“Descriptive Vs. Unique” Brand Names?

Our small business goal for today is excellent branding. So it’s very important to know where to start to and what to do.

Of course, the first thing we should do is to come up with a name. But it isn’t easy as it seems because branding is a complex thing than you imagine. We are often torn to between a simple, descriptive brand name or a complex, exciting and unique coined brand name.

You might be just like me who’s confused of what to choose between the two. So, I think this post will be a very valuable post for you. Check this out –> CHOOSING A BRAND NAME: BEING DESCRIPTIVE VS COINING A UNIQUE WORD.

How To Become A Green Consious Entrepreneur

Question: What is our business goal for today?

Answer: To Become A Green Consious Entrepreneur

This is a follow up to my post a few weeks ago about: What do you do to put your business to GREEN?

This time it’s about the third tip: the Energy Star Label.  So what is really Energy Star?

Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products. It was first created as a United States government program in 1992, but Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and the European Union have also adopted the program. Devices carrying the Energy Star logo, such as computer products and peripherals, kitchen appliances, buildings and other products, save 20%-30% on average.

Now, what’s good about Energy Star labels is that, it helps business owner to become “Green” conscious entrepreneurs. Not only that, it also help us save money. Of course, I knew you wanted to learn how. Well, you better consider checking out this post — Energy Star Helps You Save Money and Go Green.

What do you do to put your business to GREEN?

Well, green is not actually a place to go to but this is an initiative that entrepreneurs must consider. I found an article over at Small Business Trends about Paying Attention to Green Business Practices.

(1) We’re doing a lot more with recycling.

(2) Another big area of focus is in power management on office equipment, for energy efficiency.

(3) The third thing we are doing is paying attention to the Energy Star seal when making purchases.

These are just some tips that Anita shared. Now, it’s our turn!

Our Goal for Today is To Stay Positive!

Staying positive is a healthy habit that entrepreneurs must adopt. But of course, staying positive will be really very difficult to do if you do not have reasons to look up to. So, below are the 5 reasons we can look up to , to stay positive.

1. Everything is cheaper.
2. You can hire more and better-qualified people.
3. People are looking to change suppliers.
4. Ownership equals tax incentives.
5. Family and friends don’t want to (or can’t) invest more money into the stock or real estate markets.

Check out  the remainder 5 reasons in this post –Seeing Things In Positive Perspective!

Business Goal for Today: Back into Social

Our business goal for today is to put the system back into social. What does this mean? Below I quoted Dan’s thoughts on his article.

Putting the System Back into SocialSocial Media is a demanding master with the uncanny ability to determine the absence or presence of checks and balances. As a self correcting market, what you do not say can have a greater impact than what you do say.

The difference between success and failure depend your ability to systemize the social media presence.  Sound confusing?  It shouldn’t be. When you think about it, there rules are not much different between managing social media relationships and off-line personal and business relationships.

He presented different key points on how we can achieve this business goal. Check out his article about Putting the System Back into Social.

Our Business Goal for Today is to Fall in Love

Our business goal for today is to fall in love.  Well, you might be wondering why do I ever thought of falling in love as our business goal? Simply because I believe it is the most effective way we can get going through all these tough times.

So how can we show love to our business? I found a helpful article written by Angela Shupe.  Read it below.

Listen.

You should always listen to your customers. Without them, your business wouldn’t exist.

Observe.

Keep your eye on what is going on around you. If something is lacking within your niche, go the extra mile to offer it. You’ll stand out from the rest if you do. If your competition is launching something new, be aware. You can’t compete unless you know what is going on and do something about it.

Value.

Everything has it’s own value. How much value you place in your business might be that fine line between success and failure. If you value your employees, the customers who buy from you, and the work it takes for you to succeed, then you can say you’ve done your best.

Exist Within The Community.

While I might be stretching this letter a bit, it’s for a good reason. If you want to succeed within a community, give back to it. They are the people who support you. Sponsor a little league team, purchase advertising in local spaces, or just simply donate to the local school. If you’re benefiting from the generosity of others in the community, it only makes sense to show them you appreciate it.

Entrepreneurs are Good Leaders

How many times  in your job interviews or way back your college years that you were asked to define leadership and what makes a good leader? Perhaps, more than a couple of times and since that time I have only one consistent answer to that — “A leader sets the goals, influences and carries his members to a mission towards that goal. “

Why am I talking about leadership now when you might have been here in this blog because you’re eager to learn something as an entrepreneur? Well, it’s simple. Business needs to be excellently managed by it’s owners or to what we call as entrepreneurs and the leadership skills to carry out that mission of managing the business is indeed very important.

Just perfect for today, Amanda from Small Business CEO, did put extra effort in pulling out and putting in 10 Best Business Leadership Articles in her blog post which we can really learn from.  Check it out!

What is the biggest obstacle in growing a business?

Today we will be talking about growing a business and what are the reasons holding back the business from growing. Now we will see what the experts can say about it. Let’s take a look at this Small Business Trends poll below.

I took a screenshot of the poll from Small Business Trends which you can see the image above. It states there — what are the obstacles that is holding our business back from growing and below are the 6 options to choose from.

If you were to ask me, without second thoughts I would have directly choosen the last option — lack of funding and insufficient cash flow. And surprisingly, look at what the experts have to say below:

Do you agree how the result turned out to be? Yes? No? Why?

Do you have the guts to ask?

According to Arthur from SmallBizNumbers in his post –The Golden Rule to Establishing Business Credit:

The first golden rule to establishing business credit lines is to ask for them. If you don’t ask, no one is going to come over and say “hey, here have some credit”.

The same goes with starting your business. An aspiring entrepreneur must have the guts of asking themselves what their business goals are and to where they want their business will be in the future. I just realized that this skill of asking is one very important thing considering that this is the first thing that people even do in their everyday life.

Business enthusiasts are not exempted from that. When you are planning to start your business, one must ASK themselves in order to lay down their business goals. It may sound like a very simple task but it’s not actually simple as it seems to be.

Imagine, how many people have lost their track because they failed to establish clear business goals? The answer: A LOT OF THEM! So, what’s the reason behind that? Well the reason is simple yet deep — they didn’t ask!

Now how in the world does NOT asking will lead to failure? Simply because the moment you ASK , is the moment you ACCEPT the responsibilities and challenges that comes with it.

Have a Grand Purpose

Everything starts with a vision: finding a good hire, motivating a team, or creating a successful sales presentation. The difference between average communicators and inspiring leaders is the latter frame their vision around a grand purpose.

The above is taken from Carmine Gallo’s article in Business Week about Building Bold Goals for your Business and she’s right. We, veteran and aspiring entrepreneurs should set clear business goals or vision so you will have a right direction to turn to. Without business goals, your business might stay floating in the midst of a very down economy, it may not also be.  There is one thing for sure though, you have nothing to go to — your business will definitely not have direction too.

My teacher one said to me also that if you dream — dream big so we will have a grand purpose to achieve!