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My Entrepreneurial Journey

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Starting you own business and embarking on a entrepreneurial journey can be a daunting task. At some point in your career, you may have thought about “going-it-alone” but the fear of transition, or the lack of the “security” that being an entreprenuer provides, can be considered too risky, so you stick with what you know. But really, what is the true value of the security that your job provides. Yes, maybe it’s the medical benefits (those are true benefits for sure), or maybe it’s the pension (if you have one), or the RRSP matching (that only some companies provide, and that only some employees actually take advantage of). But all of these benefits and security can sometimes be more of a ball-and-chain that are holding you back from your true potential and happiness. They were for me.

Before I set out on my own, I had a great job. I travelled a lot for business (which is also often thought of as a perk…more on this later), was paid well, had a great medical plan with extended benefits, had a comfortable car allowance and gas card, earned some nice bonuses every year, and had a good RRSP matching program and was afforded the flexibility of working from home, with my boss over 3,000 miles away. I often said that I had the best of both worlds….the security of being employed, with the autonomy and flexibility of working my own territory, from home….which was somewhat like running your own show.

Well….let me tell you how that security went. The year was 2008, and if you remember, that was the year of the big crash. At the time, I had been 9 years working for this large multi-national consumer goods company, and I was 44 years old. I was comfortable and well-paid and figured that I could work another 15 or so years and then retire with a handsome nest egg and enjoy my retirement years bouncing back between someplace warm for the winter and Vancouver in warmer months.

With the economy crashing down around us all, each morning I would get up and log-in my email to begin the day. And each day, there would be more notifications from Corporate about the most recent layoffs. This had been going on for months now, but I wasn’t too concerned. You see, there were just 2 of us in Western Canada that managed the entire west, all channels and all product lines. It was a lot of work for 2 people, so in my mind, I figured there was no way they’d be paying off either of us. How could they cut the resources for the sales team? Marketing maybe, or maybe some HR or accounting personnel, but not from sales. Much of our product lines were not considered luxury items, in fact, they were more staple like items and during the slow-down in the economy, our sales were not suffering…so ya, I figured I’d be safe. In the very least, if they were to layoff either of us, I figured it would be the other guy. He was 10 years older and in my mind, they could more easily package him off than me. Well…I was wrong…very wrong!

On a Tuesday AM, 6-months into the corporate re-structuring and layoff efforts, my boss from Toronto called me on the phone. He said:

“Rob, I guess you’ve heard about the latest round of layoffs coming? Well…you’ve been a great employee these past 9 years, but we need to let you go. Thank you for your time, and now I’ll put you over to the HR department and they’ll let you know the next steps.”

That was it! Nine years of my life put into this company and a lousy 50 words is all my boss could conjure up to say thanks. And he did it over the phone…he didn’t have the decency to fly out to Vancouver and do it in person. I was shocked, but I was also mad, really mad. And not to mention…..devastated. What would I do now? I was in my mid 40’s and now without a job. I had a mortgage, kids in elementary school, and ex-wife and just into a new relationship and supporting her while she was attending post-secondary trying to improve her job skills. My bills were large and only going to get larger as the kids grew and started to attend university.

I must mention that I did get a severance package, which was a blessing and of course, required by law, so this did provide me with some income for the next 9 months. But I knew the next 9 months would go by fast so I had to act fast and figure out what I was going to do next. At the time, I didn’t think about starting my own business. I had never been self-employed, and didn’t figure I really had that entreneurial spirit. So I updated my resume and jumped into the painful tasks of searching for another job. I attended some career placement courses, contacted many head-hunters, local and distant and started to apply to any job that was remotely in my wheel house for experience and remuneration. Well…the shock had only began. My old employer wasn’t the only company in layoff mode, so was just about every other company out there. No one was hiring…and if they were, it was only for positions far junior to what I was last doing and at far less pay. Talk about depressing. I knew this 9 months would slide by quickly, so the pressure started to mount quickly: I’d better find a job…. fast!

