Author: Ownership

Using Vinyl Banners to Advertise

When choosing to advertise your business or project there are a variety of options on how to go about it. Options like TV ads, radio commercials, social media campaigns, and newspaper articles can take a lot out of your budget. One option that has proven to be successful time and time again is custom banners.

Most people are probably thinking, “Banners are better than Facebook?” and while that depends on what you are advertising and how much you have to spend, banners can a successful as well as cost efficient option for your business. I would highly recommend them for small businesses that thrive off of a local clientele.

Custom banners are highly durable yet can easily be removed and used over and over again. There are multiple ways to install them and most will come with grommets so you can easily attach them wherever you like without damaging the banner itself. For the banner to be successful, placement is key! If you are using it in front of your business, be sure it can be seen from afar and there are no trees or anything blocking the view for those driving by. Using a spot light at night may also be a good idea so customers can locate you.

Due to the fact that banners are made with vinyl, it is easy to create a fun, vibrant banner. Vinyl decals that are used for the lettering come it a variety of colors and can be cut to just about any size or shape. When designing your banner, it is important to keep in mind that you want the lettering to stand out and also be easily readable from afar. Picking a detailed script font may not be the best option. Also, make sure your colors pop, putting yellow lettering on a white background can make it very hard to read, however if you use a black background the yellow will really stand out.

Graphics are also key and can be what sets your banner apart from the others. Be sure your image is eye grabbing but not so distracting that it takes away from the information you’re trying to get out there. Many sign shops have the capability of printing out multi-colored images (much like you printed them off on your home computer) giving you the opportunity to use your own graphics and logos without having to simplify them.

One of my favorite things about using banners is their versatility. If you want to hang it on the side of your building, you can do that. If you go to trade shows often or are setting up booths banners are great options for that as well in that they can easily be moved around and folded up when you’re ready to go!

No matter what your business, custom banners are a simple, cost efficient option to help advertise your business. From their versatility to the wide range of design options, they are truly a great option for all your signage needs.

Find Out Why MNCs Are Spending Fortunes on Improving Their People’s Communication Skills

“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.”

– Lee Iacocca

Communication in personal and work life is crucial to one’s development and growth. Even the worst ideas communicated effectively are likely to score better than brilliant ideas which are not put across with due emphasis.

Imagine a sales person calling up a prospect. He/she calls up and informs the potential customer at the other end about a newly launched product or service. He/she, however, doesn’t sound very confident about the product/service and also fails to answer queries raised by the person at the other end. Now you tell me this thing: would this sales person be able to close a deal? Would this person be able to meet or exceed the targets set by the company he/she works in?

Herein this post, we are going to talk about what it takes to excite a potential customer and successfully closing a deal.

No matter how deeply a sales person understands his products and/or services, if he cannot communicate well, chances are he would fail a lot more than he would succeed. Good communication helps a sales person build a quick rapport with the customer which means he has a better chance to persuade the customer to consider the product and/or service on offer. This is why smart companies, MNCs, are investing substantial amount of efforts in training their people. They are increasingly leveraging the benefits that training programs for employees entail.

Training programs for employees that are customized to empower attendees communicate more effectively are either arranged internally or through outside resources – training companies. In the in-house training model, senior level managers take up the task to educate the participants in the art of building relationships with the customers through effective communication. They may also be trained on selling skills, which go hand in hand with the communication skills. When companies look outside for training needs, they look for professional training companies which are experienced in imparting proven training programs for employees or management skills training programs.

Professional end-to-end training program companies conduct needs diagnostic studies to get an idea about the training needs of the employees so that they can customize their communication training programs for employees. These companies also measure the impact of their trainings once the programs are done with, and employees get back to their usual work life. Training programs for employees are not anew; they have been in existence for decades. The modern day training programs, however, are more scientific and result oriented in their approach.

The Innovative Leader: Skills and Strategies

Challenging circumstances and complex issues face every leader today, no matter the organization or environment. These circumstances and issues give rise to ever-increasing demands for leaders who have the capability to innovate.

