Tiny Ways to Save a Dollar a Day

Despite predictions that today's economy is rapidly heading for an upturn (something that is good news to all of you start-up businesses out there that took advantage of the boom in Internet commerce but have still been feeling the pinch) Americans are still looking for ways to make their dollars stretch even farther. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're trying to build your business you know exactly what I'm talking about! When your marketing budget is still coming out of your pocket it's easy to see why so many small companies go down in flames in the first five years.

There are hundreds of books out there that offer hints on easy ways you can save money. You already know the big ones-stop spending, start putting away a certain percentage of your paycheck, stick to your budget. All those helpful tips don't take into account the fact that saving money is hard, especially if you're not used to doing it!

When I was surfing around online the other day I came across a great site to help everyone, business owners and everyday consumers alike, get started saving money. These fun little steps are things we can all do every day, and before long you're going to notice a huge difference in the amount of money you have in your savings account!

Tiny Ways to Save a Dollar a Day

1) Stop watching T.V.-your electric bill will thank you, and you'll minimize your exposure to the commercials that are draining your bank account dry!

2) Start making your gifts rather than buying them. Most people are just as happy with a plate full of brownies or homemade candles as they are with an expensive tie they're never going to wear, and you'll be able to save hundreds when Christmas rolls around.

3) Sign up for free customer rewards programs. You probably don't realize how much you spend at the grocery store or your local bookstore-but they do. These rewards can add up over time, and you'll be able to enjoy the things you love without having to worry about how they're impacting your checkbook.

4) Don't spend money on your kids. Seriously. They'll have just as much fun with old newspapers and paint, or an old cardboard box, as they will with a $3,000 playhouse.

5) Cut back on fast and frozen foods. Yes, they're more convenient at the end of the day, but they also cost considerably more.

6) Start walking the straight and narrow. Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and weekends at the local pub can really add up over time. Dropping those habits can add hundreds to your budget, helping you save money and paving the way to a successful financial future.

Developing a Marketing Plan That Will Crush Your Competition

When you're playing in the field of big business there are two groups of people you have to worry about: The people who are buying from you (your customers) and the people who would like them to stop buying from you (your competition). Since marketing involves not only emphasizing the value proposition of your products and services but also differentiating what your company has to offer from similar prospects laid forward by your competition, it pays to develop a marketing plan that's designed to do both as efficiently as possible.

The major mistake most marketers make, especially ones that are new to the game, is looking too closely at the marketing techniques used by their competition. If the competition has launched a TV ad, they think they should do it too. If their competitors have a price war going, they think they need to take part. Your competition is only one piece of a very big puzzle, however, and shouldn't be used as the framework on which your entire marketing plan is based.

If you really want to crush your competition, take time to find out what, exactly, your customers want. The competition focused approach doesn't take into account the fact that your competition could be spending too much money or targeting the wrong group of consumers-and really, do you want your profits to pay for their mistakes? Consumer needs change more slowly than your competition, allowing you to get your feet under you before making major changes to your marketing approach, and by listening to your consumers you know you're taking the right approach to helping your business grow.

Take, for example, the case of Amazon.com. Believing that the best way to jump ahead of their competition was to advertise on TV, Amazon's CEO launched a wide marketing campaign only to pull it off shortly after when he realized it wasn't working. Instead, the company started offering free shipping. They weren't campaigning the same way their competition was, but by giving their consumers what they wanted this "dark horse" managed to continue to dominate the E-tail industry.

It pays to listen to your consumers instead of trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Microsoft is Putting the "Bing" Back in Big Business

Hold the press, ladies and gentlemen: Microsoft's newest attempt to monopolize the digital industry has hit the airwaves with the quiet unveiling of Bing.com, Microsoft's own new search engine. Featuring scenic atmospheres, easy to read links and, most importantly, a search query box designed to help surfers quickly locate the web resources they're looking for.

For consumers this forces a moment of decision: Do they abandon search engine favorite Google, currently outranking every other search engine on the web by leaps and bounds, in favor of Microsoft Corp.'s new brainchild? While Bing.com doesn't feature the same fun gadgets (such as the ever popular joke of the day and ready access to the day's news headlines and weather) that Google does via iGoogle Bing does offer an easy to surf menu of images, videos, shopping, news, maps and travel sites designed to help them take a bite out of Google's market share.

May the best corporate giant win. In the meantime, the launch of Bing.com signifies new opportunity for savvy netrepreneurs.

Like Google, Bing.com features a sponsored list of pay-per-click ads designed to help businesses rapidly catch the eye of websurfers who might be interested in their business. Microsoft being what it is businesses can expect curiosity seekers to swing by and pay Bing.com a visit. Since Bing is a fairly new service its marketing attraction hasn't yet spawned its own collection of webinars, books and multi-media features, which means now is the time for small businesses to get their foot in the door and take advantage of lighter competition.

Will Bing replace Google? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, this new creature feature from one of the industry's most well known names is opening new doors to marketers that haven't been available before and may not be again. Since you're working on a pay per click basis you always retain the option to pull out of the game if you find that Bing isn't yielding the results you'd like to see for your marketing budget, which means there's no reason for savvy marketers not to take advantage of what may be the new next big thing in Internet marketing.

Don't Let the Recession Beat Your Fundraising!

