10 Tips for Branding Your Small Business

Have your ever thought of turning your small business in brand? No, Then you should start thinking of it now.

Gone are the days when branding was only for big companies who can spend thousands of dollars in marketing. Becoming a brand will bring lot of advantages for you. People would start recognizing your brand easily. Your customers would start associating themselves with your brand and it would be much easier for you to sell your products or to launch new products under your parent name because or your loyal customer base of your brand.

How to become Brand?
Now the Question is what you should do to be a ‘brand’. The answer - If you are doing business then you already have a brand. Every business has a brand. You just need to promote it effectively with a proper branding strategy. In this article I would be discussing few tips which you can implement easily to convert your small business in to brand.

1. Be an Expert: - To be a brand you need to be an expert in your niche. The quality of your products and service should be far ahead than your competitors. People don’t care about your brand name and logo until you are providing them with high quality products they are searching for. Establishing yourself as an expert means more people would come to you for your services and trust your products as compared to others.

2. Create a Tagline: - Each Brand name should have a catchy tagline which could be easily remembered by your potential customers and tell them about your products and service. For example - The tagline for “Dell Computers” is “Easy as Dell”.

3. Create a Website for your Brand: - Create a professional website for your brand with complete information about your products. All websites should have used search engine optimization of your website to increase its visibility in search engines. Update your website with latest information about your products at regular intervals.

4. Use Social Media: - Social Media websites like Facebook, Digg and Twitter are future of web. People use these websites for sharing information and building relationships. Create accounts on such websites and start participating in discussions related to your products. Try to build relationships with your potential prospects on such websites.

5. Participate in Local Events: - Participate in local events; Most of these events are always in need of sponsors. You can sponsor such events and get some publicity in local media. These events will help to develop your brand locally and at the same time it’s the great opportunity to build relationship with your clients.

6. Live your Brand: - You and your employees are the best persons to promote your Brand. Take your brand with you everywhere you go. Wear t-shirts and accessories imprinted with your brand name wherever you go out on professional meetings with your clients.

7. Promotional Products: - Products imprinted with your logo are great way to promote your brand. Use these promotional products keep your brand name in the mind of your customers whenever they use them. For example - If you sell laptops free promotional laptop bags imprinted with your logo could be great promotional gift for you.

8. Contests: - Who doesn’t love to participate in contests and win easy prizes. Organise contests among your target audience. It could be anything like writing about your product, promoting your product online etc. You could easily promote your brand with such contests in a cost effective way.

9. Reputation Management: - Reputation Management becomes very important when it starts effecting your brand in a negative way. It takes many years to make a brand but it take much lesser time to destroy it. Especially in the online world when information spreads so quickly keep your EYES OPEN. There are free online tools like “Google Alerts” which will send you an email each time anybody writes about your brand on web. You can use these tools to manage your brand reputation easily.

There are many manufacturers that produce high quality promotional products for all kind businesses.

10. Be consistent with branding: - The most important thing with branding though is to be consistent from business cards, stationery, posters and all print material. Choose a smart and professional graphic artist that has greater skills and knowledge than just being able to use Photoshop or Illustrator and who can give good advice. Listen to that advice… It may cost you a little at the start, but will save you lots in the long run. 

Success shines :-)

What is Driving Your Customers?

Today we have many avenues to advertising both offline and online, especially with social media.

But what’s so appealing about these smart and relevant website enticements is that they don’t cost anything and can be very effective at drawing in customers. If you’re a musician, you most likely have hundreds of recordings that never made it onto a CD; and if you’re selling jewellery, then your prices are already structured such that a 20 percent discount for new customers still leaves you with a healthy profit and a potential customer for life.

Many managers believe that they need to retain tight control over promotions and, for example, are afraid of being ripped off by customers who trick the system and get the new customer discount more than once. I think they’re missing the forest for the trees, however, because the real question is whether the net benefit of gaining new customers outweighs the possible cost of a small percentage of customers exploiting the system for a small discount. Remember, customers who “trick” the system are still buying products or services, which they might well not have otherwise purchased.

What if your business doesn’t lend itself to turning website visitors into customers? Perhaps you run an art gallery and have already recognized that people don’t buy fine art from websites, but need to see it in person before they can make a purchase decision.

Even the most enthused web zealot will suggest that some businesses aren’t suited to the Internet. But that’s because they’re trying to solve the wrong problem. The criterion for success shouldn’t be whether you can sell your product through your website—after all, most products and almost all services can’t be delivered digitally—but whether you can sell your customer on visiting your place of business.

