The Goofproof Blog - Business Booster

September 17, 2009

Aesthetics and Pragmatism?

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Miscellaneous — Tags: , , — sol21 @ 11:48 pm

“The recipients of this award demonstrate respect for the millions whose lives they touch, a rare commitment to consistency and quality, and a model for the successful interaction between aesthetics and pragmatics.”

Can you guess what this award is and who is a recent receiver ?  Unless you happen to have come across a news  item or are a member of a select  group of  people, probably not.   The part I like best is “the successful interaction between aeshetics and pragmatism.”  Or more  simply, . . . between form and function.

The award in question is The Corporate Leadership award from AIGA,  THE  professional  association for design.  The recipient was none other than JetBlue Airways, recognized for “reimagining the air-travel experience and building its revered brand from a people-centered, value-driven, design-based approach.”   Congratulations to JetBlue!

“ A people-centered, value-driven, design-based approach.”  How about applying those words  to a website?  To  your  website?  Do they fit?  Can you honestly say that your site is people centered?  Is it value-driven?  Is your approach design-based?

As scouring the internet is very much a part of  my business,  looking at websites often leaves me less than happy.  What are they about?  Can you find what you are looking for?  Are the links helpful and focused on the main theme? Is the visual design appealing?  Would you return to the site just to look at it because looking at it makes you feel good? 

All that is a tall order and is rarely accomplished - but like being GoofProof it is something to strive for.  It is a set of criteria to keep in mind as you think about a new website, or an update of the old one.  Use your imagination - SEE what you want and then describe accurately every detail of what you see.  If  you can do that, you will get what you want in less time, spend less money,  and have a people centered, value-driven, design-based website that you can truly be proud of.  Hooray!

September 8, 2009

Define Your Brand

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Miscellaneous, Mission — Tags: , , — sol21 @ 1:34 am

Labor Day 2009 has  been a bittersweet day for many. Those who had to put in a hard day’s work, Holiday or not,  may have felt oppressed.  Those with no job to return to tomorrow may have felt depressed.  However,  it is the concept of  work as an opportunity and a priviledge that is celebrated, so we all can cheer for that.

Being in the design business as an entrepreneur has brought me face to face almost every day with the whole idea of  a brand:  What is it? How do you build it?  How do you make it shine above all others of the same category? 

An interesting article by Tim Reid of  Flying Solo in an Australian newspaper caught my eye as it was about 10 things you must do to build your brand. None of them was far off the beaten track but what really got to me was the author’s definition of a brand.  He called it an “emotional attachment.”  Now that is something I had never heard before and the more I thought  about it the better I liked it.  Why?  First, because you are attached to it. It has become a part of you. You love it. You hate it.  You are bored with it, but whatever, you can’t get rid of it. It is like your shadow.  If you hate your shadow, you know you have to do something about YOU before your shadow will change.  If you love your shadow, and that leads to a smug attitude, your shadow will show you that too. It reflects your feelings, your attitudes, your behavior.  You can’t be indifferent to it.  It won’t go away. It is a part of you.

Starting from that premise with a brand of  your own you really can’t go wrong!   How could you?  It’s YOU! 

I’ll list Tim Reid’s 10 “Must Dos”  and challenge you to think about them in the context of your shadow.

1)   Know what your brand stands for.  (His stands for making a business or charity irresistable.)

2)  Do things properly.  ( Skimp on office furniture, if necessary, but avoid anything shoddy in presenting your product.)

3) Have one designer do everything: Logo, fliers, website, signage, PowerPoint, stationary and so on. Make sure they know what they’re doing though, particularly in regards to your website.

4) Know your core values.  These should form the basis of all decisions you make in your business and around your brand.

5) Identify your prospects’ problem. As brand builders we are problem solvers. Make sure your brand clearly says “Hey, I can fix your problem!”

6)  Identify your brand’s personality.  Then ensure it comes through in all its marketing - Logo, fliers, website, signage, PowerPoint, stationary and so on.

7)  Be unique.  Take a look at what the competition is doing, identify the gap and fill it with your brand. If all the brands in your category are black then be white.  Great brands challenge their category.

