PDFing Doucments

As a student and a financially responsible person, I'm always looking for ways to save money when and if I can.  Recently, I had a paper I was working on for my summer class.   My paper was to be handed in as a PDF.  I don't have a full version of Adobe's Acrobat, so I'm unable to save my paper as a PDF.  I looked to Adobe first, to see if they had a simple way of doing "a la carte" pdf printing.  Sadly, they didn't.  They offered a monthly plan.  But for $9/month it simply wasn't worth it.  In my opinion, had they had a "print to PDF for $0.99"  I would have paid for it.  Instead, I dug a little deeper to find another option.    This is what I found:   http://www.pdfescape.com/

It was perfect for my needs.  And it was free.  Definitely worth sharing.

Marketing Planning - Plan for the Unexpected

I'm a planner and I'm a builder.   This means looking ahead and having contingency plans.  It is  finding ways of preventing the work day from running away from you given the barrage of  information that finds its way to your desk every day.

First I wanted to share a blog post that inspired my own.  This blog link was shared with me through one of my radio sales reps.  There is sensibility to it, but I want to dig a little deeper.

The first point, using a marketing calendar.  I couldn't agree more.  Building a marketing calendar that forecasts your (and your team's) projects and expectations for the year helps to to sort out priorities.  I work for a company that has limited resources, who doesn't really, but my point is that I don't work with big marketing budgets.  Without big budgets, it's necessary to prioritize and determine which projects are necessary and which belong on the wish-list.  (This, fondly, reminds me of my Mother's advice as a child - is that a need or a want?  If it's a want, what are you willing to sacrifice for it?  Sage words from a wise soul.)

Planning allows you to see the bigger picture; an overview of what needs to be worked towards to complete each of those projects.  A plan quickly allows you to see what your resources are (or are not) and where you may find yourself short on time or people to get the job done.  A plan also allows you to squeeze in a little more than you thought possible because through planning you find efficiencies.  Projects that are planned out don't meander to the finish line, they make a focused bee-line to their end.  Top that off with the fact that a big overview of the year allows you to see where projects have cross-over or where you are able to re-purpose content, you are able to save time and resources along the way.

Marketing is an ever changing beast.  One must be flexible and go with the flow.  You never know where your next partnership or marketing opportunity will come from.  Strange as it sounds, I'm a big believer in planning for the unexpected too!  It's actually not as hard as it sounds.  All you need to do is block off a slice of resources (labour and financing) for those moments.  Building in this extra time and financing allows you and your team some flexibility to pick up those last minute opportunities without too much pain.  Alternatively, if it's not used for a special project, I find it's a great time to pick up some of those "wish list" ideas and offer a time for the team to be creative.

Bonus all around.

And that, is my (first) five cents on planning.