Tag Archives: brand

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Treat Yourself Like A Business

People tend to think that business is confined to  — oh, I don’t know — a place, a corporation, an idea, an industry, a niché, a building, even.  It’s believe that business — or, a business– has set parameters as to where and how it can operate and the parties involved.  People think the idea of business is clearly defined and straight-forward.  But it’s not that cut and dry.  We’ve seen strange and unusual ideas take flight as businesses all the time.  A business can be anything.  Anything from accessory and handbag rentals —www.bagborrowsteal.com — to pet day cares and spas.  If there’s a want for it, there’s a business for it.  But businesses aren’t confined to just an idea.  Or, at least, they shouldn’t be.  Everyone walking around — shopping for clothing, buying groceries, hanging out the movies or headed to work — are mini businesses. We’re all just walking sole proprietorships.  And most of them don’t even know it.

Yes, you are your own business.  Which means you have a brand and reputation and a company culture.  And you also probably have a mission statement and code of ethics — they may not be written down, but you surely live by them.  Think of them as the things you would and wouldn’t do as well and your plans on succeeding in this life.  And yet, rather than protecting your company’s assets (YOU!) and building the company, you create liabilities, you mismanage your cash flow, and you’re not always too mindful of your mergers and acquisitions (your employment roles).

Downtown LA Biz

Seriously.  You are a business, whether you’re aware of it or not.  Which means you need to start treating yourself like a business.  How?  Watch when and how you spend your money.  This means creating a budget and finding the best deals possible when making purchases.  Look for opportunities to invest in yourself.  Whether that means taking a few college courses, building a strong network of professional relationships or finding time to volunteer to gain new skills.   Be mindful of the contracts and agreements you enter into, and make sure you stay abreast of the trends that affect you.  You can always take time to make you (the business) better. But as serious as this may sound, you’re also a person.  You’re a person-business — a business-person — a person who happens to also be a business.  You should, from time to time, indulge in the human activity that you find enjoyable and keeps you sane, but also remember you have obligations to yourself (the business).  There is no difference between you and the big corporations other than the scale in which operate and the reach of your market and influence.  But that too can change depending on how you treat the business (you).

 

{photo credit: porbital via freedigitalphotos.net}

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Profiling

Everyone knows not to add or follow the “egg” accounts on Twitter.  Those are the people –or things, who knows –who seem to spam others with links, dirty photos, fake notices and crap.   And we all know not to open emails from people and companies we’ve never heard of or didn’t sign up for.  Another “no-no” — creating empty or skeleton profiles to start off your social media and online presence for your company.

twitter-white-icon

Would you build a store — for profit — and never open the doors?  No?  Exactly!  What would be the point?  The same concept is applied to those who think that just creating an online social media account is good enough.  They say to themselves, they’ll come back to it later and update it.  But days turn into months and they still have that egg picture account on Twitter –wondering why no one’s following them.  In business, it’s said, if people don’t know you’re there, you don’t exist.  It doesn’t matter how evolutionary your products are or how ground-breaking your service is, if people don’t know it’s there, it doesn’t exist.  If you social profiles are empty — you’ve written or added nothing there — you don’t exist.

People like to Google — EVERYTHING.  If you’re networking and you happen to bring up you have your own little boutique business and you do this and that, people are going to search for you on the internet.  It doesn’t matter if you gave them a business card or not, people are going to want to find out as much about you as they can.  And the more they can learn, the better they feel about you and your company.  But, if in their search, they stumble upon half-filled and empty profiles you’ve set up but never completed, they’re going wonder.  Wonder about the legitimacy of your business (yes, for real! because every business should have a carefully placed social media presence) and about your work style.  If you can’t complete something for yourself, how are you going to complete something for a colleague or a client?

But people do this all the time.  The hear of a new social site, join it — reading very little about it — create a profile with a little information and that’s it.   Really.  They give 30 seconds because they think that’s all it takes rather than spend the seven minutes to make their profile something worth exploring.  Some may say, ‘who cares, it’s just a profile’. Your company cares.  Your company needs to be found and do business and make money.  Every business, even non-profits and religious organizations — are businesses and their goals are to make money (that might sound sacrilegious to some, but it’s the truth.  Think of the collection plates and “building funds“).

It doesn’t take a whole lot to make a nice and searchable profile, but you gotta put more in it.  Company name, logo/ photo — give an image to the name, something about the company or yourself  — why did you start your business and what is it’s primary mission– it’s general  location, ways to contact the business.  Definitely include a website or blog site link.  Give people a reason to touch base with you.  Get out of the habit of half doing things, even social media accounts.  They matter because they reflect your image and brand.  And if you think that doesn’t matter — you’re not in business.