Going back to the example of the art gallery, what buyers have in common is both a love of art and the concurrent challenge of knowing what art is available at any given gallery. Yet isn’t it puzzling that art gallery websites don’t offer news of interest to art lovers, information on what artists are featured at other galleries in town, and new and noteworthy artists that aren’t currently featured at the gallery? Instead, the websites are much more likely to offer a photo gallery of currently available art work, a sentence or two about each piece, and “buy” buttons that never seem to generate any actual sales.

The key concept these businesses are missing is that if you have a product or service that requires the customer to interact with you in person or otherwise cannot be delivered electronically, the goals of your site need to be building awareness and convincing visitors why they should visit your place of business and become customers.

If you can’t easily figure out how the web can help your business, neither can your competitors. This suggests that there’s a tremendous opportunity for you to create the definitive goto site for your customer community. This is thinking outside the web box!

Success shine

Guest Writer, Aaron Parkes, was asked this question last week…

‘We own a local business but the financial crisis doesn’t seem to have affected us much… yet. What effect do you think it may have and what can we do, if anything, to protect ourselves from it? (OK for now!)

Aaron answers…

The current financial crisis was caused by greed and fear. Greed initially caused major financial institutions to make what turned out to be unsound investments, and fear is what’s currently slowing the economy down and encouraging people to hold onto their cash.

It’s great that the downturn hasn’t had an impact on your business yet but it’s definitely wise to be looking at how your business might ride through a tough time should it come.

These are just some things I think you need to take a good look at in your business to be ready if for any financial storm that might roll in.

Firstly I’d look at your expenses…
Is there any fat in there that drifted in over the last few buoyant years that could easily be trimmed? 

The next thing to look at is your products and services… are they really profitable?.
Does each thing you sell contribute positively to your bottom line? Make sure when you do this exercise too that you add in extra expenses, or cost of goods, that you incur when providing the product or service. For example, if you need to sub hire equipment in to provide a service, make sure the cost is build in before you add on your margin.

This brings me to another avenue for controlling costs… your suppliers.
When times are good people tend not to pay too much attention to what they pay for things and this extends to business owners. Take a good look at all your suppliers and make sure you’re getting the very best price you can for everything… raw materials, communications, fuel and rent are all areas where you might be able to renegotiate and trim costs.

People are the next important asset to explore… Your own people, your staff, and of course your customers. This is a great time to make sure your team are as good as they can be. Maybe a few people have been flying under the radar over the last few years while times have been good? You need to start assessing everyone’s roles and contribution closely, including your own, to make sure everyone is adding to your business and not slowing it down.

Your biggest asset in getting through tighter times is going to be your customers.

You need to make sure every single interaction with them adds value to the relationship and leaves them with you and your business firmly fixed in the top of their mind… in a positive way. You need to keep in contact with them regularly and make sure you are supplying them with exactly what they need because… happy customers will keep coming back.

There are definitely some good home remedies in these comments - Thank you to Aaron Parkes for this contibution.

Success Shines

Franchises and what you should know

Instead of starting a business independently, you may want to look into the options of franchises or distributorships.

What is a franchise?
With a franchise, you pay someone else for the right to sell and distribute their products and use their trade name or trademark. A franchise fee is charged and, depending on the franchise, there may or may not be ongoing royalty fees, advertising costs, or the mandatory purchase of the company’s supplies needed to run the franchise.

Franchises are now a popular way of being in business for oneself. There are more than 1,185 franchise businesses listed in Australia. You will find the official directory of the Franchise Council of Australia an excellent site with plenty of up-to-date information.

The advantages to owning a franchise include the following:

* Risks and failures are fewer than when starting an independent business.
* Franchises can provide product name recognition.
* Franchisors often provide a location and professional startup advice.
* Franchisors will monitor franchises and help with any operating difficulties.

The disadvantages to owning a franchise:

* Franchises can be expensive to acquire.
* A franchise is not really your business. What you really have is a contract to operate the franchise, usually for 10 years, which may or may not be renewed.

Although a franchise may be an attractive option for starting a home-based business, it is not something to rush into. For any of the business ideas given in this guide, thoroughly research the business or franchise in which you may be planning to invest your time and money. This may take months or even years. Because a contract is mandatory in a franchise, it is wise to hire a lawyer who is familiar with franchise legalities to protect your investment.

Franchise experts suggest that you should think about the following before buying a franchise:

* What are your personal strengths and how can you use them in each franchise?
* What hours do you want to work? (9 to 5?) Does working nights and weekends bother you?
* Do you like working directly with customers or would you rather work behind the scenes?
* How much capital do you have to invest? Or how can you obtain the capital you need?

