One thing small businesses often overlook is branding.  It's important that people be able to recognize your products of services.  That way your work can advertise for you.

Since many people are using blogs as a fast and cheap way to set up a website, it may become clear that if there is no distinct brand, there is no real business behind this person.  The graphics are weak and there is no coherent theme throughout the site.  Even if they have a header that's been done for them, there is still nothing to unify their website to any of their products. It could be a quick-scam business, especially if the website is weak or still in development.

Branding Your Business

There is a reason the Nike swoosh is on all of their shoes and their apparel lines. The reason is brand recognition.  That means people can identify that shoe or that shirt with just a quick glance and understand what the company stands for. Nike has come to mean quality. Nike has come to mean status.  This was important when Nike was JUST a shoe and then expanded into their workout gear, t-shirts, hats, etc.  The brand recognition meant that the shirts were expected to be the same quality as the shoes. It would follow that if Nike makes great athletic shoes, they are BOUND to make great athletic performance-wear.

It doesn't have to be expensive to brand yourself, your products or your services.  Get a professional logo done (I'm going to go out on a limb and say avoid cheap, by cheap I mean avoid going to fiverr.com.  There is a reason it's cheap. Do your homework, find out what other work this person or business has done.  Only when you are sure they can do quality work that isn't going to cost you your first-born child, THEN you can hire them.)

Ask for the originals as well as formats you already know how to use.  Slap the logo on all your products and on your site!  (Well, don't “slap” it all over, but definitely make sure it's visible and easily identified to you.)

Having Your Brand Designed

What do you want your brand to “inspire”?  What sort of feeling do you want someone to get from your brand/logo?  Do you want to be seen as professional (clean, simple), fun (energetic, less measured), technical (very clean, very measured and possible complex)?

Do you have colors you are partial too? Colors that inspire a certain feeling?  You will want o try to carry these over into as much as you can. “Men In Black” ?  Figure there will probably be a strong presence of black and something that ties well with it.  Like a silver or gray tone.  Something that lets the black speak volumes.

Learn your colors and utilize them in the website.  Hopefully, you are using a theme that allows you easily manipulate a lot of the elements of the theme yourself.  Try to stick to a smaller number of colors. Research brands that you like.  How many colors do they use?  How do the logos and colors speak to you?  Have you decided what you want YOUR brand to say to people?

The point is, that there is a reason businesses use a brand.  It establishes a presence, it identifies the product or service.  You want to have a brand for those very same reasons.  You want to look just as professional as any long standing company. It might be the difference between someone feeling comfortable enough to try to do business with you.

I primarily use this technique when sifting through the volumes of emails I receive. It makes it much easier to find and deal with my most important messages.

I use Microsoft Outlook as my main email program, but the same technique works for many other programs whether they are email programs or not.

The simple technique is to click at the top of the column that you want to sort on.

For instance, if I wanted my newest emails to show up at the top of my email inbox, I would click on the top of the date column. Oops what happened? Well if the emails were already sorted with the newest at the top and the oldest at the bottom, and I clicked the top of the column, then the order would reverse. The oldest email would now be at the top and the newest at the bottom. Click on the top of the column again and you reverse the order again. Now the newest are at the top where they belong and the oldest are at the bottom. I find this the most convenient because I don't have to scroll down to see new emails arrive.

FLAGGED EMAILS:  This is the most common way that I use the sort function. I get such a high volume of emails I usually go over them very quickly eliminating the obvious spam. Then I go over the ones that are left and try to notice if any need immediate attention. If they do and it's a quick answer, I go ahead and answer them immediately. If it's going to take a more in depth answer, I right click on the email and click on “flag for follow-up.” The rest of the emails I usually drag individually to respective folders that I have already set up. Anytime I want to address the topic of those emails I can simply go to one of those folders and find emails related to that topic.

Now back to the flagged emails. This is where the sort function comes in. By the time I get through 50 or 100 emails I usually have a bunch of flagged emails separated by miscellaneous stuff that I didn't know what to do with, but wanted to save in case I need to refer to them. I simply click on the sort at the top of the “flag” column. This brings all the flags to the top and I can quickly go through and answer all of them. If I can't get them all done, I can easily find them again the next time I sort on the flagged column.

You can sort on any of the column, but I hardly ever do. Sorting on the “Subject” column sorts the subject line of the email in alphabetical order. I guess that could be useful, but I can't think of how or why. You can sort on the “From” column and again, I virtually never bother. Occasionally I sort on the “Attachment” column if I know I'm looking for an email that has one.

I think you'll find that the method I use above by using flags and sorting will really speed you up when it comes to handling your emails.

Learn how email marketing can help your career!

Creating a database of potential fans is an easy way to have ready made customers for each and every book, CD, teleseminar or live event. Using an opt-in form software such as KickStartCart will give you the ability to collect names and emails in trade for something free from you such as a downloadable excerpt of your book, an MP3 of one of your teleclasses or a special report.

Each name you collect will be stored for marketing to later as the years go on. Sending your list a newsletter keeps your brand fresh in your prospects mind and gives them critical info about your business, qualifications and expertise. As your database grows, you can market all of your future products to the list. Your database is the number one key to sales. These are targeted people who already know you and are familiar with your work. A higher percentage of these people will buy from you than just random visitors to your website. That's why it is so important that when random visitors come to your website, you capture their information with a freebie.

Freebies should be digital products that are easily accessible and free for you to give away. E-books, MP3's and membership site content may have cost you your time when you were creating them, but are just files and electrons now. They have no cost of goods sold and no packing and shipping expenses. A speech from your seminar last year has now been turned into another product as an MP3 recording, ready to pass to the masses of website visitors you now have. As a part of your ever growing database, you have control over how you market and when you market your future products. Your database truly is gold….