Pushing To Business Success

Personal Income Statement:

* Revenues:

• Salary

• Bank Interest

• Real Estate

• Business

• Other income

• Bank Loan

• Credit card usage

• House rental

• Utilities

• Other expense

Success cannot get only one day.

There are six ingredients for Personal Success:

• Financial Freedom

• Love and Good Relationship

• Clear Goal

• Healthy and strong energy

• Personal fulfillness

• Peace of Mind

The ways of group decision making:

* One individual make decision if others are silent
* A small but articulate minority in the group makes decision
* By voting breaks the group up into winners and losers
* Consensus decision

What Consensus means?

Those who do not agree with the majority can at least say:

* Full opportunity to present my position
* Others have understood
* I still feel I am rights
* I agree to disagree


Suggestion

* Be careful before agree
* Examine reasons of agreement
* Don't ignore disagreement
* Should consider disagreement as additional information, solved problems and push the group to find better solutions.

There are three type of Meeting:

* Informative meetings
* Consultative meetings
* Executive meetings

Why do we need to choose type of meeting?
Because:

* Expectation of new ideas or opinion from members
* Increase of cooperation
* Effective decision

Meeting and Meeting of minds

* Individual ideas or opinions
* One or more ideas or opinions
* All participants (group) ideas or opinions

An experienced CMO will know how to take a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer to the marketing budget.

Some good news for marketing heads: Chief Marketing Officer (CMOs) are holding on to their jobs longer. Spencer Stuart's annual survey of CMO tenure at the 100 most advertised brand in the USA reveals average time on the job has risen to 28.4 months from 26.8 months in 2007 and 23.2 months in 2006.

The popular interpretation of this data is that CMOs are aligning better with CEOs.
The best CMOs stay low-key and aim to make the CEO, who is often from a non-marketing background, comfortable becoming the chief cheerleader for the brand.

Here are the four top marketing issues on which today's CEO are looking to their CMOs for guidance:

* Shifting consumer behavior
Companies need updated consumer research and revised approaches to customers segmentation.
* Price positioning
An economic downturn invariably increase customer price sensitivity. Marketers need to hit key retail price points, emphasize lower cost stripped-down or downsized versions of their products, and revamp their promotion calendars to maximize price competitiveness at the point-of-sale. While price and perceived value inevitably become more important to consumers, the core benefits of the brand must still be emphasized. On these matters, collaboration between the CMO and the CEO is critical.
* Stretching marketing dollars
Recession demands that marketers come up with creative ways of doing more with less. Dollars might be shifted from television to cheaper radio advertising if it's important to maintain message frequency.
* Embracing digital
Rather than avoiding internet advertising, now may be the time for many companies to experiment further and allocate more of their budgets to search advertising, banner advertising, or motivating user-generated content through a branded website.

The best CMOs have both left brain and right brain proficiency. It means that they must have both analytical ability needed to focus on return for their spend, but also the creativity needed to position their brands in ways that are truly distinctive.

The recession will have two important, lasting results for CMOs:

1. First, financial accountability of marketing is here to stay.
2. Second, improved accountability requires CMOs to be financially literate, to understand the balance sheet as well as the income statement impacts of marketing initiatives. The result will be a new generation of CMOs who command more respect in the C-suite and hold their jobs longer as a result.

1. Strategy Formulation
2. Developing vision and mission

3. Identifying an organization’s external opportunities & threats
4. Determining internal strengths and weaknesses
5. Establishing long-term objectives
6. Generating alternative strategies
7. Choosing particular strategies to pursue.

Objectives:

* To Define “Business Planning” or “Strategic Management.”
* To understand 3 stages of strategic management & its benefits.

The term “Strategic Management” is often used in academia, whereas “Strategic Planning” is often used in the business world. In some colleges and universities, “Strategic Management” is a subtitle of “Business Policy” course.

The Definition of Strategic Management or Business Planning.

Strategic management can be defined as the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives.

