Three Rules To Business Success: Keep it cool, fun and exciting!

We can all agree that the success of a brand depends on many factors. Factors ranging from price and recognised quality, to exposure and feeling. Feeling, is something we all pick up on. The feeling to hold a product, the feeling to own a product, the feeling to show your friends a product, and certainly the feeling to simply be around a product. This feeling of excitement, fun and coolness is something Apple have brought in to they're brand and business resulting in extremely successful results.

Apple is a world famous company. It has a net worth of 406 billion US dollars and the biggest following of fans, press and excitement in the world. Apple sells a variety of electronic devices aimed at the consumer, from the iPod, iPhone and iPad hand held mobile device's to the iMac and MacBook computer systems. We can all learn a little bit from apple as it produces a wave of urgent excitement and coolness every time it releases a new service, product or software. This wave and immense expectation from fans has been built up over many years, and it can be explained in 3 simple points.

History

Apple has a history lasting several decades. A history which has been built up from exciting and quality news and products. Apple has had an extrodinary life, imagine it like a wall. A wall built up of bricks of every color! Apple's historys has been an exotic one, built up of many important and strategic decisions, announcements, products and people. This draws an urge of excitement as people come to see the newest brick of its wall of history be laid. This is why it is a big event for all fans of the company, and along with the huge amount of interest and fans, comes the press wanting to get in on the action and excitement, delivering to their viewers.. what they want to see and read.

Shop fronts of perfection. 

Apple has created a personality of perfection that is felt threw out its shopfronts online, offline and on packaging. It has a simplicity about it, but also a quality feel. The shops it has, often boast a supreme amount of quality compared to surrounding shops. This draws the customers in and makes buyers feel as if they are part of a new special club.

Its online shop front is cool. Its simplistic but cool and sleek at the same time, matching the shop front of its offline stores. The packaging of its products. Both the disposable packaging and hard cases are beautiful for all of Apple's products. They are clean, sleek and cool!

A general sense of love and excitement is felt and passed around by all.

Finally Apple seems to give out an essence of love and excitement to all of its fans. Its a company that is classed as 'cool' with the younger generation and is a company that gets spoken about as if its the popular kid at school! Its this coolness and well spoken about attitude and feeling it gives out that makes it have this amazing book of success and excitement. As this success and excitement carries on, the ball will keep rolling and Apple's great wall of history will keep getting built.

We can all learn from Apple and its efforts to be cool, made up on quality, love and excitement. Maybe to look in to other businesses like Apple, we can all then look into our own and see where we have been going wrong, and where we can make improvements.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your opinions and examples below in the comments!

6 Ways To Research Your Market

There are many ways to find out information about a market and possible customers. Some of these methods are expensive and time consuming and some are cheaper and easier to use than the others. It is these cheaper and easier methods that will be most attractive for a small business or new start up.


Internet Research

This is by using information that has already been published on the internet to gather results and information about a market for a companies proposed products/services.

The advantages of internet research are that it is generally free of charge --although an internet connection and internet device obviously costs some amount of money-- and it gives a quick overview of the market.

Some disadvantages of internet research are that some resources --such as the competitors websites-- may be biased and the information you find may not be the specific information you intended to find out.


Telephone Survey

This is a series of set questions delivered to consumers over the telephone as a method of primary research.

The advantages of a telephone survey is that it is cheap and it allows personal interview to clarify any questions that are unclear.


A big disadvantage to a telephone survey is that your call may be viewed as a nuisance and not wanted.


Questionnaire

A Fill In Questionnaire

The advantages of using a questionnaire for research is that the results back are often rather easy to analyze and that it is a relatively fast way to gather information from a wide range of people.

The main disadvantages of using a questionnaire is that a questionnaire may not give results showing why people behave the way they do; just shows how they behave. Another disadvantage is that the interviewer or questionnaire writer may bias the results by being 'over-friendly'.


Supplier Feedback

This is by gathering information; from companies that supply products or services, on their forecasts for what is likely to happen in the market in the future.

The advantage to using supplier feedback for research is that it may give an insight on future trends in the market --that are not yet visible on the high street-- and by using this method you'll be building a relationship with the supplier.

The only disadvantage to using supplier feedback is that the supplier you use may give a biased view; which will effect your results.


