With less than two weeks to go until the launch of the fabulous online Branding Masterclass the team in the studio are working incredibly hard dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on the brand identity and blogsite. You can see the brand elements below.

You’re going to see a bit of a nip tuck to the Flourish brand identity over the next couple of months as we prepare for a very exciting extension and refocus on our own brand. I’ll be sharing more about the story behind that soon, but in the meantime, this gives you a flavour for where we’re headed. The Branding Masterclass needs to reflect and work with our brand, but it’s also a brand in it’s own right, with it’s own attributes and characteristics, so we needed to keep it all similar but not the same.

The colour palette focuses on creativity, communication, logic and clarity. The graph paper gives a nod to work (yes, it will be a lot of fun, but I will be working them hard too!) and the icons give direction around the site.

The class will be held online via a password protected blogsite, so we needed to create a clean and easy to navigate design that  inspired the participants to focus, reflect and take action. Here are a couple of screengrabs:

The login page

We wanted to keep this simple – it’s about getting people to do what you want – login or register for details of the next class. For the people that aren’t registered, obviously this is all they’ll see…

And the class pages themselves

I was in two minds about whether to show you this, but it just looks so beautiful that I couldn’t resist! I am desperate to overhaul the Full Bloom blog design now (yes, I know again but there is so much I’d like to change…). There are still a couple of changes to make but what I hope you can see is how light, airy and neat everything feels. The perfect setting to the inspirational and powerful nature of the content

Registration for the masterclass will close at midnight on Sunday 5th February so if you’d like to get involved, then don’t forget to book – go on, do it now, while you remember… Full details on the website.

Shameless plug alert! We have some wonderful business owners signed up to join me on 6th Feb for the Branding Masterclass but as the Early Bird Offer ends on Sunday I thought I’d give you a quick reminder of the reasons you need to book your place if you haven’t already:

1. Staying ahead of the game. You can never, ever say that your brand is “done”: markets move on, competitors spring up out of nowhere, your skills grow and develop and customer needs change. You need to be able to respond to that quickly and I’ll show you how in Week One.
2. Developing your brand identity to keep it fresh and inspiring. Whether you have a lovely logo and website or not, you’ll gain oodles of value from our forays into colour psychology and the mood board session in Week Two.
3. To ensure you get maximum bang out of this year’s marketing buck. This year is going to be tough, no doubt about it, but that doesn’t mean you need to slink back into the undergrowth and wait until it all passes. Get yourself out there and take advantage of the fact your competitors are shrinking away! We’ll create a powerful marketing plan in Week Three.
4. Because I’ll help you blow your clients away with every communication. We’ll map out your customer journey from the first enquiry to the last invoice and make sure you create a wow at every stage. You’ll love it!
5. Ratcheting up the effectiveness of your website. Because unless you have created your website in the last six months and you know there is nothing you can do to improve it you’ll get loads of value out of the website planning/ overhaul sessions in Week Four.
6. Reconnecting with your business and inspiring you to really get out there and make the most of this year. So it’s going to be tough? Well then let’s get focused and get ready to flourish! We’ll give you a number of exercises over the course of the four weeks to help reignite your passion for your business (even if you don’t think it’s waned), re inspire you and build your confidence.
7. It will help your business thrive this year. Not just grow, not just get your name out there. But really thrive. I’ll help you identify how to attract more of the profitable clients, communicate with flair and passion and inspire people to want to work with you.

A masterclass to inspire, motivate and reconnect you with your business

It’s an online class that starts on 6th Feb and runs for a month. You can pace yourself, so whatever your responsibilities, and where ever you live in the world, it can fit around you. All you need to do is commit to a couple of hours a week where you really focus on your business brand.I promise that it’ll be creative, inspirational and informative, and it will make a big difference to your brand (whether you have a lovely logo and website or not).

• Clarity and purpose around your brand strategy, niche, profitable clients and brand messaging
• A mood board to help you visualise and communicate how you’d like your brand to look and feel
• A marketing plan that helps you own and defend your niche and attract and retain the right sorts of clients
• A communication plan for your clients journey from enquiry to invoice that wows and inspires them
• A plan for a truly powerful website that attracts, engages and wins you business

In addition I’ll be sharing lots of inspirational case studies, behind the scenes insights from the design team at Flourish and plenty of useful tips, tools and techniques you can start using in your business immediately to make 2012 your best year yet.Here are some of the nice things people have said about previous workshops:

“It was very helpful to take time out and refocus on marketing priorities and how to be more consistent with the marketing messages I put out. Lots of clear, practical ideas – thanks!”

