10.31.2012

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately, our little pumpkin, Gavin, was napping during dress up time.

10.29.2012

Fall Photo Shoot Highlights

After the initial Capture the Moment photo shot, I've had the opportunity to photograph more families this fall. A couple celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary, a family with a new baby and an energetic family of four. I also used my new capturing skills this past weekend while Cadence enjoyed a corn maze & trick or treating with her cousins. Enjoy a highlight photo from each shoot.










If you are interested in scheduling your own Capture the Moment photo shoot by Jessie Marie Studio (think Christmas gifts!) the prices are below.

Capture the Moment Photo Shoot Pricing
$150 for 1 hour & an edited CD of photos (up to 5 people* & 1 location)
$200 for 2 hours & an edited CD of photos (up to 5 people* & 2 locations)

*$5 for each additional person

10.24.2012

Marketing Jessie Marie Studio

Moving onto Chapter 4 of the Right-Brain Business Plan.

Read the chapter. It's all about marketing. Exactly what I do for others.

I have found there is a fine line between spending too much of my limited time marketing Jessie Marie Studio & doing my clients work. This past quarter I finally came up with a plan that compartmentalizes when I do my marketing. The most genius move I've made in regards to time management.



You may not understand the chicken scratch above, but this magic calendar has kept these blog posts coming, Facebook statuses filled & the quarterly newsletter published.

Since I'm always a girl who loves her goals. Below is the playsheet from Chapter 4 of the Right-Brain Business Plan.


10.22.2012

Buy Photos. Fight Human Trafficking.


Anyone who has been following my work over the past year knows about my Morning Meetings. Time outdoors with God & my camera. Last week I announced a local show where Morning Meeting photos taken at Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve are being shown. This week I'd like to announce a Featured Artist spot with ART for FREEDOM where 30 Morning Meeting photos have been donated to raise money to fight human trafficking.

Buy one, two or all the photos and 100% of the proceeds will go to Remember Nhu, a non-profit organization that saves at-risk children from being sold into sex slavery in Asia and assures freedom and provision: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Head over to the ART for FREEDOM website to make your purchase today. We thank you. Our missionary friends, Beth & Brian Woods thank you. And most of all the children thank you.

10.17.2012

Self-Portrait


Right-Brain Business Plan Exercise: Create a Business Self-Portrait

"Here you'll be creating a Business Self-Portrait by looking at your own strengths, challenges, and opportunities... Sometimes it's hard to hold a mirror up to yourself, so why not ask for help from ... customers... trusted friends or colleagues." pg 66-67 Right-Brain Business Plan

First, the Self-Portrait exercise gave me a list of questions to answer about myself & my business. Going through the questions helped further clarify my brand & my services.

Next, I was to ask people to fill out one of two surveys. (If you haven't filled one out yet please do. You can find them here.) The kindness & encouragement from clients, friends & colleagues was enough to make a girl blush. And the constructive criticism was oh-so-helpful.

Then I thought to myself, "What do I do with the answers?"

Make word clouds of course! The more times a word is used the bigger it is. A pretty awesome way of seeing a slew of answers visually.


own answers to the self-portrait questions.


What three words would you use to describe me and/or my work?


Clients Question: What benefits did you receive from working with me?


Friends & Colleagues Question: What would you say are my natural gifts, strengths and passions?

Make your own word cloud at www.wordle.net. I'd love to see what you come up with! Please post any you make on the Jessie Marie Studio Facebook page.

10.15.2012

Morning Meeting Photography Show

A select group of Morning Meeting photos taken at Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve in Mahomet, Illinois will be on display starting this week thru December 31st at the Museum of the Grand Prairie.

Morning Meeting 032812 8099



Morning Meeting 120711 6340



Morning Meeting 041812 8422


Morning Meeting 010412 7037

Artist Statement for the show:

For the last year Jessie Scheunemann has been having weekly Morning Meetings with God & her camera. She would start her work day as a freelance graphic designer for Jessie Marie Studio, LLC in quiet time & then head out into Lake of the Woods to capture God's beauty. All the photos displayed here are from these meetings.

You can see all past & future Morning Meeting photos at www.flickr.com/photos/jessiemariestudio

Jessie lives in Champaign, Illinois with her husband, Jarrod, and her two children, Cadence & Gavin. The Scheunemanns own & operate Jessie Marie Studio, LLC, travel here, there & everywhere & spend any extra money they have on concert tickets.

