Here are some organizations that I feel are worthwhile, please let me know if you have any to add to the list. Organizations that truly know the Spirit of the Season all year long.

- Your local volunteer fire company, they depend so much on the generosity of other. Please help.

- Your local Rotary Club. These dedicated business persons help with community projects to international aid and do so much to help others around the world and around the corner.

- Your local food bank. As the economy slowly recovers from 2011 to 2012, please remember there are many in your community that may need help with the basic elements, such as their next meal, please remember to help all year long, as hunger isn’t just a seasonal problem.

- Helping someone that is down on his luck, cancer touches almost every family, and For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation helps families battling cancer so they can get break from cancer.

- Nothing says Christmas and Hanukkah like toys for children, no one does it better than the U.S. Marine Corps. and their Toys for Tots program. If you can help, please do.

Let me know who you help at this season, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

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Everything was going great. The company I started, which I thought would be providing mostly writing and graphic design services, quickly evolved to one providing web design 80 percent of the time. I found there was a need for small and medium size businesses to have a single source of marketing materials, whether they are online or on paper. WordPress became a powerful ally, as most clients wanted the ability to create content and update their own website to talk directly to their customers. My design skills came in handy when creating new web graphics and corresponding brochures, business cards and advertisements. My desktop publishing skills were tested and expanded as I began laying out hundreds of pages of reports and books for clients such as Monitoring Analytics and Flourtown Fire Company.

Then I saw it, an ad from a financial firm, they needed help with their marketing and communications. The job entails everything I’ve been doing with RavenWood Creative wrapped up in a neat little company that is rapidly growing and with plenty of opportunity. So as my relationship changes with my clients, I ask for patience and understanding as we make this transition to a new opportunity for all of us. It’s been a pleasure working with everyone, as most relationships go, they’ve had there ups and downs, but in the end I hope your relationship with RavenWood Creative has helped grow your business and opened new opportunities.

Tim

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Today it’s a 140 characters at a time, but as the Muslim Spring and other tragedies have shown us the words of the public spread information and news quite effectively. The pressure to get the story in this digital age seems t have caused the News of the World to do anything to get the story, but in the end the public has the last word.

Until next time, Tim

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So if you need help with marketing and taking your business to the next level or need graphic or web design services, we’re your firm.

If you need help getting to the next level of a fair game … look elsewhere …

Has your business ever been mistaken for something or someone it’s not, let me know?

Thanks, Tim

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For several years, even before I took out on my own with RavenWood Creative I was helping a charity with its marketing materials and graphic design. The charity was called Crossing the Finish Line and it helps adult cancer patients get away for a week-long respite from doctor’s appointments, chemotherapy, and the drag that cancer has on a family. I had a personal reason to help. I went to high school and college with its founder Pete Bossow and his then girlfriend and future wife Marci. Pete died at the age of 30 from a rare form of testicular cancer, but before he did friends and family gathered to raise money to send Marci and Pete on a little getaway. Little do we know then that that simple beef and beer would become a movement that Pete with his dying wish and Marci with the tenacity of a badger would take and run with.

Ten years later and hundreds of families later the charity had a problem… Crossing the Finish Line (CFL) with its nautical theme and sailboat logo didn’t mean anything beyond the close circle of friends and family that were there when the charity began. The was a disconnect and lots of confusion, was it a sailing charity, running charity or confused with Canadian Football? So CFL set out on an arduous task to re-brand itself and set itself up for expansion and more success. I’m glad I was there to help them decide on a new URL name, tweak the logo and the look of their marketing materials and RavenWood Creative will continue to do so as the charity continues to help patients and families, “take a break from cancer.”

Below is a letter that President and Founder Marci Schankweiler recently sent to announce the change. Congratulations For Pete’s Sake.

__________________________________

Dear Friends,

I write today to share incredibly important news with you.

After many years of discussions, formal research, substantial guidance from marketing professionals, significant soul-searching and prayer, I have decided to rename our organization. I am very excited about this change!

Over the years, we have received substantial feedback that our name, Crossing the Finish Line, didn’t clearly communicate our mission or service. Many people thought we were a running organization, and some questioned why a running organization would have a sailboat logo. Others thought that perhaps we only serviced young adults with a terminal diagnosis. Most didn’t know the inside story of the name in that it came from the lips of my late husband Pete Bossow about one month before he died of cancer. Collectively, the overall sentiment was that our name, while beautiful and meaningful, did not capture the essence of our mission.

Our formal name, beginning today, becomes For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation. We will most often brand ourselves as For Pete’s Sake, accompanied by a simple, yet effective tagline that quickly communicates what we do:

For Pete’s Sake, Take a Break from Cancer.

