Within the 18 to 34 year old age group, a physical piece of mail makes a longer-lasting impact than its digital counterpart, says Lisa Formica, president of FMI, a direct mail marketing and advertising firm. In an era of digital marketing, some proclaim that direct mail is dead. But the sometimes impersonal approach of digital marketing continues to make the appeal of a postcard or brochure with a coupon a welcomed advertising approach.

Targeting Your Most Likely Customers

While companies continue to collect your personal data online, direct mail database companies have been creating targeted customer lists for years. You can send your message to thousands of uninterested consumers online, or use a very targeted mailing list to connect with just the right prospective customers. Targeting new prospects is easier with direct mail customer lists.

Direct Mail Offers High Tech Options

No longer the low-tech marketing option, new postage equipment adds high-tech enhancements to allow you to fully customize your mailings. For instance, the Pitney Bowes DM 125 Postage Meter lets you print logos, seasonal greetings and QR codes on your postcards. Print discount offers to get the reader’s attention right away. Customizing your mailings this way engages your customers to open and read promotions and announcements.

Extending Customer Engagement

One effective use of direct mail is to introduce new products or services to existing customers, says the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). You already have a connection with your customers from a previous purchase. The direct mail approach to saying “We think you may also be interested in this” comes across more personally with direct mail.

Event Driven

Direct mail that is connected to a particular event is much more effective than a random advertisement. A seasonal sale, clearance event, grand opening or announcement of a new product or service are great tie-ins to a direct mailing. Send a direct mailing to announce a new store opening a month or two ahead of time. Send another mailing out two weeks before the opening with any special offers, door prizes or other incentives. You can use direct mail to create anticipation in your customers that will make them put your event on their calendars.

Refresh Your Customer List

Forbes also found that direct mail works well to bring back old customers who haven’t purchased from you in awhile. Spend some time to create a “We haven’t forgotten about you and hope you haven’t forgotten about us” letter to recreate the connection you had with past customers. This personal approach is difficult to do with digital advertising. The letter on the desk of the customer will serve as a reminder, more so than an email left in their inbox.

People Look Forward to Their Mail

Getting physical mail is still a positive experience for many people and finding bargains in the mail is still a thrill. Direct mail coupons convert people into customers, especially if they are timed correctly. A 20 percent off coupon that’s good indefinitely has less impact than 20 percent off if redeemed in the next 30 days. A person on the fence about making a purchase may get just enough incentive to follow through when they receive a coupon in the mail.

Direct Mail Fits Small Business Budgets

With direct mail, you have the choice of sending letters, brochures, or postcards. You can even send product samples. A small business can scale up its marketing effort depending on its budget and growth cycle. Direct mail items need not be expensive. A simple postcard with an enticing offer can be a good investment for someone with a small marketing budget.

For entrepreneurs looking to sell their small business, it is just as important to protect yourself from unnecessary risk as it is to determine the value of the business you’re hoping to sell. The most common reasons to sell a business, according to Business News Daily, are burnout, to avoid tax changes, to take advantage of a planned retirement or the desire to pursue new ideas. Whatever your reasons, there are some risks involved—here’s what they are and how you can avoid them.

Money Troubles

Make sure you get a significant down payment from a buyer. Your buyer is less likely to walk away if he or she could lose a large chunk of change by doing so.

Additionally, the overall state of the economy can drive the price of a business up or down as markets fluctuate. For example, a third-quarter market study from the Market Pulse Survey Report in 2012 indicated more than half of those surveyed were expecting fewer sellers to be in the market. A shift such as that indicates the tidal wave is turning to a sellers’ market, making it a good time to sell a business. Other dangerous fiscal setbacks, such as an economic crisis, can play major roles in affecting the value of a business, and a seller should be aware buyers are more hesitant when the economy struggles.

Know Who’s Buying

A smart seller knows it’s important to thoroughly review the credentials, credit history, financial history and business accomplishments of a buyer before entering into negotiations. Business Book Press reports many business sales fall through because the buyers are not willing to invest the necessary work to operate a business. Or, they have good intentions but lack the courage to dive into ownership. Sometimes, buyers can be unaware of what it actually costs to run a small business and get in over their heads. Astute sellers do everything they can to get to know buyers before entering into a sale with them, lest the seller be burned.

