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Do You Feel You've Hired the Right Graphic Designer for Your Small Business? Here are 5 Indicators
As a kid, did you ever find a shiny yellow rock that you thought might be gold? Well growing up in Ohio I came across a number of rocks that had a flash of golden metal that I thought were exceedingly valuable, so much so that I took the rocks back to my parents to find out how rich I was going to be. As you’ve probably guessed, they weren’t worth much. In fact, they were not worth more than the paper sack I had carried them in.While they aren’t looking for rocks, I’ve found that business owners and managers have the same challenge looking for the right designer for their company. And like me when I was young, when they find something they think is valuable, they often have no way of knowing how valuable the rock, or in this case the designer really is.The big challenge for business owners is how to evaluate if they’ve made a good choice when it comes to hiring a designer – how can

looking for. That’s when it clicked -- there was a gap in the market that I could fill. As an IT professional specializing in Intranet systems myself, I soon had the website built and my brother-in-law, who is a graphic designer, came on board to help with the creative side. Through his contacts he also helped to source the cards that we use. After that, a lot of fine tuning and acting on feedback from our customers has got us to where we are now..

Kristin: Most of us d

Kids and Money Guide
As the name of our website suggests we help you in managing your finances when you think it is time that you had a baby but are worried about the cost and responsibility of a new life on your shoulders and pockets.Expecting a baby soon? Worried how you’ll be able to manage in the limited finances after it’s born? Worried about your child’s higher education? Well, we have the solution to your problems. At teachmoneytochildren.com, not only do we help you sort out your financial problems but we also explain as to how to go about explaining to your child the need to save money for a rainy day!Soon you may be incurring expenditure for diapers, baby soap, cradle, cots and the works. Within a few years you will be preparing for clothes, shoes, education, sports equipment, dates and bikes. We need to finance our children not only till the time they are in university but also until they start earning

Paul Leonard's BirthdayCards2Go.com paid greeting card service offers convenience when you're rushing to send birthday wishes. While nothing can beat a personalized poem to add that extra touch of thoughtfulness, we can all agree that in this busy world, any connection we can make with each other, even just to say "Thinking of you," is worthwhile.

Plus, when you consider the cost of gas, driving to the store, buying the cards, and buying the stamps, you can't beat the price of $3.16 and up including postage for handmade greeting cards that can be personalized. Poems for You founder Kristin Johnson sat down with Paul Leonard, founder of BirthdayCards2Go.com,for an exclusive interview.

Kristin: Paul, how did you develop this unique service?

Paul Leonard: Well, I guess the idea first came to me a couple of years back while sitting in a traffic jam! I‘d just been to the store to get a birthday card for my sister at the last minute -- I always forget people’s birthdays -- and was trying to fill in the address with the envelope balanced on the steering wheel. I remember thinking that there must be a better way! A couple of months went by and, on my birthday, I got a birthday card from my sister. It obviously hadn’t been sent by her but by a computer via the web -- my name and address was laser printed on the back and it arrived in a window envelope. The message inside was laser printed in rather soulless black monotype. I can only say that I felt a bit offended, considering the trouble I had gone to 2 months earlier, but then I realised how much time and energy I would have saved by using a service like this.

The only thing that put me off was the impersonal ‘junk mail’ appearance of the card, so I began to search the web for a service that would allow me to send a card that would look like I sent it. After a couple of hours I gave up because I couldn’t find what I was looking for. That’s when it clicked -- there was a gap in the market that I could fill. As an IT professional specializing in Intranet systems myself, I soon had the website built and my brother-in-law, who is a graphic designer, came on board to help with the creative side. Through his contacts he also helped to source the cards that we use. After that, a lot of fine tuning and acting on feedback from our customers has got us to where we are now..

Kristin: Most of us d

Graphic Design Help: Will A Freelancer Be Enough Or Do You Need A Large Design Firm?
There is a little greasy spoon in my neighborhood that always has a line out the door on weekends. The fried eggs are so greasy they could stop your heart, there isn’t a single homemade pastry or muffin in the joint, and the 99-cent cup of coffee tastes like coffee tasted before the American cuppa joe morphed into a gourmet addiction for the masses. The flowers are fake, the tablecloths are plastic, the cheese is of the fluorescent variety, and the silverware has spots. Yet there’s always a line.People love the restaurant because they know what to expect, get what they expect, and the service is consistently friendly and efficient. Customers do not expect homemade bread served with homemade butter and fresh-from-the-grove OJ. They don’t come for lunch expecting panini with goat cheese and oven-roasted anything. They don’t come expecting to be served a seven-course meal. They come with a friend expec

rice of $3.16 and up including postage for handmade greeting cards that can be personalized. Poems for You founder Kristin Johnson sat down with Paul Leonard, founder of BirthdayCards2Go.com,for an exclusive interview.

Kristin: Paul, how did you develop this unique service?