In developing the new name, we:

1. ensure that Pete, who is our inspiration and guiding force, will always be at the center (literally!) of our organization;

2. communicate what we do in a concise manner to current and potential donors—give cancer patients and their loved ones a break from cancer;

3. differentiate ourselves as the only cancer respite foundation for young adults and their families in the United States;

4. provide a communication platform that can easily translate to our diverse audiences such as donors, patients, oncologists, social workers, etc.;

5. grab attention and leave an impression with marketing; and

6. lay the foundation to take our organization to new heights by serving more and more people every year.

Eleven years ago when I lost Pete, the visionary of this organization, I didn’t know much of what my future would bring. Today, with the unyielding love and support l have received from you, we have provided respite vacations to thousands of cancer patients and their loved ones. We have received national recognition from People magazine for our work. We have begun to solidify partnerships with travel industry icons such as Southwest Airlines and CheapCaribbean.com to serve more people in more places. And we stand on the cusp of realizing our dream of serving record numbers of waiting families that desperately need a break from the cancer battle.

To do this, we need to simply and effectively communicate what we do and how we are different from any other non-profit in the country. This letter is the first of many ways that we will communicate our unique program and our new name and tagline.

Please check out our new website, www.takeabreakfromcancer.org. You’ll see immediately that the people you have generously helped are prominently featured all over the site. My hope is that you view it knowing that you’ve played an integral role in giving them a break from cancer.  I deeply appreciate your support.

Fondly,

Marci Schankweiler

FPS Founder and President

P.S. Many thanks to the following companies for their support in our branding process: Sides Media, Vault Communications, Princeton Partners, Modern Graphics,RavenWood Creative, iBeast Business Solutions, Inc. and Stellarpoint Group. I encourage you to visit their websites and witness firsthand the talents they offer!

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What do the colors of your corporation or brand say to your customers about your company? Are you progressive, hip or stoic and secure? Do the colors you choose for a logo say that. When selecting purple and khaki for the corporate colors of RavenWood Creative, I wanted to center my company on creativity and grounded philosophy that solid marketing and a web presence can help a company succeed.

Purple has been used to symbolize magic and mystery, as well as royalty. Being the combination of red and blue, the warmest and coolest colors, purple is believed to be the ideal color. Most children love the color purple. Purple is the color most favored by artists and represents creativity.

Khaki or tan was chosen because of its rich history of military usage and its an earthy color without resorting to brown. It plays well with purple and also speaks to RavenWood Creative’s emphasis on green or earth-friendly practices and services.

What are your corporate or brand colors? Let me know, Tim

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Even Wikipedia reported the incident as “On 4 November 2010 Qantas Flight 32, an Airbus A380 “Nancy-Bird Walton” VH-OQA suffered a serious failure of its left inboard engine. The flight landed safely, and all 433 passengers and 26 crew on board are safe. Cowling parts of the failed engine fell over Batam island.”

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Do you want the ability to publish to your site anytime you’d like? Or tie in your social media presence to your site with ease? Then WordPress and RavenWood Creative could be for you. Check out our client list to see who’s using WordPress.

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Guy had other examples of products being used for pursuits outside it’s original purpose, such as AVON Skin-So-Soft being used as a bug repellent. His advice, “take the money, let the 100 flowers blossom.” My question for you is what unforeseen purpose, product or service helped make your business a success? For me, I was asked to help a business communication organization I belong to revamp its Philadelphia chapter’s website. The result was having to learn WordPress on the fly and design the site at the same time. WordPress development and customization has become a majority of my business, but who knows if it would have happened if I didn’t volunteer for the website redesign assignment. What unforeseen event or product use helped make your business a success?

Let me know, until next time, Tim

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Recently, RavenWood Creative was producing new business cards and with the emphasis the firm puts on new technology, printing a QR code on the card seemed like a no-brainer. And getting it done was a no-brainer as well.

1) Go to a QR Code generation site, there are several but RavenWood Creative went to QReate and Track

2) Enter your information for the QR code.

3) Create the code and download the .png file provided.

4) Use the high-resolution image to put on your marketing material.

That’s it, if you have any questions let us know and we can explore how to implement QRCodes in your marketing.

Examples of what QR codes can do:

• Allow people to scan one off your business card and download your contact information
• Link people to a website for more information on anything – an upcoming conference, a movie trailer, a product description, a video – anything online.
• Print one on a t-shirt and let users find out more about marketing and educational efforts.
• And most importantly, measure your results, by tracking who scans your code and when…

Until next time, Tim

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