Around for a very long time, the Business Card remains a powerful and important marketing tool. While they serve a wide range of purposes, the business card exist mainly to promote you and your business. An effective card can be your greatest promotional tool and will help you and your business succeed. To ensure you get the most out of your card, here are a few guidelines and tips you can follow and implement when purchasing your next set of business cards.
The paper that is used for printing your business card is important. There are a couple of things to avoid. One is using inferior paper that can easily be torn or damaged. Having a card that lasts a long time will increase your chances with a potential customer. Also avoid using glossy of laminated cards because this prevents people from writing on the card. Business cards are a very interpersonal marketing tool. You hand them to customers or clients as a part of a conversation. Sometimes information about that conversation will need to be recorded. When this happens, being able to jot down specific details on the card becomes very beneficial.
The type or design of your business card should be clear and precise. A business card that is organized and easy to read will make a good impression and attract more customers. Your contact information should be easily identifiable, whether it be a phone number or email. One way to ensure this is to pick the right kind of font. Using different font colors is a good idea that will make the card standout, but be careful. Do not use bright colors that are hard to read. This will have the opposite effect and most likely get your card ignored.
While the front of your card will have you contact information, you should not forget about the back. The back of the card is a good way to differentiate yourself and your company from others. You can used the back to advertise discounts, special products or services that you sell, directions to your company or many other useful ways that can potentially attract new customers.
Another way to stand out from the crowd is to list your accomplishments or awards you or your company have been given. A business card is a perfect chance for you to portray yourself and your business as the best option. However, if making a list, keep the items short to about one or three. And list the most relevant points/items, as they will help you the most in winning over new clients.
Above all, your business card should be organized, easy to read and helpful. This combination should provide you with the best chance of making a positive and lasting impression on your customers.
Archive
For July, 2011
Is Your Business Idea Actually Feasible?
So you are thinking of starting your own small business and you are unsure where to start? You have hundreds of ideas and dreams swirling around in that brilliant mind of yours and all you want to do is start living the dream of an entrepreneur. Before you go head first into turning your wonderful idea into a physical living operation, let’s take the first step towards establishing whether or not your business idea is in fact feasible?
Many budding entrepreneurs miss this very important step and many of those who miss this step become yet another small business who barely makes it through their first year. It’s depressing and frustrating to watch as business after business falls flat on its face due to lack of planning. Conducting a feasibility study can be tedious, as can putting together a business plan, as can researching every aspect of your project. Why do most people find these jobs tedious and why do most people skip them? Generally most people don’t know how, don’t have access to the information and well they just don’t want to because they blindly believe that their brilliant idea is going to work no matter what. Does this kind of thinking sound familiar? Let’s take a look at how to establish the feasibility of your business in 10 easy steps…
Step 1 – Personal Objectives
Why is it you want to start this business? This is the first step in outlining your desires and needs and to gain an honest approach towards your intention behind starting this venture.
Write a list of your objectives and completely honest with this list before we move on.
Step 2 – Personal Experience
You may have a viable idea but without your ability to execute it then your idea is pointless. Write a complete list of skills that you believe will be required to run this business. If you come across an area where you lack the skills as a business manager, then fill in the gap with a person that this job can be outsourced or delegated to.
Step 3 – Personal Finance Resources
It is critical that you can identify how much funding you will require to begin and where you intend to gather the funds from. Write a detailed list of your current financial situation including all assets and liabilities.
Step 4 – Describe Your Product and Service
This is your opportunity to describe your idea in detail and sell it to yourself. Include in your outline what type of business you intend to run, what your product will be, whether your product is already available in the marketplace, what equipment you will need, what skills you will require and so on.
Step 5 – Describe Your Customer
Without customers there is no business. It is imperative that you know you customer better than they know themselves if you wish to give them what it is they require. Describe your customer in detail, outline who they are and how many of them there are, what are their age and their occupation. Your business idea will be built around the needs of your customers so take your time to make a clear picture of who and what they are.
Step 6 – Describe Your Competition
Your competitors will help you form your business model, so take a very close look at what they offer. Research your competitors and determine what your unique selling position will be amongst your market.
Step 7 – Describe Your Sales and Distribution
In what way do you intend to sell and distribute your product? Describe in every way how you are going to sell your product and how you will deliver this product to your customer.
Step 8 – Describe Your Management Requirements
How do you intend to make all this happen? Daily, weekly monthly? What will your management process be? Make a clear statement here about the systems and processes that you will have in place every step of the way to run a smooth operation.
Step 9 – Develop Your Sales Forecast
You need to start to estimate what amount your will sell, what your costs will be and what profit you will make. This will stand as a base budget for your future business. Include every cost you can think of and work with worst case scenario figures to avoid disappointment.
Step 10 – Establish Your Start Up Expenses
Now that you have determined your running costs you will need to outline what type of costs you will need to initially get going. Write a list of one off costs that will ensure you understand the type of up front funding you will need to get started.
Once you worked thoroughly through these areas you should be able to determine whether your idea is just a great idea or whether it is in fact feasible. BusiWizard offers a great deal of free information on this subject and a complete Business Feasibility Workbook to help you get started.
Our aim is to ensure you succeed in your small business venture. Good Luck!
Heidi Shannon
BusiWizard
Business Management characterizes the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). Early twentieth-century business management writer Mary Parker Follett defined management as “the art of getting things done through other people.”
One can also think of business management functionally as the action of measuring a quantity on a regular basis and of adjusting some initial plan, and as the actions taken to reach one’s intended goal. This applies even in situations where planning does not take place. From this perspective, there are several major management functions, namely: planning, organizing, leading, coordinating and controlling.
Management is known by some as “business administration”, although this then excludes management in places outside business, e.g. charities and the public sector. University departments that teach management are nonetheless usually called “business schools”. The term “management” may also be used as a collective word, describe the managers of an organization, for example of a corporation.
Today, we find it increasingly difficult to subdivide management into functional categories in this way. More and more processes simultaneously involve several categories. Instead, we tend to think in terms of the various processes, tasks, and objects subject to management.
One consequence is that workplace democracy has become both more common, and more advocated, in some places distributing all management functions among the workers, each of whom takes on a portion of the work. However, these models predate any current political issue, and may be more natural than command hierarchy.
All management is to some degree democratic in that there must be majority support of workers for the management in the long term, or they leave to find other work, or go on strike. Hence management is becoming less based on the conceptualization of classical military command-and-control, and more about facilitation and support of collaborative activity, utilizing principles such as those of human interaction management to deal with the complexities of human interaction.