Wednesday April 27, 2011

3:45 – 5:45       Vickie Ayres   QuickBooks Deep Dive

3:45 – 5:15       Vita  Vygovska   Love Your Business Twice as Much—And Get More Done in Half the Time!

 3:45 – 5:45       Melissa Galt    From a Whisper to a Shout: Social Marketing Secrets for Designers

 3:45 – 5:15       DBRX Workshop Consults

QuickBooks Deep Dive – Advanced Tips & Techniques for QuickBooks

Vickie Ayres

Investigate dozens of ideas that will immediately improve your profitability and your financial peace of mind with QuickBooks guru Vickie Ayres. Using a sample company file, follow along as Vickie performs a deep dive into the information stored in QuickBooks that can help you make better decisions for your business, improve revenues and make the “un-fun” aspect of running a business simpler and less stressful. 

This hands- on session will cover:

• Troubleshooting the three most common errors Vickie encounters in her consults
• The top 10 best practices for working in QuickBooks.
• Vickie’s five favorite new features from QuickBooks 2011 that will save you time and make managing your business and finances a breeze.

This session is incredibly useful and profitable for anyone using QuickBooks Pro or Premier, 2008-2011.You’ll leave confident in your QuickBooks acumen—it will be like you’ve just hired on your own CFO!( Those of you who have taken Vickie’s QuickBooks Coaching already know what a difference she can make!) Start compiling your list of questions for this custom session as Vickie will incorporate as many as possible into the class. 

 The Fine Print: Price: $125. This session is 2 hours long .  Maximum 10 per session. Session offered Wednesday April 27, 2011 3:45pm – 5:45 pm. If you are considering an upgrade this is a great opportunity to see the 2011 edition in action.

You’re welcome to bring your laptop with QuickBooks installed and follow along as Vickie demonstrates advanced and complex QuickBooks features, or, if you don’t have a laptop, all the ideas and techniques will be included on a detailed handout complete with screenshots.

Love Your Business Twice as Much—And Get More Done in Half the Time!

Vita Vygovska

 Do you:

•           Wish there were more hours in the day?

•           Need to know how to do MORE with LESS?

•           Wind up frustrated there isn’t enough time to do what you really love?

 In this highly interactive workshop Vita discusses concepts and ideas to help you build a business that will support your creative expression, feed your energy, and grow your bottom line. If you have ever wished you could squeeze more out of every hour, while doing most of what you love and none of what you don’t, then you’ll want to be part of this session! At this workshop, you will discover:

• Easy and effective techniques to see exactly where your time is spent (and wasted).  You’ll walk away with a visual tool Vita uses in her own business to identify and eliminate time-sucks forever.
• The one single, simple improvement you can implement immediately that will double your productivity.
• Powerful time-saving tips you can put into practice right away and use daily, so that you can concentrate on your “genius work”.
• Clever short-cuts and compelling strategies to fend off “bright shiny objects”, master emerging marketing opportunities, and focus on the joys of your craft, creativity, and client interaction.

At the end of the session, you’ll be armed with your own productivity tool-kit (including lists, forms, check-lists, and charts)

Preparation: To ensure your best results and personalized approach, you will be asked to fill out a questionnaire before the session. This will be a true workshop where you will have an opportunity to craft your own action plan, participate in hot-seats, and ask questions. 

Added Bonus: After the session, when you’ve had some time to ‘test-drive’ your new productivity tool kit, take advantage of a 20-minute personal coaching session with Vita (within 30 days of the workshop) where you can ask additional questions and trouble-shoot challenges.

The Fine Print: Price: $125. This session is 1-1/2 hour long .  Maximum 10 per session. Session offered Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 3:45pm – 5:15pm

From a Whisper to a Shout: Social Marketing Secrets for Designers

©Melissa Galt

Do you:

Struggle to find time for social media?

Think it is just about wasting time and discussing what you had for lunch?

Love connecting with friends and family online, but can’t imagine how it can help your business.

 Social media is powerful and cost effective for building lasting profitable relationships.  Discover the ins and outs of finding your target market and bringing them from a shout online to a paying client. Stop the overwhelm and get a clear understanding of the profit potential you command when you pick and choose which tools to use to creatively trounce your competition.

v  Boost YOUR Online (and Offline) Visibility

v  Get Timesaver Shortcuts to Maximize YOUR Social Media Efforts

v  Establish YOUR Unique Voice and Enhance YOUR Credibility

v  Learn Five Social Media Strategies to Build YOUR Presence

v  Capture Leads Straight from YOUR Competition

You’ll walk away with:

The Fine Print: Price: $150. This session is 2 hours long .  Maximum 12 per session. Session offered Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 3:45 pm – 5:45 pm.

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The Design Business Rx workshops provide an opportunity for you to receive specific advice and information from acknowledged industry experts based on your interest and needs. You’ll work in sessions with 10 people, at the most, in order to give you the time and expertise necessary. Most sessions will require pre-show and post-show homework on your part. These business-changing strategy sessions are intense, detailed and focused on YOU, allowing you to leave Vegas with pragmatic action plans that will grow your business. 

