Business Logo

Before you start printing business cards, creating a website, designing flyers or advertising your company, you must first create your logo. Your company’s logo is what will represent you in the future, creating your “brand.”

A logo is what people will look for when looking for your company, and recognize as representing your company as you become better known.
You need to make sure it stands out in a good way.

Here are some examples of outstanding logos.

How Do You Search Online?

As you make your way around the web researching information to improve your business operation, or start a new venture perhaps, how do you find it?  How do you search for what you want?  Do you usually find it the first time, or do you have to do multiple inquiries to find what you need?

Depending on the complexity of your questions, the answer may vary.  It has been my experience however, that some of the best answers to my search questions are often not in the top search results, and frequently take two or three searches to locate, or be 2-3 pages back in the results.  Why? 

SEO is why.  Search Engine Optimization.

In our "Getting Your Business Online" workshops, we stress the need to optimize your website for search engines based on the those products or services in which you specialize, and on location as well, if reaching local customers is one of your goals.   You can have a beautiful, well-designed and very functional website, and still not be getting the desired results from it for your business.  We liken this to (the politically incorrect and somewhat offensive) empty-headed beautiful blonde.   Beautiful to look at, but no substance.   A website must have substance to attract the attention of search engines, because search engines don't see beauty ..... they only collect relevant words, terms, frequency of verbiage, tie-in-links, etc., that all go into making up what we call "great content."

I myself have frequently searched for articles that are relevant to a specific subject, and had top results returned for articles that are several years old.  Does that mean that no one else is writing anything on that subject today?  Not at all.  It just means they haven't taken the time to insure that their content is not only important to the human reader, but also to search engines.  Developing content that will please both human readers and computers is the way to being found, building your customer base, and displaying your products/services to the greatest numbers of your target market.  If you want your website to be found, it's OK to make it beautiful ..... but it's more important to make it intelligent with great content that will stay around and be there to send new customers your way for years to come.

Here are some ideas from the national office of the SBDC for simplifying the process of creating great content for your website.

http://asbdcbizblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/6-simple-tips-for-great-content.html

Shop Local. Shop Small Businesses.

Profits before Products? Think again!

John Sculley, an Apple executive for several years, had come over from Pepsi, where he was a marketing and sales executive for the company. Because of his position he was mainly focused on profit maximization rather than on product design.  , which caused sales for Apple to slowly decline. 

But why did this happen? Many times companies focus more on profits than they do on the actual product. They focus on how to sell the product, where to sell it, who to sell it to and most importantly, how are they going to make a profit? Yes, this is actually something all companies need to think of, but sometimes focusing on the product itself first will make a difference. Steve Jobs said: “My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. Everything else was secondary.

Sure, it was great to make a profit, because that was what allowed you to make great products. But the products, not the profits, were the motivation”. In Sculley’s case, instead of focusing on creating better products and innovating, his main priority was to make money. 

What can other business owners learn from this?  Remember the saying, “Money isn’t everything.”  If that’s your only motivation, you may do well for a while, but it catches up with you.   Quality first … profit second.  That’s the way to grow a business!

Do Not Track (DNT) - what is this?

In a recent report, the Federal Trade Commission recommended that Apple, Google and other advertising networks should start allowing users the option of Do Not Track (DNT).  DNTs are programs designed to stop 3rd parties from tracking which sites you visit, how often, when you visit them, etc. 

While some feel that these tracker sites are a violation of privacy, marketing companies believe that the tracker programs are necessary for getting the right advertisements to the right people.  In response, the FTC stated that the DNT should be a privacy option. 

If DNTs were a privacy option they reasoned, people would be able to evaluate their options on an individual level and decide which is better for them. The FTC also recommended that app developers make sure they understand the ad networks fully before allowing them access to advertising in their apps. 

A link to the full report is given below. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/123386205/FTC-Mobile-Privacy-Report

Do you use Video Marketing as a Marketing Strategy? Check out this video.

Videos,when part of a full marketing campaign, can add significant sales impact. Always keep that in mind.

Automation

In a day where machinery can be used to automate and eventually collapse processes, employees often fear that they will lose their jobs to machines and employers are often afraid of lowering company moral if they start using machines to automate the company. Are their fears justified?

Automation is not a bad thing, as many of the world’s largest companies will tell you. It often allows for amazing returns on investments and, more often than not, results in employees automating their way out of a job… and onto a better one.

Instead of looking at automation as one person taking on the job of three, employees and employers need to look at it as three employees able to do three times the work apiece.

Still the fear of automation remains. This article talks about more of the benefits of automating your company and how best to overcome the fear that you or employees may have.