8) Be consistent.  Make sure you present your brand to the market place in exactly the same way no matter what the medium. You are creating one brand…not ten!

9) Socialise it. Make sure every person within your business knows what your brand stands for. It’s useless having everyone on different pages.

10)  Make it visually really interesting.  There are so many boring logos out there, don’t be one of them. Be brave…it pays off.

And, although it is not numbered, always under promise and over deliver.  all these things are  just common sense really but with an interesting slant and the slant is what makes you, and your clients, care.  Give it a thought!

Design Solutions for the 21st Century

September 2, 2009

101 Uses For A Tweet

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Miscellaneous — Tags: , , , — sol21 @ 10:36 pm

Remember that old question  from a psychological test,  “How many uses for a brick?”  It was supposedly a determinant of creative potential!  The more uses (legitimate) you came up with, the greater your unexplored creativity.  I suppose in a general sense that is true, but the test left out the crucial  element - actually using the brick for any of the imagined purposes. 

Now in our blossoming “Communication Age” (as advanced from last century’s “Information Age,”) we have found a new brick.  A Tweet.  If you don’t know what a Tweet is,  go back to sleep for another 100 years.   

Those of  you who occasionally watch television  must have seen the phone commercial in which a couple of teen-agers berate their parents for  misusing the Tweet.  The father, lounging on a patio, texts on his mobile, “I am sitting on the Patio,”  the son:  ”I KNOW you are sitting on the . . . (ends in a gesture of despair.)

The point of the commmercial is to sell phones,  but in my “uses for a brick” mentality,  I found myself hoping that the patio builders were listening.  That includes construction companies, brick layers, stone importers, cement makers, etc.,etc., and all their attached suppliers.  What a boost to the economy! 

You don’t have a patio?  Where have you been?  Compared to a house, it’s a relatively inexpensive addition.  It will get you out in the fresh air.  It will provide an escape from things you’d rather miss inside.  It will be a haven for reading a good book (if you still read.) It will increase the value of your house and above all,  it will be the IN place to Tweet!  You can announce to all your friends and to the world in general in one instant: “I am Tweeting from my PATIO!!!!!!

Contact your local contractors, or Google,  for the latest stats on Patio construction.

(This is a communimercial.)

August 28, 2009

What’s a Lemming?

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Miscellaneous — Tags: , , , — sol21 @ 5:53 pm

News of the day:  The State of California is selling its leftovers on EBay.  The state’s governor is adding his signature to confiscated cars in hopes of increasing their value.  Some are saddened by this latest move; some are embarrassed;  most are waiting to see what happens.

Talk of “Green Shoots” is again surfacing, but added to it is talk of  ”Weeds.”  Every so often people have to give new names to the same old things, like “The glass is half full/empty” debate, which of course is just another way of  saying that all people view anything/everything through their own tinted lenses.  Aren’t rose colored glases better than dark grey ones?  And aren’t “Green Shoots” better than “Weeds?”

I just discovered an actual blog called “Apathetic Lemming of the North.”  The reason I looked at it was that it was listed somewhere under “Digital Art.”  I could find no connection.  But the title did interest me.    We all know that Lemmings are pathetic  little creatures who have no minds of their own.  They just run with the herd, faster and faster to  the edge of a cliff where they all fall into the sea and drown.  Now the owner of this blog must be aware that mindlessness is a pathetic  state, but is “Apathy” any better? The dictionary definition of  apathy  is lack of emotion, interest or response.  So our apathetic  blogger has no interest in running with the herd (good,) but neither has he interst in or feeling for anything else!  I don’t intend to pass judgement on this person or his blog, just noting it as a curiosity in the bin with autographed California cars.

This blog is supposed to be about “Boosting Your Business.”  If you want the usual “7 Steps to a Million”  or something similar I can’t give it to you.  But I can give you a taste of creativity, of  innovation, of thinking, not only outside the box, but of asking, “What is the Box?”  All your clothes, these days, are stretch something.  You can stretch your head too!  Give it a try.

If you would like all this in more concrete form (Graphic Design, Corporate Branding, Digital Art Work (not music) please visit sol21.com  and follow the yellow  brick road.

