Midrand Moonlight Market, Carols by Candlelight

For those who don't live in Johannesburg and don't know: We tend to schedule some of the Festivities a bit sooner than is done elsewhere simply because most of Johannesburg shuts down from about the 10th of December every year and many leave the City for other places in South Africa or overseas where they can relax with family and friends and just take a rest from the frenetic pace of life in the "City of Gold".

The one Christmas Market I've been looking forward to most is finally here, tonight, I just can't wait!! Find Beautiful Bracelets there if you can make it! Bring a R20 donation for the Candle (goes to Botshebelo Children). Details on the Poster:

The Best Place to be in Midrand...

One of the difficulties of starting your own business sometimes can be the loneliness, especially if you’re a gregarious person. It helps to “get out” somehow and one of the excuses I used was to take advantage of Cappuccino’sMidrand’s Unlimited Wireless Internet facilities (which is great if you need it – actually, I have my own) but it is good to know about, and a great excuse to get out and chat to people if you work alone most of the day.

Myself with Tasser, Nana and Mike (co-owners of Cappuccino's Midrand)

Cappuccino’s Midrand is certainly one of the greatest landmarks in the area with its double-volume circular shape giving one a sense of uncluttered space yet somehow managing to maintain a wonderful ambience for social or business interactions. It is no wonder you will often notice business meetings in progress at various tables there, corporate lunches, celebrations, parties, and friendly coffee/chat sessions happening and the place buzzes, with a busy-ness that is both fun and good for working or friendly connections from early in the morning (Breakfast is served from 7am) through to late at night. The place is never empty. Mike and Nana, the co-owners are examples of the best kind of boss which reflects in the warm, friendly, service-with-a-smile of the staff. The food is excellent and competitively priced. There isn’t anything to beat it in Midrand. That’s why Beautiful Bracelets is proud to say this building has been “almost” our first office. And we will certainly celebrate our successes there as the business grows!

Celebrate!

"Go Where You Are Celebrated Instead of Where You Are Tolerated." Mike Murdock

I love this quote by Dr Mike Murdock and it really resonated with me this week. I am very happy to have Beautiful Bracelets stocked in various outlets, from Johannesburg to Cape Town and in 2013 one of my goals will be to increase the retail outlets where Beautiful Bracelets are sold in South Africa. Sometimes it may seem that one or another retail outlet's sales of Beautiful Bracelets are either minimal or zero. There could be several reasons why this is not happening, perhaps that particular store has a sales representative inhouse who is simply not interested in the product or for some reason is promoting other items in the store.

Then there are other outlets that are selling Beautiful Bracelets with such gusto that I have to replenish stock almost every other day. This kind of retailer is Celebrating Beautiful Bracelets! And that is where we want to be: Where we are Celebrated...!

Tips to Boost Business This Christmas

Eiffel Tower decked in Gold Christmas Lights, December 2010

Run a Last Minute Competition. I’ve noticed a few companies still doing this, why not you? There is plenty of information on the internet on how to do it well, and inexpensively via social media and online via your website.

Christmas Markets. If you’re in a small startup like Beautiful Bracelets, ensure you’re at every possible Christmas Market you can gain entrance to. People do go to these Markets with the express purpose of buying Christmas Gifts, and at one such Christmas Market, a real estate agent was handing out free “branded” bottled water to everyone as they arrived at the market, so there are ways that any business can increase it’s “reach” this Season.

Delivery. Offer guaranteed delivery by a certain date. Christmas should be perfect, especially the presents. Customers will want their deliveries promptly before the big day arrives.

v    Make sure your customers know the last date and time they can order something and have it delivered before Christmas.

v      When they might expect to receive delivery of the item/s.

v      If they ordered after the final date for it to be in time for Christmas, where else might they be able to find the item.

Greetings to your Database. Email your database with a “Happy Holidays” or “Christmas” greeting to ensure they keep you top of mind. Include a few special offers on products. Don’t overdo it or it could backfire on you when your email is sent to “spam”.