Leaders who innovate see the bigger picture, grasp the entire situation including all the variables that may come their way. This means they have the capacity to think differently about their organization, they have the skills which allow them to bring new ideas and energy to their role, to address challenging situations and find solutions to complex issues. As a result, they bring more innovation into the entire organization.

Skills:

Innovative leaders have powerful imaginations, they challenge everything, looking where others have not looked. They constantly ask, ‘What if?’ And because they do, they find new opportunities and take reasonable and appropriate risks. An XBInsight survey of over 5,000 CEOs worldwide found innovative leaders are more successful than non-innovative leaders as a result of five key competencies. The survey found innovative leaders are better able to manage risk and seize opportunities. They demonstrate curiosity, lead courageously, and maximize a strategic business perspective.

Because they have excellent communication skills, innovative leaders generate enthusiasm for opportunities, motivating and inspiring others to collaborate with them and take the needed risks. They apply emotional intelligence to their everyday lives, continually building relationships with team members, colleagues, and bosses. They have confidence in their team, recognize and support creativity in the team, and the ability of them to work together effectively on implementation strategies.

Finally, innovative leaders are tuned in to the details of a situation and its effect on the organization. They dig down to seek out new patterns and consider new points of view. They are willing to change their perspective, challenging their own previously held convictions.

Strategies:

Innovation is about implementation. Without implementation, innovation is creativity – the generation of new ideas, something new without the application – non quantifiable, minimal risk, and no investment. Kouzes and Posner, in their book, The Leadership Challenge, encourage leaders to challenge the status quo by searching for opportunities, experimenting, and taking risks. They suggest leaders ask themselves:

  • What can be challenged?
  • What needs to be improved?
  • What can I learn?

To drive innovation in your organization, consider applying the following five strategies.

1. Increase your knowledge from a variety of sources.

Innovation is based on knowledge. Therefore, you need to continually expand your knowledge base. Read things you don’t normally read. Think about your personal experiences. Is there knowledge or skills you can apply to being innovative at work? What are your interests, hobbies, or volunteer activities? Do you play the piano, are you a gourmet chef, do you write short stories? Thinking about personal experiences may help you to tap into other knowledge and expertise and leverage them at work.

2. Treat patterns as part of the problem.

Sometimes we rely on previous experience to determine our next steps and we fall into a pattern of behaviour. Reach out to team members, colleagues, and bosses to test out your innovation plans. Are you relying on previous experience only to develop your solution? Are you spending time to reflect on the justification of your assumptions, beliefs and values?

3. Turn off idea generation and work on implementation.

Creativity is the process for generating ideas, lots of ideas. But at some point, you need to stop, step back, and decide on which idea to implement. Innovation is about actually working the idea, implementing and executing in order to bring the idea to life.

4. Foster an innovative environment.

Involve your team in your innovation decisions. Communicate and collaborate with them. Part of your role as a leader is to encourage the creativity of those who report to you. Make sure they have the tools they need to create and adapt to change. You do not need to, or should you, do this alone. That is why you have a team. Be a courageous change agent by trusting yourself to trust and lean on others. As you build your innovation skills and expertise, your team should be building theirs as well.

5. Evaluate, revise, repeat.

As with any change, it’s critical to evaluate the result. Ask yourself, and your team, what has been learned from the experience? Did anything occur that was not expected? What would we do differently? What could we have done better? Document your findings and apply them to the next situation that needs innovative thinking.

Innovation is not about the past but rather, visualizing a desired future state. The goal of innovation is to find a better way.

Fraudulent Tranfer of Assets

When creating an asset protection plan one must be extremely careful to transfer the assets prior to any problem (such as a lawsuit) occurring. The reason for this is rule is stated below.

