Image courtesy of Mike Maguire

As a leader, your word is often the final word. And it’s usually the word that matters most. Whether you like it or not, what you say – and do – is important.

George Bradt, Forbes contributor and author of The New Leader’s 100 Day Action Plan, points out:

Nothing kills credibility faster than not practicing what is preached.

If Bradt is right, then he makes a pretty compelling argument for speaking (and acting in accordance with) the truth.

Truth…

It sounds like a highfalutin moral concept for philosophers to debate. Not a business essential. But, we’re here to tell you that truth is perhaps the most powerful trait shared by great leaders.

As a leader, what you do with the power of your words – whether you choose to speak truth or deception – can determine whether your business thrives or fails. Truthful words, a close grasp on reality and the willingness to follow through with your actions are necessary tools for running and leading a business.

Here are 4 concrete reasons why it’s important for business leaders to embrace truth.

We All Live in a Shared Reality

People who are disconnected from reality are often said to live in “their own little world”. Leaders can’t afford that luxury.

Leaders must stay grounded in truth for the simple reason that their businesses exist in an objective reality. Joan Vaccaro, physicist, associate professor and chief investigator for the Center for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University explains the concept of objective reality:

The objective reality is the collection of things that we are sure exist independently of us. Every person is able, in principle, to verify every aspect of the objective reality. Anything that cannot be verified in this way is not part of the objective reality.

I don’t want to get too heady here, but your business is a part of a shared objective reality. Consumers, business competitors, and money are all also part of the objective reality. And, everything within our objective reality can be considered to be verifiably true.

Whether you like it or not, you must make your decisions based on the reality – the truth – that they share. In fact, there’s even a name for this – the reality principle. Author of How to be Profitable and Moral, Jaana Woiceshyn discusses the reality principle in her article, “How to maximize long-term profits: The reality principle.”

The principle emphasizes staying focused on facts in one’s thinking and action, no matter how unpleasant, or how tempting it might be to evade them.

Faulty facts, incorrect assumptions or simple lack of information all open up the possibility that you will make choices that are counter to the objective reality and, as such, may harm your business.

For instance, imagine you own a dance studio. Let’s say you hear a rumor that your local competitor plans to open a studio in the neighboring town. In an effort to claim that territory, you hastily open your own studio there.

If your competitor was truly seeking that territory, opening your second studio (while a definite risk and financial burden now) may prove to have been a necessary and worthwhile financial risk in the long-run.

But, imagine that rumor was wrong and your competitor had no intention of opening a studio in that second town. Now you’re saddled with the very real expense and financial risk of a second studio that you never properly planned for… and there was no need.

Truth is important. Your business deserves a leader who makes decisions based on facts – facts that come from the same objective reality as your business.

Expert Tip: Keep your eyes open to objective reality. And, fact-check yourself often. Make sure your decisions are grounded in fact, not speculation.

Great Leaders Are Adaptable

In an ever-changing world, effective leaders must be flexible and adaptive. The following quote (often attributed to Dr. W. Edwards Deming) says it all…

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.

Change is constant, in life and in business. And, if we are to succeed, we must adapt to those changes.

The more adaptable you are in life, the more likely you are to thrive. Thanks to our understanding of the principle of evolution, we now know that the factor that determines which species will survive on our planet is the ability to evolve traits (adaptations) that allow them to competitively perform in their environment.

Our literal survival depends on our ability to react to change in an effective manner.

The importance of adaptability spans from science textbooks to the great wild outdoors and everywhere in between – including our businesses. The Center for Creative Leadership asserts,

Adapting to change is a life skill and a leadership imperative.

Adaptable leaders adjust their strategies and behaviors to accommodate new situations, allow adaptability to flourish among their subordinates and display cognitive and emotional flexibility. These are all valuable skills for navigating business challenges.

So how does all of this link back to truth?

It’s simple, really. To adapt in a meaningful way, you must first acknowledge the truth of what is not working. Only then can you make informed choices and move forward in a better direction. This is not easy – the truth hurts and is often uncomfortable.

Expert Tip: Be open to the truths that you may not want to see. Finding a mistake or an inefficient process is a gift – an opportunity to right a wrong and improve.

It’s All About Trust

In the world of ballroom dance, there are Leads and there are Follows.

