Breanna Chanson, photographer and co-owner of  Radiant Photography, shared with us the following resolution:

My goal is to escape from the slavery that running my own business had turned into so I can better enjoy the perks that it brings me! So my resolution is to create a daily schedule that leads me to a healthy balance between my personal and professional life and to stick to it!

A few months ago, Breanna launched rareexistence.com, a blog which dedicates its content to the art of exploring life’s endless possibilities and living “the life you are meant to live regardless of risk, difficulty, opinion of others, weaknesses, or failures.” Breanna shares inspiring stories and personal meditations to engage readers who endeavor to break out of the mundane and into the extraordinary.

Eat.Sleep.Work. wishes Breanna the best of luck in maintaining her 2012 resolution and hopes she enjoys her new ESW and Schwarzkopf bundle of goods! Keep up with Breanna on facebook at Radiant Photography and Rare Existence!

Meet Mr. Goro, general manager of  T.O.T  (Teishokuya of Tokyo) a restaurant in the heart of little Tokyo Los Angeles.  T.O.T offers a traditional style Japanese cuisine in a cozy homely atmosphere.  If your group can’t decide what kind of Japanese food to eat, I’ll bet you the lint in my pocket that this place will have something that will satisfy even the most undecided.

T.O.T is showcasing Japangeles art on their walls, so come by and ask to be seated in the booth with your favorite Japangeles design and don’t forget to say hello to Mr. Goro.  By the way, don’t let the T.O.T uniform fool you.  Goro is also a musician.  Rock on Goro!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! This weekend in Chinatown, Los Angeles had festivities for all ages. From performances, food trucks, to craft booths by LACE there were plenty of things to do. 2012 is the year of the dragon (considered the luckiest year in chinese zodiac), and when you walk the streets of chinatown you’ll definitely see dragons in all shapes and sizes. Coming to Chinatown I always feel like I’ll bump into Lo Pan or Egg Shen from “Big Trouble in little China” or eat at a Chinese restaurant and stumble upon a secret passage way that will lead to a forbidden city. (Fingers crossed) One of these days…

Tummy of steel!

Order Detective James Carter’s favorite MU SHU PORK!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Does this sound at all familiar? You’re not alone. Thankfully, this year we have a Lunar chance to redeem ourselves and revive our resolutions for the Chinese New Year! And if you haven’t heard already, 2012 is the Year of the DARYL (who just so happens to be a dragon).

The Year of the DARYL is one that can be of great benefit to those who are ambitious and willing to take chances. It favors the entrepreneurial spirit so, if starting a business is your ambition, this is the year to do it! If your goal is to grow your already existing business into a bigger and better version of itself, the elemental qualities of a DARYL year should provide the motivational tools necessary to take your next steps!

Entrepreneurs: the year is yours!

If you’re an educator at a university, college, or K-12 school, now you have an easy way to design and distribute complete courses featuring audio, video, books, and other content. And students and lifelong learners can experience your courses for free through a powerful new app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

I’m sure college students across the globe will rejoice in the fact that they’re not going to have to lug 20lb books across campus, or wait in hour long lines in the book store anymore. The worse part was trying to resell it back and get a few bucks for something you bought for $100 just five months ago. The world where parents are using their tablets as entertainment devices for their toddlers this should be seen as no surprise. The move is pretty genius as it moves them into a position to sell more of their products while at the same time not technically having to update their functionality at the exponential rate the people expect to see every year now.

My biggest fear as a future parent is that soon enough public schools will now stop purchasing books all together, and have parents buy books just like we had to in college. Its not like public schools are going to have the money to distribute iPads to every student and you know kids are going to demand that they be able to use their tablets in class. Its definitely a boon for the environment and backs of children everywhere, but definitely something the worry about for pocket books of parents.

via itsbongoboy.com

Web Design isn’t Free

Taking a look at US-based web design agencies and traditional marketing / advertising agencies, this category takes up about 25% of the collected responses. Looking further down the infographic, most US-based responses are agencies with 2-5 employees, 6-10 concurrent clients, in business for 3-4 years and deal with a majority of small-medium sized businesses.

Scrolling further down, here’s where we get to pricing models. The average project-based costs fall generally around $1500 up to $7500, and hourly rates between $76 per hour up to $150 per hour.

By-the-Project Pricing is Popular and Most Commonly $1,000-$7,500
70.1% of respondents said they offer project-based pricing (the most common pricing system selected in the survey). 43% of consultancies were represented by the four price ranges: $1,001-$1,500, $1,501-$2,500, $2501-$5,000 and $5,001-$7,500. Obviously, there are a wide variety of prices here. This is not surprising given the diversity of project types.

Though this survey isn’t 100% accurate, it gives our agency a fairly clearer idea of where we stand amongst our competitors.

…I’d be surprised if a professional surveyor found dramatically different data – there was enough participation to receive a trustworthy sample size and firms provided their personal/contact information (many of which I recognized while digging through the responses, but obviously will not be sharing identities publicly), which means we likely did not receive intentionally manipulative/misleading information.

Now, get back to work! And stay competitive!

Source: SEOmoz.com

One of the biggest decisions you make when starting a T-shirt company is choosing what type of shirt you print your designs on. There are hundreds of brands with varying quality, styles, and costs to choose from. First, you have to know your demographics.

1. Do your customers like the soft organic cotton sort of tees?
2. More thicker boxier type of streetwear?
3. Will they be wearing it while they’re skateboarding or going out to a bar?
4. Do your customers care in which country the shirts are made?
5. Do they care that they’re pre-shrunk or fitted in the arms?

There are many questions you have to ask yourself while being in the shoes of your customers. I recently made the decision to start printing on American Apparel and I’m glad I did because you can tell the difference in the quality of the shirts as soon as the design is screen printed. I chose American Apparel because I like American and locally made products and I know there’s a growing trend in buying American. Also, I know that my customers value that as well. Another reason why I chose American Apparel was the quality of the screen prints. The prints on American Apparel are much more defined and the colors pop.

To determine which type of shirt you should print on and before you buy in bulk, I recommend that you buy a prototype.  Try screen printing on it, wear it to see how it fits and feels, wash it to see the quality post-wash, measure it pre-wash and post-wash to see the shrinkage, etc.  Once you make the decision it’s not too easy to change your shirt styles.