And this is where things started to take shape. Once the shock wore off and the depression became manageable, I started to give it some serious thought about HOW I could turn my 22+ years of Consumer Package Goods industry experience into a some consulting work. I had worked for some of the biggest companies and brands in the industry over the years…Coca-Cola, PowerAde, Kraft, Nabisco, General Foods, Maxwell House, Kleenex, Huggies, Coleman, Sunbeam, Oster, so I knew a thing or two about what makes great brands great. I possessed a wealth of knowledge about the power of retail packaging, product placement at retail, sales and marketing strategy, managing large corporate accounts, budgeting and developing annual sales plans, was comfortable giving presentations to C-level executives and was always great at listening…..the most important skill for any great salesman. But I didn’t really think of myself as a salesman..I was much more, and I knew that I could help other brands and companies with their marketing efforts at retail. This is where my entreprenuerial journey began. So I began to reach out to many of the contacts I had in the field to offer my skills and experience to help them build their sales and marketing strategies and to get their products placed at retail. I also started to go attend many trade shows in the area to meet with smaller companies and brands that were looking to make the jump from local selling efforts to more regional, national and multi-national. If you’ve ever attended a food and beverage trade show or even a local farmers market, there are always hundreds of local producers, with some very amazing products. But as far as branding and marketing goes, well, that’s not their specialty….so this is where I saw an opportunity. I’d be their consultant or agent and be their ticket to the big time.

My partner at the time was just finishing up her graphic design schooling so I had her design a business card for me and that’s where Straydog started. I started out as Straydog Marketing, as my initial focus was in helping companies and brands build marketing plans and get listed at the major channel and retailers such as; Costco, London Drugs, Westfair, WalMart, Shoppers Drug Mark etc. I had contacts and knowledge at all of these retailers.

This initial; entrepeneurial journey lasted about a year. But it wasn’t long before I realized that the companies and brands that I was working with, needed help before the marketing stage. They may have had great products, but their branding and packaging sucked! Most had begun on a shoe-string budget, spent little effort and money on their branding, business or product name and their packaging was generally just terrible. Despite many of my efforts to help in the marketing side, they would always be handicapped by poor branding, messaging, positioning, packaging and often, an uninspiring, boring name. They were trying to compete against companies and brands that get it, that understand the value of branding and great design.

This is where the entrepreneurial journey took a slight turn and my company became Straydog Branding. Why the name? How did the name come about? That’s a question I get asked often. And when your mission is to help companies and brands with their name, brand and messaging, it sure helps when your company has a great name, story and branding.

You see……many of the companies I was working were reminded me of a straydog. They were wandering the streets looking for a good home, for someone to love them. And that’s what I was going to do. We would take these companies, give them a great name, brand them well and turn them into something people could easily love. And that’s how I came up with the name: Straydog, and the tagline: ….finding good homes for your ideas.

PS: Remember I was going to get back to the topic of the benefit of corporate travel! At the time, I really thought it was great. I’d get to travel to all of these wonderful places in Canada and beyond, on someone else’s bill, stay in nice hotels, eat great meals, entertain clients, see sporting events & concerts, go fishing, skeet shooting, skiing…you name it. Well, ya, maybe those were fun, but the costs were great too. I was spending days and weeks away from family and friends, missed many of my kids events, worked long hours while away (weekends and evenings) without getting paid anymore, and had to go to some very cold places in the winter in Canada. Nothing against Winnipeg or Saskatoon, but I’d rather not be there in January. Vancouver was much preferable in January than many other places in Canada .