In order for a couple to waltz, tango or cha cha successfully, it is essential that each partner fulfill their respective role. This means that the Lead must… well, lead. And the Follow must give up a large chunk of their autonomy in order to physically and mentally accept that leadership and seamlessly follow.

Giving up any degree of one’s autonomy is a scary proposition that requires trust. Employees, like dance Follows, are asked to give up a bit of their own autonomy every time they are given an order from a superior. To earn that trust, you must offer truth in return.

But, that trust is undermined every time a leader speaks words that clearly run contrary to reality. Outright lies, half-truths, and even a weak grasp on reality all weaken employees’ trust in their leader. And it causes them to question the faith that a leader deserves their loyalty in the first place.

Rose O. Sherman, RN, nursing professor, and Director of the Nursing Leadership Institute at Florida Atlantic University, agrees that truthfulness is a key leadership trait. In her article “Truth in Leadership” she shares,

Most leadership experts would agree that trust is the foundation of leadership. When followers feel that they have not been told the truth, there is a breech in trust with the leader. The ability to establish, grow, extend and restore trust is a key leadership competency. As a new leader, you build trust through your character and your competence in managing your responsibilities in an authentically truthful way.

This is just as applicable in the office as it is in a hospital ward. Entrepreneur, author, and speaker Glenn Llopis writes for Forbes:

…employees want to be a part of a workplace culture that puts a premium on delivering the truth. They desire their leaders to be proactive in sharing where the company is headed and forthright about its future. In other words, they just want transparency so they can plan and protect themselves.

You can’t effectively lead a team that doesn’t trust you. Lies of omission or outright deceit will undermine your credibility and pave the way for a toxic work culture to grow. You don’t have to look much further than the toxic cultures at companies like Uber.

Expert Tip: Be transparent and honest when communicating with your employees. It’s their future, too. They deserve to know the truth. 

Follow-through is Essential

“No Money Down!”

“100% Satisfaction Guarantee”

“Best Price in Town!”

Businesses love to make promises. And every single time a business makes a promise they open themselves up to criticism. Will they or won’t they follow through?

Your customers are eagerly awaiting to see which it will be. Making good on a promise is a great way to build brand loyalty and trust. Breaking your brand promises is a great way to make customers angry and lose their trust. And lost trust leads to lost customers.

But, you stand to lose more than customers if you don’t follow through on promises. Lewis Howes puts making empty promises at the top of his list of “Signs You Might Be a Terrible Leader,” saying:

Poor leaders motivate those following them with false promises of promotions, success and a great tomorrow, but rarely deliver on those promises… As a business owner you need to be aware of what effect this has on your staff.

Your employees are watching you. Right now. And every day. They’re waiting to see if you follow through on your promises and commitments. And what they see will impact their performance – and your bottom line.

Tony Simons of the Harvard Business Review and his colleague Judi McLean Parks conducted a study to measure the impact of managers’ “behavioral integrity.” They measured this by asking participants to evaluate statements like “My manager practices what he preaches” and “My manager delivers on promises.”

Simons reports:

The ripple effect we saw was stunning. Hotels where employees strongly believed their managers followed through on promises and demonstrated the values they preached were substantially more profitable than those whose managers scored average or lower.

In fact, no other single factor they studied had as significant an impact on profits.

What you say matters. Make sure that your actions are aligned with your words. Your relationships with both your customers and your employees are counting on it.

Expert Tip: Be truthful in word and action. Only make promises you know you can keep. And, follow-through on every promise that you make. 

The simple acts of getting intimately acquainted with reality and being truthful in your words and actions are prerequisites for business leadership. Truthfulness shouldn’t be an abstract concept. It should be the foundation of your leadership. Make truthfulness an everyday part of your leadership practice with these 4 tips:

1. Make decisions grounded in the shared objective reality.

2. Be ready to adapt when needed by keeping an eye out for the unpleasant truth that something isn’t working.

3. Be transparent and honest when communicating with employees.

4. Be truthful in word and action. Follow through on your promises and commitments.

Hungry for more great advice to improve your leadership and help your small business grow? Check out our latest ebook by crowdspring founder and CEO Ross Kimbarovsky titled STAND OUT: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting, Growing, and Managing a Successful Business.

