tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60851986215653316392024-03-18T21:51:35.635-04:00IDRA the AgencyThe Interior Design Resource Agency
Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior DesignUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger452125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-38190656046817443852017-12-03T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T23:55:18.215-05:007 Ways to Build More Profit Into Your Design Firm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" sda="true" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m7slgL8lZws/TygsDqmt0MI/AAAAAAAABC8/yFddSQfcuWM/s640/%C2%A9+Rick+Becker-leckrone+for+IDRA+feb.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">7 Ways to Build More Profit Into Your Small Business</span></b> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As you prepare your business for success in the coming year, will you focus your time and resources on sales growth? While it's important, it's often not enough. For sustainable growth and profit with a lot more control, spread your efforts around - creating small improvements in ALL areas of your business. It's the formula for a business that is simple, fun and profitable!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">So where do you start? Here's the formula I recommend.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Planning.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> You don't need a 50 page business plan. But you do need some clear, measurable goals with specific 'actions' you need to take to achieve them. Written goals and a simple action plan provide you with focus and clarity. So take the time to write down what you WANT (results or outcomes) and what you need to DO (actions) to make it happen.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Products/Services.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> When was the last time you actually thought about the products or services you offer? It's more than just 'what price should I charge'. Which ones are most profitable, which produce the most sales? Do your products and services still meet the needs of your target customers and clients or do they need a facelift? Technology, competition and your customers needs change over time - make sure your products and services keep up!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Promotion.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Sales don't just happen. So what are you doing to attract new clients and keep existing ones coming back and referring others? Most owners associate promotion with marketing for new clients - and invest few (if any) resources on current clients. Big mistake. Make sure your plans also include tactics to turn your current clients into raving fans - who spend more, buy more often and refer other quality people to your business.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Processes.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Streamlining and standardizing procedures make daily operations easier, efficient and more effective, whether you are there or not. They are also a key to increased profitability. As you plan for the coming year, make systematizing your business more of a priority. Start with just a few. Focus on those that save you time, increase sales, or fix problems that consistently erode profit.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">People.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> No business operates successfully in a vacuum - we all need help from others. While we often associate people with employees, building a strong network of contractors, vendors and alliance partners for your business is equally important. Your needs will vary based on your business - but most small businesses have an opportunity to improve in this area. Have a method for hiring or developing new relationships with people who are committed to your clients and the success of your business.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Personal Development.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> As you grow and improve, so will your business. We are all familiar with the phrase, knowledge is power, but it also translates to earnings or income. And it doesn't require a lot of time or money - just a commitment to learning and building skills and knowledge. Here's a few things to consider:</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Invest 15 minutes a day reading and you will read about 12 books a year.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Turn drive time into learning with audio books.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Attend interactive workshops or webinars to improve knowledge gaps or simply get new ideas.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Meet with and build relationships with other successful business owners so you can share information and learn.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Work with a mentor or business coach who can help you find hidden opportunities, provide short</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">cuts to results and accountability to get more done.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">P</span></b></span></span><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">rofit.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> You don't need to be an accountant or financial guru, but you do need to track and understand the numbers that drive your business - beyond just sales. Here's a few others to consider: average sale per clients or transaction, number of leads, revenue per employee, average accounts receivable, gross profit margins, clients retention rates and net profit. Monitor them and focus on activities that help to improve them - especially gross profit margins and net profit. If you keep them at the center of what you do, your small business will continue to serve your needs and the needs of your people and clients.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Remember, little improvements in ALL these areas will put more profit on the bottom line and in your wallet. So take the hybrid approach: bring together all the key elements that drive success - and you too will have a business that is simple, fun and profitable.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By Joan Nowak</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Photography by © Rick Becker-leckrone</span> </div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><em>Joan Nowak is a Small Business Profit Builder, seasoned Business Coach, and creator of the Hybrid Coaching System for small businesses. For additional resources and ideas to grow your small business, visit </em></span><a href="http://www.hybridbizadvisors.com/" id="yui_3_2_0_24_1347368624522412" target="_new"><span id="yui_3_2_0_24_1347368624522411" style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>http://www.HybridBizAdvisors.com</em></span></a><span id="yui_3_2_0_24_1347368624522402" style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>. While you are there, join her mailing list to get her monthly eNewsletter and receive a FREE copy of her eBook, Mastering the 7 Elements of Business Success.</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/" target="_blank">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span></span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com407tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-8863613087406509822017-07-28T00:00:00.000-04:002017-07-27T23:27:34.078-04:00Going from Hourly Rate to Project-Based Billing<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggD0kUqk7Sq-Qcf2sWFgW_3s13jOf2r6co3gW_gjqWRkh5WAKAtlNEsI0JwFWN823Ln68zQQaZiR0jkHZayplFZFEIyoMLB7a6Va0LH5g08cBfBY6UjuQC-AqXP76wv9T-J65mX4QD26Q/s640/Fee+Based+Interior+Design+Projects.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many designers
start out charging an hourly rate. This can raise some challenges. </span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clients
often have a difficult time perceiving the value they receive for the rate
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How do you
justify an increase in your rates? <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another option
is to move clients away from an hourly rate to a project fee. The benefits of
charging a flat fee for a project include:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<ul type="disc"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clients
perceive a higher value received for their money<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></li>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An increased
project fee is easier for clients to accept<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></li>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No more
time tracking means you have more time to work for clients = more pay<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></li>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How can you
move a client from an hourly rate to a project rate? What if they object? Is it
really better?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let's use a
real-life example to show how this can be done to the mutual benefit of both
you and your client. For the sake of the example, I'll call this client
"Cindy."<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cindy and her designer
have been working together for nearly five years. Cindy had her designer do a
variety of small projects [i.e. holiday design, seasonal redesign, room refresh]. Originally, her designer charged an hourly rate for all these tasks. The designer had to track her time, down to the
minute, and send in a monthly accounting showing how she used the time. She'd
then bill Cindy for the hours.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After some time, the designer realized she could get more done if she didn't have to track
every minute of her time. Through experience on previous projects, she had also
come to realize the time it took to get each task done and that she could get
them done more efficiently if she charged by project rather than by the hour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She then proposed
a change to Cindy in how she would bill for services. Instead of hourly, she
would now charge a flat rate for each small project. This would free up the designer's
time since she no longer had to track her hours. Cindy, the client, would know
exactly what it would cost her to get these projects done and she'd know
exactly what she was getting in return. It allowed Cindy to create a budget and
never wonder if her designer was running over hours.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This worked
well for both Cindy and her designer. About a year later the designer proposed
a rate increase for smaller services. She gave Cindy 60-days notice so there
were no surprises. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tips for moving
a client from an hourly rate to a project fee:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<ul type="disc"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Create an
addendum to your existing contract outlining your proposed change<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></li>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Give your
client 60-days notice so there are no surprises<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></li>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Be
reasonable and flexible<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></li>
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
<em>
</em></span></span></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em>
</em>Caveat: Never execute a rate change in the middle of a project.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By Sue Canfield</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Image from StockSource</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>For nearly 30
years Sue Canfield, Chief Virtual Officer, has helped small business owners
with administrative tasks. She co-authored the book, The Commonsense Virtual
Assistant - Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee, to help virtual
<span style="color: #444444;">assistants understand what it takes to be a business owner. Learn more about
their book and coaching services at </span></em></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em><a href="http://chiefvirtualofficer.com/">http://chiefvirtualofficer.com/</a></em></span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>.</em></span></span><br />
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/" target="_blank">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">+++</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-26219443518796224432017-07-27T06:00:00.000-04:002017-07-27T23:23:41.350-04:0010 Tips For Managing Your Interior Design Career<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="clear: left; color: #999999; float: left; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiib3dkEaK-DWLF4bAPpvmA-IRTt54lG7bnBHrE3A5H2qe0NBpwixH5bZNNL0g8FCyjZqXk7nvKIiiE5obxZXORNMy9m-7voiFBzQ_V3hylVQEI3N8I35wLZu2w1JjYGlE_tr_SPBdE5ug/s400/IDRA+Interior+Design+Resource+Agency+%C2%A9+Francois+Etienne+Du+Plessis+Managing+Your+Career.png" width="396" /></span></div>
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 24pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">10 Tips For Managing Your Career</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have
been in the industry for a while, these tips may be helpful in revitalizing your
career or in focusing your attention on the need to make a change.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>1. Take
responsibility for building your own career </strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In today's work environment
managing your career is your responsibility. Even if you are lucky enough to
have a mentor you are the one that needs to take charge of building your
career. Mentors make suggestions but you decide if the suggestions fit or if
they will work for you and then act on them. You must have a vision of where
you are headed and then find your own path!</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>2. Define
career satisfaction for yourself </strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Notice what gives you the most satisfaction
and where your passion is. Know your life purpose and use it to guide your
design career. Once you know what you love [your niche] and what is most satisfying to you, find
ways to do meaningful work either on your current jor future projects.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>3. Have a
detailed career plan which you update regularly </strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Make a career plan and follow
it. Watch for opportunities that meet your career goals and go for them.