Kristin: Most of us d

How To Make An Effective And Appropriate Close Of A Deal
A business’ success depends largely on how a sales person closes the deal. The ability of the sales team to do a quick need evaluation of the customer and understand his requirement is crucial. Then build relationship based on truth, trust and good communication to give value for money.Three Important Tips:1. Before meeting the client, arm yourself with thorough, research-based knowledge of the client, industry, competition and recent changes or newsworthy items.2. Fix a structured meeting with the client. Ask relevant questions to elicit useful information, establishing links to next question. Follow the line of thought or topic by periodically summarizing the contents of the meeting. Schedule the next call and further meetings.3. Follow-up the call and assess if the desired outcomes of the meeting were met and commitments honored. Satisfy the client’s specific needs. Thank

- I always forget people’s birthdays -- and was trying to fill in the address with the envelope balanced on the steering wheel. I remember thinking that there must be a better way! A couple of months went by and, on my birthday, I got a birthday card from my sister. It obviously hadn’t been sent by her but by a computer via the web -- my name and address was laser printed on the back and it arrived in a window envelope. The message inside was laser printed in rather soulless black monotype. I can only say that I felt a bit offended, considering the trouble I had gone to 2 months earlier, but then I realised how much time and energy I would have saved by using a service like this.

Kristin: Most of us d

Technical Competence vs Technical Expertise
There is a high expectation that the leader be competent in the assigned task or specialty he is supervising. This expectation exists to some level in all endeavors. Workers want the boss to know what they do and to have, at least, a rudimentary understanding of how it is done. At a minimum, the leader should be familiar with the task. Even better, he should have some proficiency at it. Employees at all levels consistently cite the importance of technical competence in their leaders. First, this is a respect issue. Second, it is a direction issue. Employees correctly believe that if the boss doesn’t know what they do and how they do it, he will be unable to make the right decisions on how to effectively employ them, implement changes that positively impact performance, and improve the team’s ability to capitalize on future opportunities. `Even more important is the willingness of the leader to adm

black monotype. I can only say that I felt a bit offended, considering the trouble I had gone to 2 months earlier, but then I realised how much time and energy I would have saved by using a service like this.

Kristin: Most of us d

Let Me Tell You a Little Story
Once upon a time there was a businessperson who had the task of convincing an audience of the need for the business to plan better for the future. Instead of starting out with a spreadsheet and a long list of numbers he started with a story we all know, “The Three Little Pigs.” He engaged his audience with the brilliance of the little pig who built his house out of brick then used that metaphor to segue into his discussion of long-term planning.There are many ways to communicate depending on the message you need to deliver, who the targeted recipient is, and the urgency of the message.The military officer orders. The advertiser entices. The leader inspires. The trainer, supervisor, or coach motivates.Since few of us are in a position to communicate by barking orders, we have to learn to become more effective in enticing, inspiring, and motivating. Perhaps the most eff

Kristin: Most of us do leave things to the last minute. That’s why there's a proliferation of free e-card businesses out there. Blue Mountain Arts, which published two of my award-winning poems on its Web site, was the pioneer for this model, but changed to a login and fee-based service. You are also doing a fee-based service. But yours is not an e-card business, it's a unique greeting card business. Do you operate on the principle "you get what you pay for?"

Paul Leonard: I think the bottom line here is that you can’t put an e-card on your mantelpiece! E-cards are definitely great fun and have their place, but you still can’t beat a real card arriving in the post to tell you that someone is thinking of you.

Kristin: True! Can you describe the other benefits of sending a BirthdayCards2Go card?

Paul Leonard: I think our main objective is to make the cards we send out look and feel like the customer has sent them personally. We allow the customer to select a style of handwriting, which is used to complete the address on the envelope and message inside the card, and a normal postage stamp is used for postage. Making the process of sending a card as quick and painless as possible for our customers is also important, and a lot of thought has been put in to ways of reducing the amount of effort needed to do this.

Kristin: The effort and care you have taken show in the cards you see on your Web site! The designs from Paper Avenue look terrific. How did you select Paper Avenue as the designer of your cards?

Paul Leonard: We decided early on that we should offer something different from the rest. After getting samples from what seemed like hundreds of wholesalers we still hadn’t found anything worth getting excited about. My brother-in-law knew of Paper Avenue and suggested we give them a try. We were so impressed by their designs that we took the plunge and haven’t looked back!

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Trade show displays are the fastest and most effective ways to focus the attention of customers on your product. To yield positive results out of your investment you need to attract customers, and this requires eye-catching displays. And for this you don't have to make a huge investment, just go for used trade show displays. It is cost effective, though the buying process is bit long. Buying used trade show displays requires patience and perseverance because you have to beware of fake and useless displays. It is better to take the help of experts before buying the used displays.

We all know that successful people never stop learning, but who has time to read all the great books out there? Here is a secret that almost EVERY SUCCESSFUL PERSON I KNOW uses, to get more reading done every day...and it doesn't take any extra time!

Everything you've ever learned about marketing and advertising is WRONG. Everything you've ever heard everything you've ever tried, everything you've ever done, it's all WRONG.

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