Filed Under Business Card Tips, Business Cards, Facebook, Tips, Twitter, Web site, graphic design
Creativity is the key to keeping a small business flourishing in tight economic times. And while creativity will make your business grow stronger, there are also other free tools and opportunities small businesses should use to their advantage.
Many resources are available for small business owners to develop a plan for success, says “Mr. AllBiz” Steve Strauss, author of “The Small Business Bible.” He shares some of his tips here:
Make your small business appear big.
You might not have a huge warehouse or more than a dozen employees, but you can still give your business the professional appearance of one 10 times your size. First impressions are important. Print some professional-looking business cards and pass them out, design a great logo for your company and put that logo on a sign where everyone can see it.
Smart business planning
Develop a
Web site, and see if you can get it linked to your community’s Chamber of Commerce or city
Web site. Join social networking sites like
Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn to broaden your network of people who know who you are and what you do.
Get free help.
Organizations like the Small Business Administration and SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” exist to provide assistance. They can give you help specifically tailored to your business. Also, retail organizations are creating tools for small business owners to find additional resources. For example, Office Depot has created “The Survival of the Smartest” Web site as part of its Small Business Self-Bailout Plan.
Included on the site at www.TheSurvivalOfTheSmartest.com, are weekly videos with smart tips, special product and service offers, small business resource tools, up-to-date news provided through feeds from small business Web sites and blogs, promotions specifically for businesses and expert advice on topics like how to connect your wireless network, how to save money while greening your office, information security and more.
Focus on your X Factor.
Recognize what you do and why you do it, and then research your competition. When you discover the factor that makes your business better and different from the competition, learn how to focus and multiply that “X Factor” to achieve success.
If you have a smart survival strategy that has helped your small business get through these tough times, you can enter the Office Depot Adopt a Small Business Contest. The company will recognize 500 small businesses nationwide for their smart survival strategies and award them each with more than $2,000 in Office Depot gift cards, tech support for a year and copy, print and shipping services. That’s $1 million in bailout money available. To enter, upload an original 2-minute video starting June 1 that explains the smart things your business is doing to survive these challenging times to TheSurvivalOfTheSmartest.com.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
If you need business cards, graphic design or even a Web site designed up, feel free to contact Stevez Designz. Stevez Designz is my freelance graphic design, photography and Web design business.
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Filed Under Business Card Tips, Business Cards, Tips, graphic design
Could color be the secret ingredient to helping your business survive in a down economy? Yes, according to a study on color and its impact on small businesses conducted by Xerox and International Communications. It found that color has a strong ability to attract new customers, make companies appear larger, increase customers’ memory retention and make marketing collateral and presentations more effective.
Leslie Harrington, Ph.D., director of the Color Association of the United States, has teamed up with color experts from Staples, Inc. to offer these tips to help companies make smart color decisions:
1. Know Your Audience: Research which colors are associated with specific emotional responses or meanings. For example, purple is often used to convey prestige, while green is seen more as a neutral color. Red is symbolic of leadership and strength; yellow is seen as intellectual and innovative. The color orange is vibrant, which is why it’s often used to represent cleaning products.
2. Present in Color: Color is the fastest and strongest touch point with people. According to the study, 90 percent of small businesses surveyed believe customers remember presentations and documents better when color is used. Other research shows that 60 percent of customers base their purchasing decision on color.
Research also reveals that readers decide whether to read or reject pamphlets and direct-mail pieces in just 2.5 seconds, and that 55 percent of people are more likely to pick up a full-color piece of direct mail first. Color can help keep your materials out of the junk mail pile.
Color also increases readers’ attention spans and recall by 82 percent and makes an impression that is 39 percent more memorable than black and white.
3. Get Creative: Some companies select nontraditional colors for their products to get customers’ attention. Think about how you can differentiate a specific product or service with bold, out-of-the-ordinary uses of color to make them memorable.
4. Less Is Often More: Color is a powerful way to communicate, so be careful not to overdo it. Use one key color and a few accents. Simple, strong color messages can keep your brand memorable. Work with no more than three colors to keep things clean and concise.
To give businesses innovative ways to bring projects to life through color, Staples offers a wide range of color printing services for everything from business cards to proposals as well as Xerox-trained color experts and Xerox equipment at 1,500 Copy & Print Centers in stores nationwide.
For more information, visit www.office.xerox.com and www.staples.com/copyandprint.
Compliments of NAPS
If you need business cards, graphic design or even a Web site designed up, feel free to contact Stevez Designz. Stevez Designz is my freelance graphic design, photography and Web design business.
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Filed Under Business Card Tips, Business Cards
As most of you all know by now, I collect business cards. I found a blog that mentions Does a blogger need a business card.
I believe it is a great way to get more exposure to your blog.
Once, I run out of my current hobby business card.
My hobby business card is a business card I designed and got printed that says I collect business cards. It even has a link to my main Web site: www.cardeologist.com.
Once you have your business cards designed and printed, then be sure to hand them out.
Check out my post about Business Card Tips. I share with you some tips to hand out those pieces of card stock. You got them printed up right? Make use of them!
On my next version of my hobby card, I plan to add my blog to the design. Once I do, I plan to add my business card to Business Cards of Bloggers. This person made a blog post for people to show off the design of their blog business card. If you have a business card that has your blog on it, be sure to add your business card to that post by contacting Brian. Instructions on that post.
You can see my new hobby business card design at this post:
My New Hobby Card
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Why have business cards printed, if you are not going to hand these out. That is a waist of money. That is the point of business cards is to hand them out to everyone you can. Business cards are a means of advertising for your business. I am sure most of everyone has a good stack of cards in their boxes! They don’t help your business sitting in those boxes — That is being stingy! So here are some tips on printing, handing out those business cards and other kinds of tips…
- Hand them out to everyone you meet.
- Have your family and friends hand them out for you too.
- Put them on bulletin boards and fish bowls.
- Put them in all bills you pay.
- Put them in all correspondences/letters.
- Make sure to always have them handy to hand out at a minutes notice.
- If someone hands you a business card, you hand them back one of yours.
- Go to local store and hand them to everyone you pass in the store. (I personally know a person that does this all the time, he claims it works for him.)
- You can send one to me to add to my business card collection! *big smiles*
- Give one to every client you meet with.
- Look/Study their business card throughly.
- Put them in a business card holder on your desk so that when people come in to talk to you can grab one.
- Include your business card at the receptionist desk, if your business will allow you to do this.
- Keep them in a business card billfold (wallet) so they are ready to hand out.
- Make sure your business card has a current contact information.
- It is more professional to not write on your business card. If you have changed information, get new business cards printed up with the your current information on it.
- As much as you think those home printed business cards look nice, professionally printed business cards work much better.
- Include key information on your business card, including contact information.
- It is a good idea to include your Web site address. We are in the world of being online. If you don’t have a Web site, it is hard to be found on the Internet.
- Keep spares in your glove box of your car, just in case you run out of them.
- Don’t use over two different types of fonts.
- Don’t over use images.
- Basic Rule of Thumb: “Keep It Simple Stupid” (KISS) or some say “Less is More”
- Make sure to proofread your cards. Make sure names are spelled correctly, correct phone numbers, addresses, e-mail and Web site address are listed.
- Add something on the back that will make them stay in a persons possession longer. (calendar, sports schedules, coupons, appointment reminders, etc.)
- Attend Networkings and hand them out. (most require a certain number of business cards for admission).
- If your business card mentions your blog you can add it to a list of business cards with blogs on it A business card for your blog.
Please share with me any business card tips you have, like design tips, handing out tips, and other business card related tips you wish to share. I would love to hear them. All comments are welcomed.
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