The Brochure Blog

What image do you convey when you hand out your business cards? John Williams, founder of LogoYes.com, explains in his article Top 5 Business Card Blunders the major mistakes people make when designing their business cards.

Top 5 Business Card Blunders

Nothing is more important to making a good first branding impression than your business card. In addition to the information included, a card’s look and feel also sends a strong message about your business. That’s why I’m perplexed by the many poorly designed business cards I see these days. Just because you can log on to various websites, “design” and print cards for free, doesn’t mean you should.The cardinal rule to creating a good business card is to ensure that it reflects your company’s image. From a branding perspective, this means it should match the look and feel of your logo. Yes, you want your card to be unique. Yes, you want people to remember you by it. But if you break the cardinal rule in pursuit of uniqueness, all people will remember seeing is an unusual business card. They won’t remember your brand or its attributes.

So in the interest of sparing you a potential branding misstep, here are the top five blunders I’ve seen new companies make when creating their business cards:

• Choosing low-quality paper stock. Inexpensive paper stock may save you money, but it often leaves you with a card that feels cheap. Touch is an important sense and plays a role in memory recall. How you appeal to this sense depends on your company’s image. For example, B2B companies wanting to convey reliability should use a substantial, mid-weight stock.
• Using a design template that does not match the logo. Assuming you want a business card to be taken seriously and help brand your company, you need a design that works with your logo. In other words, be extremely careful with template-based designs. If the templates weren’t developed specifically to match your logo–and most aren’t–they probably won’t. Many entrepreneurs fall in love with an over-designed template that distracts from their logo, or one that features an unrelated photograph. Photographs work well in marketing brochures, but if they appear on a business card, they will distract from your logo.
• Adding too much color to the card. When you want to get someone’s attention, do you scream? Probably not, if you want to avoid scaring them. So why scare potential customers with a super-bright, rainbow-colored card? Color is your biggest asset in branding your company. Research indicates that color is the most important factor in memory recall. Tie your business to one or two specific colors; this color should also appear in your logo.
• Making the card too unique. You want your card to stand out, certainly, but not so much that its difference makes people uncomfortable. Complex dye-cuts, extremely oversized cards, and odd card stocks (like metal) should be used only by companies engaged in highly customized or creative endeavors. Custom embossing, rounded corners, or varnishes are better touches for most companies. While it’s tempting to create an oversized card, keep in mind that many people still use Rolodexes or tuck cards into their wallets–both difficult to do with unusually sized cards. Function overrides form.
• Making the logo gigantic. In general, the bigger the company, the smaller its logo appears on business cards. If you want to look like a Fortune 500, size your logo appropriately. Instead of enlarging your logo for emphasis, employ white space to bring attention to it.

If you’re looking to make a lasting impression, don’t cheapen your first impression. Build a better business card and you’ll build a better business.

“Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.” –Zig Ziglar

At BrochureBuilders.com, we build brochures that build small business. That means we are in business to make your business look good, a simple idea but with a deeply founded sense of the graphic design it takes to make your company branding stand apart from the crowd in a way that is professional and polished.

As you give thought to sprucing up your brochure design, business cards, logo, and website, also consider what Inc.’s Michele Miller has to say about branding. In her article “Telling a Good Story,” she recommends businesses pay more attention to their brand story and what makes you stand out in a powerful and meaningful way. She says,

“If you had to tell you story, what would it be? Would it have the right balance of fantasy, whimsy and fact? When creating your story, remember to:

Be authentic. The examples above are success stories because they draw from the “heart” of the company — J. Peterman’s love for storytelling, Gert Boyle’s tough nature, and One Hour’s commitment to saving the customer time. Anyone can make up a story, but the customer’s innate sense of authenticity is what transforms a story into a brand message. Spend a good deal of time looking back at your history and personal values in determining why you’re even in the business you’re in. What’s your passion, and how can you tell customers about it?

Be consistent. It’s not enough just to tell a story; you must live it everyday through everything you do. I’ve written about the fact that every touch point of your business is a marketing opportunity. Columbia Sportswear wouldn’t be the success it is today if the company talked about toughness, and then the zippers on their parkas disintegrated after a week. One Hour knew it had to have its operations structure in place to deliver on its promise of timeliness. From message to delivery to customer service, every element of your company has to align with your story.

