The biggest constraint that any small business encounters in its initial stages is advertising and promotion budget. The unavailability of funds immobilizes small business owners to launch their company identity through proper promotional campaign. What good is your business logo when it is not evident in the market?

Overcoming the budget constraint!

Lack of media exposure is a prime reason that small business owners fail to initiate their business. In this overcrowded world of media coverage, it is imperative to make your business identity noticeable. Social media is especially helpful in this cause for small business owners who do not have sufficient funds to raise an advertising campaign. In simple terms, social media helps small business in getting heard. It is the cheapest form of promotion.
With the increase in consumer awareness, it is essential for businesses to establish their names in the market. The mindset of consumers has changed drastically over the years. People nowadays emphasize on the brand name rather than the product itself.

The statistical facts:

Common sense apart, there are statistical evidence to proof that social media is gaining popularity among small business owners as well. Recently, The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business in collaboration with Network Solutions published the Small Business Success Index (SBSI). It is a study that discloses the degree to which small businesses are accepting social media. According to the report, social media adoption among U.S. small businesses doubled in the past year from 12% to 24%.

The report follows a list of extensive figures. Following are the rest of the interesting facts of the study:

• 75% have a business page on a social network site like LinkedIn or Facebook.
• 69% enthusiastically post status updates and articles of interests.
• 57% are building networks through sites like LinkedIn or Facebook.
• 54% monitor customer feedback of their business on social networks.
• 39% run a blog on their area of proficiency or interest.
• 26% tweet information related to their area of interest or knowledge.
• 16% use twitter to provide customer service.

Social Media – Time to embrace:

With all logical and statistical information, it is evident that social media is the best tool in bolstering the image of small businesses. Social media is like a great conflagration that sprawls over the blogosphere within minutes. It spreads out your business information within the blink of an eye. Hence for those who haven’t yet embraced the blessings of social media should start using it right away. The results will be evident within days.   ]]> http://blog.corporatelogos.ws/small-business-social-media/feed 1 http://blog.corporatelogos.ws/small-business-failure-phases http://blog.corporatelogos.ws/small-business-failure-phases#comments Tue, 25 May 2010 15:16:39 +0000 Michael J. Taylor http://blog.corporatelogos.ws/?p=1636

Failure is every small businessman’s nightmare and an investor’s worst fear. Yes, the apprehension of failure looms in the minds of every small business owner from start. But everything happens for a reason, doesn’t it? Then why do 9 out of 10 small businesses ultimately fail?

Some small business owners are lucky enough to last for a few years, while a majority of them don’t even stay long enough to celebrate a single anniversary. One can never attribute the reason of small business failure to a solitary reason. In a normal business life cycle, there are four phases. The introductory, growth, maturity and decline phase. Failure at each level is owing to different reasons. In order to analyze the precise reasons for failure, let us make an inspection on each phase of the small business life cycle.  

• Failure at introductory stage:

A majority of businesses collapse at the initial stage. This is the stage where the business is raw. The main reasons that small businesses fail in this early phase is lack of planning. Businesses set-up in haste are always prone to fail. Without any future planning and long-term strategy, any business is likely to fail. Another reason for collapse in the early stages is the lack of financial support to sustain the business over the years. This is also linked to reckless planning on the part of small business owners.  

• Failure at growth stage:

In the growth stage, a small business commences its take off from the runway of infancy to the skies of development. Problems during this phase are partly attributed to the lack of vision and forecasting. Although many small businessmen claim extraneous factors to be the real cause of failure, but this is far from the truth. No doubt, unexpected business and environmental factors play a role in failure of business. But this crisis can be averted with a pre-planned approach taking all the intrinsic and extrinsic factors into account.
“There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.”
 Tom Krause  

• Failure at maturity stage:

At the maturity stage, a small business moves towards the phase of stability. At this point the business growth is in stagnation. Since the business has reached its threshold, it cannot move any further until innovative measures are taken. This is the reason why small businesses at the maturity stage fail. This is the point when small business owners require inducing innovative and creativity to lift their business endeavors.