Information Concerns

Despite your best efforts, the information regarding a sale is disclosed before it is finalized. Perhaps it is work of a disgruntled employee, a phishing scheme or a simple slip of the tongue, but the news that the business is being sold can sweep through a company. It can create a wave of reactions in employees, suppliers and customers.

Employees’ first reaction to the news a business is being sold is often fear, especially about losing their jobs. In reality, most small business buyers have no intention of “cleaning house,” as a healthy, well-run business is usually the product of hard-working, skilled employees. While business owners who are selling may struggle with when the right time to announce a sale is, it’s often better to wait until a deal has been struck, rather than to reveal the information while still in the nebulous realm of “presale.”

In the end, selling a businesses is often as big a risk as starting one. Giving something you have worked hard to create to someone else to take over can be emotionally and fiscally terrifying, but those with the drive and desire to be their own boss know the goal was always to leave behind something you made with your own effort, investment and hard work. Creating a legacy of jobs for others is part of what being an entrepreneur is all about.

There’s no established list of rules to follow to achieve success as a business guru. Success legends come from all walks of life and bring unique insights to the business world. Today’s most influential and recognized business gurus are dishing about more than production outputs and quality measures. To accomplish your own business goals, mimic the following three business leaders’ lifestyle practices and passions.

Clayton Christensen

Find your life’s purpose, then allocate time and resources accordingly.

Clayton Christensen, the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, tops the Harvard Business Review’s list “The 50 Most Influential Management Gurus.” This professor is also a best-selling author of many business management books, including “The Innovator’s Dilemma” (1997) and “The Innovator’s DNA” (2011). His approach to life: “I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars, but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched.”

Bob Parsons

“You don’t spend your money on office furniture. You spend it where it’s going to impact your customers.”

Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.com, one of the largest web hosting, domain name registration, and ecommerce businesses, plays by his own rules. He does his best thinking while riding his motorcycle at dawn (he even owns two dealerships) and makes sure to balance work and play. He values a flexibility to be responsive to his business and creative when he needs to be.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett

“In India, 11 percent of CEOs of top companies are female. The figure here is three percent.”

Economist, consultant, lecturer, gender and workplace issues expert, Kennedy Scholar, and author Sylvia Ann Hewlett is passionate about gender fatigue. She draws attention to why women in the U.S. lag behind their more upwardly successful counterparts in the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. She says we should look to other countries for the impressive levels of gender equality that elude the U.S. workforce.

Mobile technology has made business easier to run since entrepreneurs can still keep tabs on their company even if they are not in the office. I normally use my iPhone and iPad as a mobile office whenever I travel, which allows me to keep in touch with my clients, employees and business while on the road.

There are a number of applications that allow entrepreneurs to run their business even if they are not physically present in the office. Some of these

Whenever I go on the road for company seminars, speaking engagements, meetings with customers or vacations, I like to bring some of my work with me. I do not like to go back to the office faced with a lot of work to do after my trip. I also detest leaving work untouched for one month and pay for an accountant to sort out my finances. However, Expensify allows me to go through receipts through my phone. It also allows me to check on my credit card, upload receipts through my mobile device or through the internet and send them to Quickbooks, Evernote, Sales Force and other similar integrated applications that can be used online or through a desktop. Expensify can be used on Android-powered or iOS-powered devices.

Close a business transaction? With Dropbox, this situation does not have to occur. Documents are safely secured on Dropbox and they can be accessed whenever necessary through a desktop, tablet and smartphone at any location, anytime. Android and BlackBerry devices along with the iPad and iPhone can access Dropbox. It can even be accessed through a Kindle device. An additional 500MB of storage is also available for users of this application.

I am quite partial to Evernote, which I normally utilize during a meeting that I attend. The application is a vital component of my business. The application allows me to sketch designs for clients using an iPad with the Penultimate handwriting application. I can save these designs inside a folder on Evernote and immediately share it to my designers. It also allows me to snip web pages, record images and scan files while on-site. These files can also be saved inside a folder that is accessible to anyone who may need it. I can also record valuable notes that can be transcribed by Evernote into text that is searchable. This feature is quite useful whenever great ideas come to me at night. I can continue giving the benefits of using the application although you can also try to use it for yourself. Evernote can be use by all platforms.

