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Boost Your Marketing Success with Color

February 14, 2015 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Color is the first thing we notice when we see a sign, ad, or logo. Whether we consciously think about it or not, color affects our mood and sets the contexts for our reactions to what we see. I, Paul, became aware of the influence of color when I was president of a research organization that among other subject, investigated the difference wall color had on how people interact in a room. In this same vein, research done by HubSpot showed 21% more people are more likely to click on a red button than a green one.

This finding is not an accident because red grabs our attention and conveys energy, excitement, and a sense of urgency. That’s just what retail and food service companies that typically have red logos like Target, K-Mart, Nabisco, Red Bull and Kellogg all want. The more intense the red trigger more emotional impact.

Blue, on the other hand, suggests credibility and stability. It’s a calming color, often the dominant color used by medical, healthcare, dental, corporations, and often companies such as AT&T, Dell, HP, IBM, Ford, and American Express, companies that want to inspire our trust.

The color green suggests something natural, calm, hopeful and youthful. Green is also associated with money, health, freshness and wealth. Lighter greens are more calming while deeper green are associated with financial matters. It’s the choice of companies like Starbucks, Whole Foods, John Deere that use green as their dominant color.

Black is a bold color. It suggests formality and luxury and is thus used in marketing expensive items, such as Tiffany jewelry and Apple computer. Black is used to create a sense of authority. Construction, manufacturing, marketing companies are among those that typically identify themselves with black the dominant color.

The color yellow suggests sunshine, optimism and youth. Companies like Best Buy, McDonald’s, Hertz, and Shell employ yellow as their dominant color to capture this mood.

To use color to the advantage of your business, here are some suggestions.

Tailor your color choice to the age, gender, and interests of the kinds of customers you want. Study the colors that are typical for your type of business. Look at websites, signs, and color ads in magazines, particularly in your industry’s trade magazines. Chances are you will find a dominant color for your industry. Once you select a principal or main color, stick with it.

When selecting a second color, choose one that make the main color stand out. For example, think of the UPS logo – the gold letters stand out against a brown background. Typical combinations are a dominant color like red, blue or black paired with white, yellow or black, i.e. red with black or yellow with red.

Limit the number of colors you use. 95% of top brands use only one or two colors. Some examples of companies that have multiple colors in their logos are NBC, Google, and eBay – companies that serve highly diverse customers. The colors most used by top companies are blue (33%), red (29%), black or gray (28%), and yellow or gold (13%). Less frequently used colors are orange (Gulf, Firefox), purple (Welch’s grape juice, Hallmark) and pink (Mary Kay).
Try different hues, tints, shades, and tones for the colors you choose and keep in mind that color in the print world differs from digitized color.

In working with a client who is starting a business as a Karate instructor, we determined that black is most typical color for karate organizations and schools. So he chose that with as yellow an accent to make the black stand out.

If you have an existing logo and brand identity, it may be time to tweak it for greater success and then make certain you carry your color identity on everything you produce to market your business: presentations, business cards, letterhead, web sites, flyers, etc.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment or book an appointment

If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Adapted from a prior column in Connection Connection. http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/

Teaching an Adult Education Course to Promote Your Local Business

September 24, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Will teaching adult classes help increase your business? Teaching classes can yield several benefits: (1) people may come to your class who become customers or contacts, (2) the publicity you do for the course helps your image, and (3) the material you organize can be used to write blogs, make videos for your website and YouTube, webinars, and be the basis for articles you can place in local and trade publications.

Many factors go into determining if you’ll get a good attendance for an adult education program. Some you may have little control over, like the weather, other events being held at the same time or the location of the sponsoring organization. But others you can influence, like the topic you choose, the title and write-up used to promote the program, and the type and amount of publicity done beforehand.

