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You ask “What does Annie do?”

It seems I get asked this question an awful lot lately so I’m going to put it here in black and white for anyone who wishes to know. How’s that sound?

Good?

Ok, then . . . here you go:

Writing

Ghostwriting – any and all.

Design

Layout
I’ve done layout work for both digital and print products including full length books, training manuals, workbooks, study aids, annual reports, business plans, whitepapers, and nearly everything in between. I’ve even done cover and interior design and layout for cookbooks!

Research
One of my biggest areas of expertise lies in research. I’m very good at research – digging deep to find anything and everything on a given topic, place, person or business. In fact, for a few years, I was a skip tracer. I can probably find what you’re looking for.

Marketing Consulting
Over the years, working in printing and real estate, I have learned A LOT about marketing. I’ve helped start businesses (house cleaning, convenience store/gas station, print shop, computer repair shop and others) and I’ve helped run those same businesses. Not only have I put marketing and other systems in place, I’ve done bookkeeping and other management tasks. So you can be sure I understand the unique needs of small business owners.

In short, if it deals with marketing, writing or design whether for print or web, I can do it for you. And even though I have areas of expertise (like real estate, etc), I enjoy working with many different subjects.

And there you have it! That’s what I do.

Feel free to contact me if you need help with any of those. I’m going to be filling up my schedule for the 2nd half of 2009 soon so get in now while you can!

In the arena,

I’ll give the 1st 10 people who sign up to work with me (copywriting, marketing or design related) a 25% discount. You can find my fee schedule on the “Hire Me” page. Link above. And I love to barter too! So don’t be afraid to ask about that.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

It’s been a long while since I’ve done an Around the Web post and I keep meaning to do one but never seem to get there. So here it is!

These are places I’ve been on the web this past week that grabbed my attention for one reason or another and I just want to share them with you. Check them out if you can.

Sarah Stanley Inspired – Sarah talks about health, fitness, social media and being happy among other things. She has tons of great info on her site and on her blog.

Owning Pink – “A Gutsy Guide to Getting Your Mojo Back” as the tagline says. It’s a site by Lissa Rankin who is a gynecologist, artist, author, mom . . . and it’s a great site! All about learning to own your life, your self, your body. She found me on twitter and I’m glad she did. I’ve had fun perusing her site. She also has a network on ning that is just fabulous.

My Wife Quit Her Job – Yes, that really is the name of the site. And I haven’t had time to check all of it out yet but so far, I like what I see. It’s about a woman who became a stay at home after the birth of her first child. They needed a way to replace her income and they found one. Not only is it about how to work online but it’s great inspiration for other women and families who are looking to do the same type of thing. The site is by husband/wife team, Steve and Jennifer. They were able to replace Jennifer’s annual salary with a six figure income from their endeavor in just ONE YEAR.

Timothy Sykes – Now, I’m not big into stocks and stuff like that, but I do study them from time to time. so today I ran across this website about “short selling penny stocks” which sounds pretty interesting. Again, I have not had time yet to go through the entire website but I wanted to share it with you because this is information that may be useful to people in light of the “recession.”

So, I actually have a few more but I’m going to save them for next week. Enjoy these ones and please do share any sites you’ve come across lately that you liked or found especially useful.

In the arena,

The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn’t matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark. ~ Barbara Hall, Northern Exposure, Rosebud, 1993

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

One of the things I’ve always been fairly passionate about is customer service. It’s one of those things, though, that I’ve never really thought about as much more than the back-end of my business, so to speak. Kind of a by-product of the main service of writing and design.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I believe customer service is the most important product of any business. And yes – it IS a product. It should be the foremost product in any business, no matter what industry. Even if you lack in other areas, when you’re customer service is stellar, people will be back.

I first learned about customer service from a business standpoint as a 11-12 year old when I started my first paper route. And my skills were honed in my 20’s by 2 different companies who believed as I do about it’s importance.

So, last night my husband and I were talking and brainstorming about stuff.

Well, not really. It was more of a shared rant about poor customer service we’d received by a VERY large company over the Holidays. (You probably know it – they drive big, brown trucks around delivering packages.)

And as we were ranting about the nonsense, we had an idea. There are a lot of companies out there with absolutely CRAPPY customer service. Businesses that could use some insight and support in getting superior customer service procedures put into place.

I think the tough economy is the perfect timing for this idea. Now more than ever, businesses are in need of ways to pull in customers and increase sales. I believe customer service is one of the key components to doing so.

As a result, I’m putting together some materials to help businesses understand these key concepts and put them into place quickly. In addition to that, I’m going to be discussing customer service here on the blog on a regular basis. And I’m going to incorporate some other things but I’ll discuss those another time.

The bottom line is that customer service is probably the most important aspect of a business. You can have a great product, a fancy store (whether that be brick & mortar or online) and all manner of other awesome things.

But if you’re customer service sucks, you’re only half as good as you could be. Or worse.

I hope your outline for 2009 is coming together as nicely as mine is. The concepts of customer service are going to be a huge part of my 2009 business model.

In the arena,

Shine like the star you are in 2009! Stick around for more on customer service and why it’s so important to you and your business.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Every year during the month of December, I take a break from many business related activities and concentrate almost solely on my purpose and plan for the next year. It’s a time I use to reflect on the past 12 months and to think about what I’d like to do for the next 12.

This usually means I make lists, go over everything I’ve done the past year, and adjust my long-term goals as needed. If I’m lucky, during this reflection, I find that I’ve met or exceeded the plan I created the previous December.