{photo credit: http://www.iconarchive.com}

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What Is Branding?

I’m a little uncomfortable with kids talking to strangers in this day-and-age, but this disembodied voice (as the disembodied voice refers himself to) has some valid points, not just for little Jimmy, but all of us running our own businesses.  We’ve come think that branding is the bells and whistles of  visuals and graphics.  But in truth, it is the voice and mission of the business.  And it’s hard to brand a business when the business doesn’t know what it should be doing and where it should be going.

 

{video credit: bretitor via youtube}

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Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!

They are the most tiresome responses that people give to problem.  And no one likes excuses.  Truth be told, most be don’t like making excuses, but they do because they fear the alternative would be worse if they didn’t try to explain why the blame isn’t on them.  But excuses are nothing but road blocks to nurturing relationships, building brands and meeting goals.  An excuse is normally a lie as to why something can’t or won’t get done rather that admitting fault or shortcomings.   And if you’re in business for yourself, an excuse will be one of the most detrimental blows to the image of you and your company.  And accepting excuses is not much better.

Excuses hurt a business and it doesn’t matter whether the people in the business are making the excuses or if they’re getting excuses from those their servicing.  Excuses hurt.  They can mean late payments, short cash flow, no customer loyalty, poor customer service, low employee retention, poor company culture and morale, damaging image and a suffering business.  But when you put a stop to giving and accepting excuses, your business will have a better chance to thrive, succeed and grow.  But it all depends on implementing a no excuse policy.

  • The Employee – the company is run by people who have limitations and limited knowledge.  No one person knows everything, can do everything or is expected to.  So before the people in your company give you an excuse as to why they can’t or didn’t complete a task or project, first ensure that it’s something reasonable that can be performed.  And within their job description.  Let me know it’s okay not know as long as they’re willing to find the answer.  And ask for their feedback as to how the day-to-day can be run better, more efficiently and with more ease.  You might be surprise how much the front line people have to offer toward your business’ growth.  
  • The Customer – we’ll heard it for decades how the customer is always right.  Businesses have had to bend to the will of an irate, irrational and and wrong customer because the of an outdated philosophy.  The customer is human just like the rest of us.  And if we can be wrong, so can the customer.  But we don’t remind the customer they’re wrong, and we don’t let them run over us with excuses.  How?  We go over policy with them, rules, the limits and expiration of promotions.  If we have to, read to them the fine print.  So the next time a customer tells us they can’t make a payment right now or something else came up for, remind them of your business’ policies, about late fees, and other consequences.  Customers tend to have less excuses and are more willing to cooperate when it’ll cost them.
  • The Business/ Owner (You) –  we our own own worst enemy.  We’ll doubt ourselves, we’ll sabotage our progress and we’ll rest on our laurels.  Stop!  Success is achieved through both time and practice.  Take the time to be patience with the growth of your business, take the time to learn as you’re growing the business and be open to suggestions and feedback.  Practice what you’re good at until you are an expert at it.   Take time to listen to your employees and customers and put to practice their ideas and thoughts that’ll work well.  Always strive for improvement, not perfection.  Above, never let yourself give an excuse as to why your business isn’t succeeding.  It’s just a lie to cover that you don’t want or feel you can do all you need to be successful.   It’s just an excuse.

 

 

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Event: Introduction To The LA Social Entrepreneur Community

“The term social enterprise is used quite frequently these days but what exactly does it mean? This free class introduces newcomers to the robust social entrepreneur start-up scene in LA. You will learn what a social enterprise is, the key events/meetups you should be attending, the companies that should be on your radar, the VCs known to invest in socially responsible companies, and what blogs you should be reading to stay in the loop. After class you are encouraged to network with a number of prominent folks in the social entrepreneur ecosystem.“

General Assembly is hosting a free event on March 23rd for those in the Los Angeles, CA area at 1520 2nd Street, in Santa Monica from 5:30 to 7:oopm.  If you can’t make his event, they’re having another Introduction to the LA Social Entrepreneur Community event on April 13th, same time, same location (make sure to mark your calendars!)  General Assembly is a social business hub for aspiring entrepreneurs and founders to meet and connect with entrepreneurs as well as venture capitalists and industry leaders. They host classes as well as networking events, some for free, others at a reasonable cost.

 

{information is credited to General Assembly}

 

 

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Building Your Business?

