No matter what your business is, you want your business stationery to deliver the message that, first and foremost, you are a professional. Professionally printed, coordinated business stationery delivers that message directly and to the point. When everything from your business cards to your letterhead to your invoices mirrors the same design and quality, you establish your company as truly professional.
Define your Message
There are generally three types of messages to convey with professional business stationery:
- Line of business, industry. You may be a young company or maybe you’ve been in business 50 years, but your company is not exactly a household name. Define your business with personalized stationery that communicates the industry you are in and what you do. If you are a home builder, you could incorporate a construction motif both in your logo and in the color of the paper and inks. Maybe you are a fashion retailer; communicate that with the use of some fashion-forward colors or an apparel-like graphic element.
- Authority, established. You may be the authority in your business or maybe you are trying to become one. Either way, send the clear message that you are a professional, established business with tasteful personalized business stationery. There are a host of classic, minimalist, modern and corporate looks that will make an authority statement. Bottom line, you don’t want to be an investment banker sending a business note on your daughter’s pink and green polka dot stationery.
- Cutting edge, technology, entrepreneurial. Maybe you are looking for an image other than the standard corporate navy blue and gray color palette. Make a statement with a cutting-edge contemporary design that evokes the 21st century. Elements that make a design more contemporary include the use of non-traditional colors or non-traditional placement of your company logo and address. For instance, instead of having your information top and center, have it placed in the lower right hand third of the page. A technology graphic theme also communicates a forward-looking business culture. If you’re an entrepreneur who needs to scream energy, go for a bold design with a dark or bright color and create the illusion of movement in your graphic elements.
Design for Consistency
There is more to a coordinated appearance than just placing your logo at the top of the page or in the upper left hand corner of a label. Every design element of every piece of stationery should coordinate to present a polished image that is unmistakably your own. That means the font you choose and size, typestyle and color needs to be consistent. Don’t italicize the return address on your mailing envelope when your letterhead uses bold, no italics for your business address. Choose one typeface and stick to it. The major choice is whether to use a serif or sans serif font. Some people think of serif fonts as more traditional and sans serif as more contemporary. Both are equally professional — what matters most is using the font correctly throughout every piece of your business stationery and communications.
Every time a customer or contact sees a piece of paper from your office, they should immediately recognize that it came from your office. That is what image is all about — creating an impression and then making certain that every time your company is seen, it fits that message. That means that all of your stationery, from business cards to monthly invoices, carries common design elements. Business stationery includes:
- Business and correspondence cards
- Both standard company and personalized executive letterhead
- Thank-you notes with the company logo
- Memo pads and internal routing slips
- Envelopes in various sizes
- Postcards and promotional mailers
- Anything your customers see — invoices, receipts, shipping labels, etc.
Leverage your Supplier
One of the best ways to ensure that your business image is consistent across your entire suite of office and business stationery is to order it all from the same source. When you source all of your custom business stationery from one supplier, you can be certain of the quality and the consistency of all your stationery products. Make sure your supplier has control of their product quality — some sellers are really 3rd-party outsourcers who use a different manufacturer or supplier for each job, based on low price. These businesses usually produce spotty quality and inconsistent service at best. Even if they may look like they’re saving you a few bucks, it will cost you more in the end. You need someone who is reliable all the time, but perhaps more importantly, able to come through on short notice for the occasional office emergency when somebody forgot to order more envelopes. Some suppliers even offer an online inventory management system that will send you reorder reminders based on your past order history.
Leverage every resource available to your business to build your professional image with personalized business stationery. Personalized stationery is probably the number one thing you can do to present a professional and competent business image to your customers and the public.
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It’s always fun checking in with friend and American Bladesmith John Fitzen. But like many businesses these days , times are not easy. Most of his industrial sharpening business has gone away which provided much of the shop’s income. That’s why our our TNP friend “Chopper” and his funny antics are missing here: there’s just no money to make the payroll in the “Little Shop of Horrors” and he doesn’t work at Razor’s Edge anymore. But Fitzen presses on, making blades that remain in demand all around the world. Cryo’d A2 steel, big, mean, perfectly milled serrations, handmade sheaths, stag or 550-cord cord wrapped handles, and of course the mandatory Fitzen skull and crossbones are some of his hallmarks. The Fitzen Gurkha is a mean blade John is making now: wicked heft and slashing capabilities. We also check out the Fitzen Predator, Frankenstein, the Damscus Bulldog, and the Fitzen Bowies along the way. As we roll along we talk blades, steels, cost factors, guns (RIP Tactical piston AR-15 included), tactical stuff, the industry, his health news, watch John doing his sharpening magic again, talk about knife chopping performance, and I make the mistake of having him show us what’s under his TactiKilt! ////////////// Bladesmith John Fitzen business is called “Razor’s Edge,” SLC, UT, ph 801-918-3725 //////////////////////// Music: Jason Shaw @ www.audionautix.com
Help answer the question about businesses
Do you have to have a business license to put candy machines in different businesses?I want to start a business by putting candy machines in different businesses. I was just wondering do I need some kind of business license to do this. Also if it's any help I want to do this in Texas.
