These values personify the essence of your company. They are the pillars that support your company. They are the values that truely represent your corporate brand. They will be values that are easy to honor in good times, but must be adhered to in bad times. These are the values that represent the actual character of your corporate brand is the basis on which the stake holders build their understand of who you are – essentially your reputation. Exercise: Here you will need large Post-It-Notes®, and a newsprint flip chart. Start out with a few easy ones. Ask if honest,…

It is very important that if you are taking the time and effort to address branding, you assemble a small group that have a stake in your company’s success to play a role in the development of your brand. This way you will get opinion on your prand from different perspectives. We would suggest assembling a team of first: the company’s leaders. They are the visionaries. Next pick people from sales, as they are on the front line. From here try to assemble a good cross section from employees. One very important employee would definitely recommend putting on the team…

Some say, “I don’t need a brand,” well frankly, you have one whether you want one or not. Essentially your brand is your reputation. Every touch point in your company has an impact on your brand. Branding is about the business and how a business is different from the competitors. The purpose of a brand is to distinguish yourself from your competitors. Once you make a distinguishing impact then an advertising campaign can be much more effective because it compels customers to buy from you and not simply, the lowest price. The success of a company can be determined by…

As you can see here at the blog we have been advertising our new program Brand Booster 21.  If you go to that link today, you will see there is nothing there yet, Ed and I have some pretty big plans for that domain. BUT for now our focus is getting Brand Booster 21 Revved up here for you. 🙂 Starting November 2nd, 2009 we will be rolling the program for you. All you need to do to participate is come here to the blog each day for the next 21 days and you will gain some serious insight on…

Recently I posted on the effect of emotions on your business. For about the last month or so I’ve been taking a serious step back from my business and this blog. You may wonder how since there’s been several posts and tons of things going on over here and mostly it’s due to automation. I’ve been scheduling my blog posts and even the entire Brand Booster 21 is work that Ed and I have already completed. By the time we enjoy the series (which will help you with your brand right away), all we’ll have to do is sit back…

Every decision affects your business, even the super tiny small ones. I personally made a BIG decision to let go of the writing business. It took up so much of my time and I even had 2 assistants helping me with it. This has left me completely wide open to bring better resources to this blog and I’m not spinning around in circles any longer. Being a good decision maker can help you in business and life. It’s been said that highly confident people make decisions clearly and stick to them rather than changing their minds or being indecisive. And…

If you’ve ever read any of my articles, you’ll know that I equate brand with reputation. I don’t think it matters one little bit what you try to do to “spin” a good story about what your company is (or wishes it was). Unless that story is a genuine experience you are powerless to change anything. Of course, there are countless companies out there who are ‘attempting’ to change a certain perception, but at the end of the day the only people that they are fooling are themselves. Place branding comes to mind. (Place = city, town, country etc.) I…

For the last 2 years I’ve been in and out of the hospital with my daughter, thankfully she’s well today and we’re all moving forward as a family. When life throws us for a big loop it’s important that you keep in mind that you are human and emotions are part of that. But… Business and emotions don’t really seem to mix very well. As emotions are a daily part of our lives, short of becoming robotic, you may be faced with the two intermingling at some point in your career. Here are a few tips to help you stay…

Ok so it wasn’t so bad putting it together, the hardest part was to get my makeup on for the video. But just wanted to quickly share with you a couple things and to introduce video here at the site, and my new glasses. 🙂 Recently Ed wrote about Coming out from behind your brand so I decided that it was due time to get a video up. Ed has a very strong brand and often times people even think this site is his own baby, but it’s mine. It doesn’t surprise me since Ed has what, 25 years experience…

With the Internet all around us, selling your product, service or even both is much easier and affordable than ever before. But at the same time… It’s vital to study all of your options first, before falling victim to one of many pitfalls. From finding yourself “trapped” in a contract with services you don’t need to building a website that doesn’t attract the customers nor convert them into buyers, you could wind up in the middle of a mess. Here are 15 tips to setting up your first (or second or third or fourth…) online store, all while maximizing your…