Even though the financial crises are slowly loosening its grip on the business arena, small business owners and entrepreneurs are still reluctant to initiate their businesses. Setting up a business is relatively more difficult that running it. According to the latest Statistics released by US Small Business Association (SBA), there are 49% chances of a small business failing within 5 years. This shows the appalling success ratio of establishing a business these days.

But, failure can be avoided if preventive measures are taken beforehand. One of the common reasons of small business failure is the lack of planning and forecasting. Following are 5 common questions that haunt a small business in its initial stages and hence must be addressed ahead of time.

1. What Are My Financial Perimeters?

The first question to answer before establishing a small business is regarding your financial perimeter. You must establish your business scope and scale according to your financial stretch. Most small businesses fail because their liabilities outweigh their assets. Moreover, some entrepreneurs tend to be over-ambitious and diversify their business more than their available resources. This leads to under-utilization of resources and your business falters.

2. Do I have the Right Corporate Logo?

The next critical thing that determines a stable business is your corporate identity and image. Corporate logos are the cornerstone of every small business brand identity. They help the customers in memorizing and recalling your brand/product when required. Without giving due consideration to your identity development, you cannot run a successful business venture.

3. Who are Your Targeted Customers?

Another common small business owner’s mistake is not defining their target market beforehand. In a rush, they fail to correctly identify and recognize who they would like to cater through their business offerings. For a small business, a well defined target market is suitable to gain reasonable and stable profits.

4. What is my Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

According to the SBA Statistics of 2011, there are over 27 million Small Businesses in the US alone. In order for a new entrepreneur to make his mark in the business arena, uniqueness and distinction is required. Hence, another question that small business owners must ask themselves is what their Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is. This refers to the one competitive advantage that makes them stand out from the crowd. By defining your USP, you can make an impact in the market.

5. Do I have the Right Marketing Tools?

In this congested world of media and gimmicks, marketing is something that is hard to overlook. Before establishing your small business, you need to be aware of the marketing tools like business cards, flyers and corporate brochures that will propel your business in the market and help you advertise your business to the target audience. Without adequate exposure of your business, nobody will recognize your presence in the market.

Thanksgiving is round the corner. Although it is just a holiday, but if you think like an astute businessman, it is also an ideal time to promote your business. Like every other auspicious occasion, thanksgiving also brings a host of opportunities for small businesses to capitalize on.

Holidays seasons like thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas are the prime time when customers are emotionally sensitive and responsive to any activity related to the occasion. Thus, there is a great prospect for small business owners to utilize this vastly untapped opportunity of marketing their products and services.

Marketing Techniques to use on thanksgiving:

Following tips will help small business owners understand how they can successfully promote their business this thanksgiving:

1. Synchronize your Corporate Logo:

One of the latest and catchy marketing gimmicks that companies use nowadays is they spice up their corporate logos in line with the upcoming occasions. The best example is Google, which changes its logo on every important occasion in order to blend with the customer’s feelings. This technique is especially useful for restaurants and fast-food chains.

2. Send Greeting Cards:

Greeting cards have been one of the most common techniques of business promotion. By sending greeting cards to your present and potential customers, you remind them that you care about them and value their sentiments. This in turn, generates trust and integrity of your business. Remember to print your corporate logo on it as well.

3. Deliver Thanksgiving Gifts:

Thanksgiving is all about “Giving” right? So it’s high time to give your customers something in order to create goodwill. You cannot imagine what it means for customers if you send them complimentary gifts. For example you can purchase turkey basters, which are inexpensive, tie a ribbon to it and attach your business card and deliver.

4. Give Thanksgiving recipes:

Use your corporate brochure to connect with your customers on this thanksgiving. What is the best part about Thanksgiving? Food! You can attach some yummy thanksgiving recipes to your brochures. This way, the customers will feel obliged to your services.

5. Spice up your corporate website:

Online marketing and social media is growing incessantly, and small businesses must take advantage of this marketing mode. Using your corporate website, you can make a huge impact on your customers by aligning your website with the thanksgiving occasion. You can wish your customers through your webpage and add interesting facts related to thanksgiving.

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.

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.

    The charm and magic of business cards is always mesmerizing. We are always up on our toes to make ourselves stand out in this tough competition. My blog is always stuffing you all with the importance of having professional company logos but I think business cards play a vital role in building strong corporate identity.On searching the internet you will get to see awesome collection of business cards but the set below will surely tempt you to be more experimental and creative with your corporate business cards.