A fraudulent transfer of assets occurs when assets are transferred with the intention of ‘hindering delaying or defrauding’ your creditors. If a transfer is determined to be fraudulent a court will unwind it. Asset protection plans that are created and executed years in advance of need will survive any creditor attack. You should not wait for a problem to arise and then consider creating an asset protection plan.

Asset protection plans must be structured and implemented years in advance of any potential problem. If a plan is set up the day after a judgment the plan has no value. A court may also apply the Badges of Fraud in determining if the transfer was fraudulent. It is difficult to prove your intent. So the badges of fraud are used to try and sort things out. When an individual or business attempts to hide assets which are the subject of a debt collection, divorce, or bankruptcy case, a Court will look for badges of fraud. The badges of fraud for fraudulent asset transfers are:

• A Close Relationship Between The Parties

• A Transfer Apart from the Regular Course Of Business

• Inadequate Consideration

• Knowledge Of A Creditor’s Claim

• Retention Of Control Of The Property

If the badges of fraud are found to be true then the court may move to have the assets placed back into the hands of the original owner where the creditors can move to attach the asset. That is why it is important to set up an asset protection plan in advance.

The Most Common Text Errors in Brochures and Catalogs

The most frequent errors at the level of text that are given in a brochure or catalog have to do with a number of words that are used and with orthographic, grammatical and lexical questions.

Volume of text

Although we have already commented on more than one occasion, in the advertising texts it has to be brief and concise. You have to get to the point and stop going about the same idea. To achieve this, the sentences have to condense to the maximum the message that we want to convey to the audience. The golden rule is not to saturate the reader or give too many elements that can lend themselves to confusion.

It is shown that attention can only be captured between the first three and five seconds. Therefore, when you really want the reader to read the diptych or triptych completely, nothing is better than going straight to highlight the main thing about that product and/or service that is being offered, leaving aside other information that is not of interest.

Writing errors

Parallel to the amount of text that we are going to incorporate in the brochures and catalogs that we will end up printing, it is important to pay special attention to orthographic, grammatical and lexical questions. Here are the most common ones.

1. Spelling level

There is a bad habit of putting the first letter of the year in capital letters. Orthographically it is incorrect because it has no logic at all when it is in the middle of a sentence and it is not the beginning of any or it does not come after a period.

Another of the frequent errors is the incorrect use of abbreviations. The only ones that are admitted are those that correspond to units of measurement or chemical elements since they are subject to the norms of the international system. However, it is customary to write them with a dot, when in fact, they do not carry it.

A common mistake found in many advertising graphic media is to misuse punctuation marks, for example, both linguistic and non-linguistic uses of the comma and dot. One of the most common examples is to write the hours using the comma when you have to put it with a colon or with a period.

2. Grammar level

The most common mistake is not to put the article on the subject perhaps because of the influence exerted by the English language. It should not be forgotten that the tendency in recent years seems to be marked by the presence, more and more frequent, of bilingual publications, a tendency that is also moving to the advertising field.

It is important to be careful when forming the plurals and especially to make the concordances with the verbs. As a rule, it never ends well and is a grammatical fault that must always be avoided.

3. Lexical level

It is important not to fall into the use of extra Jeri MOS. The same happens with other words like “snack” or “pack” that in the first case means “appetizer” and in the second, ” the extra Jeri MOS.

The use of has given way to creating new terms that did not exist to date and that the advertising has been incorporating. For example, the term “accommodation” which means action and effect of accommodating, is being used incorrectly instead of “accommodation”, which would be the correct word in this case.

It is essential, therefore, that when writing the texts there is always a person who understands the subject who can review them before they are considered good and send the brochure or catalog to the press.

Impact of Rising Gas Prices on Meetings and Events

Gas prices are rising. According to the Los Angeles Times, gas prices were the highest in the nation yesterday at $3.85 per gallon. Airlines are raising their rates and President Obama is considering tapping into the national oil reserves. With unrest in the Middle East continuing, it is uncertain when gas prices will return to “normal”.

