The fonts the key

Having a company logo can really boost the appearance of your business, it can make your business card something a lot more memorable, can be an eye catching advert on your facebook page or on the side of your vehicle. Getting a graphic designer to produce you a professional and original logo is well worth it and can cost from about £140 so isn't a bank breaking investment but if you are watching your funds when you start up give yourself a graphic boost by jumping onto a free font website and picking a font that doesn't come as part of the standard font range on your pc, it really is worth an hours effort.

You don't need any special graphics packages to use the fonts once you get them and install them on your computer. A lot of the sites have simple install guides to help you do this. Once the fonts are on your computer you can just open up any document creation package and start using it. If you don't have anything like Microsoft Word, try a great free software package called Open Office, totally free and all the same products as Microsoft Office but with out the price tag.

As an example of what you can produce, we went onto a font site and typed our name into the preview box and selected the top downloaded fonts of that site and here's what the first 4 selections were.

I would happily pick any of these for my business name font and that was me only picking one of the first options on the site and i have had a really good result.

There are thousands of fonts you can choose from that are free and easy to use, so why not take that extra bit of time when you are putting together information about your business, grab yourself a free font and stand out from the crowd.

To get a good selection of sites just google free fonts and start from there. If you would like some help putting together a brand identity give us a call and we can help get you started or we can get our graphic designer to help really get you on the move.

A Thought About - Radio Advertising

If you listen to local commerical radio you'll know that list of local businesses that advertise with the station. You may even know some of the jingles for the businesses. You may or may not like those jingles! What's my point? Have you ever concidered radio advertising for your business? Well like all advertising, tread carefully with it. Not all businesses suit radio advertising.

We tried it before Christmas and although i believe it will have given us a bit more exposure i don't think it suited what we do. In comparison we occasionally have a stand down in the local mall and that can get us more business. I think this is because people can see the t-shirts and gifts up on the stand so it visually flicks a switch in their brain, they walk over pick up a flier and head off on their way. Radio advertising we have a guy saying our wee catch phrase then 15 seconds later its gone. The same person that may pick up our flier upon seeing it in the mall may never even register our radio ad.

I understand that this is all down to what ever suits your business, as of course ever business is different, but can small businesses benefit from radio advertising the same way as larger local businesses.

I remember from years ago we would listen to the radio before going to school and a local taxi company had there jingle playing, it was really annoying but extremely catchy. The company is still going strong in the area and to this day if i go for a night out back home and i need a taxi they are the only company that i can call, because all i need to do is sing the old jingle while i dial.

My advice for any small business thinking of taking on larger scale advertising;

• seek advice - either from your accountant, a business advisor, fellow businesses
• take your time - don't rush in, take your time thinking it over and if you do decide to go for it make sure you have time to organise a good quality jingle, slogan or strap line, you need to make sure it'll work for you.
• advertise - if you can compliment what you are doing by advertising in other places, such as magazines, events or even highlight things on your website/blog
• professional help - can you afford to get a PR company to help you out, to take full advantage of what you are doing? remember it's still your company and you need to control everything that is associated with your company. Bad or bland PR and advertising is a waste of your time and money.

Don't forget though taking a risk might be worth it for your business, but sometimes if it sounds to good....

A thought on: Speed Networking

Well I had a good 'first' today, I attended my first speed networking event. It was a total marathon!

Here's how it went...

9.30am: arrive, have bacon roll and cup of tea (wake up), informal chat with folks there.
9.45am: take seat and you’re told if you’re a 'mover' or a 'sitter'. I think the names speak for themselves. I was a sitter so folks came to me. You get 2 minutes each to chat about your business and what you do. Then the whistle goes and you move on, or in my case wait for the next person to shift over. Over the first run you get to talk to 10 folks.
11am: break for cuppa, more informal networking
11.25am: next round, 10 more folks to chat to
12.30pm: lunch and chatting to folks you didn’t get the chance to meet or talking more in-depth with those you did.
1.30pm: head back to the office

It's really hard work doing pretty much the same schpeel every 2 minutes without trying to get tongue tied. But what was really good was that in that morning networking you have made 20 definite contacts. Not all of them are something you will use and they might not all want to use you, but who knows! What I found really useful is that out of the 20 folks I got a chatting to there were quite a few that seemed genuinely interested in my business and quite a few that I was really interested in using them.

I definately will do the speed netowrking thing again.

But I think to add to my top tips about networking; I think these 3 really need to be added to the list.... please see next post and check out my top tips labels.

competitive etiquette

Question - what is good competitive etiquette?

Well I work alongside other businesses in the same sector as me, both locally and further afield. We all get on great and I respect these guys. I won't do anything to these folks or their business that would be considered foul play or dirty pool. I am happy to seek help from these guys and to try to do my best to help them if I can. I feel it’s only fair and I know there is plenty of business for all of us so I am happy and they are happy.

But the thing I am debating over just now is what good competitive etiquette is? For example is it the done thing to ask someone at a networking meeting who their suppliers are? To say well I’m starting a business doing the same or something similar thing can you tell me what do I do as I can’t find anything online about it? I couldn't do it to someone I didn't know, I’d even struggle to do it to someone I did know, and only then I would have to really know them and hope they trusted me enough to not abuse anything they told me.

This isn't really much advice or a huge revelation I’ve had, this is just something I’m pondering.... any thoughts?

Who you gonna call?

I was at the PSYBT Elevator event in Edinburgh at the end of October and it was really interesting, not that it isn't normally but last night the theme for the evening was 'talk to the experts'. They had 5 guests that we had 15 minutes to talk to each of them and ask any questions.

This got me thinking... i know i'm surprised too! When you set up a business, who should you call?

Now even though i'm 2 years in, this recent event with PSYBT made me realise that i still don't know the complete list of who's out there, but hopefully i can help a little with this.... (oh and these may be a little bias towards Scotland)

• Scottish Enterprise - http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/
  
• PSYBT - http://www.psybt.org.uk/
• British Chamber of Commerce - http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/
• Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce - http://www.edinburghchamber.co.uk/
• Cultural Enterprise Office - http://www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk/website/
• Business Gateway - http://www.bgateway.com/
• Business Link (England) - http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/
• HM Revenue & Customs: Self Employed - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/index.shtml

This is only a few but a great resource, these places will be able to help you source funding, networking, get advice on things like National Insurance, employers duties and more.

Check them out and let me know if you find any others that are of interest! :D