Business Tips Corner - - 4 Simple Tools To Brand Your Company

By Dr. Cheryl Cottle

Be sure to drop in every week on a Thursday to share my useful tips that would help you in your journey to successful entrepreneurship!

My business tip for this week is about branding. While large companies use branding to market and promote what they do, small business owners can do the same. How you establish yourself in the marketplace is very important to your success? A professional branding image is sure to help you attract your potential customers and eventually translating them into customers. Here are some simple tools that you can integrate into your company to ensure that you get the respect that your deserve.

1.  Design a business card that provides information about your business. It is also recommended that you include a contact telephone number, an e-mail address and your website
2.  Design and create stationery for your business. Your writing paper and your envelope should include your company’s logo, name, and address
3. You should also have a dedicated telephone number for all your business contact
4.  Make sure that if you are not available to receive your calls that you have a message that is warm and friendly inviting them to leave a message. Your objective is to retain all prospective customers.  Develop a great message: thanking them for their interest and promise to respond in a timely manner
5. Get an e-mail address that is professional. Get one that reflects your business

These are some very cost effective ways that you can begin integrating into your branding strategy to ensure that you develop the level of professionalism and confidence so needed in today’s marketplace for any business.

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Author:

Dr. Cheryl Cottle is the Chief Consultant of Cottle's Professional Consulting. Cottle's Professional Consulting provides service in education, organizational development, professional development, and business development. Dr. Cottle is also a coach and mentor in areas of professional and business development. Interested in a service, please contact her at: ccottle@drcottle.com

Copyright © 2010 by Dr. Cheryl Cottle and Cottle’s Professional Consulting

Business Tips Corner - - For People now Starting out into Entrepreneurship

Business Tips Corner!

by: Dr. Cheryl Cottle

Be sure to drop in every week on a Thursday to share my useful tips that would help you in your journey to successful entrepreneurship!

This week's tips are specifically designed for people who are now starting out into entrepreneurship.

Love what you do and the wealth will follow: Marsha Sinetar the author of Do What you love: The Money will Follow- - Discovering Your Right Livelihood suggests that you should work at what you love and you will find the satisfaction that you have been looking for. Oprah Winfrey's also says, " . . . if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come." Many successful people believe in this philosophy. Some business owners have also vouched that having a passion for what you do, makes it much easier to go through the challenges you face as an entrepreneur. It is what helps to sustain your business.

• Get the support of others: Many entrepreneurs, particularly women tend to start a business alone because it often comes out of a great need. It can either be as a result of being divorced or the death of our spouse and we have to find alternative ways to support ourselves and children. It is wise that you get the support of someone to assist you in the event that difficult situations arise. If you are unable to get a friend or a family to support you, then it is wise to get a mentor. Join groups where you can also get the support. With the technology that are available, you can join online forums and others social media forum to network and share common experiences.
• Create a Business Plan: A business plan will provide you with the road map that you need when thinking of getting into a business venture. It will provide you with valuable information regarding how much money you will need to start up your business, identify who are your target audience, the best place to purchase your equipments, furniture and other inventories, who are your competitors, and how best to market and promote you product or services, and such business logistics.
• Education: It is important also that you increase you knowledge in the area of business that you want to get into. You must develop your expert knowledge of the industry you are in, as well as the product and or services that are the focus of your company. Engage in research, read books and attend workshops and seminars to stay current in your market. You would also want to know all about taxes as it applies to your business as well as business registration, and other operational logistics.
• Access Professional Support: Professional support is always touted as being to expensive as a result many business owner delay this process. Remember that you do not have all the skills needed to successfully run your business. You most likely would have the entrepreneurial skills, but not necessarily have all the managerial skills needed to manage your business. A business requires both entrepreneurial and management skills to be sustainable. It is a holistic approach to successful entrepreneurship. Therefore if you need an accountant to manage your books, or a website designer to build your website or blog, outsource their help.
• Professionalism: One of my advices that I gives to clients now starting out into the area of entrepreneurship is that they should always strive to be professional, and it does not only mean dressing great. Establishing a professional image from the beginning goes a long way in achieving business success. As a new business owner you should establish a business telephone number so that customers can easily contact you. A website is another feature that one should also consider having. In addition to online presence, an e-mail is equally important. These together with business cards, stationary and great customers’ service are a great start to establishing professionalism.

