FAWN GERMER'S NEW BOOK PEARLS

Today is the day – Launch day for Fawn Germer’s new book – PEARLS! I have been luck enough to read a bunch of the stories learned from powerful women and it’s worth the buy (even if you’re a guy!).

Great insights into what women face getting to the top, and how they figure out how to get there. Anyone with any interest in business or in success should read this book.

Fawn is a best-selling author, on Oprah’s must read book list and, I am luck to say, a dear friend of mine and Lisa’s.

Order  a copy of PEARLS today at Amazon books:

We are working on a new venture that will require the infrastructure of a very large data company. The plans are to have this company be a billion dollar venture in a few years, but we have, as of yet, to generate a penny in revenue. However we have very high hopes.

After calling them, and sending e-mails, I found out that our “account” was sent to their “small business division.”

We have seen the same thing with banks and other financial institutions, software companies and just about any corporation that has gotten so large that the “small business” customers have to be relegated to the small business division.

Well, here’s a message to all those who call our businesses “small businesses.” We may be small to you, but we are not small to ourselves, our families, our employees and others who count on us to deliver a decent living to a group of people. How dare you call us small? I am sure you are aware that the so-called “small” businesses account for the bulk of America’s jobs and the economy.

So here’s a word to the wise from this sage old marketing guy. Rename and reposition your small business division to something more in tune with your customers’ vision: Growth business Division, Growing Business Division or something else that shows your role in this company as a vendor is to help them grow, not put them down.

We are proud to be small businesses, but the way we are often labeled and passed along, you’d think your company had better things to do then spend any time selling us your services.

Wise up: think like the suppliers that you are, the remember you started out our size too. Think differently about how you communicate with and sell to small businesses. We may not have as much revenue as you, but in the grand scale of things, we ARE more important than you.

Well, it’s February 15, and as promised we have launched our new company, HumanBrand (http://www.HumanBrand.com). HumanBrand is a full-service franchise marketing company, offering turn key marketing services exclusively for franchise concepts.

We will be working with the franchisor to develop their corporate brands, marketing and sales programs, websites and franchise stores, advertising and collateral material, print and broadcast advertising, training and other videos and more.

We have developed a unique pricing and financing package for Franchises just coming out of the box, by providing them all of the marketing services they need over a 90-120 day period, but spreading the cost out over a year. We even discount the cost for the full package of services. This gives them national-quality marketing materials that they don’t have to pay full price for when services are rendered.

For more mature franchise that are running into brain drain, with stale or non-existent programs, promotions or ideas, we are available to give new life to their brand and provide the electric shock some of them need to grow again.

We have already signed 2 new franchise clients and are interviewing several more this week. Obviously, the concept we have developed has legs.

Please visit our new website at HumanBrand.com and if you know of some franchise operators looking for marketing help, we’re here.

IDEAS4 has always been know as a full-service provider of branding/identity, marketing, advertising and website design and technology. I was a little short-sighted not to consider the huge market our service offerings can provide to a new or existing franchisor. My eyes have been opened by the addition of two new franchisors that did their research looking for a firm that could “do it all” and “do it well.” – They chose IDEAS4.

USA Mobile Drug Testing, a new franchise from Tampa is ramping up their sales and marketing, closing franchise deals and growing the business pretty quickly. We were tasked with developing all of the marketing materials for franchise sales, and for franchisee marketing – from theme lines to brochures, billboards, trade show materials, sales kits, posters, window decals, e-mail campaign materials, websites, franchisee administrative management tools and a whole lot more.

Our materials have gotten rave reviews from the franchisor, franchise brokers, franchisee prospects and just about everyone else who has had a chance to see it.

HEIWA Club is a new health and fitness franchise planning to launch in early 2011. The need everything that a startup business would need, from a new logo design, positioning statement, marketing and media plan, branded merchandise, website, brochures, advertising, CRM systems and much more. Thanks to our affiliation with BNI (Business Networking International ) we were also able to bring in Michelle Earley of MLE Designs to handle the interior design (she is awesome – hire her!).

We also brought in Suzie Boland of RFB Communications to assist with the franchisee communications and public relations for the company. RFB has extensive experience in working with franchisees and was a natural fit for HEIWA, too.

So our goal for 2011 is to be a force in franchise development marketing. With two great projects underway, and one more in the pipeline, we’re poised to be a player in the coming years.

If you know of someone who is considering franchise development and is looking for a marketing team that “gets it” and is honest about its services, pricing and capabilities. Please ask them to consider IDEAS4.

Have a great holiday season everyone!

