Name: Ana Ottman
Company Name: Red Dress Studios
Website: www.RedDressStudios.com
Twitter: @anaottman

A note from Jenn: Stylish, savvy, and sweet are just some of the yummy words I’d use to describe the amazing Ana Ottman of Red Dress Studios. She is all about helping entrepreneurial women build their confidence muscles. I really love that she offers lots of valuable freebies like the Advice on Building Your Confidence Muscles e-Book or her Risk Autobiography. And I consider myself very fortunate to have had the pleasure of hanging out with Ana in person when I visited DC at the end of last year.

Thanks, Ana, for sharing your Right-Brain Business Plan and process with us and for being an inspiration to women everywhere!

What is your business and what makes your business unique?

Red Dress Studios is a one-stop shop for new entrepreneurs to help with the practical and emotional aspects of entrepreneurship. Through my customized consulting program, I help you simplify, energize, re-frame, and rocket-launch.

How has the Right-Brain Business Plan helped you? What is different for you and your business after approaching planning in a creative, visual way?

Ohh, where do I begin? Knowing Jennifer and trusting her process with right-brain business planning led me to be okay with starting my business plan with a vision board. Inside, I’m thinking to myself, “This is too much fun, it can’t possibly help me create and grow my business.” And it totally did. Not to mention, it was an image on my vision board that gave me the idea for my business name, Red Dress Studios (how cool is that?).

What goals (big or small) on your business plan have you already accomplished or have made progress on?

Through my RBBP, I set marketing benchmarks (in a really fun way) that I’ve already made progress on. I have a worksheet that says “Ana Ottman, Marketing Ninja” at the top that I use to track my weekly marketing goals, such as connecting with people on Twitter and building my newsletter list.

How do you use your creative intuition in your work?

For starters, I used my creative intuition to create Red Dress Studios by following my gut with the kind of clients that I help best and with branding decisions. I use my intuition every day in my business to help figure out what blog posts to write, what to say during client sessions, what business owners to partner with, and what kind of clients I want to work with. That said, I’m still working on being able to tune out the “outside” voices and listen deeply to my internal voice instead.

Is there anything you’d like to share about your Right-Brain Business Plan in terms of what it’s made out of or how you made it?

It was created with materials that I already had in my office-recycled paper and images from magazines. It was important for me to keep it simple so that I didn’t follow the need to seek out or find the “perfect” materials.

What advice do you have for other creative entrepreneurs?

I’m a huge advocate of taking risks. They help you build your confidence to care for and grow your business. The risks don’t have to be anything to do with your business. It’s the practice of doing something you never thought was possible that will grow your business in leaps and bounds.

Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs

Ana is getting ready to launch some cool new resources for women entrepreneurs, so sign-up to have Ana notify you when they’re available.

And if you’re interested in the Right-Brain Business Plan, my next e-Course is starting next Monday, May 17th.  This eight-week interactive program will help you finally get your business plan done and you’ll actually have fun doing it! Find out more about the Right-Brain Business Plan e-Course and register here.