Project Management:

Is the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals or objectives. Furthermore, project management utilizes the systems approach to management by having functional personnel (the vertical hierarchy) assigned to a specific protect (the horizontal hierarchy).

What is a Project Manager?

Is any person who takes overall responsibility for coordinating a project, regardless of size, to make sure the desired end result comes in on time and within budget. A Project Manager must has human resource, contracts, supplies and risk management.


Six traits of good project managers:

1. Enthusiasm for the project
2. A ability to manage change effectively
3. A tolerant attitude toward ambiguity
4. Team building and negotiating skills
5. A customer-first orientation
6. Adherence to the priorities to business

Project Success:

a. Within the allocated time period
b. Within the budgeted cost
c. At the proper performance or specification level
d. With acceptance by the customer/user

Project Failure:

* Not enough resources are available to complete the project
* Not enough time to complete the project
* Unclear project expectations lead to inappropriate or incomplete results
* Disagreement among stakeholders regarding the expectations for the project leads to the dissatisfaction with the end results.

Why do we use the project management?

1. To share resources across organizational units
2. To focus attention on specific customers in specific market segment
3. To establish a liaison role between organizational units or specialties
4. To deal with specific ad hoc problems and opportunities
5. To deal with a new technology which requires pooling of existing resources and capacities

Of course most of us, as salespeople, never use any type of con, no matter how small, how limited, or how modified. But we're all too aware of the potential negatives, the imperfections, the skeletons that our products and services have. And many of us, perhaps most of us, are not as sold on those products and services as we believe we must appear to be to make the sale. Many of us do our best to steer our sales calls away from potential negatives or try to slip those negatives by our prospects unnoticed. We live in fear of objections, of the prospect saying, "Well, Jack, Consumer.

Reports says that your wheezle-what zits are not only more expensive than the competitions' but they're also a lot less reliable." The beauty of making the skeleton dance is that it can make dealing with a product's skeletons, a product's potential negatives, as easy as dealing with its strongest selling points. In fact, as I've said, it's a strategy that's designed to turn those potential negatives into selling points, even bragging points. Most skeletons like price—are impossible to keep in the closet anyway. Others have an annoying way of popping out at the least opportune moment. Personally, I prefer to bring my skeletons out dancing, the way Helen Daniels did.

"Are our prices expensive? Absolutely. And why do we chargeso much? Because we can." By the time Helen was finished mak- that particular skeleton dance, more expensive had become a pos-
itive—strong evidence that her company must deliver superior results. Why else would her clients be willing to pay those high prices? And less expensive had become at least slightly suspect.

Would those other companies really charge less if they were good enough to charge more?
If you've got a potential negative the customer has a right to know about—or one that's bound to come out sooner or later whether the customer has a right to know about it or not—why not get it out there and get it out there loud and proud? Why not deal with it on your terms? Why leave it hidden away for the customer to discover later when you have no control over the situation? And once you can make the skeleton dance, once you can turn those potential negatives into selling points, there's no longer a temptation to try to hide them or try to slide them by a customer unnoticed. There's no longer any reason not to sell with full disclosure. As we'll see in upcoming chapters, making the skeleton dance allows you to sell your product or service by detailing everything that's wrong with it and by explaining to the customer exactly what it won't do.

Truth: Bragging about a negative is much more fun than apologizing for it. It's also much more effective.

What makes a person successful?

What makes them motivated, prosperous, a great leader?

These questions fired the writing of each book covered in this selection, and it is possible to draw out some common threads as answers. The following is only a brief and partial list, but it may whet your appetite to discover for yourself some of the principles of success:

1. Optimism
2. A definite aim, purpose, or vision
3. Discipline
4. An integrated mind
5. Prolific reading
6. Risk taking
7. Mastery
8. Well-roundedness

Bettger became so successful that he could have retired at age 40. What was it that vaulted him to the top rank of sales professionals? It may seem obvious, but if you don't have it you get nowhere: enthusiasm. Once dropped from a baseball team for being too laid-back, Bettger decided he would prove a point to his former coach by doubling his level of enthusiasm in his new team.