It has been an interesting summer 2010. Many many projects bid on, only a few actually decided to go ahead and get work done. We have attributed much of this to the summer season, but it is also attributed to many small businesses that are very uncomfortable with  the confusion in all areas of the Federal government.

With no stability of message and actions, and not knowing where the next tax or regulation was coming from, companies just sat tight and waited. The administration has complained that business have money but are not spending it, perhaps this problem is of their own making. We all look forward to the November election, if for no other reason than nothing will get done in Washington, and that is usually a very good sign. Watch how business reacts if the Republicans take control of one or more house of Congress. If that happens, watch a grow spurt in the economy. I see it coming.

As to what I originally started to blog about, I have seen more and more companies turing to IDEAS4 for a broader range of services. On many occasions in the past, they might have chosen a new website design, or a new logo, or an advertising campaign. Now I am seeing organizations looking to firms like mine to provide a broader range of services all at one time.

Luckily we are built for this type of service. Our customers get a more consistent level of branding and messaging, and usually at a lower price than they would have paid by hiring several firms that specialize in one thing or another. We welcome other organization that are considering a new website, brand, ad campaign or other marketing effort to consider IDEAS4.

If you follow these blogs at all you will know that a brand is much more than just a logo. It’s the feeling a customer has about your business based on your name, logo, colors, products and in large measure their customer experience.

We have recently added a new service for our clients and future clients; a commercial interior designer, Michelle Earley, who owns MLE Designs in Tampa, Florida. Michelle and her team specialize in commercial and healthcare interiors, but what makes her extra special for us is that she understands and designs for the customer experience.

In a collaborative effort, IDEAS4 and MLE will help craft a brand solution from your identity through to the user experience interiors, coordinating colors, logos and marks, as well as more esoteric things like feelings, emotions and wayfinding.

For more information about MLS, visit their website at MLEDesignsInc.com. For more information about IDEAS4 tampa web design experience, click here.

And to learn more about branding, please visit our Branding Overview page.

As you probably guess, I follow with interest our ranking for such keywords as tampa web design. We still rank high for Tampa Ad Agency and some other keywords, but web design has disappeared. In the past we have always ranked on the first page, but for some reason we don’t any more. We are working to analyze why that happened so we can help with SEO for our other clients.

Something must have changed recently that I am not aware of – but that seems to happen all the time with Google. We will work on finding our own solution, so that our research can be shared with you and help you in your own site rankings.

We started by changing our title tags and home page text a bit yesterday. We will wait a week and see what happens. We also have a number of keyword domains that we own that are related to this keyword, so next we turn off the forwarding of those domains and see if that has had an impact.

We also wrote this blog with the keyword in the headline and a few times in the copy to see if that makes a difference. We’ll see.

We might also move this blog to a subpage of the main site and see if that helps. One step at a time. Keep us bookmarked and we’ll let you know. We will report back as we find out what triggers our return to the first page. In the mean time if you need a Tampa web design firm, contact IDEAS4

We take so much for granted. Do we realize that we are the luckiest people in the world? And the most blessed and resource rich (natural and human) people who have ever walked the Earth.

We have grocery stores, cars, abundant food and the opportunity to live free and pursue our dreams – whatever they are. We have the opportunity to fail AND succeed. We have it all.

We live by laws, a visionary Constitution written by men who were willing to give their lives for an ideal never before seen. And, for 240 years when asked to serve in the cause of America,  we have had men and women who have stood up, raised their hands and said, “Yes I will give up my life so that others might continue to be free.” Can you imagine the sacrifice they have made so that we can sit here and gleefully chat and exchange ideas, go to the beach, have a barbecue, buy a $199 washing machine on sale and even protest against the very things they sacrifice for, all in the name of freedom?

It should boggle your mind and humble you. It does me. It should make you say “thank you for your service” to every service man or woman who has ever worn the uniform. And not just today, every day. So I ask you all to make a commitment to do just that. Say thank you every time, every day you see a member of the armed services. Even better, if you see them out to lunch or dinner, pay for their meal – go above and beyond. Today, I make such a commitment.

So this afternoon as we lift our beers, margaritas, cokes, waters or whatever you are drinking, make a toast – “To the men and women who serve – thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for what you do for us everyday.”

We are the Land of the Free – Because we are The Home of the Brave.

We  salute you. God bless you all.

IDEAS4 launched its new and improved website today with much more content and information about our capabilities and skills. We area also testing our Google organic knowledge to see if this new site with additional SEO capabilities moves us up in the rankings further than we were before.

Our web stats will be evaluated as well to see if we get deeper penetration of visits into the site.

We love experimenting on ourselves and testing new search engine optimization, web design and marketing skills to see if we can improve on what we already know. All of this benefits our clients on a daily basis.