The post This May Be The Most Powerful Trait Of Great Leaders appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

If the number of coworking spaces in a city is is any indication of its entrepreneurial health, Chicago is firing on all cylinders. Based on a recent survey by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and Chicago Creative Space there are 41 coworking spaces in the city, covering a staggering 868,124 square feet of space.

With competition for desk tenants fierce, coworking spaces are diversifying and expanding their services. Never mind barista-quality coffee, fast Internet access, and virtual office services – now you can find spaces that have perks such as art galleries, recording studios, and even indoor rock climbing and fresh produce and herbs.

The advantages to coworking are numerous. Besides the financial benefits that sharing space provides, coworking offers access to networking and communities that can be invaluable to any new or growing business. And, being part of a group of like-minded, driven people can bring focus and energy that you can’t find anywhere else.

With these positives in mind, we’ve gathered together some of the most interesting coworking spaces in Chicago.

TechNexus

20 N Upper Wacker Dr #1200

TechNexus is one of the oldest coworking spaces in Chicago and prides itself as being “the gateway to collaboration for Chicago’s technology leaders.” Since 2007 it’s helped find, fund, and nurture technology companies out of its 65,000 square foot workspace in downtown’s Lyric Opera building.

1871

224 W. Merchandise Mart Plaza
Suite 1212

This coworking space gets its name from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but not to commemorate the fire itself. The name is a tribute to the innovation and passion that came after the fire, “a remarkable moment when the most brilliant engineers, architects and inventors came together to build a new city.” Located in the Merchandise Mart, this incubator and coworking space offers shared and private office space along side meeting rooms and a diverse slate of events.

Assemble

600 W Jackson Blvd
1165 N Clark St
Opening 2017: 1720 Division in Wicker Park

Assemble has two locations (with a third to open in 2017 in Wicker Park) that boast gorgeously designed spaces with lots of natural light and close proximity to transit. They offer month-to-month leases that allow tenants to upgrade as needed, a vibrant and engaged community, and complimentary access to printing, copying, utilities, and conference rooms.

BLUE 1647

2100 S. Canalport Ave.

BLUE 1647 is a coworking space dedicated to fostering collaboration, entrepreneurialism, and creativity across many different disciplines and businesses. In addition to supporting local tech startups, BLUE 1647 also strives to be an education center. Hundreds of Chicago students have learned a wide variety of technology skills at the space.

Coalition

405 W Superior, Floor 5 & 7
18 South Michigan Avenue, Floor 12

Coalition has six locations, with two located in Chicago and others in New York and Boston. Impact, their River North location, is dedicated to social innovation and boasts over 14,000 square feet spread over two floors. Energy, their second location, is in the historic Gage building in the heart of Chicago’s Loop and focuses on energy-related endeavors.

MakeOffices

1 North State Street #1500
541 N. Fairbanks CT Suite 2200
350 N. Orleans Street Suite #9000N

MakeOffices has three locations in Chicago. Their River North location is a good example of what you’ll get from any of their spaces: a large, well-designed space with a full complement of private offices, open desks, and other amenities. The Fairbanks Court location works primarily with health-tech startups, which is appropriate considering it has leased space from Northwestern Memorial Hospital. No matter which location you choose, you’ll find beautiful offices and vibrant coworking communities.

The Shift

4101 North Broadway
3432 W Diversey Ave Floor 2

The Shift has two locations, one located in Uptown on North Broadway and the second (aptly named “Second Shift”) in Logan Square on Diversey Avenue. Both have a neighborhood feel and have made serious efforts to integrate with the communities they are based out of. Besides the traditional coworking space and packages, people can rent the space for community events and gatherings.

Level Office

73 W Monroe St.
420 W Huron St.
318 W Adams St.
211 W Wacker Dr.

Level Office is run by Bill Bennett, one of Chicago’s very own entrepreneur powerhouses. Bennett believes in small business, the self-employed, and entrepreneurs and has created a space perfectly suited for their needs. Offering a modern and professional office space from which you can run your business, Level provides fully furnished, technology equipped and amenity-rich workspaces at an affordable rate.

