The Inner Game of Business Success

In a way business (and life for that matter) is a game, or rather, games, two games. Our outer game is what we do; our inner game is what we think. What decides whether a person will succeed or struggle in their business is both. The outer game is their strategy, product, sales process, level of market knowledge, marketing, alignment with the economic climate, how they spend their time and energy, how organized they are, etc. The inner game is their success mindset: their belief and trust in their own ability to play a winning outer game.
The inner game comes always first. The inner game dictates the outer game. What you do, how you spend your time, how effective you all depend on the quality of your mindset. The success mindset is a firm belief in your own capabilities to create your version of success as well as your feeling of worthiness to receive it. You must have the trust and the belief on the inside to succeed on the outside.
That’s why it’s crucial to put time and energy into cultivating your inner state of mind. In my previous blog I talked about the importance of creating and connecting with your life and business vision. Out of that vision I invite you now to take the next powerful step: create your Decision Statement and your Belief Statement. Your Decision Statement is a short and powerful sentence or two of what your intention is for your business and for yourself. It’s not a goal or a mission statement, but rather a statement of what you are intending to create. For example:
“My decision is to be a highly successful (fill in the blank) with an amazingly profitable business.” or “My intention is to become a world-famous (fill in the blank) and help thousands of people to (fill in the blank)”.
Make it highly personal, authentic, write it in the way that really talks to you and empowers you. It needs to touch your very essence in such way that you will get really excited about it and ready to go for it.
The second part of the process is to support your Decision with your Belief. Belief Statement is a concise declaration of the reason or reasons why you will succeed and make your Decision a reality. Again, it is very personal and has to address your own individual needs. For example:
“I am perfectly designed to be a highly successful (…) and have an amazingly profitable business” or “I am absolutely capable of becoming a world-famous (…) and help thousands of people to (…)”.
Do you see how your Belief Statement works to make your Decision Statement more complete and stronger?
Once you create your statements, write them down somewhere where you can see them every day and connect with them daily. A powerful thing to do is to also record them into a voice recorder and listen to them twice a day: just before you fall asleep and in the morning before you start your work. You will soon see how they fuel you and how they give you a much more open and spacious perspective when dealing with the outside “situations” and challenges. Things will become easier to handle, obstacles simpler to overcome and opportunities more noticeable. You will be much more on target and purposeful in your actions and the journey will become more exciting.

Margaret Moczkowski
Personal Success Coach
Momentum Coaching
www.YourBusinessEvolved.com

Jott.com Way Cool

Have you ever been driving, or walking, or doing something, when you had that awesome thought? That thing you want to remember to do. That sudden light bulb in your head idea. What if you had the ability to, just at that moment, speak that thought into your phone and the information is immediately transcribed into a text email sent to you.  When you got back to your office there’s the email, with the text transcribed of what you said. Folks, that ability is here today, and man oh man is it a lifesaver for me. www.jott.com. It takes less than 5 minutes to setup. It’s priced free with ad’s or $3.95 per month without ads. Did you know that if you don’t write that idea that’s floating around in your head down in about 47 seconds you will probably forget it as you start thinking of other things.  For me, I’m Jotting my way into a better memory

Attracting Positive Public Relations

Generating positive public relations is all about THE STORY. What is your story and why are you unique in the industry or amongst your competition?

When I sit down to learn about a new business I often listen for key things:

1. What is your direct competition in the market like? How unique are you?
2. What made you decide to go into this industry? Is there a personal story here?
3. Do you plan on growing your business by looking at other products and services or expanding what you have to create something new?

Today’s media want to cover the hottest new trends. Period. They’re looking for something no one else has covered or a lead for a future story.

It’s important that you follow your local media (and favorite national pubs) and the writers you’d like to produce a story on your business. Also, following national trends and jumping on opportunities can be extremely beneficial.

Take the green movement right now. Everyone jumped on the Earth Day bandwagon and it was a crowded news week, but did you know that there are two other noted dates on the calendar dedicated to green living and recycling?

With the down turn of the economy everyone is looking for new ways to save money. Editors might be more interested in your budget-friendly product/service, upcoming promotion, discount or sale than you know. It’s all about being aware of what’s happening and seeing how your business is applicable. When trends are hot, journalists are looking for all kinds of tips.

