ArtShine

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Is time your biggest challenge at the moment?

At ArtSHINE we have been working alongside our clients to help them design a business model that works for their Business LifeStyle.

We asked our clients what they found to be the most challenging in their business.

Most of their answers were "Time"

‘I don't have enough time.’

‘There is so much to do and I have to do it all.’

‘I have no one to help me.’

So is time your biggest challenge at the moment?

In reality, you can't really manage time or control time. We've all been given 24 hours equally in a day, no more, no less. When you use up the 24 hours, you are granted another 24 hours the next day. The real secret to success is what you do with those 24 hours!

At ArtSHINE we show you the "art of leveraging" and how you can leverage time so you can focus on the tasks that really matter, make you happy and move you forward in achieving your tasks, your goals and your dreams.

In one of our workshops "OPIC Leverage" we show you how you can change your life and business by introducing the three aspects of time leveraging:

Mapping & Organising
Keeping a tap on your work activities
Redefining your job descriptions

Mapping & Organising are very much related to paper management. Like mapping out your 90 days plan, organise them in a matter of priority by understanding the difference between the Urgent things and the important things. List them in your diary (Diary management) and by using your "daily to do list" to execute those tasks. By doing it this way it keeps you focused on what’s important so you don't get distracted.

Keeping a tap on your work activities is the most effective way to keep track on all your current and upcoming projects as well as your meetings and appointments too.

You know as well as I do, most of the time you feel like you are bombarded with a tonne of work with hundreds of projects to get through at one time. These projects could come from anywhere from personal to business and the list could go on and on and for this reason it's easy to lose track of where you are at each project. There is nothing worse than having your client call and ask about the project that you totally overlooked and forgot to follow up with.

So here is what you should have in your "WAS" - Weekly Activities Sheet:

To Do tasks: Focus on the important tasks first and what matters most.
Working On!: Know what current projects are on and its progress.
Coming up!: New projects coming on board and set a time frame.
Things To Follow Up: Execute those tasks that require your attention.
Helpers & Outsource: Who can help and to who to delegate to.
"Me Time! & "Refresh!: Segment time to chill out, get out the office at least one hour a day.
Appointment & Deadline: Diarise your appointments and those important dates.

If you don't come up with a system for your business you will fall in the "I.D.I.T" trap (l'll do it tomorrow) syndrome and if you didn’t allocate time for it, more than likely you won't get it done. As the saying goes "You can wait forever if you plan to do it tomorrow".

Tomorrow is only a promise.

So Make Tomorrow Today!

If you have this system in place and with lots of practice and discipline, you will see your productivity increase and be less overwhelming with constant work load bombardments. Know your priorities and the important tasks and do them first. If you ever come across those tasks that sit in the grey area and you're unsure whether you should do it now or later, try using the 4 Dos'

Can Do: Task can be done but neither urgent nor important
Could Do : Task can be carried out but not so urgent nor so important
Would Do: Essential but not so important
Must Do: The important task that needs to be actioned right away.

Remember with the big tasks, if it's too much to chew at the time then break them into small bits (sub tasks) with benchmarks as you go. Then tick them off the list as you complete each task. When you achieve those challenging tasks, it's time to celebrate, give yourself a treat, time off or a pat on the back.

SO when was the last time you did a health check on your business?

Would you like to learn your business model the ArtSHINE way?

It’s as simple as 1... 2... 3...

1. Like ArtSHINE's Facebook page

2. Send an e-mail to this ArtSHINE : info @ArtSHINE.com.au

3. Contact Vinh for a no cost, no obligation coaching

session:

Do this busienss health check survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ArtShineDiscovery

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Close Up Interview with Cook & Restaurant Owner Irina Shaw from Bai Tong Thai Tempe

Tell us about yourself and what you do?

Born in China of Chinese Russian background, I have lived in Australia for nearly 30 years. Most times I feel that I was born and raised in this great country that I proudly call home. I have been working in the IT/Telecommunications industry since I left university. Currently I have 2 full time jobs, my “day” job is as a life cycle account executive for a large Telco looking after Asia Pacific region, my “night” job is running a new and exciting Thai restaurant in Tempe, Sydney – Bai Tong Thai.

What inspire you to open Bai Tong Thai Restaurant?

Cooking has always been my passion. I love that there is no limit to your capability and imagination when it comes to cooking. We are so lucky in Australia that we are surrounded by wonderful fresh ingredients and diversity of cuisines, yet we are often subjected to substandard restaurant food. I wanted to create a place where we can serve dishes created with best quality of ingredients in an informal environment. We chose Thai cuisine as it is a shining example of how best to balance fresh ingredients with five of our fundamental tastes: bitter, sweet, sour, salty and spicy.