If you miss a goal in your career plan, update the plan and create an action
plan to attain the missed goal. Use your weekly career time (see #8) to call
people (see #6) who can help you to reach your goal.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>4. Build your
own brand </strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Find a facet of your work that interests you and that is useful to
others. Develop an expertise [a niche] so that you are the "go to" person for
this expertise. This gives you a competitive edge and you become known for your
knowledge (the expert).</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>5. Track your
accomplishments</strong> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">You can not rely on others to remember
and credit you with your accomplishments. Keep a list that gives your
accomplishments in the format that states the problem, the solution and the
result. You can use this document as a reminder for yourself during your annual
review and also as a basis for updating your resume.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>6. Build
relationships </strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is all about your network. Building and maintaining
relationships with people in your field and people who are in a position to
help you move forward in your career is imperative. Start with your college
professors! Find other mentors, advisors and coaches along the way to help you
expand your network. Stay connected to colleagues from past jobs who may be
able to help you in the future.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>7. Communicate
frequently</strong> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To become known as an expert in your field you will need to write
and speak frequently. Work with the leading professional organization in your
field to speak at meetings and write for their publications. Find other places
to speak and write on your expertise. This will help you to build your brand,
become an expert in your field, and meet other people who can help you to move
forward.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>8. Set a
regular time each week to work on your career and brand building </strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is easy
to get caught up in the activities of the job and to convince yourself that
there is no time for working on your career. Doing that may be good for the
company you work for but it is not good for your career. Setting time aside
weekly to add accomplishments to your list, to identify people to network with
and to find meetings to go to is an investment in yourself and your career.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>9. Know your
value to your clients & industry</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Why would others want you on their team? Be very
clear on the value you bring to the project and be able to say it simply
and clearly. Take credit for this value and let others know about it. It is
part of gaining credit for being an expert and branding yourself.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>10. Be
proactive</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Don't wait for others to do this. Get started today! In this case
the early bird gets the client, the best projects and the bigger jobs.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By Alvah
Parker</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Photography by Francois Etienne Du Plessis<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Alvah Parker is
a Practice Advisor (The Attorneys' Coach) and a Career Changers' Coach as well
as publisher of <b>Parker's Points</b>, an email tip list and <b>Road to
Success</b>, an ezine. Subscribe now to these free monthly publications at her
website: </em></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><em><a href="http://www.asparker.com/samples.html"><span style="color: #999999; font-size: x-small;">http://www.asparker.com/samples.html</span></a> </em></span></span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/" target="_blank">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">+++</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-25921779126596968692017-03-30T06:00:00.000-04:002016-11-30T21:24:11.193-05:00Top 10 Reasons You Don't Have Clients (And How to Change That)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOFFRLUxQkI9rzS5a8-99K9f0NK9gI_gMpzRTtNvWwqJcV_FW3ytinnBsLbz4tCpyJ9Wi5tmyERrJbZL8HUxCWhI1Am3NKT20UYPobjHVbdPnG8_NOFX-_gZ993Ptq12Wf3ClQLD-Xww/s640/For+IDRA+the+Agency.jpg" t="t" true="true" width="456" /></a></div>
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If you really want to know why you don't have any clients, take a look at this list to see if anything sounds (uncomfortably) familiar, and then start thinking about what you can do about it:</div>
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<strong>Reason #1: You haven't got a clear vision of what you want to accomplish.</strong> </div>
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Before you start sputtering that indeed you DO have a clear vision, riddle me this: How many clients do you have in your vision? What hours do you work? What problems do you help your clients solve? How did you get these clients? What does success look like to you? Is it a number of clients, an income level, or something else? Well? If you don't know the details, you haven't got the vision, so what you need to do is...</div>
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<strong>Solution #1: Create a vision of success for yourself (and by create, I mean write it down!).</strong> </div>
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Be as specific as possible. One of the easiest and most compelling ways to do this is to choose a day in the near future (say six to twelve months from now), and describe in vivid detail what's going on in your business and life. Frame the statement in the present tense as if it were already true, using these questions as a guide: What day is it? What time is it? Where are you? What are you doing? What specific goals did you reach? What happened as a result of reaching those goals? How do you feel?</div>
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Just remember to ground your vision in reality. If you haven't got a single client, please don't sabotage yourself by envisioning a multi-million-dollar business within six months. Make it real, make it reasonable, and make it worth your while to achieve. See it, feel it, and then go for it!</div>
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<strong>Reason #2: You haven't got a written plan.</strong> </div>
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How will you know if you're on the right track if you have only a fuzzy idea of where you're going? Once you've written it all down, you can start making choices about how to spend your time and energy to get what you want. But until you do that, you're just stumbling around in the dark, and any successes you may have are pure dumb luck. So unless you're feeling very lucky, if you want to make a success of your small business, you must...</div>
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<strong>Solution #2: Document your plans.</strong> </div>
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Don't tell me that you're keeping it all in your head; that's just an excuse for not doing your due diligence, and you know it. Write it ALL down, including what service(s) you offer, who needs it, what packages you've got, how you plan to market your business, what your goals are (in terms of both income and number of clients or whatever makes sense for your business), when you're going to do whatever it is you do to market your business, and so on. If you need some help, take a look at my web site for an easy and very basic marketing plan, or if that's too overwhelming, then start by answering my Top 10 Marketing Questions. You CAN do it, and you'll thank me for it, I promise!</div>
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<strong>Reason #3: You don't (or can't) clearly articulate your value to your clients. </strong></div>
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Can you distill the essence of your value to a particular and specific customer base in seven to nine words? I can, and let me tell you, it works wonders! Let me be blunt: Nobody cares about your title (coach, consultant, king of the world), your process (facilitating, coaching, teaching, empowering), or your education (CC, MBA, PhD, Harvard or Hogwart's School of Witchcraft & Wizardry). All your clients truly care about is what you can do for them, or more specifically, what benefit they will receive as a result of working with you. What that means is that you need to...</div>
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<strong>Solution #3: Create an absolutely killer "elevator" speech. </strong></div>
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An elevator speech is a short sentence that distills the value of your services and benefit your clients get when working with you. It answers the question "what do you do?" which is really "what CAN you do for ME?" Add your name, your title if you want, and you've got a great introduction. To create your own killer elevator speech, download my Killer Elevator Speech tool. </div>
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<strong>Reason #4: You don't have the support you need to get where you want to go.</strong> </div>
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Doing all this on your own is more than tough--it's overwhelming! Having a group of people PLUS one partner or buddy who are/is familiar with and supportive of your goals enough to offer regular support, ideas, and feedback helps keep your energy and momentum up, and provides you with the strength you might need when the going gets tough. Doing it all alone doesn't make you a hero, so why don't you...</div>
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<strong>Solution #4: Get a coach, and join or create a group</strong> of people who are in the same situation (building a business) as you. You've got tons of options here; either join an existing group, or start your own. You can work with a coach, or find a buddy who will provide reciprocal coaching. Not many rules to this solution, except that the support must be consistent and regular (ideally, every week for the first six months of your start up or business building process).</div>
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<strong>Reason #5:</strong> <strong>You don't truly believe you can do it, so you're not "ready" for clients.</strong> </div>
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If you feel that you're not really ready, you're not, so stop whining and go back to sitting on the sidelines. But unless you're practicing a trade that requires a specific license that you haven't got, chances are that there are people out there who are willing to accept your level of expertise, no matter how new you are to the business. And the best way to get experience is by doing. So quit making excuses, and find those people! You may have to...</div>
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<strong>Solution #5: Work for free.</strong> </div>
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If you're truly so insecure that you feel shy about charging for your services, offer to perform your services for free until you've got some experience, positive feedback and confidence. And don't stop with one or two free clients; get as many as you can. Just one caveat: Set a limit on the free deal, either in number of hours or weeks/months of service. If you've provided adequate value, at least some of your free clients will turn into paying clients, and you'll have proven your value to yourself. </div>
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<strong>Reason #6: You're not focused on your goals and doing the work.</strong> </div>
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Maybe you've got your vision and plans documented, but you haven't looked at them in weeks (months?) and you don't recall off the top of your head exactly what your marketing tactics are. This is not good (but you knew that, right)? What you need to do is...</div>
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<strong>Solution #6: Focus and act!</strong> </div>
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Constant attention to your goals helps keep your eyes on the prize and the finish line in view. Remember, the greatest threat to progress is inertia. Keep your goals visible (in a notebook on your desk, posted by your computer, etc.) and do at least one task that is designed to move you toward your goal (this would be one of your marketing tactics) every day (yes, I really mean every day!), not just when you feel like it. Your progress may be slow, but the good news is that a slow and steady accumulation of small tasks will eventually get you where you want to be.</div>
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<strong>Reason #7: You don't know who your best client would be.</strong> </div>
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If you're still stuck in that rookie trap of thinking that "everyone in the world" would want your service, it's time for a dose of reality. The bottom line is that if you can't identify the person who would benefit the most from your service, then you may never get a clientele worth having. The best cure for that is to...</div>
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<strong>Solution #7: Create a profile of your best client.</strong> </div>
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Start by asking yourself this question: Who would benefit most from my services, and why? You want to know the age, gender, income level, interests and other defining characteristics so that you can find and speak directly to that person in your marketing efforts. If you've got a good idea who your best client is, but you're not sure, then interview a dozen or so people who fit the profile you've developed, and find out from them what their greatest concerns and needs are regarding your product or service. If you still haven't got enough information, then keep asking questions until you get some answers, or consider working with a coach or buddy to tease out the information.</div>
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<strong>Reason #8: You've tried a bunch of things, but nothing seems to work.</strong> </div>
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Maybe you tried a postcard, but that didn't work as well as you had hoped. Or you put up a web site, but nobody's visiting, or if they are, they're not calling you. Or perhaps you ran an ad once, but nothing much came of it. Knock knock! Who's there? Reality calling! You're not handing out free $100 bills, you're marketing, so that means you've got to...</div>
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<strong>Solution #8: Give your plans time to work.</strong> </div>
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If you're going to do something only once, you'd best be sure that that the offer is so compelling that people will break down your door to get it. What works best in the long run is repetition and consistency. If you think a tactic is good, then give it three months or so before you abandon it. Did you know that most people do not respond until they've seen a message at least seven times, and that most ads require 27 (yes, 27!) impressions before they are acted upon? You will be bored with your marketing long before your clients are, so when you make good plans, stick with them until they stop working, and don't dump them before they start!</div>
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<strong>Reason #9: You don't ask for the business.</strong> </div>
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You expect people to ask you to work for them, but that's not the way it works, pumpkin. Most people aren't mind readers, so your potential clients won't know that you want to work with them unless you say so. I know you don't want to hear this, but what you need to do is...</div>
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<strong>Solution #9: Ask for the business.</strong> </div>
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Remember back in the olden days when you were a young jobseeker? What was the one thing that you were told to do at the end of the interview? That's right, express your interest in the job, and if you were bold enough, ask for the job. It worked for me back then, and it still does today. Let it work for you, too.</div>
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<strong>Reason #10: You're letting fears get in your way.</strong> </div>
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If this is true of you, you certainly have my sympathy. Anything new can be intimidating and scary, but please believe me when I say that once you start doing what you need to do, you'll be too busy to remember to be fearful. If your fears become overwhelming, perhaps it's time to consider the services of a mental health professional. But if those fears are just fears of the unknown, all you need to do is...</div>
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<strong>Solution #10: Get over yourself. </strong></div>
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You are neither the first nor the last person to start a small business, so stop thinking about your poor little baby self and start thinking about all those people (clients) whose lives you are going to enrich with your wonderful products or services. When you start focusing on your clients rather than your own petty fears, your business will take a quantum leap forward, and you'll feel a bit sheepish when you remember what a scaredy cat you were when you first started. </div>
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By Veronika (Ronnie) Noize<br />
Photography by Malize<br />
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<span id="yui_3_2_0_24_1347368624522104"><em><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;">© Veronika Noize 2003. All rights reserved. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;">This article was written by Veronika (Ronnie) Noize, the Marketing Coach. Ronnie's web site is a comprehensive marketing resource for small office/home office business professionals. For free marketing resources including articles and valuable marketing tools, visit her web site at </span></em><a href="http://www.veronikanoize.com/" target="_new"><span id="yui_3_2_0_24_1347368624522230" style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em>http://www.VeronikaNoize.com</em></span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em>, or email her at </em></span><a href="mailto:Ronnie@VeronikaNoize.com"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em>Ronnie@VeronikaNoize.com</em></span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em>.</em></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Interior Design Business Information Resources</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business Behind the <em>Business</em> of Interior Design</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-89782015848640397052017-03-01T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T14:36:09.407-05:00Creative Marketing for Interior Designers: Post Card Campaigns<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-q1Btxz86OWoYud9p9DWw9yf20vNfh2_MrCVshNz-vqf76u1y4A2tFTlWeEBY2mlgPOW9y5F-MNaXIisHP7R8esDT5o0bZ0tB3_7lEf8Nebt3sEgA7S88svXhHUi7C6V9rr1WeksGBkg/s400/post+card+by+ywel.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Piotr Lewandowski</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;">Postcard Marketing : Big success at a Low Price</span></div>