Here are some steps you can take to make your next offering a success:

If you haven’t given the program before, test interest in the topic, title and write-up beforehand with prospective attendees. Try to get a few commitments from people yourself before actually scheduling the workshop so you know at least three to four people who are interested in attending. You might even check what days or nights of the week would be best for your cadre of recruits before you negotiate scheduling your programs.
Do publicity yourself. Don’t leave your success 100 percent in the hands of the organization sponsoring your class, as they usually have many other programs to promote. See if you can get a media interview, send post cards about the workshop to your own mailing list, post it on your Web site and so on.
Arrange with the sponsoring organization to take reservations so you know beforehand how many people have signed up. Set a minimum enrollment. If there are fewer enrollees than your minimum, start calling colleagues and contacts and make personal invitations. Cancel if you don’t get enough pre-registrations and try a different time, topic or title.
If you get just enough signups but are worried about having too small a group should a couple of people not show up, as inevitably happens, see if you can arrange to invite a few “complimentary guests” who you would love to have see what you do. This can assure that you’ll have a critical mass even if some pre-registrants don’t show.

Of course, arranging for the sponsoring organization to require payment upfront will help prevent no-shows. Another option for encouraging commitment is to offer multiple prices, a low price for early registration, a somewhat higher price for a later pre-registration date and an even higher price for signing up at the door.

If you’ve taken steps like these and find that your workshop is still not filling, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. First, rethink your topic and title to be sure you’re addressing a strongly felt need. Have you actually heard your target audience asking for or complaining about needing the kind of information or assistance you will be offering? What are the needs they’re expressing? What words do they use when they describe what they need? Refocus your workshop on these needs and use their words in your title and promotion.

Next, rethink where you are offering the program, through what means and how you are promoting it. Are you actually reaching the people who most need it? Are they getting the information? Do they know about it? Are you offering it in a way that is attractive and feasible for them? Do they have time for a workshop or might they prefer another vehicle, like a teleconference or an online workshop?

Finally, reevaluate whether a workshop is the best medium for connecting with your potential clients. Explore how they usually go about deciding on services like yours and consider reaching out to them in other ways.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment or book an appointment through Google Helpouts.

If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Adapted from a prior column in Entrepreneur magazine

Do you need a resale license if you sell over the web from your own home?

September 13, 2014 by Paul Edwards 5 Comments

“I want to start a resale business out of my house, do I need a resale license? What is this and where do I get one?” Also what about a federal ID number and a business license?

A resale license or permit, which may have a different name depending on your state, enables you to buy products for resale without paying sales tax on them until you resell them to a purchaser, from whom you collect the tax. You may also have suppliers who will sell to you only if you have a resale number, which indicates to them that you are a legitimate merchant. You can find the name of the tax agency in your state responsible for sales taxes on your state’s web site or from sites like www.govengine.com and http://www.lexisone.com/legalresearch/legalguide/states/states_resources_index.htm. From your state’s tax agency site, you can also get the forms you’ll need for reporting your sales. The states are quite interested in collecting all the taxes they can and have compliance officers.

If your sales are going to be on the web, such as on eBay, you’re obligated to collect and pay tax on sales to buyers from your own state. The Supreme Court reversed the Quill decision with the Wayfair decision that enables states to require collecting sales tax to residents of their states. Usually, states provide a threshold before a small seller is required to collect the tax. You need to check this out for your business.

You only need to get a federal employer ’s tax ID number if you have employees, are a partnership, or are incorporated. You do this with Form SS-4, which you can get at www.irs.gov. It’s one of IRS’s most requested documents and reachable from the home page.

Usually, you get your business license from a county office but check with your state’s agency or office that provides assistance to small businesses. Links to such state agencies and offices can be found at http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99021,00.html.

If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting. mail://paul@elmstreeteconomy

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Adapted from a prior column in BYOB

Listening When Your Mind is Elsewhere

July 17, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

You know it; you have heard it a thousand times. Listening to customers, colleagues, and consultants is basic to success and we all believe it. After all, it’s at the heart of good communication. But there are times when we’re less likely to actually do it: that’s when we don’t like what we’re hearing.

It might be when you are denied a loan that you need to expand your services to survive as a business, even though your consultant tells you to focus on making your core business better. Angel Cottrell, a business consultant with the SBDC Bakersfield tells us this happens with some frequency. We get an idea about what we want to do and won’t let in the advice that would save us. But this is when we most need to be open our minds and give knowledgeable feedback serious consideration.

