The Eternal Individual

Your company image is essential to your success. Custom printed folders can promote your company’s image in a faint but forceful way. We’ve all been to presentations where the handouts were just a stack of credentials. No matter how motivating the presentation, the notes end up filed away and forgotten. When the handouts are passed out in a custom printed folder, that company’s image stays in your mind long after, and the notes are easy to file and easy to access.

Custom printed folders aren’t just for presentations, either. If you provide your audience with any notable paperwork, it should be in a folder that developes your company’s image. Custom printed folders are available in many styles, suited to your need. Document folders are acceptable for contracts, warranties, even order receipts, and smaller folders are made for DVD/CD disks or key cards or gift cards. Document and presentation folders will have pockets to hold the pieces securely in place, and may have cuts to insert a business card.

When you chose custom folders, the print shop will work with you to select a stock design or modify your custom design, maybe based on your web site landing page, or using photos or artwork drawn for the event or objective for which the folders will be used. For presentations or documents, you need to opt for a format suitable for the document. If the contents are be printed in landscape mode, the folder will also need to open in landscape format. If your presentation handout will accommodate additional peices other than the slide notes, you may want to chose triple panel custom folders rather than the standard two-panel folders.

Custom folders are printed on coated stock paper, laminated for strength, durability, and a professional appearance. Using custom folders not only firmly establishes your company image in the mind of the audience, it makes a clear statement: The information inside is valuable, and we’ve given you a way to organize and file it. In addition to the pocket folders used for presentations, custom folders are available as tabbed file folders.

Even though cost-per-unit decreases with quantity, do not be tempted to purchase a one-size-fits-all solution. The image impact value in custom printed folders is in the ability for you to order the right personalized folder for the content, combined with an appropriate message.

Only six new construction projects have come up in Birmingham in the last 12 months, reports the Birmingham Crane Survey published in 2009 by Drivers Jonas. This figure is much lesser than the 21 projects that had begun last year.

The survey attributes this decrease in number to the economic recession, and the ‘credit crunch’ that followed. The property and development sector was adversely affected, resulting in a decrease in real estate value.

Chase Midlands, Regal Executive Homes, Wrekin and William Ashley are some of the many big property developers that have had to bite the dust. Numerous small companies have also been affected. Construction work had to be cut short and even completely terminated in some cases, with companies waiting for the economic condition to improve to restart the work.

The construction work of the second phase of Masshouse and Newhall Square, and work on the hotel and residential area at Snowhill has been stopped, states the survey.

However, it is predicted that by 2011, the renovation of New Street Station, Library of Birmingham, and the Jewellery Quarter public square will reach completion. It is hoped that these new shared office projects will help bring back the stable economy and foster the completion of the undone construction work, while also encouraging new projects within Birmingham city.

Compared to last year, the requirement for office space in UK is lesser by 1 million square feet, states the survey. Therefore, only two new office constructions are slated for completion this year.

Here are some tips to choosing leather wristbands or leather bracelets that will fit your style:

For the most masculine look for men: Choose a wide leather band, about 2 & 3/4 inches wide. If you want to go for a harder, more masculine look, matching wide leather bands are good at 2 & 3/4 inch wide. For bands this wide, look for plain bands or bands with 2-3 straps across the front. If you are going for the most masculine look, the color black band is best, otherwise, the brown is a little more tame.

For a casual look for men: Choose a band that is about 1 & 1/2 - 2 1/4 inches wide. What is popular now for both men and women is a lot of texture on the band, weaving and stitching is good. You want to draw attention to the band, you want it to really stand out and add to your look. For casual wear, choose a brown band. If you want be a little more bold, go for black.

For a casual look for women: Choose a band that is about 1/2 inches wide. A stringy or wraparound plain leather band is good, for a more subtle look, choose the color brown. If you want to be a little more bold, go for black.

For a bolder look for women: Choose a band that is about 1 inch to 1 & 1/2 inches wide. Once again, brown is going to be a little less bold than black. Here again, weaving and stiching is popular and the more texture on your band the better.