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Marketing is the process of making customers aware of products and services, attracting new customers to a product or service, keeping existing customers interested in a product or service, building and maintaining a customer base for a product or service. </div>
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Marketing includes the activities of listening to customer needs, assessing the competitive landscape and then designing and creating products and services accompanied by messages that shape audience perceptions, leading to opportunities for revenue.</div>
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The primary objective of marketing is to deliver products and services to the right audience at the right price and right time, thereby increasing brand loyalty.</div>
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Now we are clear with meaning of marketing. We have immense mediums to market & promote our businesses. Cost, speed and response rates are key attributes in any campaign.</div>
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The modern marketing era has introduced many levels of promotion. However, TV ads, newspapers, magazines and celebrities are considered in heavier & more expensive mediums. If you are looking for less expensive, effective and speedy mediums, send your good news to your customers through postcards.</div>
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"Any business. Any service. Any product. Any target." – is a simple definition of promoting through postcard marketing.</div>
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Postcard marketing is a key promotion medium for small and middle scale firms and retailers to attract a large customer base.</div>
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Since the early days, postcard marketing has been a favorite for guerilla marketers. Why?</div>
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1. Postcards are the fastest, easiest, most reliable way to dramatically increase your sales and profits without spending an extra dime on advertising or promotion.</div>
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2. Postcards are eye-catching. A beautiful, full-color, glossy postcard is not going in the trash without first being read.</div>
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3. Postcards don't need to be opened. They're "naked" mail. No more trying to write envelope copy to get your prospects and customers to see what's inside.</div>
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4. Postcards are 'guerrilla marketing' at its finest - they target your customers one-by-one instead of mass advertising.</div>
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5. Postcards are associated with happy memories. We all like getting postcards from friends and family on holidays. Postcards create a pleasant emotional response because they are usually received by friends and family.</div>
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7. It is hidden from your competitor’s eyes. When you advertise your business anywhere else, your competition knows it. However, when you use postcards to communicate with your customers, it is directed to them and your competition will have no idea.</div>
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8. If you are asking recipients to bring the card into your store for a special discount then it is easy to track campaign success rate also.</div>
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9. Postcard marketing is affordable, even for the smallest of businesses.</div>
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10. Cost of 5,000 postcards sized of 4.25"x6" be somewhere $200. Isn’t it cost effective to convey your message?</div>
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11. Postcards achieve almost 100 percent readership and generate a high rate of response.</div>
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<strong>Now you've agreed to send postcards to your client pool but what will you send inside?</strong></div>
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1. Thanks letter</div>
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2. Gift Certificates & coupons</div>
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3. Sales after service</div>
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4. New services & products</div>
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5. Make them your favorites and invite them for special sale</div>
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6. Announcing your web presence</div>
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7. Special days – Holidays, birthdays & festivals</div>
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8. Reminders</div>
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9. To be in touch</div>
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10. Gratitude. Make your customers part of your every success. Thanks them on your success or awards.</div>
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11. Invite customers to special events</div>
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12. The firm's move to a larger office</div>
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<strong>What do you need to promote yourself through postcard marketing?</strong></div>
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1. Identify your best customers or target market. Manage customers database and details on their first visit. Your first letter may be to invite them to your shop or nearest show room but later on it should be personalized.</div>
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2. Print beautifully designed & full color postcards.</div>
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3. Hire an advertising & promotion agency if needed.</div>
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4. Use online media or web to promote through e-cards.</div>
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5. Make your marketing plan genuinely.</div>
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6. You can use Microsoft Publisher to design postcard your own way.</div>
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7. Use portal like needpostcards.com to design cards.</div>
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Postcard marketing is an unconventional marketing method intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. Thus, it is advisable to use postcard marketing as a healthy tool to promote yourself. Before closing, here's the caveat: Sending too many postcards may negatively affect your reputation. Use it for select times and the right place.</div>
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Happy Message Dropping!</div>
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By Jay C. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-63959992404012495082017-02-03T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T22:05:05.259-05:005 Cures for Self Doubt & "The Little Ol' Me" Syndrome<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" kca="true" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2bANwx5RIzE/ToCKHxtbq8I/AAAAAAAAA1Y/U5Su8rKvfmI/s640/%25C2%25A9+Lisa+Mckown+for+IDRA.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
<strong>How Great Are You?</strong><br />
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I was talking with a client recently who was wondering out loud if she was really worth her salt. "What if I can't help this client? What if they realize I don't have an advanced degree? Do I really have something of value to offer? Why would anyone buy a book that I write? I've only been doing this a few years."</div>
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This woman had what I call "But It's Just Me" Syndrome. In other words, she was thinking: When will they find out I'm a fake - it's just little ole' me?</div>
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Of course, she isn't a fake. In fact, she's light years from it. But her comments stood out to me because it showed me that even a business owner who is closing in on doing a million dollars in business this year can struggle with the same self-doubt that others do who are not yet at that level. I see it over and over. Many of us share the same thoughts, feelings and internal chatter. I believe that we are all more alike than we are different. Our commonalities are so much greater than we know.</div>
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If you find yourself suffering from "But It's Just Me" Syndrome, here are some practical things that you can do to quickly distance yourself from energy-depleting thoughts and get you back on track so you can continue to serve the people you are meant to serve and enjoy your life:</div>
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<strong>1. Start hoarding:</strong> Keep every card, note, email and tweet that comes to you expressing gratitude. Post them on a bulletin board or somewhere you'll see them frequently. If you get too many to keep out in clear view, place them in a binder. The great thing about having a binder is that you can take it to trade shows to help showcase your brilliance or just read through it from time to time to give yourself a boost.</div>
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<strong>2. Fill in the blank:</strong> "The results I help my clients achieve are..." Make a list of 30-40 results you have helped your clients achieve. The more specific you can get with this, the better. Take it in and realize how much you have given those clients. Perhaps it's more organization, peace of mind, more money, clarity, focus, a strategy, a product they need, etc.</div>
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<strong>3. Read your testimonials:</strong> This is a very valuable tip, and it's reason enough to collect testimonials! Yes, you should use testimonials in your marketing, but when you start to question your value or if it's time to raise your rates, read through your testimonials and take note of how much you have helped others accomplish. It's a real eye-opener.</div>
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<strong>4. Tally up the numbers:</strong> Start looking at your numbers. For example, how many people have you helped in the last year? How many new subscribers joined your ezine list? How many referrals have you gotten? Remember that people will not pay money to work with you, read your ezine or put their own reputations on the line if you're not great at what you do. These statistics tell a compelling story about you and the value you bring to your community.</div>
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<strong>5. Pay it forward:</strong> Remember that most people you meet who are in business for themselves will struggle with "But It's Just Me" Syndrome from time-to-time. In other words, you're not the only one with occasional self doubt. Take a few minutes and write someone else a note or testimonial each month. Let them know how much you appreciate them. Specifically, tell them about the impact they have had on your life or business. Writing a letter like this does a couple of wonderful things. It allows you to feel and express gratitude while also lifting someone's spirits. It's a win/win!</div>
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These simple ideas can really give you a huge dose of motivation, remind you of how great you really are and add some pep to your step when you need it most.</div>
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By Meredith Liepelt </div>
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(c) 2009 Meredith Liepelt<br />
Image by Lisa Mckown</div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times";">© 2011 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing </span>Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, offers a free report called "101 Ways to Attract Ideal Clients, Build Your List and Raise Your Profile," which can be downloaded immediately at RichLifeMarketing.com.</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-68771416676563526532017-02-02T04:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T22:18:21.932-05:0010 Ways to Gain Publicity for Your Design Firm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKM-ooJE3rtux67UlBsF5XyFSyf2xW6K4Y0Y37d2hrkUmmFFsjkBpPOmJ53SFDmMMJ5XCoDuGLaaY0OjFocE3mSutc5plt3DIGwiCn-Lpn5D-Jql6-IvTBcTsEgXbQXVLYn24vT3iDdQw/s640/%25C2%25A9+Navarone+for+IDRA.jpg" width="425" /></a></div>
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<strong>Top Ways to Gain Free Publicity </strong></div>
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Get free publicity for your business using the ideas listed here. Refresh yourself with the knowledge that sometimes the best things in life really are free.</div>
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<strong>Release a new or improved product </strong></div>
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Something that has legitimate value over competing products will make news and spread like wildfire. Innovation thrives on free publicity, so put on your thinking cap and make some groundbreaking discoveries.</div>
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<strong>Celebrate your anniversary </strong></div>
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Milestones call for special recognition. Make a special anniversary logo for your business website, send out press releases and offer special promotions and the publicity will be yours for free. Get the word out when you have completed five years, ten years, twenty five years, etc. in business.</div>
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<strong>Bring on a new team member </strong></div>
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Local newspapers often publish news about local businesses, so send in an announcement about your new hire. Highlight the special skills and experience that person brings to the table and include a photo. Additionally, have your new hire write a blog, email blast or business website column to get to know your customers.</div>
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<strong>Offer something worthwhile for free </strong></div>
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Technically, this method is not really free, but the publicity you get is free. Service companies can offer a free consultation or inspection. Software companies can offer a free trial of their software. Restaurants can offer a free meal or dish. Buy one, get one free deals offer additional publicity. Also, a free and functional promotional item bearing the name of your company will get your business name exposed to the public for a long time.</div>
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<strong>Take a poll </strong></div>
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Media outlets always look for surprising correlations or indications of new social trends. Even a survey that shows what people actually do with your products can make a newsworthy report.</div>
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<strong>Perform a stunt </strong></div>
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You don't have to jump over school buses on a motorcycle to get attention. Camp on a billboard, eat doughnuts on a rooftop, or find another crazy thing to do that will get you and your business in the news.</div>
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<strong>Provide free knowledge </strong></div>
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Those who have expertise in a particular business or industry can write free columns for the local newspaper. Radio and television stations also call upon subject matter experts to provide relevant commentary about a current event. Get your name out there along with your employees' so your business can demonstrate its expertise while the public is listening.</div>
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<strong>Get involved in charity </strong></div>
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By giving and working with local and national organisations, you build community credibility. When they see your charitable activities listed on your business website, they know your company has more than just profits on their mind. Also, charities often list event sponsors in their advertising, providing even more free exposure.</div>
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By Ruth Williams</div>
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Photography by Navarone</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a></span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-67042863299575794502017-02-01T05:59:00.000-05:002016-11-30T22:11:59.692-05:00IDRA Financing Quicktips!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XOuK50zQwV0/To8QFyQs2lI/AAAAAAAAA2M/v8NKS3QjE0Y/s1600/IDRA+Finance+Quicktip+.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kca="true" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XOuK50zQwV0/To8QFyQs2lI/AAAAAAAAA2M/v8NKS3QjE0Y/s400/IDRA+Finance+Quicktip+.png" width="272" /></a></div>
<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Financing Quicktips:</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here are some creative business financing ideas that will help you get the money you want.</span><br />
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<strong>Savings Account:</strong> Here we are talking about your own savings account. Before you dip into your kitty of savings, consider the following: How much savings have you got in that account? Are you dependant on that money for your day to day expenses? How confident are you that your business venture will succeed? Be realistic while you make these considerations. If the savings account is not something you depend upon and you can afford to forget about the money you take from it should you incur a loss, then go ahead and take the money from it. The upside to this is that you are taking an interest free loan from yourself and saving quite a bit of money on that end. You can even repay this loan in variable installments, and not suffer penalties for it.<br />
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<strong>Family and Friends:</strong> This is also a good option for you to acquire funds for your business venture. Depending upon what you discuss with your friends and family members, you can choose the method of repayment and also if you are liable to pay interest. The downside to this is that if you cannot repay the money back in the time that you promised, you stand to lose a good relative or friend.<br />
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<strong>Partners:</strong> Another good manner of generating funding is to take on partners in your business. This is again a matter of choice. And your partner must have the money and the inclination to invest into your business.<br />
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<strong>Loans:</strong> This may not be a very creative idea, but some banks offer very interesting kind of personal and business loans. It is worth a shot to go have a look at these options. You may just strike a gold mine and find the perfect method of financing your business.<br />