It worked so well that newspaper reporters nicknamed him "Pep" Bettger and he became the top player in the team, his income increasing by 700 percent. Later, when he wasn't doing well in insurance, he decided to apply the same level of enthusiasm to his work, again witnessing an astonishing difference in results. The conventional wisdom is that you get enthusiastic when you achieve success at something—the feeling comes after the act. But Bettger discovered the truth of Harvard philosopher William James's observation that the act can create the feeling; that is, you can become excited about something simply by acting excited about it. Later in his book, Bettger presages today's cognitive science by suggesting that the practice of regular smiling creates a feeling of happiness and goodwill.
Test this out for yourself, and remember that enthusiasm alone can transform your life and your earnings.

When you are writing the business plan, the Marketing Plan section explains how you're going to get your customers to buy your products and/or services. The marketing plan, then, will include sections detailing your:

* Products and/or Services and your Unique Selling Proposition
* Pricing Strategy
* Sales/Distribution Plan
* Advertising and Promotions Plan

The easiest way to develop your marketing plan is to work through each of these sections, referring to the market research you completed when you were writing the previous sections of the business plan.

(Note that if you are developing a marketing plan on its own, rather than as part of a business plan, the marketing plan will also need to include a Target Market and a Competitive Analysis section. You can find out how to do these sections of the marketing plan in "Writing The Market Analysis Section of The Business Plan" and "Writing The Competitive Analysis Section".)

Start-up entrepreneurs often have difficulty writing out business plans. This discipline is going to help you in many ways so don't skip this planning tool! To make it easier, here are six steps that will produce a worthwhile plan:


1. Write out your basic business concept.

2. Gather all the data you can on the feasibility and the specifics of your business concept.

3. Focus and refine your concept based on the data you have compiled.

4. Outline the specifics of your business. Using a "what, where, why, how" approach might be useful.

5. Put your plan into a compelling form so that it will not only give you insights and focus but, at the same time, will become a valuable tool in dealing with business relationships that will be very important to you.

6. Review the sample plans we furnish and download the blank format to a MS Word document. Fill this in as you progress though the course.

Success requires a concentration of effort. Most people disperse their energies over too many things and so fail to be outstanding in anything. In the words of Orison Swett Marden: "The world does not demand that you be a lawyer, minister, doctor, farmer, scientist, or merchant; it does not dictate what you shall do, but it does require that you be a master in whatever you undertake."

So to be successful, you must have higher aims and goals and doggedly pursue their realization. To work Successful people are willing to engage in drudgery in the cause of something marvelous. The greater part of genius is the years of effort invested to solve a problem or find the perfect expression of an idea. With hard-work you acquire knowledge about yourself that idleness never reveals. A law of success is that, once first achieved, it can create a momentum that makes it easier to sustain. As the saying goes, "Nothing succeeds like success."

The survey can be a powerful tool to figure out what your market needs and how you can market to them. Just the process of developing a survey will help you learn more about your target market.

1. Establish the goals of your survey
What are you trying to find out? Be very specific. Write them down.

EXAMPLE:
Here are a few of the goals for our survey:
1. How do people find our product web page?
2. Do these people own their own business?
3. Do they work for a small business or a large company?
4. What is the level of their Search Engine Optimization knowledge?
5. Where do these people hang out on the Internet?
6. Why don't they buy our product today?

2. Who will you ask?
Who will be your sample?

EXAMPLE:
We are going to ask the following people to fill out our survey:
1. People that come to our home page
2. People that come to our product page
3. People that read our newsletter
4. We are also using ads in various e-zines to get the word out about our survey.

3. What method of surveying will you use?
Here are some choices from most expensive to least expensive:
1. Personal Interview - face-to-face interviewing - sometimes conducted in a mall or on the street.
2. Telephone - probably one of the most popular methods.
3. Mail - inexpensive, also there is no interference by an interviewer, so there is less bias.
4. Web based - only use if your target population would be online.