Popular styles that stand out:

Sharp leather color and stitching color contrasts. For example: white stitching on black or brown leather.

Have your name or a phrase engraved onto the leather. There are a few places online that offer this service.

A wristband or cuff with a lot of texture. Look for weaving and stitching in abundance. There are some very creative styles available nowadays with both weaving and stitching.

A wristband or leather braclet with a jewel or stone attached to the leather. These are a little harder to find, but they are becoming popular, especially for women, and are worth looking into.

Matching cuff wristbands and cuff watch sets, matching leather, style, etc., is always going to look good.

If you are leaning toward getting a leather wristband or cuff, or just a bolder leather band cuff watch or watch band. They are great accessories to help you add to your look. There are many different styles available online and offline of leather cuffs
and wristbands. Look at the selections available and make sure to choose a leather cuff,
wristband or cuff watch band that will really stand out, draw attention to you and add to your style.

Carrie Reeder
Owner of The Level Collection
http://www.thelevelcollection.com
An online store offering leather cuff
wristbands, cuff watch bands & leather cuff bracelets.

Does that make sense? Yet, that is what I hear from a lot of prospective clients.

What that is saying is, “My Marketing Doesn’t Work So I’ll Never Do That Again!” (I’ve actually heard that statement).

Most small businesses don’t understand how to make it work, so they dip their toe in, try it, and when they don’t get what they expect, they leave to never try it again. Yet, generating exactly the number of leads you need every week is not only achievable but rather easy if you understand the principles and failure to understand them results in an 80% failure rate among most small businesses.

Critical Goals (The Keys: Guaranteed success, vs. Highly Probable Failure)

There are a few critical goals and measurements we track in a business. These typically are:

• The number of leads generated weekly (comes from our marketing plan, advertising, networking, referrals, etc.)

• The number of closed sales, and dollars in closed sales every week

• Number of completed jobs (customers, projects, etc), total dollars generated, and profit (gross profit) generated per job every week.

And finally the bottom line generated by the key measurement results above

• Total dollars sold for the year, profit generated for the year.

• Does the profit generated by your sales pay your overhead.

• After overhead is paid how much extra is generated that goes in your pocket as “net profit.”

The definition of “critical” goals: a goal that IF accomplished will result in

• The total dollars of revenue for the year, the overhead is paid, and having a specific defined number of dollars to put in your pocket.

And IF these goals ARE NOT achieved the consequences will be:

• The total dollars of revenue WILL NOT be reached

• You will likely not be paying overhead and the money will be SUCKED out of your pocket instead of putting it into the pocket.

• AND the biggest consequence, you just entered the high probability that your entire business will fail.

Now that we’ve set the ground work for what critical goals will do for you if you achieve them, and what will be the consequences if you don’t, this leaves us with a rule I give all of my clients:
Critical goals are something that YOU WILL do no matter what.

It’s likely that there are 50-60 other things pulling on you to get done, but since these 5-6 things are SO CRITICAL (success on one side, failure on the other), then NOTHING else is more important. Stop doing the trivial many and focus on the 5-6 critical things that WILL deliver results, guaranteed.

When it comes to a critical goal that appears difficult, our response to that will not be “CAN’T” but rather “HOW?”

Now back to our original statement that

My Ads Don’t Work, So I don’t Do Them Any More

Isn’t lead generation, the leads that come from our ads, one of our critical goals
To generate X number of leads EVERY WEEK.

And our rule was Make it happen no matter what, it’s not CAN’T but HOW?

If our ads are not delivering what we expected, shouldn’t we be figuring out HOW to make them work instead of saying “they don’t work so I’ll never do that again.” We just said CAN’T instead of How. The opposite of our ground rule.

Is business really that simple? Just deliver the Critical Goals?
You bet!

How to fix the ad response rates

For most ads I find these are the critical factors:

1) Who we are communicating to

2) What we are saying

3) How we are saying it (and How must be about the benefit of the product, not the name, specifications, features, and especially not about WHO WE ARE.)

I’ve seen ad response rates jump 10 times on the very next advertisement just from following these ground rules and developing the answers to these questions.

