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Logos and Letterheads: Achieving Professionalism in Printing
Nov 29th
Gaining visibility for your company requires offering an image through which people can identify your business. Most companies do this by establishing a catchy tagline or slogan, and some take it a step further by having a logo designed for their company. Both of these can help give your business an image so that when people read that slogan or see that logo, they know exactly which company it is.
Logos and letterheads are two essential parts of your company that can help your business gain recognition and credibility in the long run. To project a professional image, these should be printed on every document that you use as correspondence with other companies and clients.
Logos
Company logos seem very simple, usually, but most businesses put a lot of thought into what design they choose. This is because this logo will usually follow them throughout the life of their business. It serves as the company’s “face,” so to speak. The logo can either be a graphic, or it can make creative use of the company’s name or initials. Many logos are a combination of both a graphic and the business name.
Letterheads
A letterhead is important to your company’s image as well because not only does it make your documents more recognizable, it also lends more credibility to the items that you print. This is especially necessary when dealing with sensitive business issues. For example, if you send a letter to a client warning that their delinquent account will be sent to a collection agency if action is not taken, the client might worry that the letter was sent by a scammer looking for financial information if the letterhead is not present.
Letterheads can be included on anything from basic stationery to e-mail signatures so that your company’s visibility is promoted through as many channels as possible. A letterhead should have several elements: your company’s name, address, phone number, website, and e-mail.
Once you have a logo and a letterhead, you can upload the full image to an online document printing service so that you always have customized stationery at the ready. When you do have a proper letterhead on all of your official documents, it lends more credibility to your company. Over time, your logo and letterhead can also help your business to gain more recognition.
Don’t Forget Your Market Research – probably the most Important Step Before Starting Your Business
Nov 29th
They only way a business can be successful are through effective marketing. Market research is often forgotten about but it is probably the most important phase before embarking on a new business. It is key to a successful business that your idea is thoroughly researched so it can stand the test of time, before proceeding to the next stage.
The first step to effective marketing is to carry out some market research. This is something even the largest companies do. As a business owner you have to know what your potential customers want and need; just because you think there’s a niche out there, doesn’t necessarily mean there is one in the real world. Doing marketing research entails a couple of aspects. The first being to know your surrounding area – the place where you’re thinking of opening a business and see who hangs around there or shops there; what types of people live in the area; and what other types of businesses are in the area. These are all important questions to answer before you open business because they will all be a part of your marketing plan.
If you are starting an online business, how competitive is your market? Are there a lot of other businesses in competition within the search engines? Where are they marketing their business? How much will it cost for you to do the same? There are many online tools out there to help you answer all these questions. You couldn’t to worse but to glean some advice from a local digital marketing agency or trusted SEO company – an experienced source of expert opinion could be the difference between success or failure. Call them up and glean some tips and a steer for your website marketing plan. Get a feel for what the best approach is for your business – the more feedback you get, the more informed decision you will be able to make on which are the best methods to market your website. Outsourcing your SEO services if you are a young business just starting out, will give you the time to focus on your core business, but it is crucial that you carefully choose an SEO company – don’t forget to get some references and testimonials. Alternatively, if you are fortunate enough to hold a large enough budget and are able to hire an internal resource and do your SEO in house, otherwise you could do it the hard way and do your SEO for free and teach yourself from the many self help SEO blogs out there.
When doing your marketing research you want to ask your potential customers what they think about your product or services, if they would use it or buy it, and do they think where you’re at is a good place to open this type of business. You want to get direct insight from your potential customers because these are the people who are going to be buying or using your product and you want to make sure even before you start your business that they like your idea for a business. And although, you shouldn’t take all this information to heart or let it discourage you from opening your business nor should you let it boost your ego up and think you’re business is just going to be the best thing ever, you do want to get their opinion just to see where you stand – it could be a reality check for you. After an acceptable level of market research is completed, you may want to look at using a trustworthy seo web design company to help achieve your online marketing objectives or to simply help with in depth market research.