August 25, 2009

What Next?

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Miscellaneous — Tags: , — sol21 @ 5:06 pm

After a few more days vacation (just working on something else, really) I should be able to  view the road ahead more clearly, or at lest from a different perspective. 

My favorite quote from last week, ( Bloomberg Radio) “We are in the sleepy time of August but no one is sleeping.”  That sums it all very nicely. Underneath the superficial calm a rip current may be waiting.  May be - not necessarily - but vigilance is called for.  People seem to want to get BACK to normal. Let’s banish that thought forever.  There is no getting BACK to anything, ever.  Time moves in only one direction; forward. when we can envision what is ahead, we’re fine.  We can see.  We can plan.  There is no need or desire to go back.   But in the deep fog? It is perfectly natural to want to be in a place where we can see - where what we do leads to a desired result, not to a dead end, or to the ocean floor.  If this sounds gloomy, don’t despair or stop reading. It’s more like “Pin the tail on the Donkey.”  Just reach out in all directions until you bump into something - like the wrong end of the Donkey or a brick wall.  There is a clue.

This is a true story.  For some reason, which I didn’t understand until this minute, my fuzzy brain has been obsessed with a memory of an incident that took place long ago - but really did happen. You know the proverbial kid with the lemonade stand.  I guess  all children want to try the art of Entrepreneurship at some time or other. Well, my time came one summer, at about age 10 or so, when I visited a friend whose family owned a farm.  There were apple orchards on this farm and one day my friend and  I decided to pick some apples and sell them at the side of the road.   So we gathered some bushel baskets (always plentiful where there are apples) and set about picking.  As I put mine out for sale, I carefully washed and polished every one of them.  My friend thought I was daft. “What difference does it make? They  are all the same apples!”  True.  They all came off the same tree, had equal numbers of worms, were the same size, had the same taste.  But they LOOKED different.  They were perceived to be better apples because they were clean and shiny. And (true story) summer wanderers bought twice as many apples from me as they did from my friend.

Today I am an artist and a marketer.  Do I still polish my apples?  You bet I do!

August 13, 2009

Go South!

Filed under: Miscellaneous — Tags: , , , — sol21 @ 12:02 am

I was hoping that a few days’ vacation from the Blog World would result in a clarifiied perception of where the world was headed and how it could point you (and your business) in a profitable direction.  Not yet.

The news of the world all leaned toward finance with its many ramifications. The tone of most comments seemed to be moderately upbeat, moreso than in many months, but still very, very cautious. Today the stock market seemed to take heart at the lack of change in the Fed’s stance (no news.)

One interesting article pointed out the similarities between Obama’s stimulus, which has yet to take effect, and the Reagan stimulus package in 1981 that resulted in the great bull market beginning in 1982, lasting several years and benefitting mostly emerging high tech companies. If  that is to be the scenario this time, we will all benefit. 

Meanwhile, If you are a female entrepreneur aching to get out on your own in a lovely climate and in a place with a romantic name like Cape Coral,  get on the nearest plane, train, or bus and head for Florida, USA.

“Cape Coral is the ideal place for enterprising women to start their own small businesses, according to a new program airing on the city’s cable television channel, said Audie Lewis, business recruitment specialist for the city’s Economic Development Office.

The number of small businesses opening each month has remained steady for the past year, even in this recession, as more people have started working for themselves after being laid off from other jobs. . . He said many women are starting businesses in marketing and eco-businesses that offer energy audits of homes and companies.

The goal of the program airing four times a day on cable channel 98 is to encourage women to open more small businesses in Cape Coral by showing them the advantages of locating in the city and growing their companies, said Lewis, who helped produce the show.

The demographics of Cape Coral make it a good place for women to start small businesses, said Debra Shane, one of three panelists interviewed during the program. She owns Train With Shane, a business education and mentoring firm.
She also is a consultant for the local branch of the Florida Women’s Business Center.

Women make up 51.5 percent of the city’s full-time work force, said Shane. Cape Coral’s population is 160,000. She said that a total of 60 percent of households include married couples with children younger than 18 and the average age is 43.
These demographics make Cape Coral a family-oriented community. Cape Coral is a great place to grow a family and build a business.

