Establishing and branding your business in an important business strategy.  It would include your name, trademark and all other means of product identification.  In your business you should consider creating brand recognition so that your customers recognize and accept your company as the best company to do business with.  Your customers will remember you and your brand because of habit and a good customer experience.  It is about creating awareness and having your customers talk about your product or service to others.

So how can a firm develop a brand?  First, It must have meaning in its customers’ lives.  It must create value which is something that your customers are willing to pay for.  The goal is to create a bond between a company and its customers.

Some ways to build your Brand name:

1. Advertising
2. Public relations
3. Sponsorships
4. Supporting social causes
5. Exceptional performance
6. Company logo, website design, letterhead  and the company image.

A good brand name can help build brand familiarity as it tells something important about the company and its product.  Ultimately a strong brand can be a powerful asset for a company because:

1. A brand is a promise
2. A brand is a guarantee
3. A brand is a pledge
4. A brand is a reputation
5. A brand is an expectation of performance
6. A brand is a presentation of credentials
7. A brand is a mark of trust
8. A brand is a handshake between a company and its customers

Know that a good brand will reduce selling time and effort as your brand is your reputation.  It will also improve the company image because it is known and trusted.  Your goal is to have your customers choose your brand over other brands because of their positive experience doing business with your company.

Julie Brander, New Haven SCORE
View posts by Julie Brander

If you are a retailer, this is your time. Take two hours this week to look at how you’re doing for the holiday season. Make a mini-plan now to refresh your store windows every Monday between now and the new year. Foot traffic attracted by your displays can create energy and impulse buys.

To help rev up your energy:

Get tips on business vision from mighty entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Free to you thanks to our interview. Get Download.

Free offers are interesting. Use them sparingly, but offer something of value. In retail, this loss leader generates excitement, interest and the sense that you really get your customers & their needs.

I have a free offer for you. Visit the SCORE landing page to find out about our Free 1 Gig USB Drive. Visit page to Contact us (hint: link at end of page)  to be one of 10 who get a free drive each week in December. Visit December offers.

Always free and confidential SCORE business advice. It’s what we are all about connecting you with experienced business experts as mentors. Give SCORE a try. Ask SCORE online.

Visit next Wednesday for a post on sales forecasting.

-Christine Banning, SCORE
View more posts by Christine

People do business with people they know, like and trust. It is your job to validate the trust they place in you. Think about your customer base. How many really good customers do you have? 

The 80-20 rule applies here.  Don’t spend 80 percent of your time on the 80 percent of occasional customers. Consider the top 20 percent of loyal clients and provide something important to them–80 percent of your time. Increase your value to them by generating mutual loyalty and trust.

How do you add value? Not sure, talk it over with a SCORE mentor.

 Betty Otte, SCORE Orange County
 View more posts by Betty

You still have time to apply or nominate a business for America’s Small Business of the Year Award. All award winners will be recognized during America’s Small Business Summit. The event will take place on May 18, 2010 in Washington, D.C.

Eligibility

A business must meet the following requirements to receive the 2010 America’s Small Business of the Year Award:

• Fewer than 250 employees
• Gross revenues of less than $20 million in 2008
• Able to attend America’s Small Business Summit 2010
  -

Criteria

Eligible applicants will be judged on the following:

• Financial performance and business history
• Staff training and motivation
• Community involvement
• Customer service
• Business plan or strategies and goals
  -

Nominate a Business. Deadline: December 18, 2009
Enter Your Own Business. Deadline: January 15, 2010

SCORE Association, SCORE
View more posts by SCORE

In the Mind of a Web Site

What sets you apart from your competitors? What have you done for them to easily locate you, your company or your services? These are some easy online marketing rules to live by: A Website is important for your target audience and provides viability for your company also it helps to create your database. Here is a checklist for you:

1. A domain name represents your company.
2. Create basic pages: home/about us, contact, service/product, and shopping cart (if applicable).
3. Create keywords (SEO) appropriate for your product and/or services. Remember flash pages can’t be read. Update keywords frequently.
4. With website hosting packages you will be provided the opportunity to create several email accounts.
5. Create email accounts that are easy to remember.
6. If do not have a website create email accounts that represent your company’s name (reply@xyz.com vs. replyxyz@gmail.com).
7. Sumbit url to various search engines frequently.
8. Use the business cards you collect to create your email database.
9. Send out mass emailing (not spam) through Coolermail, Constant Contact (or other reliable sources) with updates, specials – weekly, monthly or quarterly.
10. Develop linking partnerships with other companies using various commodities that ties into your product and/or services.
11. Return emails within 24 hours, unless otherwise noted (use your auto responders).

Remember an online presence is the trend and will help to validate your company’s product and/or services.

Vernita Naylor, Ft. Worth SCORE
View posts by Vernita Naylor

Partnering is the most important tool that you can utilize in your organization. It is powerful because it allows you to make 1+1 equal eleven. Whatever your strength, you can expand it.  Whatever your weakness, you can bolster it. Whatever your expertise, you can multiply it.  Whatever your goals, you can explode them.