Customer Feedback

This is done by collecting formal or informal responses from the customers of a product/service offered by a specific business (usually in your target market/niche)

Having a real insight as to how to improve the customer experience of your company is a good advantage to using customer feedback for research; after-all your business will evolve around the customer and if you know what they like, what they buy and the standards they have when buying you will have a great insight and the foundations to building your business on successfully.

The disadvantage to customer feedback is that it only gives viable results for people who are either customers already or who are target/potential customers for the future.


Focus Group

A Focus Group Talking About A Product/Service

This is an in-depth discussion with a small group of consumers (8-10) where they give their feeling, thoughts and ideas on and towards a product or service.

A focus group offers an resource of information about consumer attitudes and motives behind purchasing decisions. This can be a great advantage over the other methods for market research.

The downside to a focus group is that it can be very expensive per person questioned and that it is only ever carried out on small samples and thus the results may be unrepresentative.

Have You Conducted Market Research Before? 

What Methods Did You Use?

Leave Your Thoughts Below In The Comments!

Top 10 World Famous Entrepreneurs Everyone Should Know

Entrepreneurs and inventors are funny people but they are the people who keep the world in the constant evolution its in. They are the people who invent every product, service and experience you use and enjoy. Although these people change the world we all live in so much, many people don't know who they are or what they did and/or do. Bellow is my list of the top 10 world famous entrepreneurs i think everybody should know.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was born on the 11th February 1847 and died on the 18th October 1931. As an american inventor, businessman and famous entrepreneur he invented many products and devices including the phonograph and the motion picture camera. His most famous invention is the long lasting electrical light bulb.

He holds 1,093 US patents in his name to date as well as many patents from european countries including the UK, France and Germany.

Thomas Edison had many Famous Entrepreneurial Quotes including: 

"Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration"

&

"I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that don't 

work"

Henry Ford 

Henry Ford was born on the 30th July 1863 and died on the 7th April 1947. He was an American industrialist, inventor and famous entrepreneur. He founded the Ford Motor Company and in 1908 introduced the Model T Ford.

The Model T changed and even revolutionized America and the transport industry both socially and economically in a massive way. It was the first mass produced car and it made Henry Ford a huge amount of money. According to information from forbes in 2008, Henry Fords net worth was around $188.1 billion.

A famous entrepreneurial quote from Henry Ford is: 

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress and working together is success"

Steve Jobs

Steve Paul Jobs --most commonly know as Steve Jobs-- was born on the 24th February 1955 and sadly died recently on the 5th October 2011. He was an american inventor, businessman and famous entrepreneur.

As the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer at apple inc. he designed and developed many products including the world famous macintosh, iPod, iPad and iPhone. Steve Jobs is widely recognized as a visionary and a world changing entrepreneur.

Jobs was also co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios. He later became a member of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company in 2006 after the acquisition of Pixar by Disney.

On the 5th October 2011 (aged 56) Steven Paul Jobs sadly died due to respiratory arrest and pancreatic cancer. He had 4 children and a net worth of around $7.0 billion.

A Famous Quote from Steve Jobs is:

"Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it work."

Ray Kroc

Raymond Albert Kroc --Also know as Ray Kroc-- was born on the 5th October 1902 and died on the 14th January 1984. He was an American fast food businessman and entrepreneur. He most famously took over the small-scale fast food restaurant MacDonalds, in 1954 and then built it in to the most famous and successful fast food operations in the world. As well as owning MacDonalds, Ray also owned the San Diego Padres baseball team from 1974.

Ray Krok died in San Diego --aged 81-- with a net worth of around $500 Million. Heart failure was his cause of death.

A Famous Entrepreneurial Quote from Ray Kroc is:

"Your only as good as the people you employ"

And that can explain why MacDonalds has such great staff; who always have a smile on there face!

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III

William Henry Gates III --also know as 'Bill Gates'-- was born on the 28th October 1955. He is an American entrepreneur, businessman, investor, author, philanthropist, and the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft. Bill Gates also wrote and co-wrote several books. 

Microsoft; founded with Paul Allen, offers software --such as the world famous Microsoft Word, Publisher, Powerpoint and Excel programs-- to companies that make PC's like HP and Dell.

Consistently ranked as one of the worlds richest people, Bill Gates made his wealth mainly from Microsoft where he was the SEO and Chief software architect (now chairman). As a Harvard drop-out Bill Gates strived for success with Microsoft and now has a net worth of around $59 Billion.

Bill Gates is now the Co-Chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation is the worlds biggest private foundation and it aims to reduce poverty around the world and to globally improve and enhance healthcare. Founded in 1994 the foundation has 927 employees and an endowment of $37.1 Billion.