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Author:
Dr. Cheryl Cottle is the Chief Consultant of Cottle's Professional Consulting. Cottle's Professional Consulting has a multidisciplinary portfolio including education, organizational development, professional development, and business development. Dr. Cottle is also a coach and mentor in areas of professional and business development. Interested in a service, please contact her at: ccottle@drcottle.com

©Copyright 2010 by Dr. Cheryl Cottle and Cottle’s Professional Consulting

Blogging as a branding marketing technique

By: Dr. Cheryl Cottle
Branding today is not only a marketing strategy conducted by large corporations but other types of organizations are also using branding as a technique to promote their goals and mandates. Politics, education, training and development, health and fitness, family planning, community-based organizations, and causes are also using branding to promote what they do. Home-based businesses, woman-owned, as well as small and medium size businesses are also using branding to market their products or services to reach a wider target audience; extending from being a local market to a global market.

One strategy that they are using in common is “blogging”. When thinking about implementing “blogging” as a new marketing strategy, organizations and businesses alike should think about the analysis, design, development and implementation phases of their design plan to integrate “blogging” into their marketing strategy. It is also important to consider evaluating the effectiveness of the branding strategy in terms of; is it meeting your marketing goals: does it translates into increased clientele and increased production.


Attached is an interesting article that provides ways to think about when you plan to incorporate blogging into your marketing plan.

To learn more: http://zenhabits.net/branding-101-how-to-promote-your-blog-or-yourself-like-the-big-guys-do/

Need a BLOG for your business! We can design one for you!Contact us at: ccottle@drcottle.com

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About the Author:
Dr. Cheryl Cottle is an Educator, Instructional Technologist, and System Analysis. She is the Founder of Cottle’s Professional Consulting a multidisciplinary consultancy. Her business website is at: http://drcottle.com Dr. Cottle is also the creator of two online forum; Women in Business on Facebook and CPC Women in Business at http://www.cpcwib.ning.com/

Copyright © 2010 by Dr. Cheryl Cottle ● Cottle’s Professional Consulting

Logos and Company Identity: Why it is Necessary

Logos and Company Identity: Why it is Necessary

Building a company identity through the use of graphic design (logos, business cards, website design, etc.) is an extremely important part of having a successful business. There are several reasons why having a logo and company identity are so important: it gives your business a sense of legitimacy, it makes your product recognizable and memorable, and it provides insight as to what your company is and what it stands for.

How Logos Contribute to Legitimacy

Having graphics for your company, specifically a logo, helps to make consumers believe that your company is established and stable. A company which makes a financial investment in a logo is a serious company, out to succeed. It is tangible proof of a dedication to the business, suggesting that the business will endure.

Customers can be comfortable supporting a company when they believe that they will be able to form a lasting association with that company. They will know that they have something to fall back on if there's a problem with anything, which is reassuring and will help to develop trust and consumer confidence.

How Logos Make You Memorable

Having a logo gives customers a visual representation to associate with your business. It makes any products branded with the logo instantly recognizable as yours, and provides added potential for word of mouth to spread. People will be able to remember your product and identify it.

For an example of how logos and the entire process of branding make a significant difference in how products are perceived, consider designer clothing. Some people will drop between $200 and $300 on a pair of designer jeans, but would never look twice at a less expensive pair of equal quality and design which did not have a brand name associated with it.

How Logos Provide Insight

Consider the strong and straightforward Nike "Swoosh," or the sleek and modern Apple design. Successful logos give a consumer an idea of what to expect from a company. A customer should be drawn in by your graphics and should be curious about the company which those grpahics represent. Make a list of the attributes you want to be associated with your company, and think of a design (or hire somebody else to) which accurately represents those traits.

Creating Consistency With Graphics

Logos are possibly the most important part of graphic design and are what will be what people focus on most, but this does not mean you should pay less attention to other aspects of graphic design associated with your company. Having your own colors and a general overall feel which are kept constant throughout the logo, website and print advertisements will give your business consistency and a polished appeal. A talented designer can help design company graphics, which are meant to be consistently representative of you and your business.

Creating a company identity and supporting it with your choice of graphic design will help you reach out to more customers and build a more successful business.

Source: http://wahm.com/articles/logos-and-company-identity-why-it-is-necessary.html