Construction is always a phase of business, whether literally or figuratively

Construction is always a phase of business, whether literally or figuratively

What comes to mind when you think about building a business, building your business?  What do you think about? Is it writing out a business or vision plan?  Is it putting procedures and practices in place?  Is it re-inventing or reinvesting resources such as time, money and energy into your business’ brand and image?

How do you build your business?  Do you network, hit up close friends and family members?  Do you spread the word about your company by word of mouth?  Do you take out an ad in the local paper or market online?

Do you think about where your financial resources will come from in order to build your business?  Will you tap into your savings, get a part time job, seeker investors or crowd fund?  Will you take out a business loan?

When you think about building your business, do you ever think about what kind of company culture you’d like to create, what kind of customer base you’d want to attract or the kind of employees you’d want to hire? Do you think about your business’ internal and external forces, the market or the industry?

When you think about building your business, do you start with the end in mind and work your way backwards or do you piece it together as you go along?

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March Entrepreneur Spotlight: Marco John Design

It’s been said that like minded people work well together.  However, when creative minds come together, they have power to share their unique vision and build incredible elements in this world.  As with the case of Marco Manansala, founder and head of the Marco John Design, he talks about the importance of branding for business and how creating an image for others has become his own.

Recently completed packaging design for one of Marco John Design's European clients, Scaramouche & Fandango, a high-end men's skin care brand

Recently completed packaging design for one of Marco John Design’s European clients, Scaramouche & Fandango, a high-end men’s skin care brand

A native to Los Angeles, Marco stumbled onto his passion through necessity and exploration.  While in college double majoring in Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Marco began graphic designing as a hobby for friends and family as a way to pay for his school tuition and expenses.  He was simply helping those he knew create marketable visuals for their businesses and projects.  It didn’t take the completion of his college degree for him to figure out that his right brain had just as much potential than left brain was giving him credit for.  What started out as a side gig later developed into his own business after making the decision to change majors to study graphic design.  Now his company, “Marco John Design, is a full-fledged branding and design studio.  [MJD’s] goal is to create brands that visually stand out from competitors, giving even the smallest start-ups the ability to compete with larger brands. This stems from the understanding that all creative work must begin with an idea. Without an idea, a design is merely something that looks good. Ideas are what generate interest and connections with the target market. Designs on the other hand should support the brand and its goals. This is how businesses stay consistent, and consistency is one important aspect of any successful brand.”

As with any new business owner, starting the business is not always the challenge until you learn that you have to actually run it.  “I would have loved for someone to tell me how much time and effort it takes to maintain the back-end of the business. The branding and design [are] the easy parts. It’s running the business that creates the headaches.” And even though challenges arise from time to time, he finds that having an imaginative people working with him and support friends and family, makes the obstacles less daunting of a task to tackle.  It’s been through trial and error that Marco has been able to perfect his both his craft and his business affairs. Such improvements and self teaching has lead to much of his success and relationships with a number of companies.

Marco John Design has worked “..with several local, national and international brands in the automotive, real estate, music, service, health and beauty, restaurant, non-profit, scholastic, construction, spirits/wines, and engineering fields.” It’s through of word of mouth that the company has garnered such respect and business from other companies in a variety of industries.  In spite of the service and education he provides to his clients, he continues to see businesses, small business particularly, make mistakes when it comes to branding.  That is, businesses do nothing in the way of branding their companies.  They focus on marketing, and not the direction and message of their business.  “Keep in mind, that a smart business will always invest in branding and marketing. However, a successful business will invest in idea-driven branding and marketing. Having an idea in place before attacking the problem leads to better results, more PR and lower costs. ” 

In the four years Marco John Design has be operational, Marco has learn to let his business speak for itself.  When you have something great and a committed team on board constantly pushing the envelop, the hype doesn’t matter.  The lessons matter.  The experience and self education matter.  And it’s always found on an unexpected journey. 

“For those ready to work with a friendly and helpful team of Creatives that will involve them in every step of the process, they can reach us at hello@marcojohndesign. Viewers can also follow us on facebook at facebook.com/MarcoJohnDesign and on twitter at twitter/MarcoJohnDesign.”

