Article Check - Business

Chess Sets, Creating and Marketing a Genuine Brand
What do you mean by a 'brand'? It's no secret that most fine chess sets are made by artisans in India. They are nicely weighted, beautifully designed and look/feel great. Some manufacturers are better than others, and quality is an ever present issue to grapple with on an ongoing basis. But good quality can be had - and there are a number of stores, physical and online, that market excellent quality chess sets for good prices that yield a little profit for the operator. How can we make ours distinct? How can we make our version the next Jaques, that will someday be heard on a future incarnation of Antiques Roadshow, where the owner will show that warm glow of satisfaction wh

to the questions asked by the audience and kept a tight rein on speaker number one so she could not ramble on.

His masterful style increased our opinion of his company.
For those few minutes he was the face of a very very large company. When I think of that company now I see how he confidently dealt with a difficult situation, meeting our expectations when we thought all was lost. No matter how many facts from his original planned speech we missed - we more than made up for them in the way we perceive his company.

He got most of his material into the discussion.
We weren't there for more facts and figures. We were there to get to know the speakers better. When he got up there and immediately went into the Q&A there was a collective sigh and a feeling that if you have a problem, he and his company can handle it

The Top 5 Signals That Your Business Is Running You
Starting your own business is a great undertaking but running the day-to-day aspects of your business is the true challenge you will face as an entrepreneur. Do you find that the business you started to suit your lifestyle somehow taken over your life and home? If this sounds familiar, then your business is running you. Learn how to run your business again with these top five warning signs and helpful tips.Stop Complaining And Take Control.A common lament of the entrepreneur or SOHO business owner is if they knew then what they know now, they'd never have started their own business. The truth is that if they thought then about what they're buried in now, the sto

When called upon to speak to a group, it's more important to deliver on the audience's expectations than on yours. What does the audience want? What do you have to do to get invited back? Here is how three speakers on the same panel left three distinctly different impressions on their audience.

At a recent industry event, every day was packed with breakout sessions along various specialized subjects. Each session had three speakers and a moderator.

The moderator introduced each speaker with a shortened bio and called on each one of them in turn for a few minutes of comments.

The agenda allowed each of the three experts fifteen minutes for their prepared statement - taking up about half of the ninety minutes allocated for the session.

The balance of the time was dedicated to Q&A from the audience. The Q&A was why we were all there. Most of us knew enough about the speakers already; we wanted to ask them specific questions only they could answer authoritatively.

Every one of the concurrent sessions at the conference used this agenda format. Timing was critical because there was another meeting immediately following this one, in the same room.

Speaker number one was a crowd favorite before the presentation even began. She was already well known within the industry. Her engaging manner and her clever use of her Power Point slides got everyone's attention.

She is somewhat of an industry personality and certainly an expert in her field, someone we would all like to question in depth.

Mounted on the lectern where each speaker, the rest of the panel, and those in the press area could see it, was a clever little stop light timing device.

The light moved from green to amber and then to red. When she saw the red light she made a sheepish smile toward the others on the panel and kept right on talking.

In my mind she went from engaging to self-absorbed at that moment. The longer she spoke the more restless the other panel members and the moderator became.

When she hit the twenty-minute mark some people from the back of the room left. By the time she hit thirty minutes there was a chill in the air - everyone was tense, except her.

The second speaker was very gracious. He is an industry leader who was there to give back and if his Power Point presentation had worked I think he would have gotten the meeting back on schedule.

However that was not to be. After several awkward attempts he abandoned the Power Point and had his assistant pass out printouts of the slides to about half the room.

In the end he promised to email the slides to everyone in the group and sat down clearly distracted by the mess he found himself in. He won't agree to help out the association with a presentation again any time soon. His time was twenty minutes!

In you want a riot on your hands don't live up to the expectations of the group. In this case that meant a forty-five minute questions and answers session.

With that in mind the third speaker was out of time before he got up to speak.

What he did turned a fiasco into one of the best sessions of the week.

After brief introduction he turned to the moderator and the audience he said, "Well enough about me, let's take some questions."

Instead of turning the mike back to the moderator he handled the entire Q&A phase. He wove some of his prepared comments into the questions asked by the audience and kept a tight rein on speaker number one so she could not ramble on.

My Marketing Budget Is Small - How Can I Make The Most Of It?
Regardless how small or large your budget is, there are a number of ways you can make it go farther. One way is to capitalize on the seasonality of your business.For example, it may not make sense or be necessary to market consistently all year long. Are their times when your particular industry is slow and customers are not likely to purchase? Conversely, are their times during the year when customers are more likely to be in the market for your product or service?Schedule your marketing activities to take advantage of these peak times and to avoid what I call the "valleys" (when no one is in the market for what you are selling). Aim to persuade as many people a

there. Most of us knew enough about the speakers already; we wanted to ask them specific questions only they could answer authoritatively.