Our principle of Leverage presents you with an opportunity to get consulting for half the price.  And it demonstrates how to get more from the assets you already have.

Let me explain…

In any given week, I might have between 4 and 8 driving periods of at least 30 minutes, as I travel to a required task or client.  Of course, what I do with that time has varied… I might listen to the radio or think about work… but perhaps I could just as easily talk with you and help you around a given obstacle.

That time is something I can leverage.  It’s an asset for you and I if I look at it properly.

It’s usually 30 minutes, and I usually have at least a day or two notice that makes it feasible for planning.

So I’m now making that time available to you for half price.  If you simply order it by emailing me, letting me know what you’d like to discuss, I can let you know when the next available slot is.

And in that session, I’ll call you from my car, hands-free, and safely be of service to you.

As a senior consultant with Strategy and Action, my hourly rate is $200 per hour plus GST.  But this drive-time would have been down-time for me.  So my offer to you is an hourly rate of $100 plus GST.  So for $55, you could solve a problem, get a concept for an advertisement or a myriad of other things important to you.

To reserve your 30 minute block, call or email me today… Tel 07 3808 5366 or email stephen@strategyandaction.com.au

You are a start-up business, and money is tight. You have a lot of things draining your resources – insurance, premises and staffing. Why should you spend a little more on your branding, where it seems like money better spent elsewhere?

Here are six reasons that can justify that extra spend…

1. Time.
Maybe your small spend is looked at as a ‘quick fix’ to re-assess at a later date. The bargain-bin logo is probably viewed as a quick job by the designer as well.  Expect the time or effort taken in creating a lasting brand to work on a sliding scale that is directly in proportion to the price you pay…
 
2. Corporate Image.
I would describe the purchase of a weak logo for your company like James Bond ordering a goon-spritzer rather than the martini. Whether you like it or not, people are superficial. They will trust a company with a strong identity that stands out within their industry.

3. Longevity.
Look at your logo as something you want to follow you throughout the growth of your company. It needs to surpass trends and style changes, and needs to adapt to many applications. Your bargain option won’t necessarily worry about these options. Templates rarely do.

4. Quality.
I was once told that your logo should be proportionally valued to the size and scope of your business. So if you want to be turning over a few hundred-thousand dollars a year, you should look on your logo and branding as an asset that has worked towards a proportion of your profit. On this premise, a cheaper logo should apply to a lesser quality business.

5. Individuality
Unique logos shouldn’t be given away. And they aren’t.  I mentioned that templates are the cheapest. They work with a range of standard fonts and simple characters. Any number of companies within your industry could look very similar. Aim to stand out. Attention paid to unique and effective branding brings an attraction by clients.

6. Relationship
Trust your designer. Develop a rapport with them. Design and branding is a trade that is studied for.
You would pay for a good electrician to get your wiring right. The same should be said for the designer looking after your brand.

An extra tip from me to you:
Comic Sans must die. Like wearing Crocs anywhere other than gardening, this font should be left back when you were 10…

Ok, so Wayne Swann has reduced forecast growth from 2.75% to 2%.  It may not look much of a drop, but remember last year it was forecast at 3.9%.  So we’ve pretty much halved growth expectations.

There isn’t anything you can do, macroeconimically.  Not even the government is able to to do much to avert a recession.  All you can do is pursue more strongly your share of what will be a shrinking pie.

And there are five things we’ve seen that most businesses should be doing and are not…

1. Instead of assuming your lead generation assets are working as well as they can, question them and improve them.  For the same ongoing spend, an asset - like an advertisement, brochure, website or salesperson - can gain more for you than they were.
2. Go back to old customers and lost customers and open up both personal and mass communications with them.  A lot of revenues lie here.
3. Meet regularly between levels and functions of your company.  The better the realtionships and information between top and bottom, and between marketing and operations, the more effective each section is at pre-empting and capitalising on the wishes of clients and the better the entire business is at identifying quickly changing trends.
4. Manage your sales people tighter.  If they don’t meet weekly (it sounds arduous but it’s critical) then too much time is lapsing between efforts undertaken and the problem-solving that redirects those efforts.  Three priciples should underpin the work of your sales people… first no prospect contact should occur without an explciti and open agenda they have for that prospect, second no such contact should occur without an explicit action to follow it up, and third no time should occur in a salesperson’s day that isn’t accounted for.  That which is harmful in every salesperson will find this stifling.  It’s natural.  But that which is ambitious and mature will value it and benefit from it.
5. Leverage your successes.  When you achieve something for a customer or client, think of the following 4 ways to get more from it… publish it, ask for referrals or network from people involved in it, look for other opportunities that look like it and refer to the original as a case study, turn it into a product or packaged service.

What will the recession mean to your business?  For ours, it means we’re adapting, working more aggressively and apreciating what and who we have.