Oh and how about the security that a full-time, well paying job provides? I thought my job was secure…I’d be there until retirement. Well ,any job is about as secure as the company and the people you’re working for. You’re secure until someone else decides you’re not. When you’re self-employed…your security depends on you and no one else. The more you put in, the more you get out, it’s as simple as that. I still have the flexibility of working from home, but now I’m the boss, I have no one else that is deciding to send me to Winnipeg in December. If I travel now, it’s purely for pleasure and if it’s in the winter, it’s to someplace warm and tropical!! I’d say that’s a whole heck of a lot better than my previous life. Yes, being self-employed can be a bit scary, but I’d take this over the alternative.

Rob Barnett

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The Future of AI: How AI is Changing the World?

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing rapidly and is poised to play a significant role in future society. While there is still much debate surrounding the potential dangers and benefits of AI, there is no doubt that it will play an increasingly important role in our lives and economy. Some see AI as a potential savior, providing opportunities for widespread economic growth and automation of many tasks. Others are concerned about the potential dangers of AI, including job loss and increased automation of human labour. Regardless of the fears or expectations, AI is here to stay. The question is, will Artificial Intelligence take over the world?

Artificial intelligence is shaping the future of humanity across nearly every industry. It is already the main driver of emerging technologies like big data, robotics and IoT, and it will continue to act as a technological innovator for the foreseeable future.

Why Is Artificial Intelligence Important?

AI is important because it forms the very foundation of computer learning. Through AI, computers have the ability to harness massive amounts of data and use their learned intelligence to make optimal decisions and discoveries in fractions of the time that it would take humans.
There’s virtually no major industry modern AI hasn’t already affected.

Some sectors are at the start of their AI journey, others are far more entrenched. Both have a long way to go. Regardless, the impact AI is having on our present day lives is hard to ignore.

  • Transportation: Although it could take some time to perfect them, autonomous cars will one day ferry us from place to place. Sensors on cars send data about traffic conditions may be able to predict potential problems and optimize the flow of cars. Tesla, Google, Amazon and others are already deep into the testing of AI in vehicles.
  • Manufacturing: AI powered robots work alongside humans to perform a limited range of tasks like assembly and stacking, and predictive analysis sensors keep equipment running smoothly.
  • Healthcare: In the comparatively AI-nascent field of healthcare, diseases are more quickly and accurately diagnosed, drug discovery is sped up and streamlined, virtual nursing assistants monitor patients and big data analysis helps to create a more personalized patient experience.
  • Education: Textbooks are digitized with the help of AI, early-stage virtual tutors assist human instructors and facial analysis gauges the emotions of students to help determine who’s struggling or bored and better tailor the experience to their individual needs.
  • Media: Journalism is harnessing AI, too, and will continue to benefit from it. Bloomberg uses Cyborg technology to help make quick sense of complex financial reports. The Associated Press employs the natural language abilities of Automated Insights to produce 3,700 earning reports stories per year — nearly four times more than in the recent past.
  • Customer Service: Last but hardly least, Google is working on an AI assistant that can place human-like calls to make appointments at, say, your neighborhood hair salon. In addition to words, the system understands context and nuance.

But those advances — and numerous others — are only the beginning. There’s much more to come.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to improve our quality of life in many ways. For example, it could help us to better understand and respond to complex situations. It could also help us to make better decisions.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to profoundly change the way we live and work. Here are four reasons why artificial intelligence is so important:

1. AI can help us achieve our goals more efficiently and reduce human error.

Artificial intelligence can help us automate tasks and processes that we would otherwise have to do manually. This can save us time and money, allowing us to focus on more important tasks.

While AI can do great things, it can also eliminate jobs. For example, AI can help businesses automate tasks more cheaply and quickly. In the long run, this may mean that more jobs are lost, but it may also mean that more jobs are created in the fields like business and engineering.

2. AI can help us learn and evolve more effectively.

Artificial intelligence can help us learn and remember information more effectively. This can help us quickly adapt to changes in our environment and make better decisions.

3. AI can do dangerous and repetitive tasks

AI can do dangerous and repetitive tasks, but it can also help us do things we never thought possible. For example, AI can help doctors diagnose diseases more quickly and accurately than human doctors. AI can also help us manage massive data sets more efficiently, which can help us find new ways to fight crime or improve our economy.