The companies we call “super brands” use their unique (and sometimes personal) story to connect with customers in a way that makes them feel special; customers feel that they’re in-the-know about who the brand is and what it offers. Do your customers really know you? And does the message get reinforced in everything you do? You can tell, and deliver on, a good story, even on the smallest of marketing budgets. It’s a remarkable marketing strategy for a remarkable business — yours.”

She’s right. Do your customers really know who you are? Is your branding consistent, from every email to your business cards, letterhead, envelopes, and brochures? Everything that leaves your office door is an opportunity to tell your story. Read the rest of Michele’s article about how to tell your business’ story here.

Perhaps revamping your corporate branding is high on your list of New Year’s Resolutions. It could be that your business cards and company brochures may need to be brought up to date to show off your new logo and employees. Since Thanksgiving, our clients have been dusting off the old and commissioning the new, updating their corporate brochure packages with fresh, new graphic design to introduce a new product line, showcase at their 2008 trade shows, and distribute to prospects, storefronts and sales staff. It’s a new year and naturally our thoughts turn to starting anew, updating those print materials, cleaning out the office, and cracking open the new planner. Then it’s time to go further and begin asking ourselves a few questions.

For most, the basic questions are the easiest to answer. What were your biggest successes? What challenged you the most? Was business more or less profitable? What will you do this year to take your company to the next level? Successful small business owners know that the basic questions are important to ask and answer throughout the year. The most successful small business owners however, take this opportunity not only to review the basics, but also to dig deeper into their business beliefs, core entrepreneurial values, self-dialogue, and subconscious motivations. Consider these three ways to get to the core of your business success.

1. First, take a look at the goals you accomplished last year. After giving yourself a pat on the back, evaluate those goals and how you managed to tackle them. Consider what it was about those goals that made them doable. Which tasks were most easily completed? Did you hire professionals and other key people to facilitate your goal? Did you reach a crisis point that rendered you unable to ignore a sensitive issue any longer?
2. Next, give careful consideration to those things that hindered your personal as well as professional growth last year. Were your expectations reasonable and based on sound business principles? Were they communicated clearly to those who most needed to know? Did your personal life suffer for the sake of your business? Did you make a thorough plan, only to falter in its execution?
3. Finally, resolve to duplicate (and expand on) the things that worked and give up (and replace) the things that did not. Being keenly aware of the reasons behind your achievements will help you set yourself up for further success. Determine what most gets in your way and put systems in place that will help you handle those issues effectively. Do you lose focus halfway through the day? Are you more likely to stay on track when you plan your day the evening before? Is indecision keeping you from moving forward? Something as simple as a flow chart or decision tree can facilitate the decision making process.

As an entrepreneur, you already know there is no shortcut to success. But going below the surface is a skill that could easily save you some time, and some heartache. Learning what drives you — or derails you — is knowledge you cannot afford to ignore.

Below are other helpful articles to help you position your business for success in 2008.

• New Year Resolutions for Small Businesses
• Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Business Success
• New Year, New Payroll
• Three Entrepreneur Resolutions for 2008

Are you aware of the newest changes in the Texas Franchise Taxes? This article was found and reprinted from this link at The Houston Chronicle.

Jan. 2, 2008, 12:37PM
Margin tax will pack punch
State is likely to collect more than double the franchise levy

By AÏSSATOU SIDIMÉ
San Antonio Express-news

When the new Texas margin tax kicks in this year, many businesses will get hit with a surprise tax bill costing them several thousand dollars.

Under a new state law that replaces the franchise tax with a margin tax, businesses will pay based on gross revenues. The number of companies paying taxes will rise to 900,000 in May 2008 from 700,000 in 2007. The amount of state business taxes paid is expected to more than double to $11.9 billion during the next two years versus $5.7 billion for the last two-year period under the outgoing franchise tax, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office.

And a business could have to pay a margin tax even if it loses money, according to federal tax calculations.

“A lot of taxpayers will be caught off guard by their new tax liability,” said Clint Munsell, a certified public accountant at Sol Schwartz & Associates in San Antonio.

The franchise tax was levied on net income or capital and applied only to corporations and limited liability companies based in Texas. The franchise tax also allowed deductions for salaries, benefits, administrative costs and rents. As a result, less than 10 percent of all companies paid the tax.

The Texas Legislature created the margin tax during a special session in 2006 to close the loopholes and to generate revenue to cover a school funding deficit created by reducing local school property taxes.

Under the margin tax, most entities that were exempt will now have to pay Read the rest of this entry »