A Famous Entrepreneurial Quote from Bill Gates is: 

"Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure"

Richard Branson

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on the 18th July 1950 and is a British businessman and famous entrepreneur. Best known for his Virgin group of over 400 companies; Richard's first successful business adventure was a magazine called 'Student' at the age of 16.

In 1972 Richard opened a chain of record stores called Virgin Records. Later known as Virgin Superstores. The Virgin brand grew rapidly threw-out the 80's as Richard expanded the Virgin Records music label and set up Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Richard Branson is now the 4th richest UK citizen and the 254th richest person in the world with a net worth of around $4.2 Billion.

A Famous Entrepreneurial Quote from Richard Branson is:

"A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts"

Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney --also known as 'Walt Disney'-- was born on the 5th December 1901 and died on the 15th December 1966. He was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist. 

He was the Co-founder of Walt Disney Productions --now know as The Walt Disney Company-- which now has annual revenues of around $35 Billion.

Walt is world famous for Co-creating; with his staff, some of the worlds most famous fictional characters including Mickey Mouse. 

There are several Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks throughout the US, as well as the international resorts such as the Tokyo Disney, Disneyland Paris and Disneyland Hong Kong.

Walt Disney died from lung cancer on the 15th December 1966. 

A Famous Entrepreneurial Quote from Walt Disney is:

"All dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them"

Michael Dell

Michael Dell

Michael Saul Dell was born on the 23rd February 1965. He is an american businessman and entrepreneur. As I'm sure you have already picked up from his name, Michael Dell was the founder of Dell inc. and now the chairman and chief executive officer.

Michael Dell was a drop-out student at the University of Texas at Austin. With 4 children at the age of 46, he is the 44th richest person in the world and has a net worth of around $14.6 Billion

A Famous Entrepreneurial Quote from Michael Dell is: 

"Eliminate the middle man. Both you and your customer will benefit"

Sam Walton

Samuel Moore Walton --commonly known as 'Sam Walton'-- was born on the 29th March 1918 and died on the 5th April 1992. He was a Businessman and Famous Entrepreneur. Sam was best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club.

He founded Walmart in 1962 and it now has over 8,500 stores in 15 countries (some operating under other names; such as Asda) employing around 2.1 million people. Walmart had a revenue of $421.849 Billion and a net income of around $15.355 Billion in 2010-2011.

A Famous Entrepreneurial Quote from Sam Walton is:

"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire anybody in the company from the chairman down simply by spending his money somewhere else"

Jeff Bezos

Jeffrey Preston Bezos --most commonly known as 'Jeff Bezos'-- was born on the 12th January 1964. He is the founder, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board at Amazon.com. Jeff Received the Time person of the year award in 1999 and has a net worth of around $18.1 Billion.

A Famous Entrepreneurial Quote from Jeff Bezos is:

"If you build a great experience customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful"

Who Are Your Favorite Entrepreneurs? Who Inspires You?

Leave Your Thoughts In The Comments Below!

Small Business Marketing Advice

Small business marketing is something that many small businesses forget about; but its a very important part of business! So i have wrote this post giving some marketing help for small businesses for you to read and use. Small business marketing magic needs both the right strategy and a lot of effort to achieve.

Affordable Small Business Marketing Ideas

Small business marketing is important and it can often cost a lot of money... but it DOESNT have to! The following affordable small business marketing ideas dont cost a lot of money; some are even free!

Twitter And Facebook

Twitter and Facebook are a great tools for marketing and there is free! Use Facebook and twitter for small business marketing and get great results.

Tip! - Market your twitter acount! Add it to your business cards and tell customers to follow you; give them an insentive like the possibility to win one of your products if they follow you.

Blog

Now a blog is not free --unless you use blogger or a free word press blog-- but it is a great way to market your business for a very cheap price; of around $40-$50 a year or so. It allows you to update your customers and the blogs visitors with whats happening in your business. For example, a new product launch.

YouTube

YouTube can be great if u stick with it! Make and upload quality videos frequently to get the best results. YouTube is a way of informing your visitors without text but threw your voice. Make sure you brand your videos with your company logo etc. Read this post for more infomation on marketing with YouTube - 6 Spanking Tips On Using YouTube For Business Marketing

Newspaper Ads

News paper adverts can be expensive but not always. It's a great small business marketing technique if you are; for example, a new £ shop or a fast food place in a specific town or city becouse you can place an advert in your local newspaper telling people about your business and what it has to offer. Small, local newspapers are often a lot cheaper to advertise in than big, national newspapers.

