Can you make a living as a writer, artist, designer or other creative soul? Yes, you
can, if you learn a few tricks.

The most important trick is to learn to think of yourself as TWO people. The first is
the creative person who writes, paints, photographs or designs, without a care for
anything except the creative work itself. The second person is a sharp-eyed, clear-
thinking marketer.

In many creatives, the sharp-eyed marketer is in embryonic form. Fear not. You can
nurture your inner marketer.

Here’s how to start to make your creativity pay:

=> 1. Start small: downplay your creativity

Your ultimate goal may be a book on the New York Times bestseller list, or your
own show in a major gallery, but start small and build your confidence.

While you’re doing that, downplay your creativity at home and among your friends.
Why? Any number of reasons. The chief one is that your creative endeavors are as
important to you as a new baby is to the proud parents. While you’re a taking the
first hesitant steps of your creative career, you’re sensitive. You’re likely to get badly
blocked if someone whose opinion you value says the wrong thing to you. This
doesn’t mean that you’re completely unsocial. Get a writing or painting pal, take a
course, or join a group. But among your nearest and dearest and closest friends,
silence pays off.

Starting small means small sales, not working for free. There are times you may
choose to give your work away, but in the beginning of your career you need the
validation that only money can give you. So write fillers for magazines (fillers are
small articles, of 200 words or less), advertisements for your local bank, or copy for
greeting cards. Write a short story or two, and submit them for publication.

Anything you write, that you get paid for, will boost your confidence. When you’re
confident enough to disregard ill-informed opinion, you can share your aspirations
freely.

=> 2. Be passionate, not desperate

Your passion and love for your work will sustain you through your career, and your
entire life. However, don’t take this passion for granted. If you don’t nurture it, it
will fade.

Whenever you feel depressed, ask yourself whether you still enjoy writing.
Sometimes the answer will be a loud “no”. Perhaps your writing isn’t going as well as
you hoped it would, or you’ve had some drama in your life, or you’ve been rejected.
At these times, remind yourself that you love what you do, and ask yourself what
you would enjoy writing today. Then do that. Work on rebuilding your love for your
writing first, before you concern yourself about anything else.

If success comes slowly (or hasn’t arrived yet), don’t become desperate. Be patient.
Selling your creativity takes time. If you can sense desperation taking hold, remind
yourself that you’re writing because you love to write.

Writers (and other creatives) may become desperate because of others’
expectations. “Have you sold that book you were working on?” “Have you sold a
painting?” This pressure is why you play your cards close to your chest. (See
“downplay your creativity”, above.)

=> 3. Market your work

When should you start to market your work? Immediately. As soon as you’ve written
something that you feel is publishable, send it out.

This is where you tuck your creative self away, and haul your inner marketer out of
the closet. Divorce yourself from your work as much as you can. Grit your teeth, and
flail yourself with a whip if necessary, but send your work out. Then forget it. Your
first marketing efforts may be torture. That’s OK. You don’t have to enjoy
marketing, you just have to do it.

Starting small is important for writers, because you can send out a short story or a
filler article without writing a query letter. For a new writer, query letters can be
dangerous. Here’s why: some writers never get beyond a query letter. Ask any
editor. These writers write lots of query letters, get good at it, and then one day an
editor calls their bluff and sends them a contract. At this, the query writer panics.
Not only doesn’t she write the article, she gives up writing for several years. Then
she starts again. Writing query letters…

The good news is that once you’ve got into the habit of writing and sending your
work out, you can stop worrying. Sooner or later you’ll get a check. (Sooner, we
hope.)

The big benefit of marketing is that after a while it stops being a trauma. It starts to
become fun. Your inner marketer is all grown up. Then the only problem you have is
getting organized so that you keep track of what you sent where.

If you follow the three strategies above, you will make your creativity pay, and
sooner than you think is possible.

Designing homes is a great deal of work and more so if you don’t know how to go about the process. With the assistance of architects, however, it is now possible to enjoy a smooth ride with your house design needs. They are professionals who will not only bring your design into reality, but also handle all paperwork you need for your house plan and design. You simply will need to explain the design idea you have in mind and wait for the experts to offer you insight and advice at the same time to improve on the results that you get.

House Design Procedure

Designing residential building plans need to be handled in the best way to make the process a success without too much hassle. The architectural procedure of handling the projects starts by understanding your needs as a client through detailed discussions. The expert will then take you through the pros and cons of the house plan and design where you can together come up with schematic floor plans for the same. He will then prepare the floor plans and together you can make necessary changes before finalizing on the plans. Residential elevations can be proposed before the building contractor or labor needs are finalized. This procedure is important to making a house design perfect for you and a good architect will without a doubt make it easy for you.

