Tomorrow is National Martini Day, but today is National Splurge Day (or National $plurge Day).  It’s probably fitting that a drinking holiday comes the day after a huge spending holiday.  You will likely need a drink after the fortune that you spend, or at least think about spending, on a great day of stimulating consumption.

I asked a few of our team members what they would splurge on today.

Martha's splurge- a vacation ending in Savannah, Georgia

“A 2 week vacation along the East Coast – New York to Savannah, Georgia, visiting museums, historical sites, etc.”  – Martha Kirkpatrick, Director, Member Services

“Haha I will try to think of something other than the iPad… although let’s be honest!” – Amanda Butterworth, Senior Director, Creative Services

“I would upgrade the rest of my flights in 2010 to First Class.  I might also buy some new Ferragamo shoes so I’m flying in style.”  – Yours truly (Alexandra)

“Prada shoes.” – Andrea Gibson, Advisor

Amanda's splurge- An Apple iPad. Photo: wired.com

On this spending day, I also started thinking about what I would really want to splurge on for Gibson Design Management or any of our other companies.  (more…)

A guest blog post by Gail Doby, ASID, Design Success University

I’ve been an interior designer for over 20 years, so I’ve had plenty of time to make these mistakes.  Here’s a startling statistic (and I’ll bet it is higher during this recession) – 62.8% of all new businesses fail within 6 years according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 96% fail within 10 years.  That means you’re lucky to be one of 4 out of 100 to make it past 10 years…or is it luck?

What if you could avoid the mistakes that these business owners made?

I’d like to see you avoid them, and if you’ve already done a few of them, now you can learn what not to do so you don’t waste your valuable time and money:

1. Not having a written “ideal client” profile – If you don’t know who your ideal client is, how can you tell other people who they can refer to you?  If you’ve ever had the client from &%$&, (or more than once) the key is to know what you don’t want in a client as much as what you do want.
2. Not knowing the lifetime value of your client – If you’ve been in the business even a few years, you can add up your billings and divide by the number of clients to get your current lifetime value.  You should also look at how long they stay as a client.  These two metrics are critical in your business planning and if you have this data as part of your Business Dashboard, it will help you grow your business. (more…)

The to-do list can be a daunting document.  For every one item you check off, you probably add two.  For many of us, it is far longer than the number of hours that we each have in our days.  The question then is: “how can we set up a strategy to prioritize the to-do list so that you are best utilizing your time”?  Think about ROI (return on investment) as your ROT (return on time).

Too Familiar?

Here is a new system that we created within our company.  I suggest that everyone have the same 3 categories across the team, but that the prioritization is role-specific.

Determine your 3 categories that all of your actions fall under (or should fall under).  In our company, I determined the following as our 3 categories:

1. Revenue producing:  an item on the to-do list that will bring money into the company
2. Service-related:  an item on the to-do list that will make our members or clients lives and businesses better
3. Brand awareness and networking: actions that will help build our brand throughout the industry and beyond

Based on your list, prioritize your categories.  My particular role in our company is bringing in new business and also long-term strategy.  If my role was to service our clients and members more directly, I would prioritize the categories differently.  Therefore, my category prioritization is as follows:

1. Revenue production
2. Brand awareness, strategy, and networking
3. Service

Determine some examples of what each category would entail.  For example, I would use the following examples for our company:

1. Revenue production: sales calls, creating letters of agreement, invoicing, etc.  For your firm, this might also be billable hours or creating proposals.
2. Brand awareness, strategy, and networking:  arranging presentations at design centers, writing blog posts, staying connected with my professional network, etc.
3. Service:  adding functionality to the website that would improve the client experience, monthly member calls, etc.

A few more ideas:

• Establish a “D” category.  There will naturally be things that fall into the “Other” category.  We call those category “D” items.  These will still need to get done but in the prioritization exercise, they will be the items that are least important to your business.
• Every time you add something to your to-do list, make sure that you put a letter next to it or color code it.  This will show you where you need to be prioritizing and what items can be downgraded.

For more great techniques to work smarter, I suggest Gina Trapani’s columns at FastCompany.com. What systems do you use to prioritize your laundry list of to-dos?

Unless you’ve been stuck under a pile of F. Schumacher sample books for the last two years, you have probably heard of the social media phenomenon with the cute bird mascot.  Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows you to post status updates that range from personal (“Why are there so many crumbs in my purse?”) to educational (“Pantone announces its new color for 2010 is turquoise”) to conversational (“@gibsondm That was a great article about 5 steps to start Twitter”). Your tweets are limited to 140 characters.

While this article is not about why to use Twitter, I must devote one quick paragraph to my soapbox. Twitter has helped grow our business. I’ve hired people that I first interacted with via Twitter, created business relationships, found clients, been interviewed for USA Today, been interviewed for a marketing book, and more. If you still don’t get how it can help your business, email me and we’ll discuss.

Getting your feet wet with Twitter is the right way to start.

Here are 5 easy steps:

1. Go to http://twitter.com. Click on the big button that says “Sign Up Now”.

2. Select a username. Your username will also be called your Twitter “handle”. You’ll want to choose something that is close to your name or close to your company name. Make it as simple as possible. If I could do it all over again, I would have chosen my name “alexandragibson”. Unfortunately, that name is no longer available and I’ve developed a following with my current handle—@gibsonmd.

3. Write a profile and upload a picture. Be sure to do this before following anyone. Your profile is limited to 160 characters; I suggest using a mixture of professional information and personality. My profile is:

CEO of Gibson Design Management; MP for Gibson Design Group; social butterfly; type A (personality not blood); competitive horseback rider; martini drinker

4. Enter your first tweet. We typically write things like “Just getting started on Twitter. Thanks @gibsondm for teaching me! ”

5. Start following people. This will both mean that their tweets will update in your newsfeed and that they will be alerted that you are also on Twitter. If I know that my friend Bob Willywog is on Twitter, I can find him by clicking “Find People” and entering his name. If I just want to start following people in my town, in my industry, or who have similar interests, I go to www.twellow.com and run a search. This will search profiles for your keyword.

If this all seems overwhelming, don’t despair. Contact us about our social media services. We can hold your hand through not only getting your business set up but also on how to use these tools to improve your marketing.

Like an amorous high schooler (but less creepy), I occasionally run across companies that I develop a severe business crush on.

My latest company crush is on a Greenville, South Carolina identity and branding company called Brains on Fire.  I am obsessed with the culture that they’ve created and enamored with the fact that their website shows that culture and personality.  [I especially like their Tequila Shots book which explains the 12 company beliefs; imagine a mission statement minus the boring undertones].

I know that I have this business crush when I think

1.  I want our company to be like that, or

2.  If I wasn’t having so much fun working with my team, I would want to work for theirs, or

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