How will this impact meetings and what can a planner do? In general, this will mean that less people will attend meetings because they will be unable to justify the cost. Here are some tips that planners can use to help their attendees take the sting out travel.

  1. Encourage Your Attendees to book their flights NOW. Even if your conference is in the 3rd or 4th quarter of this year, it will be in your attendees best interest to lock in their rate now. Going to TripAdvisor or Kayak can compare airlines, dates of travel, and the attendee can receive an alert if fares go down. As the event planner, it might be in the best interest of you and your staff to start sending alerts out to the attendees when you see low fares.
  2. Consider alternate methods of transportation. We Americans only usually travel by air or by car. But there are other ways to get from Point A to Point B, that may be just as economical, but may take just a little more time. I recently found a bus service called Megabus, which has limited service around the US. Consider Amtrak as well.
  3. Make sure the ROI is sound. When justifying the event or conference to upper management, travel will be a piece of the puzzle. Put a ROI calculator on your website. Email attendees about the calculator. Get the conference services staff involved. One meeting planner recently shared with me that the conference costs were not the inhibitor, it was the travel costs that management wasn’t approving.
  4. Get creative with Sponsorships and sell more of them. If you think there is any way to lower the registration cost of the conference to the attendee, do it. Consider selling sponsorship space in unique spaces such as computer kiosks and other conference equipment rental units.
  5. Consider regional meetings. If you think one big annual meeting will not draw the attendees due to rising airline fares, consider breaking the meeting up into 4 or 5 regional meetings. I know this isn’t the optimal solution for association meetings, but it does allow the education and networking to go on.
  6. Provide carpooling options. Be proactive on your website, in your emails, on your social media outlets, that you will help attendees find carpools. Try creative outreach methods, such as “Is the only thing keeping you from our meeting, the price of gas?” Have interns within your organization call potential attendees and ask if they need a ride.
  7. Consider Hybrid Meetings. Part-live and part-virtual, hybrid meetings allow the attendee to sit at home or in the office and see and/or participate in the event. Many event planners are already planning hybrid meetings for 2011, but the demand may increase if gas prices continue to rise.

Shipping Materials – Time to Cut Out the Cost of Shipping the Material Itself

If you are a purchaser at Amazon perhaps you’ve answered a couple of surveys and feedback questions about packaging; was the size of the package right, was the merchandise protected, etc.? Obviously, shippers are trying to reduce costs and Amazon Prime is trying to reduce its shipping costs too, as well they should, remember efficiency means higher profits, but let’s take this conversation to a higher level shall we?

You see, there was a worthy article in the Wall Street Journal titled; “Bubble Wrap Is Losing Its Pop,” by Loretta Chao published on July 2, 2015. There is also a brilliant YouTube video by the same title you can watch online (Wall Street Journal YouTube Channel). The YouTube video description states: “Sealed Air Corp. has revamped its iconic Bubble Wrap. The new product dubbed iBubble Wrap looks like the traditional packaging material but there’s one catch: it doesn’t pop,” and the video states the new material ships ‘flat’ without air at 50-times the width on the role, meaning 50-times more product can ship out prior to use. WSJ article states that, shippers can pump the air in On-Site as needed, saving the shipping and logistics costs for the iBubble Wrap.

This is a brilliant innovation for the shipping industry and will save shippers millions of dollars, and cut down on the need for huge buildings and rooms to store it all.

Oh, and by the way, while I am still on this topic; it’s time to redesign cardboard too, it needs to use 30-50% material but remain the same to better strength – it can be done, needs to be done, and there is a shortage of cardboard for recycling and it is quite costly too. Not to mention the trees. This was actually a subject of dialogue at one of our recent think tank meetings. Why you ask? Simple, we will have to cut down fewer trees, send less recycled cardboard to China and also have the contents safer meaning less breakage and fewer returns for shippers, online retailers, manufacturers and the gifts you send out during Christmas.