Residential Designs According To Work

The architect helping you with the house design will make the work easier by categorizing the plan in the works needed for completion. It can be done according to construction materials needed, labor and the interiors among other important house design needs. The city within which the house will be designed is also an important consideration because it will determine things such as materials that are available for the construction.

Remember that you will need to make a good choice with the ceilings, bathrooms, décor, walls and even kitchen platforms and the doors. A good architect will help you in making the right choice and even help with the estimation before the project begins. This way, you will find it very easy to end up with a house design that matches with your individual preferences and needs.

Importance of House Planning

Efforts are needed in designing residential house planning and this is something that can consume lots of energy and time to do. Through proper planning, you will get all tips that you need to ease the load of trying to come up with the best design for your house plans. Hiring an architect will ease your load greatly because he will have all the details that you require in making your project a success. Architects will have the experience needed in making all the right choices.

Using experienced insight brings in a sense of creativity to the design plan. It is a simple way of making sure that nothing goes wrong during the construction. You can also be sure that the project will be over successfully within a reasonable period of time when using professionals to cater to your needs. You, in the end, will enjoy a strong and sturdy house that matches your individual tastes and preferences and expectations.

Today, more people are enticed to the idea of working at home. Working at home gives you total control of your working hours and enables you to spend more time with your loved ones. Moreover, you can escape the grueling commute to and from the office. These benefits explain why many people are starting their home businesses and working from home.

If you are making a nice sum of money working from home, you may want to decorate your home office. When you have a nice design for your home office, it increases your efficiency and makes you more money in the near future. However, designing a home office is more than a casual consideration. If you want to make it as pleasing as possible, you need to put some time into planning.

Firstly, you need to select a space in your home where you can concentrate on doing business. Some of the possible selections are: the guest room, the reading room, space between hallways, etc. It is important to choose a space that is comfortable enough for you so that you can concentrate in doing business at home.

Now, let me share with you some tips to decorate your home office:

1. Decorate your working space. Be creative and design a space that you can call your own. You can try to make the space reflects your personality, which will help to increase your work efficiency. Try painting the wall of your working space, with a different color as the rest of your house to bring a fresh feeling.

2. Set a designated storage space. Office equipments and supplies need to be stored properly in order to make your home office neat and clean. You can go for creative storage options that will double as creative designs for your room as well. If not, get a small cabinet to store all the supplies and hide them from human eyes until they are needed.

3. Buy good furniture. Before you purchase the furniture, determine the theme of your office first. Then get those that fit into the selected theme.

4. Good lightings. Good lighting is very important. If your room is too dark, it will make you fall asleep during work. So use appropriate lighting to light up the room to save you from headache which results from poorly lit room.

These are four simple tips that you can use to decorate your home office. Be creative and design a home office that you are proud to show to your friends and loved ones.

1. Keep your mind & eyes open for interesting designs

Being a graphic designer, you have to keep your eyes and your mind open for new trends, ideas, and concepts. Never be scared to be a pioneer in graphic designing. You could be the next Picasso of flyers, Leonardo da Vinci posters or even Rapheal Sanzio of websites; the world is still talking about these artist because they made history with their work thinking out the box, creating art pieces that are worth millions today. Sorry for the melodrama, but your graphic design work should mean something no matter how small or big the project because you never know who’s looking at your work. Your work will be a stamp of excellence, which will persuade other designers to be even more creative.

2. Join creative discussions

Joining creative group discussions will assist you in getting familiar with the graphic design industry’s trends; such as, the demand for certain types of designs, new design software’s (Adobe Creative Suite changes every year), and how’s the market for other designers.

Being part of a group also helps with marketing your portfolio or website. You can place a comment or opinion on a design blog or website (if comments are aloud), and then leave a link to your website as a text link with your keywords which is great for SEO, something you can do to help market your service without paying for search engine optimization that some companies will charge you to do.

3. Follow other designers

Get a Twitter or Facebook account if you don’t have one already. All the best & amateur artists have their portfolio on the Internet through social media marketing. Simply because every body has a Facebook (65% of America). You can follow these designers without them even knowing or you can build a business friendship with them. The good thing about building a relationship with them is that they can send business your way if they’re too busy and vice versa. Web designers are part of a secret club and one hand washes the other.

Don’t be scared, share your work. Share your vision. Share your passion with the world. You’re in the business to make money & make yourself known so let the world know.

4. Seek Criticism

Leave your feeling at home! Constructive criticism is vital! You cannot become the best designer all on your own. Multiple perspectives can always shed new direction on a project. This may be a tough one for many of you to accept because we don’t ever want to hear critiques on our work; but in this business your critiques can serve a purpose in making you the best graphic designer you can be. Sometimes you may have to swallow your pride because some people can’t wait criticize your work, but be humble and keep moving forward with creative designs. Whether you do Graphic design, posters, flyers, web designs, or print designs – having someone else look over your work is critical and highly advised. If you don’t have the immense amount of time, than hiring a good SEO services company to handle promoting your website will be a great idea.

