So I made a new video on YouTube! I know it’s been a minute, I’ve been so busy these days studying for finals and such.

Here I’ve created another Buddha page. I’m really digging that Buddha stamp. It’s from my own collection from when my ex husband and I used to do stamp designs together.

I also used the usual supplies:

Acrylic Paint by Deco Art

Misters by Deco Art

Stencil also by Deco Art

Acrylic Paint by Dylusions

If you have decided to launch a business, you have made a very courageous choice. There are many things you need to know before launching a new business. There is inventory to take into consideration, initial start-up cost and upkeep, hiring employees, sales, marketing…and the list goes on extensively.

Here are some top questions you need to ask yourself before launching your own business.

Are you launching this business for the right reasons? Sometimes an individual or a group of individuals will launch a business because they think it is expected of them or because it is a family tradition to do so. Other reasons are simply for the monetary benefits. With high hopes of making tons of money, sometimes a new entrepreneur may lose sight of his or her customer.

Once you examine your motives behind starting up a new business, go on to the next important question. Once you know what type of business you want to begin, ask yourself who your target audience is. Knowing that you want to create a business and knowing what that business is will simply not be enough. You need to know who your target audience is and who your ideal customer is.

Honing in on a target audience is something that you can delve into even deeper by creating a specific niche and then going on to create a sub-niche. In this manner, you will be certain that you have focused on a specific need for an even more specific customer.

Have you thoroughly researched your action plan? Setting goals and measuring them is essential when launching a new business. Put a plan into motion, but allow yourself flexibility to expand on that original plan. Ask yourself if your business plan is too narrow minded or if it will achieve the desired outcome you seek and go beyond even that.

Make sure you research if there is enough demand for the product or service you are offering or if you will be just another company offering the same old thing. Ask yourself if you can put a new innovative twist onto something tried and true.

Ask yourself how much time you are willing to dedicate to this business. What if this business is something that you will find success with right away? Are you willing and able to put the time and trouble in if it does become successful right away?

Also, think about whether or not this is a part-time business or a full-time endeavor. Do you have enough funds to last for six months to a year until your business becomes steady enough to stand on its own two feet?

Once you are able to answer these important questions, you can be well on your way to having a successful business endeavor.

One of the most important issues to address in your business life is identifying your target audience and ideal customer. Without honing in on a specific target audience, you run the risk of missing the mark. There are several easy steps to identify your target audience and ideal customer.

My favorite links for social media marketing/business launching tips:

Michael Stelzner

Derek Halpern

Set Your Goals and Keep Your Goals

One of the best ways to identify your target audience is by setting goals for your business. Once you have set identifiable goals, your ideal customer will present him or herself.

Keeping true to those goals will ensure that your target audience and ideal customer will return time and again.

Measure Your Goals

Once you have established what your goals are, it is important to revisit those goals and measure them on a regular basis.

A great way to measure your goals to see if they are up-to-date is to utilize social media. Have your customers or clients take a survey or enter a contest to see whether or not your company is meeting and exceeding their needs.

Make sure to communicate with customers on social media. Respond to their comments, and communicate via Twitter. See what the competition is doing and what trends are trending. Follow those trends.

Choose a Niche

Once you have set your goals and have established ways to measure those goals, make certain that you stick within your niche. Often times, business owners tend to waiver outside their niche. Sometimes creative ideas just seem to flow and flow; however, you must be true to your niche at all times. This is how you will be able to identify your target audience and your ideal customer.

Create a Sub-Niche

Once you have created a niche, see if you can break it down further and create a sub-niche. A niche would be something like divorced women and a sub-niche would be divorced women with small children. Perhaps your business is a life coaching business that empowers divorced women with smaller children to educate themselves so that they can provide for themselves and their families.

Once you start your new business, you will begin to notice who is responding and who is not responding. In this way, you can measure your target audience a little better and hone in on your ideal customer.

For example, you may notice that divorced women with older children may be in a better position to use your products and services as compared to divorced women with younger children. Your target audience may present itself a little bit differently than you had planned.

Stay flexible, keep an open mind, but once you have established your ideal customer, make certain to keep it there and dedicate all your time and effort to that target audience and its ideal customer.

Did you know that 90% of all new products fail?

The key is to find a need, and fill it. Good marketing will empower you to do that. Laying out a successful marketing plan will give you the tools to do that.

I personally recommend speaking to a good marketing agency, because they will be able to see your product or service from the outside, and create a plan for you to market yourself, so that you gain leads and sales, and your business flourishes.

This is a practice I swear by, and use on a regular basis. Why? Because I didn’t go to college for marketing. But if I hire someone who has, they can see my product from the outside, and give me guidance in a way I never thought of before.

For this reason, I recommend the family-run company NJ SEO, to help you with all of your marketing needs. This firm will help you with link building content, search advertising, and even help you build a custom website.

This company is a full service marketing agency, helping you from start to finish. Even if you just have questions about your site, or have a question about your ad copy, or even want someone to help you redesign your website, it’s pretty handy that you can have it all done in one place. I have a few reasons why I am recommending NJ SEO for your marketing needs.

For one, they are the number one marketing agency in New Jersey and they have case studies to prove that. On top of that, NJ SEO has many success stories and reviews, so you know that you are not just “being sold” on their services. Instead, they actually work. The last reason that I recommend them is because of the fact that they are a family-run company. Brothers, Matt and Dan Anton started NJ SEO, opening offices in New Jersey and Georgia.

