Hub You - Business

Advertising Strategies - Alternatives to Print, Alternatives Within Print
Is print advertising headed for extinction? No way, but I am seeing more and more companies pulling dollars from their print advertising budgets and moving them into other alternatives. The reason? To brand their product or service more effectively by balancing their ad campaigns and reaching their targeted demographic audiences from different angles. And even within the print medium, the playing field appears to be changing. Newspaper and Yellow Pages advertising has suffered a blow from the growth of the internet. Googling, Yahoo-ing and online news sources are pulling from their numbers. With internet research more easily available, more advertisers are targeting their prospective customers with direct mail campaigns which gives them the ability to pinpoint the demographic they are trying to reach by age, gender, income and location.

es and more. Over a hundred ideas came out of that time and great clarity for the topic.

Coal Mines
The deepest Coal Mine in the world is over 5000 feet below the ground in the UK. Many in the United States are over 1200 feet deep, most of those are closed and now few are remaining. There is a mine in Alabama, which is the deepest vertical shaft coalmine in North America, with operations at 2,140 feet beneath the surface. It is hard for the coalmines in Washington State, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Alabama to compete with the incredible economies of scale of the Gillette WY above ground mine. Below ground coalmines can be quite dangerous. There are gases underground and coal dust and if a fire breaks out it steals all the oxygen. Learn more about the serious nature of these mine safety you may wish to visit this site: http://www.usmra.com.Recently the rescue of the coalminers in

This article is about the benefits, pitfalls and thinking that were involved in a building a new brand. While it’s my story of involving my speaking business, you should think about your own story, your passion, and what fits into your life. CAUTION: Realize this, it’s taken a LONG time, it was hard work, and it was painful at times. If you’re not willing to experience those things then keep doing what you’re doing.

Have you asked yourself these questions? Are you happy with the answers?

1. Are you working harder to secure fewer and fewer customers?

2. Are you finding price to be a MAJOR concern for your buyer?

3. Are you generating interest from clients but not having a good ratio of inquiries to closings?

IF you said yes to these questions, you may be ready for the journey of reinvention.

Two things drove me to reinvent my speaking business:

1) I longed for a unique message, a brand to differentiate me in a crowded market. It is not new news that there are hundreds or maybe thousands of people who can fill an hour on a conference agenda and who present similar things as you and I. I didn’t want to be a part of that. Perhaps you don’t want to be a carbon copy in your marketplace either.

2) I wanted to develop a business that would build value, something that was scalable and hopefully sellable IF and when I choose to stop speaking and do something else.

My story

Somewhere around the year 2000, I decided I was ready for a change but I didn’t know where to begin. A few years later, I had the good fortune of meeting Bruce Turkel, a branding expert. Bruce owns a branding firm in Miami and he agreed to help me create some new promotional materials which eventually led to creating a whole new brand. Bruce came to hear me speak; I heard his branding presentation. I read his great book Building Brand Value. We bounced some ideas back and forth over several months. Then EUREKA! Bruce had written down my name on a white board in his office. As he looked at it one day, a phrase knocked him over. Right in the middle of my name, Tim Richardson, was the phrase I’M RICH! The fire hydrant opened. Ideas began to flow. I holed myself up in a resort on the ocean for three days. I mapped out ideas, played with speech titles, wrote draft book titles and more. Over a hundred ideas came out of that time and great clarity for the topic.

Tracking Your Advertising and Marketing Dollars
Are you getting the proper return on investment of your advertising dollar? Do you feel that your marketing dollars and advertising expenditures are getting the results that you want? How do you track your advertising and marketing dollar expenses? Do you survey customers to make sure how they learned about your products or services?Have you considered the ratio of advertising dollars to new customers? Are you sure that your advertising dollar delivery is sending the proper message to your target market and potential customers? What methods do you have a place for tracking advertising and marketing dollars? Do you have a sophisticated system or are you relying on the data that the last advertising representative or account executive gave to you?If you were an advertising salesman what kind of data would you want to give t

u finding price to be a MAJOR concern for your buyer?

3. Are you generating interest from clients but not having a good ratio of inquiries to closings?

IF you said yes to these questions, you may be ready for the journey of reinvention.

Two things drove me to reinvent my speaking business:

2) I wanted to develop a business that would build value, something that was scalable and hopefully sellable IF and when I choose to stop speaking and do something else.

My story

Cooling UK Property Market
It is of little surprise that recent interest rate rises have taken its toll on house prices across the UK. The number of new mortgage approvals in the UK fell to a 12-month low in April, Bank of England figures show. Mortgage approvals totalled 107,000 in April, down from 111,000 in March and the third monthly decline in a row. In a further indication of weakening buyer demand mortgage lending rose by ?8.9bn, much less than expected and the weakest rise since September"The Bank of England will be comforted by today's news which shows its monetary tightening is taking effect," said Thushani Gajasinghe, an economist at the Centre for Economic and Business Research."With a further quarter-point rate increase possible in the third quarter, consumer lending may cool further."But now, after a fourth quarter-point interest ra

rt of that. Perhaps you don’t want to be a carbon copy in your marketplace either.

