Know Your Difference

Choosing the right graphic designer

Rhonda Page — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:02:04 +0000

Choosing a good graphic designer is extremely important in the development of your brand. There are dozens of graphic designers around and everyone you know will recommend someone. When desk top publishing became popular, suddenly everyone was selling themselves as a graphic designer. Make sure to work with a designer who has had formal graphic design training at a reputable institution. Spending some time to choose the right person will really pay off in the end. Look for a designer who has done work in your area of focus. If you are marketing a food product, make sure to choose a designer who has packaging, and in particular, food packaging experience. Packaging food is quite different from packaging electronic equipment! Most designers will gladly send you their portfolio for your review. I recommend starting with three designers and narrowing it down to one. Make sure to have a conversation with each designer to see if you feel aligned to work with them from a personal chemistry standpoint.

How to find a graphic designer?

Start with your network and ask friends who have done a great job on their brand. Look for design that you like and find out who did it. That’s how I found my designer Megan Hunt. Every major city has a graphic design association you can call for recommendations. AIGA (www.aiga.org) was founded in 1914 and is the oldest and largest professional membership organization in the United States for graphic design. It has a chapter in every state. In Canada, you can contact the GDC, Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (www.gdc.net) for recommendations.

If you are tight on budget, go to a local art college and find out who their top graphic design students are.

Pricing design work

Before you speak to a designer for the first time, send them your brand summary. Make sure you are very clear on what you need, your timing and your budget. If you don’t feel comfortable telling them your budget, make sure you have a number in your mind of what you are prepared to spend on design. Don’t waste their time, asking for a proposal before you know if they are in your ballpark. Ask for a verbal price range to make sure they’re in your ballpark. Once you know you are somewhat aligned with pricing, you can ask them to spell out the scope of the project, the deliverables, schedule and budget. I strongly advise that you do not make your decision based on price alone!

I’ll say it again and again. Make sure you’ve done your upfront work and you know your audience and differentiator. They need this information to do a good job on your project!

GOT AN IDEA,THOUGHTS OR OPINIONS, LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

The One Thing You Should Do For New Years

Rhonda Page — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:12:19 +0000

When I was a kid, we used to go on a family road trip every summer. We borrowed my grandfathers Lincoln because it was big and I’d make my little brother lie on the floor so I could have the whole back seat to myself (before the days of mandatory seat belts). Long story short, we always got lost! We’d spend anywhere from 2 hours to half a day asking for directions and trying to get back on track. Many years later I drove to California with my husband. He had the whole trip organized with maps and “Trip Tiks” that set out your whole route. I was so impressed and when I told him, he said to me “did you not go on a family driving trip every summer”? I said yes, but I never saw a map!

I tell this story all the time when I speak to people about their brand vision – it gets a lot of laughs but in a way it has a deeper meaning. Without a map or a vision for your brand…how do you know where you’re going?

I learned about the power of visioning about 4 years ago. New Years is the perfect time to let your brand vision bubble up. I don’t mean sitting and working at it. I really mean letting it come to you. There are 3 techniques that I use regularly to help my brand vision become reality:

#1. Set your intention and then do something else

It’s the perfect thing to do at this time of year when you’re having more quiet time and in a more relaxed state. Have in mind the intention of getting clear on your vision for your brand and then just go do other things. Be open in your mind to new ideas. Insights will come when you are not trying to find them.

#2. Be prepared to receive and write everything down

You may be skiing or sitting on a beach but have a notebook with you so you can jot down things that come to you. If you have the intention set, insights will come to you when you least expect it. Be prepared to receive them. Even if something comes to you that doesn’t make sense, write it down and go back to it later. You never know where it might go. Even if it seems crazy or totally out of reach – be open. In visioning there are no limitations.

#3. Believe it will happen and take action

As you begin to formulate an idea, allow yourself to get excited about it and believe it will happen. Think about small actions steps that you can take to begin to move you there. It could be something really small like reorganizing your filing cabinet or hiring a virtual assistant. Every vision needs to be energized with action steps and belief that it will really happen. I’m learning more and more that the belief part his the most important thing. You don’t need to know the little details of how it will happen just know that it will.