• Failure at decline stage:

This is the final stage that a failing small business goes through. Failure in this phase is genuinely due to lack of commitment and interest on the part of the owner(s). Business at the decline stage is like a sinking ship. There is little that a small business owner can do. But then again…where there is a will there is a way. Small business owners should work out a bailout plan for their business in advance to prevent this situation.  

However, I would advice all the small business owners not to give up easily and try to overcome all these problems mentioned above. After all, it’s better to try and fail than fail to try.

Certainly, the topic today is not new, but surely very controversial one. Being in this corporate world I would like to discuss the importance of logo design contests in a corporate world. The logo design awareness is on a rise and business owners are now very convinced about having a strong corporate identity. But this also brings in number of choices to get a logo design, leaving us confused in the end.

Crossing the basic debate about advantages and disadvantages of Spec work, I would like to highlight a new aspect. Recession has given birth to abundant small businesses, making them approach different logo design contest sites to get a new corporate identity within a limited budget.

Here I would like to ask a question to all the great names of logo design community and expect an honest answer… Is it wrong to get a logo from a contest site, in these low economy times?

Unquestionably, the success and failure of a business immensely relies on its corporate logos and a professional company logos should be our top priority. However, looking at the present economy crisis, when so many people are being laid off, not left with much choice except to start a small business to earn their bread and butter.

Big names of design community evidently oppose design crowd sourcing and ridiculously curse the spec work. Brand stack, Crowd Spring, Inc Spring, 99Designs, MycroBurst and many other such resources are crudely being blamed for supporting this trend of design contest sites. They believe that designers are paid too low on such sites and mostly their hard work is wasted.  I think before tagging the logo design contest sites as immoral and useless, they should consider the present economy breakdown. Every business owner cannot pay big prices of top designers and in such circumstances they are not left with much choice then these contest sites.

After sharing my verdict, I would like to know from you all if the present financial break down is a justifying reason to approach logo design contests and are they really beneficial?

            Running a business definitely requires a lot of work, time and money. However, small business owners believe in small budget marketing strategies which often lead them to wrong decisions. Unfortunately, only few start up businesses make it beyond their 3rd year and this is because of their one mistake which doesn’t let them survive longer.

Yes, small business owners invest a lot of time and money in property and equipment, but do not often match it by investing suitably in their logo. We all are well aware of the value and integrity a corporate logo adds to a business. However, to save their precious bucks, many small business owners avoid getting professional corporate logos.

Below, we go through 10 common logo design mistakes which if small business owners are aware of, can increase their chances of survival.

To save money and time, never think of designing a logo yourself. Rather than creating a blunder, look for some reasonable logo design packages on net. Avoid getting a logo designed by a friend/relative who claims to know a little about graphic designing. Launching a logo contest can be a good option but search for some authentic logo design contest sites. A reliable logo design contest site is not a bad option to help you get a logo for your business. Don’t stick to the fixed logo trends, like the dreaded “corporate swoosh,” which is the ultimate way to play it safe. Many business owners hire immature graphic designers who are unaware of using vector graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. This gives disastrous results when your logo is resized for different mediums. Business owners, who design their own logo or get it done by amateur designers, violate the rights of copyright by using stock images. In an attempt to come up with a unique logo design, never make it overly complex and busy. Try keeping it simple in a stylish manner.

• Some corporate logo designs turn out to be a paint box with number of colors splashed in single design. Choosing color should be your last decision, so starting your work in black and white is best.
• Using too many fonts in a single logo concept can create lots of confusion. A logo design cluttered with multiple fonts fails to deliver your company message.
• The most common mistake which is getting very common nowadays is copying others designs. If a business owner gets impressed with someone’s logo design, he insists his designers to come up with a similar logo design.

Luckily, all these mistakes are all avoidable and lead us to the right path of success. I think this is the high time that we stop under-estimating the significance of company logos and regardless of our business size, try to opt for quality logo designs.

