Are you currently worried about your small business’s future? The coronavirus outbreak has turned the entire world upside down. There are times when it feels almost like a movie; it’s surreal. Many Americans are locked down in their homes, watching the news, wondering what’s next. But small business owners have even more worries. With social distancing becoming the norm and mandatory closure of non-essential businesses, entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how they can protect their businesses until we get to the other side of the crisis. The government is even providing help to small businesses with funding, grants, and…
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Have you ever taken an online course? While there are many community colleges and universities that offer exceptional training programs, many of us simply don’t have the time to dedicate an entire evening to class. Hence, the rise of the online self-directed course. With these, you can learn the material at your own pace without having to worry about long classes that you have to fit into your already-tight schedule. Online courses offer an incredible opportunity to small business owners and other entrepreneurs who are looking to make a name for themselves as an expert in their field. On top…
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Do you already have exciting plans in place for your small business in 2020? One of the smartest things you can do as a small business owner is to always think about the future. You should constantly have something on the horizon. Whether it’s planning a webinar, starting a podcast, developing a new product or service, or building a spectacular website. It also can make for the perfect time to completely revamp your brand. And as we’ve almost reached the end of 2019, I’ve started to put some real thought into the services that I’m going to be offering you…
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When did you last take a look at your business plan? One of the smartest things that a small business owner can do is create your yearly business plan. It’s an invaluable resource that helps them lay out their goals, challenges, and growth for the upcoming year. Whenever you feel like you are going off-course, you can always refer to the “north star” of your business plan! The only problem with creating a business plan is that it takes time. And around the holidays, time is the last thing you have (unless you have a virtual assistant)! You’re running around…
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Want to know the worst feeling in the world when you’re a small business owner creating a sense of emergency? It’s when you feel the first inklings that you’re getting sick. You know the signs. Sleep the night before may not happen. Your energy is running dry, or you get a tickle in the back of your throat. You think, “I’m getting sick. I can’t afford to get sick! I have too much to do this week!!!” As a small business owner, it’s not unusual that everything is on your shoulders. Your customer service, marketing, daily tasks, sales, EVERYTHING goes…
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Here is the funny thing about technology. It works until it doesn’t. There are few things more frustrating than going on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, only to discover that you can’t reach the website. You wonder if the problem is with your internet connection or their servers. So, you unplug your router, trying to reset everything, and it inevitably doesn’t work. So, you’re left annoyed. And that’s all it is: annoying. But what if the thing that was down was an essential part of your business? When your website goes down, not only does it appear to send a terrible…
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Do you know why testimonials are so important? Say, you’re walking down the street and a bus passes with an ad on the side promoting the “best coffee ever,” do you believe it? In all likelihood, you probably instantly think “Pfft. What a load of bull!” This is one of the biggest problems facing advertisers nowadays. Countless people are so instinctively distrustful of marketing that they dismiss any claims made in ads as exaggerations or outright fabrications. Even if the product is genuinely the “best coffee ever,” the average person probably isn’t going to believe it until they try it…
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What happens when a brand gets a “bad name?” I consider a brand to be a container that holds everything about a business, both tangible and intangible. From logo to customer service to reputation, your brand encompasses all of the qualities that your customers think when they see the name of your company. The problem happens when some of those qualities are less than desirable. Maybe in the early days of your business, your customer service needed a little more work. Or that your prices were just a little too high. After enough time, many of those negative qualities got…
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When I’m working with a client to either create a new brand or reimagine their existing one, a common question I hear is, “What’s the difference between graphic design and branding?” Conflating the two is an easy mistake to make. After all, when people think of brands, they think of logos. Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Nike… All of these brands have logos that instantly identify them. At a glance, a customer knows everything about those businesses, just by seeing their logo. However, logos and other graphic components are only one part of branding. As I’ve said in the past, think of a…
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Ok, pop quiz time! What exactly is branding? I wouldn’t bother trying to look online for the answer. You look at 100 marketing websites, you’re going to find at least 100 slightly different ideas. Why is it so difficult to nail down a single definition of branding? It’s because branding… is huge. It’s massive. It encompasses everything about your business. Trying to shrink that down to a single sentence is nearly impossible. So I’m not going to try! Instead, I’m going to break it down that massive concept into some smaller pieces, helping you understand what branding means for YOU…
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