Regardless of what anyone wants to say, even with an economic upturn being predicted in the near future our economy is still filled with doubt, peril-and an economic uncertainty that is leaving many nonprofit organizations' most dedicated donors clinging to their pocketbooks just a little tighter. Understandable, when one never knows what dip and turn in the economy will set fortune on her ear THIS time; however, since fundraising efforts have to continue, here are some great tips to help non-profit organizations continue to pull in the funds they so desperately need to keep their organizations going:

1) Learn more about your donors. If you're able to answer their questions they're going to be able and willing to do more to further your cause.

2) When planning special events, keep the economy in mind. Fundraising dinners at $1000 a plate are almost guaranteed to be a social faux pas! Instead, feel out your target market (as you would any consumer) and include your donors and volunteers in the planning process.

3) Encourage regular giving rather than a one time donation. It's amazing how much more comfortable most middle class donors are with the prospect of donating $20-30 a month to your cause rather than cutting a $360 check on the spot-and you're guaranteed a more reliable income.

4) Make sure you have your numbers and a thorough explanation of where their money is going to go before you even approach your donors. In these uncertain times the scandals that have plagued non-profit organizations in recent years are going to rise up to haunt you. Most people aren't going to be willing to give if they don't know where their money's going but when presented with a clear, dollar-to-dollar chart showing exactly how their donation will be used are more than willing to be a part.

American Marketing Association Upcoming Events

I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating. The American Marketing Association has a great deal to offer your business's marketing department, whether you have a staff full of experienced marketing professionals under your thumb or have been doing your own marketing from the comfort of your kitchen table. Whichever your circumstances may be, take a minute to check out the AMA's upcoming events:

June 14-June 17: The 2009 ART (Advanced Research Techniques) Forum

Whistler, BC-This year marks the 20th anniversary of the ART Forum, a "unique conference that provides an opportunity for academics, practitioners and research clients to exchange ideas and solutions." If you're looking for ways to move your marketing research forward, take the time to attend this forum and swap ideas with some of marketing's greatest masterminds.

June 24: Online Marketing: Convergence in the Cloud

Los Angeles, CA-Discover the infrastructure shift that's building "the cloud" and the reaching implications it's going to have for the way we market online. This presentation is going to be led by social media blogger Robert Scoble, who will discuss what the Cloud means for online marketing and how we, as marketers, can successfully incorporate it into our own marketing campaigns.

July 15-July 17: The 2009 Nonprofit Marketing Conference

Chicago, IL-This year's Nonprofit Marketing Conference centers around the idea of change and how the challenge we face in the current economy and the shifting demographics of donors can work to our advantage, as well as new ways to reach and engage donors and volunteers.

"You will leave NPMC armed with the latest research insights, proven strategies and ready-to-use tools to broaden your reach, deepen your relationships and motivate your donors/volunteers to action even with the reduced resources that are a reality in the current economic environment. "

The Importance of Multi-Lingual Employees

It's not something that many companies have focused on in the past; however, with the rapid growth of global enterprise the need to have bi-lingual and multi-lingual employees as a regular part of your staff has become more apparent than ever. If you were to take a moment to review the employment needs of many businesses in and around Los Angeles, San Antonio and Washington, D.C. you'll find that most employers are giving preference to employees who are capable of speaking Spanish due to the large, primarily Spanish speaking population in and around these major cities.

And Spanish isn't the only language they want you to know.

As English has become the universal language of business many companies have gotten excessively comfortable, relying on their associates' grasp of the English language and the occasional services of a professional interpreter to do business when dealing with firms overseas. There's only one problem; where a language gap exists there are bound to misunderstandings, and while interpreters are very, very good at what they do they'll never be able to embellish their points in a way that manages to succinctly explain the point they're trying to make while simultaneous bridging the gap between two cultures the way a native born or extremely fluent speaker can.

It's the culture gap, more often than a language barrier, that presents a problem when doing business on a global basis. The practice of bringing in native managers and employees rather than importing their own has become a common practice in the business world, and whether you're choosing to establish your own foreign office or simply doing business across the blue you want to have your fingers on the pulse of those cultural differences-and if that pulse happens to be sitting in your office day in and day out you'll probably find that you have no problem bridging the cultural gap the next time you decide to do business.

The Dangers of Over-Branding

When you're thinking about developing your brand it seems impossible to think that there's such a thing as over-doing it, but guess what? It's possible. And hundreds of companies are doing it every day, from coast to coast and around the world.

Over-branding occurs when you take your brand, target your niche market and become so specific and narrow in your description of what your product or service can do and, more importantly, who it's meant for that you essentially isolate yourself from a huge potential market. People see only what you want them to see in your product and miss the possibilities-and as a result, you miss a potential sale.

Yes, granted, the purpose of marketing is to display the potential use of your product and target your target market to maximize your sales quotient. That shouldn't be all you do. For example, let's say you have a digital camera that can also be used as a digital video recorder. In hyping the potential uses of your video recorder are you also remembering to advertise that this is a digital camera as well? It's possible that there's a huge market out there that would be interested in the diverse possibilities presented by your digital camera that have no interest whatsoever in a digital camcorder (right now).

In over-branding you're going to completely destroy your chances of being able to make a profit off that part of your target audience that's only interested in a digital camera.

Are you beginning to get the picture? When you're developing your brand you want to encourage your customers to see your products the way you do, but you also want to introduce them to its other potential uses as well. Only then can you truly maximize your potential profit.