Each rendition of the iPhone we expect improvements right? Sure, but what about the packaging it is shipped in, the packaging and boxes everything seems to be shipped in, what has changed? Sure a few changes but if you went to sleep 30-years ago and woke up living as homeless person in a cardboard box you’d still feel right at home, nothing has changed, so get your mind out of the gutter and start thinking beyond chanty town.

Insights About Utilizing Professional Collection Services For Defaulted Accounts

Business owners rely on clients to pay their bills. When customers default on financial obligations, the owner of the business suffers monetarily. Collecting on a bad debt can be particularly challenging if the person who owes it refuses to communicate with the company or fails to uphold his or her payment arrangement. Because you may have other tasks that need to be focused on at your company, you might find it better to hand off delinquent accounts to professional recovery services. You may be convinced by considering some of the advantages about this option.

Freeing Up Resources to Run Your Business

You and your company’s staff may face any number of duties each day. Despite those customers of yours who defaulted on their accounts, you still must take care of existing and new clients who come into your business. When you spend time chasing down defaulted accounts, you might risk the relationship you are trying to build with those customers who do pay their bills on time.

You also might not have the resources to hire staff just for the sole purpose of collecting on past obligations. Hiring new workers can be expensive if you must train them and also keep them employed after accounts have been settled. Rather than tie up resources for hiring such workers, you may find it better to let a professional recovery service contact those in default for you.

The service typically utilizes a number of different collection remedies for bad debts. You can find out more about each of them when you visit the service’s online location. You may be able to tailor services that match your collection needs and also get the help at a cost that your company will find reasonable.

Collection Methods

Collectors who go after bad accounts use a number of different approaches. The first approach may involve calling the people who owe money and seeing if they want to set up a payment arrangement. Many people are eager to make monthly payments that can fit within their budgets. Over the course of a few months, you might have the entire amount recouped and submitted to you in full.

A collector who is unsuccessful in setting up an arrangement may then try to pursue several legal avenues. The first avenue involves getting a judgment in court to seize a debtor’s assets like wages or bank accounts if applicable The second avenue involves stopping any services that the person still receives from your company. These actions might be enough to convince the person to make payments or settle the account entirely.

Much of the action that you can take, however, is determined by the laws in your area. Some laws allow for garnishment for medical bills, but not for credit card bills, for example. The service you hire to collect for you might know the laws that pertain to the matter.

Collecting debts can be time consuming and costly. You may need help resolving the issue afford-ably and easily. You can find out more about the options available to you by getting a free quote for debt collectors and other information.

How To Not Crash The Airplane Under Pressure

Let me give you a hypothetical high-pressure situation.

You’re the pilot of a small, single engine airplane. You take off, alone, in this single engine airplane, and head out over a large body of open water. At about 800 feet above this water, your single engine starts to sound funny (and not in a “ha-ha” way), and you notice you’re not gaining altitude at the rate you should be. At around 1200 feet above the water, your single engine quits.

This is a high-pressure situation. What do you do?

Fortunately for you, it’s a hypothetical high-pressure situation. Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t hypothetical when it happened to me several years ago.

I don’t want to keep you in suspense, so I’ll just say that I survived. As did the airplane. As the plane was falling back to earth, I was able to make a quick U-turn and, with only inches to spare, manage to land on the runway from which I had just departed.

So why did this high-pressure situation have a happy ending? Well, it came down to two elements – the same two elements that will help you survive your high-pressure situations as well.

Preparation… and focus.

Preparation

I had been in situations that were similar to this before. During flight training, my instructor put me through dozens (if not hundreds) of simulated engine-out drills. Granted, these were at a much higher altitude (which means more time to recover), and they were only simulated, but I still knew the procedures. Also, I had (coincidentally) recently begun glider training, and had already soloed, so I was familiar with flying with no engine. Again, not identical, but I still had a bit of an “I’ve been here before” feeling. And finally, because of some special training I had done with an instructor just the week before, I knew what angle of bank would give me the most turn for the least altitude loss.

