Business Forum Newsletter

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Design Services

How many times have you set out to make a simple newsletter or brochure for your business and you wind up, hours later, frustrated, scanning desperately through software tutorials, and no nearer to your goal than when you started. Don’t feel bad: it takes years of training and practice to learn to expertly navigate some of those design programs, and who has time for that?

But before you think about passing the project off to your high-school niece who is artistic and “good” on a computer, think again. Will anybody but an expert be able to understand the advantages and disadvantages of certain layouts or color options? Will anybody but an expert be able to ask you the right kinds of questions to fully understand what you need, and to be able to take your project smoothly from start to finish?

Here are some things to think about before you come in that will make your project run more smoothly.

1. What kind of project are you imagining? Is it a simple flyer for a summer sale, or are you planning an entire overhaul of your company’s overall look: new logo, new letterhead, new color-scheme, new web-site. Having a clear idea of the final product in your head will give us a lot more to work with, making the process more efficient overall.

2. What kind of budget do you have? If you know from the get-go what you’re able to spend, that will give us a better idea of how to approach your project. We won’t try to sell you on something you don’t want or don’t need, we will respect your budget and work within your means.

These two simple things can help us design for you the perfect flyer or website that will help you put your best face forward and get your business the kind of attention it deserves.

Product Coupon:

Design Discount — For design projects of four hours or more, the fifth hour of work will be free!!


Article

The Positive Effects of Conscious Gratitude

Recent psychological studies show that saying “thank you” does more than just prove you have good manners. Thankfulness can improve a person’s physical and emotional health, their social relationships and their general well-being. Additionally, it can foster similar improvements in others, as well as the likelihood that that person will pay that thankfulness forward!

Thankfulness and giving thanks can take many forms. In the most basic sense, thankfulness is conscious appreciation for the “little things,” the daily wonders that life provides. Giving thanks is, of course, expressing appreciation to others for their assistance or even just their presence.

Physical and Emotional Health in Ourselves

Multiple research projects have shown that there is a positive correlation between thankfulness and a person’s cardiovascular health and immune system functions, and it’s not just in the mind of the subjects. UC Davis professor Robert Emmons says that grateful people tend to take care of themselves better than others. In general, they make healthier lifestyle choices in diet and physical fitness, as well as getting more regular physical examinations.

Physical and Emotional Health in Others

Being thankful for your own life and for others in your life doesn’t help only you. When you express thankfulness to others, not only are they more likely to be willing to help you in the future, but you are also boosting that person’s self-esteem, their sense of value and self worth, feelings which have similar health-benefits, leading to healthy lifestyle choices and improved immune function.

Isn’t it amazing how the power of a few little words can make such positive changes? Doesn’t it make you feel … thankful?


Article

Selling in a Buyer’s World

The advent of the internet has put a lot of power into the hands of the buyer. Prospective clients are no longer reliant on sales people for their information about a product or service. Finding information is as easy as a quick Google search, and a buyer has a wealth of information — good and bad — about your product, as well as your competitors’ products, along with industry statistics and consumer-generated rating systems.

Today’s buyer is more likely than ever to blow off a traditional cold-call, and if you do manage to connect with a buyer, they’ll probably wind up asking you to just send them the information in an email, which they then won’t read.

But just as technology has taken some power out of the salesperson’s hands, so has it also brought new opportunities and new ways to engage with the marketplace. Today’s sales relationship is still about making connections and building trust, it’s just done in a different form.

The thing about third-party sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook is that because so much of the content is generated by consumers, a seller with insider information, can often add an important level of authority to the conversation by answering questions and addressing concerns and misconceptions.

Another useful way to use these sites is as a venue for asking questions: find out what the consumers are looking for, what they don’t find important, and what their past experiences with similar products have been like. Each conversation builds an important rapport with consumers who, more often than not, simply want to feel heard and understood in a frequently overwhelming marketplace.

The important thing to remember in the online environment is to not come on too strong. Direct prospective buyers to your website as a source of information and as a way to guide the discussion, not simply to make a sale. The key here is to build a relationship of trust, to build a reputation as someone who has specialized industry-based knowledge along with the integrity of someone who genuinely cares about consumer experience.


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Success by Design

Whether you want a complete company image overhaul or a simple flyer design for an office picnic, we can help. Our in-house designers have the experience and the skills to turn your idea into a raging success. No challenge is too big or too small — our goal is to make you look good!!


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