I encourage you to take this opportunity to bring in 2012 with an exciting brand vision. I speak from experience when I say this…it’s such a joy to have work that you love. So create your vision and start moving in the right direction!

Happy New Year to all!

Love Rhonda

The 4 Factors In Making Money

Rhonda Page — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:58:29 +0000

I recently had a very simple conversation with an accountant about making money. He said “There are 4 factors in making money.” These 4 things seem very obvious but as entrepreneurs we often need a reminder:

#1. Control your costs

Controlling costs, means rent, supplies, salaries etc. See where you can cut back. Remember this is one of the most important strategies when it comes to making a profit!

#2. Get more clients or customers

This one speaks for itself. If you missed my 2 recent articles entitled “No More Cold Calling” make sure to check them out. I talk about a number of important business development strategies.

#3. Get them coming back more often

Make sure they are loyal to you by making sure you are well differentiated in your market. If they have the perception that they can’t get what you offer anywhere else, how loyal do you think they will be? Provide a unique experience so they stay loyal to you. Deliver on all your promises!

#4. Increase transaction value

What products or services can you bundle together. How can you add value to what you offer and increase the transaction value at the same time. This is where it’s great to do your stakeholder interviews and ask them what else they need. Have fun and get creative with this. My clients often need graphic design, maybe I should bundle this with my virtual course? There’s a thought!

The 4 ways to make money are very simple, not always easy but definitely doable! Take a fresh look at your business through this lens!

To Your Clarity!

Rhonda

GOT AN IDEA,THOUGHTS OR OPINIONS, LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

No More Cold Calling Part 2 – My 5 Favorite Business Development Tactics

Rhonda Page — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:57:17 +0000

Last week I talked about the 6 rules of effective business development. This week I’m going to tell you about my 5 favorite business development tactics (none of which include cold calling). Before I tell you these 5 best tactics, I want to remind you to ’MAKE SURE YOU ARE CLEAR ON YOUR MESSAGE AND HOW YOU ARE DIFFERENT’. I’ll always keep coming back to this because you can do tons of marketing and put all your time and energy into it and see no return. Your audience must be made to understand why they should choose you over your competitor.
These are in order starting with the most powerful:

#1: Speaking

Speaking is by far the best marketing tactic. Whether you’re speaking to large groups or at your local Chamber of Commerce chapter meeting, speaking establishes you as an expert. You can speak for free and if you’re really good and you love it, speaking can be a great revenue stream. If you’re speaking free of charge, make sure you showcase your products or services - but remember you’re helping not selling!

#2: Media Relations

A basic definition of media relations is to shape and maintain the image of a company, organization or individual, by being quoted or featured in various media (newspapers, magazines, television etc). This tactic also establishes you as en expert. There is cost attached and no guarantees but If you have a good story it can really build your brand. You’ll want to bring in some outside expertise if you have the budget.

#3 Networking Events

Most major cities have lots of business networking events happening. Don’t go running from one event to the next. Be very strategic about the events you go to. Be very clear on the audience attending the events. Are they your ideal audience? Are they influencers who will lead you to your ideal audience? You want to use these events to cultivate relationships not just to give out as many business cards as you can! Becoming involved in one of these organizations is where things really start to happen, so pick the right one for you and show up on a regular basis. People will get to know you but it is only the beginning of the relationship. Invite them for a coffee and start building!

#4 Blogging and Article Marketing

Blogging and article marketing also establish you as an expert. Google loves new content. Every time you add to your blog, you are adding new content and this gets you ranked higher in the search engines. I mix my blog up with personal content and business content but it all relates back to branding. I’m having a lot of fun with this. Blog posts don’t need to be long, just real and engaging. Try to throw in some key words too!

If you like writing, you can turn your blog posts into articles and post them on sites likewww.ezinearticles.com. These sites get huge traffic and lots of people looking for content. It also gets you seen as an expert.

#5 Social Media

I’m sure you hear a ton of buzz about social media. Many of you tell me you don’t want to waste time on this but you should know that I actually got a speaking gig that paid $3,000 from a conversation that started on Facebook. Remember in social media it’s all about the conversation.

There you have it – my 5 favorite business development tactics. If you do all of these or even pick 3 and do them on a regular basis, you’ll be surprised how people start buzzing about you. I’m always so surprised when I run into people I know and they’ve been following everything I’m doing and are so excited about it. This is what starts buzz and this is what builds brands — but remember to always stay true to your message!

No More Cold Calling

Rhonda Page — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:54:40 +0000

I have not made a cold call in years! Any calls that I make are warm calls. I’ve been building my brand and connecting with people so by the time we get to the phone we are both glad to be talking. It’s much more than making a sale It’s about building your brand (strong and differentiated message) and building relationships. Here are the 6 rules to get you started in thinking about business development in a different way.

RULE #1: If you are not POSITIONED properly, the sales process is extremely slow and difficult!

I can’t emphasize this enough. I don’t want you going out and doing business development until you’ve done your background work and are very clear on your vision, your audience, your differentiator and your message. Otherwise you’re just adding to the noise. Whether you do my virtual course Your Brand Boost, http://www.yourbrandboost.com, buy the workbook http://www.knowyourdifference.com/workbook or work with me one-on-one http://www.knowyourdifference.com/services/, you need the clarity before you go out into the world and try to sell. When you stand out, they come to you! (no more cold calls)

RULE #2: Don’t be so keen to write a proposal

Ask 4 key questions before you jump to write a proposal: 1. What exactly is the need here? (if they aren’t completely clear, a proposal is a waste of time) 2. Who is the decision maker? (you might be talking to the wrong person) 3. What is your timing (hopefully soon) 4. What is your budget (this is the scary one but you might as well through out some numbers up front to see if they’re in your ballpark).

RULE #3: Be very clear on who your ideal client is and be prepared to walk away if they aren’t ideal

This is a sticky one but very helpful. As much as your prospect is assessing you, you should be assessing them. This is where gut instinct comes in. If you get that weird feeling that they aren’t quite the right client for you…pay attention! I know you don’t want to give up the money but trust me on this one, there is someone else right around the corner who is your ideal and does want to work with you.

RULE #4 Charge what you’re worth

This is a really big one. I see too many people way undercharging for their expertise. Step into your expertise. Many of you have over 20 years exprience but don’t feel you’re an expert. You’re intimidated by all the other experts out there and in my experience it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors there are many claiming to be experts who have 1 year of experience. I’m going to make this up but “step into your expertness” Examine your issues around money and the beliefs you have about money that were instilled in you as a child.

RULE #5 Know where they’re at in the buying cycle

Are they putting out feelers or are they seriously ready? This ties in with the timing question above. There are many stages to the buying process from the research and enquiry where they are thinking about doing something to the other end of the spectrum where they are ready to start next week.

RULE #6 Think of helping instead of selling

The word sales has become a dirty word. It congers up images of the encyclopedia salesman standing at your front door (remember the movie Foul Play with Goldie Hawn). You have valuable information and a product or service that is going to help someone. Start thinking about what you’re doing in that way and you’ll feel much better about sales.

These are important rules that will help you move forward in your business development and establish yourself as an expert to they come to you. Next week I’ll talk about the various level of business development and you’ll understand more about why you don’t need to cold call any more!

Platform Shoes and Centers of Influence

Rhonda Page — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:17:42 +0000

Last month my niece had a Bat Mitzvah. Her party was at the Hardrock Cafe and there were about 80 kids there. I observed an interesting fashion trend. Platform shoes…not the kind we had – this is in a whole different league!

I remember begging my mother when I was that age to let me wear platform shoes (without much success) but they were nothing like the platform shoes of today. Check it out.
I was wondering how a trend like this gets started – nobody could walk in the things but every girl there had them. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point” he talks about how trends get started and in his opinion all you need is one centre of influence and an idea spreads like wildfire.

When you think about your business, who are your Centers of Influence? Who are the ones that are going to be talking up your product or service. Are you marketing to them or are you marketing to one person at a time? Definitely something to ponder.

Ed Mirvish – Entrepreneur with Bold Vision

Rhonda Page — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 23:05:09 +0000

My friends Nick and Judi Hughes of Your Planning Partners posted this on their blog on October 27th. I think It’s a great story!

Ed Mirvish was 15 when his father died. As a result, he had to drop out of high school to run the not very successful store his father had opened in Toronto. He struggled to keep it afloat for 9 years before conceding defeat. But this inauspicious start to Ed’s business career was not indicative of what was to follow.

Ed and his wife Anne then opened their first venture together, a dress shop. It was perfect timing because the war had started and Toronto was filling up with young single women who had flocked to the city to take up the thousands of factory jobs opened up by the war; and they had money! When the war ended and the single young women went home or got married they decided to change their shop into a discount dry goods store. And opportunity knocked again.

His landlord died and Ed jumped at the opportunity to buy the building. Over the next few years he took over the adjoining properties until his store occupied the entire block from Bathurst to Markham Street. Honest Ed’s, the new and greatly enlarged discount store opened in 1958 and Toronto was never the same again. It is garish and fun with 20,000 blinking lights and self mocking funny signs covering its exterior. If you live in the Toronto area and have not yet visited Honest Ed’s; go now. If you are visiting Toronto; go now!

I think Ed must have bored easily because by the 1960’s he was looking for new challenges. He heard the Royal Alex theatre was up for sale. At that time the theatre, built in 1907, was in an awful state of disrepair and was located in a run down area populated by ugly warehouses. In fact the theatre was to be torn down, which was a common reaction to old buildings in the 1960’s.

Knowing nothing about the theatre business Ed bought the Royal Alex for $200,000 and proceeded to spend an additional $400,000 to renovate and restore it. A huge amount of money in those days! For Toronto, his effort and investment was well worth it. It is a beautiful and graceful theatre that is another “must see” if you haven’t been inside. And it is successful!

But when the newly renovated theatre reopened Ed realized there was nowhere nearby for theatre goers to have dinner. So he bought the ugly warehouses and opened his first restaurant; Ed’s Warehouse. Its menu was simple; roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, peas and mash potatoes; that’s it! Nothing more! But it too was a huge success. And so he went on to open other restaurants in the ugly warehouses; Ed’s Chinese, Ed’s Italian, Ed’s Follies, Ed’s Seafood. They are all gone now but the area is awash with a large variety of excellent restaurants; all thanks to Ed paving the way for these others to follow.

Ed had never been to a theatre in London England. In fact he had never been to London. And yet when he heard the Old Vic, an old prestigious London theatre, was up for sale he bought it and again spent a fortune renovating and restoring. For his efforts at reviving this historic London theatre the Queen rewarded him with a CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He thought it meant Creating Bargains Everywhere.

In the 1980’s huge blockbuster plays became popular. One of them was Miss Saigon, which Ed wanted to bring to Toronto. There wasn’t a theatre in Toronto large enough to hold the play so he built one. The Princess Diana Theatre opened in 1993 to great acclaim and has continued to hold successful plays ever since. Located just a stones throw from the Royal Alex it completed the renewal of the area into today’s well known theatre district.

Why was Ed Mirvish so successful? He certainly didn’t follow the normal business rules of staying focused on one thing. He was all over the map; discount stores to theatres to restaurants. But wait; I do see a focus here. He brought entertainment to the public. Honest Ed’s may be a discount store; but it is very entertaining. And his restaurants were entertaining; full of glitz and glamour and flamboyant antiques. And of course the theatres provided entertainment. So he was focused! I also think he was successful because he just loved doing what he was doing; challenging himself with high risk ventures and loving every minute of it.

He was a very liked and trusted man by friends, family, business associates and employees. Even those of us who never met him had great respect for him and for what he was doing to our city. When he died in 2007 at the age of 92 Toronto lost a little something special. Richard Ouzounian wrote in the Toronto Star: “He may have begun by showing us where to find a bargain, but he wound up by giving us much that was priceless.”

Do your market research!

Rhonda Page — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:51:39 +0000

If you’ve worked with me you are aware that I am a huge proponent of market research. Not a focus group, not a telephone survey at dinner time, but the kind of market research where you have a chat with your client or customer and find out what they like, what can be improved and what they need that’s not being fulfilled. This has been gold for my clients and they are seeing significant growth in their bottom line as a result.

As you know, I make a big effort to walk my talk so I do my own market research on an ongoing basis. My last round was this summer and I got 3 major insights:

Insight #1: The need for ongoing support

My clients expressed that they wanted ongoing support and insights from me. Not only did they want help implementing their brand, but they wanted help with their revenue model and marketing. They wanted to make sure they were profitable and had strong cash flow. They pointed out that I was already doing this kind of work with them.