4. AI is available 24/7 and it works faster than humans

AI has the ability to learn, process and react faster than humans. This has led to the development of AI-powered applications that can help us in our day-to-day lives.

But will AI take actually over the world?

More than a few leading AI figures subscribe to a nightmare scenario that involves what’s known as “singularity,” whereby superintelligent machines take over and permanently alter human existence through enslavement or eradication.

The late physicist Stephen Hawking famously postulated that if AI itself begins designing better AI than human programmers, the result could be “machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails.”

While murderous machines may well remain fodder for fiction, many believe they’ll supplant humans in various ways.

The key is to ensure that the goals of AI are aligned with our human goals…to understand what we’re creating and how to incorporate it into society. That means starting or continuing discussions about the ethical use of AI and whether it should be regulated and working to invent and augment security measures capable of keeping the technology in check.

As MIT physics professors and leading AI researcher Max Tegmark put it in a 2018 TED Talk, “If we steer carefully, we could end up in a fantastic future where everybody’s better off — the poor are richer, the rich are richer, everybody’s healthy and free to live out their dreams.”

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Web Accessibility

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Have you heard about “Website Accessibility?” Making the internet accessible is about levelling the playground for 20% of the world’s population.  Making it inclusive is the most significant step towards achieving a society that prioritizes the inclusion of all its people and values, everyone, for who they are, regardless of abilities.

To achieve complaint website accessibility as outlined by the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium), they have created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1), which focuses mainly on three areas of accessibility: blind people using screen-readers (UJAWS, NVDA}), people with motor impairments who use only keyboards, and a variety of other disabilities such as colour blindness, epilepsy, and minor visual impairments that are mainly focused on the UI and design of the website (color contrasts, animations, fonts, etc.)

At Straydog, we now offer a full-service Web Accessibility solution that is ensures your website is 100% compliant with ADA & WCAG, AODA, GDPR and CCPA standards. Our solution is affordable and 100% effective and does not change any code on your website. It is simply, a game-changer in web accessibility, simplifying and streamlining the process of becoming accessible and compliant using AI, machine learning and computer vision. This solution provides your website with a Accessibility Statement and Certificate, indicating the remediations your website has undergone.

Order this before November 309th and you’ll get 30% for the first year, that’s a savings of over $200 on the annual fee of $700CAD.

Follow this link to set-up your account, then call us for integration:

https://accessibe.com/a/a7qztc7

 

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Is Your Website fully Accessible? It should be!

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What is Web Accessibility and why is it so important?

Making the internet accessible is about levelling the playground for 20% of the world’s population. The internet has become the most important innovation of our lifetime. Making it inclusive is the most significant step towards achieving a society that prioritizes the inclusion of all its people and values, everyone, for who they are, regardless of abilities.

To achieve this, the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium) has created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1)}, which explain about and guide developers on how to make websites accessible. These guidelines have been adopted by governments around the world and are now a part of various legislations, such as the ADA, Secttion 508, EN 301549,
and others..

The WCAG focuses mainly on three areas of accessibility: blind people using screen-readers (UJAWS, NVDA}), people with motor impairments who use only keyboards, and a variety of other disabilities such as colour blindness, epilepsy, and minor visual impairments that are mainly focused on the UI and design of the website (color contrasts, animations, fonts, etc.)

At Straydog, we now offer a full-service Web Accessibility solution that is ensures your website is 100% compliant with ADA & WCAG, AODA, GDPR and CCPA standards. Our solution is affordable and 100% effective and does not change any code on your website. It is simply, a game-changer in web accessibility, simplifying and streamlining the process of becoming accessible  and compliant using AI, machine learning and computer vision. This solution provides your website with a Accessibility Statement and Certificate, indicating the remediations your website has undergone.