And you should without a doubt, ask the franchisors these questions:

* Based on my investment, what rate of return and break-even point can I expect?
* What costs should I expect to pay before I make a profit for myself: fees, rents, wages etc?
* What is a typical day in the business really like?
* What regular support can I expect from the franchisor? Between regular visits, how accessible is the franchisor when I have a problem?
* What ongoing training for employees, managers, and owners does the franchisor provide?
* What is the length of the franchise contract and how easy is it to renew?
* What are the reasons for disenfranchising, that is, reasons that I can leave the franchise and the reasons that the company can ask me to leave its systems?
* Does the home office compete with me for business?
* What is the company’s regional and national five-year expansion plan and what role can I play in it?
* At what cost and under what criteria can I expand to additional locations or add more territories?
* What is the required advertising budget and how will it be used to benefit me directly?
* What is the franchisor’s mission statement and what does it say about its relations with franchises?

With the Internet and the assistance available for business owners and operators we are all better educated than ever before. We hope this information has added to your bank of knowledge and been useful.

Success shines

Introducing Aaron Parkes - Guest Writer

Aaron Parkes is a Business Development Strategist whose company Helping Business Grow, has developed an online business tool www.fixyourownbusiness.com to help business owners master their everyday challenges so they can grow and be successful. I am sure you will find these articles extremely useful and can relate to them all in some way. Aaron writes: 

The Challenge:

‘We’ve owned a small cafe for about 5 years. It’s a good business and provides us with a reasonable lifestyle but, for a while now, I’ve felt like it just doesn’t have any ‘zing’ or stand out at all?. We’d like to invest in making some changes but because we can’t really put our finger on the problem, we’re not sure where to start?…any suggestions? (name supplied)

Feedback:

That’s a great way to look at your business! So many business owners get so tied up in managing the day to day, they never take the time to step outside and really take a good look at how their business really works. What that also means is that you’re ready for change which is also a great positive because sometimes aversion to change can hold people back from making things better in their life.

I would suggest that there’s a couple of areas you might like to take a good look at first. In my experience, good restaurants or cafe’s I’ve visited and remember fondly have at least one of these ingredients down pat… if not perfect, at least impressively good.

The first is food… do you have signature dish that you do memorably well? If you don’t I’d suggest looking for something that you could become ‘known for’… maybe it’s something that fits in with the local area, your personal heritage or the ‘theme’ of the cafe? Once you’ve got it, you need to promote it at every opportunity and create a ‘buzz’ around it… press releases, footpath signs, competitions… anything that drives people to you to try it out!

The next thing I’d look at is the ‘theme’ of your cafe… is it based on something in the area, your background, heritage or a hobby or interest?. If the answer is ‘none of the above’ then you need to explore a new ‘look and feel’ or decor theme for your business that will attract and retain customers.

Lastly and definitely not least, is your people. It is possible to get people coming back day after day and telling their friends all about you simply because of the wonderful way you and your staff make them feel. I once knew a guy who made pizzas… his pizzas weren’t much better than anyone’s else’s but where else could you get a cheeky personal greeting shouted out each time you entered the shop… I always took friends in to experience it. You need to really stand back and look at your people, or get someone outside to do it for an unbiased opinion, and ask yourself if they’re really adding to your business?

I’d also like to just add a personal note here about coffee… I’m a ‘good coffee’ addict and will ALWAYS go out of my way to revisit a cafe that serves up a good long black, crema and all … so, that might just be a good place to start!

Great advice Aaron - Success Shines

Different levels of a distributorship

Generally, a less-expensive way to be affiliated with another established business is to be a distributor for them. As a distributor, you are a wholesaler who has purchased the rights to market one company’s goods (not numerous companies’ products as an independent sales rep would do) to customers within a given (though not always exclusive) territory. For example, each Hallmark store is run by the person who bought the rights. You buy the company name, but you pick and choose the products you wish to sell at that particular location.

A distributorship may also be a franchise held by a distributor. A distributorship differs from a franchise in that all you are doing is purchasing the rights to run the company; however, you can run it any way you wish. With a franchise, you must generally follow the business operations’ guidelines as stipulated by the franchisor.

With multilevel marketing (MLM; also known as network marketing), a distributor not only sells the company’s products but will enlist others to sell these products or services under their supervision—called downline. You, as the recruiter, would then receive a percentage of the enlistees’ sales.

According to the Direct Selling Association, 65 to 70 percent of direct sales are made through MLM, but MLM accounts for only 3 percent of all retail sales. Whether you sell cosmetics or baskets, there are thousands of distributors who have made money with direct sales with legitimate companies such as Tupperware. Unfortunately, there have been many bogus network marketing programs that were nothing more than pyramid scams, and the people who were on the “bottom” of the pyramid lost all their money.