Or it might be when, despite doing our best, customers become angry and belligerent because we didn’t do still more. In his book, Just Listen, Dr. Mark Goulston points out that in times like this we need to put our emotions aside and avoid the temptation to become defensive and counterattack. When a customer begins ventilating, he recommends responding with a simple “hmmm.” Then wait for the customer to ask “What do you mean by ‘hmmm’?” That opens the door for you to respond by saying “I was just thinking how important it is that we fix, correct, or do something about this as soon as possible or else it’s just going to get worse. And I don’t think worse would be a good place to go. Don’t you agree?” This invites the customer to move from feelings of anger to begin working with you.

One of the ”tells” that someone is not listening is when the person looks around, glances at their watch, in effect, saying I’m not giving you my attention. Whatever the situation –whether it’s over the phone, from an email, or in social networking – if you don’t like what you’re hearing, remember it could well be a gift in disguise- a warning signal of issues you need to address that other customers could be having, too, or an opportunity for the future you won’t want to miss.

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Adapted from a prior column in Connection Connection.

How to Make Your Competitors Prosper

June 29, 2014 by Paul Edwards 1 Comment

First Rule – Surpise people and don’t do what they expect. Our Post Office is a daily reminder of this principle. When we moved from Santa Monica to the small mountain community where we now live, our 439 change-of-address postcards were lost and never delivered. Most recently thelicense plates for the new car we got with a Costco Referral were returned to the state – why? Was our address incorrect? No. The same thing had happened to a man who was outraged in our post office the other day. He missed notice of a state licensing exam he needed to take because his notice was returned, so he must wait another half year before he can practice his profession.

Sadly we’re not the only ones with such unhappy tales. Overnight carriers have prospered thanks to the fate of our mail being as mysterious as those socks that somehow get lost in the laundry.

Second Rule – Make your arrival appreciated. Don’t show up on time. We learned this one the hard way more than thirty years ago when Paul had a contract with the Army Corps of Engineers and being a chronic multi-tasker, always sought to squeeze just one more thing in, resulting before rushing off late to meetings. One such day, the contracting officer said, “That’s it. No contract for you next year.” That worked out well for whoever got the new contract and us because we moved to California, became authors, and have done our damndest to do everything on time.

Third Rule – Let people know how busy you are – put off responding to calls or email for a few days. We can’t even keep count of the many times have we looked for another vendor, interview prospect or radio show guest because a phone call or email went unreturned. Each time someone else prospered by replying promptly. The 24 hour standard for returning a call has been usurped by instant mail and communicate-from-anywhere technology, making those who respond quickly the winners.

So let’s make a point of surprising our customers by doing what they expect and not only our competitors will prosper.

Adapted from a prior column in Connection Connection.

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If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

When Free Means Money

June 5, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

“Free!” is one of the most attention-grabbing words in marketing. For local businesses particularly, there can no more compelling way to get someone to try your product or service than to give them a free sample of what you offer. If they like it, they will want more. Well, that’s the theory. In practice, however, that’s only part of the story. Giving away your business can become a financial trap if you don’t draw the line on just what a “free” ends and service begins.

First, be sure to provide a sample, a taste, not the whole thing. Sometimes a “free consultation,” for example, can slip into becoming the whole meal. A free consultation is an opportunity to discover a client’s needs and talk with them about what you can provide. But if you provide it, you’ll have done them favor, not provided a service.

If you do volunteer to provide your actual work product in order to establish a track record, get a foot in the door, generate testimonials and references or get future referrals, be sure those you are working with know you are offering them a special arrangement. Let them know what your regular fee is and how it is special for you to work with them in this way.

Then mean it. A free sample or a volunteer project is a one-time offer. Folks can’t come back for more. But be sure to let them know how they can get more.

If someone loves your samples at a trade show booth. Ask if they’d like to take some home with them. If you’ve given away a free consultation as a door prize at a networking meeting that goes well, don’t wait for them to call you for appointment. Tell them you’d like to keep working with them and ask if they’d like to make an appointment.