Here are some of our solution’s capabilities:

Font handling: Users can increase and decrease font size, change type, adjust spacing, alignment, line height, and more.

Colour handling: Users can select various colour contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap colour schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7 different colours.

Animations: Users with epilepsy can stop all running animations at the click of a button. This includes videos, GIFs and CSS flashing transitions.

Content highlighting: Users can emphasize important elements, such as links and titles. They can also highlight particular focused or hovered elements.

Audio-muting: Users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option allows users to mute the entire website instantly.

On-demand dictionary: We utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, and slang on the spot.

Other options: Users can change the cursor’s colour and sizing, view in printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and much more.

Maybe your company has received a DEMAND LETTER, requiring your website to comply with WCAG standards, or maybe you’re looking for an affordable solution, we can help.

Please visit our Website Accessibility page for more details or CONTACT us now on how you can sign-up for our Web Accessibility Solution and get your website compliant in just a few days.

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A Brand and Packaging Design Exercise, that failed!

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A few years ago, Straydog was approached by a private-label food company, to help them create a brand and retail packaging for their new line of granola bars. At the time, the company was successful as a private-label manufacturer of bars for Wal-Mart-USA Costco and a number of other retailers in the USA and Canada. With their years of experiencing developing successful recipes in the nutritional bar category, they felt that they could be equally as successful as a branded manufacturer, so they did the right thing….initially at least! They hired a professional creative agency, Straydog, to help them develop the brand, logo and retail packaging.

But the brand never launched. So what went wrong? Two things…:

  1. Covid hit, and they paused all marketing initiatives for several months, but once they re-focused a few months later and more importantly,
  2. The key decision maker, the CEO and owner of the company, a long in the tooth fellow, chose to dominate the meetings and ignore the opinions of his much younger and capable marketing and production staff.

The key idea that we have seen before, is that a dominant CEO may lead a firm to a deviant strategy. This strategic deviance can yield a strong position for a firm in its markets, or it can drive it to big losses. To control the negative effects of strategic deviance, and balance the power of the CEO, a company needs a strong board of directors. A strong board provides a useful watchdog and a second set of valued opinions to the strategic direction of the company. This oversight by the board can help catch the deviant strategy that could lead to firm failure, before it is implemented by the CEO and the organization’s top management team. Unfortunately, this CEO didn’t involve his Board and he ignored the feedback and input from his marketing team.

The dynamics in this particular company were such that the CEO had surrounded himself with people that he could easily control, his 2 sons and a a daughter in-law. Now, these 3 people (all under 35) were all very capable, bright and progressive young people, and much more in-tune with the latest in design, branding and retail merchandising, but throughout the design project, the CEO was very reluctant to bite on any idea that wasn’t his, despite the enthusiasm and approval on severval of our concepts from the younger team members. The boss preferred to steer the design process such that his new brand and packaging would look just like many of the other boring and out-dated designs currently in the marketplace. He was afraid to take a chance. Our concepts were bold, playful and unique, all things he wasn’t.

The Process:

As any good agency would do, we first went through a detailed Brand Discovery process to fully identify and understand the marketplace, the competitors, and the USP (unique selling proposition) of the clients product. From there, we were able to build a creative brief for the brand, logo and the packaging.

Logo design, identity design and branding all have different roles, that together, form a perceived image for a product, service or company.

A brand can be described as an organization, a service or product with a ‘personality’ that is shaped by the perceptions of the audience. A designer cannot “make” a brand – only the audience can do this. A designer forms the foundation of the brand. Some of the world’s best brands have very simple logos, often they are just a type face with perhaps a symbol added in. A great example of this is Apple. As a company, Apple projects a humanistic corporate culture and a strong corporate ethic, one which is characterized by volunteerism, support of good causes & involvement in the community. These values of the business are evident throughout everything they do, from their innovative and beautifully designed products and great advertising, to their customer service.