Brooklyn Boulders

100 S Morgan St.

With research continually pushing evidence that physical exercise is linked to improved mental ability, it makes sense to have coworking space readily accessible from your local gym. Brooklyn Boulders, with their climbing wall, yoga studio, and sauna, offers just that – all within feet of your desk. With locations in Chicago, Brooklyn, Queens, and Somerville, Massachusetts, it’s clear the work-workout trend is catching on. A place where your body, mind, and fledgling startup are all welcome? Hold my phone calls please, I’m going for a climb.

Free Range Office

2141 W. North Ave., 2nd Floor

Free Range Office (FREO) is a coworking and conference space with the lofty goal of promoting productivity, innovation, networking, and work-life balance. They achieve this goal in part by offering members a prime location – a slew of Chicago’s best restaurants and stores are a short walk away. They also carefully designed the 3800sf of space with a feng shui layout offering plenty of natural light, comfortable workspace options, a meeting/conference/seminar room with a 40 person capacity, and a wide array of amenities. How about a fully-equipped chef’s kitchen? Maybe a shower or a peaceful outdoor terrace? If these sound appealing, FREO might be worth checking out.

Homiey

3455 W North Ave

Picture the best of coworking spaces and your favorite internet cafe, and you get a pretty clear picture of what Homiey offers. Mobile professionals, students, and other independent entrepreneurs can all find a place to focus, collaborate, drink coffee, and ride the caffeine high to productivity. If you need a place for meeting clients, a professional-yet-cozy place for a study group or a change of scenery in your work week, homiey has you covered.

Roof Crop

1516 W Carroll Ave

The Roof Crop offers an unusual, idyllic landscape for green seeking entrepreneurs. With plenty of light and an abundance of greenery, Roof Crop is an ideal place to collaborate, create, strategize, and spend some time with nature at Chicago’s finest urban farm. There’s a co-working and conference room available for booking, and a full-service kitchen and rooftop deck to enjoy the fresh produce available on site from the farm. Daily passes are $30, but you can harvest an entire month’s worth of visits for $310.

Chicago is a vibrant, innovative city with an incredible community of entrepreneurs, and its raft of coworking spaces is a testament to this. No matter what business idea you pursue or creative project you dream up, chances are good that Chicago has a coworking space for you.  Take it from us: Crowdspring proudly calls Chicago home, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Now that you’ve found a great place to work from, you’re ready to get your startup up and running. Check out our latest ebook by crowdspring founder and CEO Ross Kimbarovsky titled STAND OUT: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting, Growing, and Managing a Successful Business.

The post 12 Terrific Coworking Spaces in Chicago appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

First impressions are important. And, in our digital age, we often make our first impressions via email.

Did you know that welcome emails are more impactful than virtually any other type of promotional email?

A welsome email is the first exchange betwen your business and a new customer or prospect. It sets the tone for future communications, encourages people to take a closer look at your company’s products or services, and provides helpful information.

Welcome emails have the highest open rates of all promotional email – 57.8% to a paltry 14.4%! They’re also reported to bring in 320% more revenue than standard promotional email.

Not to mention that subscribers are most engaged during the first 48 hours, so your welcome email arrives – or should – during that optimum engagement window.

So, if you haven’t optimized your welcome emails to take advantage of that power, you’re missing out. A study conducted by digital marketing and branding advocacy firm Ciceron reminds us that:

Remember, first impressions are critical to building lasting relationships; a welcome message is that important touchpoint for your email marketing program. You want to entice your subscribers by sending them a welcome message that encourages them to take that next step…

So let’s take a look at how you can optimize your welcome messages to help your business make a good impression and set the stage for a lasting and profitable relationship with your customers and prospects.

1. Express Gratitude

Let’s start with basic etiquette. To set the right tone with your new subscriber, customer or client, start by showing some gratitude.

Whether they’ve given you their email or they’ve signed a 10-year contract with your business, they’ve given you something. So make your mama proud and say “Thank you.”

Everyone likes to feel valued. And, as Business.com’s Joshua Lombardo-Bottema points out:

When customers feel valued, they become loyal — the type of customers that become the bread and butter for any business.

So, don’t skip this simple but important step.

Joann Fabrics does a great job of both showing gratitude and creating excitement by prominently thanking their new subscriber for “being a part of something awesome!” They go on to elaborate about what their subscribers have to be excited about. But, they draw you in with their thanks. Follow their lead and make gratitude a staple of your welcome emails.