I have a home business in health and wellness that is just under $200 USD to get started. As for time, it all depends on how much you want to earn.
There is no such thing as a good business that doesn't take time. You have to be serious about business if you want to earn an income. It's all what you do with it when you have it.
January usually has stocktake sales where retailers clear out xmas stock
July- i think there is an american custom of thanksgiving in july but u will have to check it out. Some people do it in australia but its not a big thing here.
August and Semptember im not sure about
December would be the biggest month and i see u did not include Christmas in your advertising. I would be using that occasion to search for businesses wanting to get in on your project. Its the biggest money making month of the year in terms of revenue for businesses and retailers. people buying presents and stuff.
Another idea would be for the businesses to put in a full page of deal, where coupons could be torn off the page. Things like 10% of shoes, or 15% of womens clothing. But that woul be up to the business if they would want to offer that.
If you're only really asking about training, then it would depend on the size of the business. If there's only about 1 – 10 people, then it would usually be the duty of the owner to train new staff, as he or she would be the person with the most interest in ensuring that everyone knows what they are doing. If you go into 10 – 30 or so staff, you'd probably have an operational or production manager who should take care of training.
Most businesses don't fail because of inadequate training though. As you pointed out, it's more about lack of planning. I ran my own small businesses for a few years, and I made sure to only hire people that didn't need any training!
Is your concern that businesses fail because of no proper training programs?
ryan turner of turnergator lawncare and landscaping 21 clients and im only 14
lawnbusiness- Thank you so much. This little 1 or 2 minutes has inspired me so much.
Get crafty. Homemade things often sell like hotcakes to people for easy Christmas gifts. My mom and I are doing this.
You can get cheap unpainted photo frames from craft sections at stores and paint or fabric decorate them.
Go through the scrap fabric bin at your craft section and get fleece material. Make heating pads by sewing rectangles of fleece (these came range in size from 4×6" to a foot or bigger, it's all up to you) that you fill with plain white uncooked rice. Thse go in the micorwave for 2-3 minutes. You can also add various things to them like lavender for relaxation or orange peel for envigoration. Fennel seed also works well for filling, but rice is more readily available and cheaper. These sell very well.
You can get some unpainted ornaments from craft sections and paint them up, leaving room for a name, and do personalized ornaments.
You could do a bake sale, too. This is a good one! You can get cookie mixes and pre-made tear'n'bakes for $3 a dozen, and bake up a whole bunch of them. Do some in singles, doubles, five-packs and dozens. You could wrap them in colored saran wrap and ribbon (the colored Saran Wrap is around $3 but would do them all, and ribbon is around $1).
Contact local grocery store managers and explain what you're raising money for and ask if you cuold put donation jars by their registers. You can also ask if you can sell your baked goods and crafts at a table outside their store. Also, if you have a WalMart, ask them about a matching program. Many WalMarts will match whatever you raise in a set amount of time, like the day you sit at your table outside of their establishment.
A note about this: write down which stores helped you in any way, and be sure to write them thank you notes. They'll LOVE that, and be more likely to help you out if you need assistance again in the future.
f you're allowed to set up a table anywhere, be sure to have material about the program you're going to, maybe make up a poster or visual aid like you have to do in school. Be ready to talk about it a lot. People will really respond to a young, ambitious kid who wants to further their education and follow their ambitions.
Another thing you should do is make up a card to go with all your crafts and baked goods explaining that the proceeds from this purchase will go to send you to Germany as part of (Program Name)to learn about the culture and if they have any questions about it, to please call you, (Your Name) at (your number). People will see this and be intrigued, and I'd bet dollars to doughnuts you'll get donations AFTER the sale, as well.