The Result:

For the OnTrack brand identity, we re-freshed the logo and created a brand story that was creative, engaging and fun, which would help to separate it from it’s competitors. Our objective was to be BOLD, DIFFERENT and INNOVATIVE, and not to just deliver a safe concept that the CEO would accept. We knew that we had our work cut-out for us, but we didn’t anticipate that the CEO would crush anything that wasn’t “traditional” (read this as BORING, OUTDATED and UNINSPIRING).

The identity of OnTrack was to be made up of:

  • The logo
  • The packaging
  • The products
  • The marketing collateral
  • The story
  • The reputation

All of these elements would help to support the brand as a whole. The logo would be the corporate identity and brand all wrapped up into one identifiable mark. The OnTrack logo would identify the company, and derive it’s meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around – logos are there to identify, not to explain.

But the packaging and the story was the real differentiator! These two pieces would engage and build a following.

The Concept: “What A Day” – Add some OnTrack to your day and things will certainly take a turn for the better.

The Approach: A story-based, conversational take that allows us to talk about product qualities (e.g. keto-friendly, almond/coconut flour) without the clutter of many visual elements.

The Style: Minimal, modern – appeals to people who are active and health-conscious.

The Tagline: On track for a brilliant day.

Would you buy this product? It’s different, it’s fun, and the story options are endless……all adding to the brand’s appeal, intrigue and positioning.

 

 

Sadly, our brilliantly designed brand, packaging and brand story never made it to market. Instead, the client choose to design in-house and this is the result, what we would consider to be somewhat uninspiring. Does this packaging make you say “cool, I like it” or “wow, that’s something different, I think I’ll try it”?

 

Our team at Straydog did everything we could to convince the client to be bold, innovative and to take a chance. The CEO choose the safe route (aka: don’t take a chance).

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR BRANDING PROCESS OR TO REQUEST A QUOTE, LEAP OVER TO OUR

BRANDING PAGE

 

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Grants for Growing Your Business online

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Are you looking to implement e-commerce capabilities for your business? By implementing an e-commerce strategy for your business online, you can effectively attract more customers and grow your business.

The Canada Digital Adoption Program is helping businesses:

  • get online
  • increase sales
  • adopt security software
  • connect with customers
  • improve social media marketing
  • improve user experience for online customers
Eligible businesses will receive up to $2,400 to help with the costs related to adopting e-commerce.
To Learn More about the grant and to see if you’re business is eligible, please contact us.
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Is a Logo re-design right for your business?

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At Straydog, we’re often contacted by potential clients about designing a new logo for their business. Sometimes, these businesses are start-ups with a small budget, on other occasions, they’re small existing businesses with an existing logo, and other brand assets, and at other times, they’re larger operations that have been in business for years or even decades. So what is the best approach for each of these scenarios?

If an existing business is looking for a “re-brand”  is it appropriate to simply go through a logo re-design effort? In almost ALL cases, the answer to this is a resounding question is NO! Existing businesses, that have been doing business with their current brand identity (logo, colour palette, font, brand positioning, tone, messaging, sales and marketing collateral, website etc). would currently have so much invested in their current brand that making anything more than a slight tweak to their logo, would be more or a re-branding exercise, requiring time, strategy, executive support and a sufficient budget to undertake the full re-branding project.

Imagine if an long-time business simply changed their logo and colour scheme! Was the decision and it’s implications fully understood, would the marketplace and their customers expect or want it or support it without explanation as to the WHY? Many companies do re-brand, but this decision is not taken lightly, it’s done for many reasons: the company has changed focus or services, the marketplace has changed, the competition has changed, the company has been bought or sold, or the existing brand was old and tired. These are all reasons to go through a full branding exercise.