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<strong>Sell the Junk:</strong> If you have any unused premises, or unused inventory lying around, or unused trademarks and licensing rights, it is a good idea to sell them to those who need them. This is a good method of recycling your own assets to create finance for your business. The downside is that this option cannot work for a new business venture. <br />
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<strong>Sell Shares:</strong> Selling the shares of your company is a time-honored method of creating finances for your company. If you have a new company, you can do it. You can also do it if you are an old company. You can also sell the shares to your employees. Talk to your CPA and get more details.<br />
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<strong>Advertise:</strong> This sounds silly, but sometimes an advertisement can also generate interested financers for your project. Putting word out there ensures that you generate interest from persons looking for a good investment opportunity. It also gives you a chance to advertise about your company along with it. <br />
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By Madhavi Ghare<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-35887741672739371082017-01-31T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T22:09:19.718-05:0010 Easy Steps for DIY Bookkeeping<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" kca="true" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gyfx2lxi7BQ/ToxnSdKZC9I/AAAAAAAAA1s/WA9oLRhuhZQ/s640/For+IDRA+Accounting+Tips.jpg" width="425" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Banish Those Bookkeeping Blues</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Are you one of those people who are guilty of just stuffing your receipts into a folder and thinking 'I'll sort that out when I've got time'? Do you need a more organised bookkeeping system, nothing too flashy, just something that's simple and easy to manage?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Follow my tips below and you'll soon have that simple and easy-to-manage bookkeeping system that won't bring you out in a cold sweat whenever you hear the words 'tax return'. And I promise you, it works!</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Gather your supplies!</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Get hold of a large ring binder, divider cards, A4/letter-sized paper, stapler, pen, all your business receipts and invoices, plastic folders and a large coffee (or whatever else you prefer!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then lock yourself away for a couple of hours.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Get organised</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You now need to organise your ring binder into the following sections:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Invoices - Unpaid</strong> -- this section is for your outgoing business expenses that have not yet been paid i.e. supplier invoices. Write on the top of each invoice the date it needs to be paid by and place all unpaid invoices in 'date to be paid' order with the earliest one on top.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Invoices - Paid</strong> -- this section is for your outgoing business expenses that have been paid or you've paid at the time service was rendered, i.e. that ream of paper that you bought from the office supplies store. Staple each receipt on to a blank piece of paper rather than just putting them directly into the ring binder. This just makes it easier to see at a glance all your receipts and you can also make notes on the paper. Also write on the top of each invoice/piece of paper the method of payment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Receipts - Unpaid</strong> -- this section is for all your invoices that you have sent to clients that have not yet been paid. Write on the top date payment is due and put them in date order so that it's easier if you have to chase overdue invoices.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Receipts - Paid</strong> -- this section is for all your invoices that have been paid. Write on the top the date it was paid and how it was paid i.e. bank transfer, cheque, credit card etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Bank Statements</strong> -- this section is self-explanatory! Just keep everything in date order.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Schedule It In</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now that you've got your system in place, schedule in each week/month to keep your bookkeeping binder up-to-date. In between updating place all your receipts and invoices in a plastic folder so that everything is together when you come to update your system--it would be too time-consuming to add each receipt as you get it!</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">What Next?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Depending on how far you want to handle your own accounts, you can either hand your very organised bookkeeping binder over to your accountant at the end of the financial year for them to prepare your final accounts, or you can maintain your own books with the use of financial accounting software.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Either way, you've now got a bookkeeping system that is simple and easy-to-manage and won't cause you to break out into a cold sweat at the very mention of the words 'tax return'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">By Tracey Lawton </span><br />
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<em><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches solo service professionals how to create a thriving and profitable business through the implementation of simple office organization and online marketing systems, which leads to more clients, more profits, and more freedom. Get your fr.ee "Office Organization Success Toolkit" plus how-to articles, resources, tips, and tools at </span></em><a href="http://www.officeorganizationsuccess.com/" target="_new"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: x-small;"><em>http://www.officeorganizationsuccess.com</em></span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><em>.</em></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-3026705749850468022017-01-30T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T22:07:18.688-05:008 Steps to Branding Your Design Firm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<strong>Discover Who You Are as a Designer and Sell Your Brand's Message</strong></div>
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<strong>Eight Steps in Branding</strong></div>
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Developing a brand strategy can be challenging, but is a vital step in creating a strong business strategy and lays the foundation for your business plan. Spending time investigating and researching, defining, and building your brand is critical for your future success and defines your business, marketing and internal communication plan. </div>
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To help you develop your branding strategy, we have created a simplified seven part process to guide you through each step. While some of it is easy to do on your own, you may need a professional for other parts of this process, especially to facilitate agreements for several stakeholders, review outcomes, or assist you in the development of logos, web and collateral, customer research and analysis.</div>
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There are two fundamental pieces to the branding process:</div>
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1. Your brand positioning and unique value proposition </div>
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2. Your name and visual identity</div>
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Critical to an effective branding strategy is a clear definition and agreement by all key team members about your objectives, target audience and values. Therefore, prior to proceeding with the branding process, it is critical to align team members, both management and employees, to ensure key issues and concerns are addressed and that future positioning considers all stakeholders' values and goals.</div>
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<strong>Part I - Stakeholder Positioning, Clarifications, Industry Research </strong></div>
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This part of creating a brand strategy clarifies expectations, vision and core beliefs of the stakeholders. To succeed you must discuss issues candidly (the sooner the better) and invest sufficient time in addressing how personal goals will fit into your future brand. Part of this process is an evaluation of industry and competition, preliminary organizational chart and financial analysis.</div>
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1. Record each stakeholder's current orientation and agree on a desired state </div>
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2. Devise a strategy to move each stakeholder towards alignment </div>
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3. Develop high level organizational chart and commitment level </div>
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4. Prepare initial industry research to discuss brand positioning ideas and values </div>
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5. Prepare financial analysis </div>
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6. Create project plan</div>
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<strong>Part II - Create Value Propositions</strong> </div>
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In part II of the branding process, you will define your core messages, identify customer segments and define benefits of your brand for your target audience.</div>
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1. Develop your Unique Value Proposition (UVP), core messages and supporting messages </div>
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2. Develop your brand positioning statement </div>
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3. Create your supporting messages for different customer groups and services </div>
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4. Differentiation: You may match a competitor on every dimension of value except one </div>
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5. Excellence (in at least one element of value): You become the best choice for your customers</div>
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<strong>Part III - Develop your Mission and Vision </strong></div>
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This step in the branding process defines your Vision & Mission so as to clearly and concisely convey the direction of the organization and the key measure or measures of the organization's success. Its prime audience is the leadership team and/or stockholders (investors).</div>
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<strong>Part IV - Develop your Name </strong></div>
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Once you have an understanding of what your brand is representing, its customers and your primary market benefits, you can proceed with the naming process for your brand. Part IV of the branding process therefore deals with the naming of your brand.</div>
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1. Define attributes and value propositions that will drive the brand </div>
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2. Develop naming ideas, brainstorm and record your ideas (consider: Service/Trademarks, online search results to compete against, naming considerations) </div>
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3. Use the competitive research you did earlier and the brand definition work you have already done </div>
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4. Create a way to evaluate and tally the results of your naming research so you can make a decision (consider sound, associations, competiiors names) </div>
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5. Agree on a name and register name</div>
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<strong>Part V - Prepare your Visual Identity </strong></div>
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Once you have settled on a name, it's time to create the visuals for your brand. This includes your logo, your style guide and all assets related to your visual identity.</div>
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1. Review competitive findings on colors, logo types and branding to differentiate yourself </div>
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2. Review logo trends and agree on direction </div>
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3. Develop your logo for different media types, sizes, applications </div>
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4. Develop a style guide to ensure clear communication guidelines for use of your logo and graphics</div>
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<strong>Part VI - Create a Launch Plan </strong></div>
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Now you are ready to put things into action. Start implementing all the ideas, train and educate employees and finalize your plan with the financials and activities to reach your goals</div>
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1. Finalize business plan, marketing plan </div>
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2. Develop your collateral, website and visibility </div>
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3. Evaluate, differentiate and define brand touch points </div>
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4. Launch internally - then externally </div>
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5. Develop standards & guidelines </div>
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6. Nurture brand champions</div>
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<strong>Part VII - Implement & Launch </strong></div>
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Now you are ready for prime time! Measurements and strategies for review and adjustment should be in place. Quarterly review of your goals and ensuring your brand plan and business plan continue to align with your sales and marketing activities to benchmark success.</div>
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1. Benchmarking </div>
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2. Adjustments </div>
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Inka Traktman is president and owner of Greenfire Strategies, a strategic brand consultancy and product marketing company specializing in brand positioning, product positioning and digital marketing.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-75199810663022334532017-01-27T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T22:02:20.347-05:00Marketing Basics: Building Blocks for Your Marketing Campaign<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rRQLzAooS7o/TndLsaDOagI/AAAAAAAAAzk/c4fGQCVYvDw/s1600/%25C2%25A9+Spirokwok+for+IDRA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" rba="true" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rRQLzAooS7o/TndLsaDOagI/AAAAAAAAAzk/c4fGQCVYvDw/s640/%25C2%25A9+Spirokwok+for+IDRA.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<strong>Marketing Basics: A, E, I O, U and Always Y</strong><br />
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<strong>A is for Action:</strong> You must take action. Your output must be equal to your input. In other words, if you love attending seminars and workshops but taking action is not your thing, get yourself in a coaching club, hire a coach, find a mastermind group or accountability group or somehow find the support you need that will help you to take action. We learn mostly from doing. And we certainly make progress by doing. It's time to get up and take action and start seeing some results!<br />
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<strong>E is for Education:</strong> Being educated in your field is very important. Being educated in marketing is equally as important. You can find great marketing education through free resources like business and marketing books from your library, subscribing to great ezines, or attending free teleseminars or webinars. Low cost options include attending workshops, teleseminars or summits. You can also be educated through private or group coaching programs. The point is to always be learning because once you stop learning, you stop growing.<br />
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<strong>I is for Information:</strong> Having access to the best information you can find on marketing a solo business will allow you to make informed strategic decisions from a place of knowledge, not fear. It will allow you to be focused on the big picture and be less swayed to chase the latest and greatest tactic with a half-hearted effort.<br />
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<strong>O is for Outline:</strong> Having an outline (a plan) of where you are going in your business is critical. As Dr. Phil says, "You've got to name it to claim it." Having an outline will help guide you in your decision making and keep you focused as opportunities present themselves. If you do not have an outline, you are much more likely to take on activities, projects and clients that do not move you closer to your desires.<br />
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<strong>U is for Unique:</strong> To stand out in a crowd, you simply have to be unique. You need to "be the blue tree," as my friend and colleague Barbara Wayman of Blue Tree Media says. Being different than others in your field will draw the kind of attention you want so you can attract your ideal clients, customers, joint venture partners and affiliates.<br />
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<strong>Y is for You:</strong> As a solopreneur, you are your brand. Everything from the way you wear your hair to your elevator speech, your logo and how you communicate with your clients defines your brand. Years ago I recall hearing supermodel Cindy Crawford say, "I'm not a supermodel. I'm the CEO of the Cindy Crawford brand." That was an ah-ha moment for me. You, too, are CEO of brand you. Embrace all that is you and share it with the world!<br />
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Applying these basics to your business will help you build a strong foundation from which you can grow both professionally and personally.<br />
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By Meredith Liepelt <br />
© 2011 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing<br />
Image by Spirokwok<br />
