What is the best time of year to start your business?

 

You may not think it, but the time of year you choose to start your home business can have an impact on how well you do. Truth is... there is no time better than the present! Many of us are tired of dragging ourselves out of bed every morning to get to a job we can't stand. And although we sacrifice being away from our family most of the day, committing our time, our bodies, and our minds to this job, our reward is just enough to sustain us and keep us coming back. We are giving all of our energy, ideas, and talent to make upper management rich while we keep living paycheck to paycheck, while suppressing that empty feeling inside, that we are built for more... Our purpose and our destiny is greater than punching a time clock every day, we are more than an expendable commodity, that at any given moment can be left without a job, without an explanation, and without a means to provide for our family.

Many of us have been stuck in this cycle for years and years, wanting something more, but never doing anything about it. The truth is: the ONLY way you will ever get different results, is by doing something different... It's time to break the cycle!

During this time of year, you can feel the excitement in the air, everyone a little stress and worry free... That's right, it’s tax time! Time to catch up on bills, go shopping, or buy that new flat screen just in time for game-day. How about this year, in the spirit of doing something different: Instead of buying clothes, TV's, and cell phones that will be outdated by next fall... why not invest in you? Why not start that business you have been dreaming about every day for the past 3 years? Is it that you are waiting to win the lottery or inherit some obscene amount of money or first, allowing you to open up a nationwide chain of taco stands, or is it because you have just become so comfortable with your day to day life, that you would opt for 56 inches of high definition bliss over investing in your future? Now is the BEST time to act!

Spring is usually the best time of year to start a business...

We are getting ready to say goodbye to winter, and usher in the spring. We are still fresh enough in the year that people are still conscious of their resolution making (and breaking!) businesses are just as likely to resolve to do better in the new year as the rest of us are. One common resolution people make is finding a better job, or in this market, a job period, and that's why many businesses spend the first part of the year struggling to fill vacancies created by staff acting on resolutions of their own. This means that many companies start the New Year short of staff, so if your business offers a particular service they need, now could be the perfect time to introduce yourself. Spring is known as a time of change and growth, and at least on a psychological level, that could make it a great time to think about starting your business. The longer days and increased sunlight will make you feel revitalized and ready for new challenges. While in contrast, winter is a time of hibernation, with the end of the season comes a change in mood and motivation, and that could be all you need to make a start on your new business.

Spring is also when most businesses reach the end of their tax year. They may have some of last year's budget burning a hole in their pockets, or they could have a whole new budget to play with. Either way, this could be the best opportunity you'll get to introduce your new business and convince them to give it a shot.

Summer is rarely a good time to start a home business

Summer can be a slow time for business. People are too busy thinking about their vacation or making the most of the sunshine to shop for goods and services, so unless your business is a travel agent or ice cream store, it may not be a good time to start. Wait instead for fall: the beginning of the new school year is another time when people start to think about making a new start - could you be one of them, with your new business?

Just before Christmas, however, is a quiet time for many businesses, so unless you're selling something seasonal, it may not be the best time to pack in the day job and start up on your own. Most people are short of cash around Christmas time: they've spent all their money on gifts, and they're just about to spend all their energy on entertaining family and making the most of the holiday season. The last thing they want is to do is read marketing material from a new home based business, so your carefully worded and expensively designed flier is probably going to go straight into the bin, along with the leftover turkey.

It doesn't matter if you want your own landscaping business, Production Company, restaurant, or counseling service, if you have a vision for a business I CAN HELP YOU MAKE IT A REALITY, just like I have for hundreds of others over the past 15 years. I can show you how to get your vision off the ground with minimal investments, how to find money for your business, and give you the tools and structure you need to finally get your dream off the ground.

Want help launching your dream?
visit us on the web at www.order.wriser.info

The Power and Problem with Church Branding

The Power and Problem with Church Branding



-by Richard L. Reising

Taken from Religious Product News magazine, May 2007


What if you could change the way people saw your church? What if you could give it the kind of extreme makeover that would make a new generation take notice and knock on your door? Could you, by communication build a bridge towards a new you? Most assuredly. Can you do it without internally embodying the relevance that your design emanates? Most assuredly not.
Branding is known as the consistent use of design and communication in order or to establish a clearly defined image. It works when that image is consistent with the essence of who you are. When it is not consistent with who and how you are, you come across as a poser—losing more credibility than you know. Church branding is real. It is here and it is at work in your church whether you realize it or not. You are either deliberately telling the world your story, or you are the byproduct of indiscriminant messages—the sum of it all creates your brand—your perceived sense of self through the eyes of your surrounding community.
Strategic church branding is becoming more and more of a necessity. As our previous brand names: Baptist, Methodist, Assemblies of God, and the like, fall off of our churches, a new generation of branding is coming to light. That is, reaching people with the stories our denominations do not tell. Who speaks the language of the community the best? Who speaks to which segments? Who defines cultural relevance and spiritual value? How can we learn what the spirit of your church is from a distance? It is a branding issue. A good starting point: the communication you create yourself. What if you developed a deliberate brand overhaul?
Every church needs a branding strategy. It simply makes sense. It is a commitment to communicate with consistency, established values, and a clear knowledge of the target. It takes less effort to maintain when you reuse the same design and communication threads throughout all you do. It is smart. It is done by every legitimate corporation of our day.
So why don't more churches have a brand strategy? Why is it that 90% of the churches in the U.S. have logos and design styles that vary in everything they do—often representing the landscape of volunteer designers that have been burnt-out over time? I'll raise my hand to answer this one. It is because we do not know who we are and we do not know whom we are called to reach or how to reach them. When we do, branding becomes the natural outflow of our successful communication with those people.
Branding cannot cure our inability to connect with a certain audience. If we do not reach them with our music and message, we will not reach them by the repackaging of it. We have to resonate with people. When we do, it becomes the defining point of our brand.
This leads to the big problem with branding. Drum roll please…
if you are not strategic, then you are consistently un-strategic. In all you do, if you miss the mark, it is difficult and costly to recover. Branding, like anything else we do for God starts with prayer, vision, wise counsel, a passion for the lost, knowledge of who you are and whom you are called to reach. Without these things and proven success in reaching people, branding is often a stab in the dark that alienates more than engages.

Article by Richard Reising
Richard Reising is the author of ChurchMarketing 101: Preparing Your Church for Greater Growth (Baker Books). Reising is a recognized authority on church marketing and branding and the founder and president of the Dallas-based Artistry Marketing Concepts, an organization that helps churches and ministries make wise use of marketing, design, and technology. He has helped hundreds of ministries in the United States and worldwide through speaking engagements and training seminars.

Interested in branding your church or business? visit us at www.order.wriser.info