Thinking about spending money on advertising? Before you do you should ask yourself these important key questions that will support your decision and make sure that you get the best ROI (Return On Investment). Listed below are some key steps that you should think about and write down to have all the pros and cons prior to starting on the advertising path.
1. Know your product or service- Do you really know your product or service? Do you know how your customers perceive your service and product?
2. Advertise as part of the total marketing strategy- What do you expect from advertising and what role will it play in your overall marketing strategy? Where do you want to advertise and do you have a specific target market?
3. Develop a proposition -A proposition is the strongest truthful statement you can make to the customer on behalf of your product or service.
4. Create a platform- Platform is an item by item list of facts that support your proposition- testimonials from actual customers, other company endorsements are all good ways to support your proposition.
5. Be realistic about the level of expectation -Never promise more than your product or service can deliver can do more harm then good and can affect your business in the future.
6. Review for customer needs - Your advertising has to relate to your customers’ needs. Customers’ needs must be the focus of advertising strategy.
Review your answers to the following questions and be sure that you are happy with what you have written down and discussed with others. After you are satisfied with the outcome then your next step will be to chose an Advertising Agency or decide to construct the advertisement on your own. If you are using an Agency they will be the ones in that will be guiding you through the process. Advertising on your own can have benefits and pitfalls so you need to make sure that you have support from others to go this alone. Whatever you decide advertising your small business can be a wonderful experience and open many new doors to customers from untapped market segments that are waiting to purchase your product or service.
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Choosing a great event planner starts with first knowing the type of event that you want to produce? Is the event a corporate event or a social event? Both types of events may require different styles of event planners, although some event planners are skilled to do both generally they will specialize in one or the other. Corporate event planners, work mainly with corporate clients to produce meetings, conventions, galas and fundraisers they are for the organization, group or association guests. Social event planners are producing social functions, weddings, non-profit fundraisers and other social events that are mainly public or invited guests events.
Things to remember are who are their clients now and what events have they produced? What was the outcome of the event? A great event planner will share the high-lights and the low- lights, if everything was outstanding all the time then this is probably not the best event planner for you. You want an event planner that has learned from mistakes and how they have put procedures in place to deal with any situations like this that may arise in the future. You want an event planner that can make suggestions on how to make the event better and lead you away from any misguided well intentioned ideas.
Great event planners are willing to give references, and have testimonials on their websites that can be confirmed by the potential client. They act in a professional manner, show-up on time, hold meetings, from the tentative booking, to working through the process, to confirming details ( working with suppliers), keeping the client on budget, keeping the client informed about the budget, answering telephone messages, e-mails in a timely manner, working at the event, being held accountable and conducting a post event analysis. All of these qualities and qualifications are true for both types of event planner- corporate or social.
Event planners should not be your friends or family this can be detrimental to the relationship and having an outside opinion and working through the process of the event is preferred. Study websites, ask colleagues or remember the great event that you attended and ask the person who held the event who was the event planner? Event planner’s charges will range depending on their specialty and what is required by them to do. You can get quotes but remember cheaper is not always better. Experience, knowledge, connections are most valuable for putting on a successful event so choose wisely.
If you are a small business owner and employ a staff then you should make sure that you know about the Labour Relations Codes in your province. Labour Relations codes can be found on the internet on-line manual form that will provide the owner and employee with information about rights, duties and un-fair labour practices. There are many sections and some of the sections that an owner may find useful; certification process, collective bargaining, strikes, lock-outs and picketing, essential services, mediation, dispute resolution assistance and arbitration process. For more information about the Labour Relations code go to http://www.lrb.bc.ca/codeguide/guide.pdf If you find yourself in an employee dispute situation then look upon it as a way to improve on your policies, procedures and practices. Miscommunication between owners and employees will happen from time to time, not all employees feel the need to go to the Employment Standards Branch to file a complaint. Fair owners and employees should be able to work out any miscommunication prior to getting to this form of settlement.
This is a recipe that I have made over and over again! It is always a big hit and it is works really well for a family breakfast, brunch or catering. With blueberries coming into season now you can either go to your local farmer’s market or how about a trip out to pick your own blueberries at some local farmers. If you can not get out to either of these two options then a trip to your favourite supermarket and look for the local organic blueberries on sale.