Since the kids and I have been taking turns getting sick since Thanksgiving, I haven’t really started my December reflections yet. Or well, at least I’m not to the point I normally am by now. But I’m finally getting going this week and so I wanted to share my process with you.

One of the first things I do is write down highlights from the year.

These are things that for one reason or another are significant to me or for some reason, stand out in my mind. Some are personal, some are business. Some are happy or fun and some are sad.

But I write these things down and then I pull out the list of goals I made last year. This allows me to see where I’ve gone and if I was on target for what I originally intended or if something else happened. Sometimes I find that I’ve not done much of what I wrote down and other times I hit nearly every mark.

Where I find the most growth – and oddly enough, the most contentment – is when I *have* missed the mark, when I haven’t reached many of those goals I thought I wanted.

In these times, I realize, it’s true the Universe knows better than I.

It doesn’t mean I’ve failed. It just means plans changed along the way.

And that’s ok. That’s what it’s all about. Learning, growing, sharing. I can reassess what I find important and define what doesn’t really matter to me.

Once I’ve done that, I decide what my top priorities should be for the next year. Sometimes things will carry over but quite often, nearly everything on the list is new or different than last time.

Often, I have multiple lists including:

• Personal
• Family
• Relationships
• Business
• Fun
• Education
• Health
• Spiritual

And sometimes others. It just depends on what is important to me at that time. I like to break it down this way because it forces me to really be in tune with every facet of my life and not neglect anything.

The next step is to set targets.

At this point, I take out the calendar and set some targets for myself. Having a specific date gives me a concrete reason for getting started on each goal. Otherwise, I procrastinate. This step also allows me to prioritize each item.

One thing I try to keep in mind is to spread out the “big” goals in between the “little” ones. By spreading them out, I ensure I don’t get overwhelmed. Too many big goals in a row is a good recipe for burnout. I try to avoid that as much as possible.

What do you do to get ready for the new year? Do you set goals for yourself? For your business or career? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you.

In the arena,

Want to work with an award-winning writer? Now is your chance! Hurry and book for the 2009 before the calendar is full. I still have some space available. Check out the Hire Me tab above for info on how to contact me and your reserve your spot now.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Special Announcement

For the past several years, I’ve been creating blog headers and ebook covers for friends and family but it’s not something I’ve really put out there for my design or writing clients (or on this blog, for that matter).

Until now.

Introducing my blog header and ebook cover design project!

It’s brand new and as a result, I’ve decided to offer a very cheap introductory price of just $55 per graphic. Now, if you’ve looked at my fee schedule for my other services, you will know this is a rock-bottom offer here. And I’m doing it this low for one reason: YOU! To show my appreciation for you – for reading my blog, for following me on Twitter or FriendFeed or wherever. It’s all for you.

So, if you have a blog or an ebook you need a design for, let’s talk! I offer a 72 hour guarantee which means I guarantee you’ll have your design in 72 hours or less. You’ll get the file as your choice of a JPG, PNG, or a GIF in the case of a header and your choice of JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF or Word doc in the case of an ebook cover design.

To find out more, simply follow this link to my contact form, send me a quick description of your blog or ebook cover project and if we decide it makes sense to work together, I’ll get started. (The contact form is broken at the moment so in the meantime, just send me an email to my business email.)

If you don’t need a blog header or an ebook cover, please feel free to send a link to this post to anyone you know who might need one. I’d appreciate it!

Make it a great day!

As you may know, over the weekend, I went on a de-cluttering spree in my office to make room for a new desk and although it’s taken a bit longer than I expected (due to some issues with our septic system!!!), it is nearly finished. I expect to have pics and all up by Wednesday.

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s a bit weird having drawers in my desk again. Out of 6 drawers, I only have stuff in 2 of them so far. Aside from that, the nicest part of the whole thing is that my desk top isn’t FULL of STUFF. Right now, I have the office phone, cell phone, my MacBook Pro, wireless Mighty Mouse and my coffee mug on it. And instead of taking me 30 seconds to find things, it only takes 2.

One drawback so far – the kids think “Oh look, mom has room on her desk. I’ll just set my papers and junk artwork here.”

Yeah, I’ve had to clear their stuff off my desk once or twice today. (Can you tell? )

Anyway, I’ll tell you about the septic issues another day. For now, I’m just going to sit here and enjoy my new desk and listen to the radio before heading off to bed. It’s already midnight . . .

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

It’s about 11:30 pm and I’m sitting at my new desk typing this post! Yay!

Everything came together well (though not exactly as I had envisioned due to a few pieces I had to leave in the room for the time being). And I’m not quite finished organizing the bits and pieces but at least things are set up for the most part.

So far, I really like the shape and size of the new desk. Having drawers again is very cool but it’ll take some getting used to since it’s been a few years now since I’ve had a desk with drawers.

I really think taking the time to do this is going to prove to be an enlightening experience. My husband says he thinks it means I’ll end up with work coming out my ears. I sure hope so. (He’s very good at de-cluttering, thank goodness! So when I get a hankerin’ to do so, he jumps right in and helps me get it done.)

Tomorrow I plan to finish up the re-organizing, putting things away, shredding papers I don’t need to keep any longer and taking more pics of the process. Once all of that is done, I’ll grab the card reader from the teenager and upload them for you.

You know what I envy, though? Those totally minimalistic spaces with nothing but desk, chair and computer.  I wish I could work that simply.

Maybe someday . . .

Right now, however, it’s time to take my tired arse and seriously aching back to bed before I can’t move and have to have my husband carry me there.

In the arena . . . er, going to bed?? as the case may be,

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.