If you need more ideas, go ahead and e-mail me, ok? wendy@kxaz.com
Try churches. Many businesses will not align themselves with religious organizations or donate to groups looking to convert innocent people to a religion they know nothing about and risk death by even speaking to you about a religion not sanctioned by the state.
i need insurance or license
Nice Nice Video. I really loved your video. Youtube can be a great asset for you. If you need any help getting your video exposed, check out this site called tubeviews [dot net] It has really done wonders for me, I have built 3 Channels up with videos at top in position and this is my forth channel i’m going to working on.
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An interesting and lengthy question that possibly deserves an equally lengthy answer.
I have worked for various companies. Everything from a family owned business that employed 3 family members, to a large Wall Street firm that employed roughly 40,000 people.
The issue that we have here is that in trying to regulate businesses, it's as if the government is trying to please everyone…and in doing so, they please no one. Like the saying goes, "You can't just be a little bit pregnant".
As a shareholder in a wide range of publicly traded companies, I have had a few of my common stocks go to zero, while the companies filed for bankruptcy (Lehman Bros. and WaMu are just 2 of them). Even though it cost me money personally, I am thinking that the best way to go about things is to simply allow the grossly mismanged businesses to fail completely. That is what capitalism is all about; survival of the fittest. The ones that made the biggest mistakes and have taken the biggest falls, are also the ones that were perhaps the greediest.
What bugs me MORE is that fact that the executives of these failed companies have now come come to the US government for money to keep their businesses solvent. And, while holding their hats in their hands and asking for a taxpayer funded bailout, they also have their friends in the backrooms writing bonus checks to themselves.
As another saying goes, "You make your bed, you have to sleep in it". These folks made their beds. Whether it be in the form of sub-prime lending, or using derivatives to squeeze more profits from their balance sheets, or manufacturing vehicles that American consumers can not afford because of the high cost of fuels, the executives were providing the leaderhip that led to this mess and at the very least, they should suffer the consequence of unemployment themselves.
Here's a novel idea. Before these HUG banking conglomorants became what they were, who was servicing those home mortgages in the past? The answer? Local banks! It used to be that when someone in Middletown USA wanted to buy a home, they applied for a mortage with the Middletown USA banks. The loan officer would review the application, look at their own banking records, verify employment with a simple local phone call, and possibly even drive to the property to inspect it to make sure that the home was worth what the buyer was paying (ensuring adequate collateral for the bank). Compare and contrast this rather old fashioned idea to what has been going on for that past 20 years! The mortgage lender is 2,000 miles away and has absolutely no idea who they are dealing with. For all they know, the property is a spruced-up double-wide trailer that they are lending $400,000 against. So, my question is…what's wrong with going back to basics and allowing these motgage banking giants to fail? There will be a void that would quickly be filled by…small town banks.
I could go on and on here. But I wish to make one more point. It's time that shareholders take back ownership of the companies. The boards of directors are often bloated with upwards of 15 people that do absolutely nothing in the way of corporate oversight on behalf of the real owners, the shareholders. Often times, these people serve on multiple boards of directors and are paid six figure salaries PLUS benefits from each company. For what? To rubber stamp their approval on everything that the CEOs say? It's time for a change…and the change needs to happen on the ownership level.
I am afraid that this “stimulus” package will fail, just like President Bush’s “stimulus” package did. It will fail the individual and businesses all the same.
They will always fail due to the basic concept and idiocy of the idea as a whole… If government spending got us into this trouble, how will it get us out?
me and my bro made flyers today, were gunna start a lawn buisness…try and beat out the mexicans
You both should sit down with a lawyer. It's a good idea to pay for the consultation to make sure you are both protected. I would think it depends on how the companies are set up (i.e. sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, LLC, etc.) but it's definitely better to find out now and make arrangements if needed.
Good luck.
lol im gonna do that this summer, and ive got the same motivation as you. Beat out the mexicans! not to be racist.
WeeeelllI do have that kinda money to spend… I do want to open a strip club though..
dude i charge 10$ a lawn 4 lawns a day and for 90 days i made 3,600$ in cash and im only 12
im fifteen and i charge 15 to 20 dollars per cut. I now own a truck, double axle trailer, a ariens 21 inch mower, a bob-cat walk behind, and a few echo trimmers and blowers. Im starting from the ground up and doing real well
any problem with mexicans bitch?