3 1/2 weeks in

Business side of things:

Some people say marketing is the second most important thing after producing a good product/service. That is something we have still not started, and is moving along more slowly than I had expected. One mistake I can say we've made is not starting with creating and producing marketing material before the website launched. If we had done that the minute the website opened up online we could have started marketing immediately. We learn most from our mistakes I think.. so that is one lesson learned.

I spent the first week after the website was launched getting our website url onto other websites (e.g. photography related websites, bc business websites etc.) but I noticed after checking out the website statistics that people are rarely finding our website that way. Not too sure why, or if perhaps I'm just linking to websites that are not popular. Will have to rethink this strategy.

We've just put together a bookmark with our pictures on it, website url and a few words indicating what we do, then we're going to send it to the printers - I've priced a whole bunch of different copy centres and the one I've gravitated to, even though its more expensive than the others, the one where the bookmark is printed on 100% recycled material and vegetable based ink is used. That goes along best with my way of being in the world so I will have to suck it up and eat the cost I think. We'll drop them off in mailboxes ourselves because Canada Post doesn't allow attachments and we want to put tassels on our bookmarks. Anyone can create a bookmark, but a bookmark with original BC photographs on it, on 100% recycled material with a tassel might have a better chance of being kept and actually used, at least I hope so! We all get enough "junk mail" the last thing I want to do is add to that.

We've also worked on an original looking business card.
We used our images to create it! - This will help when I get more into the networking aspect of marketing in the near future. I'd like to create some original letterhead paper as well.


Also working on the whole accounting part of things. I learned the basics of Simply Accounting this past weekend and I'm meeting with prospective accountants tomorrow. Running a business is really about wearing many different hats, and the financial aspect is just another hat. This is a valuable learning process for me, especially as the book keeping process is new to me.

I'm exploring the possibility of writing articles to go along with photos to submit to magazines and newspapers. Bought 8 magazines last week that I think our pictures would work well in and I'm planning to sit down read them well and come up with some article ideas. Definitely would like to enter our photos into competitions as well. There seem to be tons in magazines and online.

May consider adding a service to our product and wedding photography would be something cool I'd like to try out! I also even went down to Kits beach to take impromptu pictures of dogs, which I really enjoyed - this is definitely an area I'd like to try out.

The Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation is having an event on May 27th (a walk to raise money) and Shawn and I volunteered to photograph the event for them. This will be good experience for us and I bet it will be a lot of fun too.

Photography

Been loving the past few weeks photography wise. I've been to Boundary Bay three times and Delta once. Got a few pictures of the snowy owl - which was an awesome experience! Worked hard to get it and fell into a swamp in the process of getting the shot. luckily my camera equipment was kept dry! I just love being out there taking pictures, it's fun, I feel alive, exhilarated, excited and all those kind of good feelings. The question is whether the photographs will sell.

Sent a bunch of pictures to Nature Canada for their e-cards and photo of the month thing. Hopefully, they will include a photo on their website. Here are a couple of photos. the first one includes two wood ducks and was taken at Burnaby Park, the second was sunrise at Boundary Bay! Side stuff

I've read one and a 1/4 books for two book clubs. The first book is Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, it was ok - couldn't relate to any of the characters and didn't feel there was much depth. The second book is one hundred years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia - didn't get past page 147, wasn't my kind of book.

Saw the movie The Departed, which was very good. A lot of intricate plot lines, good acting - a bit too much blood splattering on walls but Martin Scorcese definitely deserved the Oscar!

Been swimming lengths as of late, roller bladed a few time, biking quite a bit. Preparing for the coming hiking season. I want to hike all the time as soon as the weather gets nicer. went up the BCMC trail (the trail next to the Grouse Grind) on Sunday, and the top portion was icy (which was very slippery and scary). I went to check out the wolves at the bottom of Grouse Mountain and I became depressed looking at them. They look so sad in their enclosure.

Went to a Climate Change rally in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday, I was a bit disappointed more people hadn't showed up. But there were about 300 there, and it felt good know 1400 similar events were happening simultaneously.