Building the Brand You’ve Always Dreamed Of

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If you’ve been around the block even one time, you know how important branding is. You find brands everywhere you look – just drive down the busiest street in your town and you’ll see for yourself! As a small business owner, building the brand you’ve always dreamed of and establishing your market share is the key to your success!

Depending on the product or service you offer, and the scope in which you see yourself operating, you’ll need to make some big decisions on how best to position yourself. The more you understand your target demographics, the better you’re positioned to market effectively to them. By making the experience that consumers have with your brand more meaningful, customers are likely to be more loyal to your brand.

Selecting Your Name, Making a Statement and Building the Brand

If you are just getting started with your business venture, the first couple of things you need to do is decide what ‘name’ will represent your commercial efforts. There is no exact ‘cut and dry’ solution to selecting the ideal name for your company or Organization, so it is always a good idea to brainstorm some naming possibilities. Don’t be afraid to talk about your project with your business partners, friends and family members to drum up some ideas. If you are coming up short, working with a branding expert is another way to launch your brand effectively.

Measuring Your Brand

Once you’ve officially launched your brand, the next step is to measure your market share actively. These days, you’ll find no shortage of tools to evaluate and track the strength of your brand, as well as your brand equity. You’ll know you’ve reached the pinnacle of success when your brand name is used to replace the generic term for the product! Think Kleenex or Q-Tips. Obviously, this isn’t something that happens overnight, so if you are aiming for this business goal, you might have to use a long-term plan to get to this point, and your branding will inevitably be one of the biggest pieces of solving this business puzzle.

Promotional Products for Building the Brand’s Awareness

Nearly everyone appreciates getting something free from time to time. If part of your business plan includes being an exhibitor at local or industry-sponsored trade shows or conferences, investing in meaningful, personalized, promotional items is a cost-effective way to keep your brand name in front of people who could potentially be your customers. Things like Pens, Styli, USB Memory Sticks, T-Shirts, Water Bottles, Tote Bags, and Printed Materials with more information on your company are a relatively inexpensive ways to market your brand and build goodwill. Instead of attendees forgetting about your brand as soon as they leave the venue, they have something they can use with your brand name or marketing message imprinted on it directly, so they can refer to you when it is convenient for them. While they may not buy from you directly that day, they have a way to connect with you again at a later time when they’re ready to buy!

In the modern marketplace, companies of all sizes must compete against one another to garner the attention of consumers. Establishing your brand is critical to getting the coverage and business you need to succeed. The more efficient you are at providing a product or service that commands brand loyalty, the better! Once you’ve become a trusted provider, the higher your chances of repeat and referral business.

Digital Marketing and Branding Go Hand in Hand

Technology and the extensive use of Internet Technology have made it easier than ever before for people to connect and sell online. With the proper branding elements in place and a professional web presence that includes a branded website domain, a managed Social Media Presence and eCommerce capabilities, business owners and entrepreneurs can start on a level playing field, which was more than what was possible even twenty short years ago.

As a general rule, a website that supports your brand should be user-friendly and mobile-friendly to be viewed correctly on display screens of all sizes. These days, more and more people depend on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones to access the Internet, so you’ll want to be sure that you have a responsive design in place to cater to website visitors who are using these devices to browse your site. Another technical aspect to have in order is having your site hosted on a fast web server. No one likes to have to wait for more than a couple seconds for a website to load, so every extra millisecond counts! All you need to do is think of how many sites you’ve hit the “Close” button on because it was taking too long, to understand what we’re talking about here!

Do You Need Help With Building the Brand and Putting It All Together?

There is no doubt that branding is a complicated process to put together on your own, especially if this isn’t one of your business strengths. But there is no reason to worry when you can work with branding experts like Colleen Eakins, who specialize in these aspects of business development. Head on over to the contact page to get in touch with Colleen and get started building the brand you’ve always dreamed of!

Strengthen Your Business Position | Remote Freelance Workforce

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As a small or medium-sized business owner, one of the biggest challenges you face is growing your company in a manageable way. If you are like most other entrepreneurs, you wear many hats in the daily administration of your operations. Regardless of whether you are proficient in handling all facets of your business or not, getting the assistance of a well-qualified freelancer is an effective way to delegate authority and strengthen your brand position.