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For Sale!

The four photos shown here are matted & framed 8 inch by 12 inch prints. They are being sold for $40.00 each. There is also an array of unmatted 4 inch by 6 inch photographs you can purchase for $1.50 each. You can see the photos in this album on the Jessie Marie Studio Facebook page.

10.11.2012

Please take a survey.

You can be a part of the research phase of The JMS Plan!

Have you had work done by Jessie Marie Studio? Then fill out the "for clients" survey below. Are you a friend or colleague? Then fill out the "for friends & colleagues" survey that starts below that. Thank you for your time!




10.10.2012

Competition


Next on creating The JMS Plan: Define Your Competition

My family is competitive. We eat fast. We were all active in at least two sports in high school. We turn every board game from Candy Land to Monopoly into the Super Bowl of board games. You could say my competitive nature is genetic.

I love winning.

I hate losing.

However, I have learned to grow you need to win AND lose. Winning creates a positive momentum. Where losing builds character.

iRewardChart
On any given day I can win or lose. Did Jessie Marie Studio score a new project? Win! Did that spelling error not get caught before it went to the printer? Loss. The secret is to celebrate the wins and to learn from the losses. And the mark of a successful business is to ultimately win more than it loses.

To compete successfully you need to know who or what you are competing against. Below are two lists of competitors for Jessie Marie Studio: the Internal Competition & the External Competition.

Internal Competition

Hourly Goals
10 billable hours per week
16 hours worked per week

Giving Goals
10% of all profits
Right now we are saving up the giving money to use for an ART for FREEDOM Gala in Spring.

Daily Goals
I have an the iRewardChart app on my iPhone for Cadence. She works for things like trips to restaurants, movie nights & extra bedtime stories. I set up a user for myself & I'm working for some Tom's shoes.

Quarterly Goals
Every quarter I set aside time for a quarterly retreat where I review the past quarter & set goals for the next. I get most of my structure for this from The Accidental Creative. This is usually accomplished in an afternoon at the library. My Hourly, Giving & Daily Goals come from that time. There are some other things I look at as well, but I won't bore you with them here.

External Competition

Design firms in town
ML Studios
Surface 51
Single Stereo
List of U of I preferred vendors
In house designers
Freelance designers
"Your Nephew"
Recent Graduates

Photographers - in CU
Missy Larson
Shannon Anderson
Holly Birch Photography
Steve Hale
Wright Photographers

Photographers - outside of CU
Pam Strohl
Kim Kedinger
Brooke Waala

I personally don't get the kick-em-in-the-knee-and-take-em-out feeling when I list out other designers & photographers I'm up against. I see the good ones as teammates who push me to the next level. And the bad ones, like "Your Nephew" who can make you a logo for free, annoying & not worth my time worrying about.

10.08.2012

Happy Hippo

I recently found this book I made in grade school. Pretty awesome.


















10.03.2012

Trends

I'm stuck. Stuck in the research phase for Jessie Marie Studio's Right Brain Business Plan. I need to move forward. I need to be okay with not knowing all the answers.

Trends. Trends are what's been holding me here like super glue. 

What are today's trends?

What trends are my clients a part of?

How do I define them?

How can a utilize these undefined trends for future business?

And then it hit me. Move on. Take what I have read, written & looked at regarding trends over the past three months & be okay with letting go of organizing & documenting answers.  

Because really trends are an ever moving target.

barbie & ken date night. 1982. cool then. retro now.

PS This doesn't mean I'm ignoring trends. Just over the past three months I have acted on two trends I had identified: Instagram & my social group being made up of a whole lot of young families.

10.01.2012

Time Tracking

I use Freckle to track my time. Hands down it is the best $12 I spend every month. It's easy to use. The weekly reports I create (see below) have helped me reach my hourly goals. It's made invoicing almost, dare I say it, fun. AND it's pretty to look at.



Plus. Yes, there is more! Freckle has this great view called Pulse. This view (see below) shows me a month at a time with great little pie charts on each day. The charts visually show me how I am using my time. The bigger the chart the more time I've worked that day. And then each project I worked on that day is shown by a piece of the pie. I use this information to delegate certain days for different kinds of work once I see a pattern form.



I love Freckle. And, if you are in need of time tracking software, I think you might too.