Blueberry Pancakes:
1 1/3cups of all-purpose flour
3tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1/3 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 cup of milk
3 tbsp melted butter or vegetable oil
1/4 tsp of vanilla
1 cup floured fresh blueberries
Method:
Stir all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and add the milk. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and slowly add the egg and milk mixture while incorporating into the dry ingredients. Add melted butter and vanilla and mix just until ingredients are just mixed and the batter has a lumpy appearance. Use a measuring cup and measure 1/4 cups of pancake mixture and drop onto a hot griddle or pan with a flat surface. Sprinkle the blueberries on top of each pancake, cook the pancake bottom side until golden brown the top will create little bursting bubbles and then flip, cook through about 1-2 minutes. This recipe makes approximately 10-12 pancakes so you may need to increase the amounts depending on how many that you are cooking for. If your pancake griddle or pan is too hot adjust the temperature as you do not want to burn them. Top with your favourite syrup, butter and powdered sugar. This recipe comes from one of my favourite cook books called “A Guide To Good Cooking” Five Roses Enriched Flour, must be 20 years old and if you seen my copy of this book you would know that it is well used and well loved!
Are you getting married and want something a little different than a traditional wedding cake? How about stacked cupcakes? Cupcakes can make a wonderful and delicious addition to your wedding. Why not have a whole range of flavors: Simple vanilla/yellow/white cake, but frosted with Nutella , Strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese, Black Forest, Oreo cupcakes, Mocha Caramel, Black Sesame cupcakes, Ginger cupcakes with lime icing or Lemon cupcakes with lemon icing and filled with blackberry buttercream. These cupcakes will make a statement with your guests and they will have fun figuring out the varieties. Perhaps you want to package one or two of the varieties for guests to take home, I would recommend the Black Sesame or the Vanilla with Nutella frosting- you do not want to pack up anything that will require refrigeration. If you are packaging as a take away then dust with powdered sugar if it is for the cupcake stack then you can use the frosting recipe listed below. Remember to keep the cupcake stack refrigerated and bring it out just before serving. This will ensure that the cupcakes are keep cold and are considered food safe for your guests to consume.
Black Sesame Cupcakes with Matcha- Cream Cheese Frosting.
1 1/2 sticks (170 g) salted butter
1 1/2 cups (340 g) sugar
3 tablespoons black sesame paste
1/4 cup (35 g) black sesame seeds
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 cups (310 g) flour, sifted
1 1/4 cups milk
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring or tossing them constantly, until they are fragrant, about two minutes. (If you buy already-toasted sesame seeds, iri-goma, you can skip the previous step.) Crush the seeds with a suribachi or spice grinder until they are the texture of damp sand and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the sesame paste and seeds, eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients, then the milk, and beat for a couple minutes.
Fill cupcake tin and bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
Makes enough for about 24 cupcakes
1 8-oz (200 g) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick (55 g) butter, softened
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 cup (125 g) sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons matcha
Beat together the cream cheese, butter and whipping cream until creamy. Add the sugar and matcha and beat until glossy and smooth. This recipe is from Delicious Coma out of Los Angeles.
Cash out sheets are very important to staff and management and are a necessary part for anyone that must do a cash out at the end of their shift. I have seen where there is not a proper record and reconciling the cash plus the amount of time spent by the employee trying to reconcile the information can be time consuming. A good cash out helps keep records straight eliminates lengthy time spent on reconciliation and helps the manager reconcile cash outs quickly. Make sure to have the employee bundle the money in correct denominations and roll the coin, there is nothing that makes a manager unhappy then getting coin that is not rolled and loose in a cash out bag. Please supply cash out bags they can be as simple as cloth pencil cases with zippers, this cuts down on the amount of paper and are more sturdy. You must remember to put the name on the sheet, the date, the location and the hours that the person worked. Please make sure to provide the employee with a calculator this will cut down on the mistakes made from trying to reconcile all the information by hand. Then make a list from the types of bills, coins, Visa, MasterCard, debits, floats, register readings, coupons or discounts given and finally the deposits. The Visa, Mastercard, Interact, Coupons should all be seperated and bundled- having a seperate sheet may be necessary for this information. Employees now can take a reading from Interact machines with their personal clerk issued number and print off a list of transactions. This will then help the employee check this information against the information that they are depositing. It will help the employee find out if they are missing any of this information and then track down what may have happened. Most times they can reprint a missed credit card payment slip or interact information. This information then should go with the deposit this will lead to less confusion, reduce labour cost and make both the manager and employee happier.
There has been so much focus on wine and food pairings that I thought beer should get it just rewards. I am sure that there are so many different opinions that I thought a few simple rules here may be what is required to make your food and beer pairing experience magical. There are two different styles of beer ale and lager. The difference is the type of yeast used in the fermentation process. Lagers ferment from the bottom giving them a crisp and more delicate flavour profile. Ales ferment from the top which gives them a more hoppy, fruity and bitter taste. When deciding how cold your beer should be served here is the recommended temperature, lagers: 7-10 degrees Celsius. Ales 11-12 degrees Celsius and porters and stouts 13 degrees Celsius. Make sure that you get yourself a good thermometer for your beer fridge this will help you to regulate the temperature and serve the beer at the correct temperature to get the full satisfaction out of the product and provide you with the ultimate experience. If you follow the below recommendations then it is hard to go wrong.
