EI introduces BoB (Bruce on Business)

BoB is the new YouTube series that EI has given birth to. This series is aimed at empowering both you and your business. On this series we are gonna have a number of interviews, a couple of interesting topics that will be of great help in growing your business and entrepreneurial  tips. We will also have a look at what’s in the business library – where Bruce will share a little bit of what he is currently reading.

This series is gonna be in an interactive set up where we will talk to and with you. It’d  really be great to hear from you after every topic. Your comments and views are very important. Please subscribe here and watch the series where we help you grow your business.

 

 

By |2016-11-01T10:20:21+02:00September 18th, 2015|General|0 Comments

How fonts affect your brand.

FontsDid you ever think that choosing a font for your brand could be of such huge importance?

Well, just like colour, the type of font you use on your brand says a lot about it.

Font selection plays an important role in sending the right message in a brand or logo design. It is for this very reason important to invest a lot in selecting an appropriate font when designing a logo.

Your logo, right from the font, the colour and shape, should provide an immediate sense of what your company is all about.

When selecting a font, ensure that all parties working with that brand adhere to predefined standards and styling conventions of your brand. If the logo design has a mismatching font, then it is a disaster.

Different fonts work best for different businesses, because every company is unique. For example, a logo for a legal firm, which should convey honorability, strength and justice, might best be represented in a bold, straightforward font free of flourish, whereas a candy shop might opt for a spontaneous font that communicates youth, sweetness and fun. Similarly, an art store can’t have a quiet and boring font.

Each brand stands for something unique. It has its own personality. A font has the ability to deliver the brand identity beyond the literal sense.

Here is three things to look at when selecting a font:

Legibility – Any text information presented should be easy to read. A font that is too difficult to grasp can make your logo less legible. The right font can deliver the message with clarity.

Originality – Originality in your logo is very important. Choosing an overused font style will make your logo look repetitive and therefore it will lack the uniqueness in it.

Flexibility – Your font should look good on all the channels it is used. It should look good both on paper and a computer screen. It should be recognisable in any type of print medium.

Fonts really do matter; they can influence the persuasion and perception of a customer or client.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:21+02:00September 10th, 2015|General|0 Comments

Meet Stephanie Tanny – Our speaker on today’s Lunch ‘n Learn

Stephanie TannyThe highly-rated Stephanie Tanny, who hails from Colorado in the USA, was today’s speaker at EI’s Lunch ‘n Learn programme.

Stephan is a phenomenal woman who is a Life and Business Coach. She works with individuals across the world helping them realise their dreams, accelerate their results, and create richer, more fulfilling lives.

Stephanie’s journey towards international acclaim started when she became part of The White House Leadership programme in 2012.

Since then, she has appeared live on C-SPAN and shared the stage with public figures such as President Bill Clinton and John Oliver from The Daily Show.

Stephanie is currently in South Africa on business, and was thrilled when she got the invitation to come and speak at the Lunch ‘n Learn. She shared with participants about ‘The Full Spectrum of Wealth’, which are Vocation, Health, Relationships and Time & Money freedom.

She believes that connecting people with similar experiences will only energise you because our work is all interconnected.

Her motto in life is “You deserve to live a life you truly love”! Check out her website to keep up with her!

 

By |2016-11-01T10:20:22+02:00September 9th, 2015|General|0 Comments

Law ten: The law of leadership

Law ten: The law of leadership

Carl Bates writes in his book The Laws of Extreme Business Success about the 12 laws of business success. Law ten looks at leadership, not just leaders doing their stuff, but effective leadership. Not something every leader gets right all the time. The law states:

Extreme business success requires effective leadership that guides the team and inspires them to persevere through the challenges and obstacles they will face. Effective leadership inspires and motivates by example, principles and commitment to the promise made by the business. The business itself must also become a leader in its field.

This book and others from Carl Bates are available here

By |2015-08-24T10:00:48+02:00August 24th, 2015|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Business values need to be valued

We do a lot of workshops with people from all sectors of business. One thing that is common to all our workshops is the discussion around values. We do a very interesting exercise where everyone gets to define or discover their personal values and then share them with the others in the room: always a tense but revealing time for all.

