At the beginning of every new year, many companies make resolutions for the upcoming year. Even though some people think it’s cheesy or that it doesn’t actually work, setting and writing down your goals in 2012 might actually help you achieve them.

Make your goals SMART

Having goals in your professional and personal life are good, make sure that you have a plan of action and you are making SMART goals so that you will feel great knowing you can achieve them. SMART is made up of Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Make sure that you can reach the goals you set in the next year. To learn more about SMART goals visit http://topachievement.com/smart.html.

If you are still feeling weighed down or not sure on how to get started making your SMART goals, here are some resolutions you can tailor to fit your business:

MayeCreate’s Top New Year’s Resolution

1) RUN ON PURPOSE
2) Continue to implement company wide marketing plan and take action on it.
3) Implement more structure in supervision
4) Continue to build resources for clients
5) Conduct end of project reviews

Top New Year’s Resolution for Business Success

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/management/a/bizresolutions.htm
1) Learn how to delegate and do more of it.
2) Promote your business regularly and consistently.
3) Make business planning a weekly event.
4) Learn something new.
5) Join a new business organization or networking group.

5 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Business

http://www.openforum.com/articles/5-new-years-resolutions-for-your-business
1) Increase sales in 2012 by X percent.
2) Market my business better through social media content.
3) Become known as the expert in my field.
4) Be more productive.
5) Delegate X percent of my work.

Top New Year’s Resolutions for Small Business Owners

http://mashable.com/2011/12/23/small-business-new-years-resolutions/
1) Go small.
2) Go mobile.
3) Go local.
4) Learn how to delegate and do more of it.
5) Invest in one new customer touch point.

Glenn D. Chamber's new wildlife photography portfolio web design.

Each and every time we wrap up a large project, we give ourselves a little pat on the back and a big high-five to our client. This time, the big high five goes out to Glenn D. Chambers. Glenn first approached us about building a portfolio website for his wildlife photography in 2011. Since then, we have gone through the creative and building processes (not to mention the revisions!) which has lead to a beautiful portfolio site.

Glenn’s many accomplishments can be found on his bio page and anyone can order a print of any of the photos on his site through the Request a Photo page. We encourage all of our clients, friends and anyone else who reads this to take a look at Glenn’s inspiring wildlife photography and let us know what you think. You can visit his site at glenndchambers.com.

If you or someone you know is ready to get your pride on and update or create your online presence, contact MayeCreate Design today.

Some of you may manage your own Google Analytics account and occasionally need to add a user. Three easy steps complete the sign up process outlined in the tutorial below.

Retina Associates new website

It was wonderful to work with everyone involved in making Retina Associates website. We appreciate all of our clients, because their success is our success. Any businesses, organizations or individuals interested in web design or any of our other services can get their pride on and contact MayeCreate Design today!

Holiday season at MayeCreate means a few things.

1.  We’ll be in and out of the office a bit more than usual.  Marie and Monica will be taking a bit of a break between Christmas and New Years and Stacy will be in and out of the office periodically during the entire week.  Please feel free to email us if you need assistance.  We’ll all still be available, just not as readily as usual.  If you need immediate assistance you may call the Tranquility office at 573-443-3983 and they’ll track one of us down.
2. We’re too proud of our fun word art Christmas cards, designed by our new designer, Laura, with a surprise snow flake cut out activity on the inside. So if we were not previously convinced of our own cleverness we would be now.  We hope you all enjoy these fun artsy cards as much as we do!
3. We are thankful for your business this year, for believing in our company and helping us achieve success.  We wish you a safe, healthy and lovely holiday season!

A preview of our lovely cards.

Google Analytics will provide your business with the information you need to determine what is or isn’t working in your current marketing campaign. This allows you to view your website and online activity.

The main tactic for Google Analytics is to show everyday users reports containing in-depth data about how people find and use their website.The program can identify how visitors got to the web page, how long they stayed, their geographic location and more.

Advanced features Google Analytics tracks:

• Location (down to the city)
• Internet provider
• Browser type
• Monitor type
• Page depth (how many pages visitors browse)
• Referring sites
• Landing pages

Not sure how you’ll use all this information to help you market your company? MayeCreate offers ongoing traffic consulting services. Visit our website www.mayecreate.com or call us at 573-447-1836 to find out more.

QR, or Quick Response, codes are an emerging marketing tool utilizing smartphones’ capabilities to scan an image, store data, and access the internet. QR codes are images that tell your smartphone to open a specific webpage on its web browser when they are “read” by a QR Reader. Common uses include links to contact information, details about a special event or an advertisement for current promotions or coupons. Anyone can create custom QR code and they can be shared in a variety of ways.

Common Uses & How QR Codes Are Shared
QR codes can be used for a variety of things you want to promote/share, such as:

• coupons
• benefits
• specials
• events
• contact information
• directions or maps
• porfolios & examples
• landing pages
• … the list goes on!

QR codes can be shared on printed material, for example business cards, resumes and posters or digitally, on computer screens or another handheld device.

How QR Codes Work
To read QR codes you need to have a smartphone with the internet, a camera and a QR reader. You can download the QR reader through the internet or application service on your phone. After you install and open the QR reader you scan the QR code by taking a picture of the bar code and open the link you just received. Your smartphone reads and stores data from the QR code to show you information and give more details.

How To Create Your Own
Many websites allow you to create your own personalized QR codes. To do so you need a QR code generator, which you can find online for free! The generators allow you to customize your QR code. Some smartphone applications also generate custom QR codes. You’ll want to follow the prompts to make that happen. Whether you’d like to add a picture, logo, web address or cool graphics, they will do it for you!

I mean, let’s be serious, who doesn’t want information when and where they want it? We all do.
All consumers want information as quickly as they can get it and using QR codes will move them in the right direction for faster networking methods.

Studio1012Int.com features a treated image from Putnam’s portfolio on the home page. The question “What’s Your Style?” entices users to click to learn more about the broadly categorized styles familiar to anyone in the industry. Potential (along with current or past) clients can browse the portfolio galleries divided by style in a pop-out style lightbox. The services, about and contact pages provide more insight into the company and standard information while the blog will allow Putnam’s to keep their clients up-to-date and show off their latest projects, inspiration or thoughts about current trends and industry-related topics.

MayeCreate Design believes everyone deserves the good design. Get your pride on and contact us today.

On Friday Oct. 7, we held our open house for both MayeCreate Design and Tranquility Internet Service to share and showcase their teams and individual company strengths and not to mention our cool new office space.

The night started off with an entertaining introduction from the MayeCreate and Tranquility teams. We cut the ribbon with the Columbia Chamber of Commerce to celebrate our new diggs located at 307 Locust St.

At the open house, we launched our spectacular new website including our new “Get Your Pride On” sass campaign. Check us out at www.MayeCreate.com.

Tranquility also, wowed the crowd with Flex, the new wireless 4G Internet service. For more information, you can visit www.Tranquility.net.

Along with enjoying all the delicious snacks, we ‘painted’ our walls with some of our Artrageous art by photographer Jackie Rhodes and painter Leslie McCullough-Payne.  Rhodes is a St. Louis based creative photographer and McCullough-Payne is an illustrative acrylic painter. You can also view Rhodes’ website at http://jackierhodesphotography.wordpress.com/  and McCullough-Payne’s website at http://lmcpart.com/.

Take a moment to stop in for a visit and admire the vibrant colors of Leslie still hanging on the walls.

Thanks again for coming to our party and making our night special!