Run limited period promotional offers: Free-gift wrapping, perhaps give them a mince pie and a cup of tea whilst they are waiting (it would be great if the tyre balancing service people would do this). Use any opportunity you can to get to know your customers, and offer excellent customer service.

Branded Gifts. Give your clients or customers a useful Branded Gift. (Like the Bottled Water mentioned before). The more personal the gift, the better. Many people use Fridge Magnets for branding these days. But if these are a conspicuous advertisement they could land up in the trash.

Christmas is very commercialised, but we can make it special and personal, and if carefully thought out, it is a time when people are thinking of community and involvement (exchanging gifts) and it can be a very uplifting and joyous time. Celebrate it with your customers in a way they will remember you.

Twitter Tips to Promote Your Startup Business

Before the Radio 702 Money Show Challenge on 1 October 2012, although I had a personal Twitter account, like so many others: I never used it. So I had to become an expert on Twitter (and many other things) in a hurry since starting Beautiful Bracelets! I have a few tips for those who, like me, are fairly new to Twitter. I could probably do some of these things a bit better myself, I’m still learning! I am including some things that put me off Twitter so I hope I am not offending anyone by mentioning it here. Feel free to leave a comment or a tip, I am quite happy to consider other points of view or ideas. I’m still growing, learning and changing to become better at this each day:

• Don’t spam your Followers by sending out too much info in a rapid succession of Tweets. Rather use something like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck and schedule the information in say, 5 short Tweets over the period of a week or so.
• It is better not to have your Facebook/Twitter accounts linked, I noticed very quickly that people don’t like it. It feels too much like Spam.
• No graphic details. Don’t tell me what you ate for breakfast, lunch or supper unless you’re a restaurant. Maybe I’m squeamish.
• Reach out to your Audience in a friendly way and tell them things that may be of interest to them. The kind of things that others “retweet” will give you an idea of what people like to hear about. Tailor this to yourself and your tweeting.
• Be Retweetable! Add Tweet buttons to your website and Blog. Make it easier for others to retweet you. Keep your Tweets to under 120 characters or less if you want to allow commentary.
• Tweet to Inspire or Inform: Some of my best viewed content was as a result of the following Tweets: “Anything is Possible”, “How to GetYour Products into Retail Stores”, “Have a Vision for Your Business”. In each case, I quoted the link to the related Blog Post on the “1000 Beautiful Bracelets” Blog.
• Track your success. Google Analytics is a great tool for this. What is the point of using Social Media or Blogs if you don’t track everything and keep yourself up to date with what’s of interest to your audience? 
• Be relationship-focused and keep the human-interest angle top of mind.

Finally, please Retweet this Post!

Twitter Tips to Promote Your Startup Business1000beautifulbracelets.blogspot.com/2012/11/twitte…
— Beautiful Bracelets (@1000bracelets) November 26, 2012

More Christmas Markets..!

Our first Christmas Market was a wonderful success. It really was a stunning vibe, I hope the photo gives a sense of the atmosphere, which was heightened with a sense of “intrigue” as husbands waited for wives to walk on to the next table before sneaking back to buy a Beautiful Bracelet as a gift for her! A few people commented that they had avidly followed the Radio 702 Money Show Challenge, it was lovely to meet and chat to them.

With such a lovely start to the Festive Season, we are really looking forward to this coming Friday evening, when we will be at the Midrand Urban Moonlight Market and Carols...

Join us for this Wonderful Christmas Moonlight Market!

Join us later today for a stunning event inside Kyalami Estates, considered the BEST Residential Estate in the  Country! The Christmas Moonlight Market will be held today (5-9pm) in the Main Park, Gosforth Avenue, and promises to be excellent in the style of any previous events hosted on the Estate. There will be live music, entertainment for children, a Marquee (in case of rain) and professional lighting. And many Christmas Gifting ideas amongst the many stalls (do visit Beautiful Bracelets). The food on sale is likely to be great, and the ambience will certainly be magical. Should you decide to attend, please contact me directly (you can do so even by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, I will get back to you and provide you with an entrance code for the Main Gate which you will need for access).