Anne Williams, Worklife Balance Solutions

“Thank you so much for a very inspirational and practical workshop. I feel much more confident about promoting my business now.”
Sue Goodson, Floreal Therapies

Investment for the whole four weeks is just £165+VAT when you book your place before 23rd January and this includes all the course notes, follow up support, bags of expert info, a 20 minute one to one with me and a £75 Flourish gift voucher.So why not start your year as you mean to go on – with purpose and inspiration, and join me for a fun, creative and purposeful Branding Masterclass. Book your place today and prepare to take your brand up a gear!

Are you all fired up and ready for the new year? I have to tell you, I am just bursting with creative energy right now and optimism for the year ahead. I think it’s going to be a really exciting year and I can’t wait to see what the future unfolds.

We all had a lot to deal with as businesses last year: snow (we really don’t deal well with snow do we?), riots (and the stress and disruption they caused on a commercial and personal level), the Royal Wedding/ extended holiday that had such an impact on so many businesses, serious tightening of belts domestically thanks to the VAT and price increases and so on. I certainly let the doom and gloom get in my way at a couple of points last year.

I suspect this year won’t be much different in that sense: the Olympics, the Silver Jubilee (thank goodness falling in a much more productive manner after the May bank holiday) and all the “economic climate” has in store for us. For me the difference is I’m not going to just ride along with things this time. I have a lot of plans up my sleeve to be a lot more productive and proactive this year and I’m genuinely excited.

By the way, quick plug, I have two spaces left on my Focus and Flourish workshop next Thursday (that’s the 12th Jan). It promises to be an incredibly inspiring day as I’m bringing in the fabulous Elizabeth Cairns to sprinkle some of her magic dust and get you all revved up for the year ahead. You can find out more/ book here…

I’m not prepared to just go on doing what I’ve always done in the hope that it’ll be enough. I know I have an incredibly strong brand, a great business and some very happy customers. But the fact is, we’re in a difficult economy and we all need to fight a bit harder. And whilst that thought might have exhausted me six months ago, thanks to some well chosen words from my friend Elizabeth Cairns, some inspiration from team Flourish and the time and space to think over the Christmas period, all I can say is Bring It On. I am truly excited about this year!

Here’s what I’m committing to this quarter

I don’t believe in New Years Resolutions. I think they encourage us to create unrealistic targets for ourselves that we all secretly know we’re going to break. So there will be no resolutions for me this (or any other) year. But December/ January is a natural time for us to think and set goals. And I have a number of very specific things that we’re going to do this quarter that I’m truly excited about.

And I’m going to share them with you right now because the bottom two are just embryonic ideas right now and I know that if I tell you then I’ll have to stick to them. Because if I don’t, I’m going to look very silly.

1. The launch of our online Branding Masterclass on 6th February – full details here – have you signed up yet? It promises to be fabulous
2. To create at least two new videos for our creative and digital offerings
3. To finally create a plan for (and launch) our Facebook and LinkedIn pages after months of ‘shall we, shan’t we’ discussions with the team
4. To have a finished {draft} manuscript ready to start designing and photographing by 31st March. Yes, I really am doing it this time and I’m not letting anything get in my way
5. Another Big Project that I’m going to keep under my hat right now. All I will say is that It’s Exciting. And the people that need to know about it know, and are excited too! I’ll share more when I can, I promise. Hassle me at the end of Jan if I haven’t told you {if I can keep it to myself for that long…}

And so in the spirit of the popular diet and fitness clubs groaning with motivated members I really think that we should share some of our plans for the new year. It’s much less stressful than a public weigh in, surely?

What are your plans for the new year? Do share your plans below…

ps. Yes, that really is my lovely new extension you see in those photos. Swoon!

“Rather than think about what you didn’t accomplish in 2011, make a list of all that you managed to do this year that you are proud of. In fact, that is my end of year ritual and I think we should share it together on decor8. It can be a real mood booster!”