Winter Melon with Prawns

Winter melon stuffed with prawns and served in choo chee sauce

What are the five words that people who know you would use to describe you?

Now that’s a leading question....

Loyal, Detailed, Decisive, Talented, Stubborn and my partner would add “Bossy”.

Who (or what) inspires you to do what you love as a cook and a restaurant owner?

My partner Ash is my inspiration. He has always been brutally honest with everything in our life. If he had it his way, we’d be having dinner parties every weekend and I would be cooking up a storm.

We’d seen a lack of creative and quality food surrounding where we live, and often talk about how good it would be if we could bridge this gap. In 2011, we took the plunge and opened Bai Tong Thai at Tempe.

Panang Curry

Where do you get your inspiration from when you design the menu?

Our menus are designed based on what’s fresh in season as well as our Chef’s signature dishes. We carry all the standard Thai dishes that you find in all Thai restaurants around Australia such as Pad Thai, Fried Rice, Green/Red Curry; however, we also have an award winning chef who has some amazing dishes as her signature cuisine. A shining example of our philosophy can be found in our current seasonal specials menu – Our chef’s own ChiangMai style pork sausages for entree and Wintermelon stuffed with Prawns served with a Choo Chee sauce for main.

What are the signature dishes in your restaurant?

On our menu, we have many dishes that you would be hard to find in another restaurant in Sydney, some of our customer’s favourites are:

Choor Muang – a violet dumpling stuffed with minced smoke duck and caramelised peanut, this dish was originated from ancient royal Thai cuisine.

Lemongrass whole fish – Whole Barramundi filleted boneless, then crispy fried and served with lemonsgrass floss and chilli dressing.

Banana Blossom Salad with Prawns – Tender banana flower with grilled king prawns

Miang Pla Grob – crispy fish with cashewnut and coconut served on a fresh betal leaf

What motivates you to do your best as the Restaurant owner?

To see and hear happy and satisfied customers after their meal as well as the wonderful creations coming out of the kitchen. We are so lucky that we have a very talented award winning chef that creates new and exciting dishes regularly.

What are key tasks for Restaurant owner?

As a small establishment, I have to be very hands on. Like most small businesses, it’s a 24x7 job keeping the business afloat. Examples of key tasks are below:

Sourcing – constantly looking for ingredients, suppliers, negotiating on price, organising orders and pickup. To ensure the best quality of ingredients, I would be out shopping daily on perishable items and once or twice weekly to various markets to source ingredients.

Menu Design and delivery - Menu is key to success for a restaurant, I need to ensure that it’s up to date, printed and delivered to client’s mail boxes. Our seasonal menu changes every 6 weeks, and can take upto 2 weeks to source and decide on what’s best in season.

Staffing – As a small business, every staff is important to the success of the place. Everyone also have to learn multi tasking and multi skills. I need to do staff roaster, staff training, payroll, hiring and all HR related activities.

Farmers' Market - carriage works

Paperwork – mountains of! There is no end to paperwork, daily banking, accounts payables, book keeping.

Customer Service - I am the face of the restaurant, I need to ensure that our customers are all well taken care of. Recognise regular clients and ensuring that any of their special needs are catered for.

Marketing /Advertising – This is an ongoing task, in today’s online world, I need to try and ensure that we have a good marketing/advertising plan with limited resources.

Shopping – doesn’t matter how well planned we are, there is always something that’s needed at the 11^th hour.

Helping hand -Whichever station that needs help I would be there, cooking, serving, washing dishes, cleaning.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I’d love to combine my passion for travel and cooking. I’d love to have a place where there will be no menus and we would source whatever is fresh in the market for the day and create an amazing meal for people to share.

What do you most love about your job?

Happy and satisfied customers, a discovery of a new dish that can be add to our menu.

If you had just one wish, what would it be?

Hmm.. more hours in the day!

Seriously, I wish Australia government really have a good look at how best to support small businesses. We are drowning under the weights of paperwork, taxes and fees. If we had money to hire all the extra hands, we wouldn’t be a small business!

How do you connect with other artisans, and your customers (i.e. how do you network)?

In today’s internet world, I connect with a lot of people via Linkedin, facebook etc, however I still believe in a good old fashioned face to face catch up to share ideas. Although right now there’s not a lot of time for that.

Best cooking tip for a novice just getting into the business?

Get the best ingredient you can possibly afford and keep it simple.

Prawn Cakes

What advice can you offer other artisans who are just starting out and following their passions?

The road is long and winding, and sometimes you have to go through dark tunnels and you might get lost along the way, but the most important thing is that you start the journey and follow it through to the end, the reward will be invaluable.