• Be expressive.
• Be memorable.
• Be unique from competitors.
• Effective in every color (black and white too).
• Be scalable (readable in various sizes and media).
• Communicate product or service’s message and personality.
• Simple for the audience.
• Creates credibility.

Reasons to have a professional logo:

• Portrays your business in a positive and appealing manner
• Defines your business culture and nature to the outside world
• Makes your company stand exclusively among your competitors
• Presents your services/product in a unique way
• Conveys the right message about your business to potential clients
• Business logos are more capable to capture proficient customers

Straight Up by Chad Sanderson	s70 Consulting by Eziemac
Rainfall by Rainfall	Quick Meals by Alexey Shelepov
Panda by Nido	Move by Mads Burcharth
Media Factory by David Pache (dache)	Jill by MomentumMagazine
Future FootPrint by Alexander Lloyd	Enova Financial
Dol	DogHouse Brewing by John boerckel
Discocity by ALMOSH82	Coffee Brothers by LUIZ AUGUSTO
Clock Worx by ALEK CHMURA	Catch 5 by Mike Erickson
Karpentera by Matto	brandclay (TM) by Panflare
The Little Big Company by Nido	Better Yet by firebrand
Auro travels	Art Mark
Advance by Renee Rist	Wind Estate
Brand Events

“A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity but an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty”

That’s the spirit we all need to have to survive in such threatening circumstances bought in by Recession. With the increase in downsizing trends, more and more people are laid off from their jobs, making survival more difficult.

In such situation we have two paths to follow: either look for a new job or start a small business. Personally I think, following the former choice will continue our insecurity and won’t lead us anyway.

So, gather some courage and opt to have a small business of your own. Well, I am not asking you to jump in the pool without any research and guidance.
Therefore, I list top 10 suggestions to consider while deciding to start with a new small business.

• Do-It-Yourself Business:

Try some low budget DYI businesses. You can provide people with products/ services that allow them to DYI something; such as home cleaning products. This will surely make more clients come to you to buy cheap products and do their tasks themselves.

• Energy saving business:

Energy saving businesses are predicted to be on roll for this year. Any business with products/services on energy cost-cutting systems can make you a hit. Producing or distributing LED lightings will be the right business this year.

• Online business:

Although before the recession, the concept of Online Business was getting its fame but now it has become the most easy and successful way to earn. With $50 (a domain name + affordable web hosting fee) you can start a small online business and head towards a lucrative business.

• Cheap / recycled product business:

“Turning trash into cash” type of business is very, very lucrative this year. With the increase in material and production costs, making use of ‘useless’ materials and create something out of them will proved to be a thriving business.

• Home Based Business:

With the ever available internet, don’t under estimate your talent and skills. Working from home, will not only be economical but also give you a chance to try two your skills in different fields.

• Mobile Business:

Location independent business owners seem to have a bright scope rather than entrepreneurs sitting in one room of the same city. IPhone and MacBook Air now enable you to run your business wherever you are.

This is a short list which I figure out to be workable and successful for small business owners for the year 2009. Do you have more suggestions to add to it? If so, go ahead…we all need to help each other to survive this critical period of Recession.

Below I offer you 7 part-time jobs which can be turned into solo business ventures. Maybe any of these small ideas might bring in big business for you.

Bakery Business:

Have you ever checked the sales of the best independent bakeries around the world? I am sure you will be amazed to know how small bakers turned into rich entrepreneurs. In 1994, Jim Lahey started Sullivan Street Bakery after several years experimenting as a home baker. Today, his company has about $6 million in annual revenues and about 90 employees.

Pick up a simple bakery item initially, like cupcakes.  If you start with a $2 as the starting deal I think you can give competition to New York’s famed Magnolia Bakery which sells 2,000 cupcakes a day.  

Blogging:

Dress/Jewelry Designing:

EBay Sale:

Book Keeping:

Web Designing:

Floral designer: