Everything is (or should be) part of your Brand

We recently moved into new facilities. Everyone knows that a move can be both exciting and tiring. It is after the move, when everything finally settles down, that you can take a deep breath and look around.

What do you see? Does your new location say what you want it to say - from its locale to the outside of the building, to the entry, to your actual space? Does it add to your brand? If not something is wrong. Your work space MUST tell your story. It must represent to your employees, clients, vendors, friends, and even walk in visitors who you are and what do you stand for. It should tell them what to expect. It should be part of your brand.

For example, a simple thing as a crooked picture may be interpreted as you do not pay attention to details or a dirty floor may send the message that you do sloppy work - even running out of toilet paper (do not laugh) may say you do not plan properly.
There are two easy questions to ask yourself, your employees, and clients
1. Are you proud of your work space and excited about people coming to visit?
2. Are your visitors happy to come to your office/studio?

We have had several clients say “We know what they do but you know we just enjoy being here”. We often have clients ask if they can use our meeting room and story boarding room for their company meetings. Not because they are elaborate but because of the atmosphere. This is an example of our facilities being part of and building our brand.
So take some time today, look around and make sure your surroundings are adding to your brand.

The Sounds of the Season

I was surfing through the music channels on our cable TV and came across a channel – “Sounds of the Season”. Wondering what one considered to be the season we are in, I selected the channel - 24hour/7 days a week - Christmas and Season Holiday music. No this blog is not about starting the season so early. What came to mind was – it is that time of year again. Part of the season, besides our various religious celebrations, is the welcoming in of a new year.

Except for retailers trying to maximize “Christmas Shopping” sales, this a great “season” to prepare for the next year. For many small companies, January 1st is also the beginning of a new fiscal year.

Take the next weeks and make your own “sounds of the season”.
• Great time for an annual off-site planning meeting
• Take the time to develop a meaningful operating plan for next year. Remember if you cannot measure something, you cannot manage it.
• Budgets are tight but spend this time celebrating your successes over the past year with your staff, employees, and clients. It may be as simple as celebrating that you survived one more year.
• Make sure that you are ready to enter the new year with the proper marketing and advertising plan in place. Even with tight budgets, some “gurus” say that you should be budgeting at a minimum 10% for marketing and advertising.
• This is an excellent time to review and audit all your collateral. Does it tell the correct story about your company.
• Are you ready to properly launch that new product and/or service? Use this time to finalize all your marketing, advertising, and sales material.
• Review your website! Does it need to be updated, refreshed, and does it properly tell your story?
• Finally it is a good time to catch your breath and recreate (re-create), re-energize to face the upcoming year.