The mSpy mobile tracking application gives users the capability of tracking calls, messages, chats, emails, internet browsing history, videos, images, events, and notes of a mobile device. The application also features an integrated GPS feature that provides users the capability of pinpointing the exact location of the mobile device. This will allow the device to be easily located in case it gets stolen or is misplaced. Data can also be remotely wiped and the mobile device can be remotely locked, which is a useful feature to guarantee that personal information is safe if the mobile device is stolen.

Quickbooks Mobile facilitates the creating of invoices as well as monitoring expenses and hours spent with the client. You will be able to track accounts using the app, which facilitates the generation of new invoices and viewing open invoices whenever necessary. Although it may not fill up a balance sheet, it makes it easier to monitor your accounts anywhere at any time. Quickbooks Mobile application can be accessed using an iPhone, iPad or Android device.

The Scanner Pro application allows users to scan receipts, documents, memos, or whiteboard notes before it merges all the pages into a single file. application can also be synched with iCloud. Sharing scanned documents is easy since they are saved as an Adobe PDF file. You will be able to sign contracts, scan them and transmit them immediately using this application. The Scanner Pro application can be used on an iPhone or iPad.

 

Post by Susan Hampton .  Marketing coordinator  for  Mspy , blogger who writes about different useful  apps,  software and methodology  for better and easier life

Ghost payrolling is a method of fraudulently claiming funds.  Often set up by an existing payroll manager, accounting employee, or other staff member who has access to the company’s payroll information, a “ghost,” or nonexistent employee, is added to the company’s payroll and then subsequently paid.  In large companies, ghost payrolling can often go unnoticed, costing corporations thousands of dollars.  The key to keeping your business safe against ghost payrolling is to properly prevent the process from occurring.  There are often signs to look for that indicate your company may be at risk of a ghost payrolling scheme.

1.  NO DOUBLE CHECKS OR CONTROLS.  Having a system of double-checking is essential.  Not only does this help prevent ghost payrolling, but it also prevents any other errors from slipping through the cracks in your payroll system.  This could mean having additional employees routinely verifying the payroll process.  It could also include splitting up the payroll tasks between several employees.  Or, you could even seek assistance from third party payrolling services.

2.  NO W-2 FORM VERIFICATIONS.  Go over each employee’s returned W-2 form.  Although not always a sign of a ghost employee, paychecks that do not withhold any earnings for taxes can often be a sign of fraud.

3.  PAYING WAGES IN CASH.  Direct deposit is usually considered the safest way to prevent ghost payrolling from occurring.  Even paying employees with checks allows for the opportunity to forge or misrepresent information.

4.  NOT KNOWING YOUR EMPLOYEES.  Make a habit of randomly, personally delivering checks to employees.  Before handing over a check, always make sure to receive proper identification. Make sure you know who is working for you.

5.  ALLOWING OPEN ACCESS TO PAYROLL.  Limit the number of employees who can access the payroll files. This ensures that, when and if there is an issue with your payroll, you know who is responsible for the problem.

6.  NOT LOOKING FOR UNUSUAL WITHDRAWLS.  A one-time large sum withdrawal or a salary that is only paid once are both signs that you may have a ghost employee on staff.  Another sign of ghost employees are matching bank numbers with different names.  If you notice any of these suspicious signs of fraud, further investigate the process.

7.  NOT KNOWING THE SIGNS.  The most important part in preventing your business from falling prey to ghost payrolling is knowing what to look for.  By regularly observing and going through payroll files, unusual or large numbers should be noticeable.  Unfortunately, payroll fraud is not uncommon.  If you suspect a payroll crime, investigate the situation immediately.

Matthew Walden is a partner at Infinity Consulting Solutions (ICS), a premier staffing and consulting agency headquartered in New York City.  As an expert in the recruiting field, Walden offers over 20 years of expertise.  If you would like to reach out to him send him an e-mail at matthew@infinity-cs.com.

In business every penny counts, especially if you’re a new business just trying to get off the ground. You have to be careful with your money and the old adage of ‘time is money’ is never truer than in your first year of business. What’s more if you’re in the retail sector it can be even harder to achieve success.

The margins are small, there’s lots of competition and the current economic climate globally has seen retailers among the worst hit.

That said it’s also very rewarding if you can make a go of it. Apart from a great idea and hard work you have to have a business head on at all times. This blog has a few pointers on saving time and money so your business is as strong as possible:

Make use of wholesale ‘cash and carry’ stores

There are plenty of warehouse style cash and carry shops that directly serve the needs of retailers. These specialise in bulk products so are able to offer them at lower prices than family supermarkets. You usually have to be a registered business to get membership, making the savings exclusive to you- a measure that’s in place to help businesses thrive. Cash and Carrys also sell some items tax free so you’re getting an even better bargain.

