I (temporarily) fell off the blogging wagon, but I’m hopping right back on. For now, I am committing to a Tuesday + Friday publishing schedule, with a goal of increasing it to three times per week later on.

What have I been up to?

The short answer: reading, learning and brainstorming (and client work, of course).

The longer answer: I have been spending a lot of time focusing and redefining my business. This journey began about 8 months ago at the Creative Freelancer Conference. At the end of the conference, we each wrote down “Things I’m committed to doing for my business in the next six months” on a card. The conference leaders would mail us the cards in about six months, as a friendly reminder of our goals.

I received mine in the mail about a week ago:

Guess what? I am working from my own office, which I absolutely love. I have spent the last six months developing a marketing strategy. My website and resume are current, sans one recent project. I (obviously) started a blog, and I am putting the finishing touches on my e-newsletter. (I’m working on the sign-up form for the newsletter, but you can also email me to get on the list.)

Looking at this list gave me a huge boost of confidence, because when I wrote those goals, I thought I might accomplish two of them, at most.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll talk more about how I’ve made it this far (it involves a lot of reading and asking for help) and where I’m headed next (including new services!). I’m really excited to share my new goals with you.

One thing that has been instrumental in developing these new goals is my Empire Building Kit series from Chris Guillebeau. Days 1 through 41 of the 365-day EBK course have seriously rocked my socks. I wanted to mention the EBK today because it goes on sale tomorrow for another 24-hour launch, which is the first time it’s been available for sale since I bought it. If you have your own small business, or are interested in starting one, I highly recommend checking it out. I’ll talk more about what I learned from it tomorrow.  Feel free to comment or email me with questions too.

Thanks for sticking around through the post drought. I really appreciate it.

How many magnets are on your refrigerator right now? Did you buy them yourself, or are they from businesses? I’d bet at least half are from businesses.

Did you know:

95 million homes have at least one fridge which they open an average of 20 times per day. (That’s 7,300 hits a year.)

My parents have magnets on their fridge that have been there for at least 10 years.

I think that as long as your magnet:

(1) is aesthetically pleasing,

(2) has useful information (like your services + contact info), and

(3) is strong enough to hold a paper or two -

the likelihood of it remaining up there for awhile is pretty high. (I have no science to back this up, it’s just based on my experience.)

I’d recommend considering a refrigerator magnet for your next promotional item giveaway. I personally love the ones with the little clip to hold papers. They’re so sturdy.

Thanks to Lee Silber and his book, Self-Promotion for the Creative Person: Get the Word Out About Who You Are and What You Do for this fun fact.

Feeling kind of cranky? Maybe even a little bitter? Yeah, I was too. It’s Monday, it’s cold and dreary in Chicago, I have jet lag from my trip to LA and I didn’t have any caffeine today. And then I did this one quick thing, and I felt a lot better.

Stop whatever you’re doing right now, go over to LinkedIn or Biznik and write someone a recommendation.

I mean it. Right now.

Scroll through your list of contacts and pick one person that you think does something awesome — it could be a client, a former co-worker, a professor — anyone. Take a few minutes (it really won’t take more than 15 minutes) and write a few sentences about them.

When you are done, I guarantee that you will feel awesome. Better than when that first sip of coffee starts kicking in on Monday morning. I can also guarantee that the person you just wrote about will feel awesome when they read it. It is a genuine, unexpected display of appreciation. Who knows, they may even feel inclined to write a bit of praise on your profile. Even if they don’t, I think writing recommendations looks great to prospective employers or clients — who wouldn’t want to work with someone that openly applauds and recognizes the work of others?

I know that you’re busy. I’m busy too. (As a side note, you might want to check out Chris Guillebeau’s article: “I’ve just been so busy lately.”) But, being busy isn’t an excuse not to acknowledge and thank the people who have positively impacted our lives — AND both LinkedIn and Biznik make it incredibly simple to display that positive message to the public.

Now, go for it!