Partnering in today’s world takes one special trait – it requires boldness in thinking.

In today’s downturn economy, the basic thinking is “less is more”. In some instances this may be true, but not in this arena. This is where it requires leadership thinking and forward action.  Pulling together different strengths and abilities to accomplish broad-range goals is what is needed to do anything in a marketplace frozen to inaction.

How is this done? It is said that the first step to success is “showing up”. The next step to a successful partnership after showing up is “asking”. You will be surprised what happens when you call a bank and sit down and speak with them about partnering and building better relationships with their client base. They are going to be as interested as you are. The same will be true of finding a local radio show or TV station and speaking with them about expanding their listening base for their advertising clients.

Here in Phoenix we have the “John Adam Show” on radio station KFNN, and its principal John Adam Kowalski has joined us as an Ambassador with Greater Phoenix SCORE. John and we have been working together for some time now, and we have recently, within the past year, developed an off-site radio show format. It works for the show to bring their broadcast site to a restaurant – it works for the restaurant – it works for us – it works for our clients – it makes a magnificent networking event – and it brings out every partner we have in the community. It works for everyone.

We have another partner – NetworkingPhoenix owned by Gelie Ahkenblit. This is a calendar that hosts all of the events in the area. Gelie is a joint presenter with me in teaching people how to network. Gelie and John can pull hundreds of people into a room to network and their partner Greater Phoenix SCORE is there.

Maryanne Weiss, SCORE Guest Blogger
View more posts by SCORE’s Guest Bloggers

1. Make sure every customer touch is led by someone who is trained to act as you would and has the latitude to make appropriate decisions.
   
2. Go beyond client requests.  Suggest complimentary products or services. Think Nordstrom! Consistently ask for feedback and make appropriate changes. Find out what is valuable to clients and address those needs.
   
3. Know your competition and be faster, more customized, better made, more reliable, etc. Think in terms of benefits to the client, not your features. Establish the reason they should buy from you and not from your competition. Your positioning is in their mind, so verify for with clients that no one else can do it as well as you.

Talk with a SCORE mentor to improve your client service. Ask SCORE today.

 Betty Otte, SCORE Orange County
 View more posts by Betty

Can’t get enough of the SCORE Women’s Success Blog? Well then check out the rest of our blog family. Visit the SCORE Ask an Expert Blog.

New Bloggers, Same Great Info
Get the blidget code for your web site and share with your friends and clients. Then tell us what you think. Leave a comment below.

SCORE Association
View more posts by SCORE

Some of the biggest issues that we find on the subject of Social Media is “What is it?”  “How important is it to me in my business?”

People today think of the term Social Media as the tools of Twitter and Facebook as differentiated from thinking of it in terms as a new way of communicating.  In essence, however, it really isn’t that different from what we did before, we are just using different tools and the method is faster and more personal.

All of this “new stuff” has been caused by the age of the computer and its new generation of offshoots – iPhones and BlackBerrys — which have arrived in our pockets and have permanently changed our world and the way we communicate.

Our customers and clients today – no matter our business – demand and expect a personal, instant response to requests, complaints, observations, returns and questions.  The younger the person – the less time they are willing to wait for a response.

So how important is this new personal way of communicating?  It is imperative that a business learn how to use the tools of social media and integrate them into their already existing systems.  Email, Twitter, your website – they must all work together – and function within your advertising, your print material and your radio or TV spots.  Hand in glove is the rule, and if it is not – then your business will not receive the benefit.

And what is the benefit?  Greater retention – a bigger customer base – greater cash flow – a bigger bottom line – steady growth – all of the foregoing can be achieved with a good, sound social media program that is placed within a company and integrated into its systems.

Maryanne Weiss, SCORE Guest Blogger
View more posts by SCORE’s Guest Bloggers

One of the first steps in creating a company and getting all of the business ideas in place is to have your written business plan and to have any agreements or partnerships put into a written document.

A known fact is that people only hear 20% of what is said, so in daily life there are misunderstandings. Most can be dealt with easily, but sometimes misunderstandings can be critical in a business.

An example was in my own business. I brought a partner in promising a small percentage of the business based on performance. A written document was never in place just a verbal conversation. This employee was caught embezzling money from the company and we fired him. The employee went to a labor lawyer and the case went to court and we were forced to give him what we promised. A written document would have kept this case out of court and would have saved us thousands of dollars in legal fees.

The critical aspect of any business relationship is to get everything in writing. Agreements are needed for employees, partners, services, purchases and sales.

Most business disputes arise because there was no written agreement or contract. Always have open clear communication with a follow up written agreement so that there are no questions and if there are they can be addressed.

Unfortunately, we learn from mistakes we have made and to share this one simple mistake can save you and your business thousands of dollars and save a lot of aggravation and stress in the future.

Please share stories of how a written contract has saved you money in your business.

Julie Brander, New Haven SCORE
View posts by Julie Brander