2. Showcase Your Brand

A welcome email serves so many functions – creating goodwill, encouraging next steps, reassuring the customer of their choice and helping them get to know your brand. It’s a tall order.

One of the most effective ways to both reassure your new contact or client and help them get to know you is by featuring your brand identity through your welcome email.  This means more than slapping your logo in the top corner and moving on.

This example from Blaze Pizza is a perfect example of a well-branded welcome email. The design elements are taken directly from Blaze’s style guide. It closely matches the visual style of their website and in-store signage. The copy tone is casual, yet enthusiastic – the voice of their brand.

Viewers receiving this welcome email will be reassured that the message is from the website where they just subscribed because it looks so similar. It also helps newbies get familiar with their brand voice. Overall, a great effort.

Your business should do the same. Weave your brand identity through every detail of your welcome email – the colors, tone, graphics, fonts… Every element should be customized to embody and convey your brand identity. So refer to your brand’s style guide as you design.  Or have a professional design your email for you.

3. Know Your Goal

It’s impossible to hit a target if you don’t know where it is. So, plan ahead – what do you want this welcome email to accomplish?

Obviously, you’ll want to make your customer or client feel welcomed and valued. But, aim for more. Do you want to make sales? Do you want your recipient to download your free e-book? Or become a regular reader of your blog?

Tailor your content to accomplish whatever goal you’ve set out. For instance, Torrid wants you to shop.

This welcome email from Torrid has one single goal – get you shopping online or in a retail location. They encourage their recipients to shop by offering a time-sensitive discount. And, they remove barriers to entry by giving direct access to their online store and making it easy to find the Torrid location nearest you.

Be like Torrid. Design a welcome email that clearly knows what it wants. Select your goal and thoughtfully choose design elements and copy to support that goal.

4. Build Relationships with Reciprocity

Offer your new customer something more than just your thanks. We recently wrote about the principle of reciprocity in our article “7 Marketing Psychology Tips to Improve Your Business Marketing“:

Reciprocity is the idea that we want to do nice things in return when people do nice things for us. Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, tells us that even the simplest gesture can trigger our desire to reciprocate.

Reciprocity is a powerful tool for creating a strong relationship. Think about it – a consumer gives you an email address or a client gives you their business. In return, you offer something above and beyond that elevates your interaction above a mere transaction.

The client expects to get whatever services you’ve agreed to. And a newsletter subscriber expects to receive newsletters. Anything you offer that goes beyond the expected can trigger that reciprocity instinct.

Consider offering an exclusive and generous discount coupon that motivates the customer to shop like the example above from Joann Fabrics. Or, send a round-up of your blog’s greatest hits. Just make sure that you’re offering something that has real value.

5. Build Loyalty Through Exclusivity

Everyone loves to feel special. And what makes people feel more special than having something that someone else can’t?

Olivia Allen of inbound marketing firm Bluleadz points out:

The psychology of exclusivity is a powerful thing. When people feel like they’re on the inside, it gives them a sense of belonging that could build loyalty and compel them to convert better on your emails.

So, embrace the power of exclusivity! Encourage loyalty by offering an exclusive reward or invite someone to be a member of an exclusive group.

Vivienne Westwood gets it. Fashion is a rather elitist field, to begin with. So she plays to that desire to be on the inside of a glamorous world of fashion by offering her newsletter recipients exclusive free live streaming of all of her fashion shows in London, Paris, and Milan – including the action backstage. It doesn’t get much more “inside” than that!

MINIUSA gets it, too. Their welcome email copy intertwines descriptions of the MINI’s features with the discerning taste of their unique and adventurous drivers. They imply that only someone who is similarly unique, adventurous and discerning can appreciate the wonder of a MINI, creating the desire in the reader to be a part of that exclusive group.

If your clientele, customers, or subscribers crave to be among the elite, make sure your welcome email invites them to be a part of something exclusive.

6. Include a Clear Call to Action

A wise man once said, “You’ll never know unless you ask.” And he was right. There’s also a good chance that wise man was a marketer.

The call to action is an essential marketing tool. Jeremy Smith of Marketing Land defines a call to action (or CTA) as simply, “…an appeal to users, inviting their response.” He goes on to assert:

There’s no such thing as a successful marketing campaign unless there is a successful CTA.