If you only associate Cash and Carry warehouses with bulk food supplies, think again. Every retail business will find useful items e.g. cleaning products, toilet roll, electricals and a host of onetime special offers. Every penny counts so if you can afford to buy in bulk now you’ll save money down the road.

This will also save time over multiple regular shopping trips as you won’t have to shop as often.

Employ temporary staff during busy periods

Increasing your work force to match the demands of your business is the best way to make sure your staff costs are affordable. Too many staff during quite periods will drain your money, whereas too few staff during busier times will compromise the quality of service you can offer. Contact an agency such as http://www.contractretailservices.co.za that can provide trained staff on very short notice. No matter what sort of retail staff you’re looking for e.g. trained low level staff, supervisor level assistants or unskilled workers, you should be able to source them through a dedicated agency.

Stay on top of your paperwork

Nothing wastes time more than procrastinating doing your administrative work. You might be of the idea that sitting down for a whole day to cover the past month’s paperwork will equal the same amount of time as small amounts of daily admin. However there are a few reasons why this method is a waste of time:

  • Leaving paperwork until the end of the month means you may have to refresh your memory of the details and so it will actually take you longer. Add all the month’s paperwork together and you’re adding time for each document.
  • Not dealing with paperwork as and when it comes could get you trouble. E.g. if you fail to fill in work sheets or cleaning sheets and a surprise audit arrives you could face getting in serious trouble with auditors. Similarly if you fail to pay bills on time you could get in trouble with your suppliers and service providers. Failing to pay your bills could also result in fines so by paying on time, perhaps by direct debit, you’ll save money.
  • Lastly if you have to spend a whole day on paperwork that means you’re away from the frontline all day too. If instead you set aside half an hour everyday to some paperwork during the quietest business hour then you’re still available to deal with busy times, customer queries and unforeseen issues.

Get stuck in

If your idea of running a business is sitting in the office while your worker bees do all the front of house work then let me tell you now you’ll probably fail in the first year. You have to be willing to put in a lot of the work yourself, whether that’s on the shop floor selling to customers or it’s cleaning the toilets, you need to embrace it all. The more work you can put in yourself the fewer staff you’ll need, saving you costs in the first year.

As mentioned above if there’s a particularly busy time temporary staff is great for bolstering your team numbers. Once you’re established and you see the need for a permanently larger team then go ahead and hire. Staff hired by you will in fact be cheaper than agency staff but only if you need them on a fairly regular basis.

So the golden rules really are to make the most of your time, considering how you can work most efficiently and always identify where you can save money. Good luck!

Hiring managers know the usefulness of performing background checks on new candidates. They help prevent undesirable candidates from entering your work force. However, are they worth it for small business owners? Especially for a new company or a company in a rural area, they may be hiring people they already know. Is it worth taking the time and the money to do it? The answer is yes.

Unfortunately, worker fraud is on the rise. Falsifications on resumes and applications continue to climb, making the job of the hiring manager very difficult. It is their job to make sure that whoever they bring in has the necessary qualifications. If all they have to go on is what is on the resume and what is said in the interview, it may not be enough to confirm that what is being given is true. This is a big problem in some fields, where the hiring manager may not know everything they need to ask the right questions, such as a highly technical position.

You need to make sure that your candidates are trustworthy, and this is what a background check gives you. A solid background check establishes a basic level of trust between a new candidate and an employer. It also can establish trust between your business and your clients. Your clients may need reassurance that their goods and services will be handled by reputable people. You could even be held liable if one of your employees did something illegal and you didn’t perform a background check to catch it. For this reason alone, many employers bite the bullet and get them anyway.

Another big reason is the cost of hiring a new worker. By the time you find out that a worker isn’t going to work out, you may already be out a lot of money because of wages, taxes, and possibly even unemployment payments. The higher the position, the more this becomes a problem. That’s why most companies perform some sort of general background check on top of the legal ones, and why many large companies have such complex interview practices.

Fortunately, you don’t need to get everything about a person checked out. Reputable background check companies will help you choose just the types of checks you need for your business. Not everyone needs to have a credit check or a driver’s check. Most small businesses can get away with just having a criminal background check and a drug screening to cover their legal liabilities. A standard background check done by a reputable company will find any inconsistencies in a person’s resume.

