What You Should Have In Your Business Plan

Always remember that a business plan is not something that you put together and then forget after youʼve completed the task. A business plan is a work in progress. This means that as you grow your business, your plan should also be able to grow with it. Your business plan should be regularly updated to keep up with the trends and changes in your business as well as the market in general.

Obviously, you need to know everything there is to know about your business. A good seller knows that you can only sell what you have and what you know.

Since the end goal of every businessman is to have your clients believe in you, enough to make a sale, you then have to persuade them of your knowledge of your product. You must convince them that you know everything there is to know when it comes to your business.

To be an expert in your field, you must be willing to work and dig for information; and later dig through all those details and facts to develop particularly your business plan.

Not all of the information you get may be relevant, but it helps to know first what you are looking for before you start your business plan. Here are the essential elements that you should have if you want to have a strong business plan.

- Executive Summary
- Market Analysis
- Description of the Company
- Organization and Management
- Marketing and Sales Management
- Product or Service List
- Funding Request
- Financials
- Appendix

We hope these elements help you to come up with a good business plan the next time you have your strategic planning session.

Making Time For Marketing

What makes a marketing campaign fail is not that it has a bad design or crappy writing. It’s actually the attitude that makes a marketing campaign ineffective.

If you want to become a big player and start getting ahead of your competition, then you have to make the effort to change your attitude towards your marketing strategy.

Make time for marketing.

Have you ever heard somebody who has his own business and say that he has no time for marketing? Well, I hear this a lot actually. And if you have this attitude then maybe it’s time to change it now.

If you don’t have time to market your business then it’s just one of two things: it’s either you already have a client and that you’re busy at the moment with trying to meet deadlines. Or you have some other important responsibility that takes up much of your time. Either way, you need to allocate a certain amount of time, even minimal, to do your marketing.

Just imagine when you’re already finished with your current job. What next? Do you have a new client waiting for you to finish? Of you’re still going to look for one? Marketing is important because it provides you the opportunity to keep clients coming in.

On the other hand, if you don’t have time because you’re busy with some responsibility, just a few hours every week would suffice to let you stay at the forefront of your business.

The bottom line is to make time for your marketing campaign. No matter how you do it – delegate tasks, create simple and small steps to complete one huge project, or simply set aside time for making the nitty gritty of marketing or updating your promotional materials (e.g. flyers) – you simply have to make it.

Quality Over Price

In selecting your printing company, whether online or not, make sure to choose quality over price. This means that the price does not determine the quality of the result you’ll get.

So despite the high prices, choose your online printing company or local vendor for the quality of the job that they can produce.

1. Choose according to experience.

Printing companies of repute have been in the business for a reason. They’re well skilled in what they do and they have experience to be proud of. Quality results would almost mean a longer time in the printing industry.

If a printing company has more than 5 years in the business, then they would probably have a wider selection with few errors to speak of. Moreover, they tend to have more services and cost effective price quotes.

2. Choose according to the most competitive price quotes plus quality of the printing job.

Compare price quotes and quality of items. Most printers offer free samples. And most experienced companies offer better prices. They can do this precisely because they have been in the business for much longer time, enough to get them special rates from other suppliers.

3. Choose the best guarantees.

Printing guarantees like customer satisfaction/delight, cost effective prices, and fastest turnaround time – these are benefits you get from printers that are committed to their clients and the brand of service they offer. You can never go wrong with this type of vendor.

4. Choose a printing company that values you.

The one that understands your needs and your schedule is most definitely the one that can provide you the best assistance. It just goes to show that they value their clients and the business that you give them.

Knowing Your Rights About Your Artwork

If you want to get your artwork right when you have them printed, you need to know your rights…to get them as closer to the original image as possible.

Some things to consider when you’re getting ready to have your marketing tool printed:

Vector and Raster Files

Digital graphics are generally saved as either vector or raster files. The difference between the two is that raster files are made up of a grid of pixels, which makes them become jagged when resized. An example of raster files are those saved as JPEG and GIF.

On the other hand, the vector format is more popular with product sellers because they offer better balance and scalability. EPS has this type.