For more information on our branding process and what a brand is, read these resources:

But for some very small business or start-ups, that have a very limited budget and very little marketplace exposure and brand awareness, a more simple, cost-effective logo re-design might just be the best solution. These projects can be completed in a week or two, often for under $1,500. Our logo (re)-design projects can also deliver other “brand” assets, such as:

  • Email signature
  • Envelope
  • Letterhead
  • Other business templates
  • Assets for Social media account profiles
  • Sales and Marketing collateral
  • Trade show material
  • Vehicle Wraps
  • Websites

All of the above would need to be quoted separately.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR LOGO DESIGN PROCESS OR TO REQUEST A QUOTE, LEAP OVER TO OUR

LOGO DESIGN PAGE

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What Does Your Website Say About You?

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If you’ve ever been horrified by the design of a business website, you’re not alone. There are many aesthetic travesties out there, and worse, many small businesses still don’t even have a website. What does your website design say about your business and your brand?

Researchers found that the brain makes decisions in just a 20th of a second of viewing a webpage. All too often the impression you think you’re giving is very different to the one you actually are. For this reason, it is important to seek out feedback and professional advice.

Take a moment and think of just three words or traits you want to exude when people see your website — words such as Professional, Clean, Corporate, Fun. With those traits in mind, now take a good look at your website homepage. Is it an adequate reflection of your brand personality, your business acumen and skills?

Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa believes that a users quickly formed first impressions last because of what is known to psychologists as the “halo effect”. If people believe a website looks good, then this positive quality will spread to other areas, such as the website’s content.

Since people like to be right, they will continue to use the website that made a good first impression, as this will further confirm that their initial decision was a good one. As websites increasingly jostle for business, Dr Lindgaard added that companies should take note.

Unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will be off of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors.

Your homepage is similar to a book’s front cover,  often considered the first impression and should be well considered — albeit unlike a book, many of your site’s visitors do not always see your site’s homepage first. Due to the non-linear nature of the web, and the way search engines work, the very first page for many visitors is not the homepage. Rather, it may be an internal page found through a search, or that was targeted from a link. Not only should you be thinking of the first impression on your homepage, you need to stop and think about any random sub-page and the impression it would give if it were a visitor’s first point of entry. Has the page been well-considered? Does it stand on its own merits? Does it have anything to say for itself?

…is your website projecting the image and personality you want it to?

Learn More about our website design services.

By Rob Barnett

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Personal Branding, Part 2

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Why Personal Branding?

To have a prosperous business, you must understand the power of branding. Your personal brand is made up of the qualities and unique traits you relay about yourself, and it represents the way you want other people to think about you.

Personal Branding has become more talked about these days as individuals seek to differentiate themselves by developing a unique brand that will propel career and job opportunities. Many people think that personal branding is just for celebrities such as Lady Gaga or Lance Armstrong, but every individual is in fact, a brand.

There are millions of other people offering the same service as you, now ask yourself; “how do I currently stand out in the crowd?”

“Without branding, you’re simply part of the many,
and not part of the few.”

Personal Branding is about really digging deep and spending time developing a unique Brand Statement, Brand Position, Name (that speak to what you’re doing), Brand Promise, USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and Graphic imagery. Think of your Brand as a stage, it allows you to rise above the rest and show consumers with confidence why they should choose you versus your competitor.

Personal Branding, by definition, is the process in which people and their careers are marked as brands. If you’re looking for a way to fast track your career, Personal Branding is the answer.

Discover Your Brand

As a brand, you can leverage the same strategies that make celebrities or corporate brands appeal to your consumer. Personal Branding involves four basic traits: unique capabilities, positioning, values, and a brand promise. Just like a corporate brand, you must establish and project what makes you unique and why people should come to you rather than the next guy.

Do you have a specialized certification or superior quality? Do you work exceptionally well with a certain demographic, Do you have an irresistible personality? Talk about this with your family, co-workers, friends, as they all provide great sources when it comes to identifying your strongest and most unique qualities. Remember, a degree alone won’t set you apart, but a toolbox full of unique items will.

