I’ve been traveling and was delighted to discover Visual Marketing on my desk waiting for me when I returned to my office. It’s a new book full of tips and suggestions, by Anita Campbell and David Langton.
This book matches the visual marketing theme with a great visual physical presence. Page after page, tip after tip, it opens up to the image taking most of the left page and the related content on the right page. In the example here, talking about trade show displays, you can see the illustration on the right spread. Although you don’t see it in the picture, the left side has “How it Works” and additional tips.
Anita is the small business guru who started and runs the Small Business Trends blog, probably the best and best known small business blog in the business (disclosure: I post on that blog and Anita is a friend). She’s a true small business expert. And turns up as the number one small business expert worldwide according to this Klout.com listing. David Langton is a well known and successful designer, co-founder of the New York design firm Langton Cherubino Group.
This is a must-have book for anybody who owns a business, is thinking about owning one, or deals with marketing or graphics for business. It’s full of practical tips and ideas you can use. Here are some more examples:
(Images: from SmallBizTrends.com, my iPhone, tabulacreative.com)
A good list of Small Business Contests and Awards appeared today on Ramon Ray’s excellent Smallbiztechnology.com. I notice there that this blog and Anita Campbell’s excellent Small Business Trends are going to be listing contests every two weeks.
These contests can be a good idea for a growing small business. Winning something like that–and hey, it could happen, right?–is a good boost for team morale, looks good for outsiders and, besides, you’ve earned it. Why not?
This is a great list. If you are an entrepreneur, or want to become one, you want to be familiar with the Small Business Trends blog by Anita Campbell and a team of others (disclosure: including me, although I haven’t been posting there as often as I wish). It has a wide spread of coverage, good information and a well-deserved great reputation.
I’m reminded today because of this list of The Best Small Business Books of 2009. Yes, I might be biased by being one of the editors’ choice judges, but I still think it is an excellent blog.
There are 12 books on the list. However, I want to call out my three favorites. These are as they appeared in Small Business Trends, so the rest of this post (except for links to my reviews) is directly quoted from Small Business Trends:
Escape from Cubicle Nation–Pamela Slim writes a guide for aspiring entrepreneurs still stuck in corporate jobs or who recently left. Read my review. Read the Small Business Trends review.
- Why Read This Book: It’s a road map for getting yourself out of that corporate cubicle and into your own startup.
- Key Take-Away: If you think that corporate life is killing you, it probably is. Staying where you are will not make you successful–you have to make a change to be successful.
Greening Your Small Business–Learn how making your business green isn’t just trendy, but cost-effective. Jennifer Kaplan explores how and why to weave green practices into your business. Read my review.
- Why Read This Book: Today’s consumer sees eco-friendliness and “green” as a reason to buy from you.
- Key Take-Away: There are literally hundreds MORE green tips out there than “recycle.” Switching to internet apps is just one unexpected example.
Me 2.0–No matter your status in the world of work–employed, unemployed, business owner, consultant or freelancer–your personal brand will determine your ultimate success. Written by Dan Schawbel, publisher of Personal Branding Magazine. Read my review. Read the Small Business Trends review.
Anita Campbell published “51 Tips for Saving Money on Technology” on her Small Business Trends blog last week. Four of the 51 came from me:
Eliminate Paper and Filing with Screen Shots
“I’m finding I can eliminate a lot of paper and filing expenses–not to mention filing and recovery of documents–by taking quick screen shots of web orders and travel documents and such. I save them on my CPU unless they’re travel documents, in which case I save them as JPGs and put them onto my iPhone.”
Use the Amazon Cloud
“We’re saving several thousand dollars a month now by having moved our servers from a server farm somewhere else to the Amazon cloud. We get much better up-time and response time, but for significantly less money. We’re also using the Amazon cloud for storing files and backup.”
Insist on Price Reviews from Existing Vendors
“When the recession was at its worst we pushed our vendors that provided phones and the office internet bandwidth to redo their pricing. We found that vendors we’d been with a long time were giving new customers much better deals than existing customers, and we insisted on a review.”
Hold Meetings Online Instead of Traveling
“We’re using the web conference for webinars and to host meetings, often one-on-one meetings, to reduce our travel costs. We’ve had success with both WebEx and GoToMeeting. We’re finding the simple meeting online as quick and easy, and a lot more effective, than getting on the plane.”
I’ve included these here because they were mine, which makes them automatically my favorites. But they aren’t the best of the bunch. The entire post is good reading.
Save Money on Technology | Small Business Trends
Anita Campbell of the Small Business Trends website and blog is having a birthday this week, and to celebrate, she’s giving away amazing gifts all week long.
Today’s give away is a chance to incorporate your business for free. Yes, that’s right…Free.
If you have been thinking of turning your sole proprietorship into a corporation, today you can do it for free, saving $150.
Go to MyCorporation.com. When you sign up to incorporate, use the code FREE149. The code is good through today, November 11, 2008.
Keep checking the smallbusinesstrends website for more great give aways during the week and don’t forget to wish Anita a happy birthday!
‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software
photo and cake by Pat Parmele
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