Color Details

When printing your marketing collaterals (i.e. flyers, brochures, postcards, posters, and catalogs), you need to provide your printing company the correct color information especially with your graphics. Your color information would fall under these types: RGB (red, green and blue), CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) and spot colors (also called Pantone).

RGB is the same colors that you see in your computer screen or TV. CMYK, in contrast, are the ones used during the print process. Spot color or Pantone is something that falls outside the CMYK and has special characteristics which are very appropriate for logo designs.

Graphic Size and Resolution

You can have resolution based on the number of dots per inch used. And resolution actually differs from the ones you see in your monitor to the results you get when your flyers, brochures, postcards, posters, and catalogs are printed. When you want smoother and cleaner results that are true to the original, then don’t be content with just 72dpi. Rather, go for 300dpi for that crisp image.

Last but not the least, the best way to get your artwork right is to work with a printing company that knows how to make the process as easy as possible for you. Someone who offers flexibility in their file formats definitely gets the thumbs up in my book.

Delving Into Design

With the rapid spread of digital technology into the offset printing industry, beautiful full color custom brochures, flyers, postcards, business cards, catalog, booklets and other printed collateral are more affordable and accessible to everyone who wants to order.

Online printers abound; some of them provide design services for your color flyers or color postcards, others allow you to upload your own custom design for printing. Many online custom printers make both options available to their customers.

Creating your own graphics can be a fun and rewarding experience, but for novices, it can seem daunting. Even the basics may not seem intuitively obvious. Internet research can help! There are many websites that offer help with desktop publishing. Webpages like this one help you understand the principles of design, which you can apply to color business cards, custom color catalogs or booklets, postcards or color poster printing. Really, just about any printed product will benefit from well-conceived and executed design. When creating your custom printing project to upload to an online printing company, keep in mind the following: balance, unity, alignment, consistency, contrast, white space and color. Using the metaphors in the article indicated above can help ensure that you and your clients are pleased with the final product.

Online printing can be simple and affordable. An online printing company like PrintPlace.com. It provides instant price quotes, helpful customer service, premium quality printing and finishing services, free templates to use in a variety of graphics programs, and comprehensive design services for the apprehensive print buyer.

Catalogs: Eye Candy = Buy Appeal

A picture’s worth a thousand words. What do your catalog pictures speak of about your products from your catalogs? Does it suggest a sweet solution to your market’s needs or is it an eyesore that encourages the readers to look away?

Your photos and images create the centerpiece for your catalog printing project’s appeal to your target audience. But to make that photo appeal turn into cash is a totally different matter.

What makes a catalog an effective marketing material? Excellent quality photos that capture the whole essence of your business. And it doesn’t stop there. Not only should you have quality photos in your catalog printing project, you should also learn to optimize their place in the whole marketing scheme of your print catalog.

For one, designers would tell you that the top half and the right top corner of your catalog is the most prominent place in your print catalog. People’s eyes usually stray to that part the first time they look at a catalog or any other marketing piece for that matter. So take advantage of that fact. Use your upper half page to showcase your most important item in your product list.

Second, put together the smaller photos and a much larger one in your catalog printing page. This way, you’ll be able to take advantage of the appeal that a much larger photo creates among your target readers and transfer some of that to your smaller pictures.

Third, always expose and give emphasis to your big photos by putting them on the spotlight. Dedicate one whole page of your printed catalogs to your most important product and service. This would provide your target readers an idea of what is in store for them when they do business with you.

So use your photos wisely. Make sure that their eye appeal turn into buy appeal by using these techniques in your next catalog printing project.

Go Fishing With Flyers

The words you apply, in addition to the design and illustration makes for a flyer printing project that can certainly be used to market your business. But strong and persuasive words often make the difference in what makes a flyer an effective promotional tool.

Almost all effective flyers have two things in common: a persuasive message and a definite “call-to-action”. Without these two elements, your flyer campaign would surely be ignored and worst, thrown in the garbage bin for being useless and without any worth.

                           

To make sure that you have an effective copy that can convince your target readers of your business’ worth and make them want to do exactly as you bid them, here are some of the basic principles that you can include in your next flyer printing project:

- Know your target audience and cater to their preferences when writing your copy.