For the DIYers it can be as simple as writing a related pitch to the writer connecting the trend to your business. If anything they’ll keep your information on file as a potential reference for a future story. That’s the kind of expert positioning that builds real credibility!

How would you answer the questions above? It could determine whether your PR program is successful or not. Think like a journalist, interview yourself and dig through what’s specifically interesting about you and your business. Journalists don’t want the same information and story they’ve already written. They want something new and of current interest.

Believe me, everyone has a unique story to tell and it’s always interesting.

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications, www.cascadecomms.com

Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Answer Before Taking the Leap

Clarifying Goals: Where Do I Want to Go?
“An entrepreneur’s personal and business goals are inextricably linked.”

• What kind of enterprise do I need to build?
• What risks and sacrifices does such an enterprise demand?
• Can I accept those risks and sacrifices?

Setting Strategy: How Will I Get There?
“Ventures based on a good strategy can survive confusion and poor leadership, but sophisticated control systems and organizational structures cannot compensate for an unsound strategy.”

• Is the strategy well defined?
• Can the strategy generate sufficient profits and growth?
• Is the strategy sustainable?
• Are my goals for growth too conservative or too aggressive?

Executing the Strategy: Can I Do It?
“May be the hardest question to answer because it requires the most candid self-examination.”

• Do I have the right resources and relationships?
• How strong is the organization?
• Can I play my role?

Based on an article by Amar Bhide, HBR, Dec., 1996

Using this model won’t guarantee success, but it does offer a rational lens to view your entrepreneurial enterprise through – and one more bit of advice: Don’t consider your model in a vacuum. Seek out objective, experienced, and trusted advisers to help you find the gaps in your model. It’s the old adage, An Ounce of Prevention…

Michael Shapiro

Dynamic Management Solutions, Inc.

R U Shopping Your Web Site Designer Based Solely on Price?

As a Web developer who’s company slogan is, “Experts in how business get’s done on the Internet”, I would be greatly remiss if I did not give you my expert opinion on the cheapest option out there for a Web site. The best cheap option out there, if your number one criteria for choosing a Web site designer is price, is GoDaddy.com. They have some really great step by step Wizards and designs that allow you to create a good looking Web site for only $6.00 per month. That’s right, if you need a Web site that looks good but only costs $6.00 a month, you can build it yourself at GoDaddy.com. There’s no technical skill required at all except how to use a mouse.

But off course, in my expert opinion, this good looking, do it yourself Web site, will be lacking the very things a skilled Web expert brings to the table.

Here is what I feel makes up a skilled Web expert. If you don’t possess all these skills, then I would strongly suggest you not attempt building a good looking $6.00 a month solution with GoDaddy.

Web expert =

• A person with an MBA or years of experience running a successful and growing small business
• Someone that understands the role of a Web site in a company’s marketing plan
• A person with experience writing and creating “Buy Me Now” sales messages.
• Non-Technical Communication Skills
• An uncluttered visual eye
• Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing Skills.

Building a good looking Web site dirt cheap is very easy. Making a Web site work for your business takes an expert.

Chris Nastav, KC Web Specialists, LLC, www.kcwebspecialists.com
Experts in how business gets done on the Internet

Clear Vision Will Pull You To Success

Do you want to experience something really powerful? If you want to make your business building journey easier by attracting all the good spirits to help you, here is a suggestion:

Create a vision of what you really want in your business and your life. Give it a physical form, for example make a vision board where you place picture representations of what you want to attract or write a narrative describing your business and your lifestyle when you are extremely successful. Make it a fun for you project. You will start seeing amazing things happening. Not only will your vision start unfolding in your reality, you will feel much more motivated to take action (and the right kind of action on top of that) to make it all happen.

When we state out loud what we would LOVE to have in our lives, a great shift happens, both in us and in the Universe (same thing, really). We dare to think big about ourselves and about our role on Earth; we open the door to a possibility of having it the way we want, and we invite the Universe to help us get there.

I always think of my life vision as something to PULL me to my dreams and desires. When I have it in front of me, guiding and keeping me on track, life and business become less complicated and much more fun. It seems I don’t have to work as hard to “push” myself towards my goals; rather I let my vision energize me and supply me with courage, confidence and trust to move forward. And the best thing is that it gives me a great sense of direction in life.

So I invite you to give yourself some time and space to do it. Grant yourself permission to think big, think positive, be honest about what you want and need. Make it truly meaningful to you. Post your vision where you can see it every day and let it remind you where you are destined to go.