The single biggest mistake people make is that they either brand themselves just for the sake of doing it, or they fail to see the value from investing in building a strong brand foundation, before rushing into marketing and advertising. By investing the time and resources on properly and effectively branding yourself, you will attract the right opportunities.

Position Yourself

Brilliant Brand positioning takes into account the oversights, shortcomings and mundane attributes of your competition. An example could be – if other Massage Therapist’s seem unable to talk ‘the body’ without loads of technical jargon, that’s an opportunity to position yourself as practical, friendly, and unassuming.

If you gravitate towards athletes, kids, or the elderly, your positioning will start to reflect that. If your demeanor, your tone and your output contradict the way you’re trying to position yourself, your Brand positioning will falter. Make sure you are consistent and true to your position or you’ll end up miles away from where you want to be.

To Specialize or not to Specialize?

You may think specialization is the answer, particularly if we acknowledge the importance of being unique, albeit, you don’t necessarily need to specialize to be unique and extraordinary. Generalists are favoured if you are multi-talented, or accomplished in a few different fields.
An example would be; Suzy is a Massage Therapist that speaks 5 languages. This will immediately differentiate Suzy from her competitors, even if it doesn’t strictly relate to the work that Suzy does.

On the other hand, you are best suited as a Specialist if there’s a target audience that’s looking for your unique service. However, it’s worth noting that as a specialist, your target market is smaller. So, in order to sustain your business in spite of the smaller target market, you will need to capture a larger share of the targeted audience. To do that, you need to be among the best at what you specialize in — if not the best.

Whether or not you choose to specialize should depend on an honest assessment of your skills and the kind of goals you’re working towards. If you’re seriously considering specializing, do some research and check out the “Google AdWords Keyword Tool” to check whether people are actually trying to find the service or product you’re thinking of offering.

Be Transparent

Find the balance between being transparent, yet protecting your professional reputation and marketability. Avoid coming off as fake, insincere, or simply out for your own personal gain.

You also have to be open. In today’s world, marketing is a two-way conversation, so you must be open to feedback, open to criticism, but most importantly, open with your content.

While being transparent is important, be aware of the effect of anything that you put out there about yourself, and consider the potential cost to your brand. Being transparent doesn’t necessarily have to mean letting it all hang out.

Get your name out there

Once you have established your Brand Identity and feel confident in who you are and why you’re unique, it’s time to showcase you to the world!

Be cognizant of your personal brand, both offline and online, develop a Social Media Strategy, set goals, and be dedicated — Don’t be fooled by the myth that if you build it, they will come. Unless you’re extremely lucky, you’ll have to actually spend time communicating your Brand
to others.

To be successful at Marketing your Brand today,
you should think about the 4 C’s:

  • Content – the creation of a steady stream of engaging content.
  • Connection – connecting with the audience you wish to attract.
  • Communication– communicating with them in an ongoing conversation.
  • Conversion– and then converting them at the illusive moment of need.

There’s nothing wrong with self-promotion to build your brand/reputation, but that’s not the primary focus of Social Media today. If you really want people to listen to you and care about what you’re saying or the service you offer, be someone who focuses more on providing useful information, and featuring others in your industry or community. People will pre-qualify you before they take the next step, and to do that they need more information than just your “sweet deal” or contact information.

The Social online world is the same as in person, so you need to follow the same rules of engagement: Learn to listen (start a discussion) and earn the right to be heard (share your expertise and tools).

Social Media impressions are very important so be invariable in your messaging, and always be transparent, it creates authenticity. Create a succinct tone for your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles, your email signature, blog and promotional materials — your messaging can have a huge impact on your professional image.

You can also monitor your personal brand name across the web with Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts), a free tool which sends e-mail updates about a topic or phrase that you choose.

Conclusion:

With focus, and a well developed Brand Strategy, you will have set the foundation and mapped out the path to becoming a successful personal Brand. There’s no better time than the present to get started!

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