TIP of the post! - Use these small business marketing techniques to achieve small business marketing magic!

Further Reading:- 3 Ultimate Online Business Branding Strategies

What Are Your Views? I'd Love To Hear From You!

Leave Your Thoughts In The Comments Below!

6 Spanking Tips On Using YouTube For Business Marketing

Want to use YouTube for business marketing? Want to open up your business and its products/services to the world? Use YouTube video marketing! This a great way of getting the word out about your business. Here i offer 6 spanking tips on using youtube for business marketing plus one extra tip for the shy entrepreneurs out there who are affraid of the camera!

YouTube Video Branding

Do You Brand Your Business?

Do you already brand you business in a certain way or is there a selected image and feel you like to spread about your business? If so you should know how important branding your business is! Its also just as important to brand your videos, give them something that makes them stand out and makes them yours!

There are two ways of achieving a YouTube Video Branding. You can make your video branded by using the same person speaking, the same background and the same tone of voice/language aswell as that you can also brand your YouTube videos with editing. For example, you can add a logo, business name and web address infront of the actual video to brand your business; but make sure you keep this layout similar on each video!

Upload Frequently

It is very important to upload videos to YouTube frequently and keep your viewers up to date with whats going on. It may take a while for your YouTube video marketing to start to kick in and for your videos to start getting traffic and views but you must keep uploading. The more you upload the more content there is with your businesses branding on it to be watched by others.

But DONT let the frequency of your video production effect the Quality of it!

Produce Quality Videos For YouTube

Quality is King in business... every entrepreneur and business man (and lady of course) should know that! Its the same with YouTube video marketing... let your quality slip and its going to leave a bad impression of your business on the viewer. If you have to, take extra time time to make sure your videos are up to scratch before you upload them; else it could have a negative impact on your business! Now that wouldnt be good!

Offer And Serve More Than Just Promotions

People are looking for advice and useful information -- Not Promotions

I know its tempting but dont try and sell to people straight away. You first have to get them to watch your video (which needs plenty of 'thumbs ups' from other viewers) and you then want to give them something they were looking for, you can give them advice, tips and/or information on any topic related to your business. This can win over they're trust and pre-sell your product/service. You can then in the last 30seconds of your video, promote your business, its website and its products/services.

Make A Convosation And Be Social

When making your videos use your brain and come up with ways of creating a conversation... you can ask a simple question at the end of your video, like; Did that answear you question? You can also ask the viewers opinions on something or even make a video wishing people a happy christmas once a year.

Also when people make a conversation, make sure you reply and join in aswell. By doing this you can get a buzz and sense of excitment going around your videos (this will get people to come back) but even more importantly once they've spoken to you and you have spoken to them directly and personally, they're much more likely to buy your product/service from you.

Use Several Forms Of Online Marketing

This is a great way to get a sense of excitment going around your business. If you bring togeather more than one online marketing strategy you can get increased results. For example, within your online marketing campaign you could have a blog, a YouTube account and Twitter. Bring the 3 togeather, get a views on your videos and then send those viewers to both your blog for news, updates and promotions on your business aswell as twitter where they can follow you, ask you questions and be updated about your business, its products and even your new video upload.

"It all about being social these days and using YouTube video marketing, twitter and blogging togeather can give great results."

Affraid Of The Camera? - Here's An Idea!

Affraid of the camera? Well dont think you cant still use YouTube for business marketing becouse here's a way i found of getting away from the camera; while still producing a proffesional 'video'.

1. Simpily make a background image displaying your businesses name, logo and contact info (e.g. Phone number, twitter name, blog/website adress) and a Thumbs up reminder to try and get people to 'thumbs up' your video
2. Make a video but when editing add this image over the top, it will be more of a podcast than a video but you will be able to put it on youtube!

So theres my 6 tips on using YouTube for business marketing!

Further Reading: 3 Ultimate Business Branding Strategies

I'd Love To Hear You Views, Tips and Advice on YoutTube for Business Marketing

Leave Them In The Comments Below!

How Apple Changed The World In Just 35 Years!