Margaret Moczkowski
Personal Business Coach
Momentum Coaching
www.YourBusinessEvolved.com

How Blogging Helps Your Business

Blogs!!! Everyone says you need to have one to increase your company’s business, but how do they do that? They do it three ways.

1. They increase business by providing a location on the Internet that people somehow learn about, they visit, and if the information is good, then they want to keep coming back to it. The more they come back, the more chance you have to promote your business ideas and thus your business.

2. They increase your business because they could show up in Google and Yahoo and MSN search results. If someone is searching in Google for a PR company in Chicago, and that company has a blog, there’s a better chance that PR company’s blog entry will show up near the top of the results page.

3. The final way blogs help your business is to drive visitor traffic to your main Web site. People come to you blog and if you’ve done it right there’s a link to your main Web site.

Google and Yahoo are on an hourly basis out there looking at the Internet trying to find sites that are changing often and providing well written content. The theory is, write in your blog every day and provide valuable well written content and Google and Yahoo will reward your efforts with higher rankings.

Blog on folks, and increase your business sales.

Chris Nastav, Owner, KC Web Specialists, LLC www.kcwebspecialists.com

The Fundamental Attribution Error

We aren’t all that good at accurately attributing causality. When someone behaves badly we jump to unflattering conclusions. The chief error we make is a simple one: We assume that people do what they do because of personality factors or flawed character. Why did that woman steal from a co-worker? Because she’s dishonest.

 

Human beings often employ what is known as a dispositional rather than a situational view of others. We argue that people act the way they do because of uncontrollable personality factors (their disposition) as opposed to doing what they do because of forces in their environment (the situation). We make this attribution error because when we look at others, we see their actions far more readily than we see the forces behind them. Conversely we easily attribute our own negative behavior to the situation. Consider this the next time you’re cut off by another driver – he’s a jerk (or something else). If you’re driving down the road, taking your pregnant wife to the hospital and you almost miss the exit but cut off another driver, it’s the situation, not your character.

 

People often enact behaviors they take no joy in because of social pressure, lack of other options, or any of a variety of forces beyond personal pleasure. For example, the woman stole because she needed money to buy medicine for her children. Assuming that others do contrary things because it’s in their makeup or they actually enjoy doing them and then ignoring any other potential motivational forces is a mistake.

 

Psychologists classify this mistake as an attribution error. And because it happens so consistently across people, times and places, it is called the Fundamental Attribution Error.

 

Think about this as you evaluate an employee’s performance or a client’s demands. Are they jerks or could it be something about the situation or environment you aren’t aware of?

Michael Shapiro
Dynamic Management Solutions, Inc.

 

Business Versus Life?

Entrepreneurs are an inspiring and interesting bunch of people. We have a tendency to dream bigger than the average Joe, have higher expectations form life, take higher risks and work harder for our goals. It’s the love of the game that propels us. We do it because we have this beautiful life vision beckoning to us and pulling us forward. We also have a tendency to get so involved in our business adventures that we become enmeshed in them and the life we always wanted to have is put aside.
So what about the life we always wanted to have? Wasn’t the vision of the lifestyle the biggest reason to go into business? So why now is work taking so much time and energy and we put life enjoyment on hold?
There is a good way of balancing the act of business building and living. Yes, your business requires more time and effort in the first years. Yes, you need to give it a big push in the beginning, so you can enjoy more freedom later. I often remind myself that how I will live for the next 10 years, will determine how I will live the next 60 years after that (yes, I plan to reach a hundred). And this gets me going. On the other hand, I’m also teaching myself to push that pause button at the end of the day and at the end of the week so I can truly enjoy other and often bigger gifts life offers: my children, taking a walk, cooking, yoga, reading, meditation, friends, etc. And I know from my own experience how difficult it is to switch gears from work to home. But I remind myself that one of the main reasons I have my own business is because I want to be able to spend more time with my kids and the reason I have a home office is because I want to participate in their lives. This reminder helps me let go and guilt-freely dive into my home responsibilities and joys, at least most of the times.
When you are working in your own business there is no manager to watch over you. You have to decide what is healthy for your business and for your life. You have to decide how many hours to work and you have to hit the pause button when needed. You have to decide and stick to what is a good plan for you. Define your own balance, set a clear intention to have it, and create structures to stick to it.