As weddings are getting under way this summer, it is a good idea to keep in mind what wine will work best with chocolate. If you are planning a dessert buffet then make sure to have some wine that compliment this choice. If you are planning on giving chocolates away in gift boxes then why not add a couple of wine facts of which wine to serve with the chocolate and add a personal note. If you are serving a decandent chocolate cake, a rich brownie or a truffle then you need to serve wine that is sweeter than the dessert . Sparkling wines & Champagnes that are on the sweet side and not the dry side will compliment the chocolate. The denser and heavier the dessert with more texture you will need to serve a Port, Sherry, or fortified Muscat. Milk chocolate desserts with raspberries, cherries or oranges and other sweet fruit compliment a Tawny Port. Keep in mind the better the quality of chocolate served the better the quality of Port should be served. Try to keep your chocolate paired with similar flavors and aromas for example white chocolate with a white port, dark chocolate with a richer more flavorable and aromatic ruby port. Cabernet- Franc and Cabernet -Sauvignon are great with chocolate that contain more than 72% cacao. A dark chocolate truffle and a single malt scotch are a wonderful match so if you are more into scotch then wine this is an option. For more information regarding chocolate and wine pairings visit www.rogerschocolates.com .
There are some amazing wineries in the Okanagan and on our last trip we visited Seven Stones Winery 1143 Highway 3 250-499-2144 www.sevenstones.ca absoultely wonderful, the quality of the wines that George the proprietor and local politican produces that has won many notiable awards is truy a treasure and not to be missed. Check out his website and anything that you would purchase from George would be simply outstanding! Beaumont Family Estate Winery 2775 Boucherie Road, West Kelowna 250-769-1222 was good but not our favourite. Volcanic Hills Estate Winery 2845 Boucherie Road, Westbank, BC 778-755-5550 beautiful shop we tried some whites and reds for us part of the experience and what makes us buy is the service component and if we are engaged, this could have been better. Some host simply stand back don’t engage the taster and then wonder why there is no sale. If they want a sale then be part of the whole experience and engage the taster. They are there to introduce you to their products, provide you with information and engage you in the experience. I really do not understand why they miss this opportunity. Stoneboat Vineyard 7148 Orchard Grove Lane Oliver, BC 250-498-2226 www.stoneboatvineyards.com the host’s name is Rae and she was engaging, knowledgeable and was happy to provide you with information. This is definitely a stop and the uniqueness of the tasting room is right inside the winery so it can be a little cool, so wear a jacket as you don’t want to miss the experience. There are so many wineries to try and some planning on the style of the winery, the location and the wine price points should be considered prior to setting out. Some vineyards are now charging a small tasting fee of $5.00 although are happy to waive the fee if you purchase a bottle of wine. Another fee is for any ice or dessert wines they are charging $2.00 per tasting. I think that this is very reasonable given that they need to at least recoup some cost of making the product. For too long to many people went from one winery to the other and used this as a free source for consuming wine at no charge. Charging for a wine tasting is fine as it cuts down on the non-serious consumer. Wineries should display the tasting fee outside the venue to let the customer make up their mind about paying prior to entering the tasting room. I think if all the wineries charged a fee this would cut down on the number of intoxicated people and drinking and driving.
The first thing to consider when creating a flyer for a target market is what are you trying to sell and to whom are you selling this to? Once you have these two questions answered then you can start to lay-out the information in an attractive manner that will highlight the product or service that you are selling to this target market. The flyer will need to be laid out in a way to prompt the client for a call to action. Flyers must have a start and expiration date to make the customer feel the urgency to buy now. You will need to offer something to your target market that they can not get from your competitor and it has to be something of value to make them buy now. You may want to advertise an early bird special on an up-coming promotion.
Next decide how you want the flyer delivered to your target market? Several ways that you can accomplish this and some with little to no cost and some with costs, is it through cold calls, client calls, fax blasts, e-mail blast, regular mail are you going to provide it to the customer upon leaving the restaurant or upon checking in to the hotel room? Are you going to advertise it on your website, facebook, twitter or newspapers to increase awareness? You may decide to go with a company that can set up an e-mail blast for you that targets the market that you are focusing on, for example: travel agents, a specific market like cruise and stay package or fly and stay packages, sporting packages, concert packages, restaurant patrons, sport team associations, Government or corporate companies or trade shows. While flyers are a good way to target companies that you want to attract to your product or service keep in mind the ROI and try not to set the expectations too high to start with. You will know fairly quickly the response from the market and if this is a product or service that they are interested in. Make sure to do your homework to ensure that the product or service that you are promoting out there in the industry to this target market really is the best price, service, value or benefit. I like to finish with this quote “Success is not measured by what you accomplish but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.”
Orison Swett Marden