As a distributor in network marketing, you are in business for yourself and set your own hours. Generally, you purchase the starter kit with order forms, samples, and supplies that you sell directly to the consumer. Here are some questions and guidelines to ask yourself and to follow concerning network marketing:

* Do I like or use the products or services I will be selling?
* Do I like the persons with whom I will be dealing? Do my instincts say to trust them?
* How long has this company been in business and can I talk to a number of other distributors with this company?
* Is the company product-oriented rather than recruitment-oriented?

You must avoid the following:

* Salespeople who deprecate other products, firms, or salespersons.
* Salespeople who take advantage of your lack of experience.
* Salespeople who falsely tell you that you have won a contest or that they are taking a survey.
* Companies that charge an entry fee much more than the cost of a sales kit.
* Companies that pressure you to purchase a large number of supplies and products but will not repurchase them if you should decide to withdraw from the business.
* Companies that sell few or no products to customers.

Finally, watch out for the Companies that won’t even tell you their name until you have attended their seminar or get together. They are normally a complete waste of your time especially when you find out who they really are.

If you work with a legitimate company and feel confident to handle the decisions required as a distributor and network marketer, you can be a success at this home-based, money-making, alternative business venture.

Success always

Beware of complacency!
Continue to assess your business by monitoring your customer’s needs and satisfaction level.

Have you ever wondered why the phone has stopped ringing or jobs have slowed down. It’s very easy to blame the economic times or a current event, but have you stopped to take a look at what ‘you’ are actually doing?

Even if your business becomes successful to the point that your customers seek out your services or products, you should keep assessing your business. By monitoring your customers’ needs and satisfaction levels, you can keep your business up to date. If you lose touch with your customers, you may find them stolen away by competitors.

The best way to reward clients is by excellent service. Keep in touch with your clients; send them a thank you card after they have received their product, maybe a voucher for a discount on their next purchase; send them your latest advertising or a newsletter in the post with a special offer as a valued client, but most importantly reward your evangelists as well as clients.

Know how to handle customer complaints.
No matter how many satisfied customers you have, someday you will probably have to handle a customer complaint. If you are the sole proprietor of your business (and actually do your business services), it is hard not to take complaints personally.

Sometimes it’s good business to adhere to the motto “The customer is always right” (even if they really aren’t). If you are courteous, are diplomatic, and really listen to the customer complaint, you should be able to handle most problems.

Of course, some customers are easier to work for than others. If you have a client that stretches the friendship and takes liberties or excessive amounts of time, and you believe you (or your employees) are doing the best possible job, you might find it more worthwhile to politely suggest that they find another service or business.

It is especially good also, to have a service contract, regardless of the size of the job. This protects both you and your customer should problems develop. If you are unsure how to word such an agreement, consult your lawyer.

Finally remember to ask your clients for feedback on your services or products this way you will be able to find out what areas you can improve on and also what areas are working well for you.

Success shines

Providing a top-quality service or product - Near enough is not good enough…

You may not be the biggest provider in your service area, but you can do your very best for each client, and the word will spread to other prospective clients. Providing top-quality service and / or product requires not only understanding your client’s needs, but having a high standard of personal and business morals and ethics.

To better understand their expectations you can find this out by listening and by using the who, what, where, when or why questions or by asking the more specific questions like:

> What is the greatest benefit you are looking to accomplish?
> What is causing you the biggest pain at present?
> Have you ever used a similar service or product?
> If yes, what are you looking to improve on or change?
> Who will gain in this process?
> What do you need most from my service or product? (Please be specific.)
> Whom do I contact if there is more than one person on a team?
> What questions do you have about my service or product?

This list gives you an idea of what you might want to ask new clients before and after they support your services. No doubt, you will develop your own list or survey questions based on your own experiences. Take careful notes of your clients’ answers, and make a copy of them for future reference. Conduct surveys or ask for feedback to ensure your business is continuing to meet the needs of your customers and clients.

If you have questions when you begin working, do not assume you know what your client wants - ask more questions. It’s better to clarify something in the beginning than to do work that is not required.

Evaluate your business. When you first start up your business, you will want as much feedback as possible from your customers. Ask them if they were satisfied with your service or product. Why or why not? Did they have any suggestions for improving your service or product? Are there any additional services or products they would like your business to provide? Would they use your business services or products again? Would they recommend your business services or products to another business or person?