Margaret Moczkowski, ACC, CPC
Personal Coach
Momentum Coaching
www.YourBusinessEvolved.com

Google Secrets???

Google does not disclose their search programming algorithms. What this means is they don’t let people know exactly how they decide who gets top ranking. But, Google will tell you what is important to them and what they think is bad Web site Design.

Here is Google’s biggest published piece of advice for what they feel is a good Web site. They say, a good Web site is one that has well written content and your Web site content supports what your company actually does. In other words, they will give you top billing if they “feel” your company actually does what your Web site says you do.

 

When someone comes to your home page because you say you’re a chiropractor, when they get to the home page, can they immediately determine and trust that you are a quality chiropractor dedicated to helping people with your services. Google makes that determination based on a lot of things, high on thier list of criteria is how well your Web site content is written.

 

If you have a prescription drug service and happened to say on your home page that you support chiropractors, you are not going to show up in a Google search for Chiropractors. Google promises their customers that they will top list companies that do what they say they do and have quality written content on their sites in support of their actual business services or products.

Chris Nastav, Owner, KC Web Specialists, LLC, www.kcwebspecialists.com

So You Think You Can’t Afford A Publicist

As entrepreneurs and small business owners we’re all rejuvenated by the fresh start a new year brings. This year could be the year you take your business to new heights, but you think you can’t afford to hire professionals to help you do this. It’s not true.  Public relations can be a tremendously powerful tool to grow your business. It only takes one highly targeted placement to create overnight success.

One of my clients was included in a national magazine’s holiday gift guide followed by two additional, extremely targeted placements that occurred over two months. It changed the face of their business overnight and catapulted it to a new level of awareness amongst retailers and consumers. Over the last 18 months of working together, the company quadrupled sales with a strong and affordable public relations program that supports sales. Another client, a small retailer, tripled business in 10 months after introducing them to a local writer. Public relations is powerful.

Often business owners call large corporate PR firms only to be so disappointed by the colossal expense that they may feel as if they will never be able to achieve their dream of being a successful business owner. You can afford professional, high-quality public relations that can grow your business. You just need to look in the right place.

The real keys are finding a professional who:
• sees your story and knows how, and who, to pitch to generate results
• specializes in small business and organizations
• understands trends, importance of demographics and has real experience as a journalist
• is strategic in looking at long-term programming
• really understands what it’s like to be a small business owner or entrepreneur
• is committed to being a team member and is committed to your success
• sees the potential long-term relationship with you and business potential for both parties
• truly believes in your business model and/or concept
• is results oriented and can make things happen on a limited budget

In turn, you have to be as equally committed to the “partnership” by acknowledging that you will eventually need to grow your budget as a result of the dedication of the professional you end up working with. What you can end up with is a lasting collaboration that results in notable growth for your business.

Remember that marketing that builds a brand is a long-term and patient process that requires ongoing frequency of message delivery and perseverance.

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications

 

 

Don’t hit the Send key…

You’ve just written a blistering rebuttal to your boss’s critique of your report. You’ve explained in detail how what you wrote is on-point and he should see that. It felt really good to write it – But hit the Delete key instead of the Send key on that e-mail.

Turn this painful opportunity into a wining one by walking into your boss’s office for a face-to-face dialogue. Ask questions about the report’s deficiencies. You also have an opportunity to explain “what you were thinking” when you wrote that section your boss found lacking. Not only have you offered your boss the opportunity for a “teachable moment” but you’ve demonstrated a willingness to learn.

This is just one of many communication options that take place every day. We’re way too busy to walk down the hall or pick up the phone to call – assuming you didn’t get voice mail – so we shoot a quick e-mail message. What doesn’t travel with the message is your tone of voice, your facial expression or body language, or your gaze. If only they could be attached to the message like a file – then there wouldn’t be so many misunderstandings. The other piece of the transaction is how those pieces of information are filled in by the reader – who has a different experience.

This is a perfect example of the adage “In the absence of data, we fill in the blanks – usually with our own worst fears.”

Don’t get me wrong. I’m as big a fan of e-mail as anyone – for the right reasons – scheduling and other data-driven messages. Never to resolve a problem or explain misunderstood behavior. If you want to resolve something, save it for a F2F.

Michael Shapiro
Dynamic Management Solutions, Inc.

 

What Do YOU Really Want Out Of Life?

