Category Archives: Business

Ensuring That You Have The Perfect Business Card

A business card should be one of the first things that you get when starting your business. Having a business card allows you to show people your business and give them all your contact information. You can also leave your business cards out at various places to reach everyone that may want to use your services. There are two ways that you can get a business card. You can either do it yourself or hire a company to make the business card for you.

DIY Business Cards

There are many programs online that you can get in order to do your own business cards. These will allow you to create a unique design and put in all of your information. You will be able to control all the aspects that go into the making of your card. However, it can be difficult to come up with a design for your card. You will want something that stands out and attracts people. You will want to make sure that the font is also easy to read and that you include all of your information. You will also want to make sure you proofread everything that you put on your card. Printing out your cards can also be a pain. Your printer may not make them stand out as much and cutting them out can be a real pain. This can take a lot of your time and effort.

Getting your Business Card Designed by Professionals

Instead of dealing with doing your cards yourself, a much better option is to hire a professional company that knows how to do business cards. A professional company can take your information and what you want in a business card and turn that into a design. Once they complete your design, they will send it to you for final approval. They will handle putting everything on your card and when it comes time to print, they will handle the cards and have them cut out for you professionally. You will not have to worry about a thing. You will be able to sit back and wait for your cards that will surely amaze your clients and future clients.

Don’t settle for a bland business card. Get a professionally designed business card that will make you stand out from your competition. Once you have your business cards, remember to pass them out often. Look at places where you can place your business cards and always keep them there.

The Ball and Chain of Big Business Bureaucracy

The business world is full of David and Goliath stories that illustrate how quickly a large, well-resourced company can lose ground to the little guy. Like stereotypical musclebound bodybuilders, big businesses are strong, but they can become inflexible over time and lose the advantages that propelled them to success as startups. Why? Bureaucracy.

You Can Fight City Hall!

The larger a business grows, the more it tends to become ensconced in a cocoon of middle managers who develop policies and procedures that make decision-making tougher than turning the Titanic. While a leadership structure that defines authority is necessary to ensure clear communication and coordinated efforts, hierarchies can become so bloated that the process of making necessary strategic changes is slowed by endless deliberation and the need for too many people to reach a consensus.

There’s no doubt that government regulation and labor issues encourage an environment in which rules reign, but the larger management grows, the more self-perpetuating it becomes as risk-averse department heads seek to validate their positions by creating ever more policies that undermine the need to adapt and curb the enthusiasm of talented staff.

Create a Yes Culture

Today’s consumers are savvy. They don’t take no for an answer and if a business won’t meet their needs, they’ll find one that will. Start-ups with nothing to lose and the will and flexibility to make things happen are finding unprecedented ways to say yes. They’re wowing customers with attention, great service and a demonstrable appreciation for their business.

In large companies, customers and decision-makers are often insulated from each other by layers of management and a plethora of rules that force employees to eliminate every reason to say no before finding ways to say yes. Customers feel like they’re invisible and unappreciated.

Never Stop looking Forward

Corporate culture is notorious for suffocating innovation because it’s risky and threatens the status quo. As many top-level managers put it (see The Deal – August 2016 – Lowy), while start-ups are busy looking for new ways to gain an edge, big business is often satisfied doing things the way they always have.

Bureaucracy in a large company incentivizes employees to resist change. The accountability processes created to ensure repeatable and profitable results can put the need to innovate on the back burner as creative staff works on the premise that avoiding risk and maintaining existing profits is more important than developing cutting edge ideas.

This mentality is often conveyed to employees unwittingly by members of management who measure staff performance by comparing quarter to quarter profits instead of looking at the big picture. When maintaining gains over a three month period seems like the singular goal, even the most talented staff will develop tunnel vision.

Big business tends to lose operational and strategic flexibility over time simply because it takes longer to turn an ocean liner than a row boat. But, avoiding the bureaucratic traps that slow decision-making, make a business less responsive to customers and stifle innovation is a must for growth in a market that thrives on constant change.