Apple changed the world so much, in so many ways! Apple is a company that originally designed, developed, manufactured and sold electronical products but has become a company that not only sells physical products but also invisible content like apps, music and videos from the popular online store iTunes. Many of us have watched in the past years how apple has changed the world. Apple has failed at times and  succeed at others, but even with it failures it helped change the world threw is products and its services.

Best Apple Products

We all know the top apple products of present and recent past like the iPad, the iPod, the iPhone and the iMac. These are very important products for apples success and they have helped create the buzz and the feeling that everyone gets when Apple is mentioned but just as important as these new, modern products are the top apple products from the past. The top apple products right from the start of the company, those are the products that helped get the company to the position it was a few years ago where it could start to design and develop the new, modern, sleek and popular gadgets like the iPod, iPad and Iphone. 

It is important to remember where Apple came from before looking at where it is going. If you are interested in the best apple products you may want to look at the Top 10 Apple Products.

The video below shows just how great apple and steve jobs is and from watching it you can understand why they have become just so successful in the last 10 years!

This Is How Apple Changed The World

Economically

Economically apple and the success of apple inc. has had a huge impact on the world. It has not only created a business --one of the biggest in the world-- but its also created jobs. Its created jobs both directly threw the company itself but also by creating work for other companies. By creating this work for other companies, apple has created jobs.

Apple also invented many products which sparked a revolution in the industry. For example, when both the iPhone and iPad were released other companies such as Samsung and BlackBerry scrambled to create products of similar design and use. Apple changed the industry!

Socially

Socially, apple has changed the world by giving developing and producing many products. They have given products such as the iMac and iPad for both business and personal purposes as well as products such as the iPod which was for personal use. 

All of the best apple products were developed with user experience, quality and its need in mind. Apple put a lot of effort into getting feedback on they're products and developing newer versions of the product. Apple evolves around the user and what the user wants... the user normally gets with apple.

Conclusion

Apple changed the world with not just the best apple products and services but all of the apple products and services. Every single success and fail, product and service has made apple what it is today. Without apple's past there would be no apple. The success of apple inc. is all because of its founders, team and users; and they're determination, passion and loyalty for this amazing company.

Further Reading: Steve Jobs - A Famous Entrepreneur & Think Different - Apple Commercial 1997

Have Any Thoughts On 'How Apple Changed The World'? 

Leave Them In The Comments Below!

Small Business Innovation - From Idea to Launch

Small business innovation is something every small--product related--business admires and aims for. They aim to invent as many good quality products --that sell-- as possible. These small business innovations come from ideas; some good and some bad, but a good idea can go a long way with all the skills and finances it needs behind it.

Business Innovation Idea's

A good small business innovation/product comes from an initial good idea. That idea could be anything from a new game to a different design of tooth brush. Once you have an idea that you believe in, you need to test and research both your proposed idea as a product and its market place.

Be Creative With Your Innovative Idea!

Business Innovation Research And Testing

Small business innovation research is just as important as the initial idea. You may think your idea is great and is going to make you a millionaire but unless your target market and customers agree your products going no where. So always do your research - it may stop you from wasting a lot of time, energy and money on a product that was never going to be successful.



Once you have researched your market and your customers you can then get alittle more serious about your idea becoming a product. If your target market and more importantly your target customer thinks your idea is good -- and they would buy it -- its time to look into how the product work, its design and its manufacture. Its also a good time to check that your proposed product and the design your thinking about is within the regulations for that type of product.

Invent A Product

Still looking good? If your idea gets this far its proberbly a good product and its now time to officialy invent a product. You will want to look more closely into its design and the materials it uses. This is an important stage and you may want to look at the steps to inventing a product on the web or buy a book on inventing a product.

Patenting a Product

You are not legaly oblidged to patent your new product but it is advised. Afterall if your initial idea has got this far its going to be a decent product and until its launched you dont know wether it could end up being and excellent product and if it is you dont want any other companys stealing the idea. Patenting a product is there for a good thing to do!

Best Product Launch

Now you've got your best product and its designing, manufacturing, patenting and other business related stuff is compleate you can launch your product. Depending on your business and this small business inovation you may launch your product in a manner of different ways but after the initial launch in shops its time to put your product for sale online with an online product launch. An online product launch could be on your own businesses website, on amazon or threw affiliates - the choice is yours!

Launching your product on your own website? Learn How To Market And Brand Your Website, Idea And Business!

Have You Invented A Product? What Was It?

What Are Your Views On Small Business Innovation?

Leave Your Thoughts Below In The Comments!