EXAMPLE:
We are going to use a web based survey, because most of the selling of our book will occur online. Also, the only people that would be interested in our book would be people online.

4. Plan your research carefully
Once you know who you're surveying and the type of method you will use: a. Develop a time line - how long it will take from designing the survey to analyzing the data. b. Do a cost estimate. You might break down cost by each step involved.

EXAMPLE:
Our survey will costs us nothing but our own time.
Timeline:
Jan 1 - Jan 20: write survey
Jan 20 - Jan 30: run a pretest
Jan 31: rewrite what needs rewriting
Feb 1 to Feb 18: implement survey, send out ads in e-zines that will run ads for free, put on web site home page and product page.
Feb 18 - Feb 28: analyze data and incorporate into marketing plan

5. Design the survey
Write the survey based on the method that you have chosen (Number 3 above.)

6. Pretest
Pretesting will help you determine if the survey is easy to understand, if people are able to fill it out, and other problems that may occur. Rewrite the survey if you need to.

EXAMPLE:
We pretested our survey to about 15 people - friends and family, that we were fairly sure would respond. Side Note: we were going to skip the pretest, because it's a little bit of a pain. DON'T SKIP IT. It actually told us several things that were wrong with our survey.

7. Test
Do the actual survey. Collect the data and put it into an organized format.

EXAMPLE:
Here is our survey - as long as you're going to check out our survey - please fill it out!

8. Analyze
If you're using quantifiable information you can analyze with statistics. However, expect to spend some time learning how to do statistics. If you're statistically challenged, perhaps you want to develop a more qualitative survey. If so, you will analyze using inferences and basic reasoning rather than statistics.

Your goals will dictate your questions and the answers to those questions will help you determine what you will do with your marketing plan and the marketing strategies that you choose to employ.

As I travel the country speaking to groups of entrepreneurs, there's often one person at the end of my time who wants to play "stump the speaker."
These are usually good natured people who aren't trying to raise a big fuss. But they do want to see if they can trip up this "expert" with the microphone.

Over the years, like a stand-up dealing with hecklers, I've heard most of the comments meant to throw me. By far the most common example is something like,"Steve, you've talked a lot today about growth.
What about profit? Don't you think profit is more important than growth?" So here's the answer I give them: an emphatic"yes"and"no."
Yes, in this sense: For those people who don't want to grow, maximizing profitability is the most important thing. Big businesses often milk their brands for profit when growth becomes too difficult or expensive.
Many small business owners also have good reasons they might not want to grow. They may be happy with their current level. They may have other interests outside the business that keep them busy. They might not want employees.
Whatever their reasons, they, too, look for ways to milk their business for profits. I have no problem with that stance. It's a perfectly reasonable way to go about managing your business. I caution only against the potential for undernourishment that might cause the milk to dry up sooner then anticipated. However, for the privately held business determined to grow, profit is not more important than growth. In fact, you simply can't divorce one from the other.
Growth cannot be achieved indefinitely without profit. Profit becomes increasingly difficult to perpetuate for any length of time without growth. Throughout this book, I use words like sustainable and successful to modify the word growth. When I use those words, you can assume I'm talking about profitable growth.
Profits are a great way to measure success. Profits are often the best way to fund organic growth. Profits help us measure our performance. Profits matter, but not more than growth. Indeed, they are ultimately the same thing.

There are 18 Rules for Success:
1. Persue Achieve Goals
2. Keep a genuine smile
3. Share with others
4. Help the neighbors
5. Maintain a youthful spirit
6. Get a long with the rich, the poor, the beautiful and the ugly

7. Keep cool under pressure
8. Lighten the atmosphere with humor
9. Forgive the annoyance of others
10. Have few pals
11. Cooperate and Reap greater rewards
12. treasure every moment with your loved ones
13. Have high confidence in yourself
14. Respect the disadvantaged
15. Indulge yourself occasionally
16. Sure the net at leisure
17. Take Calculated risks
18. Understand Money isn't everything

Communication:

Communication is the result, not the process.

