simple ideas for inserting more fun into your life fresh inspiration from unexpected places in the mountains of Colorado a Christmas card for our clients is extended electronically to our subscribers The Review celebrates its first year and other thoughts from Candy marketing tip for building more fun into your leisure time and an odd photo just for fun
A monthly newsletter of marketing ideas, photos, and fun.
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THE REVIEW candyrice design
enjoying life
how to keep busi ness from takin g over life
2: 12 : 09
This week has been one of the most hectic weeks in recent months. In a race to finish myriad client projects before the holiday season, meet with new clients, prepare our personal Christmas cards, buy gifts, wrap presents, and make holiday plans–whew! I have stretched my own boundaries for separating my business from my life. As entrepreneurs, we always struggle to keep the fence up between work and our “real” life. I often find myself so involved with being creative in my work that I forget to be just as creative about what to do in my leisure time. Here are some simple ideas that remind me how easy it can be to insert more fun into my life. Crafty and Creative Fun Make something with your hands–something tactile that doesn’t involve the computer. Draw or paint something, write a poem, sew a beautiful pillow, make something with wood. Write a song, play the piano, make a piece of art. Let your imagination run wild! Time Off Take time off. Do it during the week! Who
a
says you can only have fun on the weekends? Snuggle on the couch in your favorite blanket. Let the phone go to voicemail. Go to the movies. Read a book. Walk in the park and feed the birds. Walk your dog (this one’s for me!). Take a little roadtrip. Take a big trip! Hey, we’re entrepreneurs because we like freedom and flexibility in our schedules...capitalize on that! Rewards (This one is really hard for me.) Give yourself the right to celebrate your accomplishments in your business! Try to do it weekly. You work hard and deserve a pat on the back. Choose rewards for yourself that are meaningful. They don’t have to cost a lot, or they can be extravagant...you get to decide! Nurturing rewards like facials, manicures, and massages are good. So is treating yourself to an afternoon to
do nothing at all. A good reward is anything that feels like a luxurious celebration. The more you celebrate your progress, the more rewarding the journey of entrepreneurship will be! Volunteer Look for ways to help others and share what you know. You could help clean up a local park or assist a local scout troup. Offer to share your knowledge about photography, the internet, business, decorating, or some other skill with a young or old person. Giving back is always fun! C’mon...let’s do some of these things next week and next month and next year. Life as a business owner is good and it should be fun, too! We love to help our clients! Can we help you with anything? Call us today!
enjoying life
how to keep business from taking over life
We had a great time developing this year’s Christmas card for our clients, the wonderful people whom we also count as friends in our business. We have been absolutely swamped all month with projects and suddenly realized that we were out of time to design, print, and mail our own original design. As a result, this year’s card was created from existing stationery and we had great fun designing the interior card and assembling the lovely, wintry pieces. As a means of electronically extending holiday wishes to our many newsletter subscribers, we decided to feature the card here this month. We appreciate each one of you! This project utilized just two of the many services we offer to our clients and we’re excited about the outcome and happy to share these lovely cards with our wonderful clients. To all our clients and subscribers–Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Featured project Client: All Candy Rice Design clients Candy Rice Design, Colorado
Solutions Provided: • Design Services • Handmade Touch Services
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lifegoing on issue to share some of them with you!
As always, we’d love to know what you’re thinking about. Have some questions? Feel free to email them to us at candy@ candyrice.com and we’ll do our best to answer them! Photo by Sohi Photography.
I am venturing into a new partnership with a wonderfully talented marketing guru from Denver. Together we have created The Collective Savvy, a social media and marketing training company and will begin offering regular classes on using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for marketing as early as February of 2010 in the Denver area. We will also offer webinar training next spring and are discussing ways to take the training national and/or global! Our website is still under development, and when it goes live I’ll be sure to share more details and the URL with you!
thoughts “Maybe
business
isn’t your passion.
Additionally, I will begin offering social media management services to my clients in January 2010. Watch my website and your inbox...I’ll be sending special inaugural offers before long!
But
My inspiration for the month came from one place: Georgetown, Colorado. Last winter I spent a cold day photographing the town with a friend. Looking back through the images I realized that many of them were holiday-themed and perfect for this issue.
allows your design
This year I’m celebrating the holidays by shunning the mass political-correctness The Review turned one in November! and wishing my friends, family, and I’m so thrilled to have reached this first clients a Merry Christmas. It’s the holiday of many important milestones that I celebrate and it’s the one that offers a mark the impact of this newsletter. I’m chance to celebrate a significant event in also thrilled to report that 275 new my faith. I know this isn’t for everyone, subscribers joined our ranks during this and that’s ok...you may certainly wish month alone! Welcome to each of you! me (and others) Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, or a specific phrase that So many exciting things are ahead for expresses the merriment of the holiday my business! I could hardly wait for this you celebrate this time of year.
creative business is
November Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and the rush toward the holidays is on! I want to give a special thanks to a good friend, Trish Eberlein, who graciously and generously opened her home to Tim and me on Thanksgiving and fed us an AMAZING turkey meal! We were unable to get back to our families in Minnesota and Alabama and the Eberleins made our day!
a
healthy
business can be the fertile ground that passion to blossom fully. Part of the fun of growing a figuring out how to run things your way.” ~Peleg Top
my fresh inspiration
1 cover : Happiness, Colorado a : Life reminders, Colorado all photographs by candy rice 1 : Wreath in Georgetown, Colorado 2 : Street decoration, Colorado 3 : Blue ornament, Colorado 4 : Benches, Colorado 5 : Window wreath, Colorado 6 : Crosses against the sky, Colorado 7 : Carved snowflakes, Colorado
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marketing tip
Excerpts from an article by Ali Hale, professional writer. Read the entire article. Schedule more fun into your life!
Erik Johansson’s creative photo manipulation, from Hongkiat.com.
Enjoy Life More: Schedule Your Leisure Time Time management advice often talks about the important of having a schedule. When you’re at work, the plethora of meetings, conference calls and to-do lists probably provide a lot of structure. Whether you are actually getting things done is another story. But have you ever given any thought to scheduling your leisure time? Many of us find it all too easy to let our evenings and weekends fall into a comfortable–and often rather boring or unsatisfactory– routine. To get the most out of both your work and your play, try some of these ways of giving your leisure time a little structure too. Scheduling Leisure Time During Your Day If you’re a student or freelancer, you probably have a fair degree of flexibility about when you do your work. You may also find that there are times when you try to micro-schedule your work, but you still end up procrastinating, working much more slowly than you know you
We love puzzles, cartoons, and funny photos. Watch this section each month for something new to do or laugh at.
303.947.5527 www.candyrice.com : candy@candyrice.com 12304 north bannock street, #19103 | westminster, co 80234
should, and rushing things at the last minute. Scheduling Leisure Time In The Evening Whether you work for an employer or for yourself, it’s a good idea to give some thought to your evenings. As a freelancer who can work at any time of the day or night, I know how easy it is to get sucked into “just one more thing” after dinner. And for many office employees, email and other company systems are available outside work hours. If the only other attraction in your evening is the television, it’s easy to get caught up working. Scheduling Leisure Time At The Weekends Do your weekends end up involve sleeping late, a feeling like you’ve wasted half the day, a ton of chores, and some dull television? Instead of just waking up on Saturday and having no idea what you want to do, try planning ahead. If you’ve got something exciting to do during the day, you’ll be much more motivated to jump out of bed and get on with it – and the thought of a funpacked weekend can get you through a busy or dull week at work.