Women are starting home-based businesses on the Internet and in the fields of insurance, retail sales, marketing and consulting. They are tapping into their passions and what skills they have, Shane said.
Annette Watkins was laid off from her art teaching job at Ida S. Baker High School. Watkins, a single mother, said she got the idea for starting a business after talking with a friend who suggested she teach art classes. atkins took the idea to the drawing board and added a twist - teaching art classes for beginners by partnering with wine and cheese shops and restaurants.
She started her business, Brushes and Bottles, last September. Watkins said she teaches two-hour art classes for mainly beginners at Time To Make Wine, a shop and cafe at 912 SE 46th Lane owned by Sandy Zahorchak. The art class costs $35. It’s a different way to get people to unwind. They paint, they have wine and relax, Watkins said. Her business took off and she now has locations in Naples, Fort Myers and Miami.
There are several organizations that help women start and grow businesses, including the Small Business Development Center at Florida Gulf Coast University, with an office in Cape Coral. The center offers free counseling and has business seminars to help women get started.
The Southwest Florida Enterprise Center, the local office of the Florida Women’s Business Center, offers mentoring and other services to women in business.” Read related articles HERE.

August 6, 2009

Quiet!

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Miscellaneous — Tags: , , — sol21 @ 12:17 am

The keyword for today, August 5th 2009, seems to have been (as it is 3/4 over) “Quiet!”

As usual Bloomberg radio started my day and not as usual didn’t have all that much to say.  Well, it is August, many of us are out of our usual haunts,  the weather was dull - reported to be getting hotter - but that’s not much in
this cold wet summer.  The DJIA lost 39 points, the NASDAQ 18, not much news there.  Ex- President Clinton seems to have won the prize for activity by bringing home the two journalists held by North Korea. 

So what can you do to boost your business on such a day. I hope  you visited some friends on Twitter - that didn’t take too much energy, did it?  And just in case you didn’t come across this little goldmine on Mashable.com  I’ll call it to your attention. It’s called:

 26 Places to Find Free Multimedia For Your Blog.

August 1, 2009

No Magic Genie

Filed under: Internet Marketing — Tags: , , — sol21 @ 11:31 pm

The Gorilla-sized obstacle confronting most online marketers now is the ever-increasing number of new businesses entering  the marketplace. Hundreds of  niche sites appear every day. Jobs have gone and people are trying to create  income. There are many industries with room for growth but they are not always the ones that are touted as “the niche to be in”  and starters on the web believe the niche to be in is the only one.  That has proven to be untrue in many cases.  What is true is that people (prospective customers) must find a new site and be willing to try out their products  and services.  Knowlegeable marketing and at least a medium sized advertising budget can achieve wonders in that area.  After a new client has jumped on board, the quality of the product and bend-over-backwards customer service are what really count. Once you have a few satisfied customers they will tell others and the road becomes much smoother. 

Continually work on your product, reinvent your services and post informative and interesting content to your site.  And, of  course, keep up your marketing efforts.

When you’ve mastered the ins and outs of  SEO,  found a workable and affordable balance in PPC,  added a little Adsense, a few relevant affiliate products and a blog, it’s time to Tweet!  Get your self or your site  a Twitter page (plus Facebook and MySpace) and get to know people. This is an art as well as a science  -  it will take time. In the social networking area, it’s better to be late than too early.  Unless you are a real charmer, a conversational whiz and want to promote YOURSELF, rather than your business, better stay away until you really have something to say! You don’t want people to dismiss you before they have found the face you want to present.  Your business is a long-term project.  Take as much time as you need to do it right.

And never forget that list.  Keep it growing - and growing - and growing!

JOIN THE LIST BUILDING CLUB

July 27, 2009

Refresher Course

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Miscellaneous — Tags: , , , , , — sol21 @ 12:28 am

Summer is a good time to clear the decks - review, refresh, renew.  in a sense, to go back to Square One and start over.  Keep what works, toss the rest, and begin to add again.  The internet moves so fast, that much of what we learned 6 months ago is now finished and we are gleefully (or not) on to the next great thing. That makes for excitement and fun but where does it really lead?