What a cracking idea. And so I have shared some of my accomplishments on Holly’s blog, and it felt good! But I wanted to share a couple more here. And over the next few weeks we will be rounding up some of our favourite creative projects and posting them here too. I’d also love to encourage you to share some of the things you’re most proud of too – go on, put your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom!

Deep breath, here goes.

2011 has been an odd year for me personally. A tough economic climate, a year full of riots (which has been a major stress as my husband is a Public Order officer amongst other things) and major house renovations have taken their toll and at times I’ve let my stress get the better of me. At the same time I’ve never been more thankful for my family and we’ve had some fabulous (UK) holidays just spending time together and enjoying eachothers’ company.

I’m enormously proud of where we’re at as a business and I know that we’re in a much stronger position this year than we were last year. So all I can say is bring on 2012!

And so to the (business) bits that have made me proud this year:

Image: Matt Pereira

Watching the team grow, develop and flourish. Across the board I can say with pride that each and every member of our team has developed their skills exponentially this year and it’s been an utter delight to work with them and help them develop their skills. Can’t wait to see what next year holds!

The projects we’ve worked on. Without question the projects we’ve worked on this year have been inspiring, creative and hugely rewarding. We’ve worked with some amazing clients, had some great enquiries (did I ever tell you that we were down to the last three invited to quote for a *not sure if I can tell you but major brand from our childhood* relaunch?) and worked on some amazing projects. I love working with small businesses: you inspire me, motivate me and you’re fun. Here’s to an amazing 2012.

Creating our own content management system and ecommerce platform. Yep, our super clever Web Developer Stu created two powerful content management systems from scratch which enable our clients to manage their websites with ease. We’ve had some great feedback about this and I know it makes a big difference to our clients businesses.

Enjoying the success our clients are having as a result of our help. This is a big one for me and the reason that we do what we do. I can’t possibly mention everyone but a few that really stand out for me are MIB playing at the Royal Wedding celebrations in Hyde Park; Lisa Cox growing her business stratosopherically and gaining national and international business; Cobham Pilates soaring to success this year; Flowerona being able to give up her day job and much, much more.

We’ve also won and been shortlisted for several design awards, including the Annual Design Awards in January for Liezl Croft’s brochure and the Sheerluxe Shopping Awards for Yarwood White’s ecommerce site and whilst that’s nice, it’s not a patch on the pleasure of seeing our clients businesses grow.

The quality of design and development work we’ve produced this year. I’m really, really proud of the creative work the studio have produced this year. They never fail to inspire me with their commitment to quality and attention to detail, and it’s great that with the enormous help of Stu, I can say the same of our web development work too.

2011 has been a good year for us, and I have a LOT of plans for 2012. Now if I could only find that 8th day in my week I’d be sorted…

So I’ve shared my achievements, now it’s over to you. What are you most proud of in 2011?

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.

Thank you for all your support this year, both with the business, the blog and the workshops, we have really appreciated it. We’ll be back in the new year with a whole host of exciting goodies for you. In the meantime, enjoy the break and we’ll catch you soon.

With much love,

Fiona and team Flourish.

Are you thinking of updating your logo, website or blog next year?

We get it – life is hectic right now! And setting time aside to plan and implement your marketing for 2012 is slipping further down the list as we hurtle towards the big day.

But here’s the thing: taking action this side of Christmas will propel you ahead of your less organised competitors as well as ensuring you have less on your mind over the festive break.

So we’ve made it easy for you. Spend just a couple of minutes sharing your To Do list, spend an hour briefing us over a coffee and a mince pie (we can get festive too!) and you can get back to your ever mounting to do list, Christmas parties and those unwritten Christmas cards smug in the knowledge that we are working very hard behind the scenes for you.

The smug business owner’s guide to getting ahead

1. Take just two minutes out of your day to share with us what you have on your marketing To Do list for 2012 at http://www.flourishstudios.co.uk/carrots

2. We’ll come back to you and see if we can incentivise you to commit to them this side of Christmas.

3. You put a tiny (think pea-sized) amount of time into briefing us on your project and then you can get back to the mince pies, parties and Christmas productions

4. We work our socks off behind the scenes preparing your marketing bits: think websites, logos, newsletters, ecommerce sites or blogs; so that come the new year, you’re ready to hit the ground running a good month or two ahead of your competitors. (And if you read my post from yesterday you’ll know that planning ahead is a good thing – so that you can savour every moment of the journey!)