As an industry leader, it always makes sense for you to focus on the activities that you excel at and are most profitable for your organization. These days, building a brand name is more complex than what it was even 10-years ago. It’s essential to have a tested and robust marketing strategy in place that includes Content and Social Media Marketing to keep your friends, family, and fans’ in the loop about your business activities, as well as keeping search engines happy with new, exciting, and relevant content.

Are You Short on Time and Talent?

If your answer to this question is ‘yes’ you can take comfort in knowing that freelance contractors are a viable solution for solving all of your problems. In recent years, there has been a significant shift in how many people approach their work. More skilled workers than ever before now use Freelancing as a way to augment their incomes and in some cases, even earn a full time living from their efforts. Here are a few ways that you can utilize the talent and time of others to strengthen your business operations:

Web Design and Development – Internet technology is always changing, and there is no doubt that keeping abreast of all the changes that could impact the effectiveness of your website can be formidable. The good news is that there are plenty of experienced freelance web designers and developers who are proficient and motivated to help you with all of your web design and development needs.

Regardless of whether you need to make your website ‘mobile friendly’ with a responsive website design, you need help with adding email opt-ins, or a complete overhaul of your WordPress is necessary, outsourced freelance web design and development specialists are there to make short work of your project. These experts are also handy if you have a custom coding job or another type of project that falls outside of your skill set, or you have time constraints that limit your ability to work on the assignment yourself.

Custom Content Creation and Copywriting – There is nothing stronger than carefully crafted content and copy in conveying your branding or marketing message. If you struggle to find the time – or the words – to deliver your message eloquently, freelance writers and copywriters help you communicate your message in a persuasive and professional way.

These professionals can play a significant role in helping with content marketing strategies for amplifying the growth of your business through creating digital marketing assets such as white papers, infographics, print and web ready marketing materials, and consistently providing fresh content for your blog. If you have a very specific job in mind, you always have the option of hiring a freelance writer who specializes in SEO optimized content, writing press releases, or finishing the type of copy you need.

Virtual Assistants – If you find yourself behind when it comes to completing administrative tasks, hiring a freelance virtual assistant is an ideal way to get caught up and stay on top of your duties and responsibilities.

Virtual assistants are ideal for helping with jobs such as responding to customer emails, conducting Internet research, scheduling appointments, handling support tickets or live chat duties, preparing reports, sorting spreadsheets and other types of data, and managing calendars for you and your team to coordinate and collaborate more effectively.

Marketing Teams – For many small and growing businesses, one of the most cost-effective ways to increase their marketing reach is by hiring freelance marketing professionals. They are helpful for doing short-term project work for product launches, working with media outlets to boost the coverage of your brand, your products or services.

They are also able to tap into the strength of their network and skills to adeptly spread your brand message, which helps boost sales and awareness of your offerings. Your team may intersect in providing both offline promotions and online advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others.

Bringing It All Together

After you’ve assembled all the key members of your outsourced staff, the next step is getting everyone on the project aligned to meet your business goals. Luckily for you, collaboration software has made it easier than ever before for people to work together, regardless of where they live in the world.  Another benefit of using Collaboration software is the fact that many of them are cloud-based, meaning that users don’t have to download software to their workstation. Instead, it is remotely hosted, and your team can log in to your workroom to update on the status of your project from anywhere, so long as they have an internet connection.

Beneficial to everyone on your team, you have the freedom to hire from a talent pool that can deliver the support and help your business needs from the comfort of their home or another preferred workspace. You reap the benefit of not having to get a larger business office for your team to work at because their ‘meeting space’ is hosted securely online.

Other types of software that come in handy for getting your team organized and on the same page is conference calling (with or without video) and document sharing software that enables all selected team members to work together throughout the creative process until the project gets completed. Members assigned to the project can make suggestions in the document without making changes to the original, allowing for the creation of a “mastermind” in the creation and implementation of the end product.

If you are interested in learning more about how delegating authority can methodically increase your business capacity, please feel free to reach out and start a conversation with me today!

So…I was a #startup co-founder

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It’s been awhile since a new post was added to my site and it’s because a lot has been going on. Business has been good. A partnership fell apart. Pivots happened and plans changed. Essentially, the normal ups and downs of being an entrepreneur are to blame, but I’m not complaining. I can honestly say that things have been good overall.