Well, let me simply ask you: What do YOU really want out of life? What is truly important for you to have, to achieve, to do, to accomplish? How do you want to feel when you get there? And how do you want to be in your life?

Close your eyes for a few seconds and connect with your idea of a good life. What do you see, what’s showing up right away and what’s coming as an afterthought? Does your vision come easily to you or do you feel some resistance to it?

When I ask my new clients what they really want from life, I usually get one of the three types of answers. The way people answer is a good indicator where they are on the vibration level with their life vision and how ready and willing they are to work on getting the life they want. Wherever they are with it (and wherever you are), they are just in the right place in their process. Nevertheless, I invite you to really hear your own answers to the questions above and to see how you relate to them. It will allow you to become aware of where you are in your own process. And when you are aware, it opens a possibility to move if you wish.

So how do people answer the big question? In one group are people who say: “I don’t know”, “I haven’t really thought about it” or “I guess, I want the usual, you know, what other people want”. You can hear their hesitations, uncertainty, indecision. You can hear their fear of asking for too much or asking or expecting anything at all. The subconscious reasoning is that if you don’t expect, you can’t get disappointed. It’s safer not to ask. Well, the flip side is that if you are afraid to ask for what you really want, there is a good chance you won’t get it.

Then there are people who have really grand dreams. They usually say they want things and the lifestyle that are very hard to attain, something to effect: “I want to be a millionaire by the end of the month”. Of course there is nothing wrong with dreaming big, as long as you really expect to do whatever is necessary to get there and that you feel worthy inside of receiving it from the Universe. When my clients have a grandiose dream and their life experiences so far were very far removed from their vision, I usually offer them feedback on the discrepancy and question them further to get deeper into the self-sabotaging patterns. Often we uncover that the discrepancy is dictated by fear. I call it a fear of real success. By setting their goals way out of their reach, they will not feel so bad when they don’t get there. This type of fear of setting reachable goals is dictated by their own distrust in their abilities, capabilities, worthiness and deserving of a good life.

The third group is, you guessed it, the people who are not afraid to dream, dream somewhat bigger than their comfort zone but not out of reach. These are people who are OK with stating what they want, expecting to work for it and to welcome it to their lives, yet at the same time they have the ability to detach from the outcome and take what life offers them.

So look at your dream, see how easy or not easy it’s coming to you, notice your own resistance and fear if you have any. Just by observing your own stuff, you detaches from it to some degree. The only way to get some space between you and your fears is to simply look at them.

Ask yourself what you want out of life over and over again. Arrive at the answer that feels good, feels in balance. Fears will always come up, see them and let them go, they are nothing more than your thoughts.

To support you with creating your life vision that truly reflects who you are and what is really important for you, please use this FREE resource: Life Vision Exercise. It’s a fun and powerful visualization exercise to help you uncover your most important values and attract the life you want.

Margaret Moczkowski, Evolved Life and Business Coach

www.YourBusinessEvolved.com

The Importance of a “Marketing State of Mind”

Not everyone has the “marketing gift”. Meaning that marketing – understanding it – doesn’t come easily to everyone, but it is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your business.

How do you exactly develop a “marketing state of mind”? First you have to look at the obvious things about your business – where are you communicating, to whom are communicating and how? Understanding this is the first step. Then you need to put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes and evaluate your messages and methods of communication.

Sometimes, the most obvious things are the one’s that seem the most confounding. For instance, like making sure the sign on your office building is large and more importantly, clear and easy to read. Banners are another aspect and must always be put up where traffic is most likely to see it.

Understanding the different aspects of marketing, how they work, and how they can be most affective is another crucial step to getting the right frame of mind. Buy books, ask experts for their advice or to teach you how things work. Do whatever you need to in order to better understand marketing. Until then you might just be wasting your valuable money on tactics that aren’t reaching your customers.

Once you’ve embraced the several elements of the marketing mix you can begin to determine what avenues of communication and promotion are right for your business – and that also means determining what you can afford to do and do well for a period of time.

Remember that marketing is a long-term process. It takes time for people to remember who you are, become acquainted with your business and build a relationship with you. One that will result in either them becoming your customer or them referring you to someone who is need of your product or service.

The most important thing to remember is this: If I was my customer how would I reach me?