DBRX Consultations

A business-life-shifting strategy session focused on you and your work in the world.Here’s your chance to access more than 30 years of design, marketing and industry experience, all focused specifically on YOUR business. Sign up now for a 1-1/2-hour Design Business Rx session with Deb & Susan, each strictly limited to six people per session

 You’ll be required to do pre-show and post-show “homework” and depending on your needs and issues, there will be post-show follow up from Deb & Susan.

We’ll talk to you about your responses to the DBRx pre-session questionnaire, analyzing your plans, identifying new opportunities, providing support in areas of particular concern and brainstorming with you on next steps and new ideas. We’ll focus on things that you’re passionate about and that can make you money. Plus, we’ll help you map out a plan to get started and to keep the momentum going. The conversation lasts 1-1/2 hours and you’ll leave with meaningful moneymaking ideas, clear priorities, renewed energy and interest in your business, along with useful connections and resources..

There are only four sessions available, so register now! 

If you need a “big-picture” review of your business—what are your opportunities and what practices may be holding you back—sign up for one of the DBRx consultations. If you know specific areas you want to work on—from marketing, to PR, to business-building, and more—choose one of the eight other DBRx sessions.

For more information, pricing, descriptions and to register visit www.debbarrett.com

 DBRx Schedule

Monday, April 25                              

            1:00- 2:30        DBRx Workshop Consults

            2:45- 4:15        DBRx Workshop Consults

            4:30 – 6:00       DBRx Workshop Consults

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 Anthropologie, bohemian chic sister to Urban Outfitters debuts their Decorator Concept boutiques March 24 in 12 of their stores across the globe. Amping up home décor, the Decorator concept will share the Anthropologie aesthetic, but is dedicated to “delivering a unique experience that helps generate design ideas and support decision making.” The store sees these concept shops as a continuation of their focus on “product rivaling that ordinarily available only to the trade.”

The workshop style boutiques offerings include wallpaper, curtains, lighting, furniture , books and accessories. (Decor8′s new book ,Decorate is part of the selection.) Boutiques will be selling brands like Cole and Son and Tracy Kendall.

Decorator Concept locations will host workshops with design experts and special events  in a range of fields and offer printed information about their selection, from care instructions to creative ideas.

A new online section, “For the Decorator” launched on this past Thursday. Resources available to online shoppers will include wallpaper calculators, swatch request forms, and glossaries.

Decorator concept stores are coming to:

• Atlanta, Georgia
• Beverly Hills, California
• Chicago, Illinois
• Corte Madera, California
• Denver, Colorado
• Houston, Texas
• London, United Kingdom
• Miami, Florida
• Nashville, Tennessee
• New York, New York
• Wayne, Pennsylvania
• Westport, Connecticut

If you thought it was hard to sell to the under 40 crowd; wait till they get a taste of Decorator Concept. You can guess where I’ll be next Thursday.

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Here are some highlights from day 3 at Heimtextil, the world’s largest textile fair including wallpapers and a discussion on sustainabilityfrom a European designer’s point of view.

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Global brand IKEA has demonstrated originality and creativity in their guerrilla and experiential marketing initiatives for some time now – from a 20X20 box to promote their Brooklyn, NY store opening  to the Oval Office they furnished for Obama’s then-new office last year. The international retailer’s most recent effort to get on customers’ minds and in their hearts – where they least expect it – entails furnishing Parisian public transportation. Genius!

Ikea  furnished Paris’ St. Lazare, Champs-Elysées Clémenceau, Concorde, and Opéra subway stations with sofas and lamps for two weeks in September . Metro commuters waited for their train on couches from Ikea’s new Ektorp and Karlstad collections. The key idea behind the stunt was to demonstrate the quality and durability of IKEA products via the ‘bum test’ of thousands of Parisians; particularly since IKEA is oftentimes embraced for its contemporary yet affordable (and disposable) furniture.

 First it was the Metro; now they have decorated the bus stops for the holidays.

 More marketing brilliance. There’s Obama’s Office redo:

Or the 20 x20 pop up  for the Brooklyn grand opening.

Ikea never ceases to amaze me. If we are talking IKEA ;we have to mention all the IKEA Hacker businesses that are out there . I have had several ” I wish I had thought of that” moments surfing their sites.  The culture is second to Apple for aficionados. We could go on and on …          

Bench made from IKEA coffee tables

 Customize your plain jane IKEA furniture with your own designs.

This is my IKEA photo mural wallpaper

 Testament to the power of the IKEA brand is the YII collective of  Taiwanese designers that transformed simple, straightforward IKEA products into pieces of art in their booth at M&O recently.

Herman chair

Vika Table

Tertial task lamp

detail of brass filigree inside lamp

Designers over 40 who want to be in business in 10 years- the IKEA client  could be your  client. How are you competing with IKEA?  How will you?

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