What is your proudest moment so far?

We opened the door on October 6, 2011 after more than 12months of planning and 3 months of renovation. Some days it felt like we would never get here. We were so worried that no one would turn up but was so pleasantly surprised with the support we received from our locals. The first thing on most people’s mouth on our opening day was “what took you so long?!”

Who do you most want to meet and why?

Maeve O’Meara – through her work she would have been to some fascinating places in the world and met some amazing people. I’ve love to hear the stories and gain more inspiration.

Dessert Sampler

What is the most important lesson in life that you have learned?

Be independent, you can only rely on yourself to make your own dreams come true.

Do you have a favourite cookbook to recommend?

Maggies Harvest – Another inspirational lady in my life. Maggie’s recipes in this book fit right into my philosophy on food – great seasonal produce with simply recipes that can be easily adapted to suit everyone’s taste and the end result is shared with family and friends over a long table and a good glass of wine.

Where do we find you and your restaurant?

Bai Tong Thai Tempe

703 – 705 Princes Highway

Tempe

NSW 2044

Australia

www.baitongthai.com.au

www.facebook.com/baitongtempe

Monday, May 14, 2012

Inspirational Quote of the Week

"Often the difference between a successful man

and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas,

but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas,

to take a calculated risk, and to act".

~ Maxwell Maltz

Sunday, May 13, 2012

A Happy Mother's Day Wish From ArtSHINE

Photograph by Monica Li
Le petit moni photographie

"M" is for the million things she gave me,

"O" means only that she's growing old,

"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,

"H" is for her heart of purest gold,

"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,

"R" means right, and right she'll always be.

Happy Mother's Day to all Mums in the universe!

Quote courtesy of

http://sms4smile.com

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Art Melbourne 2011 19-22 May At The Royal Exhibition Building Carlton

ART MELBOURNE IS MAKING ART ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE

Affordable Art Fair (AAF) Melbourne attracts over 14,000 visitors annually with the purpose of buying art and features art that is both collectible and affordable.

The Art show will be held at the historic Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton, the AAF Melbourne venue is an icon in the state of Victoria. Adjoining Melbourne's CBD, this heritage-listed venue enjoys an unrivaled history of serving Australia's International exhibition and event industry for over 125 years.

Adding to Melbourne's vibrant art scene, Art Melbourne 2012 showcases over a hundred galleries from around Australia and overseas with thousands of new artworks. Many of the artists are onsite to chat to and there will be exciting range of entertainments and educational programs at the show too.

The fair invites both first-time buyers and seasoned collectors to seek out exciting new artists and to browse the thousands of paintings, sculpture, ceramics, photography, indigenous works, new media art and works on paper, including limited edition prints, many accessibly priced.

Venue:	Royal Exhibition Building,Carlton
Country:	Melbourne, Australia
Start Date:	24-May-2012	EndDate:	27 May-2012

Source & Images are courtesy of ArtMelbourne

http://affordableartfair.com.au/

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Tips to Promote Your Art & Design Business Online FREE! - Part 4: Online Community

Three weeks ago we gave you a brief overview on how to promote your Art & Design business online for FREE!

We talked about blog postings, guest posting on complimentary blogs, and last week we talked about creating your own eBook and how you can leverage and promote your business online for FREE.

This week the topic is about online communities and how you can participate and promote your Art and Design business.

Online forums or online communities are becoming very common these days and they can be found everywhere…online and offline! The key to this is to find the right online group that resonates with you and is in line with your expertise so that can share your experience and business with your fellow members. These powerful online communication tools provide many great benefits. However, you need to be mindful and allocate a fair amount of time as it can be addictive and distract you from your day to day business. Planning your social media wisely will definitely help in your business growth.

So ask yourself these questions:

What is the real purpose for me to join an online forum or community?

Am I prepared to share my experience and knowledge with others?

Below are some potential benefits if you are regularly involved with your online group:

Intellectual exchanges will stimulate your mind.
Learning and embracing new ideas and refining old ones.
Enjoy networking with fellow members
Influencing the forums evolution.
Sharing is caring! By offering your expertise and receiving advice from others.
Drive traffic back to your website. People love to learn what you do and want to learn from you because you are the leader in your creative field.
Build a new network of friends.
Generate new business leads and opportunities for joint ventures with other business owners.
Keeping you in the loop and up to date with current events.
Learning about new opportunities.

There are plenty of forums or community groups on the internet. You just have to find the one that resonates with you and once you've found the right one you will see great benefits and will find them extremely rewarding. Plus knowing you are helping other people grow and succeed in their own business is truly rewarding.

Below are some suggested online forums that you can try out: