West Coast Style in Edmonton!

We recently launched the Yu Fashion Clothing & Accessories website and Yu: a fashion blog. Fay has become quite the blogger and regularly posts her fashion finds and new arrivals at the store.

Yu Fashion is an Edmonton clothing and accessories boutique in the Crestwood neighbourhood. Fay and Diane provide a unique and personalized shopping experience, creating ongoing relationships with their customers. They carry a lot of great brands including many local and Canadian designers as well as some labels such as Free People that are otherwise difficult or impossible to find here. And you should just see all of the jeans! We urge you to check them out, I hear the new spring collections are arriving ; )

Happy Friday everyone!

Hola Amigos

I've just returned from a two week adventure in Cuba. It was lovely with a mix of sun and clouds and although I can't say that I got a super realistic picture of Cuban life, I feel I got a peek.


We spent a day in Havana – a beautiful, yet decaying city. I wish we could have stayed longer but, unfortunately we were with a tour and had very little free time to wander. We were lucky to visit Bodeguita del medio to sample their famous Mojito (a favourite of Ernest Hemingway).


We spent a week on the Cuban island, Cayo Largo del Sur. The weather there was hot (it's south of the mainland). Lots of beach lounging happened there. My favourite day on the island was the morning we spent floating around on a yacht with our Cuban captain, his skip and a couple from Montreal. Simply lovely.


If you're wanting to learn a bit about the history of Cuba, (it's pretty fascinating) here's a great article on Cuban life and design.

Marketing independent consultants: how much to spend?

So you want to start your own consulting business. Maybe offer some seminars, get some ongoing paying clients, start a blog, and (cue the holy grail music) sell your advice packaged as eBooks, or (gasp) an actual book. Ok, great! 

So how much should you invest in marketing materials? The answer to that entirely depends on how much money you are expecting to make. Yes it sounds obvious, but when you are starting out and creating a vision of your new business - it all seems possible. As you get going you will quickly narrow your focus, and your marketing needs will start to crystalize. Lets look at how consultants make money, and what kind of marketing materials are appropriate for each.

1) Large contracts. If you are in the kind of business where you are bidding on large corporate or government contracts, then yes, investing in some marketing is a good idea, and will definitely pay off, even if you just get a great logo and business card. You'll likely brand yourself as a corporation (rather than your name). 

2) If your consulting is sold to individuals by the hour — like counselling, massage therapy, etc - then your marketing efforts will be more personal. A cleanly designed business card maybe all you need as far as materials go. Your customers will buy from you because they like you, or have been referred to you by someone who does.

3) Products. If  you have gotten to the point where you have books or videos to sell - then your website will be paramount, and the quality of your materials should be high. The more products you have (and the greater their value) the greater the marketing investment. Just don't expect to make any money from a book - its a loss leader to solidify you as an expert, and get you hired as a speaker or consultant. 

4) Seminars and workshops. How much marketing you invest here depends on how many workshops you intend to do. An occasional seminar at a community college will need nothing while ongoing weekly seminars, or conferences means you will need a lot of people to sign up, and plenty of ongoing marketing.