Exchanging business cards is an old tradition of the business world but most of them are tucked into a wallet or desk drawers. Here is a collection of 30 business cards which will truly impress your clients and make them hire you every time they need the related services.

1 ) Chuck Tingley

2 ) Lettau Designs

3 ) Nathan Jones

4 ) Kenspecklegifts

5 ) Jason McGrew

6 ) Lego

7 ) Primal Screen

8 ) Sparkle Labs

9 ) Toxic Puppy

10 ) Kass

11 ) NC Publishing

13 ) Distrilo

14 ) Olokial

15 ) Isablah

16 ) Leschinski Design

17 ) Jack rabbit

18 ) S&N

19 ) Butter Label

20 ) Made by Elephant

21 ) Gehring Sales & service

22 ) Rezife

23 ) Geniealisa

24 ) Daniel Ballou

25 ) Lioninoil

26 ) Corporation Pop

27 ) Space 150

28 ) Than an Agency

29 ) SupaFly Design

30 ) SheetSeat

31 ) David Burke

32 ) KEO

33 ) Relix

34 ) Sarah Power Media

35 ) Dale Edwin Murray

If we want to see our business at top, there are few elements which can’t be ignored in any case and “Brochure Designs” are among them. We all know the marketing mantra: “The more effectively a business is marketed, more profitable are the results.”

Business brochures play an exclusive important role to convey your business message to your targeted audience and converting them into productive clients.

Therefore, today I list few important features which will help you come up with a successful brochure design. To hone your creative skills, I have added a collection of inspiring and unique brochure ideas from all over the internet.

• Plan: Before you start designing your brochure, know exact purpose of having it… Is it for marketing purposes or for personal use? You need to be clear about certain issues like- will the brochure be used alone or be paired with ads or catalogues.

• Product Information: The brochure should always be about the product or service that you want to market. Try not to add irrelevant information about the product in your brochures or your customer might think your services to be useless. 

• Shape: Standard brochures are generally tri-fold or A4 but to appear exclusive try having an unusual shape for your brochure. This way your customers won’t be able to ignore your brochure thinking of it as an ordinary piece of paper.

• Brochure Cover: The brochure cover cannot be ignored in any case. It has to be too good to be ignored. If the first look of your brochure is appealing then only you will be able to attract customers.

• Price List: The brochure should list the exact prices of your product or service. You should avoid misleading your potential customers by giving false or uncalculated prices of your products.

• Visual Effects: If short paragraphs of information are supported with some visual treats, it keeps the customer to browse the complete brochure.

• Call to Action: The purpose of a having a brochure remains unachieved if it fails to evoke the reader to “Call to action” So add such an encouraging sentences which inspire the customers to call for more information.

• Promotional offers and Discounts: Promotional pitches such as discounts and special offers will generate interest among prospective clients. Always keep in mind the best interest of your customers so as to gain their trust and loyalty.
• Target audience: It must provide useful information that calls your targeted customers and helps them understand your product and services better.

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On 24 th June, 2009, Vistaprint Limited (Hamilton, Bermuda) the small business marketing company, unveiled its global brand strategy with some noticeable changes including a new logo, tagline and a complete Website redesign. The main aim behind this new look and feel is to highlight the wide range of products and services available for small and home businesses.

The company offers small businesses personalized printed products such as business checks, business letterheads, rubber stamps, promotional apparel including hats and T-shirts; and marketing services, websites, design and postcard mailing. It is believed to be catering more than 19 million small businesses and consumers by offering them the easiest ways to promote their business at the most affordable prices.

However, we are here to talk about the redesigned logo of VistaPrint. The logo has been highly criticised with its idea of showcasing arches of CMY(no K) gushing out of their name. Although the earlier version was also not much impressive but this time sophistication lacks badly and the symbols says nothing about the company’s high targets.

Well, I want to appreciate their attempt to replace the thin lines and lowercase of their old logo but they failed bringing up any progressive change. A blog well-known for announcing redesigns has highly criticised the logo: “The typography looks like the bastard child of Tobias Frere-Jones’ Interstate and Avenir.”

However, the old and the new logo do not have much difference and both are claimed to be equally unappealing. Many people balme VistPrint.com for providing  cheap, fast and mediocre quality. So they think their redesign well-explain their services…do you think so?

Do write in to give your honest comments…Do you think VistaPrint New Logo is the worst logo redesign of year 2009?