Communication is a process of transferring information from one source to another.

Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents which share a repertoire of signs and semiotic rules.

Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs".

A two-way process used for sending and receiving information and ideas for the purpose of getting what they need.
The way we communicate defines what kind a person we are.

When we used bad language, we diminish our potential for success, inner peace and happiness.

Communication can be perceived as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas towards a mutually accepted goal or direction.

Types of communication:

There are three major parts in human face to face communication which are body language, voice tonality, and words. According to the research:

* 55% of impact is determined by body language—postures, gestures, and eye contact,

* 38% by the tone of voice, and

* 7% by the content or the words used in the communication process.

Although the exact percentage of influence may differ from variables such as the listener and the speaker, communication as a whole strives for the same goal and thus, in some cases, can be universal. System of signals, such as voice sounds, intonations or pitch, gestures or written symbols which communicate thoughts or feelings. If a language is about communicating with signals, voice, sounds, gestures, or written symbols, can animal communications be considered as a language?

Animals do not have a written form of a language, but use a language to communicate with each another. In that sense, an animal communication can be considered as a separate language.

Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols (sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are manipulated.

The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of languages. Language learning is normal in human childhood.

Most human languages use patterns of sound or gesture for symbols which enable communication with others around them.

There are thousands of human languages, and these seem to share certain properties, even though many shared properties have exceptions.

There is no defined line between a language and a dialect, but the linguist Max Weinreich is credited as saying that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy". Constructed languages such as Esperanto, programming languages, and various mathematical formalisms are not necessarily restricted to the properties shared by human languages.

Dialogue or verbal communication:

A dialogue is a reciprocal conversation between two or more entities. The etymological origins of the word (in Greek διά(diá,through) + λόγος(logos, word,speech) concepts like flowing-through meaning) do not necessarily convey the way in which people have come to use the word, with some confusion between the prefix διά-(diá-,through) and the prefix δι- (di-, two) leading to the assumption that a dialogue is necessarily between only two parties.

Nonverbal communication:

Nonverbal communication is the process of communicating through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture, body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture, or symbols and infographics, as well as through an aggregate of the above, such as behavioral communication.

Nonverbal communication plays a key role in every person's day to day life, from employment to romantic engagements.

Speech may also contain nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use of emoticons.A portmanteau of the English words emotion (or emote) and icon, an emoticon is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form.

Other communication channels such as telegraphy fit into this category, whereby signals travel from person to person by an alternative means. These signals can in themselves be representative of words, objects or merely be state projections. Trials have shown that humans can communicate directly in this way without body language, voice tonality or words.

Visual communication:

Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid. It is the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon. Primarily associated with two dimensional images, it includes: signs, typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, colour and electronic resources. It solely relies on vision. It is form of communication with visual effect. It explores the idea that a visual message with text has a greater power to inform, educate or persuade a person. It is communication by presenting information through visual form.

The evaluation of a good visual design is based on measuring comprehension by the audience, not on aesthetic or artistic preference. There are no universally agreed-upon principles of beauty and ugliness. There exists a variety of ways to present information visually, like gestures, body languages, video and TV. Here, focus is on the presentation of text, pictures, diagrams, photos, et cetera, integrated on a computer display. The term visual presentation is used to refer to the actual presentation of information. Recent research in the field has focused on web design and graphically oriented usability. Graphic designers use methods of visual communication in their professional practice.

Is there really any such thing as small business? The term conjures up a wide range of imagery.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) defines both a sole proprietorship and a firm with 499 employees—and everything in between as being a small business. An individual selling quilts at a monthly flea market would seemingly have little in common with a 400-person software design firm.


Obviously, lumping all small businesses like these together is ridiculous. In some ways, the SBA has admitted as much, in that its own definitions for what constitutes a small business run for 29 pages.

So here are the facts. You may think you don't need to know this to grow your business, but I encourage you to stay with me.

The U.S. Census Bureau 2002 report showed that there were 22 million small businesses operating in the United States. However, look at the numbers a little more closely, and you'll quickly see that approximately 17 million of these businesses don't have any employees. Some are simply shells set up by accountants and attorneys for tax purposes. Others are enterprises that can't or don't want to get any larger than they already are.

Despite not having any employees, you are probably a small business if:

* You sell candles, cleaning products, or cosmetics on a very part-time basis and make a few hundred dollars in profit per year
* You lost your job in a corporation but got hired by the same company as an independent contractor
* You are 70 years old and retired, but you do a little consulting on the side
* You have a booth at local art festivals to sell your handmade crafts
* You buy things and "flip" them for a profit: cars, rental houses, collectibles, and so on
* You live off the income from your investment activity

There's nothing wrong with these enterprises. They make money for somebody, so the IRS rightfully considers them more than a hobby. Some of them even give people a pretty luxurious lifestyle.

But these "small businesses" seldom lead to more employees being hired, and very few of them grow beyond a one-person entity. In many cases, the person conducting the work doesn't want the business to grow.

The intention is to make a living or earn a little extra spending money. Other non-employing firms are truly small businesses interested in growth.

The following are examples of the non-employing firms interested in growth versus the comparatively static types previously listed:

* You've worked in the same industry for a number of years, and you've recently decided to forge out on your own to build the proverbial "better mousetrap."
* You are a skilled craftsperson who hasn't needed another person yet but hopes to reach that point someday soon.
* You've been in business for quite a number of years as a sole practitioner but are now giving serious consideration to expansion.
* You've been in business only a short time but have always had a goal of growing your customer/client base.
* After years of hitting singles as a one-person business, a customer approaches you with a home-run opportunity that you can't fulfill by yourself.

For the purposes of this book, I assume that a business interested in growth either is or plans to be an employing firm. Are there examples of one-person firms that achieve growth through outsourcing and "virtual teams"?

Absolutely! Technology is making this easier and easier every day. But at this point, these companies are in the distinct minority. This article targets those who want to grow their business. Throughout, I assume that you already have a small business probably with employees or that you're intending to get to that point sooner rather than later.

Most of the observations I make are aimed at helping you grow a business that probably has at least a handful of employees but hasn't gotten so big that it has taken on a corporate life of its own.

It's in the size range of roughly 5 to 99 employees that a lot of the important growth milestones take place in a company's development.

However, these numbers are rather arbitrary and are used primarily because the government divides up segments of data at these points. If your business is smaller than five employees—but you're trying to grow—you'll also find just as many good insights and ideas that will help you get to the next level.

Understand, however, that it is the fast-growing companies that really create job growth. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship in America, notes: "New fast-growth companies comprise around 350,000 firms out of a total of six million U.S. businesses with employees. Yet, this small base of companies created two-thirds of net new jobs in the 1990s."

Optimism is power. This is a secret discovered by all who succeed against great odds. Nelson Mandela, Ernest Shackleton, Eleanor Roosevelt—all admitted that what got them through tough times was an ability to focus on the positive.



They understood what Claude Bristol called "the magic of believing." Yet great leaders also have an unusual ability to face up to stark reality, so creating a single powerful attribute: tough-minded optimism. Optimistic people tend to succeed not simply because they believe that everything will turn out right, but because the expectation of success makes them work harder. If you expect little, you will not be motivated even to try.

Being in the graphic design business is very competitive – you have to learn to swim or you will sink fast. I’ve been a graphic designer for 12 years and I’d like to share the journey I took to owning and building a successful graphic design business.

One of the first things I recommend to help develop skills and learn tricks that you would never learn in school is to get an internship. I got my first taste of graphic design in high school and by my senior year I was working as an intern for a small graphic design firm and also a print shop.

I took an active role in my job to learn as much as possible by asking lots of questions to the senior creative director and also to the head print shop pressman. My skills and thirst for design blossomed from there. I majored in graphic design in college and had landed a very high profile graphic design internship and was taught a vast amount of tricks of the trade by highly skilled designers.
Read, Read Read!

The next thing I would recommend is to read. Read as many books as you can find on graphic design and soak up as much of the industry as you can from the people who know it best. A friend of mine always says that the only thing that makes you stand out from your competition is the knowledge you gain from the books that you read. I am a visual learner, so for me I like to collect books that are informational as well as provide examples. I use design books as inspiration for a lot of the graphic design work that I do.

Having confidence in your ability and being able to apply that to your business is essential to your business success. When I first started my business, I was nervous, but confident in my ability to run my business with class. I plunged right in with both feet by developing a business plan, company name, web site and logo. Once I had the logistics in place I began the tedious task of marketing. Marketing is the hardest part of owning a small business and takes immense amounts of confidence and strength of character to do well, but if done effectively it will catapult your business to success.
Sell, sell, sell.

Building a successful graphic design business is all about selling and marketing yourself. You can never stop selling, no matter how busy you are, you have to keep marketing in the forefront of your mind. Every person you meet is a possible client. Every contact you make has a sphere of influence that might need your services, and every vendor you work with might know someone who needs your help.

Some practical ways I have marketed my business is by: joining my local Chamber of Commerce, building a strong web site that is correctly optimized, adding numerous reciprocal links to my web site, handing out business cards that function as a mini brochure, joining a leads group, joining special interest clubs, attending business expo’s and conventions, and networking with other business professionals.

The key to marketing your business effectively is to become well known in your community by attending any and all networking opportunities you have. Marketing is all about building relationships with others and then capitalizing on the opportunity to sell your graphic design services.
Customer Service

Customer service is key to your success. The clients you gain and the customer service they receive from you is imperative to your success. I’ve learned from my clients that they appreciate a quick response from me all the time. I recommend that you be available to your clients by email, phone and fax at all times.

I make a special effort to respond via email to my clients within 2 hours 6 days a week. I try to return phone calls even sooner if at all possible, even if it’s only to say that you received their call and will get back to them a little later. Every client has a sphere of influence and their referral will be dependant on the customer service they receive from you at all times.

A prompt response is a good indication of solid design work and will give your client confidence in your services. If your client has a pleasurable experience with you they will happily refer you on to all the people around them. In the beginning, referrals are the quickest way to build your business on solid ground and with minimal costs.
Minimize Costs As Much As You Can

The last thing I’d recommend is to keep your costs to a minimum as much as you can. I’ve built my business by starting out working from my home. The great thing about graphic design is the ability to do the job from the comfort of your home and this is a great way to minimize costs.

Operate on a debt free basis, paying for all your business expenses with cash. You can still use older versions of software to build solid designs without your clients ever knowing the difference, and without the constant cost of upgrading. While you are working from home, plan to meet with your clients at a local coffee shop or their place of business.

Send design proofs via email instead of printing them out on costly paper. In fact most of my business operates over email. I send invoices, proofs, contracts, and estimates via email so I don’t have to pay for the paper, ink, envelopes, and postage. There are a lot of corners you can cut in order to save money.
I hope this article has helped by giving you some practical ideas on how to build a successful graphic design business with minimal costs.

Target Market

Find niche or target markets for your product and describe them.

Product

Describe your product. How does your product relate to the market? What does your market need, what do they currently use, what do they need above and beyond current use?

Competition

Describe your competition. Develop your "unique selling proposition." What makes you stand apart from your competition? What is your competition doing about branding?