This past April, I wrote and scheduled the below italicized text. I had just joined an exciting startup as a co-founder and I was giddy about entering the tech startup space. I wrote this post initially to make the announcement to everyone as well as use the post as a way to cross promote the startup across my networks.

Life, in its usual fashion, decided to disrupt my plans. I had to make an exit from my new exciting startup life because I just didn’t have the time available to devote to the startup’s needs and proposed timeline to launch. I just didn’t have the bandwidth to do it all–run Colleen Eakins Design and help build the startup.

The startup had to go on without me and although I’m sad I was unable to take the ride with them, I still want to publish what I had written then:

Back at the beginning of the year I listed three goals for 2016 and I am seeing progress towards those goals. One of those goals was to plan and execute on another revenue source besides the ones I currently have.

It looks like this is going to be realized through the most recent development in my business life–I was asked to be a co-founder for Mully Lingua. Mully Lingua will be a web and mobile platform to allow parents to find, book and partake in cultural and language activities for their children. I had previously done work to create the logo for Mully Lingua (currently in my portfolio) by a client that I have worked with for several years, Tami Garcia.

Mully Lingua was born from the definition “necessity is the mother of invention;” because she wanted better cultural experiences, opportunities and language exposure for her daughter. She wanted to create the experiences that would aide in her being a well-rounded and highly skilled global citizen. After speaking with other parents in the Washington, D.C. area, she realized they shared her same frustration of finding affordable and convenient options to meet this need.

It was that need that brought her to me and started the brand. Since it’s inception, she and I have been meeting to discus branding and what the technical and design needs would be for the service itself, as well as the marketing for the service. A couple weeks ago, she asked me to come on as a co-founder.

Yay! I must say, I’m pretty excited about this venture and I’m excited to be on track to meet another goal I set for this year.

We are currently in the planning, designing and development stages of the project and that means my blog posting is probably going to be a bit more sporadic than it had already become. For now, I am planning to try to post at least once a month and it may very well mean that most of my postings will encompass the high’s, low’s and woe’s of start-up life.

While we are slaving away, you can stop by Mully Lingua online, to see what we are up to!

Although I am no longer involved, I still want you guys to go check them out and sign-up to Become A Mully Lingua Beta Tester.

3 Reasons Why I Won’t Steal Your Idea

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Over the past several years we have seen a boom in technological advances, tech-driven companies, products and services.  All started from someone’s idea and believed in by investors and consumers.  One thing they all have in common is someone like me.  Someone that understands marketing, advertising, design and how they benefit a business’s bottom line.  In the beginning, they may have only had one someone like me and now they may have a team of my clones.

Another thing they had–trust.  They trusted someone like me enough to share their idea and allow that person or team to shape the visual story around that idea.  Granted, there may have been a non-disclosure agreement otherwise known as a NDA involved some where in the process.  However, they still had to put their trust in that person.

So I guess you can say that today’s post is a bit self serving.  Because today I am going to not only tell you that you can trust me with your idea, but also give you some reasons why you can be assured that I won’t steal your idea.

Reason #1 Why I Won’t Steal Your Idea

Lack of interest.  As a business owner myself I know how much work, patience, blood, sweat, tears and MONEY goes into launching a successful product or service.  I really have no desire to invest that kind of energy and resources into something I’m not passionate about.  What I am passionate about, is what you are interested in hiring me to do.  It’s the reason you were referred to me, or googled me.  It’s the reason you ended up on my website and reviewed my portfolio.  It’s what I went to school for and it’s something I love to do.  I design.  I brand.  I understand marketing.  I combine that understanding with design and branding to create visuals that tell a story and get consumers to commit the actions you want.

While I may lack interest in stealing your idea, I am very interested in helping you succeed with your idea.

Reason #2 Why I Won’t Steal Your Idea

I already have a business that is launched and doing well.  If it wasn’t, frankly you wouldn’t have found me, or even wanted to hire me.  I also have a notebook full of side projects that I am working on launching or initiating in my spare time.  I just don’t have the time to figure out how to steal your idea and make it a successful business on my own.  Without you, your idea would be lacking something.  I would more than likely need you or someone like you, to pull it all off.  While I may be able to figure out the marketing and visual side of things, I would be missing your knowledge base; experience and the insight that makes your idea unique to you.

I make a better partner with your idea, than thief of your idea.

