Located in the heart of the Inland Empire business district in Rancho Cucamonga.

Winter 2009 - In This Issue

Discipline is the Key
Social Sites for Marketing?
Sense of Urgency
West End Animal Shelter

Discipline is the Key

Planning, yes we mean business plan! Business owners often open up shop because they do something well. Once they have a client base, usually the thought is "how can my business grow?"Business owners often open up shop because they do something well. Once they have a client base, usually the thought is "how can my business grow?" Take the time to sit down and write out a business plan and marketing plan. When it is in black and white, everyone on your team knows exactly what your objectives are.

You'll need to define your goals, and that they are specific, measurable, results-oriented and timely in the market. These goals should be in keeping with your business mission statement, marketing and sales objectives.

Marketing, all the time!

One area where most small business owners are undisciplined is in their marketing. The rollercoaster of marketing until sales are up and then dropping efforts, then sales drop off…you get the picture.

Create a marketing plan, and then you must have the discipline to follow the plan. This will ensure that leads keep coming your way, consistently.

Management, don't forget to manage...

The daily activities of running your business takes time, so much so that some stuff is ignored. You know what I'm talking about - like filing and bookkeeping. Sometimes attention to your employees is also sacrificed.

As a small business owner, you need to pay close attention to every detail of your business and have the discipline to stick with the plan - and require our employees to do the same.

Spending, wisely that is...

When times were good, little expenses were overlooked. If extra expenses aren’t paying for themselves in increased productivity, take a closer look and eliminate the ones that aren’t clearly improving your business.

Having a high level of self-discipline in these four areas of your business will help you weather the current recession and prepare you to excel when the economy turns back around.
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Social Sites for Marketing?

If you have ever thought about marketing through MySpace or FaceBook, then listen up! There are a lot more options out there. Just like any marketing, find out where your target audience is, and get out there! Following is a short description of what is hot right now in social sites.

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com): Most popular site for business professional networking. But, more than linking with your professional network, LinkedIn can be used to promote your business to a wide audience. LinkedIn does have an advertising opportunity, but it is still not quite right, as it is set up to become too expensive per impression. The best use of LinkedIn is to participate in the Q&A section and its many "Groups," where you can quickly establish yourself as an expert in your field...by answering questions, participating in discussions, and submitting articles you've written to group members.

Facebook (www.facebook.com): Used primarily for personal networking, where friends and family stay connected. Some do use Facebook to network for business, but it is questionably of value through this tool. Where businesses are finding value in Facebook is in the advertising opportunity. You pay "per click" and you have amazing targeting power with Facebook.

Twitter (www.twitter.com): A simple concept of sending short (VERY SHORT) messages out to those who follow you. Twitter started as a personal way of telling your personal network "what you are doing" at any given moment. It has also been used by bloggers and content site owners in the same way RSS is used--to quickly blast out the most current news and articles available. It helps with SEO too!

Flickr (www.flickr.com): Primarily a tool for managing graphics and photos for your own internal organization, Flickr is proving to be a tool with external benefits as well. If you share photos on this site, it will help manage them without using your internal network.

YouTube (www.youtube.com): With today's easy-to-access video production tools and WebCam availability, this is an option more and more marketers can really use. Companies can use YouTube to publish training videos, product demos, and promotions very easily. Search engines love this site.

Blogs: Only a part of the social networking/media conversation because of their ability to allow readers to "comment" and "share" on the content they read. You can publish your expertise on blogs and it may be picked up by search engines. Start your own blog or comment on some existing with topics in your field.

info partially from Go-To-Market Strategies and PBS.org
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Sense of Urgency

John Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor emeritus, has a message in his book, A Sense of Urgency. His message: To achieve significant corporate transformation, all employees need a hyper-awareness of the failings in the present situation, and be ready with an emotional commitment to fix it.

How do you know when your employees lack the energy and enthusiasm required to move management mountains? From the book Harvard Business Publishing extracts these lagging behaviors:

• Managers over-rely on consultants to analyze the business and recommend changes.
• Key people aren’t participating in the task force charged with executing the initiative.
• Task-force members procrastinate in setting up their meetings.
• Task-force discussions only generate complaints about the company’s situation, not active decisions.
• Task-force members focus more on office politics and finger-pointing than on what’s causing the company’s problems.

Most change initiatives in organizations fail. Lack of urgency among employees might be one reason, but this is really a failing of leadership to sell the need of immediate change to the rank and file. Has your organization churned through a change initiative? Did it work, or not? What were the reasons for success or failure?
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Our newest project... West End Animal Shelter

West End Animal Shelter in Ontario needed help with some marketing and the volunteers that came forward were impressive. for Perry Design and Advertising, our part was in designing some print pieces and a press release. The challenge was getting media to help out by donating or offering reduced space. We have been successful so far, and are continuing our efforts. Above is the billboard you can see in Ontario. If you have an idea or would like to help us place ads for their cause - please let us know!
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Share With Us

If you've read a great book, email the book title and author to us at: info@perryadvertising.com

For more information, please call 909-945-9500 or visit www.perryadvertising.com

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