We go on to discuss the difference between personal values and our business values. This almost always seems to provoke a discussion about how values change when money is involved. Comments such as” we must be honest at all times, but when there is a way to make extra profit we always take it” come to surface.

Why do we allow our personal values to be set aside when doing business deals? I do not buy into the fact that “everyone is corrupt” so we can do it too. We need to stand firm on how we do business and ensure that our personal and business values are entrenched in throughout the whole business and visible in all deals.

How well would you stand up to a Moral Audit in your business?

Never ever ever allow your personal value to be compromised in order to secure a sale, this is the beginning of moral decay in both your business and your life.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:34+02:00June 30th, 2014|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

The Big “F” of doing business 2

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In this series I have take a number of ‘F’ words and unpacked some lessons we can all learn from how to do business more effectively and efficiently.

The next set of ‘F’ words are Fix Faster. In the first article of this series we spoke about learning to fail fast, this is and always should be backed up by Fix Faster. This means that as fast as you fail, you as a business owner, should be fixing the problems faster. It does not matter who is at fault, or why it went wrong, what is important is how fast it is fixed. If you are so inclined you can do the blame game off line at a later stage, but make sure that whoever was affected, no matter how small the issue, is made right and is notified.

When issues are raised online, a good rule to follow is to acknowledge it online, fix offline and then acknowledge it online again. Never get into trying to argue and fix online. This will lead to some serious arguments and will always bring in hordes of chatter that could destroy your online reputation.

Fix, make good, feedback and acknowledge: the road to maintaining your reputation as a customer centric business. One that will be around next year.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:44+02:00May 14th, 2013|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Getting Around the Spam Filters

Have you ever wondered why your emails never get delivered or opened? Could it be due to the high amount of Spam alerts that they create? Even if you are sending out genuine legitimate emails with real business information, they may still be classified as spam. Here are a few hints to watch out for:

Make sure your email subjects have good call to actions that do not use any of the Spam words listed below.

Start emails to the person’s name. So not use, Hi all or Hello

Use your own name and email as the From address not Undisclosed Recipients

Cut down on the amount of Images in relation to the volume of text

Reduce or eliminate the use of the following Spam words:

Free, Instant access, one time offer, cancel at any time, give away, signup for free, this is not spam, instant cure, click here, compare our prices, earn more here, easy income.

The list goes on and on but you should see the trend here. For a complete list read this article by Hubspot. The more you try to manipulate your customers into buying stuff online without first building up a high level of trust, the more you will be pushed away. Not only by spam filters but by potential clients as well.

Try different email subjects on different days and times. See what best works for your clients and what gets the best open rate. The experts will tell you that an email send out on a Tuesday at 09:30 is the best time, but try it for yourself and your customers and then stick to a schedule that everyone can rely on.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:44+02:00March 18th, 2013|Business Resources, General, Social Media|0 Comments

Do you know what you are paying for from your ISP?

Learn to test what you are getting. ISP or Internet Service providers will market you all sorts of products with varying line speeds, download rates and monthly packages to get you hooked. Their first prize is to get you tied into a 24 month contract that secures their income for the next 2 years. So often we just follow like sheep and do as they say.

But if you actually analyzed what they offer and then tested their delivery, you will be very surprised as to what you actually get. For most uncapped DSL offerings there is a term called ‘strangling’ that is never used in the marketing brochure but that seems to just creep in whenever you make full use of their service. This allows the ISP to slow down your line to stop the excessive use of their ‘uncapped’ offering. Then there is the unscheduled down time and the blame game that seems to happen. Have you ever noticed how easily people who you pay for a service point fingers at other services to avoid accountability. It never seems to be their fault and we the consumer just have to bear the brunt of the problem. One company we chatted to spent 3 days with no internet, listening to all the excuses only to find that the Telkom technician had actually unplugged the cable by mistake. They were all ready to charge the callout fee to come back to the office again to prove that the equipment was faulty not their lines.

But we can test our service and rate it against what the contract says. Use this tool: www.speedtest.net or www.pingtest.net to check for upload and download speeds of your current service provider. Then confront them if you are not getting what you paid for.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:45+02:00March 5th, 2013|Business Resources, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments
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