We’ll That’s all Folks….I’m “Biz The Kid” from Boasting Biz.com and I’m out of here.

It has been almost a year of bliss and unexpected blessings since her position was eliminated. A mother and a wife and a full time health care professional were used to these unexpected blessings. About 4 ½ years ago when a client came through and introduced the concept of digital storybooking to her she new she was in the right place at the right time. It was such an amazing surprise and an unexpected exact fit for her and her family. When she found out it was a home based business opportunity, she didn’t hesitate for a second to sign up.

This normal, hard working mom realized what a powerful company she just discovered in its infancy. She believes what makes this company different than any other direct sales company is because the company focuses on the heart of storytelling and connecting families together. The company focuses on what makes people proud, not what makes individuals self conscious or what their imperfections are. It doesn’t focus on what type of lotion, pill or potion would be needed to improve those conditions. The company’s mission is to build and strengthen the bonds and connections between family through the heritage enriching power of story and celebrates the uniqueness of each individual and their family by capturing these memories of stories and photos through a free online studio.

This format of a home based business means the consultant can run their business in many different angles. Workshops, Studio Demos, Online Classes, Scanning, and Creative Designing are just a few ways to grow this business. This Studio allows photos to be matched with story and designed with the ability of a graphic designer or someone with beginner computer skills. Product range from storybooks to canvases to photo gifts and cards. Create a special project of an event that just happened or create an amazing heirloom to display and showcase your family stories, values and traditions, treasured keepsakes for your family for generations to come.

The products can be used for just about anything your imagination comes up with. The moment this working Mom saw the little catalog and visited the website and listened to the testimonials she new, in her heart, she had found her new purpose. She would be able to be the solution to so many people’s photo dilemmas and prevent those family stories from being forgotten. She knew she could finally capture her dating story with her husband and Grandma and Grandpa’s love story. She realized she could scan in her poor scrapbook pages and actually completed her son’s first yearbook digitally! She new this was the opportunity for her to find those who had her same need but no time, creativity or funds to get their projects done. She new this was an amazing opportunity to have a businesses of integrity and passion and to help families leave lasting legacies of their loved ones and capture those amazing moments of first steps to marriage to any events in life.

You can become an integral part of a movement that is impacting the lives of those within your community and beyond. You will experience the rewards of working from home while earning extra money simply by helping other moms “Remember, Document and Tell” their stories through this fun and creative genre of personal publishing that uses yesterday’s memories and today’s technology to create tomorrow’s treasures.

Everyone achieves psychological comfort, living in homes aesthetically decorated with elegant furnishings. This holds no limit to creativity, even if on grounds of construction or decorative ornaments. Many homes have balconies or other extensions that elevate the look of the home to high degrees. Buildings scaling several stories up are decidedly more dangerous, when equated to other constructions with balcony additions. In view of the disadvantages to occupants, essentially homes to toddlers; enriching the balcony and railings with specialized configurations to improve safety is a smart idea. The key to establishing safer balconies at home involves learning about the ethics of preventing accidents and health hazards to toddlers.

Balcony and railings safety: Buying products made of non-corrosive, child-friendly materials

Homeowners wanting to upgrade their balcony and railings to gain status benefits often overlook safety. Besides color, texture and other features of railings, safety efficiency is vital. Yes, supervision of a child, when he or she is using the balcony is everyday practice; but determining when, where or how an accident occurs proves human intelligence ignorant to prediction strategies. As such, it is better when humans have realistic views of the possibilities and act on improvements accordingly. A child’s psyche urges him or her to undertake first-hand experiences more at a tender age, precisely death-defying and empirical. When choosing designs, be keen on inspecting the railings properly and learn about different locks or child-proof features. Railings feature different materials, including wood, metal and other varieties, sometimes a creative combination. Instead of heedlessly focusing on appearance primarily, it is more sensible to think of those who will use the railings. Homes to children are safer with railings, designed of resources that have no harmful effects on them. The chemicals used to make some railings include properties that cause sickness and other inconveniences; therefore, experts caution parents about designing homes with such materials. The predicaments are often severe, including loss of lives, health issues and other problems. Touching, smelling and tasting, are of interest to toddlers; hence, parents have a duty to protect them. Child supervision helps, but other methods to preventing such ill-fated experiences are what experts encourage. Therefore, parents decorating the balcony must use structures that lower threats to children and all occupants of the home.

Balcony and railings development: Adhering to building codes

Building the balcony and railings to meet the standards, recommended by BCOA (Building and Code Officials Association) is an avenue to achieve success. When assembling the slats of the railings; remember that spacing them equally apart, allowing for a small enough space (4 inches maximum) is a step to improving injury prevention that has proved successful. Additionally, use durable rails and parts to assemble efficiency rich, functional configurations to the balcony.