Technology and Our World to Come
March 18th, 2007 by John Herman, under change, technology, trends. 2 Comments
Don’t you wanna feel special?
March 16th, 2007 by John Herman, under client communication, competition, customer service. No Comments
Over at UX Magazine there is an article who’s title alone deserves blogging goodness.
You’re special… (I lied).
Not only is it grammatically correct, with the final period outside of the paranthesees and all that fun stuff, it’s completely hilarious. In that “Dear John” sort of way it’s just the best title around.
What’s even better is the actual point of the article. When you begin with wit and end with genius…well…you’ve got yourself a blog entry now, dontcha?
I’ll break it down for you. Perception is reality. Even if what you do is terribly niche specific and you think you have no competition from here to the moon…your customer may perceive you as being one OF a million as opposed to one IN a million.
So, the way UX Magazine defines this is absolutly spot on.
The product and service we offer categorizes us, everything else we do defines us.
Because your competition isn’t just, well, your competition. It’s everyone your client even thinks of as your competition. You can’t fight that so you may as well accept it.
The best you can do is keep your branding strong, your customer service bar none, and above all…be yourself. That will always differentiate you from the corporate stiffs play acting righteous businesslike boredom and know-it-all-ology. Your personality has already brought you this far…why not let it take you even farther?
Need help making your branding consistent or working your personal mojo into your branding without making it a one man show? Succeeding Steps can help. Schedule a consultation with us today, and set yourself apart from the pack you never even saw coming.
Top Ten Lists + Forbes = Business Love
March 7th, 2007 by John Herman, under Uncategorized, operations, small business, strategy, trends. No Comments
Are you a business owner? Are you thinking of starting a business?
If you’re still in the planning phases, you may need to do some rethinking if you have one of The 10 Riskiest Businesses to Start. From Travel Agency to Retail Store, there are pitfalls and problems listed that would make any budding entrepreneur cringe with fright!
There is something…though…that we noticed. Something that made us really, really excited. Excited enough that we called our friends and had them look at the article…exciting enough that we couldn’t help but blog about it.
Business consultants aren’t on the list.
Niche businesses aren’t on the list.
Our clients aren’t on the list.
This was like three strikes for the team you can’t stand. While we have all the respect in the world for people trying to start any business, no matter what the odds, we couldn’t help but giggle maniacally as we realized that globalization and the changing landscape of business was not scary at all for those who’ve already embraced the challenge of living in a world that’s become, well, a little flat.
How is your business faring in the new economy? Are you faltering? Looking for a new image? From medium sized businesses to niche market startups, Succeeding Steps really has their eye on the prize. The prize? Your success. You can find a company that is cooler, you can find a company that can do the electric slide better, but when it comes to branding and business strategy, we blow the competition out of the water.
Look Ma! I’m an entrepreneur!
March 6th, 2007 by John Herman, under human resources, small business. No Comments
Everyone loves a top ten list, and over at StartupSpark.com they’ve come up with the Top 10 Ways You Know You’re An Entrepreneur.
We have a few favorites we’d like to address:
Our favorite point, and what we think makes a true entrepreneur is You’re dreaming miles ahead while focused on what you’re doing right now. Succeeding Steps has a calling. We consult with small and niche business owners to form branding concepts and execution of those concepts all over the web. While any business planning needs to focus on “now” and “five years from now” simultaneously, we do this not only for ourselves, but every client we have. That’s why we rock, in case you were wondering.
The second point they list that really resonates with us is You’re a strategist. Have I told you yet how much the staff of Succeeding Steps dug playing Risk when we were younger? Okay, you got us…we still play Risk…just don’t tell anyone, okay? We don’t want our coolness quotient harmed. At the very least we don’t want it harmed any more than it already is. We’re afraid the Linux penguin is going to give us a wedgy any minute here.
The final point I’d like to address is probably the most important for any entrepreneur, solopreneur, or small business owner. You want to live your work. There is nothing we like better than seeing our client’s work recognized by online and local press. We love to be an integral part of every step of the branding and business planning process. This way we can give you a branding solution that truly fits your needs, not our tastes.
So are you an entrepreneur? How many of the top 10 do you relate to? Leave a comment and let us know…we’d love to hear from you!
You Can Count on Succeeding Steps
March 5th, 2007 by John Herman, under copywriting. No Comments
While perusing the web, we came across an entry on first and third person form in blog posts.
It’s an article that seems like common sense at first, but on closer inspection is something Succeeding Steps thinks small business owners don’t incorporate near enough. When Succeeding Steps writes a blog entry Succeeding Steps feels that using the name of Succeeding Steps every time “we” or “I” or “us” or “our company” would appear in the blog post of Succeeding Steps that Succeeding Steps would be mentioned instead.
Do you see the point we’re trying to make? While we agree that you should enter the name of your company more often than you probably are, if you overuse it you’re just as bad as the keyword-stuffing guy with the fake AdSense blog trying to make five cents a day having bad content.
Google isn’t going to know that you aren’t a creepy spam blogger and you want to make sure that along with getting your name out there and easily recognized; you do not want to do this at the expense of your brand - which should not include overuse of a good thing, i.e. your company name.
The article also addresses the merit of talking directly to the reader using the term “you” - great idea, but be careful when you talk about anything potentially controversial (like spamming) where “you” could be seen as a potential finger pointing in the face of your reader.
As long as you take common courtesy into consideration these are two wonderful suggestions that you should begin incorporating into your copywriting and blog entries as soon as possible. Of course, SUCCEEDING STEPS will be happy to help YOU with that!