You’re known by your logo or brand, right? Perhaps. In some cases (think Nike or Kodak) that is true. In other cases, if you’re just starting out you may still be tweaking your brand or logo and may want to change it from its original form. In other instances, if you’ve been in business for some time and are now taking the business in a new direction or adding new goods, services or products, it might be time to rebrand to reflect the new direction.
What should prompt a rebrand or a new logo? Here are three reasons to consider one:
Your business model has changed and a new logo would reflect that. Also, if the business management team has changed, you may want a new logo to set yourself apart with a new identity.
If you are taking your business in a new direction and targeting a new audience a new logo or brand identification might make sense.
If your old logo simply looks tired or the colors look dated, you might want to freshen it up with new colors. Say, for example when you started out you used a typewriter for your business and have since (hopefully long since) moved to performing your tasks on a computer!
You can also use your new brand relaunch as a way to garner social media traffic!
When you decided to go into business for yourself, you wanted to be a success — everyone begins with that dream, right? Building momentum toward business greatness can be accomplished in any number of ways. Keep in mind that when you build momentum in any area of your business or personal life, you feel like you’re operating at a higher level than you were in the past.
How can you create momentum? Here are three tips:
Be focused on your goal and its outcome. It’s sometimes easy to lose sight of long-term goals, especially if you’re presented with a bright, new product or service or opportunity. If this happens, you need to look at it with a critical eye and see if it fits into your overall business plan and vision.
Be intense in your ability to get things done. Your passion for your business should help your intensity. If you’re not passionate about what you do, why are you doing it?
Give yourself a timeline and a deadline. Having a vague goal of, “I want more customers” will not propel you toward any achievable goal simply because you haven’t given it anything measurable. Consider this, “I want 10 more customers per month than I did the month previous.” This is a measurable and perhaps achievable goal.
Building momentum is crucial to business success as it helps keep you challenged and motivated toward a specific goal!
Entrepreneurs need to embody many traits — chief among them being, leadership. Whether you’re hiring a staff to help you in your business endeavor or whether you’re a solopreneur, the traits of leadership cover almost all aspects of a business operation. What is leadership? Peter Drucker, a leadership expert, says it’s “someone who had followers.” John Maxwell describers leadership as, “influence.”
Regardless of what definition you have for leadership, there are traits and qualities that most leaders possess and they are:
Decisiveness
Loyalty
Courage
Tenacity
Emotional stamina
Dependability
Competitiveness
Self-confidence
Credibility
Responsibility
Do you see yourself or your strengths listed above? Do you feel you possess some, but maybe not all, of these traits? If you need assistance in strengthening those areas in which you may not excell, we help through our coaching programs. Give us a call and we will help you assess your strengths and develop your weaknesses.
As we prepare to attend Piscine Global in France, we get to thinking about how to make the most of any conference you’re planning to attend, whether it’s one in your own backyard or one on another continent.
Here are our best tips for making the most of your attendance at a conference:
Spend time with the brochure prior to showing up at the conference site. Print out the brochure or conference schedule. Note which sessions you want to attend, why and what you’re hoping to get out of it. Write questions to prompt yourself to either ask them during the session or to ask them after if the speaker doesn’t address them.
Attend the before and after conference events. Many conferences host breakfasts prior to the sessions opening and these are great for getting to know other attendees. After conference events are also great for mixing and mingling and will likely put you in the same room and within chatting distance of the speakers.
Once you get back from the conference, follow up with the people you met there. Send an email, follow up with a phone call, write a blog post. Don’t let the excitement and the information you gleaned from your conference attendance fade away. Keep it alive by after-conference networking.
What will you do to make sure you get a return on your investment from your next conference attendance?
Think back to the last networking event you attended. Did you walk away with a fistful of business cards? Did you hand out business cards to those you met? Even in today’s electronic age, there are many venues in which your good, tried and true business card will be your best “giveaway” when you meet someone.
How can you make your business card memorable and keep it out of the trash can or shoved, forgotten, in the back of a drawer? Here are three items I believe are crucial to have on your card:
Your company logo and/or a photo of yourself (if you have a good one). You don’t want to clutter the card with a lot of wording but if you have a memorable logo, it should be part of the card. Putting your photo on the card helps make you more memorable as well, especially when you consider that if an individual receives a dozen or more cards having a “face with the name” may make it easier to make a connection following the event.
Don’t forget to have your contact information on the card. Don’t force an acquaintance to go to your website then search for a Contact Us section. Make it easy to be contacted by having your name, phone number and email on the card.
Make use of the base of the card. If you are a service provider, list your services on the back of the card. Add your social media handles there. If you’re an author put a thumbnail of your book cover there. It is valuable real estate if you use it wisely.
Do you still use business cards? If you don’t, how do you gather contact information at networking events?
sessions you want to attend, why and what you’re hoping to get out of it. Write questions to prompt yourself to either ask them during the session or to ask them after if the speaker doesn’t address them.