Your welcome email is part of a marketing campaign – or, at least, it should be. So, make sure that you’re asking your audience for what you want.

CTA’s in emails should be as simple as Godiva’s “Shop Now” button or MINIUSA’s invitation to “Build Yours.” The simpler your CTA, the clearer it is… and the more likely it is that someone will actually click on it.

Smith reminds us,

This is no time for surprises, secrets or subtlety.

Consider these 3 elements when planning your CTA – placement, design, and copy.

1. Place your CTA in a prominent, easily visible place in your welcome email.

2. Make design choices that will catch the eye and hold your audience’s attention.

3. Use specific, clear copy that tells your audience what you want them to do.

7. Don’t Forget the Subject Line

A beautifully composed welcome message will get you nothing if your audience never sees it.  So, don’t neglect the subject line.

Your subject line should support the excitement your viewer felt when they subscribed, purchased or signed that contract.  It should entice your viewers to open your message. Here are a few tips for how to optimize your subject lines:

• Keep it short and concise – people are inundated with email and as a result, they scan quickly. Your subject line should be a quick and engaging read.
• Make it personable. Use the viewer’s name or make strike an inviting, conversational tone. Torrid does a great job with this. Their welcome email subject line? “Hi, we’re Torrid.”
• Remind your audience why they subscribed. Michael’s does this artfully, saying, “Your Inbox Just Got a Little More Creative.” Why did their viewer subscribe? Oh yeah… they’re creative and they like creative things.
• Use dynamic language!

Olivia Allen of Hubspot writes:

Subject lines are similar to calls-to-action, in that you want the language to inspire people to click. Subject lines that begin with action verbs tend to be a lot more enticing, and your emails could be drastically more clickable by adding a vibrant verb at the beginning.

A welcome email can be a powerful tool for creating the best possible first impression for your business. We hope we’ve inspired you to make the most of the opportunity. Keep these 7 tips in mind as you create your next welcome message.

1. Thank your new subscriber, customer or client.

2. Showcase your brand through carefully curated design and copy choices.

3. Plan your welcome email around a known goal.

4. Use reciprocity to strengthen your relationships by giving back.

5. Build brand loyalty by offering an exclusive gift or experience.

6. Include a clear call to action.

7. Give your subject line as much thought as the rest of your welcome message.

Ready to step up your welcome email game? You’ll need a strong design. Crowdspring has a team of over 206,000 designers that have helped thousands of businesses with package design, logo design, illustrations, and more. Our outstanding customer service team is available to guide you through the whole process.

The post 7 Tips that Will Make Your Welcome Emails Awesome appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

It’s been quite a week, hasn’t it? Let’s take a minute and unwind with some of the finest music ever created: Beethoven’s late string quartets.

As the story goes, Italian violinist Felix Radicati complained that Beethoven’s Opus 59 Quartets were “not music.” I know, how dare he. Ever composed, Beethoven responded: “Oh, they are not for you, but for a later age.”

While Beethoven’s avant-garde compositons went over the heads of his contemporaries, they are nothing but celebrated today. Limelight Magazine explores just what it is about these quartets that inspire people to listen, and listen, and listen again.

Have a listen yourself, and enjoy the end of your week on a high note.

Now, we hope you enjoy another great set of links and articles … Read more

You’ve invested in a beautiful logo.

You have a terrific tagline.

You have great business cards and stationery.

Your brand is ready, right?

Almost.

There are still a lot of places where even the best branding plans can go awry. As we wrote previously,

If your branding is confusing, inconsistent, generic, or otherwise sub-par, you can easily undermine your business’s credibility and ruin your chance for success.

We looked at five common small business branding mistakes to help you avoid the fate of so many business owners whose businesses imploded because of poor or inconsistent branding.

Not delivering your brand consistently

If there’s one word that might encapsulate the habits of successful brands, it is arguably consistency.

Behind any … Read more

Oh no! His business used stock art…

Your brand should be like a fingerprint – completely unique and associated with your business only.

Everything about your brand, from your business name to your logo to your web design, should support and communicate your brand’s unique identity. As we previously explained:

A brand is the sum total of the experience your prospects and customers have with your company. A strong brand communicates what your company does, how it does it, and at the same time, establishes trust and credibility with your prospects and customers. Your company’s brand is, in many ways, its personality. Your brand lives in everyday interactions your company has with its prospects and customers, including the images you share, t… Read more

The logos of successful companies are instantly recognizable, memorable, and timeless. These are important qualities because successful companies have built strong brand identities.