Once you’ve finished your marketing research you actually need to start marketing your product. There are a million different ways to market your product and the more creative you can be with it, the better effective you will have on getting your potential customer’s attention. The key to effective marketing is to catch your customers attention and to keep their attention long enough to fall in love with your product or service and become a repeat customer.
Irish theme for Poetry Festival
Nov 23rd
THIS year’s Ledbury Poetry Festival will have an Irish flavour, and the two poets in residence will both come from the Emerald Isle.
Chloe Garner, now in her second month as the new festival director, has booked Paula Meehan and Theo Dorgan as poets in residence, and she is promising a “weekend-long Irish craic” as one of the festival’s highlights.
Paula Meehan is an award-winning poet and playwright from Dublin, and Theo Dorgan is a former director of Poetry Ireland and the author of a libretto, Jason and The Argonauts.
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This was written to a score by Howard Goodall and was performed at the Albert Hall, in 2004.
This summer’s Ledbury Poetry Festival, now in its 11th year, will run from Friday, June 29, to Saturday, July 8.
Town’s first honorary citizen ‘humbled’
Nov 23rd
FORMER Coldstream Guardsman and last mayor of the then Chipping Norton Borough Council, John Hannis, has become the first person to be awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the town.
The award, made by the town council, will be presented at a special ceremony at the town hall on Sunday, February 18.
Mr Hannis, aged 82, was born in Chipping Norton and has served the town all his life in civic, voluntary and charitable roles.
He was a member of the borough, district and county councils for 44 years, serving as an independent, but has also done considerable work for the Royal British Legion as local chairman and president, and parade marshal and organiser of the annual Poppy Appeal.
He is also a church warden at St Mary’s and used to play in Chipping Norton Silver Band.
“I joined the band after the war playing the tuba – I was the only one big enough to carry it,” remembered Mr Hannis.
“Although my years on the councils were very important to me, I have enjoyed all my work with the Royal British Legion and Poppy Appeal.
“I was always lucky to have the support of my wife Peggy, who died four years ago.
“I am really honoured and humbled to be awarded this title. It’s wonderful.”
Mr Hannis will receive a medal, certificate and a stint in the town’s regulated pastures.
Engaging the Force Field: Protecting Your Business from Online Predators
Nov 23rd
With hundreds of millions of businesses online, one of the most profitable businesses is the business of scamming- defrauding businesses out of their hard earned money through dishonest business practices. Because online businesses are relatively free of the unsavory types that strong arm brick and mortar businesses, criminals have taken their skills and made them into beautifully packaged cons that steal millions of dollars a year.
So, how does an online business protect itself from the dirty rotten thieves out to take their money? Well, you could effectively build a force field around your website to keep out hackers, and you can teach yourself all about the different kinds of scams circulating and targeting business owners.
Force Field- Initiate!
One of the businesses finding incredible success online is the website security business. As an online business owner, you can secure your website using a security program designed and run by professional services. These services put protections (encryption, firewalls, etc) in place that will make it difficult to impossible for hackers to get onto your site and wreak havoc. Also, there are website monitoring programs that will trace hackers back to their IP addresses and inform you of their whereabouts.
Online security systems are essential to doing business online, so if your website is hosted by a website hosting company, make sure that the protections they have in place will protect your business.
Proceed with the Mind Meld!
Yes, using online security measures can protect your website from hackers and other cyber criminals, but there are scams out there that are successful at tricking business owners into buying their products and services, providing them with nothing or less than adequate products of services, then taking off with their money.
One such scam is the ‘Black Hat’ SEO services. These are companies that offer to get your business ranked high on search engines but their tactics are illegal and can black list your business forever. That means that these businesses purposely use these illegal tactics, such as stealing links, to get you ranked high, take your money, then disappear. Yes, your business is now ranked high, but eventually the search engine will catch on to the duplicity of your site and shut you down. Now, you’re out the money you spend on SEO, and you’ve lost the ability to earn money online.
Learning how to spot these kinds on businesses will save you money, time, and heartache. Do some research and learn all about these businesses, their tactics and how to protect yourself from them. Knowledge is power!
Taking the steps above is a smart move, and you can be confident that your business is protected- set your ray gun to stun and let’s get to work!