Here’s the set-up: you’re an oil products supplier to a retailer whose end user is the general public. At first glance you might not feel that the public at large is your audience so your branding needn’t concern them. That stance makes direct business sense, but not necessarily brand sense. Since you are involved in an industry laden with a plethora of chemicals and environmental compliances and your company’s end user deals with the general public, there are still brand opportunities that make good business sense to keep the general public on your radar even though they may not be…

Business blogging is a great way to share information with a target audience for many reasons. Unlike other promotional materials like white papers and EBooks, a blog tends to be a lot less formal. It’s also easy to access and update, which encourages a blogger to post frequently. While a steady stream of new, quality content on a blog is extremely important there are a few ways to take your blog to the next level. First, think about search engine optimization. SEO professionals have been touting the benefits of blogging for a long time. Since a large part of SEO…

As a business owner, you invest a lot of time building your business reputation and brand by communicating with current and potential customers. With the advancements taking place in the communication field, keeping up with the latest technology can be exhausting and overwhelming so putting off an upgrade is common but unnecessary. Fortunately, upgrading your business phone systems does not have to be overly expensive or complicated. You just need to know your options and how to choose the right communication tools for your business. Phone Systems Compared There are really only four different types of phone systems to choose…

I’m in the process of expanding my services and part of that involves extending the range of my WI-FI. If you’ve even looked into bridging you might agree that it’s a daunting topic. I understand the premise behind it, but when they get into set-up that’s where my eyes cloud over. FYI: I am miserable with wiring. Setting up a stereo confuses me very easily. In – out, out – in – yikes! Well today I called in the big guns. I figure that yes I could figure it out myself (muddle through if you will), but frankly I’ve wasted…

For entrepreneurs and budding startups, a virtual assistant (VA) can fill the need for any skill set that you require. From simple tasks like encoding and research, up to technical and administrative tasks; outsourcing your workload to a VA can give you and your company more time and resources to do what’s important – grow your business. If you haven’t outsourced to a VA before, you might not have an idea of how they can help you save time and energy. To give you an idea, here are just some things that a VA can do for your startup: Competitive…

When an entrepreneur asks, “should I outsource my payroll”, it often requires a long, close look at several different aspects of the company in order to determine the best method for handling how payroll is processed.If outsourcing your company’s payroll is something that you’re considering, you’ll also have to take a look at just who you go to in order to have your company’s payroll processed. When asking the question, the how, why, and who are all equally important and should be weighed as such so that you can be sure you’re doing what is absolutely best for your company…

If you are reading this blog, we can safely assume you care about the branding and marketing of your business. You may have spent ages choosing and building your brand identity through social media, your website even right down to signage and business cards. You may have carefully choreographed cross-channel advertising campaigns to highlight your current promotions. Now all of these are great, but there may be something you are overlooking that could have much more of an impact promoting your business – the humble t-shirt. Talk a walk around the block, what’s the first thing you notice about the…

There came a knock on the door last yesterday morning and on opening the door, there stood two very pleasant looking young women. They politely introduced themselves, but I had already guessed that they were from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I immediately asked them if they were the religion that refuses blood transfusions for themselves and their loved ones? I’ve always found this fact to be concerning, if not somewhat barbaric. They grimaced a bit, but acknowledged the fact – but quickly followed up with showing me the scripture that explains their case and a comment that there were alternatives to…

My wife had been telling me how uncomfortable her office chair has been for a while.  So we went to the local office supply store, determined to find a chair she really liked and resolve the situation once and for all. After 30 minutes or so, she made her decision. One of the first things the associate asked was if we would like to take the display model. “It’s already assembled, and it only costs $7.99 extra.” My wife almost did a double take and replied “Excuse me repeat that again” – this was not looking good – to which the…

In part 1 of this 2-part post I covered 4 features of great small business websites. As a re-cap the 4 features were: They are easy on the eye They are designed around a goal that is measured They are easy to maintain and get support They engage visitors In this post I will cover the final 4 features. Feature 5 – They showcase and prove something unique In the sea of sub-standard small business websites the great ones stand out. They generally don’t stand out because of their flashy designs or their technical features. They tend to stand out…