You’ll save money and get ahead for the New Year. Either way the benefit is yours.

So go on, share your marketing To Do list today and prepare to bask in the smugness of getting ahead, very ahead, for 2012!

I class myself as one of life’s impatient. Once I’ve made a decision to do something, I want to get on with it right away. I struggled heavily with the concept of waiting six months for the right builder to be available to work on our house (especially as I’d been super organised and waited until we had Building Regs before going out to tender). And so I totally get the look of terror in your eyes when you learn that a decent website may take around 3 months (or more…) from concept to completion. If it was me, I’d want it right away too!

But consider this. Nothing good ever happens without thought, care and attention. And just as you could go into any fast food outlet and grab yourself an instant hit of something very unsatisfactory, far better to wait at a pub or restaurant for something homecooked. Sure, it costs more, but it’s better value for money, you have a more enjoyable experience and you’re fuller and happier when you leave.

The best things come to those who wait

It’s a bit like this with websites. You can get yourself a cheap and not so cheerful website and you can probably get it turned around in a matter of weeks. But you’ll find that there physically isn’t the time to plan the customer journey, develop a creative concept, pay time, care and attention to the details and execute with style. It’ll be a short lived web-calorie hit.

The alternative is much more satisfying (are you with me on this slightly odd analogy?). Having a new website created is a journey to be savoured. It’s an opportunity to bring some clarity to your thinking about your business, to take what you’re doing up a level and be blown away by someone else’s interpretation of your business. You can’t rush stuff like this. And whilst I don’t want you to think we sit around in meditations all day waiting for ideas to come (I can just hear the design team scoffing at that thought!) it is important that we create a design that is creatively strong and wins you business. And that means we need time to do it. Timelines will vary from project to project, and sometimes things will unexpectedly take longer than you think because (often) you may need more time to think about the creative or getting your copy right. But it’s always, always worth it in the end.

So more than anything, if you are desperate for a new website, get organised and start talking to us sooner rather than later! Don’t think about it for four months and then leave it so late that you need a microwave meal of a website! Allow yourself time to do it properly. 

Matt and I decided that we’d use the afternoon to bring the team together, have a bit of a giggle and exercise our creative muscles. I have to say, we had a huge amount of fun, Matt took some corking images and it was a fab experience. I love working with Matt. He has incredibly high standards, he knows what I’ll like and we’ve worked together enough now to be able to push the boundaries whilst still getting the shots we need.

We roped in various members of the team to hold the equipment…

It all got a bit much for Ian.

Some of my ideas worked… Others really didn’t. We thought the “Stuart under the bridge” concept might look kooky and fun. We thought we might use it to advertise the Web Developer position. Actually we decided he just looked a bit like a hobbit (much to the amusement of Guildford’s lunching public).

Some of the shots in and around the high street attracted a lot of interest. Especially when Ian told one lady that we were the production team for Britain’s Next Top Model.

By the end of the afternoon we’d got (almost all) of the shots we needed, had a lot of fun and have some gorgeous pics to put onto the website. Now we just need to start using them…

Our carrot dangling plan

This year we’ve decided to do a little experiment. Can we make a “sale” work for a service business? Can we incentivise our customers to focus on their marketing a bit earlier than they usually would and commit to some flourishing creative or digital work?

We’re inviting our customers to share some of the things they have on their to do list (but have been putting off) and we’ll let them know if we can make it worth their while committing to them now.

The idea is that of course it’s about saving money, but it’s also about getting ahead of the competition! Whilst they start thinking about marketing their businesses in February/ March, Flourish clients will be ready to go! We’re really excited to see how it’s going to work. Who is focused enough on their business and forward thinking enough to invest a bit of time in getting organised for the new year? We’re excited about the results!

So if you have a bunch of things that are moving further and further down your to-do list, why don’t you share them with us, and see if we can make it worth your while doing now? And if you’re not currently a client of Flourish but fancy working with us, we’d love you to get involved too.

Visit http://www.flourishstudios.co.uk/carrots for more details

Simply visit our website, share your to do list with us and we’ll be in touch!