Of course, no background check can replace the interview process. Having a solid interview process that covers everything you need to know about a candidate will go a long way to getting you the information you need to make a choice. Background checks provide a way to cross-reference what you were told in the interview. Don’t let this valuable resource remain unused by your business. If you need employees, you need background checks.

Author: Jim Addison has been in the ever-changing  background check industry more years than he cares to count.  Currently, he lives in Denver with his wife Catherine and three boys.  He adores hiking in the Rockies, letterboxing, and craft beer.

We’re all working long hours and pushing ourselves at work, yet productivity in the workplace is falling.

Nobody wants to take work home with them in the evenings or give up family time at the weekends to catch up. So how can we make sure we work smarter, not even harder, to make ourselves more productive during the day?

Leave the office

The modern office isn’t always conducive for getting work done. Open plan offices mean we’re surrounded by the noises, smells and visual distractions our colleagues bring.

Plus, not everyone is programmed for a 9-5 working day. Some people work best in the afternoons and early evenings while morning larks prefer to tackle hard tasks early but find themselves tired by 4pm.

Many offices are starting to give their workers a bit more trust and freedom to work flexibly using their own laptops or tablets. If there’s a meeting, they can pop into the office or join remotely using their webcam. This Bring Your Own Device trend gives workers the freedom to choose the working hours and environment that suits them.

Play ping pong

Those crucial breakthroughs won’t come by staring at a computer screen for hours. Sometimes we need to engage our brains in a totally different activity and let ourselves switch off to tap into our creativity and productive potential. Stress is one of the biggest killers of productivity.

Some of the world’s most successful companies like Google and Microsoft don’t give their staff swimming pools, basketball courts and ping pong tables for no reason: they know that paying attention to the wellbeing of their employees and giving them time to relax will ultimately help them crack problems and be more productive.

Don’t answer your email

When 5pm comes around, do you wonder where your day has gone? Trickles of emails, a phone call here and there and a few impromptu chats with colleagues about a project distracts us from what we’re doing and pulls our brains in a million different directions.

Experts agree that it’s far more productive to bundle similar tasks together. So set aside a chunk or time for responding to and drafting emails, time for making phone calls and time for creative brainstorming without interruptions. Most emails can wait.

If the lure of social media and email when you have an important report to finish is too much to ignore, why not enlist the help of WriteRoom or Dark Room, which only lets you write a document on your computer when the app is running. And Chrome’s Siteblock and Firefox’s BlockSite let you block distracting websites you get drawn to. If you stumble upon an article you feel compelled to read, save it with the Pocket app to read later?

Go to sleep

A study of elite violists by Ander Ericson found that they had a similar trait in common: they made sure they got enough sleep. Burning the midnight oil to get a job done can be counter-productive.

According to the Sleep Council, savvy bosses are setting up dedicated nap rooms to help staff get some sleep during their lunch breaks because they understand the link between sleep and productive, healthy workers.

If your boss isn’t as forward-thinking, aim to pack in about 7-8 hours of sleep during the night if you can. But go for quality, not quantity: make sure you’re getting restorative REM sleep by using apps like Sleep Cycle (which wakes you up at the optimum time) or Sleepbot (which helps you track how well you’ve slept during the night).

How do you stay productive at work?

Competition exists in business everywhere. There will always be companies who have more clients and better sales revenue than you do. So, it is important to set your organisation apart from opponents, even when you sell similar products. You can start with reconsidering your brand’s packaging labels.

Labels are essentials
Many businesses devote their time and money on advertising. However, billboards and television commercials may not be ideal, as they are costly investments. It is best to promote and create public awareness through efficient product labelling. Since they are already in the marketplace, it will be easier to attract or lure potential consumers to try them. Moreover, they carry facts and information which can contribute to higher purchase success.

Creative labels for better results
The purpose of labels are to entice consumers to pick-up your item upon first glance. If the name, logo price and other information have wrong placement, they will most likely move on to another item which passes their standards. So, it is also essential not to only utilise labels, but to use them properly.