In other words, I had prepared for a situation like this. When the trouble began, the preparation kicked in. I knew what to do because, again, “I’d been here before.” Your takeaway: One – when you’re in a high-pressure situation, think back to a time when you’ve successfully gotten through a similar situation in the past. It doesn’t have to be identical, just similar. Remind yourself, “I’ve been here before.” And two – anticipate the high-pressure situations you’re likely to face, and train for them. Practice them when the pressure’s off, and you’ll be better equipped to tackle them when the pressure’s on.

Focus

Primarily because of my training, when the pressure hit I went into sharp focus. Analyze the problem, solve the problem. Nothing extraneous. No thoughts of, “Boy, if I wreck the airplane – and am somehow able to walk (or swim) away – what are people going to think of me? It’ll be so embarrassing. And expensive. And if I’m delayed (or worse), who’s gonna feed the dog?” This is all just noise, and in a high-pressure situation, you need to shut out the noise. Your takeaway: When you’re in a high-pressure situation and you hear the “noise” starting to enter your brain, ask yourself, “What’s the most important thing for me to focus on right now?”

You may never have to pilot a plane to an emergency landing, but you will face other high-pressure situations in your life – both personally and professionally. In these situations, your two best friends will be the same two that saved my bacon: preparation and focus.

Time for a Career Change? What to Consider Prior and During the Transition

When you feel that there is no more movement or satisfaction in your current career, a change may help you to open up new opportunities and life experiences. Such a change does not happen in an instant, though. You cannot leave your current position and find another with wonderful results throughout. There are things to consider prior to and during the transition. When it comes time to make a change, be ready. This is the only way to ensure that you get to a new career where you are happy and can live to your fullest potential.

Before doing anything, make sure that you are ready to make a change. Some people are unhappy for a moment and equate that to a lifetime of unhappiness. Do not get caught up in one of these moments and make a decision that you might later regret. Take a step back to examine the path that you have led thus far. Look at how the career has challenged you, how you have felt during tasks, how you have risen through the ranks, how you have changed the organization or even the industry, how those in and out of the organization have treated you, and what you have taken away from this time. Take an objective look at your entire experience in your current career.

There are times when the need for a change is obvious. Underappreciated, bored, and unmotivated, your job may not fulfill you the same way it did before. You might think that none of your work really matters or that the money is not worth what you put into the job. Maybe you do not feel like you belong there, or you are too exhausted to feel like you belong. When this happens, you have to figure out what type of move suits you. You can move through the same organization or find an employer in the same industry, or you can find a new career. Figure out the type of change that works best for you.

When taking the first step to changing jobs or careers, do research. Find something that you like. If you want to stay within the same organization, look into openings or potential openings. Talk to other people in the organization. When switching jobs in the same industry, look into and compare organizations. Find a place that offers what your current job cannot. If you want a new career, look into what will ignite your passion and give you the happiness you cannot have now.

Start building up your skills, training, and education. Update everything so that you can remain an attractive potential employee. For a change in your current industry, try to focus on the applicable skills and knowledge for your new job. In a new industry, begin learning and building up your resume to show that you have developed a foundation for growth and future success.

As you look into building up your resume, network. Start getting to know people in the industry or profession that you want. Find people who can help you with the transition, finding a new job, and improving your abilities in the new job. Head over to conventions and any area where you know these professionals are likely to go.

Begin trying your hand at volunteer or low-level work. This may not be the big, promising position that you want, but it does give you some insight into the new job. You will have relevant experience that will help you as you take on the new career. When doing this work, try to find someone who will help you to understand more about the career. A mentor will give you knowledge and understanding that you would not have otherwise.

Start finding your dream career. If this is something that you want, go for it. With an updated resume and your newfound knowledge and skills, you can take on this task. It might take a little while to get everything sorted, and you will have to be flexible and patient since you are starting from the bottom again, but it is worth it once you are happy in your chosen career.

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