Gain Twitter followers, free

So as most people, businesses, and organizations know from being online and on Twitter and other social media sites, the more followers you have, the more you will get noticed.  By tweeting, and posting, etc., to the masses there is always the possibility that one can really get some great name recognition and sales.

One way to get more Twitter followers, (I have written about other ways to gain more followers in the past  here,) is to actually buy follows.  I have never done that so I can't share any personal experiences with you.

Recently I came across a great site!  It deals in a commodity called "seeds".  And since they use the term "seeds" money can be involved, since they are not calling these, followers.  Anyway, I signed up for the site after reading some one's review that seemed, even to me,  quite enticing.

You can join this site AND you can actually gain Twitter followers without paying money.  It helps if you have a few followers already.  Yet, I'm thinking you can start out without many followers at all, it will just be slower for you, in the beginning.  On the second day that I was on the site,  I truthfully added about 1000 new followers!  That is amazing, even for me!  I started out with about 66,000 followers so I can follow a lot of new followers before reaching my follow limit.  Yet, I have never been able to gain as many followers in one day as since I joined the site.

Remember, when you join,  to give out 3 seeds to new followers.  It seems as though more people will see and then follow you if you have more than 1 seed to offer.  Then put yourself in interest categories that have a lot of followers.  Refresh your page so that you can find the accounts that are offering more than 1 seed to new followers and check (and refresh) the page occasionally to see if there are new accounts offering multiple seeds to follow them.

Lastly, they give you 25 seeds if you refer new Twitter's to join the page.  You will find that link under the Seeds tab on the main page, and then click on the referral link on the page and it will bring to to your own  link that you can cut and paste like I did.  I wouldn't have written about this site except for the fact that it really does work.

Follow this link HERE to get more Twitter followers!

Zoning and Use Restrictions for businesses

If you are moving into a location for the first time, a basic starting point is to verify that the zoning designation will permit the proposed business activity. This is necessary for home-based businesses (in residential areas) as well as those in commercial zones.

There are a number of factors that determine if a business is allowed in certain zoning categories such as:

• Any special zoning conditions placed on the property by previous zoning actions
• Use permits that are required for the business to operate
• Other issues previously tied to the property
• Is there enough parking to meet the zoning requirements
• Are there deed restrictions that affect business activity? This is especially important in residential zones. To determine this review your Deed and Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions for the property.
• Will this use require rezoning the property
• Is the uses specifically allowed in the zone or specifically prohibited

Verify zoning before applying for a business license, signing a lease, purchasing a property or moving into a rental facility.  A Tax and Licensing Office will require verification of zoning before your business license is approved. You do not want to be tied to a location where the zoning does not allow for your business. 

Home Based Businesses – If you want to operate a business out of your home, and reside in an area covered by a Home Owners Association, it is important to check for any restrictions its rules place on home based businesses as well as zoning requirements.

We found some of this information in the Scottsdale AZ.gov webpage.  Although some of their information pertains to that specific city and state, the information we provided above applies to the majority of US cities and states. 

Forum

We're working on a great all inclusive glass art forum, here is the link to it... so far!  A Forum for Glass Art Addicts  Tell us what you think and if you have any suggestions!  Thanks

http://it-s-all-about-art-forum.2301858.n4.nabble.com/

UPDATE
I guess this free forum generator site gets rid of forums that are not popular!  Our's was one of them.  Leave us a comment with your thoughts on having a forum on our blog.  Thanks :-)  

Signing a lease for your store

Once you are sure that you want to rent a store space, you'll have to sign a lease.  When starting a small business like a stained glass studio you will want to make sure you are making an informed decision as to the type of lease you sign.

NNN - Triple net is one type of lease you may hear about when out shopping for store locations.  With a lease like this, you will be not only paying your rent but part of the building owner's taxes, insurance and maintenance fees for that space.  You will notice that most of these spaces that are rented with NNN are more expensive to rent than others.  They also tend to be located in strip malls.

Just keep in mind that you don't need to fix up your store front, especially to make it look amazing inside, just to sell stained glass art or any other product.  The more you put into the building that you are only renting, the more money you are wasting, since you will NEVER get that money back.  

Unless you own a building already, we also suggest renting a store location before ever buying one!  

So it is better to rent a location that has walls, floors, even a bathroom already in place.  When you hear the term Vanilla Shell, it refers to a brand new building that is open and needs to be finished.  In that case, if you can work out a deal with the building's owner, for him/her to install the interior, without you paying anything, it would be advised.  If you are to personally pay for the interior, we suggest you not rent that location since you will never get back that money.  In this economy (or any economy) you want to spend the least amount of money on expenses like these.

Yes you can negotiate leases.  They are not set in stone.  You can negotiate the amount of years for the lease, typically property owners will ask you to sign a three year lease.  It is possible to sign a one year lease or even a six month lease, if you ask!  Another possibility is for you to ask the landlord to give you the option of ending a lease early without any penalties.  That means, if you must close your store before the lease expires, that you do not have to continue paying lease on an empty store until the end of the lease.  

Make sure that any negotiations agreed upon between you and the landlord are put in writing in the actual lease agreement!  Also you should always sign a lease agreement!  You need to be protected legally just as much as the landlord.  Be sure to ask your landlord what is included in your rent.  Typically water, and garbage are included but not always.  If you live in a snowy area, parking lot plowing may be included as well.  Further more, it is advised that you get insurance for the contents of your store and that your insurance covers injury to customers in your shop as well.