To effectively use them, some design elements of a great product label include:

  • Colour palette – Colour is one of the most powerful elements of an appealing design. When an individual walks down the aisle of the supermarket, the hue of the label can immediately draw him or her to pick-up an item, even when it’s not on the grocery list. So, it is important to choose the right palette for easy visibility and attraction. Also, consider having a brand colour for your company as colour association branding can immediately differentiate your products from others. For instance, soda giant Coca-Cola uses red while their competitor Pepsi utilise blue. Both companies use different colour schemes to subconsciously help consumers in associating those colours with the brand.
  • Images and fonts – Pictures can tell a thousand words, but a pixelated logo or other image can convey the wrong message. Any photos used should be set in the right resolutions to ensure they are readable. If you are going to use a picture from the internet, make sure you have a permit to use it for your label. Buying stock photos online can be an alternative, as most can be used for marketing purposes. However, it is recommended to still read the license agreement and it should also be note that other companies may have also bought the image. As for the fonts, don’t settle for Times New Roman or some other Windows font. There are many different fonts available online which can be used for free. Keep in mind, the font should be easy to read.
  • Label materials – No matter how creative the design is, poor choice of label material can negatively affect the overall concept. Before drafting the design, consider the colour and type of paper. If you are going to use coloured images, always stick to clear or cream coloured papers as they can make the graphic design pop up more.

Competition today is more aggressive than ever before. Make sure you apply the necessary steps to ensure consumers consider your organisation’s products over the competitor. Expensive advertising forms such as billboards, flyers and television commercials may not be necessary as repackaging can be enough to draw the attention of potential clients. So, re-examine your labels and consider these smaller design changes for better sales results.

 

Brand awareness is essential to improving your business, whether you are connecting with customers online or in the community. If you are planning to release a new product, you not only want your company’s brand to be out there, but for the product as well. Many popular products are known immediately (think Nike, Coca Cola, and Starbucks). They are known by the brand name (business name) as well as the product name.

 

These companies have done an excellent job of branding the product, and you can too with the following tips for increasing brand awareness.

Create a Website and Blog

Your website is a great place to start raising awareness for your brand. If you don’t already have a superior website for featuring your new product, get one designed. Thewebsite should be easy to navigate and not distracting for the average viewer. If you have an online shop, new products should be featured on the front page to get the most notice.

 

After getting your website up, be sure to implement a blog as well. A blog is ideal as part of your website, because you can write a little more about your new products, as long as the posts are relevant to what you sell. Use this as a platform for connecting with prospects and clients alike.

Improve Your Social Media Presence

Social media is one of the best ways to increase your brand. Not only because millions of people are using it every day, but they are sharing information as well. You can start engaging with your potential customers through social media and begin increasing your company’s presence. Through these methods, the product awareness is also improved.

 

Another benefit of using social media to announce your products is that the major search engines index social media updates and portfolios, so every time you post a link to your blog post, website or product page, you’re increasing your SEO potential through linking.

Local Advertising

While online and mobile marketing is still growing and very popular, it isn’t the only option you have. Don’t forget about the power of local advertising for your products and services. If you plan to have your product in local stores, then you’re going to want to leverage traditional advertising methods.

 

Doing so includes putting product information in newspapers, magazines, local advertisements, banners and more. Even sending out postcards about your products or getting together with a related business to do an advertising swap with them. You can also attend community events or trade shows to increase your local advertising potential.

Provide a Service

Providing a valuable service is often the easiest and most effective way to increase your product’s brand. Even if you sell products with your business, you can still find ways to provide services as well. If you’re a business that sells cleaning supplies, you could start a local service offering cleaning services to homes or businesses. Go one step further and offer them at a steep discount for low income families.

 

By doing this, you are increasing brand awareness by giving back to your community, and more people are going to then be more interested in the types of products you sell. It is also a great way to demonstrate how well your products work.

 

Reaching the Right Audience

 

You also want to work to reach the right audience. Your branding efforts are useless if you aren’t identifying your target market first. If you intend to have your products in stores, find out where your target market is not only shopping, but where they prefer going for your type of product. Depending on what it is, online stores might be more beneficial.

 

 

Tess C. Taylor, PHR is a certified Web Content Manager, Human Resources Professional, and Career Coach with nearly two-decades of writing experience. Tess also founded the popular blogazine The HR Writer. As a regular contributor to multiple HR and Business publications, including Benefitfocus, Dale Carnegie Institute, HR Magazine, PayScale, and US News Careers, Tess is dedicated to educating others about important human resources and marketing topics worldwide. You can connect with Tess on Google+ , Facebook and LinkedIn.