Reason #3 Why I Won’t Steal Your Idea

While I may believe in you and your capabilities, I may not believe your idea to be a viable, scalable or profitable idea.  Yes, I really am that honest and straight forward.  Ask any of my clients and they will tell you that I will honestly tell them if I think a path, marketing idea, etc., they are venturing down might not be a good one.  I always give them reasons, examples and analogies to illustrate why and I often try to help them brainstorm or suggest an alternative option.  In my personal life, people like talking and consulting with me because I look at things objectively and I don’t just tell them what they want to hear.

So I may not want to steal your idea solely because I don’t think it’s a good one.

If after all of these reasons you’re still feeling a bit leery, I would be more than happy to sign a NDA.  However, I can’t quote or give you an estimate without first knowing what it is I need to estimate. 🙂

Hope Is Where The Heart – Isn’t

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As creative, we are able to blend fantasy and reality quite easily in order to dream up amazing things and envision impressive futures, but then, we ‘hope’ that those dreams will materialize. The problem is that ‘hope’ itself is actually pretty ‘hopeless’, and yet, many of us believe wholeheartedly in it and allow it to hang tightly onto our precious dreams.

Imagine feeling that intensity as a ‘billion dollar idea’ pops into your head. What do you do? You rush to grab a pen and some paper (right?), then excitedly try to collect every single detail as your brain erupts and rapidly overflows with gold lava. To celebrate the fact that you’re now ‘rich’, you sip on a glass of wine and pat yourself on the back for the great idea.

Then, you neatly fold your billion dollar sheet of paper, and lock it away in the depths of your safe so that no-one can steal it – it is a billion dollar idea after all. Let’s not forget that you do take a few minutes from time to time to reflect on the idea, with a radiant grin of contentment as you think “one day if I’m patient enough,” solely because of the promise you made to never forget your brilliant idea.

Unfortunately, not once do you bother to develop a plan of action. That, my dear friends…is hope. You’ve most likely already been acquainted, which is something we should all challenge ourselves to work on. I’m right there with you guys. This post was inspired by a friend of mine and is a reminder for myself as well!

Hope doesn’t provide internal or external motivation. If you’ve been just relying on it, wake up and realize that you’re just procrastinating, and dragging your feet doesn’t cut it when you’re running the whole show.

If you have a heart for entrepreneurship and don’t want to spend your life bringing someone else’s dream to fruition – guess what?! You need to get rid of ‘hope’. Take some time out to be honest with yourself about why hope has become so appealing to you. Is it because you’re naturally a procrastinator?

Maybe because you’re actually afraid of failure…or possibly afraid of success. Whatever the case, you’ll realize that no matter what your reasons are, hope is just a cop-out, and you should spend your valuable time planning and executing your vision. If you want success, you have to get your hands dirty and make it happen.

So friends, how exactly do you get your hands dirty?

  1. Make a decision. In terms of your goals, are you in or out? The road will not be paved with gold. In fact…you may have to climb a mountain and struggle the whole way. Are you ready to climb? Decide to be 100% in or 100% out.
  2. Create goal-sheets that incorporate your vision. I like to do separate sheets for finances, relationship, career and personal. Try to be realistic in terms of your timeframe.
  3. Solidify your dream. Now, take some time to make sense of your dream and construct a well thought out idea. Is it realistic? Should I be dreaming bigger? Would simplifying things make it better?
  4. Consider a patent. If you have a really amazing idea for an invention, you may want to look into getting a patent for your idea.
  5. Make a plan. So you decided to run with the billion-dollar idea. Think about the entire step-by-step process of bringing your dream to life. If you have a mentor that you can trust, now may be a good time to seek some advice from them.
  6. Use your plan to re-evaluate your goal sheets. You may want to accomplish your goal in 1 year, but after creating a plan, realize that it will take 2, even with a solid plan. If you’re determined to stick to your original goal sheet…come up with a better plan. Whatever you do though, make sure that your goal sheets and plan work cohesively, or you will become easily frustrated.
  7. Make yourself proud. Promise yourself that you won’t let ‘hope’ stand in the way of your greatness and carry out your plan with 100% dedication.
  8. Continually motivate yourself. Surround yourself with doers…not just dreamers. Consider this quote by Les Brown: “The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry our their dream.”

Let’s get rid of ‘hope’ and start taking responsibility!