- Use “you” more often than “I” or “we”. Your target audience would care more with what your business can do for them to make their lives better.

- Make it crystal clear what your target readers should do, think and even believe after they’ve read your flyer printing message. Be clear and quick with your message such that you impart a clear message and imply a straightforward call-to-action.

- Your call-to-action should have a commanding element and an expiration date to make your target readers scramble to get in touch with you. Use the words “now”, “today”, or a specific date.

A Christmas Picture Is Worth A Thousand Holiday Words

‘Tis the season to be merry, and the time to enjoy life with your family and loved ones. The holiday season always brings that special feeling during this time of the year. And what can be the best way to send your loved ones greetings of good tidings but a holiday postcard design that depicts the warmth and affection that is normally associated with the season of giving and sharing.

When you want to show that you care, the most practical and yet special way of doing it is to send your special people with postcards that are customized to show the past holidays that were spent together. Full color printed and personalized pictures and photos of past Christmases can contribute to an awesome holiday postcard that your friends and loved ones would surely appreciate even when the season is long over.

You can tell that you care for them and appreciate them, whether they are a favorite coworker, or even your mailman by sending them your holiday postcard design that is created and printed by you.

A son or daughter’s favorite teacher would appreciate a holiday postcard design that shows last year’s Christmas pageant. A corporate holiday postcard with some of last year’s Christmas party highlights would definitely be a hit among co-workers. Grandma and grandpa would surely love pictures of the kids in their holiday postcard design.

The possibilities are endless. The only thing that can hamper your creativity is your own budget. Holiday postcards are definitely a great way to touch someone’s life this season, and a surefire way of strengthening the bond that ties each and one of us together.

To get started with your postcard printing project, visit PrintPlace.com.

The Ties That Bind

In addition to the finishing touch to your paper stock, either gloss or matte, you can also look for the binding that would be appropriate for your catalog printing project. There are a lot of bindings out there, so here are a few of the popular binding techniques that you can include in your choice list:

The Perfect Bind – The most common binding method, the Perfect bind, is used if you want to achieve that professional look you’re aiming for in your catalog printing project. The disadvantage: the spine is glued flat so that it is often that you’ll see catalog printing jobs that crack along the spine when opened.

The Coil Bind – This type of method uses a coil to bind your catalog printing project, hence the name. The catalogs are punched near the binding and then put together with a flexible plastic coil. The best part is that the binds can be adjusted by hand, thus, you can easily add pages after pages, and even remove a few ones if you want to.

The Spiral Bind – This is the same as that of the notebooks you see around. The spiral coil, usually made of plastic, is threaded through the holes punched in your catalog printing project. The advantage of this type of technique is that you could make your catalog printing pieces lay flat on a surface.

The Saddle Stitch – This method is more appropriate if you’re planning on a very thin catalog printing project. The pages of your catalog printing project should be two times larger than your finished product because you’re going to fold it and then stitch it down the center.

Your choice of binding for your catalog printing project will help a great deal in getting you that professional look. It’s up to you to decide what kind of binding would be appropriate for your catalog printing project, as well as your business needs.

Communicate Better With Your Flyers

Good communication means being clear and precise with what you want to say. No doubt about it, unless you as a business owner, are able to convey your message to your target audience, your flyer printing project would be worthless even if you spend thousands of dollars just to get them printed.

Nevertheless, effective communication can also depend on how you present your flyer printing message and idea. How you present your information equals the importance of what you want to communicate.

More than likely, you know that color has an important part of helping you create an effective flyer printing project. However, going overboard with your colors can also distract as well as irritate your target readers. As they say, too many is too much.

So how do you make full use of your color? Here’s how:

1 – 25 percent or less is the best way to use color in your flyer printing project. More than that and you’ll definitely lose the effect you want.

2 – Use colors on headings, markings, logos and images. Use black ink in your flyer printing text for more clarity.

3 – Provide consistency in all your elements. Use one color for every component such as the headings and sub-headings.

4 – Create a balance in your colors – too much bright colors can overwhelm, while small areas of lighter shades can go unnoticed.