Insight #2: The need for learning from a reliable source

The second insight I got was their need to lean about things like LinkedIn and PR for a small business. They felt overwhelmed with promotions on this stuff and wanted a reliable source to get information from.

Insight #3: Keeping a positive mindset

The last thing that came through in my own market research was the idea that clients really liked and needed the “mindset” support. Lets face it, it’s not easy to be an entrepreneur!

The result: Your Revenue Ramp Up

So I took my learnings and put it all together into a new program that I recently launched, Your Revenue Ramp Up. Clients get 2 private coaching calls each month and 2 group calls each month. The Group calls alternate between topics like LinkedIn and positive mindset techniques. (my last call on LinkedIn rocked).

So guess what, it’s being well received and do you know why? Because they asked for it. So the moral of the story is…it pays to do market research. I can’t tell you how many clients I talk to that don’t. They have tons of ideas and offers but don’t take the time to get client or customer input. So do your market research! It will pay off big time.

(And if you’d like my help…Join the Revenue Ramp Up program)

How a rubber band changed my life

Rhonda Page — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:49:57 +0000

About 5 years ago, I was introduced to the idea of putting a rubber band on my wrist and pulling at it every time I had a negative thought. Well you can imagine what happened the first few days. I had a very sore wrist. It was non stop all day. In fact I noticed that there were very few positive thoughts in there. Wow. It’s was pretty enlightening exercise and I started to do some research into this.

I learned that thoughts create feelings and feelings can create more of the same feeling which perpetuates your reality. For example at the time I was experiencing a lot of negative thinking that was leading to the feeling of anxiety. I was in a long distance relationship and my partner was pressuring me to move across the country (not too anxiety provoking). So I was in a constant state of anxiety and I was perpetuating it.

Long story short, I learned that If I wanted to turn things around I had to change my thinking. Not an easy task but I went on a quest to do this. I discovered Louise Hay’s work and for every negative thought I began to turn it into the reverse positive thought. It was pretty forced at first but It definitely helped. I was on a mission to turn this around. I studied, took courses and read books. I took the Hoffman Process in 2009 where I cleared out a lot of old patterns form childhood that were not useful to me.

There are many things you can do but it has to be a conscious effort. I turned things around big time! I have mostly positive thoughts going through my brain now and the days when I’m having the negative thoughts, they go by like a movie reel. I don’t give them much energy or attention (ok some days I still do, nobody’s perfect).

Overall I’m light years ahead of where I was. I’m in a happy place most of the time and attracting wonderful things into my life. It’s a work in progress but definitely worth the effort. And the long distance relationship? I ended it. Too stressful but I am proud to say I’m in a wonderful relationship now with a guy who lives 7 kilometers away from me!

Where are you spending your energy?

Rhonda Page — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:21:10 +0000

Last week I did a group call for my clients where I interviewed Judi Bechard. Judi has created a program called “The Clearing Experience” which focuses on removing blocks that keep you stuck in business, relationships or health issues.

The focus of the call was “Clear Business”. Prior to the call, I did a “Clear Business” session with Judi and we talked a lot about expending energy. She gave me the homework of reviewing my revenues from the last year and looking at where I spent my greatest energy and got my greatest return. I created an excel spreadsheet and looked at each client from an energy perspective:

How I got the client

Cost of the sale (money and hours spent)

What I billed them

How much I enjoyed the work

Did I get repeat business

This is a VERY interesting exercise. I very quickly realized that the majority of my clients came through a referral or through a speaking engagement. The cost of the sale was zero and the length of time I put into getting those clients was about 4-6 hours. I enjoyed the work and the people, got repeat business and the billings were great. Then there was another group of clients where I spent a substantial amount of money on marketing, put in about 100 hours of effort and earned nominal revenue. Get the picture? It doesn’t seem like rocket science but it took going through this exercise to make me realize that I was expending significant money and energy in the wrong direction.

Give this one a try and see where you net out. I’d love to hear about it!

If you’d like the recording of the call with Judi, I’d be happy to send it to you.