Alan Boyer, CEO of The Leader’s Perspective, LLC is considered one of the world’s leading breakthrough specialists.

With over 35 years of business experience, he has catapulted businesses lightyears ahead in weeks. Some double, some jump 10 times.

He helps companies worldwide reach further than they EVER thought possible….FASTER

http://www.leaders-perspective.com

mailto:AlanBoyer@leaders-perspective.com

Figuring out what to budget for trade shows as part of your overall marketing is as much an art as it is a science. The artistic side relates to the communication of a message that hundreds or thousands of attendees will understand and act on. The scientific side focuses on ROI, how many prospects must you reach to realize a payoff for your effort.

My rule of thumb for trade show and event budgeting is that for an overall marketing budget of 5%, 20% of this should go toward trade shows. Every company is different, however if you depend on relationships, market awareness, and can communicate your message in a visual way, then trade shows are a terrific investment. Where you invest, what shows have your target audience in attendance and how often you attend is going to be unique to your company.

Not surprisingly there are many hidden and not so hidden costs to attending a trade show. Transportation, for example, depending on the size of your trade show display and the amount of trade show “stuff” you take can $250 to over $1000. In some cases it is required or financially smart to join the association or group that is sponsoring the trade show. This again can be from a few hundred to over $500. Below is a simple budget that can give you an overall picture of your next trade show and what the cost categories will be.

The key to success is understanding your market and the players or buyers and reaching them through trade shows in the most efficient way.

Trade Show Budget

Estimate Actual

1.Space rental $ __________ $ __________
2.Display & Graphics $ __________ $ __________
3.Marketing Material $ __________ $ __________
4.Promotional Gifts $ __________ $ __________
5.Freight & Shipping $ __________ $ __________
6.On-Site Services $ __________ $ __________

(electricity, setup, flowers)
7.Pre-show promotion $ __________ $ __________
8.At-event promotion $ __________ $ __________
9.Hospitality $ __________ $ __________
10.Personal expenses $ __________ $ __________
11.Miscellaneous $ __________ $ __________

(10 - 15% of 1-10) $ __________ $ __________
12.Travel, meals $ __________ $ __________

& accommodation
TOTAL SHOW BUDGET $ __________ $ __________

If you would like more information on this topic or if you would like to suggest a topic for a future article, please contact Peter Winters at: peterwinters@presres.com
For over 10 years Mr. Winters has been consulting businesses on strategic planning, marketing, and public relations.

He is the owner of Exhibit Warehouse a Richmond Virginia-based trade show display and trade show exhibit fabrication company.

Success in business thrives on ideas.

The more creative you’re the more you’ll succeed in business.

Below are 5 web advertising ideas to help you succeed.

1. Ask people to find a hidden link in your ad copy. If they
find the hidden link tell them they will get a prize or freebie
by clicking on it. This will increase the chance that they will
buy your product or service because they will read your
whole ad copy.

2. Start a members only web site. Tell visitors what’s in your
members only site and what it costs to get access. Offer them
a free membership, if, in exchange they link to your web site,
post your banner on their home page or agree to advertise
your web site in their e-zine for a set period of time. Usually
they will agree to the free advertising to save money. This is
a powerful way to get free advertising.

3. Want a popular discussion board? This technique is based on
the number of postings made by any one person. You could
give away a free product or service to any person that posts ten
or more messages on your discussion in a month. It could be a
free e-book, report, e-mail consulting etc. Just keep track of
everyone’s postings each month. This could also work for e-mail
discussion lists.

4. Give your visitors an instant article directory. Tell your
visitors they can instantly add a free article directory to
their web site by linking to yours. Just place your ad or banner
ad on top of the article directory for your main product or
service. All those links can add up to a large amount of traffic
for your web site.

5. There a millions of web sites on the internet. Instead of
marketing your web site as a web site. Market it as a free web
book. Design your web site with a title page, table of contents,
chapters, etc. Just place your ad or banner for your product or
service on the top of each web page.

May these web advertising secrets help you to make a lot of money.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO

I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”,(investing online) program, which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free “cash”.