{photo credit: Matthew Joseph Photography}

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Reality TV Business Lessons

What more can we say about reality TV that hasn’t already been said?  Most self-respecting actors would never invite a camera crew to follow them around and let the world see their most intimate moments.  And yet, it seems every new television season we’re watching someone battle a personal struggle (or another person) on cable TV.  Many of the reality personalities use TV as a platform to position and launch their business ventures.  It’s a way to begin the branding process of their so-called empire.  And despite so many people having a number of objections to very familiar reality personalities, they seem to be sailing.  After all, television and being on television is a business just like any other field or industry.  Some have become so popular (due to the growth of viewership) they create spin-offs.  Others may shed the light on an existing business or industry that isn’t as well known until it’s filmed.  Either way, there are some valuable take-a-ways business owners and entrepreneurs can learn from reality TV (yep, you heard me.  I used the words “learn” and “reality TV” in the same sentence).

But before everyone plops down into front of the boob tube thinking they’re going to be magically inspired by a girl fight gone worse, let’s stick to 3 reality TV shows that are business related and let’s analyze what we can take away from to use in our own companies and start-ups.

Shark Tank (hello, a reality TV show about aspiring entrepreneurs!):

  • Before you solicit any money from an investor, have your numbers together. We’re talking sales, both current and future, cost of production, what you value your company at and why and your expenses for operation.  
  • Don’t lie or try to hide anything important from investors.  No one wants to do business with a sneak or a liar.  Plus, it tarnishes your reputation before you’ve had the chance to establish one.
  • Whenever you’re pitching your business to someone, make it exciting.  Be excited about what you’re doing.  If you’re not, no one else is going to be either.
  • Rejection is normal in business.  Don’t get upset, don’t get discourage.  It’s a learning tool. Keeping learning, keep working and you’ll improve.
  • Decide early on if seeking an investor (or investors) is something you want to do.  An investor means having someone else have to back before you pay yourself.

America’s Next Top Model (modeling, an integral part of that billion dollar fashion industry):

  • Time is money. If you don’t already know this, learn it now. Every time you’re late or extend a project, it’s costing money and very likely, a client.
  • Take accountability for yourself.  It doesn’t matter how new you are to a situation or an environment, it your responsibility to perform as best you can.  And when you think you’re giving it your all, give a little more.
  • Learn to adapt.  In just about every industry or field, you’re going to come across people from all walks of life.  Some you’ll like, some you won’t.  But it’s not your job to  make judgments or be argumentative.  It’s your job to be professional.  At all times.
  • Understand that not every opportunity is going to have the result you want.  It doesn’t mean there’s not another opportunity lurking around the corner or that the end result won’t be just as positive.   Take and use every experience to launch yourself to the next opportunity.  Success is about persistence.
  • When someone is giving you instructions that can help, heed it.  Anytime someone is giving you advice for your benefit, listen.

Hardcore Pawn (all about customer service and daily transactions):

  • There’s an asking price and a selling price.  Know the difference.  What’s your asking price and what are you willing to let it go for?  Why?  Because you still want to make a profit.
  • Customer service is vital for maintaining a good relationship with your clientle.  So is protecting your business.
  • Be sympathetic.  Sometimes we carry on thinking ‘it’s just business’.  But business is made up of people and we need to remember that people are living breathing creatures that have their own daily challenges.  Be sympathetic and understanding. We’re all human.
  • When working with family, it does need to be just business.  Keep the emotional hurtful crap off the sales floor.  Customers do not see employees fighting and arguing with another, it’s in bad taste.  And can hurt your business’ reputation.
  • Many hands make light work and for good reason.  Whenever you can and it’s beneficial to all parties involved, use teamwork.  It’ll get you farther faster.

And here you thought the only educational television left was PBS (which  will at least see another four years to run on).

 

 

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The Thank You Economy: Gary Vaynerchuck

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Make Your Customers Remember You With A Token Of Your Appreciation!

Ever gotten a free pen from a business? Or key chains or a refrigerator magnet?  Maybe a can holder for your beverages?  Notice, all those little freebies seem to have the company’s name, logo and contact information, whether it be a phone number, website or email address.  There’s a reason for that.  Those businesses want customers to keep coming back.  They want customers to remember who it was that gave them such memorable service, such a useful product.  They want to stand out in the minds of their customers.  They want their customers to remember them.

Now, a key chain or a refrigerator magnet might not sound like something worth remembering.  But the company is.  And they want you to know that.  So, they offer a free token of their appreciate for their customers’ business in hopes that patrons will return and become loyal customers.

Maybe instead of a key chain, you might provide your customers with a bottled water like the picture above.  Yeah, the bottle might get thrown out, but it’ll stick in their minds while they have it: “Such-n-such company gave me a free bottle of water with their business info on it.  Isn’t that neat?”

Make your customers remember your business and show them your appreciation. Give them a token of your appreciation you’ll earn their repeat business.