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_2_0_24_1347368624522591" style="font-family: "times";">© 2011 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing </span>Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, offers a free report called "101 Ways to Attract Ideal Clients, Build Your List and Raise Your Profile," which can be downloaded immediately at RichLifeMarketing.com.</span></em></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-15625851819945132522017-01-26T06:00:00.001-05:002016-11-30T22:00:37.392-05:00How to Get More Clients with Contact Management System<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje-MYtbVyDvOoRTHAVC64A792DireHmMCX9xLRatgtl3v9iL3nhG37RL_fZT69u5GrTAas8yc_yostna5WBwPJ2NUpbU79FfZ8W9vePGBvU7bYcZoqZLewGFVlsCO8y4cYSkLezwlt7Rk/s1600/Stefan+Klabunde+for+IDRA+Contact+Managment+Systems.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje-MYtbVyDvOoRTHAVC64A792DireHmMCX9xLRatgtl3v9iL3nhG37RL_fZT69u5GrTAas8yc_yostna5WBwPJ2NUpbU79FfZ8W9vePGBvU7bYcZoqZLewGFVlsCO8y4cYSkLezwlt7Rk/s400/Stefan+Klabunde+for+IDRA+Contact+Managment+Systems.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">5 Simple Steps to Keep a Steady Flow of Clients and Prospects Coming Into YOUR Business </span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You cannot begin to market your business if you can't find the information you need, don't know who you are marketing to, and don't know where you are in your business.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, let's go back to basics and take a look at one of the key office organization systems you need to have in place to "manage" your business before you can start to "market" your business - your contact management system!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">If set up correctly your contact management system allows you to:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">* Keep a note of clients, potential clients, and colleagues contact information. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">* Easily and effectively follow-up with a prospect. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">* Locate critical client contact information quickly and easily. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">* Build your business.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Having all of your contact data readily to hand will allow you to build your business. You have all the information you need; it's all in one place, and you can locate it quickly and easily. Follow-up becomes a much smoother process and in turn it builds your business. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Let me share with you below my 5 easy steps for creating your ideal contact management system so that you constantly have a full pipeline of interested clients and prospects:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>1. Choose your system.</strong> You need to decide on a system that works best for YOU and YOUR business. This could be using Outlook (as I do) to manage all your contact data, appointments, To Do lists, etc. or you could use dedicated contact management software. A third option might be to utilize one of the many web-based contact management systems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>2. Draw clients into your pipeline.</strong> Once you've got your contact management system in place, you need to have a system for keeping in touch with people you meet at in-person events, online networking forums, or visitors to your website. One way to do that is to publish a regular ezine (electronic newsletter). This will keep clients and prospects flowing into your business and provide you with a base of interested people who want to find out more about you, your services, and your products.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>3. Define the process for working with new clients</strong>. Once you've got prospects into your pipeline the next step is to create a system so that those clients who are ready to work with you are able to do so. This could be through an initial complimentary consultation to determine if you are a good fit for one another. List everything you currently do and come up with a system for streamlining the whole process.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>4. Keep it all up-to-date.</strong> It's all well and good having the systems in place, but if you're not keeping it all current, then your contact management system quickly becomes of no use to you at all. Ideally, you should be updating your client data as you go along, but if you find you're not doing that, spend 15/20 minutes at the end of each day, before you shut down your PC, reviewing who you've talked to/emailed, what the outcome was, and when you promised to follow-up with them. Note it all down in your contact management system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>5. Create a waiting list!</strong> If you find that you have more clients wanting to work with you than you can handle, offer to put them on your waiting list. If you suddenly get a client who has to cancel (and it does happen, for a variety of reasons), then you're not left with a big hole in your cashflow - you simply approach your waiting list and let them know you have an opening available. Plan to keep in touch with your waiting list on a regular basis so that they don't forget you!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Consistency is the key to keeping a steady flow of clients and prospects coming into your business. Make the commitment to spend time each and every day on your contact management system, and watch your business grow!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">By Tracey Lawton </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(c) 2008 Tracey Lawton</span><br />
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<em><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches solo service professionals how to create a thriving and profitable business through the implementation of simple office organization and online marketing systems, which leads to more clients, more profits, and more freedom. Get your fr.ee "Office Organization Success Toolkit" plus how-to articles, resources, tips, and tools at </span></em><a href="http://www.officeorganizationsuccess.com/" target="_new"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: x-small;"><em>http://www.officeorganizationsuccess.com</em></span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><em>.</em></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Global Leader in Business Information Products for Interior Designers</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</span></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-14467161813165539702017-01-26T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T21:49:20.025-05:00If You Don’t Know Who You’re Marketing To<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Are you able to close your eyes at this very moment and see the face of the people you’re trying to market to?</div>
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Do you know the kinds of things these people like? Do you know what images appeal to them, what products they have the most need for, and what styles of marketing will best grab their interest? How clear is the image you’re seeing? Do you know exactly who these people are or the image fuzzy, barely in focus, or not in focus at all?</div>
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So many companies are designing marketing material, paying for their color printing, coordinating the distribution of their advertisements, and they don’t even have a clear idea of who they’re trying to grab.</div>
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The reason is because they’re attempting to target every person possible. The market is the entire country.</div>
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The only time a system like that will work is when you have so much money for color printing you’re able to completely saturate the market with your advertising. And then it isn’t really the focus of your advertising that’s getting people interested but the sheer volume of what you’re sending out. If you fill up the market enough you’ll get people looking at you.</div>
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But is this the best approach? Is the money being well spent?</div>
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If you know the audience you can tailor the message to fit them. You can use language and images that appeal directly to them. The way you arrange your message to appeal to a middle aged suburbanite is not going to be the same way you tailor your message to fit a college student.</div>
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Each group has certain likes and dislikes, things that appeal to them in a way that doesn’t appeal to the other groups, and if you don’t know that you won’t be able to do the best job possible at gaining their attention.</div>
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Having a niche helps you to hone in on your market, but you don’t have to always have a small niche to do this. After all, if you wanted to target college students in general, you can create your message to best work for them, while still targeting all college students. That isn’t a small market, but it is a specific market.</div>
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The first step of any marketing campaign should be figuring out exactly who the target is and how you can best appeal to them. Do the needed research or else you’ll find your response rate lacking in relation to the costs of the marketing.</div>
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Remember : the broader your audience the harder it will be to get your message right. A niche might be better for you if you find yourself unable to afford the kind of marketing you’d prefer for a large market.</div>
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The next time you close your eyes before a marketing push you should be able to completely visualize who you’re marketing to.</div>
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By Kaye Marks </div>
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Image by Martin Garnham</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em>Kaye Z. Marks is an avid writer and follower of the developments in the </em></span><a href="http://www.printplace.com/printing/business-card-templates.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_new"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em>business card templates</em></span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em> and business card printing industry. </em></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/PrintPlacedotcom#p/a/u/2/K0oVGOo1_8g" rel="nofollow" target="_new"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em>Order business cards</em></span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em> online with PrintPlace.com.</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/" target="_blank">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-61052415729555508232017-01-24T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T21:47:31.138-05:00How to Find Time to Market Your Design Firm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">How to Find Time to Market Your Small Business</span></h1>
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<span style="color: #ff6600; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Marketing is essential for small business success</span></h1>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You probably didn't get into business so that you could spend time marketing. Most small business owners have a passion for the activities of their business. However working with clients is not the only demand on your time. As well as doing what you love there are other tasks that may be less pleasant and/or rewarding: Admin, staff management, recruitment, payroll and, of course, marketing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Marketing can become a chore - </strong>even if you accept the reality that you need to get the word out about your business, marketing itself can be seen as a burden. Let's face it, when you are presented with tasks you would rather not do, they tend to become relegated in the pecking order. If you have ever found yourself reorganizing your business cards again when more important activities beckon, you will be familiar with this scenario.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Unfortunately, marketing can become one of the relegated activities.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Time is a valuable, finite commodity</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">However essential, marketing competes with your other business activities and there are only a certain number of hours to devote to your business life. The rest of your life is important too! As far as marketing goes there are two common marketing issues that develop with small businesses:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>1. Marketing avoidance - </strong>sporadic, infrequent marketing or none at all. There are always other things to do that are more comfortable so maybe I will get to marketing tomorrow.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>2. Silo marketing - </strong>the opposite issue. You dive headlong into a series of unconnected activities. A lot of energy, money and time spent on tools and tactics that may be OK in principal, but are ineffective because they are aimed at the wrong audience or are not in place long enough to yield results.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Both of these approaches may yield some clients, but tend to be frustrating and inconsistent and continue to drive the belief that marketing is a chore</span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Allocate time and energy effectively</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you are uncomfortable with marketing today, you probably will be tomorrow. However you can commit to becoming better TODAY, and making marketing more effective, less of a time drain and even fun. Consider the following tips:</span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Marketing mindset - </strong>marketing is a process rather than an activity. If you believe it is difficult, or that you are bad at it, that will not serve you as you approach marketing tactics. Commit to developing a marketing strategy that you enjoy. Don't worry if you can't visualize that right away. Commitment to developing such a strategy is the key point</span></span></li>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Skill development - </strong>marketing is a skill which means you can learn it. Commit to developing in this area. For example schedule time to read books, take a course, find a marketing mentor etc.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Define your ideal client profile - </strong>who do you love to work with? Be as specific as you can. What is their business profile? Take the time to figure out the problems you solve for them. This is foundational and will underpin your marketing message - without a clear understanding of this it is tough to focus on the best tactics</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Research and choose tactics - </strong>find tactics that are likely to put you in front of your ideal clients. Challenge yourself - choose one or two that are outside your comfort zone and commit to developing the required skills as part of your personal development plan. Choose a few that you will be able to find the time for consistently over time. Most marketing requires some time and consistent application to generate results. Decide to devote that time up front</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Schedule time and write it into your schedule - </strong>this time is as important as client meetings. Include it in the schedule and DON'T think of it as time you can reallocate to something else. Early on include time spent developing your marketing skills as well as carrying out marketing activities.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Stay on Task - </strong>it is easy to become distracted by a special offer or by something you would rather be doing. Part of your commitment to developing a successful marketing approach is consistency and application. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Your passion for your business is your key marketing asset, along with your attitude towards getting that word out there. Passion is attractive and weaving that into your marketing message will make delivery of that message much easier. Defining that message and picking tools that you commit to and integrate into you week is the key to ensuring there is always enough time!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">By Jerry N Smith</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Photography by Jason Stitt </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><em>Jerry Smith is the co-founder of Marketing Action Club, focusing on small service based businesses and independent professionals who struggle to attract quality clients consistently.Visit </em></span><a href="http://www.30secondelevatorspeech.com/" target="_new"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><em>http://www.30SecondElevatorSpeech.com</em></span></a><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><em> for a step by step, online program to lead you through producing an effective, attention grabbing introduction for you and your business.</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a></span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-70327496447998251612017-01-23T05:37:00.000-05:002016-11-30T21:42:42.705-05:00How to Create a New Client VIP Welcome Kit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJSG26gL7QCty05oCciOAnu6BQ6QsP2dN9MvF10QbsFzpTc0UA8Q-XvD_dTOZ0RmkIs-2ROLOIbJ49n9UhFaXG9aNAY9nEeOY4HRqFrXaBtBnWNvXviDOdY7dXKYos1YE846KaNcEf8A/s400/%25C2%25A9+Fallenangel+for+IDRA+Welcome+Kits.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">How to Create a New Client Welcome Kit</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Marketing is simply the act of telling people over and over what it is that you do. Your new client is one of your VIPs and as such, you need to continue serving them. Showcasing videos works for my chiropractor. There is one simple act that is often overlooked, but helps you to retain more clients and starts you off on great footing with your new client. It's creating a new client welcome kit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A new client welcome kit re-introduces your business to your new client, makes them once again feel that they made the right decision by working with you and informs them of all of your services. A package of information like this is often overlooked, but helps you create the experience you want for each of your clients. It goes a long way toward establishing credibility and your brand.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Elements of Your New Client Welcome Kit</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is no "one-size fits all" for your welcome kit, as every business has different objectives and budgets. However, there are some common features to new client welcome kits, so use this checklist as a jumping off point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•A letter of introduction, written on your company letterhead</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•A welcome CD, DVD or a link to a welcome video</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•Several business cards - One for your client, a few for their staff and/or to pass out to others</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•A brochure, flyer or leave-behind piece</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•Basic business forms including your contract, confidentiality agreement, non-disclosure</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•1-3 of your most popular articles</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•Copies of articles that have been written about your business</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•Testimonials, case studies</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•Press releases</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•Promotional items with your logo such as pens, sticky notes, calendars, magnets</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">•A client questionnaire or "quick start" form if you'd like to gain additional information about your client prior to starting.