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications www.cascadecomms.com

Difficult Conversations…

I’ve been thinking about what topic I might use to begin participating on The Small Business Daily and the idea of Difficult Conversations – what are they and what we can do about them came to mind. You know these conversations – an employer talking to an employee about a performance issue, a business partner talking to her partner about the way he introduces her, or a professional talking to a client who’s late in paying. There are many permutations however they all have one thing in common – an unpleasant feeling about needing to do it.

Some conversations you can prepare for as in the case of an employer speaking to an employee about a performance issue. In their book Crucial Confrontations, the authors Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler describe using the concept of CPR – an acronym for Content, Pattern, and Relationship. The first time a problem comes up, talk about the Content – “You drank too much at the lunch meeting, started talking too loud, made fun of our client, and embarrassed the company.” The content of a problem is a single event.

The next time the problem occurs, talk Pattern – “This is the second time this has occurred. You agreed it wouldn’t happen again and I’m concerned that I can’t count on you to keep a promise.” Pattern issues acknowledge that problems have histories and histories make a difference.

If the problem continues, talk about Relationship, what’s happening to us. Relationship concerns are bigger than content or pattern. The issue is that the string of problems has caused you to lose trust in the person. You doubt their competence and you don’t respect or trust their promises. “This is starting to put a strain on how we work together. I feel like I have to nag you and I don’t like doing that. My concern is that I can’t trust you to keep the agreements you make.” When there’s a lack of trust in this relationship, that’s the larger problem.

One way to keep these conversations on topic is to avoid being judgmental about the behavior and focus on the results or consequences as a result of the behavior. For example, “You’re thirty minutes late. I counted on you to be answering the phones at 9:00 a.m., so I scheduled a conference call for 9:00. Because I had to take care of the phones, I had to delay my call and two members were not available at 9:30. It will take several days to put this call together again with everyone’s schedules.

These types of conversations are part of every day business. No one can avoid them – it’s just a matter of how long they can tolerate being delayed because the longer you remain silent, the more emotions that will build up. Pretty soon, it becomes difficult to separate the issues from the emotions and effecting change becomes far more unlikely.

Michael Shapiro
Dynamic Management Solutions, Inc.

How Much Should You Being Paying to Have a Small Business Web Site?

By Chris Nastav, KC Web Specialists LLC, www.kcwebspecialists.com

There are three basic costs associated with having a Web site.

1. Domain Name
2. Hosting
3. Design

When working with your Web developer be sure you are familiar with each of these costs to avoid paying too much for your Web site.

1. Domain name cost. Your Domain is your www address. For example www.kcwebspecialists.com. Domains right now are dirt cheap. You can get them for $9.99 a year. You can buy a domain name for up to 10 years. Be careful of ads saying domain names for only $2.99, or $1.99.   That’s their first year cost. How much is their 2nd year cost. Many companies will try to hook you with the first year for $1.99 and then it’s $18 or $25 a year after that. Never pay more than $9.99 a year for your Domain name!!!! And folks, always, always, always make sure the domain name is in your name, NOT the person who created your Web site for you. If it’s not in your name, contact your Web developer and get it in your name. It takes 5 minutes for them to change that information.

2. Hosting costs. A web site is a collection of files. Those files have to sit on a server somewhere out there on the Internet. You rent this server space, or in other words someone hosts your Web pages.  Companies rent hosting space for your files on a server accessible to the Internet.  For most Web sites you should “NOT” being paying more than $4.50 a month. All reputable hosting companies provide email address with this monthly hosting price, as well as databases and a ton of other cool stuff. All for only $4.50 per month. Including spam protection and Web site hijacking protection.

(So for items 1 and 2 above, having a basic Web site should never cost you more than $60 a Year!!!

Another very important point about hosting. 24 X 7, 7 days a week including holidays you should be able to pickup the phone and talk with your hosting provider. If they don’t provide this level of customer support move to another hosting company.

3. Design Costs. This one is whole lot trickier to define. Design means three things….

• The visual look of your Web site.
• The sales message of your Web site.
• Any end user functionality required for your Web site (For Example, a shopping cart)

The look of this Web site cost $110. www.bigrigdown.com/html The cost associated with creating visually stunning Web sites has plummeted in the last 5 years. Creating this site from scratch 5 years ago would have cost you between $3,000 to $5,000 and that’s just the look of the Web site. Now you can get it for $110.