A strong logo is an important part of a company’s brand identity. As we wrote in our post, “Why You Should Avoid Making This Stupid Branding Mistake WIth Your Logo”:

A great logo design can be the difference between blending in and standing out from the competition. But while we often recognize the value of a great logo, we don’t always prioritize it.

New business owners often incorrectly believe that a good logo will cost thousands or tens of thousand of dollars.  As a result, they sometimes buy pre-made logos in an online logo store or try a do-it-yourself ap… Read more

I have some unfortunate news for everyone. Coffee is about to cost a latte more.

Studies forecast that due to higher temperatures and shifting rainfall, over 90% of bean-growing land will be rendered unsuitable for farming by 2050. This means bean prices may rise from $1.28/lb to over the record high $3.39/lb in a few years.

This is bad news for the globally caffeinated: people consumed 151m 60kg bags of coffee last year, and don’t even get started on China – their coffee habits have doubled in the past 5 years. Coffee is the most traded commodity in the world (after oil), so this is going to make for some very cranky mornings ahead.

It might be time to swap to tea.

Now, we hope you enjoy another great set of links and articles that we sh… Read more

Olga in Paris for Flytographer

The saying goes “You can’t please everyone.” And what’s more, you shouldn’t try.

Not all customers are alike. And spending time, money and manpower trying to reach all of them effectively is not only foolhardy but impossible. Each consumer demographic has its own unique needs and preferences.

The perfect tone for one audience will inevitably be off-putting to another. The most impactful messaging for one audience will be lost on a different audience. The way you position your brand with your logo and marketing materials can create excitement with one audience and fall flat with another. And, it’s not just about tone and messaging. It’s also about reach.

Small businesses simply don’t have the budget to cover … Read more

The World Health Organization recommends that adults get a minimum of eight hours a night of sleep.

Two-thirds of adults in developed nations are not reaching this number, with startling consequences. An adult sleeping only 6.75 hours a night is predicted to live to their early 60s (without medical intervention), which is a wakeup call for most of us.

Sleep scientist Matthew Walker believes that in a highly competitive society where work-life boundaries are increasingly blurred, sleep is strongly associated with weakness. He explains,

We have stigmatised sleep with the label of laziness. We want to seem busy, and one way we express that is by proclaiming how little sleep we’re getting.

We’re not sure about the exact consequences of our wi… Read more

If you’re a business owner, you’ve likely heard the statistics on new business success/failure rates.

Only 50 percent of businesses survive their first five years. Look out a little further, and you’ll find only one-third make it beyond the 10-year mark.

With numbers like this, it seems even riskier to launch a business in a marketplace already flush with competitors. But don’t let this dissuade you from your dream. Even in crowded markets, smart companies can find their niche, uncover unique value, or succeed through a mix of savvy business decisions, passion, and hard work.

In many ways, opening up an entirely new market has its own set of risks. The idea or business model could be unproven, or you could be asking customers to spend mone… Read more

Everyone has their own take on what makes a logo perfect.

New trends (and fads) in logo design appear every year. Stripes, letter stacking, fades and geometric shapes are popular in logo design for 2017. Just a year ago monoline designs, negative space, and retro designs were all the rage.

Be careful not to fall into the trap of following every new fad. As we cautioned in “5 Hot Logo Design Trends That Can Improve Startup And Small Business Brands”:

Today, small businesses and startups have to compete in an increasingly noisy world, against larger, more established businesses. To do so, they need to get noticed. Customers who are just discovering your brand need something to remember you by, and your logo serves as a kind of souvenir for… Read more

I have often wished I could cram for exams (when in school) and important meetings by taking a very long nap. Unfortunately, that strategy never worked. But, it turns out that you can learn while you sleep!

A new study has found that the sleeping brain can learn new information during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, the point in your sleep cycle when you typically dream. The study focused on memories for acoustic patterns (which leaves hope that anyone can learn to play a musical instrument just by sleeping).