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Introduction Letter Tips</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Start by expressing appreciation for their business. Congratulate them on taking steps toward what they need and want. Provide a brief overview of your business and services and an outline of what is included in their welcome kit. This helps solidify to them that they made the right choice by hiring you. If they had any buyer's remorse after signing up with you, this will help calm that emotion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">From there, consider highlighting anything in the kit you'd like them to pay special attention to. For example, you may want them to understand your office hours, holiday closures, how to handle appointment rescheduling, common turn-around times, who to contact on your team for certain things, best times to reach you, VIP/client-only ways to contact you and so forth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you have a referral program, consider including information about it, as clients will likely want to refer others to you. And if there is an incentive for them to do so, all the better.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Other Items of Interest</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Take note of what clients ask you during their first few interactions with you. If you notice a trend in certain questions or certain issues that keep creeping up, take note and proactively address them in your welcome kit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">One of the purposes of your new client welcome kit is to reassure your client that they made a great decision by working with you. Taking time to pay attention to these client experience details helps to build your brand and your reputation, and it gives people even more of a reason to talk about you to their contacts. In other words, even though you have just converted a potential client into a client, it still helps to increase your visibility and credibility. Taking the time to create a new client welcome kit is well worth your time and energy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">By Meredith Liepelt </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times";">Image by Fallenangel</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">© 2011 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing <span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, offers a free report called "101 Ways to Attract Ideal Clients, Build Your List and Raise Your Profile," which can be downloaded immediately at RichLifeMarketing.com.</span></span></em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/2011/09/creating-vip-client-experience-welcome.html">More Great Ideas for VIP Client Welcome Kits</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-79726341619734055892017-01-20T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T21:37:32.395-05:004 Steps to the Perfect Elevator Speech<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" naa="true" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A5pd2N26CEA/Tkphn1BgUHI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/NVBtUgVKj2s/s640/Jameswimsel+for+IDRA+Elevator+Speech.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
<strong>Elevator Speech Template Examples - Basic 30 Second Introduction Scripts</strong><br />
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An elevator speech remains one of the most important networking and marketing tools you have at your very disposal. Of course every business is different and it is all very well talking to people at networking events and so on, but how do you make sure you grab their attention? Is there a template that can be followed that allows you to come up with a 30 second introduction for YOUR business?</div>
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Actually there is a format that has proven success and can be applied to pretty much any business that aspires to have clients! Hopefully that is every business that wants to stay solvent!</div>
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There are some pre-requisites to achieving success with this approach and the main one is developing a clear idea of your ideal client and the issues with which they are struggling. Closely related is how you help them - what does your company do that solves the chosen challenges of your ideal client base.</div>
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Armed with that information, the more detail you have the better, here is the template to follow for any business:</div>
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<strong>Part 1: Who You are</strong></div>
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Hi, My name is... from (company name)</div>
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That is all you need. Obviously if you are in a conversation already and someone asks you what you do you don't need to reintroduce yourself! You can also vary this along the lines of: "I'm Jerry and my company is..."</div>
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Most importantly, resist the temptation to expand this into a long explanation of where your office is located, when the business was founded, how many employees you have and so on. Shorter is better</div>
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<strong>Part 2: Who you help</strong></div>
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We help (this target audience)...</div>
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Again, as short and targeted as possible. Avoid the temptation here to think everyone is your IDEAL client. Messages such as: "We work with anyone who owns a car" is too broad. There is leeway here to change the words as well of course. Pick a variation with which you are comfortable - we work with, we help, I am focused on etc.</div>
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<strong>Part 3: What problem do you address</strong></div>
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Who have (this problem, issue or challenge)</div>
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You don't need to elaborate for minutes on end. Define the main problem you solve - not the solution at this stage.</div>
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<strong>Part 4: What they get</strong></div>
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So they get (this particular solution)</div>
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The best way to couch these parts is using language that speaks to the emotions of your ideal client - frustration, anger, annoyance, fear, worry and so on.</div>
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For example:</div>
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Hi, I'm Jerry from Acme Insurance. We help home owners in Leawood who are worried they don't have adequate coverage or even that they are over-covered. With us they get over the frustration of not knowing and get the peace of mind they want by knowing they are insured appropriately.</div>
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By Jerry N Smith</div>
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Photography by James Wimmel</div>
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<em><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Jerry Smith is the co-founder of Marketing Action Club, focusing on small service based businesses and independent professionals who want to grow but struggle to attract quality clients consistently. Visit </span></em><a href="http://www.30secondelevatorspeech.com/" target="_new"><em><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.30SecondElevatorSpeech.com</span></em></a><em><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"> for a step by step, online program to lead you through producing an effective, attention grabbing introduction for you and your business</span></em></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business <em>Behind</em> the Business of Interior Design</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-38561688770705632522017-01-19T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T21:36:03.044-05:007 Tips to Have Clients Raving About Your Design Firm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/2011/08/7-tips-to-have-clients-raving-about.html" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="368" naa="true" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DS1tTFwsDY8/TkPMDumWN-I/AAAAAAAAAxE/nd9Ew2VsCiw/s400/%25C2%25A9+Andrey+Kiselev+for+IDRA.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<strong>Your Clients Aren't Raving About Your Great Services? </strong><br />
<strong>Better Up Your Game and Deliver Better Results</strong><br />
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If you don't have clients delighted and exclaiming about the results they get from working with you, you need to reconsider how you are delivering your services. All the perfect marketing in the world can attract new clients, but if you aren't producing ecstatically satisfied clients during your working sessions, you will not retain clients or easily attract new ones. If you're ready to "up your game" to produce client raving positively about you and your services, here are a few ideas you can use.</div>
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<strong>1) Clients buy results. </strong></div>
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They may believe they are buying other things like working with someone they enjoy or feel affinity for. Those things are definitely true in the short-term, but when clients get to the point where they are considering the cost of continuing to work with you, only one thing will matter - results. Have they gotten promised results? Have they gotten what you promised plus a lot more? Are they experiencing an improved situation? Can they quantify the benefit? Are results obvious? In order to deliver results to your clients, you need to ask yourself what changes you need to make to deliver more profound results to your clients.</div>
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<strong>2) Figure out every way you can think of to increase the results that your clients get.</strong></div>
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Are these ways that you could make slight adjustments to your delivery and get much greater results for your clients? Perhaps you could all "homework" for them to work on between sessions and provide them accountability. They will get much greater results if they know that you will ask them about what they got done on the homework. You might create bonuses such as assessments, tips, special reports, exercises to correct common issues, or in-between email support.</div>
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<strong>3) Create services or combinations that you've proven to give greater results to your clients</strong>. </div>
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You could create "packages" of services that deliver greater value and successes to your clients. The better you know your target market, the more you observe and can create solutions for typical issues they will face - that they didn't yet even know they will likely need. In other words, have a way to help them solve problems they don't yet know they will have - be prepared and ahead of the need.</div>
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<strong>4) Think about any products you can create to combine with your services. </strong></div>
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These products should be problem solvers that help your clients deal with the common issues of your target market. Make sure they are optional offerings so that your clients don't feel coerced to buy. You can also offer product/service combinations. What's key is providing solutions and results that are even greater than the client expected to get.</div>
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<strong>5) Ask your client what you could provide that would make their results spectacular.</strong></div>
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Listen to their ideas. Explore how you can deliver what they request. You may be surprised to find that small and easy changes (such as more information at the right time) could provide huge changes in client perception of results. This is about providing what the client believe they need - in the way that gives them the greatest results and perceived results.</div>
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<strong>6) Do some competitor research. </strong></div>
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Don't do this with the intention of stealing ideas, but look for small things you hadn't thought of that, combined with your current offerings, could exponentially contribute to the value you deliver. By researching your competition, you may also get ideas by seeing what a competitor fails to deliver, but you could also easily add to your business offerings. This isn't about getting fancy or complicated (unless that's your market). It's about sparking new ideas for incremental improvements that deliver big increases in results.</div>
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<strong>7) Up your results by upping your target market. </strong></div>
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Working with more capable, motivated, and gifted clients - and delivering results to them beyond their expectations will produce VERY satisfied clients. These are the situations that can attract many more clients to you. Look at ways to upgrade your target market and provide them the kinds of upgraded results they would necessarily be expecting.</div>
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If it's not typical for you to have clients raving positively about your work and the results you delivered to them, it's time for you to consider upping your game. Stay focused on delivering results to your clients and always have that as a priority.</div>
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By Suzi Elton</div>
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Photography by Andrey Kiselev </div>
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<em><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;">Suzi Elton provides business writing that attracts targeted prospects to your service business and converts them into clients for you. She is a Robert Middleton Certified Action Plan Marketing Coach, as well as a professional writer. Her website offers a free series of 8 assessments you can use to analyze your own site. To learn about her Robert Middleton style Web Site Tool Kit Writing Package, go to </span></em><a href="http://www.wowfactorwriting.com/services/web-site-tool-kit-package/" target="_new"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em>http://www.wowfactorwriting.com/services/web-site-tool-kit-package/</em></span></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business <em>Behind</em> the Business of Interior Design</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-39994892602056316262017-01-18T06:34:00.000-05:002016-11-30T21:33:20.866-05:00Client Retention Strategy: Client Surveys<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--ks8-Rec-mk/ToXQHBBTOKI/AAAAAAAAA1g/R1e2121Io_w/s1600/%25C2%25A9+Jakub+Jirs%25C3%25A1k+for+IDRA+survey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" kca="true" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--ks8-Rec-mk/ToXQHBBTOKI/AAAAAAAAA1g/R1e2121Io_w/s640/%25C2%25A9+Jakub+Jirs%25C3%25A1k+for+IDRA+survey.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<strong>Client Surveys That Work Wonders</strong><br />
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Knowing what your ideal clients expect from you is one of the best ways to ensure you keep existing clients and add happy new ones. You want to deliver the programs and services that your clients want and need from you. So it seems obvious then, that you would elicit feedback from them to keep your finger on the pulse of what's important. However, often you may find yourself stuck, not knowing how to write or conduct a written survey. Here are some things to remember when you conduct your next survey.<br />
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<strong>Get Clear</strong><br />
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Decide what you want to know and why you want to know it. This will help you design clear questions that will help you make solid business decisions from the results you receive.<br />
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You want your survey to be complete, but not a chore for people to complete. If you can keep your survey to around ten simple questions, that is ideal. By keeping your survey short, you are forced to make sure that you are only asking the questions that are most relevant and will provide you with the information that will be most useful to you.<br />
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Multiple-choice questions are great to use because they take less time to complete for the respondent. It also can help the person understand more about what you are asking. If you use a rating scale, for example 1-10 with 10 being the highest level of agreement, use the same scale throughout your survey. If you mix it up with different scales and numbers, people will get confused and not complete the survey. Avoid leading questions or statements. For example, "How much do love the introduction music in the audio program you purchased," leads the respondent in one way and makes an assumption on behalf of the respondent. Change that to, "Did the music in the audio program add to your enjoyment of the program?"<br />
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Design your survey in a logical progression if possible. For example, if you have general questions start with those and then lead into more specific questions. Or, if you have questions about using your web site, start with questions about your home page, your opt-in process and so forth.<br />
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<strong>Offer a Thank You Gift</strong><br />
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Even if your survey only takes 3-5 minutes for a person to take, you'll get a lot more people to respond if you offer a valuable gift to each person who completes the survey. Offer a bonus audio, report or 15 minute consultation to each person, and make sure they know about the special gift when you ask them to respond. Make it enticing enough so they'll want to fill out your survey right away!<br />
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There are many ways to collect information from your clients and potential clients, but remember these tips when you do your next written survey. Remember, make it as simple as possible for people to complete and then take action on what you uncover.<br />
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By Meredith Liepelt <br />
Copyright (c) 2009 Meredith Liepelt<br />
Image by Jakub Jirs<br />
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<div id="yui_3_2_0_24_1347368624522433">
