This month, we wanted to share some general tips relating to your graphic design that we’ve come up with over the past year:

Always include an address on your business card, even if you are operating a small
business out of your home it greatly increases your credibility and makes you
look much more established! If you’re concerned about privacy, a Post Office box is
a great way to go. When signing up for a Post Office box, consider using a
“Mailboxes” store instead of the Post Office you’ll get a street address instead of
the typical “P.O. Box”, and the store will accept shipped packages from UPS, FedEx
and other carriers for you, so you won’t need to give out your home address as a
shipping address.

Never be caught anywhere without business cards again! Carry a supply of cards in
your car so that if you can restock when purse or wallet stash runs out. The same
applies for brochures, articles, promotional postcards, samples, informational flyers,
and presentation folders with information about your company and capabilities
you never know when you’ll have an opportunity to hand them out!

Look for ways to make producing your designed materials less expensive. Need a
business card and brochure? Why not combine the two into a folding business card
and save on the printing costs? Is your logo designed in so many colors that printing
becomes too costly? Try having materials printed digitally by an online printing
house like psprint.com or vistaprint.com they’re often much more cost-effective
for materials printed on white paper stock. If you want to print on a specialty paper,
consider converting your logo to a one- or two-color version just for your printed
materials unlimited colors on a website don’t cost extra! We’re always thinking up
creative ways to save our clients money, and we’re happy to offer many more
suggestions like these based on your individual needs just contact us with your
questions.

Do you want the professionalism of having a printed letterhead, but don’t expect to
write 500 letters (the minimum quantity for most printers)? There are two options to
avoid this: Design a letterhead that can act as a base for your printed invoices,
flyers, report or proposal covers, articles, client intake documents and everything
else! This way, all of your materials will be professionally branded and you’ll go
through “all that letterhead” quicker than you think! Or, recreate your letterhead
design as a Microsoft Word template, so that you can print sheets one at a time
from your desktop printer. Just pick up a ream of specialty paper from the local
office supply warehouse to avoid that “home printed” look.

If you frequently drive for your business, or if your parking spot happens to be on a
busy street, make the most of it by having a set of car magnets designed and
printed with your logo, phone number and website address on them they make a
big impact, spread the word all over town and, after the initial investment, it’s free
publicity!

We hope these tips help you promote your business.

About the Author

Erin Ferree, Founder and Lead Designer of elf design, is a brand identity and graphic
design expert. She has been helping small businesses grow with bold, clean and
effective logo and marketing material designs for over a decade. elf design offers
the comprehensive graphic and web design services of a large agency, with the one-
on-one, personalized attention of an independent design specialist. Erin works
closely in partnership with her clients to create designs that are visible, credible and
memorable - and that tell their unique business stories in a clear and consistent
way. For more information about elf design, please visit: Logo design at http://www.elf-design.com

Share This

Many small businesses or even large corporations do not understand that you can market your wares on a relatively small budget. It is all about delivering the message to the target customers or target market and the more inexpensively and more efficient you can do that the smarter you are and the better marketer you will be.

Are you spending more than you would like on Advertising? Would you like to cut costs and save money? Do you believe that you can deliver your message for less?

Well, that should be your goal, even if you decide to use the money saved to deliver your message more times or too a larger percentage of your target market or target customers. You see; Advertising and Marketing on a Small Budget is possible and desirable, the key; Delivering the Message.

How do you deliver the message in your business? Do you spend a lot on advertising? Is that working for you? Are your customers getting the message? Have you set a reasonable budget for your marketing and advertising projects?

Are you getting the right exposure to your target market for that budget? Are you looking at more efficient ways always to deliver your message? Well, you should and you should indeed consider all this in 2006 when marketing for your company. Think on it.

Lance Winslow

Share This

Like everybody else who drives, you have been feeling the squeeze on your pocket book from the rising gas prices. The days of cheap gas for our automobiles are probably over. And now you need to know how to make buying that tank of gas less painful.

There are many things you can do to save on your gas bill, and one thing that may be overlooked is increasing your gas mileage through your tires. Yes, proper inflation will help slightly, gives a more comfortable and safer ride, but have you ever considered inflating your tires with nitrogen?

The newest ingenuity in automobile tires is nitrogen inflation. Automotive racers (such as NASCAR) use nitrogen instead of air in their tires because of the many advantageous, the least of which is improved gas mileage. You can increase you gas mileage by 5 to 15% simply by filling your tires with Nitrogen, which can be done at a nominal cost of $3 to $5, and you won’t have to worry nearly as much about properly inflated tires.

Our air is made up of nitrogen, oxygen and other gases, but by filling your tires with nitrogen you eliminate the troubles oxygen has with our tires. Air corrodes aluminum and steel wheels, causing leaks through valve stems, wheel flanges and around the tire beads. Air also migrates through rubber. Air actually escapes through the rubber whether there is a leak or not. Plus, there is humidity in the air, which accelerates rust and corrosion. If you have ever wondered how one tire could “look low” this is why. You could be losing 2 psi a month with air, compared to taking 6 months with nitrogen. By maintaining better air pressures, you improve rolling resistance, have better tread wear and lower your fuel consumption.

Nitrogen tires will also run cooler then tires inflated with air, which keeps tire pressures more constant (won’t increase or decrease with rising or lowering temperature). You are better able to keep your tire pressures at the recommended pressure, which will also improve tire life and gas mileage.

But how much can you really save? Let’s say you add nitrogen to the tires on your full size, regular cab pick-up. You were getting approximately 15mpg average, and now you are getting a 16mpg average. Doesn’t seem like much, but over time can add to substantial savings. It cost you $3 per tire, or $12 to fill your tires with nitrogen to get a 6 2/3% increase in your gas mileage, which equals a 6 2/3% savings on each gallon of gas you buy. If you are buying gas at $3 per gallon, you save nearly $.20 per gallon. You will save $3 with each 15 gallon fill or recoup your expenses after 4 fill-ups. And then you can begin counting the profits from you quick and easy investment in nitrogen filled tires.

If you want to save money on gas, just start driving less. If you can’t do that, improve your gas mileage, and one of the easiest ways you can do that is ride on nitrogen.

Learn how to save more in our age of rising fuel prices at http://www.savingyourwaytosuccess.com/

Justin P. Ertelt is the author of Saving Your Way to Success and owner of http://www.savingyourwaytosuccess.com, helping others reach financial success. You can reach Justin at
Justin@savingyourwaytosuccess.com To learn more go to
http://www.savingyourwaytosuccess.com

Share This