Now, we hope you enjoy another great set of links and articles that we shared with you over the past week on our crowdspring Twitter account (and on Ross’s Twitter account). We regularly share our favorite posts on entrepreneurship, … Read more

You have a terrific product, a strong brand, and a solid marketing plan.

Now it’s time to create a website that will help convert visitors into sales.

Or maybe you already have a website but it’s not working as well as you expected.

Today, it’s impossible to reach most customers without a website. This is especially true for new small businesses and startups trying to compete in an increasingly noisy world. but it’s also true for even established companies.

Don’t believe me? A recent study shows that 97% of consumers research their purchases online before they buy something.

Your website is a crucial component of your marketing and branding strategy. Customers visit your website because they have a particular purpose in mind – they need … Read more

Climate change is on everyone’s minds.

And it should be. After all, this is the only planet we have.

Keeping Earth healthy impacts everyone.

But, even if you’re not convinced that climate change is a real problem, there’s still plenty of reason to prioritize a greener, sustainable future. A 2017 peer-reviewed study in the Lancet revealed that pollution continues to be a major global health concern.

According to the study, pollution was responsible for roughly 9 million premature deaths in 2015. This makes pollution the “largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today.”

No matter how you look at it, it’s not a great idea to poison the air, water, and soil we all rely on to survive.

The great news is that product co… Read more

Saul Steinberg said, “what we respond to in any work of art is the artist’s struggle against his or her limitations.”

There have been so many examples of artists and inventors who have triumphed as a direct result of their challenges. Instead of folding in the face of adversity, these trailblazers opted instead to create new and inspiring work that addressed their “disabilities” in genius ways.

Tommy Iommi, guitar player for Black Sabbath, lost his fingertips in an industrial accident. He decided to take his guitar into his own hands, so to speak, and created a new style of music: heavy metal. Chuck Close painted faces to compensate for facial blindness. Thomas Edison was deaf in one ear, almost deaf in the other – and he helped invent the… Read more

Many people wonder if it’s possible to design their own products.

The truth is that product design used to be very expensive, time consuming, and fraught with many pitfalls. Even today, most entrepreneurs and small businesses face many challenges when trying to design their own products.

But product design doesn’t need to be very expensive or time consuming. In fact, there are many ways to get from idea to a prototype in a short amount of time, for a fraction of the price that people used to pay for traditional product design.

The crowdspring community (over 210,000 graphic and product designers) has helped many entrepreneurs, small businesses and even big Brands design products for many different industries. We’ve worked with the likes… Read more

With thousands of products on store shelves, eye-catching packaging design is the only on-the-spot tool you have to encourage sales.

Your packaging design should speak, loud and clear, for your product when you can’t be there to do it yourself.

And, let’s be honest, it would be creepy if you were actually there.

Creepy, but cool, as this Dollar Shave Club commercial shows…

But, what makes certain package designs catch the eye, while consumers pass other products by?

Psychology.

People subconsciously respond to visual stimuli. Knowing how to get people to respond favorably to your packaging design will help you sell more products. 

Megan Sullivan, in her article “The Psychology of Product Packaging,” points out:

We all want to believe … Read more

“Hurry slowly” is rooted in an old Latin phrase: “Festina Lente,” or “Make haste slowly,” or “more haste, less speed.”

What does that mean?

Erasmus explains,

Things that ripen prematurely are wont suddenly to go limp. What grows slowly and steadily can endure.

Many great and enduring thinkers throughout history have concluded that making great strides in progress, working hard, and striving for greatness is important. But equally important is doing these things at a slower, steady pace if you want that progress to have strength and longevity.

“Let’s slow down,” Steinbeck wrote in his journal while working on The Grapes of Wrath, “not in pace or wordage but in nerves.”

Do yourself a favor and go forward with your work meticulously, steadfas… Read more

Many aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners obsess about starting a new business. This obsession can be all-encompassing and most never get started.

There are many reasons for this.

Some are naturally afraid to start something new.

This is not uncommon. Startups are risky.

Others hold their ideas close to their chest, worrying that people might steal their ideas. But as we previously wrote, you should worry about people listening to you, not about them stealing your ideas.

The biggest risk, for entrepreneurs and established companies, is doing nothing.

History is filled with companies that imploded when they failed to innovate. Xerox, Blockbuster, Borders Books, Blackberry, Yahoo, MySpace and many other once-successful companies were… Read more