft better offerings, or run more effective operations, B-school is for you.

This is your only chance this year to get Marie in your pocket for continued inspiration, direction, support and guidance. And trust me she is worth so much more than the cost of B-school.

B-school is about BUILDING a business long term. If you want to move beyond the day to day grind of trying to make sales, and start working on the year to year, long term goals of your business, B-school is for you. Marie will supercharge the heart + soul of your business, reignite the flame if you’ve stagnated, or give you the tools you need to build the strongest foundation for your life as an entrepreneur. Plus her community is full of kind, savvy and brilliant people.

I am just ONE of Marie’s MANY thousands of students. And there are some amazing success stories.

Need to talk it out?

Join me in my temporary group for B-school Curious Makers to get any and all of your questions answered. I am also available to chat with you 1-1 if you need! Just email me danielle / at / merriweathercouncil.com

Do note that this post includes my partner link and if you enroll in B-School through that link, I will likely receive a commission, but I’m only recommending you check this out because I truly believe in the power of Marie’s teaching, guidance and support!

March 30, 2016

3 Advertising Opportunities for Product Sellers Beyond Facebook and Instagram

Facebook and Instagram are wonderful tools because they are are familiar, free (or low cost) and fun – not to mention incredibly accessible.

3 ways to advertise your product based business beyond Facebook and Instagram

Click To Tweet

But in order to really grow your business you will need to diversify and think beyond these basics – broaden your horizons so to say. I mean let’s be real – does the world truly need another 5 years of loop giveaways?

Here are 3 ways to advertise your product based business beyond Facebook and Instagram

Grassroots IRL

Lots of people will overlook a good old fashioned advertising opportunity like this one. Certainly no one has shiny object syndrome over it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a FABULOUS opportunity. One thing is for sure: it’s never out of date to get some boots on the ground and introduce yourself in person – no matter how far technology advances. Example: you sell toddler body suits, you have a YMCA in your town, you take your toddler to the YMCA to play with other toddlers at the baby gym, you dress your toddler in your product, you make conversation with other moms… the rest falls into place because in natural causal conversation, someone will ask you “what do you do” or compliment something your child is wearing because children are always dressed adorably. THIS IS YOUR MOMENT. Why this works: you make connections with people on a human level, people like to support small business owners, specifically ones they know. A few local loyals can spread the word for you to their networks locally and beyond. A few brand evangelists never hurt anyone.

Another idea is to do some bulletin board type promotions. Let’s be real, we have ALL found something of interest on a community board at some point. It’s low budget and easy to implement.

Podcast Advertising + Sponsorship

While podcasting has been around for quite some time, it’s fairly new to the consciousness of many people. Similar to a blog, if you find a podcast that reaches your ideal audience – and that audience is connected to the show host(s) – this could be a match made in audio heaven. Podcasts are growing in popularity and it might be a great time to get on board with this “new” advertising opportunity. As far as I can tell, this is an untapped market for handmade sellers – remember, when you are an early adopter, you sort out the kinks and get the lay of the land before others even think to consider it.

Some more great stuff about podcast advertising: unlike traditional media, podcast advertising can be very affordable. Imagine how much it would cost to put an ad on TV? Or in a popular magazine? AND, people will come in on a podcast mid season, and go back to catch up – your ad will still be there. Unlike a newspaper or magazine where the subject matter is largely current event based, many podcasts can be relevant for much longer. Similarly, unlike a radio ad where if you miss it, you missed it – podcasts can be paused, replayed, etc etc etc indefinitely. Your ad is there – forever! The amount of people who will hear your ad on a podcast in the lifetime of the podcast is tremendous – the gift that keeps on giving! Oh and one more thing – with a podcast you get the added benefit of the good juju that comes from the backlinks in blog posts – whereas on a sponsored blog post you’d ONLY get that – and some social mentions maybe that will certainly be old news a week from now. This is such a well rounded and powerful opportunity! The challenge of course is finding a podcast that is connected to the audience you want to reach – but at least this research will be fun!

3 ways to advertise your product based business beyond Facebook and Instagram

Click To Tweet

Mutual Benefit / Cross Promo/ Swag Trade

Team up and conquer. Find someone who sells a product different than yours to the same audience and swap samples to include in orders. This is a super easy, low cost, fun way to add value and cross promote. Example: I team up with a stationery designer who sends me custom notecards so I can include thank you notes with each order, her branding is clear on the card, now my customer is introduced to her work with a physical sample. Even better, work it so that the sample is something they can use on their end – not just see and feel like the thank you card. Either one would be great though!

So there you have it: 3 opportunities for advertising beyond Facebook and Instagram. Which ones will you try?