Market Research

Collect, organize, and write down data about the market that is currently buying the products or services you will sell. Some areas to consider:

* Market dynamics, patterns including seasonality
* Customers - demographics, market segment, target markets, needs, buying decisions
* Product - what's out there now, what's the competition offering
* Current sales in the industry
* Benchmarks in the industry
* Suppliers - vendors that you will need to rely on



Mission Statement

Write a few sentences that state:

* "Key market" - who you're selling to
* "Contribution" - what you're selling
* "Distinction" - your unique selling proposition

Market Strategies

Write down the marketing and promotion strategies that you want to use or at least consider using. Strategies to consider:

* Networking - go where your market is
* Direct marketing - sales letters, brochures, flyers
* Advertising - print media, directories
* Training programs - to increase awareness
* Write articles, give advice, become known as an expert
* Direct/personal selling
* Publicity/press releases
* Trade shows
* Web site

Pricing, Positioning and Branding

From the the information you've collected, establish strategies for determining the price of your product, where your product will be positioned in the market and how you will achieve brand awareness.

Bold Budget

Budget your dollars. What strategies can you afford? What can you do in house, what do you need to outsource.

Marketing Goals

Establish quantifiable marketing goals. This means goals that you can turn into numbers. For instance, your goals might be to gain at least 30 new clients or to sell 10 products per week, or to increase your income by 30% this year. Your goals might include sales, profits, or customer's satisfaction.

Monitor Your Results

Test and analyze. Identify the strategies that are working.

* Survey customers
* Track sales, leads, visitors to your web site, percent of sales to impressions The rest is here

These are all questions about Business Plan:

* Executive summary
* Company overview
* Products and Services
* Marketing plan
* Operational plan
* Financial plan
* Management structure

Executive summary

* What is the opportunity
* What is the product(s)
* What services will be provided
* Who are the target customers
* Who are the key people
* What are the key commercial targets
* What are the main milestones

Company overview

* Who are the key people
* What will the business do
* What are the companies guiding lights
* What are the companies core values
* What are the companies goals

1. in the market
2. financially
3. with the product

* What is the opportunity

1. market
2. customer

* What are the companies key strengths
* What is the legal setup of the company

Products and Services

* What is the product(s)
* How is the product constructed
* What are the component parts
* What are the unique elements
* What is the development ethos
* What is the pricing structure
* What are the services
* How will services be delivered

Marketing plan

* What is your proposition
* Define its value

1. in proposed solution
2. too whom
3. quantify
4. endorse
5. back-up

* Where does offering position?

1. company
2. product
3. service

* How is offering different?

1. how does this represent

- best value
- competitive advantage

* How does this allow customer to differentiate themselves?

1. overcome problems
2. improve their business
3. cost saving
4. customer

- satisfaction
- retention
5. win sales
6. etc

* How does this differentiate us from our competitor(s)?
* Who are our customers

1. their people
2. their business
3. their issues
4. their location
5. their size

* Which industries are they in

1. industries
2. size of market
3. opportunity
4. trends

* Are there particular industry threats to consider?

1. changes in technology
2. changes in regulations
3. changes in economy

* Who are our competitors

1. Which companies
2. What products
3. What services
4. How do we compare

- products
- price
- service
- Reputation

* What is our strategy

1. What is the message

- what is it we do?
- where have we done it? what benefits
- have our customers realised?

* Why would prospects believe us?

1. Why does our proposition work?

- make it logical
- make it believable
2. Who will/has benefitted
- individual
- job function
- organisation

* How will we reach our target customers

1. methods
2. costs
3. budgets

* How will we sell to our customers

1. direct
2. retail
3. resellers
4. internal sales

Operational plan

* How is development managed and controlled

1. strategy
2. development roadmap
3. design methodology
4. processes
5. controls

* What production methods are used

1. production techniques
2. process controls

* What staff is required

1. What level of staffing will be required
2. What skills are required
3. What are expected salary costs
4. Are there specific training requirement

* Who are our suppliers

1. what do they supply
2. how are they controlled

Financial plan

* Explain the 12 months profit and loss projection
* Have any assumptions been made
* What are the longer term projections

Management structure

* What is the management structure
* What are the key skills of management
* Who are the key external influencers