Dan is a retired Infantry Airborne Army Ranger Major and Matt is the former marketing manager of Liberty Travel, which is a billion dollar travel agency. I try to choose small family-run businesses over larger companies whenever I can and I am glad I can do that with a marketing company!

Again, I’ve used marketing agents before and it is a big help, so NJ SEO is something to truly consider.

The year was 1993. I was sixteen years old. I’d woken up one particular morning, and had a dream that I decided to tell my mother about. I’d dreamt I was getting married. My mother replied to me, saying, “Oh no. That means someone in the family is going to die soon.”
I did not know if I believed in such things, but I filed it in the back of my head for later. In the dream I dreamt I was introducing my half-brother Johnny to a man that did not appear in my dream, but that I was getting married to.
A few days later, my mother and I were coming back home from church. In those days, you still had an answering machine. There were several messages on the machine. The day was October 24, 1993. One of the messages was from a detective from New Jersey, stating that John Anthony Rivera, my big brother, had passed away. His death still plagues me to this day, but I’ll not dwell on that in this essay. I will say that it felt like perhaps my dream had been an omen. Perhaps the universe or what in my religion is called my ,”muertos” (the dead, which is to say your ancestors) where warning me. Perhaps.
One day about three years later, I was dating a boy named Jeffrey Neiss. We were both young, barely 19 years old. We hadn’t been together very long, maybe three or four months. One day, Jeff and I were out. He and I were talking, and he told me, “Ya know, your brother verbally accosted me!”
At this point, I am realizing I need more information, but I was interested. I do have two other half brothers, so I needed to get more information from him.
“Well, what happened?” I ask him.
“Basically he told me that if I break your heart he’s gonna kick my ass. What the fuck Diana!”
“What did he look like? Did he have caramel skin and black hair, or was he white looking like me, with tattoos?”
“No, he looked like you only with a scar on his lip.”
I asked him, “Jeff are you SURE you ACTUALLY saw him?”
“Yeah and I told your mom and why did she say there’s no brother living hear?” He asked me slightly peeved.
I informed Jeffery that he had basically described my brother Johnny who had been dead for at that point, three years.
I know he wasn’t lying because twenty years later he and I are close friends and while he’s admitted to many lies, he remains that he saw my brother Johnny.
Many years later, it was September 11, 2001. I was commuting into New York City for work. My usual hours were 9:30 to 5:30. That was a Tuesday and I got paid on Tuesdays. My normal routine was taking the PATH train into the World Trade Center, and changing for the N train there, since I worked close to Grand Central Station. I’d normally get to World Trade Center around 9, but that particular morning I’d gotten there early.
I arrived at the World Trade Center at 8:35. I figured I had so much time, perhaps I’d grab a cup of coffee and relax at Borders Books for a bit. I remembered I didn’t have much cash left on me. I circled around the floor of the World Trade Center wondering what I should do. I then remember I saw Johnny, my brother as clear as day. For whatever reason, I was not scared. He came to me in flesh and blood and told me, “Diana just go to work a little bit early.”
In my head I was arguing with him, thinking it was too early for me to head in to work. He reminded me of the Amish Market next door to my job. You could get a large coffee and a chocolate chip muffin for $1.50. Again he told me, “Just get to work early. Leave here.” So I did. I left the World Trade Center at exactly 8:40. Five minutes later the planes hit.
All I could think about when I got to work and heard my coworker screaming was how my life was spared. How I had seen my big brother Johnny and he spared my life, and I wondered why I was spared and so many innocent people had to die in the name of religion. I cannot explain this away through science. I can only tell you what happened to me. I truly saw my big brother that morning of September 11, 2001 and he came to me to spare my life.
I met Cliff through Okcupid. We texted for a while and then agreed to go out on a date. We hit it off, and got along well. From this point it was the start of a wonderful relationship. He was tall with dark brown hair and a handlebar mustache. He stood at over 6 feet tall. He understood me. He just got me. He knew the kind of person I am and was okay with me just as I am. I didn’t have to change. I didn’t have to be less of an alpha female. He liked me just for me. We were friends but so much more than that. We truly cared for each other. He was wonderful.
I’d heard him mention that he was going to New Orleans to visit a girlfriend he’d broken up with. When he got back I was going to spend the weekend at his place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I missed him. I’d planned on telling him how I felt about him.
One particular day, I went out for a walk and saw a flock of ravens. In my family a flock of ravens usually meant death. That night after seeing these ravens I had a dream again that I was getting married. The next night I dreamt of Cliff. It was a lucid dream and felt like he was there with me, talking to me. The next day I heard news that while I lay sleeping and dreaming of him, he had hung himself.
My father says that sometimes spirits say goodbye to you before they pass away. He said this because before his ex wife passed away, the very night she passed, he dreamt of her. He hadn’t been with her in 30 years, so the idea of him dreaming of her was not a normal thing.

So I did a new video this morning. I’m having fun posting these videos, I do hope you enjoy them.

The page is entitled, “Seeking Hope”.

I used:

Deco Art Shimmer mists

Deco art stencils

Acrylic paint, generic brand

Craft paints by Martha Stewart

Acrylic paints by Dylusions