Success - What Is It?

I now people who believe that success is having a single hit the top of the music charts. Or complete a sell out tour. Others who believe it is about making six figures each year. Or own a big house, two cars, have kids at University and about to retire.

Clearly success means different thing to different people. We can all define what success means to us and have successesses each and every day! What it great for some may mean nothing for others. It could be something seemingly small to most but represents a major breakthrough for that person. Being able to stand up. Leaving the house. Speaking with a particular person. Perhaps even speaking at all!

So why do I ask?

Well, in the entertainment arena, when discussing things like volume of work, types of gigs, marketing campaigns, fees earned and so on, it's essential to remember the same things. What is total success for one may be merely the starting point for another. We cannot judge. So when someone says: "I'm getting a gig every couple of weeks now" it isn't appropriate to say "Is that all?".

The success of anything can only be measured against expectations, desires and needs.
Once we know the benchmarks we can evaluate how much of a success something has been.

What's this got to do with you?

A lot! The purpose of this post is to simply give you some food for thought. To awaken you to the whole idea of success and perhaps, with the end of this year looming, to think about goals and goal achievement for the coming new year. More about that very soon!

So here are some questions to think about:

Q1: You are a Face Painter and at a party you create ten of the absolute best designs they have ever seen. The kids love their faces and their parents think they are wonderful too. Have you been a success?

A1: That depends! It depends upon the brief, the agreement you made with your client. IF you only painted those ten and there were ten more who wanted but didn't get painted - and your brief was to paint them all - you have failed! However wonderful the limited results were, that's only a job half done, and the sadness and tears no doubt created a problem and made it worse than not being there at all!

Q2: You've designed and put up a website. It talks a lot about who you are and what you have done and shows some great photographs of many of the parties and events you've worked at. Many friends say the site is great, it's colorful, exciting and easy to look around. Is the site a success?

A2: Again, there is no way of telling from this. You may feel it's a success because you had to learn about site design, struggle with templates, uploads, source code etc and you achieved something you've always wanted to do. So in tat sense, perhaps it is. But whether the 'site' is a succes will depend on exactly what is the intended role, the purpose of the site and whether it will achieve that consistently over time.

For example, if the site is 'merely' a 'vanity site, a portfolio, a showcase whose only role is to diplay work to people sent directly there, then only comments about navigation and usabiliy will be relevant. However, if there is an intention for the site to be found by search engines, and offered up in the results pages for people sarching for artistes like you in your market - then the success can only be measured by testing the search engine results for the keywords that market will use. Achieving this will means having to apply very different design criteria to the site pages. We must know the intention to be able to judge the success.

One more example

Q3: You gave up your full time job and started to work solely as an entertainer. You have brought in enough work to just cover your bills, your outgoings. Because of the recession, work is getting harder to pull in and there are certainly no guarantees. Things look fine(ish) in the coming months but rising costs mean that some bills get harder and harder to meet. In fact, there's a possibility that you may have to change motor vehicles to a small one that's cheaper to run and tighten your belt in a couple of other areas too. Is this a success story?

A3: I'm going to leave it there for now and ask YOU what YOU think! IS this a success story? Make a comment below and I'll reveal what I think next time. Until then...

... I wish you all the success you desire and deserve

John Gordon
Founder APE





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5 Ways To Increase Your Business With Name Painting

Several face & body painters have recently 'discovered' the ancient art of 'Name Painting'.

I first saw this some years ago at Whiteley's Mall in Bayswater, London and later at Covent Garden and Camden Lock, both upscale, popular tourist and local attraction street markets. I never investigated it, but all the exponents were from somewhere in the 'Far East' and the designs followed a similar pattern. I had my name created and it hung on my office wall for some time. Each letter can be created in a limited range of symbols, each of which represents a particular character or trait.

I have no idea what those currently intrigued with the idea have in mind, and maybe they haven't either, other than it being an interesting diversion and something they can understandably turn their hand to with ease. I dare say that some will translate the designs into face and body designs and use them in their primary work. I've also seen mention of producing the artworks at events when the weather makes it impossible to face paint.

However, there are a number of very beneficial things they could do with the work they produce and I thought I'd offer a quick heads-up here and hopefully fire up their interest even more.

Give Aways
For 'temporary' face & body painters, it means they now could have something with lasting value. Once the skills are learned, they will only take minutes to create but would last for a lifetime. These Name Paintings would make superb 'give aways'. They have a reasonable perceived value and would therefore make an impression when received as a gift.

Once created on paper or board, they could be 'branded' with a stamp (or sticker) to create a perpetual promotion. I should mention here that it may become important what size they are created. Bear in mind envelope and postal limitations, and also, for when you offer them mounted or framed, what is available here too at an appropriate price.

When To Use


1. As a 'thank you' to a client after a gig
Hopefully you DO send clients a follow up email or maybe postcard or ecard. Imagine them receiving a thank you letter and a Name Painting of their or their family name. It's an excellent personal gift but not too much, especially because you have created it and it's very closely related with what you do.

2. As a competition / survey prize
I'm sure many will run competitions on their Blogs or websites. These could be any number of things from naming a design, the best submitted design idea, best coloring sheet that month and so on. See articles I've written on Competitions, Polls and Surveys as promotional tools elsewhere. Then you reward the winner or winners with specially created Name Paintings.

3. As a bonus
When creating a 'bundle' as a price promotion, a Name Painting would be an excellent addition. Given the price these sell at when created live, this value added bonus would work wonders. Instead or having to reduce your fees to match a competitor's price, start to add value! Whereas you may previously not known of a way to do that (although there are many options), this is simple.

4. As a free gift when prospects 'opt in' to your list
As I am sure you know, opt-in rates increase massively when a free gift is offered. If you have an opt-in for a special list and offer these as an incentive - you'd end up with the prospects name, email and snail mail address.

In all the above cases, it would be simple to enclose a PS that said:

"If you'd like a Name Painting for another family member, I would be happy to send one at a special reduced price ...." and so on. This is a simple upsell that I see families taking advantage of.

5. As a way of getting the edge on competitors
Just being able to offer this to everyone who makes a booking on certain days, or over a certain price, or once booked x times in any period ... however you wish to limit availability, creates a scarcity that creates desire and demand. And this is so powerful when you are the only one on the block making such offers.
That's it. Just a quick heads up on 5 Ways To Increase Your Business With Name Painting
 
John
 
PS If you have any questions about the above, simply leave a comment and I'll respond
 
John Gordon
Founder of APE



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