<em><span id="yui_3_2_0_24_1347368624522600" style="font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_2_0_24_1347368624522591" style="font-family: "times";">© 2011 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing </span>Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, offers a free report called "101 Ways to Attract Ideal Clients, Build Your List and Raise Your Profile," which can be downloaded immediately at RichLifeMarketing.com.</span></em></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-41077235892083667492017-01-16T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T21:30:22.032-05:00Client Relationship Investing for Big Design Business Returns<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OFNifPL9kuI/TjF0Gs96EJI/AAAAAAAAAvE/LdWqHSxCE34/s640/%25C2%25A9+Andres+Rodriguez+For+IDRA+the+Agency+Relationship+Investing.jpg" t="t" true="true" width="424" /></a></div>
<strong>Interior Design Business Secrets:</strong><br />
<strong>Relationship Investing For Real Business Returns</strong><br />
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One of the essential keys to weathering the storms and vagaries of an unpredictable economy is to develop lasting relationships with your clients and consumers. It doesn't matter if you are selling services or product, at the high end or the low end, what matters is that you have taken the time to develop long term relationships that foster repeat business and regular referrals to grow no matter what the media is spouting about recession and more. Create your own economy!<br />
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The simplest and quickest way to invest in relationships, can be spelled out in 6 easy steps. (Yes, I know the rules of marketing state I need an odd number, but the word INVEST is 6 letters!)<br />
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<strong>Inform to empower!</strong><br />
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Knowledge is power, when you provide complete and concise knowledge you put your clients at ease and empower them to trust you as the best professional choice for the service or product they need.<br />
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o Don't take your client for granted. <br />
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o Do keep your client informed at all times of progress and any delays or necessary changes.<br />
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<strong>Value their time!</strong><br />
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When you value your time and that of your client, they will honor. Don't run late, don't miss appointments, don't delay. Success is in the now, not in the next time.<br />
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o Honor your client's time so they will honor yours. <br />
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o Establish and maintain control of the project. <br />
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o Know your time's worth and be fairly compensated.<br />
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<strong>Earn more with better cookies!</strong><br />
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While you can certainly sell the basic model and the necessary service, that is like the sugar cookie. Go for the upgrade to the chocolate chip, but don't stop there, give them the model or service that boasts walnuts, loaded with coconut, topped off with toffee bits. Be the best cookie baker and you'll create delicious results every time.<br />
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o Don't nickel and dime your clients. <br />
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o Do provide a comprehensive product offering that includes upgrades.<br />
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<strong>Share respect!</strong><br />
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Know the external and internal influences for buying behavior. You can't change these, but you can impact them.<br />
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o Don't tell your clients how they are going to buy. <br />
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o Do listen to their buying signals so you are ready to sell what they are looking for.<br />
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<strong>Think Big!</strong><br />
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Language is everything in sales, simply moving from budget to investment, from if to when, from should to will, and from possible to guaranteed will rocket you to the top.<br />
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o Change your language to change your success. <br />
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o Eliminate limiting words like could, would, should, might maybe. <br />
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o You either will or won't, do or don't, simplify to succeed.<br />
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Investing in relationships both in business and in your personal life will reap the greatest rewards of any possible effort you can make. Follow the guidelines here and watch as you catapult your connections into success professionally and outside of the workplace.<br />
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By Melissa Galt<br />
Photography by <span style="color: black;">Andres Rodriguez</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Melissa Galt is the Lifestyle Diva and her interior designs can be found online at </em></span><a href="http://www.melissagaltinteriors.com/" target="_new"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>melissagaltinteriors.com</em></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em> and on Facebook and Twitter by name. Get in touch, why wait another day to get the top design you've been missing?</em></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Interior Design Business Information Resources</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business <em>Behind</em> the Business of Interior Design</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-30755853350881670102017-01-12T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T21:26:36.730-05:00Negotiating Your Design Fees<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="490" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JLNmGKfloB0/Ti2KHWBwltI/AAAAAAAAAu4/UE8um1SZeaI/s640/%25C2%25A9+Masta+For+IDRA+725.jpg" t="t" true="true" width="640" /></a></div>
<strong>The Negotiation Coach</strong><br />
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All roads in business eventually lead to the bottom line. Everything we have done to this point has been to create value for our clients. This value will in turn give us the opportunity to charge more then would be normally possible. How do we charge for our products and services? The cost-plus method is the typical, trusted formula, however, this is leaving money on the table. Of course, we should have a very accurate method to measure all costs, and there are great accounting tools that are available to measure profitability. <br />
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However, when we successfully exceed expectations, we can charge more because the client will happily pay more. Value based pricing needs to be an integrated philosophy, considering every aspect of the client experience with your company. Only then can you ask for a higher price, and your clients will be thrilled to pay. <br />
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When you price with the consideration of perceived value, you focus on the results, not the process. Everyone on the team must be committed to staging this concept, so that nothing that the client sees will sacrifice the margins.</div>
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If you want to establish your business as "value based", then you need to target the proper consumer for your offering. Not every consumer is a potential client. The effort to communicate your "value message" needs to be directed to a receptive ear. You must make the value you create very apparent and understood. For example, just because you are efficient in running your business, doesn't mean the client will care about that, and therefore it may not create any value that you can charge for.</div>
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With this in mind, you must focus on serving the segments in your marketplace that will respond to the value you create. Who wants to buy a great experience, as opposed to those who only care about price.<br />
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Once you have zeroed in on your target market, you can begin your work on delivering value, but to do this just like anything else in business you must create value that your competitors do not offer. Remember, when all things are equal, it is up to the entrepreneur to make things unequal. This will separate you from everyone else in the mind of the consumer, as long as she understands what the value is, that you are offering.<br />
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Your team needs to understand this mission in order to pull it off successfully. All employees must see how their responsibilities contribute to creating and delivering the value message. Any lapse in staging a great performance for your client will potentially hurt the bottom line.<br />
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This all sounds great, but no one will buy without at least considering the price. This is where most of us get frustrated. Price is important, but it is not the number one reason why consumers make buying decisions. Still there are plenty of times when we hear this infamous question, "can you do any better?"<br />
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Negotiation, the dreaded word. How can you successfully negotiate a price when everything you have done to this point has been to demonstrate the amazing value you offer? The first and most fatal mistake is to offer a lower price without the client giving up something in return. Why should you give a lower price simply because your client demands it? You do this because you leave price as the only negotiated option. You should negotiate the offer not the price.<br />
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If you are asked for a better price, you need to be prepared with a proper defense. You could say: "The price I have offered you is based on providing you with making your interior beautiful, but if you want to spend less, perhaps we can reselect other choices of fabrics that are in a lower price range." This way the client has to make a decision that there is a trade-off in order to get a lower price. When you negotiate the offer, the client must deal with the choice of deciding whether the value you initially presented is worth giving up for a lower price.<br />
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Pricing, however, is rarely the issue. Clients who want to negotiate usually do so because you have not effectively communicated your value message. It is up to your team to fully understand, that the success of the organization depends on each and everyone performing. Nothing can be left to chance if you want to charge based on the perceived value.<br />
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If after all is said and done, and you loose an order, one of two things have happened: Either they went to the competition or they decided to wait and do nothing. In over 80% of the time it is the latter. Why, because usually there is not a competitor that is a perfect alternative. This happens when you have positioned your offer in the mind of the consumer as unique and they can't shop value. Therefore, a lost opportunity may not be lost forever.</div>
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By Neil Gordon<br />
Image by Masta<br />
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<em><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;">Neil Gordon, The Designer's Coach is a coach and consultant for Interior Designers. His website, </span></em><a href="http://www.thedesignerscoach.com/" target="_new"><em><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;">http://www.thedesignerscoach.com</span></em></a><em><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"> offers seminars, articles, newsletters as well as valuable advise for designers willing to improve their business. Please visit the site to sign up for the free newsletter.</span></em></div>
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<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business <em>Behind</em> the Business of Interior Design</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-72423457806857086272017-01-11T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T21:16:54.108-05:00Managing a Construction Project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<strong>How to Manage a Construction Project</strong><br />
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A construction project is generally carried out on a large scale, and hence it needs proper management and supervision in all areas. This article focuses on how to manage a construction project properly.<br />
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A construction project is one that includes managing the building of structures, right from the start to the finish. The design professional that is responsible for the overall management may be referred to as a construction project manager. There are a wide range of factors that are required for the project to be successful. These factors are classified into project designing, cost management, time management, quality management, contract management, and safety management. In the following, we are going to concentrate on how to manage a construction project successfully.<br />
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<strong>How to Manage Risks in Construction Projects:</strong><br />
<strong>Construction Project Planning</strong><br />
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First, you need to meet with the clients, owner, developer, and supervisors to plan the complete project. This will include the main purpose, area of development, facilities, resources needed, amenities to be provided, project risks, work schedule, and many other aspects. Preparing a blueprint will give you a rough idea to move to the next step. You may even need to conduct geographical surveys for finding out the suitability of the project.<br />
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<strong>Contracts with Parties Involved</strong><br />
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The next step is to carry out all contract formalities about the project. In a construction project, the project manager has to establish and review the contracts of all entities connected with the project, such as the owner, the architect, and the builder. The manager can also get the contracts checked by a professional, regarding any criteria that has to be met before commencing the project.<br />
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<strong>Obtaining Required Permissions</strong><br />
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The contracts may consist of certain conditions regarding legal formalities to be completed with city or state government authorities in the area. Since in a construction project, there is land and other geographical elements involved, you need to consider obtaining relevant licenses. Check if you need to obtain permissions from authorities such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).<br />
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<strong>Budget Planning</strong><br />
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The next step would be to create a plan for financial resources. You need to calculate individual costs to be incurred on each part of the project. Obtain a budget and divide the costs for layout, building, plumbing and water system installations, electrical fittings, roofing, flooring, and so on. Owing to the possibilities of construction management risks, keep a small amount of finances aside for additional requirements and modifications.<br />
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<strong>Resource Allocation</strong><br />
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The construction manager is responsible for hiring all workers and allocating duties for the project. This stage also includes buying raw materials and arranging for construction tools and equipments. Make sure the workers use available resources in the best possible manner, to keep costs in control. The material and resource management has to be executed as per the budget set in the initial planning phase.<br />
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<strong>Work Coordination and Communication</strong><br />
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The construction manager is supposed to oversee the duties assigned to all workers on the project. He has to coordinate work among personnel, such as the builder, architect, engineers, and other workers. See to it that the workers are doing their job as planned, and are working according to the deadline. Communicating with other members of the project will resolve most problems that tend to show up unexpectedly.<br />
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<strong>Site and Safety Inspection</strong><br />
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Site inspection is one of the most essential tasks in a construction project. This is important to supervise workers in certain areas of the project, and also to make sure about the safety standards maintained. Inspection also helps the construction project manager know about the actual status of the work being done. You need to adhere to safety and building codes administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Safety codes are to be documented and presented to the safety inspector, if asked for.<br />
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Proper communication with the construction team is a must when it comes to managing the project efficiently. Today, there are many advanced construction management software that aid construction project managers to keep a track of the design, budget, progress, deadline, resources, etc., of the project. Managing construction projects requires a great amount of physical efforts, so you need to be physically fit to handle miscellaneous on-site management tasks. <br />
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By Stephen Rampur<br />
Image by Evgeny Deligodin<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/" target="_blank">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com116tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-77187007683517255352017-01-06T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T20:56:57.496-05:00Marketing Strategy for Brand Promotion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #ff4400;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Brand is much more than a logo or a sign. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Brand as the base of the marketing triangle. </span></span></div>
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Successful small business marketing can best be viewed as a triangle containing three essential elements: Brand, Package, and People.</div>
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Brand forms the base of this marketing triangle. Brand is the foundation your business is built upon in the mind of your client. When you rest a heavy load on a weak foundation, a crooked and cracked house is the inevitable outcome. It’s no different when building your business. A strong brand is critical to your small company’s long-term business health and profits.</div>