In conclusion, pay close attention to your lease and try to negotiate any part of it that you don't like or agree with.  Walk away from a bad deal, it might take some time, but eventually you will find another location that you will like.  Just remember that you really don't want to put out a lot of money in the beginning when you are just starting out!  Save that money to pay rent, business expenses and run your store in the beginning when your store is just becoming established.  You might have seen businesses move into an area, spend a lot on improvements and other non necessary items, only to see it fold quickly.  It's safer to start slowly, and work your way up.  There are many expenses that ARE important to new business, like advertising, signage, inventory and others that you don't want to skimp on because you either overpaid on your lease, or made too many expensive improvements on a building that you don't even own!  Think about it, be careful and frugal, it will help you immensely in the long run!  Hope this helps!

Location, location.... LOCATION

The location of your new, brick and mortar business is extremely important and should be considered carefully.  In the past Harrach Stained Glass did extensive research where to locate our own retail stained glass store.  There are many factors to take in consideration such as, what type of business do I plan to operate, and is there near-by competition.  Keep in mind that we are sharing this information with our stained glass readers but you will find that this information works just as well for any type of business!

The best way to find your competition is to go online and Google the type of store, (or items you plan on selling),  close to the location where you intend to operate your store.  So for an example, go to Google and type in,  "stained glass store Denver Colorado".  You'd be surprised at how easily you will be able to find all of those businesses in that Googled area!  You can also go to the online website of the state government where you intend to open your business and check its business license directory.  Remember, you don't want to open your store close to your competition, in most cases it will be difficult and slow going to begin with if you do that.  On the other hand, here in the Pacific Northwest USA, we see Starbucks and other coffee shops side by side, so WHAT type of product, pricing and quality, even luck are also very important aspects to running a successful business.

Will your store cater to tourists or locals?  Locals will find your store easily from either the phone book, friends or just from driving by.  Tourists will probably only find your store if it is located in an area of town where tourists shop, typically an old town main street or near a well known landmark.  As your business becomes successful, it is possible for tourists to seek you out, but when starting out, that probably won't be the case.

Look for good parking, signs, lighting and of course, a good amount of traffic on the street where you want your store situated.  Some side streets are excellent in a heavy tourist area where there is a lot of foot traffic.

Zoning laws are important to follow in most communities.  If you plan on manufacturing and selling your art in the same location, you must find out through the local zoning board if that is permitted in the desired location.  You will notice that in some older historic districts where there are many art galleries, no one is actually creating the art on the premises because of zoning.  You don't want to sign a lease on a retail location only later to discover that you can't do everything you wanted to do in that location!

Floor space and the amount of display windows are both very important factors.  Display windows are, in our opinion, the most important feature of an excellent retail location.  Floor space needs to be large enough to comfortably house your merchandise but not be overwhelmingly large.  If the store has too much non-utilized space, it will appear to your customers to be empty and not having inventory to choose from.  A store that is full of inventory, but not overflowing or packed in dangerously, always seems to appear more vibrant and even appears as though the store is quite doing well.  Customers like to look at many different items for sale as opposed to having no choice in merchandise to buy.

Cost vs. location is another important consideration when searching for the best business location.  You will typically find that the best location also has the higher rent.  It never fails!  Even if the building itself isn't the best, if it is in an excellent local, you'll pay for it.  NOW, that isn't exactly bad.  If you could rent a store, lets say, in a prime location, it could be quite lucrative.  Again, research that area.  See how long stores stay in business in an area.

As you can see there are many aspects to opening your own brick and mortar store.  Although it can seem frustrating and confusing in the beginning, it becomes easier as time passes and you become more educated in the subject!  Just remember not to jump into something without thoroughly researching the subject and the location first.  It is much better to lose a prime location than to open in a prime location only to discover you are losing money and have to close.  Closing a store can be financially devastating since there is the possibility of having to continue paying a lease on a location you are no longer using.  Keep this all in mind as we continue our next post with the subject of starting your own business!

Advertise your business on Twitter

Artists and anyone else for that matter, it is important for us to get our name and work noticed by as many people as possible.  Ok, that isn't being narcissistic, it is being smart.  The more our art work is seen the more possibilities that our work will get sold.  That is when Twitter comes into this picture.  It is by far one of the best ways to get your name out there in the online and offline art world.  It is free, what more can you ask for!

When you are new to Twitter, there are a few important questions you need to ask yourself when setting up your account.  Mainly, what are you going to write about?  And do you want to use your name, business name or some other name.  It really doesn't matter what name you use, although it does need to represent you in a good light.  In our case, we went with our business name, Harrach Glass.  And we decided to write about our favorite and most knowledgeable subject, glass art.  It really doesn't matter what you tweet about as long as it is interesting and people read your tweets and perhaps follow you because of them.  If you tweet links to pictures, you will be sure to get a lot of looks.  We have discovered that a lot of our followers like to look at our art glass pics we post on our flickr page, which we have also linked to Twitter.

Next we filled out our profile, something that is extremely difficult since you only have limited space on Twitter (we like to change our's occasionally).  We have read that a lot of people on Twitter don't like to follow someone who doesn't have a profile.  Unfortunately, we don't know if that is true.  And one of the most important parts for us is that we linked Twitter to our blog in the section where we can add a link.  You will find that setting when you click on your settings page, top right on your Twitter page, its a drop down menu,  and then by clicking the settings tab.  Once there, the profile tab will be on the top of the page.  Linking another online page is very important since you really can't write much when on Twitter.  We like linking our Twitter account to our blog since with our blog we can link other of our internet web pages conveniently in one spot.

In conclusion, Twitter advertising is a good thing!  Start out slowly and do the basics to begin with.  Come up with a great name, and profile for your account.  Link your Twitter to some other internet site that you have, even Facebook will do.  Don't worry about getting a lot of followers to begin with.  Start out with a good plan, like what you want to tweet about and what market you intend to reach.  Fill in a profile, add an avatar and background if you want to start with one, and you are ready to advertise on the biggest billboard in the world!