The sales message of this Web site cost $600. www.teardropvideo.com A Web site requires call to action messages. Get a Web developer that takes the time to know your business and can help you sell your business on the Internet.

The programming functionality of the “Search Features” in this Web site cost around $5,000 www.bigrigdown.com/html Your Web developer needs to have awesome project management skills to build the search functionality in a Web site like this. The site has an enormous amount of back end administrative functionality built into it that the end user will never see. But someone has to add edit and delete the date associated with the results pages.

In conclusion, having a Web site is an awesome tool for your company. It’s important that you become an educated consumer before spending money on your site. Ask the experts to help you understand the different components. Experts who are not sales people first.

Chris Nastav, Owner KC Web Specialists LLC. www.kcwebspecialists.com

What is a brand? How does one brand their business, company, etc?

Branding is defined as: creating an automatic recognition and emotional feeling towards a product, company or event by using consistent messaging through several marketing elements.  Now, take a minute and think back to your childhood and the products that stick out most in your mind; the things that were always around the house; the things your parents bought.  They are forever in the back of our minds, and probably the products you still, in some cases, buy today. 

 

In the early days of radio, a handful of companies came forward to sponsor radio programs. Then it was TV and the same companies, who grew due to their advertising on radio, stepped forward to lead the way in this new medium. Believe it or not, there was a time when the entire family sat around the radio to listen to programs, much like we gear up to watch our favorite TV programs today. Companies like Proctor & Gamble and Sears Roebuck were pioneers in advertising (then considered program sponsorship) and their brand, or lasting impression, still exists for many of us generations later. These companies took a risk on new technologies and won. Today, they continue to lead the way in marketing with creative ad campaigns, direct mail and more.

 

The easiest way to think about branding, or building a brand, is repetition. We all know that the more times we see another person, the more likely we are to remember their name. While that might seem a bit obscure in reference to branding, in some ways it’s exactly the same concept. Today’s top brands, Microsoft, Target, Kraft, SC Johnson and even Playstation, not to mention countless others, have all built a name for themselves; a lasting impression (a brand), through repetitious marketing.

 

This means repeatedly putting a company’s messages in front of potential consumers through a highly targeted and ongoing advertising campaign, using sales promotions and other incentives to get customers in the door, public relations to build credibility through third-party endorsements, a website and e-commerce to make the company or product even more accessible to consumers, direct mail pieces with sales promotions and corporate sponsorship. The point is that no matter where you turn, you see the company or product’s messages and over time that forms an automatic impression in your mind; it becomes branded, or marked, in our minds as something we’re familiar with and trust. Eventually, you will end up trying the product, and if you have a positive experience, then you may just stick to it.

 

To achieve a high level of brand awareness it’s important to understand what is called The Hierachy of Effects, or the sequence of stages a buyer goes through, which is applicable for any size business, new or mature products, events and organization. They are the steps in which a potential new purchaser becomes familiar with you, the company, the product, etc.

 

Awareness: the consumer’s ability to recognize and remember the company, product or event. Interest: is an increase in the consumer’s desire to learn more
Evaluation: when a consumer begins to make an actual appraisal of the product, company, service, or event based purely on key attributes presented to them
Trial: the consumer’s first purchase and use of the product, company, service or event
Adoption: when the consumer begins to purchase the product repeatedly due to a very positive first time use

 

Some companies and organizations purchase advertising once in one medium or conduct one direct mailing, hoping that it will drive a bunch of traffic the minute people see it. I call this the “Blinded Effect”. There are times when we become so excited about our new product or company that we are blinded on how to effectively communicate and excite others about it, simply being arrogant enough to believe that the second everyone sees our ad once that they will be beating down our doors and the sales will roll in. Based on the Hierarchy of Effects and looking at a consumer’s buying patterns, we know this isn’t true.

 

Reaching the point of “awareness” can take several weeks or even months of marketing. Achieving successful branding is a long term project in and of itself, requiring patience and a well planned, generous marketing budget. Even a small business can budget appropriately enough to save, on an ongoing basis, money to be used for future marketing.

 

Sure you might place one ad with a great offer of 40% off the entire store, and you will see an increase in sales. But you have to stick with your marketing program even when you run general informational ads with no offers and don’t see any sales increase. The more times someone sees your message, the more they remember it, and the next time they are in need of what you’re selling, they’ll be at your store or office door.

 

Branding = repetition of messages

 

Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications 

 

 

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