new looks and marketing moxie

If you know me, then you know I can’t redesign one website without doing them all so you will notice a few changes here, at Write With Moxie and the most dramatic at Moxie Pear. I want to give a big thank you to everyone who has given me positive feedback on the new website. It means a lot! Like everything that I do for myself, it was a ton of work and lots of late nights. It’s always so much easier to design something for someone else rather than for yourself. I honestly wonder why that is?

Anyway, I also added some new services at Moxie Pear. The biggest and most exciting is Marketing Moxie…several marketing packages aimed at the budget of small businesses. I am a big believer in teaching someone rather than just doing it for them so a lot of my approach to marketing follows the same path. I will give you the foundation and map and then it’s up to you to take that and run with it! I have been in business for 6+ years with Moxie Pear as well as starting several successful product lines….the most recent being Write With Moxie. I want to pass on all of that knowledge that I have gained to other women who want to see their business succeed. The first step is to have a plan of action in order to achieve what being successful means to you. I can help you with that plan. :) Because these sessions are very personalized, I am only able to take on a few per month. Take a peek and if you have any questions, feel free to email me!

The book that changed my business

I read A LOT of businessy type books…it’s my form of nerdiness I suppose. Most of them say a lot of the same things about marketing, building and running your business so when I started to read The Big Enough Company, it was so refreshing to see a different (and better) approach to things.

Here is a little about the book straight from the publisher…

All entrepreneurs start their companies because they think it will give them freedom—freedom to work on their own terms, be their own bosses, and create a company that meets their needs. But so often the opposite happens, and they end up building businesses that, while profitable, fall short of their original goals and motivations, leaving them unsatisfied and unfulfilled.

The Big Enough Company explores how to grow your enterprise in a way that sustains your own personal goals and needs, not someone else’s standards. Drawing on the true stories of nearly 100 entrepreneurs, as well as their own experiences, Lancaster and Abrams guide readers through the best principles that really matter when you work for yourself. This book empowers entrepreneurs to ignore popular “wisdom” and peer pressure to take charge of their businesses in a way that will help them succeed on their own terms.

It is a complete breath of fresh air to read that you don’t have to do A + B with your business to be successful…success for each person is different and so the path to achieving it should be as well. It is written by two women so it is empowering along the way with stories from actual businesses and how they are each so different but successful in their own rite.

authors Adelaide Lancaster and Amy Abrams (photo from queenbeegrace.com)

It really made me stop and think about what I wanted to accomplish with my business. Where I wanted to see myself over the next 3, 5 and 10+ years. My goal with starting Moxie Pear has always been to help women start and grow successful online businesses. Because of a lot of the day-to-day operations that come with owning a business, I got away from the core reason why I started this journey in the first place. I want to empower women to become successful for themselves!

My POA – Plan of Action

In a recent article I wrote for OMHG, I spoke about not being afraid to change things up with your business. I am taking my own advice to heart and really focusing on taking the steps necessary to dig deep into the root of my business and grow it for those personal goals that are so important to me. I am redesigning the Moxie Pear website to include more services that will benefit a business owner no matter what point they are at. In order to offer marketing services like this, I knew I had to find someone to help me with the design portion of things around here. It is so hard for me to let go of anything but in order to help more people and move my business forward, it was a necessary step. After tons of interviews with designers that just didn’t mesh with my style, I came across a really great one that has similar tastes, is crafty and I think will work really well for the team. I will do an official intro in the next few weeks. :) I will still oversee everything but this will give me a little more free time to help more women to achieve their dreams of owning a business.

I have also decided to take this to a local level. The authors of The Big Enough Company actually run a co-op space in NYC called In Good Company that caters to helping women entrepreneurs with shared office space, small business classes and events. This is exactly where I see the local leg of Moxie Pear going. I would love to have a space one day that will house a community of women all working on achieving their dreams and helping each other out in the process. While the space is a little far off, the idea of offering classes and having local meetings isn’t. :) I am just in the planning stages for this but hopefully by the end of the year, it will be going full force!

And I can’t forget Write With Moxie. Our little product line has been chugging along nicely over the last year but I know we can pump up the volume with just a little more effort. One of my goals, is to bring in another person to focus all their efforts on managing, marketing and running that side of things. Honestly, it will probably end up being my Mom. :)

So do you see how a book can change everything? I am telling you that this has got to be the best business book I have read…ever!

Photography Tips Galore

Want to get serious with your product photography? Brittini over at papernstitch shares 9 articles that will get your photography up to par in no time!

example of beautiful product photography from tyrahandmadejewelry2

Sometimes you gotta knock down a wall

In our case it is completely literal! This weekend they will be knocking down a wall at the new office to expand our little space. Getting the office back in order may take a few days so it will be quiet around here.

I also found a great new part time designer to add to the team…so excited! I will be making all of the official announcements and showing photos next week.

Oh and that book…it’s actually my next post so look out for it. You don’t want to miss it!