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Brand is really your company’s identity. Brand is the essence of your company--the who of your company in the mind of your customers. Think your clients pick up your company’s identity by osmosis? By that latest brilliant advertising slogan? Sometimes, but for most small businesses, new clients learn of you--and your brand-- from another client or from one of your employees.</div>
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Employees: The most under-utilized marketing referral source in small business today.</div>
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Weaving a brand banner that clients and employees can carry around and wave at the right time for you, unsolicited, is an ultra-effective way for your design firm to advertise. This brand banner must be easy to repeat and memorable. Your advocates will bear your brand banner because of the natural human inclination to share helpful information with other people.</div>
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Just remember, if you let that brand banner get soiled, ripped or grimy, then that’s the flag that’ll be out there flying for your business. That's not the impression you want to make. This is yet another reason customer service is so vitally important. </div>
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Brand isn’t your company logo, latest advertising slogan or catchy jingle any more than your best suit is you. The suit can improve your image, but even casual acquaintances will still recognize the essential you underneath. Brand is similar to integrity--if you’ve earned it, your small business can make errors along the way and still become very successful. Clients may not expect perfection, but they do expect attention. If they trust you to do the right thing by them, even when you mess up, you’ll boost your company's integrity and your brand. However without integrity, you can pour out thousands of advertising dollars to look great and sound slick, but still fail in the end because you are essentially anchored to nothing more solid than shifting sand.</div>
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Therefore if brand is identity, and your business marketing is built on referrals from clients and employees, then a critical next step is for you to understand just how it is that client perceives you. Like beauty, brand is in the eye of the beholder.</div>
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Remember: People (customers and employees) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + Brand (who you are) = Marketing Success.</div>
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By Craig Lutz-Priefert<br />
Image by Editorial<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><em>Craig Lutz-Priefert is President of Marketing Hawks [http://www.marketinghawks.com], a firm providing complete marketing services to business. Craig also authors marketing advice on his blog, Funmarketer.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/" target="_blank">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-89435662770120651192017-01-04T05:59:00.000-05:002016-11-30T14:06:22.662-05:004 Goals Every Designer Should Pursue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<strong>Goal Setting for Business Success</strong><br />
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Do you set goals in your business? If you don't, you really should. There is nothing like having something tangible written down that you can refer to, to ensure that your plan and strategy are on track and working for you.<br />
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There are many places in your business that goal setting can really help you focus on what you want, and how you will achieve that.<br />
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Many people only set the financial goals, and then leave it at that. I recommend that you look at many different areas of your business, and set realistic goals - that still stretch you outside your comfort zone - that you can work towards. By looking at areas like clients, training and products and setting goals in those areas, you can take the burden off of yourself from a 'numbers' standpoint, which can be a stopping point for many people in the area of goal setting.<br />
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<strong>1. Financial goals.</strong> How much do you want to earn? How will you earn it? Do you earn income solely by working with clients? If so, what does your goal look like in terms of clients per dollar? Do you have other ways to earn income? If so, how does that look?<br />
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<strong>2. Client goals.</strong> Who do you want to work with? Who are your ideal clients? How will you find them? Why will they work with you? How many new clients are you actually able to take on, and how often can you bring on new clients? Do you have any clients you are currently working with that are not your ideal clients? How do you move them out to make more room for your ideal clients?<br />
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<strong>3. Training goals.</strong> What do you need to learn to help your business get ahead? What do you want to learn? Do you need certification, or just a refresher? Are you at the front of your learning curve for your area of specialization? When and where will you get your training? Can you take courses online or do you need to take them in person? Can you study on your own or are they 'live'?<br />
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<strong>4. Product goals.</strong> Do you sell products yet? If not, what do you want to sell ? Trading time for money (client work)? Products? If you do, are you able to build more with what you have - i.e. new programs, new parts to an existing product? How can you build these easily while still providing great value to your clients?<br />
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As you can see, there are more than just financial goals that you can set in your business, and it is actually really fun to start getting everything down on paper where you can look at it, and work with it so that it looks achievable and exciting!<br />
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When you are setting any goals, be sure to provide yourself as much detail as possible, and always give yourself a deadline so that you can keep yourself accountable, and your business successful.<br />
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By Tracey D'Aviero <br />
Photography by Red Baron<br />
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<em><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;">Tracey D'Aviero is a successful Virtual Assistant as well as a VA coach and mentor. She helps new and aspiring Virtual Assistants build solid foundations for their businesses by teaching them how to put procedures and plans in place for success and growth. Pick up a copy of Tracey's free eBook "How to Get Started as a Virtual Assistant" at </span></em><a href="http://www.yourvamentor.com/" target="_new"><em><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;">http://www.yourvamentor.com</span></em></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Interior Design Resource Agency</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/">Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design</a></span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-13411384514802504632017-01-03T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T13:40:44.564-05:00Marketing Success: Create Your Marketing Calendar To Match Your Income Goals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now it may seem
obvious that every business needs a marketing plan but not every business has
one or if they do it's often not mapped out on their calendar so it never
really gets implemented as planned. This means the results are likely to be
less than predicted and a lot less than desired so disappointment and
frustration is often the outcome.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, to be
successful a marketing plan needs planning - followed by implementation! And
creating your marketing calendar is the secret to that successful
implementation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Creating your
marketing calendar means you can make sure there are no gaps or overload.
Having this in place also means you can maximise the time available to create
the most income while at the same time you will avoid getting overcommitted or
overwhelmed.</span></div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 1: Get
support</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's hard work
and takes a lot of discipline to do this on your own and unless you're the lone
ranger type my advice is to find a colleague or a coach to tackle this with
you. Having a supportive person to brainstorm and act as a sounding board will
be invaluable. Choose this person carefully and be clear about your objectives
and their role in helping you accomplish the task.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Use a system to
keep you on track. It will be a whole lot quicker and a lot more fun!<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 2: Get
attached emotionally.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Really understand
at a heart level the value you bring to your clients and their lives or
business and 'see' how your marketing will make it possible for you and them to
connect. Without that connection you won't get what you want and neither will
they. See marketing as the link and you'll be motivated to create your calendar
as well as excited about implementing it. Procrastination will be a thing of
the past.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 3: Decide
your income goals</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having an
income target is the first step to designing your marketing activities for the
year. This will ensure your final plan is structured so that collectively the
programs or events you run will bring the return on investment you want. It is
a critical factor in determining which programs to run and when.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Naturally, you
will plan for an increase on last year's income (if not then get some coaching
around this). Simply decide how much and make it a stretch otherwise you'll
find yourself doing pretty much what you've done in the past and that's no way
to grow your business.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My tip is to
make your decision from where you want your business to be - not where you are
now. This will force you to do things differently and that's the only way you
can change results.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 4: Review
your programs and services.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Decide what you
will be offering. Review your current programs and services and see if it's
time to create new, retire or revamp old offerings. Remember what marketing
legend Dan Kennedy has to say about this - the fastest and easiest way to add
more money to your bottom line is to do what you are doing now but look at your
fees and how your services are put together. In other words simply price and
package what you are already doing, a little differently to increase your
income without adding to your expenditure,<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once that's
clear the next step is simple.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 5: Create
your marketing calendar</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once you have
decided what programs and packages you'll be offering it's time to look at how
and when to promote them. This is where the rubber hits the road - mapping the
possibilities across to your marketing calendar and blocking out that time
visually is the objective.</span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I use a one
year calendar showing each of the 12 months ruled off to 4 weeks so it's a one
page view. The year at a glance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Start by
blocking out time for holidays and other known commitments and begin filling in
the possibilities taking into account the time of the year and the length of
time to execute each initiative from beginning to end.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I guarantee
you'll run out of calendar before you run out of things you want to do so you'll
be forced to sharpen your pencil and get the balance just right between
activities and income.</span></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 6: Check
your revenue goals</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Once you've
mapped the content and timing across to your marketing calendar you must cross
check your estimations on revenue for each initiative and total it up. Double
check to see if you are going to meet your revenue goals and if not go back to your
calendar and adjust accordingly.</span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't be
tempted to lower your income goals. Instead look for ways to increase the income
from particular events or do something else. This could mean running a program
for more people or charging more per person or some other creative solution.
The point is to see other ways to bring in the income you want rather than
lower your sights.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Make
adjustments to your calendar until it all fits together.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now that you
have finalized your marketing calendar you can chunk that down into the steps
needed to implement each program in turn. It's not necessary to do that level
of detail at the outset unless you choose to but as you move through the
calendar year you will know what is up ahead and what is required and when.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In short you
will be in control. Taking the time to create your marketing calendar means you
will have much less stress, a lot more fun and a lot more money than winging it
and hoping for the best.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By Kathleen Ann</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Image by Jose Antonio Sanchez Reyes</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
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</div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Small business </em></span><a href="http://www.powerupyourmarketing.com/blog" target="_new"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>marketing expert</em></span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em> Kathleen Ann is the
"Marketing Champion for small Business and entrepreneurs." As a
Certified Money, Marketing and Soul Coach Kathleen delivers breakthrough
marketing strategies so heart-centered entrepreneurs can Brand, Package and
Price their services to quickly create more money, time and freedom in their
business. For free articles, free resources and to sign up for her free audio
and transcript "7 Must Know Secrets to Business Branding Success",
essential Branding strategies to help you attract qualified ideal clients in
droves, visit </em></span><a href="http://www.powerupyourmarketing.com/" target="_new"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>http://www.powerupyourmarketing.com</em></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6085198621565331639.post-83073657028382959842017-01-02T06:00:00.000-05:002016-11-30T13:44:12.952-05:005 Unique Ways to Advertise Your Business<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.idratheagency.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh11Bw41bnmOg6yyTEj1D6VRxRn9pBRtQluyct25PKe-Ba1qjQ78StyA3WO0ZhiG5ss1AAX9ehaLRoMYZdT4NyLVFPWhKhmaJN6tqO3RLNxc2vhvopbe3gD_aaq1cO2P0p7AvdKmNy69xs/s640/dreamstimefree_884796.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Advertising and marketing a business has taken a different turn in the past few years. If you’re not different, you’re not successful. This brings us to some creative ways to advertise your business. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<strong></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Finding What is Unique</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you want to advertise your business creatively, one of the best ways to do is by finding out how it is unique from other businesses already present in the market. You need to find this out because you can focus your marketing and advertising strategies on that one unique aspect. This will also help you to stand out from the crowd and undoubtedly, you will have some attention coming your way. If there is nothing unique, make sure you inculcate something as soon as possible.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. A Unique Tagline</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another one of the creative ways to advertise your business is by thinking of a creative tagline or a creative caption. Hire one of the best media houses to work on this or you can do so yourself too. People are bored of the same old captioning schemes and same old taglines. There has to be something different about it. Don't just make a caption or tagline because the advertising demands one, do it because you want to make it the best.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Go Different</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the best ways to inculcate a creative perspective in your advertising is by thinking of a creative concept for the entire advertising of that particular product or service. One of the best examples I can think of here are the Zoozoo advertisements by Vodafone. These are completely different from all the other advertisements we have seen till date, isn't it? This is what you have to do. Don't just think of one advertisement, think of the entire advertising campaign.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Different Offers</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you want to advertise your business with smartness along with creativity, there is one thing that you need to do. Whenever you advertise a business, you have to show that you are offering something really lucrative to the customers. Now again, the customers are bored of the normal offers and percentage discounts. You need to come up with some different offers that everyone will want to take advantage of.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. Social Networking</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another creative way of advertising your business is by using the social networking websites of Facebook and Twitter. Initially, all the companies underestimated the effectiveness of these websites and today, some of the largest brands are here, advertising for the smallest of schemes and discounts they have to offer. Create a page of your company on both these websites and keep on updating with some different and unique quizzes and fun facts. Don't forget to give out prizes!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now that you know these creative ways to advertise your business, you can start working on them soon. Remember, creative ways do not mean that have to manipulate your customers. It means carrying out different types of marketing strategies and advertising in a way that will make everyone notice you. When you advertise, make sure that everything revolves around the one idea that is different from the rest. Best of Luck! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By Neha Joshi</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Image by Kurhan</span></div>
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