2) I wanted to develop a business that would build value, something that was scalable and hopefully sellable IF and when I choose to stop speaking and do something else.

My story

Running a Business? Why You Need to Know About Accountancy
When you first envisaged working for yourself, it's pretty unlikely (unless you're an accountant) that this vision included late nights compiling end of period financials. Or sitting hunched over a part-completed profit and loss statement with furrowed brows. There's no doubt accountancy, for most, is not the most glamorous part of the job. But it is essential to making well formed business decisions, weak accounting is a fatal flaw, and if you remember nothing else from this article, remember this, your company's finances are YOUR responsibility not your accountant's!Liability for decisions rests ultimately with you as the business manager. Not with your accountant. But even with the best accountant in the world, if you haven't taken the time to understand the function of the accountant and the accounts, you can't exp

led to creating a whole new brand. Bruce came to hear me speak; I heard his branding presentation. I read his great book Building Brand Value. We bounced some ideas back and forth over several months. Then EUREKA! Bruce had written down my name on a white board in his office. As he looked at it one day, a phrase knocked him over. Right in the middle of my name, Tim Richardson, was the phrase I’M RICH! The fire hydrant opened. Ideas began to flow. I holed myself up in a resort on the ocean for three days. I mapped out ideas, played with speech titles, wrote draft book titles and more. Over a hundred ideas came out of that time and great clarity for the topic.

Minding Your Own Brand - If They Come, Have You Built It?
Every time I watch television I see ads which depict the most wonderful places to shop. One particular ad depicts a home improvement superstore full of friendly, helpful, knowledgeable staff in every department. The ad goes on to explain how this staff is there to assist you in every facet of home improvement and repair. One day I needed a part for my kitchen faucet and a new cordless drill, so I set out for that store.Upon arrival the only person who acknowledged my presence during my first ten minutes in the store was the “greeter” who was trying to get me to fill out a credit card application. The staff who were standing in the plumbing aisle shuffled me to the next person who “knows more about this department.” After talking to three associates and spending fifteen more minutes searching, I finally bumped into the fabled “plumbin

es and more. Over a hundred ideas came out of that time and great clarity for the topic.

That was the easy part (and getting there WASN’T easy). Included in the hard part, was leaving my old speech and beautiful marketing materials behind (more on that below). I started talking about my new focus to prospects and even included bit and pieces in speeches I had already booked. I tried out new material. I did a few speeches for free. After 18 years away, I joined a Toastmasters Club and used it as a place to practice new material. I tried to leverage speaking engagements by offering to speak for civic and community groups. For awhile, I felt like I was moving backwards. Sometimes you have to do that to move forward. I began asking people about their views on richness. As I spoke with people, I heard incredible stories about people who had richness in ways money could never buy. I stared writing an article for a local newspaper in which I profiled people who were rich in the ways that mattered. I pitched my book idea to an agent who loved the concept. I asked my speaker colleagues and clients about it. The feedback was dead on. JUST DO IT!

Pitfalls

As I mentioned, it’s NOT easy. Deep thinking about your business is necessary. It’s not fun. If you’re like me, you want success in a box. You want the great and you want it yesterday. Be forewarned, that the process of reinventing yourself might mean loss of business, clients, and productivity.

Make no mistake about it, I’ve have lots to learn. My journey of reinvention is still in its infancy. Here are some things that might get you started on your journey:

1) Get away. Clear your brain. Think. Reflect. Examine. Somewhere in the middle of my reinvention, I went to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park to get some answers. I returned with these questions:

1. Where and how do I begin looking at what’s next?
2. What is different about me, my message, my business?
3. How do I capitalize on these differences?
4. How do I monetize these differences?
5. How do I stop doing what I’m doing and start doing something else? (This last question frightened me the most.)

About a week after this experience, I heard Joe Calloway, author of “Becoming a Category of One”. Joe’s compelling argument left me shaken. It also left me with two directives:

1) Pick a lane
2) Let go

My career had been like a drunk driver on a ten lane freeway. I randomly shifted lanes in my topics with little regard for what made me tick or what a client might want. The letting go part inspired me to do something long overdue. I took my four-color brochure and press kit and tore it to shreds. Then I got a hammer and—in a bonding moment with my eight year-old son—smashed my demo video into a zillion pieces. As difficult as it was, that was the easy part. The hard part was

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Finding cheap ways to build awareness for your healthcare facility is tough. Here are 10 things you can do that create a positive image in your community and don’t cost an arm and a leg.

If you're thinking of doing backups, likely the first things to come to mind are backing up your computer and maybe your email. There are so many other things that need to be backed up though.

When the EEOC sued Ralph Loren because one of their photo shoots needed all blondes in it and denied a brunette an audition, one could conclude that political correctness and employment lawsuits hit an all time low. Swim suit models who were dark haired complained that they did not get the part? Die your hair for the week.

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