Make it easy to take the step from a sample to the real thing. Have a range of services or products so people can choose the level of investment they feel comfortable with. If a client frowns at signing on for a series of ten sessions or a 10 pound order, have an alternative to suggest right away, “how about we schedule one month and see how it goes?” “… Or, I have a five pound starter pack you might like.”

And, of course, follow up later with those who sampled but weren’t ready yet to buy. If you do it right “free” can mean money or time well spent.

Adapted from a prior column in Connection Connection.

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Telescoping Works in Good Times and Bad

May 1, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

When times are good and money is flowing, specialize; when times are not so good and money is tight, telescope. Telescoping is our marketing rule of thumb for extending or adding to the range of services you provide to existing customers without undoing your reputation in the business specialty you have developed. It means listening with both eyes and ears for things they need that you could offer to do for them more economically than they could do for themselves by turning to other specialists. Some people telescope instinctively but at times finding ways to telescope what you offer to the particular needs of your customers may require some thought. Here’s how it works.

If you’re a contractor doing work at a home or office learn your customer needs to cut energy costs, ask if you might retrofit their windows or adapt the roof so it can be turned into a roof garden that will provide greater insulation. Similarly you can offer to help homeowners seeking to cut rising food bills by building a greenhouses or cold frames.
If you’re a home inspector and notice your client is concerned about energy costs, you might suggest an energy audit. Energy auditors go by several names — energy raters, building analysts, and home performance specialists — but whatever the service is called, it’s an effective way for people to get the information they need to cut back on soaring electricity, natural gas, propane, or heating oil bills
If you’re a real estate agent and your potential client is concerned about whether their home will sell, you can offer to stage the home so it’s presented in the way most attractive to buyers. Staging results in a quicker sale and a higher price.
If you’re a travel agent helping a bridge and groom with travel arrangements for a destination wedding out of the country, you can offer to coordinate with the wedding organizer in the distant locale.
If you’re a tax preparer and notice a client is downsizing their bookkeeping staff, you might offer to do their bookkeeping as an outside service.

As you can see, telescoping enables you to either expand what you offer or contract back to your unique niche depending on the demands of economy. Adapted from a column we wrote for Costco Connection. For an initial free consultation to explore this or another sustainable livelihood that bests suits your personality and your community, contact us. [maxbutton id=”1″] Comments on the substance of the blogs are welcome. If you have other questions, please contact me directly.

Relaxing Under Pressure

February 9, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Virtually every small business person we know is working hard. Sometimes working into the night, taking on as many customers as possible, keeping apace with social media and finding the best marketing mix for getting and keeping customers. Sometimes it feels like going in ten directions at once, juggling possibilities that aren’t yet realities, while tuckingfamily and personal needs into overly crowded corners of the week. These are times that test our stamina and our souls. Feeling relaxed with these pressures requires conscious effort and it’s critical for not becoming burned out.

Too often we see the strain and tiredness on the faces of our self-employed friends and colleagues. We hear it in their voices. Some seem verging on exhaustion. If this applies to you, we’re compelled to make this plea: Find ways to relax!

Yes, it is true, we do have to work harder right now, often much harder. But we also have to work smarter and more imaginatively. We can’t do that if we’re exhausted. We must give ourselves the opportunity to recharge and regenerate.

But how, for Pete’s sake, with days and nights that are already jam-packed and the specter of financial pressures looming over our shoulders do we not work non-stop? We’ve simply got to acknowledging that when we’re rested and refreshed we can do everything more quickly and better.

Studies in the field of occupational health and environmental medicine show that aside from increasing the risk of illness, which only makes matters worse yet, chronic overworking actually makes us less productive and prone to injury. Not from lack of effort or even lack of ability, but from just plain wearing ourselves down. So by taking time out to rest and refresh we’re actually saving time and increasing our chances our more successful results.

