If I had $1000...

{ok, this song is about a million dollars, but you get the point. And it's a great song!}

In January, I signed up for Blogging for your Creative Business with April of Blacksburg Belle. I started this blog to drive business to my stationery & design business & thought it's time I did a little focusing on how to do that bigger/better/more efficiently.

The course has been great! I'm almost done (finishing a liiiiiitle late...) & I was struck by the writing prompt that arrived in my inbox from the course this morning:

If you had $1000 to spend on improving your business, what would you do?

The first thing in my head: Sign up for B-School with Marie Forleo.

Not - buy more paper or letterpress ink. B-School! If you don't know Marie, definitely visit her site & check out her episodes of MarieTV. I have found them helpful for business & for life 'cause let's be honest. For women in small business, those 2 things are intertwined.

Each year she offers an online course in how to "get the business & the life you love" - a 10 week intensive on finding your clients, talking to them & making money doing what you love. April took the course...as did Mayi Carles...and put it to use with amazing results.

The course is more than $1000...double actually...which puts it way out of my budget. For now. But if someone were to put $1000 up for grabs, I would scrap the rest together to take the course. Fo' Sho'!

In the meantime, I'm doing other things - like meeting with a group of ladies who are all small business owners here in Brooklyn. Most of us met at the Dekalb Market & we've added a few friends. The point of our group is to pool our collective talents & resources to help each other grow & prosper. Oh, and we drink wine while we do it :)

Where do you go when you want to grow & learn? I'm always looking for new resources so please share! 2013 is shaping up to be the year of more resources!