Have you heard the expression “sometimes you have to go slow in order to go fast”?

That’s what a business planning retreat is all about. Slowing down from the regular hustle and bustle of business to take the time to plan, reflect, re-energize, set objectives, design strategy, and reconnect with the powerful WHY behind why you do your business in the first place.

That’s what the entire iThemes/PluginBuddy/WebDesign.com team will be doing on February 14 & 15. While this is time where we’ll be focused inward, it’s in order to help us focus outward even more effectively. In other words, to help us serve and connect with our community even better.

So while we’ll be scarce those couple of days (which means our response time to your requests will be a bit slower), rest assured we’ll Make Waves upon our return – and will be sharing how you can join in and ride the tide.

Of course, all of this begs the question…

What are YOU doing to plan for big, new things in your business?

How much time do you take off to really plan, to step back and take stock of where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you want to be a year from now?

And even more importantly, are you crystal clear on why you are in business in the first place?

While we’re off planning and plotting February 14 & 15, we invite you to take time to do the same thing with your business. Who knows what greatness we can create together?!

As many of you know, Benjamin Bradley’s father passed away suddenly last week and thus we cancelled the WordPress Developer’s Course. Memorial arrangements are this week and thus we have cancelled Benjamin’s webinars.

This week’s cancelled webinars include:

• PluginFocus: SimplePress – Jan. 17
• BluePrint Basics – Building a Podcasting Site – Jan. 19

The iThemesTV webinar on Getting Started with BackupBuddy will be broadcasted as scheduled and presented by Bes Zain from the PluginBuddy team.

We will be notifying all community members sometime next week of rescheduled training.

In the meantime, if you would like to send condolences to Benjamin directly, you may mail them to the iThemes office and we will get them to him: iThemes Media LLC, 1720 S. Kelly Ave., Edmond, OK 73013.

You can find full memorial details including a memorial fund here for Benjamin’s father.

WebDesign.com is all about providing leading edge web design and WordPress training, so it’s always exciting when something we do for ourselves gets picked up and showcased elsewhere.

WebDesign.com was just added to the showcase at PodsCMS.org. We use Pods to power several parts of the site to make it super easy for the admin team to add and organize live webinars and videos, creating course catalog additions and changes on the fly – with one edit Pods dynamically updates everything . With some fancy footwork by Benjamin Bradley, the Professor, each specific course url brings up the video replay, course materials, and the integrated discussion forum.

On the final day of the 12 Days of WebDesign.com, we’re giving you a whopper of a webinar! In this webinar you’ll learn how to build apps in Facebook, build page tabs in Facebook, and integrate Facebook functionality into iThemes Builder.
(Perfect timing, too, since this is the Builder Birthday Week…)

The gem in this is that you’ll learn how to build out sections of Facebook, but power them through iThemes Builder, so that when you update your WordPress site, it will translate to pages and apps on Facebook.

Remember, today is the last day to save 44% on the Web Designer’s ToolKit, where you’ll have access to all our plugins, themes and all the webinars at WebDesign.com – webinars with the same powerful impact as this one! Just use coupon code TK4412 before midnight to access your discount.

If you already have the ToolKit, use coupon code TK4412 to save 44% on your one-year extension!

Facebook and iThemes Builder Guide (download)

Check out all the previous gifts in the 12 Days of WebDesign.com.

Today’s gift is a guide on how to use the Redirection Plugin for WordPress. This is an extremely useful plugin for 301 redirects, monitoring 404 errors, and redirecting affiliate links. This Redirection Plugin Guide makes it even easier to get started.

Download it here: Redirection Plugin Guide

Check out all the previous gifts in the 12 Days of WebDesign.com.

Tomorrow is the last day to save 44% on the Web Designer’s ToolKit.

The ToolKit includes all the plugins from PluginBuddy.com, the All Access Theme Pass from iThemes (including the best-selling iThemes Builder), and a Premium Annual Membership at WebDesign.com. Just use coupon code TK4412 before midnight tomorrow to access your discount.

If you already have the ToolKit, use coupon code TK4412 to save 44% on your one-year extension!

One of the biggest challenges facing web designers, freelancers, and small business owners is how to find more clients. Today’s gift is an ebook that talks all about that – how to turn contacts into contracts.

If you haven’t been following up with your contacts, you’re not alone. About 73% of all leads are never contacted again. But, since turning contacts into contracts is what makes business happen, it’s a strategy you must implement. And, as you’ll see in the book, it doesn’t have to be that hard.

Download your copy of Turning Contacts into Contracts [eBook]

Enjoy, and make sure you check out all the previous gifts in the 12 Days of WebDesign.com.

Especially be sure to take advantage of the 44% discount on the Web Designer’s ToolKit. This great deal expires on Monday, the 12th Day….so take advantage before it goes away.

The end of the year is often busy and sometimes stressful -in part because of all
the end-of-year financial and tax paperwork you have to do. To make it easier, your gift for Day 9 is an End of the Year Financial Checklist to walk you through 7 key financial actions you can take to prepare for tax season, as well as save money this year. Use this checklist to help streamline your end-of-year tasks and impress your accountant!

This checklist is provided by one of our guest instructors, Sandy Oluwek of The Finance Oasis.

Download 7 Year End Tips to Put Your Financial House in Order

Check out all the previous gifts in the 12 Days of WebDesign.com.

Remember, Dec. 12th is the last day to save 44% on the Web Designer’s ToolKit, where you’ll have access to all our plugins, themes and all the webinars at WebDesign.com! Just use coupon code TK4412 before midnight on Monday the 12th to access your discount.

This webinar was one of the most popular sessions at the WebDesign.com November LIVE Event. In this video gift you will learn how to build a production environment – a production pipeline – that will enhance your efficiency and effectiveness, and present a very professional image and experience for your web design clients.

In this webinar you’ll learn how to create a localhost installation and be able to sync it with a live server on the web – with the ability to sync in both directions. As a result of how you do this, you will learn how WordPress handles static files and the database, increasing your overall understanding of how WordPress works.

For anyone in the web design business, this video is an absolute must! We hope you enjoy it.

Creating Your Web Production Pipeline Guide (download PDF).

p.s. These are the kinds of training sessions you can expect at LIVE events and webinars at WebDesign.com. Make sure you take advantage of your Free One Month LIVE Webinar Pass with coupon code FREEDEC, or your 44% savings on the Web Designer’s ToolKit using coupon code TK4412 to participate in more webinars like this.

Check out all the previous gifts in the 12 Days of WebDesign.com.

What winter giveaway would be complete without some winter backgrounds to spruce things up?

Today’s gift are free tile-ready backgrounds you can use on….just about anything you like.

If you’re using the iThemes Builder style manager, just upload any of these as a background image and set to repeat however you want. If you want to do it yourself with CSS, use this code:

background: url(‘[image URL]‘) repeat;

Hope you enjoy them! Let us know if you use them on any sites or projects you work on! Feel free to use them wherever you’d like. Just let us know where so we can see!

Click here to download them all at once.

Click here to download them all at once.

Check out all the previous gifts in the 12 Days of WebDesign.com.

Your gift for Day 6 of the 12 Days of WebDesign.com is a great, free WordPress theme designed by the iThemes team called Yuletide. Yuletide is a very merry theme, with a cheery blog design to show off your holiday blog posts.

DOWNLOAD Yuletide for free.

Check out all the previous gifts in the 12 Days of WebDesign.com.