As we all know, there are a lot of complainers out there filling up our web space and much of what they complain about is other people’s work. I’m always skeptical of a salespage filled with slander about the competition and ending with “Here’s The Real Deal” Buy Now! Why should we trust him/her any more than the rest?

After a quick review of  my dozens of E-Books and hundreds of printed pages of “must save”  content, I decided they all had valuable information.  Marketing is marketing.  Online or off, certain basic concepts remain true over the years.  Knowing how to sell changes only superficially as buyers wants and needs change, but the principles remain. Whether you sell snake oil or swiss cheese, the customer must be convinced that he needs it  now and that unless he acts quickly it will be gone.  And when he’s hooked, “Oh and to use that effectively, you must have this!”  It goes on and on and we all fall for it if the marketer is good enough! 

The problems arise with repetition.  In our era of cut and paste, too much is cut and too much is pasted.  Unless you change the words around, you will get into trouble,  but ideas, “the gist” is free for all and is sold to us over an over again. 

That statement does not apply in two situations: 1) If new software is involved, and 2) If the “New” idea is a revival of old, old patterns  of behavior.  Stick a number like 50 years on it and it becomes “new.” 

Now that we are still mired in this recession, depression, or great deleveraging (whatever you choose to call it) people are beginning to revive an age-old practice of turning a hobby into a career. For a long time this practice was frowned upon. One had to be a “Professional.”  One had to go to school, be certified  as  something or other with a fancy name, or have no business.  A new trend is emerging - again really a very old one - of letting the work speak for itself.

If one creates beautiful jewelry out of old safety pins (and the work is really beautiful) it will sell because the veil of free credit is gone and with it a certain kind of blindness. People can see that the necklace is beautiful - that’s all they need.

Today almost everyone has a digital camera and millions of people take millions of photos every day.  Like the safety pin jewelry, some of these photos are gems! In my reviewing today, I came upon an excellent guide to turning your photo gems into wealth.  If you’ve got files and files of digital photos, take a look!  You might find a bank account.

GooProof Photo Wealth

And remember you have 5 days left to “Brush up your Brand” at Sol21.

July 24, 2009

Sweet Summer Tweets

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Miscellaneous — Tags: , , — sol21 @ 8:48 pm

What are you doing?  A random browse through Twitter on a damp midsummer afternoon in one of the wettest, coldest summers in history (in the Northeast USA) revealed nothing but what we already know:  Unless you have been in on a conversation from the beginning, a few words here and there mean absolutely nothing. If the topic  is something as ubiquitous as food, a casual reader can understand that everybody is hungry;  everybody wants food brought to them; no one wants to cook for anybody else, it’s a self-centered bunch! 

That says nothing about the food itself! It’s all about the tweeters, who, like chicks in the nest, want to be fed.  They all follow each other, round and round in circles - one can’t help but wonder where and how that particular conversation will end! Who cares?

I’m sure there are good converstaions about food in the Tweet box - one has to know how to look for them.  A side effect of my ill-chosen search word did bring up some very attractive background images:  one full page of ice cubes was of particular interest.  It seemed to be an uncanny symbol of the whole group.  Whether or not the people were pre-tweet friends,  or gathered together because of their particularly icy aloofness, doesn’t really matter.  what matters is that Twitter’s policy of “Follow Me”  seems to be in full force. Like minded, like personalitied folk find each other - and Tweet!

A lot has been writen lately about the business uses of Twitter.  “How to Make Money” using Twitter.  Typing the word “Money” in the search bar brought up pages and pages of banner links for every product imaginable. How’s  that for a conversation?  Obviously the topic needs a deeper  investigation. 

Meanwhile, it’s the final week of July and your last chance to partake of Sol21’s “Brush Up Your Brand”  sale.  and as an extra bonus, you may have a 20-minute  free consultation - no obligation - about your thoughts on establishing or refurbishing your “Image.”  Remember one picture really IS worth 1,000 words (some say 10,000!)

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