Low-cost seminar sessions to support Santa, Mrs. Clauses, and Elves for the Christmas Season, sponsored by Santa Business School. Demonstrations will precede Round Robin role playing and practicing specific skills.

DATE: Saturday, August 7, 2010

TIME: 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM

EVENT: Santa Round Robin Seminars

ATTIRE: Casual Claus or Christmas themed casual clothes.

LOCATION: San Jose, CA (room location is still in process)

DOOR PRIZES: Everyone will select a door prize from the table.

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9:00 AM Group gathering, ice-breaker, introduction, sharing

[Santas NorCal Meeting is FREE! for the breakfast meeting]

9:45 AM Workshop Session I
-- Coffee Break
11:15 AM Workshop Session II
-- Lunch
1:30 PM Workshop Session III
-- Break

3:00 PM Round-Robin Panel Discussion
4:00 PM Closing Words, Reflections, Evaluations
4:30 PM Pack up

5:30 PM Meet for casual dinner (optional)[We may choose the new Sonoma Chicken Coop going in at Capitol Expressway and Silver Creek / King Road. Meals are about $10 per person.]

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Including continental breakfast and lunch, Santa Round Robin Seminars cover Storytelling, Reading, & Monologues; Mrs. Claus & Elves as Entertainers; Marketing Santa Visits; Business of Santa - Pricing &  Expenses; Entertainer Make-up for Photos; Low-cost Costuming & Props; and a final Round Table Panel Session for $40 per person. The day starts at 8:30 and goes until 4:30.

Scheduled on August 7, 2010, is a Round Robin Seminar day for Mrs. Claus, Elves, and Santas to sharpen and learn new skills to support the magic of Christmas. (The Round Robin comes in for the hands-on practice in different corners of the room.) It will be in the San Jose area; location to be determined. We are trying to find a low-cost facility with reasonable access from the freeway. Ideas for the workshop sessions are in process; suggestions are welcome!

So far, ideas for workshop topics include:
- Compare and Contrast: Storytelling, reading books, and paraphrasing a book. Props for good stories. There will be a demonstration and then role-playing practice for those who wish to improve their skills.

- Effective Santa visits and photo sessions. Applying makeup will be demonstrated as well. Using a companion (Elf or Mrs. Claus) to support Santa, with demonstration and practice opportunity.

- Marketing Santa's visits to varying clients and reaching high client satisfaction with repeat bookings. Presentation will demonstrate actual web pages, social networks, and newsletters (free through MailChimp for small lists).

-Adding extra services (face painting, tattoos, balloon art, no-muss crafts, and cookie decorating) without massive headaches (demonstration and hands-on practice for participants).

-Varying roles for Mrs. Claus and Elves; NOT ALL EVENTS are the SAME! (Duh!). Preplanning different types of events for maximum client satisfaction. Demonstration and practice offered for those who wish to improve skills. Includes storytelling, gift distribution, photo line management, monologues, suggested answers to common questions, etc.

-Adding client satisfaction with light-weight, easy-to-set-up props (Santa chair or bench, trees, greenery, decorations, wrapped boxes, toy box display, North Pole, mail box, etc. will be demonstrated).

- Business Santa: How much to charge and avoid the trap of an hourly rate; Balance pro-bono (free) appearances with those who pay; Client contracts, deposits and payments versus the honor system; Paying Elves and Mrs. Claus for value.

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All solopreneurs and small businesses should consider having an email-based newsletter for developing a loyal following, communicating your "personal fabulosity" (compliments of the Communicatrix), and assisting in marketing the products and services of the organization. There are many email campaign sources available to the solopreneur to build a client list, offer services, and to market products and services. One key to all of the services are to avoid SPAM and the reputation for sending it. Although it takes longer, building your own client permission-based list, one person at a time yields the best results. Avoid trying to buy a list; it is less hassle and more effeictive to build your own. Each of them has differing strengths, pricing structures, services, and support resources. Here are just a few:

Out of them all, Santa Walter selected MailChimp for several reasons. Their do-it-yourself approach fits a beginner's skills; however, the support is humorous, high quality and even Walter-proof. They give all trial accounts a 600 email credit, and a list of up to 100 emails in each mailing. They even let me spit my list into A/B when it exceeded 100. The template-builder was easy and intuitive, list building was equally easy. I was able to use it for over 3 months without spending anything, and then the choice of plans were very flexible. They did not seem to be pressuring the sale. And the MailChimp's outrageous little snippets are quite fun. Once I signed on for a prepaid account, I even had the choice of the email campaign being completely without their logo or affiliation, if so desired. MailChimp powers Santa eNews and several other accounts for Santa Walter at a pay-as-you-go rate of $0.02 per email for now. Once the list grows huge, changing to a monthly fee is easily done. Their free 64 page eBook on email marketing guide for newsletters is a great help, regardless of which company you select.

Within the Santa community, one service that is used a lot is Constant Contact. Since they have even radio ads, and telephone support for the novice, they cost a little more; however, the strong color bands typical of their newsletter product tends to be distracting. They offer live webinars for the beginner to get started. Their pricing is $15/month for up to 500 emails on the list, which translates into $0.15 for each email address per month for 100 emails and slides to $0.03 each. If you are only sending one blast per month, and your list is small, it can seem to be pretty expensive.

A very impressive candidate is MyEmma as an email marketing solution. They develop your email look to coordinate with your website for about $100 or $250 for a small business, and for $30 per month, each client has an assigned human support provider available by phone and email to help and support getting out the campaigns. Since I found them through Marketing-Mentor, they were even going to give me a 20% discount on the monthly rate. They also plant 5 trees for every new client.

Another Internet Newsletter source is iContact. They start at about $10 per month. They have a series of 7 emails as resources on how to  do effective newsletters. They offer a free trial period.

Welcome to iContact's 7-Day Email Marketing eCourse

You will be receiving a total of 7 emails educating you on some of the most important topics in email marketing. Here's a snapshot of what you will find in your inbox over the next week:

• Day 1: iContact’s Five Step Process of Fail-Proof Permission Email Marketing
• Day 2: Learn How To Make Money and Leverage Email Marketing for Your Business!
• Day 3: How To Build Your Email Marketing List
• Day 4: iContact on Spam: What It Is and How To Avoid It
• Day 5: Increase Your Open Rates with an Effective 'From Name' and 'Subject Line'
• Day 6: Using Autoresponders to Put Your Marketing on 'Autopilot'
• Day 7: Get Instant Feedback From Your Subscribers with Surveys