You can ask these questions in person, over the phone, or in the form of a questionnaire. If your customer is extremely satisfied with your service, ask if they will write a letter stating the reasons they are satisfied to be used as a testimonial to attract prospective customers.

Always be aware of writing testimonials or paying a compliment for other people’s products or services too. You will be surprised how this will generate a snowball effect. Let’s face it – we all like a compliment.

Success shines

What will you charge for your services?

This of course, depends on a number of factors: your expenses and your time; the quality of your product or service; your potential market; your competition’s prices; how long you have been in business (you may charge more as you improve your business expertise and gain credability and a reputation for excellence); and what your customers are willing to pay.

When setting up your business, the best way to protect yourself is to establish a Terms of Service Agreement and have this presented to your clients and signed prior to engaging your services. Have a written quoting system and don’t rely on verbal agreements. If you have these in place it will save you a lot of headaches in the long run, and everyone will know where they stand and eliminate any surprises.

Some service businesses may have price-charging guidelines, but if your business is unique or the only one in your field, you may have to set your own prices to make what you believe, and what your accountant or your bookkeeper tells you, to be a reasonable profit.

This is an extract from a recent post on flyingsolo:

If you respect and care for your clients; if you respect and care for yourself; tell the client: 
> I will deliver to your objectives, as we agreed
> We will measure our success with these metrics, which cover both tangible and intangible factors
> The value to you of this will mean … (as explained to you by the client)
> And, the single investment you need to make, no matter how long or short it takes me to deliver to these standards, is $X.

If it then takes you 5 hours or 8 hours or 30 minutes, it doesn’t matter. The client is protected, they have the results required achieved to the quality-level necessary - and you have been paid well for you efforts.

Remember, you are in business to make money – not friends. Whilst many of our clients have become friends and are highly respected people in our lives, everyone is in business to succeed and make money.

Success shines

Tips on Free advertising

We mentioned last week on paid advertising - this is now a brief overview on free advertising and what you can do. As your budget allows, try different types of media advertisements

. Eventually, you’ll know which method brings the best results for your business.

The best publicity is free … Word of mouth.

An excellent recommendation by a person or client to a potential customer is one of the best ways to get people to know your business is up and running. Begin by telling friends, relatives, and anyone you talk to that you have started your business. Always carry your business cards to hand out, and give several to your friends and relatives to pass on. Network with other like minded businesses people as they may give you tips to help your business grow.

Always give the best possible service as you carry out your business. Word of mouth can keep your business going if you give that little extra to your customers. Remember, word of mouth can also spread negative comments about your business, so be very careful and never forget your customer, no matter how much your business grows!

Social media is probably one avenue to pursue that is definitely growing in size and getting plenty of media attention, and most of it is free. If you are able to spare the time to build your profiles and contacts make sure you put your business video on YouTube that links back to your website. LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter and Ecademy are just some of the growing forums you can join. But more on these in later posts.

Other methods of free promotion or advertising can include the following:

a. Public talks and appearances
b. Press releases
c. Feature articles in local newspapers
d. Web sites attracting quality inbound links
e. Demonstrations and promotional events
f. Donations of your services to fund-raising auctions will help people get to know you and your business.

Free publicity, is one of the best ways to get business with minimum expense and a little effort. You can begin by sending out a press release to local newspapers and to editors of related online publications and Web sites announcing your business start-up. You can also use press releases later when your business is established to announce the sponsorship of a special event or expansion of your business services.

Editors will be more likely to print your release - or follow up with a feature article - if you stick to the proper format. A press release must be neatly typed, doubled-spaced, concise, and written on your business stationery. You might also want to include a black-and-white photograph of you conducting business.

The easiest starting point is to include the basics of news stories - who, what, why, when, where, and how. Make sure the answers to these questions appear in the first couple paragraphs of your release. Do not forget to include how people can reach you for more information about your business services.

1. Community bulletin boards. Everything is worth a try and this is something you see in stores, banks, restaurants, and shopping centres. Ask permission to post your business cards or flyers (sometimes only non-profit organizations are permitted to post notices). Check back periodically to see if you need to replenish or rearrange your notices (sometimes accidentally or purposely, your materials may be covered up by other flyers). Make sure that your notices look professional and not something hastily scrawled and put together.

2. Hold a special occasion in connection with your business. You can announce it in a press release, a product launch and either invite the newspapers to take photos or take your own. Combine your occasion with other business and invite sponsor.

3. Donate your services to a charitable event. Auctions for non-profit organizations, raffles, and other fund-raising events provide opportunities to publicize your business, not to mention being tax-deductible as well.

If you have found a different way to advertise we would love to hear from you.

Success shines