What to do? Well, relaxation is a highly personal matter. For some it’s taking a nap. For others it’s a round of golf. Still others find renewal in taking a hike, sneaking away for a weekend camping trip, an hour of pampering at the spa, or just taking a break to play with the kids or the dog.

So identify what you find most refreshing and JUST DO IT!! You deserve it and your future does depends on it.

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If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

Adapted from a prior column in Connection Connection.

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What to do if you are 45 and unwillingly out of work?

January 31, 2014 by Paul Edwards 1 Comment

Are you over 50 and without a job or reasonable prospects of getting one, particularly doing work that you enjoy and feel competent to do? If so, you’re one of nearly 2 million people over the age of 55 looking for jobs. One in three people over the age of 45 is unemployed. What to do?

If you are one of these folks or have a relative or friend who is, you are aware of the growing anxiety and sense of loss that accompanies finding yourself forced to retire early, finding your field becoming obsolete, overcrowded, or what work is available, going to younger people without the obligations you have and are willing to work for less.

Particularly hard hit are people who worked in wholesale and retail trades, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality businesses, and manufacturing. For the nation, not using the brains and skills of millions of experienced people is a loss and for an individual, it’s too often a tragedy. A significant number of my wife’s counseling practice is composed of people who find themselves in situations like this. Adding to this burden are often times dependent relatives.

The upside of this troubling reality is three out of four people over age 55 say they don’t want another job, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Sometimes this comes about from age discrimination, or feeling limited in some way, usually physically, to hold a full-time job. Finding a way to produce income may mean commercializing ideas that took years of training and experience to develop, like making jewelry.

For others, producing income means finding a need – that is something that people will pay for – and then creating a business to fulfill that need. In consulting with people, we work to find niches for products or services for which people will pay. Increasingly, I am seeing news stories about people over 45 who are doing this. They are able to set their own hours and define the types of clients and customers they serve and the kind of services they offer.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment. [maxbutton id=”11″] If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Earning a living is essential for “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” A proposition for the 2014

December 30, 2013 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

For us, the holidays are a break. Our son comes from Bay Area where he designs interfaces. It’s also a time to catch up on things we want to do and some we need to do. For too many people, particularly those past 40, like us, this holiday is a time of despair. Sometimes they blame themselves, but the basic principle at stake here is that the ability to earn a living is at the heart of “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” Even during this Christmas holiday, thousands of workers got pink slips from corporations such as Citibank and Walgreen.

Those being laid off are middle class people who, usually through no fault of their own, are without a job or a business whose clientele are gone or no longer have the funds to use or buy what the business offers.

If you or a family member is not feeling it personally, you know from the news that federal unemployment insurance benefits are ending for 1.3 million Americans. These were not among those we think of as being poor.

Approximately 40 percent of Americans who have received long-term unemployment benefits since 2008 had previously earned between $30,000 and $75,000 and tw

o-thirds had incomes at least twice the poverty level. These include the young and the old, attorneys, financial executives, information technology experts, web designers, and hospital administrators – people from multiple occupations. They were working for a company that was acquired, decided to downsize, replacing workers with automation or outsourced – a bad break that can happen to someone holding a job or owning a business dependent on the local or some segment of the economy, which for some reason undergoes change or becoming obsolete.

Most importantly, these people want to work, but often find they are told they are overqualified. For the most part, these are people who made earned their livelihoods through brains and personality. Some think of doing blue collar work, but find they don’t have the skills to become a mechanic or technician.

Health and emotional problems, particularly depress follows the loss of a job. America cannot afford these casualties of the economy. Talent is lost and when people become dependent, they become a burden on family and government institutions. Even when people take lower paying jobs, the economy loses because these people are not able to spend money that stimulate the economy and when they don’t have the money to spend, you can think of this lack of spending as draining the economy.

This problem is not expected to go away. In fact, it’s projected that a total of 5 million unemployed Americans will lose their benefits by the end of 2014.

If the Congress does nothing more in the next year than to make it possible for the millions of Americans who want to work to get the support and retraining needed, then Congress will begin to regain some of the trust needed to keep our way of life.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.

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If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting. mailto:elmstreeteconomy.com

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